My plane didn't go quite so far...
on
TAM 5 Has landed
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· Score: 1
I recently designed and built an RC plane with my brother. In its nine take-offs it has never landed once (without crashing) and has never flown more than a hundred or so meters. It did embed itself in the golf course though which was quite interesting! Maybe either learning to fly these things first or getting the centre of gravity right would have helped slightly...
The current X-Plane 7 beta runs rather nicely on my 450MHz PowerMac G4 with GeForce 2MX. I can't use the super-high resolution textures but it still looks pretty good at the normal high resolution. It runs similarly well on my Pentium III 500 which also has a GeForce 2MX. Unfortunately its about a 5.5G install with full world scenery. It must come to something like 8G with Mars scenery too!
The G4 Cube was in my opinion the best Apple system ever introduced. It was nearly totally silent since it used convection cooling, reduced cable clutter since connections were all on the bottom, near full PowerMac performance and had upgradable CPU and graphics cards. Hopefully one day Apple will introduce a new version of the Cube with a G5 (assuming the can get the thing to run cool enough!)
Oh well. Or take (gasp) OpenOffice or any other X app. Panther will support X out of the box, btw. And that's a good thing, all the inconsistency be damned
But blaming non-Mac apps being inconsistent to Mac apps is just as pointless as blaming non-KDE apps being inconsistent to KDE apps.
Panther will not install X11 by default. Also blaming non-Mac apps for being inconsistent is not pointless since the average user (and most pro Mac users) will never see anything else.
Actally the X-way always faster than the MacOS-way: When pasting over, instead of select, Ctrl+C, select, Ctrl+V (2 keyboard operations, 2 mouse operations) you do select, paste, select, delete or backspace (1 keyboard operation, 3 mouse operations). It's faster because you only have to switch between keyboard and mouse twice instead of 3 times and you don't need a modifier key.
Selecting text is probably the slowest thing you can do with the mouse if you can't just double [select word] or triple [select line] click the text. You also can do things in the reverse order easily the Mac way. Select text first then copy from somewhere else and replace. Also with the Linux way you may want to replace a word and paste directly behind it. Then you have to do the slow drag select rather than a simple double-click to select the bit you want rid of since both words are now combined.
I think we'll just have to disagree on copy and paste...
No, it has a small black triangle like any other menu. (Unlike the Apple-menu on the top-left, btw.)
The Apple menu is in the Mac menubar where there are no buttons. If it wasn't a menu then its behavior would be inconsistent.
Mozilla on the Mac is nowhere near as inconsistent as the linux version. At least it uses Carbon controls and menus. It just shows how consistent the overall Mac interface is that you brought up a web browser with probably less than five percent marketshare of the Macs five percent marketshare.
Never used Kate.
If your not to much of an emacs or vi fan then Kate is a pretty nice text editor.
Wrong. There are 2 clipboards. If you use it MacOS-style, you will never know it does Unix-style, too. (But as soon as you find out you will switch to Unix-style because it's just superior)
OK I didn't realize that. I could never get Mac copy and paste to work properly when I was on RedHat 7.2. Don't recall the KDE version. After this I was just used the annoying X style where you can't paste over something which is what I do most with paste.
Wrong, it behaves and looks like any other menu
No it definitely looks like a button but a menu pops up when you click it.
I have most of my icons at 16*16 and the look fine. Can't say the same for the majority of linux apps. I have basically no idea what any of the default "quick-links" are in the "task bar" in KDE 3 on RedHat 8.
Can you come up with one example of KDE inconsistency?
Here we go:
Non-KDE and KDE apps look different. This is probably this why unix like operating systems tend to be so inconsistent. On the Mac you basically should be using only three APIs for UI: Cocoa, Carbon and Java Swing (AWT possible too...) However these APIs all work with Aqua UI elements rather than using their own (or even worse every programmers own!) like you get with motif, GTK, KDE. But this problem is not just limited to look but feel too! This is not a problem with KDE as such but it definitely effects it.
Konquerer and KATE use menus with different names for what normally comes under "File."
X style copy and paste. Not only is the operating system doing something without the user initiating it but KDE also contains cut,copy and paste in its "Edit" menu. These obviously don't work properly since copy has already happened as soon as you select the text.
The start menu clone is a button but behaves like a menu unlike all the other buttons next to it.
of course KDE has column view mode.
My copy doesn't. Its got something called "Multicolumn View" but this has nothing to do with Mac OS X's hierarchical column view. I find you are better using the command line rather than trying to browse your files in KDE.
But if you want to get some work done, that means have ugly, but well recognizable icons (you cannot have both pretty and recognizable. Recognizable is comic-like, pretty is with millions of colors, sorry), no animations (I wasn't able to turn off all animations in MacOSX) use many applications at once (with multiple desktops), nothing I've seen beats KDE.
I don't see why you cannot have easily recognizable "great looking" icons. I've never had a problem recognizing what an icon is on Mac OS X.
Also animations are a good thing. They provide visual feedback to the user of the the task they have just performed. Multiple desktops are also not really required in OS X now that the Exposé feature exists. This is by far the best way of managing multiple windows that I've ever seen. Its unbelievably useful and can be made to work with any extra mouse buttons or function keys.
It's really ironic. The only reason KDE is bashed for "not being able to get work done" is because indeed is optimized for getting work done and lacks demoability.
I think the reason KDE is bashed for "not being able to get work done" is that, compared to something like Mac OS X, it is very inconsistent and lacks useful file management features such as spring loaded folders, folder actions and column view mode.
It amazes me every time that something like this nearly happens or does happen that guns are still legal in the United States. Should guns not get the blame for killing people rather than video games? People who say things like "Guns don't kill people. People kill people." may be right but having no guns makes it a hell of a lot harder for these would be killers to go on killing sprees.
I'm also running 10.2.6 and I cannot repeat this bug. I'm also using the emacs shortcuts to copy and paste the text in the password field (since command-c and command-v are disabled). Maybe I'm just to impatient to take the time to reproduce this but my 450MHz PowerMac was becoming so slow between pastes that it was becoming intolerable.
This may be finally what makes the US government sit up and take notice. Hopefully they will increase NASA funding so that they can finally send a manned mission to Mars. I'm sure the offshoot technology and the inspiration for such a mission would be well worth the cost. Even so skimming a little off the military funding and putting it into something valid such as space exploration is far better than killing people.
It looks like the US government will be forced to give NASA a new goal if China ever does any of what it claims. I just hope that they will aim to land man on Mars as soon as possible. A return to the Moon would also be interesting to see with todays technology. I'm sure they could do a lot more than was done in the '60s and '70s.
However I think that it will be when businesses aims for space, influenced by things like the X-Prize, that finally make space travel (at least suborbital and LOE) will become truly practical.
Another question about the PowerBooks is what CPU will they have? It could either be a G4 or some version of the PPC 970 (as reported by some rumor sites). In my opinion the PowerBooks will use a G4 class CPU since the current 970 probably lacks energy saving features.
Its amazing how little information has got out on Mac OS X Panther (10.3). This is what Apple is claiming WWDC is about and next to no information on this new OS version has been leaked. Last year, with Jaguar (OS 10.2), there were screens on ThinkSecret and a rundown on many of the new features but with Panther there is next to nothing. All there really is is speculation on piles and even this information is highly doubtful. It seems Apple has finally blocked the rumor channels.:-(
Quote: "Nope, they will not create another version of Office."
Except that MS already have said that they will create another Mac version of Office as it is extremely profitable. Look at this article over at MacCentral. To quote the MS guy in the article:
"We are working diligently on the next version of Office -- these [IE and Office] are not connected in any way. Office is still intact and going strong -- there are no plans to stop development on Office for Mac even after the next version is released."
Yeah I think its also because IE lacks any of the popular features like tabs, popup-blocking and good form autofill. These are features that MS seem totally unable to implement even though they improve the browsing experience massively.
In the UK the PS2 included (and may still include?) some form of BASIC. It lets you save your programs to a memory card and supports graphics and sounds. To me this brought back memories of programming my BBC back in the days before time began (1980s). Anyway this would probably be a good place to start since PS2s are so popular and all you need is a USB keyboard.
Maybe in some ways its 6 months behind Intel and AMD but its got features like an 800MHz FSB with RAM installed in pairs, 64 bit AltiVec/VMX/VE enabled CPU, multi-CPU support (almost certainly) and FireWire 800 --does any PC have this as standard yet?-- and HyperTransport. There will also be some other stuff that I can't think of right now.
While it is probably true that Apple will launch a PowerMac G5 at WWDC the information given here is only from a rumor site. Many of the rumor sites cannot be trusted much (such as MacOSRumors) and a one or two are extremely accurate (ThinkSecret). AppleInsider is one of the oldest rumor sites and at one time was one of the best. Recently though it has been taken over and the general accuracy of its stories is now unknown. However this rumor seems to have enough other sites reporting generally the same thing to be true. Its not fact yet though!
The G3 was introduced in Powerbooks and towers simultaneously.
But it wasn't first. I'd actually forgotten this totally though. The PPC750 was based on the 603e core so it was well suited to laptops.
I've heard conflicting numbers, but most say a 1.2 GHz 970 consumes roughly the same power as a 1.0 GHz G4. So it might be possible, although the motherboard upgrades needed to support the 970 might increase the power requirements too much.
I think its more to do with weather the chip has power management that is better or as good as the G4. From what I've read about the PPC970 it appears that it has little or no power management at all making it nearly useless for laptops. We shall however hopefully see for sure at WWDC in under a month.
The PowerMac will almost certainly get this chip long before a PowerBook ever does. Apple has never had a new chip in a laptop first.
People say that this chip currently consumes to much power for laptop use. It will take the second revision with a smaller process to make a laptop version.
Some rumors sites claim to have information on a motherboard for the 970. This motherboard is either for a PowerMac, an Xserver or the mythical Xstation.
While I never actually stated that the G3 was a Motorola made chip it was in fact made by them at some point. I currently have a iMac 233MHz PPC750 made by Motorola sitting on front of me at my desk here. However the more recent G3 class chips, including the CX, CXe and FX are all made by IBM as far as I am aware.
I do not think it is correct to say that the speculation was that "Motorola may soon cease to be a supplier of processors to Apple." Most Mac users (and nearly everyone else) know that the Moto G4 and maybe some upgraded G3 will be part of Apple's consumer products for some time yet. The PPC970 will be used on high-end systems only at introduction.
Maybe this will start off a new space race and force the US government and NASA to finally commit to a manned mission to Mars. At least money spent on this would be better than having it spent on developing new weapons.
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I recently designed and built an RC plane with my brother. In its nine take-offs it has never landed once (without crashing) and has never flown more than a hundred or so meters. It did embed itself in the golf course though which was quite interesting! Maybe either learning to fly these things first or getting the centre of gravity right would have helped slightly...
The current X-Plane 7 beta runs rather nicely on my 450MHz PowerMac G4 with GeForce 2MX. I can't use the super-high resolution textures but it still looks pretty good at the normal high resolution. It runs similarly well on my Pentium III 500 which also has a GeForce 2MX. Unfortunately its about a 5.5G install with full world scenery. It must come to something like 8G with Mars scenery too!
The G4 Cube was in my opinion the best Apple system ever introduced. It was nearly totally silent since it used convection cooling, reduced cable clutter since connections were all on the bottom, near full PowerMac performance and had upgradable CPU and graphics cards. Hopefully one day Apple will introduce a new version of the Cube with a G5 (assuming the can get the thing to run cool enough!)
Oh well. Or take (gasp) OpenOffice or any other X app. Panther will support X out of the box, btw. And that's a good thing, all the inconsistency be damned
But blaming non-Mac apps being inconsistent to Mac apps is just as pointless as blaming non-KDE apps being inconsistent to KDE apps.
Panther will not install X11 by default. Also blaming non-Mac apps for being inconsistent is not pointless since the average user (and most pro Mac users) will never see anything else.
Actally the X-way always faster than the MacOS-way: When pasting over, instead of select, Ctrl+C, select, Ctrl+V (2 keyboard operations, 2 mouse operations) you do select, paste, select, delete or backspace (1 keyboard operation, 3 mouse operations). It's faster because you only have to switch between keyboard and mouse twice instead of 3 times and you don't need a modifier key.
Selecting text is probably the slowest thing you can do with the mouse if you can't just double [select word] or triple [select line] click the text. You also can do things in the reverse order easily the Mac way. Select text first then copy from somewhere else and replace. Also with the Linux way you may want to replace a word and paste directly behind it. Then you have to do the slow drag select rather than a simple double-click to select the bit you want rid of since both words are now combined.
I think we'll just have to disagree on copy and paste...
No, it has a small black triangle like any other menu. (Unlike the Apple-menu on the top-left, btw.)
The Apple menu is in the Mac menubar where there are no buttons. If it wasn't a menu then its behavior would be inconsistent.
You mean just like Mozilla on the Mac?
Mozilla on the Mac is nowhere near as inconsistent as the linux version. At least it uses Carbon controls and menus. It just shows how consistent the overall Mac interface is that you brought up a web browser with probably less than five percent marketshare of the Macs five percent marketshare.
Never used Kate.
If your not to much of an emacs or vi fan then Kate is a pretty nice text editor.
Wrong. There are 2 clipboards. If you use it MacOS-style, you will never know it does Unix-style, too. (But as soon as you find out you will switch to Unix-style because it's just superior)
OK I didn't realize that. I could never get Mac copy and paste to work properly when I was on RedHat 7.2. Don't recall the KDE version. After this I was just used the annoying X style where you can't paste over something which is what I do most with paste.
Wrong, it behaves and looks like any other menu
No it definitely looks like a button but a menu pops up when you click it.
Well, I did.
I have most of my icons at 16*16 and the look fine. Can't say the same for the majority of linux apps. I have basically no idea what any of the default "quick-links" are in the "task bar" in KDE 3 on RedHat 8.
Can you come up with one example of KDE inconsistency?
Here we go:
of course KDE has column view mode.
My copy doesn't. Its got something called "Multicolumn View" but this has nothing to do with Mac OS X's hierarchical column view. I find you are better using the command line rather than trying to browse your files in KDE.
But if you want to get some work done, that means have ugly, but well recognizable icons (you cannot have both pretty and recognizable. Recognizable is comic-like, pretty is with millions of colors, sorry), no animations (I wasn't able to turn off all animations in MacOSX) use many applications at once (with multiple desktops), nothing I've seen beats KDE.
I don't see why you cannot have easily recognizable "great looking" icons. I've never had a problem recognizing what an icon is on Mac OS X.
Also animations are a good thing. They provide visual feedback to the user of the the task they have just performed. Multiple desktops are also not really required in OS X now that the Exposé feature exists. This is by far the best way of managing multiple windows that I've ever seen. Its unbelievably useful and can be made to work with any extra mouse buttons or function keys.
It's really ironic. The only reason KDE is bashed for "not being able to get work done" is because indeed is optimized for getting work done and lacks demoability.
I think the reason KDE is bashed for "not being able to get work done" is that, compared to something like Mac OS X, it is very inconsistent and lacks useful file management features such as spring loaded folders, folder actions and column view mode.
According to space.com the schedule for the OSP has been changed from 2010 to 2008.
It amazes me every time that something like this nearly happens or does happen that guns are still legal in the United States. Should guns not get the blame for killing people rather than video games? People who say things like "Guns don't kill people. People kill people." may be right but having no guns makes it a hell of a lot harder for these would be killers to go on killing sprees.
I'm also running 10.2.6 and I cannot repeat this bug. I'm also using the emacs shortcuts to copy and paste the text in the password field (since command-c and command-v are disabled). Maybe I'm just to impatient to take the time to reproduce this but my 450MHz PowerMac was becoming so slow between pastes that it was becoming intolerable.
This may be finally what makes the US government sit up and take notice. Hopefully they will increase NASA funding so that they can finally send a manned mission to Mars. I'm sure the offshoot technology and the inspiration for such a mission would be well worth the cost. Even so skimming a little off the military funding and putting it into something valid such as space exploration is far better than killing people.
It looks like the US government will be forced to give NASA a new goal if China ever does any of what it claims. I just hope that they will aim to land man on Mars as soon as possible. A return to the Moon would also be interesting to see with todays technology. I'm sure they could do a lot more than was done in the '60s and '70s.
However I think that it will be when businesses aims for space, influenced by things like the X-Prize, that finally make space travel (at least suborbital and LOE) will become truly practical.
These PPC970 systems are fully 64-bit. They will start hyping it on Monday at WWDC.
Another question about the PowerBooks is what CPU will they have? It could either be a G4 or some version of the PPC 970 (as reported by some rumor sites). In my opinion the PowerBooks will use a G4 class CPU since the current 970 probably lacks energy saving features.
Its amazing how little information has got out on Mac OS X Panther (10.3). This is what Apple is claiming WWDC is about and next to no information on this new OS version has been leaked. Last year, with Jaguar (OS 10.2), there were screens on ThinkSecret and a rundown on many of the new features but with Panther there is next to nothing. All there really is is speculation on piles and even this information is highly doubtful. It seems Apple has finally blocked the rumor channels. :-(
Quote: "Nope, they will not create another version of Office."
Except that MS already have said that they will create another Mac version of Office as it is extremely profitable. Look at this article over at MacCentral. To quote the MS guy in the article:
"We are working diligently on the next version of Office -- these [IE and Office] are not connected in any way. Office is still intact and going strong -- there are no plans to stop development on Office for Mac even after the next version is released."
Yeah I think its also because IE lacks any of the popular features like tabs, popup-blocking and good form autofill. These are features that MS seem totally unable to implement even though they improve the browsing experience massively.
In the UK the PS2 included (and may still include?) some form of BASIC. It lets you save your programs to a memory card and supports graphics and sounds. To me this brought back memories of programming my BBC back in the days before time began (1980s). Anyway this would probably be a good place to start since PS2s are so popular and all you need is a USB keyboard.
Maybe in some ways its 6 months behind Intel and AMD but its got features like an 800MHz FSB with RAM installed in pairs, 64 bit AltiVec/VMX/VE enabled CPU, multi-CPU support (almost certainly) and FireWire 800 --does any PC have this as standard yet?-- and HyperTransport. There will also be some other stuff that I can't think of right now.
While it is probably true that Apple will launch a PowerMac G5 at WWDC the information given here is only from a rumor site. Many of the rumor sites cannot be trusted much (such as MacOSRumors) and a one or two are extremely accurate (ThinkSecret). AppleInsider is one of the oldest rumor sites and at one time was one of the best. Recently though it has been taken over and the general accuracy of its stories is now unknown. However this rumor seems to have enough other sites reporting generally the same thing to be true. Its not fact yet though!
But it wasn't first. I'd actually forgotten this totally though. The PPC750 was based on the 603e core so it was well suited to laptops.
I've heard conflicting numbers, but most say a 1.2 GHz 970 consumes roughly the same power as a 1.0 GHz G4. So it might be possible, although the motherboard upgrades needed to support the 970 might increase the power requirements too much.I think its more to do with weather the chip has power management that is better or as good as the G4. From what I've read about the PPC970 it appears that it has little or no power management at all making it nearly useless for laptops. We shall however hopefully see for sure at WWDC in under a month.
While I never actually stated that the G3 was a Motorola made chip it was in fact made by them at some point. I currently have a iMac 233MHz PPC750 made by Motorola sitting on front of me at my desk here. However the more recent G3 class chips, including the CX, CXe and FX are all made by IBM as far as I am aware.
I do not think it is correct to say that the speculation was that "Motorola may soon cease to be a supplier of processors to Apple." Most Mac users (and nearly everyone else) know that the Moto G4 and maybe some upgraded G3 will be part of Apple's consumer products for some time yet. The PPC970 will be used on high-end systems only at introduction.
Maybe this will start off a new space race and force the US government and NASA to finally commit to a manned mission to Mars. At least money spent on this would be better than having it spent on developing new weapons.