Not a whole lot different than when I was 13, had a 300 baud modem, and Quantumn Link charged by the minute. I think all those SIDs I downloaded STILL cost moer than a track from the iTunes Music Store!
Lines are long and have lots of robots today NOT because the robots are inflexible, but because we need to reduce the cycle time, i.e., its FASTER. We (the auto industry, of which Im part) underutilize our one-armed robots to a vey, very high degree. They really can do a lot more. But by demanding more work of a single robot, more time is consumed. So its better that we use more robots on longer lines. Its the difference betwen 50 cars/hour and 62 cars/hour. Figure the difference in two shifts across five years!
I am now a member of UAW Local 1970, Unit 4. I don't want to be. But my beloved company was non-responsive to the fucking missives of a bunch of fucking malcontents (by the way, forgive the harsh language; this is an emotion topic for me), so "we" voted on 01-Sep-04 to be "represented" by the UAW. I love my company, but I truly BLAME my company for having let it happen. If it had been just a little bit more responsive -- like EA -- then maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't have to suffer the FUCKING HUMILIATION of being a member of the FUCKING UAW.
Really, I apologize for the language -- some things raise SUCH an emotional charge that it's impossible to avoid such expressions.
Did I not mention it before? We're NOT blue collar workers. We're engineers. At least the 40% of use who voted AGAINST the FUCKING UAW are engineers. The other 60%? Who knows.
There's not a lot of content yet, but it's a pretty-looking site: visit www.uawsucks.org. I hope to express my RAGE at the FUCKING UAW for having inserted itself in the fine field of a working profession. Ford -- what the hell happened? Why couldn't fight off this bloody shame by being more open?
I guess I should have been a little clearer. I know that the 2.5GHz chip is rated as 2.5GHz. I also know that just the clockspeed alone does not a system make. I realize the same amount of power has to be pumped through smaller pipes and be disapated. I realize it's quiet and I miss whisper-quietness of my graphite iMac (Mac #6).
I guess the question I'm asking -- aside from being a question -- is really meant to be thought provoking. Does the use of a liquid cooling system fundamentally change the defacto cooling requirements for all future desktop computers? If you recall in the past, overclockers would use liquid cooling because they had to do so to keep the chip cool enough in order to increase the clock frequency. Higher frequency at this scale means more heat.
How do chip manufacturers specify cooling requirements anyway? So many joules per second must be removed, or simply do they leave it open and say the chip must always be below x-degrees? So are IBM or Motorola marketing a chip that's not possible to be used in any other manner aside from liquid cooling? And in the most base form, couldn't Intel just re-badge a 3Ghz chip with ridiculous cooling requirements and advertise it as a 4GHz chip?
Surely there must be something fundamental to the architecture of a chip (I don't know) that can account for its clockspeed (regardless of MIPS) aside from the ability to cool it, right? Well, up to reasonable frequency limits, right?
It used to be that Mac fanatics would be proud about how little current the PPC used -- and consequently how little heat it gave off -- when compared with the Intel-style architecture. Guess we can't make that argument any more.
Now that G5's are liquid cooled, it makes me wonder if a 2.5GHz G5 is *really* a 2.5GHz G5, or if it's an overclocked 1.8GHz chip. You know, overclockers really pump things up with cool liquid cooling stuff. What's the fastest a 2.5GHz G5 could run with a traditional cooling system, like a fan and heatsink?
Oh, one more thing before I'm modded as a troll: my G4 PowerBook is my 8th Macintosh. What I'm asking is genuine curiosity.
I can't see this taking off. Who's the customer? We're not a "city" culture in general anymore. Okay, places like New York, where no one owns cars. But everyone else is suburban. That means freeway commuting. That means a 15kph full frontal crash test means nothing! How does this little thing hold together at 80mph? Oh, wait -- it can't go 80mph. So it'll be run over on the freeway, which means we really need to see the roof-crush test results;-)
There's a crumple zone in the back? Okay, that helps with some of the impact energy, but doesn't help with any of the negative g forces. In the USA you can have up to -60g's for no great than 10ms (okay, I need to fact check it, but I'm close). Crumple zones in FRONT of the direction of travel slow your decelleration in addition to absorbing impact energy. Why is this important? Well, everything in side of you sloshes around. Think of your brain hitting your cranium at -30g's rather than -90g's.
I'M ONLY playing devil's advocate here. Personally I don't think I like the little sucker, but there's no safety-related data available for the car, other than the promotional data that they choose to show. Therefore the above can't be said to be any accurate analysis, but rather make you ask.
I haven't used floppies since my Macs stopped coming with them. Come to think of it, I didn't use floppies much before that, either -- my PowerBook expansion bay floppy drive (I was insecure) was a waste of money, even though it worked with iMation super-disks or something. Just never used it.
Making bootable CD's on a Mac has been easy for ages and ages -- ironically the advent of OS X made it a bit trickier for while, there. It's still not super-easy, but at least manageable.
To prove I'm not a Mac snob, I'll volunteer that I have an x86 box, too. I built it without a floppy -- what was the purpose of including one?
I haven't moved to a USB keychain drive yet. I usually put things on my.Mac server if I need them back and forth between work -- the XP machine connects to my account just fine.
Oh, there *is* one thing that screwed me by not having a floppy to boot from on the PC. It was hard as hell to run the dang unlocking program for my Maxtor drive to get it to work with my Tivo. All of the Tivo boot CD's are Linux (as is Tivo), but for some reason the dang unlocking program is DOS only. I think it took me two hours to figure out how to make a bootable DOS disk, add the unlocking program to another session, and merge the dang sessions. Yeah, I *could* have run to the store and bought a floppy drive for $10, but that wasn't the point.
Huh? I do this regularly on my Mac using DiskCopy (part of the OS) or Toast. Now I'm not the type of Mac user that thinks this can ONLY be done on a Mac, so, well, I guess I logically assume it can be done on other OS's with no problem.
There's a commercial for a large supplier airing locally here in the Detroit area whose mantra is, "I'm a customer, too." This really ought to be Ford's tagline.
I work for Ford. I'm an engineer there. I'm proud to be there. And this is a fine achievement (among others!). Here in Michigan, the auto industry is everything -- you grow up indoctrinated to it. My first two cars were pieces of crap -- Fords. This being the mid 80's. My next two cars were Hondas. I still have NO complaints about any automobile that Honda produces. For their price range, they were the best cars I've ever owned.
But Ford -- as well as the other major "American" manufacturer GM -- has come a long way in quality and innovation. The Escape hybrid is evidence of innovation. The awards the Focus (a "low end, you get what you pay for type of car") has received indicates our quality has improved to the world class level.
I'm going to get modded overrated -- so be it. But this article is the perfect opportunity to express the PRIDE that I finally have in an American automobile company. Yeah, my post could be regarded as a commercial, but remember, "I'm a customer, too."
...is what made it a great thing. Okay, that statement's completely obvious, so why did I mention it?
I bought my Newton 2100 just after they were discontinued. I loved it, but couldn't use it at work (factory at the time). My Palm V, and later two Sony Clie's (the second of which I still have and use) just fit in my pocket and did everything I needed them to do. Where they quite as elegant? No friggin way, but they fit into my pocket.
Now were the Newton's OS to be put into a "modern" form factor, I think I'd be sold again. Just thinking about is makes me kind of miss it (although I guess I could say the same for my C=128).
On the other hand, I'm kind of now in the ballpark of believers that the PDA-only market is not going to recover. It's going to be PDA/mobile phone combinations. The current line of such combo's is ugly (hey, I'm a geek but don't have to look like a nerd). My T616 is a good step, but it's missing about everything else that's not built-in to a Palm or Netwon.
Getting back in the spirit of the original post, yeah, I sometimes stomp all over the EPA sticker, and sometimes get considerably worse. My 2001 Continental has a good size V8, and is rated 17/25. I've never gotten as low as 17, even in lots of city driving. And I drive it hard. I do, though, often get less than 25 on the highway, but this is Michigan -- we go 85 in a 55.
The best mileage I've gotten, though, is 31 mpg. This was pure highway, cruise control set for 65, but the car was loaded with three huge people plus my small wife, and all of our luggage for a month.
Typically, my fuel economy indicator hovers right around 22mpg, with maybe 40%/60% city/freeway. Not bad for a V8, and a powerful, quick one at that. Yeah, laugh at the car for what it is, but I'm telling you it's a sleeper.
huh? FWIW I've never had any place ever ask for my phone number, except for Radio Shack, and they've been doing that for ages.
Lots of places ask for the ZIP code though. I always like to say something like 2G5 K41 -- don't know what it is or if I have it backwards, but it's Canadian.
I'm an engineer outside the IT industry, so I hope this applies.
There is no "boss." There's only someone who allows you to do your job, and sometimes directs you as to what your job is. A micromanager, for example, isn't your boss -- that's someone who's doing you job, which isn't his job. A good boss is an enabler. He may download porno all day. Or he may go to meetings that aren't worth your time (he'll be able to tell you in five minutes that which took two hours to discuss).
A boss isn't a co-worker nor a friend. He's a partner.
The title means two things -- I'm answering this post after almost 1800 comments! And that simply speaking, Microsoft was late to the game.
Look, the simplest answer, then, is I don't use Windows out of habit. It wasn't around when I started using computers. I grew up with the TRS-80 MC10, the C64, the Pet, the Vic-20, the C128. My first Graphical Environment Operating System was GEOS on the C=128. PC's at the time were still DOS-based, which I knew how to work (via CP/M on the Commodore), but outgrew because of the WYSIWYG-essness of GEOS. Like a gateway drug, GEOS led to the Macintosh.
Disclaimer: this was all during high school for me. We had PCs in the Pascal class, and Macs in journalism. I remember writing a non-graphic headline-width calculator in Pascal for the Mac.
So, I got a hold of a Mac SE. I admit to trying Windows 3.1 when it came along, but what a friggin' mess compared to the Mac!
I'd moved up to a Colour Classic by time Windows 95 came about. It was pretty eye candy, and a far cry from 3.1 -- a real improvement, but still nowhere near as nice as the Mac.
So these experiences burn a person, you know. There are people that won't drive Fords because maybe Ford had quality problems for a time -- it produces a sickening reaction when you think about it, even though it makes no logical sense. So, yeah, it makes no logical sense now (XP is fairly decent), but emotionally Windows has scarred me.
As for Linux, well, I guess I have no need for it on the Mac. I *do* have a Windows box, but I can't think of a need for Linux there, either. XP is installed, but just not used too much. Since XP was free (as in beer, as in came with the thing) there's no financial motivation to change. Yeah, I *do* have SuSE 8.2 installed for goofing with, but it's certainly nowhere near as elegant to use as XP (yeah, the juices in my stomach rise for saying that, but it's the truth). Disclaimer: I'm not using the PeeCee as a firewall, http server, mail server, DNS server, printer server, or any other type of server (and as far as I know, not as a spam server, either!). When I get around to building my HTPC to replace my TiVo, I'll probably move to SuSE full time, because that's when uptime becomes important, when being a server becomes important, and when elegance doesn't mean a thing (elegance from the OS, that is).
I look and I look and I look, but I can't find this service anywhere that supports me (southeast Michigan). I *want* this service, and yes, I'm willing to *pay* for this service.
o Yes, I'll still leave the house, but instead of spending a Saturday based on grocery shopping, we can go canoeing or hiking or if the weather's crummy go to the cinema.
o Yes, it's worth the $10 or see fee, unless your time is worth considerably less than that $10 you save by doing it yourself. See previous point.
o Fresh Produce -- this is the cheap way to cook, and it's healthful and delicious to boot. So, yeah, there may be a problem with fresh ingredients, which would destroy all of our meals. But if they want to work out and make money, market forces will prevent them from giving us crappy produce. If you don't have time to cook with fresh produce, maybe avoiding a trip to the grocery store can let you try it!
So if anyone has any leads on some groceries in the Macomb county area that work online, lemme know.
I've only seen episode 2 twice, so I guess I don't remember it all. But, compared to episode 1, it was awesome. I'm older, and do appreciate the politics, and the motions that caused the republic to vote themselves into the future empire was just fantastic -- and the Jedi helped!
Yeah, the subject looks dorky. But I'm a computer geek. I have an x86 box that's useless (Mac owner here) that I could simply turn into Myth or Freevo or whatnot. But you know what? It's not TiVo. They look nice, they work well, and yeah, they do things that TiVo doesn't. But... I can do all that with Linux anyway. TiVo is to television what Mac OS X is to the computer world.
And no, this isn't flame-bait, and I don't want to get into a philosophical argument about my choice of metaphor. But... Mac owners that are also TiVo owners that are also x86 owners will truly know exactly what I'm talking about.
I'm a little ambivilent -- I'd have never watched HGTV if I didn't have a package. I used to have it programmed out of the bedroom TV. But one time TiVo recorded something, and now I find myself flipping to it every once in a while.
But here's why I'm ambivilent -- I have TiVo -- there's PLENTY to watch on the 10 or so channels that we "always" watch. The old promise of "500 channels!" isn't practical, and who needs it? I effectively pay $50 a month for HBOs, Telemundo, and Comedy Central. I (can) get the networks free. Of that $50, $10 is specifically for HBO, so let's see -- that $20 for Telemundo! I guess I should die of embarassment.:-)
I *love* my TiVo. But it won't be around forever, at least not as a profitable venture. Competition will kill it. I work with ENGINEERS and they ask me what TiVo is about! How come I've never met another TiVo user in person?
Competition will kill it. Look at Windows vs. Mac OS -- I use the obviously superior system (really, I'm not trolling; I'm expressing an opinion) but yet with the "lowest common denominator" approach, quality doesn't matter, and Windows wins. TiVo is the Mac OS of the DVR world. Too many people will settle for their crappy cable-supplied DVD and not know how special a TiVo truly is. Since there's no demand for the TiVo OS, the masses will conform themselves with "whatever."
For those that say it's expensive, well, I have an original series one, so as an early adopter, yes, it was expensive. They're considerably cheaper now. I do the monthly plan, which at $14 is a bargain. I don't worry about it. It's worth the time savings. TiVo really lets me watch LESS television.
As much as I love my TiVo, I, too, really want a true "convergence device," and would dump TiVo in a second if the replacement were as elegant and had the features of the TiVo. Yeah, myth et al look promising, but they lack proper handling of mindless season pass programming, and don't bother trying to guess my preferences. These, IMHO, make the TiVo perfect. I can always play music from the iPod and connect the PowerBook to the TV (although, truly, if myth supported what I mentioned above I'd have -no- problem replacing TiVo with a Linux box [well, a different Linux box]).
I am a DirecTV subscriber, but I've really got to admire Dish' handling of this. Granted, $1/mo. doesn't seem sufficient.
One gripe I have with DirecTV isn't really DirecTV's fault, as evidenced by this thing with EchoStar: why do I have to sit down every couple of months to erase all of the CRAP from "Channels I Receive" list (freestanding TiVo), and pay $50/mo. for the 10 channels I regularly watch?
Packaging isn't just DirecTV/Dish' fault, but the fault of the conglomerates' anti-competitive muscle flexing. You know, if I had to pay $2.00 per month for that channels I do watch (plus $10 for HBO), I'd still be at $50/mo., but I'd be much, much happier about it because I'd know (or at least feel) that I was in control of it.
This suprised me, it's in my own county. Sheriff's dad is and ex-sheriff in prison for rape. Which is not at all relevant.:-)
Was the oral contract in perpetuity? I can't believe that this guy's own property can result in an extortion charge. The sheriff's department is at fault for NOT covering their bases from the beginning.
If I do something nice for free, and decide to take it away, I'd hate to get friggin' arrested for it. Jeesh.
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Not a whole lot different than when I was 13, had a 300 baud modem, and Quantumn Link charged by the minute. I think all those SIDs I downloaded STILL cost moer than a track from the iTunes Music Store!
Took me a while to pay off that first month!
Lines are long and have lots of robots today NOT because the robots are inflexible, but because we need to reduce the cycle time, i.e., its FASTER. We (the auto industry, of which Im part) underutilize our one-armed robots to a vey, very high degree. They really can do a lot more. But by demanding more work of a single robot, more time is consumed. So its better that we use more robots on longer lines. Its the difference betwen 50 cars/hour and 62 cars/hour. Figure the difference in two shifts across five years!
I am now a member of UAW Local 1970, Unit 4. I don't want to be. But my beloved company was non-responsive to the fucking missives of a bunch of fucking malcontents (by the way, forgive the harsh language; this is an emotion topic for me), so "we" voted on 01-Sep-04 to be "represented" by the UAW. I love my company, but I truly BLAME my company for having let it happen. If it had been just a little bit more responsive -- like EA -- then maybe, just maybe, I wouldn't have to suffer the FUCKING HUMILIATION of being a member of the FUCKING UAW.
Really, I apologize for the language -- some things raise SUCH an emotional charge that it's impossible to avoid such expressions.
Did I not mention it before? We're NOT blue collar workers. We're engineers. At least the 40% of use who voted AGAINST the FUCKING UAW are engineers. The other 60%? Who knows.
There's not a lot of content yet, but it's a pretty-looking site: visit www.uawsucks.org. I hope to express my RAGE at the FUCKING UAW for having inserted itself in the fine field of a working profession. Ford -- what the hell happened? Why couldn't fight off this bloody shame by being more open?
I guess I should have been a little clearer. I know that the 2.5GHz chip is rated as 2.5GHz. I also know that just the clockspeed alone does not a system make. I realize the same amount of power has to be pumped through smaller pipes and be disapated. I realize it's quiet and I miss whisper-quietness of my graphite iMac (Mac #6).
I guess the question I'm asking -- aside from being a question -- is really meant to be thought provoking. Does the use of a liquid cooling system fundamentally change the defacto cooling requirements for all future desktop computers? If you recall in the past, overclockers would use liquid cooling because they had to do so to keep the chip cool enough in order to increase the clock frequency. Higher frequency at this scale means more heat.
How do chip manufacturers specify cooling requirements anyway? So many joules per second must be removed, or simply do they leave it open and say the chip must always be below x-degrees? So are IBM or Motorola marketing a chip that's not possible to be used in any other manner aside from liquid cooling? And in the most base form, couldn't Intel just re-badge a 3Ghz chip with ridiculous cooling requirements and advertise it as a 4GHz chip?
Surely there must be something fundamental to the architecture of a chip (I don't know) that can account for its clockspeed (regardless of MIPS) aside from the ability to cool it, right? Well, up to reasonable frequency limits, right?
It used to be that Mac fanatics would be proud about how little current the PPC used -- and consequently how little heat it gave off -- when compared with the Intel-style architecture. Guess we can't make that argument any more.
Now that G5's are liquid cooled, it makes me wonder if a 2.5GHz G5 is *really* a 2.5GHz G5, or if it's an overclocked 1.8GHz chip. You know, overclockers really pump things up with cool liquid cooling stuff. What's the fastest a 2.5GHz G5 could run with a traditional cooling system, like a fan and heatsink?
Oh, one more thing before I'm modded as a troll: my G4 PowerBook is my 8th Macintosh. What I'm asking is genuine curiosity.
I can't see this taking off. Who's the customer? We're not a "city" culture in general anymore. Okay, places like New York, where no one owns cars. But everyone else is suburban. That means freeway commuting. That means a 15kph full frontal crash test means nothing! How does this little thing hold together at 80mph? Oh, wait -- it can't go 80mph. So it'll be run over on the freeway, which means we really need to see the roof-crush test results ;-)
There's a crumple zone in the back? Okay, that helps with some of the impact energy, but doesn't help with any of the negative g forces. In the USA you can have up to -60g's for no great than 10ms (okay, I need to fact check it, but I'm close). Crumple zones in FRONT of the direction of travel slow your decelleration in addition to absorbing impact energy. Why is this important? Well, everything in side of you sloshes around. Think of your brain hitting your cranium at -30g's rather than -90g's.
I'M ONLY playing devil's advocate here. Personally I don't think I like the little sucker, but there's no safety-related data available for the car, other than the promotional data that they choose to show. Therefore the above can't be said to be any accurate analysis, but rather make you ask.
I haven't used floppies since my Macs stopped coming with them. Come to think of it, I didn't use floppies much before that, either -- my PowerBook expansion bay floppy drive (I was insecure) was a waste of money, even though it worked with iMation super-disks or something. Just never used it.
.Mac server if I need them back and forth between work -- the XP machine connects to my account just fine.
Making bootable CD's on a Mac has been easy for ages and ages -- ironically the advent of OS X made it a bit trickier for while, there. It's still not super-easy, but at least manageable.
To prove I'm not a Mac snob, I'll volunteer that I have an x86 box, too. I built it without a floppy -- what was the purpose of including one?
I haven't moved to a USB keychain drive yet. I usually put things on my
Oh, there *is* one thing that screwed me by not having a floppy to boot from on the PC. It was hard as hell to run the dang unlocking program for my Maxtor drive to get it to work with my Tivo. All of the Tivo boot CD's are Linux (as is Tivo), but for some reason the dang unlocking program is DOS only. I think it took me two hours to figure out how to make a bootable DOS disk, add the unlocking program to another session, and merge the dang sessions. Yeah, I *could* have run to the store and bought a floppy drive for $10, but that wasn't the point.
Huh? I do this regularly on my Mac using DiskCopy (part of the OS) or Toast. Now I'm not the type of Mac user that thinks this can ONLY be done on a Mac, so, well, I guess I logically assume it can be done on other OS's with no problem.
There's a commercial for a large supplier airing locally here in the Detroit area whose mantra is, "I'm a customer, too." This really ought to be Ford's tagline.
I work for Ford. I'm an engineer there. I'm proud to be there. And this is a fine achievement (among others!). Here in Michigan, the auto industry is everything -- you grow up indoctrinated to it. My first two cars were pieces of crap -- Fords. This being the mid 80's. My next two cars were Hondas. I still have NO complaints about any automobile that Honda produces. For their price range, they were the best cars I've ever owned.
But Ford -- as well as the other major "American" manufacturer GM -- has come a long way in quality and innovation. The Escape hybrid is evidence of innovation. The awards the Focus (a "low end, you get what you pay for type of car") has received indicates our quality has improved to the world class level.
I'm going to get modded overrated -- so be it. But this article is the perfect opportunity to express the PRIDE that I finally have in an American automobile company. Yeah, my post could be regarded as a commercial, but remember, "I'm a customer, too."
...is what made it a great thing. Okay, that statement's completely obvious, so why did I mention it?
I bought my Newton 2100 just after they were discontinued. I loved it, but couldn't use it at work (factory at the time). My Palm V, and later two Sony Clie's (the second of which I still have and use) just fit in my pocket and did everything I needed them to do. Where they quite as elegant? No friggin way, but they fit into my pocket.
Now were the Newton's OS to be put into a "modern" form factor, I think I'd be sold again. Just thinking about is makes me kind of miss it (although I guess I could say the same for my C=128).
On the other hand, I'm kind of now in the ballpark of believers that the PDA-only market is not going to recover. It's going to be PDA/mobile phone combinations. The current line of such combo's is ugly (hey, I'm a geek but don't have to look like a nerd). My T616 is a good step, but it's missing about everything else that's not built-in to a Palm or Netwon.
Getting back in the spirit of the original post, yeah, I sometimes stomp all over the EPA sticker, and sometimes get considerably worse. My 2001 Continental has a good size V8, and is rated 17/25. I've never gotten as low as 17, even in lots of city driving. And I drive it hard. I do, though, often get less than 25 on the highway, but this is Michigan -- we go 85 in a 55.
The best mileage I've gotten, though, is 31 mpg. This was pure highway, cruise control set for 65, but the car was loaded with three huge people plus my small wife, and all of our luggage for a month.
Typically, my fuel economy indicator hovers right around 22mpg, with maybe 40%/60% city/freeway. Not bad for a V8, and a powerful, quick one at that. Yeah, laugh at the car for what it is, but I'm telling you it's a sleeper.
huh? FWIW I've never had any place ever ask for my phone number, except for Radio Shack, and they've been doing that for ages.
Lots of places ask for the ZIP code though. I always like to say something like 2G5 K41 -- don't know what it is or if I have it backwards, but it's Canadian.
I'm an engineer outside the IT industry, so I hope this applies.
There is no "boss." There's only someone who allows you to do your job, and sometimes directs you as to what your job is. A micromanager, for example, isn't your boss -- that's someone who's doing you job, which isn't his job. A good boss is an enabler. He may download porno all day. Or he may go to meetings that aren't worth your time (he'll be able to tell you in five minutes that which took two hours to discuss).
A boss isn't a co-worker nor a friend. He's a partner.
The title means two things -- I'm answering this post after almost 1800 comments! And that simply speaking, Microsoft was late to the game.
Look, the simplest answer, then, is I don't use Windows out of habit. It wasn't around when I started using computers. I grew up with the TRS-80 MC10, the C64, the Pet, the Vic-20, the C128. My first Graphical Environment Operating System was GEOS on the C=128. PC's at the time were still DOS-based, which I knew how to work (via CP/M on the Commodore), but outgrew because of the WYSIWYG-essness of GEOS. Like a gateway drug, GEOS led to the Macintosh.
Disclaimer: this was all during high school for me. We had PCs in the Pascal class, and Macs in journalism. I remember writing a non-graphic headline-width calculator in Pascal for the Mac.
So, I got a hold of a Mac SE. I admit to trying Windows 3.1 when it came along, but what a friggin' mess compared to the Mac!
I'd moved up to a Colour Classic by time Windows 95 came about. It was pretty eye candy, and a far cry from 3.1 -- a real improvement, but still nowhere near as nice as the Mac.
So these experiences burn a person, you know. There are people that won't drive Fords because maybe Ford had quality problems for a time -- it produces a sickening reaction when you think about it, even though it makes no logical sense. So, yeah, it makes no logical sense now (XP is fairly decent), but emotionally Windows has scarred me.
As for Linux, well, I guess I have no need for it on the Mac. I *do* have a Windows box, but I can't think of a need for Linux there, either. XP is installed, but just not used too much. Since XP was free (as in beer, as in came with the thing) there's no financial motivation to change. Yeah, I *do* have SuSE 8.2 installed for goofing with, but it's certainly nowhere near as elegant to use as XP (yeah, the juices in my stomach rise for saying that, but it's the truth). Disclaimer: I'm not using the PeeCee as a firewall, http server, mail server, DNS server, printer server, or any other type of server (and as far as I know, not as a spam server, either!). When I get around to building my HTPC to replace my TiVo, I'll probably move to SuSE full time, because that's when uptime becomes important, when being a server becomes important, and when elegance doesn't mean a thing (elegance from the OS, that is).
I look and I look and I look, but I can't find this service anywhere that supports me (southeast Michigan). I *want* this service, and yes, I'm willing to *pay* for this service.
o Yes, I'll still leave the house, but instead of spending a Saturday based on grocery shopping, we can go canoeing or hiking or if the weather's crummy go to the cinema.
o Yes, it's worth the $10 or see fee, unless your time is worth considerably less than that $10 you save by doing it yourself. See previous point.
o Fresh Produce -- this is the cheap way to cook, and it's healthful and delicious to boot. So, yeah, there may be a problem with fresh ingredients, which would destroy all of our meals. But if they want to work out and make money, market forces will prevent them from giving us crappy produce. If you don't have time to cook with fresh produce, maybe avoiding a trip to the grocery store can let you try it!
So if anyone has any leads on some groceries in the Macomb county area that work online, lemme know.
I've only seen episode 2 twice, so I guess I don't remember it all. But, compared to episode 1, it was awesome. I'm older, and do appreciate the politics, and the motions that caused the republic to vote themselves into the future empire was just fantastic -- and the Jedi helped!
Yeah, the subject looks dorky. But I'm a computer geek. I have an x86 box that's useless (Mac owner here) that I could simply turn into Myth or Freevo or whatnot. But you know what? It's not TiVo. They look nice, they work well, and yeah, they do things that TiVo doesn't. But... I can do all that with Linux anyway. TiVo is to television what Mac OS X is to the computer world.
And no, this isn't flame-bait, and I don't want to get into a philosophical argument about my choice of metaphor. But... Mac owners that are also TiVo owners that are also x86 owners will truly know exactly what I'm talking about.
I'm a little ambivilent -- I'd have never watched HGTV if I didn't have a package. I used to have it programmed out of the bedroom TV. But one time TiVo recorded something, and now I find myself flipping to it every once in a while.
:-)
But here's why I'm ambivilent -- I have TiVo -- there's PLENTY to watch on the 10 or so channels that we "always" watch. The old promise of "500 channels!" isn't practical, and who needs it? I effectively pay $50 a month for HBOs, Telemundo, and Comedy Central. I (can) get the networks free. Of that $50, $10 is specifically for HBO, so let's see -- that $20 for Telemundo! I guess I should die of embarassment.
I *love* my TiVo. But it won't be around forever, at least not as a profitable venture. Competition will kill it. I work with ENGINEERS and they ask me what TiVo is about! How come I've never met another TiVo user in person?
Competition will kill it. Look at Windows vs. Mac OS -- I use the obviously superior system (really, I'm not trolling; I'm expressing an opinion) but yet with the "lowest common denominator" approach, quality doesn't matter, and Windows wins. TiVo is the Mac OS of the DVR world. Too many people will settle for their crappy cable-supplied DVD and not know how special a TiVo truly is. Since there's no demand for the TiVo OS, the masses will conform themselves with "whatever."
For those that say it's expensive, well, I have an original series one, so as an early adopter, yes, it was expensive. They're considerably cheaper now. I do the monthly plan, which at $14 is a bargain. I don't worry about it. It's worth the time savings. TiVo really lets me watch LESS television.
As much as I love my TiVo, I, too, really want a true "convergence device," and would dump TiVo in a second if the replacement were as elegant and had the features of the TiVo. Yeah, myth et al look promising, but they lack proper handling of mindless season pass programming, and don't bother trying to guess my preferences. These, IMHO, make the TiVo perfect. I can always play music from the iPod and connect the PowerBook to the TV (although, truly, if myth supported what I mentioned above I'd have -no- problem replacing TiVo with a Linux box [well, a different Linux box]).
I am a DirecTV subscriber, but I've really got to admire Dish' handling of this. Granted, $1/mo. doesn't seem sufficient.
One gripe I have with DirecTV isn't really DirecTV's fault, as evidenced by this thing with EchoStar: why do I have to sit down every couple of months to erase all of the CRAP from "Channels I Receive" list (freestanding TiVo), and pay $50/mo. for the 10 channels I regularly watch?
Packaging isn't just DirecTV/Dish' fault, but the fault of the conglomerates' anti-competitive muscle flexing. You know, if I had to pay $2.00 per month for that channels I do watch (plus $10 for HBO), I'd still be at $50/mo., but I'd be much, much happier about it because I'd know (or at least feel) that I was in control of it.
Here's the latest on this case. Whatever the law says, he didn't do anything WRONG.
This suprised me, it's in my own county. Sheriff's dad is and ex-sheriff in prison for rape. Which is not at all relevant. :-)
Was the oral contract in perpetuity? I can't believe that this guy's own property can result in an extortion charge. The sheriff's department is at fault for NOT covering their bases from the beginning.
If I do something nice for free, and decide to take it away, I'd hate to get friggin' arrested for it. Jeesh.
obligatory SCO reference: doesn't this mean the "trade secret" parts of their claim can no longer apply?
Damn it -- that's a typo; not ignorance -- I promise. Y lo mas vergonzoso es que soy hablante de espanol (aun que no lo escribo bien usando Windows).
Strictly speaking, that wasn't an invasion of Panama, but of Columbia.