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MS Plans To Cooperate With Chinese TV Maker
zhangyong writes "Microsoft has signed a strategic cooperation pact with China's top television maker Sichuan Changhong Electric Appliances (which claims to be the world's number-two maker of colour TVs, OEM for APEX, etc.), the official Shanghai Securities News (in Chinese) (in English) said on Monday.
'Changhong would receive advanced IT technology and software from Microsoft to develop digital TV sets and other high-technology products.'
What will happen when low-cost labor in China is combined with Microsoft technologies?"
What will happen when low-cost labor in China is combined with Microsoft technologies?"
Why, the phrase "Blue Screen Of Death" will take on a whole new meaning of course.
What will happen when low-cost labor in China is combined with Microsoft technologies?"
Cheap + shit == Cheap shit.
Funny, eh?
Let me guess
Oh..oh I KNOW! Pick me.. PICK ME!!!
Would it have anything to do with Government sponsored DRM so the CCP can control all that you see, hear and download at a more manageable level?
Life is not for the lazy.
Surely you mean Red Screen Of Death?
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Something tells me that the tv's will have mysterious failures of both the red and green guns after they have been deployed.
Karma: SELECT `karma` FROM `users` WHERE `userid`=138474;
Since a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, it won't be much different from high-cost labor in the US combined with Microsoft technologies.
But where is Microsoft going to get the "...advanced IT technology...?
Veritas patesco per quaestio questio. Truth is revealed through questions.
Unlike the old days, where you just unpacked your new TV, aimed the antenna, and turned it on, you now need to update your TV's operating system to Service Pack 2 as soon as you turn it on, in order to avoid catching a worm. Then you need to install antivirus software and a firewall. Lastly, in order to keep your TV working acceptably, you need to defrag it weekly, and regularly run software to remove spyware.
Considering the crap on TV these days, it doesn't sound like it'll be worth the trouble.
I predict:
* People will keep buying microsoft products because they like the products.
* Slashdotters will continue to rant about the evils of microsoft (or whatever company happens to be doing well at the time)
* Linux will continue being a useful and robust platform that's too complex for the average consumer and incompatible with popular applications.
How about rather than joining 3 million other slashdotters in bitching about the rich guy down the street you actually contribute. If you think you can do better, than help an open source project. All of the programs you listed have an open source counterpart that in ways don't measure up to microsoft's "crap clones" as of yet. I'd rather you use your talent to help or at least donate to open office. Spreading FUD about microsoft's programs isn't going to help shit.
"What will happen when low-cost labor in China is combined with Microsoft technologies?"
The better question is, "What will happen when Microsoft's technology meets China's total disregard for intellectual property rights?"
The answer is, of course, "Hilarity ensues."
3000+ comments meta-modded. 0 mod points awarded.
Lesson for other meta-suckers: Don't believe the hype!
Nonsense. I have both an Apex TV and a DVD player. Both are quite high quality. The TV has an excellent picture. The DVD player can play MP3, SVCD, VCD, straight MPEG, just about anything. Chinese products are not universally shitty.
If you don't understand any of my sayings, come to me in private and I shall take you in my German mouth.
I think you are right in that IBM was the one which handed the monopoly to Microsoft. But, it was Bill and Steve who decided to use anti-competitive practices as the basis for doing business instead of competing by producing better products. MBA's love those guys but techies, mostly dispise them. Gershner once said that Microsoft was a great marketing company and a poor technology company and that REALLY REALLY pissed Bill Gates off. Because he THINKS he's a good geek. And he pays the people around him to make sure he keeps thinking that way. :/
Anyway, so once the monopoly was established, Microsoft started pounding on anybody who didn't play THIER game and they did this with the OEMs and ISVs. Like the thread parent said, Microsoft want after the suppliers of the product and took the choice from the consumers since they held a bigger hammer over the heads of the suppliers.
You were both right, just off on the time of the events.
BTW, Bill Gates' paranoia has made him VERY wealthy, but only because he was handed the monopoly power by IBM( as you stated ). This does not make him a visionary or a genius in my book. Far smarter people built far better and useful tools then has ever come from Microsoft. But they were destroyed by Bill and Steves fear of being shown up. Gawd, just look at their "Facts" tour to see what bull they excrete and look at the state of Microsofts 3 year old Secure Computing Initiative. But that just IMHO.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
I got back from China a few months ago. There are American DVDs everywhere. There was a van going around with 'Intellectual Property Enforcement' written on it... in English only... quite obviously for display purposes. China is probably the biggest pirate nation in the world, maybe second to Russia, maybe not. Combine industrial capacity with a total disregard for property laws.
I would not be surprised if this is a step by Microsoft to get some Chinese folks with clout ("guanxi" in Chinese or "connections" in English is even more important in China than in the U.S.) That's the only way for MS to protect its IP in China and head off a prospective haven of bootlegged media and DRM flaunting software.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.