Hasn't anyone noticed that the new iMac is exactly what Jobs didn't want the last iMac to be? iMac rev2 was originally going to be an all-in-the-LCD design, and Jobs poo-pooed it as being too predictable and not nearly innovative enough for an Apple product, and ordered a complete redesign.
How is the same rejected concept somehow innovative today?
It's hard for me to blame Apple for not supporting the vintage 1997 (that would be seven years old, though some were sold in 1998) beige G3s, with their onboard SCSI, their ADB-connected keyboards and mice, and the (pathetic) Rage II+ graphics chips that many of them had. If you want them to work, you can get them to work, Apple just makes it clear that they're not supporting them.
A bit of a digression, but Apple didn't always not support OSX on older G3s, and ultimately settled a class action lawsuit regarding the issues of installing and running OSX on the older machines.
When I purchased OSX for my beige G3 I went through hell trying to install it (and trying to get the machine to run properly again after my first unsuccessful install). When I called Apple support in a vain attempt to get a refund of some sort (as I felt that Apple was making false statements about OSX) I was given the line that OSX will run on an old G3 - I refered to the instructions the guy had already provided me and stated that it would only run in ideal circumstances after reversing all upgrades made to the machine (even though the graphics card in my machine was listed on the OSX as supported), and he acknowledged that but said it was proof that OSX could run on a beige G3 and therefore there was no false statement made.
My response to this was that his statement was like saying mushrooms are not poisonous because some of them can be eaten safely. He saw my point but would not budge. About two weeks later the settlement (to a suit I had previously not heard of) was announced - for US residents only - I lived in Canada at the time.
I was very angry at Apple when all this happened and I keep the incident (and my used-once, never fully installed OSX package) as a reminder that, despite making the comps and OS I prefer to use, and some really neat-o gadgets, it is still a scum-sucking mega-corporation whose motivation to correctly market its wares or succour unhappy customers goes only as far as the cost-effectiveness of such actions.
From digression to rant in one fell swoop - it's funny how that happens sometimes.
I don't think it has anything to do with intelligence, per se. I've seen an MD/PhD with...
Lately I've been grappling with what "intelligence" constitutes and have very much learned to appreciate that intelligence should never be overestimated.
I've been working at a fairly large hospital for a while, and one of the tasks I've had assigned to me is to burn CDs for one doctor in particular. His laptop with a note naming the file to be saved and a blank CD gets dropped on my desk, and I burn the CD using the burner installed in his laptop. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the laptop - he simply will not or cannot learn how to burn a CD himself. This cannot be a case of his time being too valuable for him to do it himself - just the walk to my office takes longer than the time it takes to burn the CD.
I see a lot of similarly retarded behaviour from a lot of doctors here.
So far the majority of comments seem to be negative and describe the unit as junk, but despite my having no interest in owning any gameboy unit, this combo inrigues me - a hand-held GPS unit with (gasp!) a useful, legible map display - very nice, and a very smart way of accomplishing it. This is a product I'd consider.
Perhaps those commenters deriding the effort haven't bothered to read the site - that's just my speculation, but it wouldn't surprise me - oops, now I'm getting into flaimbait territory.
You can (and many people do) make any old yoyo into a freehand with a little weighted fob looped at the end of the string.
...and risk being sued for patent infringement?!? Are you mad?
rising temps cause iceage theory?
on
A New Ice Age?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
There is a plausible theory which suggests that melting ice may release enough fresh water to halt circulation of warm water from the Gulf Stream, thus significantly cooling Europe and the east coast of North America.
okay, I couldn't begin to tell you where I heard this (let alone provide a URL) but I recall hearing/reading the "global warming=new ice age" theory kinda like this:
So the earth's temperatures rise a certain level, really only a few degrees, maybe half a dozen. This means the atmosphere can hold more moisture and precipitation increases.
But - with the earth's overall temps slightly higher the temperatures over the poles would still be hella cold (just not as hella cold as before) and the moisture-laden air passing over the cold regions would dump a lot of snow, sleet and ice, which would mean expanding polar ice caps, glaciers, etc., etc., albeit this would be a cumulative effect taking place over many thousands of years.
So, like, I ain't no climatol... clima... uh, scientist or nuthin' - that's just what I read in some fancy magazine somewhere.
Have you ever looked at the ITMS catalog? Much of it is rock, rap, R&B, country, classical. Not "pop". The story is about stripping DRM from ITMS songs, regardless of the genera
Do you really think that such sub-genres are not all a part of modern pop culture? Let me fill you in on a secret: the Clash sold a helluva lot of records.
Regardless of any personal stance differentiating one sub-genre's legitimacy from another simply by the sound of the music they produce and the branding image their marketing projects, they are all entertainers producing entertainment.
RTFA, the story is about stripping DRM from COMMERCIALLY PRODUCED POP MUSIC. Some people's windmills really are windmills, despite what they might tell you.
I have believed for a long time that more Americans should be voting for the Green party. There are many who prefer the Green's stand but fear that a vote for Green is a vote wasted and would only serve to help put the Republicans in office. I suggest accepting the (relatively) short term pain of Republican rule and looking at the long term.
Currently the Democrats and Republicans are essentially different flavours of the same poison. Forget the next election, forget the next five elections. Even if the Democrats gain power they will produce more of the same crap. Vote Green in the next election - they won't get much this time around, but if everyone who wanted to vote Green did, then the Greens would probably make the coveted 5% mark, which means more money. With more money they could do better the next time around, and after two or three more elections they could mount a real challenge to the status quo (if they manage to not become a part of the status quo).
Forget tomorrow; tomorrow is already a disaster. Think of your children and think of your grandchildren.
As for the Green party itself, getting Nader elected (as implausible as it may be) would not be a great triumph as I can easily imagine the dems and repubs in the houses making his life hell. The Greens need to seriously focus on getting seats in the two houses. With balances teetering at 51-49 for a long long time, the Greens getting just a few seats and being able to tip a house one way or the other could provide a breath of fresh air that American politics has needed for a very long time. Why the US generally believes it can only function with a two-party political system (with little difference between the two) is baffling and perhaps a little sad.
Dr Hoffman believes pain contains a significant psychological element which is why distracting thoughts by virtual reality lends itself so well to pain control.
"Pain requires conscious attention..."
I've bought into this idea ever since the day I was curious and watched a mosquito land on my shoulder, get into its stance and pierce my skin. I was really shocked at how much it hurt in that one instance.
Wow - that's quite a medical breakthrough you have made. I'm sure the global medical community would like to hear more about this as it seems this idea never occured to them to use painkillers before.
Okay, enough with the sarcasm. If you had paid closer attention while reading the article you would recall this:
"Dr Hunter Hoffman, research fellow at the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, has tested his virtual worlds on victims of burns injuries who suffer excruciating pain during their daily dressing changes which conventional drug therapy fails to control."
I remember back in the day when you would go to the store and it was the only computer magazine there....and we'd have to walk 40 miles in the rain, up hill, to get to the store, and when we got there, magazines were only a nickel, but we'd have to save for a month just to get that nickel. Anyways, we'd get home with our magazines and read them by the light of an oil lamp, and we were happy!
Oh those computers, they were as big as a barn, and every time we booted them we'd have to punch in every line of *bonk!*
"The record industry has become a huge drag on creativity..."
There is a difference between creativity and interpretation. The Grey Album may be creative interpretation, but it's still an interpretation. Should such works be halted? I'd say no, but if you're using someone else's intellectual property (music, painting, source code, video, whatever) then you should at least have the decency to not take sole credit (and reward) for the work. That is what is really at stake, not just an industry recklessly stomping on "artists".
"If Danger Mouse had requested permission and offered to pay royalties, EMI still would have said no and the public would never have been able to enjoy this critically acclaimed work."
To record and issue a recording with someone else's song no permission is required, but full royalties would have to be paid. Typically there is contact beforehand because royalties are often negotiated between artist and songwriter to come to a win-win situation - the writer gets their work on the rack and the radio, and the performer isn't selling the farm to get a decent song (and please remember, the big money in the music industry is copyright royalties - don't let anyone try and tell you otherwise).
The point to this is that nobody could have stopped the DJ whatsisface from putting together the recording, but he could still expect to fork over some hefty royalty payments after the fact.
"Artists are being forced to break the law to innovate."
I think those who speak out against the big bad recording industry may be their own greatest enemy, offering quotes like this. We're talking about a DJ (a person who plays other people's music) coming up with a novel way of presenting other people's music. If the DJ were a visual artist who used other people's visual works and simply offered unique ways of viewing the same identifiable work, then I don't think anyone would be calling this person an "innovative artist". It's like the difference between Sealab 2020 and Sealab 2021; is Sealab 2021 a creative take on the original work? Maybe, but's it's just an interpretation and still the work of the original artist.
The comparison is not quite relative - the bike is made by a premier Italian manufacturer which makes some of the most sought after bikes around (by top racers and normal folk alike), outfitted with top of the line components, while the laptop is an Acer with some paint and a badge stuck to it.
Regardless, even in the case of the bike the whole cross-branding thing is fairly lame, IMHO.
so, like - wow! - this sure has spawned an interesting debate about how hiding messages within random data 'disguised' as plain old emails could be possible, or maybe not, and maybe someone could find it and filter it out... wow, impressive.
So, why do we want to look for such messages? Are terrorists from the middle east supposed to be passing messages around with this technology that even the finest scientists at Slashdot's secret underground laboratory can't even seem to agree would be possible? Here I am thinking the terrorists use, like, you know, stolen cell phones and stuff. Maybe it's the Russkies - they've still got moles planted in the US you know! Maybe it's the nutjobs in the US who occasionally cause big trouble passing around the secret messages - but then that's not the air force's business.
The 'wheres' and 'whys' of this technology are what conjure up the most questions in my mind.
I'll be perfectly honest - the new iPod-mini is not as small as I expected it would be - it's not huge, I know, but I thought maybe 3" by 1.5" or 1.75". I know there are 1" drives out there - size was surely at the mercy of the battery. I'd have been happy with four hours worth of power and one or two gigs storage.
As has been mentioned a thousand times the price is a bit too high too. Mark me as another who went from "gonna buy one" to "no, maybe the next generation, or the one after that".
You're correct that there's a reason why I chose 'beaverfever', but there's also a reason why I always keep an electric hair trimmer fully charged and ready to go.
Slashdot Mirror
Hasn't anyone noticed that the new iMac is exactly what Jobs didn't want the last iMac to be? iMac rev2 was originally going to be an all-in-the-LCD design, and Jobs poo-pooed it as being too predictable and not nearly innovative enough for an Apple product, and ordered a complete redesign.
How is the same rejected concept somehow innovative today?
It's hard for me to blame Apple for not supporting the vintage 1997 (that would be seven years old, though some were sold in 1998) beige G3s, with their onboard SCSI, their ADB-connected keyboards and mice, and the (pathetic) Rage II+ graphics chips that many of them had. If you want them to work, you can get them to work, Apple just makes it clear that they're not supporting them.
A bit of a digression, but Apple didn't always not support OSX on older G3s, and ultimately settled a class action lawsuit regarding the issues of installing and running OSX on the older machines.
When I purchased OSX for my beige G3 I went through hell trying to install it (and trying to get the machine to run properly again after my first unsuccessful install). When I called Apple support in a vain attempt to get a refund of some sort (as I felt that Apple was making false statements about OSX) I was given the line that OSX will run on an old G3 - I refered to the instructions the guy had already provided me and stated that it would only run in ideal circumstances after reversing all upgrades made to the machine (even though the graphics card in my machine was listed on the OSX as supported), and he acknowledged that but said it was proof that OSX could run on a beige G3 and therefore there was no false statement made.
My response to this was that his statement was like saying mushrooms are not poisonous because some of them can be eaten safely. He saw my point but would not budge. About two weeks later the settlement (to a suit I had previously not heard of) was announced - for US residents only - I lived in Canada at the time.
I was very angry at Apple when all this happened and I keep the incident (and my used-once, never fully installed OSX package) as a reminder that, despite making the comps and OS I prefer to use, and some really neat-o gadgets, it is still a scum-sucking mega-corporation whose motivation to correctly market its wares or succour unhappy customers goes only as far as the cost-effectiveness of such actions.
From digression to rant in one fell swoop - it's funny how that happens sometimes.
I don't think it has anything to do with intelligence, per se. I've seen an MD/PhD with...
Lately I've been grappling with what "intelligence" constitutes and have very much learned to appreciate that intelligence should never be overestimated.
I've been working at a fairly large hospital for a while, and one of the tasks I've had assigned to me is to burn CDs for one doctor in particular. His laptop with a note naming the file to be saved and a blank CD gets dropped on my desk, and I burn the CD using the burner installed in his laptop. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the laptop - he simply will not or cannot learn how to burn a CD himself. This cannot be a case of his time being too valuable for him to do it himself - just the walk to my office takes longer than the time it takes to burn the CD.
I see a lot of similarly retarded behaviour from a lot of doctors here.
So far the majority of comments seem to be negative and describe the unit as junk, but despite my having no interest in owning any gameboy unit, this combo inrigues me - a hand-held GPS unit with (gasp!) a useful, legible map display - very nice, and a very smart way of accomplishing it. This is a product I'd consider.
Perhaps those commenters deriding the effort haven't bothered to read the site - that's just my speculation, but it wouldn't surprise me - oops, now I'm getting into flaimbait territory.
There is a plausible theory which suggests that melting ice may release enough fresh water to halt circulation of warm water from the Gulf Stream, thus significantly cooling Europe and the east coast of North America.
okay, I couldn't begin to tell you where I heard this (let alone provide a URL) but I recall hearing/reading the "global warming=new ice age" theory kinda like this:
So the earth's temperatures rise a certain level, really only a few degrees, maybe half a dozen. This means the atmosphere can hold more moisture and precipitation increases.
But - with the earth's overall temps slightly higher the temperatures over the poles would still be hella cold (just not as hella cold as before) and the moisture-laden air passing over the cold regions would dump a lot of snow, sleet and ice, which would mean expanding polar ice caps, glaciers, etc., etc., albeit this would be a cumulative effect taking place over many thousands of years.
So, like, I ain't no climatol... clima... uh, scientist or nuthin' - that's just what I read in some fancy magazine somewhere.
Entertainment is mostly information these days.
That's like saying entertainment is mostly atoms these days. Everything is information to some living/perceiving creature.
The Clash produced pop music, just as Led Zeppelin, Elvis Presley, Anne Murray and Ludicris have, marketing sub-genres notwithstanding.
Have you ever looked at the ITMS catalog? Much of it is rock, rap, R&B, country, classical. Not "pop". The story is about stripping DRM from ITMS songs, regardless of the genera
Do you really think that such sub-genres are not all a part of modern pop culture? Let me fill you in on a secret: the Clash sold a helluva lot of records.
Regardless of any personal stance differentiating one sub-genre's legitimacy from another simply by the sound of the music they produce and the branding image their marketing projects, they are all entertainers producing entertainment.
RTFA, the story is about stripping DRM from COMMERCIALLY PRODUCED POP MUSIC. Some people's windmills really are windmills, despite what they might tell you.
Even our "Information Wants to be Free" activists are being outsourced to India!
Don't you mean 'Even our "Entertainment Wants to be Free" activists are being outsourced to India'?
I have believed for a long time that more Americans should be voting for the Green party. There are many who prefer the Green's stand but fear that a vote for Green is a vote wasted and would only serve to help put the Republicans in office. I suggest accepting the (relatively) short term pain of Republican rule and looking at the long term.
Currently the Democrats and Republicans are essentially different flavours of the same poison. Forget the next election, forget the next five elections. Even if the Democrats gain power they will produce more of the same crap. Vote Green in the next election - they won't get much this time around, but if everyone who wanted to vote Green did, then the Greens would probably make the coveted 5% mark, which means more money. With more money they could do better the next time around, and after two or three more elections they could mount a real challenge to the status quo (if they manage to not become a part of the status quo).
Forget tomorrow; tomorrow is already a disaster. Think of your children and think of your grandchildren.
As for the Green party itself, getting Nader elected (as implausible as it may be) would not be a great triumph as I can easily imagine the dems and repubs in the houses making his life hell. The Greens need to seriously focus on getting seats in the two houses. With balances teetering at 51-49 for a long long time, the Greens getting just a few seats and being able to tip a house one way or the other could provide a breath of fresh air that American politics has needed for a very long time. Why the US generally believes it can only function with a two-party political system (with little difference between the two) is baffling and perhaps a little sad.
Dr Hoffman believes pain contains a significant psychological element which is why distracting thoughts by virtual reality lends itself so well to pain control.
"Pain requires conscious attention..."
I've bought into this idea ever since the day I was curious and watched a mosquito land on my shoulder, get into its stance and pierce my skin. I was really shocked at how much it hurt in that one instance.
"It's called morphine."
Wow - that's quite a medical breakthrough you have made. I'm sure the global medical community would like to hear more about this as it seems this idea never occured to them to use painkillers before.
Okay, enough with the sarcasm. If you had paid closer attention while reading the article you would recall this:
"Dr Hunter Hoffman, research fellow at the Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, has tested his virtual worlds on victims of burns injuries who suffer excruciating pain during their daily dressing changes which conventional drug therapy fails to control."
That's gotta be a lot of pain.
I remember back in the day when you would go to the store and it was the only computer magazine there. ...and we'd have to walk 40 miles in the rain, up hill, to get to the store, and when we got there, magazines were only a nickel, but we'd have to save for a month just to get that nickel. Anyways, we'd get home with our magazines and read them by the light of an oil lamp, and we were happy!
Oh those computers, they were as big as a barn, and every time we booted them we'd have to punch in every line of *bonk!*
"...and how he could open a native terminal window and do things like ls -R | grep filename and search his system for files."
Or, while in the finder, he could go File>Find or even simpler cmd-F and never leave the GUI. The basic find function has options galore.
Sometimes some peoples' use of the terminal seems gratuitous IMHO.
"The record industry has become a huge drag on creativity..."
There is a difference between creativity and interpretation. The Grey Album may be creative interpretation, but it's still an interpretation. Should such works be halted? I'd say no, but if you're using someone else's intellectual property (music, painting, source code, video, whatever) then you should at least have the decency to not take sole credit (and reward) for the work. That is what is really at stake, not just an industry recklessly stomping on "artists".
"If Danger Mouse had requested permission and offered to pay royalties, EMI still would have said no and the public would never have been able to enjoy this critically acclaimed work."
To record and issue a recording with someone else's song no permission is required, but full royalties would have to be paid. Typically there is contact beforehand because royalties are often negotiated between artist and songwriter to come to a win-win situation - the writer gets their work on the rack and the radio, and the performer isn't selling the farm to get a decent song (and please remember, the big money in the music industry is copyright royalties - don't let anyone try and tell you otherwise).
The point to this is that nobody could have stopped the DJ whatsisface from putting together the recording, but he could still expect to fork over some hefty royalty payments after the fact.
"Artists are being forced to break the law to innovate."
I think those who speak out against the big bad recording industry may be their own greatest enemy, offering quotes like this. We're talking about a DJ (a person who plays other people's music) coming up with a novel way of presenting other people's music. If the DJ were a visual artist who used other people's visual works and simply offered unique ways of viewing the same identifiable work, then I don't think anyone would be calling this person an "innovative artist". It's like the difference between Sealab 2020 and Sealab 2021; is Sealab 2021 a creative take on the original work? Maybe, but's it's just an interpretation and still the work of the original artist.
The comparison is not quite relative - the bike is made by a premier Italian manufacturer which makes some of the most sought after bikes around (by top racers and normal folk alike), outfitted with top of the line components, while the laptop is an Acer with some paint and a badge stuck to it.
Regardless, even in the case of the bike the whole cross-branding thing is fairly lame, IMHO.
Is humankind so pathetic that the only reason we want to go into space is to expand the tourism industry?
Yes.
Times Roman 14pt: " a crisper, cleaner, more modern look"
Whose secretary made this decision?
cmd-arrow keys left and right for going back and forward.
cmd-up and down arrows will take you to the top and bottom of the page, respectively.
I think the word you are looking for is inconceivable!
or unpossible!
so, like - wow! - this sure has spawned an interesting debate about how hiding messages within random data 'disguised' as plain old emails could be possible, or maybe not, and maybe someone could find it and filter it out... wow, impressive.
So, why do we want to look for such messages? Are terrorists from the middle east supposed to be passing messages around with this technology that even the finest scientists at Slashdot's secret underground laboratory can't even seem to agree would be possible? Here I am thinking the terrorists use, like, you know, stolen cell phones and stuff. Maybe it's the Russkies - they've still got moles planted in the US you know! Maybe it's the nutjobs in the US who occasionally cause big trouble passing around the secret messages - but then that's not the air force's business.
The 'wheres' and 'whys' of this technology are what conjure up the most questions in my mind.
I'll be perfectly honest - the new iPod-mini is not as small as I expected it would be - it's not huge, I know, but I thought maybe 3" by 1.5" or 1.75". I know there are 1" drives out there - size was surely at the mercy of the battery. I'd have been happy with four hours worth of power and one or two gigs storage.
As has been mentioned a thousand times the price is a bit too high too. Mark me as another who went from "gonna buy one" to "no, maybe the next generation, or the one after that".
You're correct that there's a reason why I chose 'beaverfever', but there's also a reason why I always keep an electric hair trimmer fully charged and ready to go.