Two that I haven't tried yet. I'll try them out in a month or two when I have the time. Not that I'm likely to switch, just am a consumate OS junkie, want to at least try them all.
For enterprise market, I'm with you, for consumers, I'm totally not with you. I loath the complexity of linux. Not linux, or foss. I'm in love with the idea, but leave the using to those who like it.
btw, to all readers: If your reaction is "my god, you're simple", just assume you're dead-on and don't wear your keyboard out;-)
That's an idea, but not a good one. Ask donationware authors how many people donate, even for the most popular apps. Music is worth even less than software in most people's eyes.
I'm not a fan of DRM in general, and don't want to defend Apple in specific, apart from pointing out that today's solutions should be cross platform, mac, windows, linux.
But go back 20 years. Some of us would spend hours making tapes. It would be quite hard to mix and match. It required skills you had to learn and technical hurdles. And you had to be careful not to degrade your material too much. And it was illegal. So you would just give your tapes to your friends and that's it.
Now, you can do the same thing with digital music. It takes skill and there are technical hurdles to overcome, but you can do it, and you can still pass on the results to your friends. And today, without degradation, if you know how...
While I don't like all the restrictions, there is one thing I can't argue with: the right for musicians to be paid. I'll be the first to shout that the current model isn't musician-friendly, but that's more a redistribution issue than a real DRM failing. So what I'm really saying is: who has a better idea? One that's nicer for consumers and is better for musicians?
The only real problem I can see here is that your zen holds a bunch of WMA files, and instead of explaining that that's the one file format he/she (?) can't use, you wowed him/her (herma?) with your wild techie nollidj... You hero you!
Well, in all sincerity, I just don't agree on a lot of points, apart from the forget god part. But people don't need god to be just a bit irrational. I feel you would talk differently to me if I were an American. Or ahem, weren't so one-sided in your knowledge of politics and history... I know the US and the rest of the Americas quite well, actually, and know the difference between the countries, their politicians and their people. You're just a bit full of it, and my bet is that you know it. I love Europe, and all the countries and cultures I'm affiliated to, but I feel it's only natural to know the good and the bad, and acknowledge that. It makes for good conversation, instead of good propaganda.
" the less it means to the population, the bigger the impact of backdoor politics. The master of real politic worded it differently, but you get the gist. It's what your country - among others - is built on."
I'd like to make this less hostile. It's what most democratic countries use and abuse to undermine themselves. The US is not special in that regard, but since most US citizens are unconcerned about the rest of the world, we the world minus the US get to see the results up front, while you generally don't. For Americans with relatives and friends abroad who get a taste of this, it can be an ugly experience.
I wouldn't call the USA the best example of a democracy. If you define democracy by "you get to vote", then India is number one. If it means "everybody is equally represented", then go look at Sweden or about 50 other countries. The US has virtually no representation for about 50% of its population. Which is fine by me, I don't live there.
And looking from the outside in, I'd like to ask you not to confuse imperialism with freedom. Freedom can mean a number of things. In my book it doesn't mean spying on your partner's markets and industrial secrets, or using your influence in such a way that competition and free market are turned into a farce.
On topic, if your senate is trying to reform the Internet, then it's time to say "this is bigger than the US". Because for the majority of Americans, it's a non-issue. Which means that your famous lobbying machinery has free reign. And we all know where that kind of freedom leads to. One of Kissinger's rules: the less it means to the population, the bigger the impact of backdoor politics. The master of real politic worded it differently, but you get the gist. It's what your country - among others - is built on. I hate it when it happens in my country, but at least our politicians have to be on their toes most of the time on most issues.
International bodies that aren't hampered by the rules of nations generally function very well. Take for instance the Red Cross.
If you refer to the UN, world bank or alike, you have to realize that first member states make ridiculous rules and then lament the fact that the body can't work when following those rules or that it doesn't follow "its own" rules when practicality asks for a bit of rule bending.
Look at vetoes in the UN security council for instance and you have to admit that it won't ever function as intended. Look at all those projects that are supposed to get their own funding and you just know that 60% of time is spent finding funds instead of working towards stated goals.
And if the majority of your funds come from country X, well, then you know who'll write the rule-book on that project.
If funding depends on playing by one nation's rules, then you know you won't ever have a truly international body. This last remark explains the very difficult relationship between the US and the UN. Just about every couple of years the US holds the UN hostage over its funding. It's the only country that does that. By now the EU and its member-states combined are I think its biggest donor, and in relative terms, countries like Holland, Canada, Norway and Sweden are HUGE donors, but the US still holds a disproportionately large influence over the UN, because of these tactics. Spying on the secretary general doesn't help either, I think...
And so on and so forth. I'd say, given the rules, it's remarkable how well some of those organizations functions.
It is my experience that people will protest being called pirates even when they are - and in fact have not bought a single program, OS upgrade, video or song in years. The only thing the "average users" I know still buy... are games. For the manual I suppose, or bragging rights, or the fact they don't want to get the copy protection to get in the way of their pent up fragging desires:-)
I as a mac user know more about vista - including its existence - than all my pc using friends together. The marketing machine isn't out yet, most people don't know about vista until they walk into a shop and a salesperson tells them about it.
You think geeks are the only ones suffering from this? Seriously, women are a distraction, and to make matters worse, men are a distraction too, not only to other men, but to women as well. Knowing this, I imagine you will even be more distracted by women, knowing that maybe she finds you distracting, pondering the wonderful new possibilities of this possible mutual distraction, etc etc etc
You'll just have to find your own way to cope with this infinitive loop.
BTW this "problem" isn't confined to 7,5 to 10 women (or men). It's amazing what a properly trained man's/woman's brain will ignore just to be distracted. The good news is that sex, and thinking about sex can be a very powerful motivator for wonderful things. Like kids, or failing that, slightly sticky hands, or if you're really lucky, slightly sticky women, or men of course, or even intellectual feats to dazzle your distracting co-worker, better discussions, nice work and after work activities - not necessarily of the sticky kind - etc etc etc.
Good lesson in "objective reporting". The anglo-saxon tradition is: bring the news as objectively as possible. Deconstructed this means: don't tell people your own (boss') opinion, lead them to it by suggestion, and weighing and omitting facts in order to boost own viewpoint.
Which imo is sick.
Contrast with the subjective and unprofessional french tradition of being an opiniated bastard. State the facts and then tell your readers exactly what you think of it and why. Not only do you get the facts (omission or misdirection is not honorable) but man, can those french write!
Of course, saying this on/. is an open invitation to french-bashing, so ladies and gentlemen, load your trolls!
Taste, colours, politics, religion... Very ugly, but also very consistent, clear and very very/. So I have to admit it's a good design, given the parameters set by the jury...
Well, um, once the space elevator is in place, why not haul up the replacement cable with the... (tadadadummmmm, finish this sentence and make a nice drawing)
Well, lots of people don't even need computers for managing their photo's. There's no definite answer to your question.
But here's my experience. I use iPhoto to "manage" (very ugly word for the funfactor involved) about 10.000 pictures from the last six years.
I import them by way of connecting the camera to my computer. It's literally a one button process. The pictures are kept in filmrolls (directories with cute filmroll icon and useful metadata), and I can then do a number of things to the pictures, like creating albums.
An album is like a virtual directory. I can manipulate pictures inside an album, throw them out even without ever altering the original picture.
Then I can do things with my albums, like create slide shows, order prints, export them(e.g. to have them printed by someone else than kodak), send them by mail (with neat time and effort saving reduction) etc etc etc.
This all sounds like an apple fanboy convert session.
But while I'm hooked on iPhoto, I actually divert my PC-brethren to Picasa or the Adobe (non free) equivalent which does pretty much the same things.
So forget about this "managing" word, it's ugly. It's about cataloguing your pictures and then doing stuff with them in an environment that is just that bit more adapted to typical picture manipulation (and related) tasks than your desktop and directories.
Hoping this clears it up.
"managing"... really takes the fun out of the concept...
How about this: put a good GUI on an Open Source program, provide a good manual and sell installation/update/upgrade services? While real programmers know GUI's and manuals are for sissies, so you must be a fraud to do this, real GUI guys know it's a lot of work and in a lot of ways mean the difference between sale or ridicule...
Disclaimer: I am actually doing this with moderate success. It's still early days, can't say if it's viable.
That's just a silly comment. If you do a blog, you "whore" yourself for whatever takes your fancy. So why on earth would a letter from Apple legal be a reason to shut up and be, what, humble?
I thought the whole issue very informative. I'll want the salesperson to show the innards of my macbook before I buy so that I won't have to visit whatever blog afterwards in order to get this kind of unbelievable issues fixed myself.
Given all that effort, the guy deserves the attention, let him enjoy it while it lasts.
Why don't you call it "quality conscious"? Your model would still work. It's easily proven that the mass market isn't overly concerned with quality, that "good enough" wins each and every day.
By saying cheap skate you really invalidate your argument - and are intellectually dishonest and impolite at the same time.
lossy is "good enough". And Jobs et all have found the sweet spot price wise. That doesn't mean there is anything good about it. Indeed, lowering the price would imo have a much larger impact on sales than upping the quality. Me, I'm in the quality conscious group, and will buy quality.
um, good question. Windows and pre-os x stuff I gather. Maybe also proof of concept stuff now, although I have doodahs for that as well (those browser alert thingies). I'm lazy, but you can always check Sophos' website, they have pages and pages on their products and its virus definitions.
Slashdot Mirror
Two that I haven't tried yet. I'll try them out in a month or two when I have the time.
Not that I'm likely to switch, just am a consumate OS junkie, want to at least try them all.
For enterprise market, I'm with you, for consumers, I'm totally not with you. I loath the complexity of linux. Not linux, or foss. I'm in love with the idea, but leave the using to those who like it.
;-)
btw, to all readers: If your reaction is "my god, you're simple", just assume you're dead-on and don't wear your keyboard out
That's an idea, but not a good one.
Ask donationware authors how many people donate, even for the most popular apps. Music is worth even less than software in most people's eyes.
I'm not a fan of DRM in general, and don't want to defend Apple in specific, apart from pointing out that today's solutions should be cross platform, mac, windows, linux.
But go back 20 years.
Some of us would spend hours making tapes. It would be quite hard to mix and match. It required skills you had to learn and technical hurdles. And you had to be careful not to degrade your material too much.
And it was illegal. So you would just give your tapes to your friends and that's it.
Now, you can do the same thing with digital music. It takes skill and there are technical hurdles to overcome, but you can do it, and you can still pass on the results to your friends. And today, without degradation, if you know how...
While I don't like all the restrictions, there is one thing I can't argue with: the right for musicians to be paid. I'll be the first to shout that the current model isn't musician-friendly, but that's more a redistribution issue than a real DRM failing.
So what I'm really saying is: who has a better idea? One that's nicer for consumers and is better for musicians?
The only real problem I can see here is that your zen holds a bunch of WMA files, and instead of explaining that that's the one file format he/she (?) can't use, you wowed him/her (herma?) with your wild techie nollidj...
You hero you!
Well, in all sincerity, I just don't agree on a lot of points, apart from the forget god part. But people don't need god to be just a bit irrational. I feel you would talk differently to me if I were an American. Or ahem, weren't so one-sided in your knowledge of politics and history...
I know the US and the rest of the Americas quite well, actually, and know the difference between the countries, their politicians and their people. You're just a bit full of it, and my bet is that you know it. I love Europe, and all the countries and cultures I'm affiliated to, but I feel it's only natural to know the good and the bad, and acknowledge that. It makes for good conversation, instead of good propaganda.
Which is pretty funny, unless you have seen and felt the results of US foreign policy first hand.
Cheers
" the less it means to the population, the bigger the impact of backdoor politics. The master of real politic worded it differently, but you get the gist. It's what your country - among others - is built on."
I'd like to make this less hostile. It's what most democratic countries use and abuse to undermine themselves. The US is not special in that regard, but since most US citizens are unconcerned about the rest of the world, we the world minus the US get to see the results up front, while you generally don't. For Americans with relatives and friends abroad who get a taste of this, it can be an ugly experience.
I wouldn't call the USA the best example of a democracy. If you define democracy by "you get to vote", then India is number one. If it means "everybody is equally represented", then go look at Sweden or about 50 other countries. The US has virtually no representation for about 50% of its population. Which is fine by me, I don't live there.
And looking from the outside in, I'd like to ask you not to confuse imperialism with freedom. Freedom can mean a number of things. In my book it doesn't mean spying on your partner's markets and industrial secrets, or using your influence in such a way that competition and free market are turned into a farce.
On topic, if your senate is trying to reform the Internet, then it's time to say "this is bigger than the US". Because for the majority of Americans, it's a non-issue. Which means that your famous lobbying machinery has free reign. And we all know where that kind of freedom leads to. One of Kissinger's rules: the less it means to the population, the bigger the impact of backdoor politics. The master of real politic worded it differently, but you get the gist. It's what your country - among others - is built on. I hate it when it happens in my country, but at least our politicians have to be on their toes most of the time on most issues.
This said, each to his own.
International bodies that aren't hampered by the rules of nations generally function very well. Take for instance the Red Cross.
If you refer to the UN, world bank or alike, you have to realize that first member states make ridiculous rules and then lament the fact that the body can't work when following those rules or that it doesn't follow "its own" rules when practicality asks for a bit of rule bending.
Look at vetoes in the UN security council for instance and you have to admit that it won't ever function as intended. Look at all those projects that are supposed to get their own funding and you just know that 60% of time is spent finding funds instead of working towards stated goals.
And if the majority of your funds come from country X, well, then you know who'll write the rule-book on that project.
If funding depends on playing by one nation's rules, then you know you won't ever have a truly international body. This last remark explains the very difficult relationship between the US and the UN. Just about every couple of years the US holds the UN hostage over its funding. It's the only country that does that. By now the EU and its member-states combined are I think its biggest donor, and in relative terms, countries like Holland, Canada, Norway and Sweden are HUGE donors, but the US still holds a disproportionately large influence over the UN, because of these tactics. Spying on the secretary general doesn't help either, I think...
And so on and so forth.
I'd say, given the rules, it's remarkable how well some of those organizations functions.
It is my experience that people will protest being called pirates even when they are - and in fact have not bought a single program, OS upgrade, video or song in years. The only thing the "average users" I know still buy... are games. For the manual I suppose, or bragging rights, or the fact they don't want to get the copy protection to get in the way of their pent up fragging desires :-)
Ah, well.
I as a mac user know more about vista - including its existence - than all my pc using friends together. The marketing machine isn't out yet, most people don't know about vista until they walk into a shop and a salesperson tells them about it.
Ahhh, perhaps the only real contribution to this thread :-)
You think geeks are the only ones suffering from this?
Seriously, women are a distraction, and to make matters worse, men are a distraction too, not only to other men, but to women as well.
Knowing this, I imagine you will even be more distracted by women, knowing that maybe she finds you distracting, pondering the wonderful new possibilities of this possible mutual distraction, etc etc etc
You'll just have to find your own way to cope with this infinitive loop.
BTW this "problem" isn't confined to 7,5 to 10 women (or men). It's amazing what a properly trained man's/woman's brain will ignore just to be distracted. The good news is that sex, and thinking about sex can be a very powerful motivator for wonderful things. Like kids, or failing that, slightly sticky hands, or if you're really lucky, slightly sticky women, or men of course, or even intellectual feats to dazzle your distracting co-worker, better discussions, nice work and after work activities - not necessarily of the sticky kind - etc etc etc.
I have a mac. I have an iPod. I drive a volvo. Man, do they have me pegged.
Good lesson in "objective reporting". The anglo-saxon tradition is: bring the news as objectively as possible. Deconstructed this means: don't tell people your own (boss') opinion, lead them to it by suggestion, and weighing and omitting facts in order to boost own viewpoint.
/. is an open invitation to french-bashing, so ladies and gentlemen, load your trolls!
Which imo is sick.
Contrast with the subjective and unprofessional french tradition of being an opiniated bastard. State the facts and then tell your readers exactly what you think of it and why. Not only do you get the facts (omission or misdirection is not honorable) but man, can those french write!
Of course, saying this on
Cheers
Taste, colours, politics, religion... Very ugly, but also very consistent, clear and very very /.
So I have to admit it's a good design, given the parameters set by the jury...
Congrats to winner and runner up! Big challenge.
Well, um, once the space elevator is in place, why not haul up the replacement cable with the ... (tadadadummmmm, finish this sentence and make a nice drawing)
Seriously, don't take /. serious.
Well, lots of people don't even need computers for managing their photo's. There's no definite answer to your question.
But here's my experience. I use iPhoto to "manage" (very ugly word for the funfactor involved) about 10.000 pictures from the last six years.
I import them by way of connecting the camera to my computer. It's literally a one button process. The pictures are kept in filmrolls (directories with cute filmroll icon and useful metadata), and I can then do a number of things to the pictures, like creating albums.
An album is like a virtual directory. I can manipulate pictures inside an album, throw them out even without ever altering the original picture.
Then I can do things with my albums, like create slide shows, order prints, export them(e.g. to have them printed by someone else than kodak), send them by mail (with neat time and effort saving reduction) etc etc etc.
This all sounds like an apple fanboy convert session.
But while I'm hooked on iPhoto, I actually divert my PC-brethren to Picasa or the Adobe (non free) equivalent which does pretty much the same things.
So forget about this "managing" word, it's ugly. It's about cataloguing your pictures and then doing stuff with them in an environment that is just that bit more adapted to typical picture manipulation (and related) tasks than your desktop and directories.
Hoping this clears it up.
"managing"... really takes the fun out of the concept...
How about this: put a good GUI on an Open Source program, provide a good manual and sell installation/update/upgrade services?
While real programmers know GUI's and manuals are for sissies, so you must be a fraud to do this, real GUI guys know it's a lot of work and in a lot of ways mean the difference between sale or ridicule...
Disclaimer: I am actually doing this with moderate success. It's still early days, can't say if it's viable.
mmm, seems to me Windows is catching up on Linux! Audio problems, wifi problems, laptop issues? Linux beware!!!!!
That's just a silly comment. If you do a blog, you "whore" yourself for whatever takes your fancy. So why on earth would a letter from Apple legal be a reason to shut up and be, what, humble?
I thought the whole issue very informative. I'll want the salesperson to show the innards of my macbook before I buy so that I won't have to visit whatever blog afterwards in order to get this kind of unbelievable issues fixed myself.
Given all that effort, the guy deserves the attention, let him enjoy it while it lasts.
Why don't you call it "quality conscious"? Your model would still work. It's easily proven that the mass market isn't overly concerned with quality, that "good enough" wins each and every day.
By saying cheap skate you really invalidate your argument - and are intellectually dishonest and impolite at the same time.
lossy is "good enough". And Jobs et all have found the sweet spot price wise. That doesn't mean there is anything good about it. Indeed, lowering the price would imo have a much larger impact on sales than upping the quality. Me, I'm in the quality conscious group, and will buy quality.
um, good question. Windows and pre-os x stuff I gather. Maybe also proof of concept stuff now, although I have doodahs for that as well (those browser alert thingies). I'm lazy, but you can always check Sophos' website, they have pages and pages on their products and its virus definitions.