I've had (and expressed) lots of problems with Apple hardware in the past, but case design isn't one of them - albeit, Apple has gone substantially backwards in many regards. Ever take apart, say, a Mac IIci? It's actually kind of a joyful experience. Now, ever try to disassemble a classic iMac to make some upgrades? Egads! Even fucking around with the blue-handled Xcelite MacCaseCracker on a classic doorstop Mac is pleasant by comparison. I haven't taken apart a Mini, but the instruction photos leave me shaking my head.
I build my own PCs, but every so often I do get to pull apart a Mac of various vintages - most recently, a Mac Pro to put a Broadcom 802.11n module into it (the most IIci of their current line), and a base Mac Mini to bump it to 4 GB and a 500 GB drive (interior design reminiscent of a Cube).
It's actually a very satisfying experience being in amongst the Apple hardware: there's a certain artistry to getting the most use out of the diminished space of their designs, and the feeling is more of being a delicate caver exploring a new miniature subterranean world than serviceman.
The analogy is that building a PC is like "electrical" wiring where you route power cables under floorboards or up walls, there's space aplenty. Inside an Apple is like "electronics" where every atom of space counts. The Mini is like a large PSP.
There's no question you have to delicate turn your delicate setting to 11 when operating inside a Mac.
A PC you can basically upgrade with a blunt hammer.
I second that sentiment, on this extra long reply thread I've clicked into.
And if you judge from wiki, there are almost as many hackers beavering away to understand how iPhone works so that goal can be accomplished, as there are people who bought the iPhone in the first place.
If someone manages a SIM unlocked iPhone, the sales of the product would double overnight, and FedEx will use up 5 years of carbon credits flying them to all corners of the planet.
True, though only certain editions are virtualization disallowed.
I don't know which, because Vista has a far more complicated edition structure than XP Home / XP Pro did. It may be you have to go all the way up to Ultimate, as this article implies:
There are some quite capable eBook readers on the market, lead by the Sony Reader and the iRex iLiad. Both feature an e-ink screen which uses a matrix of charged dark and light particles at a resolution of around 160 dpi to represent a paper page.
There is no backlight and power is only consumed when the black/white charges are flipped to rebuild the page. The Sony Reader is rated at about 7000 page turns before a battery recharge is necessary. It can be happily left on without worrying about the battery going flat, and owners report in excess of months between charges.
Without a fluorescent backlight, the screen is far easier on the eyes than reading on a LCD screen, provided the ambient light in the room is good. The screen readability is roughly equivalent to a pulp paperback novel. (The texture is smoother but the white is not pure white, rather a very light gray.)
The main limitations are getting the content onto them. The Sony Reader accepts text, RTF, PDF and Sony's own proprietary eBook format, which is what books bought from the Sony Connect store are supplied in (DRM protected).
RTF is generally accepted as the best form to obtain and create books in, as PDF has to be specifically make to the 600x800 screen resolution (larger PDFs scale poorly) and is slower for the device to render.
Buying books from the Sony Connect store is acceptable in theory, but in practice the range is somewhat limited to recent bestsellers and popular classics, and the price is only discounted around 20% from a pulped tree equivalent (for something that is less tangible and less shareable).
Books from the Gutenberg project and other sources can be freely downloaded and transferred as text (plain) or RTF (moderately formatted) although these of course are classic, out of copyright works. More modern books, for which a legitimate or illicit PDF or CHM has been obtained (eg, O'Reilly manuals) can be converted from their original form into RTF, but the process is somewhat tedious and more work than the drag-and-drop method of say transferring a downloaded MP3.
(This is also not helped by poor Sony Connect software (intended to be iTunes for eBooks, and clearly UI inspired by it), which is slow and poorly designed.)
Still, with the Sony Reader and similar devices accepting up to 4GB SD cards, able to store a library of many thousands of books in a quite readable format which is slimmer than a potboiler novel, the hardware certainly shows promise. This is a first generation line of products, so inevitably it will improve for the next rev.
Filling them is the hard part, which is where Google could help.
True to an extent, but actually the iPod was really the first (and arguably only so far) to crack the effortless sync aspect of maintaining a large (multi-thousand), indexed and accessible song & spoken word library.
The fact that people still don't get this is evidenced by the frequent "but I just want to drag files to it" comments here. That works for about 20-30 songs or videos, but fails when you are managing thousands of music tracks from multiple albums, audiobooks, and syndicated podcasts and videoblogs.
As to your condescension about "average people" associating iPod with MP3 player and buying it because they don't know any better, I think you'll find most buyers of the high-end, high capacity iPods are by and large at the elite end of savvy techies. Yes, maybe the average folk are attracted by the pretty colors and dancing cartoon advertising for the mid-range models, but don't dismiss the instinctive appeal of a very well thought out design of the unit itself. Many owners I know fell in love with it as soon as they held it - the brand is not all there is.
My ears pricked up [pun sorta intended] at the mention of ears hurting like hell after 17 hours with ear buds in...
I think I go almost that long EVERY DAY with the buds in. In fact, if you've seen that Doctor Who episode where everyone in the parallel universe London is walking around with implants, that's kinda like me.
The thing is, I often don't even realize they're in, to the extent that I'll often have left them on when the music/podcast has finished. People will gesture to me as if I won't be able to hear, when I can, and wonder why.
I think my ears must have undergone some Lamarckian type adaptation!
Apparently, time lady Lalla Ward (Romana #2), ex-wife to the curly haired scarf wielder, when asked who was her favourite monster, replied: "Tom Baker."
(I always think it's satisfying that now Lalla is married to someone who is probably smart enough to actually build a time machine, scientist Richard Dawkins.)
Sounds like someone has fallen for marketing obfuscation.
iPod is 2.5", Zune is 3.0", both have a 320x240 resolution. That's a half inch difference and the resolution is the same, so the Zune has chunkier pixels and cannot display any more information.
Also, neither are optimal for extended movie watching. The PSP's 4" screen at 480x272 (16:9) resolution is about the smallest size that is comfortable for a 2 hour movie (aside from the fact that Sony in their infinitely stupid wisdom have hobbled it regular MPEG-4 movie have to be at 320x240 or 368x208 resolution, making the movie less sharp due to upscaling).
Yes, PMP_mod is a great proof of concept and works pretty well once you've jumped through the hoops of making some content, but it would still be much nicer if Sony would allow the built-in video player to support 480x272 MPEG-4 movies.
For one thing, it's awkward having to go to the Game > Memory > PMP_mod item, launch as a "game" then drop into a CLI menu to select your file. Not to mention the fact that you have to be running firmware 1.5 in the first place, and many games now force an upgrade. Even though you can get back, it's a multistep process, and not something you want to do all the time.
The built-in player has its own menu entry which is very quick to access, with preview icons in the list, and some nice features like jumping to any time point, etc. In fact, even though I have PMP_mod, and know how to make content for it, and know how to downgrade to 1.5 firmware, I still produce MPEG-4 308x268 movies (highest res the built-in player allows) so that I can play them normally.
As the grandparent suggests, the PSP would make an ideal movie player if it supported 480x272 natively.
Are you sure this is a troll? From the CNET article:
But the conflict goes far deeper. The rules that govern the organizations touting the different technologies currently bar manufacturers from combining the two standards into a single drive, Weedfald said.
"The conundrum is that you've got two different camps. You've got licensing issues, you've got trademarks, you've got copyrights," Weedfald said. "You can't just be on the Blu-ray side and say, 'We will put HD DVD in there,' and the reverse is true."
Samsung may make a separate line of HD DVD players to complement the Blu-ray players it plans to release later this year, Weedfald said. This would allow Samsung to support both formats, although not in a single product. The company, however, does not have current plans to do so, he said.
Weedfald is senior vice president of marketing at Samsung North America, so I guess he'd know.
Just like when you enlarge an image in Photoshop, all you're doing to approximating what pixels WOULD be there... you're not adding any real new information to the image. How could this possibly improve a DVD image?
True, but there are varying qualities of interpolation. Photoshop's preferences have options for interpolation like "bilinear" and "bicubic" which imply progressively better mathematical methods of sampling the surrounding pixels to interpolate the missing pixels. The more samples and the better the algorithm, the better the interpolation.
Photoshop offered the choice because running a high quality bicubic algorithm on a slow CPU back in the day could take a fair amount of time on a large image.
So, if improved interpolator hardware can do something like a bicubic calculation every 30 frames per second, the quality of the interpolated image is going to improve.
Works great in Parallels (IntelMac virtualization)
on
Ubuntu 6.06 Reviewed
·
· Score: 1
Installs perfectly in Parallels (release candidate 2) running on a MacBook. Use the x86 Desktop edition, choose a Linux > "Debian" environment.
Only trick is getting a network connection via a MacBook's AirPort card. For that, choose "Host Only Networking" in the Parallels parameter screen (this has to be done as it defaults to a Bridged Ethernet port and emulates a Realtek NIC, which would require a cable to be plugged in).
Then go to Mac OS X's System Preferences > Sharing > Internet. Select "Share connection from: AirPort" Select "To computers using: eth2" (should be a bottom of list)
Make sure Ubuntu is using DHCP in its Networking config (it does by default), and has its default Ethernet port active. Now you should be able to open Ubuntu's pre-installed Firefox and check you've got a connection.
IBM would call it the MacBook Jnr. Microsoft would call it the MacBook 360. Sony would call it the MB3 (and ship it at approximately the same time as the heat of the universe). Nintendo would call it the MacBook Wee (but they'd spell it funny).
Slashdot Mirror
"That's no moon"
U r right, it really dusnt matter how u spell. Its not like their are standards to maintain. Or that its just plane irritating to sea.
(Pedants aside, a large proportion of Slashdot readers are programmers whose brains sound an alarm bell when a sentence doesn't parse correctly.)
I've had (and expressed) lots of problems with Apple hardware in the past, but case design isn't one of them - albeit, Apple has gone substantially backwards in many regards. Ever take apart, say, a Mac IIci? It's actually kind of a joyful experience. Now, ever try to disassemble a classic iMac to make some upgrades? Egads! Even fucking around with the blue-handled Xcelite MacCaseCracker on a classic doorstop Mac is pleasant by comparison. I haven't taken apart a Mini, but the instruction photos leave me shaking my head.
I build my own PCs, but every so often I do get to pull apart a Mac of various vintages - most recently, a Mac Pro to put a Broadcom 802.11n module into it (the most IIci of their current line), and a base Mac Mini to bump it to 4 GB and a 500 GB drive (interior design reminiscent of a Cube).
It's actually a very satisfying experience being in amongst the Apple hardware: there's a certain artistry to getting the most use out of the diminished space of their designs, and the feeling is more of being a delicate caver exploring a new miniature subterranean world than serviceman.
The analogy is that building a PC is like "electrical" wiring where you route power cables under floorboards or up walls, there's space aplenty. Inside an Apple is like "electronics" where every atom of space counts. The Mini is like a large PSP.
There's no question you have to delicate turn your delicate setting to 11 when operating inside a Mac.
A PC you can basically upgrade with a blunt hammer.
Microchipped pony.
Just in case you weren't aware, there was some excerpts from the draft of the 3rd book in the posthumously published 'Salmon of Doubt.'
Such as how, on a whim, Dirk trailed someone from London to some remote part of the USA and met a leopard. Or something.
I second that sentiment, on this extra long reply thread I've clicked into.
And if you judge from wiki, there are almost as many hackers beavering away to understand how iPhone works so that goal can be accomplished, as there are people who bought the iPhone in the first place.
If someone manages a SIM unlocked iPhone, the sales of the product would double overnight, and FedEx will use up 5 years of carbon credits flying them to all corners of the planet.
True, though only certain editions are virtualization disallowed.
I don't know which, because Vista has a far more complicated edition structure than XP Home / XP Pro did. It may be you have to go all the way up to Ultimate, as this article implies:
http://parallelsvirtualization.blogspot.com/2007/0 1/vista-is-here-so-what-does-it-mean-for.html
Rkprcg vs V gnxr lbhe pbzzrag, syl gb n pbhagel jurer gur QZPN qbrf abg nccyl, qrpelcg gur pbzzrag, ernq vg, erghea naq cbfg.
Vg vf bs pbhefr n engure grqvbhf jnl bs ercylvat gb pbzzragf.
There are some quite capable eBook readers on the market, lead by the Sony Reader and the iRex iLiad. Both feature an e-ink screen which uses a matrix of charged dark and light particles at a resolution of around 160 dpi to represent a paper page.
There is no backlight and power is only consumed when the black/white charges are flipped to rebuild the page. The Sony Reader is rated at about 7000 page turns before a battery recharge is necessary. It can be happily left on without worrying about the battery going flat, and owners report in excess of months between charges.
Without a fluorescent backlight, the screen is far easier on the eyes than reading on a LCD screen, provided the ambient light in the room is good. The screen readability is roughly equivalent to a pulp paperback novel. (The texture is smoother but the white is not pure white, rather a very light gray.)
The main limitations are getting the content onto them. The Sony Reader accepts text, RTF, PDF and Sony's own proprietary eBook format, which is what books bought from the Sony Connect store are supplied in (DRM protected).
RTF is generally accepted as the best form to obtain and create books in, as PDF has to be specifically make to the 600x800 screen resolution (larger PDFs scale poorly) and is slower for the device to render.
Buying books from the Sony Connect store is acceptable in theory, but in practice the range is somewhat limited to recent bestsellers and popular classics, and the price is only discounted around 20% from a pulped tree equivalent (for something that is less tangible and less shareable).
Books from the Gutenberg project and other sources can be freely downloaded and transferred as text (plain) or RTF (moderately formatted) although these of course are classic, out of copyright works. More modern books, for which a legitimate or illicit PDF or CHM has been obtained (eg, O'Reilly manuals) can be converted from their original form into RTF, but the process is somewhat tedious and more work than the drag-and-drop method of say transferring a downloaded MP3.
(This is also not helped by poor Sony Connect software (intended to be iTunes for eBooks, and clearly UI inspired by it), which is slow and poorly designed.)
Still, with the Sony Reader and similar devices accepting up to 4GB SD cards, able to store a library of many thousands of books in a quite readable format which is slimmer than a potboiler novel, the hardware certainly shows promise. This is a first generation line of products, so inevitably it will improve for the next rev.
Filling them is the hard part, which is where Google could help.
True to an extent, but actually the iPod was really the first (and arguably only so far) to crack the effortless sync aspect of maintaining a large (multi-thousand), indexed and accessible song & spoken word library.
The fact that people still don't get this is evidenced by the frequent "but I just want to drag files to it" comments here. That works for about 20-30 songs or videos, but fails when you are managing thousands of music tracks from multiple albums, audiobooks, and syndicated podcasts and videoblogs.
As to your condescension about "average people" associating iPod with MP3 player and buying it because they don't know any better, I think you'll find most buyers of the high-end, high capacity iPods are by and large at the elite end of savvy techies. Yes, maybe the average folk are attracted by the pretty colors and dancing cartoon advertising for the mid-range models, but don't dismiss the instinctive appeal of a very well thought out design of the unit itself. Many owners I know fell in love with it as soon as they held it - the brand is not all there is.
Just an observation.
My ears pricked up [pun sorta intended] at the mention of ears hurting like hell after 17 hours with ear buds in...
I think I go almost that long EVERY DAY with the buds in. In fact, if you've seen that Doctor Who episode where everyone in the parallel universe London is walking around with implants, that's kinda like me.
The thing is, I often don't even realize they're in, to the extent that I'll often have left them on when the music/podcast has finished. People will gesture to me as if I won't be able to hear, when I can, and wonder why.
I think my ears must have undergone some Lamarckian type adaptation!
Or crying Lallas.
Apparently, time lady Lalla Ward (Romana #2), ex-wife to the curly haired scarf wielder, when asked who was her favourite monster, replied: "Tom Baker."
(I always think it's satisfying that now Lalla is married to someone who is probably smart enough to actually build a time machine, scientist Richard Dawkins.)
"First off, it has a big screen.
This is huge!"
Sounds like someone has fallen for marketing obfuscation.
iPod is 2.5", Zune is 3.0", both have a 320x240 resolution. That's a half inch difference and the resolution is the same, so the Zune has chunkier pixels and cannot display any more information.
Also, neither are optimal for extended movie watching. The PSP's 4" screen at 480x272 (16:9) resolution is about the smallest size that is comfortable for a 2 hour movie (aside from the fact that Sony in their infinitely stupid wisdom have hobbled it regular MPEG-4 movie have to be at 320x240 or 368x208 resolution, making the movie less sharp due to upscaling).
Yes, PMP_mod is a great proof of concept and works pretty well once you've jumped through the hoops of making some content, but it would still be much nicer if Sony would allow the built-in video player to support 480x272 MPEG-4 movies.
For one thing, it's awkward having to go to the Game > Memory > PMP_mod item, launch as a "game" then drop into a CLI menu to select your file. Not to mention the fact that you have to be running firmware 1.5 in the first place, and many games now force an upgrade. Even though you can get back, it's a multistep process, and not something you want to do all the time.
The built-in player has its own menu entry which is very quick to access, with preview icons in the list, and some nice features like jumping to any time point, etc. In fact, even though I have PMP_mod, and know how to make content for it, and know how to downgrade to 1.5 firmware, I still produce MPEG-4 308x268 movies (highest res the built-in player allows) so that I can play them normally.
As the grandparent suggests, the PSP would make an ideal movie player if it supported 480x272 natively.
Are you sure this is a troll? From the CNET article:
Weedfald is senior vice president of marketing at Samsung North America, so I guess he'd know.
Yes, lines 1, 2 and 4 are correct. They are Slashdot usernames.
Line 3 is obviously a Digg imposter.
Just like when you enlarge an image in Photoshop, all you're doing to approximating what pixels WOULD be there ... you're not adding any real new information to the image. How could this possibly improve a DVD image?
True, but there are varying qualities of interpolation. Photoshop's preferences have options for interpolation like "bilinear" and "bicubic" which imply progressively better mathematical methods of sampling the surrounding pixels to interpolate the missing pixels. The more samples and the better the algorithm, the better the interpolation.
Photoshop offered the choice because running a high quality bicubic algorithm on a slow CPU back in the day could take a fair amount of time on a large image.
So, if improved interpolator hardware can do something like a bicubic calculation every 30 frames per second, the quality of the interpolated image is going to improve.
I watch at 7' you insensitive clod!
The Fifth Element is a launch title.
Installs perfectly in Parallels (release candidate 2) running on a MacBook. Use the x86 Desktop edition, choose a Linux > "Debian" environment.
Only trick is getting a network connection via a MacBook's AirPort card. For that, choose "Host Only Networking" in the Parallels parameter screen (this has to be done as it defaults to a Bridged Ethernet port and emulates a Realtek NIC, which would require a cable to be plugged in).
Then go to Mac OS X's System Preferences > Sharing > Internet.
Select "Share connection from: AirPort"
Select "To computers using: eth2" (should be a bottom of list)
Make sure Ubuntu is using DHCP in its Networking config (it does by default), and has its default Ethernet port active. Now you should be able to open Ubuntu's pre-installed Firefox and check you've got a connection.
Agree, the "Nobody uses Notepad" sentence in the parent post was the only one I disagreed with.
Right-clicking then Open in Notepad has to be the most common action for me and many others on a Windows machine.
You did a find and replace with SCO and Linux.
There's a emulator called SheepShaver which will emulate a PowerPC Mac running System 7.5 thru 9.0.4, and it has been ported for Intel Macs.
Here's a support thread with guys talking about the practicalities of using it as a Classic environment on their Intel Macs:0 509180914879
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2006
IBM would call it the MacBook Jnr.
Microsoft would call it the MacBook 360.
Sony would call it the MB3 (and ship it at approximately the same time as the heat of the universe).
Nintendo would call it the MacBook Wee (but they'd spell it funny).
You know, that's a better plot than 80% of the movies Hollywood has spat out over the past year.
I feel you should offer them the rights to your Rofuble caper.