[deep bass voice]It's a world where companies wage a security suite war on other companies. The battlefield is your own desktop. Imagine Mysantec's antivirus attempting to delete Facamee's antivirus, before being both obliterated by Sicromoft's security solution still in beta. Wouldn't it be fun to watch as your CPU cycles get all pulled into the fight, with rampant defense software running around your RAM and filesystem, killing each other out, filling your desktop space, and celebrating victory with funny alerts, baloons, dialogs, pop-ups, windows, and what not, all reaching for you attention? Ah, talk about an exciting desktop! (And really, what could be more boring that a computer that just works and leaves you with nothing to do except to work with it?) [special effects] In the ensuing destruction and chaos, nothing remains alive but two things: the memory of your once existing data, and an unidentified hideous sneaky polar bird determined to show you of an alternate dimension of reliability and freedom... [epic music] Coming soon, on your desktop: RealityArts presents: THE SOFTWARE WARS, EPISODE 442.75 [/deep bass voice]
Also, some claim that by knowing what you search for, they know what you're thinking, so there goes the Thought Recorder. Combine that and the Google Desktop (access to our files), and what do you get? It turns out I should've been moderated +5 Prophecy instead!
I know what's next: Google Me. Based on data mined from all those sources, the service manages your schedule, writes e-mail, works on your files (by searching for information on google), and writes comments on you blog while doing so. It would be a complete replacement of... you! YOU would be OBSOLETE!
Hm, I guess that's why they like to say "Where do you want to...", oh wait, that was the other one... Never mind.
So now that Google already knows what we're searching for and can read our e-mail, it will also be able to know what we're doing at any given time? I'm definitely signing up!! What's next, Google Personal Diary? Google Thought Recorder?
Remember the quote, "We're moving to a Google that knows more about you" ? You'd better.
I study at a university which requires that all students have their own computers (laptops or desktops). About 90-95% have laptops, and so I know what this measure looks like.
In general it doesn't help at all, but quite the contrary. The usefulness for certain purposes, in particular the better note-taking efficiency for "text-only" classes (e.g. no math formulas and the like), are BY FAR outweighed by the misuse of the technology. Most undergraduates don't have nearly enough self-discipline to resists the temptation of firing up [insert messenger here] and enjoying the wireless network in every lecture hall. They don't pay attention, and it ends up hurting them badly. In fact, some professors see this and get annoyed enough to ban laptops during their lectures!
So this requirement is not effective at all, and I fail to see a serious advantage of a laptop over a desktop in a university setting; at least serious enough to make the former mandatory. On the other hand, it could be a clever publicity move. When everyone has a laptop, more people start using the cool-looking machines in that sunny grassland, back against a tree, just in time for that viewbook photo, or for that curious prospective student visiting the campus. Technology and happy users sure impresses outsiders!
I've never claimed leetness. But the audio CD does come without restrictions and the quality is higher. I have a non-leet 120-EUR sound system in my university room, and there is a siginificant difference. Besides, what prevents you from encoding that CD to nicely compact mp3 files?
I'm not saying I'm leet. I'm saying that if you have two choices that come at almost the same price, and one has much more advantages than the other, you should go for that.
Let's see... my favorite band comes up with an awesome album of typical length, say 15 songs. I want them all. I can either:
1) Buy the most ultimate limited edition of the album on CD for say $17. Comes with awesome artwork at full CD-quality (I always laugh when I read that claim for 128 mp3s!), on a completely DRM-free media with which I can do everything I want.
OR
2) Buy 15 songs at $1 each. They come in a vendor-locked digital COMPRESSED form and no tangible extras whatsoever. I can do with all everything that Apple will permit me. Or I can un-DRM them by RECOMPRESSING them.
So, is it really that hard of a choice? (Assuming of course that the artist is good enough not to have 13 of those songs be just filler to the 2 good ones.)
Besides, listeing to a compressed music format is like drinking juice made of powder, as compared to eating the fruit. It's still orange, but not quite. Recompressing is like adding more water to the powder...
Slashdot Mirror
[deep bass voice]It's a world where companies wage a security suite war on other companies. The battlefield is your own desktop. Imagine Mysantec's antivirus attempting to delete Facamee's antivirus, before being both obliterated by Sicromoft's security solution still in beta. Wouldn't it be fun to watch as your CPU cycles get all pulled into the fight, with rampant defense software running around your RAM and filesystem, killing each other out, filling your desktop space, and celebrating victory with funny alerts, baloons, dialogs, pop-ups, windows, and what not, all reaching for you attention? Ah, talk about an exciting desktop! (And really, what could be more boring that a computer that just works and leaves you with nothing to do except to work with it?)
[special effects]
In the ensuing destruction and chaos, nothing remains alive but two things: the memory of your once existing data, and an unidentified hideous sneaky polar bird determined to show you of an alternate dimension of reliability and freedom...
[epic music]
Coming soon, on your desktop: RealityArts presents: THE SOFTWARE WARS, EPISODE 442.75
[/deep bass voice]
Also, some claim that by knowing what you search for, they know what you're thinking, so there goes the Thought Recorder. Combine that and the Google Desktop (access to our files), and what do you get? It turns out I should've been moderated +5 Prophecy instead!
I know what's next: Google Me. Based on data mined from all those sources, the service manages your schedule, writes e-mail, works on your files (by searching for information on google), and writes comments on you blog while doing so. It would be a complete replacement of... you! YOU would be OBSOLETE!
Hm, I guess that's why they like to say "Where do you want to...", oh wait, that was the other one... Never mind.
So now that Google already knows what we're searching for and can read our e-mail, it will also be able to know what we're doing at any given time? I'm definitely signing up!! What's next, Google Personal Diary? Google Thought Recorder?
Remember the quote, "We're moving to a Google that knows more about you" ? You'd better.
I study at a university which requires that all students have their own computers (laptops or desktops). About 90-95% have laptops, and so I know what this measure looks like.
In general it doesn't help at all, but quite the contrary. The usefulness for certain purposes, in particular the better note-taking efficiency for "text-only" classes (e.g. no math formulas and the like), are BY FAR outweighed by the misuse of the technology. Most undergraduates don't have nearly enough self-discipline to resists the temptation of firing up [insert messenger here] and enjoying the wireless network in every lecture hall. They don't pay attention, and it ends up hurting them badly. In fact, some professors see this and get annoyed enough to ban laptops during their lectures!
So this requirement is not effective at all, and I fail to see a serious advantage of a laptop over a desktop in a university setting; at least serious enough to make the former mandatory. On the other hand, it could be a clever publicity move. When everyone has a laptop, more people start using the cool-looking machines in that sunny grassland, back against a tree, just in time for that viewbook photo, or for that curious prospective student visiting the campus. Technology and happy users sure impresses outsiders!
I've never claimed leetness. But the audio CD does come without restrictions and the quality is higher. I have a non-leet 120-EUR sound system in my university room, and there is a siginificant difference. Besides, what prevents you from encoding that CD to nicely compact mp3 files? I'm not saying I'm leet. I'm saying that if you have two choices that come at almost the same price, and one has much more advantages than the other, you should go for that.
Both of which are no match for my ~1000 kbps flacs which I keep on that big cheap hard drive I have. Those are lossless and made of CDs of course.
Let's see... my favorite band comes up with an awesome album of typical length, say 15 songs. I want them all. I can either:
1) Buy the most ultimate limited edition of the album on CD for say $17. Comes with awesome artwork at full CD-quality (I always laugh when I read that claim for 128 mp3s!), on a completely DRM-free media with which I can do everything I want.
OR
2) Buy 15 songs at $1 each. They come in a vendor-locked digital COMPRESSED form and no tangible extras whatsoever. I can do with all everything that Apple will permit me. Or I can un-DRM them by RECOMPRESSING them.
So, is it really that hard of a choice? (Assuming of course that the artist is good enough not to have 13 of those songs be just filler to the 2 good ones.)
Besides, listeing to a compressed music format is like drinking juice made of powder, as compared to eating the fruit. It's still orange, but not quite. Recompressing is like adding more water to the powder...