IIRC, the applications were initiated from the client (obviously). All the grunt was happening on the server. There was a _lot_ of swapping going on between the two, which is why it always ran like crap.
To parse the useability vs. software-bulk bit: Sure, you can use Gmail with Java turned off. You also get reduced functionality. If Google is going to do something "GOffice" -like, it will be a Java dependent office suite. So much for not relying on a plug-in.
Microsoft had (don't know if they still do) a "network" option for Office. I used to do tech support at Shell's WTC back in the mid-90s, where there was a constant battle over this. Hard drives were much smaller back then, and it was seen as a smart move to have as small a footprint on the local drive as possible (and the per seat was cheaper).
The only problem is, when the network went down, productivity went down with it. Nothing like a lab full of pissed-off research scientists going up the chain to get full-on, local installs done. The local install definitely made my life easier.
Oh yeah, they all hit for property tax. Somewhat related, TX sales tax (Houston is where I currently live) may get painful:
The state congress is currently in session. They are looking at raising the _baseline_ state sales tax to 7.2%, which means sales tax in Houston (Harris County) will go to 9.2%. In both cases, they will be the highest sales tax numbers in the nation.
All of this would be done along with a shuffle on how property tax will be computed. It is supposed to get better for all property owners. The math is, of course, showing a differen reality.
The reason I put Mr. Stine in the same boat as Shelley is because of their influence on the field. It was his science-fact material in Destinies magazine (heh, books) that really sticks for me.
And that isn't really right to call it science-fact. He was talking about the near future, and what it could be, if we'd only move in certain technological directions.
Reading this stuff in High School while growing up three miles from JSC (mission control) I'm sure warps my perspective even more.
Mr. Stine goes in the same catagory that includes Shelley, Lem, and Dick: They made me _believe_.
That's funny that you mentioned Brunner & Shockwave Rider. I was thinking about him when I wrote the email. However, I left him off (for now) because, while the two books you mentioned where both important and great, there really isn't much more to recommend. Brunner should be in the HoF, but, there are others that should go ahead of him.
You are bang on about Shockwave being an important precursor to Cyberpunk. However, I thought mentioning that would get me into other areas, and wandering I would go...
I think Gibson gets the handle for inventing Cyberpunk for Burning Chrome, which is a collection of short stories that go as far back as the late 70s. Two of the short stories have been made into movies: Johhny Mnemonic and New Rose Hotel.
Having been a TV production engineer, I always assumed he meant a channel that had carrier, but no signal.
There is usually some slop to be seen in that situation. Meaning, it is not completely, true black, but usually has a little grey noise moving through it (not as "chunky" as what you may think of for the usual B&W static).
In short, your initial impression of ragged overcast is, I think, what he meant. The blue screen (heh) situation you mentioned is when there is no input to the device. That is not the same thing as a "dead channel."
I got turned on to him when I was in High School. The owner of the local bookstore gave me an uncorrected proof of Return From The Stars and told me, "This will be coming out soon, read it and let me know if I should order any."
(This was when it was coming out in English back in 1980)
It blew me away. I hadn't read anything SF that literate, probing, or thought provoking. Lem is (for me) simply the best, with PKD a not too distant second. Back to the bookstore(y)...
A few days later, I come into the store. She asks me about it. As I'm handing her the proof back, I tell her, "I thought it was absolutely brilliant. I think you could sell a couple."
She asks a bit more about the story and writing, and thanks me for the recommendation. She then tells me I can keep the proof. It is one of the prized books of my collection.
He has no business getting in ahead of (in alphabetical order):
J.G. Ballard: Not all of his is writing is SF. But his Vermilion Sands type work certainly qualifies.
William Gibson: Only created Cyberpunk.
Frank Herbert: As others have mentioned, should have a ballot for Dune.
Stanislaw Lem: Not seeing him in the HoF is a fucking embarassment, and shows how shallow the average American SF reader is. He has far better material than Solaris.
Larry Niven: Big Iron stuff like Ringworld earns him a slot, along with his humor (Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex).
G. Harry Stine: If you don't know who he is, shame on you again. Go back to school. He's as important as Shelley.
This whole KDE vs. Gnome thing just makes me sick to my stomach. A whitesheet wearing users group slagging another users group that can barely reach the keyboard.
Does TARBEL count? Tomita's "Bermuda Triangle" Album had a cool, er, bit.
From the liner notes:
Each side of this record contains coded data in the form of certain sound effects. The message can be recovered if the electrical signal from the record is interfaced with the input of a micro computer programmed to the TARBEL System.
- Isao Tomita
I never tried it myself. However, the decoded messages are:
Side A
THIS IS THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE, OVER. SLOW DOWN. TARGET 50 MILES OFF SOUTH FLORIDA, A GIANT PYRAMID AT OCEAN BOTTOM.
Side B
THIS IS THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE, OVER. LOOK OUT! THE CYLINDRICAL OBJECT JUST LIKE THE ONE EXPLODED OVER SIBERIA AND CRASHED INTO TUNGUSKA IN 1908, HAS JUST COME INTO THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
I've been using the app for about a week, and haven't experienced any real problems. Keynote simply kicks ass. My problems are on the Pages side.
I disagree with some of the UI, but that may shake out in later versions. I want to be able to customize individual functions on the tool bar, not groups.
As it stands, a two-button mouse (which I use) makes for optimal WordSmithing. I wonder what take harcore MacHeads have, if any.
Short version: Goodbye PowerPoint, goodbye Word.
I was suprised that iWork got as good a review as it did in a PC mag. An observation/review element left out: PDFs created in Pages look just fine in Acrobat Reader. If nothing else, Pages is a cost effective PDF creator. Looks like Adobe is going to take another hit from Apple.
Slashdot Mirror
IIRC, the applications were initiated from the client (obviously). All the grunt was happening on the server. There was a _lot_ of swapping going on between the two, which is why it always ran like crap.
To parse the useability vs. software-bulk bit: Sure, you can use Gmail with Java turned off. You also get reduced functionality. If Google is going to do something "GOffice" -like, it will be a Java dependent office suite. So much for not relying on a plug-in.
Microsoft had (don't know if they still do) a "network" option for Office. I used to do tech support at Shell's WTC back in the mid-90s, where there was a constant battle over this. Hard drives were much smaller back then, and it was seen as a smart move to have as small a footprint on the local drive as possible (and the per seat was cheaper).
The only problem is, when the network went down, productivity went down with it. Nothing like a lab full of pissed-off research scientists going up the chain to get full-on, local installs done. The local install definitely made my life easier.
Right On. I was looking to see if somebody was going to beat me to it. Emacs is a bloody waste of time.
Oh yeah, they all hit for property tax. Somewhat related, TX sales tax (Houston is where I currently live) may get painful:
The state congress is currently in session. They are looking at raising the _baseline_ state sales tax to 7.2%, which means sales tax in Houston (Harris County) will go to 9.2%. In both cases, they will be the highest sales tax numbers in the nation.
All of this would be done along with a shuffle on how property tax will be computed. It is supposed to get better for all property owners. The math is, of course, showing a differen reality.
And thank you for the +1
Mike
I forgot WA.
WAH!
No state tax in AK, FL, NV, TX, SD, WY.
NH, TN tax dividends and interest only.
RI is a % of Fed liability.
All others are a % on earnings (NY 4% - 7.7%):
http://www.taxadmin.org/fta/rate/ind_inc.html
Thanks for the pointer to One Human Minute. I haven't read it (yet).
Cheers,
Mike
Sorry, I only finished half the e-mail.
The reason I put Mr. Stine in the same boat as Shelley is because of their influence on the field. It was his science-fact material in Destinies magazine (heh, books) that really sticks for me.
And that isn't really right to call it science-fact. He was talking about the near future, and what it could be, if we'd only move in certain technological directions.
Reading this stuff in High School while growing up three miles from JSC (mission control) I'm sure warps my perspective even more.
Mr. Stine goes in the same catagory that includes Shelley, Lem, and Dick: They made me _believe_.
And thank you for the +1,
Mike
That's funny that you mentioned Brunner & Shockwave Rider. I was thinking about him when I wrote the email. However, I left him off (for now) because, while the two books you mentioned where both important and great, there really isn't much more to recommend. Brunner should be in the HoF, but, there are others that should go ahead of him.
You are bang on about Shockwave being an important precursor to Cyberpunk. However, I thought mentioning that would get me into other areas, and wandering I would go...
I think Gibson gets the handle for inventing Cyberpunk for Burning Chrome, which is a collection of short stories that go as far back as the late 70s. Two of the short stories have been made into movies: Johhny Mnemonic and New Rose Hotel.
Cheers,
Mike
Having been a TV production engineer, I always assumed he meant a channel that had carrier, but no signal.
There is usually some slop to be seen in that situation. Meaning, it is not completely, true black, but usually has a little grey noise moving through it (not as "chunky" as what you may think of for the usual B&W static).
In short, your initial impression of ragged overcast is, I think, what he meant. The blue screen (heh) situation you mentioned is when there is no input to the device. That is not the same thing as a "dead channel."
Cheers,
Mike
Thanks for the suggestion.
Mike
I got turned on to him when I was in High School. The owner of the local bookstore gave me an uncorrected proof of Return From The Stars and told me, "This will be coming out soon, read it and let me know if I should order any."
(This was when it was coming out in English back in 1980)
It blew me away. I hadn't read anything SF that literate, probing, or thought provoking. Lem is (for me) simply the best, with PKD a not too distant second. Back to the bookstore(y)...
A few days later, I come into the store. She asks me about it. As I'm handing her the proof back, I tell her, "I thought it was absolutely brilliant. I think you could sell a couple."
She asks a bit more about the story and writing, and thanks me for the recommendation. She then tells me I can keep the proof. It is one of the prized books of my collection.
Thanks for the +1.
Cheers,
Mike
because of a high fan-boy index, shame on you.
He has no business getting in ahead of (in alphabetical order):
J.G. Ballard: Not all of his is writing is SF. But his Vermilion Sands type work certainly qualifies.
William Gibson: Only created Cyberpunk.
Frank Herbert: As others have mentioned, should have a ballot for Dune.
Stanislaw Lem: Not seeing him in the HoF is a fucking embarassment, and shows how shallow the average American SF reader is. He has far better material than Solaris.
Larry Niven: Big Iron stuff like Ringworld earns him a slot, along with his humor (Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex).
G. Harry Stine: If you don't know who he is, shame on you again. Go back to school. He's as important as Shelley.
I hoped the article would explain why Solaris capable Tadpole computers are so exspensive:
b il e/bullfrog/
http://www.tadpolecomputer.com/html/products/mo
Apple the new Microsoft? This is a joke, right? Ok, I'll play.
1 /0 2/172242&mode=thread
I can think of two big reasons why Apple is not the new Microsoft:
1) Apple's products seem to work very well:
http://www.tcf.vt.edu/systemX.html
2) Apple hasn't been convicted of anti-trust violations:
http://grep.law.harvard.edu/article.pl?sid=02/1
RoboSitter: "Would you like to play a game?"
Kid: "Um, ok. What games do you have?"
RoboSitter: "Checkers, Chess, Go, Global Thermonuclear War."
**
I know, I know. Go? I must be dreaming...
"Below that white-domed fountain, way the hell southeast of Nome."
/., shouldn't it be Gnome?
Er, since this is
This whole KDE vs. Gnome thing just makes me sick to my stomach. A whitesheet wearing users group slagging another users group that can barely reach the keyboard.
Break the cycle, stop the violence.
OpenBSD has experienced "Only one remote hole in the default install, in more than 8 years!"
http://openbsd.org/
Move along people. Nothing to see here.
Yep, nuke weapons are scary. Provided:
you can deliver them on target and on time.
That leaves N. Korea off the Threat Board.
Does TARBEL count? Tomita's "Bermuda Triangle" Album had a cool, er, bit.
From the liner notes:
Each side of this record contains coded data in the form of certain sound effects. The message can be recovered if the electrical signal from the record is interfaced with the input of a micro computer programmed to the TARBEL System.
- Isao Tomita
I never tried it myself. However, the decoded messages are:
Side A
THIS IS THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE, OVER. SLOW DOWN. TARGET 50 MILES OFF SOUTH FLORIDA, A GIANT PYRAMID AT OCEAN BOTTOM.
Side B
THIS IS THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE, OVER. LOOK OUT! THE CYLINDRICAL OBJECT JUST LIKE THE ONE EXPLODED OVER SIBERIA AND CRASHED INTO TUNGUSKA IN 1908, HAS JUST COME INTO THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
I've been using the app for about a week, and haven't experienced any real problems. Keynote simply kicks ass. My problems are on the Pages side.
I disagree with some of the UI, but that may shake out in later versions. I want to be able to customize individual functions on the tool bar, not groups.
As it stands, a two-button mouse (which I use) makes for optimal WordSmithing. I wonder what take harcore MacHeads have, if any.
Short version: Goodbye PowerPoint, goodbye Word.
I was suprised that iWork got as good a review as it did in a PC mag. An observation/review element left out: PDFs created in Pages look just fine in Acrobat Reader. If nothing else, Pages is a cost effective PDF creator. Looks like Adobe is going to take another hit from Apple.
EOL