It seems no one yet mentioned Wiktionary.org. Over 1 536 000 + in French, a similar number in English. While there's obvious room for improvement, it's generally usable and often useful.
So here's my question, why does Google dives into a new initiative instead of jumping on existing trains? I guess the answers has something to do with control. Google wants to keep the control (which is understandable and not necessarily a bad thing). This Wiktionary-Google Dictionary is not the only example, Google Map Maker and OpenStreetMap.org is another one (both crowdsourcing map data, and yes, OSM was there much before).
It says that it will allow you to identify a laptop *if* it's been dropped in a tub.
Wrong, this is exactly what RFID isn't able to do afaik. Read the other replies to my initial question, they provide a better interpretation of the sentence.
Each netbook is also fitted with a passive RFID chip which will enable the netbooks to be identified 'even if they were dropped in a bathtub.'
What's the relation between RFID and water immersion? RFID will allow knowing where the netbook is and can pass along some information, but it is not by itself the RFID chip that will tell you you took swim with your netbook! No?
You're right. The Ekiga website sucks. Tried looking for a MacOSX version of it, finally was able to find this page... however, the whole experience convinced me to try SkypeOut instead, even if proprietary. (we're dropping landlines at home for cellphones-only, and thus need cheap landlines calling capabilities, SkypeOut is 3$/month with illimited call in Canada/USA... sounds like it can work for us (yeah, I know, there's the 911 thing to take into account))
Sure, consumers won't care at first, but the fact that Chrome OS is open source will have, in my opinion, a long term impact on the industry and thus eventually the consumers. Sorry, I would bet Cringely is wrong on that one.
I agree with you on the pertinence of Slashdot/Slashcode's moderation system, however, Slashcode is dead now... see the related replies (mainly on the slashcode-general mailing list) of this journal entry.
In the end, it just turns out to be a bunch of people scamming others so they get rich.
Not true? Judging from TFA, the amount they get is the amount of the fine they have to pay. (obviously, that's probably not the only numbers of the equation)
Hold on while I write my own version of the slashcode and put up a new web site so you can see what I have to say.
Really, I posted a journal entry last week named Slashcode is dead, long live Slashcode?... read the "numerous" replies on the Slashcode-general sourceforge mailing list... I fear Slashcode might be really dead after all, and Drupal might come to save the day?!
Related, there is more 'social data and social software' at the White House today. The WH Change website now uses OpenLayers and OpenStreetMap! Great to see such penetration of open data and open source:-)
I hope the 'Media Pad / TouchBook' end up being true. Because it would be a product that would be useful to me.
I don't want a laptop. I have an old one, and even if my old iBook is rather small, over the years, I realized that it's not small enough for a lot of uses. Example: we don't use it at the dinner table to refer to Wikipedia and I don't bring it often when going to friends and family unless I know I'm going to use it because it's slightly too big and heavy.
On the other end, there's the iPod Touch and the like. Doubtlessly useful, and despite not owning one (I really try to buy as little stuff as possible because 'the things you own end up owning you';-), I fear the screen is too small to enjoy it as an input device (very small virtual keyboard) and media device (small screen too). On the plus side, smartphones / iPod Touch *are* really portable, and to a level that won't be attained by any "media pad".
NetBooks. Almost, but I don't think they're for me yet. Waiting for the next wave. Why? It's not really a laptop but it's not really that portable either. (that's obviously subjective)
And last but not least, Apple products integration. I don't consider myself a fanboy, but I want to be productive. Despite using Debian at work everyday, Linux is still not up to my expectations yet (yet!). Is there some lock-in with Apple? Yes. Is this a problem with me? Not that much, as long at it doesn't get in my way too often. I'm ready to pay to have more pleasure using a computer. I don't want crap, even if it's free. (this is a general statement, not specifically related to software)
Now, I guess I did not need to write all this other than to have feedback from you: what do you think? Where am I wrong?
Some more links on MacRumors: "T-Mobile in Germany, however, threatened that it may take action to prevent its customers from using Skype on the iPhone. [...] Skype has proven to be massively popular on the iPhone and iPod Touch reaching over one million downloads in the first two days of availability."
Interesting, but in a previous/. discussion, I got convinced that there was no perfect captcha, since one can simply pay a group of underpaid workers (e.g. in poor country) to manually solve the captchas...
Right here. Despite having friends working at Videotron, I believe the Quebecor empire (more info in Fr) is a bad one as a whole (e.g. newspaper consolidation), not only the ISP part.
Is it a requirement due to some specialized software?
Well, I'd like Environment Canada (EC) to be Debian-friendly, but I fear it's mostly only my centre, which is only a small org. within EC. It's not a requirement due to specialized software, but because of our supercomputer... I work at the Canadian Meteorological Centre... one of the very few places in the world where weather is predicted (other providers, such as meteomedia.com simply go to our website and generally worsen the predictions but do provide some value-added products, they have no mean at all to do the weather predictions - you need a real supercomputer to do that, and it's done operationally in only in 6-8 places in the world).
So yes, we use Debian for a reason: our supercomputer (costs $30M/year in maintenance I've been told, but wasn't able to confirm recently). That's what saves us from running only Windows I guess. This is great since it helped us jump in the open source bandwagon probably easier than if we were using only Windows to start with.
I'm obviously very happy about the Lenny release since my employer (part of Environment Canada) makes us use Debian. However, I guess there are "good" technical reasons, but I'm sad OpenOffice 3.x could not make it. One of our tech allowed us to install OO3 on our Etch machines. The result: 003 makes my Etch crash (the full OS, not just the app, to my entire surprise!). I'm not saying it's the same for everybody else, but it's a sad thing for me. (in fact, even 2.4.1 can crash Etch since I installed 3.0... and I'm no way knowledgeful enough to fix that problem:-/)
Why does computers have to be that complicated?;-)
Funny yes, insightful, not sure. What's at stake is bathymetry (well.. that's what the rumors say), the 'topography' of the ocean floors, not satellite imagery of huge areas of surface water.
Can someone tell me why we're discussing this as a state of rumor when a few hours later (after the actual announcement), we would have solid elements to discuss?!
Slashdot Mirror
I must agree. After a few months with OmniFocus, it really does help me reduce stress and stay focused (well, more focused anyway ;-).
I wrote a personal review last summer: Getting Things Done App Reviews: OmniFocus, Things, Life Balance, ThinkingRock and Chandler (no ads link). Chandler being open source.
It seems no one yet mentioned Wiktionary.org. Over 1 536 000 + in French, a similar number in English. While there's obvious room for improvement, it's generally usable and often useful.
So here's my question, why does Google dives into a new initiative instead of jumping on existing trains? I guess the answers has something to do with control. Google wants to keep the control (which is understandable and not necessarily a bad thing). This Wiktionary-Google Dictionary is not the only example, Google Map Maker and OpenStreetMap.org is another one (both crowdsourcing map data, and yes, OSM was there much before).
not yet recognized by the World Meteorological Foundation
Not surprising, since it's called the World Meteorological Organization.
Ok... thanks, I got it this time :-)
It says that it will allow you to identify a laptop *if* it's been dropped in a tub.
Wrong, this is exactly what RFID isn't able to do afaik. Read the other replies to my initial question, they provide a better interpretation of the sentence.
From the summary:
Each netbook is also fitted with a passive RFID chip which will enable the netbooks to be identified 'even if they were dropped in a bathtub.'
What's the relation between RFID and water immersion? RFID will allow knowing where the netbook is and can pass along some information, but it is not by itself the RFID chip that will tell you you took swim with your netbook! No?
You can ask Wikipedia too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serious_game ... there's even Games With A Purpose, and some others are surprisingly interesting (depending on our age and interests, of course): http://www.stopdisastersgame.org/ and UN's http://www.food-force.com/
Have fun... and learn!
Here's a mac client: http://xmeeting.sourceforge.net/pages/index.php
Thanks, but you know it doesn't sound stellar when the last item in their "news" is dated 2007-07-03... :-/
You're right. The Ekiga website sucks. Tried looking for a MacOSX version of it, finally was able to find this page... however, the whole experience convinced me to try SkypeOut instead, even if proprietary. (we're dropping landlines at home for cellphones-only, and thus need cheap landlines calling capabilities, SkypeOut is 3$/month with illimited call in Canada/USA... sounds like it can work for us (yeah, I know, there's the 911 thing to take into account))
Sure, consumers won't care at first, but the fact that Chrome OS is open source will have, in my opinion, a long term impact on the industry and thus eventually the consumers. Sorry, I would bet Cringely is wrong on that one.
You're right, we even read of that on... Slashdot!
Related - the open source Perian enables QuickTime application support for additional media:
File formats: AVI, DIVX, FLV, MKV, GVI, VP6, and VFW
Video types: MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivx, H.264, Sorenson H.263, FLV/Sorenson Spark, FSV1, VP6, H263i, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Snow, NuppelVideo, Techsmith Screen Capture, DosBox Capture
Audio types: Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), and MPEG Layer I & II Audio, True Audio, DTS Coherent Acoustics, Nellymoser ASAO
AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3
Subtitle support for SSA/ASS and SRT
I agree with you on the pertinence of Slashdot/Slashcode's moderation system, however, Slashcode is dead now... see the related replies (mainly on the slashcode-general mailing list) of this journal entry.
In the end, it just turns out to be a bunch of people scamming others so they get rich.
Not true? Judging from TFA, the amount they get is the amount of the fine they have to pay. (obviously, that's probably not the only numbers of the equation)
Hold on while I write my own version of the slashcode and put up a new web site so you can see what I have to say.
Really, I posted a journal entry last week named Slashcode is dead, long live Slashcode?... read the "numerous" replies on the Slashcode-general sourceforge mailing list... I fear Slashcode might be really dead after all, and Drupal might come to save the day?!
I'm an OSM enthusiast and wanted to share this: Canada, one of the 'poor countries' of OSM, is on the verge of seeing *all* roads added to OSM. No kidding.
Here's an excellent OSM introduction webcast on fosslc.org.
If you want to learn more about OSM, here's my shameless (really) plug, hell, even the White House uses OpenStreetMap! With projects like OpenRouteService, one will be able to replicate many of the important services provided by Google Maps, MS Virtual Earth, Yahoo! Maps, MapQuest, etc.
Related, there is more 'social data and social software' at the White House today. The WH Change website now uses OpenLayers and OpenStreetMap! Great to see such penetration of open data and open source :-)
I hope the 'Media Pad / TouchBook' end up being true. Because it would be a product that would be useful to me.
I don't want a laptop. I have an old one, and even if my old iBook is rather small, over the years, I realized that it's not small enough for a lot of uses. Example: we don't use it at the dinner table to refer to Wikipedia and I don't bring it often when going to friends and family unless I know I'm going to use it because it's slightly too big and heavy.
On the other end, there's the iPod Touch and the like. Doubtlessly useful, and despite not owning one (I really try to buy as little stuff as possible because 'the things you own end up owning you' ;-), I fear the screen is too small to enjoy it as an input device (very small virtual keyboard) and media device (small screen too). On the plus side, smartphones / iPod Touch *are* really portable, and to a level that won't be attained by any "media pad".
NetBooks. Almost, but I don't think they're for me yet. Waiting for the next wave. Why? It's not really a laptop but it's not really that portable either. (that's obviously subjective)
And last but not least, Apple products integration. I don't consider myself a fanboy, but I want to be productive. Despite using Debian at work everyday, Linux is still not up to my expectations yet (yet!). Is there some lock-in with Apple? Yes. Is this a problem with me? Not that much, as long at it doesn't get in my way too often. I'm ready to pay to have more pleasure using a computer. I don't want crap, even if it's free. (this is a general statement, not specifically related to software)
Now, I guess I did not need to write all this other than to have feedback from you: what do you think? Where am I wrong?
Some more links on MacRumors:
"T-Mobile in Germany, however, threatened that it may take action to prevent its customers from using Skype on the iPhone. [...] Skype has proven to be massively popular on the iPhone and iPod Touch reaching over one million downloads in the first two days of availability."
Interesting, but in a previous /. discussion, I got convinced that there was no perfect captcha, since one can simply pay a group of underpaid workers (e.g. in poor country) to manually solve the captchas...
Right here. Despite having friends working at Videotron, I believe the Quebecor empire (more info in Fr) is a bad one as a whole (e.g. newspaper consolidation), not only the ISP part.
Is it a requirement due to some specialized software?
Well, I'd like Environment Canada (EC) to be Debian-friendly, but I fear it's mostly only my centre, which is only a small org. within EC. It's not a requirement due to specialized software, but because of our supercomputer... I work at the Canadian Meteorological Centre... one of the very few places in the world where weather is predicted (other providers, such as meteomedia.com simply go to our website and generally worsen the predictions but do provide some value-added products, they have no mean at all to do the weather predictions - you need a real supercomputer to do that, and it's done operationally in only in 6-8 places in the world).
So yes, we use Debian for a reason: our supercomputer (costs $30M/year in maintenance I've been told, but wasn't able to confirm recently). That's what saves us from running only Windows I guess. This is great since it helped us jump in the open source bandwagon probably easier than if we were using only Windows to start with.
I'm obviously very happy about the Lenny release since my employer (part of Environment Canada) makes us use Debian. However, I guess there are "good" technical reasons, but I'm sad OpenOffice 3.x could not make it. One of our tech allowed us to install OO3 on our Etch machines. The result: 003 makes my Etch crash (the full OS, not just the app, to my entire surprise!). I'm not saying it's the same for everybody else, but it's a sad thing for me. (in fact, even 2.4.1 can crash Etch since I installed 3.0... and I'm no way knowledgeful enough to fix that problem :-/)
Why does computers have to be that complicated? ;-)
Funny yes, insightful, not sure. What's at stake is bathymetry (well.. that's what the rumors say), the 'topography' of the ocean floors, not satellite imagery of huge areas of surface water.
Can someone tell me why we're discussing this as a state of rumor when a few hours later (after the actual announcement), we would have solid elements to discuss?!
http://www.gearthblog.com/blog/archives/2009/01/marijuana_field_found.html