I have a broadband connection from an ISP I trust will *never* leave my name or address to a third party, unless that third party is a government agency and I am a suspect in an investigation of a very serious crime.
That amount of privacy is what expect and accept. Anything less is to me totally unacceptable, and I will cancel my broadband subscription the same day that my ISP gives a single name to a third party.
What ideas other than the apt/rpm/portage ideas are there? They are all the same idea!
The requirements are pretty obvious.
1) A novice must be able to install any software, update it remove it etc.
2) Upgrading, downgrading or using multiple versions of the same software must be easy.
3) Finding where all files of an application is must be trivial. Unless absolutely necessary,
nothing can be spread out, or arbitrarily placed! (/usr/local/bin anyone?)
I think that the port/apt "dependency tree" is making it more difficult than it needs to be.
Why even bother with dependencies? If application A needs B 2.0 and C 3.0 then why not bundle those dependencies
with the application? The result of course would be that you have a zillion copies of the same low-level dependency,
and that you can't update that dependency centrally. Applications that are today 1mb in download size would grow to 100mb
with dependencies that I already have. But I wouldn't mind that. I have plenty of disk space and bandwidth, and I'd
rather update all my applications to make use of a new version of a dependency, than worry about how my applications
whould handle a central update of the dependency.
Take these scenarios and compare them:
1) You buy an item in a store, and the item is mispriced. Neither you, nor the person in the store realizes that you are not paying more than 1/10th the actual price.
2) You enter a store and see an item that you realize is mispriced (missing a zero a on the price tag), so you think it's a great deal. You purchase the item and leave.
What is the big difference here? in case two you knew you were not paying enough. Sure, you were paying the price on the price tag in both occasions, so legally there is no difference. You agreed on the price at the checkout, you paid and left. Probably no chance for the store owner to come after you and demand more money or the item in return.
But morally? I'd say there is a huge difference between knowing and not knowing that you are not paying what you owe. Some people seem to confuse law with morality here.
Free speech isn't free if it has "ifs, ands, or buts". Defining a "right" as something that has never existed anywhere, and as something that not even a small fraction of the population even wants, seems like a waste of time.
Couldn't it just be that they want to identify individual computers? If they can read a serial number from the motherboard then they don't have to count that computer again?
The actual number of installations made (and used) is quite important for a company whose stock price depends on the number of customers but whose product is free to download...
Yes, the huge shopping malls located far away, and the lack of public transport is just the result of having really cheap gas for a couple
of decades.
Once the american society adapts to the fact that driving 1 mile might cost 1 dollar, then the malls will be smaller and closer, and
the cars will be more efficient.
By the way, if european cars get better mileage, why not buy a european car??
The question about free market comes down to whether you consider broadband to be infrastructure.
To compare two different scenarios from Sweden:
Population density and country size is largely irrelevant (Sweden has the same population
density as Arkansas).
1) I live in a small town and use a normal broadband supplier
, and I have a 100/10mbit ethernet connection in my apartment (as does
everyone in the city). In a deal where you also sign up for their internet phone service, the
monthly rate is $22. Note that this isp is an entirely private company on a
normal free market, and we can switch supplier to the one that happens to be cheapest.
2) My parents house has fiber to their house for $50 per month. The local power company (which
happens to be owned by the municipality) provides the service. They are however tied to
their subsidized connection as the power company is the only company delivering through the fiber.
The free-market dsl provider they used before the fiber connection was completed is probably not
that pleased.
Building a big highway doesn't mean that transport companies and taxis cannot operate
on a free market. In my second example though, the subsidized fibers are afaik not
available to use by other operators. The difference is of course that the government subsidized
internet backbone is used correctly in the first example (as infrastructure available to the free market)
, and not in my second example. So to conclude: subsidized large scale infrastructure: good, subsidized
direct market competition: bad.
Modern UI:s should use their new sidebars (like the ones seen in vista, office and so on) to help reduce the size of the top toolbars & menus. When more and more monitors are widescreen and resolution has not improved much (the most common laptop resolution today is 1280x800!) then the vertical space needs to be efficiently used. This is especially true for a word processor, which normally uses a portrait format document.
Does anyone know if this whole "ribbon" thing can be used docked on the left side, to allow the full screen height for the document itself?
Is the.99c marketing actually good for music? Intuitively it feels that way...
In the old scheme of things, there was great profit in making great hit singles.
The hit singles sold the albums, and got the airtime. This has been the death
of variety in music, and imho here is where a lot of the responsibility for the
declining cd sales lies.
I think that flat charging for music sounds great, it actually gives an incentive to
music producers to make good quality albums. After all, selling the whole album
will give a lot more money than just selling the hit single.
Is this deliberate by apple or just a side effect of their.99c marketing?
I don't mind ID/Creationism taught in schools. What is important is that it isn't taught in science. Evolution is science, and it's the best scientific theory we've got. It's by no means perfect or undisputed, but no other scientific theory really comes close.
ID/Creationism are not scientific theories, and so have no place in a science class. In a philosophy or religion class for example, I think these subjects can be openly discussed.
The main issue with this type of question is that people simply don't know what science is. That is not so scary when we are talking about J. Average in the poll, but quite scary when you realize that the people who decide what is to be taught in science class don't have a basic understanding of what science is.
If someone explained to these people what science is, and what qualifies as science, then perhaps a compromise could be reached if ID/Creationism would still taught in another class?
The public however I can't really see comprehending the difference between science and non-science anytime soon. The reason of course being that science class obviously doesn't teach that.
But in the end, I think XBox360 will make as much losses as XBox1. I seriously doubt that XBox360 will ever make money for Microsoft
I agree. At least as much losses. But that's probably calculated.
The original xbox made sure that game development for windows AND a console was a breeze. During the last generation of consoles, DirectX/Direct3D became the platform of choice for most game deveolpers.
Keeping windows/directx as the premiere gaming platform is crucial to Microsoft. So if they only break even or even lose on the X360-project then so be it. I'll have to buy Vista to play games on my pc in 2007, and the reason for that is pretty much the X360.
Does any bank think really think that this is unnecessary? too expensive? too complicated? I suggest moving your business elsewhere if that is the case.
My bank already uses two factor authentication. It's simple, cheap, and it feels quite secure compared to the competing banks, who use (for example) cards with one-time codes that can be used at any time.
I pay about $10 per year for the internet bank service.
The system at my bank is probably one of the most common. A little gadget with a keypad and lcd-screen. Takes a 4-digit pin to start a verification, then the verification itself consists of an 8digit number being scrambled by the gadget, and then used as signature for the transaction. All transactions are https of course.
What I'd like however, is the gadget to plug in to USB, so I didn't have to enter all those 8-digit numbers myself.
C#/.NET was designed to be all that java is in terms of platform independence, but MOST importantly, VM and package versioning was thought of from the beginning. Makes the whole difference.
The only time you need a monster like that for cooling your computer is if you are a gamer. Normal passively cooled chassis don't allow for the ultra-high powered graphics cards of today. The question is perhaps why a gamer (who is probably listening to deafening explosions) would need his computer to be silent?
A media computer however doesn't really need a high-power 3d card. So it doesn't need a £1000 case either. A next-gen console will be less than half the price and probably serve well as a media computer including gaming.
A totally fanless media computer, or a quite noisy gaming computer can be built for a fraction of the price.
I totally agree, you should not directly compare Apples and non-apples, but I (like many others) am thinking about buying either an iBook or a sony/ibm pc laptop.
I do lean towards paying up for the "apple premium" of the iBook compared to the pc's. So I was waiting, and expecting, the latest iBook to be sub-$1000 and have the kind of specs that you expect in a $1000-laptop in 2005. That is: a potent graphics card, and a high resolution display, something that the iBook was lacking before.
The car comparison is very valid. I can buy a 300 horsepower japanese plastic car for the same price as a 120hp mercedes. And in that scenario I'd probably go for the german car. However, if 80 years ago mercedes had thought that their 35 horsepower engines and premium/luxury brand would be reason enough to buy their cars, then that would be ridiculous.
Just like for cars, if you are a premium brand you don't have to have the top specs. But you do need to keep your specs from getting plain silly over time, like the display of the 14" iBook.
After a wait this long (9 months?), and with the upcoming switch to intel, Apple really needed to make the iBook look like it is going to last 5 years if ordered today.
That resolution of 1024x768 (which was cool in 1997), and the non-CoreImage graphics card makes the thing look old at the day of introduction!
Did they not notice how other premium laptops (like sony and ibm) suddenly offer twice the punch at the same price? OS X alone will not sell iBooks, especially with some features not available at all.
The prototype, called the Cell Processor Based Blade Server...
So they made a cell processor based blade server prototype called the cell processor based blade server? The department of reduncancy department may want to comment on this.
The first person shooter has been so successful because the computer interface is really well suited for it. A couple of buttons and a mouse seems to let the user do whatever he wants. Different kinds of strategy games also tend to work well using a keyboard and mouse.
Once new interfaces (tactile, VR, neural, and anything I can't even imagine) are practical and common, we will also see new games on the shelf. Until then, what you can do with a keyboard and mouse (or joystick) defines the game scene.
Slashdot Mirror
That amount of privacy is what expect and accept. Anything less is to me totally unacceptable, and I will cancel my broadband subscription the same day that my ISP gives a single name to a third party.
The requirements are pretty obvious.
1) A novice must be able to install any software, update it remove it etc.
2) Upgrading, downgrading or using multiple versions of the same software must be easy.
3) Finding where all files of an application is must be trivial. Unless absolutely necessary, nothing can be spread out, or arbitrarily placed! (/usr/local/bin anyone?)
I think that the port/apt "dependency tree" is making it more difficult than it needs to be. Why even bother with dependencies? If application A needs B 2.0 and C 3.0 then why not bundle those dependencies with the application? The result of course would be that you have a zillion copies of the same low-level dependency, and that you can't update that dependency centrally. Applications that are today 1mb in download size would grow to 100mb with dependencies that I already have. But I wouldn't mind that. I have plenty of disk space and bandwidth, and I'd rather update all my applications to make use of a new version of a dependency, than worry about how my applications whould handle a central update of the dependency.
Take these scenarios and compare them: 1) You buy an item in a store, and the item is mispriced. Neither you, nor the person in the store realizes that you are not paying more than 1/10th the actual price. 2) You enter a store and see an item that you realize is mispriced (missing a zero a on the price tag), so you think it's a great deal. You purchase the item and leave. What is the big difference here? in case two you knew you were not paying enough. Sure, you were paying the price on the price tag in both occasions, so legally there is no difference. You agreed on the price at the checkout, you paid and left. Probably no chance for the store owner to come after you and demand more money or the item in return. But morally? I'd say there is a huge difference between knowing and not knowing that you are not paying what you owe. Some people seem to confuse law with morality here.
Couldn't it just be that they want to identify individual computers? If they can read a serial number from the motherboard then they don't have to count that computer again? The actual number of installations made (and used) is quite important for a company whose stock price depends on the number of customers but whose product is free to download...
The one doesn't smell like a damn thing, since you can't do much with it anyway.Aren't they mainly used for tipping strippers? Oh wait.
ATM:s here (Europe) have Braille buttons and one button switches on a speaker voice reading the instructions on screen.
Yes, the huge shopping malls located far away, and the lack of public transport is just the result of having really cheap gas for a couple of decades.
Once the american society adapts to the fact that driving 1 mile might cost 1 dollar, then the malls will be smaller and closer, and the cars will be more efficient.
By the way, if european cars get better mileage, why not buy a european car??
The question about free market comes down to whether you consider broadband to be infrastructure.
To compare two different scenarios from Sweden:
Population density and country size is largely irrelevant (Sweden has the same population density as Arkansas).
1) I live in a small town and use a normal broadband supplier , and I have a 100/10mbit ethernet connection in my apartment (as does everyone in the city). In a deal where you also sign up for their internet phone service, the monthly rate is $22. Note that this isp is an entirely private company on a normal free market, and we can switch supplier to the one that happens to be cheapest.
2) My parents house has fiber to their house for $50 per month. The local power company (which happens to be owned by the municipality) provides the service. They are however tied to their subsidized connection as the power company is the only company delivering through the fiber. The free-market dsl provider they used before the fiber connection was completed is probably not that pleased.
Building a big highway doesn't mean that transport companies and taxis cannot operate on a free market. In my second example though, the subsidized fibers are afaik not available to use by other operators. The difference is of course that the government subsidized internet backbone is used correctly in the first example (as infrastructure available to the free market) , and not in my second example. So to conclude: subsidized large scale infrastructure: good, subsidized direct market competition: bad.
Modern UI:s should use their new sidebars (like the ones seen in vista, office and so on) to help reduce the size of the top toolbars & menus. When more and more monitors are widescreen and resolution has not improved much (the most common laptop resolution today is 1280x800!) then the vertical space needs to be efficiently used. This is especially true for a word processor, which normally uses a portrait format document.
Does anyone know if this whole "ribbon" thing can be used docked on the left side, to allow the full screen height for the document itself?
I don't think they mean "version" I think they mean release date "Ubuntu 2006.06".
In the old scheme of things, there was great profit in making great hit singles. The hit singles sold the albums, and got the airtime. This has been the death of variety in music, and imho here is where a lot of the responsibility for the declining cd sales lies.
I think that flat charging for music sounds great, it actually gives an incentive to music producers to make good quality albums. After all, selling the whole album will give a lot more money than just selling the hit single.
Is this deliberate by apple or just a side effect of their .99c marketing?
Adobe/Macromedia does have a direct competitor, It's called Lightroom and is also in beta. http://labs.macromedia.com/technologies/lightroom/
For example "Foreign Ground" http://www.gamespot.com/news/6137237.html
ID/Creationism are not scientific theories, and so have no place in a science class. In a philosophy or religion class for example, I think these subjects can be openly discussed.
The main issue with this type of question is that people simply don't know what science is. That is not so scary when we are talking about J. Average in the poll, but quite scary when you realize that the people who decide what is to be taught in science class don't have a basic understanding of what science is.
If someone explained to these people what science is, and what qualifies as science, then perhaps a compromise could be reached if ID/Creationism would still taught in another class? The public however I can't really see comprehending the difference between science and non-science anytime soon. The reason of course being that science class obviously doesn't teach that.
The system at my bank is probably one of the most common. A little gadget with a keypad and lcd-screen. Takes a 4-digit pin to start a verification, then the verification itself consists of an 8digit number being scrambled by the gadget, and then used as signature for the transaction. All transactions are https of course.
What I'd like however, is the gadget to plug in to USB, so I didn't have to enter all those 8-digit numbers myself.
C#/.NET was designed to be all that java is in terms of platform independence, but MOST importantly, VM and package versioning was thought of from the beginning. Makes the whole difference.
A media computer however doesn't really need a high-power 3d card. So it doesn't need a £1000 case either. A next-gen console will be less than half the price and probably serve well as a media computer including gaming.
A totally fanless media computer, or a quite noisy gaming computer can be built for a fraction of the price.
I do lean towards paying up for the "apple premium" of the iBook compared to the pc's. So I was waiting, and expecting, the latest iBook to be sub-$1000 and have the kind of specs that you expect in a $1000-laptop in 2005. That is: a potent graphics card, and a high resolution display, something that the iBook was lacking before. The car comparison is very valid. I can buy a 300 horsepower japanese plastic car for the same price as a 120hp mercedes. And in that scenario I'd probably go for the german car. However, if 80 years ago mercedes had thought that their 35 horsepower engines and premium/luxury brand would be reason enough to buy their cars, then that would be ridiculous.
Just like for cars, if you are a premium brand you don't have to have the top specs. But you do need to keep your specs from getting plain silly over time, like the display of the 14" iBook.
Somehow it feels crippled just to place it below the powerbook. That kind of product segmentation usually doesn't work well in tight competition.
After a wait this long (9 months?), and with the upcoming switch to intel, Apple really needed to make the iBook look like it is going to last 5 years if ordered today.
That resolution of 1024x768 (which was cool in 1997), and the non-CoreImage graphics card makes the thing look old at the day of introduction!
Did they not notice how other premium laptops (like sony and ibm) suddenly offer twice the punch at the same price? OS X alone will not sell iBooks, especially with some features not available at all.
"Grad students aquire small nation"
The first person shooter has been so successful because the computer interface is really well suited for it. A couple of buttons and a mouse seems to let the user do whatever he wants. Different kinds of strategy games also tend to work well using a keyboard and mouse.
Once new interfaces (tactile, VR, neural, and anything I can't even imagine) are practical and common, we will also see new games on the shelf. Until then, what you can do with a keyboard and mouse (or joystick) defines the game scene.