Beautiful. Thanks for sharing your broad-scoped experience to qualify the "ease-of-use" factor across so many platforms.
If you make Linux better than windows and keep it free, it will become more popular.
I agree with you completely. This thread has made me rethink the problems that are faced with ease-of-use and I've finally seen an example that is headed in the "right" (IMHO) direction.
Mellel, simply as an example off the top of my head, strikes me as a really fresh alternative to MS Word which has in it's default configuration become too sophisticated for the general public. In contrast, Mellel is sleek, trim, and different -- too different at first glance, and perhaps not the silver bullet to word processing, but it's a fairly different approach towards creating character based documents.
This type of simplicity would appeal to me from an "appliance" perspective. Turn on, click a button, start typing my letter. Turn on, click a button, get my news.
Take away the desktop metaphor. Take away DLLs, packages, tarballs, etc...
Keep it free.
Bundle it with hardware that makes money for the manufacturer.
Then, package it in a colorful, appealing way similar to the AOL CD cases.
That's my take on beating Microsoft's market share.
"entire development team" is a pretty narrow corporate environment. I could almost afford to do it within my IT department and I'm the only one here. Applying open source to my entire company of less than 50 people would be monumental.
Well, I can have more compassion than that after knowing first hand how unexpected factors can have unforeseeable effects.
As a manager of an IS department, I have a difficult enough time dealing with a power outage and maintaining a tight schedule. I can't imagine all the headache of coping with the loss of my proprietary source code.
[poke]Or perhaps your agenda is how quick can you get the game regardless of explanation?[/poke]
My Thinkpad T21 has been running reliably for over three years of very frequent use. I don't travel per se, but have carried it in a backpack for months at a time. Go IBM!!!
Usage has dropped lately with my new PowerBook 12.1" G4, though. Go Apple!!!
Your comment seems to be "apples to oranges" in regards to open source as far as I can tell. While MS may be centralizing their engineering efforts, this doesn't necessarily mean that their development efforts are not dispersed amongst many technicians. Also, in open source efforts, all the various decentralized efforts eventually get whittled down into what is an accepted core by some central committee.
There have been a few press releases about significant reductions in form factor, but the storage capacity is also much less. Just hang out until they get as fast, as capacious, and as cheap.
I don't have the bandwidth to flushout this problem, but, after running Panther (and LOVING IT!), I lost a two drive RAID partition.
I'm posting this for posterity, not to be critical. Hopefully this will be modded "informative" if anything.
Running a PowerMac G4 450MHz/1GB/2x78GB+1x28GB. The (2) 78GB drives were RAIDed to a single partition with 10.2.6 running smoothly even with heavy Classic operation. Some admin duties include Macintosh Manager and Workgroup Manager.
Installed Panther on the 28GB drive and booted onto that OS. Things were running very smoothly and fast(!). Logged into Workgroup Manager and exited. Logged into Macintosh Manager and this is when trouble started.
My theory is that, because Macintosh Manager auto-mounts the shared volume of the server you are connecting to, this set up a peculiar scenario that Panther was unfamilar with. The next action that I performed was to access a different shared volume (which had been previously mounted and operating fine). That is when I got the wheel of death.
Thinking it was Just Another Wheel, I continued working (Excel, Classic apps, and more) with little trouble. After waiting long enough, I began Force Quitting apps (including the Finder) until all that remained was the Wheel.
Rebooting didn't help, nor did Shutting Down, zapping PRAM, or Disk Utility (which consistently responded with Unknown Error (-9998).
Various efforts were fruitless. Ended up reinstalling 10.2.2, upgrading to 10.2.6. Things are back to normal less data loss.
Admittedly, this may not be informative as this observation is purely subjective, but...
I felt the same way as you upon first review of the CGI Hulk character months ago. Though optimistic, I truly felt disappointed.
Then, I saw the first big trailer in the theater. Whoa! Truly, the scale of seeing the CGI images on the big screen translated much better than seeing them full screen on a monitor, even with "glorious" QuickTime.
So, not to invalidate your opinion, but I'd be interested to hear about how it looks to you on the big screen. The size of the viewed image really makes a difference to me.
Well, there's the upside on this model. You get to pick-and-choose what you want on your burnt CD. You don't have to choose all the filler tracks that can't even make the b-sides. Instead, you can choose all the #1 hits, or favorites, that you want.
$12 for my very own "Current Tunez" CD? Not too bad.
As far as the packaging goes, I'd like a nice interface for accumulating liner notes, lyrics, and/or artwork for the tracks that I download.
Regardless of who she works for, I applaud her drive and use of technology. Three Degrees seems like fun, er, cool, software. Her research into the project was intriguiging.
If this were through some startup, more people would think it was cool, but she'd be plagued with a lack of resource and substantiation. Now, she has the flipside of all that with Redmond behind her.
I hope it succeeds though my deepest desire would be for it to be platform independant.
Re:this reminds me of a trick for telemarketers
on
He Writes Back
·
· Score: 1
I just started barking at a woman and she kept on going. Unbelievable. She actually did her entire shpeal (sp?), then said "Hello?" a dozen times until she hung up.
Not the normal response from me, but my wife and daughter were laughing about it with me for weeks afterwords.
The man certainly can manipulate the visual medium(s). While I'm not a fan of the Buffy series, I know many who are entranced by it. I thought I'd give his first foray into comics a try and I've been very pleased with the story, the visual composition (paneling, etc...), and the quality of art (kudos to the artist).
There have been 5 issues released so far (I just read #5 last night). He's got great pacing per issue as well as across a whole storyline. His characters are intriguing and complex and he uses relationships well.
If you like Whedon's story telling via video, you should check out this book.
My take: Globalization = Corporate Goverment
on
Defining Globalism
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· Score: 1
My biggest concern in the melding/meddling of corporate interests in government. This is the core of "government reform", "soft money financing", etc... This is also the reason that there is less government action at the wasteful and destructive practices of (some) big businesses. You can also see the conflict of interest in the reluctance, or simple lag, at (our) government's pursuit of concepts contrary to mega-establishments (ie. oil and gas companies). As JanKatz remarks, there is more than one definition of the term "globalization", but I believe that some of my examples describe the two-sidedness of the concept.
Of course, globalization permeates everything in our American culture, and corporations are very interested in spreading "our culture" to the rest of the world. You can "spin" the issue as simply a matter of making more money, and in turn, improving the happiness of those that make the money. I choose to see our rampant desire to "grow" or "spread" as too often irresponsible to the environment, and to the common good.
Don't get me wrong. I have mixed feelings about these issues. I do desire "things" and "prosperity", but, as I get older, I see more of the effects and repurcusions of the choices that are being made. I also feel less and less capable of making change, or slowing down the trend towards globalization.
On my most critical days, I see American culture as repressed child who's just left home, eager to pursue all the liberties that were bound by parental guidance. If you look at our culture in that regard, you will undoubtedly have you own opinions based on your age and experience.
On my most accepting days, I see our world situation(s) as a major test to the soul and spirit of our human race. You can't deny the detrimental effects on our environment. You also can't deny that those effects have been brought about by industry>growth>prosperity -- call it what you will.
My ultimate hope is for my 2 year old (and 13 year old) to have a beautiful world to live in. I have my doubts at this time.
Cross-platform thanks to Apple...
on
GIMP And OS X
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· Score: 5
Kinda nice to have the OS come to you, dontcha think? If Apple had maintained reliance on OS9.x, then Gimp wouldn't have any opportunity for placement in front of "thousands of Mac-based graphic designers".
Just trying to give credit where credit's due. Apple had some forethought in migrating their OS and OSX is (going to be, real soon now) hot stuff, IMHO.
I'm not laughing. In fact, down deep in my heart, I'm dismayed by the prevalence of this thinking.
When I consider this from a social perspective, it's no wonder I feel less compelled to pursue "meaningful" relationships with people in the workplace. This is not across the board, but it represents a very capitalistic mindset, one that undermines a "handshake" agreement or a "verbal" promise.
You state that corps "can expect reciprocal loyalty" and I hold that true for myself, but I'm skeptical of the next person, and that's unfortunate.
I view this as one of the unexpected effects of today's burgeoning technologic society. People are increasingly interested in the "bottom line" of dollars more than the committment to relations. This is not everyone, but it is a dynamic that we struggle to acknowledge.
Macintouch shows that doing a web search on 'ELNSB50' provides more info than simply codified attributes of your client connection. Clicking on results from Google display "Web Browser Agent/Platform Statistics" which can be used to determine which websites a person visits.
At random, I chose the browser ID of "000041100320025802940113000000000502000800000000" and searched on that. I found that browser had visited four specific sites.
I don't want my tracks to be available to everyone. I understand that my perusals are logged in my company's system since that's my net connection, but these aforementioned actions are available publicly. That's not a good thing.
Just give it time. The automated services you had trouble with are simply too immature to rely on from every Tom, Dick & Harry company you deal with. While I'm not an expert in all experiences of this type (in fact, I've had both good and bad), I expect that problems such as yours will correct themselves in time.
How long that will be depends, of course. If it means enough to someone, I'm sure they'll fix it.
My major gripe with this issue is the generalization that the Net was going to answer so much for so many.
The Net as a tool was, and is, revolutionary. You can't deny the significance it has had to how people think and do nowadays. It has quickly become a prevalent, commonplace aspect of world culture, and that can not be ignored. People have learned about, and will continue to develop, the use of the internet as an information and communication resource.
The schism that we're struggling with, though, is due to the disappointment that the Net didn't solve our social and economic problems as well. How can we realistically expect the introduction of a new form of communication to immediately create a new form of government? That's what people expected in a global community, isn't it? That's why they're so disappointed.
More striking, though, is the fact that people were looking to solve their economic woes with the Net as a silver bullet. The entire world attacked this "communication tool" with a rabid fervor to fill their pockets with money, a decidely capitalistic ideal. The problem is that significant parts of the world are still struggling with capitalism. It takes time to implement a social structure like that and the insane ballooning and deflation of economic success is simply a result of "too much, too soon."
Will the Net succeed as an economic medium? You bet. Will everyone benefit? Absolutely not. To start with, you have establishments (read: corporations) which are in place and are fervently opposed to anyone else getting their piece of the pie. Entertainment conglomerates are the "Evil Empire" of the moment, but what did we really expect? Did we really think that they would allow our global community to affect their bottom line without consequence?!?
Those who expected that are the most disappointed, I think. But I also believe that overcoming disappointment is the key. Once that is done, though re-evaluating and simplifying our expectations of the Net, we wll find that the road to our global community (or our economic success, or whatever your personal intent is) is much easier, and more satisfying, to travel.
Actually, linking to MySQL tables isn't as tedius as described above.
After defining an ODBC source to a particular database, choose "File:Get External Data:Link Tables" from your menu (or "Link Tables" from right-clicking), choose "ODBC" as your file type, and select your ODBC source. You will then get a multi-select list of all tables within the source's database. For ease of runtime usage, don't forget to select "Save Password".
Once you link the tables, the are completely accessible as any other tables except that they are read-only definitions. Other than that, if you use VB for manipulation, they are virtually identical in usage from local Access tables.
True, many posts are written of the limitations, but after two years of integration between Access and MySQL (through a port-forwarded SSL link even) I've not run into anything that made MySQL more difficult to use than Access or SQL Server 6.5/7.0.
Good luck.
Re:This reminds me of Disclosure
on
MUD Shell
·
· Score: 1
What you want is OOP VR. That way you could step into your room and shout "Anyone here pertaining to (myfavoritesubject)?" Ideally, the data objects would be well enough defined to display their "best side" to entice you to "open" them.
This has nothing to do with AI, of course. This would simply be applying VR to databases intelligently.
Please don't flame me about overhead. I just think that VR can be useful provided it's used appropriately.
PGP may not be the most desirable protection scheme, but it's still something. Did the government decrypt all of the communiques that quickly? Or did this lamer just write things out in longhand on stretched rubber bands or toilet paper?
Slashdot Mirror
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing your broad-scoped experience to qualify the "ease-of-use" factor across so many platforms.
I agree with you completely. This thread has made me rethink the problems that are faced with ease-of-use and I've finally seen an example that is headed in the "right" (IMHO) direction.
Mellel, simply as an example off the top of my head, strikes me as a really fresh alternative to MS Word which has in it's default configuration become too sophisticated for the general public. In contrast, Mellel is sleek, trim, and different -- too different at first glance, and perhaps not the silver bullet to word processing, but it's a fairly different approach towards creating character based documents.
This type of simplicity would appeal to me from an "appliance" perspective. Turn on, click a button, start typing my letter. Turn on, click a button, get my news.
Take away the desktop metaphor. Take away DLLs, packages, tarballs, etc...
Keep it free.
Bundle it with hardware that makes money for the manufacturer.
Then, package it in a colorful, appealing way similar to the AOL CD cases.
That's my take on beating Microsoft's market share.
"entire development team" is a pretty narrow corporate environment. I could almost afford to do it within my IT department and I'm the only one here. Applying open source to my entire company of less than 50 people would be monumental.
Please note, that this is for the Linux version...
It'd better be a fast iBook. My 800MHz 12.1" PowerBook was unplayable.
Well, I can have more compassion than that after knowing first hand how unexpected factors can have unforeseeable effects.
As a manager of an IS department, I have a difficult enough time dealing with a power outage and maintaining a tight schedule. I can't imagine all the headache of coping with the loss of my proprietary source code.
[poke]Or perhaps your agenda is how quick can you get the game regardless of explanation?[/poke]
You can lock the Dock in the Accounts System Preference.
Use the "Limits" tab to control the modification of the Dock. You can also define the Dock's contents.
Cached from Google
My Thinkpad T21 has been running reliably for over three years of very frequent use. I don't travel per se, but have carried it in a backpack for months at a time. Go IBM!!!
Usage has dropped lately with my new PowerBook 12.1" G4, though. Go Apple!!!
Your comment seems to be "apples to oranges" in regards to open source as far as I can tell. While MS may be centralizing their engineering efforts, this doesn't necessarily mean that their development efforts are not dispersed amongst many technicians. Also, in open source efforts, all the various decentralized efforts eventually get whittled down into what is an accepted core by some central committee.
There have been a few press releases about significant reductions in form factor, but the storage capacity is also much less. Just hang out until they get as fast, as capacious, and as cheap.
Of course, when they do,...
I don't have the bandwidth to flushout this problem, but, after running Panther (and LOVING IT!), I lost a two drive RAID partition.
I'm posting this for posterity, not to be critical. Hopefully this will be modded "informative" if anything.
Running a PowerMac G4 450MHz/1GB/2x78GB+1x28GB. The (2) 78GB drives were RAIDed to a single partition with 10.2.6 running smoothly even with heavy Classic operation. Some admin duties include Macintosh Manager and Workgroup Manager.
Installed Panther on the 28GB drive and booted onto that OS. Things were running very smoothly and fast(!). Logged into Workgroup Manager and exited. Logged into Macintosh Manager and this is when trouble started.
My theory is that, because Macintosh Manager auto-mounts the shared volume of the server you are connecting to, this set up a peculiar scenario that Panther was unfamilar with. The next action that I performed was to access a different shared volume (which had been previously mounted and operating fine). That is when I got the wheel of death.
Thinking it was Just Another Wheel, I continued working (Excel, Classic apps, and more) with little trouble. After waiting long enough, I began Force Quitting apps (including the Finder) until all that remained was the Wheel.
Rebooting didn't help, nor did Shutting Down, zapping PRAM, or Disk Utility (which consistently responded with Unknown Error (-9998).
Various efforts were fruitless. Ended up reinstalling 10.2.2, upgrading to 10.2.6. Things are back to normal less data loss.
My bad. I should be more careful.
Admittedly, this may not be informative as this observation is purely subjective, but...
I felt the same way as you upon first review of the CGI Hulk character months ago. Though optimistic, I truly felt disappointed.
Then, I saw the first big trailer in the theater. Whoa! Truly, the scale of seeing the CGI images on the big screen translated much better than seeing them full screen on a monitor, even with "glorious" QuickTime.
So, not to invalidate your opinion, but I'd be interested to hear about how it looks to you on the big screen. The size of the viewed image really makes a difference to me.
Well, there's the upside on this model. You get to pick-and-choose what you want on your burnt CD. You don't have to choose all the filler tracks that can't even make the b-sides. Instead, you can choose all the #1 hits, or favorites, that you want.
$12 for my very own "Current Tunez" CD? Not too bad.
As far as the packaging goes, I'd like a nice interface for accumulating liner notes, lyrics, and/or artwork for the tracks that I download.
I can see this as working.
Regardless of who she works for, I applaud her drive and use of technology. Three Degrees seems like fun, er, cool, software. Her research into the project was intriguiging.
If this were through some startup, more people would think it was cool, but she'd be plagued with a lack of resource and substantiation. Now, she has the flipside of all that with Redmond behind her.
I hope it succeeds though my deepest desire would be for it to be platform independant.
I just started barking at a woman and she kept on going. Unbelievable. She actually did her entire shpeal (sp?), then said "Hello?" a dozen times until she hung up.
Not the normal response from me, but my wife and daughter were laughing about it with me for weeks afterwords.
The man certainly can manipulate the visual medium(s). While I'm not a fan of the Buffy series, I know many who are entranced by it. I thought I'd give his first foray into comics a try and I've been very pleased with the story, the visual composition (paneling, etc...), and the quality of art (kudos to the artist).
There have been 5 issues released so far (I just read #5 last night). He's got great pacing per issue as well as across a whole storyline. His characters are intriguing and complex and he uses relationships well.
If you like Whedon's story telling via video, you should check out this book.
My biggest concern in the melding/meddling of corporate interests in government. This is the core of "government reform", "soft money financing", etc... This is also the reason that there is less government action at the wasteful and destructive practices of (some) big businesses. You can also see the conflict of interest in the reluctance, or simple lag, at (our) government's pursuit of concepts contrary to mega-establishments (ie. oil and gas companies). As JanKatz remarks, there is more than one definition of the term "globalization", but I believe that some of my examples describe the two-sidedness of the concept.
Of course, globalization permeates everything in our American culture, and corporations are very interested in spreading "our culture" to the rest of the world. You can "spin" the issue as simply a matter of making more money, and in turn, improving the happiness of those that make the money. I choose to see our rampant desire to "grow" or "spread" as too often irresponsible to the environment, and to the common good.
Don't get me wrong. I have mixed feelings about these issues. I do desire "things" and "prosperity", but, as I get older, I see more of the effects and repurcusions of the choices that are being made. I also feel less and less capable of making change, or slowing down the trend towards globalization.
On my most critical days, I see American culture as repressed child who's just left home, eager to pursue all the liberties that were bound by parental guidance. If you look at our culture in that regard, you will undoubtedly have you own opinions based on your age and experience.
On my most accepting days, I see our world situation(s) as a major test to the soul and spirit of our human race. You can't deny the detrimental effects on our environment. You also can't deny that those effects have been brought about by industry>growth>prosperity -- call it what you will.
My ultimate hope is for my 2 year old (and 13 year old) to have a beautiful world to live in. I have my doubts at this time.
Kinda nice to have the OS come to you, dontcha think? If Apple had maintained reliance on OS9.x, then Gimp wouldn't have any opportunity for placement in front of "thousands of Mac-based graphic designers".
Just trying to give credit where credit's due. Apple had some forethought in migrating their OS and OSX is (going to be, real soon now) hot stuff, IMHO.
I'm not laughing. In fact, down deep in my heart, I'm dismayed by the prevalence of this thinking.
When I consider this from a social perspective, it's no wonder I feel less compelled to pursue "meaningful" relationships with people in the workplace. This is not across the board, but it represents a very capitalistic mindset, one that undermines a "handshake" agreement or a "verbal" promise.
You state that corps "can expect reciprocal loyalty" and I hold that true for myself, but I'm skeptical of the next person, and that's unfortunate.
I view this as one of the unexpected effects of today's burgeoning technologic society. People are increasingly interested in the "bottom line" of dollars more than the committment to relations. This is not everyone, but it is a dynamic that we struggle to acknowledge.
Macintouch shows that doing a web search on 'ELNSB50' provides more info than simply codified attributes of your client connection. Clicking on results from Google display "Web Browser Agent/Platform Statistics" which can be used to determine which websites a person visits.
" and searched on that. I found that browser had visited four specific sites.
At random, I chose the browser ID of "000041100320025802940113000000000502000800000000
I don't want my tracks to be available to everyone. I understand that my perusals are logged in my company's system since that's my net connection, but these aforementioned actions are available publicly. That's not a good thing.
Just give it time. The automated services you had trouble with are simply too immature to rely on from every Tom, Dick & Harry company you deal with. While I'm not an expert in all experiences of this type (in fact, I've had both good and bad), I expect that problems such as yours will correct themselves in time.
How long that will be depends, of course. If it means enough to someone, I'm sure they'll fix it.
My major gripe with this issue is the generalization that the Net was going to answer so much for so many.
The Net as a tool was, and is, revolutionary. You can't deny the significance it has had to how people think and do nowadays. It has quickly become a prevalent, commonplace aspect of world culture, and that can not be ignored. People have learned about, and will continue to develop, the use of the internet as an information and communication resource.
The schism that we're struggling with, though, is due to the disappointment that the Net didn't solve our social and economic problems as well. How can we realistically expect the introduction of a new form of communication to immediately create a new form of government? That's what people expected in a global community, isn't it? That's why they're so disappointed.
More striking, though, is the fact that people were looking to solve their economic woes with the Net as a silver bullet. The entire world attacked this "communication tool" with a rabid fervor to fill their pockets with money, a decidely capitalistic ideal. The problem is that significant parts of the world are still struggling with capitalism. It takes time to implement a social structure like that and the insane ballooning and deflation of economic success is simply a result of "too much, too soon."
Will the Net succeed as an economic medium? You bet. Will everyone benefit? Absolutely not. To start with, you have establishments (read: corporations) which are in place and are fervently opposed to anyone else getting their piece of the pie. Entertainment conglomerates are the "Evil Empire" of the moment, but what did we really expect? Did we really think that they would allow our global community to affect their bottom line without consequence?!?
Those who expected that are the most disappointed, I think. But I also believe that overcoming disappointment is the key. Once that is done, though re-evaluating and simplifying our expectations of the Net, we wll find that the road to our global community (or our economic success, or whatever your personal intent is) is much easier, and more satisfying, to travel.
Actually, linking to MySQL tables isn't as tedius as described above.
After defining an ODBC source to a particular database, choose "File:Get External Data:Link Tables" from your menu (or "Link Tables" from right-clicking), choose "ODBC" as your file type, and select your ODBC source. You will then get a multi-select list of all tables within the source's database. For ease of runtime usage, don't forget to select "Save Password".
Once you link the tables, the are completely accessible as any other tables except that they are read-only definitions. Other than that, if you use VB for manipulation, they are virtually identical in usage from local Access tables.
True, many posts are written of the limitations, but after two years of integration between Access and MySQL (through a port-forwarded SSL link even) I've not run into anything that made MySQL more difficult to use than Access or SQL Server 6.5/7.0.
Good luck.
What you want is OOP VR. That way you could step into your room and shout "Anyone here pertaining to (myfavoritesubject)?" Ideally, the data objects would be well enough defined to display their "best side" to entice you to "open" them.
This has nothing to do with AI, of course. This would simply be applying VR to databases intelligently.
Please don't flame me about overhead. I just think that VR can be useful provided it's used appropriately.
Am I missing something obvious?
PGP may not be the most desirable protection scheme, but it's still something. Did the government decrypt all of the communiques that quickly? Or did this lamer just write things out in longhand on stretched rubber bands or toilet paper?