People lose sight of the biggest things that Apple (and IBM to a MUCH larger extent) is giving back to the OSS community: legitimacy and popularity. Apple's BSD foundation has increased *nix market share by several percent. Apple's entry into the Unix world has finally made people realize that OSS is not just a fluke or a flash in the pan. It is, in fact, the foundation for future software development and deployment.
Every Apple commercial is an ad for BSD. No, Apple is not being in any way selfless here. It is making shitloads of money. I own Apple stock. I've done nicely. But, so far, Apple has done nothing other than build and protect a very powerful brand. In doing so, it has complied with the letter of OSS software, if not with its spirit. Nevertheless, the legitimacy and popularity it has brought OSS make up for its selfish intents.
I'm not saying this is right, but the argument is legitimate. It's hard to say that they are wrong.
You make excellent points. Another thing that the poor people who keep voting Republican don't realize is that if your JOB is to invest money and to make money off your investments, then the dividends you get from the stocks you own ARE your income. In as much, they should be subject to income tax.
Acting as Ahnold's economic advisor, Buffet noted that Californians are actually UNDERtaxed. Ahnold never sought Buffet's advice again.
This maybe a Homeland Security problem. On a recent trip back from Amsterdam, the flight attendants emphasized that non-US residents must provide the exact address of where they will be staying at their final destination in the customs form. They implied that failing to do so would result in their not being let out of the airport by passport control. Sounds like what happened here.
Of course, this begs the question: will they actually check with your hotel and/or your relatives and friends whether you will actually be where you said you will be? Probably not. And, if you innocently decide to go to a cheaper hotel after one night at the place you reported to DHS, will they arrest you before you leave the country? Not much sense in any of this.
Yes, that's the main reason. However, the introduction of iWork cannot be ignored. Why deal with the hassle of making a native version of ooo when neooffice is just about there AND Apple is introducing its own fairly (MS) compliant office suite?
This is exactly it! I once had to show my boss--a very sharp Ph.D. molecular biologist--how to get his Sony Clie to play music. After installing tons of software and encoding the CDs into Sony's proprietary format, we still couldn't play music because the system requires a secure flash card, which he had to go out and buy. It sounds like the HD player is plagued by similar problems.
Conflict of interest lies at the heart of the matter. Sony is also a huge music label. It is obviously far too obsessed with protecting its copyrights to act rationally as a distributor. This is why it makes sense to separate distribution from production. This synergy nonsense is doomed to failure.
This story was the reason behind the $6+ jump in Apple's stock two days ago. I own some. I was pleased by the story.
The study was of an awfully small sampling of people, 200, but it comes from Piper Jaffray, which, it seems, is a reputable enough source to make investors listen. The analyst at Piper even felt strongly enough about the study to raise his own target price for Apple to $100 per share. (I'm betting that Apple will hit this price by Christmas, but that's another story.) And, the analyst and Piper Jaffray claim that they have no ties with Apple, financial or otherwise. So, presumably, this is a disinterested study.
The point that nobody wants to tackle is the one about the future of the computer as a home entertainment center. I switched from Windows to OS X over a year ago, but I invested in Apple when Airport Express came out. I actually use Airport Express's audio capabilities, and it works remarkably well for a first generation product. So, Apple already has a functioning, comprehensive, and innovative solution to making the computer the entertainment center, and nobody else is even out of the blocks, really.
The only thing that concerned me as an investor was whether people were ever going to realize Apple's remarkable capabilities and ease of use. What this study suggests is that the word is spreading, and that enough people are changing over to make a huge difference in Apple's bottom line.
I'm disappointed with slashdot. You guys are usually ahead of the market, not two days behind.
I already have switched. My parents and my girlfriend, however, have not mainly because they don't want to spend the cash on a new computer. (Not necessarily on a Mac, but a new computer, period.) So, I would switch them over to OS X in a heartbeat. My folks are old folks, and my girlfriend is a hip chick who don't like to be mistaken for a geek. They would all, therefore, benefit tremendously from OS X because they would have an easier to use OS that is more secure as well.
I remember to keep my W2K machine up to date, but the average user doesn't. So, OS X on x86 would still have untold benefits for the average user.
A co-worker's husband used to work for Verizon. They moved to New Zealand for a while because Verizon wanted to test a new technology there. The rationale behind going to small places is that, as others have said, it is easier to implement the technology. This is only part of the entire rationale, however. The main reason why New Zealand specifically frequently gets to be the proving grounds for Japanese cell phones and Verizon's new offerings is that the country is relatively rich and the demographics are similar to the demographics of Americans likely to eat up this technology.
I should have read your comment before posting almost exactly the same thing.
However, yes, I do believe that people should be forced to learn the basics of computing before using a computer. A formal licensing program is probably overkill, but requiring high school students to attend a bona fide computer science course is a good idea. I was forced to take typing and swimming classes. Both ended up being very valuable skills to have. Educating people about using a computer responsibly may well be guaranteed to pay off by simply reducing the number of errors that result from user ignorance.
Those are all crucial points. It's kinda like saying that people die in traffic accidents because they don't wear seatbelts. Well, what if the seatbelts are faulty? Having good precautionary measures--seatbelts, antilock breaks, airbags--makes sense. Microsoft sells you a Ferrari, but it gives you crappy breaks and no airbags. It makes sense, as you say, to have certain precautions built into the operating system. To that extent, MS has earned itself some amount of blame.
Or universities. This particular tactic seems to be the most imminent goal of Microsoft's. Historically, MS has made its software easy to copy precisely so that it can have complete coverage. Now that software writers are aggressively trying to cut back on piracy, they are probably driving a great many users toward open source solutions. This agreement does give MS the power to prevent people from using one of MS's chief open source competitors.
What is scary about all this is that programmers elected to create a new paradigm for writing and distributing software. Instead of allowing this paradigm to compete with the established pardigm, the monopoly may simply abrogate it. This does not bode well for the free market system.
Yes, and I have actually complained to Endnote about supporting OO, but they simply replied "use the rtf scanner." I got Endnote 7 and MSOffice X. I don't think I will ever upgrade either. Everything will be done in either OO or ABiW, unless Endnote is required.
I wonder if an open source alternative to Endnote is in the works. If it's not, maybe we should start one?
Yes, the reviewer did not really know about either word or Abiword. I installed Abiword through fink on OS X, and I love it for routine work. It is vastly faster than MSW, it is much easier to use, it does the basic things more quickly, and it has a much more intuitive layout. Plus, one can use the F11 key to hide and restore one's toolbars, thus maximizing work space during the actual writing process.
Where MSW is clearly better is when it comes to handling graphics. On Panther at least, Abiword will only support png. Also, Abiword is not as good as MSW for formatting envelopes and labels. For 99% of one's purposes, though, Abiword just rocks. It's a wonderful program. People should use it more. People should support it more.
Of course, if there are things that Abiword can't do, there is a good chance that OpenOffice Writer can do it. So, it is possible to kill MSW. People should do so at every opportunity.
I still have to keep MSW, though, because that great citation manager Endnote does not integrate with any other program. (Their rtf scan feature just doesn't cut it.)
I was a Mac basher coming from the Windows side. Then, my boss got a Jaguar PowerMac. All of a sudden I found this nice looking computer that did exactly everything that I ever wanted a computer to do. There was no going back. I've my powerbook exactly a year now, and I shudder whenever I have to work on a Windoze box.
The dock IS more responsive. I noticed that right away, too. On the whole, the system is booting faster, and running much more smoothly. Apple Mail was updated, too, and I have noticed improvement in its performance as well.
This latest series of updates to OS X is not nearly as big as SP2 for XP, but it does rival it. You have to count iSync update, the security update and Java 1.4.2 update, which was released today. In all, I have downloaded almost 100 megabytes, I think.
Of course, for those of us who love and use fink, there is the XCode update. 370 megabytes.
For my money, I am getting A LOT more from Apple than I ever did with M$. So, I ain't complaining.
Does this mean that we have lost all will to demand better products? Instead of making products easier to use or more compatible, we are being offered an expensive way of wading through the clutter.
How about implementing an industry standard for remote controls similar to, say, the v.9x standards for modems? I know it's far-fetched, but it's worth a try.
On a different note, what if people manage to hack into these remotes and take control? Worse yet, what if they keep the channel fixed on Fox "News"?
Yes, this was the advice of another/.er, and I am following it. (I had simply forgotten about the line out in the dock.)
The impedance matching transformer would be a great thing to have for my car, where I have fudged a connection from the headphone jack directly to my 4-channel Sony amp. The music sounds very good, but, just as you say, there is significant distortion with certain songs at high volume. I know that car stereo amps take much lower impedance wires--4 ohm vs. 8 ohm, but the transformer should make a difference, no? Where can I find such a device, and about how much does it cost?
Thank you very much for this informative response.
Correct. I must have been aware of it at one point because it is set to the maximum in my copy of iTunes. It's probably a safe bet that iPod doesn't have it. I have never come across it in my extensive searches of the iPod menus.
To get back to the original topic, it is safe to say that iTMS songs are worth collecting because the audio quality is good enough. Audio CDs that I have burned from mp3s and AACs, including ones from iTMS, sound pretty damn good. So, the problem may still be codecs. These are getting better with time.
As time becomes available, I will be sure to check them out. There are strange deals to be had on iTMS. For example, one must buy the entire album if one wants to buy certain long songs or mixes. The album is sometimes over $12. I elect to buy the album for less at half.com and encode the whole thing. And, the latest Beastie Boys album is more expensive than the CD (on sale at a store, say) on iTMS. Of course, BBoys albums usually have 20 or so songs, but does anyone want to pay $0.99 for the ones that are 10 seconds long?
Thanks for the tip. Although I got no beef with mp3, I do like m4a better. The overall texture is much richer, even though bass response is not usually as good. But if these guys got what I want, I'll take it in mp3 format, as well. I got no problems collecting these songs.
Holy crap! That was it. I had completely forgotten that that socket even existed.
I just tried it. The sound quality is much better, but still not as good as the CD or my PB output on certain songs that really test the bass response.
This IS the case. What the article and few people on/. have failed to mention is that the problem is more a matter of the output quality of the iPod than the bit rate of the compression.
When I got my iPod, I was hoping to replace my CD player by hooking it up to my receiver. This was trivial to do technically, but the sound quality was always poor. I experimented with many, many different sampling schemes (i.e., AAC and mp3 at various bit rates). I finally settled on AAC at 224 kbps, but the output from my iPod was still inferior to what I got from CDs. Then, one day I plugged in my Powerbook to my receiver via the exact same cables that I use to connect my iPod to my receiver. Low and behold, the sounds coming out were PERFECT. (FWIW, I have a Harmon/Kardan receiver with JBL speakers. Good shit.) That's when I realized that the iPod was not designed to be connected to high fidelity equipment. It's output was designed for earphones.
So, I complained and complained to Apple, and sure enough, one of the improvements in the last iPod update was "improved playback." And, I heard the difference as soon as I installed the update. It's still not quite hi-fi, but it makes my trips in my car much more pleasant. At home, I still use either CDs or my Powerbook, but I think complaining some more will get more results from Apple.
I have complained to Apple about the bitrate, also, but for $0.99, one does get a good bargain.
Exactly. After all, nobody ever holds the phone company liable for all the gambling that happens over its lines. In fact, the law specifically fingers the individual using the phone linne for gambling as the culprit, and not the phone co. So, why should ISPs be treated differently?
Alas, this probably means that the interested parties (like RIAA) are willing to go after anyone with money, or they are willing to shut down a medium they can't control. Or they don't want to live with. What a shame.
That's what I get. I got a fuel efficient Sentra that I bought in 1994. Reported mileage was 29 city, 38 highway. That's almost exactly what I get afer 90,000 miles and ten years. I got an 11 gallon tank. I did make it from San Fran to LA nonstop on 1 tank once.
One wonders about the conditions under which the fuel economy of the hybrids is evaluated. Maybe that's the problem.
Slashdot Mirror
People lose sight of the biggest things that Apple (and IBM to a MUCH larger extent) is giving back to the OSS community: legitimacy and popularity. Apple's BSD foundation has increased *nix market share by several percent. Apple's entry into the Unix world has finally made people realize that OSS is not just a fluke or a flash in the pan. It is, in fact, the foundation for future software development and deployment.
Every Apple commercial is an ad for BSD. No, Apple is not being in any way selfless here. It is making shitloads of money. I own Apple stock. I've done nicely. But, so far, Apple has done nothing other than build and protect a very powerful brand. In doing so, it has complied with the letter of OSS software, if not with its spirit. Nevertheless, the legitimacy and popularity it has brought OSS make up for its selfish intents.
I'm not saying this is right, but the argument is legitimate. It's hard to say that they are wrong.
You make excellent points. Another thing that the poor people who keep voting Republican don't realize is that if your JOB is to invest money and to make money off your investments, then the dividends you get from the stocks you own ARE your income. In as much, they should be subject to income tax.
Acting as Ahnold's economic advisor, Buffet noted that Californians are actually UNDERtaxed. Ahnold never sought Buffet's advice again.
This maybe a Homeland Security problem. On a recent trip back from Amsterdam, the flight attendants emphasized that non-US residents must provide the exact address of where they will be staying at their final destination in the customs form. They implied that failing to do so would result in their not being let out of the airport by passport control. Sounds like what happened here.
Of course, this begs the question: will they actually check with your hotel and/or your relatives and friends whether you will actually be where you said you will be? Probably not. And, if you innocently decide to go to a cheaper hotel after one night at the place you reported to DHS, will they arrest you before you leave the country? Not much sense in any of this.
Yes, that's the main reason. However, the introduction of iWork cannot be ignored. Why deal with the hassle of making a native version of ooo when neooffice is just about there AND Apple is introducing its own fairly (MS) compliant office suite?
Why?
This is exactly it! I once had to show my boss--a very sharp Ph.D. molecular biologist--how to get his Sony Clie to play music. After installing tons of software and encoding the CDs into Sony's proprietary format, we still couldn't play music because the system requires a secure flash card, which he had to go out and buy. It sounds like the HD player is plagued by similar problems.
Conflict of interest lies at the heart of the matter. Sony is also a huge music label. It is obviously far too obsessed with protecting its copyrights to act rationally as a distributor. This is why it makes sense to separate distribution from production. This synergy nonsense is doomed to failure.
This story was the reason behind the $6+ jump in Apple's stock two days ago. I own some. I was pleased by the story.
The study was of an awfully small sampling of people, 200, but it comes from Piper Jaffray, which, it seems, is a reputable enough source to make investors listen. The analyst at Piper even felt strongly enough about the study to raise his own target price for Apple to $100 per share. (I'm betting that Apple will hit this price by Christmas, but that's another story.) And, the analyst and Piper Jaffray claim that they have no ties with Apple, financial or otherwise. So, presumably, this is a disinterested study.
The point that nobody wants to tackle is the one about the future of the computer as a home entertainment center. I switched from Windows to OS X over a year ago, but I invested in Apple when Airport Express came out. I actually use Airport Express's audio capabilities, and it works remarkably well for a first generation product. So, Apple already has a functioning, comprehensive, and innovative solution to making the computer the entertainment center, and nobody else is even out of the blocks, really.
The only thing that concerned me as an investor was whether people were ever going to realize Apple's remarkable capabilities and ease of use. What this study suggests is that the word is spreading, and that enough people are changing over to make a huge difference in Apple's bottom line.
I'm disappointed with slashdot. You guys are usually ahead of the market, not two days behind.
I already have switched. My parents and my girlfriend, however, have not mainly because they don't want to spend the cash on a new computer. (Not necessarily on a Mac, but a new computer, period.) So, I would switch them over to OS X in a heartbeat. My folks are old folks, and my girlfriend is a hip chick who don't like to be mistaken for a geek. They would all, therefore, benefit tremendously from OS X because they would have an easier to use OS that is more secure as well.
I remember to keep my W2K machine up to date, but the average user doesn't. So, OS X on x86 would still have untold benefits for the average user.
A co-worker's husband used to work for Verizon. They moved to New Zealand for a while because Verizon wanted to test a new technology there. The rationale behind going to small places is that, as others have said, it is easier to implement the technology. This is only part of the entire rationale, however. The main reason why New Zealand specifically frequently gets to be the proving grounds for Japanese cell phones and Verizon's new offerings is that the country is relatively rich and the demographics are similar to the demographics of Americans likely to eat up this technology.
P
I should have read your comment before posting almost exactly the same thing.
However, yes, I do believe that people should be forced to learn the basics of computing before using a computer. A formal licensing program is probably overkill, but requiring high school students to attend a bona fide computer science course is a good idea. I was forced to take typing and swimming classes. Both ended up being very valuable skills to have. Educating people about using a computer responsibly may well be guaranteed to pay off by simply reducing the number of errors that result from user ignorance.
Those are all crucial points. It's kinda like saying that people die in traffic accidents because they don't wear seatbelts. Well, what if the seatbelts are faulty? Having good precautionary measures--seatbelts, antilock breaks, airbags--makes sense. Microsoft sells you a Ferrari, but it gives you crappy breaks and no airbags. It makes sense, as you say, to have certain precautions built into the operating system. To that extent, MS has earned itself some amount of blame.
Or universities. This particular tactic seems to be the most imminent goal of Microsoft's. Historically, MS has made its software easy to copy precisely so that it can have complete coverage. Now that software writers are aggressively trying to cut back on piracy, they are probably driving a great many users toward open source solutions. This agreement does give MS the power to prevent people from using one of MS's chief open source competitors.
What is scary about all this is that programmers elected to create a new paradigm for writing and distributing software. Instead of allowing this paradigm to compete with the established pardigm, the monopoly may simply abrogate it. This does not bode well for the free market system.
Yes, and I have actually complained to Endnote about supporting OO, but they simply replied "use the rtf scanner." I got Endnote 7 and MSOffice X. I don't think I will ever upgrade either. Everything will be done in either OO or ABiW, unless Endnote is required.
I wonder if an open source alternative to Endnote is in the works. If it's not, maybe we should start one?
Yes, the reviewer did not really know about either word or Abiword. I installed Abiword through fink on OS X, and I love it for routine work. It is vastly faster than MSW, it is much easier to use, it does the basic things more quickly, and it has a much more intuitive layout. Plus, one can use the F11 key to hide and restore one's toolbars, thus maximizing work space during the actual writing process.
Where MSW is clearly better is when it comes to handling graphics. On Panther at least, Abiword will only support png. Also, Abiword is not as good as MSW for formatting envelopes and labels. For 99% of one's purposes, though, Abiword just rocks. It's a wonderful program. People should use it more. People should support it more.
Of course, if there are things that Abiword can't do, there is a good chance that OpenOffice Writer can do it. So, it is possible to kill MSW. People should do so at every opportunity.
I still have to keep MSW, though, because that great citation manager Endnote does not integrate with any other program. (Their rtf scan feature just doesn't cut it.)
I was a Mac basher coming from the Windows side. Then, my boss got a Jaguar PowerMac. All of a sudden I found this nice looking computer that did exactly everything that I ever wanted a computer to do. There was no going back. I've my powerbook exactly a year now, and I shudder whenever I have to work on a Windoze box.
The dock IS more responsive. I noticed that right away, too. On the whole, the system is booting faster, and running much more smoothly. Apple Mail was updated, too, and I have noticed improvement in its performance as well.
This latest series of updates to OS X is not nearly as big as SP2 for XP, but it does rival it. You have to count iSync update, the security update and Java 1.4.2 update, which was released today. In all, I have downloaded almost 100 megabytes, I think.
Of course, for those of us who love and use fink, there is the XCode update. 370 megabytes.
For my money, I am getting A LOT more from Apple than I ever did with M$. So, I ain't complaining.
P
Does this mean that we have lost all will to demand better products? Instead of making products easier to use or more compatible, we are being offered an expensive way of wading through the clutter.
How about implementing an industry standard for remote controls similar to, say, the v.9x standards for modems? I know it's far-fetched, but it's worth a try.
On a different note, what if people manage to hack into these remotes and take control? Worse yet, what if they keep the channel fixed on Fox "News"?
Yes, this was the advice of another /.er, and I am following it. (I had simply forgotten about the line out in the dock.)
The impedance matching transformer would be a great thing to have for my car, where I have fudged a connection from the headphone jack directly to my 4-channel Sony amp. The music sounds very good, but, just as you say, there is significant distortion with certain songs at high volume. I know that car stereo amps take much lower impedance wires--4 ohm vs. 8 ohm, but the transformer should make a difference, no? Where can I find such a device, and about how much does it cost?
Thank you very much for this informative response.
Correct. I must have been aware of it at one point because it is set to the maximum in my copy of iTunes. It's probably a safe bet that iPod doesn't have it. I have never come across it in my extensive searches of the iPod menus.
To get back to the original topic, it is safe to say that iTMS songs are worth collecting because the audio quality is good enough. Audio CDs that I have burned from mp3s and AACs, including ones from iTMS, sound pretty damn good. So, the problem may still be codecs. These are getting better with time.
As time becomes available, I will be sure to check them out. There are strange deals to be had on iTMS. For example, one must buy the entire album if one wants to buy certain long songs or mixes. The album is sometimes over $12. I elect to buy the album for less at half.com and encode the whole thing. And, the latest Beastie Boys album is more expensive than the CD (on sale at a store, say) on iTMS. Of course, BBoys albums usually have 20 or so songs, but does anyone want to pay $0.99 for the ones that are 10 seconds long?
Thanks for the tip. Although I got no beef with mp3, I do like m4a better. The overall texture is much richer, even though bass response is not usually as good. But if these guys got what I want, I'll take it in mp3 format, as well. I got no problems collecting these songs.
Holy crap! That was it. I had completely forgotten that that socket even existed.
I just tried it. The sound quality is much better, but still not as good as the CD or my PB output on certain songs that really test the bass response.
Thanks for the info. Man. I love this place.
I will check them out.
How is their selection, though? Does it compare with iTMS? Perhaps I should add that iTMS is a good bargain relative to buying CDs.
This IS the case. What the article and few people on /. have failed to mention is that the problem is more a matter of the output quality of the iPod than the bit rate of the compression.
When I got my iPod, I was hoping to replace my CD player by hooking it up to my receiver. This was trivial to do technically, but the sound quality was always poor. I experimented with many, many different sampling schemes (i.e., AAC and mp3 at various bit rates). I finally settled on AAC at 224 kbps, but the output from my iPod was still inferior to what I got from CDs. Then, one day I plugged in my Powerbook to my receiver via the exact same cables that I use to connect my iPod to my receiver. Low and behold, the sounds coming out were PERFECT. (FWIW, I have a Harmon/Kardan receiver with JBL speakers. Good shit.) That's when I realized that the iPod was not designed to be connected to high fidelity equipment. It's output was designed for earphones.
So, I complained and complained to Apple, and sure enough, one of the improvements in the last iPod update was "improved playback." And, I heard the difference as soon as I installed the update. It's still not quite hi-fi, but it makes my trips in my car much more pleasant. At home, I still use either CDs or my Powerbook, but I think complaining some more will get more results from Apple.
I have complained to Apple about the bitrate, also, but for $0.99, one does get a good bargain.
Exactly. After all, nobody ever holds the phone company liable for all the gambling that happens over its lines. In fact, the law specifically fingers the individual using the phone linne for gambling as the culprit, and not the phone co. So, why should ISPs be treated differently?
Alas, this probably means that the interested parties (like RIAA) are willing to go after anyone with money, or they are willing to shut down a medium they can't control. Or they don't want to live with. What a shame.
That's what I get. I got a fuel efficient Sentra that I bought in 1994. Reported mileage was 29 city, 38 highway. That's almost exactly what I get afer 90,000 miles and ten years. I got an 11 gallon tank. I did make it from San Fran to LA nonstop on 1 tank once.
One wonders about the conditions under which the fuel economy of the hybrids is evaluated. Maybe that's the problem.