It's even better than that, not only is all the data on the disk already but, as nneonneo points out above, Apple provide a nice neat.XML file (with a fully published spec) that tells any application that wants to know exactly where all the data is, plus anything else it knows about it, plus the playlists.
Palm haven't written any desktop software any more, I guess because their philosophy is "WebOs doesn't need to sync to your PC, it syncs to the cloud!" which is fine except most people don't yet have their music in the cloud.
This is Slashdot, aren't all sysadmins fascist bastards who put needless restrictions in place for no good reason, that stop people do what they want to?
Also, in the UK we have known cases where terrorists planted someone in the organization that handles the enormous data sets so that they could make use of them.
I seem to be the only one thinking, that maybe if you don't know anything about physics, a Masters in "basically physics" is not a great idea?
I mean, supposing you don't like physics?
When I was doing my Maths degree I foolishly signed up for a physics course. I was learning real rigor in my Maths classes, then had to sit a squirm as the physicists did some terrible things to equations. Should have gone for English instead.
You know, you're right... I've not seen anyone here in the UK actually using one yet. Plenty for sale - pretty much every town has at least 2 places selling them.
For me, I find that the combo of a BLackberry curve and an iPod Touch does me fine: I'd probably prefer to have them in a single unit but I learned a long time ago that mobile internet over cellular networks sucks, so it's kinda helpful to know that the device in my left pocket gets crappy internet everywhere while the device in my right pocket gets proper internet at home, at work, and in my favorite coffee shop.
And of course the curve has a proper keyboard and a GPS.
A word on GPS - I like having it in the curve, but what makes Google maps on my BB useful is the cell tower location service - GPS takes a minute or so to lock on; having something approximate while I wait is ususally good enough.
I find myslef in the odd position of defending Vista despite a solemn vow that I ain;t gonna upgrade to it, but here goes:
My name is Biglig and I like UAC.
Sure, it's annoying. Annoys the crap out of me. Annoys people in the next room to me, thru some sort of voodoo.
But I like it, because, for the fist time, I ca run windows as a non-elevated user and things work.
Yes, finally, you can run as a regular user who is not a local admin on the box, and every time you try to do something that needs administrator privilege: it asks you!
I love that.
I suppose I have to admit that the way it also asks me if it is OK when I press the "w" key, or scratch my ass, or start notepad: that is sucky.
And yes, I did throw my work-issue top-of-the-range Vista laptop in the drawer and repalced it with a Macbook Pro and the second worst laptop in my spares pile, running Gutsy Gibbon
But nevertheless, yo have to admit, UAC has some advantages.
I had occasion to rebuild my production system recently, so I upgraded it from XP to Vista, figuring I had to learn it some time. I actually found UAC not as bad as people make out. It's certainly irritating, but I could live with that because it finally makes it practical for a "power user" to run in a non-elevated account. But, apart from that, I couldn't see anything that was an improvement. There's more eye-candy than XP, but since all the competitive OSes have better eye-candy than Vista, that's not a good thing to base a choice on. Look at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa906027.aspx and see what MS say are the improvements in Vista. Nothing there for me. But... the new networking UI is hateful. I was on a trip, so I had to keep changing to use different (non-SSID broadcasting) WiFi networks, and it was terrible. Endless pain. After three weeks I'd had enough and downgraded back to XP. YMMV, but for me an upgrade is clearly not a good idea, because it means I'd be paying to make my machine prettier, but slightly less useful. Except I'm going to have to upgrade sooner or later, because Microsoft are going to force me to. Eventually they'll stop supplying XP to the OEMs, they'll start making software that doesn't work on XP, and so on.
And this is where Microsoft have really screwed up, because, you know what? If I can't use XP any more, I'm disinclined to replace it with a product from the people who are taking XP away from me. Sure, there'll be switcher pain if I go with Leopard or Gibbon instead. Maybe less than going with Vista. But at least Microsoft get to share a tiny part of that pain.
Hope this isn't going to be added to the crimes where the new European Arrest Warrant is available, otherwise you're never coming to the UK, or France, or Poland, etc. etc.
Mod parent up. Sure, people can do a lot of cool things on the web, but there are a handful of things that just need to be local. Another example: One of the things I use my handheld for is reading ebooks. Ever since I have my first Palm I've carried emergency books around and so am never without something to read. How is that going to work on the iPhone?
RE: lunchtime, there's an even worse time users choose to ask you a question - when you're staggering along carrying a very heavy bit of kit - printer, CRT monitor. Never fails to attract questions.
Ah, but course funding in the UK is based on Student Numbers... So, say a uni needs to take on 75 Physics students a year to get enough funding to keep their Physics department going. And say only 50 people with enough Maths apply. What are they going to do? Close the physics dept or take on 25 idiots and encourage them to transfer to Media Studies after the first year? Not a fun choice...
What's new is that BBConnect is a very limited subset of BB functions - basically it's just a way of making the current mail client in your PDA get mail dropped into it from the BES. For a lot of people this is of course enough, but I know that, for example, I'd miss the BBs OTA calendar syncing, for example. So a full BB emulation on the PDA may suit some people better. Of course, a lot depends on how much the other apps can access the BB features. For example, can you mail a photo you take with your Treo's camera using the BB?
No, he's ordered the special "Slashdot Special Edition" replicator, that has the speed-dial keys pre-programmed before it leaves the factory. You press 1 and it makes a lightsabre, 2 and it makes Natalie Portman, 3 for Steve Ballmer's head in a bag, and so on.
Very useful, although you do need to check the serial number when it arrives, make sure they didn't ship you the Fark one by mistake. Yeah, you don't want to press any of those speed-dials.
Oh, I've been doing that for ages, thought it was by design... I hope they don't fix that bug, or I'll be stuck.
In addition to the favicon trick I put folders on the toolbar, renaming them to single characters. So for example, the folder of sites I check 5-6 times a day go in a folder named with the letter delta (becuase they change) and my non-work bookmarks go into a folder named with the smiley character.
My main problem is that I have three sites with no favicon... I'm forced to find single characters to represent them. Not always easy.
We should put that in as a feature request, the possibility to attach your own favicon to a bookmark!
Yes... It was called a Psion Series 5. No heat, AA batteries lasted weeks, word processor and spreadsheet built-in, had e-book software, best keyboard ever in a PDA, very keyboardy (it's predeessor, the Series 3, didn't even have a touch screen). CF slot for storage. Backup battery. Zero start-up time.
No USB, of course - a little too old for that - and ethernet is probably tricky (although it has a CF slot, so not impossible). Yes, it can run Linux.
but... people wanted tiny things that went in a shirt pocket and just held copies of thier outlook. These days my phone does all that, or course. Maybe I should dust mine down.
You're surely thinking of the Windows Security dialog, although if you're not participating in a domain windows XP does behave differently so you might be seeing somethign different.
But the thing with buttons for lock/log off/shutdown/change password/task manager, that's the windows security dialog.
You can probably even do it legally; buy office 2007 licences and put them in a cupboard labelled "in case of BSA break glass", and install more copies of your current Groove.
Of course, if Groove has copy protection, that might give you some trouble. Though I suppose you can do a partial office install and only select groove...
Well, the ribbon is a good UI improvement... but... if you're going to totally change the UI of an important application, think of a way to make sure people can frickin' well find stuff!
I am constantly having to stop working and spend 5 minutes going up and down all the ribbon tags looking for something that I know how to do in Office 2003.
Couldn't they have thought of some way of not throwing away all the time I invested in learning the product?
Slashdot Mirror
It's even better than that, not only is all the data on the disk already but, as nneonneo points out above, Apple provide a nice neat .XML file (with a fully published spec) that tells any application that wants to know exactly where all the data is, plus anything else it knows about it, plus the playlists.
Palm haven't written any desktop software any more, I guess because their philosophy is "WebOs doesn't need to sync to your PC, it syncs to the cloud!" which is fine except most people don't yet have their music in the cloud.
This is Slashdot, aren't all sysadmins fascist bastards who put needless restrictions in place for no good reason, that stop people do what they want to?
My eeePC 701 more or less only ever runs Firefox, a text editor, Comix, and Skype. Seems like a lot to have to put a whole Linux install on for...
Oh man, do I hate Experts Exchange - I'm going to have to think of a way to not have them pop up in Google searches...
Go for the phone your frickin' customers use.
First thing you need is a helpdesk ticketing system. Even if it's a wall covered in post-it notes.
Second thing you need is a way to rebuild a host from bare iron to working without expending any effort.
Also, in the UK we have known cases where terrorists planted someone in the organization that handles the enormous data sets so that they could make use of them.
Dee Bradley Baker plays Klaus in American Dad. Not Seth MacFarlane.
I seem to be the only one thinking, that maybe if you don't know anything about physics, a Masters in "basically physics" is not a great idea?
I mean, supposing you don't like physics?
When I was doing my Maths degree I foolishly signed up for a physics course. I was learning real rigor in my Maths classes, then had to sit a squirm as the physicists did some terrible things to equations. Should have gone for English instead.
You know, you're right... I've not seen anyone here in the UK actually using one yet. Plenty for sale - pretty much every town has at least 2 places selling them.
For me, I find that the combo of a BLackberry curve and an iPod Touch does me fine: I'd probably prefer to have them in a single unit but I learned a long time ago that mobile internet over cellular networks sucks, so it's kinda helpful to know that the device in my left pocket gets crappy internet everywhere while the device in my right pocket gets proper internet at home, at work, and in my favorite coffee shop.
And of course the curve has a proper keyboard and a GPS.
A word on GPS - I like having it in the curve, but what makes Google maps on my BB useful is the cell tower location service - GPS takes a minute or so to lock on; having something approximate while I wait is ususally good enough.
I find myslef in the odd position of defending Vista despite a solemn vow that I ain;t gonna upgrade to it, but here goes:
My name is Biglig and I like UAC.
Sure, it's annoying. Annoys the crap out of me. Annoys people in the next room to me, thru some sort of voodoo.
But I like it, because, for the fist time, I ca run windows as a non-elevated user and things work.
Yes, finally, you can run as a regular user who is not a local admin on the box, and every time you try to do something that needs administrator privilege: it asks you!
I love that.
I suppose I have to admit that the way it also asks me if it is OK when I press the "w" key, or scratch my ass, or start notepad: that is sucky.
And yes, I did throw my work-issue top-of-the-range Vista laptop in the drawer and repalced it with a Macbook Pro and the second worst laptop in my spares pile, running Gutsy Gibbon
But nevertheless, yo have to admit, UAC has some advantages.
You're right, cut and paste to XP under Parallels works much better... oh, was that not the point you were making?
I had occasion to rebuild my production system recently, so I upgraded it from XP to Vista, figuring I had to learn it some time. I actually found UAC not as bad as people make out. It's certainly irritating, but I could live with that because it finally makes it practical for a "power user" to run in a non-elevated account. ... the new networking UI is hateful. I was on a trip, so I had to keep changing to use different (non-SSID broadcasting) WiFi networks, and it was terrible. Endless pain. After three weeks I'd had enough and downgraded back to XP.
But, apart from that, I couldn't see anything that was an improvement. There's more eye-candy than XP, but since all the competitive OSes have better eye-candy than Vista, that's not a good thing to base a choice on. Look at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/aa906027.aspx and see what MS say are the improvements in Vista. Nothing there for me.
But
YMMV, but for me an upgrade is clearly not a good idea, because it means I'd be paying to make my machine prettier, but slightly less useful. Except I'm going to have to upgrade sooner or later, because Microsoft are going to force me to. Eventually they'll stop supplying XP to the OEMs, they'll start making software that doesn't work on XP, and so on.
And this is where Microsoft have really screwed up, because, you know what? If I can't use XP any more, I'm disinclined to replace it with a product from the people who are taking XP away from me.
Sure, there'll be switcher pain if I go with Leopard or Gibbon instead. Maybe less than going with Vista. But at least Microsoft get to share a tiny part of that pain.
Hope this isn't going to be added to the crimes where the new European Arrest Warrant is available, otherwise you're never coming to the UK, or France, or Poland, etc. etc.
Mod parent up. Sure, people can do a lot of cool things on the web, but there are a handful of things that just need to be local. Another example: One of the things I use my handheld for is reading ebooks. Ever since I have my first Palm I've carried emergency books around and so am never without something to read. How is that going to work on the iPhone?
RE: lunchtime, there's an even worse time users choose to ask you a question - when you're staggering along carrying a very heavy bit of kit - printer, CRT monitor. Never fails to attract questions.
Ah, but course funding in the UK is based on Student Numbers... So, say a uni needs to take on 75 Physics students a year to get enough funding to keep their Physics department going. And say only 50 people with enough Maths apply. What are they going to do? Close the physics dept or take on 25 idiots and encourage them to transfer to Media Studies after the first year? Not a fun choice...
What's new is that BBConnect is a very limited subset of BB functions - basically it's just a way of making the current mail client in your PDA get mail dropped into it from the BES. For a lot of people this is of course enough, but I know that, for example, I'd miss the BBs OTA calendar syncing, for example. So a full BB emulation on the PDA may suit some people better. Of course, a lot depends on how much the other apps can access the BB features. For example, can you mail a photo you take with your Treo's camera using the BB?
No, he's ordered the special "Slashdot Special Edition" replicator, that has the speed-dial keys pre-programmed before it leaves the factory. You press 1 and it makes a lightsabre, 2 and it makes Natalie Portman, 3 for Steve Ballmer's head in a bag, and so on.
Very useful, although you do need to check the serial number when it arrives, make sure they didn't ship you the Fark one by mistake. Yeah, you don't want to press any of those speed-dials.
Oh, I've been doing that for ages, thought it was by design... I hope they don't fix that bug, or I'll be stuck.
In addition to the favicon trick I put folders on the toolbar, renaming them to single characters. So for example, the folder of sites I check 5-6 times a day go in a folder named with the letter delta (becuase they change) and my non-work bookmarks go into a folder named with the smiley character.
My main problem is that I have three sites with no favicon... I'm forced to find single characters to represent them. Not always easy.
We should put that in as a feature request, the possibility to attach your own favicon to a bookmark!
Yes... It was called a Psion Series 5. No heat, AA batteries lasted weeks, word processor and spreadsheet built-in, had e-book software, best keyboard ever in a PDA, very keyboardy (it's predeessor, the Series 3, didn't even have a touch screen). CF slot for storage. Backup battery. Zero start-up time.
No USB, of course - a little too old for that - and ethernet is probably tricky (although it has a CF slot, so not impossible). Yes, it can run Linux.
but... people wanted tiny things that went in a shirt pocket and just held copies of thier outlook. These days my phone does all that, or course. Maybe I should dust mine down.
You're surely thinking of the Windows Security dialog, although if you're not participating in a domain windows XP does behave differently so you might be seeing somethign different.
But the thing with buttons for lock/log off/shutdown/change password/task manager, that's the windows security dialog.
You can probably even do it legally; buy office 2007 licences and put them in a cupboard labelled "in case of BSA break glass", and install more copies of your current Groove.
Of course, if Groove has copy protection, that might give you some trouble. Though I suppose you can do a partial office install and only select groove...
In which case, what will happen is that one of the smaller mobile operators like Virgin will offer a subsidised iPhone as a way to get market share.
Well, the ribbon is a good UI improvement... but... if you're going to totally change the UI of an important application, think of a way to make sure people can frickin' well find stuff!
I am constantly having to stop working and spend 5 minutes going up and down all the ribbon tags looking for something that I know how to do in Office 2003.
Couldn't they have thought of some way of not throwing away all the time I invested in learning the product?