I want to DL music because I can't buy the music I want locally here. I usually import a 8-a dozen CDs a year. When what I want isn't on radio and isn't in the local shops here, you bet your ass I want to hear it somewhere before I buy it. 2 years ago when mp3s were common I DL a couple of songs a week and buy from a dozen different artists. I would try a few songs from new artists and buy their CD if I liked it. 100% of the artists I buy today I had not heard of 3 years ago.
Now, since mp3 sites are gone from the web and I don't like to use the usenet, irc, or nap type stuff, I don't buy music anymore. There are only about 3-4 artists I like enough to buy CDs w/o having to listen to them. Moreover, I don't know when new CDs are released. Since my music isn't available locally, there are no TV ads, etc telling me something new is available. I have to go out to look for websites for info like that. I don't bother.
What would allow me to sample more music and buy more CDs? Web based mp3 sites only. I use a modem. I want to SEE info on exactly what I'm DL'ing before spending 30min to get it. Would I try a new format if it were free? No. I'm not going to waste time learning the ins and outs of a new format. If I were that desperate I would be using gnutella now wouldn't I?
So why am I so lazy that I won't spend a little time to find free music? Because I have a job. I work, I make $. $ to buy CDs. Except there are no CDs I want to buy now, because there's nowhere I can sample any.
Hrm. I don't think we'd make a blip in ratings. What kind of people do they use for ratings anyway? I'm sure they'll find some way of automatically finding compliant viewers as their subjects.
It'd be great to import CDs, but quite simply, it's illegal in some countries, and also you have things like DVD regions stuffing you around anyway.
The point is, copying CDs doesn't make a person less of a human. Stuff like murder does, and teaching that kind of stuff to children might actually be useful. Teaching children that sharing is evil is only in the interests of big corps, it doesn't churn out prettier, kinder, purer teens for the betterment of society.
Games? The battery life on the IPaq is bad enough normally, why would you think you'd want to play games on this? Plus how much of your precious memory do you want to store your game on? You wouldn't have much left for work!
Go out and buy a GameBoy Advance or something. At least there'd be games you can get for it.
There's always risk of data loss. But what I can't understand is why a billion dollar company didn't have anyone install some backup tapes for them? 7 days outage and loss of data? What, did the outage also go thru the backup tapes and delete them? How can this be possible? Does anyone have experience who can explain to me why backups can fail so badly?
It amazes me that every time the word touchpad is mentioned we have dozens of people who tell us they hate them and can't get used to them.
We can write in machine code, we can give commentary on laws on countries we don't live in, we tell of how we beat 'the man' in his own game, and yet we can't use this little 2 inch square we call a touchpad.
I love my touchpad. It lets me do things you can't do with a mouse, even when you add 5 extra programmable buttons to it and several scrolly things. I also have a mouse connected to the same computer for tasks where the mouse is more suitable.
Now back to they keyboard. I can try to imagine that it would be OK for typing tasks and such, but when it comes to games, it's gotta hurt when you're hitting keys madly but find that you're drumming against a brick wall because there's no give...
I remember playing with both Lego and Meccano when I was a kid. With lego, I had lots of small pieces which I could use to build whatever I wanted. If I got a new lego set, I could mix it with my existing ones and build new objects.
With Meccano, the pieces are so big. If I was building something, I couldn't easily turn that long piece into the short piece I needed. There just wasn't as much fun when you're limited to a small number of greatly varying pieces.
Just because you're the type of person who prefers low level programming doesn't mean all programmers should be low level programmers. I prefer to use higher level languages, I like building GUIs, but I also got good scores in my assembly classes. We had 2 subjects in my CS course with assembly, and I think that's plenty for the average programmer. CE students of course would have more, and they'd also have to take a few EE subjects, because that's what they need in their jobs.
Programmers are supposed to produce solid programs quickly, and clearly it is more efficient to pull from well known and tested components than to rebuild your own wheel every time.
Incidentally, I found that the people who sucked at the assembly classes sucked at all the other classes too. I didn't know anyone who got great scores in one type of programming and scraped thru with a pass in another...
with hacker tools such as the hex editor and the scientific calculator banned, how would you teach comp sci at uni?
seriously tho, the bill would probably not be passed in its present form, given the many obvious problems with it.
the main problem is that the it ministers on both our major parties have no clue. in fact, i'm not sure there's a single politician here who has a clue about IT. at least none that has spoken out in public
Here in Australia, we use plastic bills with clear windows in them. Kinda like your holograms, but they're just clear with some pattern in the middle. We've had this for over 10 years, you can fold them over the window and they're fine.
speak for yourself. I DO like using windows. I DO hate when it crashes. I DO install workarounds for when MS tries for force stuff down my throat. I DO hate programming oracle forms in solaris. I DO wish Macs were cheaper and more software was available for them. But until then, I DO choose of my free will to use Windows as my main environment.
I don't like MS's marketing dept, or their strategy planners. But until unix can give a consistent set of widgets to build with, and all apps have a similar look and feel (I know some lamers are skinning everything in every OS now) and until unix can let me do all my tasks with my keyboard and not my mouse - like all the keyboard access in windows, I will keep using windows as my preferred platform.
Anyway, what's more likely to succeed? Getting a bunch of paying customers and whining to MS to stop fucking around? Or trying to get millions of part time open source volunteers to give up their differences and work on a common goal? Face it. Volunteers only want to work on the 'cool' stuff. Only paid workers can be forced to do the boring but necessary work.
On GPL software, Bill says
it impossible for a commercial company to use any of that work or build on any of that work
Now tell me, since when could a commercial company use proprietary code from another commercial company and build on it?
OK, maybe one of the few companies that regularly build on other's work (or just buys them out) is MS itself. Does Bill even know what goes on in MS nowadays? He sounds kinda like a misinformed layman.
The thing with IBM is, when you buy IBM servers, you also pay for them to manage the servers for you. Having this reporting tool is common sense for fast service.
But when you buy a personal PC for your home, you want to install software you like on it, and play with it as much as you want. You don't want your MB maker to manage your PC for you. If you did, you would have paid someone to do it.
So why would a MB maker be so stupid to offer a feature the consumer doesn't want to pay for or use, when it can sell the feature to corporate users? New features for the sake of new features?
You don't need GPS to detect if your speed decreases from, say 50 mph, to 0 mph within 1 second. You can equally have a speed detector within the car, which can call the ambulance automatically. It can be placed say under the driver's seat, so that if it were destroyed and can't make the call, the chances are that you're destroyed anyway too.
See, that system cost you almost $4000, but there are people like me who are happy with a complete system that costs less than $1000. So I'm actually looking at you the same way you're looking at those rich enough to spend 6 digits on a system.
If you think C/C++ should be the language to teach low level and memory management stuff, you obviously haven't been to school the past 10 years. When I was at uni, we used several different assembly languages when we needed to learn about registers and other CPU functions. When we needed to learn about memory management and virtual memory, we had a 1MB toy OS and some special compiler to play with. When you want to learn about OO, then obviously you want an OO language to teach it with.
Lets face it. C++ is an OO addon to C. You can use all the classes and STL you want and still program procedurally. At least Java would encourage you not to do so.
OO and OS are 2 different classes. Why would you choose a language to do both instead of choosing the most appropriate for each one?
OK, for all of you ppl in the US, here's how things work down here.
The average user uses DIALUP connections, not cable. Many ISPs still charge by the hour. The 'unlimited' type dialup plans are mostly the same: 300MB limit per month, 4hr disconnect time. Additional MB are usually charged at 20-30c. These plans usually cost us AU$20-30/mth. All traffic, incl. email/spam etc, counts towards our 300MB limit.
Now, how can you tell me that a 3GB limit is unreasonable? Maybe you're all just used to free/cheap ISPs over there.
more rational users are asking for reasonable limits to be set up
3GB/mth is over 100MB a day. What the hell do you need more bandwidth for? Even ppl that collect mp3s don't usually DL that much. The only reason you could use more than 3GB is prolly if you were watching full motion video all day on your comp instead of on your TV. And I think that's exactly the type of people Telstra are trying to kick off. Tell me how this affects the average user?
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You only pay 31% tax? Here in Australia, the top bracket is 48%. Sometime long in the past the top rate was 101%!
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I want to DL music because I can't buy the music I want locally here. I usually import a 8-a dozen CDs a year. When what I want isn't on radio and isn't in the local shops here, you bet your ass I want to hear it somewhere before I buy it. 2 years ago when mp3s were common I DL a couple of songs a week and buy from a dozen different artists. I would try a few songs from new artists and buy their CD if I liked it. 100% of the artists I buy today I had not heard of 3 years ago.
Now, since mp3 sites are gone from the web and I don't like to use the usenet, irc, or nap type stuff, I don't buy music anymore. There are only about 3-4 artists I like enough to buy CDs w/o having to listen to them. Moreover, I don't know when new CDs are released. Since my music isn't available locally, there are no TV ads, etc telling me something new is available. I have to go out to look for websites for info like that. I don't bother.
What would allow me to sample more music and buy more CDs? Web based mp3 sites only. I use a modem. I want to SEE info on exactly what I'm DL'ing before spending 30min to get it. Would I try a new format if it were free? No. I'm not going to waste time learning the ins and outs of a new format. If I were that desperate I would be using gnutella now wouldn't I?
So why am I so lazy that I won't spend a little time to find free music? Because I have a job. I work, I make $. $ to buy CDs. Except there are no CDs I want to buy now, because there's nowhere I can sample any.
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Hrm. I don't think we'd make a blip in ratings. What kind of people do they use for ratings anyway? I'm sure they'll find some way of automatically finding compliant viewers as their subjects.
---
It'd be great to import CDs, but quite simply, it's illegal in some countries, and also you have things like DVD regions stuffing you around anyway.
The point is, copying CDs doesn't make a person less of a human. Stuff like murder does, and teaching that kind of stuff to children might actually be useful. Teaching children that sharing is evil is only in the interests of big corps, it doesn't churn out prettier, kinder, purer teens for the betterment of society.
---
Games? The battery life on the IPaq is bad enough normally, why would you think you'd want to play games on this? Plus how much of your precious memory do you want to store your game on? You wouldn't have much left for work!
Go out and buy a GameBoy Advance or something. At least there'd be games you can get for it.
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There's always risk of data loss. But what I can't understand is why a billion dollar company didn't have anyone install some backup tapes for them? 7 days outage and loss of data? What, did the outage also go thru the backup tapes and delete them? How can this be possible? Does anyone have experience who can explain to me why backups can fail so badly?
---
It amazes me that every time the word touchpad is mentioned we have dozens of people who tell us they hate them and can't get used to them.
We can write in machine code, we can give commentary on laws on countries we don't live in, we tell of how we beat 'the man' in his own game, and yet we can't use this little 2 inch square we call a touchpad.
I love my touchpad. It lets me do things you can't do with a mouse, even when you add 5 extra programmable buttons to it and several scrolly things. I also have a mouse connected to the same computer for tasks where the mouse is more suitable.
Now back to they keyboard. I can try to imagine that it would be OK for typing tasks and such, but when it comes to games, it's gotta hurt when you're hitting keys madly but find that you're drumming against a brick wall because there's no give...
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Argh, find me /any/ programmer that has the capacity to document their work! Something other than
// increment i
i++;
and then have no comments when they use some complicated algorithm!
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I remember playing with both Lego and Meccano when I was a kid. With lego, I had lots of small pieces which I could use to build whatever I wanted. If I got a new lego set, I could mix it with my existing ones and build new objects.
With Meccano, the pieces are so big. If I was building something, I couldn't easily turn that long piece into the short piece I needed. There just wasn't as much fun when you're limited to a small number of greatly varying pieces.
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Just because you're the type of person who prefers low level programming doesn't mean all programmers should be low level programmers. I prefer to use higher level languages, I like building GUIs, but I also got good scores in my assembly classes. We had 2 subjects in my CS course with assembly, and I think that's plenty for the average programmer. CE students of course would have more, and they'd also have to take a few EE subjects, because that's what they need in their jobs.
Programmers are supposed to produce solid programs quickly, and clearly it is more efficient to pull from well known and tested components than to rebuild your own wheel every time.
Incidentally, I found that the people who sucked at the assembly classes sucked at all the other classes too. I didn't know anyone who got great scores in one type of programming and scraped thru with a pass in another...
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with hacker tools such as the hex editor and the scientific calculator banned, how would you teach comp sci at uni?
seriously tho, the bill would probably not be passed in its present form, given the many obvious problems with it.
the main problem is that the it ministers on both our major parties have no clue. in fact, i'm not sure there's a single politician here who has a clue about IT. at least none that has spoken out in public
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Here in Australia, we use plastic bills with clear windows in them. Kinda like your holograms, but they're just clear with some pattern in the middle. We've had this for over 10 years, you can fold them over the window and they're fine.
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True, but Kodak obviously wants to make sure hteir stuff will work 1st go when the final product arrives.
Otherwise they'll lose millions of clueless customers b4 they learn about whatever patch they create.
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Hey
speak for yourself. I DO like using windows. I DO hate when it crashes. I DO install workarounds for when MS tries for force stuff down my throat. I DO hate programming oracle forms in solaris. I DO wish Macs were cheaper and more software was available for them. But until then, I DO choose of my free will to use Windows as my main environment.
I don't like MS's marketing dept, or their strategy planners. But until unix can give a consistent set of widgets to build with, and all apps have a similar look and feel (I know some lamers are skinning everything in every OS now) and until unix can let me do all my tasks with my keyboard and not my mouse - like all the keyboard access in windows, I will keep using windows as my preferred platform.
Anyway, what's more likely to succeed? Getting a bunch of paying customers and whining to MS to stop fucking around? Or trying to get millions of part time open source volunteers to give up their differences and work on a common goal? Face it. Volunteers only want to work on the 'cool' stuff. Only paid workers can be forced to do the boring but necessary work.
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Now tell me, since when could a commercial company use proprietary code from another commercial company and build on it?
OK, maybe one of the few companies that regularly build on other's work (or just buys them out) is MS itself. Does Bill even know what goes on in MS nowadays? He sounds kinda like a misinformed layman.
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fun to play with, gets attacked by evil entities, but can sometimes fight back and win?
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The thing with IBM is, when you buy IBM servers, you also pay for them to manage the servers for you. Having this reporting tool is common sense for fast service.
But when you buy a personal PC for your home, you want to install software you like on it, and play with it as much as you want. You don't want your MB maker to manage your PC for you. If you did, you would have paid someone to do it.
So why would a MB maker be so stupid to offer a feature the consumer doesn't want to pay for or use, when it can sell the feature to corporate users? New features for the sake of new features?
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You don't need GPS to detect if your speed decreases from, say 50 mph, to 0 mph within 1 second. You can equally have a speed detector within the car, which can call the ambulance automatically. It can be placed say under the driver's seat, so that if it were destroyed and can't make the call, the chances are that you're destroyed anyway too.
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now we have retina burn-in
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lawyers do bad things
we tell them we hate them and don't trust them
lawyers do good things
we tell them we hate them and don't trust them
do we all sound like total shits or what?
why should any entity pay any attention to us in the future if we act like this?
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See, that system cost you almost $4000, but there are people like me who are happy with a complete system that costs less than $1000. So I'm actually looking at you the same way you're looking at those rich enough to spend 6 digits on a system.
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If you think C/C++ should be the language to teach low level and memory management stuff, you obviously haven't been to school the past 10 years. When I was at uni, we used several different assembly languages when we needed to learn about registers and other CPU functions. When we needed to learn about memory management and virtual memory, we had a 1MB toy OS and some special compiler to play with. When you want to learn about OO, then obviously you want an OO language to teach it with.
Lets face it. C++ is an OO addon to C. You can use all the classes and STL you want and still program procedurally. At least Java would encourage you not to do so.
OO and OS are 2 different classes. Why would you choose a language to do both instead of choosing the most appropriate for each one?
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1999
Netscape user reads on site:
This site must be viewed using IE4+
2001
IE user reads on site:
This site must be viewed using Netscape4+ or IE4-5
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OK, for all of you ppl in the US, here's how things work down here.
The average user uses DIALUP connections, not cable. Many ISPs still charge by the hour. The 'unlimited' type dialup plans are mostly the same: 300MB limit per month, 4hr disconnect time. Additional MB are usually charged at 20-30c. These plans usually cost us AU$20-30/mth. All traffic, incl. email/spam etc, counts towards our 300MB limit.
Now, how can you tell me that a 3GB limit is unreasonable? Maybe you're all just used to free/cheap ISPs over there.
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3GB/mth is over 100MB a day. What the hell do you need more bandwidth for? Even ppl that collect mp3s don't usually DL that much. The only reason you could use more than 3GB is prolly if you were watching full motion video all day on your comp instead of on your TV. And I think that's exactly the type of people Telstra are trying to kick off. Tell me how this affects the average user?
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