Since iPhones, whether sold in an Apple Store or via a Telco, are activated via iTunes, I would suspect that Apple has pretty accurate units-sold numbers.
"The goal of society and government is to benefit certain people to the detriment of other people"
I think you mean perceived detriment. Even a very large corporation will benefit directly only a tiny segment of the population--a segment motivated by greed. The government should regulate so that society as whole benefits over the longer term.
This thread seems to be dominated by the pro Windows crowd. For what it is worth, I work in a Mac dominated science department at a University with an IT support unit that does not support Apple and has lobbied actively to discourage any use of Apple products. Two weeks ago IT began exploring ways to begin Apple support. What caused the reversal in policy? Over the the past decade Apple usage has increased in all departments, and the voice demanding Mac support has increased in volume. Last week the University revealed that 50% of the access to the campus-wide wireless was from Apple devices. All this happened in the face of active opposition from central IT, which is a pretty strong statement of the Mac platform succeeding on merit.
Ten years of consulting on university IT issues and working in the only Mac majority department at the time, demonstrated to me that Mac support is much easier than Windows. What is more difficult, is to support Macs exactly the same as Windows, which is what Windows support staff feel compelled to do. What Windows support staff mostly fail to recognize is that Macs don't need the wild support gymnastics the Windows requires.
Theneed to run a gatekeeper (Antivirus software) to protect OS is an admission the underlying OS is so hopelessly screwed up that it can never be fixed. I realize that there are circumstances where Windows is the only recourse, but why choose to use that mess where it is not necessary?
One additional comment: Windows software controlling instrumentation has also been mentioned in several comments. Using this implementation as a case for teaching Windows is a red herring. Much of this software has been ported from Unix, uses very eccentric UI elements (paragons of poor design and bad programming) and mostly freezes the OS version it was written on, because OS updates will break it. Our university IT support won't touch these computers. We had one very expensive analytical machine networked because the manufacturer did remote online support. That machine got a Windows virus and was down for two weeks; it has never been networked again.
I bet AERO did not run very well (or at all?) on that under a grand computer. Eliminating AERO is how the speed is achieved. AERO is the first Windows GUI that stresses the hardware comparably to the Mac OS X. There lies the true comparison. Macs have always had a resource hungry graphics layer, but the history, even with Mac Classic, is successive releases always improved speed. The history of Windows is successive releases always slow it down. Will history repeat itself with W7?
Who exactly has been crushed by Apple simply for simply criticing the company? Paul Thurott and Rob Enderle have been "mentioning Apple in a less than positive light" and worse for years. Why have they not been crushed by the arrogant Apple that seems to exist in your mind?
The facts of this charge of anti-competitiveness against Apple are hardly clear, yet you have tried and convicted Apple of the crimes of MS? Shouldn't we wait for the whole story, before condemning Apple?
I think it is about time to retire the "Al Gore invented the Internet" jokes. Al Gore never made that claim; the RNC created that sound bite and released it to the media. Al Gore facilitated the internet by sponsoring the legislation that funded the infrastructure of the internet, and credit for that is the statement made by Gore that the RNC distorted into the famous "invented" quote. Gore deserves credit for having the vision to appreciate the importance of the internet, when other legislators did not. Even the 'the father of the Internet', Vint Cerf, gives Gore that credit.
Why say allegedly? MS eventually paid Apple (Scully's time) for use of some interface features to head off that lawsuit. The flagship apps of Office were Mac apps before long they were Windows apps. So, you expect us to believe that MS used none of what they learned during years of writing for Apple's GUI in the development of Windows?
Except in the cases of monopolies or small groups of price-fixing corporations that provide essential services (energy, health insurance and care,etc). If one is dependent on such services, then the fees corporations charge are completely analogous with taxes, only corporations can raise their "taxes" at will with no appeal possible.
The point of the war - to stop the Americans supporting an aggressive empire-building regime in Europe - became irrelevant with Waterloo, and the war ended.
Don't you mean, "to stop the Americans supporting 'the other' aggressive empire-building regime in Europe..."
I agree wholeheartedly. I haven't used crossover cables for desktop - laptop connections in the past two years. And, as you state, MDI/MDIX also eliminates the need to use crossover cables to add switches to a LAN, which was probably their most important use.
As an academic, who has been involved on both sides of the process, author and editor, I think this article is off base.
With the ability to get information anywhere in the world in seconds...Many of these journals take two or more years to print an article after it has been submitted
Two years would be highly unusual; a journal with such a long publication lead time would soon find itself without submissions from authors. The parts of the process that take the most time are the peer review, the essential quality-control step, and the revisions by the authors.
the information is very difficult (or expensive) to obtain
The main users of these publications have access at university libraries and almost all major journals are already online. As for expensive, organizing, preserving and keeping a repository of published research will cost something.
Does this hinder technological advancement?
No, why would it?
There are certainly other venues for peer review, so why journals?
What other venues? Most journals are available as PDFs.
What do they offer our society?
They hold the main body of research published to date...or should we hit reset and start over?
Are they just a way to evaluate the productivity of professors?
No more or less so than the hypothetical and unspecified "other venues" would be.
Before the late 1960s, hipsters were escorted off of campuses, student radicals were usually expelled. Professors who did not 'fit in' were routinely let go.
This certainly sounds like a wish for the good old days to me.
Disruption on campuses today is nowhere near level of the late '60's and early '70's, and somehow, even then, everyone I knew at the university managed to get an education. While many of the instigators of campus disruptions '60's and early '70's had personal agendas that may or may not have been so noble, the masses who took part were motivated and mobilized by idealism and issues like discrimination and another bad war. These issues were brought to the forefront of the nation's attention, and this was important and necessary.
Continuous pollution of the planet and destruction of vital parts of the ecology of Earth is a clear and present danger.
Agreed.
"Global Warming" is hucksterism, bad science and quasi-Gaia-religionism that confuses the public about real problems and good (as opposed to feel-good) solutions to those problems.
You have lost me, here. A group of my departmental colleagues are among the world leaders in this research area, so I am immersed in the topic. "Global Warming" is a acceptable term, and I see and hear very little "hucksterism, bad science and quasi-Gaia-religionism", except from the political right where "hucksterism and bad science" abound.
Your comments imply that hippies took over the colleges, which is why universities are perceived to have a left wing bias (aah for the good old 1950's where the world was perfect and people knew their places).
The reason "campus Republicans" are perceived to be the campus underdogs is that at this point in history the right tends to produce ideologues, who don't deserve and rarely qualify for university positions. This lack of open-mindedness is the biggest hinderance to right-leaning scholars playing a bigger role on campuses. The ideologues have all the answers and simply must find away to make data and evidence fit their ideology; whereas, a credible and open-minded conservative can soundly analyze data, let chips fall where they may. The manufactured threat that accompanied the run up to the Iraq war is a perfect example of the soft thuggery of the neocons (leave out contradictory evidence, use the most bizarre interpretation of data--the Al centrifuge tubes come to mind). The intellectual conservatives, the kind that fit in an academic environment, happen to be out numbered at the moment.
Installed Leopard on a 1.25GB (G4)PowerBook with 1GB of RAM. The PowerBook is noticeably faster to the point that I can no longer justify replacing it as I was about to. Also installed Leopard on a dual 2.3 GB (G5) PowerMac with 4GB of RAM. The PowerMac also very much faster under Leopard. Perhaps you have some incompatible software installed on your intel Macs (APE in my case slowed things down until I uninstalled it) or you have not let SpotLight re-indexing of the attached volumes complete or you have other add-ons that need updating (my case SnapZpro and Soho Notes).
Slashdot Mirror
Since iPhones, whether sold in an Apple Store or via a Telco, are activated via iTunes, I would suspect that Apple has pretty accurate units-sold numbers.
Surely this law violates the right to freedom of expression? Will certainly be challenged in the courts.
I think you mean perceived detriment. Even a very large corporation will benefit directly only a tiny segment of the population--a segment motivated by greed. The government should regulate so that society as whole benefits over the longer term.
This thread seems to be dominated by the pro Windows crowd. For what it is worth, I work in a Mac dominated science department at a University with an IT support unit that does not support Apple and has lobbied actively to discourage any use of Apple products. Two weeks ago IT began exploring ways to begin Apple support. What caused the reversal in policy? Over the the past decade Apple usage has increased in all departments, and the voice demanding Mac support has increased in volume. Last week the University revealed that 50% of the access to the campus-wide wireless was from Apple devices. All this happened in the face of active opposition from central IT, which is a pretty strong statement of the Mac platform succeeding on merit.
Ten years of consulting on university IT issues and working in the only Mac majority department at the time, demonstrated to me that Mac support is much easier than Windows. What is more difficult, is to support Macs exactly the same as Windows, which is what Windows support staff feel compelled to do. What Windows support staff mostly fail to recognize is that Macs don't need the wild support gymnastics the Windows requires.
Theneed to run a gatekeeper (Antivirus software) to protect OS is an admission the underlying OS is so hopelessly screwed up that it can never be fixed. I realize that there are circumstances where Windows is the only recourse, but why choose to use that mess where it is not necessary?
One additional comment: Windows software controlling instrumentation has also been mentioned in several comments. Using this implementation as a case for teaching Windows is a red herring. Much of this software has been ported from Unix, uses very eccentric UI elements (paragons of poor design and bad programming) and mostly freezes the OS version it was written on, because OS updates will break it. Our university IT support won't touch these computers. We had one very expensive analytical machine networked because the manufacturer did remote online support. That machine got a Windows virus and was down for two weeks; it has never been networked again.
Wonderful analysis.
I think that is a canard.
I bet AERO did not run very well (or at all?) on that under a grand computer. Eliminating AERO is how the speed is achieved. AERO is the first Windows GUI that stresses the hardware comparably to the Mac OS X. There lies the true comparison. Macs have always had a resource hungry graphics layer, but the history, even with Mac Classic, is successive releases always improved speed. The history of Windows is successive releases always slow it down. Will history repeat itself with W7?
Who exactly has been crushed by Apple simply for simply criticing the company? Paul Thurott and Rob Enderle have been "mentioning Apple in a less than positive light" and worse for years. Why have they not been crushed by the arrogant Apple that seems to exist in your mind?
The facts of this charge of anti-competitiveness against Apple are hardly clear, yet you have tried and convicted Apple of the crimes of MS? Shouldn't we wait for the whole story, before condemning Apple?
I think it is about time to retire the "Al Gore invented the Internet" jokes. Al Gore never made that claim; the RNC created that sound bite and released it to the media. Al Gore facilitated the internet by sponsoring the legislation that funded the infrastructure of the internet, and credit for that is the statement made by Gore that the RNC distorted into the famous "invented" quote. Gore deserves credit for having the vision to appreciate the importance of the internet, when other legislators did not. Even the 'the father of the Internet', Vint Cerf, gives Gore that credit.
Why say allegedly? MS eventually paid Apple (Scully's time) for use of some interface features to head off that lawsuit. The flagship apps of Office were Mac apps before long they were Windows apps. So, you expect us to believe that MS used none of what they learned during years of writing for Apple's GUI in the development of Windows?
However, this Mac ad is humorous because it does accurately reflect statements/promises issued about the Windows releases mentioned in the ad.
Except in the cases of monopolies or small groups of price-fixing corporations that provide essential services (energy, health insurance and care,etc). If one is dependent on such services, then the fees corporations charge are completely analogous with taxes, only corporations can raise their "taxes" at will with no appeal possible.
The point of the war - to stop the Americans supporting an aggressive empire-building regime in Europe
Don't you mean "supporting 'the other' aggressive empire-building regime in Europe"?
The point of the war - to stop the Americans supporting an aggressive empire-building regime in Europe - became irrelevant with Waterloo, and the war ended.
Don't you mean, "to stop the Americans supporting 'the other' aggressive empire-building regime in Europe..."
I agree wholeheartedly. I haven't used crossover cables for desktop - laptop connections in the past two years. And, as you state, MDI/MDIX also eliminates the need to use crossover cables to add switches to a LAN, which was probably their most important use.
As an academic, who has been involved on both sides of the process, author and editor, I think this article is off base.
With the ability to get information anywhere in the world in seconds...Many of these journals take two or more years to print an article after it has been submitted
Two years would be highly unusual; a journal with such a long publication lead time would soon find itself without submissions from authors. The parts of the process that take the most time are the peer review, the essential quality-control step, and the revisions by the authors.
the information is very difficult (or expensive) to obtain
The main users of these publications have access at university libraries and almost all major journals are already online. As for expensive, organizing, preserving and keeping a repository of published research will cost something.
Does this hinder technological advancement?
No, why would it?
There are certainly other venues for peer review, so why journals?
What other venues? Most journals are available as PDFs.
What do they offer our society?
They hold the main body of research published to date...or should we hit reset and start over?
Are they just a way to evaluate the productivity of professors?
No more or less so than the hypothetical and unspecified "other venues" would be.
Any dodgy looking ships drop anchor in or around Texas on Jan 31st?
Less sympathetic? John McCain, despite his many positive viewpoints, suggested getting Steve Ballmer as a Cabinet Level technology adviser.
Before the late 1960s, hipsters were escorted off of campuses, student radicals were usually expelled. Professors who did not 'fit in' were routinely let go.
This certainly sounds like a wish for the good old days to me.
Disruption on campuses today is nowhere near level of the late '60's and early '70's, and somehow, even then, everyone I knew at the university managed to get an education. While many of the instigators of campus disruptions '60's and early '70's had personal agendas that may or may not have been so noble, the masses who took part were motivated and mobilized by idealism and issues like discrimination and another bad war. These issues were brought to the forefront of the nation's attention, and this was important and necessary.
Continuous pollution of the planet and destruction of vital parts of the ecology of Earth is a clear and present danger.
Agreed.
"Global Warming" is hucksterism, bad science and quasi-Gaia-religionism that confuses the public about real problems and good (as opposed to feel-good) solutions to those problems.
You have lost me, here. A group of my departmental colleagues are among the world leaders in this research area, so I am immersed in the topic. "Global Warming" is a acceptable term, and I see and hear very little "hucksterism, bad science and quasi-Gaia-religionism", except from the political right where "hucksterism and bad science" abound.
Your comments imply that hippies took over the colleges, which is why universities are perceived to have a left wing bias (aah for the good old 1950's where the world was perfect and people knew their places).
The reason "campus Republicans" are perceived to be the campus underdogs is that at this point in history the right tends to produce ideologues, who don't deserve and rarely qualify for university positions. This lack of open-mindedness is the biggest hinderance to right-leaning scholars playing a bigger role on campuses. The ideologues have all the answers and simply must find away to make data and evidence fit their ideology; whereas, a credible and open-minded conservative can soundly analyze data, let chips fall where they may. The manufactured threat that accompanied the run up to the Iraq war is a perfect example of the soft thuggery of the neocons (leave out contradictory evidence, use the most bizarre interpretation of data--the Al centrifuge tubes come to mind). The intellectual conservatives, the kind that fit in an academic environment, happen to be out numbered at the moment.
Sincerely,
Boomer-aged Faculty
Shouldn't that be "Wee Scots know how to make scary food"?
Installed Leopard on a 1.25GB (G4)PowerBook with 1GB of RAM. The PowerBook is noticeably faster to the point that I can no longer justify replacing it as I was about to. Also installed Leopard on a dual 2.3 GB (G5) PowerMac with 4GB of RAM. The PowerMac also very much faster under Leopard. Perhaps you have some incompatible software installed on your intel Macs (APE in my case slowed things down until I uninstalled it) or you have not let SpotLight re-indexing of the attached volumes complete or you have other add-ons that need updating (my case SnapZpro and Soho Notes).