How does a state partnership, especially between a huge corporation and it's home state give the appearance of neutrality? If anything such a partnership gives a biased appearance.
Yeah, right, because they've always worked so diligently on that.
They have always worked diligently on making money, so if breaking anti-trust is going to be less profitable in a given situation, then it is no stretch to suggest that they are trying to avoid it in that case.
They did back down on the Vista security plans because of antitrust threats from 3rd parties. MS doesn't want to get sued, especially in cases where it thinks it might loose, so yes they spend a lot of time making changes so they don't get caught violating anti-trust law. Nobody said they were doing it to make the world a better place.
it's even worse if MS gives me something to replace third-party for free!
You have that backwards, bub. Third-party was charging to cover microsoft's glaring omissions.
Both statements are true and not mutually exclusive.
200 dollar difference between midrange dell and low end (mid-range spec) macbook pro.
I posted two completely different price ranges. You just picked the high end of one and the low end of the other. Nothing to see there except you trying to twist some numbers. It's a $200 to $1000 difference between a midranged Dell and the low end MacBook Pro, and the $2000 MacBook Pro has lower specs all around than a $1600 Dell XPS Studio notebook.
holy crap call the cops what a fraud.
Is it a requirement that you get overly dramatic when you talk about an Apple product?
I have always found it's the midrange and not just the low end Dell machines that have much more competitive pricing than Mac notebooks. The XPS and Studio XPS notebooks (~$1000-$1800) are really at the sweet spot of performance and pricing, while Macs really have a big gap here. You can get a MacBook which has a low end graphics card for the price of a mid range Dell, or you have to step up to the MacBook Pro ($2000-$2800). I think this is one major reason why Macs are considered more expensive.
I love how marketers in North America continue to push the idea of "European". We've all seen the infomercials where they state "This is a best selling product in Europe..." or "In Europe this retails for $60 but..."
Infomercials? Your example might as well be a Craigslist add.
The way that it really works in Europe is that you pay for your phone over the course of your contract. For example, if you want a phone that is $600 and you are on a 3 year agreement, you pay $16.67 as a line item on your monthly bill to pay for the cost of the phone. That's much better than the hidden subsidy cost that most (if not all) North American carriers provide.
This is what Comcast does for people who don't want to use their credit cards on modems or other equipment. Unless I am missing something I don't see anything different here. Also there are hidden cost in the European plans, they are just put in different places. An example might be subsidizing roaming plans by increasing other charges.
Apparently that was too subtle for you, and for the person that modded you "Insightful".
No I got that part. I just wasn't being subtle about the fact that I found other aspects of your post more interesting.
If your comparison didn't have the effect that you expected, you might want to consider why you used it in the first place. Your argument was simple enough that it was not needed to clarify anything. In addition, your choice of a comparison was dramatic enough that if a reader ignored your real argument, you deserved it.
If you want people to focus on the real point that you are trying to make with your comparison, then don't use emotionally charged scenarios to make things sound overly dramatic.
Yeah, weird how they didn't even explain that in the article. Oh wait... they did!
He never said they didn't explain it, he just said it was weird. Despite the explanation it's still weird that Japan is a single entry. There is just as much reason to at least give Tokyo a separate entry.
I don't think the explanation is accurate. After reading the article, I think the more likely reason is that the authors are just more familiar with the Bay Area than they are with many of these other places. The Japan entry for example reads more like something copied from tourist literature. Here is an example:
it is also far more advanced in a number of areas such as gaming consoles and smartphones.
Anyone familiar with Japan and the consumers there would know that Japanese Smartphones are not more advanced, most of the popular and advanced phones are not Smartphones but clam shell phones with numeric key pads. In fact most of the actual smartphones you see in Japan are not Japanese, they are American or Chinese. I'm not merely trying to correct him, just point out that the real explanation probably has a lot more to do with the authors having token incorrect information about some of these other places and having first hand info about the bay area.
"ask a kid who's been raped by his priest for 5 years if he thinks what the priest is doing is wrong; you'll be surpised to find that the kid EXPECTS that from priests and thinks that priests who dont rape him dont really love god."
Do you think what the priest is doing to you is wrong?.
What defines a service pack these days? I keep seeing the term thrown around every time someone thinks an OS has similarities to a previous version? Is that really what a service pack is because I have installed them before and have never experienced the amount of changes I have seen in 7. Is there really a Windows service pack that has that many UI changes? I'm not saying they reinvented the wheel, but I'm definitely seeing changes beyond what I have seen in any service pack.
There are benefits to seeing and even using a product in person as opposed to reading reviews and looking at images. I buy plenty of things online but it's nice to see the build quality of a product and receive it as soon as you pay for it. So it is a drawback for the consumer if there isn't a good selection of retail stores and online retailers are the only option.
An infant born in America will grow up in an American cultural environment, and will have American probabilities for growing up to be a decent person.
I'd hate to break it to you, but the rest of the world is a big place, and while you might consider yourself moraly superior to large parts of the world, that world (usualy people in that same large part that you feel superior to) considers what you feel is a 'decent person' to be a guntoting fanatic that's loud obnoxious and has an inflated sense of selfworth because he has been indoctrinated from birth that the US of A is the best.
I'm not American
And, like my neighbour, I also am the queen of Sheba
Why is it hard to believe that he's not American? I mean with the world being such a big place like you say it is?
I think that the forums here have conclusively proven that only Americans could be so crass. Are you suggesting that acting that way is just part of the human condition for some people? A bold statement sir.
No, many people in Tokyo would describe the situation the same way, so its not an American thing, it's really just common sense. In fact it's more of an American thing to consider this a bold statement because the standards for political correctness are different in Japan. Also I'm not sure if he is American. The formatting of his post looks Japanese, so I'm not sure. Other than that it was the most accurate post I have seen on the subject here, down to the quotes.
That's true, at least for Google and Microsoft, but don't try to lump the EU into that same category.
He's talking about motive and your point really does not address that. You are just making motive, stated intentions, and outcome sound ambiguous.
Why can't I lump them with Google and Microsoft? You really didn't explain this. You basically agree with them and think they are acting in the interests of the consumer because you think "that prosecuting a monopoly is a Good Thing." It might be a good thing but that argument has nothing to do with identifying the EU's true motive. That's really up to your own personal discretion. I'm more likely to think that they are just acting in their own economic interests with no regard for the consumer, and that is a valid opinion regardless of whether this should be done or not.
Obviously a troll, but I'll bite.
I don't think it was a troll. I wonder similar things myself. Maybe it's my lack of understanding. Maybe I just think real standards like these should be set ahead of time regardless of whether a monopoly is involved. I really don't think the issue is so black and white and that is one of the major problems.
But what's stupid is attacking everyone involved like no one has the consumer's best interests at heart.
How is this stupid? Suddenly mistrusting the government's intentions is wrong because you agree with the outcome. It's perfectly reasonable to assume that none of these parties has the best consumer's interest at heart. The only reason that such a reasonable assumption is suddenly stupid is because Microsoft is involved. If Microsoft were making this claim along with the US government, and the it did happen to benefit the consumer, such a comment about interests would be laughed at.
I wouldn't even call this a name, it's more like a descriptive sentence.
This naming scheme has irritated me for quite some time. I kind like the some of the codenames they use but somewhere along the line, I suspect marketing, they have a system of using names that they think are plain, intuitive and include the existing name of whichever parent product they are associated with. This usually means the name will end up being too long and far from iconic. I have never been a fan of the iPoop style names but even those are better. Then you look at some of the Mozilla products (forget about seamonkey or whatever it's called) and it's pretty clear that naming products with the opposite approach can often be more effective.
Sounds like too much time is being spent trying to replace technical/programmer writers and editors with the wrong people. Marketing really should not be editing or completing technical documentation. They can provide input through a technical writer or technical editor who should also be up to speed with legal, marketing, and even localization issues in the event that the company doesn't have or hire anyone who does localization. If there is any localization issues you are going to have major problems here. Anyways if they are serious about documentation they should have at leas one real technical writer involved.
Yes but Americans can travel, work in other countries, etc and manage their account through the website. Instant watch would be great for this.I was able to log on to my account, rate movies, put my account on hold etc from Tokyo. The problem is using instant watch. You have to configure a work around for that one which is too bad because when I'm in Japan that's the only time I'm with people who are happy with Netfix's selection on instant watch.
...Because people will now use decent operating systems that don't go into kernel panic half the time? Because viruses sharply decrease? Because there is no monopoly? Because of the growth of OSS?
Look at Red Hat and look at the future when MS dies. Red Hat isn't exactly struggling and yet all their software is pure OSS not even "freeware".
The demise of MS will only lead to better software, more competition, lower prices, and no more annoying unpaid tech support calls from your parents/grandparents/brother/etc.
The reason this sounds good is because it is a wish list, not a real assessment of what would happen. For one I wouldn't assume that everyone would stop using MS products. Second I wouldn't assume that everyone who switched would use OSS instead of going with Apple who was conveniently not mentioned along with any potential consequences.
He said from a normal end user perspective. What he meant by that is speculation but I can easily speculate that he wasn't talking about you. A normal user could just as easily think their browser is broken because adblock or no script prevented them from accessing their banking site and have no clue how to make exceptions or allow certain pages.
Specialty stores and big-box retailers can coexist just fine, but they have to accomodate the local lifestyle and urban design. The problem is with the way most US cities and transportation systems are setup. Being so spread out and having everything designed around cars makes smaller specialty stores less convinient. In places like Tokyo big box retailers and specialty stores really do have their place.
This is modded funny but it's true. The mouse requires a lot less effort than touching your screen. In that sense touch screen is almost a step backwards. The benefits of touch screen are very situational, but it seems like novelty and looks are whats drawing attention to it. I think that the touch screen is often beneficial in situations similar to tablet pc: when you are standing up, and can't easily use a mouse and keyboard.
Right now touch is often being marketed as one size fits all. The success of the iPhone has helped support that(not trying to diss Apple so please don't hurt me). The use of touch screen on phones is somewhat different though. Touch screen works better for phones when you are stationary. When you are on the go and want to type without looking at your screen the whole time, touch screen is not the best method for input.
In vehicles there are other issues. Touch screen has the benefit of saving space by combining the screen and the input devices. The problem is that it requires more attention that may be better focused on driving. With conventional controls you don't necessarily need to look away from the road for a split second.
I think the problem is that instead of finding the best use for things, people tend to follow all or nothing trends. Every new trend is supposed to completely replace the old one. At least that's how the media often presents things. Saying the mouse is going to die pretty much means they want to get credit for predicting the latest fad. Touch screen will excel in certain areas and the mouse in others. In a desktop setting, the mouse is generally going to be there fore a very long time.
Slashdot Mirror
How does a state partnership, especially between a huge corporation and it's home state give the appearance of neutrality? If anything such a partnership gives a biased appearance.
I'm Lone Wolf. Are you my dad?
They have always worked diligently on making money, so if breaking anti-trust is going to be less profitable in a given situation, then it is no stretch to suggest that they are trying to avoid it in that case.
They did back down on the Vista security plans because of antitrust threats from 3rd parties. MS doesn't want to get sued, especially in cases where it thinks it might loose, so yes they spend a lot of time making changes so they don't get caught violating anti-trust law. Nobody said they were doing it to make the world a better place.
Both statements are true and not mutually exclusive.
2000-1800 = 200 bucks
200 dollar difference between midrange dell and low end (mid-range spec) macbook pro.
I posted two completely different price ranges. You just picked the high end of one and the low end of the other. Nothing to see there except you trying to twist some numbers. It's a $200 to $1000 difference between a midranged Dell and the low end MacBook Pro, and the $2000 MacBook Pro has lower specs all around than a $1600 Dell XPS Studio notebook.
holy crap call the cops what a fraud.
Is it a requirement that you get overly dramatic when you talk about an Apple product?
I have always found it's the midrange and not just the low end Dell machines that have much more competitive pricing than Mac notebooks. The XPS and Studio XPS notebooks (~$1000-$1800) are really at the sweet spot of performance and pricing, while Macs really have a big gap here. You can get a MacBook which has a low end graphics card for the price of a mid range Dell, or you have to step up to the MacBook Pro ($2000-$2800). I think this is one major reason why Macs are considered more expensive.
Since he is talking about domestic politics this is irrelevant.
I love how marketers in North America continue to push the idea of "European". We've all seen the infomercials where they state "This is a best selling product in Europe..." or "In Europe this retails for $60 but..."
Infomercials? Your example might as well be a Craigslist add.
The way that it really works in Europe is that you pay for your phone over the course of your contract. For example, if you want a phone that is $600 and you are on a 3 year agreement, you pay $16.67 as a line item on your monthly bill to pay for the cost of the phone. That's much better than the hidden subsidy cost that most (if not all) North American carriers provide.
This is what Comcast does for people who don't want to use their credit cards on modems or other equipment. Unless I am missing something I don't see anything different here. Also there are hidden cost in the European plans, they are just put in different places. An example might be subsidizing roaming plans by increasing other charges.
Apparently that was too subtle for you, and for the person that modded you "Insightful".
No I got that part. I just wasn't being subtle about the fact that I found other aspects of your post more interesting.
If your comparison didn't have the effect that you expected, you might want to consider why you used it in the first place. Your argument was simple enough that it was not needed to clarify anything. In addition, your choice of a comparison was dramatic enough that if a reader ignored your real argument, you deserved it.
If you want people to focus on the real point that you are trying to make with your comparison, then don't use emotionally charged scenarios to make things sound overly dramatic.
Yeah, weird how they didn't even explain that in the article. Oh wait... they did!
He never said they didn't explain it, he just said it was weird. Despite the explanation it's still weird that Japan is a single entry. There is just as much reason to at least give Tokyo a separate entry.
I don't think the explanation is accurate. After reading the article, I think the more likely reason is that the authors are just more familiar with the Bay Area than they are with many of these other places. The Japan entry for example reads more like something copied from tourist literature. Here is an example:
it is also far more advanced in a number of areas such as gaming consoles and
smartphones.
Anyone familiar with Japan and the consumers there would know that Japanese Smartphones are not more advanced, most of the popular and advanced phones are not Smartphones but clam shell phones with numeric key pads. In fact most of the actual smartphones you see in Japan are not Japanese, they are American or Chinese. I'm not merely trying to correct him, just point out that the real explanation probably has a lot more to do with the authors having token incorrect information about some of these other places and having first hand info about the bay area.
"ask a kid who's been raped by his priest for 5 years if he thinks what the priest is doing is wrong; you'll be surpised to find that the kid EXPECTS that from priests and thinks that priests who dont rape him dont really love god."
Do you think what the priest is doing to you is wrong?.
What makes you think that the people complaining about backwards compatibility are the same people who complained about the Windows security model?
The fact that many people have complained about both in the same post.
What defines a service pack these days? I keep seeing the term thrown around every time someone thinks an OS has similarities to a previous version? Is that really what a service pack is because I have installed them before and have never experienced the amount of changes I have seen in 7. Is there really a Windows service pack that has that many UI changes? I'm not saying they reinvented the wheel, but I'm definitely seeing changes beyond what I have seen in any service pack.
There are benefits to seeing and even using a product in person as opposed to reading reviews and looking at images. I buy plenty of things online but it's nice to see the build quality of a product and receive it as soon as you pay for it. So it is a drawback for the consumer if there isn't a good selection of retail stores and online retailers are the only option.
An infant born in America will grow up in an American cultural environment, and will have American probabilities for growing up to be a decent person.
I'd hate to break it to you, but the rest of the world is a big place, and while you might consider yourself moraly superior to large parts of the world, that world (usualy people in that same large part that you feel superior to) considers what you feel is a 'decent person' to be a guntoting fanatic that's loud obnoxious and has an inflated sense of selfworth because he has been indoctrinated from birth that the US of A is the best.
I'm not American
And, like my neighbour, I also am the queen of Sheba
Why is it hard to believe that he's not American? I mean with the world being such a big place like you say it is?
It's all about the bling (TM)
I think that the forums here have conclusively proven that only Americans could be so crass. Are you suggesting that acting that way is just part of the human condition for some people? A bold statement sir.
No, many people in Tokyo would describe the situation the same way, so its not an American thing, it's really just common sense. In fact it's more of an American thing to consider this a bold statement because the standards for political correctness are different in Japan. Also I'm not sure if he is American. The formatting of his post looks Japanese, so I'm not sure. Other than that it was the most accurate post I have seen on the subject here, down to the quotes.
That's true, at least for Google and Microsoft, but don't try to lump the EU into that same category.
He's talking about motive and your point really does not address that. You are just making motive, stated intentions, and outcome sound ambiguous. Why can't I lump them with Google and Microsoft? You really didn't explain this. You basically agree with them and think they are acting in the interests of the consumer because you think "that prosecuting a monopoly is a Good Thing." It might be a good thing but that argument has nothing to do with identifying the EU's true motive. That's really up to your own personal discretion. I'm more likely to think that they are just acting in their own economic interests with no regard for the consumer, and that is a valid opinion regardless of whether this should be done or not.
Obviously a troll, but I'll bite.
I don't think it was a troll. I wonder similar things myself. Maybe it's my lack of understanding. Maybe I just think real standards like these should be set ahead of time regardless of whether a monopoly is involved. I really don't think the issue is so black and white and that is one of the major problems.
But what's stupid is attacking everyone involved like no one has the consumer's best interests at heart.
How is this stupid? Suddenly mistrusting the government's intentions is wrong because you agree with the outcome. It's perfectly reasonable to assume that none of these parties has the best consumer's interest at heart. The only reason that such a reasonable assumption is suddenly stupid is because Microsoft is involved. If Microsoft were making this claim along with the US government, and the it did happen to benefit the consumer, such a comment about interests would be laughed at.
I wouldn't even call this a name, it's more like a descriptive sentence. This naming scheme has irritated me for quite some time. I kind like the some of the codenames they use but somewhere along the line, I suspect marketing, they have a system of using names that they think are plain, intuitive and include the existing name of whichever parent product they are associated with. This usually means the name will end up being too long and far from iconic. I have never been a fan of the iPoop style names but even those are better. Then you look at some of the Mozilla products (forget about seamonkey or whatever it's called) and it's pretty clear that naming products with the opposite approach can often be more effective.
Sounds like too much time is being spent trying to replace technical/programmer writers and editors with the wrong people. Marketing really should not be editing or completing technical documentation. They can provide input through a technical writer or technical editor who should also be up to speed with legal, marketing, and even localization issues in the event that the company doesn't have or hire anyone who does localization. If there is any localization issues you are going to have major problems here. Anyways if they are serious about documentation they should have at leas one real technical writer involved.
It's a preview for the next season of "The Office." Apparently Angela got a new cat. Hopefully Dwight disposes of it promptly...
Yes but Americans can travel, work in other countries, etc and manage their account through the website. Instant watch would be great for this.I was able to log on to my account, rate movies, put my account on hold etc from Tokyo. The problem is using instant watch. You have to configure a work around for that one which is too bad because when I'm in Japan that's the only time I'm with people who are happy with Netfix's selection on instant watch.
"Oh wait, I have to buy a PC to do WM development! Bummer."
Is there something about Bootcamp that prevents you from doing WM development on a Mac?
That being said, he never said or really implied that WM development would be different. He was just commenting on the topic.
...Because people will now use decent operating systems that don't go into kernel panic half the time? Because viruses sharply decrease? Because there is no monopoly? Because of the growth of OSS? Look at Red Hat and look at the future when MS dies. Red Hat isn't exactly struggling and yet all their software is pure OSS not even "freeware". The demise of MS will only lead to better software, more competition, lower prices, and no more annoying unpaid tech support calls from your parents/grandparents/brother/etc.
The reason this sounds good is because it is a wish list, not a real assessment of what would happen. For one I wouldn't assume that everyone would stop using MS products. Second I wouldn't assume that everyone who switched would use OSS instead of going with Apple who was conveniently not mentioned along with any potential consequences.
He said from a normal end user perspective. What he meant by that is speculation but I can easily speculate that he wasn't talking about you. A normal user could just as easily think their browser is broken because adblock or no script prevented them from accessing their banking site and have no clue how to make exceptions or allow certain pages.
Specialty stores and big-box retailers can coexist just fine, but they have to accomodate the local lifestyle and urban design. The problem is with the way most US cities and transportation systems are setup. Being so spread out and having everything designed around cars makes smaller specialty stores less convinient. In places like Tokyo big box retailers and specialty stores really do have their place.
This is modded funny but it's true. The mouse requires a lot less effort than touching your screen. In that sense touch screen is almost a step backwards. The benefits of touch screen are very situational, but it seems like novelty and looks are whats drawing attention to it. I think that the touch screen is often beneficial in situations similar to tablet pc: when you are standing up, and can't easily use a mouse and keyboard.
Right now touch is often being marketed as one size fits all. The success of the iPhone has helped support that(not trying to diss Apple so please don't hurt me). The use of touch screen on phones is somewhat different though. Touch screen works better for phones when you are stationary. When you are on the go and want to type without looking at your screen the whole time, touch screen is not the best method for input.
In vehicles there are other issues. Touch screen has the benefit of saving space by combining the screen and the input devices. The problem is that it requires more attention that may be better focused on driving. With conventional controls you don't necessarily need to look away from the road for a split second.
I think the problem is that instead of finding the best use for things, people tend to follow all or nothing trends. Every new trend is supposed to completely replace the old one. At least that's how the media often presents things. Saying the mouse is going to die pretty much means they want to get credit for predicting the latest fad. Touch screen will excel in certain areas and the mouse in others. In a desktop setting, the mouse is generally going to be there fore a very long time.