You kidding? Th 3000 units were probably gone within one hour of the stores offering it. And currently they're nt going to sell it anyway because at least the German store is completely slashdotted.
Of course that's of little concern to me because I signed up for their newsletter so I'd receive notification when it becomes available. Worked really well and now I'm out 300 Euros for a Pandora, some gear and a donation to a Pandora Free Software fund.
I don't think it looks like that in real life. The bad stitching extends for a bit to both sides. It appears that either there has been a huge amount of construction in the area or someone screwed up making the pictures fit.
One more reason Sweden is more awesome than Germany. Over here most ISPs offer 16000k/1024k max and that's only in or around metropolitan areas. I'm in a rural area (read: 40 km from the next big city) and all I can get is 3000k/? (probably somewhere around 386k to 512k down). If I want more I'll probably have to get my own E3 line for an absurd amount of money.
It must be nice to live in a wonderland where you can download stuff with speeds close to Ethernet or where your upstream has the same order of magnitude as your downstream...
My phone has a camera. Yes, the camers sucks, but in theory I could use it... if I was actually able of getting those pictures onto my computer. Does my phone come with IrDA? Nope. Does it come with Bluetooth? No, it's a low-end phone. Does it come with a data cable? No, Motorola wants extra money for that.
I'm left with a device that theoretically supports all kinds of things but actually can't do them because the manufacturer decided that being able to use them is so optional people should pay twenty bucks for a USB cable beforehand. Dicks.
My next phone will come with either Bluetooth, a MicroSD slot or a standard mini-USB jack. But then again I'll probably pay for my next phone - unlike the current one, which I got off a relative when their contract entitled them to an upgrade. Mobile phones aren't really important enough to pay real money for. Well, unless you need to compensate for somthing.
Actually, Command Control is in sector B of deck 1 (Engineering), between the cargo bays. It's not really that interesing a place though - unless SecuROM installs part #45M/dEX in your Systems Monitoring unit, in which case there's little to stop it from flushing the fluidic tunnels, restarting the main reactor, accessing deck 3 (Hydroponics) and making its way towards deck 4 (Operations) to meet with the machine mother. You might want to get started on putting those eggs into the escape pods before installing Spore.
No, this is great. Thing like this are making strong DRM a liability to the corps, thus providing an incentive not to use it. This is the little man fighting back and I must say I like it. I hope this suit does go somewhere - it'd not just affect SecuROM but also set a precedent against including intrusive copy protection software with video games.
I do, but I like the fact that physically bought music already comes with an additional backup not coupled to any other backup I make.
Also, let's remember that many users simply aren't smart enough to make backups but smart enough to rip their CDs (a process made trivial by modern media players). They get this as well.
True. Details should be easily available on a per-case basis. Maybe the config setting could be added there as well (knowing Windows it'd end up as a standardized Registry entry but meh).
Yeah, it only works if the user has to provide the string at first boot and there's no default value. But seriously, if Microsoft would tone down UAC and add this instead they'd get lots of love for it. It's infintesimally annoying, requires just a minute of setup and (unless the UI team screws up) should be intuitive even to novice users.
Avatar image: [img] (This image will be displayed alongside your user name on the login screen. Choose the one you like best.)
User name: [__________] (This name will be used by you to login to this computer.)
Password: [__________] (This is used to verify that someone trying to login to this account is indeed you.)
Repeat password: [__________] (In order to avoid typos please type the password again.)
Notice phrase: [__________] (This phrase is used to distinguish real Windows message windows from fake ones generated by malicious websites. Enter anything you like. All real Windows messages will display what you have entered here.)
There's no real way to make a window type that "only" the OS can use. The malware authors would just open one up, take a screenshot and change the text. If you removed the ability to take screenshots, they'd just start up VNC first and do it.
No, the idea behind that was that:
a) You can't use a screenshot because the dialog uses an animation, a certain cursor etc.
b) You can't just use JavaScript to make one of these pop up and somehow hijack it.
However, even the most sophisticated methods there simply aren't as powerful as displaying a user-provided string. (A splatter pattern would work, too, but the string makes it especially obvious how low-tech this approach actually is.)
Popups should reveal the cryptic stuff only when a debug flag is set, which defaults to off in end-user builds of the software. In all other cases there should be something like "$APPNAME has crashed due to a bug. Please report the contents of $APP_DATADIR/crashlogs/$DATE.txt to us as http://domain/crashes. [OK]". The user should always know what the thing that just happened means for him, not what exactly happened. If someone really wants to know the details he can take the config file and add a line saying "Errors = verbose" or something like that.
In any way I think that the desktop environment can help, too. There should be defined popup styles for various events (crash, error, generic etc.), which should be impossible to recreate using simple images. GNOME/KDE kind of do this by allowing a multitude of styles, although users using something popular like the default Ubuntu look would still be possible targets. Vista-style blur effects might help, but are either too subtle or people simply don't notice. Maybe there could be some kind of authenticity indicator - a special mouse cursor used only for these popups (and inaccessible everywhere else) or an animation that plays when you mouse into the window. Of course those can be recreates using Flash...
Maybe the dialog should simply display something only the OS can know. The user could be asked to enter a certain phrase upon first boot (of a given profile) and that phrase is incorporated into the dialog - and of course completely inaccessible from everywhere else.
Of course I'm actually overthinking this; most people would still click malicious popups even if they only remotely looked like real windows at all.
My brother has an HD capable TV. It's nice for movies that make use of a high dynamic range (looks better in 1080p for some reason) and for games - but I think a PC monitor without HDMI port can give me that resolution for a better price. (I just checked; 300 bucks already buys you 1920x1200 while LCD TVs with 1080p start at 600 bucks.)
Of course plasma might give me better colors or something. But I seriously don't see the point in paying absurd amounts like 1000 Euros for a TV. I could build a very capable PC for the same money - or buy a decent monitor and a Mac Mini.
Give me a 25" FullHD capable TV for less than the cost of a CRT of the same size and I might consider switching. Before that I don't see a point in replacing my fully functional 28" CRT that only gets to display SD broadcasts anyway.
There isn't that much HD content on TV anymore - in Germany they used to show most movies in HD, but now they either skip the "sharper than reality" ad ost of the time or don't show many HD movies anymore. I guess it's the second one as HDTV reception has been lukewarm over here. Most people are sticking with their old TVs until they break and there is no business case for pushing HD content if most people can't watch HD.
I think it's going to be 2015 to 2020 before we have 90+% HD adoption and maybe three to five years before that there will be a business case for broadcasting in HD. Until then everyone will happily continue using their SD equipment.
Four years is ridiculous. A TV set should last ten, fifteen years (depending on manufacturer). I won't buy an HD capable set (and thus no HD capable media) before my current 4:3 CRT dies and if that happens before 2015 I'm going to be pissed.
I don't want to have to do that. I don't see why I should prefer a format that is less convenient. When I have the choice between a bunch of downloaded MP3s and a physical disk that comes with high-quality MP3s and additional stuff and doesn't require an internet connection, why should I choose the download? The download is only advantageous when I can't go to the store or when I think the store is not going to have what I want.
Yes, unfortunately corporations aren't what they used to be. The concept is about serving the public good but nowadays "the public good" seems to have been redefined to "the shareholders' dividend", consequences be damned.
The physical media is nice because it's essentially an external backup. Even if your entire IT infrastructure dies a horrible death you still have the media around and can restore. It sits in its own protective case, which keeps it relatively safe from damage. Since the case already is around it might as well look nice. Of course the rest of the stuff is icing, but it's very welcome icing when I buy the album/game/whatever.
If Apple etc. come up with a way for me to have a backup that I can use with as many machines as I like without having to go online, even if all machines that contained the data before have died, and that I automatically receive upon buying the song, I agree that physical media are useless. But I seriously doubt that.
Because their tower went to heaven (read: lower to central athmosphere) while ours goes to space. Heaven is nowhere near GSO; no wonder their counterweight station fell down. Also there have been advances in nanotechnology since - I think Babylonian nanowires weren't nearly strong enough to realistically support a space elevator, especially not a badly designed one.
Actually, it will more resemble a pulley. They wrap the cable around the moon and back to earth and create a continuous loop. Then they can just pull on the one end to lift anything up into lunar orbit. Of course they will have to make the moon geosynchronous first, but that's just a minor setback.
Slashdot Mirror
You kidding? Th 3000 units were probably gone within one hour of the stores offering it. And currently they're nt going to sell it anyway because at least the German store is completely slashdotted.
Of course that's of little concern to me because I signed up for their newsletter so I'd receive notification when it becomes available. Worked really well and now I'm out 300 Euros for a Pandora, some gear and a donation to a Pandora Free Software fund.
Also, there's some rather bad stitching.
I don't think it looks like that in real life. The bad stitching extends for a bit to both sides. It appears that either there has been a huge amount of construction in the area or someone screwed up making the pictures fit.
Not many people realize the state of New York is actually a small American enclave in the Netherlands.
One more reason Sweden is more awesome than Germany. Over here most ISPs offer 16000k/1024k max and that's only in or around metropolitan areas. I'm in a rural area (read: 40 km from the next big city) and all I can get is 3000k/? (probably somewhere around 386k to 512k down). If I want more I'll probably have to get my own E3 line for an absurd amount of money.
It must be nice to live in a wonderland where you can download stuff with speeds close to Ethernet or where your upstream has the same order of magnitude as your downstream...
Yes, but Web 2.0 has turned them from things to avoid into a design checklist.
My phone has a camera. Yes, the camers sucks, but in theory I could use it... if I was actually able of getting those pictures onto my computer. Does my phone come with IrDA? Nope. Does it come with Bluetooth? No, it's a low-end phone. Does it come with a data cable? No, Motorola wants extra money for that.
I'm left with a device that theoretically supports all kinds of things but actually can't do them because the manufacturer decided that being able to use them is so optional people should pay twenty bucks for a USB cable beforehand. Dicks.
My next phone will come with either Bluetooth, a MicroSD slot or a standard mini-USB jack. But then again I'll probably pay for my next phone - unlike the current one, which I got off a relative when their contract entitled them to an upgrade. Mobile phones aren't really important enough to pay real money for. Well, unless you need to compensate for somthing.
Actually, Command Control is in sector B of deck 1 (Engineering), between the cargo bays. It's not really that interesing a place though - unless SecuROM installs part #45M/dEX in your Systems Monitoring unit, in which case there's little to stop it from flushing the fluidic tunnels, restarting the main reactor, accessing deck 3 (Hydroponics) and making its way towards deck 4 (Operations) to meet with the machine mother. You might want to get started on putting those eggs into the escape pods before installing Spore.
No, this is great. Thing like this are making strong DRM a liability to the corps, thus providing an incentive not to use it. This is the little man fighting back and I must say I like it. I hope this suit does go somewhere - it'd not just affect SecuROM but also set a precedent against including intrusive copy protection software with video games.
I also distinctly remember the FILE NOT FOUND ERROR.
I do, but I like the fact that physically bought music already comes with an additional backup not coupled to any other backup I make.
Also, let's remember that many users simply aren't smart enough to make backups but smart enough to rip their CDs (a process made trivial by modern media players). They get this as well.
True. Details should be easily available on a per-case basis. Maybe the config setting could be added there as well (knowing Windows it'd end up as a standardized Registry entry but meh).
Yeah, it only works if the user has to provide the string at first boot and there's no default value. But seriously, if Microsoft would tone down UAC and add this instead they'd get lots of love for it. It's infintesimally annoying, requires just a minute of setup and (unless the UI team screws up) should be intuitive even to novice users.
Avatar image: [img] (This image will be displayed alongside your user name on the login screen. Choose the one you like best.)
User name: [__________] (This name will be used by you to login to this computer.)
Password: [__________] (This is used to verify that someone trying to login to this account is indeed you.)
Repeat password: [__________] (In order to avoid typos please type the password again.)
Notice phrase: [__________] (This phrase is used to distinguish real Windows message windows from fake ones generated by malicious websites. Enter anything you like. All real Windows messages will display what you have entered here.)
I think even Joe Sixpack should get that.
No, the idea behind that was that:
a) You can't use a screenshot because the dialog uses an animation, a certain cursor etc.
b) You can't just use JavaScript to make one of these pop up and somehow hijack it.
However, even the most sophisticated methods there simply aren't as powerful as displaying a user-provided string. (A splatter pattern would work, too, but the string makes it especially obvious how low-tech this approach actually is.)
Popups should reveal the cryptic stuff only when a debug flag is set, which defaults to off in end-user builds of the software. In all other cases there should be something like "$APPNAME has crashed due to a bug. Please report the contents of $APP_DATADIR/crashlogs/$DATE.txt to us as http://domain/crashes. [OK]". The user should always know what the thing that just happened means for him, not what exactly happened. If someone really wants to know the details he can take the config file and add a line saying "Errors = verbose" or something like that.
In any way I think that the desktop environment can help, too. There should be defined popup styles for various events (crash, error, generic etc.), which should be impossible to recreate using simple images. GNOME/KDE kind of do this by allowing a multitude of styles, although users using something popular like the default Ubuntu look would still be possible targets. Vista-style blur effects might help, but are either too subtle or people simply don't notice. Maybe there could be some kind of authenticity indicator - a special mouse cursor used only for these popups (and inaccessible everywhere else) or an animation that plays when you mouse into the window. Of course those can be recreates using Flash...
Maybe the dialog should simply display something only the OS can know. The user could be asked to enter a certain phrase upon first boot (of a given profile) and that phrase is incorporated into the dialog - and of course completely inaccessible from everywhere else.
Of course I'm actually overthinking this; most people would still click malicious popups even if they only remotely looked like real windows at all.
My brother has an HD capable TV. It's nice for movies that make use of a high dynamic range (looks better in 1080p for some reason) and for games - but I think a PC monitor without HDMI port can give me that resolution for a better price. (I just checked; 300 bucks already buys you 1920x1200 while LCD TVs with 1080p start at 600 bucks.)
Of course plasma might give me better colors or something. But I seriously don't see the point in paying absurd amounts like 1000 Euros for a TV. I could build a very capable PC for the same money - or buy a decent monitor and a Mac Mini.
Give me a 25" FullHD capable TV for less than the cost of a CRT of the same size and I might consider switching. Before that I don't see a point in replacing my fully functional 28" CRT that only gets to display SD broadcasts anyway.
There isn't that much HD content on TV anymore - in Germany they used to show most movies in HD, but now they either skip the "sharper than reality" ad ost of the time or don't show many HD movies anymore. I guess it's the second one as HDTV reception has been lukewarm over here. Most people are sticking with their old TVs until they break and there is no business case for pushing HD content if most people can't watch HD.
I think it's going to be 2015 to 2020 before we have 90+% HD adoption and maybe three to five years before that there will be a business case for broadcasting in HD. Until then everyone will happily continue using their SD equipment.
Four years is ridiculous. A TV set should last ten, fifteen years (depending on manufacturer). I won't buy an HD capable set (and thus no HD capable media) before my current 4:3 CRT dies and if that happens before 2015 I'm going to be pissed.
Disk Runs (Maybe)
I don't want to have to do that. I don't see why I should prefer a format that is less convenient. When I have the choice between a bunch of downloaded MP3s and a physical disk that comes with high-quality MP3s and additional stuff and doesn't require an internet connection, why should I choose the download? The download is only advantageous when I can't go to the store or when I think the store is not going to have what I want.
Yes, unfortunately corporations aren't what they used to be. The concept is about serving the public good but nowadays "the public good" seems to have been redefined to "the shareholders' dividend", consequences be damned.
You tell a coporation to not grow? That's like telling a cab driver to do his job without a car. Growth is the sole raison d' être for a corporation.
The physical media is nice because it's essentially an external backup. Even if your entire IT infrastructure dies a horrible death you still have the media around and can restore. It sits in its own protective case, which keeps it relatively safe from damage. Since the case already is around it might as well look nice. Of course the rest of the stuff is icing, but it's very welcome icing when I buy the album/game/whatever.
If Apple etc. come up with a way for me to have a backup that I can use with as many machines as I like without having to go online, even if all machines that contained the data before have died, and that I automatically receive upon buying the song, I agree that physical media are useless. But I seriously doubt that.
Because their tower went to heaven (read: lower to central athmosphere) while ours goes to space. Heaven is nowhere near GSO; no wonder their counterweight station fell down. Also there have been advances in nanotechnology since - I think Babylonian nanowires weren't nearly strong enough to realistically support a space elevator, especially not a badly designed one.
Actually, it will more resemble a pulley. They wrap the cable around the moon and back to earth and create a continuous loop. Then they can just pull on the one end to lift anything up into lunar orbit. Of course they will have to make the moon geosynchronous first, but that's just a minor setback.
That's definitely possible; the Ministry of Agriculture has already denied being involved with the space elevator project.