Slash v. Backslash

*sigh*

Am I the ONLY person in the USA who screams every time someone calls this: "/" a "backslash"?

I just... Aaaaiiigh!

This character: "\" is called a "backslash". This character: "/" is called (among other names) a "slash".

What's the difference?

I'm glad you asked.

If you're typing a URI (or URL as they used to be called) into your garden-variety Web browser, and you type it this way:

http:\\www.yahoo.com
Your browser (if it's doing its job) should yell at you and present you with an error page.

Also, in the Microsoft world, "\" (the backslash) is the filesystem delimiter. In the UNIX/Linux/sensible/sane/restofthe world, the slash ("/") is the filesystem delimiter. The slash is also the filesystem delimiter for networking, such as Web addresses, NFS and other services on networks.

Why is this? Because the "\" has its own meaning. It is not a direct replacement for "/". The backslash (this thing: "\") is used to "escape" things. There are lots of characters that have special meaninig, like colons, semicolons, dollar signs and so on, which occasionally have to be used literally, rather than with their special meaning. To do this, we commonly precede these special characters with a backslash (remember? This one: "\").

There's APPARENTLY a tendency among the bulk of Americans to take on a "What's the difference?" attitude. There seems to be a lack of concern for Saying what is meant and meaning what is said. I'm just plain disgusted. This, I think, points to a larger problem in our society, and that is that people just don't seem to care about conveying meaning. There is concern for geting across the "like, you know" layer of meaning, but not the direct facts. I'm just sick of it.

People. *sigh*

...and while I've got Apple on the brain...

Apple has a new series of ads out. Kinda cute... but... these ads miss an important point.. "Mac" used to mean something... It used to mean superior system architecture and hardware design and performance and stuff like that. Now it's just a style of box and an operating system.

Apple is trying really hard to sustain the notion that "The Mac" is alive and well even though it's now just another Intel box.

The scruffy kid says, "I'm a Mac", then the dumpy guy in the suit says, "...and I'm a PC."

It should play out like this:

KID [at screen right]: Hi. I'm an Intel-based IBM PC-compatible computer running Apple's Mac OS-X.

SUIT [at screen left]: ...and I'm and Intel-based IBM PC-compatible computer running Microsoft's Windows XP Professional with Service Pack 2

KID: We have a lot in common these days...

SUIT: Yeah... like a braindamaged memory addressing architecture [looks puzzled as to why he mentioned that]

[ KID looks at SUIT, confused... there is a pause.]

[in unison] We both run Microsoft Office...

KID: But with a Mac, you have the advantage of only being able to run Mac OS-X on a computer marketed by Apple.

SUIT: How is that an advantage?

KID: Well... you wouldn't want your pretty Mac OS-X to be seen running on some anonymous off-white-box, now would you? That just wouldn't be right! It needs to be running on a machine with clean looks on the outside, but which is virtually impossible for the lay user to service.

SUIT: Uh... Why?

TUX [walks in from screen-left and "cuffs" the suit] They're doing the same thing you do, but with hardware [turns and walks out screen-left, shaking head in disgust]

SUIT: ....aaaaaahhhhh! Customer lock-in!... right.... Good thinking! Of course, you know you can never conquer our market-share.

KID: Oh yeah?

SUIT: Yeah!

[A scuffle breaks out. The suit is clearly beating the piss out of the kid. At this point a group of twenty or so people of various nationalities comes onto the screen from just about every direction. One rappels from above another comes up through a hole in the floor. All the new people are clearly wearing Tux t-shirts]

AFRICAN#1: [to suit] Leave him alone, you bully!

BANGLADESHI: What makes you think you have the right to push him around?

CHINESE: What makes you think you have the right to push any of us around?!

GERMAN: You want to take the ability to develop software out of the hands of the common man

FEMINIST: Grrr....

GERMAN: ...people... sorry.

AFRICAN#2: [to kid] And as for you... you need to return to your roots.

JAMAICAN: Yeah... and get a job.

MEXICAN: You're thirty years old. Don't you think it's time you got your own apartment?

TIBETAN: Now both of you play nice... I don't want to have to open up a can of Whup-Ass on you, but I will if you make me. So help me, I'll bury you both.

SUIT [gets up and faces Tibetan.. aproaches defiantly]: Are you threatening me? I could have sworn I just heard you threatening me.

KID [still on floor, with bloddied nose -- to Tibetan]: ... you might want to retract that...

SUIT [poking Tibetan in the chest]: Just who do you think you are, buddy?

[A special effect occurs... something reminiscent of the "Waco Kid" demonstrations in Blazing Saddles, except there are frames of the action in there, but they happen way too fast... Perhaps the frames that do appear show the Tibetan blurred, but the Suit in sharp detail, suggesting that the difference in speed of motion is trememdous. The Tibetan works some sort of martial arts move on the Suit, putting him flat on his back, unconscious.]

TIBETAN [Looks at Kid, as if to say, "and what about you?"]

KID [raises hands in surrender]: I'm good. I got no problems with you.

[Cut to blank white screen with "Think for yourself." written in simple gray letters.


Maybe it's just me.

While I'm pissing and moaning about MSW Vista...

Computer display manufacturers have spent years and many millions of dollars to create anti-glare coatings and films which don't detract from the image being displayed. They've gotten pretty OK at it. During the same period, PC software developers have expended many man-hours and countless CPU Clock Ticks to provide us with "eye candy" and "chrome", to make our computers seem prettier, but, somehow, slower....

Now the software guys have gone too far. Now the software guys are starting to take away the gains made by the hardware engineers. How are they doing this? They are putting... This is no lie! I'm serious and will provide examples.... They are putting FAKE GLARE on their programs' windows and widgets!...

See this image for some examples. Here's a particularly egregious example. ...Or you could just go to Apple's website.

I guess, as a fan of the "good ol' days"... I don't see the value in all the shiny crap. Sure it's pretty, I guess... If you like glare... but ... if your goal is "pretty"... I guess it's worth the extra cpu ticks... it's worth the extra memory... It's worth the extra cost. If your goal is "getting something done"... then... the extra time your CPU has to spend making curves, dealing with alpha channels and coping with way too many colors is wasted.

Just a thought.

Hurry up and Get Ready!

UPDATE: Microsoft has updated its Get Ready page, which is now legible ....



... in Firefox on Linux. This does nothing to change whether I will buy MS Windows Vista for my own consumption. In case you were wondering, I will not. I can't help but wonder whether it was this post that made them change it ;)

This article tells about Microsoft's campaign to help MS Windows Users Get Ready. Strangely, It seems Microsoft doesn't want Linux users to "Get Ready", because the "Get Ready" page does not render legibly in Firefox under Linux:



Bork for the course, I guess...

But what gets me is this (from the article):

"There's really no reason to wait until the launch of Windows Vista to start shopping for a PC that can deliver a great Windows Vista experience or to start thinking about upgrading your current PC to windows Vista," product manager Greg Amrofell said in a telephone interview.

What?! So I can buy a PC now with an OEM MS Windows License, then, in a year, buy another copy of MS Windows?! Um... How about, "No."?

I don't know.... We got into a little religious skirmish at work today... Yet another scuffle in the smouldering browser war. A colleague of mine, who favors Microsoft products in his IT decisions, decided to leap on this Firefox vulnerability as a chance to show me that Open Source software is not perfect... which I already knew. There were some barbs tossed back and forth among others, then I lobbed this little honey into the fray:

All --

[person] makes an important point. The fact that he placed it below the
sign-off, reducing the likelihood that it would be read, does not
diminish its validity:

We must all make a point of employing safe computing practices.

What is "safe" and what is not (and, for that matter, what is "practical"
and what is not) is debatable, and, in many cases, subjective. In our
"common" computing environment, we must have some practices in place to
help ensure the resources we all use are as available as possible. Most
of these things are regarded by many people to be "common sense"...
but... still need occasional reinforcement.

[person] makes another excellent point:

No software is perfect.

This does not mean, however, that all software is of the same quality,
offers the same value or presents the same risks. Quality, value and
risk are statistically quantifiable, but statistics are malleable, and
normally used only to prop-up or assail the "personal value judgments"
made by one person or another.


For the record, the Web browser I prefer to use is Mozilla, not Firefox.
Both are multiplatform browsers, and, generally, of good quality
(irrespective of whether they are open-source or commercial offerings).
Of the two, I find the maturity of the Mozilla code base to be a
positive. Mozilla lacks some of the fancier "bell and whistle" features
of Firefox, but it handles browsing (and mail) well, with comparatively
low risk and is, in my experience, substantially more stable.


...and now, an evangelical rant:

The fact that a commercially-marketed "Internet-ready" Operating System
and its inextricably interwoven Web Browser are not "Internet-Safe" as-sold
12 years after the "Internet Explosion"; that the producer of such
an Operating System actually tells its customers not to use its product
on the Internet without having downloaded the latest updates from the
Internet and purchased an additional hundred-dollars-or-so worth of
commercial software... is telling. That there is still a market for
such a product 12 years on is simply depressing.


Thanks and have a sunshiny day!

Me

The thread died with that.

This "Get Ready" thing is just another in a long procession of "We own the market so fuck the rest of you" gestures from Microsoft. I'm sure there are plenty of MS Windows users out there who are skirting the shoals of usability in Windows XP, who will buy into this sham and buy a machine now with MS Windows XP on it, then buy the Vista "upgrade", only to be disappointed in the performance.

This is addressed (sort of) in the article:

Kevin Johnson, head of the business unit that includes Windows, said in an interview with CNET News.com this week that Microsoft is likely to have some kind of discount or upgrade program to help those who buy a PC this holiday season upgrade to Vista.

"Yeah, there's likely to be something," Johnson said, without giving specifics.

"Yeah, there's likely to be something"?!

*sigh*

You poor, poor MS Windows users.

PC Magazine trolls for zealots

Wow... I've never read a more pissy article in a magazine or on its website than this article.

Jim Louderback really seems to have a stiffie for Mac-bashing. It seems nothing but a Dell running MS Windows will ever be good enough for him.

Calling Mac enthusiasts "Lemmings" is a little harsh, considering he's advocating the product of a monopolist... Who's the Lemming, Jim?!

If this article is any indication of ol' Jimmy-boy's value to society, then... well... the phrase "waste of skin" comes to mind.

I will grant that a dual-boot capability is nothing new in PC-dom... Although I've never used the capability, most GNU/Linux distributions have had the capability of dual-booting since at least 1998, when I started with it. I just boot into Linux. That's fine for me.

I find it a little strange that Jim dismisses the entire Mac user community and any in the MS Windows camp who might try Mac Boot Camp as not being "Real Computer Users", implying that MS Windows users are "Real Computer Users"... um... Jackass? Yeah... Jackass. How many of the world's 500 fastest supercomputers are running MS Windows? I didn't have time to look at all 500, but 7 of the top 10 are running Linux. "Real Computer". Ha!

Oh, and blaming the handle on the orignal iMac for starting the whole "luggable" trend. Dude, what the fuck planet have you been on, Jimbo? Anyone remember the KayPro?!... Or the Osborne?! Needle-dick.


...and here's an interesting bit from the article: "Remember the bad old days of OS/2 and Windows NT, and MIPS- and Alpha-based computers? Fanatics tried to push these supposedly better systems on everyone, touting power, capability, and destiny. It was all bunk, and each died from neglect." Neglect? No, not neglect. Try predatory monopolism. Intel got in, not because their product was better, but because it was cheap and they were riding on Microsoft's coat tails. Microsoft got in, not because they had a great product, but because they have been a biat-and-switch outfit almost since day one. MIPS is a superior architecture, as is the DEC Alpha. It may surprise some young'uns to hear that DEC (That's Digital Equipment Corporation) had a killer 64-bit RISC Architecture back in 1992, a full 11 years before 64-bitness came to the Intel-compatible realm. And Microsoft STILL doesn't support it in consumer-land 3 years later. Bad old days, indeed. Putz.


..and he ends the article this way: "...don't come running to me when your mind and body prematurely degenerate. I'll be smart, fit, and enjoying my real Windows computers, while you ooze slowly into the Pixar-Disney-ABC swamp of mindlessness. Chump." I'm not really defending Apple, here... I lost what respect I had for them when the decided to dump PowerPC for Intel.... but "...smart, fit and enjoying my real Windows computers..."?! Yeesh! Keep an eye on that guy! He might just be ready to martyr himself at his nearest "Apple Store."

Flash+AMD64+Linux=WTF

What the hell is the matter with Macromedia (now part of Adobe)?!

AMD's 64-bit x86 extension has been on the market now for 3 years. It's a mature technology. The next version of MS Windows will support it (whenever it comes out...). Many Linux distributions have been supporting it for years (two or more).

Why is it that Macromedia (now part of Adobe) can't get up off it's padded-with-C-notes ass and compile a version of FlashPlayer 7 for 64-bit GNU/Linux?!

I discovered something a bit unsettling, while poking around on the Interwebs. I was looking for some up-to-date info on the status of the Ogg-Theora project, and I stumbled on an item in the FAQ which led me to the On2 website, which ultimately led me to this page which contains the following remark from Tinic Uro (Principal Engineer, Macromedia Flash Player):


"Quality. This is the first thing we looked at and our target was to at least cut the bandwidth in half while keeping the same visual quality... Portability. We do not only need to support Intel, but also PowerPC, ARM, MIPS and many others. Recompiling for a new platform had to be painless and essentially require no code changes. Optional availability of specialized code was a plus too, although we could have done some of that work ourselves."


If cross-platform portability is of paramount importance to Adobe (formerly Macromedia), it seems to me that there is this hot, emerging platform, to which they might want to port.

I have 2 AMD64 machines at home, and I love them. They're stupid-fast. My laptop is a Turion64 and my video editing machine is an AMD64 X2 4200+. Both machines are running AMD64 versions of Fedora Core 5. They positively scream. Alas... There is an increasing amount of web content I cannot view without hobbling or convoluting my fancy 64-bit system to use the 32-bit version of Flash. Flash content, sadly for Adobe (formerly Macromedia) and the companies which decided pretty pictures and animations are much more important that actual "content" and "usability", is out of reach for me when I'm using my laptop. Oh. Well.

WMV and WMA content is also out of reach. Too. Bad. When Microsoft either releases the source code for their codecs, abandons its patents or releases a free binary for Linux, I'll visit those sites with WMA and WMV content. Mind you, I'm not holding my breath for this.

But Macromedia was different... Even Adobe releases its AcrobatReader for the Linux crowd. Granted, it's a version behind, but... Macromedia released its FlashPlayer for 32-bit Linux... what is holding up a recompile to 64-bit?!

I ask again, because I've not heard a reasonable answer from anyone at Adobe: What is holding up a recompile of FlashPlayer for 64-bit Linux?!

I ask one more time, in case they didn't hear me: What is holding up a recompile of FlashPlayer for 64-bit Linux?!

Is this thing on?!

A thought occurs

I was writing a post for one of my other blogs, and the following thought occurred to me:

"I am sitting on the toilet, blogging."

Now... The implications of this are vast. I mean... Has it ever occurred to anyone?... We live in a world where virtually anyone can actually report to the world on his or her bowel movements and have them published for all to see BEFORE he or she has even wiped! Imagine how this technology could be perverted and misuesd!

Yes, Wi-Fi has been around a while... and if you were a serious nerd before that, you could have a long Ethernet cable and bring your desktop PC into the bathroom... but... has it been done before?... and if so... had it been considered? Or, had it been done without consideration; without reflection?

A restaurant critic could write a review of a meal he's had at Panera, publish it using the free Wi-Fi connection they offer, and have it impact the qaulity of his dessert! Information moves that fast now!

Sure, he could just as easily have gotten up from his seat and praised or bitched-out the staff at Panera, then asked for a desert... approximately the same effect... but, then, where would all the telecommunications companies be? Thousands of IT workers would be... well... out of work. Thousands of miles of fiber-optic cable would go dark and atrophy from lack of use. Oh, what a catastrophe that would cause!

Further the ever-increasing ubuquity of the Internet has made it possible to millions of passive-agressive, obsessive-compulsive, manic-depressive folks to vent to an imagined audience without consequence. This is what the "Mainstream Media" glibly refers to as the "Blogosphere".

Why, those blogging bastards! I'd like to... uh... nevermind.