Thanks, but I think I'll stick with Nikon's ED glass and mechanical movement. The liquid lens might work for cheap crappy images, but real photographers are amazingly picky about their glass. We buy into a lens system - the camera is just an accessory to the lens.
I guess if we call Gateway at 800-369-1409 and say something to the effect that you're not going to buy a f**king Gateway PC because of the way they treated customers like Dennis Sheehan, I wonder if they'll rethink things.
Unlikely.... But I'm gonna call them anyway.... Just for sport.
>> It may be that Autodesk has some new version of DWG which is closed, but older versions have been open for many years, as well as DXF.
Sorry, but the data is incorrect. DWG is a closed format. DXF has been open, but much of the drawing data will not save in DXF. Thus the requirement to read DWG.
DWG has always been a closed format, heavily defended by Autodesk. Over the years, many have reverse engineered the format, and that's one reason Autodesk keeps changing it. The problem is that almost every other CAD vendor uses OpenDWG code, and achieves near-perfect translation between each other. This is a huge problem for Autodesk, since customers are moving away from their products. Customers have a lot of assets (drawings) in the DWG format, so Autodesk wants to do everything it can to hold the data hostage, in the hope that the customer will choose to move to an Autodesk product, like Inventor (mechanical design) or Revit (building design).
Customers believe they own the drawing, but Autodesk tries to keep a lock on the box containing the drawing. This puts them at odds with the customer, thus the large number of customers that hate them.
The OpenDWG code started off as a project at Softdesk - a third-party vendor of AutoCAD add-in products. AutoCAD Release 13 was such junk that Softdesk was badly hurt by poor sales of it's R13 products. They started to develop a clone of AutoCAD, but were purchased by Autodesk before the clone was complete. The US Department of Justice saw the move as anti-competition, and made Autodesk sell the product. Boomarang sold the product to Visio, who launched it as "IntelliCAD". Microsoft bought Visio, and spun off IntelliCAD to the Open Design Alliance. ODA provided both the IntelliCAD code and OpenDWG code to member companies. Today, OpenDWG is the most widely used verion of DWG, which causes a huge problem for Autodesk. Autodesk encrypted portions of the DWG format, and denied it. It was a trap - if ODA cracked the code, they would have violated the DMCA. However, a developer outside the USA reverse engineered the code, and developed new code that could read DWG. This proved Autodesk encrypted the data, which is actually owned by the customer. ODA licensed the developer's code, and modified their own code, based on what they learned.
Now it seems that Autodesk is up to new tricks. I'm glad we dumped Autodesk products and went to Solidworks. Microsoft is much nicer than Autodesk. I like a lot of the people who work there, but they have the wicked-witch-of-the-west running the show.
Oh, I've used AutoCAD since ver 1.8 in 1982. I stuck with AutoCAD 2000, the last of the great AutoCAD's. And I know some of the founders, who are quite sad about what has happened to their once-great company.
It would really be helpful if the current government would take away all of your guns. Once we have programmed all the electronic voting machines to put Steve Ballmer into the White House, it will be much easier to round up all you Linux-spreading terrorists.
Gee, I didn't know there were all these fancy solutions...
I just used a piece of aluminum pipe hung between two brackets on the wall. We'd slip the CDs on the pipe. Cheap and easy. When the closet got full, we stuck a piece of rope through the pipe and let the CDs slide onto the rope. Made it easy to feed into the shreader. The shreader didn't like the rope, however. We also tried a bonfire, but man those CDs make for a thick black stinky smoke... The hot dogs tasted like crap after that. Plenty of beer solved that...
It seems to me that the actions of the RIAA against suspected file sharers are an act of terrorism. Demanding payment under the threat of a lawsuit, just because your underage child downloaded music is simply a shakedown. This law will make it much easier and less costly for the RIAA to extort the single mothers, because they don't have to sue any longer - they just threaten to call the cops. That's a pretty efficient process, and greatly increases the cost-to-income ratio. Enough to afford to buy.... Say.... A congressman.
So how do you stop this? Perhaps all the Slashdot readers in Texas could:
1. Call and ask his staff why he wants to send single moms to jail?
2. Then call your local news station and ask why he wants to send single moms to jail?
3. Then call your local newspaper and ask why he wants to send single moms to jail?
Let's see if there's a Slashdot effect on the local media. Three phone calls is all it takes.
Hmmm... I've used a couple of real VR rigs (twin SGI workstations for the headset) and the setup described in the article is not true VR. In a true VR, you are in an artificial reality - the computer provides your sensory inputs (visual, sound and some touch). As a rule of thumb, if you can see your own body and the room you are in, it is not VR. The experience is one you won't forget.
You don't get motion sickness in VR, as long as you don't move. But if you are moved, your body becomes confused because you sense the movement, and it conflicts with what you see. Thus, it is exactly the same as being below deck in a ship on rough seas.
Besides, the technology in the article is far from new. I believe Disney used it, and it is much like I-Max movies. At least it appears to be from RTFA.
Forget about booting Windows on Macs. That goes against Apples' best interests.
What is the main reason most people won't run a Mac? Because we have one or more Windows apps that we MUST run. And the solution is very simple: 1. Change the Mac to Intel processors (underway). 2. Test Windows on the new platform (underway). 3. Develop VM technology inside OS/X that can run Windows (underway). 4. Jobs launches the new Mac tower as the only machine that runs OS/X, Windows and Linux AT THE SAME TIME.
This will allow Macs to be used inside corporations that are locked into certain Windows applications. They only have to displace about 10% of those Windows PCs to almost double their sales. And dual core processors could be setup to allow for one core per OS. Should run pretty darn good.
Want to see a VM that runs Windows inside OS/X? Look here:
From the above site: "Use any version of Windows (3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, Me, 2000, NT, XP, 2003), any Linux distribution, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2, eComStation, or MS-DOS in secure virtual machines running alongside Mac OS X."
The software is beta, can be downloaded for free, and will sell for about $40. I might have to buy a Mac...
Sorry, but I have to call BS on this. The RAZR is a hot seller because we end-users choose it, not because the cell phone companies picked it. You could make the case that both of us are customers, but if all us start to buy an iPhone from A-mobile, the others Cell companies will come rushing over to get the same thing. The Cell companies are the middle man, as far as the phone is concerned.
Moto's problem is disconnection from the real customer. They talk first hand to the cell companies, but we spend the money. We ARE the customers, but Moto is disconnected from us by middlemen.
Yes, there are times I don't want "smart objects" or my parametric properties to go out the door. But the inability to completely transfer with 100% accuracy (or close) prevents me from easily changing from one vendor to another. It's called "lock-in", and the CAD vendors are experts at the game.
I'm good friends with a programmer, who has worked with code used to read the 2005 DWG format, and he insists that it IS encrypted. Autodesk says it is not - that the code provides error checking. But it would appear that it is nothing of the sort. It provides no such error checking, and the encryption key changes in different sections of the code. Perhaps they intend to change the key in future versions, keeping the competition off balance. It is not understood how they create the key, so current versions might have the ability to read future versions of DWG - or perhaps not.
It leaves me the impression that it was designed to put a lock on my data - MY DATA. It has been suggested that for me to decode MY DATA in their file format might be a violation of DMCA. I object to the vendor being able to control access to my data in such a way. It's bad enought when its in a closed format, but when it becomes illegal for me to decode my data, it suggests that the vendor has sinister intentions.
Oh, yeah. I'm told the EULA gives the the right to come into your place of business and inspect computers that are running their software. I can't confirm this, since I stopped upgrading and began a slow evolution to a competitors software. I'm 5 years into changing and I'm sure I'll be finished in another 5. That's because we are redrawing almost everything from scratch in Solidworks (and I've no love for them, either). I've always loved AutoCAD, but like my 1971 MGB, she's become a rusty old gal.
I'd rather use McNeel's Rhino. Amazing software and translates more formats than anything out there. And the open the file format in the SDK, I believe. Cheap, too. Alas, I'm not the boss here.
I'd just have one copy of AutoCAD and import/export to/from cheaper or free internal CADD package.
That doesn't really work well enough. Translating CAD geometry between applications stinks, has stunk, and will continue to stink. It's not just Autodesk, its all the CAD companies. Pretty much all of them have NO incentive to make it easy for their users to allow all the data to be easily exported. As an example, lets say you insert a "smart object" into the drawing - a set of stairs. As you stretch the object, it calculates the number of steps (etc) and draws the stairs properly. When you export, you MIGHT get a static drawing of the correct number of steps, but you usually get nothing but a marker that indicates that a missing smart object goes here. Now imagine a building drawing with all the doors, plumbing, fixtures, electrical and such are smart objects. Your exported drawing contains very little. This would be like exporting a MS Word document into a plain text file, but missing any spell-corrected words.
To make matters worse, the documented DXF format leaves out a lot of stuff, and the default DWG format is encrypted. To be fair, Autodesk says it is not encrypted, but the Open Design Aliance has a different view.
If you want to stop this madness, I would suggest we start requiring an OpenDWF compatible file format. OpenDWG is fully documented, and is used by most of the big CAD companies, except Autodesk. If Goverment and industry started requiring OpenDWG formated files, things would improve somewhat. But too much design data is lost when you move files between CAD programs, so I thing this has gotten beyond repair. The landscape will change with a new product arrives that wipes out the previous generations. I wouldn't hold my breath.
I'd be worried about putting my laptop in there. For one thing, CNC machines are made to handle solid chunks of metal, not delicate electronics, so they tend to jerk things around a lot. I would be affraid of my HD crashing. Also, CNC machines tend to be filled with, and generate, lots of metal dust, which does not make electronics happy.
Not all CNC machines cut metal, or make chips and dust. Yes, CNC mills do, but this is actually a CNC Laser Engraver. They make no dust, and the laptop sits still. The Laser is mounted on a moving rail above the platform. If you've seen a flatbed pen plotter, this works in the same fashion. As the head moves across the rail, the laser zaps small dots (burn marks) onto the surface. After it has completed each pass, the rail moves down to the next row and the process is repeated.
It is cool and you'll likely find one in a local trophy shop. Bring your art along in a common format (usually TIF, EPS, DXF, AI... NOT JPG) and they'll import it and burn. I'm sure they will look at you funny and give you the old "we ain't never done no computer before" line.
I've been boycotting Sony for the last couple years, I refuse to buy their hardware, audio cds, DVD's, Video Games, etc etc. If the rest of the/. crowd would do the same we wouldnt be sitting here bitching about it...
I agree. I also boycot Sony products. So, what if we offer "Boycott Sony for Christmas" bumper stickers, and you start seeing those in NYC and LA. At some point the media will pick up that little story...
Nothing like trying to explain to the shareholders about your expected bad fourth quarter sales...
Another option is to choke off MPAA's money supply. I have stopped buying all Sony products. Period. They support MPAA and if we loudly boycott Sony, there's a chance they will sit up and listen. I've stopped buying any music CDs, as well.
I don't download their stuff either. I'll spend my money on the net and my bicycle.
"...well behind the industry leaders, Apple and Xerox PARC."
PARC was certainly a leader in research, but not an industry leader. You couldn't buy their stuff at the time. And the Mac was a slow seller with almost no software. DOS was king, and IBM was still on top.
I have a 20 year old issue of Byte that reviews all the window managers (GEM, TopView, Desqview, etc) that were shipping, and it mentions the soon-to-arrive Microsoft Windows. My Windows 1.0 SDK has a "hello world" example with several pages of C code. I remember thinking "this will never work"...
Slashdot Mirror
Thanks, but I think I'll stick with Nikon's ED glass and mechanical movement. The liquid lens might work for cheap crappy images, but real photographers are amazingly picky about their glass. We buy into a lens system - the camera is just an accessory to the lens.
I guess if we call Gateway at 800-369-1409 and say something to the effect that you're not going to buy a f**king Gateway PC because of the way they treated customers like Dennis Sheehan, I wonder if they'll rethink things.
Unlikely.... But I'm gonna call them anyway.... Just for sport.
>> It may be that Autodesk has some new version of DWG which is closed, but older versions have been open for many years, as well as DXF.
Sorry, but the data is incorrect. DWG is a closed format. DXF has been open, but much of the drawing data will not save in DXF. Thus the requirement to read DWG.
DWG has always been a closed format, heavily defended by Autodesk. Over the years, many have reverse engineered the format, and that's one reason Autodesk keeps changing it. The problem is that almost every other CAD vendor uses OpenDWG code, and achieves near-perfect translation between each other. This is a huge problem for Autodesk, since customers are moving away from their products. Customers have a lot of assets (drawings) in the DWG format, so Autodesk wants to do everything it can to hold the data hostage, in the hope that the customer will choose to move to an Autodesk product, like Inventor (mechanical design) or Revit (building design).
Customers believe they own the drawing, but Autodesk tries to keep a lock on the box containing the drawing. This puts them at odds with the customer, thus the large number of customers that hate them.
The OpenDWG code started off as a project at Softdesk - a third-party vendor of AutoCAD add-in products. AutoCAD Release 13 was such junk that Softdesk was badly hurt by poor sales of it's R13 products. They started to develop a clone of AutoCAD, but were purchased by Autodesk before the clone was complete. The US Department of Justice saw the move as anti-competition, and made Autodesk sell the product. Boomarang sold the product to Visio, who launched it as "IntelliCAD". Microsoft bought Visio, and spun off IntelliCAD to the Open Design Alliance. ODA provided both the IntelliCAD code and OpenDWG code to member companies. Today, OpenDWG is the most widely used verion of DWG, which causes a huge problem for Autodesk. Autodesk encrypted portions of the DWG format, and denied it. It was a trap - if ODA cracked the code, they would have violated the DMCA. However, a developer outside the USA reverse engineered the code, and developed new code that could read DWG. This proved Autodesk encrypted the data, which is actually owned by the customer. ODA licensed the developer's code, and modified their own code, based on what they learned.
Now it seems that Autodesk is up to new tricks. I'm glad we dumped Autodesk products and went to Solidworks. Microsoft is much nicer than Autodesk. I like a lot of the people who work there, but they have the wicked-witch-of-the-west running the show.
Oh, I've used AutoCAD since ver 1.8 in 1982. I stuck with AutoCAD 2000, the last of the great AutoCAD's. And I know some of the founders, who are quite sad about what has happened to their once-great company.
It would really be helpful if the current government would take away all of your guns. Once we have programmed all the electronic voting machines to put Steve Ballmer into the White House, it will be much easier to round up all you Linux-spreading terrorists.
Gee, I didn't know there were all these fancy solutions...
I just used a piece of aluminum pipe hung between two brackets on the wall. We'd slip the CDs on the pipe. Cheap and easy. When the closet got full, we stuck a piece of rope through the pipe and let the CDs slide onto the rope. Made it easy to feed into the shreader. The shreader didn't like the rope, however. We also tried a bonfire, but man those CDs make for a thick black stinky smoke... The hot dogs tasted like crap after that. Plenty of beer solved that...
"Why should I have to sign up? Just post the damn numbers"...
Actually, it IS a form of Digital Rights Management. They are managing the rights to those digits...
It seems to me that the actions of the RIAA against suspected file sharers are an act of terrorism. Demanding payment under the threat of a lawsuit, just because your underage child downloaded music is simply a shakedown. This law will make it much easier and less costly for the RIAA to extort the single mothers, because they don't have to sue any longer - they just threaten to call the cops. That's a pretty efficient process, and greatly increases the cost-to-income ratio. Enough to afford to buy.... Say.... A congressman.
So how do you stop this? Perhaps all the Slashdot readers in Texas could:
1. Call and ask his staff why he wants to send single moms to jail?
2. Then call your local news station and ask why he wants to send single moms to jail?
3. Then call your local newspaper and ask why he wants to send single moms to jail?
Let's see if there's a Slashdot effect on the local media. Three phone calls is all it takes.
http://lamarsmith.house.gov/
Call Rep. Smith at (202) 225-4236
If you're willing to bitch about it, how about makeing one or more phone calls?
Hmmm... I've used a couple of real VR rigs (twin SGI workstations for the headset) and the setup described in the article is not true VR. In a true VR, you are in an artificial reality - the computer provides your sensory inputs (visual, sound and some touch). As a rule of thumb, if you can see your own body and the room you are in, it is not VR. The experience is one you won't forget.
You don't get motion sickness in VR, as long as you don't move. But if you are moved, your body becomes confused because you sense the movement, and it conflicts with what you see. Thus, it is exactly the same as being below deck in a ship on rough seas.
Besides, the technology in the article is far from new. I believe Disney used it, and it is much like I-Max movies. At least it appears to be from RTFA.
Forget about booting Windows on Macs. That goes against Apples' best interests.
m ac/
What is the main reason most people won't run a Mac? Because we have one or more Windows apps that we MUST run. And the solution is very simple:
1. Change the Mac to Intel processors (underway).
2. Test Windows on the new platform (underway).
3. Develop VM technology inside OS/X that can run Windows (underway).
4. Jobs launches the new Mac tower as the only machine that runs OS/X, Windows and Linux AT THE SAME TIME.
This will allow Macs to be used inside corporations that are locked into certain Windows applications. They only have to displace about 10% of those Windows PCs to almost double their sales. And dual core processors could be setup to allow for one core per OS. Should run pretty darn good.
Want to see a VM that runs Windows inside OS/X? Look here:
http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/
From the above site:
"Use any version of Windows (3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, Me, 2000, NT, XP, 2003), any Linux distribution, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2, eComStation, or MS-DOS in secure virtual machines running alongside Mac OS X."
The software is beta, can be downloaded for free, and will sell for about $40. I might have to buy a Mac...
"Motorola's customers are NOT we end-users"
Sorry, but I have to call BS on this. The RAZR is a hot seller because we end-users choose it, not because the cell phone companies picked it. You could make the case that both of us are customers, but if all us start to buy an iPhone from A-mobile, the others Cell companies will come rushing over to get the same thing. The Cell companies are the middle man, as far as the phone is concerned.
Moto's problem is disconnection from the real customer. They talk first hand to the cell companies, but we spend the money. We ARE the customers, but Moto is disconnected from us by middlemen.
1 - Could you comment on how the "every-user-is-an-administrator" usage came about, and what Microsoft can do about this?
2 - Why is Internet Explorer used for Windows Update, rather than use a robust, spicific use application?
3 - Will Vista offer an option to install in a secured, locked-down mode, with most services turned off (in a BSD-like fashion)?
4 - Shouldn't Internet Explorer default Active-X use to "ask"? Why not?
We won't be seeing any notebooks or handhelds with quantum chips in the near future.
Odd... I looked in my old laptop, and on my Quantum HDD is a chip marked "Quantum"
Woohoo! I've got leading edge technology.... and I didn't even realize it...Another test involves placing the animals in water and seeing if they swim or simply give up and float.
Wait... I think I'm working for these guys...
I must be a Hampster... Hamster... Hempster???
Yes, there are times I don't want "smart objects" or my parametric properties to go out the door. But the inability to completely transfer with 100% accuracy (or close) prevents me from easily changing from one vendor to another. It's called "lock-in", and the CAD vendors are experts at the game.
I'm good friends with a programmer, who has worked with code used to read the 2005 DWG format, and he insists that it IS encrypted. Autodesk says it is not - that the code provides error checking. But it would appear that it is nothing of the sort. It provides no such error checking, and the encryption key changes in different sections of the code. Perhaps they intend to change the key in future versions, keeping the competition off balance. It is not understood how they create the key, so current versions might have the ability to read future versions of DWG - or perhaps not.
It leaves me the impression that it was designed to put a lock on my data - MY DATA. It has been suggested that for me to decode MY DATA in their file format might be a violation of DMCA. I object to the vendor being able to control access to my data in such a way. It's bad enought when its in a closed format, but when it becomes illegal for me to decode my data, it suggests that the vendor has sinister intentions.
Oh, yeah. I'm told the EULA gives the the right to come into your place of business and inspect computers that are running their software. I can't confirm this, since I stopped upgrading and began a slow evolution to a competitors software. I'm 5 years into changing and I'm sure I'll be finished in another 5. That's because we are redrawing almost everything from scratch in Solidworks (and I've no love for them, either). I've always loved AutoCAD, but like my 1971 MGB, she's become a rusty old gal.
I'd rather use McNeel's Rhino. Amazing software and translates more formats than anything out there. And the open the file format in the SDK, I believe. Cheap, too. Alas, I'm not the boss here.
I'd just have one copy of AutoCAD and import/export to/from cheaper or free internal CADD package.
That doesn't really work well enough. Translating CAD geometry between applications stinks, has stunk, and will continue to stink. It's not just Autodesk, its all the CAD companies. Pretty much all of them have NO incentive to make it easy for their users to allow all the data to be easily exported. As an example, lets say you insert a "smart object" into the drawing - a set of stairs. As you stretch the object, it calculates the number of steps (etc) and draws the stairs properly. When you export, you MIGHT get a static drawing of the correct number of steps, but you usually get nothing but a marker that indicates that a missing smart object goes here. Now imagine a building drawing with all the doors, plumbing, fixtures, electrical and such are smart objects. Your exported drawing contains very little. This would be like exporting a MS Word document into a plain text file, but missing any spell-corrected words.
To make matters worse, the documented DXF format leaves out a lot of stuff, and the default DWG format is encrypted. To be fair, Autodesk says it is not encrypted, but the Open Design Aliance has a different view.If you want to stop this madness, I would suggest we start requiring an OpenDWF compatible file format. OpenDWG is fully documented, and is used by most of the big CAD companies, except Autodesk. If Goverment and industry started requiring OpenDWG formated files, things would improve somewhat. But too much design data is lost when you move files between CAD programs, so I thing this has gotten beyond repair. The landscape will change with a new product arrives that wipes out the previous generations. I wouldn't hold my breath.
I'd be worried about putting my laptop in there. For one thing, CNC machines are made to handle solid chunks of metal, not delicate electronics, so they tend to jerk things around a lot. I would be affraid of my HD crashing. Also, CNC machines tend to be filled with, and generate, lots of metal dust, which does not make electronics happy.
Not all CNC machines cut metal, or make chips and dust. Yes, CNC mills do, but this is actually a CNC Laser Engraver. They make no dust, and the laptop sits still. The Laser is mounted on a moving rail above the platform. If you've seen a flatbed pen plotter, this works in the same fashion. As the head moves across the rail, the laser zaps small dots (burn marks) onto the surface. After it has completed each pass, the rail moves down to the next row and the process is repeated.
It is cool and you'll likely find one in a local trophy shop. Bring your art along in a common format (usually TIF, EPS, DXF, AI... NOT JPG) and they'll import it and burn. I'm sure they will look at you funny and give you the old "we ain't never done no computer before" line.
"The earth is stationary. It is the sun that's moving."
THE sun? What makes you think there's just one?
I've been boycotting Sony for the last couple years, I refuse to buy their hardware, audio cds, DVD's, Video Games, etc etc. If the rest of the /. crowd would do the same we wouldnt be sitting here bitching about it...
I agree. I also boycot Sony products. So, what if we offer "Boycott Sony for Christmas" bumper stickers, and you start seeing those in NYC and LA. At some point the media will pick up that little story...
Nothing like trying to explain to the shareholders about your expected bad fourth quarter sales...
Another option is to choke off MPAA's money supply. I have stopped buying all Sony products. Period. They support MPAA and if we loudly boycott Sony, there's a chance they will sit up and listen. I've stopped buying any music CDs, as well.
I don't download their stuff either. I'll spend my money on the net and my bicycle.
"...well behind the industry leaders, Apple and Xerox PARC." PARC was certainly a leader in research, but not an industry leader. You couldn't buy their stuff at the time. And the Mac was a slow seller with almost no software. DOS was king, and IBM was still on top. I have a 20 year old issue of Byte that reviews all the window managers (GEM, TopView, Desqview, etc) that were shipping, and it mentions the soon-to-arrive Microsoft Windows. My Windows 1.0 SDK has a "hello world" example with several pages of C code. I remember thinking "this will never work"...