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Article on Reddit God…. Related posts: The Creative Industries Innovation Fund Computer Programming for Everybody Neil Young of ng:moco Game changing research networks for the Video game industry Arts and Humanities Research Council
God….
I was on stage at WWDC presenting some new feature of the iPhone 2.0 and things were going really well. The Steve seemed pleased anyway and didn’t throw a camera at me. In the audience were a lot of my friends and also 5000-odd people I didn’t know. And then someone asked me a question … Continue reading “I had a dream last night…”
I was on stage at WWDC presenting some new feature of the iPhone 2.0 and things were going really well. The Steve seemed pleased anyway and didn’t throw a camera at me. In the audience were a lot of my friends and also 5000-odd people I didn’t know.
And then someone asked me a question about some code and it all went downhill from there. I think I did okay but my alarm went off and I was back to being a wage-slave at $BIG_COMPANY.
I think that’s the equivalent of the dream of being nekkid during a presentation. Some maintain that dreams are a sort of VR-simulation where we try out situations in the hope that we will better cope with them in real life. I’m unsure about that but if they’re right I’ll be excellently equipped to deal with WWDC presentations and shambling zombie attacks.
Of the two, I think the zombies are more likely!
Img credited to JustinJas Ars Technica writes in NBC-Vista copy-protection snafu reminds us why DRM stinks Handfuls of Windows Vista Media Center users found themselves blocked from making recordings of their favorite TV shows this week when a broadcast flag triggered the software’s built-in copy protection measures. The flag affected users trying to record prime-time … Continue reading “DRM bad”
Ars Technica writes in NBC-Vista copy-protection snafu reminds us why DRM stinks
Handfuls of Windows Vista Media Center users found themselves blocked from making recordings of their favorite TV shows this week when a broadcast flag triggered the software’s built-in copy protection measures. The flag affected users trying to record prime-time NBC shows on Monday evening, using both over-the-air broadcasts and cable. Although the problem is being “looked into” by both NBC and Microsoft, the incident serves as another reminder that DRM gives content providers full control, even if by accident.
It’s not just TV shows. There’s discussion about the number of technical manuals that don’t appear as PDF. Publishers have to remember that someone is going to pirate their content, no matter what they do with it, so it’s not worthwhile punishing those of us who pay for content.
I don’t want to have to carry around this big thick “Beginning Mac OS X Programming” book but there are two reasons I do. One, because I have no choice due to the lack of PDF content (and there’s always the hope that knowledge will transfer via osmosis) and Two, because I need as much screen space as possible and keeping a doc open eats up a lot of screen space.
As a producer as well as a consumer, I’m not opposed to DRM. But DRM should be about keeping your stuff private and not punishing the paying customer. After you pay, restrictions should be decreased!
Microsoft is turning the store off. Your files will be locked to the machines you have registered. That’s what you get for trusting Redmond. From The Times Imagine if you had a bedroom full of CDs and decided to buy a new player one day, only to discover that none of your albums would play … Continue reading “MSN Music no longer “PlaysForSure””
Microsoft is turning the store off. Your files will be locked to the machines you have registered.
That’s what you get for trusting Redmond.
From The Times
Imagine if you had a bedroom full of CDs and decided to buy a new player one day, only to discover that none of your albums would play on the new system. That is more or less what has happened to people in America who bought music downloads from Microsoft. Last month the company announced that from August 31 this year songs bought from MSN Music, its online music shop, would no longer be transferable to machines other than the ones the files were registered to.
This means that, come September, if you want to transfer songs from your main PC to a laptop or a new computer you haven’t registered, you won’t be able to. If your computer dies, your painstakingly assembled music collection dies with it.
Who’s sorry now?
Or I would have loved it when I was younger! From IceCreamIreland we’re looking for a production assistant for the summer, with the possibility of the position becoming permanent. …Baking or other food background helpful, and love of ice cream a must! Ah, to be young! Related posts: Coming Out Holidays in England Future of … Continue reading “I would love this job…”
Or I would have loved it when I was younger!
we’re looking for a production assistant for the summer, with the possibility of the position becoming permanent.
…Baking or other food background helpful, and love of ice cream a must!
Ah, to be young!
Microsoft has always treated the Mac as a second class citizen and the bugs in Office 2008 are just added icing on the cake. Back when I started using the Mac, there was Word. It wasn’t known as Microsoft Word to me, it was just Word, it was the word processor on the Mac. It … Continue reading “Keeping ‘Pro’ tools off the Mac”
Microsoft has always treated the Mac as a second class citizen and the bugs in Office 2008 are just added icing on the cake.
Back when I started using the Mac, there was Word. It wasn’t known as Microsoft Word to me, it was just Word, it was the word processor on the Mac. It was a slim and elegant piece of software and I wrote my degree thesis on it. We had Excel 4 as well but I had no real use for it and a copy of Project was kicking about as well.
Not long afterwards they release Microsoft Office for Macintosh which included Word 6, Excel 5 and Powerpoint 4 as well as a little tool which put a Microsoft app menu in your top menu bar. And it had to be the worst piece of software that I have ever had the misfortune to use. It caused crashes, it permitted the spreading of Word macro viruses (though the Mac itself was unaffected). And they didn’t update Project which, in their words, was okay because they didn’t see a market for it.
Fast forward a few years and we’ve enjoyed a relative peace regarding Microsoft. They’ve cleaned up for act with Office 98, Office 2001, Office X, Office 2004 and though they never updated Project, we’ve not really cared due to there being decent alternatives. But this omission prevented the use of a Mac in many businesses that needed compatibility with Project. For a good while a lot of people could see that Office for Mac was actually better than Office for Windows in terms of features.
So, earlier this year they release Office 2008 which is the first Intel version and we start to see the feature parity between Office for Windows and Office for the Mac increase again. They got rid of VBA on the Mac version which has killed macros programmed in VBA which again, is perhaps not a big deal but hurt the Mac in institutions which used VBA heavily – again these were large businesses for the most part. The list of Excel 2007 for Windows features that are missing on Excel 2008 for Mac is extensive. This cements Windows into big business.
But Microsoft, after being beaten relentlessly by Google, Nintendo and Apple on the internet, in digital music and players, in smartphones, in desktop operating software and in gaming consoles. Apple is seeing a huge surge in sales quarter over quarter which means Microsoft is losing market share (using the logic that in a monopoly situation like the desktop OS market, the monopolist can only lose market share – and people buying Macs are less likely to be buying their first computer these days). So, like a good monopolist, Microsoft decides to NOT release a brand new web application development toolkit for the Mac, hoping that it will force web designers to stay with Windows. Their solution for web developers? Stay with Windows or if you MUST use a Mac, run their web development tools in a Virtual Machine.
One of the problems with working in ‘IT support’ is that the phone can ring at any time. Sure – we sign up for this when we take the job and there’s no point in complaining that a Sunday morning breakfast in a little diner cafe turns into a 10 minute dash home, 10 minutes … Continue reading “fscked”
One of the problems with working in ‘IT support’ is that the phone can ring at any time.
Sure – we sign up for this when we take the job and there’s no point in complaining that a Sunday morning breakfast in a little diner cafe turns into a 10 minute dash home, 10 minutes frustration with VNC and Contivity and a 30 minute drive into the office just so I can start a 6 hour long marathon getting things up and running.
I don’t mind doing support during the night, at weekends, whenever. It’s what I signed up for when I got into support in the first place. These days I’m on call around one week in three, previous to this job it was 24×7, 364 days a year.
I do mind, however, when the things I’m being asked to support are not within my control. Why do people reboot UNIX servers on a weekly basis? Why do sysadmins still rely heavily on cron for starting services (especially when there are FLOSS alternatives like launchd? Why did this process not start up the way it’s meant to – who changed the documentation? What’s the point in setting up two redundant servers when you need both of them up and running or your environment is fscked?
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
Campaigners on the Greek island of Lesbos are to go to court in an attempt to stop a gay rights organisation from using the term “lesbian”. The term lesbian originated from a mythological goddess and poet called Sappho, who was a native of Lesbos. Sappho expressed her love of other women in poetry written during … Continue reading “Lesbian islanders fight”
Campaigners on the Greek island of Lesbos are to go to court in an attempt to stop a gay rights organisation from using the term “lesbian”.
The term lesbian originated from a mythological goddess and poet called Sappho, who was a native of Lesbos.
Sappho expressed her love of other women in poetry written during the 7th Century BC.
But according to Mr Lambrou, new historical research has discovered that Sappho had a family, and committed suicide for the love of a man. BBC link
I’m somewhat speechless.
Reddit dredged up this gem which makes me wonder how close (or how far) business should be to politics. Certainly makes their feelings clear. That will remain for a long time. If they use a colour-preserving detergent. Related posts: H is for ipocrisy The Broadband Blueprint (re DETI Telecoms Consultation) Thorny Issues in Politics What … Continue reading “Politics in Business”
Reddit dredged up this gem which makes me wonder how close (or how far) business should be to politics.
Certainly makes their feelings clear. That will remain for a long time. If they use a colour-preserving detergent.
The blog “Cocoa Is My Girlfriend” includes a shout-out to Jordan Languille who did the graphics for Rickshaw and web imagery for Infurious recently. “You can see Jordan’s portfolio at his site. I’m quite pleased with the results and highly recommend his work. This is not a paid endorsement. I just like to see good … Continue reading “Jordan on C.I.M.G.”
The blog “Cocoa Is My Girlfriend” includes a shout-out to Jordan Languille who did the graphics for Rickshaw and web imagery for Infurious recently.
“You can see Jordan’s portfolio at his site. I’m quite pleased with the results and highly recommend his work. This is not a paid endorsement. I just like to see good work rewarded, so send him your business. You won’t be disappointed.”
Jordan can be found on teh Internets at OneToadDesign.