English really must be your second language right? I mean about the only posts you ever make you miss-read, miss-understand, or put words in other people's mouth.
Don't see any misreading nor misunderstanding (by the way, speaking of poor English skills, it is "misread" and "misunderstand" not "miss-read" and "miss-understand").
If YOU could comprehend, you would understand that I was clearly pointing out that ALL companies that publish OSes have had their share of "abandoned technologies", that his examples were from at least a decade-ago (OpenDoc was killed-off in 1997 and QD3D in 1998, and that if he looked at Windows instead of Apple, he'd see that Apple has a much better record regarding the issue of "technology churn" than Microsoft does.
I favor voting for the worst candidate as a means of speeding up the demise. The faster we get to a reboot the better. Granted with the two candidates up for POTUS this go around even that is a hard call:-(
The judge's analysis is similar to saying we should not really expect any privacy in our homes because a skilled locksmith can unlock our front door at any time, and a locked safe in the home is not really private because a skilled safe cracker can open it easily. The judge is saying that because something MIGHT happen, we should assume it WILL happen, and thus give up our right to expectations of privacy.
But I'd rather stand in line at the Apple Store for a few hours than spend two days reentering new CC information and changing passwords in everything, everywhere because my identity was compromised through malware on my smartphone...
Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, changing your name, birthdate and SSN isn't exactly an option for most people not working as "assets" for the CIA...
Sadly Apple used another unsuccessful connection to hook stuff up. Thunderbolt goes the way of Firewire and it's not surprising to me. But let's also understand how expensive these monitors were, and you could buy a comparable monitor from a another company for way less. Apple still fails at being competitive with accessories and they seem unwilling to price effectively against competition anymore. They are basically priced based of their name sake and it is not working as well anymore.
Dumbass, in case you haven't noticed, Thunderbolt is not going anywhere. It may start being incorporated on some extra pins on the USB-C connector; but the protocol is still the same. That's why there are USB-C "breakout" adapters/hubs that split the TB signals from the USB 3 signals from the Power connections on a USB-C connector.
Within 24 hours of deploying one of the new laptops we would get a call back due to complaints of the text input cursor "jumping around" on its own. The palm detection was atrocious and the only solution was to disable to trackpad entirely. Every single one we deployed we ended up making the change to and handing out portable mice.
That because, as been demonstrated time and again, Apple is truly the only company that seems to be able to make a Trackpad that isn't cringe-worthy.
Don't know why; presumably companies like Lenovo have smart engineers too; but it doesn't seem to work out that way, especially for Trackpads. My Samsung work laptop is like that, too. You HAVE to use an external mouse (and I love Trackpads) with it, because the Trackpad is just abysmal in every possible way (unlike the Trackpad on my MacBook Pro).
The one thing that they CAN do is to stop feeding the anklebiters by filtering out clickbait article summaries and editing the summaries to eliminate inflammatory stuff like "Isn't it fun to be part of an unsuccessful experiment?".
Howabout just ending the "AC" system? That would, in one fell swoop, eliminate about 95% of the stupid-over-the-top hate posts, "Appy Apps" posts "Nigger" posts (which I guess are Hate posts), and completely unsubstantiated FUD.
C'mon Slashdot; the "freedom to speak honestly" ability of the AC system is FAR outweighed by the NOISE it injects into the Comments for EVERY. SINGLE. ARTICLE.
OS X is dead: it's now macOS, and it's unclear whether or not Apple will continue supporting old hardware since they rather arbitrarily cut off support for older Macs that hackers have demonstrated can run the new macOS just fine.
I don't think the cutoff was "arbitrary". A Developer posted here on Slashdot when I asked that question, that it was "good riddance", because those were still 32 bit systems, and supporting both has been a headache for Devs., and that Apple has been trying to make OS X/macOS 64-bit "clean". As usual for Apple, the 32 bit Frameworks will still hang around for awhile (look how long the Carbon APIs were there after they were officially Deprecated), which is why the hackers can still make macOS Sierra betas work; but Apple is trying to remove 32-bit stuff in the OS, and they have to draw a line in the sand somewhere, or it will never happen.
Which means that it may work... for a bit. But don't count on it continuing to work now that it's discontinued hardware and one of Apple's stated goals with macOS is to start removing "old cruft" in the forms of removing support for older hardware.
And, since supporting old technologies was always the bane of Windows stablility and security, is that such a bad thing?
Afterall, it's not like those systems are magically going to quit working when Sierra comes out; they just won't be able to join in the newest of the newest Reindeer games. It will be a LONG time before new Applications start requiring "Sierra or above"; so at least for the Macs that have CPUs that are Core2Duo or greater, there is still quite a bit of life left; likely enough that they will be ready for the boneyard for other reasons by the time it is impractical to use them.
Eh? The new device will have a Thunderbolt connector with a GPU on the end of it. It'll be the newer version of Thunderbolt, but who expects technology to stand still?
Unfortunately, most of Slashdot; but fortunately, they are not representative of the vast majority of the population of this planet.
Oh yeah -I was being sort of a smartass. All manufacturers have introduced products that for one reason or another don't work. Microsoft Zune, Windows Phone, Vista, Windows 8, and original Surface. Apple has Lisa, Newton, the hockey puck Mouse. And now the Thunderbolt monitors.
The issue re Thunderbolt as I saw it was expense. The price of the monitors wasn't all that far from the price of the computers. For my iMac, I just bought an adapter and plumbed a regular 27 inch monitor onto it for the second monitor. I suspect many others did as well.
And that's the beauty of Thunderbolt. One port, many uses, depending on the needs of the individual.
Fully realized, it makes every computer essentially a "slotted" system, like old-skool "towers". For example, that's what Apple was intending by putting SIX Thunderbolt connectors on the Mac Pro.
It is, unfortunately, the Third Parties (and to some extent, Intel itself, with overly-strict Licensing) that haven't kept up with that idea, by making TB peripherals still somewhat rare and insanely, unnecessarily expensive, neither of which is Apple's fault. Adding TB support to a product costs essentially the same as adding eSATA or USB 3 support, and with USB-C happening, TB support is even less-expensive for the 3rd party to implement, because it doesn't mean another expensive connector.
Back in my ultimate Mac bigot days I managed to keep from getting burned by OpenDoc (by ignoring it as snake oil) and QuickDraw3D (by adopting it very gradually, thereby not losing much when it was suddenly cancelled with no replacement.) A lot of guys dove in and lost whole product lines if not companies.
Damn, hold a grudge much?!?
If you have to go back to OpenDoc and QD3D to be mad at Apple for changing directions, you'd better get out of computers entirely.
Just think if you had been a Windows developer since the time that OpenDoc and QD3D were a thing? How many failed Windows "technologies" would you have had to "ignore" since OpenDoc was first announced in WWDC 1991?
They already did that. The Thunderbolt displays only work with Macs because they require a special OS X-specific driver that turns them on. They have no power switch otherwise and are completely controlled by the Mac you hook them up to.
Actually, they do have a Windows control-panel bundled with some Windows-side driver stuff in Bootcamp 5 that can do that and control the brightness as well on a non-Mac Windows machine.
Not as convenient as it could be; but Slashdotters shouldn't have a problem with doing it.
Make a decent phone, decent price, slide out physical keyboard, long battery life and goddam headphone jack and there you go, Try to imitate the iphone and they will fail.
Um, didn't they already do that? (Try to imitate the iPhone and failed?)
public warnings are ok, and beneficial . but screaming is too much.
I didn't see/hear any "screaming"; but I would say, if there were malware in the iOS App Store that could root 90% of iPhones in use, I'd want Slashdot to be right on it!
I think you just have a shitty device. I've used all of the Rokus and I now have an Nvidia Shield. Voice search will find it across providers, many of which I subscribe to (Netflix, Hulu, Sling, Amazon) and I'm there in one click. Just because you have a shitty setup doesn't mean it's difficult -- it just means you have a shitty setup. I gave my parents my old Roku (they're pushing 70 years-old) and they have no problem.
You could be right. I need to do some research. Stuff changes...
Hulu, Netflix, etc are too difficult for normal people to use? Since when? It's a rare person who has trouble using a web browser these days.
I would agree if you restrict your audience to people
"Fuck 'em" you say? Well, unfortunately, at least for the next 10 or 20 years, those people are still a demographic that needs to be addressed, and "we" (techies) just haven't done that in a way that "just works" for the majority of people who can't spell, and/or can't type, or are just not happy with "computer-y things".
Yes, I am sure there was a time when there was a significant number of people who couldn't deal with the whole idea of a TV in general; but we're here, now, and either have to wait for the non-computer-savvy people to all exit this plane of existence, or try to accommodate them.
But even I am annoyed with how annoying it is to use NetFlix or Hulu to try and find something to watch. I can certainly do it; but it just kinda sucks. As I said, more like dealing with a File Server (which it ultimately is) than a TV or an old-skool Jukebox.
Maybe part of it is the search tools on both NetFlix and Hulu SUUUUUCK. They BOTH return FAR too much irrelevant and non-matching content, even if you know EXACTLY the title of the thing you are trying to watch!
Case in point: I was wanting to watch the 1983 movie "Doctor Detroit" (don't judge!) the other day. I thought "Surely a movie this old will be on NetFlix and/or Hulu." So, I fire up the App for NetFlix on my TV. Search. Deal with NetFlix's abysmal on-screen keyboard. No Results Found (at least I don't remember it "suggesting" a thousand other non-matching things, though). Ok, so launch Hulu Plus on the TV. Deal with it's even WORSE on-screen keyboard and enter the EXACT Title of the movie. Instead of it just admitting it didn't have it either, instead, it shows me a scrolling-list of who-know-how-many IRRELEVANT search results that have EITHER "Doctor" OR "Detroit" in the name!!! Yeah, ok, I guess; but NOT what "non-computer-search-savvy" people would expect.
Then, I gave up and Googled the title on my laptop. Three hits down, I found a site that streamed the entire movie for free. Had to watch it on my laptop, because I was too lazy to crawl around the back of my TV and plug in another cable, though.
And all that is fine for you and me (well, sorta, for limited values of "fine"); but there are a LOT of people that never would have gotten to that point AT ALL, even if they sort of knew how to use a Browser.
You don't even need a laptop. Get a Roku box and in minutes you can be watching Netflix, Hulu, etc. It's simple to do for people with little to no techy skills and is very inexpensive. (The priciest Roku is $100, IIRC.)
Same thing with a 4th gen AppleTV; but even easier, due to the Siri Voice Search.
As I said, that is getting better; but it still puts off a LOT of people over 30 or 40 years old.
Slashdot Mirror
If you have to go back to
English really must be your second language right? I mean about the only posts you ever make you miss-read, miss-understand, or put words in other people's mouth.
Don't see any misreading nor misunderstanding (by the way, speaking of poor English skills, it is "misread" and "misunderstand" not "miss-read" and "miss-understand").
If YOU could comprehend, you would understand that I was clearly pointing out that ALL companies that publish OSes have had their share of "abandoned technologies", that his examples were from at least a decade-ago (OpenDoc was killed-off in 1997 and QD3D in 1998, and that if he looked at Windows instead of Apple, he'd see that Apple has a much better record regarding the issue of "technology churn" than Microsoft does.
Yeah, but that doesn't mean they won't try again.
You're right; because they have already demonstrated that they don't have a single original thought in their heads.
I favor voting for the worst candidate as a means of speeding up the demise. The faster we get to a reboot the better. Granted with the two candidates up for POTUS this go around even that is a hard call :-(
Immanentize The Eschaton!
All Hail Shiva, Goddess of Discordia!
Simple solution. Some hacker should hack into the judge's computer and share every last data file from his 'puter.
That WOULD be choice!
The judge's analysis is similar to saying we should not really expect any privacy in our homes because a skilled locksmith can unlock our front door at any time, and a locked safe in the home is not really private because a skilled safe cracker can open it easily. The judge is saying that because something MIGHT happen, we should assume it WILL happen, and thus give up our right to expectations of privacy.
PERFECT analogy!
Go Stand In Line At The Apple Store!!
Never have; never will.
But I'd rather stand in line at the Apple Store for a few hours than spend two days reentering new CC information and changing passwords in everything, everywhere because my identity was compromised through malware on my smartphone...
Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, changing your name, birthdate and SSN isn't exactly an option for most people not working as "assets" for the CIA...
You don't have to wait for Google, because Cyanogen will have you covered too http://www.cyanogenmod.org/
Oh yes, protect against 3rd party exploits by installing a third party OS. Sounds like a GREAT solution!
Sadly Apple used another unsuccessful connection to hook stuff up. Thunderbolt goes the way of Firewire and it's not surprising to me. But let's also understand how expensive these monitors were, and you could buy a comparable monitor from a another company for way less. Apple still fails at being competitive with accessories and they seem unwilling to price effectively against competition anymore. They are basically priced based of their name sake and it is not working as well anymore.
Dumbass, in case you haven't noticed, Thunderbolt is not going anywhere. It may start being incorporated on some extra pins on the USB-C connector; but the protocol is still the same. That's why there are USB-C "breakout" adapters/hubs that split the TB signals from the USB 3 signals from the Power connections on a USB-C connector.
Within 24 hours of deploying one of the new laptops we would get a call back due to complaints of the text input cursor "jumping around" on its own. The palm detection was atrocious and the only solution was to disable to trackpad entirely. Every single one we deployed we ended up making the change to and handing out portable mice.
That because, as been demonstrated time and again, Apple is truly the only company that seems to be able to make a Trackpad that isn't cringe-worthy.
Don't know why; presumably companies like Lenovo have smart engineers too; but it doesn't seem to work out that way, especially for Trackpads. My Samsung work laptop is like that, too. You HAVE to use an external mouse (and I love Trackpads) with it, because the Trackpad is just abysmal in every possible way (unlike the Trackpad on my MacBook Pro).
The one thing that they CAN do is to stop feeding the anklebiters by filtering out clickbait article summaries and editing the summaries to eliminate inflammatory stuff like "Isn't it fun to be part of an unsuccessful experiment?".
Howabout just ending the "AC" system? That would, in one fell swoop, eliminate about 95% of the stupid-over-the-top hate posts, "Appy Apps" posts "Nigger" posts (which I guess are Hate posts), and completely unsubstantiated FUD.
C'mon Slashdot; the "freedom to speak honestly" ability of the AC system is FAR outweighed by the NOISE it injects into the Comments for EVERY. SINGLE. ARTICLE.
EVERY one.
I'll go back to Windows and start using Android
Have at it. We'll wait...
If you have a Thunderbolt monitor, it's not like it's going to stop working...
The Thunderbolt monitors only work with Macs because it requires special control codes from OS X to turn on.
Nope. You can install the BootCamp 5 Control Panel in Windows, even on a non-Mac, and get that functionality.
OS X is dead: it's now macOS, and it's unclear whether or not Apple will continue supporting old hardware since they rather arbitrarily cut off support for older Macs that hackers have demonstrated can run the new macOS just fine.
I don't think the cutoff was "arbitrary". A Developer posted here on Slashdot when I asked that question, that it was "good riddance", because those were still 32 bit systems, and supporting both has been a headache for Devs., and that Apple has been trying to make OS X/macOS 64-bit "clean". As usual for Apple, the 32 bit Frameworks will still hang around for awhile (look how long the Carbon APIs were there after they were officially Deprecated), which is why the hackers can still make macOS Sierra betas work; but Apple is trying to remove 32-bit stuff in the OS, and they have to draw a line in the sand somewhere, or it will never happen.
Which means that it may work... for a bit. But don't count on it continuing to work now that it's discontinued hardware and one of Apple's stated goals with macOS is to start removing "old cruft" in the forms of removing support for older hardware.
And, since supporting old technologies was always the bane of Windows stablility and security, is that such a bad thing?
Afterall, it's not like those systems are magically going to quit working when Sierra comes out; they just won't be able to join in the newest of the newest Reindeer games. It will be a LONG time before new Applications start requiring "Sierra or above"; so at least for the Macs that have CPUs that are Core2Duo or greater, there is still quite a bit of life left; likely enough that they will be ready for the boneyard for other reasons by the time it is impractical to use them.
Eh? The new device will have a Thunderbolt connector with a GPU on the end of it. It'll be the newer version of Thunderbolt, but who expects technology to stand still?
Unfortunately, most of Slashdot; but fortunately, they are not representative of the vast majority of the population of this planet.
Zune.
Oh yeah -I was being sort of a smartass. All manufacturers have introduced products that for one reason or another don't work. Microsoft Zune, Windows Phone, Vista, Windows 8, and original Surface. Apple has Lisa, Newton, the hockey puck Mouse. And now the Thunderbolt monitors.
The issue re Thunderbolt as I saw it was expense. The price of the monitors wasn't all that far from the price of the computers. For my iMac, I just bought an adapter and plumbed a regular 27 inch monitor onto it for the second monitor. I suspect many others did as well.
And that's the beauty of Thunderbolt. One port, many uses, depending on the needs of the individual.
Fully realized, it makes every computer essentially a "slotted" system, like old-skool "towers". For example, that's what Apple was intending by putting SIX Thunderbolt connectors on the Mac Pro.
It is, unfortunately, the Third Parties (and to some extent, Intel itself, with overly-strict Licensing) that haven't kept up with that idea, by making TB peripherals still somewhat rare and insanely, unnecessarily expensive, neither of which is Apple's fault. Adding TB support to a product costs essentially the same as adding eSATA or USB 3 support, and with USB-C happening, TB support is even less-expensive for the 3rd party to implement, because it doesn't mean another expensive connector.
But the technology grows. And old tech goes.
No truer words were ever spoken.
And it continually amazes me that Slashdotters are some of the most change-resistant people on the planet...
Back in my ultimate Mac bigot days I managed to keep from getting burned by OpenDoc (by ignoring it as snake oil) and QuickDraw3D (by adopting it very gradually, thereby not losing much when it was suddenly cancelled with no replacement.) A lot of guys dove in and lost whole product lines if not companies.
Damn, hold a grudge much?!?
If you have to go back to OpenDoc and QD3D to be mad at Apple for changing directions, you'd better get out of computers entirely.
Just think if you had been a Windows developer since the time that OpenDoc and QD3D were a thing? How many failed Windows "technologies" would you have had to "ignore" since OpenDoc was first announced in WWDC 1991?
Please explain why the new headphone jack is better or even necessary
WHAT new Headphone jack?!?
Have you seen an announcement by Apple, or Pictures, or ANYTHING other than FUD?!?
FFS, stop it. NOBODY not under NDA knows what Apple is, or isn't, doing with the 3.5mm jack!!!
They already did that. The Thunderbolt displays only work with Macs because they require a special OS X-specific driver that turns them on. They have no power switch otherwise and are completely controlled by the Mac you hook them up to.
Actually, they do have a Windows control-panel bundled with some Windows-side driver stuff in Bootcamp 5 that can do that and control the brightness as well on a non-Mac Windows machine.
Not as convenient as it could be; but Slashdotters shouldn't have a problem with doing it.
And you don't need a Mac or Windows 10 to download or install it.
Make a decent phone, decent price, slide out physical keyboard, long battery life and goddam headphone jack and there you go, Try to imitate the iphone and they will fail.
Um, didn't they already do that? (Try to imitate the iPhone and failed?)
public warnings are ok, and beneficial . but screaming is too much.
I didn't see/hear any "screaming"; but I would say, if there were malware in the iOS App Store that could root 90% of iPhones in use, I'd want Slashdot to be right on it!
The real fix is to get these devices updated so that they are no longer vulnerable to root kits.
The great news is that you don't have to wait for Android to be "updated"; because YOUR Android phone NEVER WILL.
Every time I hear the "virus available from Google Play" I think "boy, if they could find this, wouldn't Google?"
Go Android Security!!!
I think you just have a shitty device. I've used all of the Rokus and I now have an Nvidia Shield. Voice search will find it across providers, many of which I subscribe to (Netflix, Hulu, Sling, Amazon) and I'm there in one click. Just because you have a shitty setup doesn't mean it's difficult -- it just means you have a shitty setup. I gave my parents my old Roku (they're pushing 70 years-old) and they have no problem.
You could be right. I need to do some research. Stuff changes...
Hulu, Netflix, etc are too difficult for normal people to use? Since when? It's a rare person who has trouble using a web browser these days.
I would agree if you restrict your audience to people
"Fuck 'em" you say? Well, unfortunately, at least for the next 10 or 20 years, those people are still a demographic that needs to be addressed, and "we" (techies) just haven't done that in a way that "just works" for the majority of people who can't spell, and/or can't type, or are just not happy with "computer-y things".
Yes, I am sure there was a time when there was a significant number of people who couldn't deal with the whole idea of a TV in general; but we're here, now, and either have to wait for the non-computer-savvy people to all exit this plane of existence, or try to accommodate them.
But even I am annoyed with how annoying it is to use NetFlix or Hulu to try and find something to watch. I can certainly do it; but it just kinda sucks. As I said, more like dealing with a File Server (which it ultimately is) than a TV or an old-skool Jukebox.
Maybe part of it is the search tools on both NetFlix and Hulu SUUUUUCK. They BOTH return FAR too much irrelevant and non-matching content, even if you know EXACTLY the title of the thing you are trying to watch!
Case in point: I was wanting to watch the 1983 movie "Doctor Detroit" (don't judge!) the other day. I thought "Surely a movie this old will be on NetFlix and/or Hulu." So, I fire up the App for NetFlix on my TV. Search. Deal with NetFlix's abysmal on-screen keyboard. No Results Found (at least I don't remember it "suggesting" a thousand other non-matching things, though). Ok, so launch Hulu Plus on the TV. Deal with it's even WORSE on-screen keyboard and enter the EXACT Title of the movie. Instead of it just admitting it didn't have it either, instead, it shows me a scrolling-list of who-know-how-many IRRELEVANT search results that have EITHER "Doctor" OR "Detroit" in the name!!! Yeah, ok, I guess; but NOT what "non-computer-search-savvy" people would expect.
Then, I gave up and Googled the title on my laptop. Three hits down, I found a site that streamed the entire movie for free. Had to watch it on my laptop, because I was too lazy to crawl around the back of my TV and plug in another cable, though.
And all that is fine for you and me (well, sorta, for limited values of "fine"); but there are a LOT of people that never would have gotten to that point AT ALL, even if they sort of knew how to use a Browser.
You don't even need a laptop. Get a Roku box and in minutes you can be watching Netflix, Hulu, etc. It's simple to do for people with little to no techy skills and is very inexpensive. (The priciest Roku is $100, IIRC.)
Same thing with a 4th gen AppleTV; but even easier, due to the Siri Voice Search.
As I said, that is getting better; but it still puts off a LOT of people over 30 or 40 years old.