Yeah... no one ever wanted to buy Windows... (wait a minute...) If Microsoft never made anything people wanted to buy, well... no one would have bought it.
Not an MS fan either, but am also weary of Apple (and Google for that matter) and giving any corporation too much control. Would have felt a lot less uneasy if Apple had of published specs for the operation of the Ipod DB so others could design by spec instead of having to rely on guesses... Notice Apple hasn't made it possible for ANY other company to produce music players that play music from the Apple store.
This is corporate nature - we have what we have because of MS. MS has brought the PC forward in many ways, but there is a lot of crap that comes along with that.
Apple will do the same thing.
Ian
Wireless Sync - you place the iPod near the computer and it syncs
Probably not... this would increase cost because Apple would have to ship with a wall charger - just as easy to plug in to the USB port so get charged will it syncs.
Storing Files - sort of like you were talking, but thrown in as an after-thought to replace the USB mass storage feature of today's iPod
Not sure I see the point of this one... Bluetooth esp. would be too slow. I don't think Apple would release a product with this kind of functionality - the interface is too open.
I have a cell phone with both the keys and the display on the back. It makes it hard to use, but if you turn it backwards then it works like almost any other cell phone.
Or suddenly your pocket or briefcase starts talking to you... Hello? Hello?
Or on the other end, you receive a call and you either hear rustled background noise, or a mundane conversation...
Ian
And oddly buggy at that...
I remember getting a call from my mother saying her freecell wouldn't work... odd... turned out it was related to Norton Antivirus - if I stopped the antivirus, Freecell worked. How does THAT work?
Ian
I dunno... how aware are people of this fact? I would guess that most iPod owners don't necessarily have a clue what DRM is... all they know is that they have iTunes, they buy music online, and it goes onto their iPod.
iPod sells because they have established a name in the industry. All that most salespeople know is that iPods are very popular, and they have a decent satisfaction rate. For the salesperson, it doesn't matter if another product is better, it matters that people are satisfied.
No other mp3 manufacturer has the reputation that iPod has.
If you're going to cry foul, then be fair in return...
I'm glad to finally be almost rid of Windows (in favour of Linux), but to say that constant reinstall because of virii, corruption, etc. is necessary isn't exactly true... Had this computer for over a year and it still runs fine... no regular crashes, no virus problems, no spyware problems...
Why do you have to reset permissions when an OS update happens? Permissions on what?
hmmm... few comments...
It is easy to hate Microsoft (which I kinda do), but you have to ask the question: would Apple have done it any differently? Isn't that what the Ipod is all about?
I don't hear it pointed out often, but OS/X development is far easier than Vista development... How many different Mac computers are there? How many different configurations are there? AFAIK, you buy a Mac, you buy a complete package that comes from Apple, the same company that develops the OS.
For Microsoft to develop Vista, it has to work on an almost infinite number of different configurations... even from the same vendor. Same reason Palm was generally pretty solid - they developed the platform, the OS, and all the standard apps.
For this same reason, Linux is great but really makes things difficult for itself... it is wonderful to have choice (I use two different flavours of Linux), but this means a massive duplication of work. A standardized platform is much easier to distribute for than an immensely variable one. Presumably there was only one Windows XP kernel (maybe a few more), which in the same span there are many different Linux kernels, requiring different binary drivers...
how local are we talking about?
China is becoming an automobile country... midwest fine... but (I don't know) could it be significant enough to modify climate on a local scale, especially in dry places (i.e. dry parts of Texas, etc)? I would be interested to know what effect would this have on ecosystems?
There are some places that seldom get rain, some of which are heavy auto users... what would the impact be?
I think this technology is really neat, but I want to be cautious and informed...
Anybody have enough background to give any quantitative data?
Ian
Re:The plan will make or break the iPhone
on
iPhone Roundup
·
· Score: 1
But IMO,
The problem is that many people don't come back down to earth... they get their heads stuck in the sky dreaming of the vision that Jobs is selling... the only thing that would come back down to earth is months down the road, with a poor MP3 player that would sit in a drawer unused.
But being a phone, this would be less of a factor because, well, people use their phones.
IMO it is the touch screen that would be annoying... when I press a button I like tactical feedback and the feel of it... I can't dial on a touch screen with my hand in my pocket, or press the 'ignore' button or 'volume down' button without looking at the phone...
I know Verizon will blacklist the ESN of a phone that has been reported stolen, and they don't have to share these numbers around, as there are only 2 CDMA carriers that I know of (can you unlock a phone between Sprint/Verizon?).
And there are two US-wide GSM carriers: Cingular and T-Mobile. Your point? Point being that sharing ESNs to track down phone thieves would not require wide distribution of information... it would only be sharing ESNs of stolen phones between two companies. Apparently it is the same for GSM (I don't live in the US, so I don't know the carriers).
Re:Third party software, Phone locked tight
on
iPhone Roundup
·
· Score: 1
But one of Apple's marketing points is that Macs aren't susceptible to viruses, IIRC?
Is Apple then saying that they aren't confident enough to produce a system that is secure? Yes... I know it is easy to make mistakes, but I hope Apple isn't so cowardly that they wouldn't even try? Thorough testing and a moderated distribution market should fix this to an extent, right? What does Apple do on their desktops?
But what really needs to be looked at is the OVERALL cost.
What I mean by this, is:
What are the environmental costs of producing the panels?
What byproducts does this produce (i.e. another poster mentioned product of hydrogen vehicle... H20 - on a small scale this has negligible effect, on a large scale, what would this do?)?
What happens to the panels when they eventually degrade? Is this safe waste?
I don't know the answers... just raising the questions.
Ian
The term engineer is protected here in Canada... while spoken it can be used pretty loosely, I believe that there are restrictions as to who can put 'engineer' on their business card. 'Professional Engineer' implies a regulated professional. I have an engineering degree, but would not call myself a professional engineer, would not put engineer on a business card, and would not offer to perform 'engineering services' for somebody - I have not earned that designation.
Should an electrical engineer be able to wire a house? I would assume that it would be easy for an electrical engineer to figure this out, but why on earth would we waste time teaching electrical engineers how to do wiring?
I would select an electrician to wire my house. An engineer to write the Electrical Code that the electrician follows.
Certainly we need to train people who can think. I think hands on practical work is important - not necessarily to impart experience, but as a way to help students develop the ability to problem solve. We need to teach on a level of abstraction that provides an engineer with the ability to apply basic fundamental knowledge to a wide variety of situations.
Let technologists/technicians be technologists/technicians and engineers be engineers... please!
yeah... I was on a job posting site once (a small independent one) and noticed that it was all operated on insecure perl scripts. The only security was obscurity. I found myself with the ability to view all the job listings, pull up an edit form, and edit job postings (I didn't edit anything myself, but I knew someone who had a job posted on it that they had posted wrong and had ignored his request to change it, so he did). I emailed them and let them know. I didn't hear anything back. That was about two years ago, and it is still the same.
I wasn't looking for vulnerabilities, but actually came across it when I was trying to find the site again using google and it popped me into their edit script.
Yikes.
Ian
If that is the case, Apple should say that the new firmware is an upgrade for sale because it offers functionality not originally advertised.
It should not hide behind an accounting error and point towards a new law that was fallout from a scandal (forcing it to charge for something). They ought not to pretend that they would be willing to do something that they wouldn't really be willing to do.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah... no one ever wanted to buy Windows... (wait a minute...) If Microsoft never made anything people wanted to buy, well... no one would have bought it. Not an MS fan either, but am also weary of Apple (and Google for that matter) and giving any corporation too much control. Would have felt a lot less uneasy if Apple had of published specs for the operation of the Ipod DB so others could design by spec instead of having to rely on guesses... Notice Apple hasn't made it possible for ANY other company to produce music players that play music from the Apple store. This is corporate nature - we have what we have because of MS. MS has brought the PC forward in many ways, but there is a lot of crap that comes along with that. Apple will do the same thing. Ian
Wireless Sync - you place the iPod near the computer and it syncs Probably not... this would increase cost because Apple would have to ship with a wall charger - just as easy to plug in to the USB port so get charged will it syncs. Storing Files - sort of like you were talking, but thrown in as an after-thought to replace the USB mass storage feature of today's iPod Not sure I see the point of this one... Bluetooth esp. would be too slow. I don't think Apple would release a product with this kind of functionality - the interface is too open.
Would I be correct in guessing that a flash based player would also use less power (i.e. longer battery life)?
I have a cell phone with both the keys and the display on the back. It makes it hard to use, but if you turn it backwards then it works like almost any other cell phone.
Or suddenly your pocket or briefcase starts talking to you... Hello? Hello? Or on the other end, you receive a call and you either hear rustled background noise, or a mundane conversation... Ian
And oddly buggy at that... I remember getting a call from my mother saying her freecell wouldn't work... odd... turned out it was related to Norton Antivirus - if I stopped the antivirus, Freecell worked. How does THAT work? Ian
I dunno... how aware are people of this fact? I would guess that most iPod owners don't necessarily have a clue what DRM is... all they know is that they have iTunes, they buy music online, and it goes onto their iPod. iPod sells because they have established a name in the industry. All that most salespeople know is that iPods are very popular, and they have a decent satisfaction rate. For the salesperson, it doesn't matter if another product is better, it matters that people are satisfied. No other mp3 manufacturer has the reputation that iPod has.
If you're going to cry foul, then be fair in return... I'm glad to finally be almost rid of Windows (in favour of Linux), but to say that constant reinstall because of virii, corruption, etc. is necessary isn't exactly true... Had this computer for over a year and it still runs fine... no regular crashes, no virus problems, no spyware problems... Why do you have to reset permissions when an OS update happens? Permissions on what?
hmmm... few comments... It is easy to hate Microsoft (which I kinda do), but you have to ask the question: would Apple have done it any differently? Isn't that what the Ipod is all about? I don't hear it pointed out often, but OS/X development is far easier than Vista development... How many different Mac computers are there? How many different configurations are there? AFAIK, you buy a Mac, you buy a complete package that comes from Apple, the same company that develops the OS. For Microsoft to develop Vista, it has to work on an almost infinite number of different configurations... even from the same vendor. Same reason Palm was generally pretty solid - they developed the platform, the OS, and all the standard apps. For this same reason, Linux is great but really makes things difficult for itself... it is wonderful to have choice (I use two different flavours of Linux), but this means a massive duplication of work. A standardized platform is much easier to distribute for than an immensely variable one. Presumably there was only one Windows XP kernel (maybe a few more), which in the same span there are many different Linux kernels, requiring different binary drivers...
how local are we talking about? China is becoming an automobile country... midwest fine... but (I don't know) could it be significant enough to modify climate on a local scale, especially in dry places (i.e. dry parts of Texas, etc)? I would be interested to know what effect would this have on ecosystems? There are some places that seldom get rain, some of which are heavy auto users... what would the impact be? I think this technology is really neat, but I want to be cautious and informed... Anybody have enough background to give any quantitative data? Ian
But IMO, The problem is that many people don't come back down to earth... they get their heads stuck in the sky dreaming of the vision that Jobs is selling... the only thing that would come back down to earth is months down the road, with a poor MP3 player that would sit in a drawer unused. But being a phone, this would be less of a factor because, well, people use their phones. IMO it is the touch screen that would be annoying... when I press a button I like tactical feedback and the feel of it... I can't dial on a touch screen with my hand in my pocket, or press the 'ignore' button or 'volume down' button without looking at the phone...
But one of Apple's marketing points is that Macs aren't susceptible to viruses, IIRC? Is Apple then saying that they aren't confident enough to produce a system that is secure? Yes... I know it is easy to make mistakes, but I hope Apple isn't so cowardly that they wouldn't even try? Thorough testing and a moderated distribution market should fix this to an extent, right? What does Apple do on their desktops?
But what really needs to be looked at is the OVERALL cost. What I mean by this, is: What are the environmental costs of producing the panels? What byproducts does this produce (i.e. another poster mentioned product of hydrogen vehicle... H20 - on a small scale this has negligible effect, on a large scale, what would this do?)? What happens to the panels when they eventually degrade? Is this safe waste? I don't know the answers... just raising the questions. Ian
Agree 100%...
The term engineer is protected here in Canada... while spoken it can be used pretty loosely, I believe that there are restrictions as to who can put 'engineer' on their business card. 'Professional Engineer' implies a regulated professional. I have an engineering degree, but would not call myself a professional engineer, would not put engineer on a business card, and would not offer to perform 'engineering services' for somebody - I have not earned that designation.
Should an electrical engineer be able to wire a house? I would assume that it would be easy for an electrical engineer to figure this out, but why on earth would we waste time teaching electrical engineers how to do wiring?
I would select an electrician to wire my house. An engineer to write the Electrical Code that the electrician follows.
Certainly we need to train people who can think. I think hands on practical work is important - not necessarily to impart experience, but as a way to help students develop the ability to problem solve. We need to teach on a level of abstraction that provides an engineer with the ability to apply basic fundamental knowledge to a wide variety of situations.
Let technologists/technicians be technologists/technicians and engineers be engineers... please!
Ian
yeah... I was on a job posting site once (a small independent one) and noticed that it was all operated on insecure perl scripts. The only security was obscurity. I found myself with the ability to view all the job listings, pull up an edit form, and edit job postings (I didn't edit anything myself, but I knew someone who had a job posted on it that they had posted wrong and had ignored his request to change it, so he did). I emailed them and let them know. I didn't hear anything back. That was about two years ago, and it is still the same. I wasn't looking for vulnerabilities, but actually came across it when I was trying to find the site again using google and it popped me into their edit script. Yikes. Ian
Fair enough.
If that is the case, Apple should say that the new firmware is an upgrade for sale because it offers functionality not originally advertised.
It should not hide behind an accounting error and point towards a new law that was fallout from a scandal (forcing it to charge for something). They ought not to pretend that they would be willing to do something that they wouldn't really be willing to do.
It's about integrity and honesty.
Ian