• latest news
  • Car tech
  • Cell phones and smartphones
  • Computers and hardware
  • Digital photo and video
  • Gadgets
  • Gaming
  • Green tech
  • Home theater
  • MP3 and portable video players
  • Televisions
• awards
  • Best of CES
  • People's voice
• video
• photos

About me

My posting summary

1 to 10 of 29

My comments

• I think there is actually a larger issue here. That is that it is difficult for Mac developers to support themselves. There are few Mac developments in business so most Mac developers have to do Windows for work and then it's too hard to do something different with spare time. Apple needs to get into enterprise more and at least they have the systems, but need to get past the ignorant IT people who just keep spouting rubbish as in recent comments to this article:
  
  http://www.smh.com.au/technology/enterprise/why-windows-7s-biggest-competitor-is-xp-20091214-krt1.html
  
  many of which I have corrected.
  
  Macs are making it into development in enterprise since it is easier and more pleasant to do Ruby on Rails, Python/Django development on Macs. You can bet the windows types are trying to kill this with a no-mac company policy, etc.
  
  Anyway, my main point is it is difficult for Mac developers to support themselves before being able to contribute to open-source projects. In reply to: "Mac development of VLC nearly dead"

  December 17, 2009

  0 replies

• Well, we did all those activities at the party and it bombed... until someone brought out a poster of Baldmer and we started throwing darts at his head. Party really picked up then. In reply to: "New Windows 7 launch video breaks bizarre barrier"

  September 24, 2009

  0 replies

• "Will there be tupperware offered at the party to keep Windows 7 extra fresh?"
  
  No, but plenty of vapourware! In reply to: "New Windows 7 launch video breaks bizarre barrier"

  September 24, 2009

  0 replies

• Well, there were more sensible comments about my post on terminology on another forum, and that made me realize the real difference between Apple and Microsoft.
  
  The recycle bin terminology is actually mixing two levels of abstraction. What is the user throwing out? The file. What is being recycled? The bits. That is recycle bin mixes up the abstraction of file with the underlying implementation.
  
  Mixing levels of abstraction makes for complexity and inconsistency.
  
  Apple has always strived to give users a consistency of concept and interface, ever since the first Mac back in 1984. Along came Microsoft, copied the Mac interface, but made underlying implementation concepts crash through. One such example is that instead of having volume names, Windows uses the primitive DOS device designations c:, d:, h:, etc.
  
  We could argue many things point for point, but ultimately, what makes Windows an ugly design is that it fails to keep a consistent abstraction. Its metaphors are mixed. In this respect Apple's design is far superior and consistent. In reply to: "Snow Leopard: Apple's most compatible release ever"

  September 6, 2009

  0 replies

• Why isn't Snow Leopard a "Service Pack"? Firstly, "Service Pack" is just nonsense terminology. Service implies "maintenance". You don't maintain software - you fix it or improve it. Fred P. Brooks pointed out the difference between hardware and software maintenance in the Mythical Man Month. I'll repeat what I have posted in several other places:
  
  The update may be derided as a "service pack", but that terminology is a Microsoft misnomer. It makes it sound like software is a physical entity that you need to service to keep it in good working condition, as in change oil in a car, or replace aircraft parts according to the service schedule. Software needs no such maintenance and the suggestion that a responsible user should apply service pack is nonsense. They are updates or patches.
  
  The second bit of "rubbish" Microsoft terminology is "recycle bin". That implies that the file is somehow given another life as a usable artifact. Perhaps the bits and bytes are reused (otherwise what would be the point of throwing anything out), but bits and bytes are not the file - the file is a completely separate abstract entity. Put it in the trash or "recycle bin" empty it, and it's gone forever (in principle). The term "recycle bin" thus gives some false sense of safety to a dangerous place. Or maybe it gives the user some false satisfaction of having been "environmental".
  
  Microsoft thinks user-friendly design is having cutesy artifacts and terminology. It is not, having inaccurate and misleading terminology is in fact most user unfriendly. IBM was a case in point as well, having an acronym AMD for "Air Movement Device"... a three letter acronym for what anyone else would have called a three letter word - fan! Microsoft has certainly inherited this mantle of befuddling the average computer user with silly terminology.
  
  Secondly, Apple has put some very significant technologies into this release like Grand Central Dispatch and OpenCL - it paves the way for future development in such a way that the user base it brought forward in a mostly painless way:
  
  http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/09/02/inside_mac_os_x_snow_leopard_64_bits.html
  
  The only seeming downside for those like me who still have a PowerPC is that it does not apply to our four-year-old systems. However, by the time 10.7 comes out in maybe two years, PowerPC systems will truly be old.
  
  All-in-all Snow Leopard is what Apple said it would be and it is a very good deal for Apple customers. The same can't be said of Vista, and who knows about the very expensive fix of Windows 7. In reply to: "Snow Leopard: Apple's most compatible release ever"

  September 4, 2009

  9 replies

• Well you'll be blown away! And what's with the SHIFT_some garbage advertising? Trying to be trendy and look pseudo-technical like some Windows junk. Well Steve Jobs' Microsoft epithet of "Tasteless" could equally be applied to Nissan. In reply to: "Nissan turns over a new Leaf"

  August 3, 2009

  0 replies

• I agree. It's ugly. Nissan make cars that look out of date in just two years - that's probably deliberate marketing. What's that nose on the front - some carbuncle on the face? Their badges are getting ridiculously large. I know it's some marketeers idea of branding. Unfortunately, Nissan tries forcing its brand down people's throats and that gets irritating. They also make flimsy (hi-tech) cars that aren't driven by experts, but by boy racers who wrap themselves around a tree racing off a Subaru. In reply to: "Nissan turns over a new Leaf"

  August 2, 2009

  0 replies

• Stay tuned... sorry I just tuned out, you're just boring me with cliches. In reply to: "Early Microsoft store plans leaked"

  July 25, 2009

  0 replies

• "Only minor tweaks from beta" - I should hope so beta software is a field test version of the almost finished product. If it were greatly changed, it should not be called a beta version. Maybe the old terminology of "field test" was clearer before these trendy monikers. In reply to: "Safari 4 fast, but only minor tweaks from beta"

  June 9, 2009

  0 replies

• I'm always cautious of people who claim they analyze products because they are in the "real world". This one is interesting because they claim to have been using Safari 4 for hours over - by implication - many days. This must be an interesting parallel universe-type real world where you can have been using something for many days that has been released for less than 24 hours! In reply to: "Safari 4 fast, but only minor tweaks from beta"

  June 9, 2009

  0 replies