Perhaps if Sony would stop screwing its customers....
While I love my PS3, it is certainly a cheap piece of crap. The first one I had failed thanks to Sony's bad computer engineering and overall product design. The constant erosion of our legal rights through forced changes to their terms of service, and the elimination of core features from the product didn't help me feel like Sony had it out for users - never a good thing in business. Make peace with your customers, not war, you idiots!
I won't touch their TV's, stereos, speakers, desktop/laptop/tablet/smartphone computers, or anything else Sony. I've pretty much stopped buying movies and music that are under the Sony label.
When they stop trying to screw us, and when they start putting out quality again, then maybe..... naw, screw Sony. They will never change.
Sony - losing customers hand over fist, because that's what they're best at.
Why does Mark Shuttleworth/Canonical even bother anymore?
Ubuntu went from being a fairly healthy distro (based on Debian) to a terrible distro that requires too much effort.
I loved Ubuntu 6.06 through 8.11, but grew tired of how Ubuntu's support for my machine went from good to absolute crap. I switched to Kubuntu, which seemed to be better - for a while, then it too went to hell in a handbasket. I spent increasing amounts of time fixing things to make the system functional. It went from being a slight headache to being a full-blown migraine.
I turfed Canonical's crappy distro as of 11.11. Unity - screw it. Gnome? Screw it.
I may try a different distro some day, but Mark Shuttleworth's distro has left the worst taste in my mouth. I don't have time to fart around with a distro that needs to be fixed right out the starting gates anymore.
I was a faithful Ubuntu user for years, since v6.06, I enjoyed Ubuntu's rising functionality with my laptop. Things were working well. After several versions, it was clear Ubuntu was heading in the wrong direction, as my experience grew worse and worse. I started using Kubuntu from about 10.04 through 11.11, to try and salvage what was left of my relationship with Canonical's distribution. Kubuntu had the right U.I. guts, but as I moved forward through the versions, it was highly evident that my experience went from good, to worse.
At this juncture, I cannot trust Linux, or Canonical to deliver a good user experience anymore. Shuttleworth's distro's have no redeeming value anymore. Free is still too expensive, considering my laptop went from working well with Ubuntu's distro, to not working.
Countless releases made networking a headache. The configuration interfaces were highly buggy. With every release, I spent more and more time trying to get things fixed, and less time getting any work done. Even accessing samba shares (Windows file sharing) was a headache, but a necessity for any modern OS, and one that I had to work real hard to get working (if it worked at all).
I need a computer that works, and a network manager that works, and it's thanks to distro's like Ubuntu and Kubuntu for driving me to Windows 7.
Unity, and Gnome 3 - absolute H.S.
Business mixed Ubuntu? Who cares. When I decide to give Linux another go, it'll be with a different distro, and probably with the KDE desktop or Xfce. It certainly won't be on my main machines. It'll be only for toying around to gain more experience with Linux.
Canonical's distros have left a sour taste in my mouth.
I gave up on Ubuntu for now. It's taking a turn for the worse, and is unable to innovate.
HUD sounds like a dud to me (not just because they rhyme).
I was driven to Ubuntu, and later Kubuntu, out of desire for a better platform. But all this Unity, HUD and Gnome 3 BS drove me to Windows 7... that, and the fact that release after release saw me having to fix problem after problem. Ubuntu v6 was good, but it got progressively problematic.
Security is not one of Microsoft's strong suits. It was their fault that people started dumping IE and switching to other browsers.
You couldn't pay me to switch back to IE. In fact, the only Microsoft software I run now is Windows 7 itself. There is no other software Microsoft produces that is worth running on any of my machines.
My security has improved vastly since switching to Firefox.
I've been fairly <strike>unimpressed</strike> disappointed by the Gnome project. I began with Gnome, and found it fairly nice, but over the years, it really started pissing me off as the updates rolled out.
A few years back, I switched to KDE, and haven't looked back. Now KDE hasn't had the best track record either, but it definitely hasn't pissed me off nearly as much as Gnome.
The most recent Gnome is not going to grace my desktop, and here's why...
While Ubuntu and Kubuntu went from networking in v6 through v8 to notworking in subsequent versions (each release seemed to get worse than before, with more problems that I needed to figure out how to fix), Microsoft was busy working on their trashiest OS yet - Windows Vista, and subsequently on their greatest OS yet - Windows 7.
I finally had to give up on Linux because I was spending more time fixing stuff just so I could surf the net. The music software available was also far too limiting (and non-functional), and the disaster which is Pulseaudio meant I couldn't even produce music without hearing pops, clicks, and noise.
Now I'm with Windows 7, and it works great. It doesn't crash on me. Networking just works. I don't get pops and clicks while composing music. I don't have to try and fix anything, because everything just works.
I still keep Linux around on a junked laptop so I can keep up with the technology, but I have barely used it in the last 6 months. Linux distros and developers need to wake up and smell the coffee. Their user experience was starting to get really good, then plummeted. Rather than take their competitor's shortcomings and build and capitalize on their weakness, companies like Canonical, and coders turned the distro's into epic failures, and allowed Windows 7 to shine. Just because it (Linux) is free, doesn't mean it's good. It was really good, and then it started sucking in a big way.
Productivity means getting work done. Linux held me back. But I'm back on track now.
I'm a legitimate user that pays for all the games I play. I hate, no, I detest DRM, because it breaks my games, and forces me to do stuff I don't want to do (like being tethered to the internet in order to play games).
Ubisoft - remember the "soft", because DRM is a software that can and will be circumvented. DRM is soft, in the sense that it can and always will be broken. There's no real point to DRM except to keep honest people honest, and to give hackers something to do (perhaps some day DRM creators will make it challenging for hackers).
Not interested in requiring a pass to get into an online game, whether I'm a first-order customer (just bought the game new), or a second-order customer (just bought a used game).
I know a lot of people who will simply NOT BUY THE F*CKING GAMES that require passes, because they can't afford to buy new games, they have no choice but to settle for used games.
Sony - it only does FAIL! (and fail, and fail, and more fail, and fail again, until it finds new ways to fail, then it will fail some more).
In the end, you're better off with Firefox and their disregard for enterprise than Microsoft Internet Explorer and their disregard for standards, ethics, and security.
Personally, I don't see the problem. If the website or application is correctly written with standards in mind, then there should be no problem. Why is it Firefox's problem? Microsoft and the web coders that chose to write for Internet Explorer are the real troublemakers.
The concept is too similar to pre-existing products. Any patent office that awards Apple a patent for this didn't do their homework.
Apple didn't even do their homework.
I was looking at some devices the other week, that were strikingly similar.
What about Wacom's tablet/monitor combo graphics tablet device?
Simply joining a mouse to a touchscreen shouldn't be patentable, since it's not doing anything novel or new. And context-sensitivity displays aren't new. They've been around for a while.
It's stuff like this which confuses the average non-techie user.
This is why it's safer just to say no, avoid links contained within email, and thus live a happier life.
Clicking on web links inside emails is about as beneficial has taking money out of an ATM after midnight - nothing good can come from it, unless you're trying to get wasted, or screwed.
Using more light and not saving energy? This is not news.
Astronomers have known this for years. People waste light and energy like they waste water, gas, and food.
People sound all proud and smug when they talk about consuming less by switching to energy-efficient systems, but anyone with half a brain can evaluate those claims, and poke holes in them.
It's important for people to be vigilant in energy savings. It's not just about switching to a new light source.
When my wife and I switched to CFL's all those years ago, we did our best to not increase the number of lights we own, except where it made sense (eg: where a single lamp could replace one or more brighter lamps located further away from the intended use).
We turn lights off when we leave a room. We use less lighting today than we did 10 years ago.
We hardly ever turn on our outdoor lighting - it's wasteful and hardly ever required, especially with all the bright street lights that you can read by! It also affects people's enjoyment of the night sky by blocking out the stars and deep-sky objects, a growing problem I'm not prepared to contribute to.
We have realized an energy saving due to our vigilance.
One thing I notice is people love to leave their outdoor lights on at night, whether they are home or not.
I notice that my neighbours leave their outdoor lights on during the daytime, where lighting is not needed - even when they are home.
I'm glad to see LED lighting invading all aspects of our lives. They have definitely improved my life, with LED blacklit TV's, powerful flashlights that sip power from batteries, toys, and more.
If we aren't careful, we are going to create more problems for ourselves because of it. The article is right, people will produce more lighting when cheaper and more energy efficient lighting comes available, and will become more wasteful. This mindset has to be changed.
So how to drive the point home about wasteful lighting?
Electricity will have to quadruple in price before people will smarten up, and even then, once a power pig, always a power pig.
While I don't usually agree on everything Roger Ebert says, I totally agree with his comments on Hollywood rushing towards the 3D craze, and it not adding much to the experience.
The 3D Avatar was shot with - that's crap. I don't want alternating images broadcast to alternate eyes. I want two images broadcast to two eyes simultaneously.
The glasses in the theatre are garbage. They are made of cheap plastic, and the polarizing windows are distorted and make the images fuzzy.
Screw-ups like 2D to 3D conversions doesn't help bolster the craze - it helps destroy it.
I'm not surprised that 3D is taking a bit of a downturn in the theatre.
Let's face it - cinemas are expensive. They don't represent the best value for our dollar. You can't pause the damn thing to take a leak. You can't pause it to grab a snack. You can't pause it to do the wild thing. The bathrooms reek of yesterdays vomit (no, wait - that was the seat beside mine in the cinema). The other patrons are loud and obnoxious (and are going to get an ass-kickin' if they keep blowing the good parts). Then there's the air conditioning from hell in the summer (wear a jacket - trust me, it help), and the furnace in the winter (wear a g-string - trust me - the seats can't get any more smelly if you tried).
All in all, cinema, and especially 3D cinema is doomed to fail.
Now home cinema is a different story. Why would anyone pay $24-$30 (CDN) to watch a movie, add overpriced coke (or Pepsi for those cinemas that are under the delusion that Pepsi is prefered by more people over coke) and overpriced popcorn, when you can buy a movie on DVD or Blu-Ray and watch it at home for the same price? And watch it again and again when you feel like it.
After seeing some of the gorgeous LED LCD TV's in the stores (thank you Samsung!), why would I want to watch a stinkin' movie outside of my own home?
Apple wants consumers to hold it in such high regard, to place it high up on a pedestal and preach the wisdom of the church of Apple.
This latest attempt by Apple to demand respect from freedom-loving tech consumers shows Steve's true light.
He is an immature boy, throwing a temper tantrum because he screwed up, and doesn't want to look bad, but in effect is making the situation 100x worse.
Rather than fixing the problems with the 4G iphone, being the mature guy by admitting the problems, and feeling apathy for his followers that were mislead into buying a product that was not ready for market by virtue of proper full-on testing, Steve is making an ass out of himself, and his whole company.
He won't be happy until he rains on everyone's parade - taking as many companies down with him.
Thankfully, consumers aren't as stupid and naive as Steve believes.
I don't know what happened to Apple, but I used to have respect for that company, and I only had very limited exposure to Apple's products. Now, Steve's ego has tarnished my view of Apple.
I already avoided Apple products because they weren't the type of products I wanted to waste my money on. Now I avoid Apple because of complete arrogance and mistrust, with all these other secondary reasons: lack of transparency, and the ever-impossible task of determining how secure an Apple product is.
Steve, I'm a 37 year old, and let me tell you - grow up, and grow a pair, dude. Don't be an ass.
Apple hasn't really been security-focused. They've been driving up their install base by lying to their customers, and shirking their responsibility for providing security.
That is one of the many reasons why I cannot in good faith buy, service, or recommend Apple products. My reputation is more valuable than any profit earned by selling dishonest kit.
Maybe one day Apple will do security right. But right now, Microsoft is the clear winner for me - they've worked really hard over the last 9 years on their security, and that means a lot to me.
BTW: I hate Microsoft, and prefer Linux. I'm not a Microsoft fanboy.
Of course, Apple never does anything wrong, right?
Apple is really trying hard to discourage people from trusting them to develop products that they can feel 100% positive about.
This might explain why I've seen an increase in the number of received calls that mysteriously get dropped by people like, say, my employer, an iphone convert.
Of course, this is perfect for those phone companies that dropped per-second billing - every dropped call means the caller looses the balance of their minute, and has to waste another minute.
Holding the phone wrong... yeah. Tell us another one Apple. How about designing a better antenna, and placing it in a more appropriate place like, say, along the top-edge of the phone?
Unfortunately the action of re-writing URL's as HTTPS: can be problematic.
For example: Facebook Chat
If you access facebook via http:, facebook chat works. If you access it via https:, facebook chat does not work - you get a little triangular icon saying chat is disabled on this page.
While there are work-arounds, like running Trillian to access facebook chat, it is not the best solution, especially if you're not running Trillian.
What happens if a website tries to force you to an HTTP connection? Then it would get stuck in a cycle of redirections and URL-rewriting. While coders shouldn't be so stupid, it can happen.
I'd like to see all connections encrypted. Unfortunately this add-on doesn't help me.
Espionage - hardly the crime it used to be. If you want to tarnish someone's rep internationally, and maybe even issue them a death sentence (to be carried out by lethal injection of a shank in the middle of the prison courtyard), child porn is the angle of attack. No one likes a person who preys on innocent younglings.
Dropping malicious files doesn't necessarily mean executable malware.
This is serious stuff. Safari cannot be trusted, and Apple cannot be trusted to deal with security matters behind closed doors - they are completely ineffective at solving them on their own.
Obviously this guy has no clue about how cameras work.
The miniscule lens on those idiotic camera-phones have no-where near the light gathering or resolution of a large, bulky DSLR camera.
Even if they were to magically get the optical resolution (not to be confused with Megapixels), clarity, and somehow invent light out of nothing, they would never be able to provide decent magnification.
Those toy CCD chips in the camera phones are so small vs. their megapixel resolution, it's amazing they work as well as they do - they are the noisiest little chips I've ever had to work with.
As an owner of a camera phone, a pocket digital camera, a larger digital camera, and a professional DSLR camera, I'll tell you - the image quality is night-and-day, as you go up the scale.
There's a reason why DSLR's are as good as they are. There are reasons why professionals also shoot with Hasselblad medium-format cameras with digital backs.
I always knew Nokia was loosing it's place in the world. I've pretty much given up on this pathetic shell of a company. To say camera phones will supplant DSLR's is utter lunacy.
Now I can officially add Nokia to the growing list of companies that have no respect for the technology, or our intelligence. I look forward to a Nokia-free future.
Like a child-proof cap that adults can't get open but kids can
Yeah....
So the iSIM is designed for neophytes in the 50-115 year bracket that have difficult times opening their pill bottles, with VCR's still flashing 00:00 and can't read the fine print on the pill bottles.
Meanwhile every kid I've ever known can probably find the virtual needle in the internet haystack, and are fairly knowledgeable in circumventing copy protections, jailbreaking iPhoneys and iMaxiPads, etc.
So how is this supposed to teach our kids about trust? If we're willing to violate their rights to associate and communicate with anyone they wish, then we've already lost the battle.
And I don't know about you, but I've had no problems obtaining second and third SIM cards - I never even had to ask. I'm sure kids are smart enough to rip off the stupid iSIM cover, or impersonate their mom and dad when calling the wireless company.
If you want to piss your kids off - don't give them a friggin' cellphone. If you're going to be a looser and the least popular parent on the planet, at least do it right.
I absolutely refuse to support Microsoft's OOXML format. I've been quite successful at avoiding it - it appears no-one in my family or workplace want anything to do with it.
But I couldn't believe it when I read this article. I knew Microsoft wasn't adhering to their own approved standard, but I thought it was because Microsoft has a long history of inventing new ways of doing the same thing - transitional makes it sound like this is planned.
This will fragment the archives of documents users have composed and maintained under the illusion that their investment is well protected.
I stand behind my decision to convert to Openoffice. Openofice has received more updates in the last 2 years than Microsoft Office, and it supports the one standard that really matters to me - a non-Microsoft drafted standard.
Of all the idiotic moves Microsoft could have made, this one is really dumb. Microsoft deserves to fail.
I hope this was an April fools joke, because it's crazy.
For a system like this to work, your eyes would have to be able to focus down to 4cm or less. Last time I checked, most people's close focus peters out around 10cm or more. My own close focus is 15cm. 10cm isn't close enough to prevent the left eye from seeing the right half of the screen.
Now optics could possibly solve this, except for one thing.... any optic used would magnify the pixels, and the frame resolution per eye would be rather small - hardly enough to render movies like Avatar in any decent quality. The field of view would also be greatly reduced. Some people would experience eye fatigue from staring at the LCD that close.
3D Shutter glasses and the iphone would make more sense. Another idiotic Apple patent.
Evolution is generally a good thing, and I'm all for it. I love running newer, better software systems.
Unfortunately, this means a large swath of the internet population will be running out-of-date browsers (again). So many people are happy with XP, and have no roadmap to upgrade. With the reliability of computers, we could be seeing people forced to upgrade what - 5 to 10 years down the road. When all you do is watch Youtube videos, visit facebook, write a few letters, send email, and download government forms, upgrading your PC is usually not on your to-do list.
Thankfully I've upgraded most of the people I know to Firefox. That being said, even Firefox runs the risk of dropping support for XP, although I expect this won't happen for at least 5 years - considering XP is a rather large install base - it would be like dropping all support for gasoline cars when electric cars are produced and purchased by the masses.
I don't think Microsoft is making any friends with IE9 - I can't even figure out how Microsoft feels their product is relevant to people anymore. With Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera, there is healthy standards-compliant competition already (well, except for adopting a single video codec).
Users have pretty much given up on Internet Explorer. When was the last time I saw Internet Explorer? Hmmm, a long, LONG time ago. With the IE8 Frankenbrowser, I thought Microsoft would finally admit defeat, throw in the towel, and get back to innovating. Obviously Microsoft feels they still can do better than everyone else - how many versions will it take to gain back the trust that was lost from nearly a decade of ignorance?
When i used to run a multi-line BBS, I had news feeds, where people could post their own items, status, etc... and some of the online games were rewritten to take advantage of it.
What's old is new I guess? And facebook is just as moronic as Apple and Microsoft.
After using and promoting OpenOffice for years, I can't imagine ever switching back to Microsoft Office.
What shall I ever do if I switch jobs and they force me to suffer with Microsoft Office? Hopefully they'll let me bring my own computer to use OpenOffice.
Here's the thing... I wouldn't pay for an app or add-on if it meant anything less than 100% of the cost went to the developer(s) of the add-on, and it would have to be very reasonably priced ($5 or less). Of course if enough developers start charging, and the rates were too high, I would probably stop using most of the add-ons.
So long as the authors of AdBlock Plus are getting 100% of the funds, I could be convinced to buy it.
If Mozilla wants money from me, they can start releasing a browser that doesn't crash on me.
Well that comment by Eric Schmidt just cost Google a shit-load of trust.
Google has slowly been eroding users privacy and trust. Pretty soon, we'll have no privacy, unless it's Google Privacy - the type that assumes anyone who uses Google's service have nothing to hide, and everyone else must be knee-deep in illegal acts, scheming, evil plotting, and looking at pictures of naked mole rats.
It's official: Google is the new Microsoft. That makes me sick.
Microsoft is stupid to even discuss this issue. Who would believe Microsoft if they answered "no" to the accusation of a backdoor?
Although I doubt there is a backdoor, I'm not closed off to the idea. As long as the source code is closed-source, I will never be 100% certain Microsoft doesn't have ways to gain illegal entry into our computers.
Sometimes I feel that bugs are Microsoft's way to ensure they can always get a foot-hold into your Windows PC.
Hotmail is redundant hotmail is redundant hotmail is redundant
Hotmail is redundant (oh wait, I said that already)
Logging in to read email through a web browser is annoying enough. Now Microsoft wants people to break with tradition, and reconfigure their browsers to accept 3rd party cookies.
The solution I'll be recommending to my friends, family and clients is to switch them to gmail, their own ISP's email, or some other free service.
Microsoft is becoming redundant in this world of choice.
I have to agree, Karmic isn't the release Linux users want.
I have encountered the following issues thus far:
- kernel error resulting from suspend/wake events
- clicks, pops and audio cut-out during log-in sound, and in few other areas, mp3 playback is flawless.
- loss of indicator-applet and indicator-applet-session. Had to clean install to get them back.
- cpu frequency applet asks for my password the first time I change CPU speed. There doesn't seem to be any way to grant permanent permission to access the keyring.
- notification system is brain-dead. Who the hell designed that? Can't close the notification, and the bubble turns transparent on mouse hover. WTF?
- empathy, evolution, etc... - give me a break - don't install crapware I don't want.
Am I glad to have installed 9.10? Yes.
How many times did I have to install it: (Ubuntu) Twice
Flavors tested: Ubuntu Desktop, Kubuntu Desktop
Filesystem used: EXT4
Install time: Reasonable (less than 30 minutes I think)
Is Karmic ready for prime-time? No
Is it still fun? Now that I have my bearings, yes.
How does that re-invent the web? It's certainly not ground-breaking.
So users can share using their web browser. I've been doing that with Firefox and add-ins.
Opera - re-inventing something, and making it ground-breaking means to do something that hasn't been done before, or improving something to eliminate a fundamental flaw.
Add a feature to file-share - maybe, but that's certainly not unique. Even then, everyone I know would rather keep their existing browser and use online services to share, or use P2P.
I really enjoy listening to music through my MP3 player.
But I don't use headphones, and the risk of hearing-loss only exists if I turn up the gain on my amplifiers and increase the volume on my controllers.
If the EU [and eventually other countries] are successful at imposing limiters on our music players, it will cause problems.
The most notable is the problem of providing inadequate volume levels to be able to hear the audio.
I need my MP3 player to be able to output at a high audio level (yes, at the expense of battery life). Anything less will not do.
Thankfully we have Rockbox - the open-source jukebox firmware for portable media players. I get the signal amplitude I need, without the BS of having to use the original firmware (which can sometimes cripple the amplitude).
I guess the justice from Alabama was too intimidated by the larger size of rubber wangs.
Hey dude, this is the 21st Century. There's no room for your kind of old-timer backwards stupidity.
I guess Alabama folk will have to continue using cukes, carrots and bed posts, or opt for contraband commandos with flexible shafts and flashing lights that play "Raindrops keep falling on my head" while pulsating her to pleasure..
If I can't use my universal remote control with the TV, then the TV will not be part of my consideration.
I do not want gesture-based remote controls.
Sony screwed up their PS3 by adopting a Bluetooth remote control and not having backwards compatibility with IR remote controls. I can see Phillips making the same mistake.
This could be problematic for people that don't have the use of hands and rely on being able to press buttons by other means - feet, mouth stick, etc. This would be a step backwards for that segment of the population.
I could care less about a slim version of the PS3.
But looking at the photos in this article of the new slim PS3, I am pissed off.
Sony has yet to rectify their design problems. There are still no USB ports on the rear interface panel.
Sony just doesn't get it. There are devices (eg: PS3IR-Pro1000) that use the USB ports, and users looking for a clean look and layout don't want USB cables hanging out the front of their equipment.
Sony - pay attention to what we really need:
- 1080p upsampling
- rear USB ports
- built-in IR receiver
Failure to heed our needs is holding you back. My friends are holding off on buying a PS3 - dropping it $100 doesn't circumvent their requirements. Quit making the PS3 an OK system, and make it a damn great system.
I'm glad Opera is there to provide competition, but I've tried Opera, and I hate it. It's not the browser for me, and if given the choice between Opera or nothing, I'll take nothing every time.
Firefox v3.5 is certainly a web upgrade in some respects.
One of the chief pains I have with the web is Flash and Silverlight. We have these competing standards that require plugins in order to be of any use to us. They have shown to be buggy, and proprietary.
Enter HTML 5 with it's video and audio tags, plus Firefox's web worker threads and tracemonkey JIT. This gives us native audio and video, and the ability to produce better rich applications and websites. These features are really important to the evolution of the open and free web, and shouldn't be left to closed-source plugins supported by pigopolists like Adobe and Microsoft. This is certainly what they were referring to when Mozilla called it a web upgrade.
Yeah, the new tab features are old news for most of the die-hard Firefox fans, and regular Opera fans, but that's not the selling point anyways, at least it wasn't for me.
Firefox v3.5 ups the ante for Internet Explorer - I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft admits defeat on the browser war - you can only fight so long with knives when the enemy (Mozilla) brings AK-47's. I've used Opera (even the latest every-browser-a-server version), but it just wasn't the application I was looking for. I refuse to use Safari so long as Apple continues to treat customers like cattle while narrowly thinking of themselves as the best and most secure. Chrome is way too new and thus has earned zero trust.
Yes, the average person will not notice much change between Firefox v3.0 and v3.5, but in time, they will become reliant on the changes that matter most. It's like a car - no matter what upgrades manufacturers make, they're still cars, and they still either work like a dream, or fail miserably - and not much changes from the driver's perspective. They are more efficient, spew out less pollution, and becoming safer and smarter. Innovation is sometimes unseen, but no less important.
Yeah, this story reminds me of a bash-fest, and it feels like the author has a bone to pick with Opera.
But really, Opera has re-invented the wheel, and the wheel isn't the right size, shape, and lacks tread.
The browser is a browser, not a server. There's a reason why people don't want to run web servers.
File sharing is no longer revolutionary. Why Opera thinks we need more ways to share is beyond me.
Is Opera a good browser? Maybe, but I didn't like it. Does it deserve a bigger piece of the pie? Perhaps. But does it deserve a bigger piece of the pie based on mixing in a web server? No.
Welp, Internet Explorer 8 doesn't render my very simple website correctly. Better than IE7? I don't think so. It seems to pass 6 tests and 1/2 dozen other tests, for a total of 11 tests. No wait, that can't be right.... Hmmm. Microsoft math :)
This is what I found.... IE7 can't render my simple website the same as any other bleeding-edge browser. IE8 corrects some of the things IE7 breaks, and throws in a few extra wrinkles, effectively negating any benefit.
I found IE8 rendered pages a tad faster, but not fast enough to warrant the additional security headaches Microsoft software is known for.
I run Firefox v3.1 Beta 3 (soon to be re-versioned Firefox v3.5):
- With Tracemonkey javascript engine enabled, javascript runs fast enough to be less objectionable.
- Web pages that matter to me layout correctly.
- Not that the ACID3 test is gospel, but Beta 3 hits 93/100, and the animation is smoother than v3.07, but still not there. It fails on one of the colored squares. Even if it hits 100/100, it needs more work.
- I'm yet to get any malware infestation. Touch wood.
Microsoft is "trying" to become standards compliant, but not "honestly trying". We're not really seeing the leaps and bounds promised, as usual. Is IE8 better than IE7? Perhaps. Faster? Yes! Safer? That's yet to be seen. The savior of the web? Far from it. Free? Not free enough. Easy add-on development? Nope! Can open sourcers audit the sourcecode?
Even if Microsoft got IE8 right, passed ACID3 100/100 and performed the animation smoothly, never let malware get a foothold, never required another security update, and came with a coupon for free Windows 7 Pentultimate, I wouldn't switch.
Attention Microsoft fanboys and fangirls - good luck! You'll need it.
Time to give my PC an IE Enema, clean out all the crud and toxins.
The Harmony 525 is a newer version of the 520, although I don't know what the difference is...
The 520 is a piece of crap. I've had to replace my remote several times because the hard plastic buttons "ACTIVITY", and the 4 activity select buttons just stopped working.
Considering I took really good care of the remote, always used good batteries, never dropping, impacting, scratching, spilling liquids, sitting on it or resting anything on it, or giving it to my 16 month old to use as a hammer, it should have lasted longer.
The very last 520 Logitech sent me lasted 6 months. I'm back to using separate remotes, because they work reliably.
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Sigh.... black pot, meet kettle.
Only Microsoft would tell developers to not do the very thing Microsoft has done with Windows 8.
Case in point: Metro
Hypocrites.
Sony - Abysmal failure is their own fault
Perhaps if Sony would stop screwing its customers....
While I love my PS3, it is certainly a cheap piece of crap. The first one I had failed thanks to Sony's bad computer engineering and overall product design. The constant erosion of our legal rights through forced changes to their terms of service, and the elimination of core features from the product didn't help me feel like Sony had it out for users - never a good thing in business. Make peace with your customers, not war, you idiots!
I won't touch their TV's, stereos, speakers, desktop/laptop/tablet/smartphone computers, or anything else Sony. I've pretty much stopped buying movies and music that are under the Sony label.
When they stop trying to screw us, and when they start putting out quality again, then maybe..... naw, screw Sony. They will never change.
Sony - losing customers hand over fist, because that's what they're best at.
Why does Mark Shuttleworth/Canonical even bother anymore?
Ubuntu went from being a fairly healthy distro (based on Debian) to a terrible distro that requires too much effort.
I loved Ubuntu 6.06 through 8.11, but grew tired of how Ubuntu's support for my machine went from good to absolute crap. I switched to Kubuntu, which seemed to be better - for a while, then it too went to hell in a handbasket. I spent increasing amounts of time fixing things to make the system functional. It went from being a slight headache to being a full-blown migraine.
I turfed Canonical's crappy distro as of 11.11. Unity - screw it. Gnome? Screw it.
I may try a different distro some day, but Mark Shuttleworth's distro has left the worst taste in my mouth. I don't have time to fart around with a distro that needs to be fixed right out the starting gates anymore.
Shuttleworth - a force not to be taken seriously
I was a faithful Ubuntu user for years, since v6.06, I enjoyed Ubuntu's rising functionality with my laptop. Things were working well. After several versions, it was clear Ubuntu was heading in the wrong direction, as my experience grew worse and worse. I started using Kubuntu from about 10.04 through 11.11, to try and salvage what was left of my relationship with Canonical's distribution. Kubuntu had the right U.I. guts, but as I moved forward through the versions, it was highly evident that my experience went from good, to worse.
At this juncture, I cannot trust Linux, or Canonical to deliver a good user experience anymore. Shuttleworth's distro's have no redeeming value anymore. Free is still too expensive, considering my laptop went from working well with Ubuntu's distro, to not working.
Countless releases made networking a headache. The configuration interfaces were highly buggy. With every release, I spent more and more time trying to get things fixed, and less time getting any work done. Even accessing samba shares (Windows file sharing) was a headache, but a necessity for any modern OS, and one that I had to work real hard to get working (if it worked at all).
I need a computer that works, and a network manager that works, and it's thanks to distro's like Ubuntu and Kubuntu for driving me to Windows 7.
Unity, and Gnome 3 - absolute H.S.
Business mixed Ubuntu? Who cares. When I decide to give Linux another go, it'll be with a different distro, and probably with the KDE desktop or Xfce. It certainly won't be on my main machines. It'll be only for toying around to gain more experience with Linux.
Canonical's distros have left a sour taste in my mouth.
I gave up on Ubuntu for now. It's taking a turn for the worse, and is unable to innovate.
HUD sounds like a dud to me (not just because they rhyme).
I was driven to Ubuntu, and later Kubuntu, out of desire for a better platform. But all this Unity, HUD and Gnome 3 BS drove me to Windows 7... that, and the fact that release after release saw me having to fix problem after problem. Ubuntu v6 was good, but it got progressively problematic.
The only way I'd use a Blackberry - phone or tablet, is if they gave the sucker away.
In the current climate, it isn't worth any money to me. It would actually be a hinderance to me, since the friggin' screen is too small.
Offer all the free apps you want. In the end, I'd choose Apple over RIM. And I hate Apple (the company) with a passion.
It's hard to take Microsoft seriously anymore.
Security is not one of Microsoft's strong suits. It was their fault that people started dumping IE and switching to other browsers.
You couldn't pay me to switch back to IE. In fact, the only Microsoft software I run now is Windows 7 itself. There is no other software Microsoft produces that is worth running on any of my machines.
My security has improved vastly since switching to Firefox.
Garden Gnome
I've been fairly <strike>unimpressed</strike> disappointed by the Gnome project. I began with Gnome, and found it fairly nice, but over the years, it really started pissing me off as the updates rolled out.
A few years back, I switched to KDE, and haven't looked back. Now KDE hasn't had the best track record either, but it definitely hasn't pissed me off nearly as much as Gnome.
The most recent Gnome is not going to grace my desktop, and here's why...
While Ubuntu and Kubuntu went from networking in v6 through v8 to notworking in subsequent versions (each release seemed to get worse than before, with more problems that I needed to figure out how to fix), Microsoft was busy working on their trashiest OS yet - Windows Vista, and subsequently on their greatest OS yet - Windows 7.
I finally had to give up on Linux because I was spending more time fixing stuff just so I could surf the net. The music software available was also far too limiting (and non-functional), and the disaster which is Pulseaudio meant I couldn't even produce music without hearing pops, clicks, and noise.
Now I'm with Windows 7, and it works great. It doesn't crash on me. Networking just works. I don't get pops and clicks while composing music. I don't have to try and fix anything, because everything just works.
I still keep Linux around on a junked laptop so I can keep up with the technology, but I have barely used it in the last 6 months. Linux distros and developers need to wake up and smell the coffee. Their user experience was starting to get really good, then plummeted. Rather than take their competitor's shortcomings and build and capitalize on their weakness, companies like Canonical, and coders turned the distro's into epic failures, and allowed Windows 7 to shine. Just because it (Linux) is free, doesn't mean it's good. It was really good, and then it started sucking in a big way.
Productivity means getting work done. Linux held me back. But I'm back on track now.
Ubisoft and DRM = Ubisoft boycott
I've lost all interest in Ubisoft's games.
Dear Ubisoft,
I'm a legitimate user that pays for all the games I play. I hate, no, I detest DRM, because it breaks my games, and forces me to do stuff I don't want to do (like being tethered to the internet in order to play games).
Ubisoft - remember the "soft", because DRM is a software that can and will be circumvented. DRM is soft, in the sense that it can and always will be broken. There's no real point to DRM except to keep honest people honest, and to give hackers something to do (perhaps some day DRM creators will make it challenging for hackers).
Perhaps we should start calling them Ubisuck.
Not for me
Not interested in requiring a pass to get into an online game, whether I'm a first-order customer (just bought the game new), or a second-order customer (just bought a used game).
I know a lot of people who will simply NOT BUY THE F*CKING GAMES that require passes, because they can't afford to buy new games, they have no choice but to settle for used games.
Sony - it only does FAIL! (and fail, and fail, and more fail, and fail again, until it finds new ways to fail, then it will fail some more).
Who cares?
In the end, you're better off with Firefox and their disregard for enterprise than Microsoft Internet Explorer and their disregard for standards, ethics, and security.
Personally, I don't see the problem. If the website or application is correctly written with standards in mind, then there should be no problem. Why is it Firefox's problem? Microsoft and the web coders that chose to write for Internet Explorer are the real troublemakers.
Not possible
The concept is too similar to pre-existing products. Any patent office that awards Apple a patent for this didn't do their homework.
Apple didn't even do their homework.
I was looking at some devices the other week, that were strikingly similar.
What about Wacom's tablet/monitor combo graphics tablet device?
Simply joining a mouse to a touchscreen shouldn't be patentable, since it's not doing anything novel or new. And context-sensitivity displays aren't new. They've been around for a while.
Just say no
It's stuff like this which confuses the average non-techie user.
This is why it's safer just to say no, avoid links contained within email, and thus live a happier life.
Clicking on web links inside emails is about as beneficial has taking money out of an ATM after midnight - nothing good can come from it, unless you're trying to get wasted, or screwed.
WebM all the way!
Absolutely not interested in H.264.
If anyone owning patents to any technology found in WebM come a knocking, they'd better be prepared for Google's deep pockets.
And as a result of any litigation, WebM will become even stronger.
Apple, Microsoft and other holders of patents for H.264 technology are a bit scared, and this latest move is evidence.
Go WebM Go! Apple and Microsoft have got to go! (hey, that rhymes!)
Photon Consumers
Using more light and not saving energy? This is not news.
Astronomers have known this for years. People waste light and energy like they waste water, gas, and food.
People sound all proud and smug when they talk about consuming less by switching to energy-efficient systems, but anyone with half a brain can evaluate those claims, and poke holes in them.
It's important for people to be vigilant in energy savings. It's not just about switching to a new light source.
When my wife and I switched to CFL's all those years ago, we did our best to not increase the number of lights we own, except where it made sense (eg: where a single lamp could replace one or more brighter lamps located further away from the intended use).
We turn lights off when we leave a room. We use less lighting today than we did 10 years ago.
We hardly ever turn on our outdoor lighting - it's wasteful and hardly ever required, especially with all the bright street lights that you can read by! It also affects people's enjoyment of the night sky by blocking out the stars and deep-sky objects, a growing problem I'm not prepared to contribute to.
We have realized an energy saving due to our vigilance.
One thing I notice is people love to leave their outdoor lights on at night, whether they are home or not.
I notice that my neighbours leave their outdoor lights on during the daytime, where lighting is not needed - even when they are home.
I'm glad to see LED lighting invading all aspects of our lives. They have definitely improved my life, with LED blacklit TV's, powerful flashlights that sip power from batteries, toys, and more.
If we aren't careful, we are going to create more problems for ourselves because of it. The article is right, people will produce more lighting when cheaper and more energy efficient lighting comes available, and will become more wasteful. This mindset has to be changed.
So how to drive the point home about wasteful lighting?
Electricity will have to quadruple in price before people will smarten up, and even then, once a power pig, always a power pig.
Kudo's, Roger!
While I don't usually agree on everything Roger Ebert says, I totally agree with his comments on Hollywood rushing towards the 3D craze, and it not adding much to the experience.
The 3D Avatar was shot with - that's crap. I don't want alternating images broadcast to alternate eyes. I want two images broadcast to two eyes simultaneously.
The glasses in the theatre are garbage. They are made of cheap plastic, and the polarizing windows are distorted and make the images fuzzy.
Screw-ups like 2D to 3D conversions doesn't help bolster the craze - it helps destroy it.
I'm not surprised that 3D is taking a bit of a downturn in the theatre.
Let's face it - cinemas are expensive. They don't represent the best value for our dollar. You can't pause the damn thing to take a leak. You can't pause it to grab a snack. You can't pause it to do the wild thing. The bathrooms reek of yesterdays vomit (no, wait - that was the seat beside mine in the cinema). The other patrons are loud and obnoxious (and are going to get an ass-kickin' if they keep blowing the good parts). Then there's the air conditioning from hell in the summer (wear a jacket - trust me, it help), and the furnace in the winter (wear a g-string - trust me - the seats can't get any more smelly if you tried).
All in all, cinema, and especially 3D cinema is doomed to fail.
Now home cinema is a different story. Why would anyone pay $24-$30 (CDN) to watch a movie, add overpriced coke (or Pepsi for those cinemas that are under the delusion that Pepsi is prefered by more people over coke) and overpriced popcorn, when you can buy a movie on DVD or Blu-Ray and watch it at home for the same price? And watch it again and again when you feel like it.
After seeing some of the gorgeous LED LCD TV's in the stores (thank you Samsung!), why would I want to watch a stinkin' movie outside of my own home?
The mighty pedestal
Apple wants consumers to hold it in such high regard, to place it high up on a pedestal and preach the wisdom of the church of Apple.
This latest attempt by Apple to demand respect from freedom-loving tech consumers shows Steve's true light.
He is an immature boy, throwing a temper tantrum because he screwed up, and doesn't want to look bad, but in effect is making the situation 100x worse.
Rather than fixing the problems with the 4G iphone, being the mature guy by admitting the problems, and feeling apathy for his followers that were mislead into buying a product that was not ready for market by virtue of proper full-on testing, Steve is making an ass out of himself, and his whole company.
He won't be happy until he rains on everyone's parade - taking as many companies down with him.
Thankfully, consumers aren't as stupid and naive as Steve believes.
I don't know what happened to Apple, but I used to have respect for that company, and I only had very limited exposure to Apple's products. Now, Steve's ego has tarnished my view of Apple.
I already avoided Apple products because they weren't the type of products I wanted to waste my money on. Now I avoid Apple because of complete arrogance and mistrust, with all these other secondary reasons: lack of transparency, and the ever-impossible task of determining how secure an Apple product is.
Steve, I'm a 37 year old, and let me tell you - grow up, and grow a pair, dude. Don't be an ass.
Gulag!
Hey Zuckerberg,
Break the deal, face the wheel.
No way?
Actually, it was to be expected.
Apple hasn't really been security-focused. They've been driving up their install base by lying to their customers, and shirking their responsibility for providing security.
That is one of the many reasons why I cannot in good faith buy, service, or recommend Apple products. My reputation is more valuable than any profit earned by selling dishonest kit.
Maybe one day Apple will do security right. But right now, Microsoft is the clear winner for me - they've worked really hard over the last 9 years on their security, and that means a lot to me.
BTW: I hate Microsoft, and prefer Linux. I'm not a Microsoft fanboy.
Headband LCD display
Definitely a headband LCD display.
You slap one of these suckers on your mate, and you can watch x-files while doin' it missionary (or any face-to-face position).
Connect it to your PS3, and extend your bedroom fun to include streaming videos, games, and more, all from the comforts of your favorite positions.
Hehehe
Of course, Apple never does anything wrong, right?
Apple is really trying hard to discourage people from trusting them to develop products that they can feel 100% positive about.
This might explain why I've seen an increase in the number of received calls that mysteriously get dropped by people like, say, my employer, an iphone convert.
Of course, this is perfect for those phone companies that dropped per-second billing - every dropped call means the caller looses the balance of their minute, and has to waste another minute.
Holding the phone wrong... yeah. Tell us another one Apple. How about designing a better antenna, and placing it in a more appropriate place like, say, along the top-edge of the phone?
Sounds like a good idea in practice....
Unfortunately the action of re-writing URL's as HTTPS: can be problematic.
For example: Facebook Chat
If you access facebook via http:, facebook chat works. If you access it via https:, facebook chat does not work - you get a little triangular icon saying chat is disabled on this page.
While there are work-arounds, like running Trillian to access facebook chat, it is not the best solution, especially if you're not running Trillian.
What happens if a website tries to force you to an HTTP connection? Then it would get stuck in a cycle of redirections and URL-rewriting. While coders shouldn't be so stupid, it can happen.
I'd like to see all connections encrypted. Unfortunately this add-on doesn't help me.
Tweet tweet!
Tweet tweet tweet.
Is this for real? This is why newspapers are going the way of the dodo bird (tweet tweet).
Tweet this: NYT is for old fogies that aren't up to using the same lingo the rest of the world is using.
I'm glad the rest of us are willing to stick with the times and the lingo. You know how the old saying goes, "When in Rome".
Worse things than espionage
Espionage - hardly the crime it used to be. If you want to tarnish someone's rep internationally, and maybe even issue them a death sentence (to be carried out by lethal injection of a shank in the middle of the prison courtyard), child porn is the angle of attack. No one likes a person who preys on innocent younglings.
Dropping malicious files doesn't necessarily mean executable malware.
This is serious stuff. Safari cannot be trusted, and Apple cannot be trusted to deal with security matters behind closed doors - they are completely ineffective at solving them on their own.
EA can kiss my a$$
Yeah, you read that right.
I flat-our refuse to buy EA games that are crippled, contain restrictive DRM, etc.
If they want to do business with me, they need to kiss my ass, not the other way around.
Screw you EA!
What an idiot
Obviously this guy has no clue about how cameras work.
The miniscule lens on those idiotic camera-phones have no-where near the light gathering or resolution of a large, bulky DSLR camera.
Even if they were to magically get the optical resolution (not to be confused with Megapixels), clarity, and somehow invent light out of nothing, they would never be able to provide decent magnification.
Those toy CCD chips in the camera phones are so small vs. their megapixel resolution, it's amazing they work as well as they do - they are the noisiest little chips I've ever had to work with.
As an owner of a camera phone, a pocket digital camera, a larger digital camera, and a professional DSLR camera, I'll tell you - the image quality is night-and-day, as you go up the scale.
There's a reason why DSLR's are as good as they are. There are reasons why professionals also shoot with Hasselblad medium-format cameras with digital backs.
I always knew Nokia was loosing it's place in the world. I've pretty much given up on this pathetic shell of a company. To say camera phones will supplant DSLR's is utter lunacy.
Now I can officially add Nokia to the growing list of companies that have no respect for the technology, or our intelligence. I look forward to a Nokia-free future.
Like a child-proof cap that adults can't get open but kids can
Yeah....
So the iSIM is designed for neophytes in the 50-115 year bracket that have difficult times opening their pill bottles, with VCR's still flashing 00:00 and can't read the fine print on the pill bottles.
Meanwhile every kid I've ever known can probably find the virtual needle in the internet haystack, and are fairly knowledgeable in circumventing copy protections, jailbreaking iPhoneys and iMaxiPads, etc.
So how is this supposed to teach our kids about trust? If we're willing to violate their rights to associate and communicate with anyone they wish, then we've already lost the battle.
And I don't know about you, but I've had no problems obtaining second and third SIM cards - I never even had to ask. I'm sure kids are smart enough to rip off the stupid iSIM cover, or impersonate their mom and dad when calling the wireless company.
If you want to piss your kids off - don't give them a friggin' cellphone. If you're going to be a looser and the least popular parent on the planet, at least do it right.
Transitional? No way!
I absolutely refuse to support Microsoft's OOXML format. I've been quite successful at avoiding it - it appears no-one in my family or workplace want anything to do with it.
But I couldn't believe it when I read this article. I knew Microsoft wasn't adhering to their own approved standard, but I thought it was because Microsoft has a long history of inventing new ways of doing the same thing - transitional makes it sound like this is planned.
This will fragment the archives of documents users have composed and maintained under the illusion that their investment is well protected.
I stand behind my decision to convert to Openoffice. Openofice has received more updates in the last 2 years than Microsoft Office, and it supports the one standard that really matters to me - a non-Microsoft drafted standard.
Of all the idiotic moves Microsoft could have made, this one is really dumb. Microsoft deserves to fail.
Bwahahahahaa
I hope this was an April fools joke, because it's crazy.
For a system like this to work, your eyes would have to be able to focus down to 4cm or less. Last time I checked, most people's close focus peters out around 10cm or more. My own close focus is 15cm. 10cm isn't close enough to prevent the left eye from seeing the right half of the screen.
Now optics could possibly solve this, except for one thing.... any optic used would magnify the pixels, and the frame resolution per eye would be rather small - hardly enough to render movies like Avatar in any decent quality. The field of view would also be greatly reduced. Some people would experience eye fatigue from staring at the LCD that close.
3D Shutter glasses and the iphone would make more sense. Another idiotic Apple patent.
IE9 won't play nice with XP
This is why Microsoft is becoming irrelevant.
Evolution is generally a good thing, and I'm all for it. I love running newer, better software systems.
Unfortunately, this means a large swath of the internet population will be running out-of-date browsers (again). So many people are happy with XP, and have no roadmap to upgrade. With the reliability of computers, we could be seeing people forced to upgrade what - 5 to 10 years down the road. When all you do is watch Youtube videos, visit facebook, write a few letters, send email, and download government forms, upgrading your PC is usually not on your to-do list.
Thankfully I've upgraded most of the people I know to Firefox. That being said, even Firefox runs the risk of dropping support for XP, although I expect this won't happen for at least 5 years - considering XP is a rather large install base - it would be like dropping all support for gasoline cars when electric cars are produced and purchased by the masses.
I don't think Microsoft is making any friends with IE9 - I can't even figure out how Microsoft feels their product is relevant to people anymore. With Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera, there is healthy standards-compliant competition already (well, except for adopting a single video codec).
Users have pretty much given up on Internet Explorer. When was the last time I saw Internet Explorer? Hmmm, a long, LONG time ago. With the IE8 Frankenbrowser, I thought Microsoft would finally admit defeat, throw in the towel, and get back to innovating. Obviously Microsoft feels they still can do better than everyone else - how many versions will it take to gain back the trust that was lost from nearly a decade of ignorance?
Not surprised!
Yawn....
ICANN - another organization that has questionable benefits, and hardly any relevance in the world.
Perhaps learning IP addresses instead of domain names isn't so bad after all.
Prior art!
Let's see.....
When i used to run a multi-line BBS, I had news feeds, where people could post their own items, status, etc... and some of the online games were rewritten to take advantage of it.
What's old is new I guess? And facebook is just as moronic as Apple and Microsoft.
How is that a deal?
I wouldn't buy Microsoft Office if it was free.
After using and promoting OpenOffice for years, I can't imagine ever switching back to Microsoft Office.
What shall I ever do if I switch jobs and they force me to suffer with Microsoft Office? Hopefully they'll let me bring my own computer to use OpenOffice.
Mozilla add-on store
Hmmm.
Here's the thing... I wouldn't pay for an app or add-on if it meant anything less than 100% of the cost went to the developer(s) of the add-on, and it would have to be very reasonably priced ($5 or less). Of course if enough developers start charging, and the rates were too high, I would probably stop using most of the add-ons.
So long as the authors of AdBlock Plus are getting 100% of the funds, I could be convinced to buy it.
If Mozilla wants money from me, they can start releasing a browser that doesn't crash on me.
Google and Privacy
Well that comment by Eric Schmidt just cost Google a shit-load of trust.
Google has slowly been eroding users privacy and trust. Pretty soon, we'll have no privacy, unless it's Google Privacy - the type that assumes anyone who uses Google's service have nothing to hide, and everyone else must be knee-deep in illegal acts, scheming, evil plotting, and looking at pictures of naked mole rats.
It's official: Google is the new Microsoft. That makes me sick.
Backdoor action
Microsoft is stupid to even discuss this issue. Who would believe Microsoft if they answered "no" to the accusation of a backdoor?
Although I doubt there is a backdoor, I'm not closed off to the idea. As long as the source code is closed-source, I will never be 100% certain Microsoft doesn't have ways to gain illegal entry into our computers.
Sometimes I feel that bugs are Microsoft's way to ensure they can always get a foot-hold into your Windows PC.
Hotmail is redundant hotmail is redundant hotmail is redundant
Hotmail is redundant (oh wait, I said that already)
Logging in to read email through a web browser is annoying enough. Now Microsoft wants people to break with tradition, and reconfigure their browsers to accept 3rd party cookies.
The solution I'll be recommending to my friends, family and clients is to switch them to gmail, their own ISP's email, or some other free service.
Microsoft is becoming redundant in this world of choice.
Ubuntu 9.10 karmic Koala
I have to agree, Karmic isn't the release Linux users want.
I have encountered the following issues thus far:
- kernel error resulting from suspend/wake events
- clicks, pops and audio cut-out during log-in sound, and in few other areas, mp3 playback is flawless.
- loss of indicator-applet and indicator-applet-session. Had to clean install to get them back.
- cpu frequency applet asks for my password the first time I change CPU speed. There doesn't seem to be any way to grant permanent permission to access the keyring.
- notification system is brain-dead. Who the hell designed that? Can't close the notification, and the bubble turns transparent on mouse hover. WTF?
- empathy, evolution, etc... - give me a break - don't install crapware I don't want.
Am I glad to have installed 9.10? Yes.
How many times did I have to install it: (Ubuntu) Twice
Flavors tested: Ubuntu Desktop, Kubuntu Desktop
Filesystem used: EXT4
Install time: Reasonable (less than 30 minutes I think)
Is Karmic ready for prime-time? No
Is it still fun? Now that I have my bearings, yes.
vBulletin
Want to teach vBulletin a lesson?
Toss that software out on its a$$, and switch to phpBB3 - it's free, and a healthy competitor.
Opera Unite
How does that re-invent the web? It's certainly not ground-breaking.
So users can share using their web browser. I've been doing that with Firefox and add-ins.
Opera - re-inventing something, and making it ground-breaking means to do something that hasn't been done before, or improving something to eliminate a fundamental flaw.
Add a feature to file-share - maybe, but that's certainly not unique. Even then, everyone I know would rather keep their existing browser and use online services to share, or use P2P.
leave media player volume levels alone!
I really enjoy listening to music through my MP3 player.
But I don't use headphones, and the risk of hearing-loss only exists if I turn up the gain on my amplifiers and increase the volume on my controllers.
If the EU [and eventually other countries] are successful at imposing limiters on our music players, it will cause problems.
The most notable is the problem of providing inadequate volume levels to be able to hear the audio.
I need my MP3 player to be able to output at a high audio level (yes, at the expense of battery life). Anything less will not do.
Thankfully we have Rockbox - the open-source jukebox firmware for portable media players. I get the signal amplitude I need, without the BS of having to use the original firmware (which can sometimes cripple the amplitude).
Alabama judges take hard line on dildos
I guess the justice from Alabama was too intimidated by the larger size of rubber wangs.
Hey dude, this is the 21st Century. There's no room for your kind of old-timer backwards stupidity.
I guess Alabama folk will have to continue using cukes, carrots and bed posts, or opt for contraband commandos with flexible shafts and flashing lights that play "Raindrops keep falling on my head" while pulsating her to pleasure..
Glad I'm not American.
No Thank You!
If I can't use my universal remote control with the TV, then the TV will not be part of my consideration.
I do not want gesture-based remote controls.
Sony screwed up their PS3 by adopting a Bluetooth remote control and not having backwards compatibility with IR remote controls. I can see Phillips making the same mistake.
This could be problematic for people that don't have the use of hands and rely on being able to press buttons by other means - feet, mouth stick, etc. This would be a step backwards for that segment of the population.
Stupid
I could care less about a slim version of the PS3.
But looking at the photos in this article of the new slim PS3, I am pissed off.
Sony has yet to rectify their design problems. There are still no USB ports on the rear interface panel.
Sony just doesn't get it. There are devices (eg: PS3IR-Pro1000) that use the USB ports, and users looking for a clean look and layout don't want USB cables hanging out the front of their equipment.
Sony - pay attention to what we really need:
- 1080p upsampling
- rear USB ports
- built-in IR receiver
Failure to heed our needs is holding you back. My friends are holding off on buying a PS3 - dropping it $100 doesn't circumvent their requirements. Quit making the PS3 an OK system, and make it a damn great system.
Opera Unite
I'm glad Opera is there to provide competition, but I've tried Opera, and I hate it. It's not the browser for me, and if given the choice between Opera or nothing, I'll take nothing every time.
Web Upgrade
Firefox v3.5 is certainly a web upgrade in some respects.
One of the chief pains I have with the web is Flash and Silverlight. We have these competing standards that require plugins in order to be of any use to us. They have shown to be buggy, and proprietary.
Enter HTML 5 with it's video and audio tags, plus Firefox's web worker threads and tracemonkey JIT. This gives us native audio and video, and the ability to produce better rich applications and websites. These features are really important to the evolution of the open and free web, and shouldn't be left to closed-source plugins supported by pigopolists like Adobe and Microsoft. This is certainly what they were referring to when Mozilla called it a web upgrade.
Yeah, the new tab features are old news for most of the die-hard Firefox fans, and regular Opera fans, but that's not the selling point anyways, at least it wasn't for me.
Firefox v3.5 ups the ante for Internet Explorer - I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft admits defeat on the browser war - you can only fight so long with knives when the enemy (Mozilla) brings AK-47's. I've used Opera (even the latest every-browser-a-server version), but it just wasn't the application I was looking for. I refuse to use Safari so long as Apple continues to treat customers like cattle while narrowly thinking of themselves as the best and most secure. Chrome is way too new and thus has earned zero trust.
Yes, the average person will not notice much change between Firefox v3.0 and v3.5, but in time, they will become reliant on the changes that matter most. It's like a car - no matter what upgrades manufacturers make, they're still cars, and they still either work like a dream, or fail miserably - and not much changes from the driver's perspective. They are more efficient, spew out less pollution, and becoming safer and smarter. Innovation is sometimes unseen, but no less important.
Thank you for Firefox v3.5.
Opera
Yeah, this story reminds me of a bash-fest, and it feels like the author has a bone to pick with Opera.
But really, Opera has re-invented the wheel, and the wheel isn't the right size, shape, and lacks tread.
The browser is a browser, not a server. There's a reason why people don't want to run web servers.
File sharing is no longer revolutionary. Why Opera thinks we need more ways to share is beyond me.
Is Opera a good browser? Maybe, but I didn't like it. Does it deserve a bigger piece of the pie? Perhaps. But does it deserve a bigger piece of the pie based on mixing in a web server? No.
Patent something with prior art
Apple is stupid.
I've already seen this, and it's old. I hope the patent doesn't get approved - it should be invalidated by lots of prior art, and obviousness.
Linear volume controls aren't new - I already have that with Ubuntu 9.04, and a host of other Windows apps.
IE8 - standards compliant? March Fools. Oops!
Welp, Internet Explorer 8 doesn't render my very simple website correctly. Better than IE7? I don't think so. It seems to pass 6 tests and 1/2 dozen other tests, for a total of 11 tests. No wait, that can't be right.... Hmmm. Microsoft math :)
This is what I found.... IE7 can't render my simple website the same as any other bleeding-edge browser. IE8 corrects some of the things IE7 breaks, and throws in a few extra wrinkles, effectively negating any benefit.
I found IE8 rendered pages a tad faster, but not fast enough to warrant the additional security headaches Microsoft software is known for.
I run Firefox v3.1 Beta 3 (soon to be re-versioned Firefox v3.5):
- With Tracemonkey javascript engine enabled, javascript runs fast enough to be less objectionable.
- Web pages that matter to me layout correctly.
- Not that the ACID3 test is gospel, but Beta 3 hits 93/100, and the animation is smoother than v3.07, but still not there. It fails on one of the colored squares. Even if it hits 100/100, it needs more work.
- I'm yet to get any malware infestation. Touch wood.
Microsoft is "trying" to become standards compliant, but not "honestly trying". We're not really seeing the leaps and bounds promised, as usual. Is IE8 better than IE7? Perhaps. Faster? Yes! Safer? That's yet to be seen. The savior of the web? Far from it. Free? Not free enough. Easy add-on development? Nope! Can open sourcers audit the sourcecode?
Even if Microsoft got IE8 right, passed ACID3 100/100 and performed the animation smoothly, never let malware get a foothold, never required another security update, and came with a coupon for free Windows 7 Pentultimate, I wouldn't switch.
Attention Microsoft fanboys and fangirls - good luck! You'll need it.
Time to give my PC an IE Enema, clean out all the crud and toxins.
Logitech's Harmony Remotes - poorly made!
The Harmony 525 is a newer version of the 520, although I don't know what the difference is...
The 520 is a piece of crap. I've had to replace my remote several times because the hard plastic buttons "ACTIVITY", and the 4 activity select buttons just stopped working.
Considering I took really good care of the remote, always used good batteries, never dropping, impacting, scratching, spilling liquids, sitting on it or resting anything on it, or giving it to my 16 month old to use as a hammer, it should have lasted longer.
The very last 520 Logitech sent me lasted 6 months. I'm back to using separate remotes, because they work reliably.
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