No offense, but the fact that your wife has a Master's in English doesn't mean squat. I have a degree in Creative Writing and that doesn't make my opinion more valid than anyone else's. I know people with CS degrees who can't operate a toaster. There is no more or less informed opinion when talking about appreciation of art: it's all entirely subjective.
Look at what we know about the Aleph in MLO: it's a mother-huge slab of nanotech, infinite storage space, and can somehow connect Earth with Alpha Centauri.
The aleph doesn't connect the characters to Alpha Centauri. When they're connected to cyberspace near the end of the story they (or their digitized selves) are able to leave the aleph and travel in cyberspace, which allows them to travel to Centauri. At the end of the book, the characters are actually in two places at one time.
If you want to see Gibson's roots, read Dashiell Hammett. Gibson is like an eery echo of him, and I say that as a Gibson fan.
Cause that was the last time Elton released anything worthwhile. And if he thinks no one goes to hear music any more, it only means no one goes to his shows.
Just as I'm sure that by 2008 there will be no desktop applications or OSes left, as we will all be using distributed apps from teh interweb. Well, that's what some Very Smart People said in 2001.
Yes. But, outside of Slashdot, Ars Technica and a few IT people, NO ONE CARES. This is the point I'm trying to get across: consumers, as a whole, don't care about choice of vendor for OS. They buy a computer and use the OS it came with. So long as this is one of the main arguments in favor of Linux, so long will Linux remain 1% of the desktop base.
I have never come across any software with a warranty. Every piece of software I have ever installed on a Windows box (including Windows itself) makes you click through an agreement which disclaims all possible and conceivable merchantability guarantees or warranties.
If I have a problem with the copy of Windows on the Dell I just bought, I can call Dell and get tech support. If I have a problem with the copy of OS X on the Mac I just bought, I can take it to the local Apple Store and have them look at it. If I'm having problems with Illustrator, I can call Adobe. If I'm having trouble with Word, I can call Microsoft. Can't do that with Linux.
As far as tech support is concerned, for most Linux software I can do something I can very rarely do for Windows software: talk directly to the people who actually write the code. My record is 30 minutes from submitting a bug report to completing a patched compile. Beat that.
That's fine for you. That's fine for me. For someone who bought their Dell online and can't figure out why the scanner doesn't work, that's useless. Your average user doesn't know what source code is. Your average user doesn't know what the registry or/bin is. They know you hit the power button and the thing comes on. And it's average users who drive market share.
And for a very simple reason: there's no compelling reason for your average computer to switch away from Windows or OS X.
Now, full disclosure: I run OS X and Linux at home and whatever OS is needed at work, usually OS X, sometimes Windows. Of the three I prefer OS X, but I'm pretty agnostic.
That said, the unspoken truth about OS choice is that for most of the things an average computer user does--web, email, music, movies, games, porn--Windows does a good enough job. This isn't to say it does a great job. This isn't to say that OS X or Linux don't do a better job. This is just to say that Windows does a good enough job for most people. In other words, Linux has no killer app. The things which important for the F/OSS community (transparency, free as in speech and beer, DIY) aren't important to average computer users. For your average user, a computer is an appliance like a fridge or a microwave, to be purchased, used until it breaks or is too old, and then replaced with a new one. For Linux to gain appreciable market share it will have to be a better product: it will have to do something much better than Windows. It will also have to have the things people expect from products; warranties, 1-800 numbers and tech support.
Apple's way of differentiating is to make the GUI more accessible for your average user, and to design a vertically integrated suite of hardware and software which reinforce each other. Linux, so far, has no easily identifiable feature or set of features which say, "Hey, I'm better than Windows." Until it does, there will be no Year of Linux on the Deskop.
To the rise of FM radio in the mid to late 60s and 70s. FM was "free form" back then, which gave local DJs the ability to program a more varied and deeper set of songs, rather than the same 40 or 50 "hits" mandated by Clear Channel. Even in my early teens years (the 1980s) you could still find local radio stations which played entire albums, usually on a Friday or Saturday night. Now, of course, this is not the case. Listen to a Clear Channel-owned radio station in Minneapolis and one in Atlanta and the only difference will be the ads. No cuts from deeper on a disc, nothing weird or unusual, just the same 40 or 50 songs played over and over.
Obviously There are other factors which influence this. Musical tastes and styles change, as in the late 1950s and early to mid 1960s, the 45 rpm single was king. But I still believe that the conglomeration and corporatization of FM radio has done enormous harm to music. And it's the main reason I haven't listened to terrestrial radio in more than a few brief snatches in several years, as whenever I give it a try I hear the same repetitive song lists over and over. I give my listening time and money to internet radio.
Run by the most corrupt and incompetent administration in modern history has security problems with teh internets?
Really?
Talk about a non-story. I actually surprised the launch codes for our nukes, and the secret recipe for Coke, aren't on the front page of the DHS website, hightlighted with the flash tag.
Could you please post the other examples then? I have found Apple no worse than other manufacturers when dealing with manufacturing defects. I have actually found them better: when my then-new Pismo needed an Apple-spec'd part replaced after about two months, Apple sent me a Fed Ex box, which I dropped off at the closest Fed Ex store. Four days later I had my machine back, replaired and cleaned.
I know Apple has had some problems with iBooks (the G4s?) but they don't seem to be worse than Dell or HP or Epson or any other company.
Dude, the right colour is what the client fucking well submitted.
Exactly. And I've seen clients who signed off on Fierys they printed out at Kinko's, asking for colors which can never be reproduced on an offset press. I've seen clients look at the exact same color under two different light sources and ask why the color has changed. I've seen different creatives on the same project look at the same exact colors and each ask for different changes. Now, obviously, the better informed the client the more likely they are to have a clue, but there are a lot of people out there with big budgets and not much of an idea of what they want other than, "make it this way", no matter if "that way" can be reproduced or not.
The proper conversion from device-independent RGB (sRGB unless you like pain) to printer ink is done by the printer driver or press house. It takes into account numerous ugly details of the printing process (exact ink color, dot gain, paper color, drying time, soggy paper concerns, worse...) and several economic/quality tradeoffs.
Or it's done by you, after taking a little time to calibrate all of your input/output devices and monitors and get your color profiles straightened out. Proper calibration takes only a relatively small investment of time and money, and saves you time and worry. Additionally, as you always get matchprints of your work before signing off, there really is no advantage to having your printer do things for you, as you will still have to sign off on that matchprint.
The real secret of color in the printing world is that it's an inexact science. When you get right down to it, the right color is whatever the client says it is. If the client signs off on a piece, no matter how obviously wrong it is to trained eyes, then that's what the client gets. I have had clients tell me to take yellow out of images despite the fact that there's almost no yellow to take out. Make a little tweak, show them a new matchprint and all of a sudden they like it. Viola, all it needed was a little yellow taken out. ..
As to the thread, unfortunately there really is no replacement for Illustrator and Photoshop, despite their increasingly bloated size. If you don't like InDesign (which I'm lukewarm on) use Quark, but that is the only real alternative. There is nothing out there at all which can hold a candle to Photoshop for high-end retouching. The Channel Mixer and adjustment layers alone make it worth the (rapidly escalating) cost of admission.
Microsoft's programmers were so tired from the complete redesign between Windows 95 and Windows 2000, and the complete redesign between 2000 and XP, and the complete redesign between XP and Vista. They've written three operating systems almost from scratch in the past twelve years!
There is a consistent bias in some Slashdot comments towards the elevation of techology for technology's sake. While there is nothing wrong with holding this opinion, when it is used as a measure for the potential of a device or technology to be successful in the world, it is often wrong. When it is used as a way of disparaging a device or technolgy which has succeeded in the marketplace despite a lack of Slashdot "cool" it is simply ignorant. Thus, claiming that the iPod is successful because of "hype" requires one to completely ignore the real world features of the device which give it such appeal to a wide audience. Because it is often suich real world features/uasbility which often determine success of failure and not a feature list or blinken lights, someone who wishes to successfully market technology might do well to move beyond common Slashdot biases and widen horizons.
In other words, my comment was precisely logical, if snarkily worded.
They just couldn't compete under all the iPod hype.
The fact that a sizeable number of Slashdot posters still think the iPod is successful because of "hype" explains why a sizeable number of Slashdot posters will never be as successful as Steve Jobs.
And saw it in the theaters eleven times: this was before VCRs and DVDs, and if you wanted to see something more than once, you paid more than one.
And I loved it, immediately. I had all the toys I could, fell in love with Carrie Fisher and dressed as Luke Skywalker for Halloween. I waited impatiently for the release of Empire and Jedi, and thoroughly enjoyed the whole time.
But, I gotta say, as an adult the movies haven't held up that well for me. My favorite is Empire, because it's the darkest and best plotted, but it seems that as the series went on (and Leigh Brackett died) Lucas really lost his way. In the end, after the godawful mediocre mess which is the second trilogy, I find myself almost completely uninterested in the movies. I think the movies are great if you're a kid, but they are in no way adult stories. And the need Lucas seems to have to worry about the little stupid stuff (just admit the whole Kessel Run/parsec thing was a mistake in the writing and get on with it) instead of things like character and dialogue tell me nothing he does from here out will be any good. Shit, I don't even own any of them on DVD.
Just one man's opinion, is all. No need to start a flame war.
And, BTW, where can I find a good used Powerbook (I assume G4) for ~$400? I kind of want one again but I can't seem to find any good cheap used ones.
Your best bet is eBay, or the forums at Mac sites such as the ones at Macnn, which has dedicated sales forum. It can be difficult to find cheap Powerbooks, though, as people tend to love them and hang onto them.
Slashdot Mirror
No offense, but the fact that your wife has a Master's in English doesn't mean squat. I have a degree in Creative Writing and that doesn't make my opinion more valid than anyone else's. I know people with CS degrees who can't operate a toaster. There is no more or less informed opinion when talking about appreciation of art: it's all entirely subjective.
The aleph doesn't connect the characters to Alpha Centauri. When they're connected to cyberspace near the end of the story they (or their digitized selves) are able to leave the aleph and travel in cyberspace, which allows them to travel to Centauri. At the end of the book, the characters are actually in two places at one time.
If you want to see Gibson's roots, read Dashiell Hammett. Gibson is like an eery echo of him, and I say that as a Gibson fan.
KDE Super Professional Home Edition Supreme Service Pack Sqrt(-1) will do nicely.
I've decided this is what hardware fanbois do instead of having girlfriends.
Cause that was the last time Elton released anything worthwhile. And if he thinks no one goes to hear music any more, it only means no one goes to his shows.
Oh, wait: wrong series.
When skewering a black and white short called At The Circus:
"Oh my God, they're doing it clown style!
Just as I'm sure that by 2008 there will be no desktop applications or OSes left, as we will all be using distributed apps from teh interweb. Well, that's what some Very Smart People said in 2001.
Another day, another ridiculous prediction.
Microsoft is hard at work on the DBSOD, the Distributed Blue Screen of Death. Now you can freeze any machine, anywhere in the world!
Yes. But, outside of Slashdot, Ars Technica and a few IT people, NO ONE CARES. This is the point I'm trying to get across: consumers, as a whole, don't care about choice of vendor for OS. They buy a computer and use the OS it came with. So long as this is one of the main arguments in favor of Linux, so long will Linux remain 1% of the desktop base.
If I have a problem with the copy of Windows on the Dell I just bought, I can call Dell and get tech support. If I have a problem with the copy of OS X on the Mac I just bought, I can take it to the local Apple Store and have them look at it. If I'm having problems with Illustrator, I can call Adobe. If I'm having trouble with Word, I can call Microsoft. Can't do that with Linux.
That's fine for you. That's fine for me. For someone who bought their Dell online and can't figure out why the scanner doesn't work, that's useless. Your average user doesn't know what source code is. Your average user doesn't know what the registry or /bin is. They know you hit the power button and the thing comes on. And it's average users who drive market share.
Sweet. I learn something new every day.
And for a very simple reason: there's no compelling reason for your average computer to switch away from Windows or OS X.
Now, full disclosure: I run OS X and Linux at home and whatever OS is needed at work, usually OS X, sometimes Windows. Of the three I prefer OS X, but I'm pretty agnostic.
That said, the unspoken truth about OS choice is that for most of the things an average computer user does--web, email, music, movies, games, porn--Windows does a good enough job. This isn't to say it does a great job. This isn't to say that OS X or Linux don't do a better job. This is just to say that Windows does a good enough job for most people. In other words, Linux has no killer app. The things which important for the F/OSS community (transparency, free as in speech and beer, DIY) aren't important to average computer users. For your average user, a computer is an appliance like a fridge or a microwave, to be purchased, used until it breaks or is too old, and then replaced with a new one. For Linux to gain appreciable market share it will have to be a better product: it will have to do something much better than Windows. It will also have to have the things people expect from products; warranties, 1-800 numbers and tech support.
Apple's way of differentiating is to make the GUI more accessible for your average user, and to design a vertically integrated suite of hardware and software which reinforce each other. Linux, so far, has no easily identifiable feature or set of features which say, "Hey, I'm better than Windows." Until it does, there will be no Year of Linux on the Deskop.
To the rise of FM radio in the mid to late 60s and 70s. FM was "free form" back then, which gave local DJs the ability to program a more varied and deeper set of songs, rather than the same 40 or 50 "hits" mandated by Clear Channel. Even in my early teens years (the 1980s) you could still find local radio stations which played entire albums, usually on a Friday or Saturday night. Now, of course, this is not the case. Listen to a Clear Channel-owned radio station in Minneapolis and one in Atlanta and the only difference will be the ads. No cuts from deeper on a disc, nothing weird or unusual, just the same 40 or 50 songs played over and over.
Obviously There are other factors which influence this. Musical tastes and styles change, as in the late 1950s and early to mid 1960s, the 45 rpm single was king. But I still believe that the conglomeration and corporatization of FM radio has done enormous harm to music. And it's the main reason I haven't listened to terrestrial radio in more than a few brief snatches in several years, as whenever I give it a try I hear the same repetitive song lists over and over. I give my listening time and money to internet radio.
Run by the most corrupt and incompetent administration in modern history has security problems with teh internets?
Really?
Talk about a non-story. I actually surprised the launch codes for our nukes, and the secret recipe for Coke, aren't on the front page of the DHS website, hightlighted with the flash tag.
Or you could just use /etc/hosts, which is what I do.
Could you please post the other examples then? I have found Apple no worse than other manufacturers when dealing with manufacturing defects. I have actually found them better: when my then-new Pismo needed an Apple-spec'd part replaced after about two months, Apple sent me a Fed Ex box, which I dropped off at the closest Fed Ex store. Four days later I had my machine back, replaired and cleaned.
I know Apple has had some problems with iBooks (the G4s?) but they don't seem to be worse than Dell or HP or Epson or any other company.
Exactly. And I've seen clients who signed off on Fierys they printed out at Kinko's, asking for colors which can never be reproduced on an offset press. I've seen clients look at the exact same color under two different light sources and ask why the color has changed. I've seen different creatives on the same project look at the same exact colors and each ask for different changes. Now, obviously, the better informed the client the more likely they are to have a clue, but there are a lot of people out there with big budgets and not much of an idea of what they want other than, "make it this way", no matter if "that way" can be reproduced or not.
Or it's done by you, after taking a little time to calibrate all of your input/output devices and monitors and get your color profiles straightened out. Proper calibration takes only a relatively small investment of time and money, and saves you time and worry. Additionally, as you always get matchprints of your work before signing off, there really is no advantage to having your printer do things for you, as you will still have to sign off on that matchprint.
The real secret of color in the printing world is that it's an inexact science. When you get right down to it, the right color is whatever the client says it is. If the client signs off on a piece, no matter how obviously wrong it is to trained eyes, then that's what the client gets. I have had clients tell me to take yellow out of images despite the fact that there's almost no yellow to take out. Make a little tweak, show them a new matchprint and all of a sudden they like it. Viola, all it needed was a little yellow taken out. . .
As to the thread, unfortunately there really is no replacement for Illustrator and Photoshop, despite their increasingly bloated size. If you don't like InDesign (which I'm lukewarm on) use Quark, but that is the only real alternative. There is nothing out there at all which can hold a candle to Photoshop for high-end retouching. The Channel Mixer and adjustment layers alone make it worth the (rapidly escalating) cost of admission.
'T'were a joke!
Microsoft's programmers were so tired from the complete redesign between Windows 95 and Windows 2000, and the complete redesign between 2000 and XP, and the complete redesign between XP and Vista. They've written three operating systems almost from scratch in the past twelve years!
Not at all what I'm saying.
There is a consistent bias in some Slashdot comments towards the elevation of techology for technology's sake. While there is nothing wrong with holding this opinion, when it is used as a measure for the potential of a device or technology to be successful in the world, it is often wrong. When it is used as a way of disparaging a device or technolgy which has succeeded in the marketplace despite a lack of Slashdot "cool" it is simply ignorant. Thus, claiming that the iPod is successful because of "hype" requires one to completely ignore the real world features of the device which give it such appeal to a wide audience. Because it is often suich real world features/uasbility which often determine success of failure and not a feature list or blinken lights, someone who wishes to successfully market technology might do well to move beyond common Slashdot biases and widen horizons.
In other words, my comment was precisely logical, if snarkily worded.
The fact that a sizeable number of Slashdot posters still think the iPod is successful because of "hype" explains why a sizeable number of Slashdot posters will never be as successful as Steve Jobs.
And saw it in the theaters eleven times: this was before VCRs and DVDs, and if you wanted to see something more than once, you paid more than one.
And I loved it, immediately. I had all the toys I could, fell in love with Carrie Fisher and dressed as Luke Skywalker for Halloween. I waited impatiently for the release of Empire and Jedi, and thoroughly enjoyed the whole time.
But, I gotta say, as an adult the movies haven't held up that well for me. My favorite is Empire, because it's the darkest and best plotted, but it seems that as the series went on (and Leigh Brackett died) Lucas really lost his way. In the end, after the godawful mediocre mess which is the second trilogy, I find myself almost completely uninterested in the movies. I think the movies are great if you're a kid, but they are in no way adult stories. And the need Lucas seems to have to worry about the little stupid stuff (just admit the whole Kessel Run/parsec thing was a mistake in the writing and get on with it) instead of things like character and dialogue tell me nothing he does from here out will be any good. Shit, I don't even own any of them on DVD.
Just one man's opinion, is all. No need to start a flame war.
Your best bet is eBay, or the forums at Mac sites such as the ones at Macnn, which has dedicated sales forum. It can be difficult to find cheap Powerbooks, though, as people tend to love them and hang onto them.