The headline of the article says it all, and I'm glad those blogs people write about themselves are doing something good for SOMEONE. I find personal blogs that just constantly run on with someone's personal life to be the dullest reading. 99% of people do the same shit, feel the same guilt and address the same issues as all the other personal blogs out there.
And everybody feels different. Maybe they should all look hard at each others blogs and see how much people have in common.
Not that I'm complaining - the non-personal blogs, ones that write about technology, wider life, news, politics, and various other cool stuff makes up for the rest. As for me, I'll stick to whining on slashdot from time to time as my therapy.
The iBook and Mac mini were the ones updated, and it's not so much a new Mac mini as a revision of the line. They're no quicker, just the higher end one loses its superdrive and gains airport+bluetooth as standard, and a newer more expensive higher-end one gets the superdrive back again, along with the 512MB default across the board.
The Mac minis are still 1.25GHz and 1.42GHz models.
the iBook 14 looks to be a better gain in value than others. It gets the powerbook scroller trackpad, powerbook motion sensor, new graphics card (as do all the others), 512MB RAM and bluetooth/airport as standard while also getting a decent price DROP.
Still, whether or not it's enough of a gain in value to keep the competing PC laptops away given their speed advantages now is something else entirely. Guess that comes down to how much OS X and iBook design is worth to a particular buyer.
I've seen some bad customer service, but I've also seen some shocking customer expectations. A friend works at Apple, and one of his headbutt-the-desk moments that come up all too often is when a customer phones complaining that a new model is out, and their 3 month old powerbook/ibook/whatever is now out of date... and will he give them a refund or a replacement unit.
Having also worked on an ISP helpdesk, some of the customer expectations there are equally insane. One business had thousands of business cards, letterheads and other stationary printed with their email address listed as "http://www.businessname.com/". Who did they immediately phone? us - demanding that when someone sends email to "http://www.businessname.com/" that it get to them.
Pity their hosting wasn't with us, even if their net service was.
The technically clueless just want someone to blame if something doesn't work to their satisfaction - and that's entirely fair - however when they come on all insistent that their problems can be fixed by places they can't, or they don't realise their expectations are entirely unrealistic it's when service providers just turn off and want to go "piss off, idiot"
> So what happens if this thing develops a consciousness?
Yes. That's what has me thinking. Not that I think we should stop, but it's going to be a disturbing moment when the techs running these things get to a point where they ask a simulation brain questions, get it to perform tasks, get it to react like a human does...
...and it says it's scared. or alone. or just wants a friend.
Because a year after the console is released, when its hardware is now old-spec and new PC hardware is still right at the bleeding edge, the PC will out-game the console.
Two years after the console is released it'll be an even wider difference, and 3 years after it'll be incomparable
I have to support "LOGOFF" and "TURN OFF COMPUTER" are accessed by clicking the START button. It's hard to explain to them why when even I don't get it.
Tell me about it. There was this other operating system I once used where to uninstall a program, you used apt-get
It's hard to explain to them when even I don't get it!
A rewrite to fix the numerous little annoying bugs that were introduced in versions after 2.0. Things like lag on 500mhz G3s when playing music and renaming tags, or sporadic pauses, dumping the clumsy parts of the old interface - just making the same old app work how they should have.
Apple seem to be pushing ahead so quickly (and well I might add) in advancing really useful features, that sometimes the old small bugs just get forgotten, and it's only when they've accumulated over several versions that together they make an app annoying.
Putting apple into the "hardware company" or "software company" box just doesn't work.
Apple are a solutions provider. Generally joe & ada average won't buy a mac because they want say, a 1.42GHz PPC computer with a 2.5" hard drive in a small form factor, and they don't go buy a mac because it runs a unix based operating system, they buy a mac because they want a thing to put pictures on, to play music on, to draw on, to communicate with friends on, and to do it while it sits out of the way and doesn't take up space where a potplant might look better.
that entire thing is what apple sell, the whole package, together. a solution to problems encountered irl.
Australia's ABC radio national is currently testing podcasting as well, and should have it available to the public in the next week or so. There's a little fine tuning going on, and working out how to work around copyright restrictions - some radio shows have content they aren't licensed to allow downloads of, only to stream, so the podcasted shows are often edited.
Not a problem with their science & commentary ones, which are the most worth listening to IMHO.
This might be just wishful thinking from someone who sat through A New Hope forcing myself to watch it... and only mildly enjoying the next two. Eps I and II felt like an excuse for special effects, with only Obi Wan being a character I was attached to, but episode III - the beginnings of darth vader, the first things he does as Ol' Evil One... that's worth seeing I think.
I'm not a huge fan, probably not even a fan fullstop, but I find some parts of the movies attractive, and vader is *it*.
the KDE developers should follow Apple's lead and focus more on the needs of users, instead of insisting on software perfection.
In a way, I agree. It's comforting to sit down, load an app, and have everything work. Knowing it's not quite perfectly written behind the scenes is a small worry sitting in the back of my mind, but it's smaller than when I have a slightly clumsy app that is otherwise technically correct.
Not that I think Konq is all that far behind in the user side of things.
Slashdot Mirror
Blogging For One
The headline of the article says it all, and I'm glad those blogs people write about themselves are doing something good for SOMEONE. I find personal blogs that just constantly run on with someone's personal life to be the dullest reading. 99% of people do the same shit, feel the same guilt and address the same issues as all the other personal blogs out there.
And everybody feels different. Maybe they should all look hard at each others blogs and see how much people have in common.
Not that I'm complaining - the non-personal blogs, ones that write about technology, wider life, news, politics, and various other cool stuff makes up for the rest. As for me, I'll stick to whining on slashdot from time to time as my therapy.
> assuming he's someone since ./ quoted him in an article.
./ (which looks to be dotslash to me).
:)
I don't want to sound like a smartarse, but is there a reason most people write "slashdot" as
I'm not the ultrageek who is certain just what the name 'slashdot' is meant to mean, so explanations in short words is good for me
It's the silliest thing I've read about non-IE browsers, and how they're BAD since I read this one.
The iBook and Mac mini were the ones updated, and it's not so much a new Mac mini as a revision of the line. They're no quicker, just the higher end one loses its superdrive and gains airport+bluetooth as standard, and a newer more expensive higher-end one gets the superdrive back again, along with the 512MB default across the board.
The Mac minis are still 1.25GHz and 1.42GHz models.
the iBook 14 looks to be a better gain in value than others. It gets the powerbook scroller trackpad, powerbook motion sensor, new graphics card (as do all the others), 512MB RAM and bluetooth/airport as standard while also getting a decent price DROP.
Still, whether or not it's enough of a gain in value to keep the competing PC laptops away given their speed advantages now is something else entirely. Guess that comes down to how much OS X and iBook design is worth to a particular buyer.
> The player is 24x24x24 milimeters (about the size of the tip of
> your finger
Anyone with one inch square fingertips is scary. Seriously. I doubt seeing a 1" cube I could relate it to *ANY* body part.
Unfortutely the tsunamis in december started out with 200 confirmed dead, and the madrid bombings started with "about 5" deaths.
I've seen some bad customer service, but I've also seen some shocking customer expectations. A friend works at Apple, and one of his headbutt-the-desk moments that come up all too often is when a customer phones complaining that a new model is out, and their 3 month old powerbook/ibook/whatever is now out of date... and will he give them a refund or a replacement unit.
Having also worked on an ISP helpdesk, some of the customer expectations there are equally insane. One business had thousands of business cards, letterheads and other stationary printed with their email address listed as "http://www.businessname.com/". Who did they immediately phone? us - demanding that when someone sends email to "http://www.businessname.com/" that it get to them.
Pity their hosting wasn't with us, even if their net service was.
The technically clueless just want someone to blame if something doesn't work to their satisfaction - and that's entirely fair - however when they come on all insistent that their problems can be fixed by places they can't, or they don't realise their expectations are entirely unrealistic it's when service providers just turn off and want to go "piss off, idiot"
Last election I heard dozens of my friends announce they thought bush got in illegally, as they knew nobody personally who voted bush.
Now, apart from that just not being a representative sample, I also asked them who they voted for.
All kinds of excuses came up. they were busy on the day, they don't vote out of protest, it was too far to travel, they just forgot.
So much for not knowing anyone who voted bush - most of them didn't know anybody who voted kerry either.
No, really. Scientists deny altering findings
> So what happens if this thing develops a consciousness?
...and it says it's scared. or alone. or just wants a friend.
Yes. That's what has me thinking. Not that I think we should stop, but it's going to be a disturbing moment when the techs running these things get to a point where they ask a simulation brain questions, get it to perform tasks, get it to react like a human does...
Because a year after the console is released, when its hardware is now old-spec and new PC hardware is still right at the bleeding edge, the PC will out-game the console.
Two years after the console is released it'll be an even wider difference, and 3 years after it'll be incomparable
> What else could be powered by RFID?
Paranoia.
I have to support "LOGOFF" and "TURN OFF COMPUTER" are accessed by clicking the START button. It's hard to explain to them why when even I don't get it.
Tell me about it. There was this other operating system I once used where to uninstall a program, you used apt-get
It's hard to explain to them when even I don't get it!
apt-get remove something. How nuts.
The XBox 360 has NO OFF THE SHELF HARDWARE. You would need to reverse engineer the processor,
Jumping on top of your comment - but does anyone have any more details about the CPU in the xbox 360 yet, more than a 3.2ghz ppc based one?
Based on which ppc? 64bit? is it more like a G3, G4, G5, or something so far removed from any of those that it's more a whole different PPC family
"PPC360" perhaps?
A rewrite to fix the numerous little annoying bugs that were introduced in versions after 2.0. Things like lag on 500mhz G3s when playing music and renaming tags, or sporadic pauses, dumping the clumsy parts of the old interface - just making the same old app work how they should have.
Apple seem to be pushing ahead so quickly (and well I might add) in advancing really useful features, that sometimes the old small bugs just get forgotten, and it's only when they've accumulated over several versions that together they make an app annoying.
(cue comments on the Finder now too)
Mod parent up seriously.
Putting apple into the "hardware company" or "software company" box just doesn't work.
Apple are a solutions provider. Generally joe & ada average won't buy a mac because they want say, a 1.42GHz PPC computer with a 2.5" hard drive in a small form factor, and they don't go buy a mac because it runs a unix based operating system, they buy a mac because they want a thing to put pictures on, to play music on, to draw on, to communicate with friends on, and to do it while it sits out of the way and doesn't take up space where a potplant might look better.
that entire thing is what apple sell, the whole package, together. a solution to problems encountered irl.
Australia's ABC radio national is currently testing podcasting as well, and should have it available to the public in the next week or so. There's a little fine tuning going on, and working out how to work around copyright restrictions - some radio shows have content they aren't licensed to allow downloads of, only to stream, so the podcasted shows are often edited.
Not a problem with their science & commentary ones, which are the most worth listening to IMHO.
Apple's XServes
This I find interesting. do you have a source for that info? Not that I doubt it but I'd like to find where.
thanks
This might be just wishful thinking from someone who sat through A New Hope forcing myself to watch it... and only mildly enjoying the next two. Eps I and II felt like an excuse for special effects, with only Obi Wan being a character I was attached to, but episode III - the beginnings of darth vader, the first things he does as Ol' Evil One... that's worth seeing I think.
I'm not a huge fan, probably not even a fan fullstop, but I find some parts of the movies attractive, and vader is *it*.
Yes, in a laptop
> perhaps Apple's devout zealots could address the issue of why
> Apple didn't back Mozilla in the first place.
Why? it's not an issue that needs addressing, or even thinking about.
the KDE developers should follow Apple's lead and focus more on the needs of users, instead of insisting on software perfection.
In a way, I agree. It's comforting to sit down, load an app, and have everything work. Knowing it's not quite perfectly written behind the scenes is a small worry sitting in the back of my mind, but it's smaller than when I have a slightly clumsy app that is otherwise technically correct.
Not that I think Konq is all that far behind in the user side of things.
Weapon of mass destruction
The NINE and TEN news (australian local television) both said that the battery was torn open and that they "flash flame" when exposed to the air.
Here is a friend's prediction of 2007's Powerbook 30"