"One of the most irritating "features" I keep hitting is whenever I open something with an extension, be it a pdf with Acrobat reader, a flash animation, a video with mplayer or a java applet: about 1 out of 10 times, the cpu goes to 100% and FF is dead in the water. I know the usual answer, which is that it's not FF's fault but the extensions', but it happens with all the extensions the same and it didn't happen so much, if at all, with earlier versions."
--- Maybe it's your machine or machine setup, not FF. This doesn't happen on any of my computers, Mac or PC. I see this all the time: "Such and such sucks as a program". I check the computer and there are setup or other problems (the latest was a PC with a virus and the owner was blaming it on 'poor software' he was using).
Re:Hardware and software...
on
Leopard Vs. Vista
·
· Score: 2, Informative
That's two people - You and your friend - Who don't like Macs. I have a powerbook and it works well for me. As to a fingerprint reader, I don't carry any national security files on my Mac. Between the login and built in 'filevault' encryption, I don't worry about someone getting at my data if my book is stolen.
I have no reason to surf anonymously. Nor do I any confidence that if I did that an 'anonymiser' would really, really work. I did try it once some years back and it was a pain.
"Representing Mac as some cool-but-arrogant college fuck and PC as a dowdy old businessman seems... offensive..."
If commercials upset you, or insult you, or you find them 'offensive', you have a few years of growing up to do. Personally I think practically ALL commercials are useless because they take up my time (which I minimize by using a PVR and skipping them), but their content is of no significance to me. Other than a few political commercials from time to time, I can't think of a commercial that I have taken personally or that in any way upet me. I mean, good lord - They're just commercials.
"Well i dont have a tv. At a friends i saw these ads the other day. I was surprised. They were quite condescending and offensive."
You must be very easily insulted. Condescending and offensive? My, my you're a sensitive person. Maybe you'd like to comment on the thousands of other advertisements on TV, like the Enzyte 'Bob' commercials.
If you won't buy a product because it is represented by 'bad' commercials on television you must not buy many things.
As the NYT continues not only to loose relevance because of bad reporting, they want to start charging? Oh, my. How fast does the NYT want to fade into oblivion.
I no longer visit the NYT site because I don't like registering to read the news. I get news from many sites. Some 'mirror' NYT articles. That said, to me the NYT has already reached a point of irrelevance to me. So - Let them charge away. In 10 years (or less) we'll see if their business model is successful or not.
I'm a Mac person (before you rant, I also have a PC so I'm not a Mac screamer) and I have software going back to 1986 (and a few computers in my closet). Actually, a lot of it still works if I want to run Mac OS 9.x). But, No - I don't expect software to work forever nor do I expect the software company to provide me with upgrades for life.
I use Quicken. I have for years. I don't remember writing more than 10 paper checks in over 6 or 7 years and I like it.
I don't want something for just making transactions. I want something that integrates the transactions into a database and Quicken's format suits me. The export for the tax report at the end of each year is also important.
I upgrade software like Quicken about every 3 years. Not a big deal. I'm not a Quicken fan - but I've tried several other programs (except Microsoft's Money) and Quicken does what I need.
My opinion is this is a lot of crying by people who expect more than is reasonable or realistic (e.g.: the comments here that if one buys software it should be good for, or updated for, the persons 'life').
I have had many Macs (and still do as a friend recently pointed out recently I have 4 in my closet and 3 'in use'). I bought a Titanium Powerbook 2 years ago and last fall the screen went out. I had a live tech on the phone within 5 minutes on a thursday, a shipping box arrived friday morning, I shipped it saturday morning and it arrived back the following tuesday moring with a new display.
I used that powerbook so much (it replaced my old 8500 desktop tower) the keys started cracking (I slam keys, such as the shift and return keys pretty hard - big, clumbsy hands) and the print started coming off some of the keys last summer. Same deal - Live tech within minutes and the replacement keyboard arrived the next morning(!)
My experiences with Apple tech support have been few, but have almost always very good and fast.
ISO 9001 was initially billed as a 'quality' standard but the standard has evolved. This is my 'forte' (but not as it relates specifically to software). If any of you want to know more about ISO 9001, stop by Elsmar.com - There's a discussion forum full of ISO info.
There is also the Tickit software certification. And there is a project management approach called CMM (Capability Maturity Model).
"and really... a keyboard that lights up? "
In the environment I work in I would LOVE a backlight keyboard. But I bought my Ti powerbook about a year ago - the 15" 800 mHz model so i can't affortd a new one form a year or two.
My only point is there is a lot of diversity - Apple (nor any other company) can please everyone 100%.
As to the mouse issue - I originally bought the 'standard Apple optical mouse. It broke within 5 months, replaced it with a wireless Memorex 2 button with wheel and love it. Cheaper than Apple's as well. Since the powerbooks don't come with a mouse, it's a non-issue. Buy what you want. Personally I'd never go back to 1 button and - gasp - no wheel...
Re:No sympathy for companies that were hosed...
on
Blaster Writer Caught
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
So - if I break into your house and burglarize it, the police should simply tell you that you had the 'freedom' to better protect yourself' and the police should not get involved. Heck - They'd be saving you from yourself if they did.
Does this help? From the latest news: "Jason Lee Parson, the 18-year-old Minnesotan who was arrested Friday in connection with the Blaster worm, bragged of his exploits on his own Web site."
As I said earlier, I went through the SPEWS Blacked the IP Block I'm on panic. I mainly run forums on vBulletin so it was not just a little thing to me. I changed ISPs and that was the last of it.
I have a business web site so whitelists are not my answer.
I'm not a programming pro or IT person like most of you. My business has absolutly nothing to do with either. I know enough to keep my site online, keep relaying turned off and have since 1995, which most folks would characterize as 1/2 dangerous.
I took to SpamCop a couple of years ago. I was in LA on business and went for e-mail the first night there. All the hotel had was a dialup. It took almost an hour to get over 150 spam e-mails plus my regular ones. From when I took the action I did, to pay a company - in my case SpamCop - I have been blessed to see spam e-mails get through drop to from 0 to maybe, on a bad day, 10 spam e-mails.
For almost a year I checked 'held mail', too. I was paranoid of loosing the one really important e-mail. Rarely was there a false positive. I rarely even look at them any more - they're dumped. Nor have I ever had a customer call or write and tell me something like "You know, I tried to e-mail you but I (or my company) was blocked" or "Hey - you never answered my e-mail".
I did try adding the SPEWS blacklist check in my SpamCop preferences once for a couple of days and saw a lot of false positives. So - I turned that blacklist off. No big deal. It did not suit my needs. For me SpamCop and the blacklists it uses that I have checked are perfect. An added bonus is I don't have to train a filter or keep a filter trained or any other nonsense.
As a last, somewhat related comment: If all the spam was stupid products I would have less hostility towards them. Most, however are for 'penis enlarging pills', 'cheap drugs on the internet', pornography come-ons and other similar useless 'products'. I have a daughter who turned 15 today. She's had her own computer since she was 2, for all intents and purposes. I didn't want her pounding on my Mac so I bought her a used PC to play her games on. She has had e-mail since she was about 4 or 5 which she and I first used for communicating with the grandfolks. Of course she's way past just the grandfolks now. I'm not a prude and I'm not a religious person. At 53 I'm probably best described as a laid back 1960's hippie who missed the original Woodstock.
I could deal with getting my daughter used to what was trash and what wasn't over the years. There were conversations about why a man would want a big penis and why men like to see naked girls. And it might have even helped as she learned early in life about a lot of topics. None the less, I would have rather followed a more drawn out approach introducing her to the real world as she grew up. She's a straight A student with potential for two athletic scholarships already and she definitely knows what sex is about. My point here is no family should have to receive that trash. If I was only on the internet as a family person rather than as both a family and business, I'd have SPEWS checked in a New York second. Often I am personally revulsed by some of the spam that does get through.
If I was only on the internet as a family person, I would definitly go to the extreme of Challange-Response. Anyone I want e-mail from will be friends and family where Challange-Response makes sense.
Draconian measures? If that's what meets your needs.
This has been my experience. I use SpamCop and rarely even check 'held mail' anymore. I do a mass delete. Over the 2 years I've been using SpamCop I've seen maybe 100 false positives out of hundreds of thousands of spams.
SpamCop has saved me many, many hours of not having to wade through hundreds of spam e-mails every day. Yesterday alone over 200 spam e-mails were blocked. I shed no tears at all.
To keep out hundereds of spam e-mails a day, I'm quite willing to resort to 'Draconian' measures.
I use several blacklists. I didn't use SPEWS because it was too restrictive for me. I suspect for many, however, it was appropriate for their situation and so they used it.
What I am hearing in this thread on the opposing side - anti-SPEWS folks - is they think they have a right to send me e-mail and that I must accept that e-mail. I quite disagree.
I was a 'Collateral Victim' once. It wasn't fun, but I changed ISPs and have had no problem since. To say there was nothing you could do about it when you had problems is silly.
Slashdot Mirror
I've used File Buddy exclusively since spotlight became the standard OS X search. I've only used spotlight couple times and I hate it.
I have a mix in my house and everything works, but getting the Macs to 'see' and access the windoz machines was easier than the other way around.
"One of the most irritating "features" I keep hitting is whenever I open something with an extension, be it a pdf with Acrobat reader, a flash animation, a video with mplayer or a java applet: about 1 out of 10 times, the cpu goes to 100% and FF is dead in the water. I know the usual answer, which is that it's not FF's fault but the extensions', but it happens with all the extensions the same and it didn't happen so much, if at all, with earlier versions."
--- Maybe it's your machine or machine setup, not FF. This doesn't happen on any of my computers, Mac or PC. I see this all the time: "Such and such sucks as a program". I check the computer and there are setup or other problems (the latest was a PC with a virus and the owner was blaming it on 'poor software' he was using).
That's two people - You and your friend - Who don't like Macs. I have a powerbook and it works well for me. As to a fingerprint reader, I don't carry any national security files on my Mac. Between the login and built in 'filevault' encryption, I don't worry about someone getting at my data if my book is stolen.
I have no reason to surf anonymously. Nor do I any confidence that if I did that an 'anonymiser' would really, really work. I did try it once some years back and it was a pain.
"Representing Mac as some cool-but-arrogant college fuck and PC as a dowdy old businessman seems... offensive..."
If commercials upset you, or insult you, or you find them 'offensive', you have a few years of growing up to do. Personally I think practically ALL commercials are useless because they take up my time (which I minimize by using a PVR and skipping them), but their content is of no significance to me. Other than a few political commercials from time to time, I can't think of a commercial that I have taken personally or that in any way upet me. I mean, good lord - They're just commercials.
"Well i dont have a tv. At a friends i saw these ads the other day. I was surprised. They were quite condescending and offensive." You must be very easily insulted. Condescending and offensive? My, my you're a sensitive person. Maybe you'd like to comment on the thousands of other advertisements on TV, like the Enzyte 'Bob' commercials. If you won't buy a product because it is represented by 'bad' commercials on television you must not buy many things.
I have to say that is true for me - My intelligence can't be insulted. But people can (and often do) say things that make THEM look like fools.
The US government supplied 'weapons of mass destruction' to Iraq and Saddam Hussain in 1988 and earlier. Imagine that...
Al Gore WAS critical in securing the funding that made the DARPA project that became the Internet possible. Historical fact.
As the NYT continues not only to loose relevance because of bad reporting, they want to start charging? Oh, my. How fast does the NYT want to fade into oblivion.
I no longer visit the NYT site because I don't like registering to read the news. I get news from many sites. Some 'mirror' NYT articles. That said, to me the NYT has already reached a point of irrelevance to me. So - Let them charge away. In 10 years (or less) we'll see if their business model is successful or not.
I'm a Mac person (before you rant, I also have a PC so I'm not a Mac screamer) and I have software going back to 1986 (and a few computers in my closet). Actually, a lot of it still works if I want to run Mac OS 9.x). But, No - I don't expect software to work forever nor do I expect the software company to provide me with upgrades for life.
I use Quicken. I have for years. I don't remember writing more than 10 paper checks in over 6 or 7 years and I like it.
I don't want something for just making transactions. I want something that integrates the transactions into a database and Quicken's format suits me. The export for the tax report at the end of each year is also important.
I upgrade software like Quicken about every 3 years. Not a big deal. I'm not a Quicken fan - but I've tried several other programs (except Microsoft's Money) and Quicken does what I need.
My opinion is this is a lot of crying by people who expect more than is reasonable or realistic (e.g.: the comments here that if one buys software it should be good for, or updated for, the persons 'life').
Good point re: support.
I have had many Macs (and still do as a friend recently pointed out recently I have 4 in my closet and 3 'in use'). I bought a Titanium Powerbook 2 years ago and last fall the screen went out. I had a live tech on the phone within 5 minutes on a thursday, a shipping box arrived friday morning, I shipped it saturday morning and it arrived back the following tuesday moring with a new display.
I used that powerbook so much (it replaced my old 8500 desktop tower) the keys started cracking (I slam keys, such as the shift and return keys pretty hard - big, clumbsy hands) and the print started coming off some of the keys last summer. Same deal - Live tech within minutes and the replacement keyboard arrived the next morning(!)
My experiences with Apple tech support have been few, but have almost always very good and fast.
ISO 9001 was initially billed as a 'quality' standard but the standard has evolved. This is my 'forte' (but not as it relates specifically to software). If any of you want to know more about ISO 9001, stop by Elsmar.com - There's a discussion forum full of ISO info. There is also the Tickit software certification. And there is a project management approach called CMM (Capability Maturity Model).
"and really... a keyboard that lights up? " In the environment I work in I would LOVE a backlight keyboard. But I bought my Ti powerbook about a year ago - the 15" 800 mHz model so i can't affortd a new one form a year or two.
My only point is there is a lot of diversity - Apple (nor any other company) can please everyone 100%.
As to the mouse issue - I originally bought the 'standard Apple optical mouse. It broke within 5 months, replaced it with a wireless Memorex 2 button with wheel and love it. Cheaper than Apple's as well. Since the powerbooks don't come with a mouse, it's a non-issue. Buy what you want. Personally I'd never go back to 1 button and - gasp - no wheel...
So - if I break into your house and burglarize it, the police should simply tell you that you had the 'freedom' to better protect yourself' and the police should not get involved. Heck - They'd be saving you from yourself if they did.
Does this help? From the latest news: "Jason Lee Parson, the 18-year-old Minnesotan who was arrested Friday in connection with the Blaster worm, bragged of his exploits on his own Web site."
As I said earlier, I went through the SPEWS Blacked the IP Block I'm on panic. I mainly run forums on vBulletin so it was not just a little thing to me. I changed ISPs and that was the last of it.
I have a business web site so whitelists are not my answer.
I'm not a programming pro or IT person like most of you. My business has absolutly nothing to do with either. I know enough to keep my site online, keep relaying turned off and have since 1995, which most folks would characterize as 1/2 dangerous.
I took to SpamCop a couple of years ago. I was in LA on business and went for e-mail the first night there. All the hotel had was a dialup. It took almost an hour to get over 150 spam e-mails plus my regular ones. From when I took the action I did, to pay a company - in my case SpamCop - I have been blessed to see spam e-mails get through drop to from 0 to maybe, on a bad day, 10 spam e-mails.
For almost a year I checked 'held mail', too. I was paranoid of loosing the one really important e-mail. Rarely was there a false positive. I rarely even look at them any more - they're dumped. Nor have I ever had a customer call or write and tell me something like "You know, I tried to e-mail you but I (or my company) was blocked" or "Hey - you never answered my e-mail".
I did try adding the SPEWS blacklist check in my SpamCop preferences once for a couple of days and saw a lot of false positives. So - I turned that blacklist off. No big deal. It did not suit my needs. For me SpamCop and the blacklists it uses that I have checked are perfect. An added bonus is I don't have to train a filter or keep a filter trained or any other nonsense.
As a last, somewhat related comment: If all the spam was stupid products I would have less hostility towards them. Most, however are for 'penis enlarging pills', 'cheap drugs on the internet', pornography come-ons and other similar useless 'products'. I have a daughter who turned 15 today. She's had her own computer since she was 2, for all intents and purposes. I didn't want her pounding on my Mac so I bought her a used PC to play her games on. She has had e-mail since she was about 4 or 5 which she and I first used for communicating with the grandfolks. Of course she's way past just the grandfolks now. I'm not a prude and I'm not a religious person. At 53 I'm probably best described as a laid back 1960's hippie who missed the original Woodstock.
I could deal with getting my daughter used to what was trash and what wasn't over the years. There were conversations about why a man would want a big penis and why men like to see naked girls. And it might have even helped as she learned early in life about a lot of topics. None the less, I would have rather followed a more drawn out approach introducing her to the real world as she grew up. She's a straight A student with potential for two athletic scholarships already and she definitely knows what sex is about. My point here is no family should have to receive that trash. If I was only on the internet as a family person rather than as both a family and business, I'd have SPEWS checked in a New York second. Often I am personally revulsed by some of the spam that does get through.
If I was only on the internet as a family person, I would definitly go to the extreme of Challange-Response. Anyone I want e-mail from will be friends and family where Challange-Response makes sense.
Draconian measures? If that's what meets your needs.
If I don't know anyone in Brazil and don't expect to, why should I not block Brazil when all I get from Brazil is spam?
It makes one wonder when someone's *only* way to communicate with a university administration is through e-mail. No telephone, eh?
This has been my experience. I use SpamCop and rarely even check 'held mail' anymore. I do a mass delete. Over the 2 years I've been using SpamCop I've seen maybe 100 false positives out of hundreds of thousands of spams. SpamCop has saved me many, many hours of not having to wade through hundreds of spam e-mails every day. Yesterday alone over 200 spam e-mails were blocked. I shed no tears at all.
To keep out hundereds of spam e-mails a day, I'm quite willing to resort to 'Draconian' measures. I use several blacklists. I didn't use SPEWS because it was too restrictive for me. I suspect for many, however, it was appropriate for their situation and so they used it. What I am hearing in this thread on the opposing side - anti-SPEWS folks - is they think they have a right to send me e-mail and that I must accept that e-mail. I quite disagree.
I was a 'Collateral Victim' once. It wasn't fun, but I changed ISPs and have had no problem since. To say there was nothing you could do about it when you had problems is silly.
Or.... Just someone who doesn't like to spend time deleting spam. You might want to look up the definition of racist.
Poppycock. It has nothing to do with punishing ISPs who host spammers, it has everything to do with people like myself who don't want their spam.