The Macintosh has always been unique in terms of software, ever since it came out in 1984. From the now almost disappeared ‘Resource Fork’ of MFS/HFS, the pascal slant of Mac OS releases up until the early 1990s, the multiple architectural and design transitions, the Carbon/Cocoa duality of early Mac OS X, ‘Classic’ and ‘Rosetta’, […]
I have just had the most thrilling experience of the last few months. Three years ago I got myself a silver Ikea halogen balanced-arm lamp. It replaced an old wooden desk lamp that worked great, but was not exactly what I wanted (to be able to read a reference book open in a darkened room […]
Τον τελευταίο καιρό συζητείται το ‘άνοιγμα’ των κλειστών επαγγελμάτων. Οι ‘φασαρία’ που έχει προκαλέσει η επαναλαμβανόμενη απεργιακή κινητοποίηση των μεταφορεών, ιδιοκτητών φορτηγών δημοσίας χρήσης και λοιπών επαγγελματιών/επιχειρηματιών του κλάδου μπορεί να έχει, στο μυαλό των περισσοτέρων, ταυτίσει το ‘άνοιγμα’ των κλειστών επαγγελμάτων με αυτήν την κοινωνική/οικονομική ομάδα, όμως τα επαγγέλματα είναι πολλά και ποικίλα και […]
Bing, Microsoft’s portal/search/mapping service has announced that they will start providing OpenStreetMap (OSM) data, as an optional layer, in Bing Maps. OSM data will be downloaded from Microsoft’s fast Azure CDN, as opposed to OSM’s ‘slow’ servers. Now, there’s nothing wrong with Microsoft using OpenStreetMap data. That’s why it’s Open. But then again, I am […]
The dictator in the 1984 ad isn't Microsoft, incidentally; it's IBM. IBM seemed a lot more frightening in those days, but they were friendlier to developers than Apple is now.But the most worrying part, in my view, is that people (and especially developers) are keener on accepting the ludicrous terms that Apple is imposing on them than they were even a few years ago.
Πάει ένας περίπου χρόνος από τη πρώτη μου παραγγελία — και το σχετικό άρθρο για το δικτυακό κατάστημα τσαγιού tsai.gr. Οι εντυπώσεις ήταν ως επι το πλείστον θετικές, με μεγάλη ποικιλία τσαγιών και βοτάνων, άμεση εξυπηρέτηση και εξαιρετικό πακετάρισμα των προϊόντων. Μεγάλη (και σημαντική) εξαίρεση οι τιμές του καταστήματος οι οποίες ήταν περίπου 20% ακριβότερες […]
Παρ’ότι τον τελευταίο καιρό βρίσκομαι μακριά από τα δρώμενα στον θαυμαστό κόσμο του διαδικτύου και αδράζοντας την κάθε ευκαιρία να διατηρήσω την επαφή τόσο με τα όσα συμβαίνουν στον κόσμο όσο και με τους δικούς μου ανθρώπους, διάβασα μόλις πριν από λίγο — με περισσή θλίψη — την πρώτη αρνητική και στο μεγαλύτερο μέρος της […]
We love Radiohead, but we're not sure if the band realizes they're superstars, and the normal rules don't apply to them anymore. The band's "pay what you want" idea for the In Rainbows album may have been successful, but for every one Radiohead there's ten thousand would-be rock stars selling CDs out of the trunks of their car (or MP3s on some little-visited web site) and starving.So, one Radiohead per ten thousand would-be rock stars. Apparently the authors ignore that this is exactly the status quo that the RIAA nurtured in decades past, exactly what the internet, mp3, file sharing and indeed Radiohead's testimony help change: total control over music promotion, repertoire selection, bias in favour of genres/artists by a few multinational corporations aimed at nothing more than profit maximisation. Put another way: A small minority of artists getting all the exposure [and some of them going bankrupt despite the megacorps' multi-million contracts], while millions more being unable to promote their music, make money, live off it. Those same approaches that have led to a just few hundred artists getting millions and the rest starving. If anything, testifying against the RIAA, especially if you've attained superstar status, goes against that. Lastly, Radiohead --- whether you like or dislike their music --- have proven their artistic integrity as well as their popularity time and again, most certainly without RIAAs help. There's no doubt that the interests of musicians around the world should be protected; RIAA never did that and most probably never will.