Who exactly is the "they" to whom you refer? I'd like to thank "they" for pointing out that James Gosling and Tim O'Reilly are simple minds. Not to mention Dr. Srinidhi Varadarajan of Virginia Tech, and the hosts of bioscientists working on trifling problems, such as the human genome, protein folding etc. I'd never have known if you hadn't done your part to inform us.
Anakin Skywalker may have doomed his career, unfairly so. The guy has shown that not only can he act, but that he's actually a fine actor. Feel free to check out his performances in "Life As A House" and "Shattered Glass". After seeing these two films, my opinion of Lucas' skills as a director fell even further. I had heard that he was not an actor's director, but to take a fine young actor and elicit such wooden performances from him, Good Lord man!
I had been hearing rumors for quite a while that Apple had a spreadsheet app for the iWorks suite tentatively called "Cells", that would replicate the functionality of Improv, the NeXT's killer app, and what I've heard described as the finest spreadsheet ever created. The "Numbers" thing really solidifies it for me.
Apparently, NeXT was, and still is, popular among a number of large financial institutions, which bought it primarily because they were so impressed with the capabilities of Improv. Apple has demonstrated at the very least that they have the makings of a competitive productivity suite with iCal, Mail, Keynote, Pages, and now the rumored "Numbers". Granted, Mail in particular is not as feature-rich or powerful as Microsoft's corresponding offering, but in my opinion, Apple is taking the correct approach: get the interface right first, add necessary features later. I also strongly believe that Apple could easily release a "Lite" version of FileMaker, which has large numbers of Windows devotees. This would fit perfectly with the two-tier consumer-pro strategy that they have adopted with their other offerings (iMovie->Final Cut Pro; GarageBand->Logic, iDVD->iDVD Studio Pro), whereby users who have outgrown the consumer versions could upgrade to more powerful, feature-rich pro versions, with the added benefit that the learing curve is not very steep. I've also begun to suspect that they have pro versions of iCal, Mail etc in development, or running internally. The Mac-on-Intel bombshell really brought home to me how little is known about what Apple is up to.
The fact that Microsoft has announced that the Office file formats will be converted to XML raises all sorts of intriguing possibilities. This could well encourage Apple to act more boldly vis a vis an Apple productivity suite. I've been hearing rumors for quite a while that Apple has a spreadsheet app for the iWorks suite tentatively called "Cells", that will replicate the functionality of Improv, the NeXT's killer app, and what I've heard described as the finest spreadsheet ever created.
Apple has had to tread very carefully so as not to enrage Microsoft, hence the step-by-step release of the modules of an Office competitor (iCal, Safari, Mail, Keynote, Pages). The only things missing are a spreadsheet (the purported "Cells" app) and a database competitor for Access. i would be willing to bet that Apple has "Cells" running internally. They were so successful keeping the fact that OS X was being kept concurrent for Intel and PowerPC, that I would be surprised if they didn't. More than anything, the Mac-on-intel bombshell announced that Apple has more cards up their sleeve than anyone realizes. Plus the fact that Improv was created for NeXT (with Steve Jobs driving its development at Lotus); how difficult would it be for them to replicate it on OS X? As for a database module, remember that Apple owns FileMaker, which has legions of Mac and Windows enthusiasts. I envision them releasing a "lite" version, which would perfectly complement their two-tier consumer-pro strategy, whereby users who need more functionality than "Filemaker Lite" offers could upgrade to FileMaker Pro, a la iMovie->Final Cut Pro, Garageband->Logic, iDVD->iDVD Studio Pro.
Throwing more gasoline on the conflagration, The Motley Fool has an opinion piece stating that Apple will eventually ink a deal with AMD, and I have to say that it makes sense. Jobs' bombshell on Monday really sent the message that Apple is willing to jump ship if their CPU supplier can't deliver the goods. Having been burned by their erstwhile AIM partners (Motorola and IBM), His Steveness will not be embarassed a third time by a chipmaker. I'd have paid good money to have heard Mr. Meltdown's tirade when it became apparent that IBM had left them holding the bag.
You make some interesting points, particularly about Spotlight's inability to use regular expressions. Spotlight does, however, have a simple query language that supports boolean expressions, as described by MacOSXHints, and Apple's Spotlight Developer page. You can also get some idea of what the language syntax looks like by creating a smart folder and doing a "Get Info" on it. You'll see your search terms expressed in this query language. I don't use Spotlight extensively, so I really couldn't say whether this is of any value to you. Check it out and see. I expect a 3,000 word report by Friday:-). All the best.
Spotlight's annoying habit of searching before you complete the search term.
I also like a well-defined folder structure, regardless of the beauty and utility of Spotlight. Maybe I'm just a belt-and-suspenders kind of person, but I really don't like all my files in one big directory. At any rate, I do agree with you, I think there should be a button that starts the search after you finish typing the search terms, or a way to activate/deactivate live search. There is a simple, if inelegant, way to accomplish this: type your search term in any text editor then copy and paste it into the Spotlight search field. This will return your result much faster than live search.
Does anyone else remember Starbridge, the self-proclaimed "Hypercomputing Company" and their promise of FPGA-based machines? They were in the news several years ago, but I haven't heard mention of them recently. It seems to me that the huge hurdle in such systems is programming the FPGA's, and Starbridge claims to have developed a graphical programming environment for just such a purpose, called Viva. Can anyone here familiar with them give some insight as to the success of their efforts?
"I never got around to reading LotR - I was completely turned off by all the singing and poetry in The Hobbit and figured there'd be more of it in the trilogy"
Give LOTR a chance; you won't regret it. I read "The Hobbit" when I was 15 at the behest of my younger sister, and like you, I thought that the trilogy would be more of the same (i.e. cute but trite in my then wordview). Like you I was, and still am, more interested in Science Fiction, but then I was persuaded to read LOTR, by an English teacher, an Irishwoman who loaned me her personal copy which had been autographed by Professor Tolkien before his death.
Trust me, it's worlds away from "The Hobbit" in terms of the epic story and the rich tapestry which Tolkien constructed. Then read "The Silmarilion" and be prepared to be totally blown away by Tolkien's prowess with languages, and the gargantuan scope of his invented mythology.
...not on one CD. That is, in CD format. It doesn't say that IBM used a single disc. "The Return Of The King" Extended Edition comes on DVD; it doesn't come on a single DVD disc. Think, people, think. Oh wait...this is Slashdot. Sorry.
I don't even have to RTFS(ummary) to figure out this is a dupe!
Maybe you should RTFS. The story you link to is about Tiger Direct suing Apple over use of the name "Tiger." This submission is about the 3rd party apps and utilities already appearing in profusion for OS X 10.4. This is some kind of record, even for Slashdot: a poster who doesn't even read the summary and screams "Dupe!" at the editors.
your post has nothing but rhetoric to counter my point
And what point would that be, exactly? Your inane theory that Apple "don't want anyone else earning anything through something that even remotely relates to them or don't want anyone to have it for free", and they "see a few dollars going to someone else and they want it for themselves instead so they ban *all* books of that publisher from their stores"? I countered your point with my first statement: if your theory is true, why didn't Apple ban all Mac-related volumes published by Wiley and others before this? The simple explanation is that Steve Jobs is an egomaniac who was angered by the publication of an unauthorized biography and responded in a disproportionate and infantile manner.
I suggest that you post facts instead of crackpot theories, but this being Slashdot, what are the odds?
They just don't want anyone else earning anything through something that even remotely relates to them or don't want anyone to have it for free. So when Wiley, a big computer related books publisher, publishes a book about Jobs, Apple see a few dollars going to someone else and they want it for themselves instead so they ban *all* books of that publisher from their stores.
If that is indeed the case, how come Apple didn't ban all the Apple and Mac related "Dummies" books from their stores before this? The simple fact is that Jobs is an egomaniacal control freak and the biography pissed him off. Your assertion is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Supply some evidence or take off the tinfoil hat. And of course, you were careful enough to inoculate yourself against challenges by stating that people who disagree with you are "Apple zealots". FYI, not all Mac users are enamored of Jobs. I'm a diehard Mac user, and I love Apple's products, but that doesn't mean that I love Apple, or blindly approve of Apple's actions. They are a public corporation after all, not a charitable organization, and they should be subject to the same scrutiny as any other public company. I admire and respect Jobs' vision and leadership, but I wouldn't piss in his mouth if his teeth were on fire. I honestly have never liked the guy.
"...the blatant use of T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) as a sex symbol to attract testosterone-pumped young males. This is something she herself didn't like..."
Furthermore, you know zero about nutrition if you believe that you'll suffer from vitamin deficiencies if you don't eat animal products. Disclaimer: I love rare steaks.
You beat me to it. I read the book several years ago, and it is well-written and exceedingly fascinating, and not just because of Ramanujan's poignant life, but because it is also the story of G.H. Hardy, and to a lesser extent, Hardy's collaborator, J.E. Littlewood. It is particularly notable for the descriptions of Ramanujan's life in south India as a devout, high-caste Hindu with a somewhat simple worldview, and the contrast with the Cambridge academic life of the handsome, urbane, and eccentric Englishman. Best of all, it is the story of the remarkable, unlikely collaboration between the wild talent Ramanujan, the "Prince of Intuition", and the rigorous Hardy, the "Apostle of Proof". It also conveys something of the excitement felt when Ramanujan burst on the scene, and offers a layman's glimpse into the rarefied circles of mathematical theorists. I highly recommend Kanigel's biography of Ramanujan to anyone looking for a good read, not just those interested in Ramanujan or mathematics.
I've misplaced my copy of Ramanujan's biography, "The Man Who Saw Infinity", but I seem to recall that the anecdote attributed the quote about the number 1729 to Hardy's collaborator, J.E. Littlewood, in his later years, not to Ramanujan.
IBM is still having serious problems with heat dissipation, so unless they produce a throttled-back chip, the G5 is unlikely to make its way into portables anytime soon. The consensus among Apple watchers is that dual-core G4's from Freescale (formerly Motorola's processor division) are likelier candidates for portable Macs.
Even before the burst of the "Tech Bubble", my eldest brother, who owns a Canadian mutual fund company, was comparing it to the "Tulip Bubble", which brought down the Dutch economy in 1637. The obvious similarity between the two was rampant speculation brought on by greed and clouded judgement.
Or as it was nicely put by a judge who ruled that four leading investment banks were not to blame for stock market losses following the collapse of the tech bubble [analysts from Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and CSFB had been accused of issuing biased research]:
' investors were "obsessed with the fantasy of Olympian riches", which possibly clouded their judgment.'
it's a 12,000 foot runway that they used to train B52 bomber's during WW2.
Yeah, I know, I'm being gratuitously pedantic (sorry, I'm an aviation enthusiast), but the B-52 first flew in 1952, a full seven years after the end of WW II. You probably mean B-29's, the largest bomber of the era.
Now we are letting inanimate objects raise our kids!
Anyone else had a flashback to the 1984 Tom Selleck sci-fi thriller Runaway? Just make damn sure the little bastards can't hold a.357 Magnum in their manipulators. Or that the system developers don't look like Gene Simmons.
Slashdot Mirror
Who exactly is the "they" to whom you refer? I'd like to thank "they" for pointing out that James Gosling and Tim O'Reilly are simple minds. Not to mention Dr. Srinidhi Varadarajan of Virginia Tech, and the hosts of bioscientists working on trifling problems, such as the human genome, protein folding etc. I'd never have known if you hadn't done your part to inform us.
Anakin Skywalker may have doomed his career, unfairly so. The guy has shown that not only can he act, but that he's actually a fine actor. Feel free to check out his performances in "Life As A House" and "Shattered Glass". After seeing these two films, my opinion of Lucas' skills as a director fell even further. I had heard that he was not an actor's director, but to take a fine young actor and elicit such wooden performances from him, Good Lord man!
I had been hearing rumors for quite a while that Apple had a spreadsheet app for the iWorks suite tentatively called "Cells", that would replicate the functionality of Improv, the NeXT's killer app, and what I've heard described as the finest spreadsheet ever created. The "Numbers" thing really solidifies it for me.
Apparently, NeXT was, and still is, popular among a number of large financial institutions, which bought it primarily because they were so impressed with the capabilities of Improv. Apple has demonstrated at the very least that they have the makings of a competitive productivity suite with iCal, Mail, Keynote, Pages, and now the rumored "Numbers". Granted, Mail in particular is not as feature-rich or powerful as Microsoft's corresponding offering, but in my opinion, Apple is taking the correct approach: get the interface right first, add necessary features later. I also strongly believe that Apple could easily release a "Lite" version of FileMaker, which has large numbers of Windows devotees. This would fit perfectly with the two-tier consumer-pro strategy that they have adopted with their other offerings (iMovie->Final Cut Pro; GarageBand->Logic, iDVD->iDVD Studio Pro), whereby users who have outgrown the consumer versions could upgrade to more powerful, feature-rich pro versions, with the added benefit that the learing curve is not very steep. I've also begun to suspect that they have pro versions of iCal, Mail etc in development, or running internally. The Mac-on-Intel bombshell really brought home to me how little is known about what Apple is up to.
The fact that Microsoft has announced that the Office file formats will be converted to XML raises all sorts of intriguing possibilities. This could well encourage Apple to act more boldly vis a vis an Apple productivity suite. I've been hearing rumors for quite a while that Apple has a spreadsheet app for the iWorks suite tentatively called "Cells", that will replicate the functionality of Improv, the NeXT's killer app, and what I've heard described as the finest spreadsheet ever created.
Apple has had to tread very carefully so as not to enrage Microsoft, hence the step-by-step release of the modules of an Office competitor (iCal, Safari, Mail, Keynote, Pages). The only things missing are a spreadsheet (the purported "Cells" app) and a database competitor for Access. i would be willing to bet that Apple has "Cells" running internally. They were so successful keeping the fact that OS X was being kept concurrent for Intel and PowerPC, that I would be surprised if they didn't. More than anything, the Mac-on-intel bombshell announced that Apple has more cards up their sleeve than anyone realizes. Plus the fact that Improv was created for NeXT (with Steve Jobs driving its development at Lotus); how difficult would it be for them to replicate it on OS X? As for a database module, remember that Apple owns FileMaker, which has legions of Mac and Windows enthusiasts. I envision them releasing a "lite" version, which would perfectly complement their two-tier consumer-pro strategy, whereby users who need more functionality than "Filemaker Lite" offers could upgrade to FileMaker Pro, a la iMovie->Final Cut Pro, Garageband->Logic, iDVD->iDVD Studio Pro.
Throwing more gasoline on the conflagration, The Motley Fool has an opinion piece stating that Apple will eventually ink a deal with AMD, and I have to say that it makes sense. Jobs' bombshell on Monday really sent the message that Apple is willing to jump ship if their CPU supplier can't deliver the goods. Having been burned by their erstwhile AIM partners (Motorola and IBM), His Steveness will not be embarassed a third time by a chipmaker. I'd have paid good money to have heard Mr. Meltdown's tirade when it became apparent that IBM had left them holding the bag.
You make some interesting points, particularly about Spotlight's inability to use regular expressions. Spotlight does, however, have a simple query language that supports boolean expressions, as described by MacOSXHints, and Apple's Spotlight Developer page. You can also get some idea of what the language syntax looks like by creating a smart folder and doing a "Get Info" on it. You'll see your search terms expressed in this query language. I don't use Spotlight extensively, so I really couldn't say whether this is of any value to you. Check it out and see. I expect a 3,000 word report by Friday :-). All the best.
I also like a well-defined folder structure, regardless of the beauty and utility of Spotlight. Maybe I'm just a belt-and-suspenders kind of person, but I really don't like all my files in one big directory. At any rate, I do agree with you, I think there should be a button that starts the search after you finish typing the search terms, or a way to activate/deactivate live search. There is a simple, if inelegant, way to accomplish this: type your search term in any text editor then copy and paste it into the Spotlight search field. This will return your result much faster than live search.
Does anyone else remember Starbridge, the self-proclaimed "Hypercomputing Company" and their promise of FPGA-based machines? They were in the news several years ago, but I haven't heard mention of them recently. It seems to me that the huge hurdle in such systems is programming the FPGA's, and Starbridge claims to have developed a graphical programming environment for just such a purpose, called Viva. Can anyone here familiar with them give some insight as to the success of their efforts?
Give LOTR a chance; you won't regret it. I read "The Hobbit" when I was 15 at the behest of my younger sister, and like you, I thought that the trilogy would be more of the same (i.e. cute but trite in my then wordview). Like you I was, and still am, more interested in Science Fiction, but then I was persuaded to read LOTR, by an English teacher, an Irishwoman who loaned me her personal copy which had been autographed by Professor Tolkien before his death.
Trust me, it's worlds away from "The Hobbit" in terms of the epic story and the rich tapestry which Tolkien constructed. Then read "The Silmarilion" and be prepared to be totally blown away by Tolkien's prowess with languages, and the gargantuan scope of his invented mythology.
...not on one CD. That is, in CD format. It doesn't say that IBM used a single disc. "The Return Of The King" Extended Edition comes on DVD; it doesn't come on a single DVD disc. Think, people, think. Oh wait...this is Slashdot. Sorry.
General Halftrack? Did anyone else picture Beetle Bailey's nemesis in cryogenic suspension?
Sorry; it's been a long day.
In my day "FORD" was an acronym for Find On Road Dead.
Maybe you should RTFS. The story you link to is about Tiger Direct suing Apple over use of the name "Tiger." This submission is about the 3rd party apps and utilities already appearing in profusion for OS X 10.4. This is some kind of record, even for Slashdot: a poster who doesn't even read the summary and screams "Dupe!" at the editors.
And what point would that be, exactly? Your inane theory that Apple "don't want anyone else earning anything through something that even remotely relates to them or don't want anyone to have it for free", and they "see a few dollars going to someone else and they want it for themselves instead so they ban *all* books of that publisher from their stores"? I countered your point with my first statement: if your theory is true, why didn't Apple ban all Mac-related volumes published by Wiley and others before this? The simple explanation is that Steve Jobs is an egomaniac who was angered by the publication of an unauthorized biography and responded in a disproportionate and infantile manner.
I suggest that you post facts instead of crackpot theories, but this being Slashdot, what are the odds?
If that is indeed the case, how come Apple didn't ban all the Apple and Mac related "Dummies" books from their stores before this? The simple fact is that Jobs is an egomaniacal control freak and the biography pissed him off. Your assertion is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Supply some evidence or take off the tinfoil hat. And of course, you were careful enough to inoculate yourself against challenges by stating that people who disagree with you are "Apple zealots". FYI, not all Mac users are enamored of Jobs. I'm a diehard Mac user, and I love Apple's products, but that doesn't mean that I love Apple, or blindly approve of Apple's actions. They are a public corporation after all, not a charitable organization, and they should be subject to the same scrutiny as any other public company. I admire and respect Jobs' vision and leadership, but I wouldn't piss in his mouth if his teeth were on fire. I honestly have never liked the guy.
Refueling stations? Didn't they say that these things would be driven by solar-powered electric motors?
"...the blatant use of T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) as a sex symbol to attract testosterone-pumped young males. This is something she herself didn't like..."
Really? Then why did she pose for so many cheesecake pictures?
Furthermore, you know zero about nutrition if you believe that you'll suffer from vitamin deficiencies if you don't eat animal products. Disclaimer: I love rare steaks.
You beat me to it. I read the book several years ago, and it is well-written and exceedingly fascinating, and not just because of Ramanujan's poignant life, but because it is also the story of G.H. Hardy, and to a lesser extent, Hardy's collaborator, J.E. Littlewood. It is particularly notable for the descriptions of Ramanujan's life in south India as a devout, high-caste Hindu with a somewhat simple worldview, and the contrast with the Cambridge academic life of the handsome, urbane, and eccentric Englishman. Best of all, it is the story of the remarkable, unlikely collaboration between the wild talent Ramanujan, the "Prince of Intuition", and the rigorous Hardy, the "Apostle of Proof". It also conveys something of the excitement felt when Ramanujan burst on the scene, and offers a layman's glimpse into the rarefied circles of mathematical theorists. I highly recommend Kanigel's biography of Ramanujan to anyone looking for a good read, not just those interested in Ramanujan or mathematics.
I've misplaced my copy of Ramanujan's biography, "The Man Who Saw Infinity", but I seem to recall that the anecdote attributed the quote about the number 1729 to Hardy's collaborator, J.E. Littlewood, in his later years, not to Ramanujan.
Thanks for the FUD, asshat. Ramanujan died of tuberculosis.
IBM is still having serious problems with heat dissipation, so unless they produce a throttled-back chip, the G5 is unlikely to make its way into portables anytime soon. The consensus among Apple watchers is that dual-core G4's from Freescale (formerly Motorola's processor division) are likelier candidates for portable Macs.
Even before the burst of the "Tech Bubble", my eldest brother, who owns a Canadian mutual fund company, was comparing it to the "Tulip Bubble", which brought down the Dutch economy in 1637. The obvious similarity between the two was rampant speculation brought on by greed and clouded judgement.
Or as it was nicely put by a judge who ruled that four leading investment banks were not to blame for stock market losses following the collapse of the tech bubble [analysts from Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and CSFB had been accused of issuing biased research]:
' investors were "obsessed with the fantasy of Olympian riches", which possibly clouded their judgment.'
Yeah, I know, I'm being gratuitously pedantic (sorry, I'm an aviation enthusiast), but the B-52 first flew in 1952, a full seven years after the end of WW II. You probably mean B-29's, the largest bomber of the era.
Anyone else had a flashback to the 1984 Tom Selleck sci-fi thriller Runaway? Just make damn sure the little bastards can't hold a .357 Magnum in their manipulators. Or that the system developers don't look like Gene Simmons.