Mokka mit Schlag

Lafreniere Park, Jefferson Parish, 2006-12-27

Game over. Sony has forfeited and Blu-Ray has lost.
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You sometimes see this error message when attempting to run a Perl, Python, or shell script that uses a shebang line to find the interpreter. For example,

$ hello.pl
-bash: hello.pl: command not found

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Woody Leonhard notes that:

with Windows Vista and potentially Office 2007 that changes – the activation system will occasionally check if the product key is still ‘legal’. If Microsoft decides that the product key for your software has been stolen and misused then your copy of Vista or possibly Office 2007 can be disabled remotely (after a warning period).

He’s worried about piracy. I.e. what happens if somebody else “borrows” your key, so Microsoft cuts you off through no fault of your own. I’m wondering what happens when the U.S. Government leans on Microsoft to cut off the keys to the latest alleged seeker of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
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Lafreniere Park, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, 2006-12-27

The AppleTV is underwhelming. You mean I have to pay $300 for yet another box to balance on my already crowded dresser along with the cable box, VCR, DVR, and DVD player? All so I can buy movies from iTunes and network movies with my Mac? Sorry, that’s not nearly enough value for the money. For $300, it would have to replace at least one, preferably all, of my existing boxes. I’d actually be more interested if it ran the other direction. That is, if it let me broadcast my TV signal to the computer. That would let me ditch one cable box (the one hooked up to my computer).

The iPhone is cool, and I was almost ready to buy one until I noticed it required a 2-year Cingular contract (and wouldn’t be available till June). I guess the rumors that Apple would sell it unbundled and unlocked were false. The UI may well be a quantum leap over everything else on the market, but the business model is the same consumer-hostile crap we’ve been seeing for years. I expected better of Apple.

No new Macs. No new software. I guess new PowerMacs, Minis, and MacBooks will trickle out over the next few months when they’re ready. No new iLife. No new iWork. No new Leopard. (Maybe that will arrive at WWDC.) Will anything else be announced by Apple at the show? I hope so. So far, I’m feeling let down.