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Wasn't he supposed to fall on his sword after the Sun/Microsoft pact. Was it a coincidence that a lot of commentators came to the exact same conclusion.

Scott McNealy's reign as chief executive of Sun Microsystems could be coming to an end, say analysts.
Munir Kotadia April 06 2004

They are not a major generator of jobs or revenue for any european state.

Oh yeah? From http://www.enn.ie/news.html?code=8883686/:

With about 1,700 employees, Microsoft operates three businesses in Ireland -- a European operations centre, a European product development centre, and its Ireland sales, marketing & services group. After its headquarters, the Irish facility is the company's second largest in the world, alongside an operation in Japan.

Microsoft spends around EUR350 million each year in the Irish economy, and the software behemoth accounts for about 6 percent of national exports.

This got modded up +5?

Evidently so. I don't think your comment is particularly informative, insightful, or interesting.

Spare, clean OSes that don't try to do everything and be mediocre (Compare to the MP3 players that have FM tuners, replaceable batteries, and voice recorders)

Unless you actually WANT those features, then you're shit out of luck.

No, I think the point was, as I said, "and be mediocre". The iPod actually has access to ALL of those features through add-ons without altering the basic iPod design. There aren't any real standout multifunction mp3 players YET. I'm sure they will be designed, but there isn't even another standout mp3 player yet that is as good as the iPod (some are close, but they need to nail down the physical design, UI, and software, and I think they at most nail 2 out of 3)

Good software on said OSes (Compare to iTunes to all the other jukeboxes)

Unless you want to buy music from somewhere else (Napster, Wal-Mart, etc.) then you're shit out of luck.

Why the heck did you bring in MUSIC STORES? I didn't say, "Because the iPod is compatible with the iTMS". I said iTunes was the best jukebox, better than Sony's, Creative's, or iRiver's. Part of it is because it's free. I can't download and use the Sony, Creative, or iRiver jukebox, so I can't decide before I buy whether the product is any good. With iTunes I can/did, and knew exactly what to expect from my iPod.

Price competition forcing the #2 manufacturer to actually LOSE money to compete (Compare the fact that because Apple is cutting prices to maintain dominance, Creative is losing money to 'keep up')

Except this isn't true.

You are out of the loop. Unless of course you don't think Creative is number 2?

I seriously doubt that you have access to either Creative or Apple's internal accounting. I wasn't able to find Q4 results on Apple's site, but according to Q3:

Apple posted a net quarterly profit of $320 million, or $.37 per diluted share, and revenue of $3.52 billion.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jul/13results .html

Sales for the first nine months of fiscal year 2005 were up 50 percent over the same period last year, at $919.0 million ... For the third quarter, net income was $15.9 million
http://www.creative.com/corporate/investor/release s.asp?pid=12078

Here you go. Right on Creative's website, "For the fourth quarter, net income was a loss of $31.9 million with EPS of a $0.38 loss per share"

Apple's pricing structure prevents Creative from charging enough to make a profit. Read the press release, and you'll see them say "We had set our targets higher for unit volume and average selling prices for our MP3 players than we achieved in the period."

They wanted to sell more and charge more. Apple stopped them.

If you do some math you'll see that Apple's business is far more profitable. Why I as a consumer should consider this a good thing is beyond me.

When did I say that?

Fast adoption of new technology (The iPod was the first with the 1.8" hd when everyone else was using 3.5" and 2.5" drive, the first to use CF drives when everyone else was using flash, and now the first to use flash when everyone else has adopted CF. The iPod was also first to use a fast serial connection.)

First to use flash? Methinks you are a little confused.

Look it up. They are the first to do 2gb and 4gb of flash. The biggest

To me as a European, the fact that you have the DMCA in the USA seems absurd. The PATRIOT act seems absurd.

You mention not being able to say fire in a movie theater being absurd. How about not being allowed to say anything that might lead someone to do something violent, or writing anything construed as promoting violence or terrorism? This is law in the UK and Netherlands and is on its way to the EU.

How about having all of your telephone/cell traffic saved and archived for one year, and all of your internet traffic archived for 6 months? Sound crazy? Absurd? Luckly it is still a proposal, but that sure makes the USA PATRIOT Act library records section look good.

I am pro-freedom everywhere and not trying to defend America. Just be aware of contollers who want to rob you of your freedom in Europe as well.

Or has Google gotten a lot of bad press lately....
It's even more interesting considering this was recently started...

--tinfoil hat size: 7 3/8

Because we (the U.S.) said so.

The US Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) programme, introduced by the Department of Homeland Security, had originally required the citizens of all "visa waiver countries" to have biometric information contained on their passports by October 2004. (Visa waiver countries are those whose citizens do not need a visa to enter the US for a period of up to 90 days; they include the EU member states.) The deadline was recentlyl extended to October 2005.

The source for the above also reports that "Since January 2004, all visitors to the US from outside the visa waiver nations have had biometric data recorded by US officials. From September this year, US immigration officials will begin gathering biometric data in the form of photographs and fingerprints from visitors from the 27 visa waiver nations."

I note that ZDnet now has an article on this. And Design Technica and ENN have picked up (copied) the Register article.

I think we should be shouting this from rooftops. Microsoft secretly funnelled a whole lot of extra money to SCO, through intermediaries. It's a big deal, especially for a convicted monopolist.

Well after the english singer Robbie Williams claimed that piracy was 'great', and his record company (EMI) went ballistic.... it is quite an interesting change of tact from them.

Either that or they realised that expanding their online availability might be due to the new report that online downloads of songs will impact on the national pop charts?

Just my 0.02 downloaded songs (or cents/pence).

Start with your favorite aardvark book and finish with new Zire, a PDA from Palm under $99.

An interesting documentary topic, who's timing couldn't be better in light of Apple's recent earnings news ... here's a snippet from the ElectronicNewsNet
Despite driving upgrades to its new Mac OS X 10.2 "Jaguar" operating system, Apple reported a US$45 million loss and flat year-on-year revenue for its fiscal 2002 fourth quarter.

Hopefully, this is just an issue of absorbing the R&D costs of their new O/S. I'm not a Mac user, but some of my best friends are ...