"ISO is supposed to be about standards which work for everyone"
Which is exactly the point. The main reason for Developers complaining was that it makes THEIR life harder because it's such a large specification. Meanwhile ODF is great for developers but it lacks the functionality that users demand. The most obvious example is formula definitions.
Yes it's supposedly being looked at but when I checked (to make sure I wasn't talking out my arse), I found an article from 2005 which said they were working on it. Why should ISO believe it's going to appear anytime soon?
When users find they can't do something they expect to be able to do, it can have huge consequences. What's better a feature that takes time to implement in software or a feature that can't be?
For a site that's supposed to be about promoting openness and moral conduct this is an incredibly immoral move.
'victims' of leaks will not get a chance to respond or refute big stories before they hit the front pages. The site wants no accountability for the information it provides whilst at the same time wanting to reap all the benefits that posting false informaiton can bring.
They may bring in more money but they're leaving themselves open for far worse than lawsuits. They're leaving themselves open to real criminal charges. The second money becomes involved, it can easily become blackmail.
"we have an email saying you did something naughty. If you don't want the press to get it before you can find out if the email is true or not or you want to pre-empt it, just make sure you outbid all the other newspapers"
I don't know what country they're based in but that kind of thing will wind up in a criminal court with the site owners facing years in prison.
"A strategic Free Software utilization in public administration could create thousands of jobs as well as a significant decrease in software licensing costs. However, Quebec's public administration refuses to even consider and evaluate these options."
If a government body wants to save costs, saying "it will create thousands of jobs" isn't exactly a good thing. Amazingly enough when people get jobs, they expect to be paid.
You could argue you're providing content. It would probably be more accurate to describe you as using a provided service though.
It could seem like a chicken and egg situation where you can't provide content without users but without content you don't get any users but ultimately the balance tips much further towards Slashdot who provide the hosting, wrote the site code, organise the site and keep it up and running.
I dislike point blank ad blocking. Whilst yes intrusive ads that make browsing near impossible should be blocked (although when is firefox actually going to handle pop-unders in a way where it doesn't switch to a random open window?).
It's costing people to host these websites and give up their time/money to provide content. It's a basic courtesy to give up a fractional piece of bandwidth loading ads so they can afford to keep the site running.
Not everyone wishes to pointblank block adverts but few people want the shady and legally quesitonable tracking techniques some ads used gathering their details, especially those that get around strict cookie rules/settings.
However I find it amusing that people still find ways to bash Microsoft over this. It's a sensible privacy feature. If you want to block ads completely, fine, we all know that firefox can do that amazingly (at least until it's widespread enough for ad providers to start making their clients use an impossible to block local caching system) but this a smart feature for those who don't wish to block ads completely.
Didn't Eternal Darkness get pretty average reviews when it was released? It's pretty fondly looked at now, being the best example of Lovecraftian style horror on consoles (the gold factory and everything after in Call of C'thulhu stops that being the best)
Dirac is neither ready for widespread use, better than.h264 (in it's current state) or widely adopted. Even if it's their own technology, it's still in their best interests to use a superior tech if one's available.
The amount spent on it is tiny in comparisson to that of the iPlayer, hence why the project is ongoing when it's produced few benefits.
It's not the BBC's fault Linux has zero options in terms of DRM. The BBC were given few options by the OSS whiners to develop one as it'd be clear, even if they managed to develop a system that was linux compatible, they'd still have militant types endlessly complaining and trying to find GPLv3 violations. The BBC listened but the venom directed at them made it clear they only had a single option and that was the flash solution.
No DRM = no region restrictions = huge loss of revenue for the BBC internationally to an audience that doesn't pay the licence fee. But then the vast majority of the people complaining don't pay the licence fee yet seem to think the BBC owes them something.
Flash video has mpeg-4 support so the bandwidth difference on QVGA videos is negligable, especially given only an extreme minority will use their Wii to view them.
Guess the BBC had better pull out of freeview which broadcasts in MPEG-2.
The widespread adoption of.h264 by software producers, content producers and hardware manufacturers is far more important to pandering to a few people's hatred of patents which aren't even valid in the UK (the BBC has no obligation to none licence fee payers and the BBC World service itself is funded by the government)
The BBC have NO obligation to anyone, especially people who don't pay licence fee, to produce or adopt open source software. Their obligation is to provide good value for money whilst providing the best service to licence payers.
.h264 and AAC both cost so little for the BBC and any partners that using OGG/OGM would actively cost them more due to the inferior video compression. iPlayer eats insane amounts of bandwidth and if they can shrink videos down at all whilst maintaining quality it's in the BBC's best interests.
That's not even taking into account the number of consumer devices that have hardware.h264 decoding compared to Theora. Would cost HW manufacturers a lot to add support for a format that's barely used.
OSS types complained when the BBC made iPlayer windows only at first (even though they always said it was in development for more platforms) but the BBC still responded by speeding up the development of a more compatible platform. The BBC have made great strides with their own video codec even if it's not quite ready. Services like iPlayer are/were ahead of their time and are showing the way for other broadcasters.
If the BBC do things like this yet only get people moaning in response, it'll make them wonder why they're spending licence fee's money on projects like these rather than giving their TV shows higher budgets or promoting HDTV adoption.
Except it's odourless, stored at extremely high pressure (dangerous enough with non-explosives), ignites easier, spreads out from leaks quicker and at higher volumes than petrol vapour.
Also, when Lithium batteries explode, it's due to a build up of hyrdogen that then gets ignited. Hence the big whoosh as the hydrogen ignites followed by the 'slower' burn of the lithium.
and the Apple ads don't send the message ' you're a PC user, YOU SUCK '?
There are entire brands that RELY on ridiculing people. Specsavers in the UK is one (tagline is 'should've gone to specsavers'). Ridicule is an extremely potent marketing tool
Heck, Skoda were once famed for being an awful awful car maker in the UK so when they released a bunch of new models that were actually good. Their entire marketing campain involved taking the mick out of themselves.
They were given more than enough time to get their code up to scratch.
A few of the changes were because companies wrote such poor drivers for XP (like the changes to how Vista and DirectX handles sound. A result of endless crashes caused by poor sound card drivers in XP )
Why the assumption that the Mojave experiment campaign was a failure? To me it seemed pretty effective.
Not only did it get the headlines in most major news sources but it opened up a lot of discussion about Vista. There's a whole load of FUD that is either overblown (games performance was mostly down to poor drivers, the performance difference is very minor compared to XP) or a bunch of rubbish (zomg! MS will delete my MP3's and DRM everything!). Just look at slashdot discussions relating to the ads, there were more posts defending the OS by people who regularly use it than slating it.
more people voted conservative than Labour at the last general election. However thanks to the boundries of each region being adjusted to favour Labour (by Labour) and our first past the post system Labour stayed in power with a majority.
It says something about how shit our country has become that more liberal young people want to vote for the 'right leaning' party. That said they're also voting Lib Dems but no one ever expects them to get into power (although I'd be happy with a freakish conservative/lib dem government).
Microsoft probably had the best show of the three big companies purely for the FFXIII coup (biggest announcement of the show was a port. That about sums it up) but still took a few hits on it's blatent ripping off of Eyetoy and Mii's. Not to mention the pulling back of the Bungie announcement which was a smack in the face to fans. Overall though they same out slightly stronger than they went in.
Sony's was mediocre. Most the time they talked about games we knew were coming and the new announcements were only pre-rendered footage. They came out the same as they went in.
Then there's Nintendo. They couldn't have chosen a worse strategy if they'd tried. The Wiimote add on was interesting but they showed it off with yet another mini-game collection. The Wii is hardly lacking in these. Worse still, Wii music was unvieled and shown to be a pretty rubbish toy that looks like it'll be fun for 5 minutes at most before you never play it again. Animal Crossing was a reasonable unveiling but everyone knew it was coming and it was just too similar to the GC and DS versions with no innovation other than a well designed mic (that apparently is great for picking up voices across the room.
Nintendo fans were promised hard core games to fill the empty schedule up till xmas and we get more of the same crap we've been seeing from lazy third party publishers and Animal Crossing. Nintendo have serously alienated a good portion of their gamer fans and lots of people will either have their console gathering dust for a long time now or simply flog their console.
Overall E3 should get gamers excited but all this show has done is make them bored and that can't be healthy for the industry.
Sure it may have only cost them $500,000 rather than $2,000,000 for a stand but what good is that if you get very poor PR and make people wonder why they have your console over another.
Hopefully they'll pull something out for Leipzig or else it looks like we'll have to wait till TGS for reasonably exciting announcements.
Some sites could potentially use it to aid in navigation. It's not a great option to use it but it can be better than using back options, especially if there are lots of forms used in the site.
Never actually used it like that (prefer to store that kind of thing in session variables if I'm forced to) but I could see someone doing so
I suspect it's not really out of choice, just a case of going for the default or cheapest solution they're offered. Geeks on the otherhand know that XP will give them more options in terms of what they can put on the system.
To use an analogy. GSM is a 56k modem, 2.5g/3g is broadband. Everyone with a phoneline can use 56k but the vast majority of people choose to use broadband. 56K is (usually) only used when people have no other option.
GSM is very old technology and unsuitable for modern phone users who want to use anything other than fundamental basic phone features.
Slashdot Mirror
Which is exactly the point. The main reason for Developers complaining was that it makes THEIR life harder because it's such a large specification. Meanwhile ODF is great for developers but it lacks the functionality that users demand. The most obvious example is formula definitions.
Yes it's supposedly being looked at but when I checked (to make sure I wasn't talking out my arse), I found an article from 2005 which said they were working on it. Why should ISO believe it's going to appear anytime soon?
When users find they can't do something they expect to be able to do, it can have huge consequences. What's better a feature that takes time to implement in software or a feature that can't be?
The most likely buyers will be the victims of the leaks. Yay for disguised blackmail!
'victims' of leaks will not get a chance to respond or refute big stories before they hit the front pages. The site wants no accountability for the information it provides whilst at the same time wanting to reap all the benefits that posting false informaiton can bring.
They may bring in more money but they're leaving themselves open for far worse than lawsuits. They're leaving themselves open to real criminal charges. The second money becomes involved, it can easily become blackmail.
"we have an email saying you did something naughty. If you don't want the press to get it before you can find out if the email is true or not or you want to pre-empt it, just make sure you outbid all the other newspapers"
I don't know what country they're based in but that kind of thing will wind up in a criminal court with the site owners facing years in prison.
"A strategic Free Software utilization in public administration could create thousands of jobs as well as a significant decrease in software licensing costs. However, Quebec's public administration refuses to even consider and evaluate these options."
If a government body wants to save costs, saying "it will create thousands of jobs" isn't exactly a good thing. Amazingly enough when people get jobs, they expect to be paid.
Judging from the pics on the site, it's about the same width as a regular GBA but not as tall.
Has a 2.8" VGA screen, 8 buttons (including volume and menu ones). It looks pretty nice but it's lacking buttons for emulation
It could seem like a chicken and egg situation where you can't provide content without users but without content you don't get any users but ultimately the balance tips much further towards Slashdot who provide the hosting, wrote the site code, organise the site and keep it up and running.
It's a fallacy to assume that ads only work when you click them. Just looking at the ads can build brand recognition for a company.
It's costing people to host these websites and give up their time/money to provide content. It's a basic courtesy to give up a fractional piece of bandwidth loading ads so they can afford to keep the site running.
Not everyone wishes to pointblank block adverts but few people want the shady and legally quesitonable tracking techniques some ads used gathering their details, especially those that get around strict cookie rules/settings.
However I find it amusing that people still find ways to bash Microsoft over this. It's a sensible privacy feature. If you want to block ads completely, fine, we all know that firefox can do that amazingly (at least until it's widespread enough for ad providers to start making their clients use an impossible to block local caching system) but this a smart feature for those who don't wish to block ads completely.
Nintendo Virtual Console. The game is still being sold
Didn't Eternal Darkness get pretty average reviews when it was released? It's pretty fondly looked at now, being the best example of Lovecraftian style horror on consoles (the gold factory and everything after in Call of C'thulhu stops that being the best)
The amount spent on it is tiny in comparisson to that of the iPlayer, hence why the project is ongoing when it's produced few benefits.
It's not the BBC's fault Linux has zero options in terms of DRM. The BBC were given few options by the OSS whiners to develop one as it'd be clear, even if they managed to develop a system that was linux compatible, they'd still have militant types endlessly complaining and trying to find GPLv3 violations. The BBC listened but the venom directed at them made it clear they only had a single option and that was the flash solution.
No DRM = no region restrictions = huge loss of revenue for the BBC internationally to an audience that doesn't pay the licence fee. But then the vast majority of the people complaining don't pay the licence fee yet seem to think the BBC owes them something.
Flash video has mpeg-4 support so the bandwidth difference on QVGA videos is negligable, especially given only an extreme minority will use their Wii to view them.
Guess the BBC had better pull out of freeview which broadcasts in MPEG-2. The widespread adoption of .h264 by software producers, content producers and hardware manufacturers is far more important to pandering to a few people's hatred of patents which aren't even valid in the UK (the BBC has no obligation to none licence fee payers and the BBC World service itself is funded by the government)
The BBC have NO obligation to anyone, especially people who don't pay licence fee, to produce or adopt open source software. Their obligation is to provide good value for money whilst providing the best service to licence payers.
.h264 and AAC both cost so little for the BBC and any partners that using OGG/OGM would actively cost them more due to the inferior video compression. iPlayer eats insane amounts of bandwidth and if they can shrink videos down at all whilst maintaining quality it's in the BBC's best interests.
.h264 decoding compared to Theora. Would cost HW manufacturers a lot to add support for a format that's barely used.
That's not even taking into account the number of consumer devices that have hardware
OSS types complained when the BBC made iPlayer windows only at first (even though they always said it was in development for more platforms) but the BBC still responded by speeding up the development of a more compatible platform. The BBC have made great strides with their own video codec even if it's not quite ready. Services like iPlayer are/were ahead of their time and are showing the way for other broadcasters.
If the BBC do things like this yet only get people moaning in response, it'll make them wonder why they're spending licence fee's money on projects like these rather than giving their TV shows higher budgets or promoting HDTV adoption.
Except it's odourless, stored at extremely high pressure (dangerous enough with non-explosives), ignites easier, spreads out from leaks quicker and at higher volumes than petrol vapour.
Also, when Lithium batteries explode, it's due to a build up of hyrdogen that then gets ignited. Hence the big whoosh as the hydrogen ignites followed by the 'slower' burn of the lithium.
and the Apple ads don't send the message ' you're a PC user, YOU SUCK '?
There are entire brands that RELY on ridiculing people. Specsavers in the UK is one (tagline is 'should've gone to specsavers'). Ridicule is an extremely potent marketing tool
Heck, Skoda were once famed for being an awful awful car maker in the UK so when they released a bunch of new models that were actually good. Their entire marketing campain involved taking the mick out of themselves.
A few of the changes were because companies wrote such poor drivers for XP (like the changes to how Vista and DirectX handles sound. A result of endless crashes caused by poor sound card drivers in XP )
Why the assumption that the Mojave experiment campaign was a failure? To me it seemed pretty effective.
Not only did it get the headlines in most major news sources but it opened up a lot of discussion about Vista. There's a whole load of FUD that is either overblown (games performance was mostly down to poor drivers, the performance difference is very minor compared to XP) or a bunch of rubbish (zomg! MS will delete my MP3's and DRM everything!). Just look at slashdot discussions relating to the ads, there were more posts defending the OS by people who regularly use it than slating it.
more people voted conservative than Labour at the last general election. However thanks to the boundries of each region being adjusted to favour Labour (by Labour) and our first past the post system Labour stayed in power with a majority.
It says something about how shit our country has become that more liberal young people want to vote for the 'right leaning' party. That said they're also voting Lib Dems but no one ever expects them to get into power (although I'd be happy with a freakish conservative/lib dem government).
Possibly due to mobiles dialing 999/112/911 in their pocket. It's required for phone makers to make those numbers dialable, even with keylock on.
I look forward to lighting my house with an incredibly piercing, harsh light. LEDs don't do soft, natural light very well
Microsoft probably had the best show of the three big companies purely for the FFXIII coup (biggest announcement of the show was a port. That about sums it up) but still took a few hits on it's blatent ripping off of Eyetoy and Mii's. Not to mention the pulling back of the Bungie announcement which was a smack in the face to fans. Overall though they same out slightly stronger than they went in.
Sony's was mediocre. Most the time they talked about games we knew were coming and the new announcements were only pre-rendered footage. They came out the same as they went in.
Then there's Nintendo. They couldn't have chosen a worse strategy if they'd tried. The Wiimote add on was interesting but they showed it off with yet another mini-game collection. The Wii is hardly lacking in these. Worse still, Wii music was unvieled and shown to be a pretty rubbish toy that looks like it'll be fun for 5 minutes at most before you never play it again. Animal Crossing was a reasonable unveiling but everyone knew it was coming and it was just too similar to the GC and DS versions with no innovation other than a well designed mic (that apparently is great for picking up voices across the room.
Nintendo fans were promised hard core games to fill the empty schedule up till xmas and we get more of the same crap we've been seeing from lazy third party publishers and Animal Crossing. Nintendo have serously alienated a good portion of their gamer fans and lots of people will either have their console gathering dust for a long time now or simply flog their console.
Overall E3 should get gamers excited but all this show has done is make them bored and that can't be healthy for the industry.
Sure it may have only cost them $500,000 rather than $2,000,000 for a stand but what good is that if you get very poor PR and make people wonder why they have your console over another.
Hopefully they'll pull something out for Leipzig or else it looks like we'll have to wait till TGS for reasonably exciting announcements.
Some sites could potentially use it to aid in navigation. It's not a great option to use it but it can be better than using back options, especially if there are lots of forms used in the site.
Never actually used it like that (prefer to store that kind of thing in session variables if I'm forced to) but I could see someone doing so
I suspect it's not really out of choice, just a case of going for the default or cheapest solution they're offered. Geeks on the otherhand know that XP will give them more options in terms of what they can put on the system.
To use an analogy. GSM is a 56k modem, 2.5g/3g is broadband. Everyone with a phoneline can use 56k but the vast majority of people choose to use broadband. 56K is (usually) only used when people have no other option.
GSM is very old technology and unsuitable for modern phone users who want to use anything other than fundamental basic phone features.