Yes, but it doesn't just pop away. No no. It licks itself, barks, wags its @*#!ing tail and walks away into the sunset, taking its time... Ah, those little things that can drive a man insane...
You could, for no charge at all, download OpenOffice for Windows (or whatever OS you're using), load up your documents and save them in RTF or Word format, that MS Word would happily accept. Problem solved. Even in the worst case scenario, suppose many years from now you could no longer find a version of OO for your operating system - you could still find documentation of its format and decipher it.
Now, think what would happen in the reverse situation. WTF indeed.
Could someone write an extension that causes Firefox to automatically precache all links containing the word "next"? or ">"? or if the link is an image, check if it's named "right" (like a right arrow), or if its ALT tag says "next".... That way, the next page would always load while the user is reading the current page, eliminating the wait - especially when on a slow connection or if the site is undergoing a slashdotting.
Am I the only one who thinks this would be a good idea?
The iPhone is mentioned in the first paragraph and in the headline, perhaps to grab the reader's attention. The rest of the article is about the DRM restrictions in music purchased from iTunes. While this will also apply to the iPhone (as it includes iPod functionality) I really can't see why this article is remotely interesting or newsworthy. I was expecting to read something about the 3rd party software lock-in on the iPhone, but there really is nothing to see here.
Since lots of people seem to be asking "how can I do this" and get responses like "get that extension", here's my challenge:
For those of us who use our operating system with a dual-language keyboards - and there are many millions of us - it's very annoying to type in a URL and discover, after hitting Enter, that you've been typing nonsense in Hebrew. An extension that automatically switches the keyboard back to plain ol' English whenever the location bar gets focus would be REALLY nice.
more and more of the poor sections of the Earth will become like present-day Palestine
Exactly which part of present-day Palestine are you talking about? Israel? Gaza? The West Bank? I assume you speak of the Palestinian territories.. Have you ever been there? I think you'd be surprised at the fairly high standards of living in, say, Ramallah, Nablus or even Jenin. People have homes with running water and electricity. There are no people living in tents on the streets (as opposed to, say, India - see discussion above). The situation in Gaza may not be amazing, but this is because the leadership is devoting all its resources into developing an army capable of fighting Israel, rather than improving living standards for its civilians. It's just a question of priorities.
Sorry to be changing the subject, but I really don't get why of all choices you had to use Palestine as an example of a really hopeless and terrible place.
While all of these are great redesigns to the front page, what about the comments pages? This is where we as readers spend 95% of the time on Slashdot, and personally I find their current appearance - and functionality - clumsy, ugly and far from intuitive.
The conversations should appear as a tree, similarly to the way they look now, but (a) each post should be "expandable" - that is, the subject line, poster name, and moderation are shown as one line, and a click expands it to display the entire message using AJAX or any other buzzword. And, (b) when initially entering the comments page, all comments above the user's threshold should be expanded, while others are not.
This is opposed to the current system where some messages are shown fully, others are only listed (which link to a separate page! uck!), and still others are not shown at all due to low moderation; there is barely a hint that they ever existed other than some posts which appear to reply to phantom messages.
I have been a reader for years and still can't figure out how to request that no comment headers should be completely hidden, without changing the threshold level for messages I want expanded by default. Maybe it's a simple setting and I'm stupid, but I'm mentioning it here to illustrate the non-obviousness of the current method.
It's refreshing to finally see such a non-biased article about Apple.
Let me see...
"...once you start using a Mac, your IQ begins to creep downwards..."
"It's sad to see so many of my compatriots being turned into lemmings."
"...smell the Apple pie in the sky..."
"...I'll be smart, fit, and enjoying my real Windows computers..."
Right.. A sensible, balanced, well written, thought provoking piece! That's it, time to ditch the old Mac, cause everyone knows that only a Windows machine is a real computer!
Well, not exactly, but here is the list of gripes and complaints I've accumulated over six months of using a Mac Mini (G4 1.2Ghz, 512MB RAM) as my primary machine for the last 10 months or so. I live in Israel and need Hebrew for daily work, so some complaints are specific to that.
OS and GUI * Mouse cursor moves sluggishly. Requires purchased software (USB Overdrive) to make it move as expected, i.e. speed of cursor is proportional to the speed at which I move the mouse. * SMB can't network share anything but user directory (what about mounted disk images, CD's, single folders?) * Can't FTP share anything but a complete user directory. Gives remote user far too many privileges (user can switch to root directory, other user directories, etc). * GUI: Red "close" button has inconsistent behavior: hide (Mail)/close (Safari)/quit app (iPhoto). * GUI: Configuration menus are inconsistent. Some are "ok/cancel" like Windows, others are "change anything and it changes immediately, no second chances". * If "Show Item Info" is selected for the Desktop view, the volume icons only update their free space at restart (or when Finder crashes). * Data CDs burned in Finder with MP3 files will not play well in the car MP3 player. The car player will take over a minute mounting the disc and is slower at changing tracks. I have no idea why this occurs, but I'm burning my CDs on the PC. * Hebrew file names don't work well and are not always compatible with Windows file naming. Downloaded files may or may not have garbled names. In SMB shares, Windows sees Hebrew names as garbage. * Finder pollutes write-enabled SMB shares it accesses with garbage files like.DS_Store and perhaps others. I don't want these files on my Windows machine! * Finder: No right-click > open command prompt here (well, neither does Windows, but easy to add with a Powertoy). * Finder: Can't easily know the size of the contents of a directory (without "get info"), or the total size of more than one selected item (even "get info" doesn't help there). Windows Explorer is superior here. * 90-degree screen rotation is supported as a display option but is horribly slow and effectively unusable. * Inconsistent installation of applications. Some are dragged to the apps folder, others have an installer. Many things added with an installer have no uninstaller anywhere, so you're stuck with them (how do I cleanly get rid of X11? and XCode? Without using the command prompt?). Also, when removing an application it is difficult to remove its traces (in the Library folder and others). * There is no easy way to categorize applications. Everything is bundled up together in the "Applications" folder. You can add subfolders manually, but that makes updating and installing new applications more complicated. * Marking text and then attempting to drag the selected text elsewhere - sometimes works, sometimes doesn't (the drag operation simply selects some more text). * An application (for example, MPlayer OSX) can render the sound system completely unusable (to OpenGL/SDL games and applications, but not system sounds) such that not even a reboot helps. Only playing a regular 16-bit, 44.1kHz sound file in MPlayer solves the problem, or editing a setting in the obscure Utilities\Audio MIDI Setup. * My machine never crashes nor is ever powered down without a proper shutdown, and yet I have had several cases of files being corrupted, lost completely or simply set to "Zero KB", for no apparent reason. I have lost photos, audio files and others. * Network operations are unbelievably slow when talking to the other machines in the house. This is a 100Mbit wired LAN, but the speeds I'm actually getting are more like 10 Mbit/s for data flowing from the Mac to a PC and 200kbit/s in the opposite direction. Affects any kind of network operation (SMB, FTP, etc). I've tried various fixes suggested on various forums, no improvement.
Applications * NeoOffice/J is unbelievably slow, taking as much as 30 seconds to load
Not exactly on topic, but this reminds me of one of the Fun Facts about Kibonia:
"Web domains in Kibonia (.KB) are available for only fifteen schwas a year. They can be reserved forever, provided that payment of fifteen schwas per year is received in advance."
While many TV shows are sped up when broadcast in PAL format, these are only shows that are actually shot with film at 24 fps. This would include shows like Friends, Seinfeld, Buffy, and many others. Probably any show you can think of, in fact. You Brits should be aware of the fact that those actors actually have noticeably deeper voices than what you hear on TV.
Older sitcoms that were originally filmed in video (such as, say, the Cosby Show or Alf), however, have a different conversion process that maintains the original speed while adding annoying artifacts whenever there is motion. This also affects sports and news broadcasts (anyone watching NBA basketball east of the Atlantic knows what I mean).
Animation series such as the Simpsons fall into neither category. They are not changed in speed nor reduced in quality for PAL lands, instead it seems they are originally rendered at 25 fps at the studio.
I do realize that this is slightly off topic, but remember that even the finest embedded system is worthless without a proper development environment. And TI's environment, named Code Composer Studio, has gone nothing but from bad to worse in the past few years.
TI really need to kick out their QA team, hire a new one, and get off their asses. I work with CCS 10 hours a day. After 2 weeks of working with the latest version (3.1) I had about 20 different things to complain about, and those are only the new bugs (the old ones tend to stay). I'm not talking about anything advanced - I just use the IDE for editing, compiling and debugging (breakpoints, etc) - I'm talking about usability annoyances, inexplicable slowdowns, crashes, Ctrl-F3 suddenly not working, things like that.
It is also not uncommon for basic Chip Support Library functions like DAT_copy (which initiates an EDMA memory transfer) to stop functioning with a new CSL release. QA, people, QA.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, but it doesn't just pop away. No no. It licks itself, barks, wags its @*#!ing tail and walks away into the sunset, taking its time... Ah, those little things that can drive a man insane...
Couldn't he have just used his Sonic Screwdriver instead?
Thanks, I'll be here all week.
You could, for no charge at all, download OpenOffice for Windows (or whatever OS you're using), load up your documents and save them in RTF or Word format, that MS Word would happily accept. Problem solved.
Even in the worst case scenario, suppose many years from now you could no longer find a version of OO for your operating system - you could still find documentation of its format and decipher it.
Now, think what would happen in the reverse situation. WTF indeed.
-"Just how obscene an amount of cash are we talking about here? Profane or really offensive?"
-"Really offensive."
Ahh, but the Gauls had their Magic Potion now, didn't they.
Could someone write an extension that causes Firefox to automatically precache all links containing the word "next"? or ">"? or if the link is an image, check if it's named "right" (like a right arrow), or if its ALT tag says "next".... That way, the next page would always load while the user is reading the current page, eliminating the wait - especially when on a slow connection or if the site is undergoing a slashdotting.
Am I the only one who thinks this would be a good idea?
-phozz
...when they pry it from my cold, dead hand.
Oh wait.
The iPhone is mentioned in the first paragraph and in the headline, perhaps to grab the reader's attention. The rest of the article is about the DRM restrictions in music purchased from iTunes. While this will also apply to the iPhone (as it includes iPod functionality) I really can't see why this article is remotely interesting or newsworthy. I was expecting to read something about the 3rd party software lock-in on the iPhone, but there really is nothing to see here.
phozz
More likely, several inconveniently large buildings.
Since lots of people seem to be asking "how can I do this" and get responses like "get that extension", here's my challenge:
For those of us who use our operating system with a dual-language keyboards - and there are many millions of us - it's very annoying to type in a URL and discover, after hitting Enter, that you've been typing nonsense in Hebrew. An extension that automatically switches the keyboard back to plain ol' English whenever the location bar gets focus would be REALLY nice.
Is there such a beast?
-phozz
Exactly which part of present-day Palestine are you talking about? Israel? Gaza? The West Bank? I assume you speak of the Palestinian territories.. Have you ever been there? I think you'd be surprised at the fairly high standards of living in, say, Ramallah, Nablus or even Jenin. People have homes with running water and electricity. There are no people living in tents on the streets (as opposed to, say, India - see discussion above). The situation in Gaza may not be amazing, but this is because the leadership is devoting all its resources into developing an army capable of fighting Israel, rather than improving living standards for its civilians. It's just a question of priorities.
Sorry to be changing the subject, but I really don't get why of all choices you had to use Palestine as an example of a really hopeless and terrible place.
Nope.
A search engine for open source malware?
-phozz
Sorry about that last paragraph, turns out that I really am stupid. The first three are still valid though.
phozz
While all of these are great redesigns to the front page, what about the comments pages? This is where we as readers spend 95% of the time on Slashdot, and personally I find their current appearance - and functionality - clumsy, ugly and far from intuitive.
The conversations should appear as a tree, similarly to the way they look now, but (a) each post should be "expandable" - that is, the subject line, poster name, and moderation are shown as one line, and a click expands it to display the entire message using AJAX or any other buzzword. And, (b) when initially entering the comments page, all comments above the user's threshold should be expanded, while others are not.
This is opposed to the current system where some messages are shown fully, others are only listed (which link to a separate page! uck!), and still others are not shown at all due to low moderation; there is barely a hint that they ever existed other than some posts which appear to reply to phantom messages.
I have been a reader for years and still can't figure out how to request that no comment headers should be completely hidden, without changing the threshold level for messages I want expanded by default. Maybe it's a simple setting and I'm stupid, but I'm mentioning it here to illustrate the non-obviousness of the current method.
phozz
Let me see...
"...once you start using a Mac, your IQ begins to creep downwards..."
"It's sad to see so many of my compatriots being turned into lemmings."
"...smell the Apple pie in the sky..."
"...I'll be smart, fit, and enjoying my real Windows computers..."
Right.. A sensible, balanced, well written, thought provoking piece! That's it, time to ditch the old Mac, cause everyone knows that only a Windows machine is a real computer!
phozz
No!
Well, not exactly, but here is the list of gripes and complaints I've accumulated over six months of using a Mac Mini (G4 1.2Ghz, 512MB RAM) as my primary machine for the last 10 months or so. I live in Israel and need Hebrew for daily work, so some complaints are specific to that.
.DS_Store and perhaps others. I don't want these files on my Windows machine!
OS and GUI
* Mouse cursor moves sluggishly. Requires purchased software (USB Overdrive) to make it move as expected, i.e. speed of cursor is proportional to the speed at which I move the mouse.
* SMB can't network share anything but user directory (what about mounted disk images, CD's, single folders?)
* Can't FTP share anything but a complete user directory. Gives remote user far too many privileges (user can switch to root directory, other user directories, etc).
* GUI: Red "close" button has inconsistent behavior: hide (Mail)/close (Safari)/quit app (iPhoto).
* GUI: Configuration menus are inconsistent. Some are "ok/cancel" like Windows, others are "change anything and it changes immediately, no second chances".
* If "Show Item Info" is selected for the Desktop view, the volume icons only update their free space at restart (or when Finder crashes).
* Data CDs burned in Finder with MP3 files will not play well in the car MP3 player. The car player will take over a minute mounting the disc and is slower at changing tracks. I have no idea why this occurs, but I'm burning my CDs on the PC.
* Hebrew file names don't work well and are not always compatible with Windows file naming. Downloaded files may or may not have garbled names. In SMB shares, Windows sees Hebrew names as garbage.
* Finder pollutes write-enabled SMB shares it accesses with garbage files like
* Finder: No right-click > open command prompt here (well, neither does Windows, but easy to add with a Powertoy).
* Finder: Can't easily know the size of the contents of a directory (without "get info"), or the total size of more than one selected item (even "get info" doesn't help there). Windows Explorer is superior here.
* 90-degree screen rotation is supported as a display option but is horribly slow and effectively unusable.
* Inconsistent installation of applications. Some are dragged to the apps folder, others have an installer. Many things added with an installer have no uninstaller anywhere, so you're stuck with them (how do I cleanly get rid of X11? and XCode? Without using the command prompt?). Also, when removing an application it is difficult to remove its traces (in the Library folder and others).
* There is no easy way to categorize applications. Everything is bundled up together in the "Applications" folder. You can add subfolders manually, but that makes updating and installing new applications more complicated.
* Marking text and then attempting to drag the selected text elsewhere - sometimes works, sometimes doesn't (the drag operation simply selects some more text).
* An application (for example, MPlayer OSX) can render the sound system completely unusable (to OpenGL/SDL games and applications, but not system sounds) such that not even a reboot helps. Only playing a regular 16-bit, 44.1kHz sound file in MPlayer solves the problem, or editing a setting in the obscure Utilities\Audio MIDI Setup.
* My machine never crashes nor is ever powered down without a proper shutdown, and yet I have had several cases of files being corrupted, lost completely or simply set to "Zero KB", for no apparent reason. I have lost photos, audio files and others.
* Network operations are unbelievably slow when talking to the other machines in the house. This is a 100Mbit wired LAN, but the speeds I'm actually getting are more like 10 Mbit/s for data flowing from the Mac to a PC and 200kbit/s in the opposite direction. Affects any kind of network operation (SMB, FTP, etc). I've tried various fixes suggested on various forums, no improvement.
Applications
* NeoOffice/J is unbelievably slow, taking as much as 30 seconds to load
"Web domains in Kibonia (.KB) are available for only fifteen schwas a year. They can be reserved forever, provided that payment of fifteen schwas per year is received in advance."
It is said: Go not to the Slashdotters for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.
(with apologies to Tolkien)
While many TV shows are sped up when broadcast in PAL format, these are only shows that are actually shot with film at 24 fps. This would include shows like Friends, Seinfeld, Buffy, and many others. Probably any show you can think of, in fact. You Brits should be aware of the fact that those actors actually have noticeably deeper voices than what you hear on TV.
:)
Older sitcoms that were originally filmed in video (such as, say, the Cosby Show or Alf), however, have a different conversion process that maintains the original speed while adding annoying artifacts whenever there is motion. This also affects sports and news broadcasts (anyone watching NBA basketball east of the Atlantic knows what I mean).
Animation series such as the Simpsons fall into neither category. They are not changed in speed nor reduced in quality for PAL lands, instead it seems they are originally rendered at 25 fps at the studio.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong
phozz
Magal Dreambox.
Enjoy.
Haifa?
TI really need to kick out their QA team, hire a new one, and get off their asses. I work with CCS 10 hours a day. After 2 weeks of working with the latest version (3.1) I had about 20 different things to complain about, and those are only the new bugs (the old ones tend to stay). I'm not talking about anything advanced - I just use the IDE for editing, compiling and debugging (breakpoints, etc) - I'm talking about usability annoyances, inexplicable slowdowns, crashes, Ctrl-F3 suddenly not working, things like that.
It is also not uncommon for basic Chip Support Library functions like DAT_copy (which initiates an EDMA memory transfer) to stop functioning with a new CSL release. QA, people, QA.
phozz