I've seen a desktop PC or two ignite - not just smoke, but a nice flamey burnout. The source of the problem in every one I've inspected was an electrolytic capacitor failure. Those components are under a lot of stress when they're used in switch-mode power circuits - such as the main power supply or the CPU voltage regulator.
Fortunately, these fires self-extinguish very quickly when you disconnect the power - if your PC (or whatever random piece of tech) starts smoking / burning, pull the plug. These failures are only really dangerous in unattended machines - then this failure can and does result in a fire.
Those little capacitors are relatively expensive, and manufacturers who are doing everything they can to shave costs discover they can replace the low-ESR computer grade electrolytics with cheap aluminum electrolytics - and then take it another step by sourcing the cheapest cheap caps they can buy. They manufactures know that this choice will result in a much shorter life for the equipment but those failures will occur after the warranty has expired so it's OK with them.
Remember this next time you buy yet another power supply for your computer. It could have lasted 10 or more years, but the manufacturer saved a couple of bucks on the components so it died after a year or two. A fire caused by these cheap parts is actually fairly rare - less than one in a thousand machines (probably much less).
The way to eliminate the majority of these fires? The manufacturers should spend the money it takes to use the right components - capacitors designed and rated for high temperature / switch-mode operation. That would also make power supplies last the life of the machine, slightly reduce power consumption, etc. But as long as consumers insist on the lowest price for products the manufactures will continue to give them what they are asking for.
Imagine a shelf at the computer parts store: there's two different 400 watt PC power supplies for sale. One sells for $40 and the one next to it speaks of high quality parts and long lifetime and sells for $60. Which one do you think most consumers would buy?
I purchased a copy of Windows 386 - and after trying for weeks to make it work tried to return it for a refund. Since then, MS has about as good a chance of me buying anything from them as I have of them actually refunding my purchase price on that useless product.
That's what they keep trying to ignore; the people like me who they've screwed over the years. It doesn't matter how much advertising they buy and how sweetly they sing their own praises - I'm still waiting for that refund. And I'm not ashamed to tell any and every one I can about how they took my money and gave me NOTHING USEFUL.
So, Bill - how do you sleep at night? You can scream all you want about people taking your product and using it for free - but until you deal fairly with all the people who have given you money and didn't get what they paid for your claim to the "high ground" rings falsely. You're just a thief and a fraud and all your bazillion dollars doesn't change that one little bit.
Sheesh, I try to be reasonable in my postings but for Mr. Gates what I really want to do is offer him a hearty "Fuck You!"
The Zune is just another example of what Microsoft has been doing for years - look for other markets where someone's making money then jump into that market and try to out-compete the dominant player(s).
It worked for web browsers and maybe mouses - but their efforts to penetrate the consumer electronics market in any meaningful way have so far failed to gain any traction.
They've got lots of cash, so they can "compete" while they're losing money and do it for years. Who knows, Xbox might take over the game console market someday. Maybe Zune will amount to more than a poor copy of last year's product. On the Xbox front, they can buy up game developers and convert their products to Xbox-only products. I don't see that kind of business plan working with music players, though. Even if they negotiate exclusive distribution rights for many important acts - the market will ignore those restrictions as it has already shown itself capable of doing. Which act wants to be the first to release "Zune only" tunes? Let's keep in mind the percentage of the portable music player market that Zune represents.
And they've already burned a lot of bridges - remember "Plays For Sure"? They signed up player manufacturers right and left - then left them high and dry. Their potential customers are more than a little aware of this too - who wants to buy a player that you might not be able to purchase any music for in a year or two?
Simply the sort of thing that a Republican governor would do. Protect the interests of the common man when it might cost the corporations a little profit? Nope; not the Republican way...
For this to actually work they'd need not only to have a sufficient number of these players in the hands of listeners, they'd also need to have more material available than just Sony and Universal stuff. It's not even clear if Sony Records is on board for this ill-fated venture.
First (and fatal) flaw: if you're going to roll the cost of the music into the price of the player then it's going to be far more expensive than any other portable player. Even a "minimal" 4 GB player holds about 800 tunes - even if the labels are unusually generous and only charge 50 cents per tune as a license fee - that's a $400 surcharge over the price of the player hardware.
But it probably won't get to the point where these players are being ignored by shoppers. If there's a fixed fee up front for all the music you can play and multiple labels involved - can you imagine the discussions about who gets how much of that license fee? Those people are every bit as bad as you imagine and this alone will prevent any meaningful cooperation between the labels.
So things aren't going to change any time soon - portable music players will continue to be loaded from CDs and "other distribution systems" with a very small number of purchased digital tracks.
Much of the "hacking" is done by young people with an "I'll show you!" kind of attitude. Listening in on some in-car conversation isn't much fun, and unlocking doors provides no feedback. But if you could stall the cars - now we're getting into "watch me do this" territory.
This would elevate the DOS attack to a new level. Download the script, run it, see the story on tonight's news. Great fun...
The targeted ads are a problem; eBay acts as an auction house and those aren't places where advertising is customary or expected. It's correctable at small effort, though - you can turn off targeted ads in your preferences. That won't eliminate the ads, though - just the targeting.
(Insert ad here:) Get Firefox with the AdBlock plugin!
The thing they're doing now that is starting to annoy me are the ads that they insert into the navigation. Click on My eBay, get a full page ad. Click on the obscure link in the ad to go to your My eBay page. Tip to eBay: this is counter productive. This kind of user-hostile advertising only serves to annoy your customers and ultimately reduces your profits.
In spite of what many say, searching out and downloading videos is not exactly easy or convenient. And the quality of the downloaded video may be anything from great to awful; you won't know until after you've spent hours / days downloading that huge file.
But people do this - and often it's not because they're cheap, it's because it's the only way they can watch a TV show or movie. When there's no "legal" option for seeing a highly rated show that's not available in your country then the only way that people can see it is to do the pirate thing.
If the media companies would make these products easy to download at a reasonable price they'd tap into a profitable new market. This French "experiment" shows how well; the number of paying users may be dwarfed by the number of pirated copies - but that many paying users signing up this quickly is impressive.
There's a number of problems in our school systems that have been with us for years. School boards have been diverting funds to luxury offices / other perks for a long time. Arrogant control-freak teachers (you'll hold your pencil THIS way because I TOLD YOU TO!) are allowed to teach our children the social skills they'll need in their adult lives.
And the worst thing that they do: they operate under the assumption that all children are the same; sure, there's a few "slow" ones but the rest of them get the same opportunities for education. The classes are targeted to that elusive "average" student - but that was too challenging for the percentage below the peak of the bell curve. So let's dumb it down some; now more children get passing grades. They're also getting less education.
But what about those on the high side of the bell curve? What does the near-genius child think about the classes that were designed to be marginally challenging for a highly functioning moron? It's no wonder that these kids are bored; after going through the textbook on their own in the first week what do you expect them to do for the next 12 weeks?
Some schools have "advanced placement" classes to make an effort to serve the bright kids better. But the material in the advanced class isn't really that much more advanced than the moron-level stuff and the teacher usually (if not always) has no idea about what those "advanced" kids are capable of or what they think about their "special" class.
Each generation there's a small number of children that are unusually intelligent. But the world they see is quite different from what others may see. Imagine holding a conversation with a moron; at an IQ level of 70 he's 30 points under the average of 100. Not too stimulating of a conversation, is it? As a normally intelligent person you'd find a moron to be hard to tolerate for any length of time. Now, try for a moment to imagine that child with an IQ of 130 or more; he's 30 points (or more) above the average. To him, the average person looks like a moron does to the average person. That includes the teacher of that special class.
Anyway, these kids learn to put up with the rest of humanity in whatever way they can - and grow into adults who live in this world but don't feel like part of it. They'll learn more and faster about all the subjects in the textbooks and are usually very capable at any task they put their hand to. But their social development was - well, they were ostracized by their fellow students and misunderstood (and abused, verbally at least) by the teachers who thought their "different" was wrong.
This is one of the greatest failures of our school system. These children, whose natural talents could make the world a better place in so many ways - our schools allow them to be tortured by the "normals" and the teachers are no help to them (at best). They learn to distrust their fellow man, learn that authority figures are often evil, and eventually learn on their own to take on "protective coloration" so they can blend in with the rest of the herd. They're never comfortable in that herd and prefer to spend time in isolation or with small groups of trusted friends.
I'll bet you know some people who fit this description; you might even be one. Are they achieving the great things they're capable of - or was yet another generation of genius and near-genius children wasted?
All the problems I touched on here and many more have been part of the school system for generations. How to fix them? It's going to be very difficult. Those school board members got their position through politics and although there may be one this isn't corrupt it's just a matter of time before he sells out too. Better teachers? It's hard to hire quality teachers at the salary that the school board can afford to pay after they buy some more new art for their offices. And genius / near-genius teachers so that the intelligent children can be adequately served? They'd have to overcome their deep-seated dislike for the scho
The company known as AT&T isn't the same AT&T that we knew in the past. All it is now is just a name that a corporation with an incredibly bad reputation for customer service is hiding behind. When they've trashed this brand they'll rename the company and go on abusing their customers.
Remember Southwestern Bell (SBC)? I'll trace the history through cell phone service providers because that's the information I have.
When I got my first cell phone in California, it was with PacBell Mobile. Good company, decent customer service. Then SBC bought PacBell out - the cell service provider name changed to PacBell Wireless, then Cingular. Customer service took a dive, service became more spotty and erratic. When the outcry from the customers started getting out of control - hey, presto - now it's called AT&T.
But the company behind the name hasn't changed one little bit. They may say that they wouldn't take action against a subscriber who said something negative about their company - history says otherwise. Consider this: http://pachell.com/
Something you can depend on: they paid a lot to rebrand their company and they'll protect the "integrity" of that brand every way they can. Silencing critics is just plain good business in their world.
I pick up CDs at second-hand stores / CD exchanges, swap meets, sometimes eBay. Occasionally a name-brand electronics retailer will have special pricing on new releases. And don't overlook music clubs - if you pay attention and shop carefully you can get a lot of music for not much money.
All of these methods get you a physical CD that you can play on home or car stereo, rip to MP3 for portable players, etc. Buying a disc may be (or may not be) a little more expensive up front - but you won't have to keep buying the same stuff over and over again as music players evolve.
Amazon MP3 vs. iTunes? If you're one of the - well, one of the ones who filled up your 10,000 song capacity Ipod (or even a small fraction of that) from either of these sources then this may be an important topic for you.
But if you're like the vast majority of Ipod owners, you'll continue ripping CDs and loading MP3s from your "library" as you've been doing all along. On the occasions when you need to own one particular tune right now, it doesn't matter if it's 69 cents or 1.29; what matters is that it's in the catalog of the store you're shopping at. That's never easy to tell with Amazon; they've got a bad habit of putting EVERYTHING in their catalog and taking orders for it - regardless of whether they've actually got the item to sell or can even obtain it.
Personally, I gave up on Amazon after they left me on "backorder" status on a book order for a couple of months before I found out from other sources that the book was out of print. I finally got the book from Ebay for half of what Amazon wanted to sell it for - if they'd had any to sell.
Apple? Say what you will about them, but I've never been left feeling misused after dealing with them. What you get is what it says on the box; no "smoke and mirrors" like Amazon. But neither of them is getting any money from me this month (or next month either). I'll continue to buy CDs at deep discount and load those into Itunes.
This could be a revolutionary product - or something that dies a quick death. The difference is "how much does it cost?"
Even a guess would be helpful. As a "proof of concept" it's pretty well useless - putting memory on a interface card isn't something that was invented recently. Heck, Microsoft was selling memory boards for the PC-XT way back when.
It was a good idea back then and it's still a good idea now - but what's kept it from becoming a widespread technology has always been the price. If they haven't found a way to make it affordable they haven't invented anything.
This might make a good test case for those shrink-wrap EULAs. At best, they're a contract of adhesion - but since you can't see the contract terms until after you've bought the product there's a question about their legitimacy; they very well may not be valid at all.
But since you brought it up, where in the EULA does it say that Microsoft has the right to secretly install software on your PC that will impair its operation? They covered a lot of bases in their EULA, but this isn't one of them.
This little gadget doesn't do Officer Friendly much good as things are; he can run a quick DNA profile on a suspect and then - well, maybe radio it in?
This little gadget doesn't reach its full Orwellian potential until the government completes compiling DNA profiles of every citizen in the country. They'll have this device shrunk down even smaller by then - maybe even have stand-alone installations in high traffic locations.
Beats RFID and "Real ID" all ways - with one of these wirelessly linked to the government's DNA database you've got instant positive ID on any person - right here, right now. And once they get this technology through a few revisions they'll have them sensitive enough to sniff someone's clothing and get enough of a sample for an ID. You might not even know that the undercover cop just ran an ID on you.
If that doesn't give you the chills - imagine what corporations would do with this technology. Sure, they'd say they need it to secure their businesses and such, but get a DNA sniffer going and connected to a few databases and it's a marketer's wet dream. (sniff) That's John Doe; married with three kids, $134,000 yearly income, bisexual, diabetic, credit score 715.
Imagine Minority Report's eye scanners but hidden and being operated by spammers. Brave new world indeed. Best to destroy the prototypes and documentation and maybe even the inventors - before this nightmare takes root.
What Apple is doing when they make comments like "updates may render your altered IPhone inoperative" is making a disclaimer. They aren't planning on bricking your IPhone and it's highly unlikely that such a thing would ever happen.
But in case it does, they're on record as having warned you - which will greatly reduce their liability...
Here's another example of what's wrong in this country. Patents, which were intended to increase innovation and development have been bent into a weapon that corporations can use to destroy any new competition.
We've got patents being issued on obvious / unpatentable ideas and they're being upheld by courts that appear to be working for the big corporations - maybe the judges are clueless or overworked, but decisions like this one don't make the legal system look good.
Jointly, the current giant telecom companies hold patents on everything up to and including transmitting a voice over a wire. Any inventor that comes up with a better or cheaper way to provide voice telephony service will receive the same treatment that Vonage did.
I can't imagine that it's news to any of the readers here, but the primary aim of a public corporation is to make a profit - preferably an ever-increasing level of profit. If you're a corporate leader and you DON'T do this, you'll find yourself in trouble with both the law and your shareholders.
Does this lead to some less-than-desirable results? You bet it does - but if you want to make a change, put your efforts into reforming corporate law in this country, not beating up on the corporations that have to work within those laws.
Assuming this actually turns into something that you can really buy - and it actually is 15% efficient for $1 per watt then this should be the "push" that starts the large-scale conversion of homes and businesses to solar electric power.
More is needed, though - even with cheap and plentiful solar cells you're still up against some physical limits. You've only got so many square feet of southern exposure you can put panels on - and it's not anywhere near enough to support your current level of electric power consumption. Keep in mind that solar panels are rated at "full sun" and in the middle of winter you'll be lucky to get 10% of that on a bright sunny day.
So a good place to start is to find ways to reduce your power consumption. Not "feel good" little reductions, but serious cutbacks. Think about things like skylights in kitchens / bathrooms (free lighting), better insulation and weather stripping, and even some automatic controls on things like lighting, heating, etc. - these will remember to shut off the lights, turn down the heat, etc. even when you forget.
Pick up a small watt meter; something like the "Kill a Watt" can help you discover where the power is going. You'll find that a lot of it is pure waste and easily eliminated. Use task lighting instead of lighting up the whole room / house, look for more ways to reduce consumption.
You'll have to make some concessions and adjustments to live a low power consumption lifestyle - it's up to you to determine how far you can comfortably go. But if you can cut your consumption by 50% or more (very possible) then you're getting to the point where those solar panels can supply enough power to keep you going.
And you're going to need some kind of backup generation for those dark and dreary winter days. House sized generators are usually NOT cost effective, battery banks are expensive and troublesome. Grid-tied systems are clean and easy - but get the facts from your local utility before going this way. Some are very reasonable, some want to pay you their "generated cost" (less than wholesale) for the power you put into the grid - but charge you peak rate for the power you pull from the grid. This can wipe out your solar savings; be careful. Choose which ever of these best fits your needs and hope you never need to use it.
There's two competing ideas going around these days. One is the realization that AT&T is kicking back a percentage of the cell service charges to Apple - the other is that it seems to be easy to unlock the IPhone and use it on another carrier.
There's a little problem with the situation - if you use some tool to unlock a new IPhone and sign it up on T-Mobile or some other GSM carrier then Apple doesn't get that kickback payment each month. You can be sure that the folks at Apple are very aware of this issue and are watching the situation carefully.
As long as unlocking is a fringe activity then it's probably cheaper to let those few go rather than spend some development dollars working up a "fix". But if IPhone unlocking becomes a mainstream easy-to-buy thing then Apple will shut it down. There's some serious money involved here and Apple isn't going to just let it slip away.
The wise person should assume that in the near future Apple or AT&T will move to stop the revenue leak. It might be fun to speculate about how they'll do it, but do it they will.
If you're buying an IPhone with the plan of unlocking it and using it on another carrier - don't be surprised if it stops working; current unlocks are not a long-term solution.
Slashdot Mirror
Fortunately, these fires self-extinguish very quickly when you disconnect the power - if your PC (or whatever random piece of tech) starts smoking / burning, pull the plug. These failures are only really dangerous in unattended machines - then this failure can and does result in a fire.
Those little capacitors are relatively expensive, and manufacturers who are doing everything they can to shave costs discover they can replace the low-ESR computer grade electrolytics with cheap aluminum electrolytics - and then take it another step by sourcing the cheapest cheap caps they can buy. They manufactures know that this choice will result in a much shorter life for the equipment but those failures will occur after the warranty has expired so it's OK with them.
Remember this next time you buy yet another power supply for your computer. It could have lasted 10 or more years, but the manufacturer saved a couple of bucks on the components so it died after a year or two. A fire caused by these cheap parts is actually fairly rare - less than one in a thousand machines (probably much less).
The way to eliminate the majority of these fires? The manufacturers should spend the money it takes to use the right components - capacitors designed and rated for high temperature / switch-mode operation. That would also make power supplies last the life of the machine, slightly reduce power consumption, etc. But as long as consumers insist on the lowest price for products the manufactures will continue to give them what they are asking for.
Imagine a shelf at the computer parts store: there's two different 400 watt PC power supplies for sale. One sells for $40 and the one next to it speaks of high quality parts and long lifetime and sells for $60. Which one do you think most consumers would buy?
As a Firefox / AdBlock Plus user, I wasn't aware of those banner ads either...
That's what they keep trying to ignore; the people like me who they've screwed over the years. It doesn't matter how much advertising they buy and how sweetly they sing their own praises - I'm still waiting for that refund. And I'm not ashamed to tell any and every one I can about how they took my money and gave me NOTHING USEFUL.
So, Bill - how do you sleep at night? You can scream all you want about people taking your product and using it for free - but until you deal fairly with all the people who have given you money and didn't get what they paid for your claim to the "high ground" rings falsely. You're just a thief and a fraud and all your bazillion dollars doesn't change that one little bit.
Sheesh, I try to be reasonable in my postings but for Mr. Gates what I really want to do is offer him a hearty "Fuck You!"
It worked for web browsers and maybe mouses - but their efforts to penetrate the consumer electronics market in any meaningful way have so far failed to gain any traction.
They've got lots of cash, so they can "compete" while they're losing money and do it for years. Who knows, Xbox might take over the game console market someday. Maybe Zune will amount to more than a poor copy of last year's product. On the Xbox front, they can buy up game developers and convert their products to Xbox-only products. I don't see that kind of business plan working with music players, though. Even if they negotiate exclusive distribution rights for many important acts - the market will ignore those restrictions as it has already shown itself capable of doing. Which act wants to be the first to release "Zune only" tunes? Let's keep in mind the percentage of the portable music player market that Zune represents.
And they've already burned a lot of bridges - remember "Plays For Sure"? They signed up player manufacturers right and left - then left them high and dry. Their potential customers are more than a little aware of this too - who wants to buy a player that you might not be able to purchase any music for in a year or two?
Simply the sort of thing that a Republican governor would do. Protect the interests of the common man when it might cost the corporations a little profit? Nope; not the Republican way...
First (and fatal) flaw: if you're going to roll the cost of the music into the price of the player then it's going to be far more expensive than any other portable player. Even a "minimal" 4 GB player holds about 800 tunes - even if the labels are unusually generous and only charge 50 cents per tune as a license fee - that's a $400 surcharge over the price of the player hardware.
But it probably won't get to the point where these players are being ignored by shoppers. If there's a fixed fee up front for all the music you can play and multiple labels involved - can you imagine the discussions about who gets how much of that license fee? Those people are every bit as bad as you imagine and this alone will prevent any meaningful cooperation between the labels.
So things aren't going to change any time soon - portable music players will continue to be loaded from CDs and "other distribution systems" with a very small number of purchased digital tracks.
Something tells me that this is mostly fantasy and the time estimate is a SWAG...
This would elevate the DOS attack to a new level. Download the script, run it, see the story on tonight's news. Great fun...
(Insert ad here:) Get Firefox with the AdBlock plugin!
The thing they're doing now that is starting to annoy me are the ads that they insert into the navigation. Click on My eBay, get a full page ad. Click on the obscure link in the ad to go to your My eBay page. Tip to eBay: this is counter productive. This kind of user-hostile advertising only serves to annoy your customers and ultimately reduces your profits.
Hey Steve! Don't forget the rule of mudslinging contests: it's not how much you sling, it's how much that sticks to you that counts.
But people do this - and often it's not because they're cheap, it's because it's the only way they can watch a TV show or movie. When there's no "legal" option for seeing a highly rated show that's not available in your country then the only way that people can see it is to do the pirate thing.
If the media companies would make these products easy to download at a reasonable price they'd tap into a profitable new market. This French "experiment" shows how well; the number of paying users may be dwarfed by the number of pirated copies - but that many paying users signing up this quickly is impressive.
And the worst thing that they do: they operate under the assumption that all children are the same; sure, there's a few "slow" ones but the rest of them get the same opportunities for education. The classes are targeted to that elusive "average" student - but that was too challenging for the percentage below the peak of the bell curve. So let's dumb it down some; now more children get passing grades. They're also getting less education.
But what about those on the high side of the bell curve? What does the near-genius child think about the classes that were designed to be marginally challenging for a highly functioning moron? It's no wonder that these kids are bored; after going through the textbook on their own in the first week what do you expect them to do for the next 12 weeks?
Some schools have "advanced placement" classes to make an effort to serve the bright kids better. But the material in the advanced class isn't really that much more advanced than the moron-level stuff and the teacher usually (if not always) has no idea about what those "advanced" kids are capable of or what they think about their "special" class.
Each generation there's a small number of children that are unusually intelligent. But the world they see is quite different from what others may see. Imagine holding a conversation with a moron; at an IQ level of 70 he's 30 points under the average of 100. Not too stimulating of a conversation, is it? As a normally intelligent person you'd find a moron to be hard to tolerate for any length of time. Now, try for a moment to imagine that child with an IQ of 130 or more; he's 30 points (or more) above the average. To him, the average person looks like a moron does to the average person. That includes the teacher of that special class.
Anyway, these kids learn to put up with the rest of humanity in whatever way they can - and grow into adults who live in this world but don't feel like part of it. They'll learn more and faster about all the subjects in the textbooks and are usually very capable at any task they put their hand to. But their social development was - well, they were ostracized by their fellow students and misunderstood (and abused, verbally at least) by the teachers who thought their "different" was wrong.
This is one of the greatest failures of our school system. These children, whose natural talents could make the world a better place in so many ways - our schools allow them to be tortured by the "normals" and the teachers are no help to them (at best). They learn to distrust their fellow man, learn that authority figures are often evil, and eventually learn on their own to take on "protective coloration" so they can blend in with the rest of the herd. They're never comfortable in that herd and prefer to spend time in isolation or with small groups of trusted friends.
I'll bet you know some people who fit this description; you might even be one. Are they achieving the great things they're capable of - or was yet another generation of genius and near-genius children wasted?
All the problems I touched on here and many more have been part of the school system for generations. How to fix them? It's going to be very difficult. Those school board members got their position through politics and although there may be one this isn't corrupt it's just a matter of time before he sells out too. Better teachers? It's hard to hire quality teachers at the salary that the school board can afford to pay after they buy some more new art for their offices. And genius / near-genius teachers so that the intelligent children can be adequately served? They'd have to overcome their deep-seated dislike for the scho
Remember Southwestern Bell (SBC)? I'll trace the history through cell phone service providers because that's the information I have.
When I got my first cell phone in California, it was with PacBell Mobile. Good company, decent customer service. Then SBC bought PacBell out - the cell service provider name changed to PacBell Wireless, then Cingular. Customer service took a dive, service became more spotty and erratic. When the outcry from the customers started getting out of control - hey, presto - now it's called AT&T.
But the company behind the name hasn't changed one little bit. They may say that they wouldn't take action against a subscriber who said something negative about their company - history says otherwise. Consider this: http://pachell.com/
Something you can depend on: they paid a lot to rebrand their company and they'll protect the "integrity" of that brand every way they can. Silencing critics is just plain good business in their world.
All of these methods get you a physical CD that you can play on home or car stereo, rip to MP3 for portable players, etc. Buying a disc may be (or may not be) a little more expensive up front - but you won't have to keep buying the same stuff over and over again as music players evolve.
But if you're like the vast majority of Ipod owners, you'll continue ripping CDs and loading MP3s from your "library" as you've been doing all along. On the occasions when you need to own one particular tune right now, it doesn't matter if it's 69 cents or 1.29; what matters is that it's in the catalog of the store you're shopping at. That's never easy to tell with Amazon; they've got a bad habit of putting EVERYTHING in their catalog and taking orders for it - regardless of whether they've actually got the item to sell or can even obtain it.
Personally, I gave up on Amazon after they left me on "backorder" status on a book order for a couple of months before I found out from other sources that the book was out of print. I finally got the book from Ebay for half of what Amazon wanted to sell it for - if they'd had any to sell.
Apple? Say what you will about them, but I've never been left feeling misused after dealing with them. What you get is what it says on the box; no "smoke and mirrors" like Amazon. But neither of them is getting any money from me this month (or next month either). I'll continue to buy CDs at deep discount and load those into Itunes.
Even a guess would be helpful. As a "proof of concept" it's pretty well useless - putting memory on a interface card isn't something that was invented recently. Heck, Microsoft was selling memory boards for the PC-XT way back when.
It was a good idea back then and it's still a good idea now - but what's kept it from becoming a widespread technology has always been the price. If they haven't found a way to make it affordable they haven't invented anything.
But since you brought it up, where in the EULA does it say that Microsoft has the right to secretly install software on your PC that will impair its operation? They covered a lot of bases in their EULA, but this isn't one of them.
I think that just about covers it; IANAL but I suspect a crime has been committed.
This little gadget doesn't reach its full Orwellian potential until the government completes compiling DNA profiles of every citizen in the country. They'll have this device shrunk down even smaller by then - maybe even have stand-alone installations in high traffic locations.
Beats RFID and "Real ID" all ways - with one of these wirelessly linked to the government's DNA database you've got instant positive ID on any person - right here, right now. And once they get this technology through a few revisions they'll have them sensitive enough to sniff someone's clothing and get enough of a sample for an ID. You might not even know that the undercover cop just ran an ID on you.
If that doesn't give you the chills - imagine what corporations would do with this technology. Sure, they'd say they need it to secure their businesses and such, but get a DNA sniffer going and connected to a few databases and it's a marketer's wet dream. (sniff) That's John Doe; married with three kids, $134,000 yearly income, bisexual, diabetic, credit score 715.
Imagine Minority Report's eye scanners but hidden and being operated by spammers. Brave new world indeed. Best to destroy the prototypes and documentation and maybe even the inventors - before this nightmare takes root.
But in case it does, they're on record as having warned you - which will greatly reduce their liability...
We've got patents being issued on obvious / unpatentable ideas and they're being upheld by courts that appear to be working for the big corporations - maybe the judges are clueless or overworked, but decisions like this one don't make the legal system look good.
Jointly, the current giant telecom companies hold patents on everything up to and including transmitting a voice over a wire. Any inventor that comes up with a better or cheaper way to provide voice telephony service will receive the same treatment that Vonage did.
Does this lead to some less-than-desirable results? You bet it does - but if you want to make a change, put your efforts into reforming corporate law in this country, not beating up on the corporations that have to work within those laws.
More is needed, though - even with cheap and plentiful solar cells you're still up against some physical limits. You've only got so many square feet of southern exposure you can put panels on - and it's not anywhere near enough to support your current level of electric power consumption. Keep in mind that solar panels are rated at "full sun" and in the middle of winter you'll be lucky to get 10% of that on a bright sunny day.
So a good place to start is to find ways to reduce your power consumption. Not "feel good" little reductions, but serious cutbacks. Think about things like skylights in kitchens / bathrooms (free lighting), better insulation and weather stripping, and even some automatic controls on things like lighting, heating, etc. - these will remember to shut off the lights, turn down the heat, etc. even when you forget.
Pick up a small watt meter; something like the "Kill a Watt" can help you discover where the power is going. You'll find that a lot of it is pure waste and easily eliminated. Use task lighting instead of lighting up the whole room / house, look for more ways to reduce consumption.
You'll have to make some concessions and adjustments to live a low power consumption lifestyle - it's up to you to determine how far you can comfortably go. But if you can cut your consumption by 50% or more (very possible) then you're getting to the point where those solar panels can supply enough power to keep you going.
And you're going to need some kind of backup generation for those dark and dreary winter days. House sized generators are usually NOT cost effective, battery banks are expensive and troublesome. Grid-tied systems are clean and easy - but get the facts from your local utility before going this way. Some are very reasonable, some want to pay you their "generated cost" (less than wholesale) for the power you put into the grid - but charge you peak rate for the power you pull from the grid. This can wipe out your solar savings; be careful. Choose which ever of these best fits your needs and hope you never need to use it.
There's a little problem with the situation - if you use some tool to unlock a new IPhone and sign it up on T-Mobile or some other GSM carrier then Apple doesn't get that kickback payment each month. You can be sure that the folks at Apple are very aware of this issue and are watching the situation carefully.
As long as unlocking is a fringe activity then it's probably cheaper to let those few go rather than spend some development dollars working up a "fix". But if IPhone unlocking becomes a mainstream easy-to-buy thing then Apple will shut it down. There's some serious money involved here and Apple isn't going to just let it slip away.
The wise person should assume that in the near future Apple or AT&T will move to stop the revenue leak. It might be fun to speculate about how they'll do it, but do it they will.
If you're buying an IPhone with the plan of unlocking it and using it on another carrier - don't be surprised if it stops working; current unlocks are not a long-term solution.
So our clueless administration is following in the footsteps of Tricky Dick Nixon; cover up, cover up, oops...
It didn't work very well back then, and it's not going to work very well today either. Too many people know about what they're trying to hide.
I hadn't thought about this before, but I'm now wondering if GW is going to finish his second term. History is repeating itself...