Just FYI, iTunes' default file format is AAC which, to my knowledge, is just as free and open as Ogg Vorbis and has the added advantage of not having a really really stupid name.
What the... actual data? What are you doing here? With actual data we can't mindlessly just repeat the same old "movies are worse than they used to be" ranting you see in every Slashdot story!
The opening of the movie was pretty good, as much so as the original. Then suddenly, he dispatches the bad guy's sidekick in like less than a minute. WTF? They also set up the bad guy as a ninja master or something, but never give him a chance to demonstrate his skill to the Transporter (they fight in a little corporate jet.) And the special effect of the jet sinking in the water? Terrible! Like worse than Sci Fi Original Movie quality.
I got the same impression from Hellboy. The movie started pretty good, but as soon as they went to Russia it's like the budget ran out... the effects got cheap, the fights were as short as possible. What's going on, Hollywood? Need better accountants?
I'm sorry, but just reading that laundry list of problems with the program, I'm thinking that it still needs a bit more work. To sum up:
NoteEdit is a good piece of software except:
1) It's very hard to install on a popular modern distro 2) It requires another piece of software to also be installed and running, otherwise you get an obscure error message and a crash 3) Sometimes running this program will screw up the sound from other programs, you need to restart it until the problem no longer occurs 4) If you want to print, it requires yet another software package to be installed 5) To import previously saved music, you need to type in three commands
Anyway, I just found that funny. Usually when people recommend software, they don't follow it with a huge list of problems.
I agree with you entirely. The people who wrote most of the software I use couldn't possibly be engineers, or, if they are, are about the worst engineers in history. (I mean, sure Galloping Gurdy was a big expensive bridge that collapsed, but at least it stayed up a few months... that's longer than a lot of the software I use.)
Here's the main difference:
Engineers take responsibility for their work. Almost all software developers offer no warranty, no guarantee, they don't carry a bond to cover damages like a plumber or electrician might. Before you can even unwrap the CD, you have to agree with a EULA that basically says, "we take no responsibility for anything."
If you hire an engineer to build a building, and it turns out that, say, the stairwell (while decorative) has sharp edges that might not be a good idea for a medical facility with many kids and seniors visiting, you can bet your ass that that engineer will come back in with a crew, remove those decorative elements, smooth out the sharp edges, and make it look nice again. I just watched the guys who build the new medical building across the street from me do exactly that.
Let's be fair here. Sony did come up with the 3.5" floppy disk, even though that was more evolution than innovation. But they also came up with the CD, and you have to admit that the CD has been pretty successful.
But you're right in general. Whenever there's a problem domain that has a solution, but the solution isn't Sony, they'll make a new format. Why the hell did they introduct Memorystick when there were already flash cards in the market? Like 3 different types? Now there's like 7 different types. It's ridiculous.
Some of their ideas are plain stupid, though, like SACD and ATRAC.
No. Star Office completely ignores a lot of data in the original document, for instance revision tracking. Microsoft Office might not do a perfect job of converting the document, but at least it converts every part of the document, revision tracking and all.
Now, you'll say, "but this same problem exists when you transition from one version of Microsoft Word to another." And, yes, you'd be right.
People on Slashdot make that claim a lot, but I've never witnessed it. I've used 5.1 (Macintosh), Word 97, 98 (Macintosh), 2000, XP and I've never had a document get corrupted when Word converted it up.
Microsoft Internet Explorer beat Netscape because it was better. You might argue that it was because of bundling on Windows, but you have to remember that it also beat Netscape for MacOS... and MacOS always bundled both browsers together.
Of course, that switch was pretty painless... just learning the word "favorites" instead of "bookmarks." But it did happen.
Yeah, but people said the same thing about iTunes on Slashdot, and now those same people are still pirating music. Want to hear the secret? It's because of the "reasonable fee" clause! See, to the average Slashdotter, the "reasonable fee" of a music track is somewhere in the vicinity of 10 cents, and the "reasonable fee" of a movie is around maybe half a dollar. So no matter how good the service that comes out is, Slashdotters can continue pirating with inpunity because the product isn't offered at a "reasonable fee!"
Do I still have to format the 400gb drive as Fat32 to get both my Mac and Windows XP box to read it? Why hasn't anybody come up with a file system that supports large capacity portable drives on every OS?
If Firefox supported the OS X spell checker, I'd have no reason to use Safari... both browsers are good, but the spell checker is the deal-maker for me.
(Unfortunately, Safari doesn't support the rich text entry fields used by Blogger.com and some other site... so you get a choice between editing rich text easily, or having a spell checker. Crappy choice.)
Ok, this is pretty rant-y and flawed in places (as pointed out by other posters), but do you seriously believe that there is something wrong with a company using income gained in one market to enter another market? That's done every day by companies of every size... it's not unethical, it's not immoral, and it's not "monopolistic." If Bob's Hardware took some of the money they made selling gardening tools to start selling automotive supplies, would you condemn them for it?
Their accountants probably just plan to have $40 billion cash on hand for the company. It's a nice even amount. If they always have $40 billion cash on hand, that just means that their accountants are doing a good job.
I'll buy one, but not the ripoff $800 bundle (created by the retailer, BTW, *not* Microsoft, to address a frequent error I see here on Slashdot.) I'll go to the local Target or Fred Meyer early on the day of release and pick one up for $400, along with Kameo and maybe Elder Scrolls 4 if it's out.
Do you seriously wonder who the hell is buying these systems, BTW? I mean, come on! Just because three of your buddies made a $800 pre-order that they can't pay for, that means *everybody* who did the same pre-order isn't going to buy it? Why don't you come to the conclusion that your buddies can't keep track of their finances or plan ahead when making a pre-order? That seems like a more reasonable conclusion to me.
Nintendo might be frequently-bashed, but it sure isn't on this site. Almost every games article contains some mention about how Sony and Microsoft may have gotten X wrong, but by God Nintendo always got X right.
In short, I question the very premise of your comment. Where is Nintendo frequently-bashed?
Well, right now EA has something like 65-70% of the gaming market. I think the point is that if you give them less money, they won't become "The Microsoft Of Games" in the near future. i.e. you can stop a monopoly before it really has a strong foothold. Of course, probably 30% of that is Madden alone, and that'll only get worse now that they have an exclusive contract with the NFL.
The problem is that not enough people care about monopolies to bother doing anything about it, and even if everybody reading Slashdot boycotted EA games, I doubt it'd make a dent.
But I still don't buy from EA, and in 5 years when they own 95% of the gaming market, at least I can say I did my part.
These articles have been coming out for years, and it's always just a "limited deployment" in some state/county/area of the world I've never heard of and I've never been to, and it never ends up where I live. I'm assuming it's the same for most people. Broadband power was supposed to be nationwide by now, then Verizon's fiber to the home... I've had the same DSL line since 1998, and it's never changed in any way, and this announcement probably isn't going to do much to get Verizon off their duff and upgrading.
Bullshit. This isn't "civil disobedience" for one simple reason: You're not giving up anything.
In the 60s, they protested segregation of buses by boycotting the bus system... that is, that GAVE SOMETHING UP to show how much they felt about the change. They made a sacrifice to make a point. Ghandi didn't go on a "gorge yourself with pies"-strike, he went on a hunger-strike. He gave something up to make his point.
People downloading pirated movies and software have one thing on their mind: "Wow, free shit." That's all, it's not a protest, it's not civil disobedience.
Uh, you do realize that the Windows XP install CD is both copyrighted and illegal to download from the Internet, right? Your defense here basically boils down to: "Yes, now it's just illegal files. Next week, though, it could be a slightly different type of illegal file!"
Slashdot Mirror
Just FYI, iTunes' default file format is AAC which, to my knowledge, is just as free and open as Ogg Vorbis and has the added advantage of not having a really really stupid name.
What the... actual data? What are you doing here? With actual data we can't mindlessly just repeat the same old "movies are worse than they used to be" ranting you see in every Slashdot story!
I think they ran out of budget halfway through.
(Spoilers.)
The opening of the movie was pretty good, as much so as the original. Then suddenly, he dispatches the bad guy's sidekick in like less than a minute. WTF? They also set up the bad guy as a ninja master or something, but never give him a chance to demonstrate his skill to the Transporter (they fight in a little corporate jet.) And the special effect of the jet sinking in the water? Terrible! Like worse than Sci Fi Original Movie quality.
I got the same impression from Hellboy. The movie started pretty good, but as soon as they went to Russia it's like the budget ran out... the effects got cheap, the fights were as short as possible. What's going on, Hollywood? Need better accountants?
ROFL
I'm sorry, but just reading that laundry list of problems with the program, I'm thinking that it still needs a bit more work. To sum up:
NoteEdit is a good piece of software except:
1) It's very hard to install on a popular modern distro
2) It requires another piece of software to also be installed and running, otherwise you get an obscure error message and a crash
3) Sometimes running this program will screw up the sound from other programs, you need to restart it until the problem no longer occurs
4) If you want to print, it requires yet another software package to be installed
5) To import previously saved music, you need to type in three commands
Anyway, I just found that funny. Usually when people recommend software, they don't follow it with a huge list of problems.
How do you know that's all he's using it for? What if there's a lively MUD going on on port 23?
I agree with you entirely. The people who wrote most of the software I use couldn't possibly be engineers, or, if they are, are about the worst engineers in history. (I mean, sure Galloping Gurdy was a big expensive bridge that collapsed, but at least it stayed up a few months... that's longer than a lot of the software I use.)
Here's the main difference:
Engineers take responsibility for their work. Almost all software developers offer no warranty, no guarantee, they don't carry a bond to cover damages like a plumber or electrician might. Before you can even unwrap the CD, you have to agree with a EULA that basically says, "we take no responsibility for anything."
If you hire an engineer to build a building, and it turns out that, say, the stairwell (while decorative) has sharp edges that might not be a good idea for a medical facility with many kids and seniors visiting, you can bet your ass that that engineer will come back in with a crew, remove those decorative elements, smooth out the sharp edges, and make it look nice again. I just watched the guys who build the new medical building across the street from me do exactly that.
Let's be fair here. Sony did come up with the 3.5" floppy disk, even though that was more evolution than innovation. But they also came up with the CD, and you have to admit that the CD has been pretty successful.
But you're right in general. Whenever there's a problem domain that has a solution, but the solution isn't Sony, they'll make a new format. Why the hell did they introduct Memorystick when there were already flash cards in the market? Like 3 different types? Now there's like 7 different types. It's ridiculous.
Some of their ideas are plain stupid, though, like SACD and ATRAC.
No. Star Office completely ignores a lot of data in the original document, for instance revision tracking. Microsoft Office might not do a perfect job of converting the document, but at least it converts every part of the document, revision tracking and all.
Now, you'll say, "but this same problem exists when you transition from one version of Microsoft Word to another." And, yes, you'd be right.
People on Slashdot make that claim a lot, but I've never witnessed it. I've used 5.1 (Macintosh), Word 97, 98 (Macintosh), 2000, XP and I've never had a document get corrupted when Word converted it up.
Microsoft Internet Explorer beat Netscape because it was better. You might argue that it was because of bundling on Windows, but you have to remember that it also beat Netscape for MacOS... and MacOS always bundled both browsers together.
Of course, that switch was pretty painless... just learning the word "favorites" instead of "bookmarks." But it did happen.
Yeah, but people said the same thing about iTunes on Slashdot, and now those same people are still pirating music. Want to hear the secret? It's because of the "reasonable fee" clause! See, to the average Slashdotter, the "reasonable fee" of a music track is somewhere in the vicinity of 10 cents, and the "reasonable fee" of a movie is around maybe half a dollar. So no matter how good the service that comes out is, Slashdotters can continue pirating with inpunity because the product isn't offered at a "reasonable fee!"
Brilliant.
Do I still have to format the 400gb drive as Fat32 to get both my Mac and Windows XP box to read it? Why hasn't anybody come up with a file system that supports large capacity portable drives on every OS?
If Firefox supported the OS X spell checker, I'd have no reason to use Safari... both browsers are good, but the spell checker is the deal-maker for me.
(Unfortunately, Safari doesn't support the rich text entry fields used by Blogger.com and some other site... so you get a choice between editing rich text easily, or having a spell checker. Crappy choice.)
It still has to get into Park or Reverse somehow. And they aren't allowed to use trained monkeys to move the lever... what would you propose?
NT
You need to relax and take a nap, it's good for you.
If you don't like Microsoft, don't buy their products. It's that simple. There's no point in giving yourself a heart attack over it.
Ok, this is pretty rant-y and flawed in places (as pointed out by other posters), but do you seriously believe that there is something wrong with a company using income gained in one market to enter another market? That's done every day by companies of every size... it's not unethical, it's not immoral, and it's not "monopolistic." If Bob's Hardware took some of the money they made selling gardening tools to start selling automotive supplies, would you condemn them for it?
Their accountants probably just plan to have $40 billion cash on hand for the company. It's a nice even amount. If they always have $40 billion cash on hand, that just means that their accountants are doing a good job.
I'll buy one, but not the ripoff $800 bundle (created by the retailer, BTW, *not* Microsoft, to address a frequent error I see here on Slashdot.) I'll go to the local Target or Fred Meyer early on the day of release and pick one up for $400, along with Kameo and maybe Elder Scrolls 4 if it's out.
Do you seriously wonder who the hell is buying these systems, BTW? I mean, come on! Just because three of your buddies made a $800 pre-order that they can't pay for, that means *everybody* who did the same pre-order isn't going to buy it? Why don't you come to the conclusion that your buddies can't keep track of their finances or plan ahead when making a pre-order? That seems like a more reasonable conclusion to me.
Nintendo might be frequently-bashed, but it sure isn't on this site. Almost every games article contains some mention about how Sony and Microsoft may have gotten X wrong, but by God Nintendo always got X right.
In short, I question the very premise of your comment. Where is Nintendo frequently-bashed?
Well, right now EA has something like 65-70% of the gaming market. I think the point is that if you give them less money, they won't become "The Microsoft Of Games" in the near future. i.e. you can stop a monopoly before it really has a strong foothold. Of course, probably 30% of that is Madden alone, and that'll only get worse now that they have an exclusive contract with the NFL.
The problem is that not enough people care about monopolies to bother doing anything about it, and even if everybody reading Slashdot boycotted EA games, I doubt it'd make a dent.
But I still don't buy from EA, and in 5 years when they own 95% of the gaming market, at least I can say I did my part.
These articles have been coming out for years, and it's always just a "limited deployment" in some state/county/area of the world I've never heard of and I've never been to, and it never ends up where I live. I'm assuming it's the same for most people. Broadband power was supposed to be nationwide by now, then Verizon's fiber to the home... I've had the same DSL line since 1998, and it's never changed in any way, and this announcement probably isn't going to do much to get Verizon off their duff and upgrading.
Bullshit. This isn't "civil disobedience" for one simple reason: You're not giving up anything.
In the 60s, they protested segregation of buses by boycotting the bus system... that is, that GAVE SOMETHING UP to show how much they felt about the change. They made a sacrifice to make a point. Ghandi didn't go on a "gorge yourself with pies"-strike, he went on a hunger-strike. He gave something up to make his point.
People downloading pirated movies and software have one thing on their mind: "Wow, free shit." That's all, it's not a protest, it's not civil disobedience.
Uh, you do realize that the Windows XP install CD is both copyrighted and illegal to download from the Internet, right? Your defense here basically boils down to: "Yes, now it's just illegal files. Next week, though, it could be a slightly different type of illegal file!"
Ok, that explains the one download of Photoshop CS, now where's the explaination for the other 5,999,999?