Perhaps the best argument made so far, although this usually applies more to 3rd person than 1st person styles.
A good example would be Sonic Adventure. All Sonic games are classic jump & run format. With a third person camera angle, precision jumping becomes extremely difficult! In this particular game, the problems are made worse by how the controls are handled: You press "up" to run forward, then the camera sweeps around dramatically and you veer off course because "up" now means something else. It takes a lot of getting used to and really hurts the game.
Unfortunately DC power doesn't transmit over any kind of distance very well. AC is much more efficient for that. (Esp. at high voltages... 20,000V+)
Also, all flourecent lights have transformers in them, so suddenly it's not too unreasonable for each light fixture to have its own little transformer in it! =Smidge=
If the part is old enough that you can't get them anymore, then I'm thinking patent protection may not be an issue!
That is a teriffic idea, though. Maybe I can get some replacement parts for my Rambler. I had already started experimenting with casting my own glass lenses to replace my broken/half missing tailights, now I might be able to get some of the more complicated parts like the plastic dodad that locks the gearshift in place until you pull it forward.
eMachineShop's little design utility WILL tell you if your part can be manufactured. But if you design it wrong and it doesn't work/fit it's your problem. I'd imagine it's the same policy with the circuit boards.
Being the owner of a cellphone, I can attest that I was never asked for my SSN. I don't recal a credit check being necessary, either. It wouldn't surprise me if the phone company had my SSN, but they probably got it from somewhere else since at no point do I recall giving it to them.
And who do you think would most likely be doing the poisoning?
I'm not opposed to making government docs more accessible. Far from it. But if you're going to do that you need to be careful against distributing someone's political agenda instead of factual information. =Smidge=
Re:Perfect!
on
IPv6 is Here
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I don't need my SSN to make a phone call.
In fact, there are a lot of daily activities I don't need my SSN for, and I've never needed it online. It's hard to imagine any online activity that doesn't require an IP though. =Smidge=
There are many varieties of hemp that don't contain any THC, so there would not be any pot heads trying to steal some of the crop 'cause that stuff would never get you high.
With the nature of P2P networks, what safeguards have been taken against "poisoning" the documents? Seems it would be too easy to take a document and modify/censor it then place it back into the network. Neither the article nor the website of the people doing this seem to address this possibility.
Konqueror? Well that eliminates all your Windows users, so using them for a comparison wold automatically cut your market to less than 5% of the total. Same goes for Safari. Neoplanet? That's got a download manager and integrated search, but other than that it's a skinnable IE. Avant? It's got a popup blocker, integrated search and multi-page browsing (But using a standard MDI isntead of tabs, which has it's good and bad points). K-Meleon? Tabs, integrated search and popup blocking. Close!
How about Opera? Well that's getting somewhere. But if you're going to complain about unnecessary options, why do you need an IRC client built into your browser? Do you REALLY need a mail client bundled with it? Oh yeah, it's also either subscription based or ad supported... well it's still a viable option.
I'm sure you know of a few others. Care to share?
If you want to do something sensible, you compare yourself to the product that has the lion's share of the market: Internet Explorer. If there is anyone out there considering a change in browsers they most likely are using IE now. That's your market so that's who you pitch your sale to. You think it's a coincidence that all the alternatives I mentioned above mention how similar to IE they are?
"But" you say, "You can get extensions that give IE all that functionality." Well yes, but you can also put a really nice stereo system, leather seats, navigation system and better suspension in your beat up old car or you can get a new car with all that already in it. NO matter how many coats of paint you put on that Pinto it'll still be a Pinto and it will still blow up when it gets rear ended. I suppose you could reinforce the back bumper, but now you're "bloating" it with extra weight. Plus now you've got to juggle all different components to get the features that the other products have as standard.
And all of this is all pretty much academic at this point, because Mozilla is still not using "Because it's open source" as a selling point, as your post originally claimed. So do you want to go back to that point or keep trying to get away from that subject? =Smidge=
You're right, you didn't. And I never claimed you did.
But if you're going to push a product, comparing your product to the competition is a common and effective tactic. Therefore, those are still valid selling points, which they are using. =Smidge=
Please show me where on the official page it lists "Because it's open source" as a reason for using it. Because, you know, I can't quite find it. In fact I haven't seen anywhere on the site it even mentions "open source" or "OSS". Clearly that is not a selling point they are using.
Oh, but they do have a good slew of genuine selling points, though:
1) Tabbed browsing. Until you've used it it's hard to appreciate just how good this feature really is.
2) Integrated Google search (which is configurable to use any engine you want, if I'm not mistaken). I've been using the search box in the upper right corner rather than typing queries into the address bar myself though.
3) Find-as-you-type. Start typing and it will zoom to (and highlight) links that match the letters you've typed so far.
4) Internal download manager. If IE can pause and resume downloads I haven't been able to find out how. This is also a break for those who, like me, occasionally forget where they saved a download to.
5) Built in popup blocking. 'nuff said.
6) Not vulnerable to 99.9% of the exploits in the wild. That 0.1% being that "shell://" exploit which I believe is fixed now and was actually a problem with Windows itself.
7) Standards compliant, though perhaps not 100% so, it is MUCH more compliant than IE. If there's a problem with a page rendering it's a safe bet the page itself does not conform to standards.
Those all seem like genuine selling points to me! =Smidge=
Re:Do you not get it?
on
TMBG on DRM
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I am assuming no such thing.
Speaking for myself: This is my opinion and I do not speak for anyone else because I understand other people may feel differently.
It's not crap just because I hate it: I do not like most modern music. (The "most" part I explicitly stated later in my post, so don't even go there.) However I recognize that this is my opinion and that does not automatically make it universally the worst music ever.
I then go on to explain the reasons why I feel it's crap.
To turn your own argument against you, you are explicitly stating that it's NOT crap simply because "most of the public likes it". I can just as easily state that if "most" children believe in Santa then he must exist. Of course I'll have to proove that "most" children believe in Santa first, but you also have to proove that "most" people like "today's music". Does this also mean that if "most" of the people living in the Southern US circa-1830 approved of slavery, it wasn't cruel and inhuman? Oh no, because the undefined statistic that "most" of the general population is for or against something is totally irrefutable, because the majority voice can't possibly be wrong!
This does not mean, however, that my opinion weighs any more than yours, or anyone else's. It's just that I find your argument that something must be true because lots of of people believe it just as absurd as the statement you claim I've made.
It is a FACT that much (far too much, IMHO) of the music played on the radio and on TV is manufactured, formulated, overhyped and optimized for sensationalism and marketability. Then it's ruthlessly drilled into the heads of the general public hour by hour on the airwaves. maybe "most" people like it because they're never exposed to anything else? If you enjoy the cookiecutter tunes churned out by the record labels then by all means give them your money. I'm sure they won't mind.
As a personal preference I prefer originality and honesty in the music and the ideas it prepresents, so I'd rather my money go to the artists that produce it.
Perhaps I'm not the one who can't see outside his own perspective? =Smidge=
Re:Bad music?
on
TMBG on DRM
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Speaking for myself: It's not crap just because I hate it. I hate it because it's crap. Slight difference.
It's crap because it's all the same. Unless you have heard the song before, or are a fan of the artist, it is virtually impossible to tell who the artist IS. Truly distinctive sounds are few and far between, and original sounds are rarer still. All the music industry seems to be concerned with today is manufacturing an image so they can sell shoes and soft drinks, not promoting creative music.
The end result is that on all but the rare occasion, what gets palyed on the radio is trite. =Smidge=
I've always equated FUD with the use of disinformation to gain a competative advantage by invoking fear, uncertainty and doubt in the public about your competitor's product. In this case:
1) The information ("IE is insecure" etc) is verifyably true and reported by many different people and organizations.
2) The people behind Mozilla and Opera are not the one generating the reports about their competitor's (Microsoft's) products.
3) The people involved with 1 and 2 (The ones finding and reporting the security issues, and the ones championing Moz/Opera) have no (apparent) vested interest in seeing IE lose it's market share.
So I'm not convinced this article coutns as FUD in that respect. =Smidge=
Seriously, it would be a really neat feature if some of the suggestions posted here were realized... but this whole idea screams of bloat bloat bloat. What makes FireFox so appealing for some (including me) is it's compactness and lack of bells and whistles. The FireFox project FAQ echos these sentiments: It's small, fast, simplified, nothing other than what you need. "Just a browser"
Hydrogen only has 1 proton... that's why it has an atomic number of 1 and has one electron. If it had more than one proton it wouldn't be hydrogen anymore.
Someone slept through chemistry class... (Shame too, 'cause the rest of the post is correct and the part that was wrong didn't need to be there at all) =Smidge=
Zinc whiskers are quite real, and they can pose a hazard. The reason you don't see data centers around the world having this problem has many aspects, some of which I can think of include:
-Too new. It takes years for these whiskers to grow to any length (1mm/year), and it may take years before it even starts to happen.
-Only happens to electroplated surfaces. Dip galvanized objects (Like electrical boxes and bolts and such) don't seem prone to this effect.
-Newer machines are more vulnerable with their more delicate circuits and smaller, tighter tracings and pins. A data center with older machines might be all but immune to it simply because the equipment is old and robust enough.
High taffic areas they are likely to get stomped on/eroded away long before they pose a problem. So you would have to have a situation where you have a spot like under a table, where you have objects electroplated with zinc sitting undisturbed for a long time, then get disturbed. Then you would have to be unlucky enough to disturb them and get it into the air.
Ironically, there are wood based floors used in data ceneters with steel reinforcing on the back of the tiles that are zinc-electroplated (thus being essentially undisturbed for years). So if a fairly old data center, that happens to have the right (wrong?) type of flooring, undergoes an upgrade or reorganization... well that might do it.
Now if these guys ARE just using it as an excuse, that's another story. But that doesn't make the problem any less real. =Smidge=
I think what the parent was getting at is more along these lines:
You can have 100 factory workers producing products that net you $500 profit.
or
You can have 100 researchers developing prodicts that net you $1000.
His question is: Why can't you have 100 factory workers and 100 researchers make a profit of $1500? Is it really less expensive/more attractive to destroy and rebuild an otherwise perfectly good infastructure and workforce than it is to add to it? =Smidge=
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps the best argument made so far, although this usually applies more to 3rd person than 1st person styles.
A good example would be Sonic Adventure. All Sonic games are classic jump & run format. With a third person camera angle, precision jumping becomes extremely difficult! In this particular game, the problems are made worse by how the controls are handled: You press "up" to run forward, then the camera sweeps around dramatically and you veer off course because "up" now means something else. It takes a lot of getting used to and really hurts the game.
=Smidge=
Unfortunately DC power doesn't transmit over any kind of distance very well. AC is much more efficient for that. (Esp. at high voltages... 20,000V+)
Also, all flourecent lights have transformers in them, so suddenly it's not too unreasonable for each light fixture to have its own little transformer in it!
=Smidge=
My bet is the code to do this borked FireFox on ya.
=Smidge=
Use it as a stand-in for any meetings you have to go to, of course!
=Smidge=
We need to stop this race of super-human monkeys at the source!
The White House?
Oh wait, super-human monkeys... nevermind!
=Smidge=
If the part is old enough that you can't get them anymore, then I'm thinking patent protection may not be an issue!
That is a teriffic idea, though. Maybe I can get some replacement parts for my Rambler. I had already started experimenting with casting my own glass lenses to replace my broken/half missing tailights, now I might be able to get some of the more complicated parts like the plastic dodad that locks the gearshift in place until you pull it forward.
Mmm. Possibilities...
=Smidge=
eMachineShop's little design utility WILL tell you if your part can be manufactured. But if you design it wrong and it doesn't work/fit it's your problem. I'd imagine it's the same policy with the circuit boards.
=Smidge=
Being the owner of a cellphone, I can attest that I was never asked for my SSN. I don't recal a credit check being necessary, either. It wouldn't surprise me if the phone company had my SSN, but they probably got it from somewhere else since at no point do I recall giving it to them.
=Smidge=
And who do you think would most likely be doing the poisoning?
I'm not opposed to making government docs more accessible. Far from it. But if you're going to do that you need to be careful against distributing someone's political agenda instead of factual information.
=Smidge=
I don't need my SSN to make a phone call.
In fact, there are a lot of daily activities I don't need my SSN for, and I've never needed it online. It's hard to imagine any online activity that doesn't require an IP though.
=Smidge=
There are many varieties of hemp that don't contain any THC, so there would not be any pot heads trying to steal some of the crop 'cause that stuff would never get you high.
=Smidge=
With the nature of P2P networks, what safeguards have been taken against "poisoning" the documents? Seems it would be too easy to take a document and modify/censor it then place it back into the network. Neither the article nor the website of the people doing this seem to address this possibility.
=Smidge=
What other products are out there?
Konqueror? Well that eliminates all your Windows users, so using them for a comparison wold automatically cut your market to less than 5% of the total. Same goes for Safari. Neoplanet? That's got a download manager and integrated search, but other than that it's a skinnable IE. Avant? It's got a popup blocker, integrated search and multi-page browsing (But using a standard MDI isntead of tabs, which has it's good and bad points). K-Meleon? Tabs, integrated search and popup blocking. Close!
How about Opera? Well that's getting somewhere. But if you're going to complain about unnecessary options, why do you need an IRC client built into your browser? Do you REALLY need a mail client bundled with it? Oh yeah, it's also either subscription based or ad supported... well it's still a viable option.
I'm sure you know of a few others. Care to share?
If you want to do something sensible, you compare yourself to the product that has the lion's share of the market: Internet Explorer. If there is anyone out there considering a change in browsers they most likely are using IE now. That's your market so that's who you pitch your sale to. You think it's a coincidence that all the alternatives I mentioned above mention how similar to IE they are?
"But" you say, "You can get extensions that give IE all that functionality." Well yes, but you can also put a really nice stereo system, leather seats, navigation system and better suspension in your beat up old car or you can get a new car with all that already in it. NO matter how many coats of paint you put on that Pinto it'll still be a Pinto and it will still blow up when it gets rear ended. I suppose you could reinforce the back bumper, but now you're "bloating" it with extra weight. Plus now you've got to juggle all different components to get the features that the other products have as standard.
And all of this is all pretty much academic at this point, because Mozilla is still not using "Because it's open source" as a selling point, as your post originally claimed. So do you want to go back to that point or keep trying to get away from that subject?
=Smidge=
You're right, you didn't. And I never claimed you did.
But if you're going to push a product, comparing your product to the competition is a common and effective tactic. Therefore, those are still valid selling points, which they are using.
=Smidge=
Well, this is obviously a troll isn't it?
Please show me where on the official page it lists "Because it's open source" as a reason for using it. Because, you know, I can't quite find it. In fact I haven't seen anywhere on the site it even mentions "open source" or "OSS". Clearly that is not a selling point they are using.
Oh, but they do have a good slew of genuine selling points, though:
1) Tabbed browsing. Until you've used it it's hard to appreciate just how good this feature really is.
2) Integrated Google search (which is configurable to use any engine you want, if I'm not mistaken). I've been using the search box in the upper right corner rather than typing queries into the address bar myself though.
3) Find-as-you-type. Start typing and it will zoom to (and highlight) links that match the letters you've typed so far.
4) Internal download manager. If IE can pause and resume downloads I haven't been able to find out how. This is also a break for those who, like me, occasionally forget where they saved a download to.
5) Built in popup blocking. 'nuff said.
6) Not vulnerable to 99.9% of the exploits in the wild. That 0.1% being that "shell://" exploit which I believe is fixed now and was actually a problem with Windows itself.
7) Standards compliant, though perhaps not 100% so, it is MUCH more compliant than IE. If there's a problem with a page rendering it's a safe bet the page itself does not conform to standards.
Those all seem like genuine selling points to me!
=Smidge=
I am assuming no such thing.
Speaking for myself: This is my opinion and I do not speak for anyone else because I understand other people may feel differently.
It's not crap just because I hate it: I do not like most modern music. (The "most" part I explicitly stated later in my post, so don't even go there.) However I recognize that this is my opinion and that does not automatically make it universally the worst music ever.
I then go on to explain the reasons why I feel it's crap.
To turn your own argument against you, you are explicitly stating that it's NOT crap simply because "most of the public likes it". I can just as easily state that if "most" children believe in Santa then he must exist. Of course I'll have to proove that "most" children believe in Santa first, but you also have to proove that "most" people like "today's music". Does this also mean that if "most" of the people living in the Southern US circa-1830 approved of slavery, it wasn't cruel and inhuman? Oh no, because the undefined statistic that "most" of the general population is for or against something is totally irrefutable, because the majority voice can't possibly be wrong!
This does not mean, however, that my opinion weighs any more than yours, or anyone else's. It's just that I find your argument that something must be true because lots of of people believe it just as absurd as the statement you claim I've made.
It is a FACT that much (far too much, IMHO) of the music played on the radio and on TV is manufactured, formulated, overhyped and optimized for sensationalism and marketability. Then it's ruthlessly drilled into the heads of the general public hour by hour on the airwaves. maybe "most" people like it because they're never exposed to anything else? If you enjoy the cookiecutter tunes churned out by the record labels then by all means give them your money. I'm sure they won't mind.
As a personal preference I prefer originality and honesty in the music and the ideas it prepresents, so I'd rather my money go to the artists that produce it.
Perhaps I'm not the one who can't see outside his own perspective?
=Smidge=
Speaking for myself: It's not crap just because I hate it. I hate it because it's crap. Slight difference.
It's crap because it's all the same. Unless you have heard the song before, or are a fan of the artist, it is virtually impossible to tell who the artist IS. Truly distinctive sounds are few and far between, and original sounds are rarer still. All the music industry seems to be concerned with today is manufacturing an image so they can sell shoes and soft drinks, not promoting creative music.
The end result is that on all but the rare occasion, what gets palyed on the radio is trite.
=Smidge=
Get a bunch of friends to help carry the stuff in.
1 per day per person...
=Smidge=
Oh really? Why then did they go apeshit over a 1% drop in IE usage just a couple days ago?
Not everyone that cheers for their favorite team has money riding on the game.
=Smidge=
I've always equated FUD with the use of disinformation to gain a competative advantage by invoking fear, uncertainty and doubt in the public about your competitor's product. In this case:
1) The information ("IE is insecure" etc) is verifyably true and reported by many different people and organizations.
2) The people behind Mozilla and Opera are not the one generating the reports about their competitor's (Microsoft's) products.
3) The people involved with 1 and 2 (The ones finding and reporting the security issues, and the ones championing Moz/Opera) have no (apparent) vested interest in seeing IE lose it's market share.
So I'm not convinced this article coutns as FUD in that respect.
=Smidge=
Make it an extension only!
Seriously, it would be a really neat feature if some of the suggestions posted here were realized... but this whole idea screams of bloat bloat bloat. What makes FireFox so appealing for some (including me) is it's compactness and lack of bells and whistles. The FireFox project FAQ echos these sentiments: It's small, fast, simplified, nothing other than what you need. "Just a browser"
Don't let feature creep ruin it!
=Smidge=
Hydrogen only has 1 proton... that's why it has an atomic number of 1 and has one electron. If it had more than one proton it wouldn't be hydrogen anymore.
Someone slept through chemistry class... (Shame too, 'cause the rest of the post is correct and the part that was wrong didn't need to be there at all)
=Smidge=
1) Create worm that infects millions of computers.
2) Claim users have installed your software without puchasing a license. Threaten to sue unless $699 fee is paid per machine.
3) Profit!
Oh my...
=Smidge=
Zinc whiskers are quite real, and they can pose a hazard. The reason you don't see data centers around the world having this problem has many aspects, some of which I can think of include:
-Too new. It takes years for these whiskers to grow to any length (1mm/year), and it may take years before it even starts to happen.
-Only happens to electroplated surfaces. Dip galvanized objects (Like electrical boxes and bolts and such) don't seem prone to this effect.
-Newer machines are more vulnerable with their more delicate circuits and smaller, tighter tracings and pins. A data center with older machines might be all but immune to it simply because the equipment is old and robust enough.
High taffic areas they are likely to get stomped on/eroded away long before they pose a problem. So you would have to have a situation where you have a spot like under a table, where you have objects electroplated with zinc sitting undisturbed for a long time, then get disturbed. Then you would have to be unlucky enough to disturb them and get it into the air.
Ironically, there are wood based floors used in data ceneters with steel reinforcing on the back of the tiles that are zinc-electroplated (thus being essentially undisturbed for years). So if a fairly old data center, that happens to have the right (wrong?) type of flooring, undergoes an upgrade or reorganization... well that might do it.
Now if these guys ARE just using it as an excuse, that's another story. But that doesn't make the problem any less real.
=Smidge=
I think what the parent was getting at is more along these lines:
You can have 100 factory workers producing products that net you $500 profit.
or
You can have 100 researchers developing prodicts that net you $1000.
His question is: Why can't you have 100 factory workers and 100 researchers make a profit of $1500? Is it really less expensive/more attractive to destroy and rebuild an otherwise perfectly good infastructure and workforce than it is to add to it?
=Smidge=