they didn't fine for Bono's speech 'malfunction', which is very much why it was brought up.
Yes, that' s right, they haven't fined over it, _after_ bowing to public pressure to find it indecent. Which supports the claim that the fines are doled out in an inconsistient and unfair ( possibly political ) basis.
What bothers me the most is the fact that the Stern show fines didn't come about until he changed his position on the Iraq war and started trashing Bush's policies on-air. Of course, you can't prove that's linked to the fines, but it does remain a fact.
To make matters worse, the fines didn't cover anything recent- they went back to incidents over 2 years old, and fined for those. It seems like there should be a limit on time-from-broadcast for fines to be applied...
Sorry, I think the whole idea of "analog film is better" is a little silly. Not without it's merits, of course, but... at some point, there's a difference between science and art.
If you're interested in the science, a set of digital photos of reasonably high quality which are then composited are just as good as a single piece of film.
If you're looking at it from an art point of view, and more the 'art of photography' view rather than the 'look at this nice-looking picture' view, well, then maybe you want the one bit of film, so you can get the 'true nature' of the subject and appreciate the 'artists skill'.
But, in the long run, the digitally composited photo is _still_ by definition a photo of an analemma, and can be just as pretty ( maybe prettier ) than it's analog component.
among the several problems Gateway had with it's stores, it had the problem that it's not anywhere near a luxury or specialty brand. What differentiates Gateway from Dell? Nothing. Apple stores work for a reason- it's a luxury item that you might have to experience in person to appreciate. Think high-end clothing boutique vs. online GAP, if that kind of comparison helps you.
The only reason I think this _might_ work for Sony is that they have actually become a bit of a luxury brand; I mean, they sure as hell don't compete on price anymore. People buy Sony for brand and quality. Mostly brand, IMHO. So maybe it will work, if they limit the number of stores. Not that I think they'll make much money. We'll see. Sony might leave a few open, in key locations, even if they lost money, just to promote the brand.
I think I get it. We're basically saying the same things two slightly different ways, and somehow as a result ending with opposite-sounding conclusions.
Who cares about polymorphism in a business language? Today polymorphism is a fad. So called architects on large projects will waste time to simply include the idea of polymorphism into their design just for the sake of doing that.
And you've clearly seen some real screw-ups pretend they know what's up and convince others they do by throwing around OO concepts where they don't belong... but it's caused you to have perhaps an overly negative outlook on OO? I actually have seen at least one business application design where polymophism was useful- there were several types of data objects, but the container objects didn't care what they held so much. Polymorphism just meant that all the data objects could have one standard set of API, plus others if it needed. It was a business application, and the concept was useful. It's not always so. But there are cases.
Over time it became apparent to me that OO is in fact a fad. I am not saying that the whole concept does not have value, I am saying it is more about buz-words and marketting than it is about actually solving the problems at hand.
Perhaps you really mean that OO is overhyped and poorly understood, rather than "a fad", which implies a trend of limited lifespan? Saying something is a fad is to imply it has no lasting value or usefulness.
See, I completely agree that not all problems require OO design. Class diagrams of some systems end up being so simple that they don't help much. Time is often wasted thinking about them that way.
Here is some Java. I see this: Math.abs() - as abomination.
However, Math.abs() and static class methods in general are not so much an abomination as an indication that part of your argument is absolutely correct- not all problems require OO treatment. I mean, where else would you put an "abs" function besides in a static "Math" class ? You'd rather just say abs() ? Then don't pick Java, pick something that's a superset of C, like C++ or Objective-C... but really, it boils down to the same thing ( you have to import math.h and can't reuse the symbol ), so where's the abomination ? I don't see the problem. Except maybe having to type 5 characters more than you might like in the case of Math.*, but hey, I type way faster than I think again, no problem.
I coded in Java for too long now and I don't see it as an OO language any more. No, scratch that, I don't see that people use it that way.
Yea, many people don't use Java as an OO language, that's often because they're crap coders who, as you say, can't design a system. Or, it's because they learned Pascal and Basic and maybe C and never wrapped their heads around what objects are really about. And, sometimes, it's simply because the solution to the problem at hand doesn't involve much by the way of OO design.
So many projects that I worked on and that I see going on around are simply this: take input, transform, validate, store, produce output. Sure in all those projects the requirement is OO design. Does this mean that OO design is actually happening? Partially. Does this mean that it is good to follow some design principles? Absolutely. Does OO really matter? Absolutely not.
So you can say, at the end of the day, OO does not matter. Good design and ( where reasonable ) code resuse are what matter. I'll agree that if you can get good design and code resuse without OO design or tools, then in that case, sure, OO didn't matter.
Considering OO when designing does, however, in the long run, in many cases, promote better designs, IMHO, which is the one conclusion from all of this that I believe you and I differ on... sure *you* can design a good system without looking at it from an OO point of view, but that's just because you've been at it for a while, it's likely you've implemented *something* like the current problem in the past, and
Re:How many people care about Mac gaming anymore?
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The Sims 2 For Mac
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· Score: 1
which is to say, by the time I feel a need to upgrade the graphics card in my PowerMac, it's time to upgrade the whole thing if I can. I know a guy who upgraded his PowerMac's graphic card a few times, but he's definitely not the norm, especially among Mac users.
Re:How many people care about Mac gaming anymore?
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The Sims 2 For Mac
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· Score: 1
Oh. I tend to play one game at a time on the Mac, get a good one and stick with it for a while. Right now it's UT2004. Very cool game. I'm an adult, free time limited, no *real* interest in other games at the moment. Also play a lot of PS2 games, but only buy maybe one or two new ones a year. Typical Macintosh hardware expenditure of $1700 every 4-6 years or so "if I can".
If there was Doom3 for the Mac, I might get it, but I'm not in a hurry, I can wait. I have plenty of games.
i wasn't sure how common it is to take pre-orders when the available date isn't even determined.
Yea, it's actually really quite common to take preorders when the exact date of completion isn't announced. Lots of ( especially non-shrink-wrap ) vendors work that way. It's not like Oracle waits until it's dev and QA teams have finished approving their latest version _before_ sales guys start touting it's features to customers and scheduling upgrades.
I think the real significance of the announced pre-order that you might be getting at/wondering about is this:
The software publisher has announced that they _will_ have a product available, has agreed to sell it to a particular vendor, and vendor trusts the publisher to eventually produce the goods. Usually, the publisher has announced a timeframe for shipment, usually 'by the end of the third quarter' or something sufficiently vuage and non-contractual.
Sorry if I put you off with a slightly snarky "are you new here" comment, it just seemed like an odd question to me, preorders happen with video games constantly, and has been pretty standard for years, even with actual ship dates in doubt. It's not like it's a new practice, or even slightly unusual.
See, I want to engage in an insightful, useful intellectual discussion with you, but clearly I shouldn't even be replying, since you're making lame-ass comments like "OOP is a fad". Yea. A fad that's lasted since 1990. Get a grip.
Of course, OOP is much, much more than encapsulation ( what I was describing very, very generally as "grouping functions" ), but conceptually, it's actually not really _that_ much more, and that's part of the _good_ stuff about OO. In concept, it is somewhat ( deceptively, some would say ) simple.
Back to what I was actually talking about, namely thinking and designing in an object-oriented manner helps you to encapsulate the _design_ of the system in such a way that, even if you're not using actual OOP languages, your library and code design at least makes some logical, modular sense, limiting the number of repeated lines of code, and thus, possible locations for bugs.
My point was that designing in an OO manner is useful, regardless if you're eventually designing systems to be implemented in straight C, C++, assembly, or whatever.
Sometimes, of course, you're dealing with stuff ( usually at the very basic, low-level data end, or at the equally basic, super-high-level invocation end ) where a single, non-OOP structure or set of calls is what you want. That's where "pure" OOP languages like SmallTalk piss people like you off, and annoy most of the rest of us.
For implying that stateless EJBs are somehow non-OO because they lack, well, state, uh... I'll try to avoid insulting you and just say there's a place for static objects which encapsulate commonly used functionality. There's no problem with that in a conceptual OO sense, unless you just have a weird bias about OO in general and/or don't understand it.
Re:How many people care about Mac gaming anymore?
on
The Sims 2 For Mac
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· Score: 1
GeForce FX 5200. It's the minimum found in G5s, I think.
Runs UT2004 fullscreen quite nicely, thanks. Why do you ask?
Re:Do people care about PC games anymore?
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The Sims 2 For Mac
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· Score: 2, Interesting
what is the appeal to playing some long, complex game on a computer rather than a cheap console?
While I agree to you to a large degree ( I play the vast majority of games on my PS2 ), there is a place for games on a computer ( PC, Macintosh, Linux, SGI, whatever ) today.
That's in games where it's all about gee-whiz graphics. Games big in customization and other aspects that require large save files also benefit on a real computer, unless you're putting a hard drive in your console.
While modern consoles are pretty slick and getting faster, and some can ( or newer versions will ) hook up to high-definitions TV sets, the reality is that graphics cards, displays, and processors are all more capable on high-end computers, and always will be. I'm thinking that even for a game like Sims2, a computer-based version is going to end up looking a lot better than a current PS2 or Xbox port, at least if you have an up-to-date mid-to-high-range graphics card. Of course, this leaves the market for such high-end PC games to people with a lot of free time and money to burn. Mainly teenagers...
But yea, where is Civ3 for the PS2? I'd buy that. Of course, maybe it requires save files that would eat an entire memory card, but you *can* buy hard drives for the PS2, even though almost nobody does... there's a lot of customizable stuff in the current Sims games and even more in Sims2 that is generally left out in console ports.
is there a significance to accepting orders when you don't know when you'll finish?
You must be new around here. Software companies do pre-orders all of the time.
Heck, right now, you can go to Amazon.com and preorder OS X 1.4. Does that mean they know when it'll ship? Heck no. They have an "expected ship date", which is completely fictional - it'sjust there because it's required by a dumb law that doesn't require the date to be true.
The *significance* is that if you pre-order, you get it as soon as it's in the shrinkwrap. If you know you want it, and you'll want to get it ASAP, you can pre-order, and when it's ready, you'll get it, you don't have to even think about it.
Also, AFAIK, you typically aren't charged until the item ships.
you don't always have to write in OOP, but you *think* in OOP much more clearly, and it generally helps to uh, structure groups of functional calls... which, well, what exactly do you think OOP is, really ?
Yea, it's another tool. A useful one for design, even if your code is going to end up being functional in implementation.
all of which are good points of advice, and completely at odds with the article linked in the story.
Which helps point out that the article linked in the story ( at least the first two sections ) are some of the WORST bits of advice I've ever read on programming. Just sitting down and writing code without thinking about the problem first is a good way to waste lots of valuable time.
So the only way I can buy a new iBook from them is to drive 8+ hours to Vermont and register?
Actually, you can buy a refurbished or used or non-Apple product from Small Dog. Buy a third-party mouse or something. Then you'll be a customer. Then order whatever the heck you want. So, no driving to Vermont is not the only way.
In general, it's true that, excepting 'closeout special' offers and refurbs, you'll not get much of a better deal from Small Dog than Apple directly, excluding perhaps sales tax. That fact aside, Small Dog and several other small Apple Resellers do quite well by purchasing and selling the discontinued or soon-to-be discontinued stuff Apple has sitting around in warehouses, though that doesn't tend to happen often, thus 'small' businesses. And you can often get that stuff from them at a pretty decent discount.
And yea, I'm a happy Small Dog customer, glad to recommend these guys. Getting in on their offers is definitely worth buying something small and random before ordering new computer systems. Actually, I bought a refubished iMac... which was very like new, except several hundred dollars cheaper. With full warranty.
Yea, so Apple would rather have your business directly... I'm no fan of their reseller practices, but it's easy to work around and a hell of a lot more competition-friendly than Microsoft's ( or Dell's ) practices...
what makes you think they'll actually allow user input? I think they learned something from Real's "Freedom of Music Choice" propaganda^H^H website.
From TFA: There are, however, no plans to allow readers to discuss the documents on the Web site. "If we opened it up to that, it would simply become another one of the message boards that our detractors use to try and overwhelm us," Stowell said.
DUH!!! Because nobody in their right mind would defend SCO's actions without being a M$ shill!!!
Hi-larious. Pathetic. Everything we've come to expect from SCO...
Too bad they won't have a user feedback section, though, that would be hilarious for a whole 2 minutes...
Hey, I wonder what OS they'll be running the prosco.org webserver on ?!?
The problem is that it's the cable company's half-baked DVR implementation.
Tivo it ain't, and this guy clearly needs the simplicity of a Tivo.
Time-Warner doesn't have DirectTV's HD lineup either ( googled DirecTV HD Tivo link here ) which is definitely the way I'd go, IF I were blowing a ton of cash on HD ( er, I'm going to wait, thanks ). If I were to get an HD set right now, it'd be (1) a clear sign I have too much money (2) mainly for playing video games and watching DVDs (3) I'd get an off-air HD receiver, and *maybe* get a satellite HD feed... but even though my local Comcast HD cable is pretty good, it doesn't beat DirecTV's offerings, it just comes close.
I mean, really, you can believe what you want... but it would be a bit foolish to trust a businessman !
Not that I see Google making a browser ( I don't... maybe they'd pick up a cobrand an existing one, if anything ), but this guy's statement could just be possitioned to throw people off of an otherwise secret business strategy... I seem to recall Netflix and Tivo denying their deal quite firmly, for example...
that is to say, I don't think the release list of games was a problem until Sony circulated their battery usage limits.
Darn if I use preview, then don't notice my mistakes anyway. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I left a few key words out of my above post, rendering it even more senseless than usual.
Re:I haven't been keeping up, but...
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PSP Delayed Into 2005?
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I was about to reply based on my own limited knowledge ( from reading a few magazine articles here and there ), about how Gran Turismo 4 and a bunch of other games had demoed at E3, then I realized, you know what? You should know how to use Google by now. Jeesh.
But, since you're lazy and I'm bored of work... well, let's just say there are a very, very large number, many of which have already been seen in some sort of playable demo form, so it's less likely the release list the fact that Sony just hit all of their developers with this ( relatively ) last-minute "oh, by the way, this thing can do a lot of fancy graphics, but don't actually use those features or push the system, you have to keep your battery usage low" requirement, to which many likely said "uh, we have a problem...".
Here's just one list of PSP release games from SPOnG... use my generously provided Google link for others. The list generally includes all of the big-selling PlayStation2 games, plus a few new ( mostly handheld-oriented ) games.
A.C. writes :
My son is 3.5 year old son does the same thing.
All I need to say is, "Once upon a time there was a little boy and his three friends the green, yellow and red dinosaurs. What do you think they are going to do?"
The stories usually involve what he's done during the day or what he wants to do. Maybe an upcoming trip. I start the story and ask what the characters say or do. From there, he's telling the story and I just add in things to keep it going when he runs out of ideas.
Actually, my experience is very similar. The kid went to Chuck E. Cheese ( kid-oriented pizza place for you non-US folks ) recently, and since then the stories tend to be about he and ( either Sandy Cheeks from Spongebob, or some assortment of Teletubbies ) go to Chuck E. Cheese. Before then it was the local amusement park, and before that, the beach.
To be honest, I wish he had more breadth of stories. And more friends, too, I'm starting to think the kid watches too much TV...
My 3-year-old son has recently decided that instead of a book at bedtime, I ( or my wife ) will tell him a story. Then he tells us what the story will be about. If the story we tell him at some point doesn't include the things he thinks it should include, he tells us about it.
actually, a horse can look quite healthy at a pretty advanced age, especially if you're feeding high-quality feed, which even back in the day would be difficult to always aquire and prepare ( basiclaly, senior horse feed is chopped up really fine, that takes work ). You grow it yourself != cheap, you're talking labor costs.
Memo to self: Don't live anywhere near an active volcano.
unless it happens to be shield volcano, like Hawai'i. Your home might get burried by lava, but you'll likely know when it's time to leave, and will probably have enough warning to even load a truck first.
Of course, you could always live in Florida instead...
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, that' s right, they haven't fined over it, _after_ bowing to public pressure to find it indecent. Which supports the claim that the fines are doled out in an inconsistient and unfair ( possibly political ) basis.
What bothers me the most is the fact that the Stern show fines didn't come about until he changed his position on the Iraq war and started trashing Bush's policies on-air. Of course, you can't prove that's linked to the fines, but it does remain a fact.
To make matters worse, the fines didn't cover anything recent- they went back to incidents over 2 years old, and fined for those. It seems like there should be a limit on time-from-broadcast for fines to be applied...
If you're interested in the science, a set of digital photos of reasonably high quality which are then composited are just as good as a single piece of film.
If you're looking at it from an art point of view, and more the 'art of photography' view rather than the 'look at this nice-looking picture' view, well, then maybe you want the one bit of film, so you can get the 'true nature' of the subject and appreciate the 'artists skill'.
But, in the long run, the digitally composited photo is _still_ by definition a photo of an analemma, and can be just as pretty ( maybe prettier ) than it's analog component.
The only reason I think this _might_ work for Sony is that they have actually become a bit of a luxury brand; I mean, they sure as hell don't compete on price anymore. People buy Sony for brand and quality. Mostly brand, IMHO. So maybe it will work, if they limit the number of stores. Not that I think they'll make much money. We'll see. Sony might leave a few open, in key locations, even if they lost money, just to promote the brand.
Who cares about polymorphism in a business language? Today polymorphism is a fad. So called architects on large projects will waste time to simply include the idea of polymorphism into their design just for the sake of doing that.
And you've clearly seen some real screw-ups pretend they know what's up and convince others they do by throwing around OO concepts where they don't belong... but it's caused you to have perhaps an overly negative outlook on OO? I actually have seen at least one business application design where polymophism was useful- there were several types of data objects, but the container objects didn't care what they held so much. Polymorphism just meant that all the data objects could have one standard set of API, plus others if it needed. It was a business application, and the concept was useful. It's not always so. But there are cases.
Over time it became apparent to me that OO is in fact a fad. I am not saying that the whole concept does not have value, I am saying it is more about buz-words and marketting than it is about actually solving the problems at hand.
Perhaps you really mean that OO is overhyped and poorly understood, rather than "a fad", which implies a trend of limited lifespan? Saying something is a fad is to imply it has no lasting value or usefulness.
See, I completely agree that not all problems require OO design. Class diagrams of some systems end up being so simple that they don't help much. Time is often wasted thinking about them that way.
Here is some Java. I see this: Math.abs() - as abomination.
However, Math.abs() and static class methods in general are not so much an abomination as an indication that part of your argument is absolutely correct- not all problems require OO treatment. I mean, where else would you put an "abs" function besides in a static "Math" class ? You'd rather just say abs() ? Then don't pick Java, pick something that's a superset of C, like C++ or Objective-C... but really, it boils down to the same thing ( you have to import math.h and can't reuse the symbol ), so where's the abomination ? I don't see the problem. Except maybe having to type 5 characters more than you might like in the case of Math.*, but hey, I type way faster than I think again, no problem.
I coded in Java for too long now and I don't see it as an OO language any more. No, scratch that, I don't see that people use it that way.
Yea, many people don't use Java as an OO language, that's often because they're crap coders who, as you say, can't design a system. Or, it's because they learned Pascal and Basic and maybe C and never wrapped their heads around what objects are really about. And, sometimes, it's simply because the solution to the problem at hand doesn't involve much by the way of OO design.
So many projects that I worked on and that I see going on around are simply this: take input, transform, validate, store, produce output. Sure in all those projects the requirement is OO design. Does this mean that OO design is actually happening? Partially. Does this mean that it is good to follow some design principles? Absolutely. Does OO really matter? Absolutely not.
So you can say, at the end of the day, OO does not matter. Good design and ( where reasonable ) code resuse are what matter. I'll agree that if you can get good design and code resuse without OO design or tools, then in that case, sure, OO didn't matter.
Considering OO when designing does, however, in the long run, in many cases, promote better designs, IMHO, which is the one conclusion from all of this that I believe you and I differ on... sure *you* can design a good system without looking at it from an OO point of view, but that's just because you've been at it for a while, it's likely you've implemented *something* like the current problem in the past, and
which is to say, by the time I feel a need to upgrade the graphics card in my PowerMac, it's time to upgrade the whole thing if I can. I know a guy who upgraded his PowerMac's graphic card a few times, but he's definitely not the norm, especially among Mac users.
If there was Doom3 for the Mac, I might get it, but I'm not in a hurry, I can wait. I have plenty of games.
Yea, it's actually really quite common to take preorders when the exact date of completion isn't announced. Lots of ( especially non-shrink-wrap ) vendors work that way. It's not like Oracle waits until it's dev and QA teams have finished approving their latest version _before_ sales guys start touting it's features to customers and scheduling upgrades.
Here is the "Tiger" pre-order link.
I think the real significance of the announced pre-order that you might be getting at/wondering about is this:
The software publisher has announced that they _will_ have a product available, has agreed to sell it to a particular vendor, and vendor trusts the publisher to eventually produce the goods. Usually, the publisher has announced a timeframe for shipment, usually 'by the end of the third quarter' or something sufficiently vuage and non-contractual.
Sorry if I put you off with a slightly snarky "are you new here" comment, it just seemed like an odd question to me, preorders happen with video games constantly, and has been pretty standard for years, even with actual ship dates in doubt. It's not like it's a new practice, or even slightly unusual.
See, I want to engage in an insightful, useful intellectual discussion with you, but clearly I shouldn't even be replying, since you're making lame-ass comments like "OOP is a fad". Yea. A fad that's lasted since 1990. Get a grip.
Of course, OOP is much, much more than encapsulation ( what I was describing very, very generally as "grouping functions" ), but conceptually, it's actually not really _that_ much more, and that's part of the _good_ stuff about OO. In concept, it is somewhat ( deceptively, some would say ) simple.
Back to what I was actually talking about, namely thinking and designing in an object-oriented manner helps you to encapsulate the _design_ of the system in such a way that, even if you're not using actual OOP languages, your library and code design at least makes some logical, modular sense, limiting the number of repeated lines of code, and thus, possible locations for bugs.
My point was that designing in an OO manner is useful, regardless if you're eventually designing systems to be implemented in straight C, C++, assembly, or whatever.
Sometimes, of course, you're dealing with stuff ( usually at the very basic, low-level data end, or at the equally basic, super-high-level invocation end ) where a single, non-OOP structure or set of calls is what you want. That's where "pure" OOP languages like SmallTalk piss people like you off, and annoy most of the rest of us.
For implying that stateless EJBs are somehow non-OO because they lack, well, state, uh... I'll try to avoid insulting you and just say there's a place for static objects which encapsulate commonly used functionality. There's no problem with that in a conceptual OO sense, unless you just have a weird bias about OO in general and/or don't understand it.
Runs UT2004 fullscreen quite nicely, thanks. Why do you ask?
While I agree to you to a large degree ( I play the vast majority of games on my PS2 ), there is a place for games on a computer ( PC, Macintosh, Linux, SGI, whatever ) today.
That's in games where it's all about gee-whiz graphics. Games big in customization and other aspects that require large save files also benefit on a real computer, unless you're putting a hard drive in your console.
While modern consoles are pretty slick and getting faster, and some can ( or newer versions will ) hook up to high-definitions TV sets, the reality is that graphics cards, displays, and processors are all more capable on high-end computers, and always will be. I'm thinking that even for a game like Sims2, a computer-based version is going to end up looking a lot better than a current PS2 or Xbox port, at least if you have an up-to-date mid-to-high-range graphics card. Of course, this leaves the market for such high-end PC games to people with a lot of free time and money to burn. Mainly teenagers...
But yea, where is Civ3 for the PS2? I'd buy that. Of course, maybe it requires save files that would eat an entire memory card, but you *can* buy hard drives for the PS2, even though almost nobody does... there's a lot of customizable stuff in the current Sims games and even more in Sims2 that is generally left out in console ports.
You must be new around here. Software companies do pre-orders all of the time.
Heck, right now, you can go to Amazon.com and preorder OS X 1.4. Does that mean they know when it'll ship? Heck no. They have an "expected ship date", which is completely fictional - it'sjust there because it's required by a dumb law that doesn't require the date to be true.
The *significance* is that if you pre-order, you get it as soon as it's in the shrinkwrap. If you know you want it, and you'll want to get it ASAP, you can pre-order, and when it's ready, you'll get it, you don't have to even think about it.
Also, AFAIK, you typically aren't charged until the item ships.
Yea, it's another tool. A useful one for design, even if your code is going to end up being functional in implementation.
Which helps point out that the article linked in the story ( at least the first two sections ) are some of the WORST bits of advice I've ever read on programming. Just sitting down and writing code without thinking about the problem first is a good way to waste lots of valuable time.
Actually, you can buy a refurbished or used or non-Apple product from Small Dog. Buy a third-party mouse or something. Then you'll be a customer. Then order whatever the heck you want. So, no driving to Vermont is not the only way.
In general, it's true that, excepting 'closeout special' offers and refurbs, you'll not get much of a better deal from Small Dog than Apple directly, excluding perhaps sales tax. That fact aside, Small Dog and several other small Apple Resellers do quite well by purchasing and selling the discontinued or soon-to-be discontinued stuff Apple has sitting around in warehouses, though that doesn't tend to happen often, thus 'small' businesses. And you can often get that stuff from them at a pretty decent discount.
And yea, I'm a happy Small Dog customer, glad to recommend these guys. Getting in on their offers is definitely worth buying something small and random before ordering new computer systems. Actually, I bought a refubished iMac... which was very like new, except several hundred dollars cheaper. With full warranty.
Yea, so Apple would rather have your business directly... I'm no fan of their reseller practices, but it's easy to work around and a hell of a lot more competition-friendly than Microsoft's ( or Dell's ) practices...
XM is likely to be over in a few years anyway, right?
From TFA :
There are, however, no plans to allow readers to discuss the documents on the Web site. "If we opened it up to that, it would simply become another one of the message boards that our detractors use to try and overwhelm us," Stowell said.
DUH!!! Because nobody in their right mind would defend SCO's actions without being a M$ shill!!!
Hi-larious. Pathetic. Everything we've come to expect from SCO...
Too bad they won't have a user feedback section, though, that would be hilarious for a whole 2 minutes...
Hey, I wonder what OS they'll be running the prosco.org webserver on ?!?
Tivo it ain't, and this guy clearly needs the simplicity of a Tivo.
Time-Warner doesn't have DirectTV's HD lineup either ( googled DirecTV HD Tivo link here ) which is definitely the way I'd go, IF I were blowing a ton of cash on HD ( er, I'm going to wait, thanks ). If I were to get an HD set right now, it'd be (1) a clear sign I have too much money (2) mainly for playing video games and watching DVDs (3) I'd get an off-air HD receiver, and *maybe* get a satellite HD feed... but even though my local Comcast HD cable is pretty good, it doesn't beat DirecTV's offerings, it just comes close.
Not that I see Google making a browser ( I don't... maybe they'd pick up a cobrand an existing one, if anything ), but this guy's statement could just be possitioned to throw people off of an otherwise secret business strategy... I seem to recall Netflix and Tivo denying their deal quite firmly, for example...
Darn if I use preview, then don't notice my mistakes anyway. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I left a few key words out of my above post, rendering it even more senseless than usual.
But, since you're lazy and I'm bored of work... well, let's just say there are a very, very large number, many of which have already been seen in some sort of playable demo form, so it's less likely the release list the fact that Sony just hit all of their developers with this ( relatively ) last-minute "oh, by the way, this thing can do a lot of fancy graphics, but don't actually use those features or push the system, you have to keep your battery usage low" requirement, to which many likely said "uh, we have a problem...".
Here's just one list of PSP release games from SPOnG... use my generously provided Google link for others. The list generally includes all of the big-selling PlayStation2 games, plus a few new ( mostly handheld-oriented ) games.
All I need to say is, "Once upon a time there was a little boy and his three friends the green, yellow and red dinosaurs. What do you think they are going to do?"
The stories usually involve what he's done during the day or what he wants to do. Maybe an upcoming trip. I start the story and ask what the characters say or do. From there, he's telling the story and I just add in things to keep it going when he runs out of ideas.
Actually, my experience is very similar. The kid went to Chuck E. Cheese ( kid-oriented pizza place for you non-US folks ) recently, and since then the stories tend to be about he and ( either Sandy Cheeks from Spongebob, or some assortment of Teletubbies ) go to Chuck E. Cheese. Before then it was the local amusement park, and before that, the beach.
To be honest, I wish he had more breadth of stories. And more friends, too, I'm starting to think the kid watches too much TV...
Sounds like interactive story-telling to me...
Excepting, of course, the fact that the Zarus runs Linux, not Windows, and is thus simply better...
actually, a horse can look quite healthy at a pretty advanced age, especially if you're feeding high-quality feed, which even back in the day would be difficult to always aquire and prepare ( basiclaly, senior horse feed is chopped up really fine, that takes work ). You grow it yourself != cheap, you're talking labor costs.
unless it happens to be shield volcano, like Hawai'i. Your home might get burried by lava, but you'll likely know when it's time to leave, and will probably have enough warning to even load a truck first.
Of course, you could always live in Florida instead...