I agree with your second paragraph, but the first and last are not quite true: I spent a considerable time getting FreeBSD to work on my old university laptop. This involved me having to wait until the sound chip drivers came out, configuring and reconfiguring X11 until it finally worked on the LCD display, and then installing and deinstalling a ton of programs that promised a lot, but delivered a littlle. I admit that that was about 4 to 5 years ago, and things might have changed by now, but I must say it was a great relief to switch to the Mac. I occasionally still use a Sun machine for some computations, but leave the administration to others now who have more time and patience to get it working. Especially the trouble of getting Matlab (with the JVM) to work on these machines reinforces my point. If it works right away on these Sun or FreeBSD systems (about a 50/50 chance), you're in luck, if it doesn't, you're up for hours and hours of troubleshooting, which I and others have done. Not quite FUD.
Well, the phone does what it says on the box. The additional programs are optional bonuses. It is not a given that they have to support all apps everyone writes in their app store. I think you are free to set up your own app store/distribution centre, albeit less tightly integrated into the iPhone.
And about the "program it yourself option", I have not the knowledge nor the time to do that, so I am not interested in choosing an open source solution that I have to modify to get to work well, above an option that is more expensive but does the things I need it to do. I do write open source software for data analysis, so I know the pain involved in the construction and smooth operation. Designing a solid UI is also not for the faint hearted, because it inherently requires a selection of all possible features. This is very clearly lacking in most OS software (with the exclusion of e.g. OpenOffice), where the emphasis often lies on including all possible features in the UI, at the cost of usability and stability. That is the one thing Apple can offer: quality control.
Well, they seem to be the only one getting a part of the actual product right. The iPhone works, the apps work, it does what it says it does right out of the box and the design is undoubtedly rather sublime.
That said, what skills they have in design of UI and product, they lack in other parts of their "experience". No company is perfect, however. Just take a good look at Google and one finds similar flaws... They should strive to be the best they can, but somehow they always translate it as "just evil enough to get away with it"
For me, the benefits outweigh the treatment. In my opinion I would rather have something that works with me without hindrance right out of the box, and that does what it says on said box, than to have something I need to spend billions of years on to configure just so that it has a slight semblance of usability in it.
In the Open Source world, it is often said that you can write an app yourself if you cannot get it already, but such solutions often are very limited and require huge investments of time to get something buggy working. I rather spend my time on other stuff.
Why do they insist on shooting themselves in the foot like this? I somehow suspect that the App store is led by an inexperienced team, and that Steve only has sideline control over the operation of that one. I think he would not be so foolish as to create this much bad publicity. He may be an (ass/strict ruler), but he's certainly not this stupid and he should know that this behaviour will come back to bite him later on. I'm interested in hearing the full story once upon a time.
I thought one of the first obvious things to implement is Image Stabilisation. I find that one of the biggest drawbacks of binoculars is that the image shakes so much at high "magnifications".
Sure, but I believe they need a model release form (from everyone on the tape) if they're going to make money off the recording with you on it. I don't know how the press gets around this, though.
Well, the speed is ok, since the time it takes between you seeing a wall and the rover hearing your "STOP!!!" command is about an hour... Slow may be quite nice then
Everyone leaking company secrets should be acted against. If this fight ends up at the rumor-sites, then so be it. If you don't do anything about leaks (and don't make it plainly obvious that you're doing something about it), soon you'll be leaking through nose and ears.
Well, the difference in stance here could simply be a matter of "I really don't care what they do after a sale" versus "I care about the `experience' after a sale".
I don't think it's inherent dictator-like qualities of either Jobs or ballmer, but just a difference in what you want to deliver as a product.
I really don't get why everyone tries to convince one another of the merits of buying or the stance of not buying. That is a decision that should solely be left to the potential customer.
Discuss the details, by all means, but don't say buying is better (or worse) than not buying. If it's worth the pecunia you, given all the facts, buy it, otherwise don't.
Really, what's the big deal here with everyone (I'm not specifically looking at you) trying to justify their final decision?
Let me start by thanking you for replying in such an insightful manner. This doesn't happen too often on Slashdot.
I agree with you, if I understand you correctly, that (part of) the problem of the plummeting dollar is that more dollars are printed than there are goods to back those dollars up in real-world terms. It's, like Zimbabwe but not nearly as bad, churning out money when it needs it as if that is the way to "make" money. The trouble is, that if this is allowed to continue, people (or companies) with assets in dollars will see the value of their assets plummet as well, and lose confidence. Then they might change the currency of their assets, indicating to other companies that they no longer trust the Dollar, and thus a crisis is born.
Add to that the fact that a plummeting dollar will take many more economies with it, and the whole world will be in trouble for their reliance on it. This is where we are going now, and it seems that the US government is banking on the assumption that such a crash is unwanted by anyone and thus people will keep their assets in dollars.
Yes, things in Scandinavia work, because there are few taking abuse of the system. I often noticed that, whilst in the Netherlands we needed a minimum of two heavy-duty locks on a bike, here people suffice with a simple pin-lock. There are other examples that indicate that the people here are not so likely to break the "honour"-system of following the rules.
Many other European countries, however, also have quite a few social security systems that might not be as good, but work to a similar degree as the Scandinavian system. The problem is that each country needs their own system, for the mentality of the people are quite different between these countries. With many people now moving between countries in Europe (a thing that has been made easier by the EU regulations on expatriation), the social systems are straining to keep up with the change in attitude.
Now for your last point, we are less informed here than we think we are. My main sources were hearsay and the "Sicko" movie. Other news sources only highlight the newsworthy items about the US, which, these days, tends to be the negative aspects of life over there. We all need to keep our eyes open and not be skewed so much by whatever the associated press likes to tell us. Anyway, I think the situation in South America is much worse than what you have over there, and naturally, people are attracted to that. Similarly, there are loads of people trying to flee their own homes to cross the strait of Gibraltar in the hope of working black in Spain (which doesn't have that many jobs available either). They're leaving everything behind just for the promise of hope. I can't imagine how bad their situation is. But I digress.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree with your second paragraph, but the first and last are not quite true:
I spent a considerable time getting FreeBSD to work on my old university laptop. This involved me having to wait until the sound chip drivers came out, configuring and reconfiguring X11 until it finally worked on the LCD display, and then installing and deinstalling a ton of programs that promised a lot, but delivered a littlle. I admit that that was about 4 to 5 years ago, and things might have changed by now, but I must say it was a great relief to switch to the Mac. I occasionally still use a Sun machine for some computations, but leave the administration to others now who have more time and patience to get it working. Especially the trouble of getting Matlab (with the JVM) to work on these machines reinforces my point. If it works right away on these Sun or FreeBSD systems (about a 50/50 chance), you're in luck, if it doesn't, you're up for hours and hours of troubleshooting, which I and others have done. Not quite FUD.
Well, the phone does what it says on the box. The additional programs are optional bonuses. It is not a given that they have to support all apps everyone writes in their app store. I think you are free to set up your own app store/distribution centre, albeit less tightly integrated into the iPhone.
And about the "program it yourself option", I have not the knowledge nor the time to do that, so I am not interested in choosing an open source solution that I have to modify to get to work well, above an option that is more expensive but does the things I need it to do. I do write open source software for data analysis, so I know the pain involved in the construction and smooth operation. Designing a solid UI is also not for the faint hearted, because it inherently requires a selection of all possible features. This is very clearly lacking in most OS software (with the exclusion of e.g. OpenOffice), where the emphasis often lies on including all possible features in the UI, at the cost of usability and stability. That is the one thing Apple can offer: quality control.
Apple has good sides too.
Well, they seem to be the only one getting a part of the actual product right. The iPhone works, the apps work, it does what it says it does right out of the box and the design is undoubtedly rather sublime.
That said, what skills they have in design of UI and product, they lack in other parts of their "experience". No company is perfect, however. Just take a good look at Google and one finds similar flaws... They should strive to be the best they can, but somehow they always translate it as "just evil enough to get away with it"
B.
For me, the benefits outweigh the treatment. In my opinion I would rather have something that works with me without hindrance right out of the box, and that does what it says on said box, than to have something I need to spend billions of years on to configure just so that it has a slight semblance of usability in it.
In the Open Source world, it is often said that you can write an app yourself if you cannot get it already, but such solutions often are very limited and require huge investments of time to get something buggy working. I rather spend my time on other stuff.
B.
Why do they insist on shooting themselves in the foot like this? I somehow suspect that the App store is led by an inexperienced team, and that Steve only has sideline control over the operation of that one. I think he would not be so foolish as to create this much bad publicity. He may be an (ass/strict ruler), but he's certainly not this stupid and he should know that this behaviour will come back to bite him later on. I'm interested in hearing the full story once upon a time.
May I invite people to look at the "Story of Stuff"? It's a very well done small movie about the waste economy...
http://storyofstuff.com/
Cheers,
B.
The most annoying bit will be the one where you can't earn any money, I presume...
your mentioning of the burning of passports has raised a question with me: can you become a citizen of no country at all?
I thought one of the first obvious things to implement is Image Stabilisation. I find that one of the biggest drawbacks of binoculars is that the image shakes so much at high "magnifications".
I have _no_ idea.
I only know from hearsay (e.g. here comment ~5,7: http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm?topic=20536 )
Well you don't need that much for a country: :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Start_Your_Own_Country
Or, since officially it's a no-man's land, can I plant a flag and claim it? :)
But seriously, nothing can be done about this until it reaches court for some unfortunate individuals.
B.
Although I believe airport security checkpoints and border controls are considered "not US soil".
Sure, but I believe they need a model release form (from everyone on the tape) if they're going to make money off the recording with you on it. I don't know how the press gets around this, though.
B.
Well, the speed is ok, since the time it takes between you seeing a wall and the rover hearing your "STOP!!!" command is about an hour... Slow may be quite nice then
Everyone leaking company secrets should be acted against. If this fight ends up at the rumor-sites, then so be it. If you don't do anything about leaks (and don't make it plainly obvious that you're doing something about it), soon you'll be leaking through nose and ears.
B.
Please come back when you've got something to _discuss_. Don't just spout your latest gripe.
B.
Well, the difference in stance here could simply be a matter of "I really don't care what they do after a sale" versus "I care about the `experience' after a sale".
I don't think it's inherent dictator-like qualities of either Jobs or ballmer, but just a difference in what you want to deliver as a product.
I really don't get why everyone tries to convince one another of the merits of buying or the stance of not buying. That is a decision that should solely be left to the potential customer.
Discuss the details, by all means, but don't say buying is better (or worse) than not buying. If it's worth the pecunia you, given all the facts, buy it, otherwise don't.
Really, what's the big deal here with everyone (I'm not specifically looking at you) trying to justify their final decision?
B.
These licenses, as well as EULA's often spout the oddest things. Give it time, it will be rectified eventually. Until then, use common sense.
B.
Thanks very much!
Well, I hope that it now supports more filesystems, because mucking about with FAT on MacOS X didn't appeal to me last time.
You can get the same separation using polarised light.
Let me start by thanking you for replying in such an insightful manner. This doesn't happen too often on Slashdot.
I agree with you, if I understand you correctly, that (part of) the problem of the plummeting dollar is that more dollars are printed than there are goods to back those dollars up in real-world terms. It's, like Zimbabwe but not nearly as bad, churning out money when it needs it as if that is the way to "make" money. The trouble is, that if this is allowed to continue, people (or companies) with assets in dollars will see the value of their assets plummet as well, and lose confidence. Then they might change the currency of their assets, indicating to other companies that they no longer trust the Dollar, and thus a crisis is born.
Add to that the fact that a plummeting dollar will take many more economies with it, and the whole world will be in trouble for their reliance on it. This is where we are going now, and it seems that the US government is banking on the assumption that such a crash is unwanted by anyone and thus people will keep their assets in dollars.
Yes, things in Scandinavia work, because there are few taking abuse of the system. I often noticed that, whilst in the Netherlands we needed a minimum of two heavy-duty locks on a bike, here people suffice with a simple pin-lock. There are other examples that indicate that the people here are not so likely to break the "honour"-system of following the rules.
Many other European countries, however, also have quite a few social security systems that might not be as good, but work to a similar degree as the Scandinavian system. The problem is that each country needs their own system, for the mentality of the people are quite different between these countries. With many people now moving between countries in Europe (a thing that has been made easier by the EU regulations on expatriation), the social systems are straining to keep up with the change in attitude.
Now for your last point, we are less informed here than we think we are. My main sources were hearsay and the "Sicko" movie. Other news sources only highlight the newsworthy items about the US, which, these days, tends to be the negative aspects of life over there. We all need to keep our eyes open and not be skewed so much by whatever the associated press likes to tell us. Anyway, I think the situation in South America is much worse than what you have over there, and naturally, people are attracted to that. Similarly, there are loads of people trying to flee their own homes to cross the strait of Gibraltar in the hope of working black in Spain (which doesn't have that many jobs available either). They're leaving everything behind just for the promise of hope. I can't imagine how bad their situation is. But I digress.
Anyway, I look forward to your reply.
B.