Well, Steve did say that the stuff he previewed wasn't all that's in Leopard, and that they're playing their cards close to their chest. Who knows, maybe we'll see some really innovative stuff.
I still prefer the Apple development model over the Microsoft development model. Steady releases with new features and enhancements and time to work the bugs out over the course of a few years sounds better than on gigantic release. Who knows, maybe Vista would have had WinFS if they had imitated Apple.
I think of it as a way to keep the rabble out. If MySpace was MySpa.ce it would keep a lot of the thirteen-year-old girls (who will be responsible for the demise of western society) out.
There are tons of words that end in 'um'. Why not sell domains there so people can get 'cesi.um' or 'im-a-b.um'? It would generate tons of revenue (just like.cx,.us, and.tv) and would free up some domain name space.
Not really, that is just your opinion. I've got no problem with you having a differing opinion. What I do have a problem with is you being a prick about it and not being willing to accept a differing viewpoint at face value.
The problem is: When do you simply accept a differing viewpoint and when do you call someone out on something you know to be wrong?
Outside of some large urban centers, smaller carriers are really hit-or-miss. I had T-Mobile for a long time. When I lived in Scranton, PA I had no trouble using it. Full coverage even out in the hills at school.
But when I moved to Harrisburg, I had horrible service. I couldn't even use it at my parents house within line of sight of a cell tower less then a mile away. That's when I switched to Cingular. My wife and I have been extremely pleased with the coverage and haven't had any troubles with dropped calls.
But, then again, I'm just one of those folks who uses their phone to make phone calls. Need a ringtone? Make a MIDI file and upload it with Bluetooth.
First off, the iPhone can play plain old MP3s. If you wanna rip your music to them, go right ahead. They do still sell CDs, don't they?
Second, the term "crippled" is an exaggeration, especially when compared to other DRM schemes. Yes, you can play music "crippled" by DRM so that you can only play it on five different computers. Or you can play music "crippled" by DRM on an unlimited number of iPhones or iPods. Or you can burn it to an unlimited number of CDs, so long as you only want five copies of the same CD. Which you can then re-rip and make copies of.
To say Apple's DRM is crippling is simply Linux fanboy speak for "I don't want to pay for music."
In a previous life I worked for a small web development firm. We had a design department and most of the sites used Flash, even for navigation.
Many, many times I asked "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY?" And got the following two answers:
The client asked for it or
It's flashier, takes longer, and makes the client enjoy giving us more money
This would have been so bad, but the clients insisted that our web apps match their screwed up business models. As in, "relate these two tables based on the product number, which we can edit, instead of the uneditable, auto_incrementing, id."
In the land of commercial web development, "profitable" and "client request" trump "correct design methodology."
How much do you pay for your cable subscription? Where I live, cable TV costs $180 a year. At $2 an episode, I'd rack up way more than that, and I only watch one hour of TV a day. $2/ep seems ridiculously high to me, way more than I'd be willing to pay.
Basic cable TV costs me the same amount. However, that's only supposed to be 13 channels (plus HD stuff). The installer screwed up and I, thankfully, got Sci Fi and Cartoon Network because of that. I'd have to pay $600 a year just to get those couple channels for the couple shows on them that I watch ([adult swim] and Battlestar Galactica, and HGTV for the missus). Thank $DEITY for the incompetence of Comcast's installers. And, like I said in my previous post, the only reason I get cable TV is because Comcast raises the price for broadband $15/month if you don't also subscribe to cable.
Now, compare this to getting my content from iTunes. Between my wife and I, we watch nine shows regularly (Dr. Who, BSG, Desperate Housewives, Torchwood, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, and Veronica Mars). If it was $30 for a season, I would gladly drop my cable to get them individually and commercial free. The time I'd save watching commercials would easily pay for the episodes themselves. I charge $40/hour for contract work or around $13 for the twenty or so minutes per hour I spend watching commercials. $2 an episode would save me money!
You're off by a couple orders of magnitude. Firefly was reported to cost $2 million per episode.
I'm aware of how much Firefly cost to make. However, that was an hour long sci fi show with lots of special effects. I'm sure there are shows out there that cost $20,000 per episode. And, like I said, if they were good enough to get 10,000 subscribers, they could easily make a profit off of
But let's use your example. There are well over a million browncoats around the world who, like me, would gladly pay $2 an episode for their favorite show. The ONLY thing that's keeping it from being started up again (other than Joss's and the cast's previous commitments) are the restrictions put in place by old distribution agreements that the networks have put into place.
I already do the 'IPTV' thing with a couple BBC programs. And the only reason I'm not paying for them is because they're not available on iTunes in the US, and my wife is completely addicted to Torchwood and Dr. Who. My Powerbook and iPod dock both support S-Video out, so hooking them up to my TV is trivial. An AppleTV (and a faster Mac for converting from DiVX to MPEG) would make it even easier.
The only problem I've run into, and this is recently, is that BitTorrent consumes a lot of upstream bandwidth so people I call with Vonage sometimes get choppy audio on their end. I worked around this by doing some QoS filtering in my router and writing a couple shell scripts to turn Torrents on and off on my Mac Mini home server. A better broadband connection, with >1Mbps upstream, would allow me to use BitTorrent all the time.
Really, the only reason I even have cable is because it costs just as much to get cable broadband with cable TV as it does without. If I could get fiber or DSL at similar speeds with no server restrictions (as in, port 22, 5600 and an http port open) I would probably drop cable altogether and get all my media and phone service over the internet.
I think monthly fees are ludicrous, and refuse to pay them if there's an alternative. I'd rather use the iTunes model: Pay $2 for an episode or get a season pass for a discount of, say, $30 for a 26 episode season. That way I can check out new shows for cheap and get the shows I like for less. And, even better, without commercials. And my money could go directly to the group producing the show, not through a network of middlemen all taking their cut. If a show's cheap enough to produce, as few as 10,000 people, scattered across the globe, could keep episodes being aired.
That's the great thing: The folks who I'd be going with will be like me. Sure, some religious freaks might go, but they'll be on the other side of the planet.
I'll just have to make sure I land on the western hemisphere, cause it's the best one.
You know, I was going to write a long post debunking your opinion. But you know it's unpopular, so why ruin your day and waste my time debunking you?
I'd suggest, however, you reads "The Case for Mars" by Robert Zubrin. He lays out a, well, case for going to Mars and explains why it won't be nearly as expensive as not going.
I'll take a one-way mission, too. Hell, imagine never having to wear bug spray anymore. No more poison ivy. No more dimwits trying to push their religion on you by force if necessary. And you'd be spending your life building a new world. That would be a wonderful place to die.
At my current (well, my last day is tomorrow) job, we had a testing suite. His name was Bob. He launched IE and clicked things and entered random data and tried to break our web apps. When I suggested that we automate our testing, someone asked "How would we automate testing?"
If it's not good enough for me to want to buy outright or see in the theater I'm not going to add to their argument to infringe on my rights by downloading it illegally.
Now if they'll only stop the ridiculous notion of "this film/TV show/album isn't available here because of this contract," I'll be able to get rid of my torrent client entirely. There's no way I'm waiting more than a year for a butchered version of Dr. Who or Torchwood.
Except you don't get to type with your left pinky finger cause it's holding down the caps lock. And it can't do things like "move this file to here." And it's $25 instead of free.
Not only that, my kids would have learned the valuable skills of lockpicking, BIOS password hacking, utilization of LiveCDs, circumvention of filters and software rules, as well as all the associated technologies. And they'd have a great perspective of how to implement a BETTER system, meaning they've got a leg up.
For me it's not so much about them not seeing porn as it is giving them an educational experience.
I never got bullied. For a long time, I thought this was because I was just lucky. I also didn't notice that all my friends seemed to be geeks who were a lot shorter and less athletic than me.
About a year ago, I mentioned this to my wife and she said "Nobody beat you up because you were bigger than them and they were afraid of you. And all your friends were scrawny geeks because if they were your friend they wouldn't get beaten up by other people."
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Well, Steve did say that the stuff he previewed wasn't all that's in Leopard, and that they're playing their cards close to their chest. Who knows, maybe we'll see some really innovative stuff.
I still prefer the Apple development model over the Microsoft development model. Steady releases with new features and enhancements and time to work the bugs out over the course of a few years sounds better than on gigantic release. Who knows, maybe Vista would have had WinFS if they had imitated Apple.
I think of it as a way to keep the rabble out. If MySpace was MySpa.ce it would keep a lot of the thirteen-year-old girls (who will be responsible for the demise of western society) out.
There are tons of words that end in 'um'. Why not sell domains there so people can get 'cesi.um' or 'im-a-b.um'? It would generate tons of revenue (just like .cx, .us, and .tv) and would free up some domain name space.
For those who are wondering, there are only 8 words that end in 'su'
... for the terminally dumb.
They're out there. They're just mostly shareware. Anyone who's ever played SketchFighter 4000 knows there are fun games for the Mac.
Then again, you can always buy a system designed for gaming that uses your TV.
The problem is: When do you simply accept a differing viewpoint and when do you call someone out on something you know to be wrong?
Windows: Eye candy, eye candy, and you're gonna have to upgrade.
Linux: Secure stable, and I swear it's got software you can run! I mean, people give it away for free.
Mac OS: I use my machine for things and I really like it. And it's pretty
Outside of some large urban centers, smaller carriers are really hit-or-miss. I had T-Mobile for a long time. When I lived in Scranton, PA I had no trouble using it. Full coverage even out in the hills at school.
But when I moved to Harrisburg, I had horrible service. I couldn't even use it at my parents house within line of sight of a cell tower less then a mile away. That's when I switched to Cingular. My wife and I have been extremely pleased with the coverage and haven't had any troubles with dropped calls.
But, then again, I'm just one of those folks who uses their phone to make phone calls. Need a ringtone? Make a MIDI file and upload it with Bluetooth.
First off, the iPhone can play plain old MP3s. If you wanna rip your music to them, go right ahead. They do still sell CDs, don't they?
Second, the term "crippled" is an exaggeration, especially when compared to other DRM schemes. Yes, you can play music "crippled" by DRM so that you can only play it on five different computers. Or you can play music "crippled" by DRM on an unlimited number of iPhones or iPods. Or you can burn it to an unlimited number of CDs, so long as you only want five copies of the same CD. Which you can then re-rip and make copies of.
To say Apple's DRM is crippling is simply Linux fanboy speak for "I don't want to pay for music."
I write two separate stylesheets and use a browser agent sniffer to switch between the two.
Maybe I'm not typical.
In a previous life I worked for a small web development firm. We had a design department and most of the sites used Flash, even for navigation.
Many, many times I asked "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHY?" And got the following two answers:
This would have been so bad, but the clients insisted that our web apps match their screwed up business models. As in, "relate these two tables based on the product number, which we can edit, instead of the uneditable, auto_incrementing, id."
In the land of commercial web development, "profitable" and "client request" trump "correct design methodology."
Basic cable TV costs me the same amount. However, that's only supposed to be 13 channels (plus HD stuff). The installer screwed up and I, thankfully, got Sci Fi and Cartoon Network because of that. I'd have to pay $600 a year just to get those couple channels for the couple shows on them that I watch ([adult swim] and Battlestar Galactica, and HGTV for the missus). Thank $DEITY for the incompetence of Comcast's installers. And, like I said in my previous post, the only reason I get cable TV is because Comcast raises the price for broadband $15/month if you don't also subscribe to cable.
Now, compare this to getting my content from iTunes. Between my wife and I, we watch nine shows regularly (Dr. Who, BSG, Desperate Housewives, Torchwood, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, and Veronica Mars). If it was $30 for a season, I would gladly drop my cable to get them individually and commercial free. The time I'd save watching commercials would easily pay for the episodes themselves. I charge $40/hour for contract work or around $13 for the twenty or so minutes per hour I spend watching commercials. $2 an episode would save me money!
I'm aware of how much Firefly cost to make. However, that was an hour long sci fi show with lots of special effects. I'm sure there are shows out there that cost $20,000 per episode. And, like I said, if they were good enough to get 10,000 subscribers, they could easily make a profit off of
But let's use your example. There are well over a million browncoats around the world who, like me, would gladly pay $2 an episode for their favorite show. The ONLY thing that's keeping it from being started up again (other than Joss's and the cast's previous commitments) are the restrictions put in place by old distribution agreements that the networks have put into place.
I already do the 'IPTV' thing with a couple BBC programs. And the only reason I'm not paying for them is because they're not available on iTunes in the US, and my wife is completely addicted to Torchwood and Dr. Who. My Powerbook and iPod dock both support S-Video out, so hooking them up to my TV is trivial. An AppleTV (and a faster Mac for converting from DiVX to MPEG) would make it even easier.
The only problem I've run into, and this is recently, is that BitTorrent consumes a lot of upstream bandwidth so people I call with Vonage sometimes get choppy audio on their end. I worked around this by doing some QoS filtering in my router and writing a couple shell scripts to turn Torrents on and off on my Mac Mini home server. A better broadband connection, with >1Mbps upstream, would allow me to use BitTorrent all the time.
Really, the only reason I even have cable is because it costs just as much to get cable broadband with cable TV as it does without. If I could get fiber or DSL at similar speeds with no server restrictions (as in, port 22, 5600 and an http port open) I would probably drop cable altogether and get all my media and phone service over the internet.
I think monthly fees are ludicrous, and refuse to pay them if there's an alternative. I'd rather use the iTunes model: Pay $2 for an episode or get a season pass for a discount of, say, $30 for a 26 episode season. That way I can check out new shows for cheap and get the shows I like for less. And, even better, without commercials. And my money could go directly to the group producing the show, not through a network of middlemen all taking their cut. If a show's cheap enough to produce, as few as 10,000 people, scattered across the globe, could keep episodes being aired.
That's the great thing: The folks who I'd be going with will be like me. Sure, some religious freaks might go, but they'll be on the other side of the planet.
I'll just have to make sure I land on the western hemisphere, cause it's the best one.
Yeah, because people walked around naked and hungry before we learned to tame the wild supermarket and shopping mall.
You know, I was going to write a long post debunking your opinion. But you know it's unpopular, so why ruin your day and waste my time debunking you?
I'd suggest, however, you reads "The Case for Mars" by Robert Zubrin. He lays out a, well, case for going to Mars and explains why it won't be nearly as expensive as not going.
I'll take a one-way mission, too. Hell, imagine never having to wear bug spray anymore. No more poison ivy. No more dimwits trying to push their religion on you by force if necessary. And you'd be spending your life building a new world. That would be a wonderful place to die.
I'll think whatever they want for however long they want so long as they give me enough money.
At my current (well, my last day is tomorrow) job, we had a testing suite. His name was Bob. He launched IE and clicked things and entered random data and tried to break our web apps. When I suggested that we automate our testing, someone asked "How would we automate testing?"
That's kinda when I decided I should leave.
If it's not good enough for me to want to buy outright or see in the theater I'm not going to add to their argument to infringe on my rights by downloading it illegally.
Now if they'll only stop the ridiculous notion of "this film/TV show/album isn't available here because of this contract," I'll be able to get rid of my torrent client entirely. There's no way I'm waiting more than a year for a butchered version of Dr. Who or Torchwood.
You've obviously never dealt with clients directly...
Except you don't get to type with your left pinky finger cause it's holding down the caps lock. And it can't do things like "move this file to here." And it's $25 instead of free.
Not only that, my kids would have learned the valuable skills of lockpicking, BIOS password hacking, utilization of LiveCDs, circumvention of filters and software rules, as well as all the associated technologies. And they'd have a great perspective of how to implement a BETTER system, meaning they've got a leg up.
For me it's not so much about them not seeing porn as it is giving them an educational experience.
I never got bullied. For a long time, I thought this was because I was just lucky. I also didn't notice that all my friends seemed to be geeks who were a lot shorter and less athletic than me.
About a year ago, I mentioned this to my wife and she said "Nobody beat you up because you were bigger than them and they were afraid of you. And all your friends were scrawny geeks because if they were your friend they wouldn't get beaten up by other people."