I have a Cube (I love it to death, but I would pay a ton for an extra PCI slot) where I have the same problem - only one ethernet card. Luckily, the IP over Firewire preview from Apple works like a charm. My Cube is now able to sit on the network and filter everything coming into my LAN, all the while completely silent.
The only "downside" is that it requires the box you are connecting it to be using OS X as well, but for those of us with homogeneous OS X networks, it is fantastic.
I worked construction last summer, and yes I would say it is generally relaxed. However, when I say relaxed I don't mean sitting on your ass all day long. Just relaxed in the sense of not being overly stressful. I'm sure many people here know the being an engineering student can get pretty damn stressful at times. Working construction is a huge, welcome change of pace.
I worked for a company that mainly did work in the mountains. After going to school in Los Angeles, getting away to the mountains rocks. It's just you and a bunch of trees up there. My company did general contracting (mostly remodels and decks when I was there), so my relatively unskilled job entailed a lot of lumber hauling and nail pounding.
I'll never forget the day my buddy and I finished sheeting a roof. We worked all morning long, just being able to shoot the shit and get our job done. When we were done, we could sit up there and enjoy a killer view and eat our lunch. Sure, our arms were sore as hell from nailing so much, but if I wasn't relaxed then, I don't think I'll ever be.
I'm a CS major, and I decided to work construction this summer rather than chase an elusive internship. The way I look at it, I'm going to have many years ahead of me where I will be spending my summers working behind a desk. So while I still have a chance, I'm going to take some time and have a job where I can work outside, hang out with my friends (who will be working at the same company), and generally relax (save for inspection days). There is something to be said for getting outside and hauling some lumber or pounding some nails. Admittedly, it is probably not something I would want to do for years and years, but for a summer it can be a pretty good time. It gives you a good sense of balance in life, something that CS majors tend to lack.
Some people like my father have scoffed at this and told me that I "need" to get an internship now or I'll get left behind. I'm sure many other CS majors here have felt the same pressure. However, I think this is when you should take a step back and look at why you got into CS in the first place. I did it because it is something I love to do; the potentially lucrative job market is an added bonus. So what if I don't get an internship and I don't make $foo money when I get a job after school? I'm confident in my abilities so that I will do well in the long run. However, as long as I make enough to live comfortably, I'm happy with that because I would much rather do CS than get a degree like Business where I really have no interest.
Don't take this as saying internships aren't important. It is definitely a good idea to go out and get some real world CS experience. (You can do this to some extent with open source projects on your own schedule.) But just remember, jobs/money are NOT the be all end all when it comes to CS or any other field. Don't forget to enjoy yourself sometimes or you will be left as one of those bitter coders getting mid-life crises in a not-so distant future.
Apple will not kill off the iBook line. Just as they have a consumer line (iMac) and professional line (Powermac) for their desktops, they will keep consumer and professional lines for their laptops. The iBook is very attractive to people who want a nice mobile solution but don't have the money or the need for a Powerbook. The 12" Powerbook was introduce because the 15" can be a little big for travel at times. Don't get me wrong, the 15" is great as it can effectively double as a desktop replacement while maintaining a good amount of portability. However, I have one and every time I go somewhere with it I have to tell myself that it still fits my needs and I should not rush to the nearest Apple store and get the 12" Powerbook I drool over.
Since you say that she doesn't have enough motor skills left to write, it seems to me that a better idea than making a keyboard for her would be to create a menu of all her commonly used sentences. Typing out notes would be much more strenuous. What I have in mind would only need 4 buttons: forward, back, select, and toggle (between the menu of phrase choices and output). The output would just be a buffer containing the last x number of lines you wanted to display. She could use the toggle button to switch to her menu, traverse it with the back/forward buttons, and then hit select to display the message.
As for the hardware, I think this method would be a little easier. Modifying an existing keyboard to create a tech-ish solution would be fairly difficult, but a low tech solution (if you are adept at carpentry) would be to build a wooden box with a hollow bottom to lay over some existing keyboard. The box would have 4 big buttons, each on a spring. The large buttons on the surface would be connected to a rod that would depress just one key. You could tie the 4 keys to the 4 program options (forward, backward, toggle, and select) in your software. Then you just need any old crappy computer/monitor combo.
While we can debate whether double-clicking a GUI installer or "sudo apt-get install perl" is easier (they are both simple, so wahoo for OS X), I think it is safe to assume that the majority of perl users who want/need 5.8 are also Fink users. The "Conflicts have been reported if you currently have Fink installed on your system." line does make me worry about the kind of damage this may do, so I think it is best that people use the fink installation for now.
You can find the answer in the last chapter of my book "The Art of Deception" which is on sale at a variety of bookstores in your area. Sorry to be brief, but I gotta run now.
First, you must remember that a large majority of Mac users (usually those who were around before OS X) know little or nothing about BSD or *nix. And they shouldn't have to. The sysadmin "don't fix it unless it's broke" philosophy is not the consumer "I want the latest and greatest" philosophy. These people buy Macs so they won't have any hassles. When Software Update pops up, they just want to click install and be done with it. Most of the time, this is fine and there are no problems.
On the other hand, you do have geeks who will take a more "wait and see" approach, many of whom have the advantage testing it on one machine before putting it on their other boxes. This is fine, but I've found that with OS X it is usually not necessary. I've tried every update on my Powerbook before throwing it on my Cube, and never have I had to wait long because there haven't been any problems. Despite the inevitable horror stories that come with each update, the grand majority of OS X users don't have any problems.
Steve Jobs: Alright, now see this? This is a three-way road, OK? And dead in the center is a crisp, new, hundred dollar bill. Now, at the end of each of these streets are three people, OK? Are you following?
Holden: Yeah.
Jobs: Good. Over here, we have someone using a Dell with a Pentium 4 that is much faster than a Mac. Down here, we have a PC-hating Mac user on a Powermac G4. Over here, we got someone using a home-built system with an AMD chip, once again much faster than the Mac.
Holden: What is this supposed to prove?
Jobs: No, I'm serious. This is a serious exercise. It's like an SAT question. Which one is going to get to the hundred dollar bill first? The Intel user, the Mac user, or the AMD user?
Holden: The Mac user.
Jobs: Good. Why?
Holden: I don't know.
Jobs: Because the other three are figments of your fucking imagination!
Ignore Mac because there's zero software for a sec.
Can you explain to me how a platform that has the majority of major commercial applications ported for it (save maybe games) and can also compile a wealth of open source apps has "zero" software?
1. I believe you can add GPL on top of BSD license.
You can add whatever you want on top of code that has been BSD-licensed.
2. Apple used the BSD operating system , not the BSD license (or did they use both?).
Apple used the Mach microkernel and the FreeBSD userland with a little bit of NetBSD to make Darwin (the kernel for OS X). Darwin is considered a member of the BSD family. Much of the code they used to make Darwin was BSD licensed, but there were also some GNU tools like gcc. The Darwin kernel is released under the Apple Public Source License.
Tell me in what ways Apple has been beneficial to the opensource movement (not just Linux).
KHTML and Rendezvous are two biggies that come to mind, but that is not the point. I don't get the people who always whine, "Apple has taken foo and hasn't given anything back." Nowhere in the BSD license does it require Apple to do anything opensource, and in the GPL they are only required to released the code they used to augment GPL'd programs. Apple has done exactly what they are entitled to do with the code. You can't give something to someone and then cry even though they followed the terms you set forth.
You may get your SMP in OpenBSD soon. From what that article says, they are supposed to have a kernel up by now (although that was their estimate, so you can never be sure).
Microsoft using it's Windows monopoly to control browsers is bad. Apple using it's desktop monopoly to control browsers is bad.
For the most part a good post, but how many times does it need to be said that APPLE DOES NOT HAVE A MONOPOLY. Last time I checked, Apple's marketshare was somewhere from 3-5%. Do they have a monopoly on operating systems? No, Microsoft does. Do they have a monopoly on computing hardware? No, they don't even make the CPU and a large majority of the rest of the system. If Apple wanted to bundle Safari, make it 100% removable from the OS (rather than making its removal as simple as dragging it to the trash as is the current state), and wanted to make it so no one could sell Macs if they didn't abide by these rules, they would have every right to. It would be a dumb decision, and I never see it happening, but they do have that option because APPLE IS NOT A MONOPOLIST
"Also, if someone logs on to a file-trading network and shares even one MP3 file without permission in "expectation" that others will do the same, full criminal penalties kick in automatically."
I've yet to read the law, but that would seem to indicate that you would be fscked if you used Kazaa and even traded just one mp3.
You are right that this would be a tempting target for MS lawyers though. The question really is how generic the term "office" is. I don't think Windows compares as a term, given that Windows is such a trademark. Office really isn't a trademark in the same way. (As far as I know - I could be wrong)
Given that there is both StarOffice and OpenOffice, I *highly* doubt that M$ could ever attack Apple for releasing iOffice, AppleOffice, or whatever.
Everyone seems so suprised and worried about names like 'Apple'
Now, I can understand your skepticism about some of the other companies on the list, but Apple? Apple has shown time and time again that they are focused on not hindering the rights of consumers to do what they want with legal content. At the Grammys, Steve Jobs explicitly pointed this out when he said "If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own."
To date, about the only "anti-piracy" measure Apple has instituted is a little sticker on your iPod that says "Don't steal music." Apple has made it clear that you should not punish users who act legally because of the actions of those who break the law.
If this goes through, it will be a shame to see Blizzard's simultaneous Mac/PC releases become a thing of the past. After Steve Jobs all but declared war on MS at MWSF, no way in hell will Redmond put out Blizzard titles for OS X at the same time as Windows, if at all. This is a shame as Mac gamers are all too familiar with second rate status. Blizzard was one of the few companies (outside of a few porting houses and Mac publishers) who treat Mac gamers with some respect.
Slashdot Mirror
I have a Cube (I love it to death, but I would pay a ton for an extra PCI slot) where I have the same problem - only one ethernet card. Luckily, the IP over Firewire preview from Apple works like a charm. My Cube is now able to sit on the network and filter everything coming into my LAN, all the while completely silent.
The only "downside" is that it requires the box you are connecting it to be using OS X as well, but for those of us with homogeneous OS X networks, it is fantastic.
McGwire
Only on Slashdot would one of the greatest sluggers ever have his name spelled incorrectly.
I worked construction last summer, and yes I would say it is generally relaxed. However, when I say relaxed I don't mean sitting on your ass all day long. Just relaxed in the sense of not being overly stressful. I'm sure many people here know the being an engineering student can get pretty damn stressful at times. Working construction is a huge, welcome change of pace.
I worked for a company that mainly did work in the mountains. After going to school in Los Angeles, getting away to the mountains rocks. It's just you and a bunch of trees up there. My company did general contracting (mostly remodels and decks when I was there), so my relatively unskilled job entailed a lot of lumber hauling and nail pounding.
I'll never forget the day my buddy and I finished sheeting a roof. We worked all morning long, just being able to shoot the shit and get our job done. When we were done, we could sit up there and enjoy a killer view and eat our lunch. Sure, our arms were sore as hell from nailing so much, but if I wasn't relaxed then, I don't think I'll ever be.
I'm a CS major, and I decided to work construction this summer rather than chase an elusive internship. The way I look at it, I'm going to have many years ahead of me where I will be spending my summers working behind a desk. So while I still have a chance, I'm going to take some time and have a job where I can work outside, hang out with my friends (who will be working at the same company), and generally relax (save for inspection days). There is something to be said for getting outside and hauling some lumber or pounding some nails. Admittedly, it is probably not something I would want to do for years and years, but for a summer it can be a pretty good time. It gives you a good sense of balance in life, something that CS majors tend to lack.
Some people like my father have scoffed at this and told me that I "need" to get an internship now or I'll get left behind. I'm sure many other CS majors here have felt the same pressure. However, I think this is when you should take a step back and look at why you got into CS in the first place. I did it because it is something I love to do; the potentially lucrative job market is an added bonus. So what if I don't get an internship and I don't make $foo money when I get a job after school? I'm confident in my abilities so that I will do well in the long run. However, as long as I make enough to live comfortably, I'm happy with that because I would much rather do CS than get a degree like Business where I really have no interest.
Don't take this as saying internships aren't important. It is definitely a good idea to go out and get some real world CS experience. (You can do this to some extent with open source projects on your own schedule.) But just remember, jobs/money are NOT the be all end all when it comes to CS or any other field. Don't forget to enjoy yourself sometimes or you will be left as one of those bitter coders getting mid-life crises in a not-so distant future.
Cover every surface with mirrors.
Muahahahah! James Bond will never guess which one of you is the real one!
But Bruce Lee will!
Apple will not kill off the iBook line. Just as they have a consumer line (iMac) and professional line (Powermac) for their desktops, they will keep consumer and professional lines for their laptops. The iBook is very attractive to people who want a nice mobile solution but don't have the money or the need for a Powerbook. The 12" Powerbook was introduce because the 15" can be a little big for travel at times. Don't get me wrong, the 15" is great as it can effectively double as a desktop replacement while maintaining a good amount of portability. However, I have one and every time I go somewhere with it I have to tell myself that it still fits my needs and I should not rush to the nearest Apple store and get the 12" Powerbook I drool over.
Since you say that she doesn't have enough motor skills left to write, it seems to me that a better idea than making a keyboard for her would be to create a menu of all her commonly used sentences. Typing out notes would be much more strenuous. What I have in mind would only need 4 buttons: forward, back, select, and toggle (between the menu of phrase choices and output). The output would just be a buffer containing the last x number of lines you wanted to display. She could use the toggle button to switch to her menu, traverse it with the back/forward buttons, and then hit select to display the message.
As for the hardware, I think this method would be a little easier. Modifying an existing keyboard to create a tech-ish solution would be fairly difficult, but a low tech solution (if you are adept at carpentry) would be to build a wooden box with a hollow bottom to lay over some existing keyboard. The box would have 4 big buttons, each on a spring. The large buttons on the surface would be connected to a rod that would depress just one key. You could tie the 4 keys to the 4 program options (forward, backward, toggle, and select) in your software. Then you just need any old crappy computer/monitor combo.
While we can debate whether double-clicking a GUI installer or "sudo apt-get install perl" is easier (they are both simple, so wahoo for OS X), I think it is safe to assume that the majority of perl users who want/need 5.8 are also Fink users. The "Conflicts have been reported if you currently have Fink installed on your system." line does make me worry about the kind of damage this may do, so I think it is best that people use the fink installation for now.
You can find the answer in the last chapter of my book "The Art of Deception" which is on sale at a variety of bookstores in your area. Sorry to be brief, but I gotta run now.
-Kevin
First, you must remember that a large majority of Mac users (usually those who were around before OS X) know little or nothing about BSD or *nix. And they shouldn't have to. The sysadmin "don't fix it unless it's broke" philosophy is not the consumer "I want the latest and greatest" philosophy. These people buy Macs so they won't have any hassles. When Software Update pops up, they just want to click install and be done with it. Most of the time, this is fine and there are no problems.
On the other hand, you do have geeks who will take a more "wait and see" approach, many of whom have the advantage testing it on one machine before putting it on their other boxes. This is fine, but I've found that with OS X it is usually not necessary. I've tried every update on my Powerbook before throwing it on my Cube, and never have I had to wait long because there haven't been any problems. Despite the inevitable horror stories that come with each update, the grand majority of OS X users don't have any problems.
"It actually took me a moment to spot the difference.
I guess reading Slashdot for a couple years has me imune to speeling earroors."
Apparently it has made you more immune than you realize.
(fade to daydream of "Intel-Pentium-4-Mobile-Hyperthreading-Altra-Mobil e")
***Error. Your fade has been interrupted and your laptop put to sleep mode due to low battery.
Steve Jobs: Alright, now see this? This is a three-way road, OK? And dead in the center is a crisp, new, hundred dollar bill. Now, at the end of each of these streets are three people, OK? Are you following?
Holden: Yeah.
Jobs: Good. Over here, we have someone using a Dell with a Pentium 4 that is much faster than a Mac. Down here, we have a PC-hating Mac user on a Powermac G4. Over here, we got someone using a home-built system with an AMD chip, once again much faster than the Mac.
Holden: What is this supposed to prove?
Jobs: No, I'm serious. This is a serious exercise. It's like an SAT question. Which one is going to get to the hundred dollar bill first? The Intel user, the Mac user, or the AMD user?
Holden: The Mac user.
Jobs: Good. Why?
Holden: I don't know.
Jobs: Because the other three are figments of your fucking imagination!
Ignore Mac because there's zero software for a sec.
Can you explain to me how a platform that has the majority of major commercial applications ported for it (save maybe games) and can also compile a wealth of open source apps has "zero" software?
How many times can you watch the same cliched Keanu Reeves "sci-fi" adventure flick?
31 times and counting.
1. I believe you can add GPL on top of BSD license.
You can add whatever you want on top of code that has been BSD-licensed.
2. Apple used the BSD operating system , not the BSD license (or did they use both?).
Apple used the Mach microkernel and the FreeBSD userland with a little bit of NetBSD to make Darwin (the kernel for OS X). Darwin is considered a member of the BSD family. Much of the code they used to make Darwin was BSD licensed, but there were also some GNU tools like gcc. The Darwin kernel is released under the Apple Public Source License.
Tell me in what ways Apple has been beneficial to the opensource movement (not just Linux).
KHTML and Rendezvous are two biggies that come to mind, but that is not the point. I don't get the people who always whine, "Apple has taken foo and hasn't given anything back." Nowhere in the BSD license does it require Apple to do anything opensource, and in the GPL they are only required to released the code they used to augment GPL'd programs. Apple has done exactly what they are entitled to do with the code. You can't give something to someone and then cry even though they followed the terms you set forth.
You may get your SMP in OpenBSD soon. From what that article says, they are supposed to have a kernel up by now (although that was their estimate, so you can never be sure).
Microsoft using it's Windows monopoly to control browsers is bad.
Apple using it's desktop monopoly to control browsers is bad.
For the most part a good post, but how many times does it need to be said that APPLE DOES NOT HAVE A MONOPOLY. Last time I checked, Apple's marketshare was somewhere from 3-5%. Do they have a monopoly on operating systems? No, Microsoft does. Do they have a monopoly on computing hardware? No, they don't even make the CPU and a large majority of the rest of the system. If Apple wanted to bundle Safari, make it 100% removable from the OS (rather than making its removal as simple as dragging it to the trash as is the current state), and wanted to make it so no one could sell Macs if they didn't abide by these rules, they would have every right to. It would be a dumb decision, and I never see it happening, but they do have that option because APPLE IS NOT A MONOPOLIST
I've yet to read the law, but that would seem to indicate that you would be fscked if you used Kazaa and even traded just one mp3.
Heh, I can see Theisman's book now:
Idiot's Guide to Football
Page 1:
IF YOU SEE LAWRENCE TAYLOR, RUN AWAY. RUN AWAY FAST, OR ELSE YOU MIGHT NOT BE ABLE TO RUN ANYMORE.
Page 2:
I'm sorry, I'm a little emotional now, so I'll go back to being the annoying guy on Sunday Night Football.
You are right that this would be a tempting target for MS lawyers though. The question really is how generic the term "office" is. I don't think Windows compares as a term, given that Windows is such a trademark. Office really isn't a trademark in the same way. (As far as I know - I could be wrong)
Given that there is both StarOffice and OpenOffice, I *highly* doubt that M$ could ever attack Apple for releasing iOffice, AppleOffice, or whatever.
Everyone seems so suprised and worried about names like 'Apple'
Now, I can understand your skepticism about some of the other companies on the list, but Apple? Apple has shown time and time again that they are focused on not hindering the rights of consumers to do what they want with legal content. At the Grammys, Steve Jobs explicitly pointed this out when he said "If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own."
To date, about the only "anti-piracy" measure Apple has instituted is a little sticker on your iPod that says "Don't steal music." Apple has made it clear that you should not punish users who act legally because of the actions of those who break the law.
how did the propsed legislation even come to be without the support of any of these major companies?
When Jack Valenti opens his mouth, unfortunately a lot of people in government listen because the MPAA has a ton of money.
If this goes through, it will be a shame to see Blizzard's simultaneous Mac/PC releases become a thing of the past. After Steve Jobs all but declared war on MS at MWSF, no way in hell will Redmond put out Blizzard titles for OS X at the same time as Windows, if at all. This is a shame as Mac gamers are all too familiar with second rate status. Blizzard was one of the few companies (outside of a few porting houses and Mac publishers) who treat Mac gamers with some respect.