Has anyone noticed how screwed-up those graphs are, especially the first one? It says the PC took 54 seconds and that the Mac took 1 minute and 25 seconds. If you measure them both in seconds, then that is 54 seconds versus 85 seconds, but the Mac bar on the graph is more than twice as long as the PC bar.
The PC bar lines up with.54 according to the lower index. Is this index supposed to represent seconds or minutes? If it's seconds, as suggested by the fact that the PC bar lines up with.54, then why is there a marker at 0.9? And more importantly, why does the Mac bar line up with 1.25, and not.85?
Tricky! (But not as tricky as the incredibly misleading title on this SlashDot posting.)
I'd settle for ubiquitous unmetered wireless network access.
We can already do that. Just hook up a wireless router to your cable modem. I would much prefer "metered" network access, so that I only pay for what I use, instead of sharing the costs of the spammers and mp3 downloaders.
At first, I was annoyed that Safari opened a new window every time I clicked on a link in Mail. After a while, however, I started to realize that this was much more in line with the Macintosh Way.
How many times have you done this? You want to follow a link in an email, but you know that this will replace whatever is currently in your browser window, so you: 1. Switch back to the browser. 2. Open a new window. 3. Switch back to the email client. 4. Click the link.
I personally do that all the time, and ignored how annoying it is because I got used to it. With Safari, it works like this: 1. Click the link.
Since a new window opens, I don't lose whatever other window I had open.
Now, about tabbed browsers. In general, I hate tabbed interfaces for the following reasons: 1. Too much screen real estate. I have a 17" wide-screen, but I STILL don't want to waste it. 2. Tabs don't scale well. Beyond the discussion in the article, regarding where new tabs should appear, what happens when there are too many tabs for one row? Multiple row tabs take up even more screen real estate, and present a perplexing interface, since the rows must rearrange themselves as tabs are added and deleted. (The only alternative is horizontal scrolling of the tabs -- hideous!)Imagine twenty tabs called "Slashdot..." Which one did you want to pick? Your only choice will be to click at random, and so it's no better than Apple-~ to cycle through all open windows.
All my other Mac applications open a window for every document, so why wouldn't Safari?
Ideally, someone should think of a better way to do this. How about a history view which resembles iPhoto's gallery? Page snapshots could be scaled up or down, sorted by date visited and categorized by url. At smaller sizes, the snapshots could turn into generic icons, or use the.ICO file from the site.
Tabs are a UI workaround for Microsoft's horrible windows within windows design. They don't need to be applied to Mac OS X.
Of course, for the people who like Tabs, I don't see any reason why it couldn't be an option -- as long as it's turned off by default. However, this is also not the Macintosh Way of doing things. It's much better to figure out the right/best way to do it, and stick to it.
I gave up reading that article after the fourth page. Each page has only two paragraphs of text. How many pages full of flashing banner advertisements do they expect people to ignore while trying to read an article?
'and no, I'm not one of those Ayn Rand-toting uber capitalists'
I am. And Canadian too. The anti-MacDonalds Sims article is one of the goofiest things I've ever read. If you don't like MacDonalds, then don't eat there. End of story.
Oh please! If anything, Canadians are grossly over-represented in the U.S. media!
I seem to remember a certain John Roberts, back when he was a long-hair who went by J.D. Roberts, spinning videos for City-TV. Now he's all: "Mister President, blah blah blah."
Never mind Mike Myers, Jim Carey, Avril Lavigne, Michael J. Fox, Lorne Michaels, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Wayne Newton, Skinny Puppy, Rush, Sum 41, Pamela Anderson, etc. etc.
If enough people liked Shift, it would still be around today. Save your sucking and whining for your mommy.
There goes my plan for shitf.com
on
Shift Calls it Quits
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I have been a Shift subscriber for around 8 years -- almost since the very beginning. I have also hated the magazine all along. Why keep renewing and reading it? I guess the attraction was similar to other people's fascination with camp. I was continually fascinated by how bad the magazine was, and how adored it was by the left.
If anyone has a pile of Shift magazines, flip through them and find how many times they complained about the fact that the Atari 2600 version of PacMan sucked. Seriously -- it's been covered more than once. The writing seemed to be stuck in some kind of time-loop, like they were always looking back to the 1980s from around 1994. And smug? Don't get me started.
Anyway, I often mused about creating a parody publication called "Shitf", but now I guess I'll just let it go.
I recently re-watched War Games, and agree that it is entirely realistic. His war dialer took days to run, he gets a password from the desk of a school secretary, and his computer talks using an external hardware device! (Those things were real -- we had to do a project using one in my High School circa 1987.)
Here's something with which to date yourself: He short-circuits the phone using a pull-tab off of a can of pop! Do you remember those? They were everywhere; most noticeably at the beach. That's littering old-school!
"One of the things the paper brings out is there is a sort of online poverty you can be born into."
Nice 6 digit number on you.
Article Full of Overblown Rhetoric
on
Forget Moore's Law?
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
This article is full of overblown rhetoric. It goofily applies Moore's Law to too many other things, like Dot-coms. Note that at no point in the article is Moore's Law clearly stated -- it would spoil too many of the article's conclusions.
That said, I remember the first time I noticed that technology was 'good enough,' and didn't need to double ever again: with the introduction of CDs, and later, CD-quality sound cards. Most people are not physically capable of hearing improvements if the sampling rate of CDs is increased, so we don't need to bother. Certainly, people tried, and the home theatre style multi-channel stuff is an improvement over plain stereo CDs, but it is an insignificant improvement when compared to CDs over older mono formats. Similarily, the latest SoundBlaster cards represent an insignificant improvement over the early beeps of computers and video games. (Dogs and dolphins might wish that audio reproduction was improved, but they don't have credit cards.)
Back in the early 80s, when most bulletin board access was by 300 baud modem, paging of long messages was optional, since most people can read that fast. Of course, we need faster modems for longer files and applications, but as soon as say, HD-quality video and sound can be streamed at real-time speeds, then bandwidth will be 'enough.'
This is just about the saddest thing I have ever read about Canada.
I live in Canada, and I thank you for your kind empathy.
There have been hundreds of similar publication bans in Canada, ever since the original Bernardo/Homolka ban. Many of the bans are even more restrictive than the original. A while back the National Post had an article to the effect "There is an ongoing trial in British Columbia, and we aren't even allowed to say what the charge is. In fact, we have already stepped beyond the proscribed ban." Maybe the article was referring to Pickton, I don't know.
We have a seriously corrupt government, placated by a grossly complacent populace. It's been a while since Canada was the "True North, Strong and Free."
I can only be thankful that I live in the land of Freedom to the south.
Be thankful -- and vigilant!
Here are a few more tidbits about Canada -- perhaps you will find them even sadder:
There are currently over a dozen farmers who have done jail time for the same crime: selling wheat without going through their provincial wheat board.
The president of the NCC is facing jail time for running an ad that is critical of the government. Even though the Supreme Court of Alberta has ruled the law unconstitutional, the government is continuing with the prosecution.
If any Canadian liberals/socialists on SlashDot start bleating about "at least we're not like Americans," tell them to stick it up their ass.
I love the irony of two slashdot articles in a row, where one talks about Apple's Rendezvous, and the next talks about Microsoft's new 'Spot' wristwatch thingy. Apple's product is useful, open-sourced, and can provide benefits beyond Mac owners, since devices can communicate without a Mac or any Apple products at all. Contrast this with the Microsoft announcement: a clunky, expensive watch that will cost at least $100 year in service fees.
But there is something more going on here. Apple is returning to its roots, and to computing's roots, by giving away software in order to sell hardware. Microsoft sees the "free software" writing on the wall, and is desperately trying to sell hardware and services. Who's going to win?
I love the irony of two slashdot articles in a row, where one talks about Apple's Rendezvous, and the next talks about Microsoft's new 'Spot' wristwatch thingy. Apple's product is useful, open-sourced, and can provide benefits beyond Mac owners, since devices can communicate without a Mac or any Apple products at all. Contrast this with the Microsoft announcement: a clunky, expensive watch that will cost at least $100 year in service fees.
But there is something more going on here. Apple is returning to its roots, and to computing's roots, by giving away software in order to sell hardware. Microsoft sees the "free software" writing on the wall, and is desperately trying to sell hardware and services. Who's going to win?
I earned a degree in English before earning one in Computer Science. I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments in this article. I was often bewildered that my CS professors always used 'bad' code examples in lectures, to show us what NOT to do, but it wasn't until reading this article that I fully grasped the contrast with studying literature, where you only see the best examples.
Coders should remember that there are two interfaces to every project: the one that the end-user sees, and the one that the code-maintainer sees. This second one, in many cases, is more important to get right the first time, since a good programmer interface will allow modifications to improve the user interface.
On the death of video games...
on
Electronic Life
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I can understand why Crichton predicted that video games were a fad. Around that time, Intel had lost pots of money on Intellivision, Coleco was on its way to going broke because of Colecovision, (and was only saved, incidentally, by the later success of Cabbage Patch dolls,) and Atari had started its long slide into the ground. Many arcades started to move the video games to the back and pinball machines to the front. Nintendo and Sega weren't on the radar yet, so it really seemed to a lot of people like video games were fading away. And as to PCs, it would be years before they had arcade-quality games which surpassed the Atari and Commodore lines of personal computers. PCs didn't typically have colour screens until the late 80s.
I'm in Canada, and do most of my banking through either ING Direct and President's Choice Financial. They charge no monthly fees and no transaction fees.
I believe that the U.S. branch of ING Direct is very similar.
You can still do some stuff without paying fees, but it takes a bit of effort.
Hey! This is the second time that I've seen someone complaining about a post being plagiarized. Has someone plagiarized your complaint? What's the world coming to?!?!
Exactly my point. In a free market, there will always be someone willing to provide such services. If people are unable to do so, then that is the case because EU laws/tarrifs/regulations/etc. are the problem. Maybe the EU should fine themselves.
Here's the tough part: If Nintendo, operating in a free market, can manage to sell to some customers at a higher cost than others, then more power to them.
It seems like it has more to do with the open trade policies within the EU than it does with Nintendo.
You're absolutely right. Unfortunately, it has lately become fashionable to hate corporations. Personally, I find it mind-boggling that someone can hate a corporation but NOT hate government for the same reasons. My government takes 55% of my income EVERY year. Compared to that, Nintendo isn't even a minor concern.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course, the real question is what will this thing become known as? The Canadian Lense? Or The Freedom Lense?
Has anyone noticed how screwed-up those graphs are, especially the first one? It says the PC took 54 seconds and that the Mac took 1 minute and 25 seconds. If you measure them both in seconds, then that is 54 seconds versus 85 seconds, but the Mac bar on the graph is more than twice as long as the PC bar.
.54 according to the lower index. Is this index supposed to represent seconds or minutes? If it's seconds, as suggested by the fact that the PC bar lines up with .54, then why is there a marker at 0.9? And more importantly, why does the Mac bar line up with 1.25, and not .85?
The PC bar lines up with
Tricky! (But not as tricky as the incredibly misleading title on this SlashDot posting.)
Hey Dvorak, will that happen before or after Apple goes broke?
I'd settle for ubiquitous unmetered wireless network access.
We can already do that. Just hook up a wireless router to your cable modem. I would much prefer "metered" network access, so that I only pay for what I use, instead of sharing the costs of the spammers and mp3 downloaders.
At first, I was annoyed that Safari opened a new window every time I clicked on a link in Mail. After a while, however, I started to realize that this was much more in line with the Macintosh Way.
.ICO file from the site.
How many times have you done this? You want to follow a link in an email, but you know that this will replace whatever is currently in your browser window, so you:
1. Switch back to the browser.
2. Open a new window.
3. Switch back to the email client.
4. Click the link.
I personally do that all the time, and ignored how annoying it is because I got used to it. With Safari, it works like this:
1. Click the link.
Since a new window opens, I don't lose whatever other window I had open.
Now, about tabbed browsers. In general, I hate tabbed interfaces for the following reasons:
1. Too much screen real estate. I have a 17" wide-screen, but I STILL don't want to waste it.
2. Tabs don't scale well. Beyond the discussion in the article, regarding where new tabs should appear, what happens when there are too many tabs for one row? Multiple row tabs take up even more screen real estate, and present a perplexing interface, since the rows must rearrange themselves as tabs are added and deleted. (The only alternative is horizontal scrolling of the tabs -- hideous!)Imagine twenty tabs called "Slashdot..." Which one did you want to pick? Your only choice will be to click at random, and so it's no better than Apple-~ to cycle through all open windows.
All my other Mac applications open a window for every document, so why wouldn't Safari?
Ideally, someone should think of a better way to do this. How about a history view which resembles iPhoto's gallery? Page snapshots could be scaled up or down, sorted by date visited and categorized by url. At smaller sizes, the snapshots could turn into generic icons, or use the
Tabs are a UI workaround for Microsoft's horrible windows within windows design. They don't need to be applied to Mac OS X.
Of course, for the people who like Tabs, I don't see any reason why it couldn't be an option -- as long as it's turned off by default. However, this is also not the Macintosh Way of doing things. It's much better to figure out the right/best way to do it, and stick to it.
I gave up reading that article after the fourth page. Each page has only two paragraphs of text. How many pages full of flashing banner advertisements do they expect people to ignore while trying to read an article?
'and no, I'm not one of those Ayn Rand-toting uber capitalists'
I am. And Canadian too. The anti-MacDonalds Sims article is one of the goofiest things I've ever read. If you don't like MacDonalds, then don't eat there. End of story.
Oh please! If anything, Canadians are grossly over-represented in the U.S. media!
I seem to remember a certain John Roberts, back when he was a long-hair who went by J.D. Roberts, spinning videos for City-TV. Now he's all: "Mister President, blah blah blah."
Never mind Mike Myers, Jim Carey, Avril Lavigne, Michael J. Fox, Lorne Michaels, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Wayne Newton, Skinny Puppy, Rush, Sum 41, Pamela Anderson, etc. etc.
If enough people liked Shift, it would still be around today. Save your sucking and whining for your mommy.
I have been a Shift subscriber for around 8 years -- almost since the very beginning. I have also hated the magazine all along. Why keep renewing and reading it? I guess the attraction was similar to other people's fascination with camp. I was continually fascinated by how bad the magazine was, and how adored it was by the left.
If anyone has a pile of Shift magazines, flip through them and find how many times they complained about the fact that the Atari 2600 version of PacMan sucked. Seriously -- it's been covered more than once. The writing seemed to be stuck in some kind of time-loop, like they were always looking back to the 1980s from around 1994. And smug? Don't get me started.
Anyway, I often mused about creating a parody publication called "Shitf", but now I guess I'll just let it go.
I recently re-watched War Games, and agree that it is entirely realistic. His war dialer took days to run, he gets a password from the desk of a school secretary, and his computer talks using an external hardware device! (Those things were real -- we had to do a project using one in my High School circa 1987.)
Here's something with which to date yourself: He short-circuits the phone using a pull-tab off of a can of pop! Do you remember those? They were everywhere; most noticeably at the beach. That's littering old-school!
"One of the things the paper brings out is there is a sort of online poverty you can be born into."
Nice 6 digit number on you.
This article is full of overblown rhetoric. It goofily applies Moore's Law to too many other things, like Dot-coms. Note that at no point in the article is Moore's Law clearly stated -- it would spoil too many of the article's conclusions.
That said, I remember the first time I noticed that technology was 'good enough,' and didn't need to double ever again: with the introduction of CDs, and later, CD-quality sound cards. Most people are not physically capable of hearing improvements if the sampling rate of CDs is increased, so we don't need to bother. Certainly, people tried, and the home theatre style multi-channel stuff is an improvement over plain stereo CDs, but it is an insignificant improvement when compared to CDs over older mono formats. Similarily, the latest SoundBlaster cards represent an insignificant improvement over the early beeps of computers and video games. (Dogs and dolphins might wish that audio reproduction was improved, but they don't have credit cards.)
Back in the early 80s, when most bulletin board access was by 300 baud modem, paging of long messages was optional, since most people can read that fast. Of course, we need faster modems for longer files and applications, but as soon as say, HD-quality video and sound can be streamed at real-time speeds, then bandwidth will be 'enough.'
The Daily Show, Joe Millionaire, The Simpsons, The Man Show...
I think that guy figured out how to hook up to MY PVR!
Why don't you just email the file to yourself?
Thanks for sharing!
This is just about the saddest thing I have ever read about Canada.
I live in Canada, and I thank you for your kind empathy.
There have been hundreds of similar publication bans in Canada, ever since the original Bernardo/Homolka ban. Many of the bans are even more restrictive than the original. A while back the National Post had an article to the effect "There is an ongoing trial in British Columbia, and we aren't even allowed to say what the charge is. In fact, we have already stepped beyond the proscribed ban." Maybe the article was referring to Pickton, I don't know.
We have a seriously corrupt government, placated by a grossly complacent populace. It's been a while since Canada was the "True North, Strong and Free."
I can only be thankful that I live in the land of Freedom to the south.
Be thankful -- and vigilant!
Here are a few more tidbits about Canada -- perhaps you will find them even sadder:
There are currently over a dozen farmers who have done jail time for the same crime: selling wheat without going through their provincial wheat board.
The president of the NCC is facing jail time for running an ad that is critical of the government. Even though the Supreme Court of Alberta has ruled the law unconstitutional, the government is continuing with the prosecution.
If any Canadian liberals/socialists on SlashDot start bleating about "at least we're not like Americans," tell them to stick it up their ass.
I love the irony of two slashdot articles in a row, where one talks about Apple's Rendezvous, and the next talks about Microsoft's new 'Spot' wristwatch thingy. Apple's product is useful, open-sourced, and can provide benefits beyond Mac owners, since devices can communicate without a Mac or any Apple products at all. Contrast this with the Microsoft announcement: a clunky, expensive watch that will cost at least $100 year in service fees.
Apple Press Release
Microsoft Watch Article
But there is something more going on here. Apple is returning to its roots, and to computing's roots, by giving away software in order to sell hardware. Microsoft sees the "free software" writing on the wall, and is desperately trying to sell hardware and services. Who's going to win?
I love the irony of two slashdot articles in a row, where one talks about Apple's Rendezvous, and the next talks about Microsoft's new 'Spot' wristwatch thingy. Apple's product is useful, open-sourced, and can provide benefits beyond Mac owners, since devices can communicate without a Mac or any Apple products at all. Contrast this with the Microsoft announcement: a clunky, expensive watch that will cost at least $100 year in service fees.
Apple Press Release
Microsoft Watch Article
But there is something more going on here. Apple is returning to its roots, and to computing's roots, by giving away software in order to sell hardware. Microsoft sees the "free software" writing on the wall, and is desperately trying to sell hardware and services. Who's going to win?
I earned a degree in English before earning one in Computer Science. I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiments in this article. I was often bewildered that my CS professors always used 'bad' code examples in lectures, to show us what NOT to do, but it wasn't until reading this article that I fully grasped the contrast with studying literature, where you only see the best examples.
Coders should remember that there are two interfaces to every project: the one that the end-user sees, and the one that the code-maintainer sees. This second one, in many cases, is more important to get right the first time, since a good programmer interface will allow modifications to improve the user interface.
How does Struts compare to Apple's WebObjects?
I can understand why Crichton predicted that video games were a fad. Around that time, Intel had lost pots of money on Intellivision, Coleco was on its way to going broke because of Colecovision, (and was only saved, incidentally, by the later success of Cabbage Patch dolls,) and Atari had started its long slide into the ground. Many arcades started to move the video games to the back and pinball machines to the front. Nintendo and Sega weren't on the radar yet, so it really seemed to a lot of people like video games were fading away. And as to PCs, it would be years before they had arcade-quality games which surpassed the Atari and Commodore lines of personal computers. PCs didn't typically have colour screens until the late 80s.
I'm in Canada, and do most of my banking through either ING Direct and President's Choice Financial. They charge no monthly fees and no transaction fees.
I believe that the U.S. branch of ING Direct is very similar.
You can still do some stuff without paying fees, but it takes a bit of effort.
Hey! This is the second time that I've seen someone complaining about a post being plagiarized. Has someone plagiarized your complaint? What's the world coming to?!?!
That's the entire point of the case.
Exactly my point. In a free market, there will always be someone willing to provide such services. If people are unable to do so, then that is the case because EU laws/tarrifs/regulations/etc. are the problem. Maybe the EU should fine themselves.
Here's the tough part: If Nintendo, operating in a free market, can manage to sell to some customers at a higher cost than others, then more power to them.
It seems like it has more to do with the open trade policies within the EU than it does with Nintendo.
You're absolutely right. Unfortunately, it has lately become fashionable to hate corporations. Personally, I find it mind-boggling that someone can hate a corporation but NOT hate government for the same reasons. My government takes 55% of my income EVERY year. Compared to that, Nintendo isn't even a minor concern.