I used to be blazingly fast at QWERTY, about 60-70WPM. Ok, so not that impressive. But the way I type is by remembering parts of words. ing, ist, meta, lly, etc. Now that I lost that muscle memory, it's much harder. The change in keyboard has really messed that up.
I hate to say this, but I can't switch between them very easily. I'm typing about 30WPM on Dvorak, but only about 10-15 on QWERTY. It gets worse every day. I do really like Dvorak, though.
I've been blogging the whole experience on myspace.
Isotope Lab
What are we missing? Oh yeah... theres that Linux/Unix thing I keep hearing about.
Seriously though. The reason it isn't Windows vs. Mac vs. Unix is because everyone knows Unix is better. There's just no contest.;)
Here are a few of the many reasons Unix is better. A. It isn't proprietary. B. It runs a heck of a lot faster. This includes boot up time, heavy processor loads, and system critical tasks. It just performs better. C. It's usually free.
Exactly. Even evolutionary theory has changed drastically over time. It may be true, but it's not a set in stone fact. Seems like every week a new posting comes out about a new supposed missing link that... wait for it... "revolutionizes evolutionary theory", many times made in hasty delusions of granduer. Are they? Maybe... but lets keep a firm grasp on what is theory, and what is fact.
He is quite vague on his target market. Does he mean the power users who don't need much help or does he mean the miserable peons who use their computers for email and internet? He talks about users that have the technical knowhow to make things work, and then contradicts himself in the next sentence.
Again, I'm not talking about technical users facile enough to type "make install" - or able to live with the consequences of a personalized distro. Datacenters cannot, nor can ISV's, afford the luxury. Thus, software markets tip.
Why can't datacenters and ISVs (independant software vendors) type "make install"? They are the ones that should know what they are doing, for crying out loud, not the feeble windows users that he paints in his blog. And what about other OS distro's with quite possibly better package management like FreeBSD and Gentoo Linux. Plus there are all kinds of great distributions such as Mandrake or Debian. If anything, the market is diversifying into more specialized OS'. And why would anyone want to write something claiming a 3 OS market, when there are clearly many more great OS' that are quickly gaining ground?
Man... this is why I don't like reading trade magazines...
This article is definitely a start. It's good that at least one person in this world is concerned about making the GUI useful rather than just pretty. However there are several areas that I think are more applicable improvements to the OS itself: CPU load, command line access, and the time when the GUI is partially loaded, but not fully functional.
1) CPU load. Much of the time, I want to have a stable, quick loading OS. There should be an option to reduce or remove fancy graphical features that slow down performance.
2) Command Line access. I can't stress this enough. There needs to be more integration between the command line and the GUI, and for Windows especially, it needs to be easier to access.
3) Long loading times when the OS is partially loaded. *cough*windows*cough* This is annoying. You double click an icon and nothing happens. Why? The desktop looks loaded. What the heck is the computer thinking? There should at least be some sort of indicator telling you how close it is to being ready.
There are plenty of places that you can get a completly anonymous email by the illegal use of false information. Hey, you're gonna be illegal about it -- why not keep from getting caught?
Once they start enforcing DRM in the mp3 players, then the 'demand' for them will drop..
Face it, pandora's box has already been opened. MP3 encoders and players already exist in abundance (among other players like ogg). Enforcing DRM is not a very wise move buisness-wise, so the players that enforce it will not be purchased by the masses, and there is enough competition that some company will release an unprotected player, thus getting more buisness. MP3 and ogg vorbis formats are clearly quite legal, so supporting them in your digital audio player is also quite legal.
Even if they do release a protected player, hackers will fix it. It's a pointless battle in my mind.
You make a valid point. The main purpose of this format seems to be DRM. When you try to sell DRM to the infringing users, they wont buy it. Considering most of the traffic on Kazaa is infringing, what files will be predominantly available?
First of all, running an old computer as an MP3 server takes off the processor burden of your main computer. I have several friends who do this, and I do this as well. This can be done with a computer as slow as 100Mhz. You can network your old pc to your newer one and ssh in and change the song remotely (you are using linux/freebsd, right?). You can run an old computer with some large hard drives in it as extra storage. You can run a web server from it. You can run an FTP server from it. You can even use this computer for internet surfing and email plenty fine. IRC, (g)AIM, also no problem. I run a KVM box for ease of use.
Slashdot Mirror
I used to be blazingly fast at QWERTY, about 60-70WPM. Ok, so not that impressive. But the way I type is by remembering parts of words. ing, ist, meta, lly, etc. Now that I lost that muscle memory, it's much harder. The change in keyboard has really messed that up.
I've been blogging the whole experience on myspace. Isotope Lab
What are we missing? Oh yeah... theres that Linux/Unix thing I keep hearing about.
;)
Seriously though. The reason it isn't Windows vs. Mac vs. Unix is because everyone knows Unix is better. There's just no contest.
Here are a few of the many reasons Unix is better.
A. It isn't proprietary.
B. It runs a heck of a lot faster. This includes boot up time, heavy processor loads, and system critical tasks. It just performs better.
C. It's usually free.
Exactly. Even evolutionary theory has changed drastically over time. It may be true, but it's not a set in stone fact. Seems like every week a new posting comes out about a new supposed missing link that... wait for it... "revolutionizes evolutionary theory", many times made in hasty delusions of granduer. Are they? Maybe... but lets keep a firm grasp on what is theory, and what is fact.
Why can't datacenters and ISVs (independant software vendors) type "make install"? They are the ones that should know what they are doing, for crying out loud, not the feeble windows users that he paints in his blog. And what about other OS distro's with quite possibly better package management like FreeBSD and Gentoo Linux. Plus there are all kinds of great distributions such as Mandrake or Debian. If anything, the market is diversifying into more specialized OS'. And why would anyone want to write something claiming a 3 OS market, when there are clearly many more great OS' that are quickly gaining ground?
Man... this is why I don't like reading trade magazines...
1) CPU load. Much of the time, I want to have a stable, quick loading OS. There should be an option to reduce or remove fancy graphical features that slow down performance.
2) Command Line access. I can't stress this enough. There needs to be more integration between the command line and the GUI, and for Windows especially, it needs to be easier to access.
3) Long loading times when the OS is partially loaded. *cough*windows*cough* This is annoying. You double click an icon and nothing happens. Why? The desktop looks loaded. What the heck is the computer thinking? There should at least be some sort of indicator telling you how close it is to being ready.
There are plenty of places that you can get a completly anonymous email by the illegal use of false information. Hey, you're gonna be illegal about it -- why not keep from getting caught?
Face it, pandora's box has already been opened. MP3 encoders and players already exist in abundance (among other players like ogg). Enforcing DRM is not a very wise move buisness-wise, so the players that enforce it will not be purchased by the masses, and there is enough competition that some company will release an unprotected player, thus getting more buisness. MP3 and ogg vorbis formats are clearly quite legal, so supporting them in your digital audio player is also quite legal.
Even if they do release a protected player, hackers will fix it. It's a pointless battle in my mind.
You make a valid point. The main purpose of this format seems to be DRM. When you try to sell DRM to the infringing users, they wont buy it. Considering most of the traffic on Kazaa is infringing, what files will be predominantly available?
First of all, running an old computer as an MP3 server takes off the processor burden of your main computer. I have several friends who do this, and I do this as well. This can be done with a computer as slow as 100Mhz. You can network your old pc to your newer one and ssh in and change the song remotely (you are using linux/freebsd, right?). You can run an old computer with some large hard drives in it as extra storage. You can run a web server from it. You can run an FTP server from it. You can even use this computer for internet surfing and email plenty fine. IRC, (g)AIM, also no problem. I run a KVM box for ease of use.