I agree. A much better example is that the USSR was pretty comfy for Communist Party officials,
A popular mistake, but still a mistake. In fact, the Communist Party officials lived in constant terror. Stalin was holding their closest relatives in gulags as hostages, and they themselves never knew the day of their fall. Communism was a living hell for everyone involved. Party officials in the first place.
http://www.wsws.org/exhibits/1937/lecture1.htm
I know you're just joking, but you probably shouldn't knock to hard on iMovie. For a free video editor (how free is it when you pay $3000 for the machine? SHUT UP U!)
Before I'll shut up: you get iMovie as a bundled software even with the cheapest firewire-enabled Macs; the G3 iMac (some stores still have them in stock), eMac or iBook. So $1000 or even less would be enough.
Now I know why software availability is so poor on Mac or Linux, compared to Wintel. Wintel users curse their machines and their software waaaaaaay more often than those Linux or Mac weirdos.
Does anyone else think that the simplicity of the OS on Apple Lisa looks extremely attractive?
I never worked on Lisa, but like all the Mac users who started their Apple experience on the 68k machines, I miss some of the simplicity of the old Mac system. The whole desktop metaphor was developed with "one machine, one user", "no subdirectories of subdirectories", "no multitasking" etc. principles in mind. Just adding a harddrive distorts this metaphor and causes some confusion ("on my computer", what does that mean? depending on situation, it can mean "on my computer's harddrive", "on my user's desktop" or even "within the network reach from my computer"). It was nice to call directories "folders", but when folders within folders started to have their own folders, the metaphor was useless.
Apple always understood this, and there was always a "Simple Finder" option, for people who actually WANTED to have their choices limited as in 1985, on a 2000 machine. If they want to use just a word processor, a web browser and a mail application, more choices would just confuse them. "Simple Finder" is actually available even in MacOS X 10.2. I still think SOMEBODY should write a complete MacOS 7 conversion theme for MacOS X.
I've been sitting here at my freelance gig in front of a Mac (a 8600/300 w/64 Megs of RAM) [...] I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while working on various Macs
But did you actually try any model built after, say, 1998? So you discovered, that multitasking in OS 8 was hopeless. And you are right. But how exactly should this be relevant to MacOS X and Mac machines built in this century?
Like most 60s kids I was raised to believe that the Soviet Union and particularly E. Germany were evil because the state monitored the phone calls of and spied on anyone who dared to say anything out of line with the government view.
Sorry pal, but you didn't get it. They didn't spy just those who dared. Mostly because hardly anyone dared. They spied EVERYONE for sake of spying. When the Stasi files were open, it turned out that some opposition group in East Germany consisted actually of 100% Stasi informers, spying each other. Nobody noticed that at the HQ, because the HQ was unable to process all this enormous amount of information. This insane paranoia of "everybody spying on everyone" is brilliantly described by Stanislaw Lem in "Memoirs Found In A Bathtub". He placed this novel in America, because otherwise communist censorship wouldn't let it publish. Now it seems it was actually a prophecy. I'm afraid America evolves in that direction with a speed of a falling star.
Even the most complacent, oblivious, and trusting of Americans in this day and age, should be resigned to the fact that a conspiracy of good intentions can often lead to abuse of government power.
Exactly. Why the Reistag gave the supreme authority to Hitler? Why the worker's and soldier's councils (the soviets) gave the ultimate power to Lenin? Why did Roman senate appoint Caesar as a dictator? Why did senator Jar-Jar Binks;) propose emergency measures to strenghten chancelor Palpatine? They ALWAYS had good intentions in mind. "The situation is exceptional", "the Republic is in danger", "the enemy is at the gates" etc.
Funny thing about Jar-Jar Binks: in Episode 1, he was just annoying. In Episode 2, he turned out to be the best metaphor of crisis in American politics so far presented in popular culture. This lady, she sounds like Jar-Jar's twin sister, doesn't she? Misa thinka tanka privacsa sucka sucka.
Not directly related, but as I was watching the Floyd's PanAm flight dock with the spinning station, I suspected that Clarke and Kubrick never foresaw this; a world of microtechnology, for the consumer. It was all grand projects back then, a single computer the size of a building, not a building full of single computers.
Just imagine, going back to 1968 by time machine and telling Kubrick, Clarke or some egghead from Stanford or MIT, how the techology will evolve in 2001. Tell these guys the Apollo XVIII will be actually the last spaceship to leave the vicinity of Earth. Tell them that the global network developed by ARPA will be a major hit, used mostly for distrubution of p0rn, warez and mindless discussions like these on Slashdot. Tell them everybody will own a supercomputer way beyond PDP's and IBM's, but everybody will use it mostly as a typewriter and a gaming console. Tell them the main scientific discoveries by the end of century will be a pill for erection and a pill for good mood. I just can't imagine their reply.
Again? Last time he predicted anything, it was the diskless "network computer", that will decimate traditional pc's. That was supposed to happen around 1997. Now that was a bold prediction. Probably as valuable as this one.
On an iBook, with 10.2.4, I don't have any battery issues. I can't get more than 3.5 hours by shutting off Airport, lowering the sound and screen brighteness, etc., while keeping my processor to full speed, but I imagine that if I lowered by processor speed I'd get pretty close to 5 hours.
As far as I know, this option is NOT available in MacOS X running on G3 portables. It is available on the Powerbook G4, but not on the iBook. At least not on mine. I even tried to clone OS from Powerbook G4, but on the iBook I have just blank space in the Preference Pane (in the same spot where PB G4 has this option). The only chance to reduce CPU speed is under OS 9.
Now - if I am wrong, I will be more than happy to admit it. Maybe there is some third-party hackie for Pref Panes, allowing to reduce CPU speed for G3 Macs under 10.2?
For the record: I am getting about three hours of battery life under maximum power consumption (Airport ON, DVD playback, maximum sound and brightness), about four hours with reasonable settings on OS X, and five and half on OS 9 with no sound, dimmed screen and reduced CPU speed. The machine in question is a 12" 800 MHz iBook.
"40 percent of developers"? How should I understand this figure? Do you count as one each person who just happens to develop ANYTHING, even some obscure freeware of no importance? "40 percent of developers" sounds like a shampoo commercial to me ("your hair will be 50 percent more healthy").
If these guys were not such hypocrites, they would never be caught. The Taliban, etc want to take things back to the glory days of the pre-1000 A.D. Muslim empire, except when it is inconvenient (such as using technology like cell phones). If they were more pure in their ideology and kept with the sticks and clubs and swords, they'd be much harder to catch, wouldn't they?
On the other hand, we ale no less hypocritical. If we would stick strictly to our principles of human rights, democracy, presumed innocence, open society etc., they would never be caught neither. So they use credit card and mobile phones, right? Big deal. We use torture during interrogation. I guess this makes us even.
If someone bothered to name a Roman god after it, it's a planet. Pluto, Mars, Jupiter--all friendly planets.
Then Ceres is a planet. Ceres is a Roman god. Well, actually a goddess (of agriculture, to be precise). But if you want to introduce some sexist discrimination of female godpersons, you will have to deal with Venus. An asteroid quite big, definitely spherical and able to demonstrate a well developped atmosphere. And THEN you will have to deal with the feminists.
In fact, I consider Ceres and Venus my favorite godpersons from the whole Pantheon. I don't care much about the values symbolized by Jupiter, Mars or even Mercury. But Venus is, well, Venus. And Ceres is the mother of barley. That's why Spanish for beer is cerveza. It's a simple question, whom do you prefer? Goddess of beer or god of death?
With the discovery over the past few decades of the Oort Cloud and Kupier Belt, it seems obvious that there are tens, if not hundreds/thousands of Pluto-sized objects out there. Obviously, we're not going to name all 10,000 of these rocks "planets." But then again, Pluto has a special place in history as the last "great" planet discovery on the level of Uranus and Neptune
Across the pond it is not considered to be on this level. Pluto is important to America, because it's the only solar planet discovered by an American astronomer. But in fact, it's not that important to anyone outside the USA. I guess this debate is pointless - if International Astronomical Union would ever dare to call Pluto a mere asteroid, George W. Bush would immediately call an airstrike on Institut d'Astrophysique in Paris, France (where those pesky European astronomers conspire against America). And no, he would need no stinkin' United Nations to approve this.
Cool that he's using a Mac. If Saddam's forces defect over to our side, will that make them switchers?:)
The muezzin, he sounded like weep, weep, weep. I wanted a drink and I couldn't have one. Islam is a dry religion. It was kind of bummer. Now I respect the American Way Of Life. And I have better drinks. My name is Osama and I am a logistics consultant.
Is it just me or does everyone else think that the older systems, like the atari and nintendo put out way higher quality games (as far as gameplay goes)than the modern systems seem to provide?
I disagree. I am a veteran of the 8-bit era ("Commodore r0000lz!"), but if I would have to name the best computer games of all time, I don't think I would mention any pre-1995 title. The best game ever is in my opinion "Deus Ex" - in terms of gameplay and storyline it's unbeatable by anything available on 8-bit machines. It's the first computer game I ever played, that I have found equal to a good science-fiction novel or movie. And the storylines of "Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation", "Max Payne" or "Return To Castle Wolfenstein" - they aren't bad neither. I would never trade these games for the text-based adventures of my youth. I don't think anything is wrong with game development, if they make them as good as they are.
On the other hand, anybody knows if the Level 9 adventures are somehow available now?
Are there any other languages with this "to google" neologism? It fits to Polish like a hand to a glove. goglac - "to google", wyguglalem - "I have googled", wyguglaj to jeszcze raz, Sam - "google this once again, Sam".
How to say "I have googled" in German: Ich habe gegoogled? And in French would it be j'ai google? In Japanese, could it be something like googaro?
Mac is definately the closest thing that a consumer can get to easy to use. But when I talk to my elderly aunt she just wants something where she points at something and it works. She does not need the configuration options we techies want. When are the PC companies going to realise that there is a huge market out there of guys like this weiner who want a PC black box. Just a simpe to use, flip it on and go sort of machine. I would not even say this type of thing would be a computer.
I understand your aunt very well. This is exactly what I want in a computer. I am a Mac user, because - as you said - Mac is as close to this as money can buy, but I still think it could be even better. My dream machine is a laptop version of Playstation 2 - capable to play DVD's, run commercial games, with some customized version of Linux, that would allow me to work and communicate with the 'Net. And of course it has to be portable, as I want to carry it everywhere I go (like I do with my iBook). What's really annoying is that this kind of machine is technically possible even today - but probably no one is going to manufacture and market it. I can have PS2 - but without portability. I can have Linux - but without the ease of use and with limited gaming and multimedia abilities. I can have Windows - but without security and stability. So what's really left for me, if not an iBook running OS X?
Apple really is in danger of going out of business soon, simply because of the severe economic down turn, and the fact that people just aren't buying computers as much anymore.
Because they buy more iPods?;-)
Seriously, Apple seems to be aware of the fact that the personal computer market is somehow saturated, and they keep looking for new markets. And they fare pretty well so far. Even if they'll end up as a portable music player manufacturer, they will still make profit just from that.
Apple's cash reserves are also getting pretty low, if I remember correctly.
Warning - your memory circuits might not pass the power on self-test.
To large extent, I think it is. I think it results partially from your obsession on competition. For Average Joe, a smart kid in the class is nothing but a menace. In Poland, where I live, a smart kid is actually an advantage for Average Joe - smart kid is likely to allow him to copy his homework, likely to help him cheat through the tests etc. We tend to help each other in "beating the system", whatever the system means at the moment (from school to road traffic). In Poland it is generally considered rude to talk about yourself the way Americans like to talk - "I am Dexter, the genius-boy, I am the best in my class etc.". You should rather say "Well, I had lot of luck with that test, but let's talk about the weather now". Probably that's why you have better economy and better technology. But maybe - just maybe - we have better childhood?
PS. This is my first slashdot post - please don't push me into locker (or compatible)!
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I agree. A much better example is that the USSR was pretty comfy for Communist Party officials,
A popular mistake, but still a mistake. In fact, the Communist Party officials lived in constant terror. Stalin was holding their closest relatives in gulags as hostages, and they themselves never knew the day of their fall. Communism was a living hell for everyone involved. Party officials in the first place.
http://www.wsws.org/exhibits/1937/lecture1.htm
I know you're just joking, but you probably shouldn't knock to hard on iMovie. For a free video editor (how free is it when you pay $3000 for the machine? SHUT UP U!)
Before I'll shut up: you get iMovie as a bundled software even with the cheapest firewire-enabled Macs; the G3 iMac (some stores still have them in stock), eMac or iBook. So $1000 or even less would be enough.
Now I know why software availability is so poor on Mac or Linux, compared to Wintel. Wintel users curse their machines and their software waaaaaaay more often than those Linux or Mac weirdos.
Does anyone else think that the simplicity of the OS on Apple Lisa looks extremely attractive?
I never worked on Lisa, but like all the Mac users who started their Apple experience on the 68k machines, I miss some of the simplicity of the old Mac system. The whole desktop metaphor was developed with "one machine, one user", "no subdirectories of subdirectories", "no multitasking" etc. principles in mind. Just adding a harddrive distorts this metaphor and causes some confusion ("on my computer", what does that mean? depending on situation, it can mean "on my computer's harddrive", "on my user's desktop" or even "within the network reach from my computer"). It was nice to call directories "folders", but when folders within folders started to have their own folders, the metaphor was useless.
Apple always understood this, and there was always a "Simple Finder" option, for people who actually WANTED to have their choices limited as in 1985, on a 2000 machine. If they want to use just a word processor, a web browser and a mail application, more choices would just confuse them. "Simple Finder" is actually available even in MacOS X 10.2. I still think SOMEBODY should write a complete MacOS 7 conversion theme for MacOS X.
I've been sitting here at my freelance gig in front of a Mac (a 8600/300 w/64 Megs of RAM) [...] I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while working on various Macs
But did you actually try any model built after, say, 1998? So you discovered, that multitasking in OS 8 was hopeless. And you are right. But how exactly should this be relevant to MacOS X and Mac machines built in this century?
Like most 60s kids I was raised to believe that the Soviet Union and particularly E. Germany were evil because the state monitored the phone calls of and spied on anyone who dared to say anything out of line with the government view.
Sorry pal, but you didn't get it. They didn't spy just those who dared. Mostly because hardly anyone dared. They spied EVERYONE for sake of spying. When the Stasi files were open, it turned out that some opposition group in East Germany consisted actually of 100% Stasi informers, spying each other. Nobody noticed that at the HQ, because the HQ was unable to process all this enormous amount of information. This insane paranoia of "everybody spying on everyone" is brilliantly described by Stanislaw Lem in "Memoirs Found In A Bathtub". He placed this novel in America, because otherwise communist censorship wouldn't let it publish. Now it seems it was actually a prophecy. I'm afraid America evolves in that direction with a speed of a falling star.
Even the most complacent, oblivious, and trusting of Americans in this day and age, should be resigned to the fact that a conspiracy of good intentions can often lead to abuse of government power.
;) propose emergency measures to strenghten chancelor Palpatine? They ALWAYS had good intentions in mind. "The situation is exceptional", "the Republic is in danger", "the enemy is at the gates" etc.
Exactly. Why the Reistag gave the supreme authority to Hitler? Why the worker's and soldier's councils (the soviets) gave the ultimate power to Lenin? Why did Roman senate appoint Caesar as a dictator? Why did senator Jar-Jar Binks
Funny thing about Jar-Jar Binks: in Episode 1, he was just annoying. In Episode 2, he turned out to be the best metaphor of crisis in American politics so far presented in popular culture. This lady, she sounds like Jar-Jar's twin sister, doesn't she? Misa thinka tanka privacsa sucka sucka.
Not directly related, but as I was watching the Floyd's PanAm flight dock with the spinning station, I suspected that Clarke and Kubrick never foresaw this; a world of microtechnology, for the consumer. It was all grand projects back then, a single computer the size of a building, not a building full of single computers.
Just imagine, going back to 1968 by time machine and telling Kubrick, Clarke or some egghead from Stanford or MIT, how the techology will evolve in 2001. Tell these guys the Apollo XVIII will be actually the last spaceship to leave the vicinity of Earth. Tell them that the global network developed by ARPA will be a major hit, used mostly for distrubution of p0rn, warez and mindless discussions like these on Slashdot. Tell them everybody will own a supercomputer way beyond PDP's and IBM's, but everybody will use it mostly as a typewriter and a gaming console. Tell them the main scientific discoveries by the end of century will be a pill for erection and a pill for good mood. I just can't imagine their reply.
Thanks, I'll check it out.
...Larry Ellison made a bold prediction...
Again? Last time he predicted anything, it was the diskless "network computer", that will decimate traditional pc's. That was supposed to happen around 1997. Now that was a bold prediction. Probably as valuable as this one.
On an iBook, with 10.2.4, I don't have any battery issues. I can't get more than 3.5 hours by shutting off Airport, lowering the sound and screen brighteness, etc., while keeping my processor to full speed, but I imagine that if I lowered by processor speed I'd get pretty close to 5 hours.
As far as I know, this option is NOT available in MacOS X running on G3 portables. It is available on the Powerbook G4, but not on the iBook. At least not on mine. I even tried to clone OS from Powerbook G4, but on the iBook I have just blank space in the Preference Pane (in the same spot where PB G4 has this option). The only chance to reduce CPU speed is under OS 9.
Now - if I am wrong, I will be more than happy to admit it. Maybe there is some third-party hackie for Pref Panes, allowing to reduce CPU speed for G3 Macs under 10.2?
For the record: I am getting about three hours of battery life under maximum power consumption (Airport ON, DVD playback, maximum sound and brightness), about four hours with reasonable settings on OS X, and five and half on OS 9 with no sound, dimmed screen and reduced CPU speed. The machine in question is a 12" 800 MHz iBook.
"40 percent of developers"? How should I understand this figure? Do you count as one each person who just happens to develop ANYTHING, even some obscure freeware of no importance? "40 percent of developers" sounds like a shampoo commercial to me ("your hair will be 50 percent more healthy").
If these guys were not such hypocrites, they would never be caught. The Taliban, etc want to take things back to the glory days of the pre-1000 A.D. Muslim empire, except when it is inconvenient (such as using technology like cell phones). If they were more pure in their ideology and kept with the sticks and clubs and swords, they'd be much harder to catch, wouldn't they?
On the other hand, we ale no less hypocritical. If we would stick strictly to our principles of human rights, democracy, presumed innocence, open society etc., they would never be caught neither. So they use credit card and mobile phones, right? Big deal. We use torture during interrogation. I guess this makes us even.
If someone bothered to name a Roman god after it, it's a planet. Pluto, Mars, Jupiter--all friendly planets.
Then Ceres is a planet. Ceres is a Roman god. Well, actually a goddess (of agriculture, to be precise). But if you want to introduce some sexist discrimination of female godpersons, you will have to deal with Venus. An asteroid quite big, definitely spherical and able to demonstrate a well developped atmosphere. And THEN you will have to deal with the feminists.
In fact, I consider Ceres and Venus my favorite godpersons from the whole Pantheon. I don't care much about the values symbolized by Jupiter, Mars or even Mercury. But Venus is, well, Venus. And Ceres is the mother of barley. That's why Spanish for beer is cerveza. It's a simple question, whom do you prefer? Goddess of beer or god of death?
With the discovery over the past few decades of the Oort Cloud and Kupier Belt, it seems obvious that there are tens, if not hundreds/thousands of Pluto-sized objects out there. Obviously, we're not going to name all 10,000 of these rocks "planets." But then again, Pluto has a special place in history as the last "great" planet discovery on the level of Uranus and Neptune
Across the pond it is not considered to be on this level. Pluto is important to America, because it's the only solar planet discovered by an American astronomer. But in fact, it's not that important to anyone outside the USA. I guess this debate is pointless - if International Astronomical Union would ever dare to call Pluto a mere asteroid, George W. Bush would immediately call an airstrike on Institut d'Astrophysique in Paris, France (where those pesky European astronomers conspire against America). And no, he would need no stinkin' United Nations to approve this.
Cool that he's using a Mac. If Saddam's forces defect over to our side, will that make them switchers? :)
The muezzin, he sounded like weep, weep, weep. I wanted a drink and I couldn't have one. Islam is a dry religion. It was kind of bummer. Now I respect the American Way Of Life. And I have better drinks. My name is Osama and I am a logistics consultant.
But then concidering wine(x) is crap, most probably not.
I'm not a native speaker, so I am always happy to learn new idioms. Does "concidering" mean "drink some cider together"? Please concider this with me!
Is it just me or does everyone else think that the older systems, like the atari and nintendo put out way higher quality games (as far as gameplay goes)than the modern systems seem to provide?
I disagree. I am a veteran of the 8-bit era ("Commodore r0000lz!"), but if I would have to name the best computer games of all time, I don't think I would mention any pre-1995 title. The best game ever is in my opinion "Deus Ex" - in terms of gameplay and storyline it's unbeatable by anything available on 8-bit machines. It's the first computer game I ever played, that I have found equal to a good science-fiction novel or movie. And the storylines of "Tomb Raider IV: The Last Revelation", "Max Payne" or "Return To Castle Wolfenstein" - they aren't bad neither. I would never trade these games for the text-based adventures of my youth. I don't think anything is wrong with game development, if they make them as good as they are.
On the other hand, anybody knows if the Level 9 adventures are somehow available now?
Gnome and KDE are incorporating wonderful and exciting features... that are copies of stuff Microsoft was doing 4 years ago.
...that are copies of Stuff Apple and NeXT were doing 8 years ago :-)
Are there any other languages with this "to google" neologism? It fits to Polish like a hand to a glove. goglac - "to google", wyguglalem - "I have googled", wyguglaj to jeszcze raz, Sam - "google this once again, Sam".
How to say "I have googled" in German: Ich habe gegoogled? And in French would it be j'ai google? In Japanese, could it be something like googaro?
Is there any chance this could work with other bluetooth-equipped mobiles?
Mac is definately the closest thing that a consumer can get to easy to use. But when I talk to my elderly aunt she just wants something where she points at something and it works. She does not need the configuration options we techies want. When are the PC companies going to realise that there is a huge market out there of guys like this weiner who want a PC black box. Just a simpe to use, flip it on and go sort of machine. I would not even say this type of thing would be a computer.
I understand your aunt very well. This is exactly what I want in a computer. I am a Mac user, because - as you said - Mac is as close to this as money can buy, but I still think it could be even better. My dream machine is a laptop version of Playstation 2 - capable to play DVD's, run commercial games, with some customized version of Linux, that would allow me to work and communicate with the 'Net. And of course it has to be portable, as I want to carry it everywhere I go (like I do with my iBook). What's really annoying is that this kind of machine is technically possible even today - but probably no one is going to manufacture and market it. I can have PS2 - but without portability. I can have Linux - but without the ease of use and with limited gaming and multimedia abilities. I can have Windows - but without security and stability. So what's really left for me, if not an iBook running OS X?
Apple really is in danger of going out of business soon, simply because of the severe economic down turn, and the fact that people just aren't buying computers as much anymore.
;-)
Because they buy more iPods?
Seriously, Apple seems to be aware of the fact that the personal computer market is somehow saturated, and they keep looking for new markets. And they fare pretty well so far. Even if they'll end up as a portable music player manufacturer, they will still make profit just from that.
Apple's cash reserves are also getting pretty low, if I remember correctly.
Warning - your memory circuits might not pass the power on self-test.
To large extent, I think it is. I think it results partially from your obsession on competition. For Average Joe, a smart kid in the class is nothing but a menace. In Poland, where I live, a smart kid is actually an advantage for Average Joe - smart kid is likely to allow him to copy his homework, likely to help him cheat through the tests etc. We tend to help each other in "beating the system", whatever the system means at the moment (from school to road traffic). In Poland it is generally considered rude to talk about yourself the way Americans like to talk - "I am Dexter, the genius-boy, I am the best in my class etc.". You should rather say "Well, I had lot of luck with that test, but let's talk about the weather now". Probably that's why you have better economy and better technology. But maybe - just maybe - we have better childhood?
PS. This is my first slashdot post - please don't push me into locker (or compatible)!