In my experience, good new ideas are shunned by 90% of the people, until the market shows it's value. I think pessimism towards new ideas develops over time. Since 99% of cool sounding ideas basically suck and will never be of much use, you wind up being right 90% of the time by hating them all. The worst way to determine the value of a new idea is to ask a bunch of successful experts in the field. Weird, but true. As a forum, I'd say that slashdot is the most open entity for bouncing around ideas I know of, and of course, you all know how flamed we all get for each new idea we post here:-)
Well, the download speed would only be a problem the first time you access data, and I think we could download at the 200KB/sec typical DSL download speed, rather than it's typical 40KB/sec upload. My thought was that downloading the roughly 1G compressed DVD image is pretty fast, but that time would be spread over your entire use of an OS, and hopefully hardly be noticed. However, I agree with your point. Super-cool to one coder is usually sudder-at-the-thought to another:-)
On another project related to encryption, I found that there is a large active community of experts generally available to helpfully tear your ideas to pieces. I just wrote a tiny file encryption algorithm. Originally, I had a algorithm I invented, and the community was nice enough to tear it apart and show the wisdom in sticking to simpler, proven algorithms (I now use the well-worn ARC4-drop). I guess in general, the open-source community is generally willing to review ideas and offer advice. For writing code, you're on your own.
I was similarly disappointed. Open-source work is fairly lonely most of the time. To justify doing open-source projects, you valid reasons beyond hoping others will pitch in and help, since that rarely happens (contrary to popular belief). Even with bigger more popular programs, there's still often a single programmer doing practically everything. Users generally don't help out, but post a lot of "Help me, please!" requests, soaking up even more of your time.
I have some projects I'd like to do if I had other interested programmers to make the projects more social and fun. For example, I'd like to implement a P2P file system that downloads data only when accessed the first time, caching it on your disk. The idea there is a really tiny Linux installation could be created that has the whole freaking Ubuntu or Debian distro already fully installed, but the files wouldn't really be there - they'd be out on the P2P network, waiting to download when needed, rather than filling up my disk with crap I never use.
Even though such a project sounds super-cool to me personally, getting even one other human being interested takes a miracle. In reality, you just have to write it, and hope the user base grows.
A few points to your post and grandparent... We didn't unleash hell on Japan until well into the war, in fact not until Japan absolutely convinced our leadership and most Americans that they would fight to the last woman and child. Why nuke them? Why burn their cities? Well... it was a good start on killing them all. Apparently, they thought we didn't have the stomach for genocide. Wrong, wrong wrong... Actually, we did resist in similar bombing of Europe... we don't seem to enjoy mass killing, if at all avoidable. It seems that we misread the Japanese, and they misread us. I feel that Middle East terrorists have similarly misread us.
I tend to believe that MacArthur had a lot to do with the recovery of Japan, just as I believe that Japan and Germany should get most of the credit themselves. For example, MacArthur forbid troops form eating any Japanese food, and had a black and white policy for the troops treatment of the Japanese: no punishment for any crime, except death. The idea was that eating Japanese food while the Japanese were starving would cause great resentment. Also, MacArthur knew that American troops would fail miserably at the delicate balance of Japanese justice, so there was only one punishment, and the Japanese decided to avoid it. I believe most of the recovery of Japan and Germany had to do with their own cultures, the same cultures that nearly dominated the world.
In comparison, Iraq is basically screwed. Instead of MacArthur, we've got Bush running things (not good - duh). As for the people, it's no coincidence that the most famous childhood story from Iraq known to most Americans is "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves". It was so stupid to invade... with 20-20 hindsight.
The interesting thing about the iPhone was how it differed from all those products you can get in Europe. Actually, I was just there for two weeks, in wonderful Italy. I had to buy a Vodaphone unit, since my stupid iPhone got no service there. The Vodaphone sales guy got very excited when he saw my iPhone, and gathered the other sales guys around for a demo. Of course, my iPhone was much cooler than regular iPhones... I had the awesome Summerboard launcher, the Books e-book reader, games, a VNC viewer (in alpha form), and ssh/sshd. That is the real difference iPhone made... it is the first usable laptop/phone that fits comfortably in a pocket. I was able to log into servers at work to check stuff, use AIM instant messaging... Man, how stupid was it for Steve to end it all? He almost had a revolutionary product. I guess it's not the first time he's snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
My favorite smaller Linux computer manufacturer use to be Monarch. I didn't send clients to them since they were a smaller, less stable outfit. Now that they've gone under, who's to blame? Me for not sending the business, or them for going under? It's a hard choice either way to send business to a small outfit. As they say, no one was ever fired for recommending IBM (a very old and out of date saying). More recently, I fell into the trap of recommending the other big players, without ever venturing to recommend a risky product. I'm still waiting to push Ubuntu big-time... customers mostly aren't ready for it, even if Ubuntu is.
Also note... if the iPhone 2.0 comes out with a proper open-source SDK, yeah, I'll get one, even if Steve is an a-hole. I can't resist fiddling with the best toys...
You did a bit of digging... In reply to my post, someone pointed out the web page for people programming iphones. In response, I bought one, and began to work on developing apps for iPhone. Now, my iPhone is dead, thanks to a-hole Steve. Yes, I think I will help Ubuntu, and fuck Steve. And, frankly, you do a lot of digging for a fairly stupid person.
I totally agree. The "Genius" at the Apple store told me that they had intentionally disabled my iPhone, rather than accidentally. My response? I smashed the phone to pieces in front of him, and I'm promoting Ubuntu Mobile as an alternative for future smart phones, rather than Darwin. I figure I can do more good for the world as a coder for Ubuntu Mobile than I could as a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit.
Apple also borked my new iPhone on-purpose, simply because they detected I had tried (unsuccessfully) to unlock it. They've crossed over into some of the most evil practices I've seen, outdoing even the worst from M$. I must admit I enjoyed smashing the thing to pieces in front of the "Genius" at the Apple store.
Yes, more kudos to IBM! Frankly, with this long string of seemingly good-guy/non-evil actions from IBM, I'm tempted to try to send them more business. I don't know about the rest of us here, but over the years, I suspect I've influenced decision makers' vendor choices to the tune of probably about $1M/year now. That includes sending a bunch of guys to Dell (and now HP), RedHat (and now Ubuntu), steering people clear of Novel (and now Apple). I suspect that the sum total of business influenced by we geeks who care about this kind of thing is billions. Good for IBM to get it.
Re: Who buys Zunes any way?
on
ZOMG New Zunes
·
· Score: 1
Yeah, that's the real rub... the Apple products are simply better than the others:-( They just screwed me out of a $400 iPhone, so I'm in no hurry to give them new business... maybe if the class-action suit is settled:-)
Re: Who buys Zunes any way?
on
ZOMG New Zunes
·
· Score: 1
Off-topic, but if not an iPod (Apple's PO-ed me severely by purposely borking my iPhone), and not a Zune, then what? What music players to/.-ers favor?
It seems that big sites like macrumors are removing the actual e-mail for signing up for the class-action suit. The "reason" stated at macrumors is "sorry, pal..."
The missing e-mail address that has been deleted is classaction@myndex.com. I hope this results in a real suit for all of us, not just California residents.
I just smashed my iBricked iPhone on the desk of the "Genius" at my local Apple store. He told me that Apple PURPOSELY bricked not only the phone, but the SIM card, too. It's one thing if I brick my phone. If they brick my phone and SIM card on purpose, they've damaged my property. I might have violated the EULA by installing 3rd party applications, but that gives them no right to damage my property. Where the heck is the e-mail for the class-action lawsuit?
Can we separate "net neutrality" into two distinct issues? I would rather discuss "Internet tolls" in one forum, and "traffic shaping" in another. BTW, screw Internet tolls, and to hell with the politicians trying to ram it down our throats!
I might be confused... does Symbian have an open-source toolchain I can use to freely write apps for my phone? That's the key distinction. I never want to own another closed phone again:-)
Jobs may be an a-hole, but he's damned smart. OS-X (on Macs and iPhones) is just open enough to allow hackers freedom to innovate, while just closed enough for Jobs to charge whatever he wants for the OS, while controlling the QA for average users ("It just works - TM" to quote another/.-er). Jobs absolutely wants to be Gates, and he's using open-source as leverage against Microsoft, for his own benefit rather than for open-source developers. It's never been said that Jobs is just trying to make the world a better place. Fortunately, that's just a side effect.
The real benefit of open-systems on a cell phone are far beyond the typically quoted "time-to-market" and "cost-of-ownership" stuff. My Motorola Razr is a fine phone, but nothing more. For anything other than making phone calls, it completely sucks. I can't even take and share pictures freely, and the charge for simple text messages is just stupid. I personally never intend to own another stupid Symbian based phone again.
In comparison, now that hackers have dissected it, the iPhone is a tiny laptop in my pocket, from which I can ssh into work to control servers, log into AIM, browse the full web, read e-books downloaded from gutenberg.org, or develop high-end applications such as P2P voice. A VNC viewer is also in development. Once again, it's taken Apple to show big-company-marketing where the market actually lies. It's all about the software, and the stupid cell-industry has always thought that they were smart enough to deliver it... wrong wrong wrong.
I think Apple and the new crop of Linux based phone vendors should deliver 8-16 gig high-end phones with dev-tools pre-installed. I should be able to open the box, log into wi-fi, and ssh into a bash shell. From there, I should be able to develop apps for the phone directly on the phone. The GPS and other devices should come with open-source drivers. From a hardware point of view, the iPhone is interesting, but not revolutionary. From a software point of view, it's a whole new game.
I don't believe things have changed much in 20 years, other than that horrible recession we had after the web bubble burst. Programmers and engineers are paid the same now as 20 years ago, if you adjust for inflation. The problem with our profession is that we do compete world-wide, meaning there will be few of us earning $400K/year any time soon, unlike similarly skilled lawyers and doctors.
The bottom line is do it if you love it, and want to contribute to technology development. If you're in it for the big bucks, learn about running a business, not programming a computer. Personally, I love working in high-tech, and would do it on the cheap.
Actually, having read the 6,000 page standards document, I have to admit it's well designed has has excellent.... ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!! Ok, I couldn't say that with a straight face.
Wow, these apps rock! After installing AIM and a couple games on my wife's phone, I went and bought my own iPhone. Now I've got the installer, AIM, file browser, launcher, terminal, and several other apps. It's amazing how functional they are after so little development time! I'm going to take some eBooks with me on a two week trip to Italy later this month. The entire 3rd party app flow is smooth as silk. In fact, the only real trouble I had was with the AT&T morons, who caused me about 3 hours of serious pain just to activate the thing. No wonder it took Apple to come out with a decent new idea... the US cell vendors are dumb as a bag of hammers.
Since I'm going to be in Italy for a couple weeks, I've already bought an unlocked Razor and a pre-paid SIM card. Do you think the jail-break stuff is solid and safe enough to actually use?
Slashdot Mirror
In my experience, good new ideas are shunned by 90% of the people, until the market shows it's value. I think pessimism towards new ideas develops over time. Since 99% of cool sounding ideas basically suck and will never be of much use, you wind up being right 90% of the time by hating them all. The worst way to determine the value of a new idea is to ask a bunch of successful experts in the field. Weird, but true. As a forum, I'd say that slashdot is the most open entity for bouncing around ideas I know of, and of course, you all know how flamed we all get for each new idea we post here :-)
Well, the download speed would only be a problem the first time you access data, and I think we could download at the 200KB/sec typical DSL download speed, rather than it's typical 40KB/sec upload. My thought was that downloading the roughly 1G compressed DVD image is pretty fast, but that time would be spread over your entire use of an OS, and hopefully hardly be noticed. However, I agree with your point. Super-cool to one coder is usually sudder-at-the-thought to another :-)
On another project related to encryption, I found that there is a large active community of experts generally available to helpfully tear your ideas to pieces. I just wrote a tiny file encryption algorithm. Originally, I had a algorithm I invented, and the community was nice enough to tear it apart and show the wisdom in sticking to simpler, proven algorithms (I now use the well-worn ARC4-drop). I guess in general, the open-source community is generally willing to review ideas and offer advice. For writing code, you're on your own.
Grr... forgot to test the link! Make that P2P file system. Damned slashdot no edit policy :-\
I was similarly disappointed. Open-source work is fairly lonely most of the time. To justify doing open-source projects, you valid reasons beyond hoping others will pitch in and help, since that rarely happens (contrary to popular belief). Even with bigger more popular programs, there's still often a single programmer doing practically everything. Users generally don't help out, but post a lot of "Help me, please!" requests, soaking up even more of your time.
I have some projects I'd like to do if I had other interested programmers to make the projects more social and fun. For example, I'd like to implement a P2P file system that downloads data only when accessed the first time, caching it on your disk. The idea there is a really tiny Linux installation could be created that has the whole freaking Ubuntu or Debian distro already fully installed, but the files wouldn't really be there - they'd be out on the P2P network, waiting to download when needed, rather than filling up my disk with crap I never use.
Even though such a project sounds super-cool to me personally, getting even one other human being interested takes a miracle. In reality, you just have to write it, and hope the user base grows.
A few points to your post and grandparent... We didn't unleash hell on Japan until well into the war, in fact not until Japan absolutely convinced our leadership and most Americans that they would fight to the last woman and child. Why nuke them? Why burn their cities? Well... it was a good start on killing them all. Apparently, they thought we didn't have the stomach for genocide. Wrong, wrong wrong... Actually, we did resist in similar bombing of Europe... we don't seem to enjoy mass killing, if at all avoidable. It seems that we misread the Japanese, and they misread us. I feel that Middle East terrorists have similarly misread us.
I tend to believe that MacArthur had a lot to do with the recovery of Japan, just as I believe that Japan and Germany should get most of the credit themselves. For example, MacArthur forbid troops form eating any Japanese food, and had a black and white policy for the troops treatment of the Japanese: no punishment for any crime, except death. The idea was that eating Japanese food while the Japanese were starving would cause great resentment. Also, MacArthur knew that American troops would fail miserably at the delicate balance of Japanese justice, so there was only one punishment, and the Japanese decided to avoid it. I believe most of the recovery of Japan and Germany had to do with their own cultures, the same cultures that nearly dominated the world.
In comparison, Iraq is basically screwed. Instead of MacArthur, we've got Bush running things (not good - duh). As for the people, it's no coincidence that the most famous childhood story from Iraq known to most Americans is "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves". It was so stupid to invade... with 20-20 hindsight.
The interesting thing about the iPhone was how it differed from all those products you can get in Europe. Actually, I was just there for two weeks, in wonderful Italy. I had to buy a Vodaphone unit, since my stupid iPhone got no service there. The Vodaphone sales guy got very excited when he saw my iPhone, and gathered the other sales guys around for a demo. Of course, my iPhone was much cooler than regular iPhones... I had the awesome Summerboard launcher, the Books e-book reader, games, a VNC viewer (in alpha form), and ssh/sshd. That is the real difference iPhone made... it is the first usable laptop/phone that fits comfortably in a pocket. I was able to log into servers at work to check stuff, use AIM instant messaging... Man, how stupid was it for Steve to end it all? He almost had a revolutionary product. I guess it's not the first time he's snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.
My favorite smaller Linux computer manufacturer use to be Monarch. I didn't send clients to them since they were a smaller, less stable outfit. Now that they've gone under, who's to blame? Me for not sending the business, or them for going under? It's a hard choice either way to send business to a small outfit. As they say, no one was ever fired for recommending IBM (a very old and out of date saying). More recently, I fell into the trap of recommending the other big players, without ever venturing to recommend a risky product. I'm still waiting to push Ubuntu big-time... customers mostly aren't ready for it, even if Ubuntu is.
Also note... if the iPhone 2.0 comes out with a proper open-source SDK, yeah, I'll get one, even if Steve is an a-hole. I can't resist fiddling with the best toys...
You did a bit of digging... In reply to my post, someone pointed out the web page for people programming iphones. In response, I bought one, and began to work on developing apps for iPhone. Now, my iPhone is dead, thanks to a-hole Steve. Yes, I think I will help Ubuntu, and fuck Steve. And, frankly, you do a lot of digging for a fairly stupid person.
I totally agree. The "Genius" at the Apple store told me that they had intentionally disabled my iPhone, rather than accidentally. My response? I smashed the phone to pieces in front of him, and I'm promoting Ubuntu Mobile as an alternative for future smart phones, rather than Darwin. I figure I can do more good for the world as a coder for Ubuntu Mobile than I could as a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit.
Apple also borked my new iPhone on-purpose, simply because they detected I had tried (unsuccessfully) to unlock it. They've crossed over into some of the most evil practices I've seen, outdoing even the worst from M$. I must admit I enjoyed smashing the thing to pieces in front of the "Genius" at the Apple store.
Yes, more kudos to IBM! Frankly, with this long string of seemingly good-guy/non-evil actions from IBM, I'm tempted to try to send them more business. I don't know about the rest of us here, but over the years, I suspect I've influenced decision makers' vendor choices to the tune of probably about $1M/year now. That includes sending a bunch of guys to Dell (and now HP), RedHat (and now Ubuntu), steering people clear of Novel (and now Apple). I suspect that the sum total of business influenced by we geeks who care about this kind of thing is billions. Good for IBM to get it.
No can do... gotta stay away from pure evil.
Yeah, that's the real rub... the Apple products are simply better than the others :-( They just screwed me out of a $400 iPhone, so I'm in no hurry to give them new business... maybe if the class-action suit is settled :-)
Off-topic, but if not an iPod (Apple's PO-ed me severely by purposely borking my iPhone), and not a Zune, then what? What music players to /.-ers favor?
It seems that big sites like macrumors are removing the actual e-mail for signing up for the class-action suit. The "reason" stated at macrumors is "sorry, pal..."
The missing e-mail address that has been deleted is classaction@myndex.com. I hope this results in a real suit for all of us, not just California residents.
I just smashed my iBricked iPhone on the desk of the "Genius" at my local Apple store. He told me that Apple PURPOSELY bricked not only the phone, but the SIM card, too. It's one thing if I brick my phone. If they brick my phone and SIM card on purpose, they've damaged my property. I might have violated the EULA by installing 3rd party applications, but that gives them no right to damage my property. Where the heck is the e-mail for the class-action lawsuit?
I doubt the Canadians' opinions are of much use either, as they have the highest on-line music piracy rate in the world :-)
Can we separate "net neutrality" into two distinct issues? I would rather discuss "Internet tolls" in one forum, and "traffic shaping" in another. BTW, screw Internet tolls, and to hell with the politicians trying to ram it down our throats!
I might be confused... does Symbian have an open-source toolchain I can use to freely write apps for my phone? That's the key distinction. I never want to own another closed phone again :-)
Jobs may be an a-hole, but he's damned smart. OS-X (on Macs and iPhones) is just open enough to allow hackers freedom to innovate, while just closed enough for Jobs to charge whatever he wants for the OS, while controlling the QA for average users ("It just works - TM" to quote another /.-er). Jobs absolutely wants to be Gates, and he's using open-source as leverage against Microsoft, for his own benefit rather than for open-source developers. It's never been said that Jobs is just trying to make the world a better place. Fortunately, that's just a side effect.
The real benefit of open-systems on a cell phone are far beyond the typically quoted "time-to-market" and "cost-of-ownership" stuff. My Motorola Razr is a fine phone, but nothing more. For anything other than making phone calls, it completely sucks. I can't even take and share pictures freely, and the charge for simple text messages is just stupid. I personally never intend to own another stupid Symbian based phone again.
In comparison, now that hackers have dissected it, the iPhone is a tiny laptop in my pocket, from which I can ssh into work to control servers, log into AIM, browse the full web, read e-books downloaded from gutenberg.org, or develop high-end applications such as P2P voice. A VNC viewer is also in development. Once again, it's taken Apple to show big-company-marketing where the market actually lies. It's all about the software, and the stupid cell-industry has always thought that they were smart enough to deliver it... wrong wrong wrong.
I think Apple and the new crop of Linux based phone vendors should deliver 8-16 gig high-end phones with dev-tools pre-installed. I should be able to open the box, log into wi-fi, and ssh into a bash shell. From there, I should be able to develop apps for the phone directly on the phone. The GPS and other devices should come with open-source drivers. From a hardware point of view, the iPhone is interesting, but not revolutionary. From a software point of view, it's a whole new game.
I don't believe things have changed much in 20 years, other than that horrible recession we had after the web bubble burst. Programmers and engineers are paid the same now as 20 years ago, if you adjust for inflation. The problem with our profession is that we do compete world-wide, meaning there will be few of us earning $400K/year any time soon, unlike similarly skilled lawyers and doctors.
The bottom line is do it if you love it, and want to contribute to technology development. If you're in it for the big bucks, learn about running a business, not programming a computer. Personally, I love working in high-tech, and would do it on the cheap.
Actually, having read the 6,000 page standards document, I have to admit it's well designed has has excellent.... ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!! Ok, I couldn't say that with a straight face.
Wow, these apps rock! After installing AIM and a couple games on my wife's phone, I went and bought my own iPhone. Now I've got the installer, AIM, file browser, launcher, terminal, and several other apps. It's amazing how functional they are after so little development time! I'm going to take some eBooks with me on a two week trip to Italy later this month. The entire 3rd party app flow is smooth as silk. In fact, the only real trouble I had was with the AT&T morons, who caused me about 3 hours of serious pain just to activate the thing. No wonder it took Apple to come out with a decent new idea... the US cell vendors are dumb as a bag of hammers.
Since I'm going to be in Italy for a couple weeks, I've already bought an unlocked Razor and a pre-paid SIM card. Do you think the jail-break stuff is solid and safe enough to actually use?