On the British... The seemingly effortless way you inform and ridicule at the same time...
I am British. We are taught it at school.
:P
On irregardless...
I cannot recall whether I have heard this word used - I am sure I have - although a quick search on Google reveals that its usage is mostly confined to the States, so it is possible that I have not had the dubious pleasure of anyone forming this luscious string of sounds here in Blighty.
Good news though - that same Google search does reveal that, at least in the top ten, most consider it a bastard child, one to be cast aside - linguistically speaking anyway. This is rather interesting - not only because it is written by a Brit (which pleases me immensely), but because it notes that that insipid organ - I am referring, of course, to the New York Times - used it as far back as 1993 (and, in fact, possibly earlier).
On topic...?
I cannot help note in passing how far we are from the original topic, which I believe had something to do with Creative and their desire - how is this news? - to take on the iPod. (It strikes me that if it has taken them this long to realise that they are competing with Apple, they have bigger problems to worry about.)
why not add the support to chase after the niche market?
I made this a bit clearer in another post in this thread - because they don't need to - yet. If Apple finds itself under threat - dwindling market share, etc. - then they can go to their reserve of such features and add them in, thus making the iPod more attractive versus its competitors once again.
It's hideously capitalistic, perhaps, but it's the way the game works.
Oh, and one more thing, it's 'niche,' not 'nitch', despite the interesting way you guys pronounce it.:P
a 500 86 platform will have more bang for the buck than a mac mini
You can stamp your feet all you like. Reiterate your earlier statement if you feel the need. It will not make it come true. In most people's eyes, there is more to a computer than clock cycles. See above and below.
I must say that I am thankful that Slashdot allows one to view others' comment history - it allows a much more educated response, even to the most moronic of posters - sir, you are a fine specimen indeed.
More specifically in this case, I note that you battled others in the comments appended to the Mac mini article. And, with a certain glee, I must confess, I note that I am not the only one so rightly dismissing you as an idiot.
I presume it is some kind of denial. In the Longhorn graphics card article's comments, you trumpeted the use of graphics cards to "speed stuff up," finally. Mac OS X has done this for ages - two years or so, IIRC.
And in the Mac mini article, you dismiss resplendent and wholy valid security and reliability concerns with the suggestion that "a bit of education" is all that's needed. As someone noted at the time, your immediate family is not really particularly representative of the entire Windows using world, although it does mean that they are by implication more intelligent than the average moron - good for you.
In any event, this is irrelevant. For most people, Windows has done enough damage - lengthy phone calls to premium rate numbers, assisted credit card fraud, formatted hard drives, rebooted every 60 seconds, given Internet users the world over more shit in their inboxes than they could possibly imagine, simplified DDOSing no end... - not to me, I might add. I am simply the one who has cleared up this kind of mess.
Anyway, all this malaise, coupled with iPod love, means one thing - switching. Maybe even en masse.
First, I'll point out, as a friendly aside, that convention dictates that quotes are italicised rather than emboldened...
Secondly, you seem to have totally misunderstood my canine analogy - the idea being that both the companies (and, by extension, their products) and the share of the market in which they compete are weak. It does not extend well to Apple fanatics and Apple products, although if you want one, consider Gucci.
Anyway, you bought the Dell Digital Jukebox. If it suits your needs, good for you. Having used Dell's products for over ten years now, and watched the build quality degrade - they used to make top notch machines, I can only imagine what the Jukebox must be like - "lacking" would probably be the term I used. Others agree, it would seem. It flopped.
But yes, it is just a unit that serves up music. It's just that most people would like to make things easy for themselves - as someone who wrestled with Windows and later Linux for almost a decade before switching, I count myself among them. And I'm one of the ones that knows what I'm doing, one who has tinkered for days on end...
And yet I chose an iPod.
Your dismissal of the Mac mini is encouraging, as when such Slashdot types so do, it is all but guaranteed success. You speak, not incorrectly, of bang for buck, and I would submit that the Mac mini trumps a Windows-based price-equivalent machine on many counts - simplicity, reliability, size, looks (which, despite your intevitable protestations, matter to most), but, most importantly, for getting done what you want to get done.
Most people want a machine for Internet and e-mail, and maybe a little digital photography and music, and the Mac has the edge over Windows in this regard.
Because it's about the bigger picture? Because most users would rather have Apple DRM than Microsoft DRM, because Microsoft have shown time and time again that they, not Apple, are the ones to abuse such a position? Because you get more freedom with Apple DRM than you do with Microsoft DRM?
It makes no sense for Apple to add WMA support at the moment, because nobody (and again apply the standard disclaimer for use of that term) actually wants WMA support. Apple is on top at the moment and they are well aware of it, and the only reason Microsoft is embracing everyone who wants to licence WMA is because of good old "embrace and extend" - they want a monopoly in DRM as well as in operating systems and web browsers. What good reason would Apple have for giving Microsoft a leg-up into this market? Think economically, not socio-politically here...
When, and only when, Apple finds itself having to compete, you will see the addition of OGG Vorbis and WMA support - when these features become must-haves. But until that point - and I'm willing to be that it will be a while yet - it'll just be AAC DRM on the iPod, and AAC DRM will not be licenced to the likes of Real.
Finally, don't get me started on dictatorship - I've actually read the WMP9 EULA. And Palladium/TCPA? Psssh, Apple doesn't even come close.
First, let me start with a disclaimer: you are an idiot.
A point-by-point evaluation:
How many times does Apple need to learn that people don't want lock-in solutions. [sic]
Why do people never learn? Why, no matter how many fucking iPod articles Slashdot posts (and, yea, there are a great many), does there remain a group who simply do not get it? How many times must one of these types be told that no-one (or, should I say "so few people that they cumulatively round down to zero") gives a flying fuck about lock-in. They probably don't even know what "lock-in" is. I know I have ranted on about it in the past to non-tech types and they just zone out. Can you blame them?
Where you buy there [sic] player and are locked into their music service.
Your frighteningly schizophrenic spelling aside, you're bandying around that dangerous "lock-in" word again. As various others have noted on here, there do exist paid-for music services which offer MP3s, e.g. allofmp3.com. There are others, but I have not the inclination to look. This aside, the average man on the street doesn't particularly care anyway, but we've already made that point.
...there is nothing out there for them when choosing Apple
This is more subjective, but I can say with certainty that in the UK, the Windows-using masses are restless, tired of spam and spyware and system updates every other day. That Mac mini is looking incredibly tempting. I am sure it is the same way - even more so, perhaps - on the other side of the pond. There is something "out there" when choosing Apple, unless you find the tortious Windows/WMA et al experience pleasurable in some way. (I have already commented on schizophrenic spelling, so I shall leave further interpretation as an exercise to readers...). The iPod's elegance and simplicity appeals to people. Really, it does.
...start supporting Ogg Vorbis...
Groan.
I posted at length about this on my blog after OGG and iPod were mentioned in the same thread a while back. It goes back to the "so few people that they cumulatively round down to zero" point again. No-one, save the militant/obstinate few, gives a shit about OGG, and, moreover, the only reason that Creative, etc. include OGG support is to try to capture some of the statistically minute militant/obstinate market. That's how marginalised they are - like a pack of mangy stray dogs fighting over scraps.
...and WMP...
At the outset you seemed to be typing yourself as anti-lock-in. I'm confused. Most people choose the lesser of two evils, and here you are, proposing that Apple sleeps with the devil.
I needed to upgrade the firmware to get the most out of my player
Sounds to me like a bit of a euphemism for "The player Creative shipped was a pile of turd and didn't work as advertised, but a 50MB download later and I am now trying to figure my way through the awkward setup procedure. Here's hoping it works!"
In London, I don't think I've seen a single person with an MP3 player other than an iPod - no kidding - and they're expensive here. I'm sure they exist, but people hide them...like something they're to be ashamed of. So the suggestion that friends are jealous of you sounds a little weak.
(Disclaimer: I, like all the other non-anal-retentives on here, have an iPod. Oldskool 10Gb.)
Among my various Macs now is an iMac G3 running at 400Mhz, an unthinkably slow speed in these multi-gigahertz times. Of course, it can drag a bit on occasion, but for the most part, it does its job perfectly, and, besides, it's beautiful - the essential accompaniment to any student bedroom.
Sure, I wouldn't mind a G5, but, courtesy of speed bumps in Panther (and perhaps some in Tiger too?), I have a very usable machine - a stark contrast to the Microsoft-Intel cartel of old.
But reverse negations are such a wonderful construction, bound to at the very least make the reader pause and think a little about the concept being expressed! Not a few times have I found good cause to include them in an essay or such.
Cumbersome? Of course, but therein lies the beauty.
(And I return your parenthised comment with a genuine thank you.)
This is not considered incorrect. "BBC" can be considered a collective noun, and as a Brit, I can say with some certainty that we would use the third person plural pronoun - i.e. "they" to refer to that company without naming it.
In fact, this is commonplace for any company/body corporate/corporation...any group, surely? Consider: Microsoft are evil. They are bastards.
You are right, of course. A very plethora of copycat designs will storm the shelves. But, as I opined at length on my blog, it will still lack that certain je ne sais quoi - a kind of coherence or wholeness - that Apple products have.
The beauty of this is that it rings true in some distant way.
Without wishing to overly blow my own trumpet, I like to style myself a Mac evangelist par excellence, but I am at once torn by the knowledge that all this pandering to the proles, as the parent so accurately puts it, serves only to, pas à pas, destroy this wonderful manifestation of trans-contintenal class division that persists to this day.
I shudder to think of the $499 iMac, hooked up to a...it pains me to write these words...a totally-out-of-keeping black Dell CRT or, worse still, some hideous emanation from Packard Bell or HP. The whole thing is really quite shocking. Sometimes I even cry at night. "How could you do this to us!?"
Alas it is just another element of this worrying "progressive" tendency that I observe all around in the world today - a sorry state of affairs indeed. Today we ban fox hunting and cheapen the iMac, , tomorrow, who knows?
Unless similar eligibility requirements to those outlined in the parent post are established in Britain, to the exclusion of single mothers, wearers of shell suits or anything by Nike, Adidas, Kappa, etc. and people who listen to R&B in the new sense of the word, to cite but a few, Islington - land of lattés and fine assorted confiserie, bon mots and beatniks, aloe vera before it was bastardised by Andrex and the exquisite goatee - will never be the same again.
They say that Microsoft employs some of the most talented individuals in the industry. At the risk of being overly provocative, might I submit that Mr Torr is perhaps not amongst these individuals? Certainly his knowledge of users and how they interact with software seems lacking.
As others have noted, his rant is totally misguided, pushing the issue of digital signing, a technology which seems only to be employed by Microsoft and the developers of shady/downright naughty ActiveX controls. Fact is that probably over 95% of Internet Explorer users have no idea what security certificates and digital signing are nor why they are important. And, to be honest, why should they have to?
Some of the post's comments note that digital signatures were simply a response to the grand fuckup that ActiveX is. And, as I have pointed out above, the solution was almost entirely ineffective. As for executables in general, far better to adopt a solution similar to Firefox's, where a more deliberate action is required - that of saving the file, switching to the Download window, double clicking the file's icon, reading a warning and clicking OK before it finally runs. Internet Explorer's single click is woefully inadequate.
All that is necessary is to make users jump through certain hoops every time - those hoops must not be overly onerous, but distracting enough to make the user at least think twice before doing something stupid. A splendid but totally unconnected example is the behaviour of the Recycle Bin/Trash on Windows and Mac OS X - the latter treats "deliberate actions" appropriately, whereas Windows makes things overly onerous by offering too many warnings ("Are you sure you want to delete this file?" "Are you sure you want to empty the Recycle bin?" "Yes, enough already!").
That Firefox is, quite simply better, should be obvious. I would invite Mr Torr to witness the before and after states of the countless Windows machines I have repaired - the treacle-like slowness brought about by a cornucopia of porn diallers, spam relays, browser toolbars, "Make this site my home page" requests, startup items, RunServices, adware...need I go on?
Internet Explorer is really - horrifically - bad software. I am yet to hear one complaint about a spyware-infested machine from any of my Firefox converts. And, you know what, I don't think I will.
Is Britain really bound by the same onerous restrictions on fair use (i.e. DeCSSing a DVD) as the USA? I was under the impression we weren't. Indeed, the attitude towards DVD region coding here seems somewhat different - I am told that it is still quite difficult to get region-free players in the States, whereas Amazon.co.uk can sell them freely.
Of course, dear Blighty isn't as progressive as Canada, but...the DeCSS thing...?
The contents of my/etc/ttys file can be found here - you should be able to start up in single user mode (this looks good, but Google is your friend). You can then retype the contents of the file - pain in the ass I know, but it's something?
The permissions on the file are -rw-r--r--, user root, group wheel.
Otherwise, target disk mode should be able to help you out.
Whilst I, like others, question the need for this to be the stuff of the front page, I am grateful for the notification and can now report back post-install.
I can't quite put my finger on it, but I'm pretty sure I can detect a speed increase, definitely for UI responsiveness - I've got an 800 MHz iBook G3 and a 400 Mhz iMac G3 here, and both seem to have gained a certain je ne sais quoi from the update, the iMac especially.
Thank you once again, Apple, for a free speedup to my ageing iMac. It is much appreciated!
iqu:)
(Seriously, it is commendable, the work that seems to go into these releases. Each point release is bringing genuine improvements, such that it is quite a shock to go back to a mint 10.3 install or suchlike. This is an area where Apple really excels - making even relative relics like my iMac more usable with every new update.)
Casting aside, for the moment, your rant, the likes of which we have heard far too many times before on these pages, to this point...
preedict this Sony MP3 player will be very successful, even though it doesn't work worth a damn. There's millions of consumers out there who would happily shell out big bucks for a piece of moldy bread if it just had a Sony emblem on it.
You're wrong. Whilst it is common for the average Slashdotter to be out of touch with market forces in the real world, it is always funny to see this.
Not to troll, but Sony is dying. Even in Japan, the once-vaunted company's reputation on the wane, perhaps salvageable only by the performance of the PSP (their games division is first rate). As another poster noted, the comparison in Japan is no longer between this player and the iPod - the former is simply not considered worthy of such a comparison - but rather whether it is worth getting a PSP instead.
Sony are, as is noted on these pages, now synonymous with poor build quality. In Japan they talk about the "Sony Timer" - your shiny product seems to fail exactly one year after purchase, coincidentally the same day the warranty expires! Their reputation for shoddy goods clearly transcends national boundaries.
So whilst I think you should just lose the politics and get an iPod (because OGG listeners amount to a "rounding error," as seems to be the clichéed term on here) or otherwise actually look at what's available and get an iRiver or a Rio (I am not recommending them in any way, but...), you can have faith that this piece of turd, which, incidentally makes Apple's product look like a pariah of openness, will not sell like the proverbial hotcakes.
As the sister post notes with biting wit, the suggestion that iRiver "beats Apple in many ways including style" is, to much (but clearly not all) of the world, a ridiculous suggestion.
Yes, they have some kind of 80s retro cool to them, but that is accompanied by all the cheap, tacky feeling that that implies. Why have a Honda Civic when you can have the Rolls?
Seriously, can it really be that hard? Elsewhere some people have so suggested, but honestly? Really? Are Apple that clever?
It staggers me that Sony have taken this long to come out with something, and when they do, it is virtually insulting. This product is, quite frankly, turd. (I speak from experience - I had the misfortune of tryin to use one in Japan in a shop - I failed dismally.)
Sony rocked the world with the Walkman. Now they're getting their asses whipped by the likes of Creative, iRiver and so on.
It truly is absurd.
iqu 8s
(To the parent: next, get an Apple laptop. You can get more of that warm fuzzy feeling - that completeness - that your iPod gives you. I bought an iPod, then made the switch, and have never looked back.)
Slashdot Mirror
On the British...
:P
:P
The seemingly effortless way you inform and ridicule at the same time...
I am British. We are taught it at school.
On irregardless...
I cannot recall whether I have heard this word used - I am sure I have - although a quick search on Google reveals that its usage is mostly confined to the States, so it is possible that I have not had the dubious pleasure of anyone forming this luscious string of sounds here in Blighty.
Good news though - that same Google search does reveal that, at least in the top ten, most consider it a bastard child, one to be cast aside - linguistically speaking anyway. This is rather interesting - not only because it is written by a Brit (which pleases me immensely), but because it notes that that insipid organ - I am referring, of course, to the New York Times - used it as far back as 1993 (and, in fact, possibly earlier).
On topic...?
I cannot help note in passing how far we are from the original topic, which I believe had something to do with Creative and their desire - how is this news? - to take on the iPod. (It strikes me that if it has taken them this long to realise that they are competing with Apple, they have bigger problems to worry about.)
iqu
why not add the support to chase after the niche market?
:P
:D
I made this a bit clearer in another post in this thread - because they don't need to - yet. If Apple finds itself under threat - dwindling market share, etc. - then they can go to their reserve of such features and add them in, thus making the iPod more attractive versus its competitors once again.
It's hideously capitalistic, perhaps, but it's the way the game works.
Oh, and one more thing, it's 'niche,' not 'nitch', despite the interesting way you guys pronounce it.
iqu
a 500 86 platform will have more bang for the buck than a mac mini
:)
You can stamp your feet all you like. Reiterate your earlier statement if you feel the need. It will not make it come true. In most people's eyes, there is more to a computer than clock cycles. See above and below.
I must say that I am thankful that Slashdot allows one to view others' comment history - it allows a much more educated response, even to the most moronic of posters - sir, you are a fine specimen indeed.
More specifically in this case, I note that you battled others in the comments appended to the Mac mini article. And, with a certain glee, I must confess, I note that I am not the only one so rightly dismissing you as an idiot.
I presume it is some kind of denial. In the Longhorn graphics card article's comments, you trumpeted the use of graphics cards to "speed stuff up," finally. Mac OS X has done this for ages - two years or so, IIRC.
And in the Mac mini article, you dismiss resplendent and wholy valid security and reliability concerns with the suggestion that "a bit of education" is all that's needed. As someone noted at the time, your immediate family is not really particularly representative of the entire Windows using world, although it does mean that they are by implication more intelligent than the average moron - good for you.
In any event, this is irrelevant. For most people, Windows has done enough damage - lengthy phone calls to premium rate numbers, assisted credit card fraud, formatted hard drives, rebooted every 60 seconds, given Internet users the world over more shit in their inboxes than they could possibly imagine, simplified DDOSing no end... - not to me, I might add. I am simply the one who has cleared up this kind of mess.
Anyway, all this malaise, coupled with iPod love, means one thing - switching. Maybe even en masse.
iqu
I can't be certain, but I'm pretty sure it won't work - you're asking rather a lot of compatibility favours from the firmware.
:s
iqu
First, I'll point out, as a friendly aside, that convention dictates that quotes are italicised rather than emboldened...
:)
Secondly, you seem to have totally misunderstood my canine analogy - the idea being that both the companies (and, by extension, their products) and the share of the market in which they compete are weak. It does not extend well to Apple fanatics and Apple products, although if you want one, consider Gucci.
Anyway, you bought the Dell Digital Jukebox. If it suits your needs, good for you. Having used Dell's products for over ten years now, and watched the build quality degrade - they used to make top notch machines, I can only imagine what the Jukebox must be like - "lacking" would probably be the term I used. Others agree, it would seem. It flopped.
But yes, it is just a unit that serves up music. It's just that most people would like to make things easy for themselves - as someone who wrestled with Windows and later Linux for almost a decade before switching, I count myself among them. And I'm one of the ones that knows what I'm doing, one who has tinkered for days on end...
And yet I chose an iPod.
Your dismissal of the Mac mini is encouraging, as when such Slashdot types so do, it is all but guaranteed success. You speak, not incorrectly, of bang for buck, and I would submit that the Mac mini trumps a Windows-based price-equivalent machine on many counts - simplicity, reliability, size, looks (which, despite your intevitable protestations, matter to most), but, most importantly, for getting done what you want to get done.
Most people want a machine for Internet and e-mail, and maybe a little digital photography and music, and the Mac has the edge over Windows in this regard.
iqu
...iPod supports WMP, so why not offer it.
:|
Because it's about the bigger picture? Because most users would rather have Apple DRM than Microsoft DRM, because Microsoft have shown time and time again that they, not Apple, are the ones to abuse such a position? Because you get more freedom with Apple DRM than you do with Microsoft DRM?
It makes no sense for Apple to add WMA support at the moment, because nobody (and again apply the standard disclaimer for use of that term) actually wants WMA support. Apple is on top at the moment and they are well aware of it, and the only reason Microsoft is embracing everyone who wants to licence WMA is because of good old "embrace and extend" - they want a monopoly in DRM as well as in operating systems and web browsers. What good reason would Apple have for giving Microsoft a leg-up into this market? Think economically, not socio-politically here...
When, and only when, Apple finds itself having to compete, you will see the addition of OGG Vorbis and WMA support - when these features become must-haves. But until that point - and I'm willing to be that it will be a while yet - it'll just be AAC DRM on the iPod, and AAC DRM will not be licenced to the likes of Real.
Finally, don't get me started on dictatorship - I've actually read the WMP9 EULA. And Palladium/TCPA? Psssh, Apple doesn't even come close.
iqu
First, let me start with a disclaimer: you are an idiot.
...there is nothing out there for them when choosing Apple
...start supporting Ogg Vorbis...
...and WMP...
A point-by-point evaluation:
How many times does Apple need to learn that people don't want lock-in solutions. [sic]
Why do people never learn? Why, no matter how many fucking iPod articles Slashdot posts (and, yea, there are a great many), does there remain a group who simply do not get it? How many times must one of these types be told that no-one (or, should I say "so few people that they cumulatively round down to zero") gives a flying fuck about lock-in. They probably don't even know what "lock-in" is. I know I have ranted on about it in the past to non-tech types and they just zone out. Can you blame them?
Where you buy there [sic] player and are locked into their music service.
Your frighteningly schizophrenic spelling aside, you're bandying around that dangerous "lock-in" word again. As various others have noted on here, there do exist paid-for music services which offer MP3s, e.g. allofmp3.com. There are others, but I have not the inclination to look. This aside, the average man on the street doesn't particularly care anyway, but we've already made that point.
This is more subjective, but I can say with certainty that in the UK, the Windows-using masses are restless, tired of spam and spyware and system updates every other day. That Mac mini is looking incredibly tempting. I am sure it is the same way - even more so, perhaps - on the other side of the pond. There is something "out there" when choosing Apple, unless you find the tortious Windows/WMA et al experience pleasurable in some way. (I have already commented on schizophrenic spelling, so I shall leave further interpretation as an exercise to readers...). The iPod's elegance and simplicity appeals to people. Really, it does.
Groan.
I posted at length about this on my blog after OGG and iPod were mentioned in the same thread a while back. It goes back to the "so few people that they cumulatively round down to zero" point again. No-one, save the militant/obstinate few, gives a shit about OGG, and, moreover, the only reason that Creative, etc. include OGG support is to try to capture some of the statistically minute militant/obstinate market. That's how marginalised they are - like a pack of mangy stray dogs fighting over scraps.
At the outset you seemed to be typing yourself as anti-lock-in. I'm confused. Most people choose the lesser of two evils, and here you are, proposing that Apple sleeps with the devil.
I'd apologise for the tirade, but, y'know...
iqu >:|
I needed to upgrade the firmware to get the most out of my player
:P
Sounds to me like a bit of a euphemism for "The player Creative shipped was a pile of turd and didn't work as advertised, but a 50MB download later and I am now trying to figure my way through the awkward setup procedure. Here's hoping it works!"
In London, I don't think I've seen a single person with an MP3 player other than an iPod - no kidding - and they're expensive here. I'm sure they exist, but people hide them...like something they're to be ashamed of. So the suggestion that friends are jealous of you sounds a little weak.
(Disclaimer: I, like all the other non-anal-retentives on here, have an iPod. Oldskool 10Gb.)
iqu
I can wholeheartedly concur.
:)
Among my various Macs now is an iMac G3 running at 400Mhz, an unthinkably slow speed in these multi-gigahertz times. Of course, it can drag a bit on occasion, but for the most part, it does its job perfectly, and, besides, it's beautiful - the essential accompaniment to any student bedroom.
Sure, I wouldn't mind a G5, but, courtesy of speed bumps in Panther (and perhaps some in Tiger too?), I have a very usable machine - a stark contrast to the Microsoft-Intel cartel of old.
iqu
But reverse negations are such a wonderful construction, bound to at the very least make the reader pause and think a little about the concept being expressed! Not a few times have I found good cause to include them in an essay or such.
:D
Cumbersome? Of course, but therein lies the beauty.
(And I return your parenthised comment with a genuine thank you.)
iqu
Oooh right. I stand...informed.
:P
So what do we do when writing about a British corporation on an American web site read internationally?
iqu
This is not considered incorrect. "BBC" can be considered a collective noun, and as a Brit, I can say with some certainty that we would use the third person plural pronoun - i.e. "they" to refer to that company without naming it.
:P
In fact, this is commonplace for any company/body corporate/corporation...any group, surely? Consider: Microsoft are evil. They are bastards.
iqu
You are right, of course. A very plethora of copycat designs will storm the shelves. But, as I opined at length on my blog, it will still lack that certain je ne sais quoi - a kind of coherence or wholeness - that Apple products have.
:)
iqu
How very crushing...
:|
I must point out that in my defence, I have perhaps only three people on my AIM list, only one of whom I talk to, and that I cut my teeth on ICQ.
Still, you have a point.
iqu
The beauty of this is that it rings true in some distant way.
:s
Without wishing to overly blow my own trumpet, I like to style myself a Mac evangelist par excellence, but I am at once torn by the knowledge that all this pandering to the proles, as the parent so accurately puts it, serves only to, pas à pas, destroy this wonderful manifestation of trans-contintenal class division that persists to this day.
I shudder to think of the $499 iMac, hooked up to a...it pains me to write these words...a totally-out-of-keeping black Dell CRT or, worse still, some hideous emanation from Packard Bell or HP. The whole thing is really quite shocking. Sometimes I even cry at night. "How could you do this to us!?"
Alas it is just another element of this worrying "progressive" tendency that I observe all around in the world today - a sorry state of affairs indeed. Today we ban fox hunting and cheapen the iMac, , tomorrow, who knows?
Unless similar eligibility requirements to those outlined in the parent post are established in Britain, to the exclusion of single mothers, wearers of shell suits or anything by Nike, Adidas, Kappa, etc. and people who listen to R&B in the new sense of the word, to cite but a few, Islington - land of lattés and fine assorted confiserie, bon mots and beatniks, aloe vera before it was bastardised by Andrex and the exquisite goatee - will never be the same again.
iqu
I stand corrected.
:D
By the way, it's kindergarten in British English too.
iqu
SCO should be in the OED under "schadenfreude".
:s
Yes, because the OED is known for its extensive cataloguing of the German language...
iqu
They say that Microsoft employs some of the most talented individuals in the industry. At the risk of being overly provocative, might I submit that Mr Torr is perhaps not amongst these individuals? Certainly his knowledge of users and how they interact with software seems lacking.
:)
As others have noted, his rant is totally misguided, pushing the issue of digital signing, a technology which seems only to be employed by Microsoft and the developers of shady/downright naughty ActiveX controls. Fact is that probably over 95% of Internet Explorer users have no idea what security certificates and digital signing are nor why they are important. And, to be honest, why should they have to?
Some of the post's comments note that digital signatures were simply a response to the grand fuckup that ActiveX is. And, as I have pointed out above, the solution was almost entirely ineffective. As for executables in general, far better to adopt a solution similar to Firefox's, where a more deliberate action is required - that of saving the file, switching to the Download window, double clicking the file's icon, reading a warning and clicking OK before it finally runs. Internet Explorer's single click is woefully inadequate.
All that is necessary is to make users jump through certain hoops every time - those hoops must not be overly onerous, but distracting enough to make the user at least think twice before doing something stupid. A splendid but totally unconnected example is the behaviour of the Recycle Bin/Trash on Windows and Mac OS X - the latter treats "deliberate actions" appropriately, whereas Windows makes things overly onerous by offering too many warnings ("Are you sure you want to delete this file?" "Are you sure you want to empty the Recycle bin?" "Yes, enough already!").
That Firefox is, quite simply better, should be obvious. I would invite Mr Torr to witness the before and after states of the countless Windows machines I have repaired - the treacle-like slowness brought about by a cornucopia of porn diallers, spam relays, browser toolbars, "Make this site my home page" requests, startup items, RunServices, adware...need I go on?
Internet Explorer is really - horrifically - bad software. I am yet to hear one complaint about a spyware-infested machine from any of my Firefox converts. And, you know what, I don't think I will.
iqu
Is Britain really bound by the same onerous restrictions on fair use (i.e. DeCSSing a DVD) as the USA? I was under the impression we weren't. Indeed, the attitude towards DVD region coding here seems somewhat different - I am told that it is still quite difficult to get region-free players in the States, whereas Amazon.co.uk can sell them freely.
:s
Of course, dear Blighty isn't as progressive as Canada, but...the DeCSS thing...?
iqu
The contents of my /etc/ttys file can be found here - you should be able to start up in single user mode (this looks good, but Google is your friend). You can then retype the contents of the file - pain in the ass I know, but it's something?
:)
The permissions on the file are -rw-r--r--, user root, group wheel.
Otherwise, target disk mode should be able to help you out.
Hope this helps?
iqu
Whilst I, like others, question the need for this to be the stuff of the front page, I am grateful for the notification and can now report back post-install.
:)
I can't quite put my finger on it, but I'm pretty sure I can detect a speed increase, definitely for UI responsiveness - I've got an 800 MHz iBook G3 and a 400 Mhz iMac G3 here, and both seem to have gained a certain je ne sais quoi from the update, the iMac especially.
Thank you once again, Apple, for a free speedup to my ageing iMac. It is much appreciated!
iqu
(Seriously, it is commendable, the work that seems to go into these releases. Each point release is bringing genuine improvements, such that it is quite a shock to go back to a mint 10.3 install or suchlike. This is an area where Apple really excels - making even relative relics like my iMac more usable with every new update.)
Casting aside, for the moment, your rant, the likes of which we have heard far too many times before on these pages, to this point...
:)
preedict this Sony MP3 player will be very successful, even though it doesn't work worth a damn. There's millions of consumers out there who would happily shell out big bucks for a piece of moldy bread if it just had a Sony emblem on it.
You're wrong. Whilst it is common for the average Slashdotter to be out of touch with market forces in the real world, it is always funny to see this.
Not to troll, but Sony is dying. Even in Japan, the once-vaunted company's reputation on the wane, perhaps salvageable only by the performance of the PSP (their games division is first rate). As another poster noted, the comparison in Japan is no longer between this player and the iPod - the former is simply not considered worthy of such a comparison - but rather whether it is worth getting a PSP instead.
Sony are, as is noted on these pages, now synonymous with poor build quality. In Japan they talk about the "Sony Timer" - your shiny product seems to fail exactly one year after purchase, coincidentally the same day the warranty expires! Their reputation for shoddy goods clearly transcends national boundaries.
So whilst I think you should just lose the politics and get an iPod (because OGG listeners amount to a "rounding error," as seems to be the clichéed term on here) or otherwise actually look at what's available and get an iRiver or a Rio (I am not recommending them in any way, but...), you can have faith that this piece of turd, which, incidentally makes Apple's product look like a pariah of openness, will not sell like the proverbial hotcakes.
iqu
As the sister post notes with biting wit, the suggestion that iRiver "beats Apple in many ways including style" is, to much (but clearly not all) of the world, a ridiculous suggestion.
:P
Yes, they have some kind of 80s retro cool to them, but that is accompanied by all the cheap, tacky feeling that that implies. Why have a Honda Civic when you can have the Rolls?
iqu
My thoughts exactly.
Seriously, can it really be that hard? Elsewhere some people have so suggested, but honestly? Really? Are Apple that clever?
It staggers me that Sony have taken this long to come out with something, and when they do, it is virtually insulting. This product is, quite frankly, turd. (I speak from experience - I had the misfortune of tryin to use one in Japan in a shop - I failed dismally.)
Sony rocked the world with the Walkman. Now they're getting their asses whipped by the likes of Creative, iRiver and so on.
It truly is absurd.
iqu 8s
(To the parent: next, get an Apple laptop. You can get more of that warm fuzzy feeling - that completeness - that your iPod gives you. I bought an iPod, then made the switch, and have never looked back.)
But on the other hand, suffer not a fool to live.
Precisely! This is what I am talking about! We need to start killing these people. Once the death toll rises, they will listen.
Who's with me?
iqu >:D