I still use XP at home and at work, work recently upgraded me from Office 2003 to 2007, my productivity in Office has now dropped considerably due to problems trying to find what I need on the new interface.
Where possible, I copy stuff over to a home PC where i can still use Office 2003.
Changing this interface to something non-standard strikes me as a very stupid thing to do when you are trying to keep user migrating to (Sn)Apple or Google.
Seriously, this is 'Will Wave Eat E-Mail' all over again.
I wish it WOULD! I thought the idea behind all this social networking stuff was to REDUCE the amount of email traffic but if I spent the time necessary to read through all my personal and corporate emails (and I'm not talking spam here), I would have no time to do anything else.
I've even started a personal policy of phoning people, both at work and socially, rather than sending an email because I'm just swamped in the stuff.
...man went to the moon because it was there and we had the Shuttle because we didn't like burning up a whole rocket each time we went into space.
If we ever get to Mars it will be because a few suits with expensive haircuts have decided it's a second planet with the potential to rape the mineral shit out of in order to make a few fat rich people even fatter and richer.
Then please explain what the Slashdot Meta-Moderation system is then, if it is not a system to gather statistical data based on discovering how many topics are of interest to certain Slashdot readers?
Of course it's news for me, just like it's news for everyone else - if there wasn't at least something of interest here, neither you or I would come here.
Yep, just like it's "news for icebraining" and everyone else that comes here - what's your point?
Just because I'm not a developer doesn't mean I don't have an opinion as a consumer of applications.
Or are we now operating some kind of caste system here where developers are on a higher and different social level to the rest of us mere mortals and I'm not allowed to talk to them?
That there might be other people who are developers reading? That you are actually interested in how people get paid? The mildest curiosity perhaps?
No, not particularly. I'm interested in reading about someone's technical abilities and thought processes into the creation of a piece of software, but the movements of little green pieces of paper in the process is of no interest because they just tend to get in the way anyway.
Not all his points held equal gravitas, but to dismiss them out of hand is like going on a knitting board and saying that while I like sweaters, I have no interest in hearing how the yarn they use is made.
That's not the same thing - I'm interested in how things are made, hence probably being interested in how a sweater is made. But I could give a toss about the cost of it until such time as I need to buy a sweater. At which point I care only about the end price and quality, not how much the retailer or producer makes from it.
But this IS a public forum and I am invited to post my opinions on any story published - you can either agree or not agree with those opinions, that is your choice.
If you're asking me to keep my mouth shut deliberately, then isn't that tantamount to censorship?
Why does that concern me? Apart from a bit of work/hobbyist related shell/Perl/Python scripter, I'm not a developer - as a Droid user, I'm just a potential purchaser of the app...
I'm a geek, I'm interested in how things work technically and like nice shiny things - but I couldn't give a toss about what's negotiated between a producer and a supplier for products, that's up to them.
As long as no children/kittens are strangled in the product's production, what do I care how much the developer got paid for it? I just care about it being good value for money if and when I buy it, like I could care less whether or not the artist got paid when I buy a CD - it's their contract, they can negotiate it....
The developer has a choice to pull the app because he doesn't like the deal from the retailer.
The consumer can purchase the app from another vendor, or even contact the developer directly to arrange a direct sale.
And before the inevitable iTunes comparisons, Apple themselves choose which retailers can and cannot stock their products, no different to Levi's Jeans or countless other brand name companies.
If I posted a story on here moaning about the fact that I didn't get the pay increase I thought I deserved from my employer last year, there would be countless "then go work for someone else" responses.
In other words, nothing to see here - it's up to the developer and Amazon to work out a deal.
You boot up your OS and log in (Windows or Linux).
Plug in your Droid phone and USB drive, tell the phone it's okay to mount as a USB drive.
In Linux Gnome an icon for each one appears on the desktop and it may well open a Nautilus window for both. Cut and paste the files from one to the other. Done.
Windows? I've not gone beyond XP but it's just as straightforward.
In both cases, it's just as easy, if not easier, as navigating a web interface to find your music on a Cloud service.
No, but you may well have data about your physical person stolen by someone else from a Cloud service - not to mention targetted advertising and spam mail.
If you manage your own mail, DNS, NTP, etc. servers then you can pretty much tunnel everything over SSH with the existing daemons/services, rather than having to replace each existing one with a secure equivalent that you may need to configure from scratch once again - just an idea that may make the transition to encrypted services a bit easier for you when you do it.
Yep, can't argue with that one - if you have your music on a hard disk, you need a computer in between the hard disk and the phone to transfer the music.
But I do have SSH/SFTP access to my home music drive from my Droid phone, so I can download direct to it if need be. I could also put a music streaming service on the home server if I wanted to, I just don't believe I'd use it that much so haven't bothered.
To claim it's supported on fewer devices than Ogg... absurd.
Okay, maybe not Ogg - but definitely FLAC and MP3. However, Ogg is worth mentioning here because, like FLAC, it is entirely license free, unlike MP3.
Why? There is nor DRM. At any point I could transcode to some other format if I wanted. The audio quality is quite good (better really than MP3) and it has all the same issues that MP3 does as far as patents go.
If you transcode from one lossy format to another lossy format, you will lose quality. And since you are already doing that conversion then you are by default admitting that AAC does not give you all of the usability you require, hence the need to convert.
And if you are already prepared to do that conversion, then why would you not do so from a lossless format like FLAC first?
You mentioned DRM, I didn't because whilst it's evil, it's entirely irrelevant to this discussion. AAC is a proprietary (Apple-owned) file format just like MP3 - therefore every time you use it you can theoretically be asked to pay a license for it. And if that license is not granted for some reason, then you files are useless to you.
I have no problem with people using open source or closed source software, whatever works, but proprietary file formats are evil because your usage and consumer rights are restricted as a result.
I like Flac too but even with cheap disc storage these days the space to keep FLAC of everything is daunting, and there's lots of music I don't care about THAT much.
Agreed. But FLAC being a space-consuming format does not automatically mean that using AAC is not evil.
Having all of it everywhere is a disadvantage in terms of size and weight.
My musculature is not that sensitive that the additional weight of a few ounces by carrying a portable hard disk in my pocket, or indeed the few grams resulting from additional hard disk platters in my laptop when I upgrade from an internal 160GB to 500GB hard disk. This is a non argument, there is very little physical weight to data storage at the level the likes of you or I need.
Yep, get to Storage Area Network levels of storage then that's different!:-)
iCloud is free, the Match part is around $20/year. Going to take a lot of years to pay for that new HD.
The Internet connection to connect to the Cloud is frequently not free.
1) I don't see why having your data with you is a disadvantage. Actually it's an advantage because you can access it whenever you like, Internet connection or no Internet connection. And if I save my money by not wasting it on pointless web services, then I can put a bigger hard disk in my laptop to store it there... or a portable hard disk... or a few memory cards because I'm clever enough to buy a music playing device that has a memory expansion port built into it...
2) I would be very surprised if most companies are going to put up with their employees downloading their music collections through the corporate LAN. And wireless 3G connectivity to get your music is expensive - and I don't throw money away when there are simpler solutions.
3) Speculative and pointless comment. Why would I invest in a service that might give more usability at some point in the future?
Finally, I don't like advertising. I don't like junk mail, spam or telemarketing calls. And if I watch TV then it's usually the BBC here in the UK where there is no advertising. I even do not have cable or satellite TV because I do not believe in paying for a service that also feeds me advertising. Plus I don't want my personal information sent around between corporations who I have not myself chosen to do business with.
Incidentally, the usage of AAC serves no practical purpose as it is supported by less players than MP3, FLAC or even OGG.
It is another pointless file format that the world does not need but that serves only to put more control over what you do into the hands of a power and money hungry corporation - in this case Apple.
Every time you use AAC you are one step closer to handing over your Consumer Rights to Apple - my advice is don't use it in the first place, it's evil.
And this beats a portable hard disk with your music on precisely how?
You seem to have missed the point and told me what I already knew. The reason I convert to MP3 from the FLAC "masters" I have on my home server is to turn them into a format and size suitable for my music player, I am fully aware that they are lower quality than other formats, that being the precise reason why I convert them as required from the FLACs.
What you haven't done is given me any explanation as to why this service is better than carrying your music with you in the first place - and I suspect the reason for it are there are none.
Can I also add that storing your music in the Cloud gives the providers of those services information about you and your buying habits which in turn can lead to targetted advertising and going on spam mail lists - a distinct disadvantage in my view.
...all this iCloud, Amazon and Google music storage nonsense sounds a complete waste of time.
For years I've been buying CDs, ripping them to FLAC once then converting to MP3 as I need them. I store the MP3s on a portable hard disk and keep it with me for when I need it. It also works when there's no Internet connection.
Personally, I think far too many of you have far too much spare time on your hands to be worried about some nonsensical and convoluted web services that are trying to justify their own existences. That's why you should learn to think like an engineer because you can discover simpler solutions for yourself.
And this is all I want the fanbois to admit - that they buy fashion accessories with the sole intention of gaining peer approval - then I could have no argument with that whatsoever.
The fact that non-Apple tablets have had low sales so far, despite the fact that more people are buying Android phones than iOS ones at the moment, clearly shows they are a niche market.
And Steve Jobs has done a fantastic job from a marketing perspective of getting the fanbois to part with more money for what is essentially just a bigger iPod Touch - from that perspective, I give him real kudos.
Yes, if Android tablets start selling well then this will do nothing to change my opinion that tablets are gimmicks.
And I hate Apple because I believe in Capitalism. In the same way that when I buy a car I can fill up with petrol from any vendor, when I buy a computing device I should be able to fill it with whatever software I like - free, Open Source or commercial, I don't care, whatever does the job - purchased from whatever software vendor or supplier that I choose. Not just one location that happens to be controlled by the hardware manufacturer.
Also I work in a job where you have no place to put a netbook, but still needing a computer I use a tablet.
I would suspect then that you have a case for some kind of employee tribunal since I would have thought they would be obliged to provide you with a desk or workspace if you need to use a computing device.
Or this is just an attempt on your part to mimic the only conditions where a tablet beats a notebook - i.e. stood up on a packed commuter train when you are simply THAT important a person that you simply MUST be constantly connected to the Internet.
In other words, do 50 of you all work in a single 10 foot x 10 foot office such that you all have to stand and can therefore only use iPads?
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks for that great demonstration of the King Canute Computing Principle.
I can't stand it.
I still use XP at home and at work, work recently upgraded me from Office 2003 to 2007, my productivity in Office has now dropped considerably due to problems trying to find what I need on the new interface.
Where possible, I copy stuff over to a home PC where i can still use Office 2003.
Changing this interface to something non-standard strikes me as a very stupid thing to do when you are trying to keep user migrating to (Sn)Apple or Google.
That's it, I'm done with Apple, I am never buying another of their products!
Oh, wait...
I don't own any of their products anyway.
Seriously, this is 'Will Wave Eat E-Mail' all over again.
I wish it WOULD! I thought the idea behind all this social networking stuff was to REDUCE the amount of email traffic but if I spent the time necessary to read through all my personal and corporate emails (and I'm not talking spam here), I would have no time to do anything else.
I've even started a personal policy of phoning people, both at work and socially, rather than sending an email because I'm just swamped in the stuff.
...man went to the moon because it was there and we had the Shuttle because we didn't like burning up a whole rocket each time we went into space.
If we ever get to Mars it will be because a few suits with expensive haircuts have decided it's a second planet with the potential to rape the mineral shit out of in order to make a few fat rich people even fatter and richer.
Then please explain what the Slashdot Meta-Moderation system is then, if it is not a system to gather statistical data based on discovering how many topics are of interest to certain Slashdot readers?
Of course it's news for me, just like it's news for everyone else - if there wasn't at least something of interest here, neither you or I would come here.
I was not aware that Slashdot operated a system whereby a subscriber was not allowed to offer an opinion on particular topics.
I was giving a viewpoint based on being a consumer of applications and a geek - you don't like it, you know what you can do with it.
Yep, just like it's "news for icebraining" and everyone else that comes here - what's your point?
Just because I'm not a developer doesn't mean I don't have an opinion as a consumer of applications.
Or are we now operating some kind of caste system here where developers are on a higher and different social level to the rest of us mere mortals and I'm not allowed to talk to them?
That there might be other people who are developers reading? That you are actually interested in how people get paid? The mildest curiosity perhaps?
No, not particularly. I'm interested in reading about someone's technical abilities and thought processes into the creation of a piece of software, but the movements of little green pieces of paper in the process is of no interest because they just tend to get in the way anyway.
Not all his points held equal gravitas, but to dismiss them out of hand is like going on a knitting board and saying that while I like sweaters, I have no interest in hearing how the yarn they use is made.
That's not the same thing - I'm interested in how things are made, hence probably being interested in how a sweater is made. But I could give a toss about the cost of it until such time as I need to buy a sweater. At which point I care only about the end price and quality, not how much the retailer or producer makes from it.
No, of course not.
But this IS a public forum and I am invited to post my opinions on any story published - you can either agree or not agree with those opinions, that is your choice.
If you're asking me to keep my mouth shut deliberately, then isn't that tantamount to censorship?
Why does that concern me? Apart from a bit of work/hobbyist related shell/Perl/Python scripter, I'm not a developer - as a Droid user, I'm just a potential purchaser of the app...
I'm a geek, I'm interested in how things work technically and like nice shiny things - but I couldn't give a toss about what's negotiated between a producer and a supplier for products, that's up to them.
As long as no children/kittens are strangled in the product's production, what do I care how much the developer got paid for it? I just care about it being good value for money if and when I buy it, like I could care less whether or not the artist got paid when I buy a CD - it's their contract, they can negotiate it....
The developer has a choice to pull the app because he doesn't like the deal from the retailer.
The consumer can purchase the app from another vendor, or even contact the developer directly to arrange a direct sale.
And before the inevitable iTunes comparisons, Apple themselves choose which retailers can and cannot stock their products, no different to Levi's Jeans or countless other brand name companies.
If I posted a story on here moaning about the fact that I didn't get the pay increase I thought I deserved from my employer last year, there would be countless "then go work for someone else" responses.
In other words, nothing to see here - it's up to the developer and Amazon to work out a deal.
You boot up your OS and log in (Windows or Linux).
Plug in your Droid phone and USB drive, tell the phone it's okay to mount as a USB drive.
In Linux Gnome an icon for each one appears on the desktop and it may well open a Nautilus window for both. Cut and paste the files from one to the other. Done.
Windows? I've not gone beyond XP but it's just as straightforward.
In both cases, it's just as easy, if not easier, as navigating a web interface to find your music on a Cloud service.
Actually, for your information I've been happily with my common-law wife now for 18 years and we are very happy, thanks very much.
No, but you may well have data about your physical person stolen by someone else from a Cloud service - not to mention targetted advertising and spam mail.
If you manage your own mail, DNS, NTP, etc. servers then you can pretty much tunnel everything over SSH with the existing daemons/services, rather than having to replace each existing one with a secure equivalent that you may need to configure from scratch once again - just an idea that may make the transition to encrypted services a bit easier for you when you do it.
Yep, can't argue with that one - if you have your music on a hard disk, you need a computer in between the hard disk and the phone to transfer the music.
But I do have SSH/SFTP access to my home music drive from my Droid phone, so I can download direct to it if need be. I could also put a music streaming service on the home server if I wanted to, I just don't believe I'd use it that much so haven't bothered.
To claim it's supported on fewer devices than Ogg... absurd.
Okay, maybe not Ogg - but definitely FLAC and MP3. However, Ogg is worth mentioning here because, like FLAC, it is entirely license free, unlike MP3.
Why? There is nor DRM. At any point I could transcode to some other format if I wanted. The audio quality is quite good (better really than MP3) and it has all the same issues that MP3 does as far as patents go.
If you transcode from one lossy format to another lossy format, you will lose quality. And since you are already doing that conversion then you are by default admitting that AAC does not give you all of the usability you require, hence the need to convert.
And if you are already prepared to do that conversion, then why would you not do so from a lossless format like FLAC first?
You mentioned DRM, I didn't because whilst it's evil, it's entirely irrelevant to this discussion. AAC is a proprietary (Apple-owned) file format just like MP3 - therefore every time you use it you can theoretically be asked to pay a license for it. And if that license is not granted for some reason, then you files are useless to you.
I have no problem with people using open source or closed source software, whatever works, but proprietary file formats are evil because your usage and consumer rights are restricted as a result.
I like Flac too but even with cheap disc storage these days the space to keep FLAC of everything is daunting, and there's lots of music I don't care about THAT much.
Agreed. But FLAC being a space-consuming format does not automatically mean that using AAC is not evil.
Having all of it everywhere is a disadvantage in terms of size and weight.
My musculature is not that sensitive that the additional weight of a few ounces by carrying a portable hard disk in my pocket, or indeed the few grams resulting from additional hard disk platters in my laptop when I upgrade from an internal 160GB to 500GB hard disk. This is a non argument, there is very little physical weight to data storage at the level the likes of you or I need.
Yep, get to Storage Area Network levels of storage then that's different! :-)
iCloud is free, the Match part is around $20/year. Going to take a lot of years to pay for that new HD.
The Internet connection to connect to the Cloud is frequently not free.
1) I don't see why having your data with you is a disadvantage. Actually it's an advantage because you can access it whenever you like, Internet connection or no Internet connection. And if I save my money by not wasting it on pointless web services, then I can put a bigger hard disk in my laptop to store it there... or a portable hard disk... or a few memory cards because I'm clever enough to buy a music playing device that has a memory expansion port built into it...
2) I would be very surprised if most companies are going to put up with their employees downloading their music collections through the corporate LAN. And wireless 3G connectivity to get your music is expensive - and I don't throw money away when there are simpler solutions.
3) Speculative and pointless comment. Why would I invest in a service that might give more usability at some point in the future?
Finally, I don't like advertising. I don't like junk mail, spam or telemarketing calls. And if I watch TV then it's usually the BBC here in the UK where there is no advertising. I even do not have cable or satellite TV because I do not believe in paying for a service that also feeds me advertising. Plus I don't want my personal information sent around between corporations who I have not myself chosen to do business with.
Incidentally, the usage of AAC serves no practical purpose as it is supported by less players than MP3, FLAC or even OGG.
It is another pointless file format that the world does not need but that serves only to put more control over what you do into the hands of a power and money hungry corporation - in this case Apple.
Every time you use AAC you are one step closer to handing over your Consumer Rights to Apple - my advice is don't use it in the first place, it's evil.
And this beats a portable hard disk with your music on precisely how?
You seem to have missed the point and told me what I already knew. The reason I convert to MP3 from the FLAC "masters" I have on my home server is to turn them into a format and size suitable for my music player, I am fully aware that they are lower quality than other formats, that being the precise reason why I convert them as required from the FLACs.
What you haven't done is given me any explanation as to why this service is better than carrying your music with you in the first place - and I suspect the reason for it are there are none.
Can I also add that storing your music in the Cloud gives the providers of those services information about you and your buying habits which in turn can lead to targetted advertising and going on spam mail lists - a distinct disadvantage in my view.
...all this iCloud, Amazon and Google music storage nonsense sounds a complete waste of time.
For years I've been buying CDs, ripping them to FLAC once then converting to MP3 as I need them. I store the MP3s on a portable hard disk and keep it with me for when I need it. It also works when there's no Internet connection.
Personally, I think far too many of you have far too much spare time on your hands to be worried about some nonsensical and convoluted web services that are trying to justify their own existences. That's why you should learn to think like an engineer because you can discover simpler solutions for yourself.
And this is all I want the fanbois to admit - that they buy fashion accessories with the sole intention of gaining peer approval - then I could have no argument with that whatsoever.
The fact that non-Apple tablets have had low sales so far, despite the fact that more people are buying Android phones than iOS ones at the moment, clearly shows they are a niche market.
And Steve Jobs has done a fantastic job from a marketing perspective of getting the fanbois to part with more money for what is essentially just a bigger iPod Touch - from that perspective, I give him real kudos.
Yes, if Android tablets start selling well then this will do nothing to change my opinion that tablets are gimmicks.
And I hate Apple because I believe in Capitalism. In the same way that when I buy a car I can fill up with petrol from any vendor, when I buy a computing device I should be able to fill it with whatever software I like - free, Open Source or commercial, I don't care, whatever does the job - purchased from whatever software vendor or supplier that I choose. Not just one location that happens to be controlled by the hardware manufacturer.
Also I work in a job where you have no place to put a netbook, but still needing a computer I use a tablet.
I would suspect then that you have a case for some kind of employee tribunal since I would have thought they would be obliged to provide you with a desk or workspace if you need to use a computing device.
Or this is just an attempt on your part to mimic the only conditions where a tablet beats a notebook - i.e. stood up on a packed commuter train when you are simply THAT important a person that you simply MUST be constantly connected to the Internet.
In other words, do 50 of you all work in a single 10 foot x 10 foot office such that you all have to stand and can therefore only use iPads?