Places that aren't mentioned in the guide books often:
- The Sir John Soane museum. Like the British Museum, but squashed into a residential property. 150 paintings in one (British size) room - bits of the walls fold out. A 3000 year old sarcophagus. Original plans for the Bank of England.
- The clock gallery at the British Museum. Mechanisms!
- Monmouth coffee in the seven dials (or by Borough Market, which is also worth visiting).
- 7th floor bar at the Tate Modern. Second cheapest place to get a good view of the London panorama.
- Primrose hill. The cheapest place to get a view of the London panorama.
AND incredible features like instant sleep on close/hibernate on low power that require support from both software and hardware.
I guess that would explain why my MacBook Pro (running Ubuntu 8.10) has exactly the same suspend behavior... Linus has been breaking into 1 infinite loop and stealing code from OS X! You would have thought he would have learned after the whole SCO incident.
With 8.10, for the first time, all of these work out of the box on my Macbook Pro with no configuration and no binary drivers. Even 3D is supported on the ATI card out of the box.
Wireless was buggy in the beta, but I filed a bug report and they actually fixed it! So I'm very happy.
Compiz+Screenlets is very pretty indeed, especially now there is an Adium-clone interface for Gaim included.
I thought that the Sharp Zaurus would be one example, as I rember that software support was starting to drop off when I boxed my C700 up for storage... but no. Someone has ported Ubuntu 7.10 to it!
The difference with T-mobile UK is that they _do_ let you pay more to tether your laptop. There is no such option at all with the iPhone, which seems ludicrous.
The T-mobile price is something like 7.50gbp/mo for 1gb (no tethering) and 10/mo for 3gb with tething allowed, which hardly seems unreasonable to me.
They even play nicely with Linux laptops, it works fine with my Eee.
The EU is so good at selling us out they even take paypal.
The right standard for decisions about handing private data over to the US should be; will the President and the members of congress submit to having the same data about them printed in European papers?
What is the real requirement that would make you pick Macs over Linux or Windows?
Excluding creative firms, most companies have a really short list of genuine requirements. Track a few gigabytes worth of numbers (total, across the company), deal with e-mail, exchange a few documents. You don't exactly need expose to do an accounts receivable reconciliation or fill out a goods received note yet _these are the things that most computer users do in most companies_.
Once you take user preference out of the equation what genuine benefits does Apple really offer? Linux offers commodity hardware sourcing plus no software overhead. Windows offers the same hardware advantage and conformity with the rest of the market. After you amortize setting up a standard, well locked down image over 10k+ users are the costs of that really different enough to be significant?
What companies should be doing is deploying Macs where they could really have some benefit. I'm sure that there are some people who need access to things like FCP at work are suffering an old Windows XP box with inadequate tools. But for every 1 of those people there are 20,000 people who right now are tapping out yet another form debt collection letter and could do it just as easily from a $200 box running Linux.
Can you imagine the shocked faces seen around the world if it was announced that StuffHauler Inc, a long time Ford customer, was trying out GM brand vehicles? Me too, people would find it hard to believe!
Right.
In every other market it's normal to run trials to evaluate several options when making critical capital investment choices. It is only an inexplicable level of incompetence that means that most large companies don't do regular small scale tests of alternative solutions, just to keep tabs on them. Even if all you get out of it is some knowledge and possible a price break from a worried Microsoft it is still worth the time and money.
Software investment in a 100k user company will be upwards of $10m yet the contracts are let without even a thought of competitive tender or technical justification. If I let that through for any vendor on my normal projects I would be shit canned so fast my seat would still be warm when my replacement arrived.
I strongly respect anyone's right to do anything they want. However, I don't see the logic behind this move - or equally, behind anyone writing free apps for the iPhone via a jailbreak app.
The outcome is that they are making a platform with a high degree of Apple lock in more attractive to consumers. When version two comes along with more effective control mechanisms users will be tied to Apple's integration services, and the tenuous foundations of a business model standing on some else's shifting sand will be destroyed.
So why do it? It's bad enough choosing to write apps for Windows, but at least there is some logic given the size of the user base. The iPhone user base isn't very big (compared to, say, s60) but it _will_ be if it becomes the best option in town because everyone has helped Apple make it the best tool around by writing software for it. Then a later version can close you out and bang, lay off time is here again.
Re:soem people still don't understand
on
3G iPhone on the Way?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
You're missing the point. iPhone over EDGE is a premature product, because the phone is meant to serve as both mobile phone and internet browser. You won't get that benefit before you reach 3G speeds.
Over here in the UK, where 3G coverage is really very good, a 3G plan can *replace* wired network connections. Speeds of 180kB/s are pretty common, and the bandwidth limits are pretty high too. (Enough for me, and I'm connected for about 14 hours a day.)
This just isn't the case with EDGE, so you end up having to pay for both a mobile plan and DSL/Cable/whatever which makes it much more costly. Being able to tether a handset to your laptop wherever you go, avoid high wifi charges*, and probably get a speed jump over your existing 1mbit DSL for the same price makes 3G really attractive.
I have been on mixed line + per-MB charges since I moved to cellular broadband and my costs have gone _down_ not up. This is compared to fixed line DSL!
In a commercial environment the best way to make sure that you aren't being screwed is that the cost model reflects the services provided. E.g. if you have the services of line+bandwidth then paying something for the line and something for the bandwidth:
* Increases the incentive for the line to always be working and fast. * Decreases the pressure to keep bit torrent queued up 25 hours a day to 'get your money's worth'.
Any sort of unlimited bandwidth plan encourages a sort of game where supplier and customer repeatedly try and screw each other over by abusing the wording of the T&Cs. So, if you manage to arrange a contract where cost and incentive are equally shared it's much harder for everyone to end up unhappy.
After all price = cost + markup. If the markup isn't acceptable then expect something to give - businesses that run at a loss can't survive for long.
During the week machines are left up to push automatic updates (5 minutes of downtime, times 10k employees, is about $80,000 of billable time). At weekends they get shut off either manually or under remote control.
Finally I will only need to be connected to one IM network. _My own_. Up to now you had to pretty much put up with either MSN logging your conversations or AOL logging them.
One of the great things about Google turning on server 2 server for GTalk is that it is now possible to run your own IM server (as you might run your own mail server) and network interconnection just works. If AOL go the same way a critical mass might build up enough that central control of IM becomes almost impossible - as all the geeks can set up their own independent servers that serve to keep them in touch with the masses as well as (securely) in touch with each other.
A couple of interesting games with Linux support I have only found recently:
- Warzone 2100. Not as shiny as Supreme Commander, but much more involved. Great fun. - NWN 1. Thanks to the fact that NWN2 bombed there is still a large online community.
The Gutsy version of Kubuntu broke a _lot_ of things on my powerbook. Up until this release I was really happy with Linux on it, rating it well above OS X for geeks. Right now I'm seriously considering reverting back to Feisty.
So, with that in mind, it's actually nice to see them declare that something won't be working _before_ I waste time trying to upgrade to it. I can then make an informed decision about what to do, instead of using a half assed release that would disappoint me. Not meeting expectations is about the worst thing you can do to your credibility.
I just made the decision that, after 7 year, my next machine *won't* be a Mac. I have been running Linux on Apple hardware since PPC, and have decided that it's no longer worth the trouble.
Of course I won't be going to Dell, but Apple seems to go out of their way to put difficult rubbish in their machines (WiFi!) - and instead of viewing the enemy of their enemy as a friend, they are as much anti Linux as Microsoft are:/
I would make my door lock a random game of killer sudoko, thus ensuring that management never troubled me - but was too embarrassed about looking mentally deficient to complain.
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2002 11:14:42 -0400
Subject: Re: Case ID: ****** other
This is in response to Case ID: ******
Dear ******,
Thank you for the additional information, unfortunately, MATLAB Student
Version is only available for the Windows platform for our International
customers.
The Japanese blur their porn, and so someone has invented a device that removes it and restores the original image. This is possible because it performs a transformation from a limited set every time and so all you need is one clean sample.
If Google does the same you would need to find a photo that is probably of someone you have an image of once (or at worst a few times - hardly a problem when you consider the collaborative effort available) and the set up a un-blurring filter that would work with all their images.
These problems have all been solved - using a cryptographic RNG as a noise source for example - but they require more computing power and so it would be very tempting to save money by taking a short cut.
For me Google Gears is the first sign of (ugh) Web 3.0... or at least, the next level of capability.
It's now perfectly possible* to build a database driven app that is 'installed' over the internet and will run _totally_ off line. You can run a background thread to do data syncing for you.
This is a really neat deployment method for a lot of apps - OS independent! - that don't warrant a full install process. You could build a web store that was available all the time for example, and grabbed current prices when on line and remembered your (selected off line) shopping list when you had a connection available again.
Obviously this would be of no use if we lived in a perfect world where connection was continuous, but out here where 3G doesn't work in tunnels and free public wifi is getting more, rather than less, rare, well designed off line capable web apps are a serious potential move forwards in usability and well worthy of a web x.? increment.
*Actually, it's been possible for a while but someone made a neat package to help you do it.
Slashdot Mirror
It's only one word in German.
I have actually written some software to plan projects this way (working backwards from deadlines), as it's basically how things work in reality.
If anyone's interested I'd be happy to hand out a few beta invites.
Places that aren't mentioned in the guide books often:
- The Sir John Soane museum. Like the British Museum, but squashed into a residential property. 150 paintings in one (British size) room - bits of the walls fold out. A 3000 year old sarcophagus. Original plans for the Bank of England.
- The clock gallery at the British Museum. Mechanisms!
- Monmouth coffee in the seven dials (or by Borough Market, which is also worth visiting).
- 7th floor bar at the Tate Modern. Second cheapest place to get a good view of the London panorama.
- Primrose hill. The cheapest place to get a view of the London panorama.
AND incredible features like instant sleep on close/hibernate on low power that require support from both software and hardware.
I guess that would explain why my MacBook Pro (running Ubuntu 8.10) has exactly the same suspend behavior... Linus has been breaking into 1 infinite loop and stealing code from OS X! You would have thought he would have learned after the whole SCO incident.
With 8.10, for the first time, all of these work out of the box on my Macbook Pro with no configuration and no binary drivers. Even 3D is supported on the ATI card out of the box.
Wireless was buggy in the beta, but I filed a bug report and they actually fixed it! So I'm very happy.
Compiz+Screenlets is very pretty indeed, especially now there is an Adium-clone interface for Gaim included.
I thought that the Sharp Zaurus would be one example, as I rember that software support was starting to drop off when I boxed my C700 up for storage... but no. Someone has ported Ubuntu 7.10 to it!
http://www.omegamoon.com/blog/static.php?page=ZaurusUbuntu
The difference with T-mobile UK is that they _do_ let you pay more to tether your laptop. There is no such option at all with the iPhone, which seems ludicrous.
The T-mobile price is something like 7.50gbp/mo for 1gb (no tethering) and 10/mo for 3gb with tething allowed, which hardly seems unreasonable to me.
They even play nicely with Linux laptops, it works fine with my Eee.
The EU is so good at selling us out they even take paypal.
The right standard for decisions about handing private data over to the US should be; will the President and the members of congress submit to having the same data about them printed in European papers?
What is the real requirement that would make you pick Macs over Linux or Windows?
Excluding creative firms, most companies have a really short list of genuine requirements. Track a few gigabytes worth of numbers (total, across the company), deal with e-mail, exchange a few documents. You don't exactly need expose to do an accounts receivable reconciliation or fill out a goods received note yet _these are the things that most computer users do in most companies_.
Once you take user preference out of the equation what genuine benefits does Apple really offer? Linux offers commodity hardware sourcing plus no software overhead. Windows offers the same hardware advantage and conformity with the rest of the market. After you amortize setting up a standard, well locked down image over 10k+ users are the costs of that really different enough to be significant?
What companies should be doing is deploying Macs where they could really have some benefit. I'm sure that there are some people who need access to things like FCP at work are suffering an old Windows XP box with inadequate tools. But for every 1 of those people there are 20,000 people who right now are tapping out yet another form debt collection letter and could do it just as easily from a $200 box running Linux.
A lot of Microsoft's R&D _is_ marketing - think of things like the Table and all of the media attention that it received.
Can you imagine the shocked faces seen around the world if it was announced that StuffHauler Inc, a long time Ford customer, was trying out GM brand vehicles? Me too, people would find it hard to believe!
Right.
In every other market it's normal to run trials to evaluate several options when making critical capital investment choices. It is only an inexplicable level of incompetence that means that most large companies don't do regular small scale tests of alternative solutions, just to keep tabs on them. Even if all you get out of it is some knowledge and possible a price break from a worried Microsoft it is still worth the time and money.
Software investment in a 100k user company will be upwards of $10m yet the contracts are let without even a thought of competitive tender or technical justification. If I let that through for any vendor on my normal projects I would be shit canned so fast my seat would still be warm when my replacement arrived.
I strongly respect anyone's right to do anything they want. However, I don't see the logic behind this move - or equally, behind anyone writing free apps for the iPhone via a jailbreak app.
The outcome is that they are making a platform with a high degree of Apple lock in more attractive to consumers. When version two comes along with more effective control mechanisms users will be tied to Apple's integration services, and the tenuous foundations of a business model standing on some else's shifting sand will be destroyed.
So why do it? It's bad enough choosing to write apps for Windows, but at least there is some logic given the size of the user base. The iPhone user base isn't very big (compared to, say, s60) but it _will_ be if it becomes the best option in town because everyone has helped Apple make it the best tool around by writing software for it. Then a later version can close you out and bang, lay off time is here again.
You're missing the point. iPhone over EDGE is a premature product, because the phone is meant to serve as both mobile phone and internet browser. You won't get that benefit before you reach 3G speeds.
Over here in the UK, where 3G coverage is really very good, a 3G plan can *replace* wired network connections. Speeds of 180kB/s are pretty common, and the bandwidth limits are pretty high too. (Enough for me, and I'm connected for about 14 hours a day.)
This just isn't the case with EDGE, so you end up having to pay for both a mobile plan and DSL/Cable/whatever which makes it much more costly. Being able to tether a handset to your laptop wherever you go, avoid high wifi charges*, and probably get a speed jump over your existing 1mbit DSL for the same price makes 3G really attractive.
*In the UK even hotels charge for WiFi.
If they manage to get this into Vista Service Pack 2, 2009 really could finally be the year of Linux on the desktop.
I have been on mixed line + per-MB charges since I moved to cellular broadband and my costs have gone _down_ not up. This is compared to fixed line DSL!
In a commercial environment the best way to make sure that you aren't being screwed is that the cost model reflects the services provided. E.g. if you have the services of line+bandwidth then paying something for the line and something for the bandwidth:
* Increases the incentive for the line to always be working and fast.
* Decreases the pressure to keep bit torrent queued up 25 hours a day to 'get your money's worth'.
Any sort of unlimited bandwidth plan encourages a sort of game where supplier and customer repeatedly try and screw each other over by abusing the wording of the T&Cs. So, if you manage to arrange a contract where cost and incentive are equally shared it's much harder for everyone to end up unhappy.
After all price = cost + markup. If the markup isn't acceptable then expect something to give - businesses that run at a loss can't survive for long.
During the week machines are left up to push automatic updates (5 minutes of downtime, times 10k employees, is about $80,000 of billable time). At weekends they get shut off either manually or under remote control.
Finally I will only need to be connected to one IM network. _My own_. Up to now you had to pretty much put up with either MSN logging your conversations or AOL logging them.
One of the great things about Google turning on server 2 server for GTalk is that it is now possible to run your own IM server (as you might run your own mail server) and network interconnection just works. If AOL go the same way a critical mass might build up enough that central control of IM becomes almost impossible - as all the geeks can set up their own independent servers that serve to keep them in touch with the masses as well as (securely) in touch with each other.
You have been able to make a Linux City for quite a while with Lincity, and in 3D with Lincity NG which is surprisingly addictive.
A couple of interesting games with Linux support I have only found recently:
- Warzone 2100. Not as shiny as Supreme Commander, but much more involved. Great fun.
- NWN 1. Thanks to the fact that NWN2 bombed there is still a large online community.
The Gutsy version of Kubuntu broke a _lot_ of things on my powerbook. Up until this release I was really happy with Linux on it, rating it well above OS X for geeks. Right now I'm seriously considering reverting back to Feisty.
So, with that in mind, it's actually nice to see them declare that something won't be working _before_ I waste time trying to upgrade to it. I can then make an informed decision about what to do, instead of using a half assed release that would disappoint me. Not meeting expectations is about the worst thing you can do to your credibility.
On the other hand...
:/
I just made the decision that, after 7 year, my next machine *won't* be a Mac. I have been running Linux on Apple hardware since PPC, and have decided that it's no longer worth the trouble.
Of course I won't be going to Dell, but Apple seems to go out of their way to put difficult rubbish in their machines (WiFi!) - and instead of viewing the enemy of their enemy as a friend, they are as much anti Linux as Microsoft are
I would make my door lock a random game of killer sudoko, thus ensuring that management never troubled me - but was too embarrassed about looking mentally deficient to complain.
The Japanese blur their porn, and so someone has invented a device that removes it and restores the original image. This is possible because it performs a transformation from a limited set every time and so all you need is one clean sample.
If Google does the same you would need to find a photo that is probably of someone you have an image of once (or at worst a few times - hardly a problem when you consider the collaborative effort available) and the set up a un-blurring filter that would work with all their images.
These problems have all been solved - using a cryptographic RNG as a noise source for example - but they require more computing power and so it would be very tempting to save money by taking a short cut.
For me Google Gears is the first sign of (ugh) Web 3.0... or at least, the next level of capability.
It's now perfectly possible* to build a database driven app that is 'installed' over the internet and will run _totally_ off line. You can run a background thread to do data syncing for you.
This is a really neat deployment method for a lot of apps - OS independent! - that don't warrant a full install process. You could build a web store that was available all the time for example, and grabbed current prices when on line and remembered your (selected off line) shopping list when you had a connection available again.
Obviously this would be of no use if we lived in a perfect world where connection was continuous, but out here where 3G doesn't work in tunnels and free public wifi is getting more, rather than less, rare, well designed off line capable web apps are a serious potential move forwards in usability and well worthy of a web x.? increment.
*Actually, it's been possible for a while but someone made a neat package to help you do it.