There is no such thing as a passive measurement. That's the point of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. The act of measuring the location of the photon destroys the information in its momentum, causing it to decohere with the other photons released thus destroying the interference pattern. Nothing weird about this.
This was an early, long-discarded interpretation of the Uncertainty Principle. Since then, people have figured out how to deduce the momentum of a photon by measuring other photons, and you still lose the interference even though you don't do anything at all to the photon in question.
I don't find that Safari crashes all the time, even on complex web pages. I've seen occasional crashes, but they've been rare and not an obstacle to browsing. If your iPhone is crashing all the time, something is wrong--try doing a Restore.
I'm not going to buy a Kindle. It's too expensive, it's ugly, it's big--and a lot of the space is wasted by stuff that isn't screen. And it doesn't sound like it has a backlight, which to me is one of the key advantages of a book reader--the ability to read in low light.
On the other hand, I like the idea. If I could download Kindle books to my iPhone from Amazon, I probably would do it, even though the iPod's screen is a bit small for a book reader, because I already have an iPhone, I always have it with with me, I can read it in the dark, and it has a touch interface (which is really how I'd like to flip pages). What I'd really like would be something about the size of a small paperback book (not a trade) that is all screen, with an iPod-like touch interface. I like the idea of a low-energy screen to extend battery life, but it should have a built-in light for reading in the dark.
I'd have been astonished if it worked any other way. Did anybody ever really believe that mice learn to flee from cats by experience? How many experiences of the consequences of failing to flee from a cat do you imagine that the average mouse gets? I'd expect an instinctive response, wired into the nervous system at a very low level, with as few synaptic delays as possible. What is more interesting is how crucial a role smell plays. One might imagine that size, gaze, or movement might be the trigger. But smell is probably the fastest, as it does not invoke that complicated visual recognition circuitry.
I don't know if you're aware of this or not, or if it's an issue for you, but if you use FileVault to encrypt your home directory, you should be aware that Time Machine backs up things like your Applications directory hourly, but doesn't do the same with your home directory--that gets backed up only when you log out of your account.
I only use FileVault on my laptop, and there isn't enough hard disk space for Time Machine to be all that useful--I do periodic network backups to my Desktop machine using a file sync utility--and that is backed up by Time Machine.
I can see a lot of potential problems with backing up FileVault protected volumes on Time Machine. If the backup is not itself encrypted, then you would be throwing away all of the security that you gain with FileVault. And if you back up the encrypted FileVault image, then every little change would require a backup of the entire image, and if Time Machine tried to do hourly backups then you would run out of hard disk space in no time.
So backing up at log out is a reasonable compromise. After all, FileVault only provides security when you are logged out, so most people who use FileVault probably log out fairly frequently. I suppose that a more sophisticated solution could be devised if there is really much demand for it--maybe your FileVault image could include a separate partition for Time Machine backups, but I'm hardly surprised that Apple did not have this worked out for the first release of Time Machine.
I've installed Leopard on one of my Macs so far. I even did an upgrade install instead of the far safer "Archive & Install," which creates a new, pristine System Folder. I was amazed at how smoothly it went. It's pretty much gone as expected. Low level utilities and system customizations mostly don't work (although I had some pleasant surprises--Default Folder X seems to work OK) or have minor glitches). Applications generally work fine. The only major failure I've seen at this point is Photoshop 7, which now crashes on launch. On the other hand, some minor bugs seem to have evaporated.
Overall, I'm happy that I installed it. I am particularly pleased with Time Machine, which is far more convenient and intuitive than my current backup system, not to mention the additional safety of having hourly backups. I'm also beginning to use the built-in virtual desktop feature. I'd say that these two features are worth the price of admission
I'm not crazy about the esthetics. They certainly are no improvement, but they are not terrible. I'm giving the glitzy new Dock a chance--I've even put it down at the bottom of the screen for a while to see if I'll warm to it (I'm used to making it very small and stashing it over on the right). I have my doubts about the value of the feature that pops up icons of the files associated with a Dock item. I think I preferred the old list method, but I never used that much. I'm using the Finder again a bit, although I still prefer Path Finder for most actions.
What are you smoking? Nintendo probably has a contractual commitment for a mniminum number of units from each manufacturer and nothing else. It would be insane to limit the number of units they can build or manufacturers they can hire.
I don't think that we can make assumptions about Nintendo's contractual obligations. But I can certainly see how an exclusivity agreement could seem reasonable if they got a very good deal on per unit pricing, and thought the capacity would be sufficient to handle the anticipated demand.
Nintendo could flood the channel with Wii's anytime they darn well please just by contracting out to additional manufacturers.
I doubt it. Game companies such as Nintendo get manufacturers to produce the console cheaply early on based on the prospect of large manufacturing volumes down the line. Which means that Nintendo very likely has contractual commitments to its current manufacturers that would prevent Nintendo from adding additional manufacturers.
yes, people are still having a hard time finding it. none of the stores i've been in have it around here (target, walmart, best buy, etc). i don't shop at places like eb games or gamestop very often, so i don't know about them.
I've never seen one on the shelves. But list price non-bundled Wii's do pop up occasionally on the web sites of major retailers like ToysRUs and Sears. I was clued in to order one from ToysRUs by the WiiTracker web site
Faster is always better. But the speed of my iPhone is adequate for my purposes, and I wouldn't be willing to trade a speed bump for less battery time or a bigger phone.
Carbon offsets bought from a company I own and as a substitute for otherwise modifying behavior?
No -- that was the point.
I don't see why this would be an issue, unless you are alleging that they were somehow "phony" offsets. Is it a problem if Steve Jobs buys his personal computer from Apple?
But like so many of the carefully-crafted slanders swirling around Al Gore, it turns out that it isn't even true. It turns out that the carbon offset are bought by Gore's company, not from it.
It always bugs me when I see an "f" substituted for the long "s" when people are trying to give a word an "Olde English" look (the long "s" never has a full crossbar). And the long s-short s ligature "ß" (which is not much used in English printing any more, but is used in German) is sometimes mistaken for (or misused as) the Greek letter beta.
Remakes of great movies usually suck (although there have been a few notable exceptions).
But there is a stronger case for remakes of 3D games. There are many early generation 3D games where the game presentation was clearly limited by technology. Many first-generation games are hard to look at due to the pixelation, aliasing, and incorrect perspective transformation of textures. I'd love to play a remake of Panzer Dragoon, for example. Or Doom--or even better, Marathon--with modern 3D graphics.
There is perhaps less reason for remaking 2D games. I don't think that it is possible to improve on Pacman. But there are some exceptions. Some 2D side scrollers would look great with 3D models and lighting effects. And I'd love to see a remake of the original Street Fighter II or Darkstalkers games with higher resolution art and more frames of animation.
I'm willing to be compelled to watch the logos, cut scenes, etc...ONCE. What I do object to is having to watch them over...and over...and over. After I've seen them once, I should be allowed to skip them.
However, there is a reciprocal issue. I want to be able to see any cut scene again if I want to.
I can't think how many times this has happened:
I've finally reached a major cutscene, the reward for the last two hours of play, that finally explains critical plot points. And the phone rings. So I hit "start" to pause the game, which works everywhere else in the game. But because it's a cut scene, it thinks that I want to skip instead of pause. So now I've missed the cut scene, and the only choices the game offers are to start at the beginning of the next level (missing the cutscene)...or go back to my last save and replay part of the level that I JUST BEAT, just to see the cutscene.
Or sometimes, somebody comes in and interrupts me while the cutscene is running, and there is no way to pause it. And then when I want to go back and watch it without interruption, I find that I can't.
The "skip cutscene" button should NEVER be the same as the button you use to pause the game--and that button should pause the cutscene, just like it pauses at any other point in the game. And if you do somehow miss the cut scene, there should be a mechanism for seeing it again without having to replay the entire level.
Microsoft realized this when they went for pure software emulation of the Xbox, and then essentially gave up on it 6 months later (updates have stopped). BC is a red-herring.
Updates have stopped? Since when? I checked last week and was pleased to find a number of games listed that weren't there last time I looked, including one of my personal favorites, Panzer Dragoon. They now seem to have most of the major XBox I titles, and are adding some of the less prominent titles (Myst 3 is one of the new additions). I've been making a point of picking up XBox I titles that I missed the first time around as they are added to the compatibility list, simply because I appreciate playing with 480p quality and with the wireless controller.
If the PS3 were leading the current console generation, with dozens of top exclusive games, then I'd agree--forget about backwards compatibility. But the Wii is leading in sales, while the XBox 360 is leading in exclusive games. So this looks very much like a desperation move. Meanwhile, Microsoft is continuing to add XBox I titles to the 360 compatibility list, and of course the Wii has backwards compatibility with the GameCube. So this will leave Sony with the worst compatibility of the generation.
Due to the lack of success of the PS3, many games are still being released for the PS2. So a lot of people probably will buy a PS2...instead of buying a PS3. After all, for the price of a PS3, you can own a PS2 and a Wii.
I'm pretty sure that it's considered anti-competitive to lock your phone to one network only. I think you're specifically allowed to "hack" any device with such a carrier lock, and that is deemed an acceptable modification of software or hardware to do so.
You are half right. It is not considered anticompetitive in the US to lock your phone to one network only, and it is commonly done. You are, however, right that users are specifically allowed to hack such devices to open them up. However, the manufacturer is not required to make this easy or even possible, nor are they required to provide warranty service or compatible software updates to users who do so.
This is what was puzzling to me about this deal between Apple and AT&T. If they are required to allow their phone to work with other carriers, and they issue updates which brick only the phones using other carriers, that seems like a pretty clear case of anti-competitive behaviour.
There is no such requirement. All the law says is that they cannot sue users who unlock their phones and collect damages under the DMCA copyright act.
The point is that if Apple wanted to brick unlocked phones, it would be trivial to do so based upon a simple checksumming of the iPhone's software. It would be a lot more trouble to target specific unlocks. So those who wish to accuse Apple of intentionally damaging unlocked phones need to explain why some unlocked phones survived the update (not to mention why Apple went to so much effort to warn owners of unlocked iPhones not to update).
In fact, he article you've linked to doesn't say that many unlocked phones have come through unbricked.
Actually, it does. It says that "iPhoneSIMfree users seem to be in fine shape as long as they're rocking an AT&T SIM card." The most severe problems seem to be with "iPhone Dev Team's anySIM unlock," while it is unclear whether SuperSIM and TurboSIM users are at risk (although Engadget is advising them to play it safe and hold off on the update).
It should be fairly trivial for Apple to detect unlocking if they wanted to "brick" phones intentionally. So this looks less like an intentional act and more like a bug. After all, why should Apple spend money testing the update on all the different varieties of unlocked iPhones?
Also, the important security updates are to the main iPhone itself and don't require a baseband firmware update - I'm guessing that's aimed at closing whatever hole allowed the unlocking in the first place. If it bricks a few unlocked phones, well, what do Apple care?
Especially since it is hardly Apple's fault if owners of unlocked phones choose to ignore the onscreen ALL CAPS warning not to apply the update.
Yes, the phone is yours to do with as you wish. But access to services such as warranty repairs and compatible upgrades is contingent upon your abiding to your contract with Apple. It really doesn't matter whether you agree with Apple's rationale for setting those particular terms.
Slashdot Mirror
How do you know that we are? Maybe what we "think" is consciousness is not "real" consciousness, but only simulated consciousness.
This was an early, long-discarded interpretation of the Uncertainty Principle. Since then, people have figured out how to deduce the momentum of a photon by measuring other photons, and you still lose the interference even though you don't do anything at all to the photon in question.
I don't find that Safari crashes all the time, even on complex web pages. I've seen occasional crashes, but they've been rare and not an obstacle to browsing. If your iPhone is crashing all the time, something is wrong--try doing a Restore.
I'm not going to buy a Kindle. It's too expensive, it's ugly, it's big--and a lot of the space is wasted by stuff that isn't screen. And it doesn't sound like it has a backlight, which to me is one of the key advantages of a book reader--the ability to read in low light.
On the other hand, I like the idea. If I could download Kindle books to my iPhone from Amazon, I probably would do it, even though the iPod's screen is a bit small for a book reader, because I already have an iPhone, I always have it with with me, I can read it in the dark, and it has a touch interface (which is really how I'd like to flip pages). What I'd really like would be something about the size of a small paperback book (not a trade) that is all screen, with an iPod-like touch interface. I like the idea of a low-energy screen to extend battery life, but it should have a built-in light for reading in the dark.
I'd have been astonished if it worked any other way. Did anybody ever really believe that mice learn to flee from cats by experience? How many experiences of the consequences of failing to flee from a cat do you imagine that the average mouse gets? I'd expect an instinctive response, wired into the nervous system at a very low level, with as few synaptic delays as possible. What is more interesting is how crucial a role smell plays. One might imagine that size, gaze, or movement might be the trigger. But smell is probably the fastest, as it does not invoke that complicated visual recognition circuitry.
I only use FileVault on my laptop, and there isn't enough hard disk space for Time Machine to be all that useful--I do periodic network backups to my Desktop machine using a file sync utility--and that is backed up by Time Machine.
I can see a lot of potential problems with backing up FileVault protected volumes on Time Machine. If the backup is not itself encrypted, then you would be throwing away all of the security that you gain with FileVault. And if you back up the encrypted FileVault image, then every little change would require a backup of the entire image, and if Time Machine tried to do hourly backups then you would run out of hard disk space in no time.
So backing up at log out is a reasonable compromise. After all, FileVault only provides security when you are logged out, so most people who use FileVault probably log out fairly frequently. I suppose that a more sophisticated solution could be devised if there is really much demand for it--maybe your FileVault image could include a separate partition for Time Machine backups, but I'm hardly surprised that Apple did not have this worked out for the first release of Time Machine.
I've installed Leopard on one of my Macs so far. I even did an upgrade install instead of the far safer "Archive & Install," which creates a new, pristine System Folder. I was amazed at how smoothly it went. It's pretty much gone as expected. Low level utilities and system customizations mostly don't work (although I had some pleasant surprises--Default Folder X seems to work OK) or have minor glitches). Applications generally work fine. The only major failure I've seen at this point is Photoshop 7, which now crashes on launch. On the other hand, some minor bugs seem to have evaporated.
Overall, I'm happy that I installed it. I am particularly pleased with Time Machine, which is far more convenient and intuitive than my current backup system, not to mention the additional safety of having hourly backups. I'm also beginning to use the built-in virtual desktop feature. I'd say that these two features are worth the price of admission
I'm not crazy about the esthetics. They certainly are no improvement, but they are not terrible. I'm giving the glitzy new Dock a chance--I've even put it down at the bottom of the screen for a while to see if I'll warm to it (I'm used to making it very small and stashing it over on the right). I have my doubts about the value of the feature that pops up icons of the files associated with a Dock item. I think I preferred the old list method, but I never used that much. I'm using the Finder again a bit, although I still prefer Path Finder for most actions.
Overall, I'd say it was a successful roll-out.
Yeah, perhaps there is a market for a heavier, bulkier phone with a replaceable battery, GPS, and 3G.
This is definitely not that phone.
I don't think that we can make assumptions about Nintendo's contractual obligations. But I can certainly see how an exclusivity agreement could seem reasonable if they got a very good deal on per unit pricing, and thought the capacity would be sufficient to handle the anticipated demand.
I doubt it. Game companies such as Nintendo get manufacturers to produce the console cheaply early on based on the prospect of large manufacturing volumes down the line. Which means that Nintendo very likely has contractual commitments to its current manufacturers that would prevent Nintendo from adding additional manufacturers.
I've never seen one on the shelves. But list price non-bundled Wii's do pop up occasionally on the web sites of major retailers like ToysRUs and Sears. I was clued in to order one from ToysRUs by the WiiTracker web site
See it on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLrWgVPeCzI
Hopefully, they'll stick with the classic 2D design, with higher resolution art and a higher frame rate.
And they'd better include Blanka!
Faster is always better. But the speed of my iPhone is adequate for my purposes, and I wouldn't be willing to trade a speed bump for less battery time or a bigger phone.
I don't see why this would be an issue, unless you are alleging that they were somehow "phony" offsets. Is it a problem if Steve Jobs buys his personal computer from Apple?
But like so many of the carefully-crafted slanders swirling around Al Gore, it turns out that it isn't even true. It turns out that the carbon offset are bought by Gore's company, not from it.
Wrong. Gore has been a supporter of carbon offsets, so he is practicing exactly what he preaches.
It always bugs me when I see an "f" substituted for the long "s" when people are trying to give a word an "Olde English" look (the long "s" never has a full crossbar). And the long s-short s ligature "ß" (which is not much used in English printing any more, but is used in German) is sometimes mistaken for (or misused as) the Greek letter beta.
Remakes of great movies usually suck (although there have been a few notable exceptions).
But there is a stronger case for remakes of 3D games. There are many early generation 3D games where the game presentation was clearly limited by technology. Many first-generation games are hard to look at due to the pixelation, aliasing, and incorrect perspective transformation of textures. I'd love to play a remake of Panzer Dragoon, for example. Or Doom--or even better, Marathon--with modern 3D graphics.
There is perhaps less reason for remaking 2D games. I don't think that it is possible to improve on Pacman. But there are some exceptions. Some 2D side scrollers would look great with 3D models and lighting effects. And I'd love to see a remake of the original Street Fighter II or Darkstalkers games with higher resolution art and more frames of animation.
I'm willing to be compelled to watch the logos, cut scenes, etc...ONCE.
What I do object to is having to watch them over...and over...and over. After I've seen them once, I should be allowed to skip them.
However, there is a reciprocal issue. I want to be able to see any cut scene again if I want to.
I can't think how many times this has happened:
I've finally reached a major cutscene, the reward for the last two hours of play, that finally explains critical plot points.
And the phone rings.
So I hit "start" to pause the game, which works everywhere else in the game.
But because it's a cut scene, it thinks that I want to skip instead of pause.
So now I've missed the cut scene, and the only choices the game offers are to start at the beginning of the next level (missing the cutscene)...or go back to my last save and replay part of the level that I JUST BEAT, just to see the cutscene.
Or sometimes, somebody comes in and interrupts me while the cutscene is running, and there is no way to pause it. And then when I want to go back and watch it without interruption, I find that I can't.
The "skip cutscene" button should NEVER be the same as the button you use to pause the game--and that button should pause the cutscene, just like it pauses at any other point in the game. And if you do somehow miss the cut scene, there should be a mechanism for seeing it again without having to replay the entire level.
Updates have stopped? Since when? I checked last week and was pleased to find a number of games listed that weren't there last time I looked, including one of my personal favorites, Panzer Dragoon. They now seem to have most of the major XBox I titles, and are adding some of the less prominent titles (Myst 3 is one of the new additions). I've been making a point of picking up XBox I titles that I missed the first time around as they are added to the compatibility list, simply because I appreciate playing with 480p quality and with the wireless controller.
If the PS3 were leading the current console generation, with dozens of top exclusive games, then I'd agree--forget about backwards compatibility.
But the Wii is leading in sales, while the XBox 360 is leading in exclusive games. So this looks very much like a desperation move. Meanwhile, Microsoft is continuing to add XBox I titles to the 360 compatibility list, and of course the Wii has backwards compatibility with the GameCube. So this will leave Sony with the worst compatibility of the generation.
Due to the lack of success of the PS3, many games are still being released for the PS2. So a lot of people probably will buy a PS2...instead of buying a PS3. After all, for the price of a PS3, you can own a PS2 and a Wii.
You are half right. It is not considered anticompetitive in the US to lock your phone to one network only, and it is commonly done. You are, however, right that users are specifically allowed to hack such devices to open them up. However, the manufacturer is not required to make this easy or even possible, nor are they required to provide warranty service or compatible software updates to users who do so.
There is no such requirement. All the law says is that they cannot sue users who unlock their phones and collect damages under the DMCA copyright act.
The point is that if Apple wanted to brick unlocked phones, it would be trivial to do so based upon a simple checksumming of the iPhone's software. It would be a lot more trouble to target specific unlocks. So those who wish to accuse Apple of intentionally damaging unlocked phones need to explain why some unlocked phones survived the update (not to mention why Apple went to so much effort to warn owners of unlocked iPhones not to update).
Actually, it does. It says that "iPhoneSIMfree users seem to be in fine shape as long as they're rocking an AT&T SIM card." The most severe problems seem to be with "iPhone Dev Team's anySIM unlock," while it is unclear whether SuperSIM and TurboSIM users are at risk (although Engadget is advising them to play it safe and hold off on the update).
It should be fairly trivial for Apple to detect unlocking if they wanted to "brick" phones intentionally. So this looks less like an intentional act and more like a bug. After all, why should Apple spend money testing the update on all the different varieties of unlocked iPhones?
Especially since it is hardly Apple's fault if owners of unlocked phones choose to ignore the onscreen ALL CAPS warning not to apply the update.
Yes, the phone is yours to do with as you wish. But access to services such as warranty repairs and compatible upgrades is contingent upon your abiding to your contract with Apple. It really doesn't matter whether you agree with Apple's rationale for setting those particular terms.