You must be American. Web search is an absolutely crucial tool for using the web. If you can't see why having the major search engines being the property of private American companies, put yourself in the position of imagining Yahoo!, Google and MSN as private Chinese companies. This isn't about a pissing match, it's about not having to rely on the good nature of a country which has consistently shown itself to only look out for number one.
OK, maybe I'm just dense, but I just don't understand this obsession with "media centre" PCs. Why would I want a PC connected to my television. I already have Sky+, a DVD player and a stereo in my living room. Why would I want to connect my Mac Mini into all this?
And even more unforgiveably, no mention of Sinclair. No history of 8-bit home computing is complete without a large section on the ZX80, ZX81 and Spectrum.
On the Mac side, people with Tiger and HP printer-scanner-copiers are -still- waiting for a promised update to enable HP-supported scanning, or are giving up and using ports of open source scanning software.
What are you talking about? I bought an HP all-in-one printer/scanner just yesterday for my Mac, and the scanner works great.
Imagine being able to block adverts with a simple right click. Imagine being able to extract BugMeNot information with a right click. Imagine being able to block all flash elements until you click on them. Until Opera can do all this, I won't use it.
Very nice. Once they get this working properly I could see myself liking this. A lot.
Problems: With Google News, all I can get are USA headlines. I've customized the dedicated Google News page to show UK headlines, but it doesn't show up on the/ig/ page.
The weather applet only seems to work for USA Zip code areas. Where's my UK weather?
I like Opera a lot, but there's one killer feature that it's missing, and that's extensions. I can't live without Adblock, Flash click-to-play and BugMeNot.
There are partial, unsatisfactory solutions to these problems with Opera, but why bother when Firefox makes it so easy? Same reason why I don't use Konqueror either.
Except that people are grousing about the 4th - unavailable option:
4. Download a high-quality MP3 or lossless track with no DRM.
Why should this option not be available unless you want to use the (slightly dodgy) allofmp3 or a service with artists you've never heard of?
How can DRM be the sticking point when the major labels are quite happy to sell me a CD with no DRM on it? It's not like ripping a CD is even slightly complicated. Put it in the drive and it's practically automatic.
I have no intention of downloading music with DRM - EVER. I don't care how "friendly" that DRM might be. As far as I'm concerned, even the restrictions from iTunes sound like a right royal pain in the ass. Since I discovered Amazon marketplace, it's not even the case that CDs are necessarily the expensive option. My last album cost 0.19p (plus £1.25 P+P)!
Re:Space telescopes are obsolete
on
Hope for Hubble
·
· Score: 1
Because modern astronomy is not about feeding pretty pictures to the media. In general, the results from telescopes are as dull as ditchwater to the general public. A lot of great science is being done at the moment with space based infra-red telescopes. What do you know about them? Practically nothing, because infra-red doesn't naturally lend itself to pretty pictures. And yet, the infra-red region is often exactly what we want to study, for seeing through dust clouds, and observing star formation for example.
I would be amazed if Hubble wasn't obselete by now. Telescopes aren't getting any bigger, but the detectors and adaptive optics improve every year. On a purely cost/benefit analysis, saving Hubble doesn't make a lot of sense.
If you can point me to a legal service that will sell me an mp3 file for less than £1, I'm all ears. So why can't I find one?
The record labels will let me buy an unencrypted CD which I can rip into mp3, but they won't let me purchase the mp3 file itself. Why is that?
No, I'm not going to use iTunes while they insist on their own incompatible and DRM-encumbered format. Why should I have to burn an AAC file onto a CD and rip it again just to get in to play in my iRiver?
Which part of "terrestrial TV channel Five" did you not understand?
The BBC appear to agree with you though. They are investigating the feasability of making programmes available after transmission. They already do this for radio programmes.
I imagine there are a whole load of licensing issues to be overcome, which is why Five are only offering 3 minute clips, and the BBC has still not offered any programmes. In the future, I expect all contracts and licensing to automatically cover official downloads as well.
The reason Risk and Monopoly have such poor ratings is simple. They are pretty crappy games, compared to what is out there these days.
Go and play Settlers, Ruerto Rico, Tigris & Euphrates, El Grande, Carcassonne, Age of Steam and the like and then tell me Risk and Monopoly deserve high ratings. Just because you have an affection for Risk because you played it a lot in your youth does not make it a good game.
I suspect a lot of gamers, like myself, find chess a bit dull and abstract.
Yup, BSW rocks.
I played Attika (face 2 face) this week, and I noticed that there was an advert for BSW at the bottom of the instructions. So I don't know what the legal status of BSW is, but it certainly doesn't appear to be "dodgy".
Slashdot Mirror
I'm in Europe, and I'm perfectly free to say rude things about people. Such as the fact that I think you're an ignorant moron.
Can he be sued for writing a really, really shitty novel?
You must be American. Web search is an absolutely crucial tool for using the web. If you can't see why having the major search engines being the property of private American companies, put yourself in the position of imagining Yahoo!, Google and MSN as private Chinese companies. This isn't about a pissing match, it's about not having to rely on the good nature of a country which has consistently shown itself to only look out for number one.
An article about how we judge websites instantly, on a website where the text is so small I have to squint to read it. Nice job!
OK, maybe I'm just dense, but I just don't understand this obsession with "media centre" PCs. Why would I want a PC connected to my television. I already have Sky+, a DVD player and a stereo in my living room. Why would I want to connect my Mac Mini into all this?
And even more unforgiveably, no mention of Sinclair. No history of 8-bit home computing is complete without a large section on the ZX80, ZX81 and Spectrum.
What are you talking about? I bought an HP all-in-one printer/scanner just yesterday for my Mac, and the scanner works great.
Imagine being able to block adverts with a simple right click. Imagine being able to extract BugMeNot information with a right click. Imagine being able to block all flash elements until you click on them. Until Opera can do all this, I won't use it.
Since the facility at RAL already returns pettawatts, I'd say that the rest of your comment should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Wrong, moran. "Policy" is possessive, therefore the apostrophe is correct.
Maybe in the USA, buddy. In the rest of the civilised world, employees have rights.
Problems: With Google News, all I can get are USA headlines. I've customized the dedicated Google News page to show UK headlines, but it doesn't show up on the /ig/ page.
The weather applet only seems to work for USA Zip code areas. Where's my UK weather?
Speaking as a non-American, I would much prefer it if it wasn't you buggers.
There are partial, unsatisfactory solutions to these problems with Opera, but why bother when Firefox makes it so easy? Same reason why I don't use Konqueror either.
Christ, he's annoying.
You're on the wrong site. Fark is thataway...
4. Download a high-quality MP3 or lossless track with no DRM.
Why should this option not be available unless you want to use the (slightly dodgy) allofmp3 or a service with artists you've never heard of?
How can DRM be the sticking point when the major labels are quite happy to sell me a CD with no DRM on it? It's not like ripping a CD is even slightly complicated. Put it in the drive and it's practically automatic.
I have no intention of downloading music with DRM - EVER. I don't care how "friendly" that DRM might be. As far as I'm concerned, even the restrictions from iTunes sound like a right royal pain in the ass. Since I discovered Amazon marketplace, it's not even the case that CDs are necessarily the expensive option. My last album cost 0.19p (plus £1.25 P+P)!
I would be amazed if Hubble wasn't obselete by now. Telescopes aren't getting any bigger, but the detectors and adaptive optics improve every year. On a purely cost/benefit analysis, saving Hubble doesn't make a lot of sense.
What, like this?
If you can point me to a legal service that will sell me an mp3 file for less than £1, I'm all ears. So why can't I find one? The record labels will let me buy an unencrypted CD which I can rip into mp3, but they won't let me purchase the mp3 file itself. Why is that? No, I'm not going to use iTunes while they insist on their own incompatible and DRM-encumbered format. Why should I have to burn an AAC file onto a CD and rip it again just to get in to play in my iRiver?
Which part of "terrestrial TV channel Five" did you not understand? The BBC appear to agree with you though. They are investigating the feasability of making programmes available after transmission. They already do this for radio programmes. I imagine there are a whole load of licensing issues to be overcome, which is why Five are only offering 3 minute clips, and the BBC has still not offered any programmes. In the future, I expect all contracts and licensing to automatically cover official downloads as well.
Would this be the same Microsoft that is arguing for patent reform?
That map of Switzerland is pretty cool. All I need now is a reason to want to look at a map of Switzerland..
The reason Risk and Monopoly have such poor ratings is simple. They are pretty crappy games, compared to what is out there these days. Go and play Settlers, Ruerto Rico, Tigris & Euphrates, El Grande, Carcassonne, Age of Steam and the like and then tell me Risk and Monopoly deserve high ratings. Just because you have an affection for Risk because you played it a lot in your youth does not make it a good game. I suspect a lot of gamers, like myself, find chess a bit dull and abstract.
Yup, BSW rocks. I played Attika (face 2 face) this week, and I noticed that there was an advert for BSW at the bottom of the instructions. So I don't know what the legal status of BSW is, but it certainly doesn't appear to be "dodgy".