It also depends on the scope of the benefit and harm, respectively. If I decrypt the Pornographic Bodybuilding Channel that's already streaming into my living room, it's tough tits for both me and the satellite company. But if I publish the key on the internet, then tough tits for everyone!
"PA is about as funny as any other comic strip one would find in their newspaper. They just happen to concentrate on games."
Marmaduke: First panel- Kid: "Hey Marmaduke! I'm playing a video game!" Second panel- Marmaduke sits in front of TV. Third panel- Kid: "No fair! You beat my high score!"
Family Circus: First- Boy: "I don't want to eat my corn flakes! I want to play video games!" Second- Dad: "Well, pretend it is a video game!" Third- Dad: "First one to finish their bowl..." Whole Family: "Wins!"
Yeah, PA's totally like the newspaper comics. Except it's not written by fucktards. They exclude the fucktards. Once you get over that, they're pretty cool.
No, I do blame EA. Since Madden outpaced Joe Montana Football on the Genesis, this battle was waged on the electronic field, not through exclusivity clauses.
Unlike some, I'm not going to say they haven't made a good game in the past 4 years- Tiger Woods 2002 was loaded with innovation beneath its EA Sports trendiness- and that's ignoring SSX or the original Def Jam. But what happened to the EA that blew Sega's Mario Lemieux Hockey off the ice with the premiere of NHL Hockey? Back then it was the other companies (except for Tecmo's original efforts) that emphasized style over substance- remember Nintendo's Mode-7 NFL Football?
Now EA's more concerned about movie endorsements and selling a $59 "collector's pack" with linebackers that start wheezing if you shift them. Sega jumps back on the field for a post-Dreamcast showdown and EA flees to their contracts.
When Namco's Tekken 4 was running on inertia from Tag and otherwise sucking quite well, Sega released VF 4 Evo, tuned to the hilt, at $19. Namco learned, put some effort into 5, and will be bundling a polished version of Tekken 1 with the PS2 version. If EA wanted to release a fighting game they'd sign a 20 year exclusive contract on breasts and throw their day care kids into crunch time.
Neither ESPN nor the NFL care. Horrid games have been released under both licenses. And despite what others are saying, this isn't going to cause an influx of originality with more Mutant Leage Footballs or Outlaw Golfs. The first was made *by* EA in addition to their Madden games; the latter is hardly a competitor to... well, anything. They're irrelevant. The point is that there's a huge market in actual Earth sports rather than returning to the 2600 era of The Generic Platonic Concept of Football Made Playable Electronically!, EA knows it, and they don't plan on winning it through making a better game.
When people say they don't like corporations, This Is Why.
(well, and long hours/low pay... but we all know where EA stands on that issue!)
In 2001 I had to buy a new computer, and despite being a lifelong PC user, went with a newly-remodeled iBook.
The first thing you notice is that you can't download everything anymore and expect it to work (well, you know what I mean). But it's no biggie; eventually you break the google habit and hang out at versiontracker or sourceforge instead. It's annoying at first- it took months for me to run into X-Chat Aqua, the only free IRC chatter on the platform w/out running ircII etc. out of Terminal, which I can never get working anyway- but you grow into it. Signing up for the ADC emails helps keep you abreast of some of the cooler up-and-coming projects, too.
You can get.ogg playback easily in iTunes by downloading a quicktime plugin. You install it by dragging and dropping it into one of the working locations. That's it. There's a slight lag when played, and they don't show up for sharing, but iTunes can both convert them to a more comfortable format and burn them to disc, so if you *need* them shared you can still get around it.
The painless wireless was already mentioned, but can't be understated- Apple's built-in client handles WEP, WPA, and 802.1x networks with ease; sharing is a matter of going into the Sharing prefs and checking the right boxes, rather than the mysterious restarting affairs of XP.
Hardware can sometimes be an issue with Apple. My iBook debuted the Combo drive in a spectacularly busted manner, but they had it back to me in less than a week, shipping covered, w/ free backup of data (since I couldn't burn anything). My 2003 12" powerbook's main speakers were crackling- somewhat common that year- and had a few dead pixels, but I didn't bother calling it in. I replaced it with a new one about a year later, and this one has an occasionally unreliable left arrow key. *shrug* YMMV, but their support is great if something does come up. Just consider extending it past the 90 days.
Yes, I'd say OS X Just Works(TM). Even running beta versions, the only OS crashes I've had were when I was doing something I wasn't supposed to be. Another YMMV, of course, but the unpredictability of Windows drives me crazy now.
I don't think the "I could get this other software on Linux/Windows" statement is the right way of looking at it. I'm happy I can get most of the better multiplatform software on my Mac. If you need additional features than the bundled software with the OS, it's there, but you have to get it yourself, per usual. But there's a bigger selection than with Linux (and between fink and X11, most of the common Linux choices are here anyway) with- generally- much less effort, and Apple's bundled software is worlds better than Microsoft's. Even if you're stuck with Safari before you can get Firefox or Camino, you're not facing the internet ass first with MSNoPants in your process list. And though it has little to do with word processing, wait until you play with Garageband.;)
If you don't like Appleworks (me neither), try AbiWord or OpenOffice, as you mentioned. With any OS you're going to have to fill in the gaps for your use, but Apple has done a great job providing core functionality. TextEdit alone may surprise you.
USB and Firewire have a monopoly here, so if you're into hobbyist kits and/or PCMCIA hardware, you're either SOL or are planning on starting an adapter collection (and may still need drivers). I have used a Keyspan USB-Serial adapter with my Pbook and it works beautifully, but this still wouldn't be my platform of choice for experimenting with non-mainstream hardware.
Nevertheless, if you're looking for reliable productivity there's nothing like OS X. Millions of iPod silhouettes can't be wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
It also depends on the scope of the benefit and harm, respectively. If I decrypt the Pornographic Bodybuilding Channel that's already streaming into my living room, it's tough tits for both me and the satellite company. But if I publish the key on the internet, then tough tits for everyone!
http://www.wellingtongrey.net/miscellanea/archive/ 2007-05-27--the-truth-about-wireless-devices.html
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
It is seriously cool of you to comment. May you be modded up. :)
"PA is about as funny as any other comic strip one would find in their newspaper. They just happen to concentrate on games."
..." Whole Family: "Wins!"
Marmaduke:
First panel- Kid: "Hey Marmaduke! I'm playing a video game!"
Second panel- Marmaduke sits in front of TV.
Third panel- Kid: "No fair! You beat my high score!"
Family Circus:
First- Boy: "I don't want to eat my corn flakes! I want to play video games!"
Second- Dad: "Well, pretend it is a video game!"
Third- Dad: "First one to finish their bowl
Yeah, PA's totally like the newspaper comics. Except it's not written by fucktards. They exclude the fucktards. Once you get over that, they're pretty cool.
No, I do blame EA. Since Madden outpaced Joe Montana Football on the Genesis, this battle was waged on the electronic field, not through exclusivity clauses.
... well, anything. They're irrelevant. The point is that there's a huge market in actual Earth sports rather than returning to the 2600 era of The Generic Platonic Concept of Football Made Playable Electronically!, EA knows it, and they don't plan on winning it through making a better game.
... but we all know where EA stands on that issue!)
Unlike some, I'm not going to say they haven't made a good game in the past 4 years- Tiger Woods 2002 was loaded with innovation beneath its EA Sports trendiness- and that's ignoring SSX or the original Def Jam. But what happened to the EA that blew Sega's Mario Lemieux Hockey off the ice with the premiere of NHL Hockey? Back then it was the other companies (except for Tecmo's original efforts) that emphasized style over substance- remember Nintendo's Mode-7 NFL Football?
Now EA's more concerned about movie endorsements and selling a $59 "collector's pack" with linebackers that start wheezing if you shift them. Sega jumps back on the field for a post-Dreamcast showdown and EA flees to their contracts.
When Namco's Tekken 4 was running on inertia from Tag and otherwise sucking quite well, Sega released VF 4 Evo, tuned to the hilt, at $19. Namco learned, put some effort into 5, and will be bundling a polished version of Tekken 1 with the PS2 version. If EA wanted to release a fighting game they'd sign a 20 year exclusive contract on breasts and throw their day care kids into crunch time.
Neither ESPN nor the NFL care. Horrid games have been released under both licenses. And despite what others are saying, this isn't going to cause an influx of originality with more Mutant Leage Footballs or Outlaw Golfs. The first was made *by* EA in addition to their Madden games; the latter is hardly a competitor to
When people say they don't like corporations, This Is Why.
(well, and long hours/low pay
The first thing you notice is that you can't download everything anymore and expect it to work (well, you know what I mean). But it's no biggie; eventually you break the google habit and hang out at versiontracker or sourceforge instead. It's annoying at first- it took months for me to run into X-Chat Aqua, the only free IRC chatter on the platform w/out running ircII etc. out of Terminal, which I can never get working anyway- but you grow into it. Signing up for the ADC emails helps keep you abreast of some of the cooler up-and-coming projects, too.
You can get .ogg playback easily in iTunes by downloading a quicktime plugin. You install it by dragging and dropping it into one of the working locations. That's it. There's a slight lag when played, and they don't show up for sharing, but iTunes can both convert them to a more comfortable format and burn them to disc, so if you *need* them shared you can still get around it.
The painless wireless was already mentioned, but can't be understated- Apple's built-in client handles WEP, WPA, and 802.1x networks with ease; sharing is a matter of going into the Sharing prefs and checking the right boxes, rather than the mysterious restarting affairs of XP.
Hardware can sometimes be an issue with Apple. My iBook debuted the Combo drive in a spectacularly busted manner, but they had it back to me in less than a week, shipping covered, w/ free backup of data (since I couldn't burn anything). My 2003 12" powerbook's main speakers were crackling- somewhat common that year- and had a few dead pixels, but I didn't bother calling it in. I replaced it with a new one about a year later, and this one has an occasionally unreliable left arrow key. *shrug* YMMV, but their support is great if something does come up. Just consider extending it past the 90 days.
Yes, I'd say OS X Just Works(TM). Even running beta versions, the only OS crashes I've had were when I was doing something I wasn't supposed to be. Another YMMV, of course, but the unpredictability of Windows drives me crazy now.
I don't think the "I could get this other software on Linux/Windows" statement is the right way of looking at it. I'm happy I can get most of the better multiplatform software on my Mac. If you need additional features than the bundled software with the OS, it's there, but you have to get it yourself, per usual. But there's a bigger selection than with Linux (and between fink and X11, most of the common Linux choices are here anyway) with- generally- much less effort, and Apple's bundled software is worlds better than Microsoft's. Even if you're stuck with Safari before you can get Firefox or Camino, you're not facing the internet ass first with MSNoPants in your process list. And though it has little to do with word processing, wait until you play with Garageband. ;)
If you don't like Appleworks (me neither), try AbiWord or OpenOffice, as you mentioned. With any OS you're going to have to fill in the gaps for your use, but Apple has done a great job providing core functionality. TextEdit alone may surprise you.
USB and Firewire have a monopoly here, so if you're into hobbyist kits and/or PCMCIA hardware, you're either SOL or are planning on starting an adapter collection (and may still need drivers). I have used a Keyspan USB-Serial adapter with my Pbook and it works beautifully, but this still wouldn't be my platform of choice for experimenting with non-mainstream hardware.
Nevertheless, if you're looking for reliable productivity there's nothing like OS X. Millions of iPod silhouettes can't be wrong.