I'm sorry, this is complete horseshit. Almost all Apple tribers and serious fans who follow Apple who I have met, heard and read of know that there is a difference between the Apple Corporation and our favorable view of Apple's *products*. Every serious Apple fanatic likes the products, adores their design but also knows more than anyone else about the realities of Apple as a firm whose actions are sometimes great , sometimes not so great. In other words there is a difference between Mac lovers, lovers of Mac's design and their view of Apple, inc, its actions and policies. In all of the Apple blogs you can find plenty of criticism towards Apple due to one policy or the other. Do not mistake the preference towards their designs as worship of them as a corporate being.
I liked that comment. Just by way of further info, could you answer these questions for evolutionary theory or point me to a site that would have answers to it. I think these are precisely the right questions for a scientific theory, though my problem is I studied Computer Science, so have no clue how I would answer these questions for evolutionary theory.
I think that's a big part of the problem for the general public who deem themselves knowledgeable enough to make a judgment one way or the other : the lack of "marketing" by scientists, or explanation of the theory of evolution. To an outsider like me, for example, it seems like a hugely complex scientific theory and I couldn't even attempt to answer the questions you pose for the prevailing theory. If you could point me to further info or give a super quick summary of the answers to the questions you posed for evolutionary theory, I would be very interested because I have not even a concept of the work that has been done here.
When I have heard about the intelligent design thing, my BS detector has gone off in the past because I didn't really hear what their alternative testable hypothesis is. Trouble is, I know that we have that work done for the prevailing theory but I don't know where to start there. (National Science Foundation Website perhaps ?) Thanks for any info.
This is part of the reason why I hesitated to donate to wikipedia this year and I think its why a lot of people get turned off by wikipedia these days. There is this group of people there that tries to edit and over police the site. Even the discussions on the discussion pages get policed by overzealous little shits and moderators who feel like this is their place to exercise some sort of powertrip, its really getting disgusting. Now, of course, wikipedia is a site that belongs to all of us, so if you don't like overpolicing fight back and argue against these people who think they know how to define wikipedia.
That is the real way to fend off these self-anointed policing pests, to join and get involved because as much as they want to edit it, fact is its NOT THEIR SITE, but if we allow them to go around and play admins then they win.
As far as the mathematical proofs. Of course, they should be in there. Wikipedia should approach a MAXIMUM of knowledge including math proofs. It should be a place where as much knowledge as possible is interchanged, described, sorted and edited.
What are you all so worried about ? Don't you trust your Dear Executive ? I am *sure* the Dear Executive has gone to great lengths to verify that no-fly lists only contain those individuals who are a threat to the current regime, like in this case of the evil Princeton law professor. Hey, listen, if you're against our leaders, why should you be able to fly ? North Korea doesn't allow freedom of movement either. In fact, the Dear Leader there made the wise decision that even a trip to the next town requires a permit. That way, nasty dissidents and threats can't meet for subversive evil. So, grow up, and join patriotic Americans in thought purity. Pure thought, travel all you want. Thank You, Dear Leader !!
Aaaawwww. Poor comet ! Fortunately they are like lizards. It takes them a while to recover, but the tail grows back in time.
Seriously, though, I have a question. I have not read TFA, but I'll get around to it, so if I need to do that to answer this question then don't bother to answer this lazy bum. Why would a solar hurricane rip off the plasma t(r)ail ? Wouldn't the tail just increase, ie. wouldn't more material from the comet just go into it with increased winds ?
And put it in lizard terms if you can. (just joking)
Who could have ever guessed that Slashdotters were pedantic nerds with nothing better to do on a Saturday night than correct a minor error?
What do you mean ? What else would there be to do on a Saturday night ? By the way, its usually best to leave a space before a question mark at the end of a sentence. You said "minor error?", it should be "minor error ?". Reads better and makes the user experience of reading your sentence that much more comfortable. Thanks.
Good point. Whatever you do, just be sure to be in a sitting position in front of the computer and to be rocking your whole upper body back and forth towards the monitor (BillG style) as you show her. This will let her know that you have rhythm.
From now on if... , no, *when* I have a first date, I will show the girl this video. It has good music, funky vibes and some pretty good graphics. Just because I like technology doesn't mean I can't be swinging it with the cool cats and this video should prove it.
I didn't like how dismissive you were here of the parent post. When you said you wanted to mark it "funny" it sounded to me like you were belittling it. If that is the case you completely missed or did not understand the parent post's point of view.
Basically the parent clarified the larger point that in the US the system of lobbying and campaign finance is responsible for a lot of mismanagement in government. I agree with your assessments about large organizations and their tendency to go with "what's comfortable", but the parent post pointed out the larger systemic fault of private financing for public campaigns and the role of lobbying in the states.
Your statement that if one wanted to change these systemic problems, voting for Clinton (!) would do it is to me a clear sign you lack a complete understanding of the American political system and hence the parent's whole point ! Out of all the democratic presidential nominees it is exactly Clinton who is the MOST connected to the dysfunctional system of special interest influence. She basically lives and breathes Washington political influence.
If you REALLY wanted to start to change things you would want to support organizations like publicampaign.org and if you're after a political candidate maybe Obama has the best shot/willingness for large scale change, but even he can't do it alone. Publicampaign.org has pushed through numerous campaign finance reforms in individual states and they have proven that reform can be achieved.
Just clarifying, because I felt you missed the parent's political point and since you didn't understand it (probably due to lack of experience with the American political process) were dismissive of it.
There is a very interesting passage in the above article:
Mr. Czajka's celebrated TopCoder victories have made programming particularly attractive to young Poles. "Everyone knows Tomasz Czajka and everyone wants to be like him," says Hibner, who recently won an international math competition. "Last time I was in Warsaw, there was a huge poster of him in the center of the city."
The last time I was in London, there was a huge poster of RIcky Gervais in the center of the city. Now, I love Ricky's work, I think he's smart and funny, but substantial things like science, research, even teaching sadly seem to get no comparable "star" status in the west.
Look in Time Square or Picadilly circus. Apparently what we value right now is Coca Cola, Jay Leno, Ricky Gervais and other entertainment products with no acknowledgment as to what really makes our society work and function. Idiocracy anyone ? Go Poland...
Hi, I understand. A policy announcement is different from the implementation. Also in the article, your full comments make it clear that you are very supportive of the direction things are going, you just wanted to make clear that the work is not done with the announcement by itself and that people shouldn't get all excited just yet. Fair enough.
Maybe one lesson, however, is that one can get quoted out of context very easily and then, when lazy people like me just read the summary they draw the wrong or extreme conclusions ! Perception matters, so I guess I was just pointing out how it sounded from the summary.
I am sure that is a skill is to make sure people in the press (or on slashdot) do not have much ammunition to misquote or give the wrong impression, so maybe that's something to take away.:) You know how some of these IT execs or other exec types are. They are generalists and sometimes have preconceptions about the whole "weird" open source thing. So its extra important to not sound too critical or too snotty, but rather shepherd them to a better world. Hey, maybe I am just too manipulative, like the corps. themselves and their PR departments !:) Thanks for the response and clarification.
What's going on with the lame, unenthusiastic response by that Vlatko Kosturjak guy, president of the Croatian Linux User Group ?
Yeah, I can imagine it might be difficult to do the transition on a large setting. So ???? Difficult doesn't mean hopeless, but that's sure how his response was. Shouldn't he be rolling up his sleeves and maybe offer resources, instead of just sitting back and making unhelpful, aloof statements like that ?
Maybe he has had bad experiences with his govt's hot air statements. Who knows ? However, you can't win *anything* with a bad attitude like that. If that's the sort of "look down", "prove it to me" attitude of the friggin' *President* of the Linux User Group, I would run 100 miles the other way. A new adopter, even if it's the government, is not supposed to be made feel that they have to *prove* anything. If anything it should be Vlatko and his cohorts making clear that they are ready to *serve* and help any new adopters. But again, I don't have enough context to know what's going on there. I think that whole *serving* concept is completely over Vlatko's head. I wouldn't be surprised if a private corporation with inferior product but better attitude gets in there, then.
That's so cool ! Imagine dragon babys, everyone ! I want one, awwww. How about a dragon with ribbons in its hair, though ? That would be funny !! LOL ! Cute !! xoxo... Hey, anyone wanna smoke ?
You see, the problem is their amazing "toll bridge" business model. Sorry to repeat an old fact, but in 1997 Jeff Raikes described it in a letter to Warren Buffet, where he basically stated "What we have is a toll bridge, where every new PC has to pay a Microsoft fee." Back, then they got $45 for every PC license. On top of that they have their "finished goods" business that heavily relies on their entrenched Windows OS. That is an AWESOME fact, and an amazing lock in, which will be super hard to break unless they really, really fuck up their business relationships somehow.
They don't even have to fuck up the technology that much. I mean look at the delayed Vista, its been five years and no one has been able to touch them. Microsoft knows that. That is why their software really only has to *just* work and *just* be useable enough. Their domination is based on that amazing business model they are in, nothing else.
The question is what are YOU going to do about it ? Are you going to keep paying the fee ? If you're an OS maker, are you going to work, not only on the technology, but on the all important business relationships, including working on disrupting MS's relationships ?
Ok, here is the thing. After reading your post, I realized that you're right and that I've been unduly equating ILM with Lucasfilm, which makes my comments rather invalid for a thread about ILM and its technology, because I've really been talking about Lucasfilm and its work.
However, since I like my original post about the 70s and GenX so much, I will pull a Karl Rove on you and just ignore the facts which you have just pointed out. So, I'm hereby deciding and letting you know that this thread is really about Lucasfilm's creative work, not ILM's technology, and thus my original comment fits in perfectly again. Great. See how easy it is to correct pesky facts ? Man, I think I've been learning from those neo-cons !
Great Stuff Going on Nowadays but Not at ILM
on
ILM's Datacenter
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I've got to echo a lot of the comments here, that sadly ILM and hearing details about ILM, has lost its luster a bit since the old Star Wars days. Not that the acting or the plot was that great in the early Star Wars films either, but there was just a rebelliousness to it, a certain type of moxy, plus a lot of us Gen Xers were very young back then, so maybe it has to do with that.
Still, there was Jurassic Park, which had that wow effect, but only in a suburban, sterilized kind of way. Maybe it was just the seventies with their more "adult", less megaplexy, disney-fashioned attitudes. The one company that embodies that spirit of combining new tech with a fresh attitude is obviously Pixar. They still have their mojo intact. We also have tons of great political films, clever films and documentaries coming out nowadays, so there is no reason to despair in the times per se, I was just thinking of ILM specifically. Maybe George will lose that weird suburban Disneyfied taste of his at some point and get back to some Thx1138 type goodness.
I think the headline of the article is a bit misleading. From what I have read, I don't think "heads are rolling" at Microsoft yet. They have restructured, which they do about once or twice a year anyway, but the problem of multiple layers of general managers and layer upon layer of Vice Presidents remains.
If you read some of the postings on the minimsft blog, you see that Sinofsky has been brought in to streamline things, but the question abut what to do with all the legacy management overhead still remains.
They have so many people which they promoted up over the years that they'll need to figure out how to flatten the organization whilst thinking about what to do with all these people in middle management. That'll be the interesting question in the coming years, I think.
.Net and Windows Vista, even separately neither of these sound appealing to me. Combined, wow, that's as appealing as, say, some raw Rhubarb & a hefty slice of Blue Cheese.
Talking about raising funds online in unexpected ways. Air America Radio in Phoenix recently got kicked out of their home station by new christian-radio owners and there was an outcry in the community there. So, they did what any self-respecting liberal would do: they started raising funds for a new home through the use of a "Pixel board" petition where one could buy Pixels. Its that "million dollar page" idea I guess, but I've never seen it used as an organizational fundraiser before.
Not that its really an idea for Mozilla or any other project. Or is it ? In terms of funding through Google, their ad models not only fund browsers rather well, but pretty much the entire web site eco system. Who isn't getting money from the Google Ad Business Model these days ?
Amazing, although, of course there is a difference between apps getting money and sites getting money. (Have to admit, though, I didn't even know until recently that browsers had that much of an income opportunity just through that Google search field.) Will Google encroach on the big ad agencies' turf soon ?
This is straight out of a Douglas Adams game, because its such a dumb, bueraucratic excuse that tries to desperately hide the fact that the guy had no clue about the existence of free software licenses. That lack of knowledge alone is damning for a trade minister. Consider what he said :
'If Mozilla permit the sale of copied versions of its software, it makes it virtually impossible for us, from a practical point of view, to enforce UK anti-piracy legislation'
Right. First, practically speaking, you should be able to differentiate between the most popular pieces of software in the first place (ie . everything from MS, Adobe, throw in some other big names is not open source, and on the other hand there are a few big open source software pieces you should know, if you call yourself a trade minster : OOO.org, Firefox, Linux, and a few others...)
Its not that hard, it just requires a so called minister or whatever that guy is, being a just a bit literate about whats going on in the software world or for that matter whats going on in the real world outside his office...
Yes, there are thousands of open source as well as commercial projects and no one can know them all (for those cases may I humbly suggest a database to keep track of them. Can anyone volunteer selling the department of trade a copy of MySQL ? We'll post bail... ) but not knowing the concept behind FIREFOX ??? Idiot...
This is just way to unfocused. I realize Microsft has the most widely used OS on the planet, but eight different versions betrays the fact, I think, that marketing at MS is currently as cluttered as their UI efforts, and I am not joking.
The company is basically or at least, in the past has attempted to be, a giant meritocracy of competing subgroups, ideas and people where the best ideas kind of bubble up. The problem with this is in the UI design area and I didn't think marketing had the same problem.
UI design at MS just kind of gets designed at the beginning of the project by so called Program Managers who are kind of like "technical directors" or technical coordinators, I think its a unique MS function in that they are typically people who can code, but who choose to do management from the start of their careers. They lay out their designs in specification documents and then that gets reviewed by the team, implemented and sent to usability to be iterated on by, again, the managers. The flaw is that instead of PMs primariliy coming up with designs, serious and skilled industrial and graphic designers should be involved from the beginning on ! I don't know how Apple works exactly, but I think they are more akind to that, meaning I would guess that dedicaed industrial and interaction designers probably have power to have input from beginning to end.
Program Managers at MS definitely have their place as leaders, but they need to take a step back to graphic designers and interaction designers when it comes to UI. Right now using PMs as the primary designers, and only letting graphic designers in afterwards to clean up the details, is kind of a "hacker" approach to UI design because PMs usually strutt the line between development, testing, and marketing and aren't really dedicated to design.
Well it seems like the same kind of "hacker", unstructured approach now surfaces in the marketing which is weird because I always thought of MS as very marketing savy... Are they finally losing the plot ? Am I drawing the wrong parallell ?
The problem is the policies not the propaganda. But, of course, Rumsfeld wouldn't want to consider that his policies actually might be, gasp, a big part of the perceived image problem. Nahh, thats just liberal hogwash, what we need is more propaganda !! That makes *so* much sense. Man, these people are either retarded or live in the most bizarre world of their own making.
The final irony is, of course, that the real place where government funding WOULD be appropriate when it comes to media, namely the Public Broadcasting System is being cut in the current budget, by the tune of 64 million. Public media systems like that (think BBC, CBC, etc.) actually might benefit the citizenry by giving an alternative and less sensationalist based viewpoint. But no, we don't want to fund those, let's get it on with the propaganda instead ! Man, America, your priorities are so messed up.
To compare what other nations spend on their public media systems compared to Americans check this out.
I think an interesting quote from Bill's letter is this :
"One thing you do is prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free?"
Yet, isn't this what Linux and open source is all about ? The quote strikes me as yet another completely false prophecy, along the lines of computers won't ever use more than one meg of ram.
In fact at the time of writing wasn't Bekeley UNIX being distributed for free and it far, far, far, exceeded BASIC ! To be fair, however, I guess a lot of the Berkely developers were being paid by universities and weren't on the open market like Bill...
Hmmm... Seven versions. I think it was done purposefully to harmonize their marketing with the product. See, that way their product marketing could be as confusing as the Windows user interface, which means both would send a unified message of ineptness to the consumer.
Slashdot Mirror
at's cool. I see what you're saying. I, like, also like some food which my friend's are like totally 'whoa'. So funny.
I'm sorry, this is complete horseshit. Almost all Apple tribers and serious fans who follow Apple who I have met, heard and read of know that there is a difference between the Apple Corporation and our favorable view of Apple's *products*. Every serious Apple fanatic likes the products, adores their design but also knows more than anyone else about the realities of Apple as a firm whose actions are sometimes great , sometimes not so great. In other words there is a difference between Mac lovers, lovers of Mac's design and their view of Apple, inc, its actions and policies. In all of the Apple blogs you can find plenty of criticism towards Apple due to one policy or the other. Do not mistake the preference towards their designs as worship of them as a corporate being.
I liked that comment. Just by way of further info, could you answer these questions for evolutionary theory or point me to a site that would have answers to it. I think these are precisely the right questions for a scientific theory, though my problem is I studied Computer Science, so have no clue how I would answer these questions for evolutionary theory.
I think that's a big part of the problem for the general public who deem themselves knowledgeable enough to make a judgment one way or the other : the lack of "marketing" by scientists, or explanation of the theory of evolution. To an outsider like me, for example, it seems like a hugely complex scientific theory and I couldn't even attempt to answer the questions you pose for the prevailing theory. If you could point me to further info or give a super quick summary of the answers to the questions you posed for evolutionary theory, I would be very interested because I have not even a concept of the work that has been done here.
When I have heard about the intelligent design thing, my BS detector has gone off in the past because I didn't really hear what their alternative testable hypothesis is. Trouble is, I know that we have that work done for the prevailing theory but I don't know where to start there. (National Science Foundation Website perhaps ?) Thanks for any info.
This is part of the reason why I hesitated to donate to wikipedia this year and I think its why a lot of people get turned off by wikipedia these days. There is this group of people there that tries to edit and over police the site. Even the discussions on the discussion pages get policed by overzealous little shits and moderators who feel like this is their place to exercise some sort of powertrip, its really getting disgusting. Now, of course, wikipedia is a site that belongs to all of us, so if you don't like overpolicing fight back and argue against these people who think they know how to define wikipedia.
That is the real way to fend off these self-anointed policing pests, to join and get involved because as much as they want to edit it, fact is its NOT THEIR SITE, but if we allow them to go around and play admins then they win.
As far as the mathematical proofs. Of course, they should be in there. Wikipedia should approach a MAXIMUM of knowledge including math proofs. It should be a place where as much knowledge as possible is interchanged, described, sorted and edited.
What are you all so worried about ? Don't you trust your Dear Executive ? I am *sure* the Dear Executive has gone to great lengths to verify that no-fly lists only contain those individuals who are a threat to the current regime, like in this case of the evil Princeton law professor. Hey, listen, if you're against our leaders, why should you be able to fly ? North Korea doesn't allow freedom of movement either. In fact, the Dear Leader there made the wise decision that even a trip to the next town requires a permit. That way, nasty dissidents and threats can't meet for subversive evil. So, grow up, and join patriotic Americans in thought purity. Pure thought, travel all you want. Thank You, Dear Leader !!
Aaaawwww. Poor comet ! Fortunately they are like lizards. It takes them a while to recover, but the tail grows back in time.
Seriously, though, I have a question. I have not read TFA, but I'll get around to it, so if I need to do that to answer this question then don't bother to answer this lazy bum. Why would a solar hurricane rip off the plasma t(r)ail ? Wouldn't the tail just increase, ie. wouldn't more material from the comet just go into it with increased winds ?
And put it in lizard terms if you can. (just joking)
Who could have ever guessed that Slashdotters were pedantic nerds with nothing better to do on a Saturday night than correct a minor error?
What do you mean ? What else would there be to do on a Saturday night ? By the way, its usually best to leave a space before a question mark at the end of a sentence. You said "minor error?", it should be "minor error ?". Reads better and makes the user experience of reading your sentence that much more comfortable. Thanks.
Good point. Whatever you do, just be sure to be in a sitting position in front of the computer and to be rocking your whole upper body back and forth towards the monitor (BillG style) as you show her. This will let her know that you have rhythm.
From now on if... , no, *when* I have a first date, I will show the girl this video. It has good music, funky vibes and some pretty good graphics. Just because I like technology doesn't mean I can't be swinging it with the cool cats and this video should prove it.
Funky-licious !!!
I didn't like how dismissive you were here of the parent post. When you said you wanted to mark it "funny" it sounded to me like you were belittling it. If that is the case you completely missed or did not understand the parent post's point of view.
Basically the parent clarified the larger point that in the US the system of lobbying and campaign finance is responsible for a lot of mismanagement in government. I agree with your assessments about large organizations and their tendency to go with "what's comfortable", but the parent post pointed out the larger systemic fault of private financing for public campaigns and the role of lobbying in the states.
Your statement that if one wanted to change these systemic problems, voting for Clinton (!) would do it is to me a clear sign you lack a complete understanding of the American political system and hence the parent's whole point ! Out of all the democratic presidential nominees it is exactly Clinton who is the MOST connected to the dysfunctional system of special interest influence. She basically lives and breathes Washington political influence.
If you REALLY wanted to start to change things you would want to support organizations like publicampaign.org and if you're after a political candidate maybe Obama has the best shot/willingness for large scale change, but even he can't do it alone. Publicampaign.org has pushed through numerous campaign finance reforms in individual states and they have proven that reform can be achieved.
Just clarifying, because I felt you missed the parent's political point and since you didn't understand it (probably due to lack of experience with the American political process) were dismissive of it.
The last time I was in London, there was a huge poster of RIcky Gervais in the center of the city. Now, I love Ricky's work, I think he's smart and funny, but substantial things like science, research, even teaching sadly seem to get no comparable "star" status in the west.
Look in Time Square or Picadilly circus. Apparently what we value right now is Coca Cola, Jay Leno, Ricky Gervais and other entertainment products with no acknowledgment as to what really makes our society work and function. Idiocracy anyone ? Go Poland...
Hi, I understand. A policy announcement is different from the implementation. Also in the article, your full comments make it clear that you are very supportive of the direction things are going, you just wanted to make clear that the work is not done with the announcement by itself and that people shouldn't get all excited just yet. Fair enough.
:) You know how some of these IT execs or other exec types are. They are generalists and sometimes have preconceptions about the whole "weird" open source thing. So its extra important to not sound too critical or too snotty, but rather shepherd them to a better world. Hey, maybe I am just too manipulative, like the corps. themselves and their PR departments ! :) Thanks for the response and clarification.
Maybe one lesson, however, is that one can get quoted out of context very easily and then, when lazy people like me just read the summary they draw the wrong or extreme conclusions ! Perception matters, so I guess I was just pointing out how it sounded from the summary.
I am sure that is a skill is to make sure people in the press (or on slashdot) do not have much ammunition to misquote or give the wrong impression, so maybe that's something to take away.
What's going on with the lame, unenthusiastic response by that Vlatko Kosturjak guy, president of the Croatian Linux User Group ?
Yeah, I can imagine it might be difficult to do the transition on a large setting. So ???? Difficult doesn't mean hopeless, but that's sure how his response was. Shouldn't he be rolling up his sleeves and maybe offer resources, instead of just sitting back and making unhelpful, aloof statements like that ?
Maybe he has had bad experiences with his govt's hot air statements. Who knows ? However, you can't win *anything* with a bad attitude like that. If that's the sort of "look down", "prove it to me" attitude of the friggin' *President* of the Linux User Group, I would run 100 miles the other way. A new adopter, even if it's the government, is not supposed to be made feel that they have to *prove* anything. If anything it should be Vlatko and his cohorts making clear that they are ready to *serve* and help any new adopters. But again, I don't have enough context to know what's going on there. I think that whole *serving* concept is completely over Vlatko's head. I wouldn't be surprised if a private corporation with inferior product but better attitude gets in there, then.
That's so cool ! Imagine dragon babys, everyone ! I want one, awwww. How about a dragon with ribbons in its hair, though ? That would be funny !! LOL ! Cute !! xoxo ... Hey, anyone wanna smoke ?
They don't even have to fuck up the technology that much. I mean look at the delayed Vista, its been five years and no one has been able to touch them. Microsoft knows that. That is why their software really only has to *just* work and *just* be useable enough. Their domination is based on that amazing business model they are in, nothing else.
The question is what are YOU going to do about it ? Are you going to keep paying the fee ? If you're an OS maker, are you going to work, not only on the technology, but on the all important business relationships, including working on disrupting MS's relationships ?
However, since I like my original post about the 70s and GenX so much, I will pull a Karl Rove on you and just ignore the facts which you have just pointed out. So, I'm hereby deciding and letting you know that this thread is really about Lucasfilm's creative work, not ILM's technology, and thus my original comment fits in perfectly again. Great. See how easy it is to correct pesky facts ? Man, I think I've been learning from those neo-cons !
Still, there was Jurassic Park, which had that wow effect, but only in a suburban, sterilized kind of way. Maybe it was just the seventies with their more "adult", less megaplexy, disney-fashioned attitudes. The one company that embodies that spirit of combining new tech with a fresh attitude is obviously Pixar. They still have their mojo intact. We also have tons of great political films, clever films and documentaries coming out nowadays, so there is no reason to despair in the times per se, I was just thinking of ILM specifically. Maybe George will lose that weird suburban Disneyfied taste of his at some point and get back to some Thx1138 type goodness.
If you read some of the postings on the minimsft blog, you see that Sinofsky has been brought in to streamline things, but the question abut what to do with all the legacy management overhead still remains.
They have so many people which they promoted up over the years that they'll need to figure out how to flatten the organization whilst thinking about what to do with all these people in middle management. That'll be the interesting question in the coming years, I think.
.Net and Windows Vista, even separately neither of these sound appealing to me. Combined, wow, that's as appealing as, say, some raw Rhubarb & a hefty slice of Blue Cheese.
Not that its really an idea for Mozilla or any other project. Or is it ? In terms of funding through Google, their ad models not only fund browsers rather well, but pretty much the entire web site eco system. Who isn't getting money from the Google Ad Business Model these days ?
Amazing, although, of course there is a difference between apps getting money and sites getting money. (Have to admit, though, I didn't even know until recently that browsers had that much of an income opportunity just through that Google search field.) Will Google encroach on the big ad agencies' turf soon ?
'If Mozilla permit the sale of copied versions of its software, it makes it virtually impossible for us, from a practical point of view, to enforce UK anti-piracy legislation'
Right. First, practically speaking, you should be able to differentiate between the most popular pieces of software in the first place (ie . everything from MS, Adobe, throw in some other big names is not open source, and on the other hand there are a few big open source software pieces you should know, if you call yourself a trade minster : OOO.org, Firefox, Linux, and a few others...)
Its not that hard, it just requires a so called minister or whatever that guy is, being a just a bit literate about whats going on in the software world or for that matter whats going on in the real world outside his office...
Yes, there are thousands of open source as well as commercial projects and no one can know them all (for those cases may I humbly suggest a database to keep track of them. Can anyone volunteer selling the department of trade a copy of MySQL ? We'll post bail... ) but not knowing the concept behind FIREFOX ??? Idiot...
The company is basically or at least, in the past has attempted to be, a giant meritocracy of competing subgroups, ideas and people where the best ideas kind of bubble up. The problem with this is in the UI design area and I didn't think marketing had the same problem.
UI design at MS just kind of gets designed at the beginning of the project by so called Program Managers who are kind of like "technical directors" or technical coordinators, I think its a unique MS function in that they are typically people who can code, but who choose to do management from the start of their careers. They lay out their designs in specification documents and then that gets reviewed by the team, implemented and sent to usability to be iterated on by, again, the managers. The flaw is that instead of PMs primariliy coming up with designs, serious and skilled industrial and graphic designers should be involved from the beginning on ! I don't know how Apple works exactly, but I think they are more akind to that, meaning I would guess that dedicaed industrial and interaction designers probably have power to have input from beginning to end.
Program Managers at MS definitely have their place as leaders, but they need to take a step back to graphic designers and interaction designers when it comes to UI. Right now using PMs as the primary designers, and only letting graphic designers in afterwards to clean up the details, is kind of a "hacker" approach to UI design because PMs usually strutt the line between development, testing, and marketing and aren't really dedicated to design.
Well it seems like the same kind of "hacker", unstructured approach now surfaces in the marketing which is weird because I always thought of MS as very marketing savy... Are they finally losing the plot ? Am I drawing the wrong parallell ?
The final irony is, of course, that the real place where government funding WOULD be appropriate when it comes to media, namely the Public Broadcasting System is being cut in the current budget, by the tune of 64 million. Public media systems like that (think BBC, CBC, etc.) actually might benefit the citizenry by giving an alternative and less sensationalist based viewpoint. But no, we don't want to fund those, let's get it on with the propaganda instead ! Man, America, your priorities are so messed up.
To compare what other nations spend on their public media systems compared to Americans check this out.
"One thing you do is prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free?"
Yet, isn't this what Linux and open source is all about ? The quote strikes me as yet another completely false prophecy, along the lines of computers won't ever use more than one meg of ram.
In fact at the time of writing wasn't Bekeley UNIX being distributed for free and it far, far, far, exceeded BASIC ! To be fair, however, I guess a lot of the Berkely developers were being paid by universities and weren't on the open market like Bill...
Hmmm... Seven versions. I think it was done purposefully to harmonize their marketing with the product. See, that way their product marketing could be as confusing as the Windows user interface, which means both would send a unified message of ineptness to the consumer.
Gotta hate these brilliant minds over there !