Not that that makes it a myriad, but there are also a few lesser-known programs that do, and I would guess that many others will implement support for it soon. AbiWord didn't last time I checked, but they did support SXW (StarOffice/OpenOffice.org Writer 1.x format), so it wouldn't surprise me to see them implement ODT. Actually... oops... I lied, looks like it does now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_applications_ supporting_OpenDocument
Anyway, the OpenDocument Alliance also has a lot of companies behind it, among them IBM and, of course, Google. So it seems to be a pretty strong format to me, even if that one company from Redmond (what's their name again?) isn't particularly interested right now...
I know this was a joke, but I don't agree. My dictionary (granted, it's an American English dictionary) lists comparable as:
(of a person or thing) able to be likened to another; similar; of equivalent quality; worthy of comparison
So, it seems like a perfectly good use of the word to me. (In fact, it does have a "Usage" note--but it's about mispronunciation, since so many people put emphasis on the second syllable.)
You know, I wonder if it would be a good move to increase the size of the iPod screen or not. Videos from iTMS are already encoded at the exact size of the current 5G iPod's screen, so if they increased it, they would either have to scale (yuck? OTOH, I guess most iPod videos scale up pretty well, especially if it's just a little bit, but I assume that part of the reason for matching the two was to use less processing power) or have black bars on the right and left (ick, even though they do have them on the top and bottom now sometimes, but that is far more common). Or have black bars on all sides, I guess, depending on which dimension or dimensions they change--now that, my friends, would be yucky.
Personally, I don't think they'll change the size of the screen--I think they've kinda tied themselves to this size for a while. On the other hand, I didn't think they'd switch to Intel, so I'm probably not the best person to listen to, but it's sure fun to guess.:)
Dial-up users (and, yes, there still are some) generally don't have a static IP, so it's not like the IP address is all that identifying. Even on broadband, if people wanted to, I'm sure they could go through some sort of proxy if they really wanted to.
That being said, unfortunately, I really don't think this new policy will help things, either.
As far as I know, Apple has shipped X11 installed in OSX by default since Panther.
Nope, you have to customize the installation and include it yourself. Or if you've already installed the OS, just insert your CD and open the "Install Optional Components" (or something like it) package and make sure you select X11.
That being said, I recommend NeoOffice/J, a semi-native Java-based port. It's not much prettier, and unfortunately it's still based on OO.o 1.x, but it's at least a bit more pleasant to use on OS X. I have both installed and use 2.0 only when I absolutely need to. Fonts, priting (not a huge problem because I normally export to PDF anyway), and other things are still issues with the X11 port, but NeoOffice/J handles them better.
Maybe my area isn't the norm, but we have a lot more private colleges here (midwest, specifically Iowa) than public ones (or were you thinking only of high schools--do some of them really use these systems?). My school made the switch to Moodle this year after years of using Blackboard--although they *did* come up with their own name for it because they probably couldn't keep a straight face telling their students to go to Moodle (their name is Kaite, spelled with various degrees of capitalization and periods or with a lack thereof, for "Knowledge and Technology in Education" and a play on the fact that this is Luther College and Luther's wife was named Katie).
Granted, I was never here when they used Blackboard, but I don't think I've heard many complaints about Moodle.
Why are they going after iTunes, which coss 99 cents, while many (most?) other WMA services offer tunes for 89? And why do they care how much the retailer actually changes the consumer for the song? Shouldn't the record company just be concerned about how much money it's getting from each one, regardless of the retailer's price (leave the reatailer to decide how much profit they want after that)?
I've been a BetaNews reader for years, but the last few months I've noticed that they seem to be copying not only stories from Slashdot (which is somewhat understandable--and, by the way, I gave up on C|Net long ago, so I'm not referring to them as they may pertain to this at all) but also *errors* in the Slashdot story found nowhere else, not even in TFA.
Stories, I can understand, because they have a way of getting around. Unique headlines and errors, however, I cannot. That is my only basis for my accusation, which I concede might be a bit hasty... but, in any case, here we're dealing with the opposite issue: Slashdot stole from *them*.
Normally, BetaNews rips stuff right off the front page of Slashdot, but this time it looks like it went the other way around. I mean, was it really necessary to copy the exact headline, word for word, from the linked BetaNews article?
...because I can't find anywhere on WinZip's site that tells me it is. In fact, it says they'll give you a "free" registration code to try out the beta, but it will no longer work for the final release. It also says they are the same download but that functionality will be determined by either a Standard or Professional registration code.
So as far as I can tell, all they're probably planning to do for this is make you pay more if you want the Professional version.
I expect you'd prefer all websites to present raw information in an unbroken screeds of text, without paragraphs...
Umm, no, paragraphs are part of content--hence, the existence of the <p> element in HTML. They have semantic meaning.
...in 14pt black Times New Roman.
No, but that's what CSS is for, and if I don't like it, at least I can turn it off (if my browser conforms to the W3C's recommendation) and use the font I specified in my browser.
I have nothing against Web pages looking pretty--but when it's 2005 and they're still using HTML rather than CSS to do it, it's time to wake up. It will generally make the pages lighter, faster to load, reduce bandwith costs, and improve accessibility (provided you use semantic HTML)--and I don't mean just for blind users; this goes also for people on cell phones, etc.
If space was such a critical factor just get the iMac with the computer built into the monitor. Add a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse and you can store them in a drawer when not needed.
Have you seen an iMac? Even the G5 is still way too large to just "store in a drawer" when not needed. I just bought a 17-in model--the smaller of the two--and it's still quite large. Keep in mind it's the display that's 17 inches, and there's still about an inch of space on the top, left, and right and about four inches on the bottom, so it's quite wide and tall still. It's only two inches thick, but it's 30 lbs and the large metal arm that supports the whole thing is, well, very large and heavy in its own right. If you could remove that (which I assume you can because the iMac G5 is VESA-mount compatible, but I'm sure it's a pain--I don't see any obvious or easy way to do it frequently), then it might be better...
But, wait a minute, speaking of VESA mounts... a great space saver might simply be mounting this thing on the wall. You'd still need a little desk or something in front for the keyboard and mouse, I guess, but something small and moveable might do the trick.
Also, the/. article summary fails to mention some important details--for example, there are now only two iBooks: 1.33GHz/Combo/30GB and 1.42GHz/Super/60GB. Additionally, there are now three Mac Minis with the same specs except 512 MB RAM standard, and AirPort+Bluetooth included on all but the $499 low-end model. Additionally, the 56k modem is actually not included on the two upper models unless you ask for it (add $29)! The ability to add a SuperDrive to a ComboDrive-standard model is also gone, but the new higher-end model helps; BetaNews reports this configuration, $699, would have cost $800 before.
"Apple's cross-platform compatible AirPort base station..."
Last time I checked, AirPort Extreme base stations required OS X to adminster--however, until you posted this and I checked Apple's site again--it doesn't seem to say that anymore. (It does say that WPA requires Panther or later... but I don't know if that assumes Windows--oh, and, are they just ignoring Linux? I'm sure it works with it--is OK no matter what.)
Since I accidentally blew up* my last wireless router (a DI-524 from D-Link), the AirPort Extreme looks like it might be a good option, especially since I just bought an iMac.:-) Let me get this straight, though: with the built-in modem, I can easily share a dial-up connection among my computers? Or dial-in from outside if I need access to my network at home from somewhere else? Neat-o. Especially if it doesn't require OS X to administer--not that I don't now have it, but just that Windows boxen are a lot easier to find.:)
*Yeah, you're probably wondering what that is about. I accidentally plugged in the adapter for my HP laptop into the router instead of my computer in a giant mix-up... and the router made some popping noises and funny melting-plastic smells. (A capacitor exploded inside from what I saw.) Oops. At least I didn't plug the router's power adapter into my computer, which is significantly more expensive... though I'm sure that wouldn't have done much, if any, damage.
Booting is a matter of, say, 15 seconds, completely blowing away any Linux, Windows or OS X install. The short boottime is something that has always been a huge selling point for the Be to me, as I hate slow-booting operating systems (luckily OS X has good sleep/wake functionality, else it would be such a pain to use).
Umm, 15 seconds might blow away my Windows XP and Ubuntu box, but it is certainly pretty close to my new iMac G5. I haven't timed it, but it is surprisingly fast. This author makes it seem like OS X boots SO slow (I have seen slow-booting Macs: OS 9 and OS X on G3 iBooks, but, um, let's stick to technology from this decade if you're complaining about boot times, because I bet he's not testing on a comparable PC... though he does mention a PII, but also mentions faster computers) and that using sleep/wake is the only way he can stand it.
You'll have fresh native copies of Firefox and [competing Mozilla-based Mac browser] Camino for your shiny new Intel Macs when or soon after they come out."
I wouldn't exactly call Camino "competing," unless you'd also say the same of the suite. They're both Mozilla projects; it's not like Camino is made by some competitor. Camino would have less of a reason to exist if Firefox behaved more natively, but, while it's improved, you can still tell that it's not quite there yet (e.g., buttons and other controls on Web page forms and probably even more things that I don't realize coming from a Windows background).
Driving a color screen uses up much more batteries then a simple B&W one does. Personally I would prefer increased battery life - I don't feel the need for color in my music player.
Actually, the new color iPods tout 15-hour battery lives. I don't know what the previous iPod photos had, but my B&W 20 GB iPod from the last line claims 12 hours. Sounds like an improvement to me.
Jack Stargazer (transcripts available on website, but I don't remember what show it was anymore) once mentioned on the show that the moon near the horizon will actually appear "normal"--by which I mean the same size it would appear anywhere else in the sky--if you double over and look at it. Perhaps you were thinking of this (?).
I tried, and it seems to "work." (I live in a rural area so could do it without looking like an idiot. In the city, it might be harder...)
Slashdot Mirror
KOffice?
Not that that makes it a myriad, but there are also a few lesser-known programs that do, and I would guess that many others will implement support for it soon. AbiWord didn't last time I checked, but they did support SXW (StarOffice/OpenOffice.org Writer 1.x format), so it wouldn't surprise me to see them implement ODT. Actually ... oops ... I lied, looks like it does now: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_applications_ supporting_OpenDocument
Anyway, the OpenDocument Alliance also has a lot of companies behind it, among them IBM and, of course, Google. So it seems to be a pretty strong format to me, even if that one company from Redmond (what's their name again?) isn't particularly interested right now...
In Korea, only old people use broadband!
I know this was a joke, but I don't agree. My dictionary (granted, it's an American English dictionary) lists comparable as:
So, it seems like a perfectly good use of the word to me. (In fact, it does have a "Usage" note--but it's about mispronunciation, since so many people put emphasis on the second syllable.)
You know, I wonder if it would be a good move to increase the size of the iPod screen or not. Videos from iTMS are already encoded at the exact size of the current 5G iPod's screen, so if they increased it, they would either have to scale (yuck? OTOH, I guess most iPod videos scale up pretty well, especially if it's just a little bit, but I assume that part of the reason for matching the two was to use less processing power) or have black bars on the right and left (ick, even though they do have them on the top and bottom now sometimes, but that is far more common). Or have black bars on all sides, I guess, depending on which dimension or dimensions they change--now that, my friends, would be yucky.
:)
Personally, I don't think they'll change the size of the screen--I think they've kinda tied themselves to this size for a while. On the other hand, I didn't think they'd switch to Intel, so I'm probably not the best person to listen to, but it's sure fun to guess.
Dial-up users (and, yes, there still are some) generally don't have a static IP, so it's not like the IP address is all that identifying. Even on broadband, if people wanted to, I'm sure they could go through some sort of proxy if they really wanted to.
That being said, unfortunately, I really don't think this new policy will help things, either.
I'm assuming they just mean the final version of OpenOffice.org 2.0, which had been in testing for quite some time.
offering to replace or refund them at no cost
As far as I know, Apple has shipped X11 installed in OSX by default since Panther.
Nope, you have to customize the installation and include it yourself. Or if you've already installed the OS, just insert your CD and open the "Install Optional Components" (or something like it) package and make sure you select X11.
That being said, I recommend NeoOffice/J, a semi-native Java-based port. It's not much prettier, and unfortunately it's still based on OO.o 1.x, but it's at least a bit more pleasant to use on OS X. I have both installed and use 2.0 only when I absolutely need to. Fonts, priting (not a huge problem because I normally export to PDF anyway), and other things are still issues with the X11 port, but NeoOffice/J handles them better.
Maybe my area isn't the norm, but we have a lot more private colleges here (midwest, specifically Iowa) than public ones (or were you thinking only of high schools--do some of them really use these systems?). My school made the switch to Moodle this year after years of using Blackboard--although they *did* come up with their own name for it because they probably couldn't keep a straight face telling their students to go to Moodle (their name is Kaite, spelled with various degrees of capitalization and periods or with a lack thereof, for "Knowledge and Technology in Education" and a play on the fact that this is Luther College and Luther's wife was named Katie).
Granted, I was never here when they used Blackboard, but I don't think I've heard many complaints about Moodle.
Why are they going after iTunes, which coss 99 cents, while many (most?) other WMA services offer tunes for 89? And why do they care how much the retailer actually changes the consumer for the song? Shouldn't the record company just be concerned about how much money it's getting from each one, regardless of the retailer's price (leave the reatailer to decide how much profit they want after that)?
I've been a BetaNews reader for years, but the last few months I've noticed that they seem to be copying not only stories from Slashdot (which is somewhat understandable--and, by the way, I gave up on C|Net long ago, so I'm not referring to them as they may pertain to this at all) but also *errors* in the Slashdot story found nowhere else, not even in TFA.
Stories, I can understand, because they have a way of getting around. Unique headlines and errors, however, I cannot. That is my only basis for my accusation, which I concede might be a bit hasty ... but, in any case, here we're dealing with the opposite issue: Slashdot stole from *them*.
I'm not trying to rant, but...
Normally, BetaNews rips stuff right off the front page of Slashdot, but this time it looks like it went the other way around. I mean, was it really necessary to copy the exact headline, word for word, from the linked BetaNews article?
...because I can't find anywhere on WinZip's site that tells me it is. In fact, it says they'll give you a "free" registration code to try out the beta, but it will no longer work for the final release. It also says they are the same download but that functionality will be determined by either a Standard or Professional registration code.
So as far as I can tell, all they're probably planning to do for this is make you pay more if you want the Professional version.
I expect you'd prefer all websites to present raw information in an unbroken screeds of text, without paragraphs...
Umm, no, paragraphs are part of content--hence, the existence of the <p> element in HTML. They have semantic meaning.
No, but that's what CSS is for, and if I don't like it, at least I can turn it off (if my browser conforms to the W3C's recommendation) and use the font I specified in my browser.
I have nothing against Web pages looking pretty--but when it's 2005 and they're still using HTML rather than CSS to do it, it's time to wake up. It will generally make the pages lighter, faster to load, reduce bandwith costs, and improve accessibility (provided you use semantic HTML)--and I don't mean just for blind users; this goes also for people on cell phones, etc.
Either that or (worse) you compromise the design to make it fit the limitations of a pure CSS layout.
Because everybody knows presentation is more important than content?
You know you're on Slashdot when comments such as the parent get modded insightful... :-)
If space was such a critical factor just get the iMac with the computer built into the monitor. Add a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse and you can store them in a drawer when not needed.
Have you seen an iMac? Even the G5 is still way too large to just "store in a drawer" when not needed. I just bought a 17-in model--the smaller of the two--and it's still quite large. Keep in mind it's the display that's 17 inches, and there's still about an inch of space on the top, left, and right and about four inches on the bottom, so it's quite wide and tall still. It's only two inches thick, but it's 30 lbs and the large metal arm that supports the whole thing is, well, very large and heavy in its own right. If you could remove that (which I assume you can because the iMac G5 is VESA-mount compatible, but I'm sure it's a pain--I don't see any obvious or easy way to do it frequently), then it might be better...
But, wait a minute, speaking of VESA mounts ... a great space saver might simply be mounting this thing on the wall. You'd still need a little desk or something in front for the keyboard and mouse, I guess, but something small and moveable might do the trick.
IIRC, it is still "painted," but only with (orange) primer.
http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0507ibookmacmini.h tml (not that you need a ThinkSecret article to tell you that there actually are updates...)
Also, the /. article summary fails to mention some important details--for example, there are now only two iBooks: 1.33GHz/Combo/30GB and 1.42GHz/Super/60GB. Additionally, there are now three Mac Minis with the same specs except 512 MB RAM standard, and AirPort+Bluetooth included on all but the $499 low-end model. Additionally, the 56k modem is actually not included on the two upper models unless you ask for it (add $29)! The ability to add a SuperDrive to a ComboDrive-standard model is also gone, but the new higher-end model helps; BetaNews reports this configuration, $699, would have cost $800 before.
Too bad I just bought an iMac. :)
"Apple's cross-platform compatible AirPort base station..."
Last time I checked, AirPort Extreme base stations required OS X to adminster--however, until you posted this and I checked Apple's site again--it doesn't seem to say that anymore. (It does say that WPA requires Panther or later ... but I don't know if that assumes Windows--oh, and, are they just ignoring Linux? I'm sure it works with it--is OK no matter what.)
Since I accidentally blew up* my last wireless router (a DI-524 from D-Link), the AirPort Extreme looks like it might be a good option, especially since I just bought an iMac. :-) Let me get this straight, though: with the built-in modem, I can easily share a dial-up connection among my computers? Or dial-in from outside if I need access to my network at home from somewhere else? Neat-o. Especially if it doesn't require OS X to administer--not that I don't now have it, but just that Windows boxen are a lot easier to find. :)
*Yeah, you're probably wondering what that is about. I accidentally plugged in the adapter for my HP laptop into the router instead of my computer in a giant mix-up ... and the router made some popping noises and funny melting-plastic smells. (A capacitor exploded inside from what I saw.) Oops. At least I didn't plug the router's power adapter into my computer, which is significantly more expensive ... though I'm sure that wouldn't have done much, if any, damage.
Umm, 15 seconds might blow away my Windows XP and Ubuntu box, but it is certainly pretty close to my new iMac G5. I haven't timed it, but it is surprisingly fast. This author makes it seem like OS X boots SO slow (I have seen slow-booting Macs: OS 9 and OS X on G3 iBooks, but, um, let's stick to technology from this decade if you're complaining about boot times, because I bet he's not testing on a comparable PC ... though he does mention a PII, but also mentions faster computers) and that using sleep/wake is the only way he can stand it.
Current iPods (except for the mini) are color.
Wow, even the shuffle? ;-)
You'll have fresh native copies of Firefox and [competing Mozilla-based Mac browser] Camino for your shiny new Intel Macs when or soon after they come out."
I wouldn't exactly call Camino "competing," unless you'd also say the same of the suite. They're both Mozilla projects; it's not like Camino is made by some competitor. Camino would have less of a reason to exist if Firefox behaved more natively, but, while it's improved, you can still tell that it's not quite there yet (e.g., buttons and other controls on Web page forms and probably even more things that I don't realize coming from a Windows background).
Driving a color screen uses up much more batteries then a simple B&W one does. Personally I would prefer increased battery life - I don't feel the need for color in my music player.
Actually, the new color iPods tout 15-hour battery lives. I don't know what the previous iPod photos had, but my B&W 20 GB iPod from the last line claims 12 hours. Sounds like an improvement to me.
Jack Stargazer (transcripts available on website, but I don't remember what show it was anymore) once mentioned on the show that the moon near the horizon will actually appear "normal"--by which I mean the same size it would appear anywhere else in the sky--if you double over and look at it. Perhaps you were thinking of this (?).
I tried, and it seems to "work." (I live in a rural area so could do it without looking like an idiot. In the city, it might be harder...)