While I can't comment on Sweden specifically, the sort of paranoid, blinkered thinking in the parent is at least part of the reason why state-funded schools in little countries like Finland are kicking the crap out of their USA counterparts. One alternative is to, y'know, make the schools actually *good*:
One of the more novel bits of old TV-based technology that I saw was a wooden-case-era CRT TV with a built-in mini-printer that allowed the viewer to print out hard copies of teletext pages.
I don't agree with the parent. Nokia made the best smart phones for years, long before iOS and Android devices were available. I had several of them myself. Look up the release dates and feature sets of their Communicator series of devices to see how long it took the rest of the mobile phone manufacturing world to catch up.
Nokia's problem has never been an inability to produce awesome smart devices: it's always been about their management's unwillingness to fully commit to a long-term course of action, despite having some fantastic showpiece R&D. Elop did bring that willingness to commit, but unfortunately, the way he did it wasn't with Nokia's benefit in mind, but Microsoft's...
You've got to make your spy centre impressive from the air (see also the Pentagon & Langley). How are low-budget TV spy shows supposed to insert a generic speeded-up aerial pan of that?
Not to mention that it's not going to be as cool-looking as the doughnut:
I don't think that Chile would be a risk in the way that you describe. It already has a number of big, modern telescopes, such as Gemini South, the VLT(I) and ALMA, and had a a lot of smaller observatories during the Allende & Pinochet years. They're not really perceived as military targets.
(Disclaimer: I work at ALMA).
No matching increase in internal storage capacity?
on
Apple Unveils New iPad
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· Score: 1
So, it has a much higher screen resolution for viewing photos and video, but still no more storage space than the iPad 2 (up to 64 GB). Does it really make sense to still limit the device to 64 GB, given the unavoidable increase in the file sizes it'll be handling?
I understand that there's an industry push to make everything "cloud-y", and streamed (all the better to prevent people actually owning copies of files), but it does make me wonder if the iPad 7 will actually only have enough internal storage space for a single photo...
Ah, but how do you define a "new" user? If it's someone that's not used a computer before, then that's one thing, but if it's someone that hasn't used (GNU/)Linux but has a fair bit of prior experience with Windows, then I think it's entirely plausible to suggest that since KDE is probably the closest of the big three Linux GUIs to Windows, that's the one that most Windows users would prefer. I suspect that many Mac users would probably find GNOME closer to what they're used to.
Now, you could also argue that your position's still valid, as more computer users coming to Linux for the first time will have Windows experience, but that's a slightly different argument.
I've used a whole bunch of these kinds of GUIs on various platforms over the years. Personally, I think KDE's decent enough, but perhaps tends to err on the "Everything but the kitchen sink" side of things to the point that it's sometimes difficult to find which things are set where. However, I switch between machines/OSes frequently enough that I mostly don't bother with UI personalization any more: I tend to just want something I can find my way around quickly by default. I do acknowledge that a lot of other people do like their UI to be "just so", though.
Well, they do give them away with their products, but of course, not everyone elects to stick them on their cars.
Some people just stick them on their home-built Hackintoshes instead, so that they can comply with the Mac OS X licensing requirement that it only be run on "Apple-branded computers"...
I respectfully disagree, at least for the big games companies. This should just be a routine part of the cost/benefit calculation made before greenlighting a large-budget game development project for companies such as EA. If a company really thinks that it can't turn a profit on a given project from initial sales, then the managers should de-scope or kill the project before throwing good money after bad. Although it's not always possible to know in advance if a given game will be commercially successful or not, if such a company consistently fails to turn a profit based on the merits of their products over time, then that company's management is doing something fundamentally wrong. Locking out used games usage is just a lazy attempt to leverage their existing business position to grab more money without working for it.
Having said that, I have more sympathy for smaller, indie developers whose margins are narrower. In many cases, however, this has led to product innovation (inventive new gameplay, novel DLC, etc.).
Incidentally, although I have some used games, I buy most of my console games new because I want to own a new product (and some of those have been sequels to the games I bought second-hand that I might not have bought otherwise). However, I don't want the game development houses to get complacent - they should have to work for their money, the same as car manufacturers, PC makers and, well... me.
The Beeb was just a fantastic bit of kit all round (warning: dodgy car analogy ahead) - probably the Rolls Royce of the British 8-bit era? Beautiful engineering and detailing, but pricey...
Now that's an advertising slogan: "The singing pig of the computing world!"
Another vote for the classic ZX81 here. My first (second-hand, kit-assembled) one wouldn't even save to tape but I wrote programs on it anyway, so I eventually got a second one, prior to graduating to a BBC Model B (which also had a truly awesome BASIC/Assembler combo, & documentation to match).
It's kind of like when flying, and taking a connection, not having to go through security twice; if the second flight trusts the first flight, they can assume that you've already been sufficiently checked.
Bad analogy. I took a plane from Europe that only stopped off on the US on the way to a year or two ago, & they made me go through security again, at which point they confiscated my laser pointer that I'd traveled with on the same plane that I was getting back onto. I never left the departure lounge.
While attempting to avoid outright paranoia, some aspects of the book (which I do re-read every few years, and personally choose to interpret as a warning by example against all of the worst government excesses imaginable) do still seem to come disturbingly to mind on occasion. A couple of small examples:
The way that a lot of the Western media covered the Bin Laden issue within the last few years did have a whiff of the Emmanuel Goldstein treatment about it. I'm not defending the man or his associates in any way at all, just commenting on the concerted hysteria peddled by certain media groups.
I also noticed something interestingly Doublespeak recently. The BBC style guide changed from using upper-case characters for acronyms to only capitalizing the first letter, so (e.g.) "NASA" is now written as "Nasa." This seems innocuous, but it does have a subtle but notably obfuscating effect on phrases like "The PATRIOT Act" / "The Patriot Act". I'm not saying this effect is even intentional, but it does make such governmental doublespeak less easily spotted by the casual reader.
J.K. Rowling was asked to write an episode of Doctor Who a few years ago, but she said she was too busy finishing the last of the Harry Potter books at the time.
And I like breakfast burritos: probably the greatest North American invention of all time!
Monsanto can't patent it - Veridian Dynamics has prior art. And we already know what it tastes like:
Jerome: It tastes familiar. Ted: Beef? Jerome: No. Linda: Chicken? We'll take chicken. Ted: What does it taste like? Jerome: Despair. Ted: Is it possible it just needs salt?
Slashdot Mirror
While I can't comment on Sweden specifically, the sort of paranoid, blinkered thinking in the parent is at least part of the reason why state-funded schools in little countries like Finland are kicking the crap out of their USA counterparts. One alternative is to, y'know, make the schools actually *good*:
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/Why-Are-Finlands-Schools-Successful.html
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/january/finnish-schools-reform-012012.html
etc.
The UK political satire "The New Stateman" actually had a scene like this, years ago, when Parliamentary debates were first broadcast on TV.
One of the more novel bits of old TV-based technology that I saw was a wooden-case-era CRT TV with a built-in mini-printer that allowed the viewer to print out hard copies of teletext pages.
Lame.
I don't agree with the parent. Nokia made the best smart phones for years, long before iOS and Android devices were available. I had several of them myself. Look up the release dates and feature sets of their Communicator series of devices to see how long it took the rest of the mobile phone manufacturing world to catch up.
Nokia's problem has never been an inability to produce awesome smart devices: it's always been about their management's unwillingness to fully commit to a long-term course of action, despite having some fantastic showpiece R&D. Elop did bring that willingness to commit, but unfortunately, the way he did it wasn't with Nokia's benefit in mind, but Microsoft's...
Sorry - I didn't get down to your post before putting mine in. And your post was way better...
How about "99 Red Balloons" ?
You've got to make your spy centre impressive from the air (see also the Pentagon & Langley). How are low-budget TV spy shows supposed to insert a generic speeded-up aerial pan of that?
Not to mention that it's not going to be as cool-looking as the doughnut:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Communications_Headquarters
Wow. You really are a true multitasker.
Just be careful how you hold that razor.
I don't think that Chile would be a risk in the way that you describe. It already has a number of big, modern telescopes, such as Gemini South, the VLT(I) and ALMA, and had a a lot of smaller observatories during the Allende & Pinochet years. They're not really perceived as military targets.
(Disclaimer: I work at ALMA).
So, it has a much higher screen resolution for viewing photos and video, but still no more storage space than the iPad 2 (up to 64 GB). Does it really make sense to still limit the device to 64 GB, given the unavoidable increase in the file sizes it'll be handling?
I understand that there's an industry push to make everything "cloud-y", and streamed (all the better to prevent people actually owning copies of files), but it does make me wonder if the iPad 7 will actually only have enough internal storage space for a single photo...
gold dust!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenge_of_the_Cybermen
Ah, but how do you define a "new" user? If it's someone that's not used a computer before, then that's one thing, but if it's someone that hasn't used (GNU/)Linux but has a fair bit of prior experience with Windows, then I think it's entirely plausible to suggest that since KDE is probably the closest of the big three Linux GUIs to Windows, that's the one that most Windows users would prefer. I suspect that many Mac users would probably find GNOME closer to what they're used to.
Now, you could also argue that your position's still valid, as more computer users coming to Linux for the first time will have Windows experience, but that's a slightly different argument.
I've used a whole bunch of these kinds of GUIs on various platforms over the years. Personally, I think KDE's decent enough, but perhaps tends to err on the "Everything but the kitchen sink" side of things to the point that it's sometimes difficult to find which things are set where. However, I switch between machines/OSes frequently enough that I mostly don't bother with UI personalization any more: I tend to just want something I can find my way around quickly by default. I do acknowledge that a lot of other people do like their UI to be "just so", though.
And it can use the single LED to flash out "PC Load Letter" in Morse code.
Well, they do give them away with their products, but of course, not everyone elects to stick them on their cars.
Some people just stick them on their home-built Hackintoshes instead, so that they can comply with the Mac OS X licensing requirement that it only be run on "Apple-branded computers"...
I respectfully disagree, at least for the big games companies. This should just be a routine part of the cost/benefit calculation made before greenlighting a large-budget game development project for companies such as EA. If a company really thinks that it can't turn a profit on a given project from initial sales, then the managers should de-scope or kill the project before throwing good money after bad. Although it's not always possible to know in advance if a given game will be commercially successful or not, if such a company consistently fails to turn a profit based on the merits of their products over time, then that company's management is doing something fundamentally wrong. Locking out used games usage is just a lazy attempt to leverage their existing business position to grab more money without working for it.
Having said that, I have more sympathy for smaller, indie developers whose margins are narrower. In many cases, however, this has led to product innovation (inventive new gameplay, novel DLC, etc.).
Incidentally, although I have some used games, I buy most of my console games new because I want to own a new product (and some of those have been sequels to the games I bought second-hand that I might not have bought otherwise). However, I don't want the game development houses to get complacent - they should have to work for their money, the same as car manufacturers, PC makers and, well... me.
I went from a ZX81 to a Beeb. Both wonderfully innovative machines, in their own ways.
The ZX81 did an amazing amount with very little resources, for very little cash. Even ZX Spectrum-resolution graphics:
http://www.pictureviewerpro.com/hosting/zx81/softwarefarm.htm
The Beeb was just a fantastic bit of kit all round (warning: dodgy car analogy ahead) - probably the Rolls Royce of the British 8-bit era? Beautiful engineering and detailing, but pricey...
Well, it will come with BBC Basic...
Now that's an advertising slogan: "The singing pig of the computing world!"
Another vote for the classic ZX81 here. My first (second-hand, kit-assembled) one wouldn't even save to tape but I wrote programs on it anyway, so I eventually got a second one, prior to graduating to a BBC Model B (which also had a truly awesome BASIC/Assembler combo, & documentation to match).
It's kind of like when flying, and taking a connection, not having to go through security twice; if the second flight trusts the first flight, they can assume that you've already been sufficiently checked.
Bad analogy. I took a plane from Europe that only stopped off on the US on the way to a year or two ago, & they made me go through security again, at which point they confiscated my laser pointer that I'd traveled with on the same plane that I was getting back onto. I never left the departure lounge.
While attempting to avoid outright paranoia, some aspects of the book (which I do re-read every few years, and personally choose to interpret as a warning by example against all of the worst government excesses imaginable) do still seem to come disturbingly to mind on occasion. A couple of small examples:
The way that a lot of the Western media covered the Bin Laden issue within the last few years did have a whiff of the Emmanuel Goldstein treatment about it. I'm not defending the man or his associates in any way at all, just commenting on the concerted hysteria peddled by certain media groups.
I also noticed something interestingly Doublespeak recently. The BBC style guide changed from using upper-case characters for acronyms to only capitalizing the first letter, so (e.g.) "NASA" is now written as "Nasa." This seems innocuous, but it does have a subtle but notably obfuscating effect on phrases like "The PATRIOT Act" / "The Patriot Act". I'm not saying this effect is even intentional, but it does make such governmental doublespeak less easily spotted by the casual reader.
Want.
J.K. Rowling was asked to write an episode of Doctor Who a few years ago, but she said she was too busy finishing the last of the Harry Potter books at the time.
And I like breakfast burritos: probably the greatest North American invention of all time!
Monsanto can't patent it - Veridian Dynamics has prior art. And we already know what it tastes like:
Jerome: It tastes familiar.
Ted: Beef?
Jerome: No.
Linda: Chicken? We'll take chicken.
Ted: What does it taste like?
Jerome: Despair.
Ted: Is it possible it just needs salt?
'I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "... I drank what?"' -- Chris Knight, "Real Genius".