Now here's the kicker - Symbian platforms are moving to signed app model, where third party app makers have to buy a Verisgn certificate to run on the SYmbian platform, at a cost of hundreds of dollars per year. Sure, that's SO MUCH more open.
The cost is something like 300$ per year, which is feasible for a developer/company with any significant sales. However, you can get your freeware/open source app signed for free. And there are no restrictions on J2ME apps. So yes, it is much more open.
I've been using the Series 60 v3 browser for quite a while now, which (ironically enough) is based on Safari. Furthermore, one can get a J2ME (which is available in almost every cell phone nowadays... but not the iPhone) version of Opera for free. Whether the iPhone will be as revolutionary as it is hyped to be remains to be seen, but "implementation of a real web browser" is hardly the first.
Linux needs a universal framework for application development
Windows has the Windows API, MFC,.NET and some popular apps are written with QT. Yet I hear no Windows developers crying out for a universal framework.
app installation/uninstallation
I'm not so sure whether this needs to be universal. Most people will install apps through the package manager of their distribution, and some distributions have repositories that cover virtually every FOSS application the user would ever like to install. And there is work being done on distribution-neutral packages as well.
user configuration storage
This, I kind of agree with. Having lots of configuration files in various forms and locations in ~/.* is intimidating to a new user. However, when we're talking about desktop usage, the user rarely if ever has to modify these files directly.
sound and graphics
I'm not sure what you're getting at here. ALSA and SDL/GL?
users won't have to install two entire desktop environments just to run all the apps out there
Funny that, I run KDE on my desktop, but use some GTK+ apps (Firefox and Gimp mainly) as well. I have the GTK+ libraries, not the whole Gnome desktop, installed. And with a few cleverhacks, they blend in with the desktop seamlessly.
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. But on Linux you've got to try Frozen Bubble - the latest version offers multiplayer mode with up to 5 players, over the Internet or LAN.
This is getting so offtopic that this will be my last post on this subject but here goes. How am I supposed to know beforehand a) where you live, and b) how people usually burn wood there? In my area wood burning means more than often pellets nowadays.
*sigh* You originally said: "If even one person burns wood, that signficantly affects my personal air quality, more than any corporation, or all the autos in my city ever have". (I personally find this very unbelievable...) Notice that you didn't say anything about the method of burning wood, or the form of the wood. I merely stated that burning wood, as in wood pellets, is actually environmentally friendly. And yes, it's being done, at least here on the other side of the pond.
The fact that you can burn wood and make it both economically and environmentally feasible. Just because you haven't heard about it doesn't mean it can't be done.
If even one person burns wood, that signficantly affects my personal air quality, more than any corporation, or all the autos in my city ever have. I understand that corporations now have regulations to comply with (your next point), but that misses the point! Why must they adhere to these regulations, but individuals are given free reign to pollute MY AIR with their stupid woodburning, without having to get anyone's by-your-leave?
Two words: wood pellets. How you can say that they'd affect air quality more than all the autos in your city ever have is beyond me.
Regarding firewood and pollution, wood can be very efficient and environmentally friendly as a heat source. Quoting from here:
The technique of compressing wood pulp into pellets or artificial logs provides an excellent means of reducing emissions: not only is the combustion very clean (this of course depends on a well-designed combustion chamber and feeding system), but because of the increased wood density and reduced water content, the transport bulk is reduced by 30 to 70%. Thus the fossil energy consumed in transport is reduced (and in fact represents a tiny fraction on the fossil fuel consumed in producing and distributing heating oil or gas).
While I have no reason to question the results of those benchmarks, they are made on quite antiquated hardware. Would anyone know any benchmarks done on a bit more current hardware?
I don't deny the rivalry between Finns and Swedes (as a Finn, I have experienced it first hand many many times - I find it both immature and irritating, but these things don't change very quickly), but I don't think that plays any role in this. While Nokia has its headquaters in Finland (which they've threatened to move abroad several times when there have been discussions about raising some taxes and/or lowering others), it is a multinational corporation that doesn't have a national identity.
Rather, I think this is an attempt of embrace-and-extend, kind of like they did with J2ME(*). The idea here would be that Nokia can say "if you want to use the latest and greatest Mobil-O-Gadget, you'll have to have a Nokia headset" - unlike with Bluetooth gadgets, which (in theory) work with any headset that supports Bluetooth. Of course they will licence it to other manufacturers... but for example Series60 can be licenced as well; apart from Siemens SX-1 (I don't think that's manufactured anymore), I don't recall any other non-Nokia models that support it.
Having said that, the basic concept from this press release disguised as an article seems reasonable. While Bluetooth is certainly an improvement over WLAN WRT power usage, there's always room for improvement. We'll see how it turns out.
(* When MIDP 1.0 came, Nokia felt, somewhat rightfully, that the spec was lacking some essential features, so they created their own extension, i.e. Nokia UI API. This, combined with the market share of Nokia at least here, led to some developers writing games for only Nokia phones, so the plan was a partial success. With MIDP 2.0 the situation has got a bit better. Now who in their right mind would want to play games on their cell phone is another discussion...)
The difference is that the Bible and the teachings of the Apostles (and natural law, in many cases) explicitly tell us that extramarital sex, homosexual acts, etc. are wrong
I know I learned initally to play the guitar by ear, and have since been playing songs just by listening them long enough (although lessons did help a lot also). While I never had the need to write the notes down, I know there are many tabs out there that are not copied, but are written by people that have just listened to the song. Isn't that quite akin to reverse-engineering? So will they be sued also?
>>The pitfalls could be summarized into these three points, as I see it:
>>1) Patents/licenses
>>2) Is Microsoft itself going to conform to the specification
You're surely aware that the N-Gage was/is a Series60 phone? Running a Symbian OS? With applications and games written in C++ instead of Java? That's not to say the games wouldn't suck, but Series60 as a platform offers more features than J2ME.
Re:Dude! You gotta stop buying Britney Spears CDs!
on
Barenaked USB Drive
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"Compression" -- ie lossy data stuffing -- is a totally different thing to "compression" -- ie fiddling the freqs to make a CD seem "louder".
A slight correction, compression (in recording/mastering) fiddles with the amplitude, not frequencies, by reducing the amplitude of loud parts and amplifying the quieter parts. As a result the overall dynamic range is reduced, which is perceived as being louder than a signal with greater dynamic range. That's why for example commercials always sound louder than tv programs, although in reality they are not any louder.
Slashdot Mirror
Ask and ye shall receive: kgtk. Doesn't work with every GTK app, but at least Firefox and Gimp seem to work fine.
The cost is something like 300$ per year, which is feasible for a developer/company with any significant sales. However, you can get your freeware/open source app signed for free. And there are no restrictions on J2ME apps. So yes, it is much more open.
It's a nice metaphor, although it's a myth.
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo. But on Linux you've got to try Frozen Bubble - the latest version offers multiplayer mode with up to 5 players, over the Internet or LAN.
This is getting so offtopic that this will be my last post on this subject but here goes. How am I supposed to know beforehand a) where you live, and b) how people usually burn wood there? In my area wood burning means more than often pellets nowadays.
And FYI I'm a CS undergrad and Finnish.
*sigh* You originally said: "If even one person burns wood, that signficantly affects my personal air quality, more than any corporation, or all the autos in my city ever have". (I personally find this very unbelievable...) Notice that you didn't say anything about the method of burning wood, or the form of the wood. I merely stated that burning wood, as in wood pellets, is actually environmentally friendly. And yes, it's being done, at least here on the other side of the pond.
The fact that you can burn wood and make it both economically and environmentally feasible. Just because you haven't heard about it doesn't mean it can't be done.
Regarding firewood and pollution, wood can be very efficient and environmentally friendly as a heat source. Quoting from here:
The technique of compressing wood pulp into pellets or artificial logs provides an excellent means of reducing emissions: not only is the combustion very clean (this of course depends on a well-designed combustion chamber and feeding system), but because of the increased wood density and reduced water content, the transport bulk is reduced by 30 to 70%. Thus the fossil energy consumed in transport is reduced (and in fact represents a tiny fraction on the fossil fuel consumed in producing and distributing heating oil or gas).
While I have no reason to question the results of those benchmarks, they are made on quite antiquated hardware. Would anyone know any benchmarks done on a bit more current hardware?
Rather, I think this is an attempt of embrace-and-extend, kind of like they did with J2ME(*). The idea here would be that Nokia can say "if you want to use the latest and greatest Mobil-O-Gadget, you'll have to have a Nokia headset" - unlike with Bluetooth gadgets, which (in theory) work with any headset that supports Bluetooth. Of course they will licence it to other manufacturers... but for example Series60 can be licenced as well; apart from Siemens SX-1 (I don't think that's manufactured anymore), I don't recall any other non-Nokia models that support it.
Having said that, the basic concept from this press release disguised as an article seems reasonable. While Bluetooth is certainly an improvement over WLAN WRT power usage, there's always room for improvement. We'll see how it turns out.
(* When MIDP 1.0 came, Nokia felt, somewhat rightfully, that the spec was lacking some essential features, so they created their own extension, i.e. Nokia UI API. This, combined with the market share of Nokia at least here, led to some developers writing games for only Nokia phones, so the plan was a partial success. With MIDP 2.0 the situation has got a bit better. Now who in their right mind would want to play games on their cell phone is another discussion...)
You'd reccomend it to anyone running a Mac or *nix?
I think it's used quite a bit more over here because we don't have to pay for receiving.
I'd really like to see Vurt as a movie. I know it will never be possible, even with modern CGI, but it would certainly be interesting.
Ultima Underworld. Brilliant it still is.
I know I learned initally to play the guitar by ear, and have since been playing songs just by listening them long enough (although lessons did help a lot also). While I never had the need to write the notes down, I know there are many tabs out there that are not copied, but are written by people that have just listened to the song. Isn't that quite akin to reverse-engineering? So will they be sued also?
>>1) Patents/licenses
>>2) Is Microsoft itself going to conform to the specification
>You're forgetting something
Point 3?
You're surely aware that the N-Gage was/is a Series60 phone? Running a Symbian OS? With applications and games written in C++ instead of Java? That's not to say the games wouldn't suck, but Series60 as a platform offers more features than J2ME.