Oh man, where to begin. Let's ignore the four points, they're not his and garbage anyway. As for his personal analysis, well that's garbage too.
"But if Apple's saber-rattling was done to scare the community into backing off so it wouldn't discover the Windows stratagem, then the incident makes more sense." What does rumors about a breakout music production box have to do with that? Hey Dvorak, there's rumors of a REAL video iPod...but BACK OFF, you might uncover their plan to switch over to Windows!
"This switch to Windows may have originally been planned for this year and may partly explain why Adobe and other high-end apps were not ported to the Apple x86 platform when it was announced in January." Yeah, Adobe is always first to have their apps completely ported. They had PPC support right away, and were the first with Altivec support. If Adobe hasn't updated their apps for OS X on Intel, then there must be a conspiracy.
"At Macworld, most observers said that these new Macs could indeed run Windows now." And since then, it's been proven that it won't work out of the box. This has been pretty well known since Macworld, shouldn't Dvorak be a little more on top of things? Did he even attend Macworld, or did he ask the janitor emptying the garbage what looked neat?
"Another issue for Apple is that the Intel platform is wide open, unlike the closed proprietary system Apple once had full control over." Where did Apple say they were going to support every piece of hardware, nowhere that I've seen. Hmmm, there's even restrictions in OS X to allow it to only run on sanctioned hardware (until it get's hacked). Looks like from OS X's commercial standpoint, they're still only need to support a closed system.
"As someone who believed that the Apple OS x86 could gravitate toward the PC rather than Windows toward the Mac, I have to be realistic. It boils down to the add-ons. Linux on the desktop never caught on because too many devices don't run on that OS. It takes only one favorite gizmo or program to stop a user from changing." Oh where to begin. No one ever thought Windows would really run on a Mac, did they? What does that have to do with anything? Linux on the desktop, maybe it never caught on because it isn't installed in people computers when they got them. Maybe it's because there isn't a great consistent easy to use/configure/maintain/whatever desktop environment yet. Is there a point to these sentences?
"To preserve the Mac's slick cachet, there is no reason an executive software layer couldn't be fitted onto Windows to keep the Mac look and feel. Various tweaks could even improve the OS itself." Right, let's skin Windows to look like OS X, that's useful. And I'm sure MS will give them all the code needed to tweak the OS. That's almost as funny as "Windows, as crappy as many believe it to be, actually thrives in this mishmash architecture."
Sure, I quoted half the article here, but only cuz I was too lazy to mock every single sentence.
Like, to see when you've added a music file to the directory, then it automatically get's added to iTunes? Write a Folder Action Applescript, or use the Automator. Not that I know how to do either of these, but it can be done. Or check out Doug's Applescripts, one might already exist.
"Already a household name for his work on developing the Macintosh computer while one of Apple's first employees, Raskin has recently set his sights on a larger goal."
Does anyone actually believe outside of the Slashdot world that Jef Raskin is a household name? Or even inside Slashdot, for that matter...
But really, what's up with that handle? And, if you're going to make a system made for the living room, why not make something with the appropriate dimensions. And without a handle sticking out the top, making it harder to fit into a space or stack something on it.
Ok, so you did something that you didn't fully understand and wiped out your collection. When you set it to re-home, it looked at your library that contained absolutely nothing and put that on your iPod. It did exactly what you told it to. Maybe it should pop up a second dialog box that says it will wipe the current contents of the iPod, but you'll still have people doing what you did.
Not sure what you mean by loading MP3s from your other computer. Those would then be in your new iTunes library and would have gotten copied to your iPod (replacing what was on there since it's got a new home). You wouldn't lose anything there.
There is no limit on burning songs, there is a limit on burning playlists. Subtle difference, and entirely unimportant to this since you'll have to reconvert them to AAC to get them back. Next time, just drop the AAC files on a CD. As for downloads, I'm pretty sure the word of the day is costs. Sure, digital delivery is cheap, but it ain't free. If you're barely breaking even, as Apple claims, every penny counts.
Umm, it's got no screen. If you don't have the remote, I'm sure you can still start and stop music, but how do you navigate what you wanna play? And, given thousands of songs, how do you choose what to listen to?
"Doesn't need a stupid s/w to organize your MP3 collection, works by scanning the harddisk." You must keep your music sorted pretty well; i just let iTunes do it for me. How smart is it in finding new music added, wouldn't it need to rescan all your music and compare it to what's on the player. Or does it store a database on your computer also? Or, do you just drag over your 20+gig of music and let it recopy every time? It's the stupid software that makes things easy.
No doubt this is a small and powerful beasty, but lose the remote and I would think you're screwed.
What could he say? The same things he's always said. What he can bring, however, is dare I say millions of new subscribers. Stern fans tend to be pretty fervent (as do Stern haters). If 1/10 subscribes to Sirius' service, and 1/100 subscribes to his pay channel (he'll be given 3 channels to program), that will be a great boost. Greater subscriber base gives you greater market clout, more tuner's sold (thus better economies of scale), and to many a key differentiator between Sirius and XM. No one, except maybe Stern himself, can claim this could be a move that makes Sirius THE satellite radio provider, but in the long run, sure, it could be worth a billion.
"The average morning radio show listener tunes in for 30 minutes. The average Howard Stern fan tunes in for 90 minutes!" "90 minutes?! Why?" "Most common answer, 'I want to hear what he'll say next.'" "But what about the people who hate Stern?" "The average Howard Stern hater listens for TWO HOURS!" "I can't believ this! Why?" Most common answer, 'I want to hear what he'll say next.'"
Ahhh, I didn't know the force let you see everything past and future. Man, Yoda could really have used that, everything was just cloudy to him. Or maybe just glowy force people can appear however they want.
But let's be realistic (yes, even on/.), how does a regular movie viewer who is watching just the Return of the Jedi have any clue who this little punk in a mullet is.
"I think this may come from me seeing the original movies in 1999 when I was 16, but I always thought Anakin should have been a young guy at the end of Jedi given the argument that Darth Vader killed him 30 years ago. It is still a great ending, and if anything, I think this was an actual improvement."
Ok, I have to disagree with this. Anakin never was killed by Vader in any sense of the word. If he HAD been, then Luke couldn't have seen any good in Vader, any remnant of Anakin, and couldn't have turned him back. You can't have it both ways.
Also, a point my friend just made, how's Luke supposed to recognize the young Anakin as his father, he's never met the guy, he's only seen old Anakin.
And finally, young Anakin was an angry, impetuous boy, not a true Jedi. Only old Anakin was a true Jedi at the end, so he should be the nice glowy thing at the end.
HAHAHAHA! Let's see, Steve Jobs cofounded Apple Computer (now just Apple). Oh yeah, and that Pixar company, they make movies. And many would say on his return to Apple he rescued them from oblivion. And that iPod thing, I think he had a hand in that.
Let's not lump all vendors together. Keep up with WindRiver, and you'll see they're working on Linux as well. For those who can't read, check here for a pretty picture of their view.
Mmmm, VxWorks, no memory protection goodness! Good OS otherwise though.
Ok, the scroll wheel is a little overly sensitive. Rating a song up/down just one star can be infuriating.
Never notice my volume being reset, but I don't ever max it out (maybe it only happens in that case). Turn it off all the time, as well as letting the sleep timer turn it off and letting it turn itself off after a pause. Stupid question of the day, is your firmware up to date?
I'd respond on the wheel comment, but Josh already has really well. Given a massive number of songs in a list, it is mechanically one of the easiest and most fluid ways to scroll through them.
As for your "non-responsive buttons," the gen4 fixes your issue with this, since (I believe) it has a physical click below the scrollwheel. The iPod's original interface remained minimal while providing amazing functionality through (somewhat intuitive) reuse. I think their combination of scrollwheel with buttons below it (with a real physical click even) is pure genius.
Lack of an off button? No holding down "stop" until you "think" it's off? Well there's no "stop" button, which for some reason seems to bother some people. But the screen does turn off to let you know when it's off. Music does stop playing. And worst case, it's still on for 2-3 minutes or whatever the timeout it before it actually turns off. Not really sure what the big problem is here.
Do you have any explicit suggestions for what buttons should be added? Would these confuse the "average" user who actually reads the manuel and still doesn't understand?
Give it 2-3 years and that will be the iPod Mini. I predict the iPod itself will go away (at some point in the future), since there really is a limit on how much drive space you need. Either that, or it will evolve into something grander.
Ok, let's deal with reality. If you want the entire album, it's cheaper to get the real CD. Whether you go through a music club, a used music store, or even WalMart, you can find the entire album cheaper. Shoot, at even money or slightly more, if I want the entire album I go and buy the CD.
The music store is good for 2 things. Buying a couple of songs off the album because the rest of the album sucks, and listening to blurbs of the entire album to see if it sucks. Would you rather spend $13 (or $10, or whatever) for a single song you want, or just to buy that one song and not have to deal with the rest of the crap on there?
"IE is a super powerful Web browser that hundreds of millions of people choose to use," Hachamovitch replied. "As long as they're using it, MS is going to keep making it better. As long as that many people use it, there will be bad people who try to take it down."
Microsoft doens't think people attack the browser to gain control of others' computers to make them do their bidding. They simply think people hack IE to take Microsoft down a peg. Now, I'm sure some people do attack IE for that reason, but most people who exploit security holes do it for their own malicious purposes.
Hmmm, I can't decide if it's good or bad that they single out the iPod. At first I was peeved, since unless you rtfa you might think the iPod is evil. But then I thought, has the iPod become the Kleenex of mp3 players?
Almost 97million sold at the iTMS, start buying now to win whatever prize there is when it dings....then start the not so long wait to 98mil...
Ok, first of all, everyone saying that the RIAA is trying to corrupt minors or shouldn't be donating music that isn't "wholesome" or "educational" needs to take a step back. For a site that shows so many complaints about people's free speech being trampled on, look at the abrupt about face when the material comes from the RIAA. Just because you find something indecent doesn't mean I do. In fact, I would prefer my library to have a wider selection of things, and simply restrict access to those under 18. Doesn't anyone else's library carry Playboy?
The issue here is the quantity. I think we can all agree no library system needs hundreds of Whitney singing the "Star Spangled Banner", as the article said, two per library at most. Whether this is just a programming glitch, even I will remain skeptical. The public library shouldn't censor it's music or movie selection and more than their book collection. So unless you're making a joke, please think before you complain about the selection.
Ummmm, so you're glad you chose the HP-120 over the iPod because you can't get any sort of integration? Because no such thing as the ICELink exists to tie it into almost and head unit supporting a CD changer? Really, what exactly are you glad about?
I wish Alpine would hurry up and get their iPod compatible head unit out. It probably won't have a big display either, alas.
Among Apple freaks, it's common knowledge that "summer" means all the way through September. Tough to call it "Apple's fault" for not having 3GHz by their announced date. IBM gives them the roadmap, IBM just couldn't deliver.
The only thing Steve blew in this case was trusting IBM. You're right, the AirportExpress isn't cool technology in the slightest. Wait, I got confused which parts were sarcasm and which weren't.
I just thought of something funny. Everyone says there are no Mac viruses because they don't have a substantial enough market to make it worthwhile. That's probably why nobody's bothering to crack WM9. Even though every other music store (except Rhapsody and Sony Connect) uses WMA files, they're just not a large enough market segment to bother cracking.;}
1. Backup your files, why does everyone complain about this. 2. You don't have to copy the files to 5 different machines. Have it on one, iTunes will stream it to the others. The machine still has to be authorized to play it if it's protected. But you do NOT have to physically copy the file.
Ok, we'll go over it again boys and girls. It's the market, the Mini isn't there to compete with the iPod. The Mini is there to compete against your $200-300 1gig flash player. If you want to spend $100, then get a little 256MB player and be done with it.
Slashdot Mirror
"These days"??? I'm pretty sure his articles have been ridiculous for years. Should should be be scored Funny, Informative is more appropriate.
Oh man, where to begin. Let's ignore the four points, they're not his and garbage anyway. As for his personal analysis, well that's garbage too.
"But if Apple's saber-rattling was done to scare the community into backing off so it wouldn't discover the Windows stratagem, then the incident makes more sense."
What does rumors about a breakout music production box have to do with that? Hey Dvorak, there's rumors of a REAL video iPod...but BACK OFF, you might uncover their plan to switch over to Windows!
"This switch to Windows may have originally been planned for this year and may partly explain why Adobe and other high-end apps were not ported to the Apple x86 platform when it was announced in January." Yeah, Adobe is always first to have their apps completely ported. They had PPC support right away, and were the first with Altivec support. If Adobe hasn't updated their apps for OS X on Intel, then there must be a conspiracy.
"At Macworld, most observers said that these new Macs could indeed run Windows now."
And since then, it's been proven that it won't work out of the box. This has been pretty well known since Macworld, shouldn't Dvorak be a little more on top of things? Did he even attend Macworld, or did he ask the janitor emptying the garbage what looked neat?
"Another issue for Apple is that the Intel platform is wide open, unlike the closed proprietary system Apple once had full control over."
Where did Apple say they were going to support every piece of hardware, nowhere that I've seen. Hmmm, there's even restrictions in OS X to allow it to only run on sanctioned hardware (until it get's hacked). Looks like from OS X's commercial standpoint, they're still only need to support a closed system.
"As someone who believed that the Apple OS x86 could gravitate toward the PC rather than Windows toward the Mac, I have to be realistic. It boils down to the add-ons. Linux on the desktop never caught on because too many devices don't run on that OS. It takes only one favorite gizmo or program to stop a user from changing."
Oh where to begin. No one ever thought Windows would really run on a Mac, did they? What does that have to do with anything? Linux on the desktop, maybe it never caught on because it isn't installed in people computers when they got them. Maybe it's because there isn't a great consistent easy to use/configure/maintain/whatever desktop environment yet. Is there a point to these sentences?
"To preserve the Mac's slick cachet, there is no reason an executive software layer couldn't be fitted onto Windows to keep the Mac look and feel. Various tweaks could even improve the OS itself."
Right, let's skin Windows to look like OS X, that's useful. And I'm sure MS will give them all the code needed to tweak the OS. That's almost as funny as "Windows, as crappy as many believe it to be, actually thrives in this mishmash architecture."
Sure, I quoted half the article here, but only cuz I was too lazy to mock every single sentence.
Like, to see when you've added a music file to the directory, then it automatically get's added to iTunes? Write a Folder Action Applescript, or use the Automator. Not that I know how to do either of these, but it can be done. Or check out Doug's Applescripts, one might already exist.
"Already a household name for his work on developing the Macintosh computer while one of Apple's first employees, Raskin has recently set his sights on a larger goal."
Does anyone actually believe outside of the Slashdot world that Jef Raskin is a household name? Or even inside Slashdot, for that matter...
But really, what's up with that handle? And, if you're going to make a system made for the living room, why not make something with the appropriate dimensions. And without a handle sticking out the top, making it harder to fit into a space or stack something on it.
Ok, so you did something that you didn't fully understand and wiped out your collection. When you set it to re-home, it looked at your library that contained absolutely nothing and put that on your iPod. It did exactly what you told it to. Maybe it should pop up a second dialog box that says it will wipe the current contents of the iPod, but you'll still have people doing what you did.
Not sure what you mean by loading MP3s from your other computer. Those would then be in your new iTunes library and would have gotten copied to your iPod (replacing what was on there since it's got a new home). You wouldn't lose anything there.
There is no limit on burning songs, there is a limit on burning playlists. Subtle difference, and entirely unimportant to this since you'll have to reconvert them to AAC to get them back. Next time, just drop the AAC files on a CD. As for downloads, I'm pretty sure the word of the day is costs. Sure, digital delivery is cheap, but it ain't free. If you're barely breaking even, as Apple claims, every penny counts.
Umm, it's got no screen. If you don't have the remote, I'm sure you can still start and stop music, but how do you navigate what you wanna play? And, given thousands of songs, how do you choose what to listen to?
"Doesn't need a stupid s/w to organize your MP3 collection, works by scanning the harddisk." You must keep your music sorted pretty well; i just let iTunes do it for me. How smart is it in finding new music added, wouldn't it need to rescan all your music and compare it to what's on the player. Or does it store a database on your computer also? Or, do you just drag over your 20+gig of music and let it recopy every time? It's the stupid software that makes things easy.
No doubt this is a small and powerful beasty, but lose the remote and I would think you're screwed.
What could he say? The same things he's always said. What he can bring, however, is dare I say millions of new subscribers. Stern fans tend to be pretty fervent (as do Stern haters). If 1/10 subscribes to Sirius' service, and 1/100 subscribes to his pay channel (he'll be given 3 channels to program), that will be a great boost. Greater subscriber base gives you greater market clout, more tuner's sold (thus better economies of scale), and to many a key differentiator between Sirius and XM. No one, except maybe Stern himself, can claim this could be a move that makes Sirius THE satellite radio provider, but in the long run, sure, it could be worth a billion.
"The average morning radio show listener tunes in for 30 minutes. The average Howard Stern fan tunes in for 90 minutes!" "90 minutes?! Why?" "Most common answer, 'I want to hear what he'll say next.'" "But what about the people who hate Stern?" "The average Howard Stern hater listens for TWO HOURS!" "I can't believ this! Why?" Most common answer, 'I want to hear what he'll say next.'"
Ahhh, I didn't know the force let you see everything past and future. Man, Yoda could really have used that, everything was just cloudy to him. Or maybe just glowy force people can appear however they want.
/.), how does a regular movie viewer who is watching just the Return of the Jedi have any clue who this little punk in a mullet is.
But let's be realistic (yes, even on
"I think this may come from me seeing the original movies in 1999 when I was 16, but I always thought Anakin should have been a young guy at the end of Jedi given the argument that Darth Vader killed him 30 years ago. It is still a great ending, and if anything, I think this was an actual improvement."
Ok, I have to disagree with this. Anakin never was killed by Vader in any sense of the word. If he HAD been, then Luke couldn't have seen any good in Vader, any remnant of Anakin, and couldn't have turned him back. You can't have it both ways.
Also, a point my friend just made, how's Luke supposed to recognize the young Anakin as his father, he's never met the guy, he's only seen old Anakin.
And finally, young Anakin was an angry, impetuous boy, not a true Jedi. Only old Anakin was a true Jedi at the end, so he should be the nice glowy thing at the end.
HAHAHAHA!
Let's see, Steve Jobs cofounded Apple Computer (now just Apple).
Oh yeah, and that Pixar company, they make movies.
And many would say on his return to Apple he rescued them from oblivion.
And that iPod thing, I think he had a hand in that.
Or, are all these unimportant?
Not true, Cisco owns patents on VOFDM (Vector OFDM).
Let's not lump all vendors together. Keep up with WindRiver, and you'll see they're working on Linux as well. For those who can't read, check here for a pretty picture of their view.
Mmmm, VxWorks, no memory protection goodness! Good OS otherwise though.
Ok, the scroll wheel is a little overly sensitive. Rating a song up/down just one star can be infuriating.
Never notice my volume being reset, but I don't ever max it out (maybe it only happens in that case). Turn it off all the time, as well as letting the sleep timer turn it off and letting it turn itself off after a pause. Stupid question of the day, is your firmware up to date?
I'd respond on the wheel comment, but Josh already has really well. Given a massive number of songs in a list, it is mechanically one of the easiest and most fluid ways to scroll through them.
As for your "non-responsive buttons," the gen4 fixes your issue with this, since (I believe) it has a physical click below the scrollwheel. The iPod's original interface remained minimal while providing amazing functionality through (somewhat intuitive) reuse. I think their combination of scrollwheel with buttons below it (with a real physical click even) is pure genius.
Lack of an off button? No holding down "stop" until you "think" it's off? Well there's no "stop" button, which for some reason seems to bother some people. But the screen does turn off to let you know when it's off. Music does stop playing. And worst case, it's still on for 2-3 minutes or whatever the timeout it before it actually turns off. Not really sure what the big problem is here.
Do you have any explicit suggestions for what buttons should be added? Would these confuse the "average" user who actually reads the manuel and still doesn't understand?
Give it 2-3 years and that will be the iPod Mini. I predict the iPod itself will go away (at some point in the future), since there really is a limit on how much drive space you need. Either that, or it will evolve into something grander.
Ok, let's deal with reality. If you want the entire album, it's cheaper to get the real CD. Whether you go through a music club, a used music store, or even WalMart, you can find the entire album cheaper. Shoot, at even money or slightly more, if I want the entire album I go and buy the CD.
The music store is good for 2 things. Buying a couple of songs off the album because the rest of the album sucks, and listening to blurbs of the entire album to see if it sucks. Would you rather spend $13 (or $10, or whatever) for a single song you want, or just to buy that one song and not have to deal with the rest of the crap on there?
"IE is a super powerful Web browser that hundreds of millions of people choose to use," Hachamovitch replied. "As long as they're using it, MS is going to keep making it better. As long as that many people use it, there will be bad people who try to take it down."
Microsoft doens't think people attack the browser to gain control of others' computers to make them do their bidding. They simply think people hack IE to take Microsoft down a peg. Now, I'm sure some people do attack IE for that reason, but most people who exploit security holes do it for their own malicious purposes.
Hmmm, I can't decide if it's good or bad that they single out the iPod. At first I was peeved, since unless you rtfa you might think the iPod is evil. But then I thought, has the iPod become the Kleenex of mp3 players?
Almost 97million sold at the iTMS, start buying now to win whatever prize there is when it dings....then start the not so long wait to 98mil...
Ok, first of all, everyone saying that the RIAA is trying to corrupt minors or shouldn't be donating music that isn't "wholesome" or "educational" needs to take a step back. For a site that shows so many complaints about people's free speech being trampled on, look at the abrupt about face when the material comes from the RIAA. Just because you find something indecent doesn't mean I do. In fact, I would prefer my library to have a wider selection of things, and simply restrict access to those under 18. Doesn't anyone else's library carry Playboy?
The issue here is the quantity. I think we can all agree no library system needs hundreds of Whitney singing the "Star Spangled Banner", as the article said, two per library at most. Whether this is just a programming glitch, even I will remain skeptical. The public library shouldn't censor it's music or movie selection and more than their book collection. So unless you're making a joke, please think before you complain about the selection.
Ummmm, so you're glad you chose the HP-120 over the iPod because you can't get any sort of integration? Because no such thing as the ICELink exists to tie it into almost and head unit supporting a CD changer? Really, what exactly are you glad about?
I wish Alpine would hurry up and get their iPod compatible head unit out. It probably won't have a big display either, alas.
Among Apple freaks, it's common knowledge that "summer" means all the way through September. Tough to call it "Apple's fault" for not having 3GHz by their announced date. IBM gives them the roadmap, IBM just couldn't deliver.
The only thing Steve blew in this case was trusting IBM. You're right, the AirportExpress isn't cool technology in the slightest. Wait, I got confused which parts were sarcasm and which weren't.
I just thought of something funny. Everyone says there are no Mac viruses because they don't have a substantial enough market to make it worthwhile. That's probably why nobody's bothering to crack WM9. Even though every other music store (except Rhapsody and Sony Connect) uses WMA files, they're just not a large enough market segment to bother cracking. ;}
1. Backup your files, why does everyone complain about this.
2. You don't have to copy the files to 5 different machines. Have it on one, iTunes will stream it to the others. The machine still has to be authorized to play it if it's protected. But you do NOT have to physically copy the file.
Ok, we'll go over it again boys and girls. It's the market, the Mini isn't there to compete with the iPod. The Mini is there to compete against your $200-300 1gig flash player. If you want to spend $100, then get a little 256MB player and be done with it.
You probably think Firewire is useless too.