The author misses the point of using an open source product to such a degree that I have to think they're doing it on purpose.
Not all of the companies involved will be able to make enough money out of these products to stay in business. That means that at some point in the future the market will consolidate and a number of these products will disappear.
Uh, excuse me ? Just as an example, let's look at PostgreSQL. How long has it been around ? What company might go out of business that would suddenly make it 'disappear' ? Even if IBM were to die a horrible death at the hands of SCO's lawyers in some ( completely bizarro ) alternate universe, would Cloudscape really fail to exist ? Uh, not really, since I have the source.
See my point? If your business decides to use an open source product as part of it's service offerings, it's generally a win for your company, because - get this - you are in complete control. What, you say some developers forked the product line and you have to choose between two forks. Hey, you get to choose! There's a bug and nobody has put a fix for it in a released version yet ? There's a good chance you can either pick up code for the fix, or figure out what needs to be done on your own. In practice, I've found helpful developers willing to point out fixes in CVS logs _and_ host one-off binaries.
Here I'm only addressing the most obvious problem with this short article. Don't bother. This smells of FUD created for pointy-haired boss consumption.
The points made in the article could have as easily been phrased the other way : "If you choose an open-source database, you might not be forced into expensive upgrades! The horror!". Sigh... does the Reg just write these things as Slashdot troll-stories, hoping they'll get linked here, to generate traffic as we all bash the story for it's lameness? That's just me being cynical, right?
Damn, I'm in a foul mood today, aren't I ?!? Still pissed off about Mitch Hedburg, I guess.
Seriously, though, did you look at the mascot on his website? A significant number of people hate the kind of smug pretentiousness portrayed there. Even stupid people hate to be looked down on. Scratch that- stupid people especially hate to be looked down on.
Are you sure you're not just Nick Burns posting as someone else ?
Sorry, I had to ask. On a more serious note, some of the responses you've seen so far are on the mark. You're an expense. If things worked the way they're supposed to, much of your expertise wouldn't be needed. If you're just troubleshooting, yea, you're the new version of the copier repair tech. Neither lawyers nor electrical engineers nor mid-level executives see you as their peer.
Worse, there has been a lot to dilute the view of computer professionals as _professionals_ lately, from the luster being knocked off tech by the dot-com bust, to an increasing number of posers ( think 'leetspeak' ) trying to pass themselves off as technologically knowledgeable, to a flood of certified MS/NET/CISCO/whatever folks who took a two-day class and paid for an exam but don't know how to _do_ squat, to an increase of good-ol' Amerkin anti-intellectualism. Call it a backlash if you will, but I think it's real. You can get respect now, but you really have to earn it, and you won't always get it even if you deserve it.
When I read, "I don't see the benefit", I understood that to mean just that--there is not benefit for you and your situation. So, what I don't understand stand is "unless you're into supporting Microsoft". Who? The reader? One? Those referants might not have the same situation
What I meant is that I don't see the advantage over using the a Windows Media Player device with this service over using a PSP with some other source of content. It's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, but I am somewhat implicitly assuming a few things.
(1) if you're investing in either technology, you likely have a video feed in your house already. Who doesn't have cable or satellite TV and is looking at a PSP or Windows Media Player handheld?
(2) assuming you don't already have either device, which at this point is most people; if you have either a PSP or Windows Media Player portable right now, you're an early adopter by definition.
So, doing a side-by-side comparison, assuming your goal is mobile video viewing, I'd almost be tempted in my situation to get a PSP, just because it's a cool gaming device _also_, and I could use it without getting WindowsXP ( and a machine that can run it well ) and a $20 service.
I'm guessing that a good number of people will use Microsoft's service, for the simple fact that it's not very expensive and gives them something to do with their otherwise questionably useful and slightly expensive media player. The question is how many people will go out and buy a media player to do this, as opposed to how many people will subscribe but only ever watch on their computers. If you're just watching on your computer... there are a lot of other places to get video content, many free, or with more um, 'interesting' content.
Perhaps they find--as you do--that they "pay way too much" for it and are willing to dump their current subscription for one cheaper but better targetted to their needs.
Well, I guess that assumes that the service provides the content you want. No South Park and no Survivor are deal-killers for me. So I need to keep my satellite or cable in any event, a service like this is going to be compliment, not a replacement... and right now, I'm not seeing any of the stuff offered as being terribly compelling. I only see people subscribing because, heck, $20 is cheap enough, why not. But I'd be a *lot* more likely to load content from a Tivo to a media player than sign up a service like this just for that exclusive purpose.
I am hoping for a future where video entertainment is a la carte... On the other hand, I fear the possibility that an a la carte system will increase the premium on interesting-to-me but not-popular-with-advertiesers content.
You're not the only one who is afraid of that. Since it's terribly difficult to predict what is going to be a hit, studios and content providers are both pretty scared of a la carte, not just because it's different from what they're used to. To a large extent, I personally think the whole thing is driven by everone's greed, though. We have a large number of commercials because advertisers want them to be cheap and producers want to be able to charge a premium for their product. I've always felt that a good system would have fewer, more expensive, more targeted ( thus more effective ) ads.
The technology genie is out of the bottle, though. A significant number of people just hate seeing advertisements, and it's going to be a struggle to find ways to force them to watch, just as it's a struggle to force people not to share files on an open network, just because their content happens to have this artificial, unenforced notion of 'copyright' attached. TiVo's new pop-up adds, while interesting and part of this battle, don't help the content producers, though, since that revenue doesn't end up in their pockets. This is all somewhat unrelated to the main topic, though. Microsoft's offering here strikes me as just the content they could gather up cheaply, used as an offering to keep people
Re:it's not a switch to Apple, but a return
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There was a brief time when cracker came to mean hacker, but I think the meaning has drifted back to a more original variation where it means more hacker than cracker.
To me, 'hacker' always was and always will be reserved for someone who works with undocumented APIs, machine code and/or unconventional hardware in an unstructured environment. A hacker is not neccessarilly a good programmer, they're just people trying something different with systems and hardware that you typically wouldn't do, often without formal training on the systems they're working on. Yea, I know, it's an elaborate, somewhat mid-70's to late-80's usage, but that's where I got it. I grok that people use it differently. I guess I should have said not right IMHO. Why not just say hard-core programmer or bleeding-edge programmer, or even just computer geek, rather than hacker ?
I know I'm not alone on my take that 'hacker' does not imply good programmer... although, I guess MIT student doesn't imply good programmer either;-)
Oh, yea, like I said, he knows his stuff... and has been using Macs for a long, long time. I was just trying to point out that it's not his area of expertise per se- he actually reads like more of an embedded systems guy, or, as it turns out, a FreeBSD/*nix guy, and my point was that, hey, cool, the Mac mini has him and other like him looking at Apple hardware again. Which is good for Apple.
You guys are not alone on the desire to call it a mini-mac. I have to try really hard to type "Mac mini"... I think "big M-a-c little mini" or I get it all wrong ( including the capitalization, it's branded to match the iPod mini ). Steve and company wanted to brand it like that for some sort of reason ( they don't want it to be percieved as a joke, I guess ), but it'll always be the mini-mac to us, eh?
95% of the time, the business changes their mind about the project and/or doesn't know what they want, anyway.
That's so mind-numbingly obvious that anyone with half a brain should actually question if it's not more like 98% of the time. Honestly, when was the last time you ever saw a complete specification of a programming project ? If you did see such an animal, how often did the resulting project, *after* going through several rounds of bug fixes, require additional features or design changes because the workflow was difficult for the end user, key features had been missed in design, or the needs changed ?
Add to that the typical problems experts have in seeing their limitations- I'm talking about a programmer's ability to correctly guess how long some task will take- and you have a scenario where almost every project is going to be really, really late if you're using the date agreed on by the developer and the designer/user/product manager/marketing drone/whatever. You're better off hiring a third independant QA or project planner and asking them, and even then- double the quantity. With one of our developers here, even though he's been at it for over 20 years, I just multiply his estimate by 6 if I want to know how long something is *really* going to take. 6. I kid you not. That's usually pretty close to correct.
1) Windows Media Player device
2) Windows XP
3) Windows Media Player 10
4) The desire to pay $19.95 a year for content I can access via TV ( which I already pay way too much for and is much less restrictive in terms of possible uses ) or the internet ( as others have pointed out, some of this content is available online already ).
Sure, I could get any and all of the above, but... compared to using my existing setup and a PSP to accomplish basically the same goal ( plus play killer games ), I don't see the benefit, unless you're into supporting Microsoft.
It'll be interesting to see how widespread the adoption of this becomes. Oh, also, a prediction: what do you want to bet you'll be able to get at this via the next XBox ? If the next generation XBox can't connect to this service, someone should be fired. Heck, they should be able to roll this out on the current generation XBox- but probably won't because they want folks to buy Media Players and new XBoxes.
You know what's most interesting to me about this article? The fact that it's written by a guy who is clearly not actually very expert on things Apple. I find the fact that he's not seriously an Apple guy very cool, and very indicative that Apple's really done something different with the introduction of the Mac mini.
Don't get me wrong, he knows what's up, but... it's not clear he's an expert in some of the more subtle areas, like Open Firmware- the 'zap the PRAM three times' function is supposed to clear the Open Firmware password, as an example. He seems to be more of an embedded systems guy rather than an Apple hardware geek, that's all.
Funny, that was my first thought. However, the websites that kid was posting on were ( from a very brief reading of the news services ) on neo-nazi websites... did Black Flag host such things? There's quite a significant difference between 'anarchist' and 'neo-nazi'... the two actually don't mix well at all.
Not a chance in hell. Windows will get a top-screen menu bar first. I complain about the menu bar in all confidence that it won't be changed. In fact, I'm not super-sure there's a better way to do it- I'm just sure that users look at the window, not the menu bar, to decide which app has focus.
Oh, wait, you were actually talking about the Finder in the above statement, weren't you? Huh. I find it amusing that you don't use menu keyboard shortcuts, but you use cmd-2/cmd-3 to switch the finder view instead of using the 'chicklet' button in the window ! What's up with that, is it because the button moves, like the guy in the article was complaining about ? I guess that's besides the point. I actually find the button moving less annoying than the window style changing. My opinion is that the Finder isn't broken ( though it could probably be improved upon ), it just needs to pick a look ( not brushed metal, if I get my choice ) and stick with it. I have no problem with the old-style view for folks who like it- I just actually use the shortcuts and toolbar a lot myself, and so I get annoyed when they aren't there.
Re:it's not a switch to Apple, but a return
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But I wouldn't call myself a hacker nowadays, so I'm not sure if it's as true.
I'm not sure I'd call your typical MIT CS student a hacker, either. Not your typical one, anyway. The author was clearly using the term as code for 'bleeding-edge programmer', which is really sort of not right.
It's not a MAC emulator. It's a Mac emulator. CherryOS and PearPC don't allow you to emulate the Media Access Control.
I also hate that. It makes the writer sound and look so ignorant. Every time I read it, I'd like to bitch-slap the writer upside the head with a PowerMac G5 case.
That annoys me so much I could strangle a manatee in the nude.
That, however, is an image I really didn't need... why in the nude ? You might want to talk to a psychiatric professional about that one...
What do you want to bet that the 'editor' posted this story submission in particular because they knew we'd all get pissed off about the stupid "MAC" comment ?
Re:it's not a switch to Apple, but a return
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Hackers have always loved Apple.
Actually, I'd have to say, I think that around the time of the Performa, hackers did not exactly love Apple. That whole period between 1989 and 1997 left a lot to be desired, and it wasn't *simply* a lack of Steve Jobs as many would have you believe- he was there for a lot of that. The company was not thinking about what it needed to do in a reasonable manner. I say that as someone who owns a PowerMac 6100.
The vendor takes care of repairs under warranty onsite to minimize downtime
Ok, that makes sense.
I appreciate the straightforward response. While we have an XServe or two and are a small business that is *very* dependant on said servers, it's likely that in the event of some major emergency, we could slap the drives on some other G5 Macintosh we have lying around and use it as a server, so we didn't even consider having the extra expense of such a contract. I doubt that would make sense for an operation that only needs one or two servers, which is our case.
and so that you don't have to have someone onsite who knows how to fix every piece of gear you own.
We also have a couple of guys who are pretty handy with hardware, not that there's much beyond a hard drive or memory or motherboard swap-out that you would want to do to an XServe anyway. In fact, the user-servicable parts on an XServe ( or an IBM blade server, for that matter ) are such that I'm not sure I readily see this part of the contract being a big deal ( unless you're running a data center staffed by non-technical folks, in which case I smell disaster ), but if you're going to pay extra for onsite repairs, you get this.
For us, knowing we can send it back to Apple ( or quickly get replacement parts ) if it breaks is good enough. I had assumed that a 'real' data center these days would have enough overhead that even 10% of the machines failing at once wouldn't be a disaster, you should always have a surplus of computing resources, shouldn't you ? You wouldn't really need 2x the XServes, just a spare or two to cover that time before you get new parts from Apple. I do see how such a service contract is a nice bit of piece-of-mind, though, and I understand folks not wanting to run without one if possible. In our case, we really want OS X server, not Linux, so we'd actually just buy an extra XServe or two if we needed. It's not like they're terribly expensive.
I guess it's ironic or whatever, but we are geographically located near one of those 10 cities, so I guess we could get one of those contracts, but I don't think it would make sense for us.
..or until you marry and your significant other makes you get rid of all the "crap"
Preview preview preview! That was *exactly* ( well, -almost- verbatim ) what I had in place before I edited it out, forgetting that I was leaving the either word behind. If I still had mod points, I'd give you a +1 insightful. Too funny.
Do you blame her, or the people who voted for GW
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Senator Clinton Slams GTA
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Do you blame her, or do you blame the people who voted for GW in the last election citing 'morals' as the reason? I'm still puzzled by that, actually, but... clearly, she's been taking some more traditionally right-wing stances lately, and everyone seems to think, probably correctly, that she's gearing up for a national election ( either as V.P. or president, it's anyone's guess ).
Politically, this stance on video games is pretty safe, and you'll note that all she's doing here is saying we should study how bad the problem really is.
She could be doing this knowing full and well that any honest study may come back with the result of "these are no worse than movies and books", with the final result being ( in the worst case ) congress passing laws requiring age restrictions on games. Honestly, I think that's going to far, and they're actually likely to get struck down in court ( IF we can keep GW from packing in another serious social conservative, which isn't looking good ), but in the long run, it might be good for the industry and result in even *more* explicit games. When you have to get a game from behind the counter or from a local non-blockbuster video store or an online source because *mart is too weak to carry it, the gloves are off, you can make that game as nasty as you want.
In the long run, a video game is no different than a movie in a lot of ways, so if there's some lame decency rating system that prevents a minor from buying a really gory, racist, sexist movie, then that same system should be placed on games, in all seriousness and fairness. But it should actually ( I think ) be the same system- it's not right to use stricter standards for games than other video content.
Untimately, though, we have a generally bad situation in America, where people are abdicating their parental responsibilities to the state, and it's not OK. If your kid is playing a graphic game, and you don't want them to, you should be able to prevent them without affecting the rest of society. It's no different than letting them buy a really gory or violent DVD. Don't let them do it, and take it and punish them if they get one. You're the parent, act like it. If you want the state to police your morals, move to Iran, they'll help you out.
it's not a switch to Apple, but a return
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That's what he says in the article "it's not a switch to Apple, but a return", and at least in my case, it's true in many ways. It's not just a return to Apple. It's a return to NeXTStep APIs as well.
The beauty of OS X, though, is that not only are the NeXTStep APIs there, but you can also develop X Windows apps, Python, PERL, Lisp, Java, C, C++... what can't you do? Heck, if you had to, thanks to the Mono folks, you can even do C#. All that with easy administration, no viri ( yet! ), a solid *nix security model, great *nix compatablity and a solid foundation of user apps. It's a real computer geek's wet dream, and nobody should be shocked to see lots of programmers ( given the choice ) picking Apple machines as their primary development box.
I can get an on-site service contract for IBM gear here no problem but Apple (Siemens) will only show up if you're within 100 miles of ~ 10 major US cities.
Can I ask what you'd need such a contract for ? I'm not sure how that'd be a deal-breaker. What's the purpose of such a contract?
Re:Games are the key...
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Return of the Mac
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I would switch if games didn't come out until a year after the PC version does.
Right. Games are key for you. For these MIT geeks? I remember my college days, and if I wasn't in class, writing code, writing papers, reading, doing problem sets, eating or sleeping, I was decompressing ( partying, playing foosball, hiking, playing music, anything NOT near a video screen ). If you have time to worry about playing Halo2 or Doom3 or whatever the -very- second it comes out, you're actually -not- the guys they're talking about in this article, as much as you might like to be.
The games aren't key for me, either, even years out of college. I'm more interested in writing my own 3D OpenGL code than shooting an endless series of monsters someone else created. Occasionaly, I do want to do some gaming, but I generally find UT2k or even ( gasp! ) some of my old PS2 games like GTA Vice City fill that need just fine, even though I've played them through many a time... I understand your mentality, but you have to realize, it's just you and a relatively small group of your peers who feel the need to be on the cutting edge of high-performance video gaming. *Most* people are willing to wait, and the *true* tech geeks don't really have the time to spend on games that you do. If they do have that time, they eventually decide they'd rather create their own game engines.
Also, why not have a Mac, too? I haven't used it in ages, since I can't think of a good reason to do so, but I do have my PC sitting in my shop. Real geeks collect computer hardware just to check it out, and don't get rid of it until they're either out of space. A Mac laptop might make sense for a guy like you, if you have a use for a computer on the go, since gaming on a laptop kinda sucks anyway... but then, if you have no desire to work on anything but your WinXP box, don't know *nix, and don't need a mobile machine, maybe you shouldn't bother with anything different, if gaming is your #1 use for a computer. The guys they're talking about here, though? Gaming is not the #1 concern for them. It's not even number 2 or 3...
I agree, the whole thing is a bit problematic, but then again, it's a bit like not having a good compiler implementation for your hardware, isn't it ?
At the end of the day, I can't shake the feeling that the people complaining maybe need to actually -do- something instead of complain. Do you want lots of features implemented in a short time period, or do you want all of the code produced to be fully cross-platform ANSI C?? Pick one. Most users are going to prefer features, and most users are going to be able to use a JVM for Linux as provided by Sun. Creating a VM isn't easy. That said, I doubt you need full, current functionality for these Java-based functions... and sticking to true Free Software ideals isn't easy, either. If that's your goal, you're going to have to work at it.
Actually, I was being dead serious. It's exactly their kind of thing, and uh, at the risk of you thinking I'm mocking again ( hint: I'm not, I watch cartoon network ), the show actually would match their target demographic perfectly.
It does take a special kind of geek to watch cartoons about their favorite Sci-Fi show.
Really? Some of my favorite sci-fi shows are cartoons. Aeon Flux, Heavy Metal, heck, Transformers... don't even get started on that 'anime' genre. Sci-fi and cartoons mix very, very well... the medium is not as limiting or expensive as live action, and if your imagination is good enough to really enjoy sci-fi, you can probably get past even simplistic animation and still enjoy the story... I hadn't even thought of the Clone Wars show, but it's a perfect example of why I think that'd be a good bet for this show.
What's the real issue ? Is the real issue simply that Sun wants to retain the right to define what Java(TM) is ?
Given that it's perfectly legal to implement a system like Kaffe, given that it exists, that it can be done if you absolutely must, what is the actual issue with using Java in Open Source projects? Lord knows there are _tons_ of FOSS projects written in Java out there...
If the issue is just the Sun license and the "non-official" status of projects like Kaffe, to that I just have to say, guys, get over yourself. If you don't like the Open Office folks writing functionality that depends on Java, write it in C or whatever your self and contribute it. Seriously.
As far as end users? They don't care what something is written in. They want something that works. To that end, placing yet another installation requirement in the chain isn't great, but at the same time, the vast majority of user installations ( including on Linux ) simply aren't complete without a working JVM anyway, so... what's the big deal again?
Slashdot Mirror
Not all of the companies involved will be able to make enough money out of these products to stay in business. That means that at some point in the future the market will consolidate and a number of these products will disappear.
Uh, excuse me ? Just as an example, let's look at PostgreSQL. How long has it been around ? What company might go out of business that would suddenly make it 'disappear' ? Even if IBM were to die a horrible death at the hands of SCO's lawyers in some ( completely bizarro ) alternate universe, would Cloudscape really fail to exist ? Uh, not really, since I have the source.
See my point? If your business decides to use an open source product as part of it's service offerings, it's generally a win for your company, because - get this - you are in complete control. What, you say some developers forked the product line and you have to choose between two forks. Hey, you get to choose! There's a bug and nobody has put a fix for it in a released version yet ? There's a good chance you can either pick up code for the fix, or figure out what needs to be done on your own. In practice, I've found helpful developers willing to point out fixes in CVS logs _and_ host one-off binaries.
Here I'm only addressing the most obvious problem with this short article. Don't bother. This smells of FUD created for pointy-haired boss consumption.
The points made in the article could have as easily been phrased the other way : "If you choose an open-source database, you might not be forced into expensive upgrades! The horror!". Sigh... does the Reg just write these things as Slashdot troll-stories, hoping they'll get linked here, to generate traffic as we all bash the story for it's lameness? That's just me being cynical, right?
Seriously, though, did you look at the mascot on his website? A significant number of people hate the kind of smug pretentiousness portrayed there. Even stupid people hate to be looked down on. Scratch that- stupid people especially hate to be looked down on.
Sorry, I had to ask. On a more serious note, some of the responses you've seen so far are on the mark. You're an expense. If things worked the way they're supposed to, much of your expertise wouldn't be needed. If you're just troubleshooting, yea, you're the new version of the copier repair tech. Neither lawyers nor electrical engineers nor mid-level executives see you as their peer.
Worse, there has been a lot to dilute the view of computer professionals as _professionals_ lately, from the luster being knocked off tech by the dot-com bust, to an increasing number of posers ( think 'leetspeak' ) trying to pass themselves off as technologically knowledgeable, to a flood of certified MS/NET/CISCO/whatever folks who took a two-day class and paid for an exam but don't know how to _do_ squat, to an increase of good-ol' Amerkin anti-intellectualism. Call it a backlash if you will, but I think it's real. You can get respect now, but you really have to earn it, and you won't always get it even if you deserve it.
What I meant is that I don't see the advantage over using the a Windows Media Player device with this service over using a PSP with some other source of content. It's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, but I am somewhat implicitly assuming a few things.
(1) if you're investing in either technology, you likely have a video feed in your house already. Who doesn't have cable or satellite TV and is looking at a PSP or Windows Media Player handheld?
(2) assuming you don't already have either device, which at this point is most people; if you have either a PSP or Windows Media Player portable right now, you're an early adopter by definition.
So, doing a side-by-side comparison, assuming your goal is mobile video viewing, I'd almost be tempted in my situation to get a PSP, just because it's a cool gaming device _also_, and I could use it without getting WindowsXP ( and a machine that can run it well ) and a $20 service.
I'm guessing that a good number of people will use Microsoft's service, for the simple fact that it's not very expensive and gives them something to do with their otherwise questionably useful and slightly expensive media player. The question is how many people will go out and buy a media player to do this, as opposed to how many people will subscribe but only ever watch on their computers. If you're just watching on your computer... there are a lot of other places to get video content, many free, or with more um, 'interesting' content.
Perhaps they find--as you do--that they "pay way too much" for it and are willing to dump their current subscription for one cheaper but better targetted to their needs.
Well, I guess that assumes that the service provides the content you want. No South Park and no Survivor are deal-killers for me. So I need to keep my satellite or cable in any event, a service like this is going to be compliment, not a replacement... and right now, I'm not seeing any of the stuff offered as being terribly compelling. I only see people subscribing because, heck, $20 is cheap enough, why not. But I'd be a *lot* more likely to load content from a Tivo to a media player than sign up a service like this just for that exclusive purpose.
I am hoping for a future where video entertainment is a la carte... On the other hand, I fear the possibility that an a la carte system will increase the premium on interesting-to-me but not-popular-with-advertiesers content.
You're not the only one who is afraid of that. Since it's terribly difficult to predict what is going to be a hit, studios and content providers are both pretty scared of a la carte, not just because it's different from what they're used to. To a large extent, I personally think the whole thing is driven by everone's greed, though. We have a large number of commercials because advertisers want them to be cheap and producers want to be able to charge a premium for their product. I've always felt that a good system would have fewer, more expensive, more targeted ( thus more effective ) ads.
The technology genie is out of the bottle, though. A significant number of people just hate seeing advertisements, and it's going to be a struggle to find ways to force them to watch, just as it's a struggle to force people not to share files on an open network, just because their content happens to have this artificial, unenforced notion of 'copyright' attached. TiVo's new pop-up adds, while interesting and part of this battle, don't help the content producers, though, since that revenue doesn't end up in their pockets. This is all somewhat unrelated to the main topic, though. Microsoft's offering here strikes me as just the content they could gather up cheaply, used as an offering to keep people
To me, 'hacker' always was and always will be reserved for someone who works with undocumented APIs, machine code and/or unconventional hardware in an unstructured environment. A hacker is not neccessarilly a good programmer, they're just people trying something different with systems and hardware that you typically wouldn't do, often without formal training on the systems they're working on. Yea, I know, it's an elaborate, somewhat mid-70's to late-80's usage, but that's where I got it. I grok that people use it differently. I guess I should have said not right IMHO. Why not just say hard-core programmer or bleeding-edge programmer, or even just computer geek, rather than hacker ?
I know I'm not alone on my take that 'hacker' does not imply good programmer... although, I guess MIT student doesn't imply good programmer either ;-)
You guys are not alone on the desire to call it a mini-mac. I have to try really hard to type "Mac mini"... I think "big M-a-c little mini" or I get it all wrong ( including the capitalization, it's branded to match the iPod mini ). Steve and company wanted to brand it like that for some sort of reason ( they don't want it to be percieved as a joke, I guess ), but it'll always be the mini-mac to us, eh?
That's so mind-numbingly obvious that anyone with half a brain should actually question if it's not more like 98% of the time. Honestly, when was the last time you ever saw a complete specification of a programming project ? If you did see such an animal, how often did the resulting project, *after* going through several rounds of bug fixes, require additional features or design changes because the workflow was difficult for the end user, key features had been missed in design, or the needs changed ?
Add to that the typical problems experts have in seeing their limitations- I'm talking about a programmer's ability to correctly guess how long some task will take- and you have a scenario where almost every project is going to be really, really late if you're using the date agreed on by the developer and the designer/user/product manager/marketing drone/whatever. You're better off hiring a third independant QA or project planner and asking them, and even then- double the quantity. With one of our developers here, even though he's been at it for over 20 years, I just multiply his estimate by 6 if I want to know how long something is *really* going to take. 6. I kid you not. That's usually pretty close to correct.
1) Windows Media Player device 2) Windows XP 3) Windows Media Player 10 4) The desire to pay $19.95 a year for content I can access via TV ( which I already pay way too much for and is much less restrictive in terms of possible uses ) or the internet ( as others have pointed out, some of this content is available online already ). Sure, I could get any and all of the above, but... compared to using my existing setup and a PSP to accomplish basically the same goal ( plus play killer games ), I don't see the benefit, unless you're into supporting Microsoft. It'll be interesting to see how widespread the adoption of this becomes. Oh, also, a prediction: what do you want to bet you'll be able to get at this via the next XBox ? If the next generation XBox can't connect to this service, someone should be fired. Heck, they should be able to roll this out on the current generation XBox- but probably won't because they want folks to buy Media Players and new XBoxes.
Don't get me wrong, he knows what's up, but... it's not clear he's an expert in some of the more subtle areas, like Open Firmware- the 'zap the PRAM three times' function is supposed to clear the Open Firmware password, as an example. He seems to be more of an embedded systems guy rather than an Apple hardware geek, that's all.
Funny, that was my first thought. However, the websites that kid was posting on were ( from a very brief reading of the news services ) on neo-nazi websites... did Black Flag host such things? There's quite a significant difference between 'anarchist' and 'neo-nazi'... the two actually don't mix well at all.
Here's the hardware abuse link, I don't think it's shown up here yet.
Heh heh, trolls are funny.
Not a chance in hell. Windows will get a top-screen menu bar first. I complain about the menu bar in all confidence that it won't be changed. In fact, I'm not super-sure there's a better way to do it- I'm just sure that users look at the window, not the menu bar, to decide which app has focus.
Oh, wait, you were actually talking about the Finder in the above statement, weren't you? Huh. I find it amusing that you don't use menu keyboard shortcuts, but you use cmd-2/cmd-3 to switch the finder view instead of using the 'chicklet' button in the window ! What's up with that, is it because the button moves, like the guy in the article was complaining about ? I guess that's besides the point. I actually find the button moving less annoying than the window style changing. My opinion is that the Finder isn't broken ( though it could probably be improved upon ), it just needs to pick a look ( not brushed metal, if I get my choice ) and stick with it. I have no problem with the old-style view for folks who like it- I just actually use the shortcuts and toolbar a lot myself, and so I get annoyed when they aren't there.
I'm not sure I'd call your typical MIT CS student a hacker, either. Not your typical one, anyway. The author was clearly using the term as code for 'bleeding-edge programmer', which is really sort of not right.
I also hate that. It makes the writer sound and look so ignorant. Every time I read it, I'd like to bitch-slap the writer upside the head with a PowerMac G5 case.
That annoys me so much I could strangle a manatee in the nude.
That, however, is an image I really didn't need... why in the nude ? You might want to talk to a psychiatric professional about that one...
What do you want to bet that the 'editor' posted this story submission in particular because they knew we'd all get pissed off about the stupid "MAC" comment ?
Actually, I'd have to say, I think that around the time of the Performa, hackers did not exactly love Apple. That whole period between 1989 and 1997 left a lot to be desired, and it wasn't *simply* a lack of Steve Jobs as many would have you believe- he was there for a lot of that. The company was not thinking about what it needed to do in a reasonable manner. I say that as someone who owns a PowerMac 6100.
Ok, that makes sense.
I appreciate the straightforward response. While we have an XServe or two and are a small business that is *very* dependant on said servers, it's likely that in the event of some major emergency, we could slap the drives on some other G5 Macintosh we have lying around and use it as a server, so we didn't even consider having the extra expense of such a contract. I doubt that would make sense for an operation that only needs one or two servers, which is our case.
and so that you don't have to have someone onsite who knows how to fix every piece of gear you own.
We also have a couple of guys who are pretty handy with hardware, not that there's much beyond a hard drive or memory or motherboard swap-out that you would want to do to an XServe anyway. In fact, the user-servicable parts on an XServe ( or an IBM blade server, for that matter ) are such that I'm not sure I readily see this part of the contract being a big deal ( unless you're running a data center staffed by non-technical folks, in which case I smell disaster ), but if you're going to pay extra for onsite repairs, you get this.
For us, knowing we can send it back to Apple ( or quickly get replacement parts ) if it breaks is good enough. I had assumed that a 'real' data center these days would have enough overhead that even 10% of the machines failing at once wouldn't be a disaster, you should always have a surplus of computing resources, shouldn't you ? You wouldn't really need 2x the XServes, just a spare or two to cover that time before you get new parts from Apple. I do see how such a service contract is a nice bit of piece-of-mind, though, and I understand folks not wanting to run without one if possible. In our case, we really want OS X server, not Linux, so we'd actually just buy an extra XServe or two if we needed. It's not like they're terribly expensive.
I guess it's ironic or whatever, but we are geographically located near one of those 10 cities, so I guess we could get one of those contracts, but I don't think it would make sense for us.
Preview preview preview! That was *exactly* ( well, -almost- verbatim ) what I had in place before I edited it out, forgetting that I was leaving the either word behind. If I still had mod points, I'd give you a +1 insightful. Too funny.
Politically, this stance on video games is pretty safe, and you'll note that all she's doing here is saying we should study how bad the problem really is.
She could be doing this knowing full and well that any honest study may come back with the result of "these are no worse than movies and books", with the final result being ( in the worst case ) congress passing laws requiring age restrictions on games. Honestly, I think that's going to far, and they're actually likely to get struck down in court ( IF we can keep GW from packing in another serious social conservative, which isn't looking good ), but in the long run, it might be good for the industry and result in even *more* explicit games. When you have to get a game from behind the counter or from a local non-blockbuster video store or an online source because *mart is too weak to carry it, the gloves are off, you can make that game as nasty as you want.
In the long run, a video game is no different than a movie in a lot of ways, so if there's some lame decency rating system that prevents a minor from buying a really gory, racist, sexist movie, then that same system should be placed on games, in all seriousness and fairness. But it should actually ( I think ) be the same system- it's not right to use stricter standards for games than other video content.
Untimately, though, we have a generally bad situation in America, where people are abdicating their parental responsibilities to the state, and it's not OK. If your kid is playing a graphic game, and you don't want them to, you should be able to prevent them without affecting the rest of society. It's no different than letting them buy a really gory or violent DVD. Don't let them do it, and take it and punish them if they get one. You're the parent, act like it. If you want the state to police your morals, move to Iran, they'll help you out.
The beauty of OS X, though, is that not only are the NeXTStep APIs there, but you can also develop X Windows apps, Python, PERL, Lisp, Java, C, C++... what can't you do? Heck, if you had to, thanks to the Mono folks, you can even do C#. All that with easy administration, no viri ( yet! ), a solid *nix security model, great *nix compatablity and a solid foundation of user apps. It's a real computer geek's wet dream, and nobody should be shocked to see lots of programmers ( given the choice ) picking Apple machines as their primary development box.
Can I ask what you'd need such a contract for ? I'm not sure how that'd be a deal-breaker. What's the purpose of such a contract?
Right. Games are key for you. For these MIT geeks? I remember my college days, and if I wasn't in class, writing code, writing papers, reading, doing problem sets, eating or sleeping, I was decompressing ( partying, playing foosball, hiking, playing music, anything NOT near a video screen ). If you have time to worry about playing Halo2 or Doom3 or whatever the -very- second it comes out, you're actually -not- the guys they're talking about in this article, as much as you might like to be.
The games aren't key for me, either, even years out of college. I'm more interested in writing my own 3D OpenGL code than shooting an endless series of monsters someone else created. Occasionaly, I do want to do some gaming, but I generally find UT2k or even ( gasp! ) some of my old PS2 games like GTA Vice City fill that need just fine, even though I've played them through many a time... I understand your mentality, but you have to realize, it's just you and a relatively small group of your peers who feel the need to be on the cutting edge of high-performance video gaming. *Most* people are willing to wait, and the *true* tech geeks don't really have the time to spend on games that you do. If they do have that time, they eventually decide they'd rather create their own game engines.
Also, why not have a Mac, too? I haven't used it in ages, since I can't think of a good reason to do so, but I do have my PC sitting in my shop. Real geeks collect computer hardware just to check it out, and don't get rid of it until they're either out of space. A Mac laptop might make sense for a guy like you, if you have a use for a computer on the go, since gaming on a laptop kinda sucks anyway... but then, if you have no desire to work on anything but your WinXP box, don't know *nix, and don't need a mobile machine, maybe you shouldn't bother with anything different, if gaming is your #1 use for a computer. The guys they're talking about here, though? Gaming is not the #1 concern for them. It's not even number 2 or 3...
At the end of the day, I can't shake the feeling that the people complaining maybe need to actually -do- something instead of complain. Do you want lots of features implemented in a short time period, or do you want all of the code produced to be fully cross-platform ANSI C?? Pick one. Most users are going to prefer features, and most users are going to be able to use a JVM for Linux as provided by Sun. Creating a VM isn't easy. That said, I doubt you need full, current functionality for these Java-based functions... and sticking to true Free Software ideals isn't easy, either. If that's your goal, you're going to have to work at it.
Actually, I was being dead serious. It's exactly their kind of thing, and uh, at the risk of you thinking I'm mocking again ( hint: I'm not, I watch cartoon network ), the show actually would match their target demographic perfectly.
It does take a special kind of geek to watch cartoons about their favorite Sci-Fi show.
Really? Some of my favorite sci-fi shows are cartoons. Aeon Flux, Heavy Metal, heck, Transformers... don't even get started on that 'anime' genre. Sci-fi and cartoons mix very, very well... the medium is not as limiting or expensive as live action, and if your imagination is good enough to really enjoy sci-fi, you can probably get past even simplistic animation and still enjoy the story... I hadn't even thought of the Clone Wars show, but it's a perfect example of why I think that'd be a good bet for this show.
Given that it's perfectly legal to implement a system like Kaffe, given that it exists, that it can be done if you absolutely must, what is the actual issue with using Java in Open Source projects? Lord knows there are _tons_ of FOSS projects written in Java out there...
If the issue is just the Sun license and the "non-official" status of projects like Kaffe, to that I just have to say, guys, get over yourself. If you don't like the Open Office folks writing functionality that depends on Java, write it in C or whatever your self and contribute it. Seriously.
As far as end users? They don't care what something is written in. They want something that works. To that end, placing yet another installation requirement in the chain isn't great, but at the same time, the vast majority of user installations ( including on Linux ) simply aren't complete without a working JVM anyway, so... what's the big deal again?