I was also thinking this as I read the article. One of the advantages of the Macintosh over Windows has been a higher level of consistency in the interface (particularly for things like command key shortcuts and UI elements).
I remember when Hypercard was introduced, and it was speculated that the more free-format, anything-a-button interface would water-down the Mac's usability.
Well, we all survived that episode, and now we have the iPhone (and speculated tablet) doing the same thing.
I suppose it hinges upon whether the UI gadgets remain obvious and consistent when put into actual apps by developers.
Saddam Hussein was exporting oil before we invaded in 2003.
Googling "Iraq oil Bourse" the first hit is this page.
I quote:
It is now obvious the invasion of Iraq had less to do with any threat from Saddam’s long-gone WMD program and certainly less to do to do with fighting International terrorism than it has to do with gaining control over Iraq’s hydrocarbon reserves and in doing so maintaining the U.S. dollar as the monopoly currency for the critical international oil market.
You see, Iraq had decided to sell their oil for Euros, not US Dollars. If this continued, and other oil-producing nations followed suit, it would have been very bad for the US economy.
The interesting thing is that you could have overthrown Saddam Hussein with a single assassin's bullet (or cruise missile, or missile from a predator...).
That would have immediately brought about regime change.
However, that's a game our political leaders don't want to get into. I wonder why?
Yes, I think there are around 7000 deaths per day in the USA.
While an extra 250 deaths in a plane crash due to a terrorist attack would be tragic, it would only be a blip statistically.
If we could convince the public at large of the truly insignificant risk of terrorist attack, perhaps we could wind down the security theatre, and spend that money instead on intelligence work.
And that is a perfectly rational thing to do.
In a harsh environment with limited resources, "being nice to the handicapped" just doesn't pay off.
We may consider it "inhuman" but this is how nature works.
We are very fortunate in our society that we have reached a standard of living which allows us the luxury of taking care of the weak.
Also, back in the IBM JCL days, when allocating disk space for a file you could specify the number of cylinders (or tracks) that you wanted, the block size and the packing factor.
Hey, I resemble that remark! Some of us are still coding JCL every day. But you no longer need to specify the block size and packing factor, SMS does most of the grunt work for you.
two parties the ultimate natural evolution of all democracies
Only under certain rules of voting. If you were to have STV voting, for example, you would probably get many more representatives from minor parties.
Of course, that causes it's own problems.
Me? I'm getting a bit tired of the adversarial nature of two party politics. Why aren't these people representing us and getting on with running the country, as we elected them to do?
I think you misunderstand. The DRM would be there to prevent the theater from showing the movie on more than one screen, or sending a copy to their other locations. The theater is the end-user the DRM is being used against.
Spot on! I wonder if the audience was even told "We have DRM problems" or if they were told "We have problems with our 3D projector"?
Interestingly, the DRM is surely there to ensure that theatres pay for the screening of the movie, not to stop Joe Public making a DVD copy. So I wonder how the theatres, usually strong anti-piracy advocates, feel about getting caught out by this and losing revenue? Like ordinary consumers, they are probably stuck between a rock (go without) and a hard place (put up with the DRM).
Yes, I suspect this reveals that MSFT & SONY are devoid of fresh ideas for video gaming.
While they have, with this generation, pushed the hardware so that it can produce quite realistic graphics, improvements from here on will only be incremental. Better hardware will yield diminishing returns in graphics quality.
Sadly, they don't seem to have anything else to bring to the party.
Seems to me that Natal is a response to the Wii, but I suspect it will be a novelty and won't be used for any "serious" games.
The other factor which disheartens me is that 80% of games are FPS. So, all the games are now looking/playing like each other.
Where is the originality, the fun, the entertainment in gaming?
I think this is where Nintendo better understands the video game marketplace. They are trying to provide their customers with a different gaming experience, and a different style of game.
Slashdot Mirror
You may be interested in the folklore.org website, particularly this story.
I was also thinking this as I read the article. One of the advantages of the Macintosh over Windows has been a higher level of consistency in the interface (particularly for things like command key shortcuts and UI elements).
I remember when Hypercard was introduced, and it was speculated that the more free-format, anything-a-button interface would water-down the Mac's usability.
Well, we all survived that episode, and now we have the iPhone (and speculated tablet) doing the same thing.
I suppose it hinges upon whether the UI gadgets remain obvious and consistent when put into actual apps by developers.
Saddam Hussein was exporting oil before we invaded in 2003.
Googling "Iraq oil Bourse" the first hit is this page.
I quote:
It is now obvious the invasion of Iraq had less to do with any threat from Saddam’s long-gone WMD program and certainly less to do to do with fighting International terrorism than it has to do with gaining control over Iraq’s hydrocarbon reserves and in doing so maintaining the U.S. dollar as the monopoly currency for the critical international oil market.
You see, Iraq had decided to sell their oil for Euros, not US Dollars. If this continued, and other oil-producing nations followed suit, it would have been very bad for the US economy.
The interesting thing is that you could have overthrown Saddam Hussein with a single assassin's bullet (or cruise missile, or missile from a predator...).
That would have immediately brought about regime change.
However, that's a game our political leaders don't want to get into. I wonder why?
I tried browsing the copies of playboy at the newsagent that way, but they just threw me out...
Yes, I think there are around 7000 deaths per day in the USA.
While an extra 250 deaths in a plane crash due to a terrorist attack would be tragic, it would only be a blip statistically.
If we could convince the public at large of the truly insignificant risk of terrorist attack, perhaps we could wind down the security theatre, and spend that money instead on intelligence work.
And that is a perfectly rational thing to do.
In a harsh environment with limited resources, "being nice to the handicapped" just doesn't pay off.
We may consider it "inhuman" but this is how nature works.
We are very fortunate in our society that we have reached a standard of living which allows us the luxury of taking care of the weak.
Selective breeding is not the same thing as genetic modification.
Also, back in the IBM JCL days, when allocating disk space for a file you could specify the number of cylinders (or tracks) that you wanted, the block size and the packing factor.
Hey, I resemble that remark! Some of us are still coding JCL every day. But you no longer need to specify the block size and packing factor, SMS does most of the grunt work for you.
two parties the ultimate natural evolution of all democracies
Only under certain rules of voting. If you were to have STV voting, for example, you would probably get many more representatives from minor parties.
Of course, that causes it's own problems.
Me? I'm getting a bit tired of the adversarial nature of two party politics. Why aren't these people representing us and getting on with running the country, as we elected them to do?
I think you misunderstand. The DRM would be there to prevent the theater from showing the movie on more than one screen, or sending a copy to their other locations. The theater is the end-user the DRM is being used against.
Spot on! I wonder if the audience was even told "We have DRM problems" or if they were told "We have problems with our 3D projector"?
Interestingly, the DRM is surely there to ensure that theatres pay for the screening of the movie, not to stop Joe Public making a DVD copy. So I wonder how the theatres, usually strong anti-piracy advocates, feel about getting caught out by this and losing revenue? Like ordinary consumers, they are probably stuck between a rock (go without) and a hard place (put up with the DRM).
Please, please, please be a Scientologist too!
"Yes, I have changed my fingerprints. Pray that I don't alter them further!"
Couldn't this be easily defeated with a simple propeller guard, even just a few steel bars from the hull to below the propeller?
basic browsers like IE7
I'm on IE6 you insensitive clod! Seriously, here at work they still run IE6!
I'm not so sure...
I think I'll google it on Bing to check.
Better than interesting, when combined with the language changes it is Fucking Elegant and there isn't enough of that these days.
While they have, with this generation, pushed the hardware so that it can produce quite realistic graphics, improvements from here on will only be incremental. Better hardware will yield diminishing returns in graphics quality.
Sadly, they don't seem to have anything else to bring to the party.
Seems to me that Natal is a response to the Wii, but I suspect it will be a novelty and won't be used for any "serious" games.
The other factor which disheartens me is that 80% of games are FPS. So, all the games are now looking/playing like each other.
Where is the originality, the fun, the entertainment in gaming?
I think this is where Nintendo better understands the video game marketplace. They are trying to provide their customers with a different gaming experience, and a different style of game.
All data spends some part of it's lifetime in an Excel spreadsheet.
So far, (and particularly in the project I'm on) it seems to be true.
#4 Apple really needs a Netbook to compete with the PC companies who have their own Netbook.
Do they?
I don't think they need advice on how to run their business from slashdotters (including me).
Or perhaps they could make the residue taste like fruit!
But if you can't identify and remove the sticker yourself, you need to be fed by someone else anyway...
Would you steal things from shops?
That's still illegal isn't it?
but it's more likely to drive people to torrents.
They already have a plan in place to reduce losses through torrents...
They are making the movies so bad that no-one will want to download them!