One feller's views on the state of everyday computer science & its application (and now, OTHER STUFF) who isn't rich enough to shell out for www.myfreakinfirst-andlast-name.com
Using 89% of the same design the blog had in 2001.
FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!!!
Back-up your data and, when you bike,
always wear white.
I'm sorry, a life that's made up of sipping woefully overpriced, corporate coffee cut only with buying whatever songs they're pushing onto you in the painfully contemporary drinking room, reiterated ad infinitum, is somehow seductive? Please, oh PUH-LEASE let me buy an iPhone or iPod Touch so I can hop on that action. I'm not against people trying to make a buck, bless their hearts, but when the marketing is as original as, "Buy. Buy more. You'll love it," I'm not impressed.
And yes, this from a guy who just blogged he really enjoys his Nike+iPod setup. This Wifi iTunes store crud is sorry. iTunes jumped the shark with the Mini Store that was turned on by default, but apparently nobody's yet noticed.
posted by ruffin
at 9/20/2007 11:03:00 PM
Notes Not only is there no way to add a calendar event, there's no clear way to jot down random information of any kind. The iPhone's Notes application is missing, which combined with the lack of a Mail application means that the only way to jot down a few words for later use would be through the web.
And that's bad somehow? Gotta say, this iPod Touch sounds a lot like what I wished my Libretto 50CT or Nintendo DS with Opera would have been. Combine a mature Safari with Google's online Office replacement and you're onto something pretty nifty. Now if they'd just hook up a bluetooth mini-keyboard...
(Okay, if it had a keyboard and the Nike+iPod hookup the nano sports. Keep meaning to blog about the Nike+ setup, which I recently started using. It really is an incredible boon even for hobbyist runners like me. At $30 (assuming you have a nano and replace your shoes as often as you should), you should pretend that you can't afford not to get it.)
posted by ruffin
at 9/20/2007 10:51:00 PM
The worst part about using my new Vista machine is the way the UI really isn't as intuitive for daily use as my iBook. I'm pretty confident I'm keeping the Vostro, but I'm really going to miss OS X. Many of the applications I use are essentially the same wherever I use 'em -- Firefox, iTunes, Safari -- some even benefiting, at least performance-wise, from the move, like Eclipse, Netbeans, and SQuirreL-SQL, but the others where I'm using alternatives -- Thunderbird for Apple Mail, Pidgen for iChat, whatever this is in Windows in place of Aqua & friends -- are huge steps down.
I've also had trouble with the Windows Live Mail beta, and have been logging into Hotmail with Firefox instead of using Entourage. Note to Microsoft: If I check a message in the Junk folder as "Not Junk", that doesn't necessarily mean I've read it. If I've read it in the junk folder, that means I've read it. If I've just checked the sender and subject, I haven't. It's really quite simple.
posted by ruffin
at 9/20/2007 05:05:00 PM
> I have been programming professionally on Windows for more than 10 years. > Widespread use of the Win32 API, or any other proprietary API is generally > not required. They can be abstracted away. The exception has been GUI > systems, but now we have portable, rich alternatives like Qt or wxWidgets.
Dan Appleman (and his readers) might beg to differ. ;^)
> Using Wine or Mono is not being portable. It is emulating Windows under > Linux. It will never be acceptable for anything but relatively small and > trivial applications, and mostly it will not work at all. And for the small > and trivial applications that do work, there are typically better native > alternatives anyway.
That sounds like it's selling Mono a bit short, and is in one case inaccurate. Mono emulates nothing. It's an implementation of the C# standard [sic].
Though projects like Mono -- Kaffe comes to mind -- that try to implement a standard separate from the group that created it often don't do as well as the "official" version, Mono is doing right well. Check out this list of companies that are using it.
http://www.mono-project.com/Companies_Using_Mono
It's a long list, and Includes Novell and MindTouch, which I recognize. #develop, a pretty good .NET IDE, runs in Mono as well, iirc. (Quick plug: #develop [on .NET, at least] is a neat way to start playing with .NET if you don't feel like shelling out cash to MS [or anyone else, for all that matters[.)
Would I suggest Mono as a target platform for what I consider "stereotypical" [1] shareware? Probably not. As another poster remarked, selling to businesses/corps makes the installation issue (.NET, Mono, or Java runtimes, eg) much less of an issue, making Novell's use of Mono make more sense than, say, mine. If you really want to go xplat, Java still seems the winner to me, all other things equal.
([1] By stereotypical, I mean that I don't typically think of shareware targeting a corp, but that could very well be a failing on my end. As a for-instance, I've worked in more than one corp that never bothered to license WinZip, and when I've done remote installs/tech support, not once has the client's machine had WinZip registered when it was in use. If you want to target a corp, charge *at least* $1500 and have a sales department, even if it's you calling potential customers between days of hacking.)
> What I am saying is that the days of the MS monopoly are largely numbered. > We can choose to face it now or face it when it is too late to get ahead of > the competition.
I'd tend to agree the hold is lessening; you're quite on the money there. Still, what's the clear alternative? VB.NET is still a very nice route for VB6 folk, eg, and when Vista finally does get even 50% of the market, I'm switching. C# is a very natural ecosystem for Java programmers who want to know the "runtime" is on their customers' [Vista] machines, and it's easy to wear both of those hats as needed. etc etc
Why do I love Digital Rights Management? It's not so much that Apple's move to finally require lockout chips in iPod paraphernalia is something I dis/respect, but that the timing of such moves endlessly fascinates me. Why ad the lockout chip now? How much more money does Apple expect this to bag? How much more revenue will it produce?
On a totally unrelated note, using my old (licensed) copy of Office 2000 now that I bought a barebones Vista box has allowed me to re-experience the joy that is Clippy. Wow.
posted by ruffin
at 9/11/2007 06:45:00 PM
Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store.
$100 of credit at Apple is supposed to make recent iPhone buyers feel good about a $200 price drop? I mean, heck folk, at least give $100 credit at a store with stuff these guys can honestly use, like BP. This is a painful price drop for early adopters. I believe that makes me the three millionth blogger to come to this conclusion. Do I get a prize?
That said, add a mike to the iPod touch & an Apple-ized Skype and you've really got something. If Apple makes the touch into a WiFi phone, cell companies are in for it. The iPod touch's release is a real shot over the bow, not that there's anything, I'd wager, the cell phone folk on the boat can do to stop their getting boarded anyhow.
And that new nano is pretty danged cool. Impressed and envious there. It also apparently still works with Nike+ shoes (check the compatibility icons & info). Wonder if anyone would buy my old nano for more than $15...
posted by ruffin
at 9/08/2007 01:40:00 AM
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