Better stop and think when shopping then. About 60% of what you buy is assembled or made in China.
Since it's their News site Google's talking about, I don't really care that much one way or the other.
It would be an exercise in stupidity to have a full page with broken links.
Let them give a page with news that's accessible and chances are they'll get a better quality news that way instead of hunting which links are broken and which not.
The way words like "liberal" and "left-wing" are used here makes my hair stand up straight.
I think most Americans haven't a beginning of a clue how it is the rest of the world don't like them anymore.
You should really try to start getting interested in the rest of the world - but for once not while bombing the hell out of it.
Excuse the general slant in the direction of the USA, I thankfully know enough levelheaded Americans with a clue. But I wish there were more of them, and that the rest weren't such morons when voicing their political wisdom.
You can criticize "liberals" as much as you like, it shows that either you don't have a clue or - which keeps shocking me - you actually think words like "soft targets" are reasonable when applied to countries that are currently not in your favor.
Soft targets are population centers, hospitals and farms. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're imo not entitled to foulmouth "liberals".
I know someone judged my comment "insightful", I only tried to be "funny".
I know my answer to most upgrade questions: I'm compulsively drawn to the features, even if I don't need them.
The boring answer would be: "I need the functionality of the new Office because head office has done some fancy preprogrammed forms that need the last version/We love the new organization functions in Office X which lets us do projects easier/It is more compatible with our mail server/I love the new pane view in Entourage/I had this money lying around here/..."
But since I don't have the new version of Office and anyway try to wait for the native KDE KOffice and don't want to be spoiled by all the nice looks and features, this is all just hear-say.
I admit, I use Golive for my websites. Because it does most of the work for me - and together with some scripted exporting and stuff I hardly have to touch the code, and it's nicely compliant and lean. I *can* code. I just don't really enjoy it, and it's not worth it for the amount of work I do nowadays.
I'd love to jump on the next thing, and I see the use of all this meta stuff. I try to treat meta tags with respect btw, and only use them on relevant pages.
But for this to take off, you'd need tools that organize the meta data FOR you. So that you only have to edit it lightly, to take out the silliness. Akin to using automated translation.
Which begs the question: why not make search engines and agents smarter instead?
I mean, I can't be the only lazy person here, can I? And I have sort of an interest in the stuff, so I'd probably do what's required, but most people wouldn't I'm sure.
If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on agents - even after all the bullshit and the failed expectations from the late '90s. I'd love to have some clever agents do my searches for me, and on the mac, there are already some pretty clever programs available for free (http://www.devon-technologies.com/)
(yeah, I'm too lazy to put this post in HTML too, so sue me;-)
I still use meta tags, and it makes a difference. I like them. It's a bitch to see unrelated stuff get listed before your pages, but hey, that'll happen in any system of classification.
TextEdit is not a word replacement when you have to exchange documents. Here's a little experiment: put a table in a word document, edit with TextEdit, re-open with word. That's trivial for home use, but even if you're only doing the minutes of the local tart-society, this is killing.
As long as MS can treat their doc types as non-standard while in reality they are a standard (real world can be a bitch) you'll need to have MS Office to exchange.
"can we please get a mac software article that dont sound like a raveing zealot doing the "hail mac/jobs" routine?"
No. If O'Reilly is too zealot for you, I guess everything is.
"even linux reviewser are more critical.."
No, no they're not. Unless they talk about "that other distro/window system/desktop environment/Windows". I've seen quite a few Linux reviews with more than the maximum sustainable amount of exclamation marks...
Not to say you're wrong, I'm not sure you're right. Before my wife had iTunes on her computer, she didn't even realize she could play radio. The apps were too confusing. And since it's my wife we're talking about: apart from the bad gui, the ugliness of these other apps - now that she uses iTunes - is a great deterrent for opening them ever again. That includes Windows Media Player.
Who knows what % of the market really wants to listen to radio in WMA (meaning, not using iTunes).
BTW, my wife is quite an accomplished computer user, just not a nerd or geek.
The only way to make a mac cheap is to take away it's mac-ness. When you for one second don't think about all the R&D, look at the average mac configuration. Strip those away and you can get it cheap, but then it wouldn't be the jack of all trades a mac is now. As you already said, when you buy a mac, you buy the whole package, part of that costs real dollars, regardless of the processor used. And the processor isn't a real factor in the total cost anyway.
If you're serious, check out the refurbs section in the online store at Apple's website, or buy second hand. Or go deal hunting, there are great deals to be made if you look for them. That way you buy their overpriced (not really) hardware for a very reasonable price.
"You are, at that point, engaging in copyright violation"
No, you are not. You might be in breach of contract, but you are not engaging in copyright violation. On the contrary. Copyright explicitly grants you the right to make copies on other media.
IANAL but I know that much.
BTW I am part of a record label and while I don't condone piracy, I think Fair Use is extremely important. I think FairPlay violates Fair Use. I don't think that's the end of the world, but if I can or must, I'll circumvent it.
"This is NOT a legal method! By purchasing songs from the iTMS you have contractually agreed NOT to bypass their DRM system"
Well, yes, but there's also the notion of Fair Use, a legal right that allows you to copy or re-format for your own use. So while this might not be a strictly legal method - breach of contract - the contract itself might put unfair restraints on your rights. It's not as simple as you make it out.
Then again IANAL.
Where I totally disagree with you is that any party could claim damages when you haven't pirated or aided and abetted piracy at all and as such have not caused one single dollar of losses. This is not about piracy, this is about circumventing a restriction for your own use. RTFA if you think otherwise.
This is about copying a DVD to VHS or an LP to cassette. It might be a breach of some sort of contract, but then again, most things are. That's not the same as being liable for damages.
Well, if a project doesn't include abstinence and refers to gays or prostitutes, US help is out of the question.
A good thing to remember when you all have to vote: who is part of the human race, and who's considered a good american. Check if you're part of the club...
Some people think intelligent life wouldn't be religious. While we can all hope, I think that's a false assumption.
If we try not to go for the easy judgmental definition of intelligence, we can all see that quite a few highly intelligent people are also very religious.
Now why would aliens be more logical in that respect than we? Provided they don't come from Vulcan, my bet is that they'll be just as surprisingly gullible, selectively stupid and sometimes dangerous when it comes to "fundamental" things like who's christmas story and who's version of santa claus is the real and only one and will lead us to salvation.
If religion has a biological foundation and function, then I think it's a safe bet to presume aliens have caught a wiff of the same madness.
And if religion is there because indeed God is there, why they'd be religious too, especially if they're more intelligent, because they'd be better equipped to "see the truth".
Well, if anything, I think religion is making a comeback. Islam is growing fast and it's been decades since religion had such a great impact on life and politics in the USA.
Middle Ages, here we come, yeeeeeeah! Now hopefully we can go back to just plain burning people instead of first torturing them - not that torturing is un-christian like, judging from history, but there's nothing like a good bon-fire to make a party go.
"The average user you're describing won't give two shits about spatial vs browser metaphor. They'll just learn it and use it if they have to because that's what's presented to them. They won't bother to go digging around for some stupid hidden option in a control panel or registry. That sort of thing defines a power user."
I'm only reacting to this one, because I think on the rest you've got pretty good points.
But here I have to tell you that I don't think this is power user stuff at all.
While I like the spatial stuff and think it's indeed the most intuitive, on OS X I can choose how the windows behave. And I think that's very appropriate for Linux as well, with its mixed set of users.
And this kind of review shows it would be a good idea.
Not to say OS X is perfect etc etc, only that this kind of choice can be built in and made to control with perfectly sensible buttons. You can even opt to remove those buttons if you find them distracting. All with a dinky toys GUI.
Note: my definitions of users (excuse the absence of Aunt Tilly. She got an iPod on mothers day and threw away her computer)
Challenged user: my father, people who don't have any computer skills but will manage some stuff with a perfectly set up computer, preferably a bit fool-proofed by a relative. Average user: someone who's proficient and knows his/her way around several programs and Graphical UI's, can install or update stuff and can even set up their OS provided there's a GUI way. Power user: from being at ease with command line to building their own environment/applications and upwards.
This guy's opinion (yes, it's an opinion piece) is worth solid gold. If you can't see it, you should probably not try to develop software for the masses and stick to making stuff for yourself.
Average user feedback is something rare for Linux, firstly because it's unappreciated and secondly because there's not many average users on Linux.
And if they balk at something, two responses out of three are "read the man pages". As if there's any reason to presume the man pages are actually any good or up to date or written with an average user in mind...
As always, I'm writing for linux people who like the idea of linux desktop.
Slashdot Mirror
Better stop and think when shopping then. About 60% of what you buy is assembled or made in China.
Since it's their News site Google's talking about, I don't really care that much one way or the other.
It would be an exercise in stupidity to have a full page with broken links.
Let them give a page with news that's accessible and chances are they'll get a better quality news that way instead of hunting which links are broken and which not.
Damn, Safari is fast!!!!
Updated on Cube - against better judgement, for better firewire drive compatibility - and all seems well...
We need a new moderation option: "cool sig" :-)
The way words like "liberal" and "left-wing" are used here makes my hair stand up straight.
I think most Americans haven't a beginning of a clue how it is the rest of the world don't like them anymore.
You should really try to start getting interested in the rest of the world - but for once not while bombing the hell out of it.
Excuse the general slant in the direction of the USA, I thankfully know enough levelheaded Americans with a clue. But I wish there were more of them, and that the rest weren't such morons when voicing their political wisdom.
You can criticize "liberals" as much as you like, it shows that either you don't have a clue or - which keeps shocking me - you actually think words like "soft targets" are reasonable when applied to countries that are currently not in your favor.
Soft targets are population centers, hospitals and farms. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you're imo not entitled to foulmouth "liberals".
I know someone judged my comment "insightful", I only tried to be "funny".
:-)
I know my answer to most upgrade questions: I'm compulsively drawn to the features, even if I don't need them.
The boring answer would be: "I need the functionality of the new Office because head office has done some fancy preprogrammed forms that need the last version/We love the new organization functions in Office X which lets us do projects easier/It is more compatible with our mail server/I love the new pane view in Entourage/I had this money lying around here/..."
But since I don't have the new version of Office and anyway try to wait for the native KDE KOffice and don't want to be spoiled by all the nice looks and features, this is all just hear-say.
Better to be funny instead....
I admit, I use Golive for my websites. Because it does most of the work for me - and together with some scripted exporting and stuff I hardly have to touch the code, and it's nicely compliant and lean. I *can* code. I just don't really enjoy it, and it's not worth it for the amount of work I do nowadays.
;-)
I'd love to jump on the next thing, and I see the use of all this meta stuff. I try to treat meta tags with respect btw, and only use them on relevant pages.
But for this to take off, you'd need tools that organize the meta data FOR you. So that you only have to edit it lightly, to take out the silliness. Akin to using automated translation.
Which begs the question: why not make search engines and agents smarter instead?
I mean, I can't be the only lazy person here, can I? And I have sort of an interest in the stuff, so I'd probably do what's required, but most people wouldn't I'm sure.
If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on agents - even after all the bullshit and the failed expectations from the late '90s. I'd love to have some clever agents do my searches for me, and on the mac, there are already some pretty clever programs available for free (http://www.devon-technologies.com/)
(yeah, I'm too lazy to put this post in HTML too, so sue me
I still use meta tags, and it makes a difference. I like them. It's a bitch to see unrelated stuff get listed before your pages, but hey, that'll happen in any system of classification.
TextEdit is not a word replacement when you have to exchange documents.
Here's a little experiment: put a table in a word document, edit with TextEdit, re-open with word.
That's trivial for home use, but even if you're only doing the minutes of the local tart-society, this is killing.
As long as MS can treat their doc types as non-standard while in reality they are a standard (real world can be a bitch) you'll need to have MS Office to exchange.
"So when and more importantly, WHY do you shell out cash for an Office upgrade?"
Only two valid reasons:
1) you NEED to
2) you WANT to
What else?
"can we please get a mac software article that dont sound like a raveing zealot doing the "hail mac/jobs" routine?"
No.
If O'Reilly is too zealot for you, I guess everything is.
"even linux reviewser are more critical.."
No, no they're not. Unless they talk about "that other distro/window system/desktop environment/Windows". I've seen quite a few Linux reviews with more than the maximum sustainable amount of exclamation marks...
Not to say you're wrong, I'm not sure you're right. Before my wife had iTunes on her computer, she didn't even realize she could play radio. The apps were too confusing. And since it's my wife we're talking about: apart from the bad gui, the ugliness of these other apps - now that she uses iTunes - is a great deterrent for opening them ever again. That includes Windows Media Player.
Who knows what % of the market really wants to listen to radio in WMA (meaning, not using iTunes).
BTW, my wife is quite an accomplished computer user, just not a nerd or geek.
FairPlay is the DRM Apple uses. Not to be confused with PlayFair...
The only way to make a mac cheap is to take away it's mac-ness.
When you for one second don't think about all the R&D, look at the average mac configuration.
Strip those away and you can get it cheap, but then it wouldn't be the jack of all trades a mac is now.
As you already said, when you buy a mac, you buy the whole package, part of that costs real dollars, regardless of the processor used. And the processor isn't a real factor in the total cost anyway.
If you're serious, check out the refurbs section in the online store at Apple's website, or buy second hand. Or go deal hunting, there are great deals to be made if you look for them. That way you buy their overpriced (not really) hardware for a very reasonable price.
"You are, at that point, engaging in copyright violation"
No, you are not. You might be in breach of contract, but you are not engaging in copyright violation. On the contrary. Copyright explicitly grants you the right to make copies on other media.
IANAL but I know that much.
BTW I am part of a record label and while I don't condone piracy, I think Fair Use is extremely important. I think FairPlay violates Fair Use. I don't think that's the end of the world, but if I can or must, I'll circumvent it.
"This is NOT a legal method!
By purchasing songs from the iTMS you have contractually agreed NOT to bypass their DRM system"
Well, yes, but there's also the notion of Fair Use, a legal right that allows you to copy or re-format for your own use.
So while this might not be a strictly legal method - breach of contract - the contract itself might put unfair restraints on your rights. It's not as simple as you make it out.
Then again IANAL.
Where I totally disagree with you is that any party could claim damages when you haven't pirated or aided and abetted piracy at all and as such have not caused one single dollar of losses. This is not about piracy, this is about circumventing a restriction for your own use. RTFA if you think otherwise.
This is about copying a DVD to VHS or an LP to cassette. It might be a breach of some sort of contract, but then again, most things are. That's not the same as being liable for damages.
While you're at it, don't forget to put Apple in the cc.
the problem is you're trying to find "suspected" mines. That's cool, but doesn't clear all mines in a given area, only the ones you suspect are there.
Better to unleash a few well trained rats.
Seriously, someone tells you "this distribution didn't recognize my sound-card".
And you doubt him???????????
Your cloud must have significantly more silver lining than most.
yeah well, US bashing is boring, but reading interesting historical tidbits isn't. So what's your problem?
Well, if a project doesn't include abstinence and refers to gays or prostitutes, US help is out of the question.
A good thing to remember when you all have to vote: who is part of the human race, and who's considered a good american. Check if you're part of the club...
Some people think intelligent life wouldn't be religious. While we can all hope, I think that's a false assumption.
If we try not to go for the easy judgmental definition of intelligence, we can all see that quite a few highly intelligent people are also very religious.
Now why would aliens be more logical in that respect than we? Provided they don't come from Vulcan, my bet is that they'll be just as surprisingly gullible, selectively stupid and sometimes dangerous when it comes to "fundamental" things like who's christmas story and who's version of santa claus is the real and only one and will lead us to salvation.
If religion has a biological foundation and function, then I think it's a safe bet to presume aliens have caught a wiff of the same madness.
And if religion is there because indeed God is there, why they'd be religious too, especially if they're more intelligent, because they'd be better equipped to "see the truth".
Now there's a depressing thought.
"there's actually an on-going project as CMU's Language Technologies Institute to create technology to allow us to communicate with dolphins"
;-)
I think he meant meaningful conversations. There's only so many ways of saying "hey, look, tuna!"
Well, if anything, I think religion is making a comeback. Islam is growing fast and it's been decades since religion had such a great impact on life and politics in the USA.
Middle Ages, here we come, yeeeeeeah! Now hopefully we can go back to just plain burning people instead of first torturing them - not that torturing is un-christian like, judging from history, but there's nothing like a good bon-fire to make a party go.
"The average user you're describing won't give two shits about spatial vs browser metaphor. They'll just learn it and use it if they have to because that's what's presented to them. They won't bother to go digging around for some stupid hidden option in a control panel or registry. That sort of thing defines a power user."
I'm only reacting to this one, because I think on the rest you've got pretty good points.
But here I have to tell you that I don't think this is power user stuff at all.
While I like the spatial stuff and think it's indeed the most intuitive, on OS X I can choose how the windows behave. And I think that's very appropriate for Linux as well, with its mixed set of users.
And this kind of review shows it would be a good idea.
Not to say OS X is perfect etc etc, only that this kind of choice can be built in and made to control with perfectly sensible buttons. You can even opt to remove those buttons if you find them distracting. All with a dinky toys GUI.
Note: my definitions of users
(excuse the absence of Aunt Tilly. She got an iPod on mothers day and threw away her computer)
Challenged user: my father, people who don't have any computer skills but will manage some stuff with a perfectly set up computer, preferably a bit fool-proofed by a relative.
Average user: someone who's proficient and knows his/her way around several programs and Graphical UI's, can install or update stuff and can even set up their OS provided there's a GUI way.
Power user: from being at ease with command line to building their own environment/applications and upwards.
This guy's opinion (yes, it's an opinion piece) is worth solid gold. If you can't see it, you should probably not try to develop software for the masses and stick to making stuff for yourself.
Average user feedback is something rare for Linux, firstly because it's unappreciated and secondly because there's not many average users on Linux.
And if they balk at something, two responses out of three are "read the man pages". As if there's any reason to presume the man pages are actually any good or up to date or written with an average user in mind...
As always, I'm writing for linux people who like the idea of linux desktop.