I read an article recently (Canadian paper. Don't remember which one. I'm not Canadian.) that stated the average large cup of Starbucks contains 400mg of cafeine -- the recommended daily limit for humans. Hardly a weak drink, even if you cover it with whipped cream.
Starbucks deserves credit for bringing non-coffee drinkers into the fold. I never drank coffee before Starbucks. I still can't stand the taste of straight coffee. But dump enough steamed milk and whipped cream and sugar and flavorings in there, and I kind of like it.
Not everyone is an adrenaline junkie. Some of us like to sit back and enjoy life.
What gets me upset is the trailer park mantality that consumes vast quantities of garbage because it is cheap. I would rather buy fewer high quality items that last a long time.
If the antialiasing isn't perfect, why don't you try to fix it?
This is the standard excuse for F/OSS software sucking. "If you don't like it, do better." How about because not all of us are computer geeks or programmers. The world is also made up of writers and artists and businessmen and firefighters and other real people. These are the people that Linux was supposed to reach as it strives to be "ready for the desktop." It's a benchmark that so much OSS doesn't meet, and so many OSS zealots can't understand. Grandma wants to type a letter on her Wal-Mart PC, she doesn't want to write a word processor. That's why she's going with Windows or Mac or whatever actually works.
The F/OSS community complains about not being accepted widely, and then thumbs their nose at the rest of the world for not being geeks like them.
One group is currently trying to fighting Wal-mart -- the toy companies. Wal-mart is putting traditional toy stores, and even chains like FAO Schwartz and Toys-R-Us out of business. The toy companies cannot legally charge Wal-mart more than other stores, so instead they're limiting the quantity of certain popular toys tha are shipped to Wal-mart, and shipping some of them later so the real toy stores have a chance to get some customers. It's about all they can legally do.
Glad to see that OO finally figured out what is wrong with their office suite. It's not the fact that it can't open all MS Office documents. It's not the fact that it doesn't have an OS X-native version that works. It's not the fact that it sucks up so many resources on some WinXP boxes that people go back to the comparitively-perky MS equivalent. It's the mascot. Yeah, that will make everything better and people will "flock" to the product.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: "Not ready for prime time." I really wish it were so I could be 100% Microsoft free.
Aside from the things you mention, and the graphics card, what else WOULD you upgrade in a Powerbook? It has everything - Firewire 400/800, USB, PCMCIA, gigabit ethernet, etc... a whole butt-load of ports.
Sounds like Microsoft's iLoo. At first they said it was serious. Then they said it was a joke. The later they admitted, yes, it really was a real idea and pulled it when everyone freaked out.
I have to agree. One of the reasons the OO isn't being taken seriously by the masses as a replacement for Microsoft Office is because they spend too much time dickering with things that don't matter to the masses.
Look and feel matter. Apple built a business on it. Don't force me into some inferior windowing system when I paid good money for OS X, the best GUI around.
I loved OO when I had my Wintel box. Now I have a PowerBook, and I'm running Office. Not because I want to, but because OO on the Mac isn't ready for prime time yet.
There are also icons in the application for SD2, NVF, Movie, and... wait for it... WMA!
So, if we're to expect Apple to build out the rest of the application to fit the included icons, then that would mean we could some down download movies through iTunes into our (still just rumored) VideoPods. And it would also mean Windows Media playback.
I always went with cypherpunk:cypherpunk. If that doesn't work, try cypherpunk:cypherpunk1. On sites that require an e-mail address as the login (Belo TV stations, for example) cypher@punk.net:cypherpunk.
Then score another one for OS X, and possibly Linux, too.
I used Windows from version 3 to XP Home, and finally made to the Mac last year. I've never had to reinstall the operating system. My wife has had her Mac for a few years and only installs the new operating systems once. She never has to re-install.
My experience with Winders was not so favorable. The best way to speed up a bogged down machine was to re-install. Sometimes I was re-installing every couple of months because of some driver quirk or some Windows setting that would get flipped with no way to go back.
Let's hope for the blind people that Linux is as reliable as OS X, and that they stay away from MS. Since the blind have a heightened sense of smell, that should come naturally.
I had a legally blind friend who had a braille notebook. This was back in the DOS days, before windows. It didn't have a screen -- just the braille keyboard, and a floppy drive, and a speaker. I guess it looked more like a long black brick than a notebook.
The thing that always amused me about it was that it was from Australia, and the speech synthesizer spoke with an Australian accent. I would have thought that computers would make accent-less speech, but I was wrong.
Linux offers an excellent mainstream desktop, as long as your requirements arent slightly different. If they are, have fun trying to find something to satisfy your requirements.
Sounds very much like a well-known OS out of Redmond.
Except, of course, for the fact that you don't have to _install_ OS X. It comes on the computer. All you have to do is start it up and type in your name and a few other minor details that are easily handled by the screen reader. Same story when you upgrade the OS.
When debating which system is easier to install, the one that doesn't have to be installed wins.
Once again, Linux is years behind what's easy to do in OS X.
This Cory guy is supposed to be some kind of Uber geek? Sorry to say it amongst the/. crowd, but my WIFE has him beat. She works in the fasion industry and travels for work a lot, so her stuff has to be small, reliable, and cool-looking.
>His Phone: He bought a LOCKED phone? Twice? do any geeks do that anymore? My wife has an unlocked SonyEricsson Z600 -- virtually impossible to find in the states. Bluetooth, WAP, and a big color screen that all fold down into a dainty clamshell. She gets her e-mail through its GPRS connection as a last resort when she's not near her other devices. It's worked from Houston to London to Paris to BiH, to the wilds of the Czech Republic with no problems.
>His Computer: She's got him beat again. She has the 17" AlBook. Bigger, faster, better.
>His PDA: She's got him beat with her Sony UX50. 480x320 screen. I rip her DVDs iinto 128meg memory sticks so she can watch while traveling. It has Bluetooth for syncing to her AlBook and phone, or using the phone's GPRS connection to get and send e-mails. It also has built-in WiFi, so she can surf at hotspots on her PDA, and get her e-mail faster.
>His iPod: Tie. She has the same one.
>His Bag: I like it a lot, and I'm going to get one for my PowerBook. But hers was designed by Gwen Steffani and is beautiful inside and out.
>His Watch: Please. Hers tells the time in changing Chinese LCDs. It's fascinatng to watch this watch.
>His Camera: Can't say because I don't know it, but she carries around a 2MP Canon Elph. Good resolution. Excellent color. Tiny and chic.
>Retractable Ethernet Cable? Is he serious? She doesn't stay in places that don't offer high-speed internet. And if it's wired, they supply the cable. Please. We're not in college anymore. We don't have to live like savages.
You are incorrect. Texas has been surpassed by Virginia. But I guess facts don't matter much to the sort of person who is more concerned about a worthless piece of human trash than the five-year-old boy he kept in a pit filled with urine and feces for six months while stabbing him in the eyes with lit cigarettes for fun. Fortunately, the kid died after a year or so. Too bad we can't say the same for his torturer.
Wanna convince someone to support the death penalty? Just have them sit through five or six death penalty trials and listen to all the gory details, rather than the rhymes of the people outside with magic-marker signs who get to go home to their families at night.
Actually, there is wireless power. But it doesn't work very well. Using just a few electronic parts from the local Radio Shack (depending on how well stocked your local Radio Shack is) you can build an AM radio that is completely powered by the signal of the radio station. No power cord. No batteries. Not really enough power from the air to run a speaker, but enough for headphones. And it's free. As long as you don't break it, and the AM station is on the air you can listen for free forever. Now, if this could only work on FM then we'd have something special.
I wouldn't want to touch, feel, or smell most of the people on Slashdot, let alone the rest of the internet.
What happens when we get interactive smell-o-net and I accidentally end up on one of those goatse.cx or tubgirl.com sites? My cubicle will reek for a month!
Too bad they didn't tell iTunes will "reorganize" your mp3-files. And they also forgot to mention that uninstalling iTunes will break your WMP mp3-codec and also fiddle with your cdrom-drivers so that for example WinDVD is unable to recognize inserted discs and Nero refuses to copy CDs.
I've had no problems doing those things with WinDVD and Nero after installing iTunes. Keep looking for someone else for blame.
Something similar happened to me. I have one of those cell phones you can use all over the world. As soon as I crossed the border from Austria to the Czech Republic I got a spam SMS from the Czech mobile provider listing places I might want to call for hotels, restaurant, and tourist information.
I don't know if proximity SMS spamming is common in Europe, but to me, an American, it was quite novel.
Slashdot Mirror
I read an article recently (Canadian paper. Don't remember which one. I'm not Canadian.) that stated the average large cup of Starbucks contains 400mg of cafeine -- the recommended daily limit for humans. Hardly a weak drink, even if you cover it with whipped cream.
Starbucks deserves credit for bringing non-coffee drinkers into the fold. I never drank coffee before Starbucks. I still can't stand the taste of straight coffee. But dump enough steamed milk and whipped cream and sugar and flavorings in there, and I kind of like it.
Not everyone is an adrenaline junkie. Some of us like to sit back and enjoy life.
Don't forget that the Student/Teacher also comes with three CD Keys.
Mine came with five. Guess I'm extra special.
What gets me upset is the trailer park mantality that consumes vast quantities of garbage because it is cheap. I would rather buy fewer high quality items that last a long time.
::ducks:: It's a joke, people!
Me, too! That's why I bought a Mac!
If the antialiasing isn't perfect, why don't you try to fix it?
This is the standard excuse for F/OSS software sucking. "If you don't like it, do better." How about because not all of us are computer geeks or programmers. The world is also made up of writers and artists and businessmen and firefighters and other real people. These are the people that Linux was supposed to reach as it strives to be "ready for the desktop." It's a benchmark that so much OSS doesn't meet, and so many OSS zealots can't understand. Grandma wants to type a letter on her Wal-Mart PC, she doesn't want to write a word processor. That's why she's going with Windows or Mac or whatever actually works.
The F/OSS community complains about not being accepted widely, and then thumbs their nose at the rest of the world for not being geeks like them.
One group is currently trying to fighting Wal-mart -- the toy companies.
Wal-mart is putting traditional toy stores, and even chains like FAO Schwartz and Toys-R-Us out of business. The toy companies cannot legally charge Wal-mart more than other stores, so instead they're limiting the quantity of certain popular toys tha are shipped to Wal-mart, and shipping some of them later so the real toy stores have a chance to get some customers. It's about all they can legally do.
Glad to see that OO finally figured out what is wrong with their office suite. It's not the fact that it can't open all MS Office documents. It's not the fact that it doesn't have an OS X-native version that works. It's not the fact that it sucks up so many resources on some WinXP boxes that people go back to the comparitively-perky MS equivalent. It's the mascot. Yeah, that will make everything better and people will "flock" to the product.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: "Not ready for prime time." I really wish it were so I could be 100% Microsoft free.
Aside from the things you mention, and the graphics card, what else WOULD you upgrade in a Powerbook? It has everything - Firewire 400/800, USB, PCMCIA, gigabit ethernet, etc... a whole butt-load of ports.
Sounds like you're just bitching to bitch.
Had to read that three times before I realized it's not a haiku.
Could people please stop posting to Slashdot with VIC-20's?
Wow. You are both vulgar, and incorrect in the same sentence. I suggest checking you facts before shooting off your mouth.
Sounds like Microsoft's iLoo. At first they said it was serious. Then they said it was a joke. The later they admitted, yes, it really was a real idea and pulled it when everyone freaked out.
I have to agree. One of the reasons the OO isn't being taken seriously by the masses as a replacement for Microsoft Office is because they spend too much time dickering with things that don't matter to the masses. Look and feel matter. Apple built a business on it. Don't force me into some inferior windowing system when I paid good money for OS X, the best GUI around. I loved OO when I had my Wintel box. Now I have a PowerBook, and I'm running Office. Not because I want to, but because OO on the Mac isn't ready for prime time yet.
There are also icons in the application for SD2, NVF, Movie, and... wait for it... WMA!
So, if we're to expect Apple to build out the rest of the application to fit the included icons, then that would mean we could some down download movies through iTunes into our (still just rumored) VideoPods. And it would also mean Windows Media playback.
It boggles the mind.
I always went with cypherpunk:cypherpunk.
If that doesn't work, try cypherpunk:cypherpunk1.
On sites that require an e-mail address as the login (Belo TV stations, for example) cypher@punk.net:cypherpunk.
Then score another one for OS X, and possibly Linux, too.
I used Windows from version 3 to XP Home, and finally made to the Mac last year. I've never had to reinstall the operating system. My wife has had her Mac for a few years and only installs the new operating systems once. She never has to re-install.
My experience with Winders was not so favorable. The best way to speed up a bogged down machine was to re-install. Sometimes I was re-installing every couple of months because of some driver quirk or some Windows setting that would get flipped with no way to go back.
Let's hope for the blind people that Linux is as reliable as OS X, and that they stay away from MS. Since the blind have a heightened sense of smell, that should come naturally.
I had a legally blind friend who had a braille notebook. This was back in the DOS days, before windows. It didn't have a screen -- just the braille keyboard, and a floppy drive, and a speaker. I guess it looked more like a long black brick than a notebook.
The thing that always amused me about it was that it was from Australia, and the speech synthesizer spoke with an Australian accent. I would have thought that computers would make accent-less speech, but I was wrong.
Linux offers an excellent mainstream desktop, as long as your requirements arent slightly different. If they are, have fun trying to find something to satisfy your requirements.
Sounds very much like a well-known OS out of Redmond.
Except, of course, for the fact that you don't have to _install_ OS X. It comes on the computer. All you have to do is start it up and type in your name and a few other minor details that are easily handled by the screen reader. Same story when you upgrade the OS.
When debating which system is easier to install, the one that doesn't have to be installed wins.
Once again, Linux is years behind what's easy to do in OS X.
This Cory guy is supposed to be some kind of Uber geek? Sorry to say it amongst the /. crowd, but my WIFE has him beat. She works in the fasion industry and travels for work a lot, so her stuff has to be small, reliable, and cool-looking.
>His Phone: He bought a LOCKED phone? Twice? do any geeks do that anymore? My wife has an unlocked SonyEricsson Z600 -- virtually impossible to find in the states. Bluetooth, WAP, and a big color screen that all fold down into a dainty clamshell. She gets her e-mail through its GPRS connection as a last resort when she's not near her other devices. It's worked from Houston to London to Paris to BiH, to the wilds of the Czech Republic with no problems.
>His Computer: She's got him beat again. She has the 17" AlBook. Bigger, faster, better.
>His PDA: She's got him beat with her Sony UX50. 480x320 screen. I rip her DVDs iinto 128meg memory sticks so she can watch while traveling. It has Bluetooth for syncing to her AlBook and phone, or using the phone's GPRS connection to get and send e-mails. It also has built-in WiFi, so she can surf at hotspots on her PDA, and get her e-mail faster.
>His iPod: Tie. She has the same one.
>His Bag: I like it a lot, and I'm going to get one for my PowerBook. But hers was designed by Gwen Steffani and is beautiful inside and out.
>His Watch: Please. Hers tells the time in changing Chinese LCDs. It's fascinatng to watch this watch.
>His Camera: Can't say because I don't know it, but she carries around a 2MP Canon Elph. Good resolution. Excellent color. Tiny and chic.
>Retractable Ethernet Cable? Is he serious? She doesn't stay in places that don't offer high-speed internet. And if it's wired, they supply the cable. Please. We're not in college anymore. We don't have to live like savages.
You are incorrect. Texas has been surpassed by Virginia. But I guess facts don't matter much to the sort of person who is more concerned about a worthless piece of human trash than the five-year-old boy he kept in a pit filled with urine and feces for six months while stabbing him in the eyes with lit cigarettes for fun. Fortunately, the kid died after a year or so. Too bad we can't say the same for his torturer.
Wanna convince someone to support the death penalty? Just have them sit through five or six death penalty trials and listen to all the gory details, rather than the rhymes of the people outside with magic-marker signs who get to go home to their families at night.
Actually, there is wireless power. But it doesn't work very well. Using just a few electronic parts from the local Radio Shack (depending on how well stocked your local Radio Shack is) you can build an AM radio that is completely powered by the signal of the radio station. No power cord. No batteries. Not really enough power from the air to run a speaker, but enough for headphones. And it's free. As long as you don't break it, and the AM station is on the air you can listen for free forever. Now, if this could only work on FM then we'd have something special.
Depends on where you live.
On some Fox stations, the SAP audio on The Simpsons is in Spanish.
Consider the fact that radio stations pay millions each year for the right to broadcast music. She paid nothing.
I wouldn't want to touch, feel, or smell most of the people on Slashdot, let alone the rest of the internet.
What happens when we get interactive smell-o-net and I accidentally end up on one of those goatse.cx or tubgirl.com sites? My cubicle will reek for a month!
Too bad they didn't tell iTunes will "reorganize" your mp3-files. And they also forgot to mention that uninstalling iTunes will break your WMP mp3-codec and also fiddle with your cdrom-drivers so that for example WinDVD is unable to recognize inserted discs and Nero refuses to copy CDs.
I've had no problems doing those things with WinDVD and Nero after installing iTunes. Keep looking for someone else for blame.
Something similar happened to me. I have one of those cell phones you can use all over the world. As soon as I crossed the border from Austria to the Czech Republic I got a spam SMS from the Czech mobile provider listing places I might want to call for hotels, restaurant, and tourist information.
I don't know if proximity SMS spamming is common in Europe, but to me, an American, it was quite novel.