Even something as simple as the way that their laptops work. I've been developing since about '82. Use a lot of UNIX, have traditionally run Windows, recently moved my laptop over to one of the new MacBooks. Being able to open up the lid and have everything (and I mean everything) just up and running, with no wait, is wonderful. And that includes wireless networking. The number of small delays that were "slightly" frustrating under Windows that have just plain disappeared is amazing. And since you can get context menus with a two-finger click, even that reason for sticking with a Windows laptop has disappeared.
Apple software - both their own and those from companies writing against their (pretty stellar) API - for the most part really does "just work." There's a small adjustment to get used to doing things the "Apple Way" but it really is worth it. And its also surprising how nice it is to be able to trust your computer for a change. As an example, I haven't yet run a CPU monitor or checked how much memory I'm using. I don't feel like I have to. Admittedly I have 2gb (and for $150 I think that everybody should) here, but even so I'm always worried about stuff like that on my Windows machines. Here I just run things and don't worry about 'em.
This is why some studios are looking to reissue old TV shows in HD - shows like M*A*S*H (and even, ironically, Hogan's Heros IIRC) were filmed on actual film instead of on video, and will look a lot better that your average crappy "high tech" video production.
We can expect Blu Ray releases of Istar and Gigli any day now. Actually, a quick Google shows that the real problem may be that the Sony movie catalog is almost completely dreck, Princess Bride excepted. If what Sony owns is crap, crap is what will be released first on Blu Ray.
And judging by the crappy mastering evident on the Princess Bride DVD, I shudder to think how it would look in high definition. Although, sad to say, I'd probably buy it anyway just in case.
Although 1080p displays are getting fairly common if you're going DLP rear projection, and are doing okay (not great, but okay) in flat panel. I just picked up a Westinghouse 42" 1080p LCD at BestBuy.com for $1500, for example - that's not unreasonable for a modest home theater budget. And yes, I'm ticked off that I can't get a full 1080p HD-DVD player to go with it.
Simple - desktop responsiveness. I started going dual-proc at home when I picked up a 2-way PII-300 system that was perceptibly faster than a higher-clocked box for a long time. Sure, long running CPU-hogging processes were slower for the most part, but I didn't run many of them. What I did do was have multiple apps up at the same time, all doing little things for me, while wanting decent performance from my file manager et al. That is where the modern dual-core trend really shines.
Interestingly, diminishing returns for responsiveness happen almost immediately. There's a big boost going from single- to dual-, and almost none from dual- to quad-.
I'm curious about the bug you're seeing in your P4 - considering how much of the modern market is moving to dual-core, was this an actual chip bug, or just some really badly written software?
I have XM - the free 3-month deal in my Element got me hooked. The audible (as opposed to measured, about which I know nothing) quality is decent. Not quite as good as an uncompressed CD, probably as good as a 192kbps MP3 CD, and much crisper than radio. This is measured by my ears and the ears of my passengers while listening in a moving vehicle with a variety of background noises. Although I have a pretty solid car-audio-hobby background, I've successfully quit the habit, so everything's stock.
Is it perfect? Nah. Is it good enough for $100 every year? Yeah, probably. Being able to listen to commercial free stand-up comedy (channel 153) or NPR (although XM's NPR station is pretty crappy content-wise so far, but improving) on unplanned long boring trips from Austin to Dallas is worth the price.
And who can forget Parsec? And munch man? Is it bad to admit that I could actually play all 20 levels of MM with the monitor turned off? Ah, for the days of insufficient randomization. Although I did have to start a certain mix tape and begin to play at exactly the right time. That first (and most heard) song? Billy Jean. Wow, what a memory.
Ah, I miss my TI. Expanded Basic was the only cartridge you really needed, and you had all sorts of nifty graphics (sprites with simple avoidance detection, etc) at your fingertips. That's where I cut my coding teeth, come to think of it. An amazing computer at a reasonable price, years ahead of Apple, pushed by a company who (like Xerox for that matter) couldn't market their way out of a wet paper bag. Too bad, really.
Check out the commentary (with more pictures, and some personal touches) at http://ranex.blogspot.com/2006/05/stuck-at-apple.h tml -- the blogger in question was not stuck inside the elevator, but his friends were. See the amazing elevator dancing. Hear the story of the miraculous water bottle drop.
Grandparent said, I must be misunderstanding you... it is possible and very easy to sort by Artist or Album. What do you mean?
Parent replied, Users I've talked to complain that it's clumsy. For instance, you can't collapse the tree, there's no file system view, etc.
Hmm. Sort by artist. How would I do that in a standard, non-clumsy way? Let's try clicking on the column heading for "Artist." Yup, sorts fine. Same for Album.
Collapsing the tree? Well, the same functionality exists in a more flexible format (think of it as a multidimensional tree) with the iTunes browser. You have a list of genres, artists, and albums. Select one or more of any of those categories (or "All"). The results are immediately filtered. Or ignore the browser, which is what most people do, and simply use the realtime Search box to get to whatever you were looking for without "browsing" to find it. But hey, both approaches work, and they're both available.
As for the filesystem view -- er, what? If you want to use the filesystem to organize your music you can (although you're stuck with a single-dimensional view), just use the filesystem browser of your choice to do it. iTunes will happily integrate with it to play songs when you "run" them. But I fail to see the need, quite frankly. Still, its in there.
Compile a mixed set of music (at potentially lesser audio quality) for free distribution to your friends?
I see this a lot. Actually, something to keep in mind is that the mixed set of music will be of exactly the same quality as your version. Its only if your friends want to rip it into their computer that the quality will decrease. Which it would have done anyway. Unless they choose a lossless format which will, even in this case, perfectly preserve the same quality.
So even here, the DRMd files aren't causing any degredation, per se. You do lose the ability for them to have files of the same size as yours that are of identical quality, but I don't believe that that's actually granted anywhere as part of fair use, as your original point also maintained.
But Comedy Central disagreed, asking him to change the name (He did, to "I'm an Intern in New York") and to stop revealing how its brand of comedic sausage is stuffed.
"They said they figured something like this would happen eventually because blogs had become so popular," said Mr. McDonald, now 23, who kept his internship. "It caught them off guard. They didn't really like that."
So, basically, they objected to him sharing potentially confidential information (fair enough) and to his using their name for his personal (readership/ad) gain. Again, fair enough. He still got to keep the blog, and he's still an intern there. Oh, and he didn't have the blog when he "applied," anyway.
Le sigh. If the editors don't RTFA, what hope is there for the rest of the readership again?
This is one very good reason to create a personal website and keep it full of somewhat useful yet harmless information. That way, when somebody google's you, they get you rather than someone else's opinion about you. Just a thought...
From the link: "Note: This screen is from build 5381, although the application looks identical in Beta 2.)" Since the article and uptime comments were about Beta 2... I don't think you have a valid point. Good (almost) catch, though.
Re:Im gonna get killed for saying this...
on
Creative Sues Apple
·
· Score: 1
Im sorry but up until now pretty much all portable players came with dc adapters. Why change standards now when there has not been any demand for it.
Because it saves them money, and annoys a very(!) small number of their users.
They save design costs, manufacturing costs, storage costs, packagaing costs, transportation costs -- they can put more of them out on the same amount of shelf space, for that matter. Removing an accessory from the standard packaging is a huge deal.
I took the opportuniy to check out H2 - looks nice, and we'll be checking it out more. I always wanted to write my own DBMS, but never got around to it (many years as a DBA/Developer who loved internals). But anyway. I did see that you had an interesting comment on your VARCHAR documentation: Unicode String. Use two single quotes ('') to create a quote.. Does that imply that this will happen even when using prepared statements? I'd like to think not, but...
Nice idea. I wouldn't worry about getting too complicated though -- 0 and 2 would be fine. Allowing 1 would just encourage people to start using numeric encoding in places where it shouldn't be kept.
It doesn't have the performance benefits that real prepared statements have, but I still find it handy for typical PHP4 database work.
Hmm. How about this -- hash the string that's passed in. Use it as the key to a hashtable, the value of which is an integer that's incremented every time the function sees it. Once that reaches a certain threshold, prepare the statement normally but then store it in another hash table (keyed by the statement hash again) for reuse. You could eliminate the first step if you were pretty sure that you'd only have a limited number of queries and weren't worried about potential memory leaks.
Re:Im gonna get killed for saying this...
on
Creative Sues Apple
·
· Score: 1
Some people don't have such facilities. Some people like their appliances to be more modular. Some people have restricted USB use, due to too many appliances already connected. The reasons are endless.
That's why "some people" can still purchase standalone AC adapters. But since "most people" don't need them, "most people" don't have to buy them as part of a "bundle."
Again it comes down to me saying Apple are turning out to be as bad as ms, in that they leave out certain components, to force buyers to come back to suppliers, so more money can be made
Oh, come off it. If they did bundle them, you could just as easily say, "Apple are as bad as ms, in that they force you to buy more components than you need which means there's no 3rd party adapters available, so more money can be made even if people don't want the product to begin with." I guess they can't win. However, they did seem to side with the majority on this one.
None of the IM protocols I've seen encrypt file transfers properly, so you wouldn't be any less secure by not having passwords
I don't get this at all. Sending an unencrypted file leaves me vulnerable to people who are actively sniffing my current conversation. Leaving a file laying around on an open server for a week or longer (as you suggest) invites casual theft. I'm sorry, but I see that as a pretty major difference.
It's happened, but it's not a good tradition. Email attachments are still every bit as much a dirty hack...
I was actually referring to Usenet binaries when I wrote that, although it works fine for email attachments as well. The thing is, directed transmission (through email, IM, whatever) is a useful concept. No matter how annoying it may be from a purist standpoint. Being able to send a file as well as accepting requests for a file is a Good Thing.
If you really wanted to use existing protocols, you'd have the IM client open up an FTP server with a one-time password that the sender could attach to. Except that organizations, for whatever reason, have almost universally decided that they will block inbound FTP traffic. So that leaves... what, exactly?
Except that then you'd also need a way to make sure that nobody but the person you were chatting to could download the file, but that he could get it without needing to call you up for passwords.... And figure out how to remove it from the server once he's downloaded it, but only if the download worked.... And notify you once he has it so that you can continue to discuss it...
Or it could just be integrated into the messaging system. After all, tossing binaries over a medium intended for text is part of the grand tradition of "Teh interweb." Always has been, always will be.
How about this -- what if the IM client did all that work, put it on a (private) server, automatically sent the other user the connection information and password, monitored the transfer, and notified you when it was sent? That would be useful, right? And what if his client handled the password/location/notifying parts for him? Again, useful, right? Oh, well, that's pretty much what happens now. Hmm. Don't really see what your problem is here.
Slashdot Mirror
Even something as simple as the way that their laptops work. I've been developing since about '82. Use a lot of UNIX, have traditionally run Windows, recently moved my laptop over to one of the new MacBooks. Being able to open up the lid and have everything (and I mean everything) just up and running, with no wait, is wonderful. And that includes wireless networking. The number of small delays that were "slightly" frustrating under Windows that have just plain disappeared is amazing. And since you can get context menus with a two-finger click, even that reason for sticking with a Windows laptop has disappeared.
Apple software - both their own and those from companies writing against their (pretty stellar) API - for the most part really does "just work." There's a small adjustment to get used to doing things the "Apple Way" but it really is worth it. And its also surprising how nice it is to be able to trust your computer for a change. As an example, I haven't yet run a CPU monitor or checked how much memory I'm using. I don't feel like I have to. Admittedly I have 2gb (and for $150 I think that everybody should) here, but even so I'm always worried about stuff like that on my Windows machines. Here I just run things and don't worry about 'em.
This is why some studios are looking to reissue old TV shows in HD - shows like M*A*S*H (and even, ironically, Hogan's Heros IIRC) were filmed on actual film instead of on video, and will look a lot better that your average crappy "high tech" video production.
And judging by the crappy mastering evident on the Princess Bride DVD, I shudder to think how it would look in high definition. Although, sad to say, I'd probably buy it anyway just in case.
Although 1080p displays are getting fairly common if you're going DLP rear projection, and are doing okay (not great, but okay) in flat panel. I just picked up a Westinghouse 42" 1080p LCD at BestBuy.com for $1500, for example - that's not unreasonable for a modest home theater budget. And yes, I'm ticked off that I can't get a full 1080p HD-DVD player to go with it.
Simple - desktop responsiveness. I started going dual-proc at home when I picked up a 2-way PII-300 system that was perceptibly faster than a higher-clocked box for a long time. Sure, long running CPU-hogging processes were slower for the most part, but I didn't run many of them. What I did do was have multiple apps up at the same time, all doing little things for me, while wanting decent performance from my file manager et al. That is where the modern dual-core trend really shines.
Interestingly, diminishing returns for responsiveness happen almost immediately. There's a big boost going from single- to dual-, and almost none from dual- to quad-.
I'm curious about the bug you're seeing in your P4 - considering how much of the modern market is moving to dual-core, was this an actual chip bug, or just some really badly written software?
I have XM - the free 3-month deal in my Element got me hooked. The audible (as opposed to measured, about which I know nothing) quality is decent. Not quite as good as an uncompressed CD, probably as good as a 192kbps MP3 CD, and much crisper than radio. This is measured by my ears and the ears of my passengers while listening in a moving vehicle with a variety of background noises. Although I have a pretty solid car-audio-hobby background, I've successfully quit the habit, so everything's stock.
Is it perfect? Nah. Is it good enough for $100 every year? Yeah, probably. Being able to listen to commercial free stand-up comedy (channel 153) or NPR (although XM's NPR station is pretty crappy content-wise so far, but improving) on unplanned long boring trips from Austin to Dallas is worth the price.
And who can forget Parsec? And munch man? Is it bad to admit that I could actually play all 20 levels of MM with the monitor turned off? Ah, for the days of insufficient randomization. Although I did have to start a certain mix tape and begin to play at exactly the right time. That first (and most heard) song? Billy Jean. Wow, what a memory.
Ah, I miss my TI. Expanded Basic was the only cartridge you really needed, and you had all sorts of nifty graphics (sprites with simple avoidance detection, etc) at your fingertips. That's where I cut my coding teeth, come to think of it. An amazing computer at a reasonable price, years ahead of Apple, pushed by a company who (like Xerox for that matter) couldn't market their way out of a wet paper bag. Too bad, really.
Check out the commentary (with more pictures, and some personal touches) at http://ranex.blogspot.com/2006/05/stuck-at-apple.h tml -- the blogger in question was not stuck inside the elevator, but his friends were. See the amazing elevator dancing. Hear the story of the miraculous water bottle drop.
I don't think you can do it in IE. Most Slashdotters use IE. Haha!
[ Dramatic pause to fire up IE ]
Hmm. Tools menu, pick Options, click on Fonts... seems pretty easy to me...
Grandparent said, I must be misunderstanding you... it is possible and very easy to sort by Artist or Album. What do you mean?
Parent replied, Users I've talked to complain that it's clumsy. For instance, you can't collapse the tree, there's no file system view, etc.
Hmm. Sort by artist. How would I do that in a standard, non-clumsy way? Let's try clicking on the column heading for "Artist." Yup, sorts fine. Same for Album.
Collapsing the tree? Well, the same functionality exists in a more flexible format (think of it as a multidimensional tree) with the iTunes browser. You have a list of genres, artists, and albums. Select one or more of any of those categories (or "All"). The results are immediately filtered. Or ignore the browser, which is what most people do, and simply use the realtime Search box to get to whatever you were looking for without "browsing" to find it. But hey, both approaches work, and they're both available.
As for the filesystem view -- er, what? If you want to use the filesystem to organize your music you can (although you're stuck with a single-dimensional view), just use the filesystem browser of your choice to do it. iTunes will happily integrate with it to play songs when you "run" them. But I fail to see the need, quite frankly. Still, its in there.
Compile a mixed set of music (at potentially lesser audio quality) for free distribution to your friends?
I see this a lot. Actually, something to keep in mind is that the mixed set of music will be of exactly the same quality as your version. Its only if your friends want to rip it into their computer that the quality will decrease. Which it would have done anyway. Unless they choose a lossless format which will, even in this case, perfectly preserve the same quality.
So even here, the DRMd files aren't causing any degredation, per se. You do lose the ability for them to have files of the same size as yours that are of identical quality, but I don't believe that that's actually granted anywhere as part of fair use, as your original point also maintained.
From TFA:
But Comedy Central disagreed, asking him to change the name (He did, to "I'm an Intern in New York") and to stop revealing how its brand of comedic sausage is stuffed.
"They said they figured something like this would happen eventually because blogs had become so popular," said Mr. McDonald, now 23, who kept his internship. "It caught them off guard. They didn't really like that."
So, basically, they objected to him sharing potentially confidential information (fair enough) and to his using their name for his personal (readership/ad) gain. Again, fair enough. He still got to keep the blog, and he's still an intern there. Oh, and he didn't have the blog when he "applied," anyway.
Le sigh. If the editors don't RTFA, what hope is there for the rest of the readership again?
This is one very good reason to create a personal website and keep it full of somewhat useful yet harmless information. That way, when somebody google's you, they get you rather than someone else's opinion about you. Just a thought...
He says it's running smoothly, but the screenshot of the stability monitor says otherwise...
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?page_id=65&page=19
From the link: "Note: This screen is from build 5381, although the application looks identical in Beta 2.)" Since the article and uptime comments were about Beta 2... I don't think you have a valid point. Good (almost) catch, though.
Im sorry but up until now pretty much all portable players came with dc adapters. Why change standards now when there has not been any demand for it.
Because it saves them money, and annoys a very(!) small number of their users.
They save design costs, manufacturing costs, storage costs, packagaing costs, transportation costs -- they can put more of them out on the same amount of shelf space, for that matter. Removing an accessory from the standard packaging is a huge deal.
Well said, sir. Well said. And a "Score: 2" no less. Ah, the pleasant void that is Slashdot.
I took the opportuniy to check out H2 - looks nice, and we'll be checking it out more. I always wanted to write my own DBMS, but never got around to it (many years as a DBA/Developer who loved internals). But anyway. I did see that you had an interesting comment on your VARCHAR documentation: Unicode String. Use two single quotes ('') to create a quote.. Does that imply that this will happen even when using prepared statements? I'd like to think not, but...
Nice idea. I wouldn't worry about getting too complicated though -- 0 and 2 would be fine. Allowing 1 would just encourage people to start using numeric encoding in places where it shouldn't be kept.
It doesn't have the performance benefits that real prepared statements have, but I still find it handy for typical PHP4 database work.
Hmm. How about this -- hash the string that's passed in. Use it as the key to a hashtable, the value of which is an integer that's incremented every time the function sees it. Once that reaches a certain threshold, prepare the statement normally but then store it in another hash table (keyed by the statement hash again) for reuse. You could eliminate the first step if you were pretty sure that you'd only have a limited number of queries and weren't worried about potential memory leaks.
Dude, that's what toolkits are for.
Some people don't have such facilities. Some people like their appliances to be more modular. Some people have restricted USB use, due to too many appliances already connected. The reasons are endless.
That's why "some people" can still purchase standalone AC adapters. But since "most people" don't need them, "most people" don't have to buy them as part of a "bundle."
Again it comes down to me saying Apple are turning out to be as bad as ms, in that they leave out certain components, to force buyers to come back to suppliers, so more money can be made
Oh, come off it. If they did bundle them, you could just as easily say, "Apple are as bad as ms, in that they force you to buy more components than you need which means there's no 3rd party adapters available, so more money can be made even if people don't want the product to begin with." I guess they can't win. However, they did seem to side with the majority on this one.
None of the IM protocols I've seen encrypt file transfers properly, so you wouldn't be any less secure by not having passwords
I don't get this at all. Sending an unencrypted file leaves me vulnerable to people who are actively sniffing my current conversation. Leaving a file laying around on an open server for a week or longer (as you suggest) invites casual theft. I'm sorry, but I see that as a pretty major difference.
It's happened, but it's not a good tradition. Email attachments are still every bit as much a dirty hack...
I was actually referring to Usenet binaries when I wrote that, although it works fine for email attachments as well. The thing is, directed transmission (through email, IM, whatever) is a useful concept. No matter how annoying it may be from a purist standpoint. Being able to send a file as well as accepting requests for a file is a Good Thing.
If you really wanted to use existing protocols, you'd have the IM client open up an FTP server with a one-time password that the sender could attach to. Except that organizations, for whatever reason, have almost universally decided that they will block inbound FTP traffic. So that leaves... what, exactly?
Except that then you'd also need a way to make sure that nobody but the person you were chatting to could download the file, but that he could get it without needing to call you up for passwords.... And figure out how to remove it from the server once he's downloaded it, but only if the download worked.... And notify you once he has it so that you can continue to discuss it...
Or it could just be integrated into the messaging system. After all, tossing binaries over a medium intended for text is part of the grand tradition of "Teh interweb." Always has been, always will be.
How about this -- what if the IM client did all that work, put it on a (private) server, automatically sent the other user the connection information and password, monitored the transfer, and notified you when it was sent? That would be useful, right? And what if his client handled the password/location/notifying parts for him? Again, useful, right? Oh, well, that's pretty much what happens now. Hmm. Don't really see what your problem is here.