[OT] Was: totally satisfied :D

[H. S. Teoh]

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 07:52:15PM -0400, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
[...]
> Independently controllable ringer/game/music volumes: Good
> 
> Complete *lack* of any way to control *overall* volume: Bad

I have to agree with that. It's OK, and sometimes even useful, to have
multiple independent volumes, but it makes no sense to NOT have a master
volume that controls everything else. Sometimes you just want to mute
the whole dang device, and that should not require fiddling with every
single independent volume setting.


> A lot of the videogames I've played have independent adjustable
> SFX/music/voice volumes. I've even happily made use of that. And I'm
> damn glad that the TV *still* has a properly working volume control
> despite that because I make even more use of that.

Yeah I almost never play games with music on, 'cos I generally find the
music not to my liking. SFX I sometimes leave on low, though on
handhelds I generally turn both off. But the option to only have SFX
without music is a plus. I *have* deleted apps before that didn't allow
independent settings.


[...]
> > I feel like I get the best of all worlds.
> 
> Yea, but to get that, you have to use OSX as your *primary*
> environment, and stick with expensive iHardware. Might work for you,
> but those are all deal-breakers for me.

I find it sad that Apple has left its original philosophy of open
protocols and specs so that you can make it interoperate with stuff. For
all their flaws, PCs are much more palatable 'cos you can replace parts
that you don't like with alternatives. With closed hardware and vendor
lock-in, I can't say that Macs are exactly near the top of the list for
hardware I'd consider buying. I've had a bad experience with PC laptops
already (after 2 years parts starting wearing out and I can't replace
them 'cos they need specialized tools that vary from vendor to vendor --
no choice but to buy a brand new one though the old one could've
continued to work if a few basic parts were replaced) -- I don't feel
like I want to repeat that experience. So yeah, this is a deal-breaker
for me too.


[...]
> > The one thing I would rip out of OSX and throw against the wall is
> > the mail app.  Its interface and experience is awesome.  But it
> > frequently corrupts messages and doesn't properly save outgoing
> > mail.  Not good for a mail application.

Ahhh how I love Mutt. ;-)


> I didn't have corruption issues with it, but I did find it to be
> rather gimped and straight-jacketed much like the rest of the system.
[...]

I find pretty much all GUI mail apps (both webmail and local MUAs)
strait-jacketed. Anything that doesn't let you configure mail headers is
unusable to me, and HTML by default gets on my nerves so much it's not
even funny. I want my mail to NOT have stupid extraneous headers that
are completely unnecessary for what I use mail for, and yes most people
don't care, but as the adage goes: easy things should be easy, hard
things should be possible. I find in pretty much every GUI mail app that
easy things are hard and hard things are impossible.

But anyway, I stumbled across this cute little thing just today:

	http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/

I'd love to start a trend for a new kind of email: one in which the
message is transmitted as markdown text, and, should the receiver so
wish, the receiving end automatically converts that into HTML. This way
you can either write directly in plaintext (like I do) or use a GUI
front-end for composing messages (like most normal people do), the
transmission won't have stupid useless HTML clutter (or worse, JS
viruses and other detritus), and the receiver can get all mails in
plaintext or HTML according to their choice. AND there is no need for
multiple MIME parts; the markdown text can be read directly as plaintext
or translated into HTML for people who prefer that.

Now, somebody just has to cook up this MUA in D, and make it the killer
D app that will take over the world. ;-)


T

-- 
When solving a problem, take care that you do not become part of the problem.