spotting the truly great garage innovations worth buying (for example, the decision to hire the SoundJam programmer to build iTunes for them)
People's fluid definitions of 'innovation' (which change depending on which company they're talking about) annoy me at the best of times, but are you really saying that a me-too mp3 player is really a 'truly great innovation'?
I saw and loved the original version of The Office.
I watched the US pilot of The Office a while back, expecting it to be hell on toast (especially after what friends in the US had told me about the Coupling remake).
I thought it was really good. The acting was good, and the timing was still there. One of the things I was curious about was how some of The Office is so rooted in British culture that the references wouldn't work. A few changes were made to adapt it to American culture, but the changes were appropriate and even funny in and of themselves (e.g. the 'Gareth' character is no longer in the TA, but sombrely tells the camera that he is a Volunteer Sheriff's Deputy at weekends, which made me laugh out loud).
Most of all, the sense of awkwardness and overall feeling of futility and despair which really made The Office work seemed to be there in spades in the US version. I really didn't expect that to get carried across.
In summary: pleasantly surprised, and I have gone back to watch the pilot a couple of times - it really stands up on its own, I think.
I was hooked from very early on, with the interplay between the boss and the receptionist, when the boss commented to camera that if you thought the receptionist was pretty, you should have been here five years ago:-).
I think it's like he said - people want to keep the stuff they use at home the same as what they use at work - and he works in the game industry, and the MIS depts of some game companies haven't rolled out the pirate copies of Photoshop CS yet.
It's worse with 3D Studio Max - the crackz take longer to appear, which prevents a lot of games companies from 'upgrading' for a while.
Besides, isn't it way easier to just navigate to the folder containing all files relevant to what you're...
No. Not for me, and not for lots of people. I just type what I want into the Google Desktop Search (GDS) field on my task bar, and usually what I want is in the first 10 results. I don't have to care if it's in random files, word docs, spreadsheets, source code, emails, instant messages, post-it notes, or whatever - GDS just finds it for me. The GDS results window is usually there before I've got anywhere near finding the folder with the 'files' I'm looking for.
I'm thinking of writing a GDS plugin to index Thunderbird contacts because it will be much easier to type a friend's name into the GDS box and see his/her address right there in the results than trying to find it in Thunderbird. Also if it's someone I haven't put into Thunderbird yet, and their address is in an old text file or email or something, then GDS finds that too. See how it works?
It's also just great for "Where did I hear about XYZ? Did wossname tell me in an instant message? Or was it an email?" etc
Just thought I'd point out something that's probably not widely known.
In my experience in games dev (and that of others), the dreaded PC game demo is usually demanded by the marketing dept, and put together as quickly as possible, and will usually not reflect final code of the product. It may not even have gone through much more than basic compatibility testing, as your experience suggests. Quite often it doesn't even feature on the schedule (at least, not in a realistic way).
Feel free to lambast me with the observation that what the hell is the point of the demo if it doesn't give people a true idea of the game, or actually puts them off buying it.
Because I'd agree with you completely. But the devs usually don't get to make those decisions.
Well, that's a bit restrictive - but I'm probably biased, because I wrote an post-it note app that installs itself in the startup group. Mainly because it's always supposed to be there (and originally it didn't install itself in startup, and I got loads of emails asking me to make it do that).
I know what you mean though - I once got a new laptop at work, and the first time I booted it up, there were 14 icons in the system tray.
Suffice it to say, most of those had no reason to be there.
True - I mean, it was basically just the usual Thinkpad nubbin pointer thing, but it was nicely designed, as you say, so your fingers naturally rested on the buttons.
My favourite example of "You'd think everyone would think about it, but they don't" was a friend's Sony Vaio laptop, with a trackpad and buttons beneath it. Your thumb rested naturally on the edge of the button...or so you thought, but that wasn't the button edge - it was the edging around the button, so you'd keep pressing it, and it wouldn't move, so you had to move your thumb up above the non-moving edge and awkwardly press the button itself.
Except Apple used this model before. When you insert a CDR, it gets mounted on the desktop and you add to it like you would with any other disk. When you eject it, the contents is burnt.
Yeah, I had to use this the other week when I met up with someone to transfer some sensitive data from their Mac onto my PC. Couldn't just copy it across to my USB flash drive, as the filenames has unsupported characters, so we went the CD option (I'd brought a few blank CDRs in case). All pretty easy to use (similar to XP in fact, but slightly nicer), but of course it didn't actually work. The Mac sat there for ages finalising the disc, and after 20 minutes we killed it.
I think that's just CD burning - seems like whenever you need to rely on it, it will screw up...damn technology in all its forms!
Luckily I'm a geek so after a couple of minutes' thought, I made a dmg of the data and copied that onto my flash drive. The Mac didn't have StuffIt on it or anything (only Expander).
All under intense time pressure too, of course. Damn CD burning. You think they've sorted it all out, then when you really need it, you're back to 1995 levels of reliability again.
I think he's referring to the Longhorn ship date being much further into the future.;-)
Seriously, just sounds like the usual platform bias of a reviewer. Just like many other features of Mac OS or Windows that get copied across to the other OS after a while, only the copy is always 'better' in some unquantifiable way (i.e. that it now works on the reviewer's OS).
I own the original Radio series... on audio tape no less, and I listen to it frequently. Let me tell you my friend, the Guide entry on towels is very much in the series. It's somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes into the second episode.
Curious. I checked this, and you're right - it is near the beginning of the second episode.
Er, the second episode of the second radio series, that is - it's in Fit the Eighth, where Zaphod is asking Roosta if there's any food, and Roosta offers him his towel.
Come fly to philadelphia and I'll play it for you sometime:)
No need - I just checked it from my rip of the CDs of the complete radio series, and checked in the Radio Scripts book.
The only thing I can think of is that you have an oddly edited version - I've not heard the 'LP' versions of Hitchhiker that were done, so maybe they changed stuff around in those..?
Or they've edited the radio series CDs, and then updated the radio scripts book to match it, which seems...improbable.
Slashdot Mirror
A quick Google reveals HFS+ appeared in 1998.
RISC OS was doing automatic defragging about 9 years before that.
What's your point?
People's fluid definitions of 'innovation' (which change depending on which company they're talking about) annoy me at the best of times, but are you really saying that a me-too mp3 player is really a 'truly great innovation'?
I saw and loved the original version of The Office.
:-).
I watched the US pilot of The Office a while back, expecting it to be hell on toast (especially after what friends in the US had told me about the Coupling remake).
I thought it was really good. The acting was good, and the timing was still there. One of the things I was curious about was how some of The Office is so rooted in British culture that the references wouldn't work. A few changes were made to adapt it to American culture, but the changes were appropriate and even funny in and of themselves (e.g. the 'Gareth' character is no longer in the TA, but sombrely tells the camera that he is a Volunteer Sheriff's Deputy at weekends, which made me laugh out loud).
Most of all, the sense of awkwardness and overall feeling of futility and despair which really made The Office work seemed to be there in spades in the US version. I really didn't expect that to get carried across.
In summary: pleasantly surprised, and I have gone back to watch the pilot a couple of times - it really stands up on its own, I think.
I was hooked from very early on, with the interplay between the boss and the receptionist, when the boss commented to camera that if you thought the receptionist was pretty, you should have been here five years ago
I think it's like he said - people want to keep the stuff they use at home the same as what they use at work - and he works in the game industry, and the MIS depts of some game companies haven't rolled out the pirate copies of Photoshop CS yet.
It's worse with 3D Studio Max - the crackz take longer to appear, which prevents a lot of games companies from 'upgrading' for a while.
You'd think I was joking, wouldn't you?
It could be worse :-)
No. Not for me, and not for lots of people. I just type what I want into the Google Desktop Search (GDS) field on my task bar, and usually what I want is in the first 10 results. I don't have to care if it's in random files, word docs, spreadsheets, source code, emails, instant messages, post-it notes, or whatever - GDS just finds it for me. The GDS results window is usually there before I've got anywhere near finding the folder with the 'files' I'm looking for.
I'm thinking of writing a GDS plugin to index Thunderbird contacts because it will be much easier to type a friend's name into the GDS box and see his/her address right there in the results than trying to find it in Thunderbird. Also if it's someone I haven't put into Thunderbird yet, and their address is in an old text file or email or something, then GDS finds that too. See how it works?
It's also just great for "Where did I hear about XYZ? Did wossname tell me in an instant message? Or was it an email?" etc
Just thought I'd point out something that's probably not widely known.
In my experience in games dev (and that of others), the dreaded PC game demo is usually demanded by the marketing dept, and put together as quickly as possible, and will usually not reflect final code of the product. It may not even have gone through much more than basic compatibility testing, as your experience suggests. Quite often it doesn't even feature on the schedule (at least, not in a realistic way).
Feel free to lambast me with the observation that what the hell is the point of the demo if it doesn't give people a true idea of the game, or actually puts them off buying it.
Because I'd agree with you completely. But the devs usually don't get to make those decisions.
Right. It was only about 200Mb on the CD, actually. Maybe they've fixed it now.
;-)
Hey, maybe it's one of the 200 new features?
Thanks for the tip though (I may have to do this again in the future).
It didn't say it was verifying. I know finalising doesn't take 20 minutes (if it's working!), which is why I killed it.
:)
Now, if it was verifying, then it should have told me, in which case...
Bad OS! Back in your box!
Well, that's a bit restrictive - but I'm probably biased, because I wrote an post-it note app that installs itself in the startup group. Mainly because it's always supposed to be there (and originally it didn't install itself in startup, and I got loads of emails asking me to make it do that).
I know what you mean though - I once got a new laptop at work, and the first time I booted it up, there were 14 icons in the system tray.
Suffice it to say, most of those had no reason to be there.
True - I mean, it was basically just the usual Thinkpad nubbin pointer thing, but it was nicely designed, as you say, so your fingers naturally rested on the buttons.
My favourite example of "You'd think everyone would think about it, but they don't" was a friend's Sony Vaio laptop, with a trackpad and buttons beneath it. Your thumb rested naturally on the edge of the button...or so you thought, but that wasn't the button edge - it was the edging around the button, so you'd keep pressing it, and it wouldn't move, so you had to move your thumb up above the non-moving edge and awkwardly press the button itself.
Genius. I hate Sony UI.
You mean you can buy a Mac without Mac OS now? How much cheaper is it?
Don't be silly. Erronius is a perfectly cromulent word.
(Yes, I know :-))
Yeah, I had to use this the other week when I met up with someone to transfer some sensitive data from their Mac onto my PC. Couldn't just copy it across to my USB flash drive, as the filenames has unsupported characters, so we went the CD option (I'd brought a few blank CDRs in case). All pretty easy to use (similar to XP in fact, but slightly nicer), but of course it didn't actually work. The Mac sat there for ages finalising the disc, and after 20 minutes we killed it.
I think that's just CD burning - seems like whenever you need to rely on it, it will screw up...damn technology in all its forms!
Luckily I'm a geek so after a couple of minutes' thought, I made a dmg of the data and copied that onto my flash drive. The Mac didn't have StuffIt on it or anything (only Expander).
All under intense time pressure too, of course. Damn CD burning. You think they've sorted it all out, then when you really need it, you're back to 1995 levels of reliability again.
How about:
That's my favourite so far :)
I'm mildly curious as to how a review in a national UK newspaper can be considered astroturf?
;-)
I don't think that word means what you think it means
You know, I thought I would never do this but...
In Soviet Russia, the websites visit you!
I think he's referring to the Longhorn ship date being much further into the future. ;-)
Seriously, just sounds like the usual platform bias of a reviewer. Just like many other features of Mac OS or Windows that get copied across to the other OS after a while, only the copy is always 'better' in some unquantifiable way (i.e. that it now works on the reviewer's OS).
And you could search with Archie...hey, wait a minute...
Ok, so 10 out of 10 for smugness, but minus several million for missing the PG Wodehouse reference, yeah?
That's ok.
Curious. I checked this, and you're right - it is near the beginning of the second episode.
Er, the second episode of the second radio series, that is - it's in Fit the Eighth, where Zaphod is asking Roosta if there's any food, and Roosta offers him his towel.
No need - I just checked it from my rip of the CDs of the complete radio series, and checked in the Radio Scripts book.
The only thing I can think of is that you have an oddly edited version - I've not heard the 'LP' versions of Hitchhiker that were done, so maybe they changed stuff around in those..?
Or they've edited the radio series CDs, and then updated the radio scripts book to match it, which seems...improbable.
Well, Robbie is 'Brittish' [sic], so I'd say, yes, he probably can.
Sorry, the five minutes is up.
You're totally and utterly 100% wrong. The internet is about arguing with total strangers.