...that every single move taken by the tobacco industry in the last 15 years is going to be repeated in exact fashion by the oil industry?
- This particular case is exactly the same as the tobacco industry paying to have scientists say there was no connection between smoking and cancer (or any of the other ailments).
- The paying off of lobbyists is normal, but was made infamous by "big tobacco". Now it's "Big Oil" making sure senators get to make frequent holidays in the Grand Caymans.
- Some might even point out that all of the gas guzzling autos are the cool toys for the younger crowd...just as people might say Joe Camel was targeted at America's youth. I, of course, would not make such a brash statement; but only to say some might.
There are plenty of other examples of the pattern being repeated, but I'm too tired to write them all out. Short version, the only thing that's changed is the product
I'm going out on a limb here, but I suspect this is much less about charging money for drivers (though it could be an additional step to charge money for OS add-ons). I think this is supposed to be an anti-piracy step. In this way, not only does a person have to crack the serial number for the OS, the license activation, and the WGA piracy detection...now they are also forcing you to crack the DRM mechanism preventing you from installing drivers for your hardware.
I have to give them credit. The serial number, license activation, and WGA software were all really obvious and easily broken protection methods...but this one would possibly be pretty tough.
I think another comment was on the right path, suggesting that this will drive a lot of people off of windows and onto linux. All MS is doing is cutting down on the number of pirates using windows. Less users means less people pirating and using other software on windows. Less pirates using the software also means more people who are telling all of their friends about a different (and legal) way to have free software. Obviously, as more people switch away, it's that many more people that will also encourage their friends to switch. If microsoft ever uses this technology on actual drivers and not just special case software, it'll likely drive people away at a pretty alarming rate.
I give a little credit to this article. They do mention that they are considering a switch away from apple to a completely different brand that actually meets their needs more fully.
I agree with what you're saying, but I think that this particular market can't be criticized. Since I don't want to be the target of one of these guys binge drinking weekends, I'll be polite in saying this; These guys aren't exactly a discerning market when it comes to technology. They only know about what is advertised, something that Apple is pretty good at. If we heard about scientists of movie execs reliant on ipods, I'd happily mock them to their faces, as they should care more about screen quality, flexibility, features, etc.
Although this is slightly off topic, I think it addresses your point. I am strongly in favor of seeing apple get smacked for using generally anti-competitive measures like you've described, especially the connectors in airplanes or the iTunes (DRM) store. But I also believe in letting companies do things as long as it doesn't prevent another company from operating. I would say this is a good reason for other companies to release ipod connector conversion kits. After all, if an airline is going to cater to a specific connector, the courts would be very hard pressed to uphold any claims Apple made since it's only a move to put all devices onto an even competitive ground. All people want to do is get power, that shouldn't be device specific.
The first priority of Michael Dell should be to improve Dell's lousy customer service and in-source it to US again. Yeah, he's one of the earlier adopters of outsourcing customer support. I hate to say it, but I seriously doubt he's going to reverse that particular decision.
I worked for Dell briefly, an experience I'll be happy not to repeat. The entire company is very shareholder-centric. I really doubt we're going to see a terribly different Dell from what we saw about 5 years ago. They are still going to build dirt-cheap machines for the 'lowest common denominator' people and they are still going to operate with the previously mentioned 'scorched earth' policy towards their hardware suppliers.
I'm pretty certain that Michael Dell is being brought back to keep the stockholders happy and to attempt to restore the image. Few people will remember that he made the company the way it is, and I feel that Kevin Rollins is taking the scapegoat role.
Long gone are the days when Dell computers were the reliable ones that you spent a couple extra hundred on because they really were that good. This is the reason Dell bought Alienware, to try to regain the image of quality machines.
Also, IMHO, I have to agree with another poster as well, most Dell-branded products were pretty horrible. Axim line was alright and the LCD's were pretty good, everything else (including the computers) was pretty poor. Again, just my feelings on 'em...
The industry needs to recognize that it'll be impossible to stop piracy. The more complex, innovative, or intricate the content protection system, the more interest and zeal crackers will have in subverting such protection This is the problem? Sorry, I believe this is the side effect of the problem, that the studios have prioritized copy protection and anti-piracy above user experience.
This article ignores the detail that the people who get their hands on cracking tools, or get their hands on drm-free versions of movies are enjoying a higher quality user experience than those people using legally purchased movies/music. I've heard several accounts of having to fiddle with the connections, or turning the power off and back on again just to get the player to handshake correctly with the TV or to reset the correct in-memory keys. There are also frequent issues with players/tv downsampling video even if everything should be working at the highest possible quality. The article really misses the point that DRM is becoming a cause for piracy rather than a side effect of it.
I'm not an idealistic type...at least not often. I do think sometimes the right thing to do has to be done in the wrong way. Sort of the Robin Hood thing. Sure he was stealing, which was illegal, but he was stealing from manipulative people who perpetuated wrong at every turn. And the end result of his theft was to help far more people.
This kid, in my own opinion, isn't trying to "fight the machine". I believe this kid is simply trying to weasel his way out of getting in serious trouble, and the best way he knows how is to challenge the companies that forged the law rather than challenging the law as it pertains to his case. It's a rare defense, mostly because it doesn't work very often. The difference here from all of the other times this has been tried is that there are some unique elements. First, 5 of the largest companies in the country are targeting a single 16yo boy, which stinks of bullying tactics. Second, the kid is using a counter-offensive that actually speaks to millions of people because it's what everybody is already thinking.
Sure, the kid broke the law. Yeah, he did get caught and he's going to get sued for it, and probably lose. But, and this is a great time for a 'but'...This needs to happen, and it needs to happen now. If it wasn't this kid, it's going to be somebody else who isn't going to capture public attention as well as a minor will. A judge and jury will be far more willing to side with the kid than an adult that could reasonably afford the music.
Sure it'll happen, of course there are companies that will be eager to treat this as a freebie...But who cares? Even a few of the companies that "support" linux aren't all that serious about it half of the time. The burden of support falls on the linux community in the end anyway. At least with an offer like this, it might encourage companies to assign one or two people to lend a hand with keeping the devices supported with the community in creating the drivers, and the support, like normal, will still end up in forums.
In case nobody has noticed, most companies don't do support all that well even under windows. Hey, at the end of the day, as long as the drivers are open sourced, it's better than having binaries that may never see an update.
This is just another senator trying to make his name known.
We've seen bills like this introduced time and time again over Copyrights (in music, movies, software, etc.), Patents, Spam, Pornography, and even Politics (the blogger registration from 2 weeks ago). Each time, one political fruitcake either listens to an ill-informed adviser or simply gets the idea to go overboard for the sake of being the first guy to show "he cares". The problem comes from the fact that the politician doesn't understand the subject, and operate on what their equally ignorant subordinates tell them.
As a result of this, they introduce a bill that dramatically overshoots the mark. Most of the time they get stomped (like the blogger registration) and occasionally they get through (anyone say DMCA?)
This law will get stomped for a series of reasons. Not least of which is the extremely severe measures. Additional problem that will certainly be a breaking point, unless I misread, I believe that "social networking" could possibly be interpreted to include any site that supports account-based forums, even including slashdot.
Here's a simple solution. All of that watchdog software that parents are supposed to have on their computers and schools are supposed to install...Well, let's just add Myspace and Facebook to it. Clearly, the parental tools myspace offers and the watchdog software that theoretically prevents kids from getting to sites without parental permission should make it possible to have fair and reasonable monitoring.
We don't need a legal solution to this "problem", we need to apply the technology we already have and get over it. There's nothing about this problem that requires a solution any different from porn sites...the kids just have to click the button saying "I'm Over 18" and the parents will never be the wiser...but if you block the site from the start, the problem goes away.
Seriously...there's been a decent number of sightings of ice water on Mars including European Space Agency and again recently with NASA.
There's nothing new here. Stating a theory that perhaps less water has disappeared than previously thought? What's expected? Ice is known to have a lower planetary dispersion rate.
To add to all of this, it's scientifically reasonable to assume there should be fairly large quantities of water under the surface. Logic applies, we've seen landforms that support the belief of water having once been on mars, and we've got recent pictures to show some (likely a lot) is still there. Guess what, anybody who knows anything about dessert geography also knows that water naturally burrows below the surface. This is just putting 2+2 together.
What are they going to report on next, the discovery of Magnetic Fields and how they might exist on other planets?
I'm a bit curious, since they've already taken the effort to do a study like this, why did they not also ask what percentage of people have a large collection of legal DVDs and perhaps how many of them use their downloads to screen movies they would consider buying? I only ask, as I know a number of people who do exactly this.
I happen to agree with a lot of other comments, the percentage of people they accuse as to be a huge download mafia is dramatically inaccurate. Even the most conservative math would make their guess unreasonable.
With such a small sample group (which could have been 10-100 times larger if done as a serious internet poll), and the other points mentioned, this is just clearly meant to "shock" people into being more honest. It's a well known trick of manipulating the numbers and hiding behind the guise that it's a survey which MAY be inaccurate. This is also why they didn't bother asking people about how much they spend on legal products.
Not a reliable media. Biological media, especially if it's based on Human DNA would potentially suffer from disease or short lifespan (begging the question of a special environment to keep it functional and stable). Non-living cells of DNA could be used to circumvent disease and lifespan issues, however they would deteriorate far more rapidly under any known method of reading (be it electrical, photo-reactive, irradiated, or chemical)
A further set of issues, irradiation. Especially at such a small size, there's a higher danger of DNA material becoming corrupt due to mutation. Inside of a box filled with magnetic fields, electrical fields, high temperature, and continually higher frequency RF...well, I wouldn't be confident that my G wouldn't randomly mutate into a C.
It's not a bad idea at all, it's just that science isn't anywhere close to being capable of using this as a reliable medium inside of a computer.
As others have said, it seems that it would have to be read-only unless somebody figures out how to control irradiated mutation...then who needs a computer, we can change our own DNA to become more capable than any computer we could ever build. Wow, I've seen too many episodes of Dark Angel
I'll second this story. I've seen countless examples of failed validations. One of the best examples is a game store I helped build the game systems and network for. One of the batches of computers we put in were all identical down to the process and order that they were built. All of them validated fine for several months. Each computer received some identical upgrades of ram and video cards, after which point only 2 out of 8 were still considered valid, the others failed after that. I'd love to hear somebody explain that...
On the other hand, I can think of at least a few pirated installs that pass WGA with flying colors.
I think there's good odds that their WGA estimates are fairly accurate within a percent or two. Figure that there's got to be a decent number of pirates that install one version, give it a try to see it fail, and just try again later with a new one. To counter this, there's a lot of paranoid pirates (or at least the ones who know it's not worth the effort) who don't even try to validate against WGA, obviously not even contributing to attempts. I suspect they balance each other out pretty well.
Ahh, if only they released a free version of the OS, they'd stop making criminals out of all the people who are doing what is perfectly legal with almost any other OS in the world.
I agree that it seems a little turned around, however there are places where the iPod still pairs up with EQ.
First, iPod really wasn't the one to replace anything, it's the first major product to the 'hard-drive mp3 player' market. Technically it's the one to beat, just like EQ was.
Second, and a little more significant, the iPod menu/organization system (at least in my opinion) isn't that good...So much that I would consider it user-unfriendly. I also hate the touch-sensitive dial, but I know I'm mostly alone there. Unfortunately every mp3 player out there has copied or done a minor one-off of that system, which leaves them with lesser market share. The "iPod killer" will be the one that breaks the mold somehow.
Now for prediction time...Of the existing companies playing in this market, the only one I think could produce something capable of doing that is Creative. Unfortunately, I think they are going to fail to market something well enough to get it into people's hands. I sooner expect a new/unheard-of company to pop up and deliver the "next big thing". I personally hope I'm right, because it only means things will improve even more for everybody.
The aim for both of these giants is to shift people towards non-local computing, I thought the aim was to prove which one had the larger penis?
I don't like that myself, since it hurts reliability and autonomy in computing. From a marketing perspective, there are huge benefits to centralized computing of course. Take gmail for instance, which lets google mine your private communications to gain insight into products and services which might interest you. On a serious note. While I don't care all that much if google uses an automated method to push advertising on me, I am more bothered by the fact that it's a single target that retains tons of information. A hacker can break into one person's home computer and get their info, or they can break into a google server and have 2 million people. Same reason that hackers target windows/ie over linux/firefox, they can accomplish/demolish a larger audience.
This was the same debate that was had over every major trend...the best example being Everquest. Every new game was ear-marked as the EQ-killer until it came out and fizzled. Of course, just like each time prior, all the comments swarmed that the game would die to the new one coming...and each time they were wrong.
Until one day, Blizzard releases WoW.
The iPod killer will come, but nobody will know/believe it's here until it's already huge. Unfortunately, whatever kills the iPod will have little or nothing to do with DRM, the Sync software, supported formats, or features. It'll be about size/shape/marketing, and we can only hope that they will get a few of the other things right along the way.
10 years ago, I would agree
Today, I'd squint and consider it...then shrug in uncertainty
Tomorrow...I think they will fall under far more scrutiny
This is already happening, and there's already a minimal amount of inspection being done. Their immunity is slipping away as they continually lose control of the Dept of Homeland Security (and other organizations as well). Further, inspections as they cross national borders will also become regular, especially if the airports ever enact the blind test that was proposed a few years ago. While they may not be afraid of putting those laws in place today, they might be afraid of what could happen tomorrow.
I'm only rarely an optimist, but in this instance, I think it's fair to say that even Congress knows that they shouldn't push the issue too far. I don't say this out of optimism that they care in the least bit about any of us, but rather, they are afraid that putting too many anti-privacy laws will one day come back to bite them. Just imagine a high-level member of government having their appointments inspected only to find that they are the next whitehouse intern/page scandal...or the next one to be in bed with the next Jack Abramoff. If they take away too much privacy, they might get caught in that crossfire.
Everything sounded pretty normal until the XBox controller...that was pretty funny.
This used to be called 'Nintendo Warfare'. I'd almost say we'll change the term to 'XBox Warfare' but it won't be long before somebody mods a Wii controller to do all of this AND make the kill shot to.
Hmm, the article plus your comment makes me realize that the number of features/functionality is actually going down (despite what is advertised)...the quality of the products has fallen dramatically...and the likelihood of them working is next to nothing.
Isn't the logical and absurd conclusion of that going to be a smallish curvy box (with several hundred listed features that aren't yet enabled) with a single button on it, that when pressed will do nothing...and it might actually fail to do that right? The one greatest achievement however, is that it'll be really tough for pirates to duplicate the remarkable ability for the device to do absolutely nothing. As a real twist, once it is cracked by the pirates, it'll perform better than the consumer version by far...even though it still doesn't do anything.
Hmm, add a couple another button, a video screen, and that somebody will put linux on it someday, and it's a Zune!
This makes sense...Of course the government wants to register bloggers as lobbyists. It's the same as re-branding people against the invasion of Iraq as unpatriotic. The word 'lobbyist' is seen so negatively that it instantly detracts from any respect a blogger has.
Just imagine that first article written in the New York Times that mentions a blogger with a small letter note beside the name saying Registered Lobbyist #958970. Good-bye reputation...
Or the first unregistered blogger who says something the government really doesn't like...fines, jail time, mandatory censorship? After all, they broke laws that lobbyists must conform to. This is a simple and systematic way to quiet down the people that aren't under control.
Slashdot Mirror
...that every single move taken by the tobacco industry in the last 15 years is going to be repeated in exact fashion by the oil industry?
- This particular case is exactly the same as the tobacco industry paying to have scientists say there was no connection between smoking and cancer (or any of the other ailments).
- The paying off of lobbyists is normal, but was made infamous by "big tobacco". Now it's "Big Oil" making sure senators get to make frequent holidays in the Grand Caymans.
- Some might even point out that all of the gas guzzling autos are the cool toys for the younger crowd...just as people might say Joe Camel was targeted at America's youth. I, of course, would not make such a brash statement; but only to say some might.
There are plenty of other examples of the pattern being repeated, but I'm too tired to write them all out. Short version, the only thing that's changed is the product
I'm going out on a limb here, but I suspect this is much less about charging money for drivers (though it could be an additional step to charge money for OS add-ons). I think this is supposed to be an anti-piracy step. In this way, not only does a person have to crack the serial number for the OS, the license activation, and the WGA piracy detection...now they are also forcing you to crack the DRM mechanism preventing you from installing drivers for your hardware.
I have to give them credit. The serial number, license activation, and WGA software were all really obvious and easily broken protection methods...but this one would possibly be pretty tough.
I think another comment was on the right path, suggesting that this will drive a lot of people off of windows and onto linux. All MS is doing is cutting down on the number of pirates using windows. Less users means less people pirating and using other software on windows. Less pirates using the software also means more people who are telling all of their friends about a different (and legal) way to have free software. Obviously, as more people switch away, it's that many more people that will also encourage their friends to switch. If microsoft ever uses this technology on actual drivers and not just special case software, it'll likely drive people away at a pretty alarming rate.
I give a little credit to this article. They do mention that they are considering a switch away from apple to a completely different brand that actually meets their needs more fully.
I agree with what you're saying, but I think that this particular market can't be criticized. Since I don't want to be the target of one of these guys binge drinking weekends, I'll be polite in saying this; These guys aren't exactly a discerning market when it comes to technology. They only know about what is advertised, something that Apple is pretty good at. If we heard about scientists of movie execs reliant on ipods, I'd happily mock them to their faces, as they should care more about screen quality, flexibility, features, etc.
Although this is slightly off topic, I think it addresses your point. I am strongly in favor of seeing apple get smacked for using generally anti-competitive measures like you've described, especially the connectors in airplanes or the iTunes (DRM) store. But I also believe in letting companies do things as long as it doesn't prevent another company from operating. I would say this is a good reason for other companies to release ipod connector conversion kits. After all, if an airline is going to cater to a specific connector, the courts would be very hard pressed to uphold any claims Apple made since it's only a move to put all devices onto an even competitive ground. All people want to do is get power, that shouldn't be device specific.
I worked for Dell briefly, an experience I'll be happy not to repeat. The entire company is very shareholder-centric. I really doubt we're going to see a terribly different Dell from what we saw about 5 years ago. They are still going to build dirt-cheap machines for the 'lowest common denominator' people and they are still going to operate with the previously mentioned 'scorched earth' policy towards their hardware suppliers.
I'm pretty certain that Michael Dell is being brought back to keep the stockholders happy and to attempt to restore the image. Few people will remember that he made the company the way it is, and I feel that Kevin Rollins is taking the scapegoat role.
Long gone are the days when Dell computers were the reliable ones that you spent a couple extra hundred on because they really were that good. This is the reason Dell bought Alienware, to try to regain the image of quality machines.
Also, IMHO, I have to agree with another poster as well, most Dell-branded products were pretty horrible. Axim line was alright and the LCD's were pretty good, everything else (including the computers) was pretty poor. Again, just my feelings on 'em...
This article ignores the detail that the people who get their hands on cracking tools, or get their hands on drm-free versions of movies are enjoying a higher quality user experience than those people using legally purchased movies/music. I've heard several accounts of having to fiddle with the connections, or turning the power off and back on again just to get the player to handshake correctly with the TV or to reset the correct in-memory keys. There are also frequent issues with players/tv downsampling video even if everything should be working at the highest possible quality. The article really misses the point that DRM is becoming a cause for piracy rather than a side effect of it.
I'm not an idealistic type...at least not often. I do think sometimes the right thing to do has to be done in the wrong way. Sort of the Robin Hood thing. Sure he was stealing, which was illegal, but he was stealing from manipulative people who perpetuated wrong at every turn. And the end result of his theft was to help far more people.
This kid, in my own opinion, isn't trying to "fight the machine". I believe this kid is simply trying to weasel his way out of getting in serious trouble, and the best way he knows how is to challenge the companies that forged the law rather than challenging the law as it pertains to his case. It's a rare defense, mostly because it doesn't work very often. The difference here from all of the other times this has been tried is that there are some unique elements. First, 5 of the largest companies in the country are targeting a single 16yo boy, which stinks of bullying tactics. Second, the kid is using a counter-offensive that actually speaks to millions of people because it's what everybody is already thinking.
Sure, the kid broke the law. Yeah, he did get caught and he's going to get sued for it, and probably lose. But, and this is a great time for a 'but'...This needs to happen, and it needs to happen now. If it wasn't this kid, it's going to be somebody else who isn't going to capture public attention as well as a minor will. A judge and jury will be far more willing to side with the kid than an adult that could reasonably afford the music.
Sure it'll happen, of course there are companies that will be eager to treat this as a freebie...But who cares? Even a few of the companies that "support" linux aren't all that serious about it half of the time. The burden of support falls on the linux community in the end anyway. At least with an offer like this, it might encourage companies to assign one or two people to lend a hand with keeping the devices supported with the community in creating the drivers, and the support, like normal, will still end up in forums.
In case nobody has noticed, most companies don't do support all that well even under windows. Hey, at the end of the day, as long as the drivers are open sourced, it's better than having binaries that may never see an update.
I say three cheers to a great and honest effort!
This is just another senator trying to make his name known.
We've seen bills like this introduced time and time again over Copyrights (in music, movies, software, etc.), Patents, Spam, Pornography, and even Politics (the blogger registration from 2 weeks ago). Each time, one political fruitcake either listens to an ill-informed adviser or simply gets the idea to go overboard for the sake of being the first guy to show "he cares". The problem comes from the fact that the politician doesn't understand the subject, and operate on what their equally ignorant subordinates tell them.
As a result of this, they introduce a bill that dramatically overshoots the mark. Most of the time they get stomped (like the blogger registration) and occasionally they get through (anyone say DMCA?)
This law will get stomped for a series of reasons. Not least of which is the extremely severe measures. Additional problem that will certainly be a breaking point, unless I misread, I believe that "social networking" could possibly be interpreted to include any site that supports account-based forums, even including slashdot.
Here's a simple solution. All of that watchdog software that parents are supposed to have on their computers and schools are supposed to install...Well, let's just add Myspace and Facebook to it. Clearly, the parental tools myspace offers and the watchdog software that theoretically prevents kids from getting to sites without parental permission should make it possible to have fair and reasonable monitoring.
We don't need a legal solution to this "problem", we need to apply the technology we already have and get over it. There's nothing about this problem that requires a solution any different from porn sites...the kids just have to click the button saying "I'm Over 18" and the parents will never be the wiser...but if you block the site from the start, the problem goes away.
Seriously...there's been a decent number of sightings of ice water on Mars including European Space Agency and again recently with NASA.
There's nothing new here. Stating a theory that perhaps less water has disappeared than previously thought? What's expected? Ice is known to have a lower planetary dispersion rate.
To add to all of this, it's scientifically reasonable to assume there should be fairly large quantities of water under the surface. Logic applies, we've seen landforms that support the belief of water having once been on mars, and we've got recent pictures to show some (likely a lot) is still there. Guess what, anybody who knows anything about dessert geography also knows that water naturally burrows below the surface. This is just putting 2+2 together.
What are they going to report on next, the discovery of Magnetic Fields and how they might exist on other planets?
I'm a bit curious, since they've already taken the effort to do a study like this, why did they not also ask what percentage of people have a large collection of legal DVDs and perhaps how many of them use their downloads to screen movies they would consider buying? I only ask, as I know a number of people who do exactly this.
I happen to agree with a lot of other comments, the percentage of people they accuse as to be a huge download mafia is dramatically inaccurate. Even the most conservative math would make their guess unreasonable.
With such a small sample group (which could have been 10-100 times larger if done as a serious internet poll), and the other points mentioned, this is just clearly meant to "shock" people into being more honest. It's a well known trick of manipulating the numbers and hiding behind the guise that it's a survey which MAY be inaccurate. This is also why they didn't bother asking people about how much they spend on legal products.
...for the Darwin Awards
...but definitely stupid
Sponges...............$1
Microwave.............$60
Reading the article...Free
Burning down your house because you didn't read the whole article.....NOT Priceless
Not a reliable media. Biological media, especially if it's based on Human DNA would potentially suffer from disease or short lifespan (begging the question of a special environment to keep it functional and stable). Non-living cells of DNA could be used to circumvent disease and lifespan issues, however they would deteriorate far more rapidly under any known method of reading (be it electrical, photo-reactive, irradiated, or chemical)
A further set of issues, irradiation. Especially at such a small size, there's a higher danger of DNA material becoming corrupt due to mutation. Inside of a box filled with magnetic fields, electrical fields, high temperature, and continually higher frequency RF...well, I wouldn't be confident that my G wouldn't randomly mutate into a C.
It's not a bad idea at all, it's just that science isn't anywhere close to being capable of using this as a reliable medium inside of a computer.
As others have said, it seems that it would have to be read-only unless somebody figures out how to control irradiated mutation...then who needs a computer, we can change our own DNA to become more capable than any computer we could ever build. Wow, I've seen too many episodes of Dark Angel
I'll second this story. I've seen countless examples of failed validations. One of the best examples is a game store I helped build the game systems and network for. One of the batches of computers we put in were all identical down to the process and order that they were built. All of them validated fine for several months. Each computer received some identical upgrades of ram and video cards, after which point only 2 out of 8 were still considered valid, the others failed after that. I'd love to hear somebody explain that...
On the other hand, I can think of at least a few pirated installs that pass WGA with flying colors.
I think there's good odds that their WGA estimates are fairly accurate within a percent or two. Figure that there's got to be a decent number of pirates that install one version, give it a try to see it fail, and just try again later with a new one. To counter this, there's a lot of paranoid pirates (or at least the ones who know it's not worth the effort) who don't even try to validate against WGA, obviously not even contributing to attempts. I suspect they balance each other out pretty well.
Ahh, if only they released a free version of the OS, they'd stop making criminals out of all the people who are doing what is perfectly legal with almost any other OS in the world.
I agree that it seems a little turned around, however there are places where the iPod still pairs up with EQ.
First, iPod really wasn't the one to replace anything, it's the first major product to the 'hard-drive mp3 player' market. Technically it's the one to beat, just like EQ was.
Second, and a little more significant, the iPod menu/organization system (at least in my opinion) isn't that good...So much that I would consider it user-unfriendly. I also hate the touch-sensitive dial, but I know I'm mostly alone there. Unfortunately every mp3 player out there has copied or done a minor one-off of that system, which leaves them with lesser market share. The "iPod killer" will be the one that breaks the mold somehow.
Now for prediction time...Of the existing companies playing in this market, the only one I think could produce something capable of doing that is Creative. Unfortunately, I think they are going to fail to market something well enough to get it into people's hands. I sooner expect a new/unheard-of company to pop up and deliver the "next big thing". I personally hope I'm right, because it only means things will improve even more for everybody.
Sorry kids, just like snowflakes, some of you really aren't special or unique, you'll grow up to be just like everybody else...
...unless you become the next Bill Gates or Ted Bundy
"Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake..." - Tyler Durden, Fight Club
This was the same debate that was had over every major trend...the best example being Everquest. Every new game was ear-marked as the EQ-killer until it came out and fizzled. Of course, just like each time prior, all the comments swarmed that the game would die to the new one coming...and each time they were wrong.
Until one day, Blizzard releases WoW.
The iPod killer will come, but nobody will know/believe it's here until it's already huge. Unfortunately, whatever kills the iPod will have little or nothing to do with DRM, the Sync software, supported formats, or features. It'll be about size/shape/marketing, and we can only hope that they will get a few of the other things right along the way.
10 years ago, I would agree
Today, I'd squint and consider it...then shrug in uncertainty
Tomorrow...I think they will fall under far more scrutiny
This is already happening, and there's already a minimal amount of inspection being done. Their immunity is slipping away as they continually lose control of the Dept of Homeland Security (and other organizations as well). Further, inspections as they cross national borders will also become regular, especially if the airports ever enact the blind test that was proposed a few years ago. While they may not be afraid of putting those laws in place today, they might be afraid of what could happen tomorrow.
I'm only rarely an optimist, but in this instance, I think it's fair to say that even Congress knows that they shouldn't push the issue too far. I don't say this out of optimism that they care in the least bit about any of us, but rather, they are afraid that putting too many anti-privacy laws will one day come back to bite them. Just imagine a high-level member of government having their appointments inspected only to find that they are the next whitehouse intern/page scandal...or the next one to be in bed with the next Jack Abramoff. If they take away too much privacy, they might get caught in that crossfire.
New version of an operating system and a first generation product from MSFT...did anybody actually think this would be a good year for them?
Everything sounded pretty normal until the XBox controller...that was pretty funny.
This used to be called 'Nintendo Warfare'. I'd almost say we'll change the term to 'XBox Warfare' but it won't be long before somebody mods a Wii controller to do all of this AND make the kill shot to.
Relax, that's hardly a flame
Besides, I gave an honest try to the Zune...I'll give it decent marks for the video, but everything else about it was pretty horrible.
More like a 3000 core processor clocked at 1 mhz
:(
Damnit, I can SMP like nobody's business!!!! just really slowly
Hmm, the article plus your comment makes me realize that the number of features/functionality is actually going down (despite what is advertised)...the quality of the products has fallen dramatically...and the likelihood of them working is next to nothing.
Isn't the logical and absurd conclusion of that going to be a smallish curvy box (with several hundred listed features that aren't yet enabled) with a single button on it, that when pressed will do nothing...and it might actually fail to do that right? The one greatest achievement however, is that it'll be really tough for pirates to duplicate the remarkable ability for the device to do absolutely nothing. As a real twist, once it is cracked by the pirates, it'll perform better than the consumer version by far...even though it still doesn't do anything.
Hmm, add a couple another button, a video screen, and that somebody will put linux on it someday, and it's a Zune!
This makes sense...Of course the government wants to register bloggers as lobbyists. It's the same as re-branding people against the invasion of Iraq as unpatriotic. The word 'lobbyist' is seen so negatively that it instantly detracts from any respect a blogger has.
Just imagine that first article written in the New York Times that mentions a blogger with a small letter note beside the name saying Registered Lobbyist #958970. Good-bye reputation...
Or the first unregistered blogger who says something the government really doesn't like...fines, jail time, mandatory censorship? After all, they broke laws that lobbyists must conform to. This is a simple and systematic way to quiet down the people that aren't under control.