As I understand it, OSX-on-Intel does not mean you can take any off-the-shelf components from PC World (e.g. the latest ASUS MoBo, 7800GTX, etc.) and install OSX on them... rather, Apple will retain a rather "closed" platform; just a different platform.
But, maybe this is what a think-tank would be discussing...
What if they did release a shrink-wrapped OSX that you could install on the kind of hardware that Windows and Linux run on today? Would that effectively "ruin" OSX, as shabby drivers and applications lowered the quality of the product?
My HTPC is fanless and *practically* silent. The HDD is a 40GB 2.5" laptop type, and that's the only thing that makes any noise... still, it's very quiet.
However, in order to achieve this level of silence, the PC uses a VIA EPIA motherboard, with a fanless 600MHz CPU. The trade-off is computing power. That said, it runs Win2K and Meedio really nicely and I use it to watch movies from the HDD and LAN.
I used to work with a guy who could switch between QWERTY and Dvorak at will. This guy had the most apauling eyesight, so used to have his nose pressed to the screen while typing. Added to that, he also has a twitch in his eyes, causing them to constantly scan horizontally. The upshot of this was, in order to see the words a few inches away from his eyes, he had to shake his head constantly to counteract the twitching.
Anyway, because of this, he could touchtype very well.
Because our company did hardware support, it wasn't uncommon to find that components from the office would go missing to replace broken parts on the customers PCs... you'd find your mouse had gone, or your monitor and sometimes your keyboard. (and this was when we mostly had IBM Model Ms!)
The guy above got round this problem by making his keyboard "undesirable" to the hardware thieves. He did this by re-arranging the keys into the Dvorak layout and hacking together a DOS keyboard driver for his creation.
The problem was, the curve on the keycaps only met correctly when in the QWERTY layout. When "converted" to Dvorak, the top of this keyboard was just amazing - bumps and ridges all over the place.
Still, he continued to bash out stunning work on that bastard-son keyboard for months...
I reckon you've sussed it -- that just makes perfect sense.
To buy in technology rather than spend vast amounts of time and money developing their own has been their business model since day #1, and frankly it works for them pretty well. The purchase of their Anti-spyware tool is a prime example.
I see it as a wise move on their part. This would be a giant leap towards closer to their desire to compete with Google
"...it just gives the general user less reason to trust what it already feels is shoddy software"
I think you're missing a major point here... most "general users" are not the Slashdot crowd, and are blissfully unaware of the so-called shoddyness. They know it runs their Internets, e-mail, games and office applications, just like everywhere (and everyone) else.
Plus, what makes you think these same people will ever pick up on a story like this?
Honestly, you'd think the Slashdot editors would have realised this by now... it's only Windows that gets viruses. Linux (and OSX) are immune to this problem.
I'd already seen Google Earth from a post on another news site (gasp), and then saw it was Windows-only, and thought, I just HAVE to come and see the backlash here. I mean, Linux isn't even mentioned as an OS that they consider you might want to run it on!!
These fucking Linux pricks crying and bleating and moaning... makes me laugh. You guys never let me down - pure entertainment. Thanks!
I think that Bittorrent could be used to replace pretty much the whole internet, especially FTP.
As I RTFA, this is now one step closer to being a reality... you can just throw together a.torrent for any file you want to make available without having to jump through hoops as before. This makes it useable for the masses, and could well catapult it into the mainstream.
It'd be a nice idea if that did happen, as the *AA might have to accept that this EVIL torrent thingy is actually quite smart and useful...
Someone should write an extention for Firefox that gives the download manager bit torrent support.
Ironically, Shareaza implements this in the opposite direction, in that it can be used for doing HTTP and FTP downloads. It also does a better job than the browsers of pausing and restarting those downloads, I've found. YMMV.
Personally, I'd guess that adding P2P support to browsers wouldn't simply be a trivial "plugin" due to the complexity.
The benchmarks they've done would seem to give a good real-world example of the benefits of multi-core. As many have noted, "proper" multithreaded application of course see the biggest benefit, but they're relatively rare on most Desktop systems. Having additional CPU power available to simply dedicate to multiple applications does have benefits.
Their tests, doing such things as Anti-virus scans while performing other cpu-intensive tasks (e.g. Doom 3;), really do give an insight into the kind of benefits regular users will see.
Has anyone seen the various chip manufacturers roadmaps, with regard to the demise of their current ranges? My point is, I was amazed at how fast the AMD64 range replaced the Athlon XP. I wonder how long - realistically - it'll be before multi-core is "the norm"... less than a year?
Blogging, bookmark sharing, it all seems to me like a cry for attention from other people....
I thought the same thing until recently, when I stumbled upon the Spaces button in the new MSN Messenger 7 Beta. Spaces seem to be MSNs stab at a blogging service; perhaps more a personal Hompage.
What I'm seeing on there is, due to the integration with MSN Messenger, groups of people (i.e. their Contacts lists) are using Spaces as a kind of "Note on the Fridge" service for their friends. So, the huge number of Spaces who's content is in the "Broke up with Gary. He's such a bastard!" posts are not really intended for the World at large... They are notes really only intended for their personal group, however they are publishing them globally.
Of the random clicking through Spaces I did -- either linkage between Blogs or the Updated Spaces list provided by MSN -- I think well over half were 15yr old goths reporting that they were "Bored." and that it was "Raining".
I think you're generalising too much. If, like me, you've browsed through a load of this banter, you've not seen the medium work. Pull feeds for Slashdot, Fark, Boing Boing, Gizmodo - the main crowd, and you'll see the medium glow.
Sorry, but I had to get in a great gag about Channel 5. I think it came from Angus Deaton on Have I Got News For You originally, and it went something like this:
"Channel 5's new late-night schedule looks a lot like the last US presidential election: All bush and gore"
Slashdot Mirror
As I understand it, OSX-on-Intel does not mean you can take any off-the-shelf components from PC World (e.g. the latest ASUS MoBo, 7800GTX, etc.) and install OSX on them... rather, Apple will retain a rather "closed" platform; just a different platform.
But, maybe this is what a think-tank would be discussing...
What if they did release a shrink-wrapped OSX that you could install on the kind of hardware that Windows and Linux run on today? Would that effectively "ruin" OSX, as shabby drivers and applications lowered the quality of the product?
Just my 2p...
JJ
Why not just create a free (as in beer) pr0n-service while holding up "Don't be evil" moral standars, and watch the competition be washed away?
You mean, Like Microsoft did to Netscape. Sorry... what was I thinking... this is Google, so it's now acceptable.
JJ
Carmack doesn't deisgn games, he makes engines. Doom and Quake are tech demos for whatever his latest engine is.
But, does Carmack pass the engine to the design team with a small note that reads: P.S: It works best when you make everything Brown?
My HTPC is fanless and *practically* silent. The HDD is a 40GB 2.5" laptop type, and that's the only thing that makes any noise... still, it's very quiet.
However, in order to achieve this level of silence, the PC uses a VIA EPIA motherboard, with a fanless 600MHz CPU. The trade-off is computing power. That said, it runs Win2K and Meedio really nicely and I use it to watch movies from the HDD and LAN.
JJ
Y'know, I don't think Bill Gates actually does much actual code these days... could be wrong. Oh, it was a joke?? Good one. You v. funny.
Evidently, while it may not be WINE-proof, at least it seems to be idiot-proof.
I bet you're absolutely right. It's been said many times before: Love Linux; Hate the Fanclub.
Windows comes with f*cking notepad and Solitaire. Linux distributions typically come with an order of magnitude more applications.
So, what you're saying is, Linux is bloatware..?
How confusing. Last week, it was Windows being accused of this.
JJ
I used to work with a guy who could switch between QWERTY and Dvorak at will. This guy had the most apauling eyesight, so used to have his nose pressed to the screen while typing. Added to that, he also has a twitch in his eyes, causing them to constantly scan horizontally. The upshot of this was, in order to see the words a few inches away from his eyes, he had to shake his head constantly to counteract the twitching.
Anyway, because of this, he could touchtype very well.
Because our company did hardware support, it wasn't uncommon to find that components from the office would go missing to replace broken parts on the customers PCs... you'd find your mouse had gone, or your monitor and sometimes your keyboard. (and this was when we mostly had IBM Model Ms!)
The guy above got round this problem by making his keyboard "undesirable" to the hardware thieves. He did this by re-arranging the keys into the Dvorak layout and hacking together a DOS keyboard driver for his creation.
The problem was, the curve on the keycaps only met correctly when in the QWERTY layout. When "converted" to Dvorak, the top of this keyboard was just amazing - bumps and ridges all over the place.
Still, he continued to bash out stunning work on that bastard-son keyboard for months...
What's better is that as Linux grows in popularity, so will the hardware support.
...or visa-versa
I reckon you've sussed it -- that just makes perfect sense.
To buy in technology rather than spend vast amounts of time and money developing their own has been their business model since day #1, and frankly it works for them pretty well. The purchase of their Anti-spyware tool is a prime example.
I see it as a wise move on their part. This would be a giant leap towards closer to their desire to compete with Google
JJ
/I'll get me coat
"...it just gives the general user less reason to trust what it already feels is shoddy software"
I think you're missing a major point here... most "general users" are not the Slashdot crowd, and are blissfully unaware of the so-called shoddyness. They know it runs their Internets, e-mail, games and office applications, just like everywhere (and everyone) else.
Plus, what makes you think these same people will ever pick up on a story like this?
JJAll together now...
"You're New Here, Right?"
Honestly, you'd think the Slashdot editors would have realised this by now... it's only Windows that gets viruses. Linux (and OSX) are immune to this problem.
/claps hand to forehead
JJ
I'd already seen Google Earth from a post on another news site (gasp), and then saw it was Windows-only, and thought, I just HAVE to come and see the backlash here. I mean, Linux isn't even mentioned as an OS that they consider you might want to run it on!!
These fucking Linux pricks crying and bleating and moaning... makes me laugh. You guys never let me down - pure entertainment. Thanks!
JJ
I think that Bittorrent could be used to replace pretty much the whole internet, especially FTP.
.torrent for any file you want to make available without having to jump through hoops as before. This makes it useable for the masses, and could well catapult it into the mainstream.
As I RTFA, this is now one step closer to being a reality... you can just throw together a
It'd be a nice idea if that did happen, as the *AA might have to accept that this EVIL torrent thingy is actually quite smart and useful...
Someone should write an extention for Firefox that gives the download manager bit torrent support.
Ironically, Shareaza implements this in the opposite direction, in that it can be used for doing HTTP and FTP downloads. It also does a better job than the browsers of pausing and restarting those downloads, I've found. YMMV.
Personally, I'd guess that adding P2P support to browsers wouldn't simply be a trivial "plugin" due to the complexity.
JJ
The benchmarks they've done would seem to give a good real-world example of the benefits of multi-core. As many have noted, "proper" multithreaded application of course see the biggest benefit, but they're relatively rare on most Desktop systems. Having additional CPU power available to simply dedicate to multiple applications does have benefits.
;), really do give an insight into the kind of benefits regular users will see.
Their tests, doing such things as Anti-virus scans while performing other cpu-intensive tasks (e.g. Doom 3
Has anyone seen the various chip manufacturers roadmaps, with regard to the demise of their current ranges? My point is, I was amazed at how fast the AMD64 range replaced the Athlon XP. I wonder how long - realistically - it'll be before multi-core is "the norm"... less than a year?
JJ
Blogging, bookmark sharing, it all seems to me like a cry for attention from other people....
I thought the same thing until recently, when I stumbled upon the Spaces button in the new MSN Messenger 7 Beta. Spaces seem to be MSNs stab at a blogging service; perhaps more a personal Hompage.
What I'm seeing on there is, due to the integration with MSN Messenger, groups of people (i.e. their Contacts lists) are using Spaces as a kind of "Note on the Fridge" service for their friends. So, the huge number of Spaces who's content is in the "Broke up with Gary. He's such a bastard!" posts are not really intended for the World at large... They are notes really only intended for their personal group, however they are publishing them globally.
Of the random clicking through Spaces I did -- either linkage between Blogs or the Updated Spaces list provided by MSN -- I think well over half were 15yr old goths reporting that they were "Bored." and that it was "Raining".
I think you're generalising too much. If, like me, you've browsed through a load of this banter, you've not seen the medium work. Pull feeds for Slashdot, Fark, Boing Boing, Gizmodo - the main crowd, and you'll see the medium glow.
...OSX finally getting the recognition it deserves!
;)
(Is it possible to pre-moderate your posts a Flamebait as you post them??
Sorry, but I had to get in a great gag about Channel 5. I think it came from Angus Deaton on Have I Got News For You originally, and it went something like this:
/cymbal
"Channel 5's new late-night schedule looks a lot like the last US presidential election: All bush and gore"
Firefo... oh, wrong topic.
... .NET bot-net
Frank Zappa has an asteroid too, plus a gene; fish; jellyfish; mollusc and a spider!!
...ever BSoD in the background?