tmasssey, I really appreciate your insight. I like being a control freak a lot better than being stupid.
I have used a non-Mac OS that doesn't assume tasks will quit...the RTOS I wrote back in college never quit tasks, it just suspended them.:-)
Be that as it may, you're completely right. I'm so caught up in my controlling expectations that I almost can't let go. So thanks for your thoughts. It makes me feel better.:-)
I was trying to get a subset of the music files in the music folder to appear in the iTunes library. I selected and deleted from the library the songs I did not want to have in the library. Satisfied with my selections, I did something else for a while. When I came back to iTunes, songs I was sure I deleted (don't like accapella nearly as much as my wife does) from the library but left in the music folder were back in the iTunes library.
I deleted them (from the library) again, thinking I must have missed some or not done what I thought I had. Came back to it later. The songs were back. Deleted them again and sat there and watched iTunes increment the music file counter AS IT ADDED THEM BACK. It was autoscanning for music. Fine, I thought, and set about trying to disable the autoscan. I don't recall the option I unselected, but it seemed like it would stop this behavior. I deleted the files again, (smugly of course:-) and watched iTunes to make sure it wouldn't re-add the files. Imagine my shock as I watched it add one after the other. Pretty soon the whole accapella collection was back in the library. Repeat the searching for how to disable it and retesting it several times, each time getting more and more frustrated, until I gave up.
Dumb, I know. I know I missed something. But I couldn't find it intuitively, quickly, or after searching. I gave up.
I could be stupid. That's truly how it made me feel. Here I am, a EE, with loads of computer experience, and I cannot get the hang of this user interface by either playing around with the controls or actively trying to learn it. Perhaps I'm so set in my ways that I'm incapable of learning a new OS. If that's the case I'm truly scared.
But I don't think that's the answer. When I picked up linux, I got used to it very quickly. I like it. It's intuitive. I can use it. I feel effective. It does what I tell it to. I'm unable to get Macs to do the same. I respect them and their users. I wouldn't have tried to switch if I didn't think there was value in it.
I have even had success with very non-intuitive operating systems (OS/400 is about as un-intuitive as you can get IMO).
I guess the long and short of it is I couldn't get a Mac to work for me. Which is sad, but fine. Call me what you will.
Colors? No, not just colors. That would be purile. I'm talking about TweakUI type things. I'm talking about being able to actually close a program and have it go away. Macs are non-intuitive to me. iTunes for example: I tried to convince iTunes to stop scanning through my music folder and adding songs to the media library. I wanted to add only selected songs to the library. I could not make it stop. Being a programmer, I was distraught and wanted to throw my computer through the window as I watched it add files I have just deleted from the library back to the library.
Trivial, yes, but why oh why wouldn't it listen to me?
Creating my own keyboard shortcuts? (I'm sure it's possible... I couldn't figure it out.) Actual customization is what I'm talking about. Yes, I did try. I tried hard. Hard enough that I felt like I should have been able to do it if I was ever gonna get it like I wanted. Perhaps next time I'm fed up with XP I'll give your link a try, but for now, I've had enough.
Good point. Close minded Winboys have always just said "Macs are slow" and dismissed them.
Uhm, no. Call me a "Winboy" if you want, but that's not why I've dismissed Macs. I HATE THE UI. I CANNOT STAND IT. I've tried to like it. I can't do it. I can customize XP to my heart's content and get it from the happy-clappy playschool color theme to something I can use quickly, effectively, and stand to look at, but I was completely unable to do the same with a Mac. I tried. Oh how I tried. And I was so mad when I found myself reverting to XP and liking it.
And I'm not a "winboy." I use linux/xp/hpux/os400/dos/etc... but I can't convince myself to like the Mac UI.
More important is increased network support on next-gen consoles.
PCs already have this. PCs had DVD players before XBox had that little remote control mod thingy that let you play DVDs. Computers are already multipurpose devices. I code, play, email, store pictures, watch movies (for a while my laptop was the only DVD player in the house... good thing it had an RCA out to the TV and an IR remote), write reports, organize my finances, browse the web, game (both locally and across the web), listen to music and do a whole host of other things on my PC. It's just one laptop. Can you find a console that can convienently do those things? Portably?
I haven't, and I'm not looking. I'm very satisfied with computer gaming.
Yes, console feature-creep will continue and every now and then we'll see an ad that says "Console Z just got feature Q!" We'll think, "oh, that's cool, now I can do that on my console, just like on my computer.... Oh, wait..." We don't need it.
Granted, if all you want to do is game, consoles are the cheaper option by far, but if you've already got a computer, then why bother with consoles? So many people have computers that I see consoles taking over computer gaming completely right after Duke Nukem Forever.
Hey guys, I like tin foil hats. I think privacy is a good thing. I don't want to be tracked by RFID tags. I don't like cookies. But LIBRARY CARDS? Come on. Who cares if the librarian that helps you check out your latest book sees a list of the books you currently have out, or even the last year's worth?
Are they selling this information to marketers? I don't think so. Are they calling you in the middle of the night and harrassing you for checking out Ender's Game for the 4th time? I don't think so. What's the big deal?
I felt the same as you for a long while. Then I reluctantly tried it, and I can't go back. Online banking rules.
I can set up my payments so that they are paid on time, every time, without worrying. I can also easily put this information in my budget and see how I'm doing. It's really great. I can time payments so the money stays in my interest-bearing account for as long as possible and still gets there on time. Sure, it might not be much on my phone bill, but for my mortgage, that's quite a bit.
So I guess what I'm saying is don't give it a try unless you're willing to accept the chance that you'll love it and need it.
We live in an age where recording labels can become largely irrelevant (at least for music). It doesn't cost that much to put together an album. The days of artists signing away the next 10 years of their music careers are over. Now, an artist can record an album, and sell it online, costing consumers much less than physical media. It's cutting out the middle-man.
Yes naysayers, there is still a market for CD's. The artist can choose to create physical albums if they want, but do musicians still need a massive recording label to do this? I'm not an musician, but with the equipment in my house I could put together a fairly decent album (provided I could sing).
We don't need massive, overbearing record labels any more. If musicians would wake up and realize this, the days of the **AA would be numbered.
You've got a good idea there. A full FM-radio spectrum broadcast of nothing but silence (or instructions to turn the volume down if they want to hear their song again). This is a twist to active noise cancellation that I'd never heard before.
Your neighbors would hate it though. "Here comes that car again, and right in the middle of my favorite song!"
Now we just need a way to request songs from the guys in front of you.
Seriously though, what will the FCC have to say about this? My guess is they won't like it in the slightest.
What about someone broadcasting (in the IP packet sense) advertisements non-stop?
What will the **AA have to say about this?
My guess is this won't happen for at least some of the above reasons.
I've seen it in real life. When I was there one of the systems was crunching some genetic info (whatever that means). It's real.
The Viva software is pretty cool too. It's called a formal synthesizer. It takes higher level abstractions and creates FPGA code, optimizing for whatever criteria you ask it to.
It does NOT reprogram itself dynamically (at least as of late 2002). It is merely a tool for creating FPGA code that runs on their hardware.
Come on! The numbers have "started to run out" in many parts of the world, North America excluded. Many parts of the world are clamoring for it.
North American acceptance of IPv6 is slow merely because we have no pressing need and existing IPv6 can tunnel through IPv4. It doesn't really bother us, but in case you haven't noticed, there is a whole lot more world out there than just North America.
I could argue in court that you enabled all of the people that downloaded from you to get the song for free when they could have payed.99 at the iTunes store.
Come on!
Using your same logic, If Walmart sells the song for $.89, I could argue in court that they enabled all of the people that bought from them to get the song for $.10 cheaper than the iTunes store and are therefore liable for the rest of the money. This does not add up.
The name of EVERY FUNCTION is completely different. All the ones in Maui software start with ADSTATS and in the so-called original, all the function names begin with PHPSTAT.
How could this be copying code?
And as for all the function bodies being exactly the same code, well, it's a miracle. I guess good programmers all format their code exactly the same, use the same comments, and even misspell the same comments. Uhm, I gotta go.
Sincerely, Maui X^H^H^H^H^H^H Someone with no financial interest in the outcome of this situation
What is the cost to society of creating a motivation not to use good ideas for x number of years...
[patent]. A grant by the federal government to an inventor of the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling his or her invention. There are three kinds of patents in the United States: a utility patent on the functional aspects of products and processes; a design patent on the ornamental design of useful objects; and a plant patent on a new variety of a living plant. Patents do not protect ideas, only structures and methods that apply technological concepts. Each type of patent confers the right to exclude others from a precisely defined scope of technology, industrial design usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/intelprp/glossary.h tm
People with patents do use their ideas, good or bad.
What about one great idea sparking another? How many truly great ideas just appear out of thin air? Contrast that with an idea out in the open, with open standards that only requires you to work with the patent holder to license his/her technology to use it.... If you come up with something they like, they might come to you to license your part of it. It's a give and take. True there are cases of corporations/people taking without giving, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
Creating an inclination to have ideas by creating a disinclination to use them
Is that really what patents are for? Is that really the general effect they have? I disagree wholeheartedly. Granted I only took one Intellectual Property course at University, but aren't patents supposed to allow the holder to profit by them by disclosing them to the public for the benefit of all? Patents expire. People build upon old ones or design around current ones. (Google design around patent if you don't believe me)
I want to have a hardware patent one day. For a young, fledgling business, this is an indispensable tool. It lets you get your feet on the ground while still sharing your ideas with the world. (I do not like software patents though. I support open source.)
True, some may choose to cling tenaciously to their idea without making real use of them--and this is sad, but generally if people apply for a patent they use it. Have you taken a look at the patent fees in the U.S.?
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tmasssey, I really appreciate your insight. I like being a control freak a lot better than being stupid.
:-)
:-)
I have used a non-Mac OS that doesn't assume tasks will quit...the RTOS I wrote back in college never quit tasks, it just suspended them.
Be that as it may, you're completely right. I'm so caught up in my controlling expectations that I almost can't let go. So thanks for your thoughts. It makes me feel better.
"...allow companies to virtualize multiple operating systems."
It will also allow you to:
reintermediate enterprise markets
synergize synergistic metrics
strategize vertical e-commerce
deploy viral bandwidth
and lastly...
unleash user-centric portals
And I thought reading my old perl code was hard!
Also, about iTunes:
:-) and watched iTunes to make sure it wouldn't re-add the files. Imagine my shock as I watched it add one after the other. Pretty soon the whole accapella collection was back in the library. Repeat the searching for how to disable it and retesting it several times, each time getting more and more frustrated, until I gave up.
I was trying to get a subset of the music files in the music folder to appear in the iTunes library. I selected and deleted from the library the songs I did not want to have in the library. Satisfied with my selections, I did something else for a while. When I came back to iTunes, songs I was sure I deleted (don't like accapella nearly as much as my wife does) from the library but left in the music folder were back in the iTunes library.
I deleted them (from the library) again, thinking I must have missed some or not done what I thought I had. Came back to it later. The songs were back. Deleted them again and sat there and watched iTunes increment the music file counter AS IT ADDED THEM BACK. It was autoscanning for music. Fine, I thought, and set about trying to disable the autoscan. I don't recall the option I unselected, but it seemed like it would stop this behavior. I deleted the files again, (smugly of course
Dumb, I know. I know I missed something. But I couldn't find it intuitively, quickly, or after searching. I gave up.
Definately not trolling... :-)
I could be stupid. That's truly how it made me feel. Here I am, a EE, with loads of computer experience, and I cannot get the hang of this user interface by either playing around with the controls or actively trying to learn it. Perhaps I'm so set in my ways that I'm incapable of learning a new OS. If that's the case I'm truly scared.
But I don't think that's the answer. When I picked up linux, I got used to it very quickly. I like it. It's intuitive. I can use it. I feel effective. It does what I tell it to. I'm unable to get Macs to do the same. I respect them and their users. I wouldn't have tried to switch if I didn't think there was value in it.
I have even had success with very non-intuitive operating systems (OS/400 is about as un-intuitive as you can get IMO).
I guess the long and short of it is I couldn't get a Mac to work for me. Which is sad, but fine. Call me what you will.
Colors? No, not just colors. That would be purile. I'm talking about TweakUI type things. I'm talking about being able to actually close a program and have it go away. Macs are non-intuitive to me. iTunes for example: I tried to convince iTunes to stop scanning through my music folder and adding songs to the media library. I wanted to add only selected songs to the library. I could not make it stop. Being a programmer, I was distraught and wanted to throw my computer through the window as I watched it add files I have just deleted from the library back to the library.
Trivial, yes, but why oh why wouldn't it listen to me?
Creating my own keyboard shortcuts? (I'm sure it's possible... I couldn't figure it out.) Actual customization is what I'm talking about. Yes, I did try. I tried hard. Hard enough that I felt like I should have been able to do it if I was ever gonna get it like I wanted. Perhaps next time I'm fed up with XP I'll give your link a try, but for now, I've had enough.
Thanks though.
Good point. Close minded Winboys have always just said "Macs are slow" and dismissed them.
Uhm, no. Call me a "Winboy" if you want, but that's not why I've dismissed Macs. I HATE THE UI. I CANNOT STAND IT. I've tried to like it. I can't do it. I can customize XP to my heart's content and get it from the happy-clappy playschool color theme to something I can use quickly, effectively, and stand to look at, but I was completely unable to do the same with a Mac. I tried. Oh how I tried. And I was so mad when I found myself reverting to XP and liking it.
And I'm not a "winboy." I use linux/xp/hpux/os400/dos/etc... but I can't convince myself to like the Mac UI.
More important is increased network support on next-gen consoles.
PCs already have this. PCs had DVD players before XBox had that little remote control mod thingy that let you play DVDs. Computers are already multipurpose devices. I code, play, email, store pictures, watch movies (for a while my laptop was the only DVD player in the house... good thing it had an RCA out to the TV and an IR remote), write reports, organize my finances, browse the web, game (both locally and across the web), listen to music and do a whole host of other things on my PC. It's just one laptop. Can you find a console that can convienently do those things? Portably?
I haven't, and I'm not looking. I'm very satisfied with computer gaming.
Yes, console feature-creep will continue and every now and then we'll see an ad that says "Console Z just got feature Q!" We'll think, "oh, that's cool, now I can do that on my console, just like on my computer.... Oh, wait..." We don't need it.
Granted, if all you want to do is game, consoles are the cheaper option by far, but if you've already got a computer, then why bother with consoles? So many people have computers that I see consoles taking over computer gaming completely right after Duke Nukem Forever.
Hey guys, I like tin foil hats. I think privacy is a good thing. I don't want to be tracked by RFID tags. I don't like cookies. But LIBRARY CARDS? Come on. Who cares if the librarian that helps you check out your latest book sees a list of the books you currently have out, or even the last year's worth?
:-)
Are they selling this information to marketers? I don't think so. Are they calling you in the middle of the night and harrassing you for checking out Ender's Game for the 4th time? I don't think so. What's the big deal?
I like privacy, but come on.
* Aluminium for my British brothers out there.
I felt the same as you for a long while. Then I reluctantly tried it, and I can't go back. Online banking rules.
I can set up my payments so that they are paid on time, every time, without worrying. I can also easily put this information in my budget and see how I'm doing. It's really great. I can time payments so the money stays in my interest-bearing account for as long as possible and still gets there on time. Sure, it might not be much on my phone bill, but for my mortgage, that's quite a bit.
So I guess what I'm saying is don't give it a try unless you're willing to accept the chance that you'll love it and need it.
Good start, but why not take it further?
We live in an age where recording labels can become largely irrelevant (at least for music). It doesn't cost that much to put together an album. The days of artists signing away the next 10 years of their music careers are over. Now, an artist can record an album, and sell it online, costing consumers much less than physical media. It's cutting out the middle-man.
Yes naysayers, there is still a market for CD's. The artist can choose to create physical albums if they want, but do musicians still need a massive recording label to do this? I'm not an musician, but with the equipment in my house I could put together a fairly decent album (provided I could sing).
We don't need massive, overbearing record labels any more. If musicians would wake up and realize this, the days of the **AA would be numbered.
You've got a good idea there. A full FM-radio spectrum broadcast of nothing but silence (or instructions to turn the volume down if they want to hear their song again). This is a twist to active noise cancellation that I'd never heard before.
Your neighbors would hate it though. "Here comes that car again, and right in the middle of my favorite song!"
Now we just need a way to request songs from the guys in front of you.
Seriously though, what will the FCC have to say about this? My guess is they won't like it in the slightest.
What about someone broadcasting (in the IP packet sense) advertisements non-stop?
What will the **AA have to say about this?
My guess is this won't happen for at least some of the above reasons.
I've seen it in real life. When I was there one of the systems was crunching some genetic info (whatever that means). It's real.
The Viva software is pretty cool too. It's called a formal synthesizer. It takes higher level abstractions and creates FPGA code, optimizing for whatever criteria you ask it to.
It does NOT reprogram itself dynamically (at least as of late 2002). It is merely a tool for creating FPGA code that runs on their hardware.
+5 Insightful?
Come on! The numbers have "started to run out" in many parts of the world, North America excluded. Many parts of the world are clamoring for it.
North American acceptance of IPv6 is slow merely because we have no pressing need and existing IPv6 can tunnel through IPv4. It doesn't really bother us, but in case you haven't noticed, there is a whole lot more world out there than just North America.
I could argue in court that you enabled all of the people that downloaded from you to get the song for free when they could have payed .99 at the iTunes store.
Come on!
Using your same logic, If Walmart sells the song for $.89, I could argue in court that they enabled all of the people that bought from them to get the song for $.10 cheaper than the iTunes store and are therefore liable for the rest of the money. This does not add up.
Normally, I'm totally opposed to anything the French do, but this was a real shocker. All I can think to say is "Viva La France!"
Agreed. Mod parent down. Security is a big issue, but the 9th tin foil hat makes about as much difference as the 8th.
The name of EVERY FUNCTION is completely different. All the ones in Maui software start with ADSTATS and in the so-called original, all the function names begin with PHPSTAT.
How could this be copying code?
And as for all the function bodies being exactly the same code, well, it's a miracle. I guess good programmers all format their code exactly the same, use the same comments, and even misspell the same comments. Uhm, I gotta go.
Sincerely,
Maui X^H^H^H^H^H^H Someone with no financial interest in the outcome of this situation
Ford! Chevy! Ford! Chevy! Ford! Chevy! FORD! CHEVY! DODGE!
s/Ford/Firefox/
s/Chevy/IE/
s/Dodge/whatever_dumb_browswer_u_want/
Come on.
If I had mod points, you'd get 'em all. :-)
What is the cost to society of creating a motivation not to use good ideas for x number of years...
h tm
[patent]. A grant by the federal government to an inventor of the right to exclude others from making, using, or selling his or her invention. There are three kinds of patents in the United States: a utility patent on the functional aspects of products and processes; a design patent on the ornamental design of useful objects; and a plant patent on a new variety of a living plant. Patents do not protect ideas, only structures and methods that apply technological concepts. Each type of patent confers the right to exclude others from a precisely defined scope of technology, industrial design
usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/intelprp/glossary.
People with patents do use their ideas, good or bad.
What about one great idea sparking another? How many truly great ideas just appear out of thin air? Contrast that with an idea out in the open, with open standards that only requires you to work with the patent holder to license his/her technology to use it.... If you come up with something they like, they might come to you to license your part of it. It's a give and take. True there are cases of corporations/people taking without giving, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
Creating an inclination to have ideas by creating a disinclination to use them
Is that really what patents are for? Is that really the general effect they have? I disagree wholeheartedly. Granted I only took one Intellectual Property course at University, but aren't patents supposed to allow the holder to profit by them by disclosing them to the public for the benefit of all? Patents expire. People build upon old ones or design around current ones. (Google design around patent if you don't believe me)
I want to have a hardware patent one day. For a young, fledgling business, this is an indispensable tool. It lets you get your feet on the ground while still sharing your ideas with the world. (I do not like software patents though. I support open source.)
True, some may choose to cling tenaciously to their idea without making real use of them--and this is sad, but generally if people apply for a patent they use it. Have you taken a look at the patent fees in the U.S.?