I had a Rio 300, but it was stolen from the office where I work by dodgy cleaners.
Sometimes I wish I knew exactly who stole it, so I could write them a thank-you letter. It would probably include the words "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!", too.
I still feel the iPod's success can be attributed in large part to the fact that, to paraphrase jwz, it's the only mp3 player with a UI that doesn't irritate the living fuck out of me.
Well, the standard music interface for my Windows Media Centre PC, for a start. I don't think that can play DRM'd music from iTMS. Unless you can now play iTMS music via some iTunes codec that works with any ACM compatible media player under Windows? Or one of those small linux appliance networked media player things, etc.
(Before you point out WMA's DRM, I don't like that, either).
since I understand the need for ads to generate revenue
Look at it this way: ads generate revenue, but statistically, hardly anyone will install ad-blockers, so if you do, it has no significant effect. So you can avoid the ads, and not feel guilty (not sure why you'd feel guilty, but anyway).
It's kind of like how only a small proportion of people respond to spam, but it's statistically enough to ensure it's worth the spammer's time and resources to do it, so the rest of us have to put up with spam because of a few fucking idiots.
To get the same effect in a perfectly legal and unstoppable way, alter Mozilla and other email clients so that when you click on the junk button it automatically goes and fills out form, etc
Then the spammers will start adding captchas to their opt-out pages.
My favourite version of this was a comment someone made on here a while back - something like "That bridge you made was great! Can you do us another one, only this time make it work in a universe where electrons have +5 spin..?"
I wish software engineers would be more like bridge engineers as well,
Reminds me of something I read once, where someone got fed up of hearing "If we built bridges like we do software, most of them would fall down!" and decided to research bridges built over the past 150 years or so. He found that about half of them had fallen down.
I forget who it was - I thought it was Jon Bentley (of Programming Pearls) but I have never been able to find the reference again:-(.
Anyway, regardless of anything, I want it to be true.
I've broken MS' MSRPC in a real bad way. There are no ifs ands or buts. I passed the information off to Microsoft instead of passing code to a full disclosure list. I've replicated this over and over, remotely and locally. I know for a fact because of the architecture of networking they will never be able to fix this.
most don't speak English very well, if at all, they don't ask questions when they don't understand (they just say "I'll get that done", and then either don't do it, or do it wrong), and they don't have experience with our system, and yet Management wants them to do x percentage of designs and development work...
Hang on...I'm just trying to spot the difference between them and about half the programmers I've ever worked with...
A tip for you: don't log into your account using iTunes v6 (e.g. on a friend's machine or something) because then your account will be 'upgraded' to iTunes v6, and you will be forced to use iTunes 6 to access your account from then on (from any machine).
My point, exactly, was that you claim you don't have time to report bugs properly (or whatever), but then you bitch that the developers aren't doing more for you. When they already wrote some software and gave it away for free. You're basically saying that your time is important, but the developer's time isn't. You assume that because they wrote some OSS, that they want to support every single user who has a problem, and hand-hold them through any problems they may have. Maybe the developer has decided that they don't want to spend their time that way - because they have other commitments/things they want to do too. You're not the only one who prioritises their life, and not everyone waits until they are older before they do so.
If you can't see the inconsistency, maybe it is time for a diagram. Probably involving free horses and teeth.
I've written a program (initially for myself) that has been downloaded by about 70,000 people for free, but I feel no responsibility to support every one of them who can't be bothered to read the instructions I supply with the app. I usually help people out, but if they're jerks, or I just don't have the time, then I don't.
I'm not really sure what's so hard to understand about this.
I personally have a lot of issues with OSS - it's mostly garbage, and whenever I look at the source it's painful - poorly designed and usually zero comments or documentation other than GPL license boilerplate comment blocks, and I thank various deities that I don't have to work with the people that wrote it (I should probably point out that most closed source software is no better, before anyone tries to tell me I think otherwise).
I still have a really hard time justifying moaning about that though. I might wish the code was better, but I got it for free, so I'm not entirely sure what I have to complain about.
Of course, if you keep getting told that OSS program X is great, and you should switch to it, but you think it's not, then that's a valid avenue for complaint. For example if you keep having people bang on about how great Gimp is, and how it's much better than Photoshop, but you think the UI is a train-wreck, then that's a fair comment. I just disagree with the view (that seems prevalent in quite a few comments on this story) that simply by writing and releasing some software, you are somehow obligated to provide free lifetime support to anyone that wants to use it (and, let's be fair, better support than you usually get for commercial software).
So, two programmers in the house, both of whom are practically burned-out. To both of us, programming isn't fun anymore, it's tedious.
That's fair enough. But guess what - you won't get the best out of some OSS as a result. You've made that decision, so blaming some OSS developers for it isn't a particularly reasonable response.
Re:The diplomatic response
on
The CVS Cop-Out
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Compare and contrast:
So, why can't you as the developer listen to my bug report, figure out what's going on, and just tell me "Oh yeah, I see where that's happening. Give me a few days/weeks/months to ready the code for a new release to get that fix out to everyone."?
with:
Why? Because I have a husband and a social life that is more important to me than a bit of program code.
Interesting fact: the original Vaios were designed to be Macs, but Apple didn't want to license 3rd party hardware vendors, so Sony turned them into Windows PCs.
As for Sony's including Firewire, I'm afraid they lose all brownie points for that after this.
That, if you can believe it (and I think I've got the right picture, but I may be wrong), is Sony's solution to the fact that their laptops had 4-pin firewire connectors, but some people needed 6 cable firewire leads (e.g. for external hard-drives with no psu of their own). So Sony added another 2 pin connector for the power. Instead of, say, using the standard 6-pin firewire connector.
I bet those pointless proprietary leads are cheap:-)
The quality of the built-in iSight is *very* good. It definitely beats the $100+ Quickcam Orbit MP I've got lying around here.
Interesting. I was pleased when the iMacs and MacBooks first shipped with the built-in iSight, as I've heard iSight quality is very good. I wondered how they got the camera that compact, but as they were calling it the iSight, I assumed (until I heard otherwise) that the results were the same. However, I've seen a couple of comments that the built-in iSights on the iMacs and MacBooks are nowhere near as good as the 'proper' external iSight cameras - lower res, fuzzy/grainy images, poor focus, etc. (These were from Mac fans who were disappointed with their new purchase).
Would you say the built-in cameras are just as good as the external iSight cameras? Or are you referring to the external iSight camera anyway, and haven't seen the results with the new built-in cameras?
He excitedly tries to play a DVD. Nothing. Okay, hit the forums again. Damn...no DVD support.
Not trying to be pedantic, but XP doesn't come with DVD support either, unless your OEM pre-loads an MPEG2 codec onto the PC, such as WinDVD, PowerDVD etc. MPEG2 codecs aren't free on Windows.
Now his test DVD title screen comes up....but DAMN, it freezes when play is pressed
Actually, that sounds suspiciously like about 50% of my experience with WinDVD:-)
Using the idea of symmetric multi-processing made me faster when working as a cashier because I used both hands to wave things past the bar code scanner.
What a n00b. Using the idea of heterogenous multi-processing made me faster when working as a cashier because I used both hands and both feet to wave things past the bar code scanner.
Well, perhaps, except that Nintendo are going for mainstream appeal and a cheaper console. So they may have opted to keep the console CPU/GPU costs down while adding other stuff like the motion sensing controller, etc., so that they can launch at $200-250 instead of $300-600.
The Wii is, of course, equipped with much more powerful graphics hardware than the GameCube
Well, the last I heard, '50% better' was a fair description. i.e. CPU/GPU are roughly 50% faster. I think there's 2-3 times as much RAM than the GC. All unofficial, of course. If that counts as 'much more powerful', I don't know, especially if you're looking at 360/PS3 hardware in comparison.
But don't get me wrong - I'm looking forward to Mario Galaxy and waving my Wii wand around:)
Slashdot Mirror
Sometimes I wish I knew exactly who stole it, so I could write them a thank-you letter. It would probably include the words "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!", too.
I still feel the iPod's success can be attributed in large part to the fact that, to paraphrase jwz, it's the only mp3 player with a UI that doesn't irritate the living fuck out of me.
(Before you point out WMA's DRM, I don't like that, either).
Tux Racer was a hit?
And your carrier still hasn't done anything about it?!
What did the police say?
NAZI!
Look at it this way: ads generate revenue, but statistically, hardly anyone will install ad-blockers, so if you do, it has no significant effect. So you can avoid the ads, and not feel guilty (not sure why you'd feel guilty, but anyway).
It's kind of like how only a small proportion of people respond to spam, but it's statistically enough to ensure it's worth the spammer's time and resources to do it, so the rest of us have to put up with spam because of a few fucking idiots.
Only, er, different.
That's when you switch to Plan Y.
Then the spammers will start adding captchas to their opt-out pages.
Oh, the irony.
My favourite version of this was a comment someone made on here a while back - something like "That bridge you made was great! Can you do us another one, only this time make it work in a universe where electrons have +5 spin..?"
Wow, it took me quite a while to realise that your post wasn't a reworking of the 'My freelance gig in front of a Mac' slashdot troll :-)
Reminds me of something I read once, where someone got fed up of hearing "If we built bridges like we do software, most of them would fall down!" and decided to research bridges built over the past 150 years or so. He found that about half of them had fallen down.
I forget who it was - I thought it was Jon Bentley (of Programming Pearls) but I have never been able to find the reference again :-(.
Anyway, regardless of anything, I want it to be true.
But think how much smaller we could make the textgifs!
And yet you can't work a 'preview' button? :)
Hang on...I'm just trying to spot the difference between them and about half the programmers I've ever worked with...
A tip for you: don't log into your account using iTunes v6 (e.g. on a friend's machine or something) because then your account will be 'upgraded' to iTunes v6, and you will be forced to use iTunes 6 to access your account from then on (from any machine).
If you can't see the inconsistency, maybe it is time for a diagram. Probably involving free horses and teeth.
I've written a program (initially for myself) that has been downloaded by about 70,000 people for free, but I feel no responsibility to support every one of them who can't be bothered to read the instructions I supply with the app. I usually help people out, but if they're jerks, or I just don't have the time, then I don't.
I'm not really sure what's so hard to understand about this.
I personally have a lot of issues with OSS - it's mostly garbage, and whenever I look at the source it's painful - poorly designed and usually zero comments or documentation other than GPL license boilerplate comment blocks, and I thank various deities that I don't have to work with the people that wrote it (I should probably point out that most closed source software is no better, before anyone tries to tell me I think otherwise).
I still have a really hard time justifying moaning about that though. I might wish the code was better, but I got it for free, so I'm not entirely sure what I have to complain about.
Of course, if you keep getting told that OSS program X is great, and you should switch to it, but you think it's not, then that's a valid avenue for complaint. For example if you keep having people bang on about how great Gimp is, and how it's much better than Photoshop, but you think the UI is a train-wreck, then that's a fair comment. I just disagree with the view (that seems prevalent in quite a few comments on this story) that simply by writing and releasing some software, you are somehow obligated to provide free lifetime support to anyone that wants to use it (and, let's be fair, better support than you usually get for commercial software).
That's fair enough. But guess what - you won't get the best out of some OSS as a result. You've made that decision, so blaming some OSS developers for it isn't a particularly reasonable response.
with:
I presume I don't have to draw you a diagram.
As for Sony's including Firewire, I'm afraid they lose all brownie points for that after this.
That, if you can believe it (and I think I've got the right picture, but I may be wrong), is Sony's solution to the fact that their laptops had 4-pin firewire connectors, but some people needed 6 cable firewire leads (e.g. for external hard-drives with no psu of their own). So Sony added another 2 pin connector for the power. Instead of, say, using the standard 6-pin firewire connector.
I bet those pointless proprietary leads are cheap :-)
Interesting. I was pleased when the iMacs and MacBooks first shipped with the built-in iSight, as I've heard iSight quality is very good. I wondered how they got the camera that compact, but as they were calling it the iSight, I assumed (until I heard otherwise) that the results were the same. However, I've seen a couple of comments that the built-in iSights on the iMacs and MacBooks are nowhere near as good as the 'proper' external iSight cameras - lower res, fuzzy/grainy images, poor focus, etc. (These were from Mac fans who were disappointed with their new purchase).
Would you say the built-in cameras are just as good as the external iSight cameras? Or are you referring to the external iSight camera anyway, and haven't seen the results with the new built-in cameras?
Not trying to be pedantic, but XP doesn't come with DVD support either, unless your OEM pre-loads an MPEG2 codec onto the PC, such as WinDVD, PowerDVD etc. MPEG2 codecs aren't free on Windows.
Actually, that sounds suspiciously like about 50% of my experience with WinDVD :-)
What a n00b. Using the idea of heterogenous multi-processing made me faster when working as a cashier because I used both hands and both feet to wave things past the bar code scanner.
Well, perhaps, except that Nintendo are going for mainstream appeal and a cheaper console. So they may have opted to keep the console CPU/GPU costs down while adding other stuff like the motion sensing controller, etc., so that they can launch at $200-250 instead of $300-600.
I think they should change "Bust-a-Move Revolution" to "Busting for a Wii".
Well, the last I heard, '50% better' was a fair description. i.e. CPU/GPU are roughly 50% faster. I think there's 2-3 times as much RAM than the GC. All unofficial, of course. If that counts as 'much more powerful', I don't know, especially if you're looking at 360/PS3 hardware in comparison.
But don't get me wrong - I'm looking forward to Mario Galaxy and waving my Wii wand around :)
Just read the FAQ, Ma'am.