Or better yet, personally fine a backhoe operator for the full financial cost associated with both the downtime of services running through the line they cut and the repair of the line.
There's nothing like enforcing a little individual accountability to make boneheads start caring about doing things correctly.
Top on my list of worries about Vista is that it may finally be the nail in the coffin for fair use rights when it comes to digital content. From HD-DVD to TPM to encrypted DVI, it sounds like Microsoft is going out of its way to further violate users' fair use rights with Vista. Doesn't Microsoft bear an ethical responsibility to look out for the fair use rights of paying customers? In your opinion, how bad is Vista really going to be in this regard? Doesn't Microsoft realize that this is a key reason that many people flock to noncommercial alternative software?
I really hope the Linux community will start taking the "It Just Fucking Works" philosophy to heart, since that's what normal human beings expect from their computers.
Seriously, the only real problem I see with this Jack Thompson character is that he thinks it's his place to decide what's appropriate for other parents' children.
It's not his place to decide what is appropriate for others. The only people whose place it is to decide what's appropriate for a child are that child's legal guardians. Jack should stop sticking his nose into other people's business and start minding his own.
In fact, one could say that his desire to insert himself into other people's affairs is a masturbatory activity and that he'd be better off going outside.
It's also pretty well known that this entire accusation was false and got started simply because some Microsoft developer made a poor choice of filename when adding a perfectly legitimate binary file to the system.
Remember, once Mac applications are running natively on Intel, it won't be too hard to port them to windows, and vice versa.
Bullshit. The APIs and support libraries on OS X and Windows are *totally* different. Anyone who's ever written a desktop application for either OS knows it is far from trivial to retool the application to work against a completely different environment.
Tape backup? Why not just keep a couple spare hard drives installed and backup all your data to the both of them? That should be more than solid enough for most people's personal files.
appreciate the fact that now I will be able to dual boot in Windows and play the games
Actually, this is the most important remaining question about this entire announcement. Is it really the case that one can install Windows on Apple's new hardware? Can any geeks out there truly verify this? Has anyone actually gotten the shipping hardware and tried to install Windows on it and successfully gotten it up and running with a dual-boot configuration?
It wouldn't surprise me if Apple has implemented some kind of unique encrypted handshaking between the OS X installer and the hardware so that only Apple's OS can be installed on it, so that they can avoid receiving support calls from people who put Windows on Apple hardware. Keep in mind that even if they refuse to provide support for such a configuration, the bulk of a support call's cost is in the customer placing the call in the first place. If someone calls only to be told "we don't support that", that has already cost Apple a good bit of money.
An automated message to people who IM you that says something like the following: "This is an automated message. The user you are trying to message has already reached the maximum number of IM conversations (X) they have said they can deal with simultaneously. Your message has not been delivered. Please try your message again later," where "X" is the max number of simultaneous IM conversations as specified by me in the IM client's settings.
Something that warns me when the person I'm IMing with is using some crappy generic client like Gaim or Trillian which is generally incapable of handling most things (file transfers, voice/video, etc) properly. Better yet, automatically let me know exactly what client software and version the other party is using so it's easier to rule out version mismatches when troubleshooting things like file transfer problems.
I'm sick of seeing unwarranted paranoia about violent media. Violent/graphic media are not inherently evil things, and they alone do not turn a kid bad. It's always bad parents who are to blame for bad kids, period. A bad parent is always more of a danger to society than any video game, movie, or music could ever be.
What I'd like to see is a published compiled list of bad parents. That way the government would know who to sterilize, and the rest of us would know who to watch out for.
Instead of a headline reading, "Grand Theft Auto encourages violence and prostitution", I'd like to see a headline reading, "Mary Jones of Seattle, WA, never says 'No' to her child, raises spoiled brat with overinflated sense of self-entitlement".
How can an audio CD "not work" with iTunes/iPod? I mean, unless you're dumb enough to let an audio-CD with a data track auto-install DRM rootkit shit on your computer, you should be able to rip the CD audio tracks with Exact Audio Copy or any other of a number of CD-ripper programs, convert the tracks to MP3, and then add them to your iTunes library. What's the problem?
The evolution of computer-based advertising goes something like this:
1. Advertisers put static ads on users' screens. 2. Users are somewhat annoyed by screen space being wasted. 3. Users just train themselves to ignore that section of the screen. 4. Advertisers make their ads animated w/ sound to catch users' attention. 5. Users are even more annoyed by flashing noisy ads. 6. Users start using tools to block such ads. 7. Advertisers start using pop-ups and other obtrusive forms of advertising. 8. Users are even more annoyed by pop-ups. 9. Users start using pop-up blockers. (This is where we are today). 10. Software makers build obtrusive ads into the platform. 11. Users cannot block the ads, b/c they are part of the platform. 12. Users are not only annoyed, but can't get any work done. 13. Users reject the platform entirely and use something else. 14. Advertisers stop paying for ineffective ads. 15. Software makers dependent on advertising revenue go bankrupt.
There are several fundamental problems with computer-based advertising, and Microsoft hasn't explained how it intends to solve or work around them:
1. People expect software not to cost anything. This has always been true. People generally feel that because they already paid an inordinate amount of money for the hardware, that they should be able to use all possible capabilities of that hardware without any additional cost. This is why people have no ethical problems pirating copies of Windows, Office, Photoshop, SoundForge, Cakewalk, etc. People feel entitled to any software they want at no charge, because all it does is unlock the capability of the hardware they already paid for. This is especially true in more recent years, as PCs have come with loads of software preinstalled seemingly for "free" as part of buying the computer, which has just further cemented people's expectations. Any attempt to now introduce advertising where before there was none will not meet well with the general public.
2. People mostly use computers for accomplishing tasks. Anything that gets in the way of those tasks is a horrible annoyance and will be immediately rejected/ignored. People will in fact even go to great lengths to create tools to completely block any such distractions.
3. People think of their computers as their property, and they thus view anything forced upon them as an invasion of their property and control over it. So no form of obtrusive computer-based advertising will ever fly with most people.
'We are confident that our version of 'text' books will genuinely help thousands of students remember key plots and quotes, and raise up educational standards rather than decrease levels of literacy,
Since when is thoughtless memorization of plots and quotes educational? Isn't the point of studying literature to learn how to think analytically, read between the lines, address social issues, and use language effectively?
I think teaching the "classics" is a bad approach to begin with. The classics are so out-of-touch with modern society and culture that the qualities that made them great at the time are almost completely lost on modern students unless they also invest huge amounts of time understanding the language and culture of the era. There's plenty of modern, current-day writing of outstanding quality, which could serve all the same instructional purposes while also actually being interesting and easily related to by students.
Example: The Sega Genesis wouldn't have had its glory days if Sonic the Hedgehog hadn't been released at the time it was exclusively for the Genesis. No other system had a comparable game during that time.
Example: The 8-bit NES wouldn't have had its glory days over the Sega Master System if Super Mario Brothers hadn't been available exclusively for NES. No other system had a comparable game at the time.
My case is that there's little or no originality in any of the launch titles. They're all rehashes of the same old shit, just with fancier graphics. How boring.
It's not about the number of games a console launches with -- it's about the originality of the launch titles. Unless a new console hits the market with original titles that can't be had on any other platform, there's little reason for seasoned gamers to take much interest, especially when the mere "realism" aspect of the graphics and sound can be attained much better by a cutting-edge PC.
Slashdot Mirror
Or better yet, personally fine a backhoe operator for the full financial cost associated with both the downtime of services running through the line they cut and the repair of the line.
There's nothing like enforcing a little individual accountability to make boneheads start caring about doing things correctly.
Top on my list of worries about Vista is that it may finally be the nail in the coffin for fair use rights when it comes to digital content. From HD-DVD to TPM to encrypted DVI, it sounds like Microsoft is going out of its way to further violate users' fair use rights with Vista. Doesn't Microsoft bear an ethical responsibility to look out for the fair use rights of paying customers? In your opinion, how bad is Vista really going to be in this regard? Doesn't Microsoft realize that this is a key reason that many people flock to noncommercial alternative software?
Udder-to-bug ratio?
No one ever said for a moment that either of those was a "complete rewrite". If you heard that somewhere, you were misinformed.
I really hope the Linux community will start taking the "It Just Fucking Works" philosophy to heart, since that's what normal human beings expect from their computers.
Now, if you compared his actions to a guy who has sex, but his penis is so small he couldn't satify a woman, that would be a more apt analogy.
This is why I love Slashdot: the deep and significant philosophical commentary.
Hah! Beautiful.
Seriously, the only real problem I see with this Jack Thompson character is that he thinks it's his place to decide what's appropriate for other parents' children.
It's not his place to decide what is appropriate for others. The only people whose place it is to decide what's appropriate for a child are that child's legal guardians. Jack should stop sticking his nose into other people's business and start minding his own.
In fact, one could say that his desire to insert himself into other people's affairs is a masturbatory activity and that he'd be better off going outside.
This is bullshit and you know it. Stop spreading FUD.
It's also pretty well known that this entire accusation was false and got started simply because some Microsoft developer made a poor choice of filename when adding a perfectly legitimate binary file to the system.
Remember, once Mac applications are running natively on Intel, it won't be too hard to port them to windows, and vice versa.
Bullshit. The APIs and support libraries on OS X and Windows are *totally* different. Anyone who's ever written a desktop application for either OS knows it is far from trivial to retool the application to work against a completely different environment.
Tape backup? Why not just keep a couple spare hard drives installed and backup all your data to the both of them? That should be more than solid enough for most people's personal files.
recently developed Internet technologies
Database-driven web sites and web forms? It's recent in geological terms, I suppose.
appreciate the fact that now I will be able to dual boot in Windows and play the games
Actually, this is the most important remaining question about this entire announcement. Is it really the case that one can install Windows on Apple's new hardware? Can any geeks out there truly verify this? Has anyone actually gotten the shipping hardware and tried to install Windows on it and successfully gotten it up and running with a dual-boot configuration?
It wouldn't surprise me if Apple has implemented some kind of unique encrypted handshaking between the OS X installer and the hardware so that only Apple's OS can be installed on it, so that they can avoid receiving support calls from people who put Windows on Apple hardware. Keep in mind that even if they refuse to provide support for such a configuration, the bulk of a support call's cost is in the customer placing the call in the first place. If someone calls only to be told "we don't support that", that has already cost Apple a good bit of money.
when what they have works just fine.
Yeah, it obviously works just fine, given that there's a huge security flaw in it.
Great. Just what we need. A language that looks like leet-speek for "cocks".
Tabbed UI for IMing.
An automated message to people who IM you that says something like the following: "This is an automated message. The user you are trying to message has already reached the maximum number of IM conversations (X) they have said they can deal with simultaneously. Your message has not been delivered. Please try your message again later," where "X" is the max number of simultaneous IM conversations as specified by me in the IM client's settings.
Something that warns me when the person I'm IMing with is using some crappy generic client like Gaim or Trillian which is generally incapable of handling most things (file transfers, voice/video, etc) properly. Better yet, automatically let me know exactly what client software and version the other party is using so it's easier to rule out version mismatches when troubleshooting things like file transfer problems.
I'm sick of seeing unwarranted paranoia about violent media. Violent/graphic media are not inherently evil things, and they alone do not turn a kid bad. It's always bad parents who are to blame for bad kids, period. A bad parent is always more of a danger to society than any video game, movie, or music could ever be.
What I'd like to see is a published compiled list of bad parents. That way the government would know who to sterilize, and the rest of us would know who to watch out for.
Instead of a headline reading, "Grand Theft Auto encourages violence and prostitution", I'd like to see a headline reading, "Mary Jones of Seattle, WA, never says 'No' to her child, raises spoiled brat with overinflated sense of self-entitlement".
It must have been the same marketing executive who though 50 Cent could actually make decent music in the first place.
everything will be wireless one day
Inlcuding the wire!
To state it more plainly, if you're a couch potato, suddenly becoming active may be harder than you think
As opposed to all those couch potatoes who think becoming active is easy?
How can an audio CD "not work" with iTunes/iPod? I mean, unless you're dumb enough to let an audio-CD with a data track auto-install DRM rootkit shit on your computer, you should be able to rip the CD audio tracks with Exact Audio Copy or any other of a number of CD-ripper programs, convert the tracks to MP3, and then add them to your iTunes library. What's the problem?
The evolution of computer-based advertising goes something like this:
1. Advertisers put static ads on users' screens.
2. Users are somewhat annoyed by screen space being wasted.
3. Users just train themselves to ignore that section of the screen.
4. Advertisers make their ads animated w/ sound to catch users' attention.
5. Users are even more annoyed by flashing noisy ads.
6. Users start using tools to block such ads.
7. Advertisers start using pop-ups and other obtrusive forms of advertising.
8. Users are even more annoyed by pop-ups.
9. Users start using pop-up blockers. (This is where we are today).
10. Software makers build obtrusive ads into the platform.
11. Users cannot block the ads, b/c they are part of the platform.
12. Users are not only annoyed, but can't get any work done.
13. Users reject the platform entirely and use something else.
14. Advertisers stop paying for ineffective ads.
15. Software makers dependent on advertising revenue go bankrupt.
There are several fundamental problems with computer-based advertising, and Microsoft hasn't explained how it intends to solve or work around them:
1. People expect software not to cost anything. This has always been true. People generally feel that because they already paid an inordinate amount of money for the hardware, that they should be able to use all possible capabilities of that hardware without any additional cost. This is why people have no ethical problems pirating copies of Windows, Office, Photoshop, SoundForge, Cakewalk, etc. People feel entitled to any software they want at no charge, because all it does is unlock the capability of the hardware they already paid for. This is especially true in more recent years, as PCs have come with loads of software preinstalled seemingly for "free" as part of buying the computer, which has just further cemented people's expectations. Any attempt to now introduce advertising where before there was none will not meet well with the general public.
2. People mostly use computers for accomplishing tasks. Anything that gets in the way of those tasks is a horrible annoyance and will be immediately rejected/ignored. People will in fact even go to great lengths to create tools to completely block any such distractions.
3. People think of their computers as their property, and they thus view anything forced upon them as an invasion of their property and control over it. So no form of obtrusive computer-based advertising will ever fly with most people.
'We are confident that our version of 'text' books will genuinely help thousands of students remember key plots and quotes, and raise up educational standards rather than decrease levels of literacy,
Since when is thoughtless memorization of plots and quotes educational? Isn't the point of studying literature to learn how to think analytically, read between the lines, address social issues, and use language effectively?
I think teaching the "classics" is a bad approach to begin with. The classics are so out-of-touch with modern society and culture that the qualities that made them great at the time are almost completely lost on modern students unless they also invest huge amounts of time understanding the language and culture of the era. There's plenty of modern, current-day writing of outstanding quality, which could serve all the same instructional purposes while also actually being interesting and easily related to by students.
Example: The Sega Genesis wouldn't have had its glory days if Sonic the Hedgehog hadn't been released at the time it was exclusively for the Genesis. No other system had a comparable game during that time.
Example: The 8-bit NES wouldn't have had its glory days over the Sega Master System if Super Mario Brothers hadn't been available exclusively for NES. No other system had a comparable game at the time.
My case is that there's little or no originality in any of the launch titles. They're all rehashes of the same old shit, just with fancier graphics. How boring.
It's not about the number of games a console launches with -- it's about the originality of the launch titles. Unless a new console hits the market with original titles that can't be had on any other platform, there's little reason for seasoned gamers to take much interest, especially when the mere "realism" aspect of the graphics and sound can be attained much better by a cutting-edge PC.