Maybe, but edlin came before vi/emacs but would you use that?
Google Docs is horribly primitive. I use it for writing todo lists and notes which I can access from different locations. I haven't had it yet once successfully open a doc file I've been emailed.
I see no reason to use it as a stand-alone application offline, unless they've put a far better version online in the past week or two. Which they need to if they're serious about online applications.
Tell me about it. "My Documents" "My Music" "My Video" "My Skype Downloads", etc, are the worst ideas for experienced users with their own systems of file management. Windows is the worst offender (although at least Vista has got rid of/Documents and Settings/User), but then Windows never really had a terminal worth using unless you liked frustration. Oh, and why does loads of Windows software still create application settings folders in ~ instead of ~/AppData or ~/Application Data? Thanks for messing things up more - the AppData folder is a good idea, please use it. KDE applications are happy to use.kde, I imagine there is a.gnome equivalent too.
At least on the Mac applications didn't all decide that it was a great idea to have their own folders. There is a Documents folder, but you can ignore it because it's not the default folder to be opened in Finder, or just use it as the base of your own personal file system. A per-project filing system is far more logical than a filing system arranged by application, so please, no more "My Adobe Acrobat Files" kthx.
I don't know about you, but I like having a ~ with just a few folders, so I can drill down quickly to what I want to find but not get that cluttered feeling straight away. Indeed I try to avoid hitting the file system on my work Windows box, I hide within Eclipse's sane project view.
On the other hand, I quite like some of my data to be managed - iTunes for example does manage my music files so I don't have to. Luckily it also does it in a mostly sane manner, and it is configurable.
Surely if you run Compiz, you are moving a lot of the work from the CPU to the GPU? Given that the experience with Compiz (apart from the rather dumb wobbly windows) is far smoother and nicer than without, this is a no-brainer to enable once you've self-flagellated with the nVidia or ATI driver installers.
However I do think that eyecandy should be about improving desktop efficiency and usability, not just because it can be done. Compare Mac OS X's Expose with Vista's 3D alt-tab thing.
KDE4.1 looks like it will be very nice. I've been running Gnome on Ubuntu for a year, and I find it quite limiting, but otherwise good enough. I dislike the dual-panel configuration but at least that can be changed. I do now have a FreeBSD box set up with KDE3.5 and that's nice (although why it has a dependency on PostgreSQL Client amongst other things is beyond me, but I think that's a FreeBSD KDE install thing) and I was impressed by how mature the KDE software packages are now.
On the other hand, will KDE ever get that clock panel looking nice?
99% of Symbian phone users wouldn't know how to sign an app for their own phone.
I presume that Symbian provide a store for these applications (on both the phone and the computer), handle all the payment processing, application distribution, update notification and distribution, provide free software for free...
30% is cheap for commercial software distribution with such a large end-market with easy access to the store. www.nokiasymbiansoftwarestore.co.se isn't so accessible. Nor is hunting down mobile phone software on 50 different sites.
The EULA states that the iTMS store won't allow developers to sell/distribute applications that by certain definitions currently include Firefox and Java. These issues will get worked out, some of them are valid (Skype bandwidth over Edge could kill the network) and others need refining to open up certain software functionalities.
But there's no code in the iPhone to block specific applications. To even claim that shows a level of insanity and disconnect that's even further off the world than the person who submitted the article with such a negative twist to it.
Of course, you are always free to not buy an iPhone. I hear IE on Windows Mobile is great.
The problems with Firefox on the iPhone currently, with regards to the legal bumpf, are (1) Javascript (downloadable executable apps), and (2) Plug-ins, Extensions, etc (being 'mini-applications', etc).
Whilst I am sure that the legal issues will get tweaked away (i.e., you can't download native code to the iPhone within your application, but sandbox code such as Java/Javascript, especially as part of core functionality for the application's purpose should be fine), I'm sure that when Firefox is ported to the iPhone (it'll happen) Apple will allow the Javascript enabled version that doesn't have (2). That's still a full web browser. Number (2) could be allowed anyway, as long as they're sandboxed and have no native system access.
Of course Opera won't get ported, there's no business case when the iPhone comes with Safari, which isn't exactly broken unlike IE.
Apple's first and foremost consideration is to the stability of the iPhone's primary functionality. They're also building up their mobile platform bit by bit, and I'm sure that the platform and the terms and conditions will be tweaked forever.
It's like Sony's opening up of the PS3 has limitations. I'm sure that Microsoft's game development thing for the XBox360 has limits. Nintendo's similar offering must have limits too... Yeah, it's your PS3, or XBox360, or Wii... do what you want with it, but if you hack it, don't expect the company to support you doing the unsupported actions.
The Java thing sucks though, because Java is far more prevalent on mobile devices, and there's a huge back catalogue of games and business software (much of it in-house) that people might have wanted to run on the iPhone. I wonder if Sun will push this issue with Apple... I'm sure all the decent games would get ported anyway, and would need customisations for the iPhone's capabilities regardless.
We will see what happens though. Will Apple block a Terminal implementation? A SSH server application? These will be available on day 1, so if Apple doesn't allow them, we will be able to really make our minds up then.
In the meantime I wouldn't buy an iPhone because a 3G version is coming anyway.
Yep, seems fair to me to have a reasonable level of advertising, say some Google text ads (which also means they won't deal with advertisers directly, and can't be accused of favouring advertisers in any manner).
If upper management treated the plumbing like IT, then you'd have a bucket to piss in and slop out every day, and the bucket would have a leak in it, but there wouldn't be any money to patch it up to keep the contents secure. The bucket would also be in the company basement, in a poorly ventilated corner next to a dead dog.
Plumbing - you do it once, it lasts 25 years if not 50. The only upgrades might be for more efficiently flushing toilets and taps that don't drip. That's the equivalent of putting a 750GB hard drive on an original IBM PC.
IT is an essential part of a modern business, and if it's done wrong the business can go down the drains. Wrong can be getting IT in the way of people's jobs, instead of helping them. Sadly this can't be avoided (e.g., third party clients demanding that you use IT for something that only benefits them whilst being a massive inconvenience for the supplier).
I bet many IT guys would love to get paid at the rates plumbers get paid at though. I don't think they'd like the apprenticeship period though...
I agree. The title is libellous, and Slashdot did choose to publish it. I am astounded that the article is still here, uncorrected, so many hours after it was published, and with so many corrections - even forcing the article to have to be altered to point out how wrong Slashdot was.
The Slashdot article is a troll. The linked article is completely different in meaning, although it does equate Safari with the OS level component of Webkit. Webkit, as an OS level component, can surely use private OS APIs to do its thing! I mean, OS level components have to build upon stuff within the OS, right?
Wow, thanks. I've been wondering how to get Adium to open links in Firefox instead of Safari for *ages*. That certainly could be made easier to manage - although I think Firefox should have had an option itself to make it the default web application, rather than having to set it from within Safari.
Wow, how can someone be wrong so many times despite having it explained to them?
This use of an undocumented API was to ensure that third party developers who incorporated Webkit into their applications didn't experience slow-down issues with Webkit due to frame rate syncing.
So this is meant to ensure that third party applications perform better, with less effort for the developers, when using the Webkit OS level component. This is hardly Apple making sure that their own applications have an advantage over the third party applications, which is what Microsoft did, with EXTENSIVE private but safe-to-use APIs. Webkit is using a private UNSAFE API, but it can do that because it is an OS level component.
Are you thinking that Webkit is an application? Safari is an application that uses Webkit. Remember that the Slashdot article is inflammatory flamebait that purposefully misleads about the entire issue, so you do need to actually reassess it disregarding that.
Where this may become an issue is if people wish to incorporate the Firefox rendering component into their own applications. Either the end applications have to use the whole two lines of XML to disable the syncing themselves (which Firefox can document in their embedding Gecko on MacOSX page) or Firefox will need to implement the same hack, or Apple will have to expose a stable version of the API method call via one of their libraries.
Wait, I read the article, and Apple have exposed it, you set an entry in the.plist file for the application.
That's not a hidden API.
Sure, Safari itself calls a hidden OS API to do the same thing, but it's not like Firefox had to hack around it. The plist entry was documented by Apple. The end result is the same.
This isn't like exposing slow libraries to third parties, and using fast special APIs for your own apps with no documented way for third party apps to achieve the same end effect, like Microsoft.
For what I know about Apple, they don't like exposing libraries/OS functions to end users until they are extremely happy that they'll stay stable. *mumbles something deprecating about operating systems that change the core OS ABI between releases to thwart certain classes of applications*
Whether or not the display is nicer or not is subjective - the higher resolution display might have poorer image quality. However personally I would prefer the higher resolution because I have good eyes and like to fit a lot on the screen and don't mind text and stuff being smaller.
What's the difference between a removable battery and an external battery? Nothing for travelling - they're the same weight, arguably the external battery is easier to use. What's the weight of the power adaptor - other Thinkpads have veritable bricks.
Weighs less? All the articles on this laptop have said it weights > 3lbs with a "standard" battery. Still a good weight.
Propers wins are: Ethernet, More USB, Proper speakers, DVD Burner, (subjective, personally I hate them) the nipple mouse thing, cheaper than SSD Air. Proper losses are: (subjective) looks, product volume/slimness, software installed (for home users), plastic, much more expensive than HD Air.
I, of course from context, mean abiogenic production of oil (complex hydrocarbons), not just any hydrocarbon. Better clarify that before some retard pedant misses the point.
All through this thread I've been seeing people witter on about the patently ridiculous concept of abiogenic hydrocarbons. All I can think about is people trying to justify to themselves that it's okay to own that gas guzzling vehicle, and that oil will never run out. That, or they're really really stupid religious freaks who hate science. Head in the sand, or what?
There oil - a complex long-chain hydrocarbon, and there's simple, short-chain hydrocarbons. Titan has the latter. There is nothing special, or amazing about this. It's been known for a very long time - since the 70s at least. It has no relation to oil made by biogenic means.
And in 50-100 years when this becomes feasible? And 150 years when it actually happens?
Oil will be $1000 - $3000 a barrel (not adjusted for inflation). It will be cheaper to "mine" old rubbish dumps for plastics to recycle. Space technologies will be 100x more mature, although humans in space will still be relatively rare (maybe a few thousand a year in 50 years time, to a few tens of thousands a year in 100 years time. 150 years? I think we'll see the first year to have 100,000 people-journeys into space). Sending large payloads through space will be done via a "point and shoot" method once they are in space. The other end would require a collector - but might be a drainer + nudge the empty container (still travelling at a fast rate) back to Titan. You'd need a space elevator at both ends I imagine, although getting the oil off of Titan with it's lower gravity might not be a big issue, given that the energy to do that is all over the place.
Of course, I'd hope that the need for oil in 100 years time would be far far lower than now. In addition, do we really want to pump even more CO2 into our atmosphere that was never even here to start off with?
The biggest issue with spaceships transporting oil is that you run the risk of picking up acid-blooded aliens en-route.
such as Java's StringBuffer and.NET's StringBuilder
Bah, I'll use Java's StringBuilder then:p
But you are entirely correct about the major differences being the APIs. Indeed because of the high quality libraries available from Apache and elsewhere it makes Java a great language to write servers in my opinion. Then again I've seen a lot of C# embedded into webpages without any attempt at MVC (and the Model being a HashMap, usually directly from the form field names, then pumped into some half-assed webservice with very little validation), and JSPs acting as a front-end for proper backends using Struts/Tiles and other Java frameworks with full data models, databases, modularisation, etc. JSPs can be abused to do the former, and C# can be used correctly, but it's in the mindset and experience of the programmer.
I love Perl though, CPAN is so great. Need to get back into it, and try Catalyst or similar.
Wouldn't use either to write a commercial consumer desktop application. This is certainly one of the bad uses that the article could have mentioned. Then again with the web growing in use as an application platform, does it really matter now?
There's really no reason to buy Apple kit, it's all round worse than standard PC kit bar one thing
It works.
Face the facts, Apple buyers have the highest post-purchase and on-going satisfaction rates in the industry. For their hardware and their software. If it was how you said it was, they wouldn't, full stop. Of course they have their issues, and Apple do make some poor decisions sometimes (plastic in the MacBooks covering the vents). Expensive? Depends on your point of comparison.
A few discoloured iBooks, a couple of scratched iPod nano screens because of careless owners (ooh, sharp metal things can scratch?!), and you label their entire product line as if it all had that. My 1G nano was perfectly readable over 2 years after getting it, and it never had a protective case or that much care lavished on it.
A lot of people value appearance. A home computer shouldn't sully the room it is in, but if you live in a pizza box strewn basement I guess that wouldn't occur to you.
Are you telling me Outlook doesn't even have the intelligence to offer a feature, yet not include your replies from your Sent Items folder into the threaded view so you can view it *AS A FREAKING CONVERSATION*?
GMail somehow offers a better user interface within a web browser than most, if not all, email clients that are popular today. Yet so far none of the clients has even deigned to take a hint from that. I bet some of the developers read slashdot too. Yet will any email client get any usability enhancements, or will it stay as a basic list view of the backing email database, perhaps with simplistic threading?
What's wrong with an iTunes Store Card then? Especially since albums are what, $10?, on iTunes, rather than $13. Sure, you won't get Sony's stuff DRM-free, but they might find something different, or get a mix of 10 singles rather than one album.
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe, but edlin came before vi/emacs but would you use that?
Google Docs is horribly primitive. I use it for writing todo lists and notes which I can access from different locations. I haven't had it yet once successfully open a doc file I've been emailed.
I see no reason to use it as a stand-alone application offline, unless they've put a far better version online in the past week or two. Which they need to if they're serious about online applications.
Tell me about it. "My Documents" "My Music" "My Video" "My Skype Downloads", etc, are the worst ideas for experienced users with their own systems of file management. Windows is the worst offender (although at least Vista has got rid of /Documents and Settings/User), but then Windows never really had a terminal worth using unless you liked frustration. Oh, and why does loads of Windows software still create application settings folders in ~ instead of ~/AppData or ~/Application Data? Thanks for messing things up more - the AppData folder is a good idea, please use it. KDE applications are happy to use .kde, I imagine there is a .gnome equivalent too.
At least on the Mac applications didn't all decide that it was a great idea to have their own folders. There is a Documents folder, but you can ignore it because it's not the default folder to be opened in Finder, or just use it as the base of your own personal file system. A per-project filing system is far more logical than a filing system arranged by application, so please, no more "My Adobe Acrobat Files" kthx.
I don't know about you, but I like having a ~ with just a few folders, so I can drill down quickly to what I want to find but not get that cluttered feeling straight away. Indeed I try to avoid hitting the file system on my work Windows box, I hide within Eclipse's sane project view.
On the other hand, I quite like some of my data to be managed - iTunes for example does manage my music files so I don't have to. Luckily it also does it in a mostly sane manner, and it is configurable.
Surely if you run Compiz, you are moving a lot of the work from the CPU to the GPU? Given that the experience with Compiz (apart from the rather dumb wobbly windows) is far smoother and nicer than without, this is a no-brainer to enable once you've self-flagellated with the nVidia or ATI driver installers.
However I do think that eyecandy should be about improving desktop efficiency and usability, not just because it can be done. Compare Mac OS X's Expose with Vista's 3D alt-tab thing.
KDE4.1 looks like it will be very nice. I've been running Gnome on Ubuntu for a year, and I find it quite limiting, but otherwise good enough. I dislike the dual-panel configuration but at least that can be changed. I do now have a FreeBSD box set up with KDE3.5 and that's nice (although why it has a dependency on PostgreSQL Client amongst other things is beyond me, but I think that's a FreeBSD KDE install thing) and I was impressed by how mature the KDE software packages are now.
On the other hand, will KDE ever get that clock panel looking nice?
Hey, that's the IT guy's lunch, I wouldn't take that away from them.
And who approved the budget to give those IT guys a spade anyway! We know the IT tools budget was cut this year.
Anyway, must put that expense claim in for that champagne dinner with some friends. Whoa, doesn't vintage champers cost a pretty penny!
Had any of the emails been looked at?
If they were all unread, and if the last login on that account was like forever ago, then maybe the developer's story is the truth.
But this is a key example of where open source wins, because most eula's will have a don't decompile clause.
Is your game going to be installing third party applications on the iPhone?
No? Really! You don't say.
The iPhone is going to be just as open as any other device for game programming, and using standard OpenGL and OpenAL instead of proprietary APIs.
And you surely aren't claiming that there aren't any restrictions with XNA Studio!
99% of Symbian phone users wouldn't know how to sign an app for their own phone.
...
I presume that Symbian provide a store for these applications (on both the phone and the computer), handle all the payment processing, application distribution, update notification and distribution, provide free software for free
30% is cheap for commercial software distribution with such a large end-market with easy access to the store.
www.nokiasymbiansoftwarestore.co.se isn't so accessible. Nor is hunting down mobile phone software on 50 different sites.
Apple isn't doing this.
The EULA states that the iTMS store won't allow developers to sell/distribute applications that by certain definitions currently include Firefox and Java. These issues will get worked out, some of them are valid (Skype bandwidth over Edge could kill the network) and others need refining to open up certain software functionalities.
But there's no code in the iPhone to block specific applications. To even claim that shows a level of insanity and disconnect that's even further off the world than the person who submitted the article with such a negative twist to it.
Of course, you are always free to not buy an iPhone. I hear IE on Windows Mobile is great.
How did you get to that line of reasoning?
... do what you want with it, but if you hack it, don't expect the company to support you doing the unsupported actions.
... I'm sure all the decent games would get ported anyway, and would need customisations for the iPhone's capabilities regardless.
The problems with Firefox on the iPhone currently, with regards to the legal bumpf, are (1) Javascript (downloadable executable apps), and (2) Plug-ins, Extensions, etc (being 'mini-applications', etc).
Whilst I am sure that the legal issues will get tweaked away (i.e., you can't download native code to the iPhone within your application, but sandbox code such as Java/Javascript, especially as part of core functionality for the application's purpose should be fine), I'm sure that when Firefox is ported to the iPhone (it'll happen) Apple will allow the Javascript enabled version that doesn't have (2). That's still a full web browser. Number (2) could be allowed anyway, as long as they're sandboxed and have no native system access.
Of course Opera won't get ported, there's no business case when the iPhone comes with Safari, which isn't exactly broken unlike IE.
Apple's first and foremost consideration is to the stability of the iPhone's primary functionality. They're also building up their mobile platform bit by bit, and I'm sure that the platform and the terms and conditions will be tweaked forever.
It's like Sony's opening up of the PS3 has limitations. I'm sure that Microsoft's game development thing for the XBox360 has limits. Nintendo's similar offering must have limits too... Yeah, it's your PS3, or XBox360, or Wii
The Java thing sucks though, because Java is far more prevalent on mobile devices, and there's a huge back catalogue of games and business software (much of it in-house) that people might have wanted to run on the iPhone. I wonder if Sun will push this issue with Apple
We will see what happens though. Will Apple block a Terminal implementation? A SSH server application? These will be available on day 1, so if Apple doesn't allow them, we will be able to really make our minds up then.
In the meantime I wouldn't buy an iPhone because a 3G version is coming anyway.
Yep, seems fair to me to have a reasonable level of advertising, say some Google text ads (which also means they won't deal with advertisers directly, and can't be accused of favouring advertisers in any manner).
Well, that's the article answered. What now?
If upper management treated the plumbing like IT, then you'd have a bucket to piss in and slop out every day, and the bucket would have a leak in it, but there wouldn't be any money to patch it up to keep the contents secure. The bucket would also be in the company basement, in a poorly ventilated corner next to a dead dog.
...
Plumbing - you do it once, it lasts 25 years if not 50. The only upgrades might be for more efficiently flushing toilets and taps that don't drip. That's the equivalent of putting a 750GB hard drive on an original IBM PC.
IT is an essential part of a modern business, and if it's done wrong the business can go down the drains. Wrong can be getting IT in the way of people's jobs, instead of helping them. Sadly this can't be avoided (e.g., third party clients demanding that you use IT for something that only benefits them whilst being a massive inconvenience for the supplier).
I bet many IT guys would love to get paid at the rates plumbers get paid at though. I don't think they'd like the apprenticeship period though
Right, so all these images go via a computer right?
...
And skin emits a certain wavelength of these T-rays or whatever bunkum name they using?
Is there any way for the machines to simply blank out that wavelength, which is surely different from metal (guns, knives), glass, plastics, etc.
So all the operator would see is the guns, knives, bottles, wallet, etc, of someone walking past, but none of the body detail
Well, maybe the computer could edge detect the body, then smooth that out, just so the operator has some context.
I know that pregnancy can cause some weird dietary desires, but c'mon!
Also haven't these people heard of washing your hands after doing something dirty?
I agree. The title is libellous, and Slashdot did choose to publish it. I am astounded that the article is still here, uncorrected, so many hours after it was published, and with so many corrections - even forcing the article to have to be altered to point out how wrong Slashdot was.
The Slashdot article is a troll. The linked article is completely different in meaning, although it does equate Safari with the OS level component of Webkit. Webkit, as an OS level component, can surely use private OS APIs to do its thing! I mean, OS level components have to build upon stuff within the OS, right?
Wow, thanks. I've been wondering how to get Adium to open links in Firefox instead of Safari for *ages*. That certainly could be made easier to manage - although I think Firefox should have had an option itself to make it the default web application, rather than having to set it from within Safari.
Wow, how can someone be wrong so many times despite having it explained to them?
This use of an undocumented API was to ensure that third party developers who incorporated Webkit into their applications didn't experience slow-down issues with Webkit due to frame rate syncing.
So this is meant to ensure that third party applications perform better, with less effort for the developers, when using the Webkit OS level component. This is hardly Apple making sure that their own applications have an advantage over the third party applications, which is what Microsoft did, with EXTENSIVE private but safe-to-use APIs. Webkit is using a private UNSAFE API, but it can do that because it is an OS level component.
Are you thinking that Webkit is an application? Safari is an application that uses Webkit. Remember that the Slashdot article is inflammatory flamebait that purposefully misleads about the entire issue, so you do need to actually reassess it disregarding that.
Where this may become an issue is if people wish to incorporate the Firefox rendering component into their own applications. Either the end applications have to use the whole two lines of XML to disable the syncing themselves (which Firefox can document in their embedding Gecko on MacOSX page) or Firefox will need to implement the same hack, or Apple will have to expose a stable version of the API method call via one of their libraries.
Wait, I read the article, and Apple have exposed it, you set an entry in the .plist file for the application.
That's not a hidden API.
Sure, Safari itself calls a hidden OS API to do the same thing, but it's not like Firefox had to hack around it. The plist entry was documented by Apple. The end result is the same.
This isn't like exposing slow libraries to third parties, and using fast special APIs for your own apps with no documented way for third party apps to achieve the same end effect, like Microsoft.
For what I know about Apple, they don't like exposing libraries/OS functions to end users until they are extremely happy that they'll stay stable. *mumbles something deprecating about operating systems that change the core OS ABI between releases to thwart certain classes of applications*
Whether or not the display is nicer or not is subjective - the higher resolution display might have poorer image quality. However personally I would prefer the higher resolution because I have good eyes and like to fit a lot on the screen and don't mind text and stuff being smaller.
What's the difference between a removable battery and an external battery? Nothing for travelling - they're the same weight, arguably the external battery is easier to use. What's the weight of the power adaptor - other Thinkpads have veritable bricks.
Weighs less? All the articles on this laptop have said it weights > 3lbs with a "standard" battery. Still a good weight.
Propers wins are: Ethernet, More USB, Proper speakers, DVD Burner, (subjective, personally I hate them) the nipple mouse thing, cheaper than SSD Air.
Proper losses are: (subjective) looks, product volume/slimness, software installed (for home users), plastic, much more expensive than HD Air.
I, of course from context, mean abiogenic production of oil (complex hydrocarbons), not just any hydrocarbon. Better clarify that before some retard pedant misses the point.
All through this thread I've been seeing people witter on about the patently ridiculous concept of abiogenic hydrocarbons. All I can think about is people trying to justify to themselves that it's okay to own that gas guzzling vehicle, and that oil will never run out. That, or they're really really stupid religious freaks who hate science. Head in the sand, or what?
There oil - a complex long-chain hydrocarbon, and there's simple, short-chain hydrocarbons. Titan has the latter. There is nothing special, or amazing about this. It's been known for a very long time - since the 70s at least. It has no relation to oil made by biogenic means.
And in 50-100 years when this becomes feasible? And 150 years when it actually happens?
Oil will be $1000 - $3000 a barrel (not adjusted for inflation). It will be cheaper to "mine" old rubbish dumps for plastics to recycle.
Space technologies will be 100x more mature, although humans in space will still be relatively rare (maybe a few thousand a year in 50 years time, to a few tens of thousands a year in 100 years time. 150 years? I think we'll see the first year to have 100,000 people-journeys into space).
Sending large payloads through space will be done via a "point and shoot" method once they are in space. The other end would require a collector - but might be a drainer + nudge the empty container (still travelling at a fast rate) back to Titan. You'd need a space elevator at both ends I imagine, although getting the oil off of Titan with it's lower gravity might not be a big issue, given that the energy to do that is all over the place.
Of course, I'd hope that the need for oil in 100 years time would be far far lower than now. In addition, do we really want to pump even more CO2 into our atmosphere that was never even here to start off with?
The biggest issue with spaceships transporting oil is that you run the risk of picking up acid-blooded aliens en-route.
such as Java's StringBuffer and .NET's StringBuilder
:p
Bah, I'll use Java's StringBuilder then
But you are entirely correct about the major differences being the APIs. Indeed because of the high quality libraries available from Apache and elsewhere it makes Java a great language to write servers in my opinion. Then again I've seen a lot of C# embedded into webpages without any attempt at MVC (and the Model being a HashMap, usually directly from the form field names, then pumped into some half-assed webservice with very little validation), and JSPs acting as a front-end for proper backends using Struts/Tiles and other Java frameworks with full data models, databases, modularisation, etc. JSPs can be abused to do the former, and C# can be used correctly, but it's in the mindset and experience of the programmer.
I love Perl though, CPAN is so great. Need to get back into it, and try Catalyst or similar.
Wouldn't use either to write a commercial consumer desktop application. This is certainly one of the bad uses that the article could have mentioned. Then again with the web growing in use as an application platform, does it really matter now?
There's really no reason to buy Apple kit, it's all round worse than standard PC kit bar one thing
It works.
Face the facts, Apple buyers have the highest post-purchase and on-going satisfaction rates in the industry. For their hardware and their software. If it was how you said it was, they wouldn't, full stop. Of course they have their issues, and Apple do make some poor decisions sometimes (plastic in the MacBooks covering the vents). Expensive? Depends on your point of comparison.
A few discoloured iBooks, a couple of scratched iPod nano screens because of careless owners (ooh, sharp metal things can scratch?!), and you label their entire product line as if it all had that. My 1G nano was perfectly readable over 2 years after getting it, and it never had a protective case or that much care lavished on it.
A lot of people value appearance. A home computer shouldn't sully the room it is in, but if you live in a pizza box strewn basement I guess that wouldn't occur to you.
"View -> Arrange by -> Conversation"
They're rather one-sided conversations.
Are you telling me Outlook doesn't even have the intelligence to offer a feature, yet not include your replies from your Sent Items folder into the threaded view so you can view it *AS A FREAKING CONVERSATION*?
GMail somehow offers a better user interface within a web browser than most, if not all, email clients that are popular today. Yet so far none of the clients has even deigned to take a hint from that. I bet some of the developers read slashdot too. Yet will any email client get any usability enhancements, or will it stay as a basic list view of the backing email database, perhaps with simplistic threading?
Let's guess shall we?
What's wrong with an iTunes Store Card then? Especially since albums are what, $10?, on iTunes, rather than $13. Sure, you won't get Sony's stuff DRM-free, but they might find something different, or get a mix of 10 singles rather than one album.