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67 Comments
- andjiganji, on 01/06/2009, -0/+19Not a very good article. Here's what shut me off from this literary work, due to yet another self centered "software person."
quote, "My brain is wired differently, to see patterns in software, not in hardware. But most people are the other way around."
Your so special, your brain has already evolved to see life in software not hardware. Can I wear your pants, just for a day? - inactive, on 01/06/2009, -1/+19I didn't expect this to be an Apple fanboy article!
- gwaggy12, on 01/06/2009, -0/+15Holy crap! Are you trying to tell me that software is getting better and people are getting better at using it? Welcome to the 90s.
What a waste of time. I was expecting a clever compare/contrast to the Huxley novel. - Jektal, on 01/06/2009, -0/+15Article summarized:
I'm really awkward and can't understand most things, but it's okay because I'm really smart and have a great fundamental understanding of software and all things digital.
Windows is hard! I don't get it... :(
Mac OS 9/10 is easy! Yay Apple!
Now that Apple is here, we won't need physical objects anymore! Yay! - garryw, on 01/06/2009, -4/+18Yes because Apple has brought gaming to a new level. What a bunch of horse crap.
- mediaspree, on 01/06/2009, -0/+12Old people are clueless. Example: the head of my (now former) company once asked me to "Rewind" all of the training DVDs. At first I thought it was cute. Then I thought...this is the head of the company?
- cgrado, on 01/06/2009, -0/+11Buried for mac propaganda.
- WhiskeyLemur, on 06/30/2009, -1/+10Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I've never found Apple's products to be more intuitive than Microsoft's, and I've used both extensively. Regardless of who stole which idea from whom, the result for the *casual end user* is pretty interchangeable, and the apparent intuitiveness comes not from the product itself so much as from what you get used to.
- techdever, on 01/06/2009, -0/+9Magic.
- froggy000, on 01/06/2009, -1/+10>The key thing about software is that it is soft and that the conventional laws of physics do not apply to it.
The key thing about software is that it is *information* and the conventional laws of physics *do* apply to it. - WhiskeyLemur, on 06/30/2009, -0/+9That was entirely incidental to the point of the article, but okay.
- Helspawn, on 01/06/2009, -1/+9Funny, I have a Mac AND a PC and my PC "behaves as expected"
I'd say my Mac Mini whose DVD-rom first failed on me, then the Disk was corrupted and the supplied utility with OS X Tiger could not repair it, ( had to purchase a third party application), then the Hard Drive failed.
I'd say my Mac Mini doesn't behave as expected.
I suppose before the whole thing crapped out on me the Software was "behaving as expected" - gwaggy12, on 01/06/2009, -0/+7Software is a method for me to tell my computer what it should be doing.
It operates by translating my commands into a basic electrical language which my computer can understand. - mikbunn, on 01/06/2009, -1/+8Your computer is not actually a machine in the sense that you think. The gadgets you see when you pull off the case are actually housings for unborn fetuses that have speakers in their ears, commanding them to perform computations at each keystroke, which are projected on the monitor, which is not actually liquid crystals or whatever nonsense people tell you, but cuttlefish skin (CRTs use a whole, live cuttlefish - all the water is why the monitor is heavier and deeper). This is why, when you look at source code, it's written mostly in caps. The unborn babies respond best to yelling.
Ever wonder why Roe V. Wade was passed right around the time that electrical computers were created? There's your reason. And that's why abortion won't ever be illegal. Now go fight the power. - bpoteat, on 01/06/2009, -0/+6No, I believe many computer users are just like you. The author of this article doesn't have a basic understanding of how software and computers work so he assumes that nobody else does either. I believe that HE is probably the one in the minority and just doesn't realize it.
- StaticSignal, on 01/06/2009, -0/+6I wish I could bury this more than once.
- sekhui, on 01/06/2009, -0/+5without xerox there is no apple.
- cadmiumpaint, on 01/06/2009, -0/+5The only problem with the world becoming less physical and more digital is that physical things last a very long time and are tangible. They are proof of existence which is very important. We don't truly know how long a digital file can last for. Digital files are only as permanent as the operating system, software or hardware than can read them. Try finding a laser disk player or a 8 inch floppy disk reader that you can still use.
I recently talked to a historian who was made custodian of a very large and very important digital image archive of rare prints (etchings, woodcut etc) from a private collection. The files were made in the 90s in some odd proprietary format that is no longer supported by anyone. It took them over 6 months to find a service bureau that could open the files...and even then some of them were hopelessly lost.
We might enter a new era of civilization where there will be no artifacts or records of our existence. - tecratour, on 01/06/2009, -0/+5Contest: Who can explain (simply) how software operates?
- Terrin, on 01/06/2009, -0/+4I agree with the overall point of this article but I can't help but feel this is just one large advertisement for Apple
- techobo, on 01/06/2009, -0/+4Maybe I fall somewhere in the middle because I grew up with physical tools. I know how to make things and how to fix things in a shop. But my profession requires me to work with software all day. But maybe I'm part of a minority.
- cgrado, on 01/06/2009, -0/+4Wouldn't someone with a good understanding of software actually like Windows or Linux better because he can actually do stuff with it, unlike Mac OS X where all he can do is play with the pretty icons?
- replaysMike, on 01/06/2009, -0/+3Buried as Innacurate - there's no way that guy has a wife.
- mrmopwater, on 01/06/2009, -0/+3"Obviously, my wife has no trouble using Apple products, because they are simple."
Because wives *in general* have a hard time with things that are "complicated...." That's some sexist ***** right there. - kd1s, on 01/06/2009, -1/+4It's funny, a friend of mine says that we techies are the new high priests of a new religion.
- o0joshua0o, on 01/06/2009, -2/+5Software has an existential problem. Namely, it cannot exist without a layer of hardware to support it. Hardware (e.g. a hammer, a car) can exist just fine on its own. Therefore, the physical realm will always be primary.
- cadmiumpaint, on 01/06/2009, -0/+3Digital does not last forever. Ever hear of a corrupted file? Ever hear of damaged disk? How bout on a CD, when that thin aluminum layer starts to dissolve and the data gets lost? Or a bad scratch. Take a powerful magnet and sit it down next to a hardrive and see what happens. Drop that Terrabyte drive down a flight of stairs and see if it still works. There are many reasons why digital files
Its asinine to assume that all important information will be transfered to newer formats. Thats like assuming a library will always buy the newest edition of a book. It doesn't always happen. Things get forgotten about. NASA recorded over the original audio tapes when man first set foot on the moon...(you know the whole "one small step for man" thing...all we have is degraded copies)
Without hardware, or software to read the digital files, the files are completely useless. Digital files are 1000000% dependent on software, hardware to exist in any kind of useable form. With advancements in technology, how long do you think there will be support for old formats? - webyatri, on 01/06/2009, -0/+3Yeah. Angelina Jolie is hot. See, that's why Apple is cool.
- wizardcombat, on 01/06/2009, -0/+3There's just nothing good about this article.
- webyatri, on 01/06/2009, -0/+3I tell you 'run a mile' you 'run a mile'. Before the actual running is the instruction 'run a mile'. There are many more instructions involved in translating that 'run a mile' into actual running a mile, lets not go into that.
"simply" put all these instructions that instruct hardware to do things is software.
Another example: when I type 'a' on a keyboard an instruction is transmitted from the keyboard to the computer to display a in this comment text area in a browser application running in the operating system, which in turn are also software (set of instructions to handle instructions) - rob132, on 01/06/2009, -1/+3Your computer is a fancy box that adds 1's and 0's. Software tells it what 1's and 0's it should add together.
I win? - Merlaak, on 01/06/2009, -0/+2Thank you. I can't stand it either when somebody comes along with this false modesty and patronizing attitude to the rest of the world. The thing is, with every new innovation, there will always be somebody who thinks, "Alright, this is it. This is the future. And I'm gonna be okay cause I 'get' this new way of thinking."
The rest of the world isn't just some quaint antiquity to be gawked at. Whether or not you understand how the world works in a physical sense, you still have to live and exist in it. You still have to eat and move and get real social interaction. It just amazes me when people are so arrogant to think that we've finally progressed to a point where we can finally get rid of all of the encumbrances of this world and welcome the new reality.
Interestingly enough, I'm a web developer by day and a soap, lotion, and candle maker by night. The problem with doing both is that you'll never achieve greatness in either. The world will always have room for those who can think in terms of software and those who think in terms of hardware. In fact, we need both. - stk198323, on 01/06/2009, -3/+5Softwares operates in the way hardware tells it to operate, do you want it to be any more simple?
- rob132, on 01/06/2009, -0/+2I didn't realize Neo wrote this article.
- sekhui, on 01/06/2009, -1/+3gwaggy already owned this thread with that answer, nothing to add here folks. move along.
- bdbr, on 01/06/2009, -0/+2The incorrect assumption is that everything physical is easily understandable. It all depends on the complexity. Using a hammer is easy to learn & understand...brain surgery, not so much.
- Scaryclouds, on 01/07/2009, -0/+2Yea he did seem to be doing a lot of tonguing of Apple's balls. Apple has certainly set many trends and developed or mainstreamed many technologies, but I would hardly consider them the genesis of a new age of technology.
- Birukun, on 01/06/2009, -0/+2Amen, Brother! :-)
- techdever, on 01/06/2009, -2/+4"Obviously, my wife has no trouble using Apple products, because they are simple. More important, they, like physical things, behave as expected."
Really?? Then why did my 2007 MBP graphic chip melted (common problem). Why did updating OSX leopard 10.5.x to 10.5.6 caused so many problems for a lot of people? that's kinda un-expected if you ask me... - woodrail, on 01/06/2009, -0/+2but the digital world is fake, and finite. A machine is no more than it's definition. We are diving up our own *****.
- furatail, on 01/06/2009, -0/+2Wow, I actually got tricked into reading an exalted apple ad.
- Scaryclouds, on 01/07/2009, -0/+2Angelina Jolie is way overrated.
Don't get me wrong I would (want to) have sex with her (probably [almost surely] get rejected), but I don't see her as the most attractive BS Hollywood tabloids paint her out to be. - kevinmotel, on 01/06/2009, -0/+2hey! that fetus took my change! give me back my change fetus!
- maxwhirl, on 01/06/2009, -0/+2the article doesn't claim apple has anything to do with gaming. it cites apple and video games as two factors leading towards his dreamy physics-free utopia.
- vectorjohn, on 01/06/2009, -1/+3Digital data lasts forever. Your examples of a laser disk player and 8 inch floppy disk are wrong because the only reason they may not work IS the hardware. The software is still just fine. If the software on the floppy is damaged, its because of the physical medium it was on. Of course, any important stuff that was ever on a floppy or laser disc was probably copied to another medium and is hence still alive long after the death of their former physical location.
- mikbunn, on 01/06/2009, -0/+2Um, what?
- FrankFutter, on 01/06/2009, -0/+2He probably also asked you to find a left-handed wrench.
- bdbr, on 01/06/2009, -0/+2He must not wear (or even understand) pants, as there is no software involved.
- dragonrebornn, on 01/07/2009, -0/+1It makes sense that kids growing up with the new technology will be more adapt at using technology but interesting read either way.
- Innovine, on 01/06/2009, -0/+1This is all just fluff. Look at a buildings architecture. We don't need to know about load bearing struts, twist and sheer, thermal expansion, the placement of airducts and so on just to open the door and come in and out. Same with software. Some people will build it, most people will just go in and out and never think twice about what they are doing.
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