Yes, definitely. It's one of the most stupid moves Sony could make. Even if there was no loss in quality who wants to have to convert their whole collection?
Ya, they finally got smart. Even though they're all smaller companies than Microsoft, their mindshare and market sway is probably as great together at least in industry circles. Hopefully this just accelerates the whole browser development cycle by letting developers know there's a consortium and there will be standards.
The Mazda 6, any of the Volvos, and the Saturn L300 wagon are all excellent cars too. They might be a little smaller than a mini-van or a 60s style wagon but they're much better to drive, get better mileage, are comparatively affordable and a lot nicer looking. I've always tried to own station wagons. Even compared to mini-vans the cargo space just seems more appropriate to what I carry. Most of us don't carry more than 4 passengers around anyway.
While the Iraq war definitely deserves a film that presents balanced arguments, the simple reality is that the culture in America doesn't exist to make a film like this possible. Moore is one of the few people that understands traditional documentaries don't work in America anymore. They have to be sensational, biased, and overall, entertaining. As such, he has made the perfect vehicle for his point of view which is not only being eaten up by the public but has managed to create debate on both sides. For those of us who really want to get to the meat of things and know all the facts before making a decision, there's not much we can do but complain to the minority of others who respect the same. Unfortunately, for the 99% remaining, this is the new "documentary". With the feedback between the media, politics, money and the movies becoming a tighter link every day, we're heading towards a grand new era of unchecked propaganda.
If you have to have cubes, or even if you don't, buy everyone a set of Beyerdynamic DT 531 headphones. These are not only some of the best headphones you can buy (around $150) but they are completely open so that you can hear what's going on around you while listening to music. As such, you don't have the desire to listen overly loud and you don't get that "in your head" feeling that most headphones give you. For working it's perfect.
Music is a big way to personalize your work environment and I guarantee you that everyone who works for you will be shocked at how great the experience of using these 'phones is. It's at least as good as the first time you work for someone who gives you Aeron chairs.
I agree that doing something like this in a point release is a bit much, but the potential is there in the future and with some marketing I think it could be sooner than later. I'd also take issue with OS X having backwards compatibility breakage problems. I can't think of any commercial apps that were broken, or didn't just require a very small updater to work across X releases. Thinking back to pre OS 9 days and I remember every app being broken with a new OS release. X in comparison is a dream.
OS X did this brilliantly with the Classic compatibility layer. 99% of the time the layer was app-compatible and it ran at least as fast as running OS 9 alone. Many people bitched at first, but when they started using OS X, it was pretty clear that there was a huge advance in stability that made people actively dump their Classic applications and invest in the X architecture. We're still in the transition phase but with Apple proclaiming 9 dead last year, it has been successful for the OS transition.
I find the value of web logs is more the relative growth of traffic, or from section to section. Since one can assume relatively the same degree of error each month (i.e. 2 users on the same computer, 1 user on 2 computers, etc.) you can gain a lot of information just by comparing logs over time. The same goes for section by section. If your web site has 5 distinct sections you can compare within them and then over time. Advertisers like to know absolute numbers, but if you can tell them that they'll get 2x if they advertise on a particular portion of your site and it's likely that section gets a certain type of visitor that is very valuable. In the least it gives you some solid direction about what your users want so you can build a better site, and eventually get more ad revenue from it.
I've read the unending Slashdot commentary berating Windows and have always assumed that most people that used Windows just didn't care enough to let the bad things bother them. But this is insane- not even being able to install your OS before your computer is infected with a virus?!! I can't believe anybody would put up with this. It would take me 10 seconds to ditch the thing never to be tried again. I'm a Mac user so maybe my ease of use expectations are high but how stupid do you have to be to choose a product that does that to you?
Why don't you forget all the technology and just do a Java based chat room that looks like a BBS. You can host it on a server and people access it via a wireless internet connection. Just give out login and passwords to only local people. Other than not dialing in with a modem you'd never be able to tell the difference. The only thing that makes your network unique is that it is geographically constrained. If you can't manage to screen users based on geography find another way, such as having them pick up a login written on a piece of paper at a central place.
Granted, the whole idea seems oddly backwards. If you want a bigger local community of tech users why not just start a club, or any number of other ways to meet a certain type of people. It doesn't really seem to be about the BBS.
First off, in my using piles as an example of the melding of spatial interface and meta organization, i didn't want to suggest that piles are a particularly great innovation, just that they were an example of a way to do it. I think if Apple put some finesse into it like they did with their excellent Exposé technology, it could be a very welcome addition to an already great Mac OS X. In any case, here's a flash demo of the concept:
http://homepage.mac.com/rdas7/piles.html
Spatial and meta-categories can mix if you expand the vocabulary of the spatial environment. The obvious example that comes to mind is "piles." Apple has been rumored to be working on this for a long time now. If the computer can organise your documents, say based on date created, format, job, or content, then it can put it into piles, much like you would do for a stack of papers of a particular category on your desk. Automating these kinds of groupings is difficult but I don't think impossible. Perhaps like speech-to-text it will be possible to train the OS based your work patterns. I know that I am pretty consistent in how I manage everything. I have a few types of projects I work on which always have the same patterns of creation.
DVD-A and SACD are better than CD. Regardless of different masters between formats, the new formats have a noticeably pleasing sound which is less fatiguing than CD. That doesn't make all recordings on the new formats better and it doesn't mean that a CD can't sound excellent, but the new formats have the potential to sound better. How much is the question? From what I've heard, I'd say that I'd choose SACD every time, then Vinyl, then DVD-A, then CD. SACD is perhaps 10% better than CD to give the spread. I don't care for the surround sound aspects of the formats either, that's just on the resolution. In respect to the kind of stereo you need to have to tell the difference, I think after you cross $1500 the difference is pretty clear. Below that there isn't much point.
I don't know why this keeps being debated. Spatial interfaces work for when you have few files and shallow directories, just like in the real world on your desk. Browser interfaces work for when you have lots of files and deep directory trees. The only way to get a spatial browser to "feel" like it's powerful when you have a lot of files is to have the computer manage the files in "meta" categories. That way, you're managing groups of things that are smartly organized, not a myriad of individual files. Perhaps when we get some really smart database file systems there will be some automation to bring spatiality back but until then it's browser all the way.
It's not only insulting not to be quoted (I wrote the original) but lots of people are going to think that this loser is speaking for me. Slashdot needs some kind of community mod system where there's a "Ban" option. If enough people ban a user the account gets shut down.
You're probably going to hate college/university if you've hated school up to this point. Most people/programs at the collegiate level are pretty dumb and focus strongly on learning by rote, passing tests and writing cookie-cutter essays. If you really are bright you won't be challenged by 99% of the courses offered- best just to read some books. If you're intent on going (and you pretty much have to unless you're also a good entrepreneur) my advice is to first take courses that you wouldn't rationally want to take. Take drama, science of sound, taxidermy or whatever you can that has a twist to it. You're likely to find similarly bright people in these courses. Some of them will be plain geniuses in a variety of weird ways. I took visual art which is really one of the only explorative disciplines. I was lucky to have some exceptionally gifted teachers and our program was heavily philosophically based. In short, it was a bunch of crazy creative geniuses who were all learning about "meta" things. It was probably the only thing that saved me from complete despair after high school. The people I met were challenging and intense and the environment was rich for arbitrary boundary definitions. The courses at times were mind-blowing, but in the best way, there was always something coming next that was better, and always different.
As others have pointed out, this kind of nurturing and challenging environment goes a long way to "getting over yourself" and onto the path of doing something worthwhile with your brightness. In the end, if you believe you're bright you have to test your character by doing something great, failing repeatedly, and finally finding your true path. Unless you stick yourself in the midst of people at least as bright as you (and why not go for the cream of the crop?) you will forever hold yourself in some false and paralysing image.
Re:Definately a bad choice on the part of the devs
on
A New Look For Firefox
·
· Score: 1
Sorry for the self-reply. I meant Linux, not Unix.
Re:Definately a bad choice on the part of the devs
on
A New Look For Firefox
·
· Score: 1
Uniformity across platforms isn't primarily a help to users, it's a help to the media and from there, companies. If it looks and works the same on all computers, it has a much better chance of getting noticed. Different UIs on the same app, like different flavours of Unix do nothing but confuse the people who dictate what gets adopted in the real world. One UI, one name, one function - that's what gets software into the systems of the masses.
All that said, from what I can tell, Qute, or a subtler version of it would have been a better choice than the new theme. From the screenshot in the parent post, the new theme is too 1995. I like the contrast and iconic simplicity of it, but the colours and shapes are too rudimentary.
Microsoft is really wasting time with these trivial tertiary patents. They could lock up the market pretty fast by patenting the On/Off switch so that only Microsoft Computers(TM) could use one. They shouldn't let their innovation slip away!
I wanted to bring attention to your last paragraph there. Nuclear debate aside, if the world spent even a fraction of the money it spends on defense (US especially) on energy research, we'd probably have a number of very good renewable energy sources. I mean, $200 BILLION wouldn't give us some good solar cells?
People need to eat and to live a productive life but they don't need to have babies. Overpopulation is probably the biggest reason why we are so keen on devouring resources. If we could control population, or even reduce it slowly over the next 100 years, there would be less need for resources. The debate on whether or even how to do it is wide open, but one nice fact is that countries with high standards of living and better education systems have less population growth. Some industrialized countries, like Italy, even have a negative growth already.
the financial incentive for creating recorded music are quite weak. Few of the artists who create one of the roughly 30,000 albums released each year in the US will make a living from their sales because only a few albums are ever profitable
The only reason indies can make records is because they can piggy back on the infrastructure of the majors. It's even harder to sell something if you have to make it expensive, have no one to distribute it and no one to sell it for you.
Music today is like any economy of scale. The economy of scale itself allows a disproportionate amount of potential in relation to the physical size of the market. There's a magic line you cross where the infrastructure (stores, distributors, tours, advertising) allows a whole raft of opportunities for 3rd parties to slot into the system and make money from it. It's the same of the telephone network, or the internet. The fact is that the major labels over the years invested into the network, they largely own the network and now the network is shrinking because the money is less and some of the infrastructure is being dismantled. You can debate the reasons for this forever but the end result is the same- the network is being eroded.
Rapidly the industry is approaching the stage where they are no longer an economy of scale. Stores are going out of business, so are distributors, middle men etc. This impacts many, many 3rd party people who aren't evil and could only make a livelihood because of the sheer size of the system.
Digital downloads as an alternative to the current system lock out all intermediaries and in the short term, the switchover is going to be like when the asteroid hit and the dinosaurs were vaporized (to quote a recent slashdot story). The simple fact is that you're not going to have anything new coming out because everything that could support it is wiped out. The pockets of independent music producers will be there as everyone argues, but the distribution will suffer immensely if you don't have distributors or independent stores to sell the music. File sharing will not help the spread of this type of music alone because while it's convenient to get stuff you know about, It's just not a good way to advertise stuff you've never heard about. The soon to be extinct intermediaries, (i.e. the distributors, stores, music press, concert promoters, etc.) used to provide these personalized "recommendation" services and it's going to be a huge lag before their equivalents can be recreated online.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, definitely. It's one of the most stupid moves Sony could make. Even if there was no loss in quality who wants to have to convert their whole collection?
Ya, they finally got smart. Even though they're all smaller companies than Microsoft, their mindshare and market sway is probably as great together at least in industry circles. Hopefully this just accelerates the whole browser development cycle by letting developers know there's a consortium and there will be standards.
The Mazda 6, any of the Volvos, and the Saturn L300 wagon are all excellent cars too. They might be a little smaller than a mini-van or a 60s style wagon but they're much better to drive, get better mileage, are comparatively affordable and a lot nicer looking. I've always tried to own station wagons. Even compared to mini-vans the cargo space just seems more appropriate to what I carry. Most of us don't carry more than 4 passengers around anyway.
While the Iraq war definitely deserves a film that presents balanced arguments, the simple reality is that the culture in America doesn't exist to make a film like this possible. Moore is one of the few people that understands traditional documentaries don't work in America anymore. They have to be sensational, biased, and overall, entertaining. As such, he has made the perfect vehicle for his point of view which is not only being eaten up by the public but has managed to create debate on both sides. For those of us who really want to get to the meat of things and know all the facts before making a decision, there's not much we can do but complain to the minority of others who respect the same. Unfortunately, for the 99% remaining, this is the new "documentary". With the feedback between the media, politics, money and the movies becoming a tighter link every day, we're heading towards a grand new era of unchecked propaganda.
If you have to have cubes, or even if you don't, buy everyone a set of Beyerdynamic DT 531 headphones. These are not only some of the best headphones you can buy (around $150) but they are completely open so that you can hear what's going on around you while listening to music. As such, you don't have the desire to listen overly loud and you don't get that "in your head" feeling that most headphones give you. For working it's perfect.
Music is a big way to personalize your work environment and I guarantee you that everyone who works for you will be shocked at how great the experience of using these 'phones is. It's at least as good as the first time you work for someone who gives you Aeron chairs.
I agree that doing something like this in a point release is a bit much, but the potential is there in the future and with some marketing I think it could be sooner than later. I'd also take issue with OS X having backwards compatibility breakage problems. I can't think of any commercial apps that were broken, or didn't just require a very small updater to work across X releases. Thinking back to pre OS 9 days and I remember every app being broken with a new OS release. X in comparison is a dream.
OS X did this brilliantly with the Classic compatibility layer. 99% of the time the layer was app-compatible and it ran at least as fast as running OS 9 alone. Many people bitched at first, but when they started using OS X, it was pretty clear that there was a huge advance in stability that made people actively dump their Classic applications and invest in the X architecture. We're still in the transition phase but with Apple proclaiming 9 dead last year, it has been successful for the OS transition.
I find the value of web logs is more the relative growth of traffic, or from section to section. Since one can assume relatively the same degree of error each month (i.e. 2 users on the same computer, 1 user on 2 computers, etc.) you can gain a lot of information just by comparing logs over time. The same goes for section by section. If your web site has 5 distinct sections you can compare within them and then over time. Advertisers like to know absolute numbers, but if you can tell them that they'll get 2x if they advertise on a particular portion of your site and it's likely that section gets a certain type of visitor that is very valuable. In the least it gives you some solid direction about what your users want so you can build a better site, and eventually get more ad revenue from it.
I've read the unending Slashdot commentary berating Windows and have always assumed that most people that used Windows just didn't care enough to let the bad things bother them. But this is insane- not even being able to install your OS before your computer is infected with a virus?!! I can't believe anybody would put up with this. It would take me 10 seconds to ditch the thing never to be tried again. I'm a Mac user so maybe my ease of use expectations are high but how stupid do you have to be to choose a product that does that to you?
Why don't you forget all the technology and just do a Java based chat room that looks like a BBS. You can host it on a server and people access it via a wireless internet connection. Just give out login and passwords to only local people. Other than not dialing in with a modem you'd never be able to tell the difference. The only thing that makes your network unique is that it is geographically constrained. If you can't manage to screen users based on geography find another way, such as having them pick up a login written on a piece of paper at a central place.
Granted, the whole idea seems oddly backwards. If you want a bigger local community of tech users why not just start a club, or any number of other ways to meet a certain type of people. It doesn't really seem to be about the BBS.
First off, in my using piles as an example of the melding of spatial interface and meta organization, i didn't want to suggest that piles are a particularly great innovation, just that they were an example of a way to do it. I think if Apple put some finesse into it like they did with their excellent Exposé technology, it could be a very welcome addition to an already great Mac OS X. In any case, here's a flash demo of the concept: http://homepage.mac.com/rdas7/piles.html
Spatial and meta-categories can mix if you expand the vocabulary of the spatial environment. The obvious example that comes to mind is "piles." Apple has been rumored to be working on this for a long time now. If the computer can organise your documents, say based on date created, format, job, or content, then it can put it into piles, much like you would do for a stack of papers of a particular category on your desk. Automating these kinds of groupings is difficult but I don't think impossible. Perhaps like speech-to-text it will be possible to train the OS based your work patterns. I know that I am pretty consistent in how I manage everything. I have a few types of projects I work on which always have the same patterns of creation.
DVD-A and SACD are better than CD. Regardless of different masters between formats, the new formats have a noticeably pleasing sound which is less fatiguing than CD. That doesn't make all recordings on the new formats better and it doesn't mean that a CD can't sound excellent, but the new formats have the potential to sound better. How much is the question? From what I've heard, I'd say that I'd choose SACD every time, then Vinyl, then DVD-A, then CD. SACD is perhaps 10% better than CD to give the spread. I don't care for the surround sound aspects of the formats either, that's just on the resolution. In respect to the kind of stereo you need to have to tell the difference, I think after you cross $1500 the difference is pretty clear. Below that there isn't much point.
I don't know why this keeps being debated. Spatial interfaces work for when you have few files and shallow directories, just like in the real world on your desk. Browser interfaces work for when you have lots of files and deep directory trees. The only way to get a spatial browser to "feel" like it's powerful when you have a lot of files is to have the computer manage the files in "meta" categories. That way, you're managing groups of things that are smartly organized, not a myriad of individual files. Perhaps when we get some really smart database file systems there will be some automation to bring spatiality back but until then it's browser all the way.
It's not only insulting not to be quoted (I wrote the original) but lots of people are going to think that this loser is speaking for me. Slashdot needs some kind of community mod system where there's a "Ban" option. If enough people ban a user the account gets shut down.
I wrote this comment on May 3rd, 2004:
3 7873
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=106150&cid=90
Can a mod please banish this user ?
You're probably going to hate college/university if you've hated school up to this point. Most people/programs at the collegiate level are pretty dumb and focus strongly on learning by rote, passing tests and writing cookie-cutter essays. If you really are bright you won't be challenged by 99% of the courses offered- best just to read some books. If you're intent on going (and you pretty much have to unless you're also a good entrepreneur) my advice is to first take courses that you wouldn't rationally want to take. Take drama, science of sound, taxidermy or whatever you can that has a twist to it. You're likely to find similarly bright people in these courses. Some of them will be plain geniuses in a variety of weird ways. I took visual art which is really one of the only explorative disciplines. I was lucky to have some exceptionally gifted teachers and our program was heavily philosophically based. In short, it was a bunch of crazy creative geniuses who were all learning about "meta" things. It was probably the only thing that saved me from complete despair after high school. The people I met were challenging and intense and the environment was rich for arbitrary boundary definitions. The courses at times were mind-blowing, but in the best way, there was always something coming next that was better, and always different.
As others have pointed out, this kind of nurturing and challenging environment goes a long way to "getting over yourself" and onto the path of doing something worthwhile with your brightness. In the end, if you believe you're bright you have to test your character by doing something great, failing repeatedly, and finally finding your true path. Unless you stick yourself in the midst of people at least as bright as you (and why not go for the cream of the crop?) you will forever hold yourself in some false and paralysing image.
Sorry for the self-reply. I meant Linux, not Unix.
Uniformity across platforms isn't primarily a help to users, it's a help to the media and from there, companies. If it looks and works the same on all computers, it has a much better chance of getting noticed. Different UIs on the same app, like different flavours of Unix do nothing but confuse the people who dictate what gets adopted in the real world. One UI, one name, one function - that's what gets software into the systems of the masses.
All that said, from what I can tell, Qute, or a subtler version of it would have been a better choice than the new theme. From the screenshot in the parent post, the new theme is too 1995. I like the contrast and iconic simplicity of it, but the colours and shapes are too rudimentary.
Microsoft is really wasting time with these trivial tertiary patents. They could lock up the market pretty fast by patenting the On/Off switch so that only Microsoft Computers(TM) could use one. They shouldn't let their innovation slip away!
Welcome to Canada. We have a tax on all blank media including iPods.
I wanted to bring attention to your last paragraph there. Nuclear debate aside, if the world spent even a fraction of the money it spends on defense (US especially) on energy research, we'd probably have a number of very good renewable energy sources. I mean, $200 BILLION wouldn't give us some good solar cells?
People need to eat and to live a productive life but they don't need to have babies. Overpopulation is probably the biggest reason why we are so keen on devouring resources. If we could control population, or even reduce it slowly over the next 100 years, there would be less need for resources. The debate on whether or even how to do it is wide open, but one nice fact is that countries with high standards of living and better education systems have less population growth. Some industrialized countries, like Italy, even have a negative growth already.
This is pretty much proving my point:
the financial incentive for creating recorded music are quite weak. Few of the artists who create one of the roughly 30,000 albums released each year in the US will make a living from their sales because only a few albums are ever profitable
The only reason indies can make records is because they can piggy back on the infrastructure of the majors. It's even harder to sell something if you have to make it expensive, have no one to distribute it and no one to sell it for you.
Music today is like any economy of scale. The economy of scale itself allows a disproportionate amount of potential in relation to the physical size of the market. There's a magic line you cross where the infrastructure (stores, distributors, tours, advertising) allows a whole raft of opportunities for 3rd parties to slot into the system and make money from it. It's the same of the telephone network, or the internet. The fact is that the major labels over the years invested into the network, they largely own the network and now the network is shrinking because the money is less and some of the infrastructure is being dismantled. You can debate the reasons for this forever but the end result is the same- the network is being eroded.
Rapidly the industry is approaching the stage where they are no longer an economy of scale. Stores are going out of business, so are distributors, middle men etc. This impacts many, many 3rd party people who aren't evil and could only make a livelihood because of the sheer size of the system.
Digital downloads as an alternative to the current system lock out all intermediaries and in the short term, the switchover is going to be like when the asteroid hit and the dinosaurs were vaporized (to quote a recent slashdot story). The simple fact is that you're not going to have anything new coming out because everything that could support it is wiped out. The pockets of independent music producers will be there as everyone argues, but the distribution will suffer immensely if you don't have distributors or independent stores to sell the music. File sharing will not help the spread of this type of music alone because while it's convenient to get stuff you know about, It's just not a good way to advertise stuff you've never heard about. The soon to be extinct intermediaries, (i.e. the distributors, stores, music press, concert promoters, etc.) used to provide these personalized "recommendation" services and it's going to be a huge lag before their equivalents can be recreated online.