Finally someone who might get technology. On that alone, I'd give him a chance FFS... instead of being stuck with the pontificating tribe elders who only see a 'series-of-tubes'.
I mean, that's how WeChat does it. There's no escaping the fact that a seamless, integrated all-in-one platform is the unavoidable present (not the future).
As long as we're given an opt-in for such integration. Because if we're not, I am pretty sure millions will cancel their accounts and be OUT in a microsecond... (myself among them).
No need to repeat the same exact comments others have made as they are spot on about how Apple now only appears to cares about its mobile division. (even if their corporate double-speak says otherwise)
But the kicker here is that they will not allow any third-party company to make absolutely balls-to-the-wall cutting-edge machines to run OS-X onprobably because they couldn't stand the thought of someone else staining this hallowed image as a technology leader that memes people into paying higher prices for their hardware, therefore the only real alternative for pro users who have to come rely on OS-X's stability and want to keep it as their desktop of choice is to install it on commodity PC hardware as a Hackintosh.
That being said, and even though we must all eventually upgrade, the late 2011 17" 2.5 GHz core i7 laptops are currently still selling for very high amounts on eBay, and so are their spare parts as all of those who are still using them are not upgrading to anything else. These machines can be fitted with 16 Gigs of RAM (Apple says 8 but that's known to be a lie) as well as upgraded to two internal disks by removing the DVD drive (one high-capacity SSD and one traditional 2.5" hard drive), so they are portable workhorses and can still be used for most everyday tasks as long as the this doesn't involve 4K video or other high-performance gaming.
What an ironic turn of events for a company that only managed to stay afloat because it kept providing media professionals with the tools they required to create content with, and that now appears satisfied with merely making stuff for people to consume content with.
Most pro users will eventually have no choice but to migrate to Windows 10 or figure out a way to use their existing OS-X apps with Hackintosh.
Maybe I am missing something, but I think if people are upset by big tech companies then do not use, support, recommend anything they do, and spend time and advocacy putting together user-supported alternative networks with strong ethical guidelines, be it for software design, social networks, cloud services, or whatever else.
Of course, given the general gelatinous and complacent apathy that's been afflicting the masses as of late, this doesn't have much of a chance of happening.
But given the tools we have at our disposal, it feels sort of shameful that very few people are even trying to develop alternatives. Even so, at the very least it should be mentioned.
Anyway, this tax idea here? Feels like it isn't really going to accomplish anything whatsoever, it's fundamentally utopian in nature.
What is your opinion of Logic Pro X in comparison to the other two tools?
Been using Logic for almost two decades, and unquestionably it has its strengths like how powerful MIDI editing can be. (in order to leverage this power, some serious learning is required with 'The Environment')
That being said, I wouldn't be so quick in calling either of these programs the equal of ProTools® when it comes to mixing, mainly because of the extensive routing and bussing capabilities that the latter has, which must be one of the reasons why it has become such a de-facto standard for serious recording studios planet-wide. ProTools 10 licenses can still be acquired legally at second-hand prices on eBay, and I personally found this a reasonable compromise, it is a very mature but reasonably robust product.
Sure PT10 might not have a few of the newest bells and whistles like offline bouncing, but if you absolutely require these for your work then you (or your employer) would most likely be able to afford to pony up for the latest on subscription.
For reference (and not directed to the hobbyist) most electronic music professionals I know use a different software suite like Ableton's most excellent Live, Logic, Cubase or Reaper and then export their stems into Pro Tools for mixing in that format. While you may argue that you work differently, we're talking about things on the professional level, and there's no getting around the fact that this is what most mix engineers are good with and will demand it in order to do their work.
Taking Photoshop for example, a very mature application. What are the killer features beyond CS6 which would compel users to go for this subscription model instead of just keeping the old paid-for licenses and using those versions?
In the audio world there are similar examples like what Avid has done with Pro Tools 12. While there are certain features which are really lovely, it doesn't seem to be enough for a lot of people to want to switch over to this new model.
At the very least, and like Steam does, allow for some sort of "offline mode" which lets users do what they need while not connected. For example while traveling on long journeys, or being in locations which are cut off from any connectivity.
As others are saying, it may not be all that bad in that it could encourage more innovation in the Free Software side of things.
I mean, correct me if I am wrong but doesn't the only way to see what images people have on their desktops mean that the Metropolitan Police are poking around and doing some sort of unauthorized remote access into peoples' machines?
How else would they become aware of the types of screensavers people are using? Not sure but I find this more than slightly creepy.
Is this more of that famous Nanny State® at work again? "Think Of The Children" gone wrong...
As a subscriber until the bitter end, I would like to personally thank you for all of the many great articles you wrote. They were really on point, and super-helpful.
Your columns were one of the reason I kept my subscription....
The direction Apple keeps moving towards never ceases to amaze me.
Granted, it probably is a good thing to prevent hipsters and grandmothers' machines from getting infected with some sort of boot-level trojans and other sophisticated malware, but in the process of doing this it would seem as if Apple is moving closer and closer to a time when the rest of us long-time OS-X users will just altogether give up on this new hardware because it arguably has gotten to the point where it comes encumbered with too many restrictions.
It truly seems as if they keep probing to find out what this breaking point is.
Maybe it's just people such as me becoming overly suspicious and paranoid, but I have a feeling that this will not end well for the pro users (those Apple no longer cares about). Mostly because these moves are making it clear that they appear dead-set against users having any rights to do anything with the hardware they buy and are slowly moving towards keeping it all locked down; Even if we don't realize it it's in our best interest after all, they obviously know better than anyone else what's good for us.
I don't discount that for a majority of users this may actually be a positive feature, but only if they somehow still offer to those who want to tinker with their hardware the ability to do as they please, in order to customize it the way they need it to be and not only the way they are told it has to be.
Beside all this, OS-X is now fairly mature and there doesn't seem to be many game-changing features in the cards, I could well see people just running the current versions of the OS for a long time on Hackintosh boxes, and that's that.
Even though I haven't been on there for many years, I must say that it was a pretty incredible feeling when I first got connected to their user community with a 300 baud modem back in May 1984, even traveling around with an acoustic coupler; Generally being able to check in, getting information when I needed it, and participating in so many discussions would just be taken for granted today, but to people of all ages who started connecting back in those early days, it truly felt like the dawn of a new age.
A special mention to Dennis Brothers (70065,127) who had made a Terminal Emulation Program called MacTep available to the community, and without which we wouldn't have been able to get started at all.
I sure hope some of that early stuff stays archived somewhere...
I can't see this being a very positive thing, and being someone who's uncomfortable with the premise of FaceID, I guess I'll just stay with whatever platform offers me different options. When manufacturers stop caring about what the consumers need so that they can keep pushing exclusive features in order to beat the competition, (to me at least) something's clearly wrong; it also bears mentioning that there may well be a good number of us who won't want to be a part of this situation and will refuse to support them by purchasing such products.
Surely this will come up for debate in the UK, especially once it manages to rid itself of any vestigial remaining compliance to European laws governing cyber-security.
FUD-based balkanization of this once-great river of data proceeding apace....
Your question seems to legitimize.MP3, it implies that it's the only format that people would ever use to play music. While you may well be right that it's what a majority of people use, you just made me very sad realizing how hopeless it is to try and get people to care about listening to music that has decent sound quality in lossless formats when most of us never have issues like running out of storage space anymore.
This is not to say that mp3 isn't a perfectly appropriate choice on personal portable audio devices that we use with earbuds while 'on the go', because it's totally suited for that.
But in the case of WinAmp and since this was a desktop app, there is a good number of us who actually have high-end audio interfaces with audiophile-grade D/A converters connected to large speaker systems, in which case such a choice of audio format arguably can and does make a difference.
To answer the question, foobar2000 is so superior to anything else out there, it seems like the natural inheritor of all of the endlessly customizable features that made Winamp such a cool program to use back in the day. foobar2000 is capable of playing back any format known to man, including, FLAC, APE, ISO images of DVD-A, SACD and many other exotic formats, yet isn't encumbered by all of the bloat that has turned iTunes into such a dog for anything serious like dealing with very large music libraries.
Even if Winamp was to be released today, it would have a very hard time catching up to the amount of extensibility and customization that plugins currently offer to foobar2000 and given its recent history would likely come as a freebie bundled with all sorts of toolbar installers and other sponsored crapware.
Incidentally, and for anyone running OS-X, WineBottler allows for foobar2000 to run very smoothly, and I assume it's the same for Linux. Which means that using such a solution would probably would also work for Winamp under OS-X...
This example posted today on here today would seem to confirm that there can in fact be many unforeseen problems, not in the distant future but that it actually has already started a bit.
Of course given that some of the elected officials deciding this stuff are barely able to understand that fax machines are not the optimal way to exchange information, it may be difficult for them to grasp what could soon be going on, and how to address it.
People can accuse him of being a crackpot all they want, but seems to me this is a valid argument he's making, even if the way to solve it through government appears somewhat nebulous.
If they are considering banning laptops on flights out of the US... can someone/anyone please explain how a domestic outbound flight is different from an international one. This argument doesn't even make sense.
Lest we forget, it bears remembering that the hijacked flights that took down the Twin Towers were domestic ones... why would a terrorist only take his explosives on to an international flight? If they enact this ban, it would have to be on every flight, domestic or international.
This below are comments from pilots and their spokespersons:
Some airline pilots and safety advocates have questioned putting more electronics into checked luggage. In rare circumstances, lithium-ion batteries spark fires, which could go undetected in the cargo hold.
After reports the U.S. would expand the laptop ban to Europe, the British Airline Pilots’ Association said May 15 that the risk would be greater with electronics in cargo than in the cabin.
“Given the risk of fire from these devices when they are damaged or they short-circuit, an incident in the cabin would be spotted earlier and this would enable the crew to react quickly before any fire becomes uncontainable,” said Steve Landells, a flight-safety specialist for British pilots. “If these devices are kept in the hold, the risk is that if a fire occurs the results can be catastrophic.”
Kelly told reporters Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration tracks safety issues while he oversees security, but he’s been told that batteries in electronics should be safe in checked luggage so long as they are turned off and not rattling around loose.
So now we're having to calculate if the risk of something really bad happening onboard due to an electronic device's battery kept in the cargo hold catching fire is higher than the risk of terrorists having explosives in their laptops.
Even though it's certain that they'll keep pushing, if confirmed and true, at least this is a welcome respite from the otherwise monotonous unchallenged attempts at repealing most everything that was enacted in the public's interest during the previous administration's tenure.
Alexander Jodorowski's "Dune" certainly one of the contenders for this particular prize, he had it all plotted out and many insiders acknowledge that after seeing the script submitted to (and rejected by) most major Hollywood studios, somehow the ideas contained therein permeated their way into many other projects that came slightly later, especially the same exact design team he had picked going on to work on "Alien".
Watch the excellent award-winning documentary Jodorowski's Dune that explains this in great detail.
I was lucky enough to see the original version while still in school in 1970, and while it's difficult for me to pick a favorite among so many great ones, I do find it interesting that you've expressed how profound this particular movie's imagery was and has remained ever since. I clearly remembered many of its simple b&w imagery decades after having only watched it once, and I am not sure that anything else has quite had the same effect on me.
Also very striking is that the entire thing was probably produced for around what it cost for the crew to take a coffee break during the shooting of a typical Hollywood movie.
Am I the only one to sense that the OP was subliminally hinting that had it been a Chromebook, Dell or an Asus, (not to even think of what might have been different with a Microsoft Surface) the owner might not have been so lucky...?
And if this was not the intent, why did they have to use the laptop's brand in the title rather than just say it was a portable computer of some sort with an aluminum body?
Slashdot Mirror
Finally someone who might get technology. On that alone, I'd give him a chance FFS... instead of being stuck with the pontificating tribe elders who only see a 'series-of-tubes'.
I mean, that's how WeChat does it. There's no escaping the fact that a seamless, integrated all-in-one platform is the unavoidable present (not the future).
As long as we're given an opt-in for such integration. Because if we're not, I am pretty sure millions will cancel their accounts and be OUT in a microsecond... (myself among them).
No need to repeat the same exact comments others have made as they are spot on about how Apple now only appears to cares about its mobile division. (even if their corporate double-speak says otherwise)
But the kicker here is that they will not allow any third-party company to make absolutely balls-to-the-wall cutting-edge machines to run OS-X on probably because they couldn't stand the thought of someone else staining this hallowed image as a technology leader that memes people into paying higher prices for their hardware, therefore the only real alternative for pro users who have to come rely on OS-X's stability and want to keep it as their desktop of choice is to install it on commodity PC hardware as a Hackintosh.
That being said, and even though we must all eventually upgrade, the late 2011 17" 2.5 GHz core i7 laptops are currently still selling for very high amounts on eBay, and so are their spare parts as all of those who are still using them are not upgrading to anything else. These machines can be fitted with 16 Gigs of RAM (Apple says 8 but that's known to be a lie) as well as upgraded to two internal disks by removing the DVD drive (one high-capacity SSD and one traditional 2.5" hard drive), so they are portable workhorses and can still be used for most everyday tasks as long as the this doesn't involve 4K video or other high-performance gaming.
What an ironic turn of events for a company that only managed to stay afloat because it kept providing media professionals with the tools they required to create content with, and that now appears satisfied with merely making stuff for people to consume content with.
Most pro users will eventually have no choice but to migrate to Windows 10 or figure out a way to use their existing OS-X apps with Hackintosh.
Maybe I am missing something, but I think if people are upset by big tech companies then do not use, support, recommend anything they do, and spend time and advocacy putting together user-supported alternative networks with strong ethical guidelines, be it for software design, social networks, cloud services, or whatever else.
Of course, given the general gelatinous and complacent apathy that's been afflicting the masses as of late, this doesn't have much of a chance of happening.
But given the tools we have at our disposal, it feels sort of shameful that very few people are even trying to develop alternatives. Even so, at the very least it should be mentioned.
Anyway, this tax idea here? Feels like it isn't really going to accomplish anything whatsoever, it's fundamentally utopian in nature.
Interesting info on Pro Tools, and Reaper....
What is your opinion of Logic Pro X in comparison to the other two tools?
Been using Logic for almost two decades, and unquestionably it has its strengths like how powerful MIDI editing can be. (in order to leverage this power, some serious learning is required with 'The Environment')
That being said, I wouldn't be so quick in calling either of these programs the equal of ProTools® when it comes to mixing, mainly because of the extensive routing and bussing capabilities that the latter has, which must be one of the reasons why it has become such a de-facto standard for serious recording studios planet-wide. ProTools 10 licenses can still be acquired legally at second-hand prices on eBay, and I personally found this a reasonable compromise, it is a very mature but reasonably robust product.
Sure PT10 might not have a few of the newest bells and whistles like offline bouncing, but if you absolutely require these for your work then you (or your employer) would most likely be able to afford to pony up for the latest on subscription.
For reference (and not directed to the hobbyist) most electronic music professionals I know use a different software suite like Ableton's most excellent Live, Logic, Cubase or Reaper and then export their stems into Pro Tools for mixing in that format. While you may argue that you work differently, we're talking about things on the professional level, and there's no getting around the fact that this is what most mix engineers are good with and will demand it in order to do their work.
Taking Photoshop for example, a very mature application. What are the killer features beyond CS6 which would compel users to go for this subscription model instead of just keeping the old paid-for licenses and using those versions?
In the audio world there are similar examples like what Avid has done with Pro Tools 12. While there are certain features which are really lovely, it doesn't seem to be enough for a lot of people to want to switch over to this new model.
At the very least, and like Steam does, allow for some sort of "offline mode" which lets users do what they need while not connected. For example while traveling on long journeys, or being in locations which are cut off from any connectivity.
As others are saying, it may not be all that bad in that it could encourage more innovation in the Free Software side of things.
From what I can gather, and as others have said... this would only apply if you have an AV app installed.
And if you don't, the patch should just install normally.
I mean, correct me if I am wrong but doesn't the only way to see what images people have on their desktops mean that the Metropolitan Police are poking around and doing some sort of unauthorized remote access into peoples' machines?
How else would they become aware of the types of screensavers people are using? Not sure but I find this more than slightly creepy.
Is this more of that famous Nanny State® at work again? "Think Of The Children" gone wrong...
"There's a sucker born every minute" W.C. Fields
All the Internet did is to make it easier to find an exponentially greater number of suckers. Can you blame them, really?
As a subscriber until the bitter end, I would like to personally thank you for all of the many great articles you wrote. They were really on point, and super-helpful.
Your columns were one of the reason I kept my subscription....
The direction Apple keeps moving towards never ceases to amaze me.
Granted, it probably is a good thing to prevent hipsters and grandmothers' machines from getting infected with some sort of boot-level trojans and other sophisticated malware, but in the process of doing this it would seem as if Apple is moving closer and closer to a time when the rest of us long-time OS-X users will just altogether give up on this new hardware because it arguably has gotten to the point where it comes encumbered with too many restrictions.
It truly seems as if they keep probing to find out what this breaking point is.
Maybe it's just people such as me becoming overly suspicious and paranoid, but I have a feeling that this will not end well for the pro users (those Apple no longer cares about). Mostly because these moves are making it clear that they appear dead-set against users having any rights to do anything with the hardware they buy and are slowly moving towards keeping it all locked down; Even if we don't realize it it's in our best interest after all, they obviously know better than anyone else what's good for us.
I don't discount that for a majority of users this may actually be a positive feature, but only if they somehow still offer to those who want to tinker with their hardware the ability to do as they please, in order to customize it the way they need it to be and not only the way they are told it has to be.
Beside all this, OS-X is now fairly mature and there doesn't seem to be many game-changing features in the cards, I could well see people just running the current versions of the OS for a long time on Hackintosh boxes, and that's that.
Now what did I eat for breakfast this morning.
Ditto on the CompuServe ID, but I also remember what I had for breakfast... LOL
Even though I haven't been on there for many years, I must say that it was a pretty incredible feeling when I first got connected to their user community with a 300 baud modem back in May 1984, even traveling around with an acoustic coupler; Generally being able to check in, getting information when I needed it, and participating in so many discussions would just be taken for granted today, but to people of all ages who started connecting back in those early days, it truly felt like the dawn of a new age.
A special mention to Dennis Brothers (70065,127) who had made a Terminal Emulation Program called MacTep available to the community, and without which we wouldn't have been able to get started at all.
I sure hope some of that early stuff stays archived somewhere...
I can't see this being a very positive thing, and being someone who's uncomfortable with the premise of FaceID, I guess I'll just stay with whatever platform offers me different options. When manufacturers stop caring about what the consumers need so that they can keep pushing exclusive features in order to beat the competition, (to me at least) something's clearly wrong; it also bears mentioning that there may well be a good number of us who won't want to be a part of this situation and will refuse to support them by purchasing such products.
Agreed! ^
Sorry, I have no mod points to give you...
Surely this will come up for debate in the UK, especially once it manages to rid itself of any vestigial remaining compliance to European laws governing cyber-security.
FUD-based balkanization of this once-great river of data proceeding apace....
> it's no wonder there was such a torrent of pirated feeds.
'pun intended' ? mmm, couldn't resist.... how appropriate.
Your question seems to legitimize .MP3, it implies that it's the only format that people would ever use to play music. While you may well be right that it's what a majority of people use, you just made me very sad realizing how hopeless it is to try and get people to care about listening to music that has decent sound quality in lossless formats when most of us never have issues like running out of storage space anymore.
This is not to say that mp3 isn't a perfectly appropriate choice on personal portable audio devices that we use with earbuds while 'on the go', because it's totally suited for that.
But in the case of WinAmp and since this was a desktop app, there is a good number of us who actually have high-end audio interfaces with audiophile-grade D/A converters connected to large speaker systems, in which case such a choice of audio format arguably can and does make a difference.
To answer the question, foobar2000 is so superior to anything else out there, it seems like the natural inheritor of all of the endlessly customizable features that made Winamp such a cool program to use back in the day. foobar2000 is capable of playing back any format known to man, including, FLAC, APE, ISO images of DVD-A, SACD and many other exotic formats, yet isn't encumbered by all of the bloat that has turned iTunes into such a dog for anything serious like dealing with very large music libraries.
Even if Winamp was to be released today, it would have a very hard time catching up to the amount of extensibility and customization that plugins currently offer to foobar2000 and given its recent history would likely come as a freebie bundled with all sorts of toolbar installers and other sponsored crapware.
Incidentally, and for anyone running OS-X, WineBottler allows for foobar2000 to run very smoothly, and I assume it's the same for Linux. Which means that using such a solution would probably would also work for Winamp under OS-X...
This example posted today on here today would seem to confirm that there can in fact be many unforeseen problems, not in the distant future but that it actually has already started a bit.
Of course given that some of the elected officials deciding this stuff are barely able to understand that fax machines are not the optimal way to exchange information, it may be difficult for them to grasp what could soon be going on, and how to address it.
People can accuse him of being a crackpot all they want, but seems to me this is a valid argument he's making, even if the way to solve it through government appears somewhat nebulous.
If they are considering banning laptops on flights out of the US... can someone/anyone please explain how a domestic outbound flight is different from an international one. This argument doesn't even make sense.
Lest we forget, it bears remembering that the hijacked flights that took down the Twin Towers were domestic ones... why would a terrorist only take his explosives on to an international flight? If they enact this ban, it would have to be on every flight, domestic or international.
This below are comments from pilots and their spokespersons:
Some airline pilots and safety advocates have questioned putting more electronics into checked luggage. In rare circumstances, lithium-ion batteries spark fires, which could go undetected in the cargo hold.
After reports the U.S. would expand the laptop ban to Europe, the British Airline Pilots’ Association said May 15 that the risk would be greater with electronics in cargo than in the cabin.
“Given the risk of fire from these devices when they are damaged or they short-circuit, an incident in the cabin would be spotted earlier and this would enable the crew to react quickly before any fire becomes uncontainable,” said Steve Landells, a flight-safety specialist for British pilots. “If these devices are kept in the hold, the risk is that if a fire occurs the results can be catastrophic.”
Kelly told reporters Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration tracks safety issues while he oversees security, but he’s been told that batteries in electronics should be safe in checked luggage so long as they are turned off and not rattling around loose.
So now we're having to calculate if the risk of something really bad happening onboard due to an electronic device's battery kept in the cargo hold catching fire is higher than the risk of terrorists having explosives in their laptops.
Even though it's certain that they'll keep pushing, if confirmed and true, at least this is a welcome respite from the otherwise monotonous unchallenged attempts at repealing most everything that was enacted in the public's interest during the previous administration's tenure.
Alexander Jodorowski's "Dune" certainly one of the contenders for this particular prize, he had it all plotted out and many insiders acknowledge that after seeing the script submitted to (and rejected by) most major Hollywood studios, somehow the ideas contained therein permeated their way into many other projects that came slightly later, especially the same exact design team he had picked going on to work on "Alien".
Watch the excellent award-winning documentary Jodorowski's Dune that explains this in great detail.
I was lucky enough to see the original version while still in school in 1970, and while it's difficult for me to pick a favorite among so many great ones, I do find it interesting that you've expressed how profound this particular movie's imagery was and has remained ever since. I clearly remembered many of its simple b&w imagery decades after having only watched it once, and I am not sure that anything else has quite had the same effect on me.
Also very striking is that the entire thing was probably produced for around what it cost for the crew to take a coffee break during the shooting of a typical Hollywood movie.
Am I the only one to sense that the OP was subliminally hinting that had it been a Chromebook, Dell or an Asus, (not to even think of what might have been different with a Microsoft Surface) the owner might not have been so lucky...?
And if this was not the intent, why did they have to use the laptop's brand in the title rather than just say it was a portable computer of some sort with an aluminum body?