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
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Probably worth saving before Geeky Peek disappears. Peek's been a cluster recently. I finally gave up on them. Tortured software, poor (and getting poorer) service, inability to stick to the message ("Email? Buggy. But hey, now there's TwitterPeek!"), updates via mail -- and then only a $19 cable, and then they finally broke everyone's old hardware, alienating the entire installed user base. Insane. People sell WiFi SDHC cards for less than the postage they've wasted.
Anyhow, after not quite two months of radio silence, Geeky Peek is back. Sounds like it's a systemic problem. House would probably guess auto-immune.
"Signs you may need new developers,executives, dev process, etcโฆ
1. You spend more time writing specs than developing
2. You lose months waiting for specs to *sign-off* before dev starts.
3. You have delivered nothing over x months where x > 1
4. You spend more time doing maintenance than new development, because you didnโt architect it right, keep it up to date on tech, etc in the first place
5. Sales/marketing/executives donโt talk to the dev teamโฆ ever.
6. You have more managers than developers (project managers, product managers, dev managers, support managers, etc)"
7. After having sat on their own for 6 months coding big new feature x, the developer โdelivers itโ only to hear โit sucksโ, because it does and nobody cared to look at it for 6 months.
8. โSign-offsโ occur on giant spec documents instead of on the working product.
I could go on. It is very unfortunate when a companyโs development looks and feels like the above, because it is soooo much easier to do better.
I've been meaning to watch the social network, and saw it teased on iTunes today. I clicked on the very off-chance that it was a cheap rental. No luck.
But what was strange was the grayed out HD choices. I hadn't seen that, nor its "The HD version of this movie is available on Mac or Windows 7 computers with HDCP components." I'm using Vista right now. No dice, I guess. Nor is my monitor HDCP.
I didn't think that always happened though, and somewhat randomly picked out the most under-appreciated Bond movie, The Living Daylights, to check. Sure enough, I'm good enough to rent that in HD. Luckily I already own it. On VHS, I think.
This was pretty reminiscent of a complaint against the MacBook from Free Software Foundation's "Defective by Design" campaign, whose banner I've got at the top of this page. The MacBook apparently won't let you play every movie through non-HDCP out.
Here's a quote, if you follow a link to ars technica in the FSF complaint.
When my friend John, a high school teacher, attempted to play Hellboy 2 on his classroom's projector with a new aluminum MacBook over lunch, he was denied by the error you see above. John's using a Mini DisplayPort-to-VGA adapter, plugged into a Sanyo projector that is part of his room's Promethean system. Strangely, only some iTunes Store movies appear to be HDCP-aware, as other purchased media like Stargate: Continuum and Heroes season 2 play through the projector just fine. Attempts to play Hellboy 2 or other HDCPed films through the projector via QuickTime also get denied. Other movies that don't work include newer films like Iron Man, Star Wars: Clone Wars, and Love Guru, but older films like Shawshank Redemption are restricted as well.
So I've included Hellboy 2's entry from the iTunes store in this entry's screenshot as well. Yet another option: Here I can only grab SD versions unless I have an iPad or Apple TV. "Also Available in HD on iPad and Apple TV." That's strange, huh? I'm not sure if it's the SD version in the ars technica story. I suppose iTunes might even restrict SD playback. But it, regardless, is a third choice in HD content.
1.) Can't buy without the right OS. 2.) Can buy, no questions asked. 3.) Can't buy without the right snazzy Apple hardware.
It's a strange new world of copyright. I like lending books. So much more intuitive. That said, I'm buying more and more from Kindle. Saves me gas, I can put the text on my iPod, and I've often got a free, if poorly read, audiobook to boot. Nothing better than listening to six hours of Foucault via computerized narrator.
Install the Google Toolbar and do a search of Bing, and Google actually directs your clickstream back for its own analysis. And really, that appears to be all Bing is doing, as it offers a similar option to record usersโ behaviors and upload it back to Bing to improve its results.
It's a strange, new, data-mine stealing world.
posted by ruffin
at 2/03/2011 09:53:00 PM
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