Great article to surround with "April Fools Day" crap, one of the worst things about living in New Zealand : Living In The Future subjects you to not only the first of April NZ time, but again "the next day" when The Rest Of The World (TM) catches up.
Right, this BS story placement aside, what the FRAK is going on?
In NZ, we have not had much talk about "oh noes!1!1! the world is screwed!1!1!", people are not stockpiling iodine tablets, we are not scared shitless by our media. We have our own earthquake recovery to obsess on, "how much will it cost? What will happen with the Rugby World Cup games scheduled for CHCH? How many houses need to be demolished?"...
The "Left leaning", some would say realistic coverage is talking about radiation being detected away from the site, about food from the area being frigged, about dead bodies unable to be moved "because it would spread more radiation to move them", and of passengers from the region setting off airport scanners when they fly away from Japan to other countries. In New Zealand, we are also having a general "see, we're pretty damn smart not to get involved in Nuclear power..." vibe, patting ourselves on the back. Our country is as unlikely to support Nuclear Power as "Capital Punishment" and constantly invading other nations, to steal their finite resources. And this has made us all the more so.
The "apologists" immediately went out in force, "ohhhh, other power sources still kill more people annually", "those whining greenies are LYING LIARS WHO LIE!", "you're too dumb to be smart like me, you cant understand, you dumbo dumb dumb!" etc.
In short, what the hell is going on? Is radiation REALLY being spread about? Is that really "acceptable"? Or is this whole thing "being hyped up by the liberal media who want the terrorists to win"?
...the tech world has learned to move on with or without Apple.
What kool aid did YOU drink? I'll stick to my Apple Water thanks:-)
Where would Samsung, HTC and "the rest" be without the iPhone? Windows Mobile 6. something?;-) Shit, those idiots cant even get tablets out to compete with the now SECOND generation of iPad!
They cant keep up, much less innovate, without Apple
I'm interested, what dont you like about iTunes? I presume you are using a Windows version? I've heard complaints from Windows users, before, never from any of my Mac using friends.
On my iMac, iTunes is very fast to load, scrolls through my 100GB+ of music, audiobooks and podcasts smoothly, and has all the features I could ever want, and more. It gives me access to the worlds largest music store, the App Store which has redefined how we use software, and even "ping", which, while very slow to get off the ground, is fun in its own simple way.
Perhaps the question is, what the hell else is there to use? Winamp? "Windows Media Player", whatever its calling itself these days. I still remember running "Classic" as it wasnt AS ugly, it was faster etc.
Seriously, the thing wasnt even sold "worldwide", and its not Mac compatible, hey guys, you know the hot new platform, that all the cool kids are buying? And this group dont seem to care about up front cost, when they want good quality, great design?
I've been trying to get a BROWN Zune secondhand, just to add to my collection of failed products. It would go great with my CueCats, Power Glove and Newtons
I'm a New Zealander, my country is "nuclear free". We still have smoke detectors with "Americium", Nuclear Medicine etc, but not Nuclear Power, or weapons of mass destruction. On that last point, our police do not have guns (unless for an emergency call out etc, nutjob running wild with a gun endangering civil civilians), in general, we are a peaceful nation, the rest of the world likes us, things seem to be working out fine.
Our national stance AGAINST Nuclear weapons, power have gotten past American presidents pissy. During the 80's we got the "waaa, domino effect, if you dont support our totally awesome war machines playing around in your harbours, if you're not 100% WITH US,then you're AGAINST us, and others will back away too if your totally influential country of (at the time) less than four million stands up to The Good Superpower!"
You can read the transcript of a speech by our Prime Minister David Lange (long-e) as he stood up "to America", who are widely regarded as being beaten by this one man, from a small country on the issue.
Its one of my nations defining moments, sort of like our "man on the moon", when we stood up for ourselves, when we declared we wanted nothing to do with this shit, when a major nation whined that we couldnt be friends unless we smoked behind the bikesheds with them, and we came out victorious.
During that "debate", we got similar arguments to now, stereotypes, personal attacks, Microsoft levels of FUD. There I go myself, dragging Microsoft into this;-)
So far, what I've seen here, and elsewhere, is a general "waaa, whiny bitch Greenies dont understand, why dont they understand? Coz they're DUMB DUMB DUMB, this is SAFE dammit, but if its not, then the NIMBY Greenies are ALSO to blame, they're as bad as those who oppose drilling for oil in National Parks, its THEIR fault, what happened on the Deepwater Horizon, because they didnt let us do what we wanted, Drill Baby Drill!, by going ahead with this kinda unsafe - but that could totally be made awesome and stuff, if only they let us pump billions more into it! - technology! And then this technology ended up with Spill Baby Spill! waaaaaaa!!!111!!!"
Whether Nuclear as currently deployed a) is or b) is not safe is perhaps the wrong question. The issue might instead be, c) why use Nuclear at all? Given massive costs in building ("waaa, thats because of the greenies and red tape!") and maintaining Nuclear plants, in their terrible PR, in the genuine scares for negative effects.
New Zealand makes over 70% of our power through efficient, *renewable* sources, like hydropower. The shit works, it has for decades, it would otherwise be an untapped resource, its effectively "free", once you've built the station.
One such local hydropower station is at Manapouri (or perhaps more accurately Deep Cove), I've been through the machine hall many times, its a tourist attraction, and has given me a real respect for both nature, and scientific achievement.
THANK YOU. Seriously, why wasnt the group who did all the work, who brought and presumably broke (or not!) an iPad 2, took all the nice photos, revealed to the world its magic... and then some jerk grabs a summary of their hard work, throws it up, and links to some other group, for no reason!?
Its things like this that give "real journalists" the right to bitch about blogs, about summaries and content aggregation. I check Slashdot a few times a day, I'm subscribed by RSS in Firefox, why would someone "RTFA" if its not even linked to!?!:-)
Apple do not host podcasts, my show is hosted elsewhere, and iTunes pulls in the RSS feed to display it, new episodes etc.
Apple would however cache an RSS feed, which is automatically checked every half hour for updates, or you can ping it manually. I'm sure it really costs the big bucks hosting RSS feeds, my heart really goes out to them, unlike Netflix who stream every movie known to man, often in HD, and YouTube who apparently offer 4K resolution streaming;-)
I wouldnt dream of telling you how to run your engineering classes.
You mention the only way to learn engineering is "by doing". Your next sentence mentions "doing hard problems on paper". Surely there was a time when the John C Dvorak's of the world would have scoffed at THAT technical aid, "bah, you have to cut down all the trees, and loggers die all the time felling them, not to mention processing the pulp into flat sheets, oh, and I spose you'll want them bleached the same exact shade of white, sold in packs of 500 at a time..."
I'll repeat this part of my second comment:
If you havnt seen the iPad 2 event video, I highly enjoyed it. The sections about doctors and teachers using iPads was very emotional. Its probably easiest to download the video as a podcast, I dragged it out of iTunes, renamed "m4v" to "mp4", and watched it in Quicktime.
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1103pijanbdvaaj/event/index.html [iPad 2 event]
One video shown at the presentation has teachers giving out iPads to young children, they are having a great time learning basic skills. It also shows autistic children learning, and one mothers story about how her son really engages with the iPad, that hes learnt to be more self sufficient through working on it. Its very heart warming, and it shows how tablets really are the present and future of accessible computing.
Of course the video also shows older children, and students at work too. I liked the medical sections, with doctors conversing with patients, it would be great for bed side manner, as they show scans, results, explain procedures through apps.... The list is endless, anything that could be done through that beloved paper, all fifty bits of it to shuffle through, and more.
I live in Invercargill, New Zealand, near the very bottom of the world. A recent edition of a local newspaper mentioned one school "not able to afford a laptop per student". It also had mention of another school where EVERY child received an iPad (first gen, days before the iPad 2 announcement!), about how trial programs at this school in a rough area were so encouraging that they went ahead with a full rollout of the tablets. Its working in Apple PR videos, its working here, at the other side of the world in my rural city of 50,000.
We'll see in time how things go for all students. I'm optimistic.
Sounds very antiquated, I'd imagine for *most* students, a sort of "learning by rote", never to be revisited.
Whats the point in just taking up the required time, when students could be *learning* in class? Hence more tests etc, applications could easily handle this, and for all age groups on the same hardware. Multiple choice, answers to be typed in and marked by teachers. Imagine how fast teachers could grade each individual answer if all they needed to do was say "turn in your papers", if necessary the Teachers app could actually see what any student had on their version of the App, and they could either "tick or cross" (if you wanted to be "cute"), or choose boxes, was that sentence right, or was it wrong? None of this "turning in your papers, I'll stay up until midnight marking" malarky!
If you havnt seen the iPad 2 event video, I highly enjoyed it. The sections about doctors and teachers using iPads was very emotional. Its probably easiest to download the video as a podcast, I dragged it out of iTunes, renamed "m4v" to "mp4", and watched it in Quicktime.
Whatever was the point in making 30 children/young adults/adults write down what someone else had written for an hour per class?
Surely with internal networks, Applications, podcasts, classes can move past "right, write down all this to kill time"? I hated it when I was in high school, who wants to write for 30 minutes+ straight?
Why not allow students to copy/save/download/whatever resources to their tablet computers (iPad first of course, but with provisions for any standard format to work), and then spend class time on working WITH the information they have, rather than gathering it? More "tests", "quizes" etc, you know, seeing if the stuff has stuck in their minds?
About bloody time. A local school (located "in the ghetto" too!) was giving all students iPads, and JUST before iPad 2 came out too! Too funny! If I were the principal I'd be in tears, thats a hundred grand, made obsolete in a matter of days!
For people of all ages, its hard to beat learning on an iPad. Yes, its most noticeable with younger children, who can fall in love with touching their fingers to a screen that reacts, and engages their mind. But its "cool" for teenagers, and very capable.
EVERYONE is going to have a computer, going to have a tablet. Why not embrace that? If the schools cannot afford to give them, or students to own them, sure, why not still allow paper? Lets not fight progress.
What do the Slashdot crowd think of how the Music industry is playing one company off against another?
Since about Day One "The Labels" have been pure evil, while surely its understandable that they DO NOT want Apple to control the present and future of music, should they be able to severely disadvantage one player for being stronger as of the present?
I'm curious after reading some of our other comments. That Apple shot ahead, no questions about it, and dominated the music industry with iPod, but now things are very slowly (for mainstream) swinging to "streaming" services, is it fair to basically hold Apple back, and let all the other smaller companies suddenly shoot ahead? Due to nothing but a grudge against Apple's past success? This almost sounds like Apple would have won a "small victory", owning music since the mid 2000's until now, but the entire future will be streaming, they'd have been forced into losing "the war" by being too successful early on? It seems utterly BS if Apple can shoot ahead, working through innovation and low prices, and then held back by the failing music labels, while others can then copy and knock off the Apple approach after seeing how it should be done, and then offer additional services. Imagine iPod, iPhone, iPad etc, really ground breaking new products, and then one day, lets say a Facebook or Netflix type company can just decide, "nah, you cant use it on iOS devices now, hey little company making knockoffs, come with us!"
Surely its better if all music providers, Apple's iTunes etc are offered the same terms and conditions for the same music? And that they compete based on their own profit margins, offerings?
I say this as an Apple user, but also a consumer. I dont like the idea of a cartel blackmailing the services and companies I support.
I personally dont like the "bubbles" idea, I dont like Sony's NGP things icon scheme, seems like wasted space. If you wanted to go "hey, lets make something people are used to, have used every day of their life radically different, wacky!", why not use triangles instead? Have them fit together like scales when you're "multitasking", able to be spun out of view or not, and easily detached. Much nicer than "bubbles". But thats a personal opinion, perhaps just societal norms, what I'm used to, square or rectangular windows.
Poor, poor Microsoft. Everything they do turns to shit. I especially HATE when they try and act "edgy", or "cool", dude, you're not cool, ok? You're a older bald guy, bouncing about the stage screaming "developers developers developers" with pit stains. If they handled these "radical new ideas" in a more mature way, surely they'd be more successful? Without all the FUD about competitors, "ho, that i-phoney, it'll never sell, its too expensive! We're going to be aggressive with our ZUNE and really compete in the market..."
UGH! "Zune", what were they thinking? It "squirted" too, perhaps little "bubbles". You know, the Zune? Came in poo brown? In the like, one country it was available in, before JUST coming out in Canada, who share a border? And is not Mac compatible, ha, because it would have been a great idea for Apple to be Mac only with that little "i-pod" thing, right? When you're the underdog, and in Microsofts case, almost universally hated, why bother making a tiny effort that could really change your critics into customers?
Look at the shadows cast on the Surface, who the hell wants that, the detail obscured with wriggly dark shapes? Your fingers, your own body is one thing, but odd, quickly moving shadows? And putting your phone on a glass surface all the time? Who wants to do that? I generally prefer keeping my phone in my pocket, rather than leaving it on some souped up coffee table. Think of the stress over time, and you just KNOW people will be dropping their devices onto Surface all the time, scratches, chips, shattered glass, its going to happen.
The most glaring example of the The Typical Microsoft Frig Up is the URL shown at the end of that video, no kidding,
You gotta be kidding me! Why not just use goddamn bit.ly Microsoft, or havnt you guys heard of that yet? "but, if you had a Zune, we coulda "squirted" it to you all! Wanna buy a Zune????"
First, it allows you to annoy people more efficiently.
Yeah, people really get annoyed when I leave 16GB iPads loaded up with Vegan Apps, movies, documentaries and podcasts under their windscreen wiper, but I as a "self important" Vegan, it must be done, regardless of time spent, or my personal expenses.
Awful huh?;-)
You can no way consider some crappy LCD tv to the "magic" that is iPad, and, you know, "The Competition", when it rolls out of bed sometime in 2012...
For one, carrying an iPad with you, its small, its very thin, its light, it has amazing battery life, just incredible. You can use it in a chair, lying down, in bed, at night, during the day, in the car (please dont drive with it on your lap though...get some common sense people, use an "iPad car mount"...JK!), almost anywhere.
The "magic" of using your fingers to interact with photos, text, audio, games, business apps... never gets old. Its like text based command line to GUI. Will there always be a use for a prompt? Sure, I guess. But it sure as hell wont be used by the majority of people!
Anyone who sees my iPad, who may "hate technology" is impressed. You can argue that YOU havnt found a use for a tablet yet, but many millions sure have.
The iPad is definitely one of my favourite products of all time, and thats without it fitting into my daily schedule.
For reading, for showing photos, video to people, its INCREDIBLE. When speaking with people about Veganism, I have photos and video on my iPad, ready to be shown to anyone who brings up the subject. Its a simple matter of having the photos in folders in one place on my computer, and then as I plug in an iOS device, BOOM, they are synced over nicely. Very, very useful, worth buying a tablet, in this scenario, for showing information alone. Bugger having some kind of laptop in public, perhaps on the street, "oh, the screen is at the wrong angle, I'll just tilt it like this, oh, the hinge is loose now, oh, its big, hey, whats all that fan noise...", blergh!
A friend suffered a serious accident, and was in hospital for several weeks. I lent his father my iPad to give him, he had a great time, with his music, photos, video, apps... all on this incredibly thin metal and glass device, that he could sit upright with, lie beside it etc. For someone in hospital, its the perfect device. A laptop could in no way compete.
To hear people bad mouth "tablets" as some kind of snobby fad, its rather like hearing those who bashed the original Macintosh, "oh, who needs a GUI, what, you're too good for a dos prompt?!? SNOB!", or those who just WOULDNT get what made the original iPod so incredible. "but I'd rather sit in my favourite chair and listen to my B&O system running from extra thick vinyl...whats the point of a small device that you can take everywhere, and listen to your 100GB+ of unabridged audiobooks read by Stephen Fry etc....as well as every song you've ever loved..."
My breathless review of the iPad excluded Fieldrunners HD, the most fun you can have in bed!
the people who download some dodgy torrent? Do you truly believe these hardcore users will easily get confused with The Real Thing?
I know all the stuff about The Hulk, about the leaked version with crappy CG etc, unfinished, but nobody truly believe it was THE real movie. It cost some buzz, true, but not the movie, which was panned on release as it was.
I'd think a leaked, unfinished game was more like a Closed Beta, I've been in those before, and they made me want the real thing MORE.
Why WOULDNT the fans want to get their Much Awaited Release before time?
I'll give an example of one of my most anticipated releases, the Michael album released after Michael Jacksons death. I've been a fan of MJ's since I was about 5 years old, my whole life he's been my favourite musician. I host a small podcast talking about Michael Jackson, I live in New Zealand, we hit day X before anywhere else in the world. I thought I'd have the album before the rest of the world. Not so. I go on Skype, my friend in the UK calls me, and just casually mentions the MJ album is out, what did I think?
WHAT! ITS OUT?!?!? Turns out it dropped in the US and possibly other countries before the rest of the world... WHY!?!? There is no physical media needed for iTunes, the largest music store in the world... why can we not ALL get it as soon as possible? As soon as NZ, the first country in the world wakes up to Day X, the rest of the world ALSO get it?
My friend had downloaded the US version. I fired up a Bit Torrent program, and had the 100 MB download in less than ten minutes. Ten minutes, compared to something like a week for the "NZ Release", from memory. It felt terribly unfair. Especially when you were covering the news before the release on a show by fans, for fans. And others would have the album before you.
I downloaded a torrent version, and, we reviewed it for our show together. We played 10 second or so clips from each song, and shared our thoughts. Those who didnt have the album yet waited until they heard it for themselves, those who couldnt wait loved the episode. And as soon as it was "officially" released, and I my preorder could go through on iTunes? Then I deleted the torrent gotten version, and had the "official".
Everybody won.
This has happened many times with releases I wanted desperately, like Drake's first album. The fans continue to buy the official version, perhaps those who pirate wouldnt have bought it anyway. I know there are audiobooks I simply CAN. NOT. GET. in New Zealand, they are unavailable due to "publishing rights in your region"...
I go on Torrent trackers, boom, find them easily. Not as nicely as if I could buy them for 20 dollars through iTunes, but is all or nothing here.
Go easy on those enjoying the product before release. The fans will still buy the game.
I was of course meaning the Pre, which told you when it was getting the updates in the background, sent OTA ?
I sort of expect that we "should" be paying for mobile OS updates, dont you? Its nice to be getting them for free, but surely there is development cost etc? If you look at the original iPhone OS release, compared to even "iPhone OS" at the time of the 3G coming out, with the App Store...its incredible, bigger than XP to Vista say. And then all the way to the present day...
The problems with the Android tablets, you cant call them EARLY...when they were basically cancelled and restarted after the iPad was announced, which would have TROUNCED the intended designs even further....
seems to have been the hardware itself. They were all cheap ass plastic, the screens were TERRIBLE, darker, far lower resolution, viewing angles, overall quality...
The OS used may not have been intended for a tablet formfactor, thats fixable through a free update though...you know, when it comes out? Oh wait, the companies cant be bothered giving you future updates for your top of the line device:-)
The hardware sucked, lets face it. Having a camera or two did NOT make it "better" than the iPad.
I'm looking forward to seeing the competition for the iPad 2. As consumers, we win in the end.
And to make it seem like the Streak, Galaxy Tab were somehow "pioneers" too, that we should give them a free pass, "well, I didnt want to buy that hipster iPad that everyone loves and talks about..." UNREAL~!:-)
When a new computer update comes out, you get it day one, within the hour, surely? You dont have to wait for your internet provider to decide to give it to you, without your permission, you dont look up at your screen and see "hello, I'm downloading a major OS update in the background! I may appear to have frozen, please dont turn me off, ok?", do you?
It doesnt matter if you have an HP, or Dell, you get Windows X whenever YOU want to get it.
Lets face it, apparently only the Nexus One, and its successor the Nexus S, both "by Google" get updates... the rest are SCREWED. You buy a "top of the line device", and its instantly obsolete when a new model comes out with a slightly larger screen, 4.3 inches vs 4, with the new OS update. You feel like a fool when you device doesnt have some obvious new feature enabled through an extra few dozen MB being used.
Its not good enough, no matter what your brand loyalty.
You mean you want to swap out the CPU package? Good luck!:-)
Perhaps you meant updating the OS?
HA! Thats an even bigger laugh, look at the MASSIVE problems seemingly ALL non Nexus One/S devices seem to have with updates, barely ANY handsets seem to be automatically update-able, the hour the new OS comes out. Meanwhile, with iOS, the update comes out, you hear about it through Engadget, Gizmodo etc, you open iTunes on your computer and it will automatically ask if you want to update once you connect your device via USB.
True, it might be nicer being able to do it all over wifi...3G if you were insane and on an unlimited data plan... but I'd rather plug in the cable and have it in 10 minutes (being realistic, to install etc) than wait FOREVER for updates that never come, and from MAJOR companies too, Samsung, Sony, Motorola...
I dont quite buy into this "fragmented" thing, sure its true, but its not THAT bad, but the update releases for Android devices is just HORRIBLE. Its a joke! And its from the "open" platform too.
Slashdot Mirror
Great article to surround with "April Fools Day" crap, one of the worst things about living in New Zealand : Living In The Future subjects you to not only the first of April NZ time, but again "the next day" when The Rest Of The World (TM) catches up.
Right, this BS story placement aside, what the FRAK is going on?
In NZ, we have not had much talk about "oh noes!1!1! the world is screwed!1!1!", people are not stockpiling iodine tablets, we are not scared shitless by our media. We have our own earthquake recovery to obsess on, "how much will it cost? What will happen with the Rugby World Cup games scheduled for CHCH? How many houses need to be demolished?"...
The "Left leaning", some would say realistic coverage is talking about radiation being detected away from the site, about food from the area being frigged, about dead bodies unable to be moved "because it would spread more radiation to move them", and of passengers from the region setting off airport scanners when they fly away from Japan to other countries. In New Zealand, we are also having a general "see, we're pretty damn smart not to get involved in Nuclear power..." vibe, patting ourselves on the back. Our country is as unlikely to support Nuclear Power as "Capital Punishment" and constantly invading other nations, to steal their finite resources. And this has made us all the more so.
The "apologists" immediately went out in force, "ohhhh, other power sources still kill more people annually", "those whining greenies are LYING LIARS WHO LIE!", "you're too dumb to be smart like me, you cant understand, you dumbo dumb dumb!" etc.
In short, what the hell is going on? Is radiation REALLY being spread about? Is that really "acceptable"? Or is this whole thing "being hyped up by the liberal media who want the terrorists to win"?
...the tech world has learned to move on with or without Apple.
What kool aid did YOU drink? I'll stick to my Apple Water thanks :-)
;-) Shit, those idiots cant even get tablets out to compete with the now SECOND generation of iPad!
Where would Samsung, HTC and "the rest" be without the iPhone? Windows Mobile 6. something?
They cant keep up, much less innovate, without Apple
I'm interested, what dont you like about iTunes? I presume you are using a Windows version? I've heard complaints from Windows users, before, never from any of my Mac using friends.
On my iMac, iTunes is very fast to load, scrolls through my 100GB+ of music, audiobooks and podcasts smoothly, and has all the features I could ever want, and more. It gives me access to the worlds largest music store, the App Store which has redefined how we use software, and even "ping", which, while very slow to get off the ground, is fun in its own simple way.
Perhaps the question is, what the hell else is there to use? Winamp? "Windows Media Player", whatever its calling itself these days. I still remember running "Classic" as it wasnt AS ugly, it was faster etc.
Zune sales stopped five years ago! ;-)
Seriously, the thing wasnt even sold "worldwide", and its not Mac compatible, hey guys, you know the hot new platform, that all the cool kids are buying? And this group dont seem to care about up front cost, when they want good quality, great design?
I've been trying to get a BROWN Zune secondhand, just to add to my collection of failed products. It would go great with my CueCats, Power Glove and Newtons
I'm a New Zealander, my country is "nuclear free". We still have smoke detectors with "Americium", Nuclear Medicine etc, but not Nuclear Power, or weapons of mass destruction. On that last point, our police do not have guns (unless for an emergency call out etc, nutjob running wild with a gun endangering civil civilians), in general, we are a peaceful nation, the rest of the world likes us, things seem to be working out fine.
;-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand's_nuclear-free_zone
Our national stance AGAINST Nuclear weapons, power have gotten past American presidents pissy. During the 80's we got the "waaa, domino effect, if you dont support our totally awesome war machines playing around in your harbours, if you're not 100% WITH US,then you're AGAINST us, and others will back away too if your totally influential country of (at the time) less than four million stands up to The Good Superpower!"
You can read the transcript of a speech by our Prime Minister David Lange (long-e) as he stood up "to America", who are widely regarded as being beaten by this one man, from a small country on the issue.
Transcript http://publicaddress.net/great-new-zealand-argument/nuclear-weapons-are-morally-indefensible/
Audio http://publicaddress.net/great-new-zealand-argument/nuclear-weapons-are-morally-indefensible-1/
Its one of my nations defining moments, sort of like our "man on the moon", when we stood up for ourselves, when we declared we wanted nothing to do with this shit, when a major nation whined that we couldnt be friends unless we smoked behind the bikesheds with them, and we came out victorious.
During that "debate", we got similar arguments to now, stereotypes, personal attacks, Microsoft levels of FUD. There I go myself, dragging Microsoft into this
So far, what I've seen here, and elsewhere, is a general "waaa, whiny bitch Greenies dont understand, why dont they understand? Coz they're DUMB DUMB DUMB, this is SAFE dammit, but if its not, then the NIMBY Greenies are ALSO to blame, they're as bad as those who oppose drilling for oil in National Parks, its THEIR fault, what happened on the Deepwater Horizon, because they didnt let us do what we wanted, Drill Baby Drill!, by going ahead with this kinda unsafe - but that could totally be made awesome and stuff, if only they let us pump billions more into it! - technology! And then this technology ended up with Spill Baby Spill! waaaaaaa!!!111!!!"
Whether Nuclear as currently deployed a) is or b) is not safe is perhaps the wrong question. The issue might instead be, c) why use Nuclear at all? Given massive costs in building ("waaa, thats because of the greenies and red tape!") and maintaining Nuclear plants, in their terrible PR, in the genuine scares for negative effects.
New Zealand makes over 70% of our power through efficient, *renewable* sources, like hydropower. The shit works, it has for decades, it would otherwise be an untapped resource, its effectively "free", once you've built the station.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_New_Zealand
One such local hydropower station is at Manapouri (or perhaps more accurately Deep Cove), I've been through the machine hall many times, its a tourist attraction, and has given me a real respect for both nature, and scientific achievement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manapouri_Hydroelect
THANK YOU. Seriously, why wasnt the group who did all the work, who brought and presumably broke (or not!) an iPad 2, took all the nice photos, revealed to the world its magic... and then some jerk grabs a summary of their hard work, throws it up, and links to some other group, for no reason!?
:-)
Its things like this that give "real journalists" the right to bitch about blogs, about summaries and content aggregation. I check Slashdot a few times a day, I'm subscribed by RSS in Firefox, why would someone "RTFA" if its not even linked to!?!
Apple do not host podcasts, my show is hosted elsewhere, and iTunes pulls in the RSS feed to display it, new episodes etc.
;-)
Apple would however cache an RSS feed, which is automatically checked every half hour for updates, or you can ping it manually. I'm sure it really costs the big bucks hosting RSS feeds, my heart really goes out to them, unlike Netflix who stream every movie known to man, often in HD, and YouTube who apparently offer 4K resolution streaming
I wouldnt dream of telling you how to run your engineering classes.
You mention the only way to learn engineering is "by doing". Your next sentence mentions "doing hard problems on paper". Surely there was a time when the John C Dvorak's of the world would have scoffed at THAT technical aid, "bah, you have to cut down all the trees, and loggers die all the time felling them, not to mention processing the pulp into flat sheets, oh, and I spose you'll want them bleached the same exact shade of white, sold in packs of 500 at a time..."
I'll repeat this part of my second comment:
If you havnt seen the iPad 2 event video, I highly enjoyed it. The sections about doctors and teachers using iPads was very emotional. Its probably easiest to download the video as a podcast, I dragged it out of iTunes, renamed "m4v" to "mp4", and watched it in Quicktime. http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1103pijanbdvaaj/event/index.html [iPad 2 event]
One video shown at the presentation has teachers giving out iPads to young children, they are having a great time learning basic skills. It also shows autistic children learning, and one mothers story about how her son really engages with the iPad, that hes learnt to be more self sufficient through working on it. Its very heart warming, and it shows how tablets really are the present and future of accessible computing.
Of course the video also shows older children, and students at work too. I liked the medical sections, with doctors conversing with patients, it would be great for bed side manner, as they show scans, results, explain procedures through apps.... The list is endless, anything that could be done through that beloved paper, all fifty bits of it to shuffle through, and more.
I live in Invercargill, New Zealand, near the very bottom of the world. A recent edition of a local newspaper mentioned one school "not able to afford a laptop per student". It also had mention of another school where EVERY child received an iPad (first gen, days before the iPad 2 announcement!), about how trial programs at this school in a rough area were so encouraging that they went ahead with a full rollout of the tablets. Its working in Apple PR videos, its working here, at the other side of the world in my rural city of 50,000.
We'll see in time how things go for all students. I'm optimistic.
Sounds very antiquated, I'd imagine for *most* students, a sort of "learning by rote", never to be revisited.
Whats the point in just taking up the required time, when students could be *learning* in class? Hence more tests etc, applications could easily handle this, and for all age groups on the same hardware. Multiple choice, answers to be typed in and marked by teachers. Imagine how fast teachers could grade each individual answer if all they needed to do was say "turn in your papers", if necessary the Teachers app could actually see what any student had on their version of the App, and they could either "tick or cross" (if you wanted to be "cute"), or choose boxes, was that sentence right, or was it wrong? None of this "turning in your papers, I'll stay up until midnight marking" malarky!
If you havnt seen the iPad 2 event video, I highly enjoyed it. The sections about doctors and teachers using iPads was very emotional. Its probably easiest to download the video as a podcast, I dragged it out of iTunes, renamed "m4v" to "mp4", and watched it in Quicktime.
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1103pijanbdvaaj/event/index.html
Whatever was the point in making 30 children/young adults/adults write down what someone else had written for an hour per class?
Surely with internal networks, Applications, podcasts, classes can move past "right, write down all this to kill time"? I hated it when I was in high school, who wants to write for 30 minutes+ straight?
Why not allow students to copy/save/download/whatever resources to their tablet computers (iPad first of course, but with provisions for any standard format to work), and then spend class time on working WITH the information they have, rather than gathering it? More "tests", "quizes" etc, you know, seeing if the stuff has stuck in their minds?
About bloody time. A local school (located "in the ghetto" too!) was giving all students iPads, and JUST before iPad 2 came out too! Too funny! If I were the principal I'd be in tears, thats a hundred grand, made obsolete in a matter of days!
For people of all ages, its hard to beat learning on an iPad. Yes, its most noticeable with younger children, who can fall in love with touching their fingers to a screen that reacts, and engages their mind. But its "cool" for teenagers, and very capable.
EVERYONE is going to have a computer, going to have a tablet. Why not embrace that? If the schools cannot afford to give them, or students to own them, sure, why not still allow paper? Lets not fight progress.
All summer long?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-Toys_Last_All_Summer_Long
What do the Slashdot crowd think of how the Music industry is playing one company off against another?
Since about Day One "The Labels" have been pure evil, while surely its understandable that they DO NOT want Apple to control the present and future of music, should they be able to severely disadvantage one player for being stronger as of the present?
I'm curious after reading some of our other comments. That Apple shot ahead, no questions about it, and dominated the music industry with iPod, but now things are very slowly (for mainstream) swinging to "streaming" services, is it fair to basically hold Apple back, and let all the other smaller companies suddenly shoot ahead? Due to nothing but a grudge against Apple's past success? This almost sounds like Apple would have won a "small victory", owning music since the mid 2000's until now, but the entire future will be streaming, they'd have been forced into losing "the war" by being too successful early on? It seems utterly BS if Apple can shoot ahead, working through innovation and low prices, and then held back by the failing music labels, while others can then copy and knock off the Apple approach after seeing how it should be done, and then offer additional services. Imagine iPod, iPhone, iPad etc, really ground breaking new products, and then one day, lets say a Facebook or Netflix type company can just decide, "nah, you cant use it on iOS devices now, hey little company making knockoffs, come with us!"
Surely its better if all music providers, Apple's iTunes etc are offered the same terms and conditions for the same music? And that they compete based on their own profit margins, offerings?
I say this as an Apple user, but also a consumer. I dont like the idea of a cartel blackmailing the services and companies I support.
I personally dont like the "bubbles" idea, I dont like Sony's NGP things icon scheme, seems like wasted space. If you wanted to go "hey, lets make something people are used to, have used every day of their life radically different, wacky!", why not use triangles instead? Have them fit together like scales when you're "multitasking", able to be spun out of view or not, and easily detached. Much nicer than "bubbles". But thats a personal opinion, perhaps just societal norms, what I'm used to, square or rectangular windows.
Poor, poor Microsoft. Everything they do turns to shit. I especially HATE when they try and act "edgy", or "cool", dude, you're not cool, ok? You're a older bald guy, bouncing about the stage screaming "developers developers developers" with pit stains. If they handled these "radical new ideas" in a more mature way, surely they'd be more successful? Without all the FUD about competitors, "ho, that i-phoney, it'll never sell, its too expensive! We're going to be aggressive with our ZUNE and really compete in the market..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U&feature=related
UGH! "Zune", what were they thinking? It "squirted" too, perhaps little "bubbles". You know, the Zune? Came in poo brown? In the like, one country it was available in, before JUST coming out in Canada, who share a border? And is not Mac compatible, ha, because it would have been a great idea for Apple to be Mac only with that little "i-pod" thing, right? When you're the underdog, and in Microsofts case, almost universally hated, why bother making a tiny effort that could really change your critics into customers?
Look at the shadows cast on the Surface, who the hell wants that, the detail obscured with wriggly dark shapes? Your fingers, your own body is one thing, but odd, quickly moving shadows? And putting your phone on a glass surface all the time? Who wants to do that? I generally prefer keeping my phone in my pocket, rather than leaving it on some souped up coffee table. Think of the stress over time, and you just KNOW people will be dropping their devices onto Surface all the time, scratches, chips, shattered glass, its going to happen.
The most glaring example of the The Typical Microsoft Frig Up is the URL shown at the end of that video, no kidding,
"microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/RethinkingComputing"
You gotta be kidding me! Why not just use goddamn bit.ly Microsoft, or havnt you guys heard of that yet? "but, if you had a Zune, we coulda "squirted" it to you all! Wanna buy a Zune????"
No thank you.
First, it allows you to annoy people more efficiently.
Yeah, people really get annoyed when I leave 16GB iPads loaded up with Vegan Apps, movies, documentaries and podcasts under their windscreen wiper, but I as a "self important" Vegan, it must be done, regardless of time spent, or my personal expenses. ;-)
Awful huh?
what a marvellous rant, and it just got better and better!
:-)
kudos to you
You can no way consider some crappy LCD tv to the "magic" that is iPad, and, you know, "The Competition", when it rolls out of bed sometime in 2012...
For one, carrying an iPad with you, its small, its very thin, its light, it has amazing battery life, just incredible. You can use it in a chair, lying down, in bed, at night, during the day, in the car (please dont drive with it on your lap though...get some common sense people, use an "iPad car mount"...JK!), almost anywhere.
The "magic" of using your fingers to interact with photos, text, audio, games, business apps... never gets old. Its like text based command line to GUI. Will there always be a use for a prompt? Sure, I guess. But it sure as hell wont be used by the majority of people!
Anyone who sees my iPad, who may "hate technology" is impressed. You can argue that YOU havnt found a use for a tablet yet, but many millions sure have.
The iPad is definitely one of my favourite products of all time, and thats without it fitting into my daily schedule.
For reading, for showing photos, video to people, its INCREDIBLE. When speaking with people about Veganism, I have photos and video on my iPad, ready to be shown to anyone who brings up the subject. Its a simple matter of having the photos in folders in one place on my computer, and then as I plug in an iOS device, BOOM, they are synced over nicely. Very, very useful, worth buying a tablet, in this scenario, for showing information alone. Bugger having some kind of laptop in public, perhaps on the street, "oh, the screen is at the wrong angle, I'll just tilt it like this, oh, the hinge is loose now, oh, its big, hey, whats all that fan noise...", blergh!
A friend suffered a serious accident, and was in hospital for several weeks. I lent his father my iPad to give him, he had a great time, with his music, photos, video, apps... all on this incredibly thin metal and glass device, that he could sit upright with, lie beside it etc. For someone in hospital, its the perfect device. A laptop could in no way compete.
To hear people bad mouth "tablets" as some kind of snobby fad, its rather like hearing those who bashed the original Macintosh, "oh, who needs a GUI, what, you're too good for a dos prompt?!? SNOB!", or those who just WOULDNT get what made the original iPod so incredible. "but I'd rather sit in my favourite chair and listen to my B&O system running from extra thick vinyl...whats the point of a small device that you can take everywhere, and listen to your 100GB+ of unabridged audiobooks read by Stephen Fry etc....as well as every song you've ever loved..."
My breathless review of the iPad excluded Fieldrunners HD, the most fun you can have in bed!
Somehow I just knew where you were going with that.
Its cool, why, why, its just Human Nature.
the people who download some dodgy torrent? Do you truly believe these hardcore users will easily get confused with The Real Thing?
I know all the stuff about The Hulk, about the leaked version with crappy CG etc, unfinished, but nobody truly believe it was THE real movie. It cost some buzz, true, but not the movie, which was panned on release as it was.
I'd think a leaked, unfinished game was more like a Closed Beta, I've been in those before, and they made me want the real thing MORE.
Why WOULDNT the fans want to get their Much Awaited Release before time?
I'll give an example of one of my most anticipated releases, the Michael album released after Michael Jacksons death. I've been a fan of MJ's since I was about 5 years old, my whole life he's been my favourite musician. I host a small podcast talking about Michael Jackson, I live in New Zealand, we hit day X before anywhere else in the world. I thought I'd have the album before the rest of the world. Not so. I go on Skype, my friend in the UK calls me, and just casually mentions the MJ album is out, what did I think?
WHAT! ITS OUT?!?!? Turns out it dropped in the US and possibly other countries before the rest of the world... WHY!?!? There is no physical media needed for iTunes, the largest music store in the world... why can we not ALL get it as soon as possible? As soon as NZ, the first country in the world wakes up to Day X, the rest of the world ALSO get it?
My friend had downloaded the US version. I fired up a Bit Torrent program, and had the 100 MB download in less than ten minutes. Ten minutes, compared to something like a week for the "NZ Release", from memory. It felt terribly unfair. Especially when you were covering the news before the release on a show by fans, for fans. And others would have the album before you.
I downloaded a torrent version, and, we reviewed it for our show together. We played 10 second or so clips from each song, and shared our thoughts. Those who didnt have the album yet waited until they heard it for themselves, those who couldnt wait loved the episode. And as soon as it was "officially" released, and I my preorder could go through on iTunes? Then I deleted the torrent gotten version, and had the "official".
Everybody won.
This has happened many times with releases I wanted desperately, like Drake's first album. The fans continue to buy the official version, perhaps those who pirate wouldnt have bought it anyway. I know there are audiobooks I simply CAN. NOT. GET. in New Zealand, they are unavailable due to "publishing rights in your region"...
I go on Torrent trackers, boom, find them easily. Not as nicely as if I could buy them for 20 dollars through iTunes, but is all or nothing here.
Go easy on those enjoying the product before release. The fans will still buy the game.
I was of course meaning the Pre, which told you when it was getting the updates in the background, sent OTA ?
I sort of expect that we "should" be paying for mobile OS updates, dont you? Its nice to be getting them for free, but surely there is development cost etc? If you look at the original iPhone OS release, compared to even "iPhone OS" at the time of the 3G coming out, with the App Store...its incredible, bigger than XP to Vista say. And then all the way to the present day...
We're waiting :-)
:-)
The problems with the Android tablets, you cant call them EARLY...when they were basically cancelled and restarted after the iPad was announced, which would have TROUNCED the intended designs even further....
seems to have been the hardware itself. They were all cheap ass plastic, the screens were TERRIBLE, darker, far lower resolution, viewing angles, overall quality...
The OS used may not have been intended for a tablet formfactor, thats fixable through a free update though...you know, when it comes out? Oh wait, the companies cant be bothered giving you future updates for your top of the line device
The hardware sucked, lets face it. Having a camera or two did NOT make it "better" than the iPad.
I'm looking forward to seeing the competition for the iPad 2. As consumers, we win in the end.
It really isnt good enough, as you mentioned.
:-)
And to make it seem like the Streak, Galaxy Tab were somehow "pioneers" too, that we should give them a free pass, "well, I didnt want to buy that hipster iPad that everyone loves and talks about..." UNREAL~!
What the heck are you on about?
When a new computer update comes out, you get it day one, within the hour, surely? You dont have to wait for your internet provider to decide to give it to you, without your permission, you dont look up at your screen and see "hello, I'm downloading a major OS update in the background! I may appear to have frozen, please dont turn me off, ok?", do you?
It doesnt matter if you have an HP, or Dell, you get Windows X whenever YOU want to get it.
Lets face it, apparently only the Nexus One, and its successor the Nexus S, both "by Google" get updates... the rest are SCREWED. You buy a "top of the line device", and its instantly obsolete when a new model comes out with a slightly larger screen, 4.3 inches vs 4, with the new OS update. You feel like a fool when you device doesnt have some obvious new feature enabled through an extra few dozen MB being used.
Its not good enough, no matter what your brand loyalty.
"upgrade older hardware"?,
:-)
You mean you want to swap out the CPU package? Good luck!
Perhaps you meant updating the OS?
HA! Thats an even bigger laugh, look at the MASSIVE problems seemingly ALL non Nexus One/S devices seem to have with updates, barely ANY handsets seem to be automatically update-able, the hour the new OS comes out. Meanwhile, with iOS, the update comes out, you hear about it through Engadget, Gizmodo etc, you open iTunes on your computer and it will automatically ask if you want to update once you connect your device via USB.
True, it might be nicer being able to do it all over wifi...3G if you were insane and on an unlimited data plan... but I'd rather plug in the cable and have it in 10 minutes (being realistic, to install etc) than wait FOREVER for updates that never come, and from MAJOR companies too, Samsung, Sony, Motorola...
I dont quite buy into this "fragmented" thing, sure its true, but its not THAT bad, but the update releases for Android devices is just HORRIBLE. Its a joke! And its from the "open" platform too.