Cogs can think.

Sometimes, the internet is just AWESOME.

quote:
Originally posted by stanrich:
“Blu-Ray???

A dead-end technology so why would Apple bother to offer it?

Figures M$ would be touting it.”

At some point in the future, Apple will offer built-in Blu-Ray drives. Of course, by that time the story will be that the dead-end technology has been resurrected and that Apple did the smart thing of abiding their time. And then a few years later, the Mac fan’s history will have been revisioned such that it was actually Apple entering the market that forced everybody else to pick up Blu-Ray support, and thus rescued Blu-Ray and turned it from a disaster into a great success.

And a bit further down:

Hmm, I think this insightful and engaging discussion is omitting a key point which out to be more adequately considered. Lisa is cute. I’ll believe anything she tells me.

Like, totally. My first thought was… Well, let’s just say that whenever I need to leave town (and thus drive past the school) I make sure it’s at either 12:00, 13:00, or 15:30. Do the math.

Stuff that doesn’t make it to my Windows machines (or that shouldn’t be there):

Anything Apple-related, like Quicktime, iTunes, Safari. Apple installs unwanted software along with them (iPod services, iPhone services, updaters) that I did not give them permission for installing. In addition, Apple’s Windows software is horrible.

OpenOffice.org. The only reason I use OOo is because there’s no decent alternative on Linux. Preferably, I’d personally light the fire in which we burn OOo. What a horrible office suite.

Internet Explorer. Apart form the standards issue, this browser has the world’s worst interface. Seriously, I don’t understand how any programmer or designer can look at IE’s interface and say “Yeah, this looks pretty good”. Please, take it ’round back and take it out of its misery.

Any IM application other than Miranda IM. Miranda is how IM should be: barely uses any system resources, extremely fast, very configurable, and most importantly: completely unobtrusive. It’s probably a little too feature-packed for most ordinary users, though.

Any third-party driver/hardware configuration tool, such as those that come with wireless dongles, printers, or scanners. They have horrid interfaces, interfere with Windows Vista/7’s capable and well-designed default tools, and suck up system resources for no apparent reason.

Virus scanners. UAC+WinPatrol+anti-spyware application, all you need.

Opera. I can’t say it’s a “browser” with a straight face. Classic case of biting off more than you can chew. Opera, ditch all the useless crap, and just release a browser for once. Oh, and stop your pathetic whining to the EU about IE. Even without IE being bundled Firefox, Chrome, and Safari would still be better than you.

Just a selection.

So, my parents bought this brand new multifunction uber-printer that can do anything, including making coffee. Great stuff.

I took their old printer home with me, because I don’t have one and was on the verge of buying one anyway. This is when I entered the twilight zone.

The HP Deskjet 840c has no Vista drivers. HP doesn’t make them. I need my Linux machine to print.

And now the world will end.

I just want to say that I’m positively blown away by what I saw concerning Windows 7 in the keynote at the PDC. There is some seriously decent thinking being put into that product.

The interface enhancements reduce the amount of clicks drastically.

They finally implemented something as useful as Expose.

They cleaned up a lot of the UI.

Home Group is something I’ve been hoping for for a long time: all my computers and peripherals automatically interconnected (I’m going to cry the first time I won’t have to bother with sharing and installing a printer over the network).

The system tray is effectively gone.

You get full control over what messages the OS and its applications give you.

Windows key+p for instant and automatic switching between the various types of projector uses (I WANT TO HUG WHOEVER THOUGHT OF THIS ONE).

Device Stage for instant access to all my devices, even across the network.

Customisable shutdown button.

Ribbons in Paint and Wordpad.

And this is just a selection of the selection Steven and the ever lovely Julie showed us today. This is the first time in like ever that I’m truly excited about anything coming out of Redmond - and it will all work just fine on my Aspire One and desktop box, because Vista runs fine too. All the hard stuff - the groundwork, the base, the frameworks - are already there, and my computers can handle them easily. Windows 7 doesn’t contain any new and fancy tricks that needs newer hardware.

Apple is going to have a little bit of a pickle on this one if all they can come up with is a slimmed-down Leopard that only runs on 64bit Intel boxes.

Oh, and just for the record: JULIE IS TEH AWESOME. She drew a heart on the postcard. You’ll never see Bill or His Steveness draw a heart. +4738387534 for drawing hearts.

I doubled the RAM in my laptop, from 768MB to 1.5GB. And you know what?

You don’t notice a damn thing in either Vista or Ubuntu.

My dream operating system would have BeOS’ kernel, responsiveness, and soul. Mac OS X’ attention to detail and polishedness. Windows’ industry support. Linux’ price tag. VMS’ stability. OpenBSD’s security. My nightmare operating system would have the Linux kernel. Windows’ attention to detail and polishedness. SkyOS’ industry support. Vista’s pricetag. Windows 98’s stability. BeOS’ security.

Just saying.

The (very buggy) beta release of Safari on Windows has ignited a very interesting discussion: what font renderer does a better job, Microsoft’s ClearType or the method Apple uses?

The deeper reasons as put forward by Joel Spolsky put aside, I think there may simply be a more simple explanation for why the fonts are as they are on both platforms: the overall look. Microsoft tends to use crisper and sharper icons and widgets, with clear lines, whereas Apple uses softer lines, fuzziness, and actual textures.

In the Microsoft design, sharper looking fonts simply fit better, and the same goes for fuzzier fonts having a better place in OS X. While I like OS X’s fonts when using OS X, they look extremely crappy and out of place on my Vista box (when running Safari). I’m sure the same would be the case for Windows’ fonts on OS X.

Warning: rant ahead.

I don’t give a rat’s ass what all the anti-MS idiots say. Surface is a truly innovative product, and I applaud Microsoft for it. They had the guts, back in 2001, to devote money and manpower to this idea, and now, 6 years later, it is paying off. Surface looks great, opens up a whole slew of possibilities, and, as far as I can see it, is truly a Pandora’s box of opportunities. I’ve seen use cases flash before my eyes like every other minute of the past two days.

Surface is just one of those things the OSS community will never come up with. Let’s face it; Linux, BSD, most of the other OSS projects, they are all followers. They are in it to regurgitate what companies like Apple and Microsoft serve them. The OSS community is supposed to be so great, right? Then why is it that they never seem to be able to come with something truly new, something groundbreaking, something that will make people all around the world go: “wow…!” I showed Surface to some of my computer-illetrate friends, and they were baffled. They all saw new use cases in front of them… Just like I did.

Fact remains, as much as I like the OSS world (I try to use the OSS equiv. when it is at least as good as or better than the closed-source counterparts), they are followers, not trendsetters. So, sure, there is enough to bash Microsoft and Apple about, but at least they have the guts to come up with truly new ideas.

In 2010, we’ll see a marginally different, poor rip-off of Surface. The joy of waiting.

Is Linux for the masses happening? Will Microsoft ever lose significant market share to its competitors?

I have no idea, but I do know that what Aaron Seigo wrote on his blog is something I’m seeing all around me as well. I have seen many people switch to Apple, and, more interestingly, have seen awareness of Linux (and especially Ubuntu) grow almost by the day. Last year, I had a surreal talk (at the DIY shop where I work) with a normal (absolutely non-geek) handyman for a local institution for mentally challenged people about how he used and liked Ubuntu.

Awareness of alternatives to Windows is growing. Whether this will translate into significant market share increases for these alternatives is something else completely, though.

Sometimes, I wonder, what is journalism in this world coming to? What is journalism worth if you can just spout utter nonsense and have people believe you? Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols writes:

Microsoft is putting its own spin on its “re-re-announcement” that it believes that Linux and open source violate 235 of its patents. The company is now sending out a release to some members of the press explaining its position.

Microsoft’s statement opens, “The company’s longstanding preference is to license rather than litigate and Microsoft’s work over the past three years to build a bridge with open source is a result of that commitment. The November agreement with Novell addresses the IP issues in open source while meeting both the distributor’s needs and, more importantly, the needs of the customer.”

While Microsoft professes a preference to license rather than litigate, its record indicates otherwise.

Up until now, there is little wrong with the above. Microsoft makes patent infringement claims, but says it won’t litigate. SJVN then poses his thesis, namely that “While Microsoft professes a preference to license rather than litigate, its record indicates otherwise”. This is a thesis that needs proof. So, what do you expect SJVN to list now? Exactly, a list of court cases where Microsoft sued other parties for patent infringement. This is what follows:

On Feb. 22, 2007, a jury awarded a $1.52 billion patent judgment in favor of Alcatel-Lucent against Microsoft over the Redmond, Wash., company’s use of MP3 codices. This was the largest patent award in history. In the Eolas case, Microsoft was also found guilty in a $521 million patent infringement ruling over how Internet Explorer handled embedded content.

Those are cases against Microsoft. In other words, these cases are not started by Microsoft, and therefore are completely irrelevant to the build-up he wrote. These cases do not prove, at all, that Microsoft in fact prefers litigation instead of licensing (which may in fact very well be true, but that’s irrelevant).

This is just bad journalism, and goes to show what a Linux shill SJVN really is.