How many of these USB cameras can handle full HDV video for 60 minutes with cheap, limitless, DV tapes that can be captured onto your computer for easy editing with one cable and one button press?
I mentioned it earlier - I think the keyed USB connector on that cord that makes it exclusive to the USB apple keyboard is to "guide" newbie computer users into lengthening their keyboard cable in some warped way.
I think it's a terrible idea, and should be done away with, but I doubt they'll listen to me.
It's not unique to Dell. My primary onlining deck for HDV source material is a Sony HVR-M10E and it also has a bit of a dodgy 4 pin firewire connector, but then this deck has a battery dock that mates with sony's Z1E style batteries, and it's pretty small, so it makes a great on-location capture deck.
After a while though, that port starts to feel a little loose, especially since it's at the bottom of the chassis at the back and thus stresses the connector/connection combo if you prop the front of the deck up on some tape boxes so you can look at the screen more easily.
I think it's just a weakness in the design of the connector, since the cage looks like it's folded around at the top and thus begins to open up like a flower over time.
No such problems on our F350 - it has a full-size 6 pin firewire port in case you need to online in the field with it, but there's more room to fit the bigger port.
Gah! That horrible keyed usb connector that *only* fits an Apple USB keyboard and no other USB device for no reason whatsoever! I could never understand why they did that, unless it was some sort of "guide" for less experienced computer users so they wouldn't complain about the short USB cord that comes on the keyboard itself.
"Hey look, this plugs into the keyboard only guys! Use it for that!"
The ADC connector, like most of the "consolidate all these cords into one easy thing" connectors was a nice idea in theory, but they soon saw the downsides to that design, and I too, am glad they ditched it for standard DVI connectors.
But if I bought any Mac (that could run OS X) and put a brand new, bought from a white-box HD in there, I could install OS X from that disk and be installing my apps as soon as it was done.
With an upgrade copy of vista, I need a second, full version of Windows before I can install it (either the OEM copy that came with the machine, or some other retail/full copy that I'll need to install first and then get to start installing Vista after that has all been installed.
My point was that, in as far as you can with Apple gear (and yes, you can mix and match when building Macs, especially older rigs like G4 towers, G5 towers etc that you can pick up on ebay or from friends, tweak up with some more memory, HD space, maybe a new graphics card if you're feeling bold and lo, you have a new machine on your hands.
It's not as raw and "hardcorde" as selecting the best motherboard you can find, with the best processor on newegg with the fancy oversized case with the neon lights in it, but it's not really any different.
Whether it's a second hand Mac, or a brand new Mac that has had a virgin hard drive put in it, you're in the same position as if you built a white box PC - you have a machine with no OS on it, barring any original discs that came with it. In the case of ALL boxed copies of OS X (except, I believe a specific one-time-shipped-from-apple-by-special-request-CD of a Panther>Tiger upgrade due to some reason I can't remember) are full copies that will install onto empty drives. So, when comparing to copies of Vista, the price point should be for similar boxed copies of Vista that will install onto a bare drive, not copies that require you have a previous Windows licence/install of some description.
The 12" Powerbook is one of the most jam-packed packages that I've ever seen, and is not user serviceable, for sure, but I've done a few HD replacements in various 12" PB's and a new Superdrive in one. You just have to keep track of the screws and use the Apple service manual to track which seemingly strange piece you need to remove next. I think they designed the internals with a spoon and a comedy foam hand.
These laptops though, have the two most commonly replaced items within a few easy-to-remove phillips screws.
At the very least it's going to make upgrades to all my family and friends' machines pretty easy in a couple of years.
I've only done two "dead drive" repairs (both on 12" PB actually), most of the hard drive changes I've done have been simple upgrades. I have a stack of 2.5" HDs in my desk that I use like removable disks in an external FW enclosure.
Oh, and as an addendum, yes, Microsoft Office for Mac is much better than the Windows version. The two suites are written by totally different teams within Microsoft and the Mac version, which it has its quirks and frustrations like any large software project, is a much nicer set of apps than the windows version.
And yes, I do use both on a fairly regular basis.
I don;t think I'm alone in this assessment of MS Office Mac compared to MS Office Windows. They really can write some excellent software in Redmond when they put their minds to it.
I hey, I agree, I'll apportion blame where it is due. I'm no rabid fanboy - Apple's track record has some shocking stuff in there, although is generally more "good" than "evil". I was just adding that in the usual telling of the GUI story, the part about Xerox and Apple doing a deal beforehand is almost always left out.
Maybe Xerox didn't know what they had, and didn't realise what it would do in the consumer computer industry until Apple was making hay and then deciding "hey, we should get some of that, screw the stock options!" or maybe Apple did go beyond the agreement and copy it a bit too much.
I would say that it was only a matter of time before some form of GUI came along and Apple were just the first to get it out there in a commercially viable product on an effective scale. If it wasn't the two Steves and friends then it would have been someone else.
I think really the last straw were people like you. The kind of people I didn't want to be associated with by owning an Apple (a contributing factor in moving away from Linux, among it's many other downfalls). People who use Windows don't care if someone else uses OS X or Linux. They don't care, because they're normal people who don't feel the need become attached to an operating system and become evangelistic and defend it and take critisisms of it personally. Bash Windows, my operating system of choice. I don't give a fuck, I know it has it's own downfalls. Now realize the same with your OS of choice and you won't sound like a smarmy douche bag.
I find it amusing that you end with this when a large portion of my post has been highly critical of OS X, including specific criticisms of the Finder, which badly needs replacement, not just because it has no option to show hidden files but for myriad reasons that make it a bit of a dog.
I just took issue with your sensationalism to justify your argument. I don;t care that you don;t like OS X. I know many people that do, but the Fox News rhetoric does you no favours.
I really, really don;t see how you can come to the conclusion that I'm evangelistically defending OS X based on this discussion thread.
I offered Pathfinder as an alternative if you really couldn't live with Finder's shortfalls and didn't want to break open a shell. The third party tools are there if you need them.
I like OS X, it does what I need it to do. Use any OS you want, but judge the ones you hate on genuine criticism. I absolutely hate how, in the new Mail.app, you cannot have the mailbox draw on the right hand side of the screen any more. I petitioned Apple to allow it, and taled about it extensively on discussion forums that it was just fine before, and now its fixed forever on the left.
I'm not going to respond to a "what's wrong with OS X" question with "nothing! it's the most perfect OS ever and I want Steve Jobs' babies!" so chill out.
When you spend $3000 on a laptop you try very hard to justify not hating it, trust me. I gave it two years of fair use, and that was enough. Bottom line, Windows does everything OS X does and does it better.
So Windows has better security/keyloggers/malware, better integration of video and audio with the OS, better browsing, better track record on viruses, better links with open source, better development environment, better Office apps, better networking, better cross platform integration with non-windows systems, better built in tools for managing your photos and for making your own home movies and DVDs, better support for games.... oh wait, it does have better games support.
So, you think it does all those things better because it has an option in Explorer to show hidden files in the GUI and Finder does not (which is a point I have already conceded about some of the shortcomings of the Finder)?
Since you say it was 2 years old and $3000 I'll assume you had a BTO 17" Powerbook. With a machine like that, there must have been something deeper if you're trying to justify not hating it, or perhaps even selling it, given the high (but obviously not 100% return) resale value.
Or given how much you seemed to detest it and try to justify the cost, you didn't spend 5 seconds googling or looking through the *vast* number of open source/shareware/third party apps for the Mac for a Finder replacement like Pathfinder.
I think maybe you tripped over an Apple II as a kid and have been carrying a grudge ever since.
Sounds like you got a lemon, or you broke it somehow.
There are a lot of things wrong with OS X (the Finder being a bit of an old dog that really needs some love) but the fancy UI and the Terminal being two faces of the same OS is by design.
It's something of a sensationalist term to call using the terminal to view hidden files as a "command line hack" - I think you're just trying to justify hating the OS. There are other ways to view hidden files, like replacing Finder with a third party file management app, for example.
When designing a UI that is intuitive, easy to use and provides the majority of users with everything that they need, you sometimes have to make compromises. Maybe they go too far in the simplistic direction sometimes, but they do offer all the control of the OS you need if you want to dig a little deeper and be hands on - hence the Terminal and the ability to edit the plain-text/human readable preference files. A so called power user isn't going to mind that turning off the iTunes store links requires either editing the pref file directly or using a terminal command to do the job instead of the UI-method.
I'll be the first to say that it's not all sweetness and roses with apple, but your original post, and the followup are just sour trolling. Apples go wrong, and when they do, in the vast, vast majority of cases they are fixed without hassle with one of the best warranty/service programs in the industry. In a few high-profile cases, someone with an axe to grind will moan about how they bought a Powerbook and it broke and Steve Jobs personally came round to his house and fucked his wife then said "sorry, can't fix your powerbook".
Feel free to email Apple with suggestions about how to improve the OS - they do take feedback. Hidden files in the Finder is a big request, and I'm assuming that at some point we'll see an all-new revamped Finder, since it is the current dog of an otherwise very nice OS.
From the link in your actual post, you fail to mention that Apple gave Xerox stock in exchange for working with them, on the understanding that Apple was going to make a GUI. You make it sound (deliberately I assume, due to some sort of axe grinding) that Apple took one look at PARC's work and ripped them off wholesale, which was far from the truth.
The Mac WoW client is written from the ground up as a Mac app - it responds properly to standard keyboard commands, behaves properly when crashing, and runs very well.
This Transgaming junk, or whatever the current flavour of the month shortcut that they're using is a *world* apart. I also play a little EVE Online, and the Mac client is essentially the Windows client bundled up with Cider to make it work on the Mac. It crashes a lot, it causes other applications to behave oddly (mainly with odd visual effects, long after the app is quit - you have to relog/reboot to fix this), it gradually gets more and more laggy (usually the sound distorting is the first clue) if you play for a while, forcing you to quit it and restart. If you ignore it getting laggy and sound-distorty, it'll just crash on you. It crashes to desktop with no proper feedback.
So, to say that porting a Windows game over to the Mac in this manner would be better? No way in hell. The native app is much, much better.
Look at it this way, I am really starting to enjoy EVE, but I thought I could put up with the fact that I would have to restart my Mac after playing for a couple of hours, since if I don't all the windows of my other apps will have visual display issues (either show as plain white, scroll bars move but the contents don't, or windows just plain don't show up after you've hidden them). I don't think I can live with it, however, and will be cancelling my account when the paid time is up.
If Blizzard ever went this route, I guess I'd have much more free time on my hands, since I wouldn't be playing any more.
I am sympathetic to Linux gamers, (hey, I play on a Mac - I get just as much stick as you guys) but the wrapper-around-a-windows-client crap just isn't the way to go.
If you read a couple of details, you'll see that the bad guy here did the following:
a) incorporated source code written by the good guy into his product b) patented it, and claimed it was his own work c) sent a $200,000 bill to the original author for "infringing patents"
Whether they are both small fish or not is irrelevant, what this preliminary decision does is ensure that if you release your software under an open source licence that your hard work is protected and not free and easy pickings for the fastest sleazeball to the patent office, who is in front of you in line to file a patent on your work because he spends his time stealing code instead of writing it.
Thanks to this decision, you can't claim that free software licences are invalid and that code out there under those licences is public domain and free to take with no consequence.
I suppose I labelled myself with the term most used to describe my thinking, and since my politics tend to go that way too, I guess it;s an easy thing to fall into.
A counterpoint to that would be that I am *totally* pro-nuclear power, as a solution to our energy needs well into the future, alongside other solutions such as solar, wind, hydro etc. We need to build more nuclear power stations yesterday.
My "save the planet" one was a little glib - I took it as a prompt from Al Gore's film where he shows a poster produced to show the pros and cons of environmental concerns with a scales, that has money/gold on one side, representing the economy, and the entire globe on the other side!
I actually live in the UK, so while our political system is still a 2 horse race, there's still a reasonably effective third party so all is not lost - still, I find myself voting Labour more often than not.
While I admire Greenpeace's ideals, they totally lose any support from the mainstream because their methods and arguments are just batshit crazy.
Have you seen the "no more Chernobyls" greenpeace video with lingering shots of the destroyed reactor building, some ill children and an ending message of "say no to nuclear power".
I'm sure if they take that to the logical conclusion, they should release a "No More hindenburgs!" video with "say no to air travel" at the end.
Their company "green score" campaign that criticised Apple for not doing various environmentally friendly things regarding their products (like stopping the use of bromine-based flame retardants in plastics, reducing the levels of lead and so on in their shipped machines) was total fiction, and prompted Apple to release a statement saying "well, actuall if you'd just asked us, we fixed all those things years ago, and are way ahead of everyone else that you gave higher scores to!". So much for research eh, greenpeace?
I'm about as lefty as you can go - national healthcare, high gas milage, save the planet, recycle etc etc, but I just cannot stand Greenpeace - they make the rest of us look bad. I guess they're the lefty version of Rush Limbaugh or Bill Orielly.
This has as much of a chance of success of randomly shooting 1 passenger in the head out out every... say, 200,000.
Surely at some point, a *lot* of people are going to get saved from a lot of hurt when a terrorist is shot.
The ends don't always justify the means.
Just look at "Security Theatre" as it is right now - it has very little effect other than to annoy passengers. If you want to beat "the system" you just have to come up with a new way to get a bomb past.
* Put it in your shoes > now everyone has to have their shoes xrayed. * Make it a liquid and hide it in bottles > now no one can carry liquid greater than 100ml through security * make your clothes out of gun cotton..... > make everyone fly naked?
There is no logical extension, and all you're really doing is clamping down on one transport system, to little effect. Where's all this security on trains? On ferries? In the middle of a crowded mall?
It's known (although I can't cite a source without it being deleted) that the admins on wikipedia can reset the article history as they see fit. The system is not perfect at tracking past edit as it can be tampered with.
There are several excellent diesel minivans for sale...... in Europe.
I am moving to the US soon, and it's looking like I'm going to have to buy a Jetta wagon rather than my preferred choice, the VW Touran, one of the best minivans I have ever driven.
Alternatively, there's the venerable Renault Espace, the car that started the MPV revolution, or its smaller sibling the Scenic.
Possibly, but Blizzard's track record has been pretty good - just look at the Starcraft discs that I still have after all these years. I can just pop them in and play. The "DRM" in this case being a CD check.
Yes it's an old game, from a more relaxed time, but Blizzard's main goal has always been the strength of the product making you want to buy it and support the company rather than get a cracked copy. It *is* a viable business strategy if your product is good enough (or your fanbase is loyal enough, but are must be taken if your product blows). Sure, there will always be people who go outside the law and obtain it illegally, even with the most hideous and draconian DRM scheme in the world, so you have to ask yourself, why bother with it in the first place? It only inconveniences the legitimate customers.
Now, since Blizzard was recently acquired by a large publishing house, they may have things forced on them that they don't want (just look at what happened to Maxis, Westwood Studios, Bungie etc.....) but perhaps with the success of WoW and previous Blizzard titles they'll be able to hold off the shit sticks in the money department.
Slashdot Mirror
bah, so much for unicode characters. Those were correctly accented in the text entry box.
No, je ne parlais FranÃais, je suis desolé.
How many of these USB cameras can handle full HDV video for 60 minutes with cheap, limitless, DV tapes that can be captured onto your computer for easy editing with one cable and one button press?
I mentioned it earlier - I think the keyed USB connector on that cord that makes it exclusive to the USB apple keyboard is to "guide" newbie computer users into lengthening their keyboard cable in some warped way.
I think it's a terrible idea, and should be done away with, but I doubt they'll listen to me.
So if I have a copy of Windows 95 I can upgrade it to Windows 98, Win 98SE, Win ME for free?
Or if I have Windows 2000, can I get Windows XP for free?
It's not unique to Dell. My primary onlining deck for HDV source material is a Sony HVR-M10E and it also has a bit of a dodgy 4 pin firewire connector, but then this deck has a battery dock that mates with sony's Z1E style batteries, and it's pretty small, so it makes a great on-location capture deck.
After a while though, that port starts to feel a little loose, especially since it's at the bottom of the chassis at the back and thus stresses the connector/connection combo if you prop the front of the deck up on some tape boxes so you can look at the screen more easily.
I think it's just a weakness in the design of the connector, since the cage looks like it's folded around at the top and thus begins to open up like a flower over time.
No such problems on our F350 - it has a full-size 6 pin firewire port in case you need to online in the field with it, but there's more room to fit the bigger port.
Gah! That horrible keyed usb connector that *only* fits an Apple USB keyboard and no other USB device for no reason whatsoever! I could never understand why they did that, unless it was some sort of "guide" for less experienced computer users so they wouldn't complain about the short USB cord that comes on the keyboard itself.
"Hey look, this plugs into the keyboard only guys! Use it for that!"
The ADC connector, like most of the "consolidate all these cords into one easy thing" connectors was a nice idea in theory, but they soon saw the downsides to that design, and I too, am glad they ditched it for standard DVI connectors.
But if I bought any Mac (that could run OS X) and put a brand new, bought from a white-box HD in there, I could install OS X from that disk and be installing my apps as soon as it was done.
With an upgrade copy of vista, I need a second, full version of Windows before I can install it (either the OEM copy that came with the machine, or some other retail/full copy that I'll need to install first and then get to start installing Vista after that has all been installed.
My point was that, in as far as you can with Apple gear (and yes, you can mix and match when building Macs, especially older rigs like G4 towers, G5 towers etc that you can pick up on ebay or from friends, tweak up with some more memory, HD space, maybe a new graphics card if you're feeling bold and lo, you have a new machine on your hands.
It's not as raw and "hardcorde" as selecting the best motherboard you can find, with the best processor on newegg with the fancy oversized case with the neon lights in it, but it's not really any different.
Whether it's a second hand Mac, or a brand new Mac that has had a virgin hard drive put in it, you're in the same position as if you built a white box PC - you have a machine with no OS on it, barring any original discs that came with it. In the case of ALL boxed copies of OS X (except, I believe a specific one-time-shipped-from-apple-by-special-request-CD of a Panther>Tiger upgrade due to some reason I can't remember) are full copies that will install onto empty drives. So, when comparing to copies of Vista, the price point should be for similar boxed copies of Vista that will install onto a bare drive, not copies that require you have a previous Windows licence/install of some description.
Is that $100 for a full copy of Vista that I can install on a bare hard drive?
OS X only comes in 1 form (2 if you count the server version I guess). The only difference is the licencing.
Also, no crippled versions with artificially hobbled media support or networking.
So, when comparing Apples to... Potatos, ensure that you compare feature-comparable stuff.
About as long as it takes them to hit the key to switch it back!
The inverted screen colours thing has been an email circular since OS X came out, and is reported as "the mac virus!".
I'll bet that almost all Apple stores have had calls about how to fix this "problem".
The 12" Powerbook is one of the most jam-packed packages that I've ever seen, and is not user serviceable, for sure, but I've done a few HD replacements in various 12" PB's and a new Superdrive in one. You just have to keep track of the screws and use the Apple service manual to track which seemingly strange piece you need to remove next. I think they designed the internals with a spoon and a comedy foam hand.
These laptops though, have the two most commonly replaced items within a few easy-to-remove phillips screws.
At the very least it's going to make upgrades to all my family and friends' machines pretty easy in a couple of years.
I've only done two "dead drive" repairs (both on 12" PB actually), most of the hard drive changes I've done have been simple upgrades. I have a stack of 2.5" HDs in my desk that I use like removable disks in an external FW enclosure.
Oh, and as an addendum, yes, Microsoft Office for Mac is much better than the Windows version. The two suites are written by totally different teams within Microsoft and the Mac version, which it has its quirks and frustrations like any large software project, is a much nicer set of apps than the windows version.
And yes, I do use both on a fairly regular basis.
I don;t think I'm alone in this assessment of MS Office Mac compared to MS Office Windows. They really can write some excellent software in Redmond when they put their minds to it.
I hey, I agree, I'll apportion blame where it is due. I'm no rabid fanboy - Apple's track record has some shocking stuff in there, although is generally more "good" than "evil". I was just adding that in the usual telling of the GUI story, the part about Xerox and Apple doing a deal beforehand is almost always left out.
Maybe Xerox didn't know what they had, and didn't realise what it would do in the consumer computer industry until Apple was making hay and then deciding "hey, we should get some of that, screw the stock options!" or maybe Apple did go beyond the agreement and copy it a bit too much.
I would say that it was only a matter of time before some form of GUI came along and Apple were just the first to get it out there in a commercially viable product on an effective scale. If it wasn't the two Steves and friends then it would have been someone else.
I think really the last straw were people like you. The kind of people I didn't want to be associated with by owning an Apple (a contributing factor in moving away from Linux, among it's many other downfalls). People who use Windows don't care if someone else uses OS X or Linux. They don't care, because they're normal people who don't feel the need become attached to an operating system and become evangelistic and defend it and take critisisms of it personally. Bash Windows, my operating system of choice. I don't give a fuck, I know it has it's own downfalls. Now realize the same with your OS of choice and you won't sound like a smarmy douche bag.
I find it amusing that you end with this when a large portion of my post has been highly critical of OS X, including specific criticisms of the Finder, which badly needs replacement, not just because it has no option to show hidden files but for myriad reasons that make it a bit of a dog.
I just took issue with your sensationalism to justify your argument. I don;t care that you don;t like OS X. I know many people that do, but the Fox News rhetoric does you no favours.
I really, really don;t see how you can come to the conclusion that I'm evangelistically defending OS X based on this discussion thread.
I offered Pathfinder as an alternative if you really couldn't live with Finder's shortfalls and didn't want to break open a shell. The third party tools are there if you need them.
I like OS X, it does what I need it to do. Use any OS you want, but judge the ones you hate on genuine criticism. I absolutely hate how, in the new Mail.app, you cannot have the mailbox draw on the right hand side of the screen any more. I petitioned Apple to allow it, and taled about it extensively on discussion forums that it was just fine before, and now its fixed forever on the left.
I'm not going to respond to a "what's wrong with OS X" question with "nothing! it's the most perfect OS ever and I want Steve Jobs' babies!" so chill out.
When you spend $3000 on a laptop you try very hard to justify not hating it, trust me. I gave it two years of fair use, and that was enough. Bottom line, Windows does everything OS X does and does it better.
So Windows has better security/keyloggers/malware, better integration of video and audio with the OS, better browsing, better track record on viruses, better links with open source, better development environment, better Office apps, better networking, better cross platform integration with non-windows systems, better built in tools for managing your photos and for making your own home movies and DVDs, better support for games.... oh wait, it does have better games support.
So, you think it does all those things better because it has an option in Explorer to show hidden files in the GUI and Finder does not (which is a point I have already conceded about some of the shortcomings of the Finder)?
Since you say it was 2 years old and $3000 I'll assume you had a BTO 17" Powerbook. With a machine like that, there must have been something deeper if you're trying to justify not hating it, or perhaps even selling it, given the high (but obviously not 100% return) resale value.
Or given how much you seemed to detest it and try to justify the cost, you didn't spend 5 seconds googling or looking through the *vast* number of open source/shareware/third party apps for the Mac for a Finder replacement like Pathfinder.
I think maybe you tripped over an Apple II as a kid and have been carrying a grudge ever since.
Sounds like you got a lemon, or you broke it somehow.
There are a lot of things wrong with OS X (the Finder being a bit of an old dog that really needs some love) but the fancy UI and the Terminal being two faces of the same OS is by design.
It's something of a sensationalist term to call using the terminal to view hidden files as a "command line hack" - I think you're just trying to justify hating the OS. There are other ways to view hidden files, like replacing Finder with a third party file management app, for example.
When designing a UI that is intuitive, easy to use and provides the majority of users with everything that they need, you sometimes have to make compromises. Maybe they go too far in the simplistic direction sometimes, but they do offer all the control of the OS you need if you want to dig a little deeper and be hands on - hence the Terminal and the ability to edit the plain-text/human readable preference files. A so called power user isn't going to mind that turning off the iTunes store links requires either editing the pref file directly or using a terminal command to do the job instead of the UI-method.
I'll be the first to say that it's not all sweetness and roses with apple, but your original post, and the followup are just sour trolling. Apples go wrong, and when they do, in the vast, vast majority of cases they are fixed without hassle with one of the best warranty/service programs in the industry. In a few high-profile cases, someone with an axe to grind will moan about how they bought a Powerbook and it broke and Steve Jobs personally came round to his house and fucked his wife then said "sorry, can't fix your powerbook".
Feel free to email Apple with suggestions about how to improve the OS - they do take feedback. Hidden files in the Finder is a big request, and I'm assuming that at some point we'll see an all-new revamped Finder, since it is the current dog of an otherwise very nice OS.
From the link in your actual post, you fail to mention that Apple gave Xerox stock in exchange for working with them, on the understanding that Apple was going to make a GUI. You make it sound (deliberately I assume, due to some sort of axe grinding) that Apple took one look at PARC's work and ripped them off wholesale, which was far from the truth.
The Mac WoW client is written from the ground up as a Mac app - it responds properly to standard keyboard commands, behaves properly when crashing, and runs very well.
This Transgaming junk, or whatever the current flavour of the month shortcut that they're using is a *world* apart. I also play a little EVE Online, and the Mac client is essentially the Windows client bundled up with Cider to make it work on the Mac. It crashes a lot, it causes other applications to behave oddly (mainly with odd visual effects, long after the app is quit - you have to relog/reboot to fix this), it gradually gets more and more laggy (usually the sound distorting is the first clue) if you play for a while, forcing you to quit it and restart. If you ignore it getting laggy and sound-distorty, it'll just crash on you. It crashes to desktop with no proper feedback.
So, to say that porting a Windows game over to the Mac in this manner would be better? No way in hell. The native app is much, much better.
Look at it this way, I am really starting to enjoy EVE, but I thought I could put up with the fact that I would have to restart my Mac after playing for a couple of hours, since if I don't all the windows of my other apps will have visual display issues (either show as plain white, scroll bars move but the contents don't, or windows just plain don't show up after you've hidden them). I don't think I can live with it, however, and will be cancelling my account when the paid time is up.
If Blizzard ever went this route, I guess I'd have much more free time on my hands, since I wouldn't be playing any more.
I am sympathetic to Linux gamers, (hey, I play on a Mac - I get just as much stick as you guys) but the wrapper-around-a-windows-client crap just isn't the way to go.
If you read a couple of details, you'll see that the bad guy here did the following:
a) incorporated source code written by the good guy into his product
b) patented it, and claimed it was his own work
c) sent a $200,000 bill to the original author for "infringing patents"
Whether they are both small fish or not is irrelevant, what this preliminary decision does is ensure that if you release your software under an open source licence that your hard work is protected and not free and easy pickings for the fastest sleazeball to the patent office, who is in front of you in line to file a patent on your work because he spends his time stealing code instead of writing it.
Thanks to this decision, you can't claim that free software licences are invalid and that code out there under those licences is public domain and free to take with no consequence.
I suppose I labelled myself with the term most used to describe my thinking, and since my politics tend to go that way too, I guess it;s an easy thing to fall into.
A counterpoint to that would be that I am *totally* pro-nuclear power, as a solution to our energy needs well into the future, alongside other solutions such as solar, wind, hydro etc. We need to build more nuclear power stations yesterday.
My "save the planet" one was a little glib - I took it as a prompt from Al Gore's film where he shows a poster produced to show the pros and cons of environmental concerns with a scales, that has money/gold on one side, representing the economy, and the entire globe on the other side!
I actually live in the UK, so while our political system is still a 2 horse race, there's still a reasonably effective third party so all is not lost - still, I find myself voting Labour more often than not.
While I admire Greenpeace's ideals, they totally lose any support from the mainstream because their methods and arguments are just batshit crazy.
Have you seen the "no more Chernobyls" greenpeace video with lingering shots of the destroyed reactor building, some ill children and an ending message of "say no to nuclear power".
I'm sure if they take that to the logical conclusion, they should release a "No More hindenburgs!" video with "say no to air travel" at the end.
Their company "green score" campaign that criticised Apple for not doing various environmentally friendly things regarding their products (like stopping the use of bromine-based flame retardants in plastics, reducing the levels of lead and so on in their shipped machines) was total fiction, and prompted Apple to release a statement saying "well, actuall if you'd just asked us, we fixed all those things years ago, and are way ahead of everyone else that you gave higher scores to!". So much for research eh, greenpeace?
I'm about as lefty as you can go - national healthcare, high gas milage, save the planet, recycle etc etc, but I just cannot stand Greenpeace - they make the rest of us look bad. I guess they're the lefty version of Rush Limbaugh or Bill Orielly.
This has as much of a chance of success of randomly shooting 1 passenger in the head out out every... say, 200,000.
Surely at some point, a *lot* of people are going to get saved from a lot of hurt when a terrorist is shot.
The ends don't always justify the means.
Just look at "Security Theatre" as it is right now - it has very little effect other than to annoy passengers. If you want to beat "the system" you just have to come up with a new way to get a bomb past.
* Put it in your shoes > now everyone has to have their shoes xrayed.
* Make it a liquid and hide it in bottles > now no one can carry liquid greater than 100ml through security
* make your clothes out of gun cotton..... > make everyone fly naked?
There is no logical extension, and all you're really doing is clamping down on one transport system, to little effect. Where's all this security on trains? On ferries? In the middle of a crowded mall?
It's known (although I can't cite a source without it being deleted) that the admins on wikipedia can reset the article history as they see fit. The system is not perfect at tracking past edit as it can be tampered with.
There are several excellent diesel minivans for sale...... in Europe.
I am moving to the US soon, and it's looking like I'm going to have to buy a Jetta wagon rather than my preferred choice, the VW Touran, one of the best minivans I have ever driven.
Alternatively, there's the venerable Renault Espace, the car that started the MPV revolution, or its smaller sibling the Scenic.
Possibly, but Blizzard's track record has been pretty good - just look at the Starcraft discs that I still have after all these years. I can just pop them in and play. The "DRM" in this case being a CD check.
Yes it's an old game, from a more relaxed time, but Blizzard's main goal has always been the strength of the product making you want to buy it and support the company rather than get a cracked copy. It *is* a viable business strategy if your product is good enough (or your fanbase is loyal enough, but are must be taken if your product blows). Sure, there will always be people who go outside the law and obtain it illegally, even with the most hideous and draconian DRM scheme in the world, so you have to ask yourself, why bother with it in the first place? It only inconveniences the legitimate customers.
Now, since Blizzard was recently acquired by a large publishing house, they may have things forced on them that they don't want (just look at what happened to Maxis, Westwood Studios, Bungie etc.....) but perhaps with the success of WoW and previous Blizzard titles they'll be able to hold off the shit sticks in the money department.