No I know people who use: FCP, Shake, Pro Tools, Smoke, Inferno, Gimp (but he admits he only uses it as a hobby, for real work he switches back to XSI), Modo, Mudbox, Cinepaint, Vue, Audition, Zeno and a million other applications large and small. Proprietary and Free. I use hundreds of open source tools. I even have some scripts that I wrote for 3D Studio Max that run off of a MySQL server.
I've tried Gimp. I worked at a start up studio and for a while they were still even in the buying phase and hadn't picked up a copy of Photoshop yet for the modelers. So we all used Gimp. It was obnoxious. I don't hold any sort of dogmatic appreciation for one piece of software over another. I am constantly changing software and hold no allegiance to manufacturer, distribution model or OS. I use Shake on Linux and Mac (the linux version is much much faster, or at least it was before 4.1 and Intel processors, I havne't used that release yet.). I use any tool I can find that does cool stuff and helps me work faster. If Photoshop became "Gibbed" and was released as open source, and Gimp got renamed as "Photoshop" I would migrate to Gibbed. If something really cool was as good or better than photoshop and was Open Source or even just free I would grab it immediately. I just learned Zbrush after several years and now Mudbox is out. After playing with it I want to add it to my toolset as well.
When it comes to editors: There is Avid, Smoke, Premiere/FCP (practically the same application) and Vegas. Vegas is annoying as hell to edit with on anything longer than 10 minutes so that leaves two options. The current offerings in the Open Source market are useless. Although Smoke does run on Linux, so that would be my preferred "Linux Video Editor". Avid/Premiere/FCP is just a matter of preference and platform choice.
So while I don't say what I use are the only options (far from it, and even then I didn't even list all the stuff I use. I'm using premiere right now at work while editing a reel. I've used FCP on projects in the past. I've sat at a smoke station briefly.) I do know what my options are because I've tried just about all of them. I've talked to people who have also tried them. I research products. I read reviews. And this package is not all that useful for a working professional right now in the visual fields. And not just because of small things like when a Nuke compositor is annoyed with Fusion. These are big huge deal breaker problems in just about every single selection.
I'm going to assume you aren't making a stupid joke. Comparing the two is like comparing Linux and MySQL and suggesing a migration from one to the other is equally stupid.
Yes but his point still stands... Renderman and Mentalray also aren't included with this distro. So just because it "exists" doesn't mean it's relevant to Ubuntu Multimedia edition.
3D Studio Max, XSI, Maya, Zbrush, Avid, Fusion, Nuke, Combustion and Photoshop.
Only one platform runs all of those: Windows. None of those programs are included in this "multimedia pack for professionals". So uhh yeah, my complaint is with the parent... this isn't a professional package at all.
If you use Photoshop day in and day out you would know that Gimp isn't acceptable. And it's not because it doesn't load obscenely large files it's because it's a sub-par application.
That sounds like the classic schoolyard antic of yelling something to the effect of: "You're an ugly egotistical fart sniffer. No offense." or Google never getting any of its products out of Beta. Or legalizing civil unions. "They're not getting married, they're just pledging to live as a family unit in which two adults engaged in a monogonous long term realtionship."
Slashdot posts it, therefore it's slashdot's news. It would also be like the New York Times not taking responsibility for any of the articles it posts since "well that's just what our author wrote."
But does its grammar checker know the difference between it's and its? Yes.
Does it automatically create a hyperlink to emails? Yes. But if you hover your cursor over said email address the second option is "Stop automatically creating hyperlinks."
Does it automatically capitalize days of the week? Yes. But if you hover your cursor over said day of the week the second option is "Stop auto-capitalizing names of days."
Can you uncheck every single auto format check box under settings in under 10 minutes and be done with it for 2 years? Yes.
I'm confused how you reached the conclusion that 'An Inconvenient Truth' is partisan. In what manner did the the film advance one political party over another? If there was any peer reviewed studies which provided an alternative, scientifically valid explanation of the long term atmospheric temperatures of our planet, by all means they should be presented. I haven't found one yet, and I'll keep looking, but in the mean time it feels sort of like someone complaining that we aren't presenting alternative theories on the cause of disease.
"Where's the Christian Science rebuttal in every biology class?"
Going with the Christian Science analogy: No class is mandatory. The children of people who do not agree with modern biology can be removed on religious grounds.
Finally I want to say it one more time... global warming should not be a faith. If scientists said "I feel like the world *should* warm because of CO2... it would be a question of beliefs." What scientists have done is follow the scientific method in attempting to evaluate with relative certainty the causes and effects of human activities on the atmosphere. They have presented testable, reproducible studies and experiments, and the conclusion is the same: the earth is warming, and (ruling out aliens and God getting bored using Occam's razor) it is being caused by us. This is not a political issue. This is a question of science. If the scientific method does not work here... we shouldn't be using it to design microprocessors, build bridges, develop medications, or any of the other applications of science. We should just sit in our homes and mutter "It's all a matter of faith."
An inconvenient truth is not a political attack. It is not a political support. It is a presentation of scientific studies on a very specific area of study which has large implications for the citizens of this country. Perhaps if more people watched movies like an inconvenient truth, the members of all political parties could sit down and act on the facts and unite behind fixing the likely problem.
Bill is right on the money. Those ribbons are worth every single penny and then some.
I haven't upgraded my Grandfather's computer in years because I'm afraid of anything changing and getting him confused, but when I tried ribbons, I knew it would be worth the hastle.
If it passes the "grandpa upgrade test" I know it's ready for a large scale deployment.
I would equate it with using an FM transmitter to transmit from my mp3 player to my radio. In a way, I've created an analog reproduction to play on a secondary device. If you wanted to, I'm sure an argument could be made that I created a reproduction and broadcast it to the public. And yet it's illegal to digitally 'transmit' a program to my non-component-accepting PC monitor. If I could, I would just plug my Xbox straight into my monitor, unfortunately that's impossible, therefore, my 'Component Cable' is The Internet(tm).
Also I call bullshit on your challenge of: 'The most basic acceptance test of any moral or social philosophy is whether it can be applied generally.'
By that reasoning all I have to do is create a counter example of a generalized accepted 'moral' principle to undo the original statement! Wow I bet this will be hard... oh wait...
How about: "Holding someone against their will is illegal, therefore prisons are illegal." "Men should be free, therefore they can do whatever they want and laws shouldn't exist." "I must follow the law in order for society to function, even if the law requires me to murder my grandmother with a blunt instrument."
So as I hope can you see kids, things should only be applied generally when indicated. Otherwise, what's not prohibited is permitted seems to be a pretty general rule our society lives by.
And to quote Star Trek TNG. "There can be no Justice in Absolutes!" (moments after Picard busts Wesley out of some draconian Nazi paradise.)
The correct conclusion is: 'Finally! Now I don't have to buy an HD-DVD Player.'
I don't mind purchasing an HD-DVD and then just downloading its illegal doppelganger. I DO mind purchasing an overpriced paperweight to keep me legal. I looked at Xbox Live Marketplace from the perspective of:
"Rent 44 HD movies. or Buy HD-DVD Player and a movie." I decided I would get much more HD goodness out of downloads than just a player.
It's sort of like the way I purchase Star Trek for my Xbox and then download a copy for my PC as well. Sure it's illegal, but I look at it from the perspective of: I purchased it so that I could watch it, and watch it I shall.
Sure the novelty will wear off. Even a holodeck in of itself would be passe in a few weeks. You are proving his point by emphasizing that people want you to bring over that new fangled toy to their party. But just like the new fangled toy everyone was playing last christmas, this one will either continue to offer innovative solutions to its gimmick and succeed or else rely on the gimmick alone and fail. The point is, the gimmick itself will only last for so long, and then it'll come down to the quality of the product.
I remember a couple of years ago fishing controllers were all the rage. Since you couldn't do anything except fish, it lasted about one holiday season.
- http://dictionairy.com/ - Accorddingly - insufficient - electrolisis - dyode - http://funnylink.com/ - [Random business address] - Hey I'm back from vacation, what's up guys? - xnYZ36A - In a world savaged by insecurity one man is standing up to stop it. - Eva Longoria - ASDF - http://business.link.com/
I'm quivering in my boots as I write it. My god! They know everything!
It's also hilarious how Microsoft was demonstrating that functionality in early Vista builds long before Apple ever gave the world a glimpse. It's almost like they were so eager to rip it off that they got into a Dellorian and traveled through time to steal it.
Now that's dedication!
Re:Good case why not to trust "community" services
on
ORDB.org Going Offline
·
· Score: 1
This morning in response to "who is going to pay for this Shiieeeet?" 10,000 businesses pointed at "the other guy" and went back to sleep.
In response to #12 'Learning Curve'... so their solution is to switch over to a completely different operating system, with an entirely new interface, which doesn't run 75% of the applications the users current use such as Word or Excel. Yeah... that sounds like the much better alternative to #12...
I am not saying by design 'Open Source Sucks' I'm taking the pragmatic approach of: "What works, works."
In graphics industry we have dozens of closed, dedicated black boxes for post production. Look at the Autodesk Systems group. They develop Linux and Solaris compositing, editing and finishing machines which effectively are useful for only one thing, that application which autodesk sells with them. Why would I 'sell my freedom' for several hundred thousand dollars? Because they're fast, and they're reliable. It's a case where a dedicated, closed, system is the 'best' option. And I'll be a shill for dedicated hardware for the rest of my life as long as its faster and more reliable.
The moment there is a free alternative that is *better* not just "almost as good" for what I do, I'll switch the next day. Until then: with windows I put in the disk, wait 20 minutes. Type in an administrative password, install all of the 'peripheral applications' like Winamp and the new MSN messenger, and away I go. I don't have to fret over finding working drivers, I don't have to be concerned about application compatibility, and if I am searching the web for some little application I need to complete a contract, I'll almost always find a windows copy. To quote apple 'it just works'. I've run apple systems for years, I've run Linux systems for years, and they all work, but for me Windows is the best choice.
I've been running Vista on my non-work machine for a few months now, all by itself and I've really enjoyed the new package, it helps me manage my files, I like the new widget system, and I've tried running Konfabulator in the past but quit because of interface qualms. I'm running RC1, and It's not ready for me yet, but that's because I'm still running 'pre-vista' versions of all my applications.
The moment you install AVID on your computer, is the moment you have to give up on the notion of your computer being a 'do as you please free use zone'. And you know what, for what it gives me in return, sign me up.
Another closed system I'm a huge fan of is my Xbox 360 (wow I am a microsoft shill) thanks to their insanely tight DRM and inflexibility they've been able to negotiate deals with the hyper-parnoid media industry and rent me HD movies. at $5 a pop I could rent 100 movies for the price of a stand alone blu-ray player. And that saves me money. Now you could argue that they *could* deliver those without DRM, but they won't so the only way I can get this amazing and useful functionality is through a closed system.
And speaking of HD movies, I'm in complete support of HD-DVD. WHY? Why would I support an 'inferior product'? Because it's cheaper and delivers about the same or better image quality. I don't care about potential, I care about what a product can deliver.
Has he used the RC? I'm finding it a huge upgrade on just about every front. A welcome improvement that will increase my productivity. Of course I'm going to need to upgrade my system to get the most out of it, but I was planning on doing that in February anyway.
This is nothing more than a giant pile of FUD. Accountability in drivers is a huge upgrade, not some soul sucking attempt to steal your humanity. Besides... since when did 'freedom' apply to our computers and operating systems. What's next? My office chair needs the freedom to vote? If I double click on it, it does the job I want it to do, I don't care if Stalin programmed it and titled it "3D Studio Max for the advancement of the Social Utopia and down fall of Democracy." It works it works. Vista works very well. Windows XP hasn't let me down yet, and I'm looking forward to some new glitz and sparkle.
My cameras are black boxes, my lights are black boxes, my chroma paint is top secret, I eat proprietary cereal, my car's design is patented, my apartment design is owned by another company, I can't even paint my walls without permission. but wait... my Operating System... THAT's a holy grail of democracy and freedom. I use almost 0 Open Source software day in and day out, because in my field, it's all worthless except for linux. Gimp? Pfff... yeah why don't I just use MS Paint?
If the author drives an open source car, lives in an open source house, uses only open source hardware, only eats food from freely available recipes and sleeps on a mattress with a freely available design I'll give a shit.
Does anybody else find it amusing that on the same day we have a news article:
Complaining about how slow boot times are. and Recommending a Net centric OS philosophy.
If my boot times are bad from a highspeed disc array, I don't even want to imagine what it would be like to "boot" online.
Speaking of which. What happens to your computer when the inevitable ISP crash happens? Whoops, no more computer. In my business, the internet is a funny little thing you play around with when you're not working, or when you're trying to find a problem. Any application that is more complex than Microsoft Word needs to be run from a local hard disk. Forever. Yes I said forever. Why? Because it will always be cheaper and faster. As the internet speeds up, so will Hard Drives. I need top of the line, just came out tommarow hardware and software, and that means some funky "universal" executable isn't going to cut it. It needs to be optimized and it needs to be fast. The internet won't deliver that.
It would seem that beyond the fairly primitive display and interpolation of the software currently being presented, the real gold from all these photos would be to start running them through a motion flow algorithm and 3d tracking algorithm to start generating geometry.
I think people are right in saying that this had somewhat limited applicable use, but the more raw data you have on an area, the more references you can feed into new technologies. Sure this data might not be useful now, but let's say Microsoft then proceeds to do a lidar scan of the entire city. Combined with this data, you have one more data set to use for comparison. Increase sample size, decrease margin of error.
It's much like a web crawler, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Amazon are all in an arms race to know more about the world than anyone else, because the more you know, the more accurate you can be. I like the new 3d photo technology microsoft was showcasing earlier of I think the bassilica, start combining that with lidar and you have an automatic mapping/3d modelling application. The more photos you take, less likely a person will be in front of it.
The only reason people aren't educating themselves to protect their computers is because they aren't taking it seriously, and or are not being educated.
Saying the OS providers should be completely responsible for protecting their users is like suggesting a home builder should make automatically locking doors. Only on computers do we give the users a complete walk on responsibility. If you don't lock your home before you leave, thieves can steal your goods, money and even identity. It's no different if you don't have a firewall and invite strangers into your computer on a daily basis.
As people get more and more computer savvy, and as kids grow up, they'll slowly adopt the two rules. We're just in a reallly reallly messy transition period where everybody is living in a virtual world, but hasn't been taught by a parent or teacher figure how to 'take out the garbage and mow the lawn." Since the consequences of ignorance in the virtual world, seem to be nothing more than ignorance, the cycle is perpetuated for the near future.
I would wager most 12 year olds are sufficiently well educated.
This isn't at all to say we should be insecure in our OSes but, 90% of these exploits are going to rely on someone not locking their door when they leave for work.
Microsoft has been pushing IE7, even while it was in beta. It's not like these IT managers just heard about it a couple of weeks ago. They've had months to ensure and prepare for its release.
Slashdot Mirror
No I know people who use: FCP, Shake, Pro Tools, Smoke, Inferno, Gimp (but he admits he only uses it as a hobby, for real work he switches back to XSI), Modo, Mudbox, Cinepaint, Vue, Audition, Zeno and a million other applications large and small. Proprietary and Free. I use hundreds of open source tools. I even have some scripts that I wrote for 3D Studio Max that run off of a MySQL server.
I've tried Gimp. I worked at a start up studio and for a while they were still even in the buying phase and hadn't picked up a copy of Photoshop yet for the modelers. So we all used Gimp. It was obnoxious. I don't hold any sort of dogmatic appreciation for one piece of software over another. I am constantly changing software and hold no allegiance to manufacturer, distribution model or OS. I use Shake on Linux and Mac (the linux version is much much faster, or at least it was before 4.1 and Intel processors, I havne't used that release yet.). I use any tool I can find that does cool stuff and helps me work faster. If Photoshop became "Gibbed" and was released as open source, and Gimp got renamed as "Photoshop" I would migrate to Gibbed. If something really cool was as good or better than photoshop and was Open Source or even just free I would grab it immediately. I just learned Zbrush after several years and now Mudbox is out. After playing with it I want to add it to my toolset as well.
When it comes to editors: There is Avid, Smoke, Premiere/FCP (practically the same application) and Vegas. Vegas is annoying as hell to edit with on anything longer than 10 minutes so that leaves two options. The current offerings in the Open Source market are useless. Although Smoke does run on Linux, so that would be my preferred "Linux Video Editor". Avid/Premiere/FCP is just a matter of preference and platform choice.
So while I don't say what I use are the only options (far from it, and even then I didn't even list all the stuff I use. I'm using premiere right now at work while editing a reel. I've used FCP on projects in the past. I've sat at a smoke station briefly.) I do know what my options are because I've tried just about all of them. I've talked to people who have also tried them. I research products. I read reviews. And this package is not all that useful for a working professional right now in the visual fields. And not just because of small things like when a Nuke compositor is annoyed with Fusion. These are big huge deal breaker problems in just about every single selection.
No but I've used a Tiff file before for the background sound effect of a starship engine. (Which I edited in Photoshop.)
Serious.
I'm going to assume you aren't making a stupid joke. Comparing the two is like comparing Linux and MySQL and suggesing a migration from one to the other is equally stupid.
Yes but his point still stands... Renderman and Mentalray also aren't included with this distro. So just because it "exists" doesn't mean it's relevant to Ubuntu Multimedia edition.
There are one or two good ones.
Autodesk Smoke is probably the only Linux based editor I would recommend.
Let's see I'm a pro and I use:
3D Studio Max, XSI, Maya, Zbrush, Avid, Fusion, Nuke, Combustion and Photoshop.
Only one platform runs all of those: Windows.
None of those programs are included in this "multimedia pack for professionals". So uhh yeah, my complaint is with the parent... this isn't a professional package at all.
If you use Photoshop day in and day out you would know that Gimp isn't acceptable. And it's not because it doesn't load obscenely large files it's because it's a sub-par application.
That sounds like the classic schoolyard antic of yelling something to the effect of: "You're an ugly egotistical fart sniffer. No offense." or Google never getting any of its products out of Beta. Or legalizing civil unions. "They're not getting married, they're just pledging to live as a family unit in which two adults engaged in a monogonous long term realtionship."
Slashdot posts it, therefore it's slashdot's news. It would also be like the New York Times not taking responsibility for any of the articles it posts since "well that's just what our author wrote."
Then we hope you're not also luma blind and can tell the difference between 75% luminance and 10% luminance.
But does its grammar checker know the difference between it's and its? Yes.
Does it automatically create a hyperlink to emails? Yes. But if you hover your cursor over said email address the second option is "Stop automatically creating hyperlinks."
Does it automatically capitalize days of the week? Yes. But if you hover your cursor over said day of the week the second option is "Stop auto-capitalizing names of days."
Can you uncheck every single auto format check box under settings in under 10 minutes and be done with it for 2 years? Yes.
I'm confused how you reached the conclusion that 'An Inconvenient Truth' is partisan. In what manner did the the film advance one political party over another? If there was any peer reviewed studies which provided an alternative, scientifically valid explanation of the long term atmospheric temperatures of our planet, by all means they should be presented. I haven't found one yet, and I'll keep looking, but in the mean time it feels sort of like someone complaining that we aren't presenting alternative theories on the cause of disease.
"Where's the Christian Science rebuttal in every biology class?"
Going with the Christian Science analogy: No class is mandatory. The children of people who do not agree with modern biology can be removed on religious grounds.
Finally I want to say it one more time... global warming should not be a faith. If scientists said "I feel like the world *should* warm because of CO2... it would be a question of beliefs." What scientists have done is follow the scientific method in attempting to evaluate with relative certainty the causes and effects of human activities on the atmosphere. They have presented testable, reproducible studies and experiments, and the conclusion is the same: the earth is warming, and (ruling out aliens and God getting bored using Occam's razor) it is being caused by us. This is not a political issue. This is a question of science. If the scientific method does not work here... we shouldn't be using it to design microprocessors, build bridges, develop medications, or any of the other applications of science. We should just sit in our homes and mutter "It's all a matter of faith."
An inconvenient truth is not a political attack. It is not a political support. It is a presentation of scientific studies on a very specific area of study which has large implications for the citizens of this country. Perhaps if more people watched movies like an inconvenient truth, the members of all political parties could sit down and act on the facts and unite behind fixing the likely problem.
Bill is right on the money. Those ribbons are worth every single penny and then some.
I haven't upgraded my Grandfather's computer in years because I'm afraid of anything changing and getting him confused, but when I tried ribbons, I knew it would be worth the hastle.
If it passes the "grandpa upgrade test" I know it's ready for a large scale deployment.
I would equate it with using an FM transmitter to transmit from my mp3 player to my radio. In a way, I've created an analog reproduction to play on a secondary device. If you wanted to, I'm sure an argument could be made that I created a reproduction and broadcast it to the public. And yet it's illegal to digitally 'transmit' a program to my non-component-accepting PC monitor. If I could, I would just plug my Xbox straight into my monitor, unfortunately that's impossible, therefore, my 'Component Cable' is The Internet(tm).
Also I call bullshit on your challenge of: 'The most basic acceptance test of any moral or social philosophy is whether it can be applied generally.'
By that reasoning all I have to do is create a counter example of a generalized accepted 'moral' principle to undo the original statement! Wow I bet this will be hard... oh wait...
How about:
"Holding someone against their will is illegal, therefore prisons are illegal."
"Men should be free, therefore they can do whatever they want and laws shouldn't exist."
"I must follow the law in order for society to function, even if the law requires me to murder my grandmother with a blunt instrument."
So as I hope can you see kids, things should only be applied generally when indicated. Otherwise, what's not prohibited is permitted seems to be a pretty general rule our society lives by.
And to quote Star Trek TNG. "There can be no Justice in Absolutes!" (moments after Picard busts Wesley out of some draconian Nazi paradise.)
The correct conclusion is: 'Finally! Now I don't have to buy an HD-DVD Player.'
I don't mind purchasing an HD-DVD and then just downloading its illegal doppelganger. I DO mind purchasing an overpriced paperweight to keep me legal. I looked at Xbox Live Marketplace from the perspective of:
"Rent 44 HD movies. or Buy HD-DVD Player and a movie." I decided I would get much more HD goodness out of downloads than just a player.
It's sort of like the way I purchase Star Trek for my Xbox and then download a copy for my PC as well. Sure it's illegal, but I look at it from the perspective of: I purchased it so that I could watch it, and watch it I shall.
Sure the novelty will wear off. Even a holodeck in of itself would be passe in a few weeks. You are proving his point by emphasizing that people want you to bring over that new fangled toy to their party. But just like the new fangled toy everyone was playing last christmas, this one will either continue to offer innovative solutions to its gimmick and succeed or else rely on the gimmick alone and fail. The point is, the gimmick itself will only last for so long, and then it'll come down to the quality of the product.
I remember a couple of years ago fishing controllers were all the rage. Since you couldn't do anything except fish, it lasted about one holiday season.
Some database somewhere:
- http://dictionairy.com/
- Accorddingly
- insufficient
- electrolisis
- dyode
- http://funnylink.com/
- [Random business address]
- Hey I'm back from vacation, what's up guys?
- xnYZ36A
- In a world savaged by insecurity one man is standing up to stop it.
- Eva Longoria
- ASDF
- http://business.link.com/
I'm quivering in my boots as I write it. My god! They know everything!
It's also hilarious how Microsoft was demonstrating that functionality in early Vista builds long before Apple ever gave the world a glimpse. It's almost like they were so eager to rip it off that they got into a Dellorian and traveled through time to steal it.
Now that's dedication!
This morning in response to "who is going to pay for this Shiieeeet?" 10,000 businesses pointed at "the other guy" and went back to sleep.
Best of all, they come bundled with the OS! Just push the power button!
In response to #12 'Learning Curve' ... so their solution is to switch over to a completely different operating system, with an entirely new interface, which doesn't run 75% of the applications the users current use such as Word or Excel. Yeah... that sounds like the much better alternative to #12...
I am not saying by design 'Open Source Sucks' I'm taking the pragmatic approach of: "What works, works."
In graphics industry we have dozens of closed, dedicated black boxes for post production. Look at the Autodesk Systems group. They develop Linux and Solaris compositing, editing and finishing machines which effectively are useful for only one thing, that application which autodesk sells with them. Why would I 'sell my freedom' for several hundred thousand dollars? Because they're fast, and they're reliable. It's a case where a dedicated, closed, system is the 'best' option. And I'll be a shill for dedicated hardware for the rest of my life as long as its faster and more reliable.
The moment there is a free alternative that is *better* not just "almost as good" for what I do, I'll switch the next day. Until then: with windows I put in the disk, wait 20 minutes. Type in an administrative password, install all of the 'peripheral applications' like Winamp and the new MSN messenger, and away I go. I don't have to fret over finding working drivers, I don't have to be concerned about application compatibility, and if I am searching the web for some little application I need to complete a contract, I'll almost always find a windows copy. To quote apple 'it just works'. I've run apple systems for years, I've run Linux systems for years, and they all work, but for me Windows is the best choice.
I've been running Vista on my non-work machine for a few months now, all by itself and I've really enjoyed the new package, it helps me manage my files, I like the new widget system, and I've tried running Konfabulator in the past but quit because of interface qualms. I'm running RC1, and It's not ready for me yet, but that's because I'm still running 'pre-vista' versions of all my applications.
The moment you install AVID on your computer, is the moment you have to give up on the notion of your computer being a 'do as you please free use zone'. And you know what, for what it gives me in return, sign me up.
Another closed system I'm a huge fan of is my Xbox 360 (wow I am a microsoft shill) thanks to their insanely tight DRM and inflexibility they've been able to negotiate deals with the hyper-parnoid media industry and rent me HD movies. at $5 a pop I could rent 100 movies for the price of a stand alone blu-ray player. And that saves me money. Now you could argue that they *could* deliver those without DRM, but they won't so the only way I can get this amazing and useful functionality is through a closed system.
And speaking of HD movies, I'm in complete support of HD-DVD. WHY? Why would I support an 'inferior product'? Because it's cheaper and delivers about the same or better image quality. I don't care about potential, I care about what a product can deliver.
- Gavin
Has he used the RC? I'm finding it a huge upgrade on just about every front. A welcome improvement that will increase my productivity. Of course I'm going to need to upgrade my system to get the most out of it, but I was planning on doing that in February anyway.
This is nothing more than a giant pile of FUD. Accountability in drivers is a huge upgrade, not some soul sucking attempt to steal your humanity. Besides... since when did 'freedom' apply to our computers and operating systems. What's next? My office chair needs the freedom to vote? If I double click on it, it does the job I want it to do, I don't care if Stalin programmed it and titled it "3D Studio Max for the advancement of the Social Utopia and down fall of Democracy." It works it works. Vista works very well. Windows XP hasn't let me down yet, and I'm looking forward to some new glitz and sparkle.
My cameras are black boxes, my lights are black boxes, my chroma paint is top secret, I eat proprietary cereal, my car's design is patented, my apartment design is owned by another company, I can't even paint my walls without permission. but wait... my Operating System... THAT's a holy grail of democracy and freedom. I use almost 0 Open Source software day in and day out, because in my field, it's all worthless except for linux. Gimp? Pfff... yeah why don't I just use MS Paint?
If the author drives an open source car, lives in an open source house, uses only open source hardware, only eats food from freely available recipes and sleeps on a mattress with a freely available design I'll give a shit.
Does anybody else find it amusing that on the same day we have a news article:
Complaining about how slow boot times are.
and
Recommending a Net centric OS philosophy.
If my boot times are bad from a highspeed disc array, I don't even want to imagine what it would be like to "boot" online.
Speaking of which. What happens to your computer when the inevitable ISP crash happens? Whoops, no more computer. In my business, the internet is a funny little thing you play around with when you're not working, or when you're trying to find a problem. Any application that is more complex than Microsoft Word needs to be run from a local hard disk. Forever. Yes I said forever. Why? Because it will always be cheaper and faster. As the internet speeds up, so will Hard Drives. I need top of the line, just came out tommarow hardware and software, and that means some funky "universal" executable isn't going to cut it. It needs to be optimized and it needs to be fast. The internet won't deliver that.
It would seem that beyond the fairly primitive display and interpolation of the software currently being presented, the real gold from all these photos would be to start running them through a motion flow algorithm and 3d tracking algorithm to start generating geometry.
I think people are right in saying that this had somewhat limited applicable use, but the more raw data you have on an area, the more references you can feed into new technologies. Sure this data might not be useful now, but let's say Microsoft then proceeds to do a lidar scan of the entire city. Combined with this data, you have one more data set to use for comparison. Increase sample size, decrease margin of error.
It's much like a web crawler, Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Amazon are all in an arms race to know more about the world than anyone else, because the more you know, the more accurate you can be. I like the new 3d photo technology microsoft was showcasing earlier of I think the bassilica, start combining that with lidar and you have an automatic mapping/3d modelling application. The more photos you take, less likely a person will be in front of it.
The only reason people aren't educating themselves to protect their computers is because they aren't taking it seriously, and or are not being educated.
Saying the OS providers should be completely responsible for protecting their users is like suggesting a home builder should make automatically locking doors. Only on computers do we give the users a complete walk on responsibility. If you don't lock your home before you leave, thieves can steal your goods, money and even identity. It's no different if you don't have a firewall and invite strangers into your computer on a daily basis.
As people get more and more computer savvy, and as kids grow up, they'll slowly adopt the two rules. We're just in a reallly reallly messy transition period where everybody is living in a virtual world, but hasn't been taught by a parent or teacher figure how to 'take out the garbage and mow the lawn." Since the consequences of ignorance in the virtual world, seem to be nothing more than ignorance, the cycle is perpetuated for the near future.
I would wager most 12 year olds are sufficiently well educated.
This isn't at all to say we should be insecure in our OSes but, 90% of these exploits are going to rely on someone not locking their door when they leave for work.
- Gavin
Microsoft has been pushing IE7, even while it was in beta. It's not like these IT managers just heard about it a couple of weeks ago. They've had months to ensure and prepare for its release.