You can see where Universal would like to go with this... Microsoft sets the admittedly ridiculous precedent. Universal goes after Apple. If Apple caves then.... well surely all those MP3-playing cell phones are full of pirated music and should be subject to the tax, as should all those nasty PC's and Macs running iTunes, not to mention all those millions of flash drives--they are surely only being used to copy and distribute copyrighted music, and of course all those iPod accessories are complicit in the pirating ways of the iPod owners and should be subject to the tax. yada yada yada.
Look at it again... I'm sure that's going to be a common refrain in this new era of untrusting software and companies. Ah well."
That's not someone who's being a "bigger" person. That's resignation. That's yet another person who'll refuse to look at alternatives and will stick with Microsoft. Why? I don't know, I really don't... and I find it scary.
That same phenomenon has been going on in the virus/security world for years. The average Windows user assumes it's normal to be plagued by a never-ending parade of malware and that there are no alternatives. It becomes an article of faith. Witness the vitriol heaped on Mac and Linux users who suggest that the security situation better on their platforms.
Some people think that's a problem--I think it's an advantage. My college is 9 years into its open source 'experiment,' predicated on the premise that a technical environment would attract and retain high quality people, even at a small school with modest salaries. After 9 years, I've got my strongest IT team ever, and the environment is largely based on OSS technologies. Coincidence? I doubt it. BTW, is Windows ready for primetime?
Despite elements of truth, I consider such articles to be PC FUD. The subtle message is that the security situation on Mac OS X is NOT really different than Windows and if Mac users were truly responsible they'd be running AV and anti-spyware software and in general be just as worried about security as their PC-using brethren. SO DON'T SWITCH.
Friends, the security situation IS different. Mac users who run software update regularly and don't deliberately open up their systems are probably the safest computer users on the internet, all without having to care very much about security.
In terms of security, Windows is Bagdhad and OS X is Pleasantville. So, while being smug may be rude, it's currently not unjustified. The average Mac user doesn't and shouldn't have to worry as much about security as the average PC user. Anyone who tells you otherwise has an agenda.
Re:It's not dead, it's just pining for the Fjords.
on
Rio Brand Closes Doors
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· Score: 1
IMO the reason the iPod is now the market leader has very little to do with technical superiority (it's good but far from perfect IMO), and a great deal to do with very clever marketing - and large horde of Apple zealots...
5% doth not a large horde make. Apple dominates the market because they got everything important right.
They got the size right (1.8" HD's not 3.5")
They got the bus right (firewire not USB1)
They got the interface right (you don't have to be 13 to figure it out)
They got the name right (it's not the ZX-23)
They got the jukebox right (iTunes is good, free, dual platform)
They got the format right (MP3 first and foremost)
They got the store right (ITMS is comprehensive, easy to use, and you get 2 free songs a week)
They got the DRM right (unobtrusive enough to not bug average consumer)
They got the expandability right (what other player has the breadth of 3d party add-ons? These companies are also trying to sell you an iPod)
They even got the price right. (The iPod shuffle succeeded initially by undercutting the other Flash players on price. Even the HD players are not the most expensive on the market.)
They got the marketing right (basically every celeb on the planet gushing about how much they love their iPods)
Everyone underestimates both the importance and the difficulty of getting all of the above right. Until they do, expect more casualties.
For the Caravel Project (an OSS enterprise CMS) we chose RTF 2 HTML and HTMLTidy to automatically convert RTF files to HTML during the upload process. Despite the limitations, we found that exporting to RTF and doing our own conversion produced far cleaner code than anything MS did. If your Word documents are text-only, you can get away without additional editing unless the document uses lots of over-ridden stylesheets--the converter respects the stylesheets, while Word respects the overrides, which can yield some unpredictable results.
We also recently switched editors to TinyMCE which has very reasonable 'paste from Word' and 'paste as plain text' features.
I'm also interested in checking out the DocFrac project (http://docfrac.sourceforge.net/status.html) which looks like it might be a step up from RTF 2 HTML. While I think we're offering reasonable solutions, I would still consider Word conversion to be one of the weaker features.
Interesting that the list so far omits both the web browser and the search engine. Other things that I think deserve a place on the list:
The Inkjet printer
The laser printer
Digital Audio
Digital Video
mapping of the human genome
Electronic Directories (ie. LDAP)
etc.
Just reminds you that there have been an incredible number of foundational innovations that work synergistically to create these larger breakthroughs. A list of the top 25 is almost impossible without omitting some really significant ones. There are even some like the fax machine that have already come and gone.
I'm pretty tolerant, but I couldn't even finish this one it was so bad. No plot, bad acting, lame singing and dancing, totally pointless waste of celluloid
Slashdot Mirror
You can see where Universal would like to go with this...
Microsoft sets the admittedly ridiculous precedent.
Universal goes after Apple. If Apple caves then....
well surely all those MP3-playing cell phones are full of pirated music and should be subject to the tax, as should all those nasty PC's and Macs running iTunes, not to mention all those millions of flash drives--they are surely only being used to copy and distribute copyrighted music, and of course all those iPod accessories are complicit in the pirating ways of the iPod owners and should be subject to the tax. yada yada yada.
Look at it again ... I'm sure that's going to be a common refrain in this new era of untrusting software and companies. Ah well."
... and I find it scary.
That's not someone who's being a "bigger" person. That's resignation. That's yet another person who'll refuse to look at alternatives and will stick with Microsoft. Why? I don't know, I really don't
That same phenomenon has been going on in the virus/security world for years. The average Windows user assumes it's normal to be plagued by a never-ending parade of malware and that there are no alternatives. It becomes an article of faith. Witness the vitriol heaped on Mac and Linux users who suggest that the security situation better on their platforms.
Some people think that's a problem--I think it's an advantage. My college is 9 years into its open source 'experiment,' predicated on the premise that a technical environment would attract and retain high quality people, even at a small school with modest salaries. After 9 years, I've got my strongest IT team ever, and the environment is largely based on OSS technologies. Coincidence? I doubt it. BTW, is Windows ready for primetime?
IT Director
Despite elements of truth, I consider such articles to be PC FUD. The subtle message is that the security situation on Mac OS X is NOT really different than Windows and if Mac users were truly responsible they'd be running AV and anti-spyware software and in general be just as worried about security as their PC-using brethren. SO DON'T SWITCH.
Friends, the security situation IS different. Mac users who run software update regularly and don't deliberately open up their systems are probably the safest computer users on the internet, all without having to care very much about security.
In terms of security, Windows is Bagdhad and OS X is Pleasantville. So, while being smug may be rude, it's currently not unjustified. The average Mac user doesn't and shouldn't have to worry as much about security as the average PC user. Anyone who tells you otherwise has an agenda.
They got the size right (1.8" HD's not 3.5")
They got the bus right (firewire not USB1)
They got the interface right (you don't have to be 13 to figure it out)
They got the name right (it's not the ZX-23)
They got the jukebox right (iTunes is good, free, dual platform)
They got the format right (MP3 first and foremost)
They got the store right (ITMS is comprehensive, easy to use, and you get 2 free songs a week)
They got the DRM right (unobtrusive enough to not bug average consumer)
They got the expandability right (what other player has the breadth of 3d party add-ons? These companies are also trying to sell you an iPod)
They even got the price right. (The iPod shuffle succeeded initially by undercutting the other Flash players on price. Even the HD players are not the most expensive on the market.)
They got the marketing right (basically every celeb on the planet gushing about how much they love their iPods)
Everyone underestimates both the importance and the difficulty of getting all of the above right. Until they do, expect more casualties.
For the Caravel Project (an OSS enterprise CMS) we chose RTF 2 HTML and HTMLTidy to automatically convert RTF files to HTML during the upload process. Despite the limitations, we found that exporting to RTF and doing our own conversion produced far cleaner code than anything MS did. If your Word documents are text-only, you can get away without additional editing unless the document uses lots of over-ridden stylesheets--the converter respects the stylesheets, while Word respects the overrides, which can yield some unpredictable results.
We also recently switched editors to TinyMCE which has very reasonable 'paste from Word' and 'paste as plain text' features.
I'm also interested in checking out the DocFrac project (http://docfrac.sourceforge.net/status.html) which looks like it might be a step up from RTF 2 HTML. While I think we're offering reasonable solutions, I would still consider Word conversion to be one of the weaker features.
Michael Sherer
http://caravelcms.org/
Interesting that the list so far omits both the web browser and the search engine. Other things that I think deserve a place on the list: The Inkjet printer The laser printer Digital Audio Digital Video mapping of the human genome Electronic Directories (ie. LDAP) etc. Just reminds you that there have been an incredible number of foundational innovations that work synergistically to create these larger breakthroughs. A list of the top 25 is almost impossible without omitting some really significant ones. There are even some like the fax machine that have already come and gone.
I'm pretty tolerant, but I couldn't even finish this one it was so bad. No plot, bad acting, lame singing and dancing, totally pointless waste of celluloid