Posts by Semihere 82 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Oct 2008
BatChmod is a great little app to sort out all those permissions that OS X has a habit of completely borking, especially on external drives shared over a network.
Come to think of it - XBMC is a great FrontRow replacement. VLC isn't actually a media centre app anyway, it's a media player - but it does plug into XBMC along with a whole world of other free third-party add-ons.
Thumbs down all you like, but you could still get molested by 'the man'. In fact, as is pointed out in that link above:
"Anyone in the UK watching or recording television as it's being broadcast or simulcast on any device - including mobiles, laptops and PCs - must, by law, be covered by a valid TV licence.
A 'live' TV programme is a programme, which is watched or recorded at the same time (or virtually the same time) as it is being broadcast or otherwise distributed to members of the public. As a general rule, if a person is watching a programme on a computer or other device at the same time as it is being shown on TV then the programme is 'live'. This is sometimes known as simulcasting.
It is a criminal offence to watch 'live' television without a TV licence or to possess or control a device which you know or reasonably believe will be used to watch 'live' TV without a TV licence. You could be prosecuted and fined up to £1000 (plus be ordered to pay legal costs) for these offences."
Which means that by owning a computer with access to the internet it's 'reasonable' for the licensing officers to assume that it will be used to watch a simulcast such as BBCNews24 or individual programmes like Question Time. It may not seem fair, but I know a few people who have absolutely no TV equipment (or computer equipment... yes, they do exist!) and never have who find themselves constantly harassed by TV licensing because there is no record of a license for their address. It's generally assumed that you WILL watch some live TV in one form or another.
Good luck arguing THAT point to the inspectors if they come knocking. It doesn't have to be a live stream, it just needs to have the capability to watch BBC channels, which the BBC website provides this too (News24) so owning a computer with an internet connection now requires you to have a TV licence.
Exactly - we used to be given this as kids to treat diarohea. I remember it used to settle off into the two constituent parts in the bottle and you had to shake it up to mix before taking. Tasted like chalk.
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/digestive-health/medicines/kaolin-and-morphine-mixture.html
And if the hard drive is dead and needs replacing? What then? You bought a PC and paid for the pre-installed OS, so the least they can do is give you a copy of the installer CDs in case you need to perform a complete reinstall. 'Recovery' discs which rely on an existing install are just no good when you're facing hardware failure.
Precisely. The media cartel want to apply the principles of 'property' onto digital files which allows them to accuse people of 'stealing', yet it doesn't want you to have full property rights and thus introduces licenses to use, which practically turns that property into merely a 'service'. So how exactly do you steal a service? You can be an unlicensed USER of a service, but you can't STEAL it.
They can't have it both ways.
Yes, you were running Ventura Publisher (I was too) on DOS when the Mac WAS the best thing you could buy. I remember distinctly the difficulty getting Publisher to output correctly to the, by then, pretty standard Linotronic and Agfa Imagesetters. The problem was usually the fonts...
...such fonts just didn't exist unless you were using early Bitstream (dubbed 'Shitstream' at the time) fonts which had incredibly bad kerning tables, or Monotype (who for some strange reason used Postscript Type 3 for some of their families) fonts. The early Adobe font collections were flawless and still are to this day (I'm still using a Type 1 version of Helvetica Neue dating back to 1988!).
Generally though, the truth is that type control in Ventura Publisher was severely limited compared to what you could achieve in PageMaker. I know, I'm a "touchy feely can't think for shit graphic artist" who used both platforms from the very beginning and the Mac was simply better back then which is why it got it's legs so early on and has been so closely copied since.
Apple's encouragement of iOS specific apps to deliver content was in danger of splintering the web - turning it from an 'open' platform to a closed and walled world of little mini 'webs'.
This move from the FT is a positive thing - moving back to device independence and the freely available web for all.
Top show!
"If I remember correctly from the original article, Safari will auto-open any file it recognises as being "safe", which is part of the problem. Wouldn't you call that a massive fail from Apple?"
The article's wrong though. Apple 'fixed' this issue several version of Safari ago. It no longer ships with the option checked by default, you'd have to deliberately turn that option on yourself.
Fail averted?
(although you're still right about the distortion field LOL)
@DZ-Jay
Actually, if you turn on the correct settings in the Finder Preferences and View Options you can easily simulate the old 'Classic' Finder. It took me one or two iterations of OS X before I finally got my old way of navigating out of my system.
> Turn on the option to open all folders in new windows
> Set icon view as the default view
That way it should behave very similarly to the classic Finder. Not 'perfect', I know, but it works.
If you zoom into the iPhone photos and have a cursory glance you can see repeating artefacts - dust speckles and highlights on the cellophane wrapper (specifically towards the 'button' end of the screen aperture). Clear evidence of Photoshop's 'rubber stamp' cloning tool.
It might actually be evidence that something has been taken out. Perhaps a label identifying the 'leaker', but nevertheless it's definitely been 'shopped so should be taken with a pinch of salt.
You also need to factor in the 'droid equation. By the time these (currently vapourware) Windows-based tablets appear in 2 years time, anyone hankering for instant fondle-goodness will have had a large selection of devices running Android available for a year or more, so the idea that a Windows version could win purely on price isn't necessarily as cut and dry as you think. Neither, come to think of it, is the idea that people would go with a WinTablet because they're familiar with it - by then there's a good chance they'll be very familiar with Android, particularly because their choice of mobile phone may already be running it alongside their tablet.
(Sorry, but can't ignore the 'price difference' FUD! Haha! MS don't build PCs so you can't compare the price of Apple's hardware to Microsoft's unless you're talking mice and keyboards. Also, if I run Windows on a Mac the hardware cost is identical. ;p )
"Nipping some irresponsible youths in the bud who think their armchair outrage is more important than other people running lawful businesses seems like a good use of resources to me."
Lawful businesses? You're calling ACS:Law a lawful business? I certainly LOL'd. That, my dear friend, has yet to be proven in the ongoing court cases and investigations into their operations. Except, of course, for the illegal breaches of the Data Protection Act which they are already demonstrably guilty of.
"Apple has been using torx screws for many, many years, making early Macs tricky for anyone but an authorised repair engineer to open."
...let's not forget those *really* difficult to open Macs, the Blue and White G3 towers, which went on to spawn the whole G4 tower designs ('graphite', 'quicksilver', 'speedhole'). So hard to open that you had to fully lift the latch and lower the side door to lie flat offering complete access to the motherboard and all peripherals - the whole point being that it made upgrading so much easier!!!
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PowerMac_G4_MDD_open.jpg
Come on Reg - history goes back further than 6 months, even in the tech industry.
The problem with the Ribbon is that it takes up far too much screen real estate, so it doesn't efficiently replace the old myriad toolbars you used to see many users cluttering their workspace with.
Sure, it's quick to access things (in theory), but nowhere near as quick as a keyboard shortcut. So a better interface would probably be a traditional menu style (for more 'advanced' users - ie: those who actually learn and use their keyboard shortcuts) to maximise screen space, with the option (perhaps as the 'default setting' for those not adventurous enough to go into prefs and turn it off!) of the ribbon to give that 'one-click' style button functionality back to users of the old interface.
In actuality the ribbon is a great +idea+ for a UI, but would be greatly improved by redesigning it more akin to the mega-dropdown menu systems seen extensively on large websites nowadays. Sadly, in reality, it's a cluttered mess of information with the look of something to which no thought has been given to spacing or layout resulting in visual overload. Take a look at the way buttons are laid out in OS X Mail (not from a fanboi perspective, just as a case in point for UI design) and compare it to an Outlook Ribbon style interface -
http://macrory.com/blog/uploads/OSXLeopardMail.png
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim//2010/04/14/Xobni_Outlook2010.png
see how much quicker it is to perform the most important basic tasks when you can find what you use most in a split second rather than trying to scan back n forth across that craziness until your stumbles upon the option you're looking for?
Additional functionality beyond those main buttons remains under a well arranged menu system and keyboard shortcuts are mnemonic to aid speed of memorising.
For many users (who don't bother to learn shortcuts) an interface somewhere between the two would be the ideal solution. Main functions as easily accessible buttons with further functions under a well arranged and presented 'mega-drop down' style menu (see link for a handful of examples of good UI design for this...)
http://www.smileycat.com/design_elements/mega_dropdown_menus/
With most of these designs the most important element is the spacing. Space! Space! Space! The ribbon as it stands has none of it and that makes it harder to use for a lot of people than a nice clean evenly-arranged interface like a menu. More attention to this kind of detail makes all the difference. After all, design is more about what you leave out (and the space between the elements)!
...was only ever wanted by fat cat bosses and those who hated the real working people.
The 'undemocratic' industrial actions you speak of were voted on by the Union members who represented the majority of the workers in their respective fields. That's how the Unions work. No vote to support action, no industrial action. It's a damned sight more democratic than a General Election with the 'first past the post' system any day.
So instead of it costing $$$s to redact these documents, Wikileaks are using volunteers. So where exactly is the money you talk of? He gave the US Govt the opportunity to review the documents prior to release, but they refused because it would cost THEM money. Wikileaks are at least trying their utmost to do the job FOR them for free.
"I can't speak to the Americans, but i know several Canadians who, upon completion of their tour, volunteered to return with the next group because they felt the job wasn't done."
But can you quantify - in very precise terms - just what 'the job' actually is? I believe the original stated aim for the illegal invasion and ongoing occupation was to capture Osama Bin Laden. Or have you forgotten that part of the grand lie?
So just what are they actually doing now to 'get the job done' considering that THAT is the true 'job'?
(Big Brother for the obvious newspeak links of terms like 'get the job done')
"Unsurprising to see the socialist governments PR machine blow out some more waffle to support their quangos twisted thinking."
Everything else you said was factually correct, but your sign off was wrong on two counts.
1. Quangos - invention of the Thatcher government to shift oversight away from the democratic process into the private sector (essentially removing accountability to the electorate).
2. Current government is 'NewLabour', a right wing (anti-socialist) party who have continued the Thatcherite policies of the former Tory governments and in the new doublespeak of political spin, 'NewLabour' actually means 'NewTory'.
I tried to get in while it was a 'free streaming service' and everyone was banging on about how good it was, but the doors were closed and you already needed an invite, so it seems the 'party' didn't last that long once word got out.
Am I seriously expected to pay for a service when I can't even LOOK AT to demo? You'd think they'd at least let you have a time-limited trial (maybe a day or a couple of hours - that'd be enough to assess it) to get a feel for their catalogue before you commit to paying them. After all, they may not even have half of the music you normally buy, especially not from the indie labels.
Seems to me the majors all shoved a paltry sum of money into Spotify so they could point at it and say "see, we made a legal alternative, but they're STILL downloading - now give us some new laws to go after our customers".
Unfortunately, Spotify has become the internet equivalent of having to pay for a membership to a music shop before they'll let you go in and browse through their music, which is stupid. If I go to a music shop I can listen to as much music as I want for free without having to buy anything, and if I like certain tracks enough I'll make a purchase to take them home with me - I thought that's how Spotify was supposed to work (only with the 'take them home' option being a high quality download version). This a crazy business model which actually PUSHES PEOPLE to casually download - it's much less hassle and isn't going to cost you an annual subscription to get that one track. At least iTunes has a 'one click buying' option to take the annoyance out of checkouts when buying casually.
Personally I'm with the 'stop buying this shit unless you're paying the artist direct' crowd and I'm no longer interested in what the labels are offering. Wise artists won't want to sign up to them if our numbers increase (and I see more and more people thinking this way all the time), or risk being ostracised from their paying customers.
I bought and paid for my entire music collection, but they can screw themselves if they think they're getting a penny more. I've had it with buying music from labels, they treat you like a criminal when you DO buy stuff - and they must've had about 30 grand off me in my lifetime. So from now on if the artist's selling it direct I'll buy it from them, if they're not then I won't buy it. I can live without it, I probably have enough music already anyway.
"I'd rather have quality content I paid for than have advertising in my face all day"
You seem to forget that this is a Murdoch enterprise, therefore you'll have to pay a subscription AND get advertising in your face all day long.
Have a subscription/cover price meant that there are no ads in print versions of newspapers? Nope - newspapers only exist because of advertising.
Has a subscription-based system meant there's no advertising on Murdoch's satellite TV offerings? Nope, once again I think you'll find that it's the advertising that's really paying for it.
In fact, the satellite channels are about one third advertising to two thirds programming - much more than commercial terrestrial TV (ITV/Channel 4) ever had in their heyday. A good measure for this is a show like The Simpsons. On Sky 1 they managed to fit two episodes of the Simpons into a one-hour slot. In the same one-hour slot BBC 2 managed to fit THREE episodes.
Just goes to show what kind of a vile system Murdoch operates. With the BBC you pay your license fee, and because you paid you don't get advertised at (apart from on the 'Dave' and 'UKTV' channels which are owned/operated by the BBC), but with Sky you pay your exorbitant monthly fee for less content and STILL get advertised at - if not more than ever...
...so you're welcome to your pay-site for news, replete with twice as many adverts jumping up in front of the content you paid to read!
The Linux flavour of the original Asus Eee completely outsold the Windows version locally here - perhaps because it was about 50 quid cheaper and nobody could see why. Most average users assume that Windows is free, so when they're made to pay and given a choice not to have to yet maintain the same level of functionality, it's not surprising the majority choose the free OS route.
It's predecessor (Mini 10V) made a fantastic Hackintosh almost straight out of the box with very little work, so it'd be nice to see how easily OS X can be got up and running on this new model. It would be even nicer if this came in a Linux flavour to try this out - no point paying the MS tax when you've already bought your own OS.
Performance figures across the board place it in a decent position amongst the competition and seems consistent so it should make a good all-rounder.
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