You know, this gets tossed around as gospel quite a lot and accepted as such. So I'm curious... name these massive innovations.
Well, considering that there really is nothing new under the sun, I'm sure anything I come up with will have existed SOMEwhere before; and since YOU are the assumed arbiter of what constitutes a MASSIVE innovation, and assuming (correctly) that there is only so much effort I'm willing to spend on this, here goes. I am also going to restrict this list to the OS X-era stuff; so we don't get into detritus like the "who invented the GUI?" and "Who stole QuickTime?" type arguments:
1. Zeroconf/Bonjour. Grew out of their original AppleTalk work. Apple also Open Sourced the basis for this (mDNSResponder). Although the original idea was not Apple's, it is their implementation that is by far the most popular. Many, many, many projects and products now use Bonjour discovery services, fundamentally changing the way network device configuration and discovery works for a WIDE variety of uses on LANs.
2. Launchd. Finally someone (Apple) fundamentally changes the *NIX boot process. Again, Apple generously gives this to the world.
3. Grand Central Dispatch. Greatly improves the way Operating Systems can divvy-up threads in Multi-core/Multi-processor systems. Once again, Apple gifts this nifty bit of technology to everyone.
4. OpenCL. Originally designed by Apple, this nifty standard makes it ever-so-much-easier for developers to use and develop frameworks that leverage GPU power for certain computational tasks. After helping form an industry group, Apple basically spun this off into its own standards body.
5. Time Machine. Yes, this is, to some extent, simply an amalgam of several existing pieces-parts; but the innovation comes in the fact that, for the very first time, an actual, useful backup system can be set up with no knowledge required of the user for either setting up, maintaining, and most importantly, RESTORING backups. And anyone who has done a FULL Time Machine Restore to an empty hard drive, and watched as the ENTIRE EVERYTHING is restored JUST the way it was, would argue that that alone constitutes a pretty significant advance over other backup/restoration solutions.
That's all I can think of in a few minutes off the top of my head. I know there are MANY more examples; but I trust these represent true innovation in the purest sense (for examples 1-4) and nearly anyone who has had any experience with the heartache that most backup systems represent would agree about the innovation in ease-of-use and user-experience for #5.
Now watch as you attempt to belittle each one of these as "Just a simple routine", or "an obvious extension of...", when each of the Wikipedia references clearly notes that Apple was the INNOVATOR that INVENTED it.
You're using an intentionally sensationalist article about Google's cookies being stored on iPhones (OMG!!!! NEVAH!!!) possibly (but not likely and more likely to be user confusion) in violation of the user's privacy settings, when users browse Google sites as evidence that Google is at war with Apple? Really? REALLY?!
So when the entire PLANET (including Planet Slashdot) turns a Celltower cache into a "ZOMG! Apple iz teh Spies!", even to the point of prompting Congressional interest, that's ok; but I am to be villified for a simple Slashdot comment that links to a SLASHDOT article about Google ACTUALLY targeting iOS SPECIFICALLY, to TRACK BROWSING?!? And you have the TEMERITY to blame "user confusion" as the MOST LIKELY explanation?!?
Thunderbolt is slower then pci-e and is shared vs haveing 2-3 pci-e slots that each have there own bandwidth.
Also Thunderbolt is to slow to put a video card on it's bus.
1. PCI-E ain't here yet, man.
2. Thunderbolt is NOT too slow to put a video card on its bus. IIRC, it would support up to an AGP 4X card. Besides, unless you are doing hard-core 3D gaming, you'd never need external video. I just saw an article with THREE external displays being hooked to an MBPwRD (albeit, one was hooked up to the HDMI port), along with the laptop's built-in, for a total of FOUR displays. So, that oughta do for MOST people.
But of course, it wouldn't be enough for YOU, even if I showed you EIGHT displays hooked up, right?
You're not a good Apple customer, you will be gone soon enough. Because you actually have a brain.
Well, I WILL die eventually; but since I have used Apple computers exclusively since 1976 (except when employment forces otherwise), I very much doubt I will be "gone" as an Apple customer any time soon...
as part of the Android Licensing Agreement for OEMs (I assume there IS one of those),
There isn't. The kernel is GPL, the rest is Apache. You're free to distribute it on your devices, modify it as you see fit and not even tell Google about it. Which is mostly why it took off in the first place.
Well, guess what then? The same thing that you claim made it "take off" is going to be the same thing that causes it to ultimately fail...
As opposed to innovating a little bit and then suing anyone who catches up with them and surpasses them.
Well, first: Apple has innovated a LOTTA bit; and
second: Suing people that have infringed your patents is what businesses, especially tech-driven ones, er, do...
Don't imply that Apple is The Great Satan(sm) when they are doing what they have to do to protect the interests of their stockholders, and what has unfortunately become the only way to defend patents.
It used to be that a patent-holder (even a little guy), could send a C&D letter to an alleged infringer, and the infringer (even a big guy) was loathe to continue to violate the patent once "on notice".
But then, I think in the late 1980s or early '90s, there was a Court (don't remember if it was SCOTUS, or not) decision that turned all that on its head. NOW, the (alleged) infringer is allowed to keep on infringin' UNTIL THE OUTCOME OF AN INFRINGEMENT ACTION (!!!)
Short digression: One of the worst things that came of that decision is that a "little guy" patent-holders basically have no chance with deep-pocket infringers; because the deep-pockets can keep on filing dilatory motions and discovery requests until the little guy runs out of money... [/digression]
But, the other thing that happened was that now, everyone felt pressure to "sue immediately"; because, as the patent-holder, the quicker you can get a decision, the quicker you can get injunctive (and/or monetary) relief. So, because of this, in patent disputes (esp. between TWO well-heeled parties) everyone immediately files suit these days.
Apple is in danger of triggering Armageddon. Google has been fairly good natured so far, but if they decide to start a war things can only get worse for the consumer.
Good Natured, you say? Eh, it appears, not so much...
Apple invests a metric assload of cash toward R&D. They cut in a partner, like Samsung, to develop components. Samsung has grown mightily, in fact, by Apple's own products. They share the wealth, so to speak. Then, Samsung comes along and just copies an entire fucking product in a shitty way and cries foul when the law stops them. I support capitalism, but not communism. WTF is wrong with everybody?
But nobody uses the shit sandwich that is Safari. I literally know not a single OSX user that doesn't use Chrome or Firefox as their main browser and would remove Safari if it was possible, much like pretty much everyone I know with a Windows machine would dump I.E. in a second if that were possible.
You know what? I have used Safari pretty much exclusively since it came out. It's a DAMNED good browser on OS X. However, on Windows, it sucked. Tried it. Hated it. Never went back.
However, I recently had to install Safari on my Win 7 work-provided laptop to run an iOS emulator. I have to say, Safari for Windows is NOTHING like when it first came out back in 2008(?) It simply ROCKS! It is WAAAAY faster than IE, and even a little faster than FireFox, and the pop-up blocker is superior to both. So much so that it has pretty much instantly become my WINDOWS browser-of-choice.
So, if you tried Safari on Windows, I suggest you try again.
this Judge Lucy Koh is a prime example of what can go wrong - She was a patent-lawyer before she was appointed to be a judge
So, it's really cool that Judge Posner is a coder, and thus understood the technology and terms-of-art behind his most recent celebrated case; but when Judge Koh was a patent attorney, and thus understands, at a minimum, what should be patentable and not, she is immediately considered to be "on the take"???
The external drive is for the huge media files or build trees or whatever you're working on. User data. System stuff goes on the closest drive to the RAM, so you can grab it quickly when it's time to load it.
While I agree with you wholeheartedly, I certainly wish that OS X made it (much) more simple to locate your Home folder somewhere else besides the boot drive.
Yes, I know it's possible with symlinks, etc.; but I have heard horror stories (most of them from a while back, admittedly) about how doing so would befuddle some upgrade mechanisms, cause your hair to fall out, and ruin your sex life (not much of a problem for most slashdotters; but...)
I don't think there's a single computer in the house which hasn't had a harddisk replaced at some point (not necessarily upgraded). They are the most common point of failure for a computer.
But largely to the kick-in-the-pants that Apple gave the Flash Memory industry, there soon won't be that many hard drives in use as primary boot drives anymore. And then, the argument against external EXPANSION storage (and against replaceable main storage) becomes moot, and even silly.
but with apple basic stuff like top up fluids, replace a headlamp and change a flat. On some models can only be done at the dealer (aka apple store) with a much longer trun around time.
That analogy is only relevant if you can provide the car analogy to computer glossary.
IIRC most embedded systems don't have anything like that. They don't necessarily even have a standardised mechanism to load a kernel into memory and boot it.
But Android Fans keep harping about how their smartphones a just "liittle computers"; so...
1. Good for you; you successfully "ported" a version of Android from one similar device to another.
2. I don't live in a perpetual rat race. I'd just rather concentrate on things that interest me, too.
3. I can replace the battery on my iPhone, if it ever needs it. And with close to 700k apps available, I haven't found one application that hasn't had more than one ready-made solution.
are HDD slots really necessary? Most users don't upgrade their hard drives
The people who make good Apple customers are the same ones who like to have the hood of their car welded shut.
Really? I've been using Apple computers exclusively (unless forced not to by employers) since my Apple 1 in 1976. I use them for everything from embedded software and hardware development to everyday computing tasks.
I also work on my own cars, TVs, stereos, DVD players, computers (yes, my Macs), microwave ovens, Air Conditioners, plumbing, house wiring, carpentry, roofing, et FUCKING cetera.
Seriously; look at the new MacBook Pro "Retina", it's entirely disposable. You can't upgrade or replace the RAM, disk or battery, the three things you'd need to touch in a laptop to keep using it for more than a couple of years.
I've been buying Mac laptops since the iBook G4, but if this is the new normal, forget it. Not looking forward to trying to find a decent PC laptop though, everyone seems to have ten billion slightly different and incomprehensibly named models...
So buy one of the other two MBPs instead. Everyone wringing their hands over the MBPwRD is carefully avoiding that that option exists. And there is a VERY good reason why Apple did it that way.
Slashdot Mirror
After all, everyone knows that Mac's can't get viruses.
After all, everyone knows that ACs can't use apostrophes correctly.
You know, this gets tossed around as gospel quite a lot and accepted as such. So I'm curious... name these massive innovations.
Well, considering that there really is nothing new under the sun, I'm sure anything I come up with will have existed SOMEwhere before; and since YOU are the assumed arbiter of what constitutes a MASSIVE innovation, and assuming (correctly) that there is only so much effort I'm willing to spend on this, here goes. I am also going to restrict this list to the OS X-era stuff; so we don't get into detritus like the "who invented the GUI?" and "Who stole QuickTime?" type arguments:
1. Zeroconf/Bonjour. Grew out of their original AppleTalk work. Apple also Open Sourced the basis for this (mDNSResponder). Although the original idea was not Apple's, it is their implementation that is by far the most popular. Many, many, many projects and products now use Bonjour discovery services, fundamentally changing the way network device configuration and discovery works for a WIDE variety of uses on LANs.
2. Launchd. Finally someone (Apple) fundamentally changes the *NIX boot process. Again, Apple generously gives this to the world.
3. Grand Central Dispatch. Greatly improves the way Operating Systems can divvy-up threads in Multi-core/Multi-processor systems. Once again, Apple gifts this nifty bit of technology to everyone.
4. OpenCL. Originally designed by Apple, this nifty standard makes it ever-so-much-easier for developers to use and develop frameworks that leverage GPU power for certain computational tasks. After helping form an industry group, Apple basically spun this off into its own standards body.
5. Time Machine. Yes, this is, to some extent, simply an amalgam of several existing pieces-parts; but the innovation comes in the fact that, for the very first time, an actual, useful backup system can be set up with no knowledge required of the user for either setting up, maintaining, and most importantly, RESTORING backups. And anyone who has done a FULL Time Machine Restore to an empty hard drive, and watched as the ENTIRE EVERYTHING is restored JUST the way it was, would argue that that alone constitutes a pretty significant advance over other backup/restoration solutions.
That's all I can think of in a few minutes off the top of my head. I know there are MANY more examples; but I trust these represent true innovation in the purest sense (for examples 1-4) and nearly anyone who has had any experience with the heartache that most backup systems represent would agree about the innovation in ease-of-use and user-experience for #5.
Now watch as you attempt to belittle each one of these as "Just a simple routine", or "an obvious extension of...", when each of the Wikipedia references clearly notes that Apple was the INNOVATOR that INVENTED it.
You're using an intentionally sensationalist article about Google's cookies being stored on iPhones (OMG!!!! NEVAH!!!) possibly (but not likely and more likely to be user confusion) in violation of the user's privacy settings, when users browse Google sites as evidence that Google is at war with Apple? Really? REALLY?!
So when the entire PLANET (including Planet Slashdot) turns a Celltower cache into a "ZOMG! Apple iz teh Spies!", even to the point of prompting Congressional interest, that's ok; but I am to be villified for a simple Slashdot comment that links to a SLASHDOT article about Google ACTUALLY targeting iOS SPECIFICALLY, to TRACK BROWSING?!? And you have the TEMERITY to blame "user confusion" as the MOST LIKELY explanation?!?
Really? REALLY?
Thunderbolt is slower then pci-e and is shared vs haveing 2-3 pci-e slots that each have there own bandwidth.
Also Thunderbolt is to slow to put a video card on it's bus.
1. PCI-E ain't here yet, man.
2. Thunderbolt is NOT too slow to put a video card on its bus. IIRC, it would support up to an AGP 4X card. Besides, unless you are doing hard-core 3D gaming, you'd never need external video. I just saw an article with THREE external displays being hooked to an MBPwRD (albeit, one was hooked up to the HDMI port), along with the laptop's built-in, for a total of FOUR displays. So, that oughta do for MOST people.
But of course, it wouldn't be enough for YOU, even if I showed you EIGHT displays hooked up, right?
You DO realize, of course, that statement makes you look foolish given the way you quoted: If I ran the word[sic]
So, I'm either allowed to use [sic] OR make a snarky grammar-Nazi comment; not both???
I don't get it. Did I not get the official stylebook?
Thanks! I needed that. I've taken quite a beating today from the Apple-Haters...
You're not a good Apple customer, you will be gone soon enough. Because you actually have a brain.
Well, I WILL die eventually; but since I have used Apple computers exclusively since 1976 (except when employment forces otherwise), I very much doubt I will be "gone" as an Apple customer any time soon...
as part of the Android Licensing Agreement for OEMs (I assume there IS one of those),
There isn't. The kernel is GPL, the rest is Apache. You're free to distribute it on your devices, modify it as you see fit and not even tell Google about it. Which is mostly why it took off in the first place.
Well, guess what then? The same thing that you claim made it "take off" is going to be the same thing that causes it to ultimately fail...
That Judge Koh should have excused herself on cases involving patent in the first case
Why? Did she hold stock from either corporation? Was she a member of either corporation's Board?
Again, I ask: Why was it cool that J. Posner was a coder, but UNcool that J. Koh understood patent law?
They [Microsoft] at least tried, sorta, to innovate and compete.
Here are some prime examples of Microsoft's idea of "innovation".
Oh, and as far as "compete" goes, I think you really mean "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish", don't you?
As opposed to innovating a little bit and then suing anyone who catches up with them and surpasses them.
Well, first: Apple has innovated a LOTTA bit; and
second: Suing people that have infringed your patents is what businesses, especially tech-driven ones, er, do...
Don't imply that Apple is The Great Satan(sm) when they are doing what they have to do to protect the interests of their stockholders, and what has unfortunately become the only way to defend patents.
It used to be that a patent-holder (even a little guy), could send a C&D letter to an alleged infringer, and the infringer (even a big guy) was loathe to continue to violate the patent once "on notice".
But then, I think in the late 1980s or early '90s, there was a Court (don't remember if it was SCOTUS, or not) decision that turned all that on its head. NOW, the (alleged) infringer is allowed to keep on infringin' UNTIL THE OUTCOME OF AN INFRINGEMENT ACTION (!!!)
Short digression: One of the worst things that came of that decision is that a "little guy" patent-holders basically have no chance with deep-pocket infringers; because the deep-pockets can keep on filing dilatory motions and discovery requests until the little guy runs out of money... [/digression]
But, the other thing that happened was that now, everyone felt pressure to "sue immediately"; because, as the patent-holder, the quicker you can get a decision, the quicker you can get injunctive (and/or monetary) relief. So, because of this, in patent disputes (esp. between TWO well-heeled parties) everyone immediately files suit these days.
Apple has long since passed the worst of MSFT's evil.
Score 5: Insightful??? Really? And without a scintilla of evidence, too.
Nice, slashdot mods. Nice.
Apple is in danger of triggering Armageddon. Google has been fairly good natured so far, but if they decide to start a war things can only get worse for the consumer.
Good Natured, you say? Eh, it appears, not so much...
Google start a war against Apple? Looks like they have already been doing exactly that...
So now what?
"Gibbs, what did Ducky look like when he was younger?" "Illya Kuryakin."
Apple invests a metric assload of cash toward R&D. They cut in a partner, like Samsung, to develop components. Samsung has grown mightily, in fact, by Apple's own products. They share the wealth, so to speak. Then, Samsung comes along and just copies an entire fucking product in a shitty way and cries foul when the law stops them. I support capitalism, but not communism. WTF is wrong with everybody?
Exactly. I wish I had mod points right now.
My site already pops up a "Why you shouldn't use Mac" div when you surf there with an OSX or iOS device.
THAT scared, huh?
What an infantile jerkwad. Why do you fucking even care?
But nobody uses the shit sandwich that is Safari. I literally know not a single OSX user that doesn't use Chrome or Firefox as their main browser and would remove Safari if it was possible, much like pretty much everyone I know with a Windows machine would dump I.E. in a second if that were possible.
You know what? I have used Safari pretty much exclusively since it came out. It's a DAMNED good browser on OS X. However, on Windows, it sucked. Tried it. Hated it. Never went back.
However, I recently had to install Safari on my Win 7 work-provided laptop to run an iOS emulator. I have to say, Safari for Windows is NOTHING like when it first came out back in 2008(?) It simply ROCKS! It is WAAAAY faster than IE, and even a little faster than FireFox, and the pop-up blocker is superior to both. So much so that it has pretty much instantly become my WINDOWS browser-of-choice.
So, if you tried Safari on Windows, I suggest you try again.
this Judge Lucy Koh is a prime example of what can go wrong - She was a patent-lawyer before she was appointed to be a judge
So, it's really cool that Judge Posner is a coder, and thus understood the technology and terms-of-art behind his most recent celebrated case; but when Judge Koh was a patent attorney, and thus understands, at a minimum, what should be patentable and not, she is immediately considered to be "on the take"???
The external drive is for the huge media files or build trees or whatever you're working on. User data. System stuff goes on the closest drive to the RAM, so you can grab it quickly when it's time to load it.
While I agree with you wholeheartedly, I certainly wish that OS X made it (much) more simple to locate your Home folder somewhere else besides the boot drive.
Yes, I know it's possible with symlinks, etc.; but I have heard horror stories (most of them from a while back, admittedly) about how doing so would befuddle some upgrade mechanisms, cause your hair to fall out, and ruin your sex life (not much of a problem for most slashdotters; but...)
I don't think there's a single computer in the house which hasn't had a harddisk replaced at some point (not necessarily upgraded). They are the most common point of failure for a computer.
But largely to the kick-in-the-pants that Apple gave the Flash Memory industry, there soon won't be that many hard drives in use as primary boot drives anymore. And then, the argument against external EXPANSION storage (and against replaceable main storage) becomes moot, and even silly.
And guess what? Apple's already there...
but with apple basic stuff like top up fluids, replace a headlamp and change a flat. On some models can only be done at the dealer (aka apple store) with a much longer trun around time.
That analogy is only relevant if you can provide the car analogy to computer glossary.
With you.
IIRC most embedded systems don't have anything like that. They don't necessarily even have a standardised mechanism to load a kernel into memory and boot it.
But Android Fans keep harping about how their smartphones a just "liittle computers"; so...
1. Good for you; you successfully "ported" a version of Android from one similar device to another.
2. I don't live in a perpetual rat race. I'd just rather concentrate on things that interest me, too.
3. I can replace the battery on my iPhone, if it ever needs it. And with close to 700k apps available, I haven't found one application that hasn't had more than one ready-made solution.
are HDD slots really necessary? Most users don't upgrade their hard drives
The people who make good Apple customers are the same ones who like to have the hood of their car welded shut.
Really? I've been using Apple computers exclusively (unless forced not to by employers) since my Apple 1 in 1976. I use them for everything from embedded software and hardware development to everyday computing tasks.
I also work on my own cars, TVs, stereos, DVD players, computers (yes, my Macs), microwave ovens, Air Conditioners, plumbing, house wiring, carpentry, roofing, et FUCKING cetera.
So NOW what?
External drives work fine for a desktop. It's not like years ago when if you didn't have SCSI the performance was terrible.
ESPECIALLY since FireWire ***400*** was developed as a replacement for SCSI, and FW800 is PUH-lenty fast for a Hard Drive (let alone Thunderbolt)!!!
Seriously; look at the new MacBook Pro "Retina", it's entirely disposable. You can't upgrade or replace the RAM, disk or battery, the three things you'd need to touch in a laptop to keep using it for more than a couple of years.
I've been buying Mac laptops since the iBook G4, but if this is the new normal, forget it. Not looking forward to trying to find a decent PC laptop though, everyone seems to have ten billion slightly different and incomprehensibly named models...
So buy one of the other two MBPs instead. Everyone wringing their hands over the MBPwRD is carefully avoiding that that option exists. And there is a VERY good reason why Apple did it that way.