Of course that's not to say that writing didn't come with its attendant benefits, too...
Exactly. Every new technology has trade-offs. I think we stick with and adopt technology that works, meaning that we consider the trade-offs worth it. That is not to say that we don't loose something valuable when an older form is replaced. Today, I hear from my distant family several times a day through email, twitter, and text messages. I feel really connected to them. I almost never get letters any more and don't really miss them. When I do get them, I love to read them. There is something about putting down your thoughts by putting pen to paper that gives it poignancy. Recently, my son was in bootcamp and could only receive snail-mail. I found that is was hard sitting down to write a letter at first, but I came away from it feeling strangely rewarded.
I think books are also going to go away (from the mainstream) in a similar way. I am a bibliophile. I love to read books, but even more, I love to hold a book in my hands, feel it's heft and smell it's pages. I have almost a hundred, leather-bound classics in my office library and there is nothing like sitting down to read one. But, to be honest, most of the "reading" these days is in the form of audiobooks on my iPhone. I'm too busy to have the time to just sit and read. However, I'm consuming more books than ever now that I can do two things at once. I listened to Fahrenheit 451 yesterday while mowing and raking my (2+ acre) lawn. My wife also reads out loud to me while I'm cooking and doing dishes (we're reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow).
The danger I see is that we are more likely to get the "Cliff's NOtes" version of information off the internet. I can go online and find out enough about the story-line and plot of Fahrenheit 451 to carry on an intelligent dinner conversation, or recognize when it's being referenced in another book, but I'll never get the same depth of understanding, or come away with my own interpretation, unless I take the time to read the whole thing, unabridged, start-to-finish. Also, there are some books that are impossible to make into an audio book (think Flowers for Algernon). The only way to get the full impact is to see the words written on the page.
So, yes, I think something is lost in the trade-off. However, I think the the balance of benefit tips toward technology and the internet. I'd never have taken the time to run downstairs and look up how to spell Algernon from the book spine. A quick google search told me I had it right. I'm not going to page through my copy of Fahrenheit 451 to find a poignant passage to quote to my wife, I'll look it up on-line an read it to her from there. The internet makes information so accessible that we are more likely to take the time to look something up, rather than going my memory.
Also, I find myself stumbling on information I'd never have thought to look up while searching for other things. I can't count the number of times I've looked something up on Wikipedia and followed link after link down a rabbit-hole that lead me far from the initial article in what I call "stream-of-consciousness" surfing. This would never happen for me in a meatspace encyclopedia.
Technology also gives me things like spell check. This is very important for me. English is not my first language and I've never gotten the hang of spelling in it. Having the ability to type a word like it sounds and then pick the right spelling from a list is priceless (and save y'all from having to struggle through my attempts).
So, no, I don't think google is making us stupid, but I do mourn the things that will be lost. I'm sentimental about my old books and I'm afraid they will become relics and collector's items. But I'm not ready to live in the past (yet) and feel the benefits of the WWWeb and technology outweigh that which is lost.
Install it to a bootcamp partition. Then you can either boot directly to it or point your VMware at the partition and run it from OS X. That's what I do. I have not seen any mouse issues with the latest versions of VMware Fusion, BTW. This is the way we have all our Apple machines configured for people who need windows-only software - no problems to date.
With this configuration you can see if it runs acceptably in the virtualized environment, but if it doesn't you can always boot windows directly and run it at full speed.
While overall I can agree with your results from the examples you have provided - I cannot agree with your premise as a rule. You can buy cheap things (the wal*mart-ization of everyday items) and still get the full value of what your purchase is. Paper? Generic Drugs (prescription and OTC)? Cleaning supplies? I mean I can go on.
Of course, you are right. I never intended to imply that the most expensive things were always the best. It always depends, and it's always a trade-off. Sometimes cheap things have their place. Case-in-point, I recently picked up a Flip Ultra (TM) video camera. It's $130.00. It's a toy. But for it's size, simplicity, low-light capabilities and amazing-for-the-price video quality you can't beat the value. Plus, because it's so small and cheap I can afford to have it with me wherever I go. I can toss it into my day-pack for hiking and boating without worrying overmuch about it getting lost, wet or damaged. I can duct-tape it to the wing of my plane or the bumper of my car without a second thought. I'd never consider doing that with my XL1 or even my GL2. They are just too expensive.
Like you said, you have to do your research and make an informed decision about what will be best for you. Unfortunately, I think people put too much emphasis on price alone. And it hurts them in the long run. I once saw a TV show about the rich and famous that really struck a chord. They were walking though a mansion and stopped by a painting in the wall that cost, like $3 million. I thought "What an extreme waste of money for a painting!". Apparently the TV-guy did too and commented about it. The owner looked at him and said "If I were to sell it today, I'd get over $5 million. I just made $2 million dollars. I didn't *buy* the painting, I invested in it". I looked around at my paintings... Hmmm...
Since then I've always tried to keep resale value in the back of my mind as part of the overall cost of an item. When my wife needed a new car we talked about that. We currently target a vehicle for 10-15 years of driving. That means that, if we were to finance the whole thing (we don't) we could have it paid off in 5 or 6 years and still have that much time left over to save the remaining payments to an interest-earning account where it can build up for our next car without impacting our budget. My wife wanted a sporty car and chose a 2002, collector's edition (numbered) Mini Cooper. The idea is that, over time, with care, it will be a desirable classic that will increase in value with age (after a certain point). Now, it's hard to tell what's going to be a desirable classic, but I'm betting the Mini Cooper will be. I bought a 1970 Challenger a while back and have been slowly restoring it over the years. It's a blast to drive, but more importantly, it is rocketing up in value. It's more than doubled in the last 5 years, even if I hadn't done anything to it.
The same concept can be carried over to the PC world. I'd stack my Mac Tower at work up against any Dell (at any price) for ease of parts-replacement. No screws to mess with. One lever lifted and the whole side of the computer comes off and you can access any part with ease. There are no cables and crap to deal with. The RAM sits on daughter-cards that slide right out so you can work on it conveniently on your desk. To add or replace a drive, slide the old one out and the new one in. That's it. Now, I know that there are PC cases out there that have had just as much careful thought put into them - but they aren't the cheap ones.
When I got offered a promotion to my new position, it was in a PC-only department. I convinced them to buy me a high-end Mac instead of a Dell. They didn't want to. It wasn't until I provided quotes for a similarly-decked out Dell tower that they saw that the price was comparable. I pushed, they relented. I ran OS X and Windows XP (and a couple flavors of Linux in MVWare) on it. Recently we were told that we'd be providing support to custom
When I moved out on my own I started buying tools to help me keep my apartment and eventually my house repaired. I started out picking up the first tool I saw that was cheap and did the job. $10 hammer, $5 multi-screwdriver set, 200-piece no-name, all-in-one socket sets for $20.00, etc. They did the job. After all, you can turn a screw with a cheap screwdriver just like an expensive one.
Needless to say, I've had many versions of each over time. I can't count the times I've had my phillips-head screwdriver turn into a rounded-out, useless waste of money at the first recalcitrant screw. It always happens at the worst time too. After expressing my frustrations with my dad one time (in language that probably shocked him) He looked at me and simply said "Why don't you buy decent tools?" My response was "Have you seen how much they cost?!" He responded "How many times have you re-bought that screwdriver?". I had to admit that I'd probably spent twice the cost of a "pro" screwdriver over the years on cheap ones and cursed them every time.
Over time I started applying this lesson to other things in my life. I found that every time I took the cheap option "to make due" I was disappointed and invariably wound up replacing it much sooner than I should have. I found that I actually saved money and aggravation by buying quality the first time. I traded in my cheap POS for a used Mercedes. I threw out my Walmart tennis-shoes for a pair of quality walking shoes. I passed up the $3.00 T-shirts and invested in quality brands. The list goes on...
I've had the extreme pleasure of driving my Mercedes every day for the last 10 years. It's as good as the day I bought it and when I go to sell it I'll have paid less for it year-over-year, than I ever did on the myriad el-cheap-O's I used to drive. Where I used to replace my shoes every year, or so, I have had my current pair of shoes going on 4 years and have experienced more comfort than I had imagined possible in a shoe up till that point. And my T-shirts? They used to fade and grow thin after a few washes and I'd donate them or throw them out and have to re-buy them. Today, I still have T-shirts that look almost new that I've worn regularly for 7 years. I still have one I wore to my brother's wedding rehearsal 9 years ago.
All this is a very long way of saying that, amortized over time, buying quality is often cheaper (and almost always more pleasurable) than buying the first thing you can afford.
Now, I've built my share of PC's. I enjoy picking through catalogues and eBay auctions and getting the best bang for my buck. But, those are my hobby machines. My TrixBox. My MythTV. My fun stuff. My main system is (currently) a Dual G5 Power Mac that I bought refurb'ed shortly after they came out. Even then, it cost me more than $1,000, but I've had it almost 5 years now and It's still doing it's job well. My neighbor just gave me his 3rd Dell in 5 years (a trade for re-installing Windows so many times). He's spent way more on all those systems than I did on my one and has had no end to his aggravation. I sit down at my system (that I've never had to re-install) and get my work done. Would I like to get a cool new 8-way Intel system? Sure. No doubt. But I don't *need* it yet, and I haven't saved up for it yet. It's budgeted for this fall - yay!:-D
Some people can get by just fine with the cheapest piece of crap Dell or Walmart sells. It looks like crap, it's loaded with useless crap, it's made with the cheapest parts that can be had, it's "settling" for the lowest common denominator. Like the cheap screwdriver, it can get the job done, but you wind up fighting it every step of the way. Their entire experience with computers is based on that. They are used to it. They expect it. It's sad.
There is something special that you experience the first time you pick up a professional tool. The hammer feels more balanced. The screwdriver turns the screws with surprisingly little effo
Bushieism is the new McCarthyism. Instead of commies and homos you have terrists and kiddie rapists. Wow, I missed the part where Bush is pushing for this legislation! Thanks for pointing that out.
>>>Quote from the Slashdot story: "In the face of widespread, escalating online piracy, music sales dropped..."
Funny, but let's examine this seriously. Have music sales dropped? Yes. And no.
- CD sales have dropped. That's true.
- But Single sales have soared to the highest level EVER experienced by record companies. Single sales on Itunes and other online stores have sold more units than any time in history. (Funny how the record companies conveniently forgot to mention that fact. What's that old saying? "Lying with statistics"?)
I agree. I also think there is another major reason for the change: People consume media in general and music specifically in a much different way these days. In the "olde days", if you wanted to listen to music you either schlepped a tape-player (and all your tapes) or your CD player (and all your CDs) which was a pain. So generally you'd maybe pop a tape or CD in your walkman and just take that. So, in essence you had a hand-full of your favorite songs with you and then you got bored. So you'd listen to the radio and get introduced to new bands and albums.
Now, I can take thousands of my favorite songs from my collection with me and have my own virtual radio station. I don't feel the need to tune in to Clear Channel. I hear about new talent from my friends and content online. I can be at a mall or movie theater, hear a song I like, and download it to my iPhone on the spot. My daughter twitters me with a link to some cool new sound she heard from a band that played at her coffee house. My brother emails me a link to the latest indie artist he's recorded and mixed on iTMS. Frankly, if I tune into the radio at all any more, it's to listen to the news or 'All things considered". The RIAA no longer controls my listening habits. Frankly, I couldn't tell you who the latest hot bands (of any genre) are.
I've also ripped my entire CD collection and purchased any gems I'd missed out on and have them in my pocket at all times. I'm getting older and, frankly the new pop-rap-crap I do hear is not for me. My music buying has flattened out. I rarely buy entire albums any more. That last song I bought was a tune that caught my attention while watching previews in a movie theater (and I bought it right then). I'm more likely to buy an Audible book than new music. And if I buy new music it's almost guaranteed to be from an indie band.
The consumption model has changed. The distribution model has changed. There are no longer a controlling few dictating taste to the controlled masses. Just like the internet changed the face of news, it's changing the face of music and video. The music cartel's days have ended. They've lost their tight grip on the masses. They just don't want to admit it. That, more than rampant piracy, is the cause of the decline in "their" music being sold. Indie bands and musicians aren't factored into any of their sales figures (how would they know?) so, music in general is diversifying and growing, it's just the cartel's music sales that're drying up.
My brother's friend, Eric Schrotenboer, has several (excellent) albums released on iTMS that my brother recorded and mixed. How is the IRAA involved again?
As to the specific issue at-hand, I think it's still premature to get in an uproar over the SDK licensing terms. It seems very likely to me they were written by attorneys who threw together a bunch of "boilerplate" for Apple without realize the full extent of what their limitations would restrict. (Right now, it sounds to me like Sun's plan to bring Java to the iPhone was nothing Apple would have had any issue with, despite the legal details of this SDK appearing to prevent it. They'll probably hash it out and Apple will revise the licensing terms so it's allowed.)
What? Level-headed, common sense? Get off my Slashdot!
Ya know? I bought my iPhone because I've owned a LOT of really crappy phones in my life. I used to complain because I wasn't able to find a phone that didn't shoehorn in everything but the kitchen sink in order to add to that list of features when I just wanted a freakin' phone that made finding numbers and making calls easy!
When I saw the iPhone I didn't care about any of the other features, except that it looked like it did a superb job of organizing contacts and making phone calls and conference calls simple and efficient. I also saw that it would do texting a lot better than my crappy Razor, so that was a plus (although I rarely texted anyone - probably because I sucked at using a phone keypad as a typewriter).
So, I bought the iPhone as soon as it was available in my area. It was expensive, but the feature set I got was worth every dime and more. I didn't buy it for the possible future features, I bought it for what it could do at the time. When I started using it, it literally changed my life. I got rid of my PDA. I could send and receive "real" email on my iPhone, surf the "real" web on my iPhone, do "real" banking on my iPhone, look up directions, addresses and phone numbers with Google Maps, and keep a dynamic grocery/todo list on the note pad. I also tend to text much more often and encourage my contacts/family to do the same. I hate being interrupted in a meeting with a phone call but a quick vibe letting me know I have a text message lets me see what's up and I can often respond without having to step out to talk... I also feel free to text people more often because I know I won't be interrupting them if they are busy. My daughter can ignore a text until later, but she's not likely to ignore a phone call from Dad - even if it is inconvenient.
All this is to say that I like what the phone can currently do and that makes it a great product all by itself and people who won't buy one or are whining about its not being able to do everything under the sun must have some really great phones already. So why are their panties in a bunch? Don't buy the damn phone! Use your own or wait for the awesome, open, Android phone! I have never seen a group of people spend so much energy bashing something that is apparently so bad. This phone has 1% of the market. Shop the other 99% already! Develop for them! Write your awkward java crap for them! My biggest fear is that the companies that I really want to develop a beautiful native client that intereacts correctly with the other aspects of the phone will find out there's java available and use it as an excuse to say "just use our crappy java client instead".
Why doesn't Apple want Skype to use Edge or 3G? I wonder. Maybe because they are beholden to the phone companies for now and saturating their networks with bandwidth whose only purpose is to bypass their reason for being is probably not such a good idea? After all, they said "hey, as long as you are on WiFi, go for it". Why don't they want programs that download and execute other code? I don't know, maybe because that is a vector for security issues like viruses and worms which will be out of Apple's hands (yet will be laid squarely at Apple's feet by the enraged, foaming-at-the-mouth, Slashdot masses).
I get the impression that Apple is deliberately going slow at this point so that they can feel ou
AKA they don't have a way yet.
A lot of this rings hollow, the whole "BIG DEAL" about the iPhone. It's a nice device sure, but there are a lot of nice devices. I just don't see the appeal to developers considering that the distribution model appears locked down, apple seems hell bent on selling anything it can to developers (ever heard of FREE?), and apple has a hold on it like it's a gaming console. Why not target some of the newer devices where the vendors participate in the open handset alliance?
I can't quite put my finger on my objection, but something doesn't smell right. Maybe I'm just jaded by Apple rubs me the wrong way. They remind me of a bank that keeps making up new fees to charge me while they make money on _my_ money, the entire time pretending it's a privilege to be fucked so smoothly.
We don't know if they have a way yet. The SDK is still in beta and they didn't specifically mention it at the dog-and-pony show. However, when I signed on to be a beta tester they specifically asked me if I was going to be primarily developing for "in-house" applications. This tells me that there will, in fact, be a mechanism for signing and distributing your own apps in your business.
As for FREE, they are giving away ALL the development tools for FREE. The only thing they are asking me to pay for is the key to be able to sign my applications with, to distribute it through the iPhone app store. I can't put my finger on your objection either, except that you sound like one of the "free"ks that give OSS developers a bad name. You can develop any app you want FOR FREE with the Apple SDK. You only need to pay $99 if you want to distribute it through iTunes. You may still distribute your app for FREE if you want and it will be free for your "customers". You can even distribute your source code and your customers can modify and compile and run your code for FREE - they just need to download the FREE SDK - kinda like the "real world" where you have to have the FREE gcc compiler and dependent resources on your computer to compile OSS code.
You whining FREEks are really starting to sound pathetic, naive and immature. You bitch when Apple didn't have the SDK ready at the iPhone launch. You bitch BEFORE HAND when you fear they might release a "crippled" subset of the "real" API. You bitch when they offer a free SDK with a FREE membership. You bitch even after they offer THE SAME APIs THEY USE. You bitch when they charge a small fee for a key to sign your awesome code with so that you can use their infrastructure to deliver your product. You seem to be the type that somehow thinks the world owes you a living (for FREE).
Please, don't develop for the iPhone - develop for Android! You'll be much happier there and those of us who have chosen to develop for the iPhone won't have to hear your Anti-everything-that's-not-handed-to-me-for-FREE whining!
Flash is Adobe's brand of "SWF", which is a documented format. SWF isn't open, but it's been reverse engineered enough that other SW can generate, edit and play it. "Flash Video" is the FLV file format, has also been reverse engineered.
Will GNASH, the FOSS SWF player that can also play FLV, run on an iPhone? GNASH isn't as crippled as Adobe's Flash player, offering higher framerates on lower grade HW. GNASH has also been ported to run on more HW than Adobe's Flash player has. For GNASH to play FLV, it needs ffmpeg or GStreamer to run - is there a port or equivalent for iPhone?
And if not, who will take the plunge to port this FOSS to iPhone, and make Steve Jobs for once look less than visionary?
I don't doubt that there will be 3rd-party FLV players for the iPhone. I don't think playing video content is what The Steve is talking about. I think he's talking about the rest of the flash-enable crap out there on the web, including front-page, interactive splash-screens, flash adds, and embedded flash content that clue-missing web designers inflict on us. These are things that even Flash Lite can't handle - which everyone is touting as "My phone plays flash!". Playing an FLV/SWF file is not the same as "having Flash capability in your browser".
Frankly, if the fact that iPhone users are complaining to restaurants and other businesses that they can't access their site because of all the Flash-only crap gets site owners to follow W3C standards (like Steve said should be the focus) I'm all for it.
I know people have personally found some specific benefit from Flash-based apps. I also know some people have found some specific benefit from ActiveX apps. That does not mean that either technology belongs on the public internet where accessibility and ubiquity are supposed to rule.
Re:The keyword in that diatribe was 'hyped'...
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Cloverfield Discussion
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· Score: 4, Interesting
You idiots! That's called artistic license! It also helps to fuzzify poor special effects and give the "film" an "edgy" feel so supposedly beloved by trend-setting, market-leading (perhaps ironically-named) focus groups comprised of drooling morons.
The whole point of the movie is that it's the raw, unedited content of a consumer video camera that was found and is now being used as a piece of government evidence for the Cloverfield incident. I think we are supposed to feel like we have been given access to the raw content by the government (because we are a part of an investigation or an FOIA or something...) So in that sense you just get whatever happened to be on this tape (or SD card).
That being said, I don't know anyone who is that bad with a camera; even a small handicam which doesn't have the mass to help dampen small movements. I mean seriously, it's one thing to not hold it still or to zoom in and out too much, those are novice mistakes. But it is an entirely different thing to not hold the camera level while shooting or to completely cut off the head of your subject. Sure, if you are running and forgot to turn it off, fine, but no amature holds the camera at an extreme "artsy" angle while they are actively filming something. Admittedly, the odd angle often composed the image better than a straight-and-level shot would have, but someone who knows enough to do that would have a steadier hand and a better overall ability to compose scenes.
As an amateur videographer myself I've had to sift though hours and hours of tedious, useless, and horrendous raw clips from a variety of sources, including my own and I can tell you that it takes practice to be able to get usable content from spontaneous events and activity. It's almost impossible to get commercial content without a lot of planning and orchestrating, and that's assuming that you've got experienced hands on the camera(s). I was actually filming one time when the plane I was filming in crashed. The camera was on the whole time (you can hear me saying goodbye and that I was filming my death) and except for the actual impact (where the camera blanked out briefly) and the part where I was crawling out of the wreckage, my footage is more stable than Cloverfield's.
Cloverfield's videography truly made me feel like a pro was trying to act like an amateur and failing. The move would have actually been better, in my opinion, if they'd given the camera to the actual actors and made them do everything themselves while acting the actual scenes. You would have at leas gotten shakiness that made more sense with the action.
Once I was able to force myself to swallow the fact that I was watching completely raw, amateur handicam content I spent the rest of the movie trying to build my own story out of it as if I was viewing raw evidence for something I knew nothing about (which was true) and actually came away liking the movie. My wife, who gets sea-sick at the drop of a hat, even liked it (apparently there was too much violent movement to trigger more than just a headache for her). We are going again today to take our son to see it. It's painful to watch, but I appreciate the fact that someone has made a different kind of monster movie than the normal formulaic ones. I especially like the fact that no one survived. That, at least, was refreshingly realistic. Some movies need happy endings. This one was better without it.
And leave it to Forbes to get all that and to miss THE ONE MOUSE BUTTON - seriously. The DESKTOPS now have plenty of buttons, but the laptops still only, really have one.
I'm going to assume you're just supremely ignorant instead of a troll and explain (I'll type slowly for you) that all the laptops "right-click" by simply placing 2 fingers on the trackpad and clicking *anywhere* on the button. I addition, you can configure the trackpad to treat a tap on the pad itself with 2 fingers to indicate a right-click. With these methods you can "right-click" with your hand in any position on the trackpad instead of having to cock it to find the "right-click-button".
You can also drag two fingers around anywhere on the trackpad to scroll your page/window in all directions. Much easier than those retarded trackpads with the "zones" on them for scrolling.
On second thought, with such a low id number, you can't be *that* ignorant - I think I just fed a troll....And gave up mod points to do it.
I wish I could find the link but I remember being very impressed by an article about a code shop that did the flight controls for the space shuttle. There was some amazing dedication to quality going on there.
Is it just me? I'd take this report a lot more seriously if NASA had done it. My experience with the Department of Homeland Security so far is that they are the most bureaucratic, incompetent group of yahoos out there. Their take on security seems to be better ways of using smoke and mirrors (and tighter polyester pants). For them to be considered any actual authority on real security seems ludicrous.
Even if they are just reading the output of a third-party scanning program, can we trust them to properly interpret it?
I have a large Seiko titanium wrist watch that I invested in a few years ago. To this day it's interesting to hand it to someone and see the look on their face when they take it. It's rather plain-looking and "feature-free" for something so frickin' expensive, but when they feel how light it is, they can hardly believe it. I must have very acidic sweat because I rot leather and canvas watch bands like crazy and metal bands actually corrode away on me. This is the first watch I've owned that has literally shown no wear at all since I bought it. Normally by now, I'd have gone through three or four watches.
A better argument is that by making use of child pornography, you are creating demand. Demand leads to higher supply (more children get raped). If no one downloaded child porn there would be no point in making it (perhaps with the exception of personal use). Even if all you are doing is to jack off to pictures you downloaded of naked children og children being sexually abused, you are becoming part of the supply/demand chain. Even worse if you actually paid for them and not just found them for free somewhere. If I come across CP as I'm browsing and save a copy (in my cache or in my porn folder) how am I contributing to demand? The "suppliers" have no idea that I right-clicked -> save as. Maybe I saw it on google images. Maybe I was trolling 4chan. Maybe I got it from usenet.
Now, if I pay for a membership at a member's-only site that creates/distributes the photos, or worse, if I email someone and say "Hey, cute daughter. I'll give you a hundred bucks for a few pics of you stuffing it in her.", then I'd be soliciting or enticing someone to commit a crime. In that case, hang me out to dry.
Saying that just downloading images is contributing to the demand for CP is like saying that rolling a joint from some bud growing wild along the road is contributing to the demand. The only demand that's contributing to is the demand for kleenex and munchies.
The legal concerns of our position were important to us, but not as important as the possibility that this crime could go on, uninhibited.
The crime of allowing your computer to keep a local digital copy of a file that someone has deemed "illegal"? Was this guy generating the CP or was he just saving photos that caught his sick fancy? Was he paying for a subscription to access areas where he could get these photos and therefore financially rewarding and encouraging another to assault a child or did he stumble accross them on *chan?
Except for the fact that he isn't arguing the point, what *proof* do we have that the tech themselves didn't plant the CP? If I had it in for someone, that'd be a pretty good start. All you have to do is mention CP and the witch hunt begins.
I know I'm going to get flamed into oblivion for this (not to mention accused of being a pedophile, homophobe and everything else in the book), but, if we take it as proven that homosexuality (being sexually aroused by your own gender) is genetic (or at least something you're born with) and therefor an "abnormality" and at best a "normal variant in human sexual preference" how is pedophilia, necrophilia, and bestiality different? Are we saying it's a choice of "lifestyle" and not something you're born with? How do we prove that?
In many countries of the world it is still illegal to be gay. If someone is born with the abnormality of being attracted to "those below the [arbitrary] age limit", and goes through life never once molesting a child, but only collects images that titillate their particular twisted interests, should they be branded a pariah and be sent to prison for years and years?
"But", you say, "seeing those pictures will encourage them to rape a child!". Hmmm... Does that mean that seeing pictures of naked men will force my gay coworker to rape me?. If I download rape photos, will I be driven to rape, should I be charged with the rapes in the photos? It's like the whole "violent games" argument all over again. Maybe this is some sort of release valve for some people.
Don't get me wrong. I think the exploitation of children is wrong, but I also think that the irrational fear and associated draconian laws are so ridiculous that we can't even hold a rational discussion on the matter any more. I mean, really, a 14 year old girl takes a picture of herself naked in the mirror with her cell-phone and she is convicted of creating and possessing child pornography. A 13 year old girl has sex with her 12 year old BF and is charged as a sexual predator and the victim? WFT?!
Something in me says that the same people who make the most noise in government about pedophilia are the ones that are probably hiding something in themselves, sorta like those politicians that bash gays so bad then get caught soliciting strange men.
C'mon people! If pedophilia is a "genetic disease" we should be working for a cure. If it is a sociopathic "choice" then we should be allowing those "suffering" from it to get treatment, not cart them off to jail.
And if someone assaults a child, charge them with the assault and lock them up. Rape is rape. Kidnapping is kidnapping. Child abuse is child abuse. There are already laws for that. Use them. But destroying someone's life because some pictures were found of a child without proper clothing on is ridiculous. Where I grew up it was normal for a girl to be married off and start having children as soon as she started menstruating. That often made her 12 or 13 years old. That was life. That's the way it had been for untold generations. Suddenly, there's something terrible about those people. My grandmother was married at 14. I guess my grandfather was a sick bastard. Funny, he never struck me that way. They were married for almost 70 years.
Well, I've got my flame-proof panties on and karma to burn. Flame on!
So.. what exactly prevented the "low level support monkey" from emailing the security team? How do you know the didn't? All you know is that they removed an improper, security-related post from a forum. They may very well have filed a bug report...
The few times I have submitted comments/bugs to the ADC bugreport email address, I've always received an answer back (even if it's "we're working on it"). The first time it happened I was completely shocked - it was a real email written by a real person with a real answer. Brilliant.
This has been my experience as well. I've submitted several bugs. The first one was responded to by the next day and that was to ask for more information. It was followed up after a couple of days with a patch emailed to me. They asked me to test it to see if it fixed the issue - it did and was included in the next roll-up patch. The others received answers along the lines of "Thanks, someone else has already reported this, we are working on it, if you have any new information please reference xyz ticket." I even received a phone call once.
Apple has always been rather prickly when proper procedures aren't followed with bug reporting. A public forum is a good place to ask a question but is definitely *not* the place to submit a security-related report - they were well within their rights to remove it. Although I would have replaced the message with a "Post removed: submit security issues to product-security@apple.com" . My only complaint though, is that if you aren't already familiar with the reporting procedures it's not easy to find where to report bugs. Of course, a little googling or searching on Apple's site give you the answer, but the average noob won't do that. Of course they also don't know how to properly articulate the issue most of the time either.
my mother and my father both have phones with windows mobile on it (htc blue angel and htc wallaby) for almost two years now. they needed only about half an hour to learn to use them.
Disclaimer: I do not own an iPhone (but I do have an iPod touch)
I was asked by my boss to set up her new palm treo because she was going on a business trip and wanted to be able to use it to check her mail (and for some reason, was not able to get it set up right herself).
My first (and last) impression was of absolute frustration. It touts an actual keyboard (with buttons), but, damn! The buttons were so small that my big fingers covered about 4 of them. Also each button had 2 or 3 tiny letters/symbols/numbers sharing it. Now, I'll admit that I'm not as young as I used to be, but I can't imagine trying to read that tiny keyboard in poor lighting. Also, it took me quite a while to figure out how to get the keyboard to produce numbers. Oh, you have to push and unlabeled, blank, white key to get the numbers to work. OK, not that big of a deal once you know how, but now, how do I actaully get to where I can dial to make a phone call?
Trying to wade through a gazillion options to configure it to connect to the network and then to set up an email account and then to actually get the account to "retrieve messages" was a nightmare. The "Windows Mobile" interface was terrible. I'm sure if that is the kind of thing you work with every day, it can be quite powerful, but I got the impression that this device was trying to be *everything* to *everyone* and wound up doing none of it well.
I've not had any experience with other smart phones. I tend to be the type that wants my phone to be a phone. Period. And it better do that job well. I'm sure there are many great "smart phones" out there that are better engineered and have a better software interface than the treo. However, the treo proves that just being able to check off a huge feature list is meaningless if trying to use any of the features is on ongoing nightmare.
After using my iPod Touch for a few days, I can honestly say that if the phone and mail functionality on the iPhone are on par with the experience for using any of the features on iTouch, I could handle getting one (if they ever bring it to my neck of the woods.) Then I could use my Razor for the clay pigeon it should be!
I have to admit, apple has a way of making their devices intuitive. I have a feeling, I'd be able to configure an iPhone to check mail, browse the web and make phone calls quite easily. I'd also be able to read the freakin' screen. The text on the treo was so tiny I had to get my bifocals out. Don't even get me started about being forced to use that tiny stylus.
I guess, to each their own. My boss claims she "loves" her treo and was reading off the list of things it could do. Too bad she can barely use it. She's impressed by lists and stats like that. They deserve each other. All I can say is "the device is clunky, through-and-through".
Make a hard link of a file. Now edit one of the hardlinks and save it (not save-as, just save). Now which one is the copy? From the file systems POV the edited one will be a copy. But from the users point of view it might be the original, especially if they had no way of knowing the hard link had been made. Ummmm... If you edit a hard link *both* files change because they are the exact same file, just in two separate places. It's just duplicate address entry in the inode table. That's how hard links work.
Your sig as it stands makes it sound like Apple would base an OS on Windows for some reason, which is obviously ridiculous... Actually, when Apple was looking around for a replacement kernel for their new operating system they briefly considered the NT4 kernel before rejecting it and BeOS for NeXT.
Amazon could take a stand and refuse to sell songs from labels who want to push this kind of crap on their customers. But then they'd be just like Apple and all the media companies would leave. Steve said "no" to their insistence on bundling and special pricing and they said F.U. and went to Amazon.
No DRM, cheaper, and a pretty large catalog. I know of several smaller labels that are going to almost certainly stop selling on ITunes as a result. I call bullshit. Why would they pull out of iTunes? They can still offer DRM-free recordings at higher bit-rates on iTunes and they get more money for it on iTunes. I can see why the consumer would want to download it from Amazon for less, but why would the label want to pull out of the most successful online music store in order to sell the same thing for less somewhere else. If anything, they'd want to sell in both places.
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly. Every new technology has trade-offs. I think we stick with and adopt technology that works, meaning that we consider the trade-offs worth it. That is not to say that we don't loose something valuable when an older form is replaced. Today, I hear from my distant family several times a day through email, twitter, and text messages. I feel really connected to them. I almost never get letters any more and don't really miss them. When I do get them, I love to read them. There is something about putting down your thoughts by putting pen to paper that gives it poignancy. Recently, my son was in bootcamp and could only receive snail-mail. I found that is was hard sitting down to write a letter at first, but I came away from it feeling strangely rewarded.
I think books are also going to go away (from the mainstream) in a similar way. I am a bibliophile. I love to read books, but even more, I love to hold a book in my hands, feel it's heft and smell it's pages. I have almost a hundred, leather-bound classics in my office library and there is nothing like sitting down to read one. But, to be honest, most of the "reading" these days is in the form of audiobooks on my iPhone. I'm too busy to have the time to just sit and read. However, I'm consuming more books than ever now that I can do two things at once. I listened to Fahrenheit 451 yesterday while mowing and raking my (2+ acre) lawn. My wife also reads out loud to me while I'm cooking and doing dishes (we're reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow).
The danger I see is that we are more likely to get the "Cliff's NOtes" version of information off the internet. I can go online and find out enough about the story-line and plot of Fahrenheit 451 to carry on an intelligent dinner conversation, or recognize when it's being referenced in another book, but I'll never get the same depth of understanding, or come away with my own interpretation, unless I take the time to read the whole thing, unabridged, start-to-finish. Also, there are some books that are impossible to make into an audio book (think Flowers for Algernon). The only way to get the full impact is to see the words written on the page.
So, yes, I think something is lost in the trade-off. However, I think the the balance of benefit tips toward technology and the internet. I'd never have taken the time to run downstairs and look up how to spell Algernon from the book spine. A quick google search told me I had it right. I'm not going to page through my copy of Fahrenheit 451 to find a poignant passage to quote to my wife, I'll look it up on-line an read it to her from there. The internet makes information so accessible that we are more likely to take the time to look something up, rather than going my memory.
Also, I find myself stumbling on information I'd never have thought to look up while searching for other things. I can't count the number of times I've looked something up on Wikipedia and followed link after link down a rabbit-hole that lead me far from the initial article in what I call "stream-of-consciousness" surfing. This would never happen for me in a meatspace encyclopedia.
Technology also gives me things like spell check. This is very important for me. English is not my first language and I've never gotten the hang of spelling in it. Having the ability to type a word like it sounds and then pick the right spelling from a list is priceless (and save y'all from having to struggle through my attempts).
So, no, I don't think google is making us stupid, but I do mourn the things that will be lost. I'm sentimental about my old books and I'm afraid they will become relics and collector's items. But I'm not ready to live in the past (yet) and feel the benefits of the WWWeb and technology outweigh that which is lost.
Now get off my lawn!
Install it to a bootcamp partition. Then you can either boot directly to it or point your VMware at the partition and run it from OS X. That's what I do. I have not seen any mouse issues with the latest versions of VMware Fusion, BTW. This is the way we have all our Apple machines configured for people who need windows-only software - no problems to date.
With this configuration you can see if it runs acceptably in the virtualized environment, but if it doesn't you can always boot windows directly and run it at full speed.
While overall I can agree with your results from the examples you have provided - I cannot agree with your premise as a rule. You can buy cheap things (the wal*mart-ization of everyday items) and still get the full value of what your purchase is. Paper? Generic Drugs (prescription and OTC)? Cleaning supplies? I mean I can go on.
Of course, you are right. I never intended to imply that the most expensive things were always the best. It always depends, and it's always a trade-off. Sometimes cheap things have their place. Case-in-point, I recently picked up a Flip Ultra (TM) video camera. It's $130.00. It's a toy. But for it's size, simplicity, low-light capabilities and amazing-for-the-price video quality you can't beat the value. Plus, because it's so small and cheap I can afford to have it with me wherever I go. I can toss it into my day-pack for hiking and boating without worrying overmuch about it getting lost, wet or damaged. I can duct-tape it to the wing of my plane or the bumper of my car without a second thought. I'd never consider doing that with my XL1 or even my GL2. They are just too expensive.
Like you said, you have to do your research and make an informed decision about what will be best for you. Unfortunately, I think people put too much emphasis on price alone. And it hurts them in the long run. I once saw a TV show about the rich and famous that really struck a chord. They were walking though a mansion and stopped by a painting in the wall that cost, like $3 million. I thought "What an extreme waste of money for a painting!". Apparently the TV-guy did too and commented about it. The owner looked at him and said "If I were to sell it today, I'd get over $5 million. I just made $2 million dollars. I didn't *buy* the painting, I invested in it". I looked around at my paintings... Hmmm...
Since then I've always tried to keep resale value in the back of my mind as part of the overall cost of an item. When my wife needed a new car we talked about that. We currently target a vehicle for 10-15 years of driving. That means that, if we were to finance the whole thing (we don't) we could have it paid off in 5 or 6 years and still have that much time left over to save the remaining payments to an interest-earning account where it can build up for our next car without impacting our budget. My wife wanted a sporty car and chose a 2002, collector's edition (numbered) Mini Cooper. The idea is that, over time, with care, it will be a desirable classic that will increase in value with age (after a certain point). Now, it's hard to tell what's going to be a desirable classic, but I'm betting the Mini Cooper will be. I bought a 1970 Challenger a while back and have been slowly restoring it over the years. It's a blast to drive, but more importantly, it is rocketing up in value. It's more than doubled in the last 5 years, even if I hadn't done anything to it.
The same concept can be carried over to the PC world. I'd stack my Mac Tower at work up against any Dell (at any price) for ease of parts-replacement. No screws to mess with. One lever lifted and the whole side of the computer comes off and you can access any part with ease. There are no cables and crap to deal with. The RAM sits on daughter-cards that slide right out so you can work on it conveniently on your desk. To add or replace a drive, slide the old one out and the new one in. That's it. Now, I know that there are PC cases out there that have had just as much careful thought put into them - but they aren't the cheap ones.
When I got offered a promotion to my new position, it was in a PC-only department. I convinced them to buy me a high-end Mac instead of a Dell. They didn't want to. It wasn't until I provided quotes for a similarly-decked out Dell tower that they saw that the price was comparable. I pushed, they relented. I ran OS X and Windows XP (and a couple flavors of Linux in MVWare) on it. Recently we were told that we'd be providing support to custom
When I moved out on my own I started buying tools to help me keep my apartment and eventually my house repaired. I started out picking up the first tool I saw that was cheap and did the job. $10 hammer, $5 multi-screwdriver set, 200-piece no-name, all-in-one socket sets for $20.00, etc. They did the job. After all, you can turn a screw with a cheap screwdriver just like an expensive one.
Needless to say, I've had many versions of each over time. I can't count the times I've had my phillips-head screwdriver turn into a rounded-out, useless waste of money at the first recalcitrant screw. It always happens at the worst time too. After expressing my frustrations with my dad one time (in language that probably shocked him) He looked at me and simply said "Why don't you buy decent tools?" My response was "Have you seen how much they cost?!" He responded "How many times have you re-bought that screwdriver?". I had to admit that I'd probably spent twice the cost of a "pro" screwdriver over the years on cheap ones and cursed them every time.
Over time I started applying this lesson to other things in my life. I found that every time I took the cheap option "to make due" I was disappointed and invariably wound up replacing it much sooner than I should have. I found that I actually saved money and aggravation by buying quality the first time. I traded in my cheap POS for a used Mercedes. I threw out my Walmart tennis-shoes for a pair of quality walking shoes. I passed up the $3.00 T-shirts and invested in quality brands. The list goes on...
I've had the extreme pleasure of driving my Mercedes every day for the last 10 years. It's as good as the day I bought it and when I go to sell it I'll have paid less for it year-over-year, than I ever did on the myriad el-cheap-O's I used to drive. Where I used to replace my shoes every year, or so, I have had my current pair of shoes going on 4 years and have experienced more comfort than I had imagined possible in a shoe up till that point. And my T-shirts? They used to fade and grow thin after a few washes and I'd donate them or throw them out and have to re-buy them. Today, I still have T-shirts that look almost new that I've worn regularly for 7 years. I still have one I wore to my brother's wedding rehearsal 9 years ago.
All this is a very long way of saying that, amortized over time, buying quality is often cheaper (and almost always more pleasurable) than buying the first thing you can afford.
Now, I've built my share of PC's. I enjoy picking through catalogues and eBay auctions and getting the best bang for my buck. But, those are my hobby machines. My TrixBox. My MythTV. My fun stuff. My main system is (currently) a Dual G5 Power Mac that I bought refurb'ed shortly after they came out. Even then, it cost me more than $1,000, but I've had it almost 5 years now and It's still doing it's job well. My neighbor just gave me his 3rd Dell in 5 years (a trade for re-installing Windows so many times). He's spent way more on all those systems than I did on my one and has had no end to his aggravation. I sit down at my system (that I've never had to re-install) and get my work done. Would I like to get a cool new 8-way Intel system? Sure. No doubt. But I don't *need* it yet, and I haven't saved up for it yet. It's budgeted for this fall - yay! :-D
Some people can get by just fine with the cheapest piece of crap Dell or Walmart sells. It looks like crap, it's loaded with useless crap, it's made with the cheapest parts that can be had, it's "settling" for the lowest common denominator. Like the cheap screwdriver, it can get the job done, but you wind up fighting it every step of the way. Their entire experience with computers is based on that. They are used to it. They expect it. It's sad.
There is something special that you experience the first time you pick up a professional tool. The hammer feels more balanced. The screwdriver turns the screws with surprisingly little effo
I agree. I also think there is another major reason for the change: People consume media in general and music specifically in a much different way these days. In the "olde days", if you wanted to listen to music you either schlepped a tape-player (and all your tapes) or your CD player (and all your CDs) which was a pain. So generally you'd maybe pop a tape or CD in your walkman and just take that. So, in essence you had a hand-full of your favorite songs with you and then you got bored. So you'd listen to the radio and get introduced to new bands and albums.
Now, I can take thousands of my favorite songs from my collection with me and have my own virtual radio station. I don't feel the need to tune in to Clear Channel. I hear about new talent from my friends and content online. I can be at a mall or movie theater, hear a song I like, and download it to my iPhone on the spot. My daughter twitters me with a link to some cool new sound she heard from a band that played at her coffee house. My brother emails me a link to the latest indie artist he's recorded and mixed on iTMS. Frankly, if I tune into the radio at all any more, it's to listen to the news or 'All things considered". The RIAA no longer controls my listening habits. Frankly, I couldn't tell you who the latest hot bands (of any genre) are.
I've also ripped my entire CD collection and purchased any gems I'd missed out on and have them in my pocket at all times. I'm getting older and, frankly the new pop-rap-crap I do hear is not for me. My music buying has flattened out. I rarely buy entire albums any more. That last song I bought was a tune that caught my attention while watching previews in a movie theater (and I bought it right then). I'm more likely to buy an Audible book than new music. And if I buy new music it's almost guaranteed to be from an indie band.
The consumption model has changed. The distribution model has changed. There are no longer a controlling few dictating taste to the controlled masses. Just like the internet changed the face of news, it's changing the face of music and video. The music cartel's days have ended. They've lost their tight grip on the masses. They just don't want to admit it. That, more than rampant piracy, is the cause of the decline in "their" music being sold. Indie bands and musicians aren't factored into any of their sales figures (how would they know?) so, music in general is diversifying and growing, it's just the cartel's music sales that're drying up.
My brother's friend, Eric Schrotenboer, has several (excellent) albums released on iTMS that my brother recorded and mixed. How is the IRAA involved again?You bastard! I can't believe I actually fell for it - let alone even cared enough to check!
As to the specific issue at-hand, I think it's still premature to get in an uproar over the SDK licensing terms. It seems very likely to me they were written by attorneys who threw together a bunch of "boilerplate" for Apple without realize the full extent of what their limitations would restrict. (Right now, it sounds to me like Sun's plan to bring Java to the iPhone was nothing Apple would have had any issue with, despite the legal details of this SDK appearing to prevent it. They'll probably hash it out and Apple will revise the licensing terms so it's allowed.)
What? Level-headed, common sense? Get off my Slashdot!
Ya know? I bought my iPhone because I've owned a LOT of really crappy phones in my life. I used to complain because I wasn't able to find a phone that didn't shoehorn in everything but the kitchen sink in order to add to that list of features when I just wanted a freakin' phone that made finding numbers and making calls easy!
When I saw the iPhone I didn't care about any of the other features, except that it looked like it did a superb job of organizing contacts and making phone calls and conference calls simple and efficient. I also saw that it would do texting a lot better than my crappy Razor, so that was a plus (although I rarely texted anyone - probably because I sucked at using a phone keypad as a typewriter).
So, I bought the iPhone as soon as it was available in my area. It was expensive, but the feature set I got was worth every dime and more. I didn't buy it for the possible future features, I bought it for what it could do at the time. When I started using it, it literally changed my life. I got rid of my PDA. I could send and receive "real" email on my iPhone, surf the "real" web on my iPhone, do "real" banking on my iPhone, look up directions, addresses and phone numbers with Google Maps, and keep a dynamic grocery/todo list on the note pad. I also tend to text much more often and encourage my contacts/family to do the same. I hate being interrupted in a meeting with a phone call but a quick vibe letting me know I have a text message lets me see what's up and I can often respond without having to step out to talk... I also feel free to text people more often because I know I won't be interrupting them if they are busy. My daughter can ignore a text until later, but she's not likely to ignore a phone call from Dad - even if it is inconvenient.
All this is to say that I like what the phone can currently do and that makes it a great product all by itself and people who won't buy one or are whining about its not being able to do everything under the sun must have some really great phones already. So why are their panties in a bunch? Don't buy the damn phone! Use your own or wait for the awesome, open, Android phone! I have never seen a group of people spend so much energy bashing something that is apparently so bad. This phone has 1% of the market. Shop the other 99% already! Develop for them! Write your awkward java crap for them! My biggest fear is that the companies that I really want to develop a beautiful native client that intereacts correctly with the other aspects of the phone will find out there's java available and use it as an excuse to say "just use our crappy java client instead".
Why doesn't Apple want Skype to use Edge or 3G? I wonder. Maybe because they are beholden to the phone companies for now and saturating their networks with bandwidth whose only purpose is to bypass their reason for being is probably not such a good idea? After all, they said "hey, as long as you are on WiFi, go for it". Why don't they want programs that download and execute other code? I don't know, maybe because that is a vector for security issues like viruses and worms which will be out of Apple's hands (yet will be laid squarely at Apple's feet by the enraged, foaming-at-the-mouth, Slashdot masses).
I get the impression that Apple is deliberately going slow at this point so that they can feel ou
We don't know if they have a way yet. The SDK is still in beta and they didn't specifically mention it at the dog-and-pony show. However, when I signed on to be a beta tester they specifically asked me if I was going to be primarily developing for "in-house" applications. This tells me that there will, in fact, be a mechanism for signing and distributing your own apps in your business.
As for FREE, they are giving away ALL the development tools for FREE. The only thing they are asking me to pay for is the key to be able to sign my applications with, to distribute it through the iPhone app store. I can't put my finger on your objection either, except that you sound like one of the "free"ks that give OSS developers a bad name. You can develop any app you want FOR FREE with the Apple SDK. You only need to pay $99 if you want to distribute it through iTunes. You may still distribute your app for FREE if you want and it will be free for your "customers". You can even distribute your source code and your customers can modify and compile and run your code for FREE - they just need to download the FREE SDK - kinda like the "real world" where you have to have the FREE gcc compiler and dependent resources on your computer to compile OSS code.
You whining FREEks are really starting to sound pathetic, naive and immature. You bitch when Apple didn't have the SDK ready at the iPhone launch. You bitch BEFORE HAND when you fear they might release a "crippled" subset of the "real" API. You bitch when they offer a free SDK with a FREE membership. You bitch even after they offer THE SAME APIs THEY USE. You bitch when they charge a small fee for a key to sign your awesome code with so that you can use their infrastructure to deliver your product. You seem to be the type that somehow thinks the world owes you a living (for FREE).
Please, don't develop for the iPhone - develop for Android! You'll be much happier there and those of us who have chosen to develop for the iPhone won't have to hear your Anti-everything-that's-not-handed-to-me-for-FREE whining!
Will GNASH, the FOSS SWF player that can also play FLV, run on an iPhone? GNASH isn't as crippled as Adobe's Flash player, offering higher framerates on lower grade HW. GNASH has also been ported to run on more HW than Adobe's Flash player has. For GNASH to play FLV, it needs ffmpeg or GStreamer to run - is there a port or equivalent for iPhone?
And if not, who will take the plunge to port this FOSS to iPhone, and make Steve Jobs for once look less than visionary?
I don't doubt that there will be 3rd-party FLV players for the iPhone. I don't think playing video content is what The Steve is talking about. I think he's talking about the rest of the flash-enable crap out there on the web, including front-page, interactive splash-screens, flash adds, and embedded flash content that clue-missing web designers inflict on us. These are things that even Flash Lite can't handle - which everyone is touting as "My phone plays flash!". Playing an FLV/SWF file is not the same as "having Flash capability in your browser".
Frankly, if the fact that iPhone users are complaining to restaurants and other businesses that they can't access their site because of all the Flash-only crap gets site owners to follow W3C standards (like Steve said should be the focus) I'm all for it.
I know people have personally found some specific benefit from Flash-based apps. I also know some people have found some specific benefit from ActiveX apps. That does not mean that either technology belongs on the public internet where accessibility and ubiquity are supposed to rule.
The whole point of the movie is that it's the raw, unedited content of a consumer video camera that was found and is now being used as a piece of government evidence for the Cloverfield incident. I think we are supposed to feel like we have been given access to the raw content by the government (because we are a part of an investigation or an FOIA or something...) So in that sense you just get whatever happened to be on this tape (or SD card).
That being said, I don't know anyone who is that bad with a camera; even a small handicam which doesn't have the mass to help dampen small movements. I mean seriously, it's one thing to not hold it still or to zoom in and out too much, those are novice mistakes. But it is an entirely different thing to not hold the camera level while shooting or to completely cut off the head of your subject. Sure, if you are running and forgot to turn it off, fine, but no amature holds the camera at an extreme "artsy" angle while they are actively filming something. Admittedly, the odd angle often composed the image better than a straight-and-level shot would have, but someone who knows enough to do that would have a steadier hand and a better overall ability to compose scenes.
As an amateur videographer myself I've had to sift though hours and hours of tedious, useless, and horrendous raw clips from a variety of sources, including my own and I can tell you that it takes practice to be able to get usable content from spontaneous events and activity. It's almost impossible to get commercial content without a lot of planning and orchestrating, and that's assuming that you've got experienced hands on the camera(s). I was actually filming one time when the plane I was filming in crashed. The camera was on the whole time (you can hear me saying goodbye and that I was filming my death) and except for the actual impact (where the camera blanked out briefly) and the part where I was crawling out of the wreckage, my footage is more stable than Cloverfield's.
Cloverfield's videography truly made me feel like a pro was trying to act like an amateur and failing. The move would have actually been better, in my opinion, if they'd given the camera to the actual actors and made them do everything themselves while acting the actual scenes. You would have at leas gotten shakiness that made more sense with the action.
Once I was able to force myself to swallow the fact that I was watching completely raw, amateur handicam content I spent the rest of the movie trying to build my own story out of it as if I was viewing raw evidence for something I knew nothing about (which was true) and actually came away liking the movie. My wife, who gets sea-sick at the drop of a hat, even liked it (apparently there was too much violent movement to trigger more than just a headache for her). We are going again today to take our son to see it. It's painful to watch, but I appreciate the fact that someone has made a different kind of monster movie than the normal formulaic ones. I especially like the fact that no one survived. That, at least, was refreshingly realistic. Some movies need happy endings. This one was better without it.
I'm going to assume you're just supremely ignorant instead of a troll and explain (I'll type slowly for you) that all the laptops "right-click" by simply placing 2 fingers on the trackpad and clicking *anywhere* on the button. I addition, you can configure the trackpad to treat a tap on the pad itself with 2 fingers to indicate a right-click. With these methods you can "right-click" with your hand in any position on the trackpad instead of having to cock it to find the "right-click-button".
You can also drag two fingers around anywhere on the trackpad to scroll your page/window in all directions. Much easier than those retarded trackpads with the "zones" on them for scrolling.
On second thought, with such a low id number, you can't be *that* ignorant - I think I just fed a troll. ...And gave up mod points to do it.
Give it up. The GP is a loser. He doesn't WANT help. He wants to whine. Some people are just like that.
Is it just me? I'd take this report a lot more seriously if NASA had done it. My experience with the Department of Homeland Security so far is that they are the most bureaucratic, incompetent group of yahoos out there. Their take on security seems to be better ways of using smoke and mirrors (and tighter polyester pants). For them to be considered any actual authority on real security seems ludicrous.
Even if they are just reading the output of a third-party scanning program, can we trust them to properly interpret it?
I have a large Seiko titanium wrist watch that I invested in a few years ago. To this day it's interesting to hand it to someone and see the look on their face when they take it. It's rather plain-looking and "feature-free" for something so frickin' expensive, but when they feel how light it is, they can hardly believe it. I must have very acidic sweat because I rot leather and canvas watch bands like crazy and metal bands actually corrode away on me. This is the first watch I've owned that has literally shown no wear at all since I bought it. Normally by now, I'd have gone through three or four watches.
No. I will not be grinding into it.
Now, if I pay for a membership at a member's-only site that creates/distributes the photos, or worse, if I email someone and say "Hey, cute daughter. I'll give you a hundred bucks for a few pics of you stuffing it in her.", then I'd be soliciting or enticing someone to commit a crime. In that case, hang me out to dry.
Saying that just downloading images is contributing to the demand for CP is like saying that rolling a joint from some bud growing wild along the road is contributing to the demand. The only demand that's contributing to is the demand for kleenex and munchies.
The crime of allowing your computer to keep a local digital copy of a file that someone has deemed "illegal"? Was this guy generating the CP or was he just saving photos that caught his sick fancy? Was he paying for a subscription to access areas where he could get these photos and therefore financially rewarding and encouraging another to assault a child or did he stumble accross them on *chan?
Except for the fact that he isn't arguing the point, what *proof* do we have that the tech themselves didn't plant the CP? If I had it in for someone, that'd be a pretty good start. All you have to do is mention CP and the witch hunt begins.
I know I'm going to get flamed into oblivion for this (not to mention accused of being a pedophile, homophobe and everything else in the book), but, if we take it as proven that homosexuality (being sexually aroused by your own gender) is genetic (or at least something you're born with) and therefor an "abnormality" and at best a "normal variant in human sexual preference" how is pedophilia, necrophilia, and bestiality different? Are we saying it's a choice of "lifestyle" and not something you're born with? How do we prove that?
In many countries of the world it is still illegal to be gay. If someone is born with the abnormality of being attracted to "those below the [arbitrary] age limit", and goes through life never once molesting a child, but only collects images that titillate their particular twisted interests, should they be branded a pariah and be sent to prison for years and years?
"But", you say, "seeing those pictures will encourage them to rape a child!". Hmmm... Does that mean that seeing pictures of naked men will force my gay coworker to rape me?. If I download rape photos, will I be driven to rape, should I be charged with the rapes in the photos? It's like the whole "violent games" argument all over again. Maybe this is some sort of release valve for some people.
Don't get me wrong. I think the exploitation of children is wrong, but I also think that the irrational fear and associated draconian laws are so ridiculous that we can't even hold a rational discussion on the matter any more. I mean, really, a 14 year old girl takes a picture of herself naked in the mirror with her cell-phone and she is convicted of creating and possessing child pornography. A 13 year old girl has sex with her 12 year old BF and is charged as a sexual predator and the victim? WFT?!
Something in me says that the same people who make the most noise in government about pedophilia are the ones that are probably hiding something in themselves, sorta like those politicians that bash gays so bad then get caught soliciting strange men.
C'mon people! If pedophilia is a "genetic disease" we should be working for a cure. If it is a sociopathic "choice" then we should be allowing those "suffering" from it to get treatment, not cart them off to jail.
And if someone assaults a child, charge them with the assault and lock them up. Rape is rape. Kidnapping is kidnapping. Child abuse is child abuse. There are already laws for that. Use them. But destroying someone's life because some pictures were found of a child without proper clothing on is ridiculous. Where I grew up it was normal for a girl to be married off and start having children as soon as she started menstruating. That often made her 12 or 13 years old. That was life. That's the way it had been for untold generations. Suddenly, there's something terrible about those people. My grandmother was married at 14. I guess my grandfather was a sick bastard. Funny, he never struck me that way. They were married for almost 70 years.
Well, I've got my flame-proof panties on and karma to burn. Flame on!
This has been my experience as well. I've submitted several bugs. The first one was responded to by the next day and that was to ask for more information. It was followed up after a couple of days with a patch emailed to me. They asked me to test it to see if it fixed the issue - it did and was included in the next roll-up patch. The others received answers along the lines of "Thanks, someone else has already reported this, we are working on it, if you have any new information please reference xyz ticket." I even received a phone call once.
Apple has always been rather prickly when proper procedures aren't followed with bug reporting. A public forum is a good place to ask a question but is definitely *not* the place to submit a security-related report - they were well within their rights to remove it. Although I would have replaced the message with a "Post removed: submit security issues to product-security@apple.com" . My only complaint though, is that if you aren't already familiar with the reporting procedures it's not easy to find where to report bugs. Of course, a little googling or searching on Apple's site give you the answer, but the average noob won't do that. Of course they also don't know how to properly articulate the issue most of the time either.
Disclaimer: I do not own an iPhone (but I do have an iPod touch)
I was asked by my boss to set up her new palm treo because she was going on a business trip and wanted to be able to use it to check her mail (and for some reason, was not able to get it set up right herself).
My first (and last) impression was of absolute frustration. It touts an actual keyboard (with buttons), but, damn! The buttons were so small that my big fingers covered about 4 of them. Also each button had 2 or 3 tiny letters/symbols/numbers sharing it. Now, I'll admit that I'm not as young as I used to be, but I can't imagine trying to read that tiny keyboard in poor lighting. Also, it took me quite a while to figure out how to get the keyboard to produce numbers. Oh, you have to push and unlabeled, blank, white key to get the numbers to work. OK, not that big of a deal once you know how, but now, how do I actaully get to where I can dial to make a phone call?
Trying to wade through a gazillion options to configure it to connect to the network and then to set up an email account and then to actually get the account to "retrieve messages" was a nightmare. The "Windows Mobile" interface was terrible. I'm sure if that is the kind of thing you work with every day, it can be quite powerful, but I got the impression that this device was trying to be *everything* to *everyone* and wound up doing none of it well.
I've not had any experience with other smart phones. I tend to be the type that wants my phone to be a phone. Period. And it better do that job well. I'm sure there are many great "smart phones" out there that are better engineered and have a better software interface than the treo. However, the treo proves that just being able to check off a huge feature list is meaningless if trying to use any of the features is on ongoing nightmare.
After using my iPod Touch for a few days, I can honestly say that if the phone and mail functionality on the iPhone are on par with the experience for using any of the features on iTouch, I could handle getting one (if they ever bring it to my neck of the woods.) Then I could use my Razor for the clay pigeon it should be!
I have to admit, apple has a way of making their devices intuitive. I have a feeling, I'd be able to configure an iPhone to check mail, browse the web and make phone calls quite easily. I'd also be able to read the freakin' screen. The text on the treo was so tiny I had to get my bifocals out. Don't even get me started about being forced to use that tiny stylus.
I guess, to each their own. My boss claims she "loves" her treo and was reading off the list of things it could do. Too bad she can barely use it. She's impressed by lists and stats like that. They deserve each other. All I can say is "the device is clunky, through-and-through".