But the nitwits at Greenpeace are probably better than nothing. No, they are worse than nothing. They look like insane ranters and turn ambivalent people away from doing things that are good for the environment. I strongly suspect that they have done more harm than good overall.
I just want the correct change at Subway when the cash register doesn't tell the sandwich-master what to do. Is adding and subtracting that much of a lost art these days?!
It's almost a sick hobby of mine to wait until they hit the $20 as cash tendered key to whip out a little change to prevent getting more change. The panicked, vapor locked, look in their eyes is really a thing of beauty.
c'mon people, your job is to make change when you work the register. It's not to say hi, it's not to look hip and disinterested, it's to take my money, and give me my friggin sandwich and change. When subtraction eludes you, maybe you should be swabbing the dining room instead.
Yup, it's proof that they can aggressively respond to major problems (how the problem happened seems to elude many investors). The company looks good...It's time to get a RIMM Job.
>Yes, and in much the same fashion, the US is guilty of massive genocide because >it has an arsenal of nuclear weapons, definitely a tool for the future nuclear holocaust.
Well let's get on with it, somebody go give Slim Pickens a call. I've got a list of places that need a good bombing around here somewhere...
I've got one of those too, it's a total POS, and it lives in my desk drawer. It hadn't seen the light of day in months and on a whim I charged the sucker up to use it as a browser tablet for surfing on the john... I use ozVGA to force the thing into 640x480 mode and it's sort of ok to surf with, but there are very few websites that work well on such a low rez screen (when was the last time you ran 640x480 with a normal brwoser?). It turned out to be frustrating and I put it back in the drawer. It's usefulness goes downhill from there. I should sell the sucker.
Sheldon
Re:the most important point to me is.....
on
100 Million iPods
·
· Score: 1
Not all MP3 encoders are created equal. If you care about your music and still want to use MP3 format, you owe it to yourself to try LAME vs. the built-in iTunes Fraunhoffer encoding. There's even an iTunes (for the mac) plugin to allow LAME encoding in iTunes: http://blacktree.com/apps/iTunes-LAME/
I made a couple of CD-R's of the same track in it's original form followed by a bunch of different MP3 encodings and did a lot of A-B'ing of them on several high resolution systems (headphones, electrostatic speakers, as well as moving coil speakers). It was very interesting, the LAME encoding sounded as good as the Fraunhoffer encoding at the next higher bit rate (both FBR). At VBR it is harder to make broad generalizations as they seem to change bit rates differently.
I rip my CD's to FLAC files which I serve up to a Squeezebox (then to my DIY DAC's) and transcode from FLAC to MP3 for my iPod and airport expresses.
That might be a good thing(tm). In many cases I prefer non anti-aliased fonts. I have a nice LCD with a DVI connection for a clear picture, then I'm supposed to fuzzy it up? Anti-aliasing lakes me think I need glasses in many cases.
There's a couple dashboard apps I use. The main one is a RPN calculator. But I can go for days without touching it, to the point that I kill all the dashboard processes. It's just a showy reincarnation of desk accessories. If you didn't use desk accessories in the pre osX days, you probably won't find the dashboard all that useful.
I'd like that and I'd like it to do one more thing. Since AppleTV's main goal in life is to chat with iTunes, I want the DVR hardware and software to push the recorded shows back to the iTunes machine that the Apple TV is paired with (the main one).
"The drives in question have only 256MB Flash or so"
If that size is correct, it's a whole lot less interesting than I was imagining. You can't push your RAM image into that for sleep, you can't keep much of the OS in there. IT would be useful for saving files you are working on. Imagine, the program lives in main memory and you keep saving your files to flash and leave the platters spun down until needed (needed may be quite often with only 256Meg).
So the Hybrid Car analogy is closer to correct than you guys thought: "An overly complex system that doesn't really solve the problem, but may postpone the need for the real solution."
"I've been in the SF store and I kinda like it because it is dark and close. I've gotten tired of the current crop of designed-by-shopping-psychology-consultants-to-be- annoyingly-bright-and-cheerful-all-stores-must-be- the-same-all-salespeople-must-have-the-same-rictus -grin stores that you find in malls."
Huh? You must not be talking about any Best Buy I've ever been in. It's a big warehouse with some tool over in the stereo department blasting some "speed metal" or something that is pretty far away from music. That sweet auditory attack is blended with the sounds of about a metric butt-load of confused mouth-breathing "customers" (read: sheeple) murmuring tech phrases to themselves and to each other. Plus there's the soundtrack to Die-hard 32 or whatever cheesy action movie playing with the volume set to 11 and the bass set to stun on about 1000 TVs mixed in to help with the subtlety of the experience. The selection in any one department is about as thin as tissue paper. If they do have something that I'm looking for, I get the joy of waiting in line to pay for it. When I finally make my way to the register (of which there is about 30,000 of them and 2 actually open), I get asked about an extended warranty, and my ID demanded, as well as my zip code etc. The only thing they don't ask about or for is a stool sample, which I'd be more than happy to provide at that point.
Sure, It's a happy happy joy joy type of experience to be sure...cheerful it ain't.
Well CD sales are still the most popular method to get music, and that is DRM free (and mostly rootkit free).
So the statement is more that we have been DRM free, and we put a toe in the DRM waters and said "no thanks" in many cases. This really isn't a case where we are throwing off the long-standing chains of oppression. DRM is a new thing, and a fairly limited thing (in audio), that we as a geeky segment of society are railing against.
Now movies have a lot more heritage with the DRM thing...
"Computers seem to be heading in the direction of becoming more like appliances; "
True, and we are in a dangerous "middle-ground" between a complex tool that only knowledgeable people use, and a true appliance that anybody uses.
The problem is that the operating system is too brittle and vulnerable to be considered an appliance. Do you ever think about how you use your toaster? If I put this new organic untrusted bread in the toaster will my toaster be taken over and corrupt the blender and waffle maker and start a kitchen rebellion? If I put in this DVD of "Ishtar" in my DVD player will it require a weekend to reinstall it's OS and useful applications?
No, that doesn't happen because appliances are robust and there isn't much a user can do to hurt them when used in their intended ways.
Now the current computers (particularly windows) are becoming appliances but haven't gotten to the critical point where they really become appliances. that transition will happen when a big chunk of the OS is hidden from the user and the user works in a Sandbox. It will be a lot less useful because it will only do what it was designed to do, but it will be safe and reliable for it's intended purpose. Then it will be an appliance.
The problem is that computers are sold as the answer to lots of the average user's non-problems. Like any good for sale in a capitalistic society, it's jammed down the throats of everybody the seller can get their hands on. So lots of people who maybe shouldn't be using computers (in their current unrestrained form) are using them (they are the ones who you get your spam from).
This is a windows problem not only because of shoddy engineering, but also because of Microsoft's position in the market. Let's look at the three major OS's:
Linux (BSD et al): It's a computer hobbiest's paradice, lots of great code, well defined heirarchy. Plus in general hard to get your hands on if you are "Joe User" who just wants to get a computer to e-mail the kids at school. This means that the people who are using this os WANT to use it for some reason (insert long list here), and they are going out of their way to use it. This means that this segment is typically very computer savvy and not likely to be pwned as a group.
Macintosh: This is also a "Harder to get" computer for two reasons. First, they are very expensive compared to the best-buy special. Second they are only sold in a few places. These two reasons make the Mac a sought-out computer rather than what the sales droid told you to buy. The average user is probably less computer savvy than the average Linux user, but in the case of the Mac, apple also "has your back" to some degree with frequent patches and a well designed core OS that minimizes your risk to begin with.
Windows: This is the default OS you get if you close your eyes and pick a computer. This means that if you have no clue about computers, chances are you get a windows box. Its fertile ground for stupid users to take advantage of (can I interest you in a free screensaver?). And in addition to that, MS has huge legacy issues that they can't change or they break business apps. MS has painted itself into this corner by selling to the lowest common denominator.
Change the borders to any color you like, there are still a huge amount of computer users that shouldn't be computer users under the current OS choices.
There's a lot of incandescent bulbs that can't be replaced with CF. For example, the bulb in your oven, that sucker gets HOT. How about those little night-light style bulbs in the "water in the door" of many refrigerators? Just outlawing bulbs is short-sighted and will cause problems. Don't forget all those incandescent bulbs in cars, there's a bunch of them in there. I'd love to see a CF replacement for the dome light.
I also find it ironic, that other technologies that use lots of power aren't outlawed. There's lots of audio freaks that still use vacuum tubes. I've been known to weld metal which isn't very energy efficient, especially when I make something that sucks and I'll probably throw away.
The answer to this isn't to outlaw things, but to use economic means to change behavior. Make electricity cost more and people will treat it as a more precious resource. If gasoline was $5 a gallon instead of $2, I'd think twice before driving sometimes.
I lived in New Mexico a couple years ago, and they had lots of "save water" campaigns. Yet water was very cheap. Certainly a mixed message. I can see not wanting to raise the price of such a critical resource, but it could be done in a tiered fashion, such that the normal amount needed was cheap, but more than that gets expensive in a hurry.
I'm sure a CF bulb will work really well in my oven. How about the little night-light type bulb on the icemaker door on my fridge. Speaking of fridge, how about the bulb in there? How long does it take to get the ballast warm in there...
CF's are useful, but they are a LONG way from replacing all incandescent bulbs.
why would I want to see a crappy movie really well? Maybe I'm just getting old, but there hasn't been much lately that has made me want to go to the movie theaters. I could be wrong, but even the latest epics (LOTR, and Potter) aren't available in High Def.
The content people want to see in the new format will drive the market. While there are 7 movies available, people aren't going to pony up $100 per movie for a player.
Frankly the format will go nowhere until Ishtar is available on it...
Yes, all non-high-def video is crappy. I have a friend who projects 35mm and 16mm film onto an 8 foot screen in his home. After watching moves on film, yes, DVD's are crappy, so very very crappy.
And don't get me started about my $40 DVD player telling me that I can't fast forward certain parts.
I wrote my masters in Framemaker (5.1?) and battled file corruption issues (Mac system 7-8 timeframe). I did my PhD in Latex and it was WAY WAY WAY better and the document was twice as long.
Spend a half a day and get familiar with how it works, and what it can do for you. you'll be much happier in the long run.
The business arguement is that sooner or later every new machine that comes through the door will have vista on it. So we will have it, it's just a matter of when and how best to deal with it.
Because malice is hard, and stupidity is easy. Granted in this situation it's not crystal clear, but like a good spam filter, this addage is suprisingly effective.
I haven't seen much talk about clustering search engines, such as vivisimo. They seem a whole lot more 2.0 than the ones quoted in the article. For those unfamiliar, they categorize results from a "flat" search, which can be very handy. For example a search on "UPS" sorts results for uninterruptible power supplies separate from those brown truck people. Very handy...
Slashdot Mirror
Sheldon
I just want the correct change at Subway when the cash register doesn't tell the sandwich-master what to do. Is adding and subtracting that much of a lost art these days?!
It's almost a sick hobby of mine to wait until they hit the $20 as cash tendered key to whip out a little change to prevent getting more change. The panicked, vapor locked, look in their eyes is really a thing of beauty.
c'mon people, your job is to make change when you work the register. It's not to say hi, it's not to look hip and disinterested, it's to take my money, and give me my friggin sandwich and change. When subtraction eludes you, maybe you should be swabbing the dining room instead.
Sheldon
Yup, it's proof that they can aggressively respond to major problems (how the problem happened seems to elude many investors). The company looks good...It's time to get a RIMM Job.
>Yes, and in much the same fashion, the US is guilty of massive genocide because
>it has an arsenal of nuclear weapons, definitely a tool for the future nuclear holocaust.
Well let's get on with it, somebody go give Slim Pickens a call. I've got a list of places that need a good bombing around here somewhere...
Sheldon
I've got one of those too, it's a total POS, and it lives in my desk drawer. It hadn't seen the light of day in months and on a whim I charged the sucker up to use it as a browser tablet for surfing on the john... I use ozVGA to force the thing into 640x480 mode and it's sort of ok to surf with, but there are very few websites that work well on such a low rez screen (when was the last time you ran 640x480 with a normal brwoser?). It turned out to be frustrating and I put it back in the drawer. It's usefulness goes downhill from there. I should sell the sucker.
Sheldon
Not all MP3 encoders are created equal. If you care about your music and still want to use MP3 format, you owe it to yourself to try LAME vs. the built-in iTunes Fraunhoffer encoding. There's even an iTunes (for the mac) plugin to allow LAME encoding in iTunes: http://blacktree.com/apps/iTunes-LAME/
I made a couple of CD-R's of the same track in it's original form followed by a bunch of different MP3 encodings and did a lot of A-B'ing of them on several high resolution systems (headphones, electrostatic speakers, as well as moving coil speakers). It was very interesting, the LAME encoding sounded as good as the Fraunhoffer encoding at the next higher bit rate (both FBR). At VBR it is harder to make broad generalizations as they seem to change bit rates differently.
I rip my CD's to FLAC files which I serve up to a Squeezebox (then to my DIY DAC's) and transcode from FLAC to MP3 for my iPod and airport expresses.
Sheldon
That might be a good thing(tm). In many cases I prefer non anti-aliased fonts. I have a nice LCD with a DVI connection for a clear picture, then I'm supposed to fuzzy it up? Anti-aliasing lakes me think I need glasses in many cases.
Sheldon
It's part of their "Core Excrement" framework which is primarily used so people migrating from windows aren't so lost.
Sheldon
There's a couple dashboard apps I use. The main one is a RPN calculator. But I can go for days without touching it, to the point that I kill all the dashboard processes. It's just a showy reincarnation of desk accessories. If you didn't use desk accessories in the pre osX days, you probably won't find the dashboard all that useful.
Sheldon
Yeah but the majority of us don't eat our own dog food. The wife and I have a Honda, Toyota and Mazda.
Sheldon
I'd like that and I'd like it to do one more thing. Since AppleTV's main goal in life is to chat with iTunes, I want the DVR hardware and software to push the recorded shows back to the iTunes machine that the Apple TV is paired with (the main one).
Sheldon
8 GB should to be enough for anybody...
"The drives in question have only 256MB Flash or so"
If that size is correct, it's a whole lot less interesting than I was imagining. You can't push your RAM image into that for sleep, you can't keep much of the OS in there. IT would be useful for saving files you are working on. Imagine, the program lives in main memory and you keep saving your files to flash and leave the platters spun down until needed (needed may be quite often with only 256Meg).
So the Hybrid Car analogy is closer to correct than you guys thought: "An overly complex system that doesn't really solve the problem, but may postpone the need for the real solution."
Sheldon
"I've been in the SF store and I kinda like it because it is dark and close. I've gotten tired of the current crop of designed-by-shopping-psychology-consultants-to-be- annoyingly-bright-and-cheerful-all-stores-must-be- the-same-all-salespeople-must-have-the-same-rictus -grin stores that you find in malls."
Huh? You must not be talking about any Best Buy I've ever been in. It's a big warehouse with some tool over in the stereo department blasting some "speed metal" or something that is pretty far away from music. That sweet auditory attack is blended with the sounds of about a metric butt-load of confused mouth-breathing "customers" (read: sheeple) murmuring tech phrases to themselves and to each other. Plus there's the soundtrack to Die-hard 32 or whatever cheesy action movie playing with the volume set to 11 and the bass set to stun on about 1000 TVs mixed in to help with the subtlety of the experience. The selection in any one department is about as thin as tissue paper. If they do have something that I'm looking for, I get the joy of waiting in line to pay for it. When I finally make my way to the register (of which there is about 30,000 of them and 2 actually open), I get asked about an extended warranty, and my ID demanded, as well as my zip code etc. The only thing they don't ask about or for is a stool sample, which I'd be more than happy to provide at that point.
Sure, It's a happy happy joy joy type of experience to be sure...cheerful it ain't.
Sheldon
"Do you have any sources on this?"
Well CD sales are still the most popular method to get music, and that is DRM free (and mostly rootkit free).
So the statement is more that we have been DRM free, and we put a toe in the DRM waters and said "no thanks" in many cases. This really isn't a case where we are throwing off the long-standing chains of oppression. DRM is a new thing, and a fairly limited thing (in audio), that we as a geeky segment of society are railing against.
Now movies have a lot more heritage with the DRM thing...
Sheldon
"Computers seem to be heading in the direction of becoming more like appliances; "
True, and we are in a dangerous "middle-ground" between a complex tool that only knowledgeable people use, and a true appliance that anybody uses.
The problem is that the operating system is too brittle and vulnerable to be considered an appliance. Do you ever think about how you use your toaster? If I put this new organic untrusted bread in the toaster will my toaster be taken over and corrupt the blender and waffle maker and start a kitchen rebellion? If I put in this DVD of "Ishtar" in my DVD player will it require a weekend to reinstall it's OS and useful applications?
No, that doesn't happen because appliances are robust and there isn't much a user can do to hurt them when used in their intended ways.
Now the current computers (particularly windows) are becoming appliances but haven't gotten to the critical point where they really become appliances. that transition will happen when a big chunk of the OS is hidden from the user and the user works in a Sandbox. It will be a lot less useful because it will only do what it was designed to do, but it will be safe and reliable for it's intended purpose. Then it will be an appliance.
The problem is that computers are sold as the answer to lots of the average user's non-problems. Like any good for sale in a capitalistic society, it's jammed down the throats of everybody the seller can get their hands on. So lots of people who maybe shouldn't be using computers (in their current unrestrained form) are using them (they are the ones who you get your spam from).
This is a windows problem not only because of shoddy engineering, but also because of Microsoft's position in the market. Let's look at the three major OS's:
Linux (BSD et al): It's a computer hobbiest's paradice, lots of great code, well defined heirarchy. Plus in general hard to get your hands on if you are "Joe User" who just wants to get a computer to e-mail the kids at school. This means that the people who are using this os WANT to use it for some reason (insert long list here), and they are going out of their way to use it. This means that this segment is typically very computer savvy and not likely to be pwned as a group.
Macintosh: This is also a "Harder to get" computer for two reasons. First, they are very expensive compared to the best-buy special. Second they are only sold in a few places. These two reasons make the Mac a sought-out computer rather than what the sales droid told you to buy. The average user is probably less computer savvy than the average Linux user, but in the case of the Mac, apple also "has your back" to some degree with frequent patches and a well designed core OS that minimizes your risk to begin with.
Windows: This is the default OS you get if you close your eyes and pick a computer. This means that if you have no clue about computers, chances are you get a windows box. Its fertile ground for stupid users to take advantage of (can I interest you in a free screensaver?). And in addition to that, MS has huge legacy issues that they can't change or they break business apps. MS has painted itself into this corner by selling to the lowest common denominator.
Change the borders to any color you like, there are still a huge amount of computer users that shouldn't be computer users under the current OS choices.
There's a lot of incandescent bulbs that can't be replaced with CF. For example, the bulb in your oven, that sucker gets HOT. How about those little night-light style bulbs in the "water in the door" of many refrigerators? Just outlawing bulbs is short-sighted and will cause problems. Don't forget all those incandescent bulbs in cars, there's a bunch of them in there. I'd love to see a CF replacement for the dome light.
I also find it ironic, that other technologies that use lots of power aren't outlawed. There's lots of audio freaks that still use vacuum tubes. I've been known to weld metal which isn't very energy efficient, especially when I make something that sucks and I'll probably throw away.
The answer to this isn't to outlaw things, but to use economic means to change behavior. Make electricity cost more and people will treat it as a more precious resource. If gasoline was $5 a gallon instead of $2, I'd think twice before driving sometimes.
I lived in New Mexico a couple years ago, and they had lots of "save water" campaigns. Yet water was very cheap. Certainly a mixed message. I can see not wanting to raise the price of such a critical resource, but it could be done in a tiered fashion, such that the normal amount needed was cheap, but more than that gets expensive in a hurry.
Sheldon
I'm sure a CF bulb will work really well in my oven. How about the little night-light type bulb on the icemaker door on my fridge. Speaking of fridge, how about the bulb in there? How long does it take to get the ballast warm in there...
CF's are useful, but they are a LONG way from replacing all incandescent bulbs.
why would I want to see a crappy movie really well? Maybe I'm just getting old, but there hasn't been much lately that has made me want to go to the movie theaters. I could be wrong, but even the latest epics (LOTR, and Potter) aren't available in High Def.
The content people want to see in the new format will drive the market. While there are 7 movies available, people aren't going to pony up $100 per movie for a player.
Frankly the format will go nowhere until Ishtar is available on it...
Sheldon
Make a smoothie out of it: http://www.willitblend.com/videos.aspx?type=unsafe &video=ipod
Sheldon
Yes, all non-high-def video is crappy. I have a friend who projects 35mm and 16mm film onto an 8 foot screen in his home. After watching moves on film, yes, DVD's are crappy, so very very crappy.
And don't get me started about my $40 DVD player telling me that I can't fast forward certain parts.
Sheldon
I wrote my masters in Framemaker (5.1?) and battled file corruption issues (Mac system 7-8 timeframe). I did my PhD in Latex and it was WAY WAY WAY better and the document was twice as long.
Spend a half a day and get familiar with how it works, and what it can do for you. you'll be much happier in the long run.
Sheldon
The business arguement is that sooner or later every new machine that comes through the door will have vista on it. So we will have it, it's just a matter of when and how best to deal with it.
Sheldon
Because malice is hard, and stupidity is easy. Granted in this situation it's not crystal clear, but like a good spam filter, this addage is suprisingly effective.
Sheldon
I haven't seen much talk about clustering search engines, such as vivisimo. They seem a whole lot more 2.0 than the ones quoted in the article. For those unfamiliar, they categorize results from a "flat" search, which can be very handy. For example a search on "UPS" sorts results for uninterruptible power supplies separate from those brown truck people. Very handy...
Sheldon