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User: xenoandroid

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Comments · 334

  1. Re:Thanks for the factual analysis! on Apple Agrees to Hold Off on Subpoenas · · Score: 1

    Man, you said it.

    Damn you Jobs! I was looking forward to that concert too!!!

  2. Re:Popularity on Apple Agrees to Hold Off on Subpoenas · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Actually OS X's UI is the best one I've ever used. The only extra things I have on it are quicksilver (sort of like the equivalent of the windows run command) and Synergy so I can control my music without even looking at iTunes.

    Apple may have proprietary elements but they are just as flexible when it comes to open formats and interacting with other platforms (unlike Microsoft).

    As for customer lock-in, yeah you're locked in more because of the hardware (though you can still install linux on it), but since my mac is a laptop and laptops of any brand are usually not very mod-able it's not an issue for me. If you decide to switch platforms again, many companies (like Adobe I hear) will gladly let you trade in your current installer disc for another of a different platform for a small fee.

    Apple's hardware is actually quite good and really isn't all that expensive. Their lowest end GPUs are at the very least, mid-class and game worthy. You generally don't buy Apple's RAM (even their tech support people have been known to say buy from somewhere else), and you surely can't be bitching about Apple not having 4Ghz CPUs, anybody posting here should know enough about CPU architecture to know that the clock speed is only one of many factors that determine how well a CPU will perform.

    So exactly how is Apple not only as bad as Microsoft but "worse"?

    I don't see Apple refusing to let their OS read and write any other file system besides their own or not allowing other OSes to write to their file systems. I don't see them making efforts to make their version of an office suite incompatible with everything else. At least as a mac user you have Apple, the Open Source community, and the Mac community willing to work on solutions to make user experience better. With Microsoft you really don't see as much of an effort to make computers more enjoyable to use.

    "Locked-in" I may be but I've never reached a level of frustration with my mac that I ended up hitting it (Can't say the same for my machine running windows).

  3. Re:Bad because.... on Microsoft Blocking Wine Users From Downloads Site · · Score: 1
    http://www.google.com/search?q=define:emulator&ie= UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 Emulator - A program that emulates the functions of some device or other program.

    According to the english language WINE is technically an emulator of the Windows APIs despite the acronym. The programs that WINE runs were designed for Windows not Linux therefore making it an OS emulator.

  4. Re:Further on Student RFID Tracking Suspended from School · · Score: 1

    Sounds good to me, prepares kids for the real world where they're basically expected to be robots.

  5. Re:I like the RFID idea on Student RFID Tracking Suspended from School · · Score: 1

    Of course if the students and/or teachers are doing 2 or 3, they might just leave their badges somewhere to avoid that kind of evidence against them.

  6. Re:Espose Workspace Manager? Huh? on Next-Gen X Window Rendering For Linux · · Score: 1

    DesktopManager uses the same code that Apple uses in Keynote, not Expose. I believe the developer of DesktopManager mentioned that somewhere.

    You can use the rotating cube transition in Keynote, fast user switching, and DesktopManager, it's all the same code doing it.

  7. Re:Forget "active windshield display", what I want on The Promise Of Transparent Circuits · · Score: 1

    The lines would impair vision in the front because you're a lot closer to it and so the lines will appear thicker. Also you move a lot faster going forward than in reverse, you should be looking further ahead when driving so you know how to react when you get to that point and of course the further ahead you're looking the smaller things appear. Lines will get in the way.

  8. Re:What is with the Apple fan-boyism? on Earth Simulator, G5 Cluster Drop In 'Top 500' List · · Score: 1

    Those iBooks perform better than any PC laptop of the same price I've ever seen. I've never used an eMac personally but I'm sure there isn't that much of a difference.

    What specs do you think mid range machines have?

  9. Re:Fan boys read only what they want to see! on Earth Simulator, G5 Cluster Drop In 'Top 500' List · · Score: 1

    Sounds to me like a case of penis envy.

    I'm sorry you raise the money to buy the mac you want.

  10. Re:What is with the Apple fan-boyism? on Earth Simulator, G5 Cluster Drop In 'Top 500' List · · Score: 1

    frustrate...

  11. Re:What is with the Apple fan-boyism? on Earth Simulator, G5 Cluster Drop In 'Top 500' List · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple worship because we all knew they were going to die and are overpriced and whatnot, then we see their products being used to make one of the most powerful clusters in the world for very cheep.

    Apple worship because it's a smack in the face to those who still continue to bash Apple for reasons that no longer exist.

    "OS 9 sucks!"
    "We're on OS X now, and it's unix-like"
    "oh...um...Well one button~"
    "And yet I'm still more productive on it than my Windows box"
    "Well um, I want linu-"
    "You can install that too."
    "Well, they're slow and-"
    "I suggest you actually try using one before saying that."
    "They're overpric-"
    "Really? I didn't think $900 was that expensive for a mid-range machine."

    We do the Apple worship thing just to fustrate the anti-mac crowd even more.

  12. Re:need? on Earth Simulator, G5 Cluster Drop In 'Top 500' List · · Score: 1

    The reason it runs so hot is because the system is designed to be as quiet as possible. I'm sure if you made the G5 fans blow at full blast constantly the temperature would not be nearly as hot.

    Some people actually like having quiet but powerful systems.

  13. Re:Unfortunate but.... on Nobuo Uematsu Splitting With Square Enix · · Score: 1

    Definately, the only game music CDs I own are the Xenogears ones.

  14. Re:White Headphones on PSP Pricing, Battery Life Announced · · Score: 1

    According to that picture it appears that the headphones are actually normal, just the wired remote is proprietary and required for headphone connection.

  15. Re:Host a Webpage on Verizon Taking FTTP Installation Orders · · Score: 1

    They do block ports for normal home DSL, at least in my area.

  16. Re:iTunes Music Store still has some problems... on New Apple iPod with Photo Capabilities · · Score: 1

    By the way, although you can't retrieve music without the non-iTunes-builtin way, you can still play your music off your iPod from iTunes and add more to the iPod even if it isn't associated with your library. Simply change the settings so that you update it manually. Anyway, it's really easy to get music off an iPod even without a third party utility. In any OS you just need to use the Text User Interface to know the directory names and go to the right paths. Copy the entire directory to your hard drive and then tell iTunes to add that directory. Your Library is instantly restored.

  17. Re:More info on New Apple iPod with Photo Capabilities · · Score: 0

    Best response to the one button mouse comments ever.

  18. Re:Er, thanks, but no thanks on Amazing Things Your Automobile Can't Do · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Part of the problem is that a lot of average American drivers seem to think that the world revolves around them. Seriously, they're like, "I'll drive at half the speed limit in the left line while yacking on the phone if I want to, oh shit I needed to make a right, who cares if I can just turn at the next turn and make my way to the right street from there, I'll just cut across everyone else!

    It's the inconsiderateness combined with the distraction. If a call is too involving for me to drive at the right speed for I say, "Hold on." Find a parking lot or a good out of the way place to pull off to then pick the phone back up. It makes me and the other drivers on the road more comfortable. If I'm on a time constraint then it's, "Sorry I can't talk now I'm driving." If they won't get off the phone, "I'm driving and I hate having long conversations on the phone while driving, talk to you later." I also have distinctive rings for people who I would want to pick up the phone for even when driving. The average call is ignored until I get to my destination. I might make an exception to listen to the message to determine if it's important or not at the next red light.

    The only near misses I've been involved in were due to those very people who have their cell phone as part of the entire driving experience.

    TV with a video cut off is not anywhere near as bad as cell phones, when the video cuts off I'd imagine it's no worse than radio. I personally would love to at least have these features available in cars, the parking one seems very useful to me too. Ever have those spots that you know you can fit in but are small enough that you have to be extra careful about parking (usually because of some other idiot who is too far past or too far back from his/her meter. I fear for those other drivers myself who would 1) Do stupid things because the technology is there (such as get out of the car while it's parking) and 2) Blame the company for their own user stupidity.

    Driving courses and tests need to become more rigorous to include more common sense than memorized knowledge.

    "If you're having a conversation on the phone while driving that is getting really intense what would you do?" No multiple choice, just written answer, if they say, "Keep driving" they fail, one common sense answer wrong, they fail. No exceptions.

  19. Re:and yet... on Virginia Tech Supercomputer Up To 12.25 Teraflops · · Score: 1

    Yeah we all know that users will keel over and die if they don't have a second mouse button. I kind of wish Windows was designed like OS X to support both one button and two button mice, then I could just say "press control while clicking" to these people who I have to explain what a "left-click" is.

    Really, stop bitching about it, if you have that much trouble learning how to use one mouse button then maybe you're stupider than the people who can't use two button mice properly. Why don't you go bitch about something even stupider to complain about like how modern laptops only have one button that turns the machine both on and off or the fact that you have to press shift or caps lock to get uppercase letters. We all know how crippling that is. Oh come on, you know you want to have a contextual peddle in your car, one that lets you select different accelerator options: "Accelerate, accelerate one wheel, red line, about this engine, accelerate the car next to you"

    Really it's not that hard, in fact i wouldn't be surprised if Apple's no button mouse is better for avoiding repetitive stress injury, you could operate the mouse functions of their computers fairly easily without moving separate fingers.

  20. Re:hrm on Virginia Tech Supercomputer Up To 12.25 Teraflops · · Score: 1

    I believe in psychology you learn that there are two types of intelligences. The trait of one is that they're fast and therefore good at interacting with other people. The other is slower, but is better at coming up with solutions to complex problems.

    Intelligence can be about speed. If you want to make a machine capable of holding human conversations, one that passes the turing test, then you must have speed. If you want to make a machine capable of intelligently finding solutions to problems in the world then you can throw speed out the window.

    How much of your daily conversation is actually a memorized response or involves something you had already spent time thinking about before.

    "What do you think of killing?"
    Well if you never had a reaction to killing before, never heard anybody's opinions about it, and didn't understand what the entire result of killing was, you probably wouldn't be able to give me an instant answer. The moment you associate killing with taking something very important from someone and learn that the great majority of other people say killing is wrong you have an opinion which you return in speech as, "Killing is wrong."

    What you need is a machine capable of discovering and thinking about things on it's own without being prompted by direct human input.

    It doesn't have to be fast to reach human intelligence, it just has to be capable of every type of thinking humans have.

    How about driving recklessly? Well by itself driving recklessly isn't immediately seen as bad. But when you can think about possibilities and effects. For example, you lose control of your car and run over a little kid then you connect it to killing which you already decided was wrong. Driving recklessly is now wrong. Computers can already make connections between data sectors on a hard drive very fast. Making the connections become more difficult when you factor in, "Driving recklessly is fun though..." Then it becomes a balance of values. Which is more important, not killing someone or having fun?

    That kind of thinking is a little too complex to do in casual conversation. A lot of programmers experimenting with A.I. for fun are still designing with a think on the fly model. The program takes human input and then suddenly it decides to think. Of course you'll need raw power if you build that way.

    I also believe our hinderance is our approach to A.I. Our own brains are never really idle, even when we space out, why should an A.I. be?

  21. Re:Usefulness on Nissan Exhibits IEEE 1394-Compatible Car · · Score: 1

    Only if you live in a warm climate, wouldn't want washer fluid to freeze.

  22. Re:Temperature Fascists on Warm Offices Boost Productivity · · Score: 1

    Yeah well at those temperatures my fingers will not move as easily and as fast as they do at my comfortable 72-75F.

  23. Re:Temperature Fascists on Warm Offices Boost Productivity · · Score: 1

    Oh yeah because we all know how much easier it is to type with mittens or gloves if it's your hands that are too stiff cold to type properly.

  24. Re:Before "If Microsoft made cars..." jokes ensue on Will Your Next Car Run Windows? · · Score: 1

    Not if you crash into the car you were IMing while trying to type it.

  25. Re:You're missing an important distinction: on The Universal Off Button · · Score: 1

    Simply pointing out that basement modders can disturb the peace too.