I don't use PowerPoint. When I go to a meeting, which is often, I immediately leave the room if someone decides to bore me with stupid phrases in 12-centimetre type.
To be fair, that's not PowerPoint's fault; it's a lack of presentation skill that seems to pervade the business culture today. If I am talking finances and I have a $2000 laptop and a $4500 projector displaying this on the screen:
Finances
- income
- spending
...then it doesn't matter what software I'm using, I'm wasting resources. PowerPoint has a lot of functionality that can be used to enhance presentations but most people don't use it. So they could really just use a word processor or slideshow program to do practically the same thing.
If you want bash PowerPoint (and I realize that wasn't necessarily the parent's goal), try this: the interface STINKS. I haven't used OpenOffice or StarOffice, but if they are trying to emulate PowerPoint's interface, then I won't bother.
<fanboi>I'm a Mac user and Keynote is much, MUCH more elegant to use... and can even import and export PowerPoint files.</fanboi>
...or at least their ad agency does. The running theme in all their PR material is "we don't take ourselves seriously." The King's vacuum-formed head. The Whopperettes. The tray liners which currently have NFL-like referee calls for various dining-related fouls. The Subservient Chicken. None of these try to be real; they are all laughably NOT real.
McDonald's could instantly get a lot more street cred if they did the same thing with Mayor McCheese. Or had a big "What in God's Name is Grimace?" campaign. Or had the Hamburgler hanging out with mafiosi, committing white-collar crimes or something. Except now they'd just be copying BK. And really, they take themselves too seriously anyway.
Good grief, it's after midnight and I'm posting on slashdot about fast food advertising. I think I'm going to go to bed.
If this is true, it does seem like Apple is giving in to The Man, but it reminds me a little bit of that time when Bill appeared on the big screen behind Jobs and they announced some big stock deal (IIRC, the deal would provide for Microsoft Office's continued Mac development). On that day, it seemed like it was the first step toward a Microsoft buyout of Apple, or something similarly ominous.
But later on it became apparent that Jobs wasn't overtly concerned about keeping that deal... Apple took the money and later came out with it's own web browser, and with iWork, Apple is on the way toward having a very nice alternative to Office. Yes, Office is still available for Mac, but I wonder how long that will last. IE for Mac is already history...
So now I hear that Steve could be in bed with Wal-Mart, and I can't help but wonder how he's figuring on turning this into a future Apple advantage, even at Wal-Mart's expense.
a hack you can download from some website that turns off whatever that flag is
Let's look at the current iTunes audio system, though: You can burn a FairPlay-DRMed audio file to disc, re-import it, and the DRM is gone. Sure, there's a small loss of quality, but it's pretty small for us non-audiophiles.
It seems like a pretty big loophole, it's VERY well-known, and Apple has never made a peep about it. It's almost like they're saying, "Hey, we WANT you to have unrestricted access to the stuff you buy; we just had to put this DRM thing in to please The Man. Heck, I'm surprised that the recording studios haven't freaked out about this... it's really a very sweet deal for Joe Consumer.
It's worth noting that Michael Bartosh's linked bio in the parent is very unfortunately out-of-date; Michael suffered a fatal fall from a Japanese balcony a few weeks ago.
Not saying he shouldn't be on the list, though...
I've always wondered how the CleanFlix folks justified this, since it sure feels like a copyright violation to resell a mildly modified version of someone else's work.
Still, as someone who avoids sex and violence in movies, it seemed like a really nice option. I've read through the Wikipedia entry for Donnie Darko, for example, and it seems like it's my kind of story, but the R rating turns me off. Getting an edited copy (if that would even make sense for that film) is inviting.
But that still leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth: by not seeing the sex and violence I'm voting with my wallet. Buying or renting an edited copy feels a little hypocritical. It's like someone who is a vegetarian by principle and who buys some McVeggie thing... sure, it's got no meat, but you're supporting the enemy.
We had one guy who couldn't get his mouse pointer to move when the instructor said "move the mouse to...". He was moving the mouse in the air, about a foot or so above the mouse pad.
I grew up in Los Alamos, NM, and someone there had an original beetle with some sort of aircraft engine attached integrated into the car's rear. I remember seeing them up at the Valle Grande and hearing them turn the thing on, though the car was stopped and for all I know they just did it for show, and never actually used the engine's thrust.
This was in the early- to mid-80's. Anyone out there know any details? I assumed that if these guys were doing it, that there were other people around the country doing the same thing... but I guess it was Los Alamos after all...
Didn't Apple make a big deal about offering episodes of Lost on their iTunes Video/Music store?
I can't imagine they will be very happy with ABC direct-releasing similarly-poor-quality videos for free. I smell another frivolous lawsuit...
Well, that'd be an interesting lawsuit, since Apple's CEO is on the board of ABC's parent company now.
The zig-zagging and directions changes on that show are legendary. It's the freakin' poster-child show for discontinuity.
Maybe we disagree on what exactly is meant by "continuity." Plot zig-zagging and direction changes don't equal discontinuity. Let's say that in this new Star Trek movie Kirk takes the Kobiyashi Maru test and fails it, but then launches a successful campaign to have it dismantled. That's discontinuity, since we know from TWOK that the outcome was different.
I could expect this to happen with Abrams in the director's chair, because he likes to push viewer expectations to the limits, but he wouldn't let a continuity error like this stand. We'd find out later that it wasn't the real Kirk, or it was an alternate universe, or something, but that loose end would somehow be tied up.
Sure, I'm an Alias fan, and you can call the show sporadic, unbelievable (I think that's the point of "spy-fi"), over-the-top, cheesy, and maybe even a bit predictable... but the writers know the back story. Alias fans know that a character being killed is anything but permanent, but you can be sure that when the character shows up again there will be an explanation telling why they're still alive. To me, that's continuity.
I don't doubt that I will someday (soon) be able to open a windows.exe in OS X, and with BootCamp out it's apparent that the under-the-hood stuff is now a non-issue.
The big issue I see, however, is how the interface would work. An "operating system in a window" environment, like VirtualPC, is a no-brainer. But if the target is a more integrated method, like Classic, where the XP/Vista application windows can be interleaved with OS X windows, I can see some problems. Menu bars immediately come to mind.
Granted, they could just let it happen the way it happens, but that's not the Apple Way. And you KNOW that Joe Consumer is going to be loading Windows apps he bought from Wal-Mart like there's no tomorrow. It's going to cause a lot of confusion in OS X's otherwise tightly-managed interface, and I don't see Apple allowing that to happen.
So I'm not saying it's not going to happen -- or even that I don't want to happen (I for one would love to use my genealogy program without opening Virtual PC or rebooting) -- I just wonder how the details can be worked out.
Well now, wait a minute, all you "oh they're just going to screw up the continuity" types:
First of all, when they announced Enterprise, how many of you were (maybe secretly) excited to find out how they came up with transporters, how the whole first-contact-with-klingons-made-us-come-up-with- the-prime-directive thing happened, and so on... and how many of you felt a quiet thrill everytime Archer and company stumbled upon something that explained stuff in TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY or whatever? (Okay, the Borgs-on-ice thing was a stretch, but even then...)
Second, have any of you watched Alias? Especially seasons 1-3? And you're telling me J.J. Abrams doesn't know about continuity?
Plus, according to TFA, the story is going to be about Kirk and Spock. Not Shatner and Nimoy. I know none of us can imagine a Shatner-less Kirk, but based on how Kirk is revered by every crew in any of the other series, I'm guessing he's going to have to be pretty formidable.
This seems like the perfect opportunity to do some real re-inventing of the whole Trek atmosphere, in the way that what's-his-name tried to do with Nemesis, but this time with the full-on let's-reboot-this-idea backing of the studio (a la Batman Returns). Abrams can't be cheap... this shows me that Paramount means business.
I just bought a Dell and a MacBook Pro within a week of each other. Both have 100 GB hard drives, 2 GHz core duo CPU's, wireless, 15+" widescreens, etc. The Dell has 2 GB ram. The MacBook Pro has 1 GB, but it does have a camera (iSight) that the Dell does not, so we can consider that a wash I suppose.
The Dell was $1,400.
The MacBook Pro was $2,500.
Now, could you give both of those to Joe Consumer for 3-4 years and get back to us with the total again, including support, upgrade and repair costs?
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I don't use PowerPoint. When I go to a meeting, which is often, I immediately leave the room if someone decides to bore me with stupid phrases in 12-centimetre type.
...then it doesn't matter what software I'm using, I'm wasting resources. PowerPoint has a lot of functionality that can be used to enhance presentations but most people don't use it. So they could really just use a word processor or slideshow program to do practically the same thing.
To be fair, that's not PowerPoint's fault; it's a lack of presentation skill that seems to pervade the business culture today. If I am talking finances and I have a $2000 laptop and a $4500 projector displaying this on the screen:
Finances
- income
- spending
If you want bash PowerPoint (and I realize that wasn't necessarily the parent's goal), try this: the interface STINKS. I haven't used OpenOffice or StarOffice, but if they are trying to emulate PowerPoint's interface, then I won't bother.
<fanboi>I'm a Mac user and Keynote is much, MUCH more elegant to use... and can even import and export PowerPoint files.</fanboi>
...or at least their ad agency does. The running theme in all their PR material is "we don't take ourselves seriously." The King's vacuum-formed head. The Whopperettes. The tray liners which currently have NFL-like referee calls for various dining-related fouls. The Subservient Chicken. None of these try to be real; they are all laughably NOT real.
McDonald's could instantly get a lot more street cred if they did the same thing with Mayor McCheese. Or had a big "What in God's Name is Grimace?" campaign. Or had the Hamburgler hanging out with mafiosi, committing white-collar crimes or something. Except now they'd just be copying BK. And really, they take themselves too seriously anyway.
Good grief, it's after midnight and I'm posting on slashdot about fast food advertising. I think I'm going to go to bed.
Four Ways in which My Life is Just Like Pac-Man's:
. html)
1. Ever-present wail of sirens
2. Relentlessly pursued by ghosts
3. Four special pills daily keep ghosts at bay
4. Occasionally eat some fruit
(by John Crownover, http://mcsweeneys.net/links/lists/16JohnCrownover
If this is true, it does seem like Apple is giving in to The Man, but it reminds me a little bit of that time when Bill appeared on the big screen behind Jobs and they announced some big stock deal (IIRC, the deal would provide for Microsoft Office's continued Mac development). On that day, it seemed like it was the first step toward a Microsoft buyout of Apple, or something similarly ominous.
But later on it became apparent that Jobs wasn't overtly concerned about keeping that deal... Apple took the money and later came out with it's own web browser, and with iWork, Apple is on the way toward having a very nice alternative to Office. Yes, Office is still available for Mac, but I wonder how long that will last. IE for Mac is already history...
So now I hear that Steve could be in bed with Wal-Mart, and I can't help but wonder how he's figuring on turning this into a future Apple advantage, even at Wal-Mart's expense.
a hack you can download from some website that turns off whatever that flag is
Let's look at the current iTunes audio system, though: You can burn a FairPlay-DRMed audio file to disc, re-import it, and the DRM is gone. Sure, there's a small loss of quality, but it's pretty small for us non-audiophiles.
It seems like a pretty big loophole, it's VERY well-known, and Apple has never made a peep about it. It's almost like they're saying, "Hey, we WANT you to have unrestricted access to the stuff you buy; we just had to put this DRM thing in to please The Man. Heck, I'm surprised that the recording studios haven't freaked out about this... it's really a very sweet deal for Joe Consumer.
If Apple could pull this off for movies...
It's worth noting that Michael Bartosh's linked bio in the parent is very unfortunately out-of-date; Michael suffered a fatal fall from a Japanese balcony a few weeks ago. Not saying he shouldn't be on the list, though...
I've always wondered how the CleanFlix folks justified this, since it sure feels like a copyright violation to resell a mildly modified version of someone else's work.
Still, as someone who avoids sex and violence in movies, it seemed like a really nice option. I've read through the Wikipedia entry for Donnie Darko, for example, and it seems like it's my kind of story, but the R rating turns me off. Getting an edited copy (if that would even make sense for that film) is inviting.
But that still leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth: by not seeing the sex and violence I'm voting with my wallet. Buying or renting an edited copy feels a little hypocritical. It's like someone who is a vegetarian by principle and who buys some McVeggie thing... sure, it's got no meat, but you're supporting the enemy.
Wow. Mark today's date, 4692 September 1993, on your calendars.
We had one guy who couldn't get his mouse pointer to move when the instructor said "move the mouse to...". He was moving the mouse in the air, about a foot or so above the mouse pad.
Hey, cool, man! I love Fritos too!
Oh, FreeDOS. Sorry, my mistake.
I grew up in Los Alamos, NM, and someone there had an original beetle with some sort of aircraft engine attached integrated into the car's rear. I remember seeing them up at the Valle Grande and hearing them turn the thing on, though the car was stopped and for all I know they just did it for show, and never actually used the engine's thrust.
This was in the early- to mid-80's. Anyone out there know any details? I assumed that if these guys were doing it, that there were other people around the country doing the same thing... but I guess it was Los Alamos after all...
I can't imagine they will be very happy with ABC direct-releasing similarly-poor-quality videos for free. I smell another frivolous lawsuit...
Well, that'd be an interesting lawsuit, since Apple's CEO is on the board of ABC's parent company now.
The zig-zagging and directions changes on that show are legendary. It's the freakin' poster-child show for discontinuity.
Maybe we disagree on what exactly is meant by "continuity." Plot zig-zagging and direction changes don't equal discontinuity. Let's say that in this new Star Trek movie Kirk takes the Kobiyashi Maru test and fails it, but then launches a successful campaign to have it dismantled. That's discontinuity, since we know from TWOK that the outcome was different.
I could expect this to happen with Abrams in the director's chair, because he likes to push viewer expectations to the limits, but he wouldn't let a continuity error like this stand. We'd find out later that it wasn't the real Kirk, or it was an alternate universe, or something, but that loose end would somehow be tied up.
Sure, I'm an Alias fan, and you can call the show sporadic, unbelievable (I think that's the point of "spy-fi"), over-the-top, cheesy, and maybe even a bit predictable... but the writers know the back story. Alias fans know that a character being killed is anything but permanent, but you can be sure that when the character shows up again there will be an explanation telling why they're still alive. To me, that's continuity.
I don't doubt that I will someday (soon) be able to open a windows .exe in OS X, and with BootCamp out it's apparent that the under-the-hood stuff is now a non-issue.
The big issue I see, however, is how the interface would work. An "operating system in a window" environment, like VirtualPC, is a no-brainer. But if the target is a more integrated method, like Classic, where the XP/Vista application windows can be interleaved with OS X windows, I can see some problems. Menu bars immediately come to mind.
Granted, they could just let it happen the way it happens, but that's not the Apple Way. And you KNOW that Joe Consumer is going to be loading Windows apps he bought from Wal-Mart like there's no tomorrow. It's going to cause a lot of confusion in OS X's otherwise tightly-managed interface, and I don't see Apple allowing that to happen.
So I'm not saying it's not going to happen -- or even that I don't want to happen (I for one would love to use my genealogy program without opening Virtual PC or rebooting) -- I just wonder how the details can be worked out.
Well now, wait a minute, all you "oh they're just going to screw up the continuity" types:
First of all, when they announced Enterprise, how many of you were (maybe secretly) excited to find out how they came up with transporters, how the whole first-contact-with-klingons-made-us-come-up-with- the-prime-directive thing happened, and so on... and how many of you felt a quiet thrill everytime Archer and company stumbled upon something that explained stuff in TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY or whatever? (Okay, the Borgs-on-ice thing was a stretch, but even then...)
Second, have any of you watched Alias? Especially seasons 1-3? And you're telling me J.J. Abrams doesn't know about continuity?
Plus, according to TFA, the story is going to be about Kirk and Spock. Not Shatner and Nimoy. I know none of us can imagine a Shatner-less Kirk, but based on how Kirk is revered by every crew in any of the other series, I'm guessing he's going to have to be pretty formidable.
This seems like the perfect opportunity to do some real re-inventing of the whole Trek atmosphere, in the way that what's-his-name tried to do with Nemesis, but this time with the full-on let's-reboot-this-idea backing of the studio (a la Batman Returns). Abrams can't be cheap... this shows me that Paramount means business.
Now, could you give both of those to Joe Consumer for 3-4 years and get back to us with the total again, including support, upgrade and repair costs?
Thanks.