Actually you would be surprised by the number of professionals using Digital SLR cameras. They are able to use their old film camera lenses and are able to send in their pictures from the field.
The Hollywood paparazzi almost all use Digital SLR cameras now....a lot of press people do as well.
I don't really consider myself a professional. I have sold some of pictures to people but I don't make a living from it. It is just a hobby that makes me some cash every so often. My next camera will probably be a Nikon DSLR....I can use my old lenses that are just gathering dust right now.
I prefer to have all the information there when I take a picture. I might decide to enlarge it to a very big size and those artifacts get bigger with the rest of the picture.
I have been shooting and developing 35mm film since High School in the 70's and I got my first Nikon in 1980. That camera could not take a bad picture. People are saying that digital cameras have reached the level of 35mm film cameras but I do not think that is true just quite yet. Maybe when they hit 10megapixels it will be close.
I used to take my final images and convert them to JPG for storage but that was in the days when one CD-R cost 15 bucks and drive space was at a premium. Today the cards that go into my camera have more space than some of the hard drives I used 10-15 years ago. I now save the images in the native format or in Photoshop format. Media is cheap so getting 5 or 6 cards for the camera does not cost that much. My Olympus takes smartmedia and the prices on those have dropped drastically in the last two years. 5 or 6 128MB cards have always handle all the photos I have thrown at it even in TIFF mode.
I don't equate they quality of the camera as to how many pictures I can stuff on a card.
Expensive media? Guess you were not around when it was truly expensive. To me it seems dirt cheap. I remember when 16k of RAM was 600 bucks.
I am not an advocate of the PNG format either but I do not like the lossy JPG format much either. I can tell which pictures were compressed with JPG and which were not. Even with the smallest amount of compression the artifacts are quite obvious in some areas. Take a picture looking up at the sky in a pine forest and any JPG compression will be obvious. Sure most people will not care. If I am going to use a shot for something other than personal use I will always use the TIFF mode on my camera. Otherwise I use the lightest JPG compression setting. I really have no need to get 100-500 pictures on a 128MB card. 50 in SHQ or 15 in TIFF mode is usually fine for me and the cards are quick to swap.
If digital cameras are to replace film cameras then the lossy JPG format will have to go! PNG is not the answer either. LZW TIFFS might be but I think someone could come out with something better. Of course the JPG vs TIFF argument has been around since digital cameras offered both but I prefer not to have the camera decided for me which information in the picture to throw away....I can do that latter in Photoshop if I chose.
It is not that video games make bad movies, it is just that those who make the games often have no idea what it takes to make a good movie.
The people who are involved in making the game often have no idea how Hollywood works and those in Hollywood are often so inbred in the industry they don't want to stray to far from the original game or the tried and true formulas of the industry. Demographics tell them that the game was popular so lets not mess with the formula and make a film just like the game.
There is no reason, other than talent on both sides, that stops anyone from making both a great game and a great movie. Right now both camps could use a fresh influx of new ideas and talent.
Actually JPEG compression bites the big one and is a compromise of file size and image quality. The reason it is popular is that it was free to use and that made it universal from platform to platform and device to device.
JPEG was created to save then very expensive memory be it hard disk, chip based such as RAM and Flash RAM and of course data pipelines like modems. For most uses this is fine but for digital cameras where good pictures are always desired lossless compression is the way to go or better yet, no compression at all.
Better compression methods are out there such as fractal based compression. Genuine Fractals does fractal based compression and a side benefit is enlarging small pictures to much bigger sizes or resolutions with very little noticeable loss in sharpness. Hopefully better lossless compression methods will start being used instead of JPEG.
If all else fails we can counter sue this company for all the pictures they have ruined with their lossy compression algorithms.
The last thing Microsoft wanted was to make it easier. This "penalty" is no penalty at all. MS had Cali down so that if few claims were filed nearly all the money would be funneled back to them in one way or another. Until Apple chimed in the schools could only use the money for MS products.
I am sure MS has done the legal minimum of informing the consumer of the refunds. The process is so cumbersome that no one wants to do it. The problem will be that MS will claim that no one wanted to file because they value the MS products they have. The courts that implemented this stupid system will no doubt agree. Face it, MS wins again.
Although you can run linux on a Mac there is little need. Since the Mac uses BSD as the core. This gives you the GUI goodness of all the programs for Mac and with terminal and X11 the goodness of Unix and KDE.....or port what you wish with the gcc 3.3 compiler. No need to dual boot both are running all the time. You can run Photoshop and Gimp at the same time for much graphic fun.
With the included developers CD the Xcode tools can combine the power of Unix and ease of use or MacOS X into killer programs
Really, the weather is changing?
on
A New Ice Age?
·
· Score: 1
Really, the weather is changing? What a concept.
Global warming, global cooling, a new ice age? Sounds like no one knows what the hell is happening.
The climate has been changing long before man had an impact on it. The ice age 40,000 years ago nearly off'ed the human race and even in fairly recent times such as 5000 to 1000 years ago the earth was still undergoing drastic changes. People were there to watch the lush Nile valley in Egypt become a desert wasteland. When Eric the Red was in Greenland much of it was lush and forested.
These were times when man could not even hope to make a dent in the worlds weather and the Earth was the primary force, which by the way, it still is. As far as anyone can tell mans interference could be saving us from a world that could be our worst enemy and kill off a significant part of the human race. A major eruption of a super volcano such as the Yellowstone Caldera or an eruption of krakatoa on the scale of the one that happened around 500 A.D. could do more than man has ever done.
Of course those theories don't sell books & movies like the fear mongers do. They are not politically correct either. I guess a movie based on mans meddling with the earths climate making it nice, happy place to live would be pretty boring.
I was afraid of that. This is one time where Microsoft can do the right thing and revamp the architecture away from the arcane.DLL that they use now and that is the cause of many OS problems. Security is another major issue and it needs to be taken out of the hands of Microsoft and given to the user.
I have an XP pro machine I keep around for fun and soon for IP schooling but I have made my choice long ago as my preferred platform. Mac and now MacOS X. It is 10 times more stable than XP and is less of a chore to manage....which is what a computer should be.
Part of this story reminds me of this guy I know. He was pulled over for drunk driving and the cops took him home and did not arrest or charge him.
He went back for his car with a tractor, he is a farmer, to tow his car home....while he was still heavily under the influence. The same cops stopped him on the tractor and charged him with both drunk driving charges. He now has to blow into a device to start his car. Strangely they did not put one on his tractor.
Make that the average Windows user. I do most of my surfing and all of my email on my Mac and not my PC.
Since the Mac does not currently have any viri written for it, it is better to use it to check email. The Windows machine uses Zone Alarm and Ad-Aware for IP tracking and spyware removal. Both are behind the routers firewall.
Why any OS maker give there email and browser so much system level privileges is beyond me. Longhorn had better give the power back to the user and not to Microsoft.
I have nothing against brand protection, it is a good thing, but when the companies try to shut down other people with something that sounds vaguely like their product then they don't have a leg to stand on.
Microsoft should have never been granted the use of the term Windows in the first place. They were denied the first time as it was too general of a term. I am sure a little grease in the right places is what it made it sail through the second time. Microsoft could actually stop Anderson Windows from using the name Windows in its trademark.
Apple lost its lawsuit against Microsoft over the "look and feel" of Windows in part by arguing that the terms "Menus and "Windows" were now generic terms in the computer industry. Far be it from Microsoft to use other peoples ideas in their products without asking!
Of course the pounce on Lindows because it was Linux and it kinda sounded like windows. They bribed Mike RoweSoft because the guys name sounded like theirs. In any court, other than one MS pays for, the underdogs would have won these cases.
The 600 lb. gorilla usually gets its way until a 700 lb. gorilla shows up or when people tire of the 600 lb. gorilla and shoot them. The EU is taking aim, maybe this will inspire others to do the same. Still I do not consider MS a monopoly...they are mafia of the computer industry and use dirty tricks and pressure to sell products but I don't consider them a monopoly.....just scumbags.
Yes, Microsoft does have lots of money and therefore they think they can ride roughshod over anyone they dislike.
Standard Oil did the same in the beginning of this century to the point the ruined there own business. If Microsofts products are as good as they claim they would not have to worry about undermining the competition. As a user of Microsoft products for many years (and still a user) the fact is they are running scared and have good reason to.
A person who once worked for both Apple and Microsoft stated that at Apple the product was god and everyone worked to that end. At Microsoft the deadline was god and the product shipped at the deadline, bugs and all. Maybe Longhorn will be different, I sure hope it is. Windows as it is now is an amazing pile of junk and it is often surprising when it works correctly. They need to take the OS to the next level and leave the DOS based OS hold overs where they belong, back in 1980. Of course the latest rumors are that features are all ready being dropped or scaled back to meet the 2006 deadline...a well worn path traveled once again.
The should have fought the good fight. They had a very winnable case. At least this name was better than there first choice, Lindos. Hell, I would have changed it to LindowsXP, with the ad slogan, "Like Windows, but with security"
The paddelwheel method is the way to go but actually putting it in the river would not be.
More than likely this would be an illegal to do and dangerous as well. A better way to go would be a diversion channel that diverts a small amount of water from the river. At the top of the project or head would be a simple weir or gate to control the flow of water during the changing levels of the river. Depending on the amount of drop between the head and the wheel might give you higher speeds than the river itself could create. After the wheel you simply channel the water back to the river. The channeling back may be the hardest part of the project. As changing river levels might be harder to control and water may back up into the system. It depends on your situation. You may be able to gain a little elevation by using a shallower slope than the river has. Water needs at least a.15 of inch drop every 100 feet to move..and that is slow moving water.
In any case, you would need to survey the job and use an optical level or a laser level to determine the drop between where you pull the water out and where you put it back in. This could be a costly project depending of the generating needs and your state laws, county laws..etc. But the way stated above is probably the only way to do it legally.
Actually they will have to have more than one good song on a CD. That is asking a lot from the talent pool they are drawing from these days. It is hard to believe some of these "artists" are releasing "double albums" when the only good songs on them would fit comfortably on an old 45.
There is plenty of great unsigned talent out there and when the record labels price themselves out of the market some bright, enterprising person will start an internet label that takes the music world by storm and it will cost the majors dearly.
It has not happened yet, but I predict it will within the next year or two.
Bend over and lube up here come the record companies again.
I guess the legal downloads of songs has become too popular and now we are being punished for not buying the "filler" songs that are on every CD these days.
I think the record companies going back to their "shoot their foot off policy" of making money. You have to give them credit for making some of the stupidest business decisions in history and still keeping their jobs.
Get your P2P programs fired up, it is time for free music again.
Lindows had this one in the bag and could have won the fight. I hate to see them throw in the towel.
However they are going from LinDOWS to LinDOS? Knowing MS they will pitch a bitch fit over this name too. Microsoft should have never been granted the Windows trademark as it was too general, this is why it was denied the first time they tried. Of course the DOS name was around before there was a Microsoft but they will still probably say they came up with the name anyways....who has enough money to sue them and say the didn't.
I know that it is hard to fight Microsofts deep pockets and most companies just cave and take the cheaper route. Maybe someday there will be a company that is willing to go the distance with them. The EU might but I doubt they will penalize MS much if at all.
I can't remember how long ago it was but I remember hear that their out of box DOA rate was somewhere between 25 and 30 percent.
I have always built my own PCs but know a few businesses who have purchased Dells and still have them or have gone back to Dell for newer computers. The ones who purchased Gateways always choose Dell the next around.
I wonder if the cow boxes could be consider an endangered species and be protected by federal law.
If this were Apple closing all it stores it would be a gloom and doom story of how the death of Apple is near.
While Gateway who has been losing money as fast as Donald Trump is losing hair gets a positive spin on their story.
How about a little bit of the truth in the article! It would be nice to read how Gateway is teetering on the brink and about how Dell has beat them to within an inch of their lives. Gateway would have a hard time giving its computers away!
I have missed Hypercard for sometime now!
on
HyperCard Gone for Good
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
It has been dead for years they have only just now gotten around to writing the obituary.
In its day Hypercard was an easy to learn and fairly powerful programming language that anyone could use to pump out very Mac like applications.
The problem was that Hypercard did not keep pace with the Macs it was running on. Color was slow in coming as well as support for features that were added to the OS. Back in the day it was the defacto standard for Mac multimedia CD's.
If Apple had kept development of hypercard on the same pace as the MacOS, hypercard would have been a killer program under OS X. Who knows how far it might have gone. Hypercard with access to all the goodies that OS X has to offer like a shell to UNIX, etc. might have been very powerful. Maybe even integration to the Xcode tools might have produced compact, fast, standalone applications without the need for a player app.
Many people have tried to fill Apples shoes with programs like supercard and revolution but none had the knack of producing good programs like Apple.
I am sad to see it go. It could have been so much more than it was. Too bad Apple did not notice the diamond in the rough that it had.
This is what the "Chief Software Architect" of Microsoft comes up with? Instead of working to provide a secure OS for his customers he is finding even more ways of making the computer more easily used by people other than the one who owns it.
I am sure this "new feature" would never be used by hackers for nefarious purposes.
Thanks for the heads up. I could not find it via fink but as you stated it was there on Darwin ports. I will give it a try.
Thanx again!
Actually you would be surprised by the number of professionals using Digital SLR cameras. They are able to use their old film camera lenses and are able to send in their pictures from the field.
The Hollywood paparazzi almost all use Digital SLR cameras now....a lot of press people do as well.
I don't really consider myself a professional. I have sold some of pictures to people but I don't make a living from it. It is just a hobby that makes me some cash every so often. My next camera will probably be a Nikon DSLR....I can use my old lenses that are just gathering dust right now.
This is a mistake but I must ask anyway. Is there a way to compile this to run under OS X?
If so what would be needed. Would Xcode work? Convert it under Unix and compile it with gcc?
OK you may not flame me for asking a stupid question.
Exactly!
I prefer to have all the information there when I take a picture. I might decide to enlarge it to a very big size and those artifacts get bigger with the rest of the picture.
I have been shooting and developing 35mm film since High School in the 70's and I got my first Nikon in 1980. That camera could not take a bad picture. People are saying that digital cameras have reached the level of 35mm film cameras but I do not think that is true just quite yet. Maybe when they hit 10megapixels it will be close.
I used to take my final images and convert them to JPG for storage but that was in the days when one CD-R cost 15 bucks and drive space was at a premium. Today the cards that go into my camera have more space than some of the hard drives I used 10-15 years ago. I now save the images in the native format or in Photoshop format. Media is cheap so getting 5 or 6 cards for the camera does not cost that much. My Olympus takes smartmedia and the prices on those have dropped drastically in the last two years. 5 or 6 128MB cards have always handle all the photos I have thrown at it even in TIFF mode.
I don't equate they quality of the camera as to how many pictures I can stuff on a card.
Expensive media? Guess you were not around when it was truly expensive. To me it seems dirt cheap. I remember when 16k of RAM was 600 bucks.
I am not an advocate of the PNG format either but I do not like the lossy JPG format much either. I can tell which pictures were compressed with JPG and which were not. Even with the smallest amount of compression the artifacts are quite obvious in some areas. Take a picture looking up at the sky in a pine forest and any JPG compression will be obvious. Sure most people will not care. If I am going to use a shot for something other than personal use I will always use the TIFF mode on my camera. Otherwise I use the lightest JPG compression setting. I really have no need to get 100-500 pictures on a 128MB card. 50 in SHQ or 15 in TIFF mode is usually fine for me and the cards are quick to swap.
If digital cameras are to replace film cameras then the lossy JPG format will have to go! PNG is not the answer either. LZW TIFFS might be but I think someone could come out with something better. Of course the JPG vs TIFF argument has been around since digital cameras offered both but I prefer not to have the camera decided for me which information in the picture to throw away....I can do that latter in Photoshop if I chose.
It is not that video games make bad movies, it is just that those who make the games often have no idea what it takes to make a good movie.
The people who are involved in making the game often have no idea how Hollywood works and those in Hollywood are often so inbred in the industry they don't want to stray to far from the original game or the tried and true formulas of the industry. Demographics tell them that the game was popular so lets not mess with the formula and make a film just like the game.
There is no reason, other than talent on both sides, that stops anyone from making both a great game and a great movie. Right now both camps could use a fresh influx of new ideas and talent.
Actually JPEG compression bites the big one and is a compromise of file size and image quality. The reason it is popular is that it was free to use and that made it universal from platform to platform and device to device.
JPEG was created to save then very expensive memory be it hard disk, chip based such as RAM and Flash RAM and of course data pipelines like modems. For most uses this is fine but for digital cameras where good pictures are always desired lossless compression is the way to go or better yet, no compression at all.
Better compression methods are out there such as fractal based compression. Genuine Fractals does fractal based compression and a side benefit is enlarging small pictures to much bigger sizes or resolutions with very little noticeable loss in sharpness. Hopefully better lossless compression methods will start being used instead of JPEG.
If all else fails we can counter sue this company for all the pictures they have ruined with their lossy compression algorithms.
The last thing Microsoft wanted was to make it easier. This "penalty" is no penalty at all. MS had Cali down so that if few claims were filed nearly all the money would be funneled back to them in one way or another. Until Apple chimed in the schools could only use the money for MS products.
I am sure MS has done the legal minimum of informing the consumer of the refunds. The process is so cumbersome that no one wants to do it. The problem will be that MS will claim that no one wanted to file because they value the MS products they have. The courts that implemented this stupid system will no doubt agree. Face it, MS wins again.
Good thing there is Karma and Worms....
Although you can run linux on a Mac there is little need. Since the Mac uses BSD as the core. This gives you the GUI goodness of all the programs for Mac and with terminal and X11 the goodness of Unix and KDE.....or port what you wish with the gcc 3.3 compiler. No need to dual boot both are running all the time. You can run Photoshop and Gimp at the same time for much graphic fun.
With the included developers CD the Xcode tools can combine the power of Unix and ease of use or MacOS X into killer programs
Really, the weather is changing? What a concept.
Global warming, global cooling, a new ice age? Sounds like no one knows what the hell is happening.
The climate has been changing long before man had an impact on it. The ice age 40,000 years ago nearly off'ed the human race and even in fairly recent times such as 5000 to 1000 years ago the earth was still undergoing drastic changes. People were there to watch the lush Nile valley in Egypt become a desert wasteland. When Eric the Red was in Greenland much of it was lush and forested.
These were times when man could not even hope to make a dent in the worlds weather and the Earth was the primary force, which by the way, it still is. As far as anyone can tell mans interference could be saving us from a world that could be our worst enemy and kill off a significant part of the human race. A major eruption of a super volcano such as the Yellowstone Caldera or an eruption of krakatoa on the scale of the one that happened around 500 A.D. could do more than man has ever done.
Of course those theories don't sell books & movies like the fear mongers do. They are not politically correct either. I guess a movie based on mans meddling with the earths climate making it nice, happy place to live would be pretty boring.
I was afraid of that. This is one time where Microsoft can do the right thing and revamp the architecture away from the arcane .DLL that they use now and that is the cause of many OS problems. Security is another major issue and it needs to be taken out of the hands of Microsoft and given to the user.
I have an XP pro machine I keep around for fun and soon for IP schooling but I have made my choice long ago as my preferred platform. Mac and now MacOS X. It is 10 times more stable than XP and is less of a chore to manage....which is what a computer should be.
Part of this story reminds me of this guy I know. He was pulled over for drunk driving and the cops took him home and did not arrest or charge him.
He went back for his car with a tractor, he is a farmer, to tow his car home....while he was still heavily under the influence. The same cops stopped him on the tractor and charged him with both drunk driving charges. He now has to blow into a device to start his car. Strangely they did not put one on his tractor.
Make that the average Windows user. I do most of my surfing and all of my email on my Mac and not my PC.
Since the Mac does not currently have any viri written for it, it is better to use it to check email. The Windows machine uses Zone Alarm and Ad-Aware for IP tracking and spyware removal. Both are behind the routers firewall.
Why any OS maker give there email and browser so much system level privileges is beyond me. Longhorn had better give the power back to the user and not to Microsoft.
I have nothing against brand protection, it is a good thing, but when the companies try to shut down other people with something that sounds vaguely like their product then they don't have a leg to stand on.
Microsoft should have never been granted the use of the term Windows in the first place. They were denied the first time as it was too general of a term. I am sure a little grease in the right places is what it made it sail through the second time. Microsoft could actually stop Anderson Windows from using the name Windows in its trademark.
Apple lost its lawsuit against Microsoft over the "look and feel" of Windows in part by arguing that the terms "Menus and "Windows" were now generic terms in the computer industry. Far be it from Microsoft to use other peoples ideas in their products without asking!
Of course the pounce on Lindows because it was Linux and it kinda sounded like windows. They bribed Mike RoweSoft because the guys name sounded like theirs. In any court, other than one MS pays for, the underdogs would have won these cases.
The 600 lb. gorilla usually gets its way until a 700 lb. gorilla shows up or when people tire of the 600 lb. gorilla and shoot them. The EU is taking aim, maybe this will inspire others to do the same. Still I do not consider MS a monopoly...they are mafia of the computer industry and use dirty tricks and pressure to sell products but I don't consider them a monopoly.....just scumbags.
Yes, Microsoft does have lots of money and therefore they think they can ride roughshod over anyone they dislike.
Standard Oil did the same in the beginning of this century to the point the ruined there own business. If Microsofts products are as good as they claim they would not have to worry about undermining the competition. As a user of Microsoft products for many years (and still a user) the fact is they are running scared and have good reason to.
A person who once worked for both Apple and Microsoft stated that at Apple the product was god and everyone worked to that end. At Microsoft the deadline was god and the product shipped at the deadline, bugs and all. Maybe Longhorn will be different, I sure hope it is. Windows as it is now is an amazing pile of junk and it is often surprising when it works correctly. They need to take the OS to the next level and leave the DOS based OS hold overs where they belong, back in 1980. Of course the latest rumors are that features are all ready being dropped or scaled back to meet the 2006 deadline...a well worn path traveled once again.
The should have fought the good fight. They had a very winnable case. At least this name was better than there first choice, Lindos. Hell, I would have changed it to LindowsXP, with the ad slogan, "Like Windows, but with security"
The paddelwheel method is the way to go but actually putting it in the river would not be.
.15 of inch drop every 100 feet to move..and that is slow moving water.
More than likely this would be an illegal to do and dangerous as well. A better way to go would be a diversion channel that diverts a small amount of water from the river. At the top of the project or head would be a simple weir or gate to control the flow of water during the changing levels of the river. Depending on the amount of drop between the head and the wheel might give you higher speeds than the river itself could create. After the wheel you simply channel the water back to the river. The channeling back may be the hardest part of the project. As changing river levels might be harder to control and water may back up into the system. It depends on your situation. You may be able to gain a little elevation by using a shallower slope than the river has. Water needs at least a
In any case, you would need to survey the job and use an optical level or a laser level to determine the drop between where you pull the water out and where you put it back in. This could be a costly project depending of the generating needs and your state laws, county laws..etc. But the way stated above is probably the only way to do it legally.
Actually they will have to have more than one good song on a CD. That is asking a lot from the talent pool they are drawing from these days. It is hard to believe some of these "artists" are releasing "double albums" when the only good songs on them would fit comfortably on an old 45.
There is plenty of great unsigned talent out there and when the record labels price themselves out of the market some bright, enterprising person will start an internet label that takes the music world by storm and it will cost the majors dearly.
It has not happened yet, but I predict it will within the next year or two.
Bend over and lube up here come the record companies again.
I guess the legal downloads of songs has become too popular and now we are being punished for not buying the "filler" songs that are on every CD these days.
I think the record companies going back to their "shoot their foot off policy" of making money. You have to give them credit for making some of the stupidest business decisions in history and still keeping their jobs.
Get your P2P programs fired up, it is time for free music again.
Lindows had this one in the bag and could have won the fight. I hate to see them throw in the towel.
However they are going from LinDOWS to LinDOS? Knowing MS they will pitch a bitch fit over this name too. Microsoft should have never been granted the Windows trademark as it was too general, this is why it was denied the first time they tried. Of course the DOS name was around before there was a Microsoft but they will still probably say they came up with the name anyways....who has enough money to sue them and say the didn't.
I know that it is hard to fight Microsofts deep pockets and most companies just cave and take the cheaper route. Maybe someday there will be a company that is willing to go the distance with them. The EU might but I doubt they will penalize MS much if at all.
I can't remember how long ago it was but I remember hear that their out of box DOA rate was somewhere between 25 and 30 percent.
I have always built my own PCs but know a few businesses who have purchased Dells and still have them or have gone back to Dell for newer computers. The ones who purchased Gateways always choose Dell the next around.
I wonder if the cow boxes could be consider an endangered species and be protected by federal law.
If this were Apple closing all it stores it would be a gloom and doom story of how the death of Apple is near.
While Gateway who has been losing money as fast as Donald Trump is losing hair gets a positive spin on their story.
How about a little bit of the truth in the article! It would be nice to read how Gateway is teetering on the brink and about how Dell has beat them to within an inch of their lives. Gateway would have a hard time giving its computers away!
It has been dead for years they have only just now gotten around to writing the obituary.
In its day Hypercard was an easy to learn and fairly powerful programming language that anyone could use to pump out very Mac like applications.
The problem was that Hypercard did not keep pace with the Macs it was running on. Color was slow in coming as well as support for features that were added to the OS. Back in the day it was the defacto standard for Mac multimedia CD's.
If Apple had kept development of hypercard on the same pace as the MacOS, hypercard would have been a killer program under OS X. Who knows how far it might have gone. Hypercard with access to all the goodies that OS X has to offer like a shell to UNIX, etc. might have been very powerful. Maybe even integration to the Xcode tools might have produced compact, fast, standalone applications without the need for a player app.
Many people have tried to fill Apples shoes with programs like supercard and revolution but none had the knack of producing good programs like Apple.
I am sad to see it go. It could have been so much more than it was. Too bad Apple did not notice the diamond in the rough that it had.
If they are looking for secure servers, then they should move over to MacOS X server like other government agencies who want top notch security have.
Of course the government hates spending less money than they already do, so the OS X servers would make too much sense.
This is what the "Chief Software Architect" of Microsoft comes up with? Instead of working to provide a secure OS for his customers he is finding even more ways of making the computer more easily used by people other than the one who owns it.
I am sure this "new feature" would never be used by hackers for nefarious purposes.
Remember Bill, Speed Kills!