Mmm... You have a point there. I still have a feeling that the main reason for releases like Home, Basic, etc are to be able to justify a higher price for the non-crippled versions. It's easier to swallow a huge price-premium on the full OS if there are cheaper versions out there with less functionality. If MS had simply released one version of Vista, the same people who today are willing to spend $300-$400 on Vista Ultimate in order to get the "best" version, would scream out loud at the thought of paying that much for an OS license.
Choice is good. One does wonder, though. Does the extra work put into removing specific software, services, etc, in the basic versions of windows really motivate a lower price-tag? I mean, MS prioritize the corporate versions of windows, so that one is finished first and receives most testing. This means that the lower versions actually did cost more to develop than the corporate one.
Law maybe? Changing a signed contract after the fact *must* be highly illegal. There's of course the problem for proving that *your* copy of the contract isn't the one edited afterwards. Maybe have a lawyer witness the signed contracts before turning one copy in?
The few fun games I've tried on the Wii was hampered by the compulsory us of the wiimote, making them... unfun. On the other hand, the few games I've tried on PC, PS3, Xbox or Xbox360 lately have been hampered by the games being to much centered on "Oooh! Cool graphics!" rather than gameplay.
Wii minus the wiimote would be a nice thing though. I have a cluttered apartment. Some Wii-games are almost impossible to play there. Too few games let you choose for yourself, forcing you to use the wiimote even if you just want to sit in the sofa and enjoy a fun game without having to clear a space around you.
Disclaimer: I don't own a Wii. I've just borrowed one from time to time.
If some manufacturer could sell a 1GHz CPU for $5, it would blow away everything else on that price/performance chart but would not run most modern applications. What applications, except games, are you talking about that wouldn't run on a 1GHz system, especially if it's with a modern CPU-architecture?
I can run most modern applications on an old 450MHz P2 system with 1.5GB memory and a TNT2 gfx card. The only pieces of modern applications that simply do not work are most modern games and playing high resolution videos. Some of the more CPU-hungry applications in other areas work but are a bit slow to work with. Most applications released during 2006/2007 run just fine if you've got plenty of RAM and a relatively modern hard-drive.
Mostly, it's used for internet browsing, downloading stuff, word processing, running Gimp, burning stuff and playing old games.
A modern 1GHz cpu would probably be at least four times as fast, and I could use a cheap two or three generations old gfx card that would be a hundred times faster. Since if I was to upgrade this system, I'd have a budget of about $100-150, I'd love there being really cheap modern cpu's.
I'd even settle for paying for channels I like. At the moment I only have what is included for "free" in my rent. That is 10 channels, of which I watch 2, so I pay for 8 useless channels in my rent. If I want more channels, I have to subscribe to a packages of channels. The three channels I want are in three different packs, so I would have to pay for about 30 channels to get them! I'd gladly pay a little more per channel if I could get the 5 channels I want without also getting the other 35 crap channels.
The distracting function of something that moves is exactly what the advertisers want to exploit. Personally, I've disabled animated gif's and installed Adblock and NoScript. This helps me avoid almost all web-advertisement and has the added benefit of getting me rid of annoying flash-intros/interfaces and such crap.
yeah, the problem does seem to be too many "individuals" who feel the need to point out what products they don't like and are not going to buy and are not interested in reading about. Yeah, one would think that if they don't want to read about something, they could simply not read articles about it.
Most things that are heavily hyped by either marketing or by word of mouth, will usually create an opposite force that dislike it simply because it is hyped. The more something is hyped, the stronger and more vocal this anti-hype group will be.
do you apply this principle to all internet forums and products, or just those that have an Apple badge on them? I call everything that is too expensive for me too expensive, not just Apple products that are too expensive for me.
does it follow that the research, development and manufacture of the multi-touch technology is nothing? Even if the research, development and manufacture of a technology in it self may be worth millions, it can be totally worthless to an individual who does not find the technology useful and at the same time be worth more then the development-cost to another. One does not follow the other.
if you don't think something is worth having, the appropriate response is to not buy it, not claim it's too expensive. If I don't buy it because it's too expensive, can I then claim it's too expensive? Or if I think it is worth having, but not at that price?
Do you mean it was *actually* random or that it sounded "random"? Yeah, I intentionally choose to say "quite random" since it wasn't truly random. Should have said "good way of handling random play" instead, since that was more what I actually meant. When you pressed play on a playlist or in a directory, it would randomize all the tracks and then stick to that randomized list until you either turned the device off or you looped the list, at which it would do a new random. You could stop the play and when you pressed play again you'd still have the same list. This was great since I could listen for eight hours straight and not hear the same song twice.
In my current phone-based mp3 player, it seems to be "truly" random. You can get the same song twice and if you happen to change song by mistake, you can't go back to the one you where listening to since it randomizes backwards too.
So why do people who use Photoshop at work/school/etc pirate Photoshop to use at home instead of using Gimp? In part, it's name recognition. Lots of people who use Photoshop has never heard of Gimp. In part, it's features. Gimp doesn't have all the features Photoshop has. But there's also the fact that if you for instance use Photoshop at work, using Gimp at home is damn inconvenient since the exact same operation/features are named different, sit at different places and the whole program in itself is constructed different than other software on the same platform regardless if you're using OS X or Windows.
Yes, the iAudio HDD-series is one of the few I've actually considered. They have a file-browser interface, which is one of my requirements. Most other players fall on this. =) I can't stand the ones that browse by the id-tags.
Sorry, I had the year wrong. I bought it the year 2000, not 1999.
It was about 30% larger than a 1:st generation iPod, had a 6GB 2.5" drive but I've used a 30GB without trouble and had about 8 hours operating time if used with 1800mAh rechargeable AA-batteries. Downsides where the rather small display and the USB 1.0 interface. Took more than half an hour to fill the drive. On the other hand, it took more than a year before I even filled it up, mp3's weren't as abundant back then. When I switched to the 30GB drive, I more or less stopped deleting music on the device altogether.
The great strengths was the use of a standard 2.5" harddrive, the use of a file-browser UI (Most important. I would never buy a player without this), that it mounted as a standard usb-mass storage device, used standard AA-batteries, random play was quite random and that it used winamp playlists.
You rolled a cow, didn't you? Actually, it was an undead warlock. Also tried an elf hunter, because of the elves higher speed when dead and hunters aspect of the cheetah. Didn't help much though.
Sounds like WoW just wasn't your style, though... that's OK, I've always hated FPS games Agreed. FPS sucks. So does sports, car, beat'em up and most strategy games. RPG's, adventure and platform games is my cup of tea. =)
It's simply irritating to know that I have an unused account. I'm the same with other online services. If I don't use a certain service, I don't want an account for that service
But it's a personal preference. Many people don't care about having hundreds of unused accounts spread around the internet. I do. =)
It goes inactive but it isn't removed. Why would one want an dormant account lying around for a game one does not intend to play anymore? If you want the account actually deleted, you have to contact Blizzard and specifically ask them to delete it for you.
There's also the factor that sometimes, the new stuff just isn't as good! My old mp3-player from around 1998-1999 was great and every time it broke I went looking for a new one, found them to be crap and fixed my old one instead. A year ago it broke beyond my repairing skills, and now I have to make do with the crappy player in my "Walkman"-phone. Still looking for a good replacement, but I still can't find a good mp3-player anywhere. =(
Worth playing a character through the level climb at least once for each faction. Don't know about that. In my opinion, the content is more or less identical no matter what class, species or faction you play. Sure, there are some specific content, but the differences are minor. Even playing one character up the leveling gets repetitive around level 20.
Saying you're going to quit a MUD/MMO because of a change made is the idlest of idle threats. Not if you actually do quit. At least not if it's a pay 'n play, like WoW. If you make a non-profit game, you can ignore if people stop playing as long as the few who do stay like it.
Normally, it's not an issue, except he'd throw fits and delete his characters, then demand his characters be undeleted The magic lies in having a "Delete Account" function, not just "Delete character" Blizzard don't, but if you ask them, they'll delete your account for you. (Been there, done that)
Though, my reason for quiting WoW wasn't change, but lack of change. None of my issues with the game has changed in the last year and a half.
But once you're done leveling, the game is over. I my opinion, it's the leveling part that needs updating. Almost all new content is for level 70. Of course, I didn't even reach 70, so can't compare pre70 and post70 play. After running around feeling like my character waded in concrete for the first five minutes if gameplay, my goal was to get to 40 so I could get a mount. At around level 20, I was bored out of my mind with repetitive quests, hated PvP and loathed playing in groups, but I thought that maybe if my character could move a bit faster, it wouldn't be as bad. At level 40, I got my mount and found it to be sooo sloooow. At level 45, I deleted all my characters and contacted Blizzard to have my account removed.
By the way, why on earth don't they have a "Remove User Account" functionality in their account-management?
Many governments wants it to be illegal for citizens to use encryption. In the eyes of a government, encryption is a serious weapon in other peoples hands. That's why some countries has export and/or import-restrictions on cryptographic technologies. Some even have restrictions on usage of encryption.
Export-restrictions = "We don't trust other countries" Import-restrictions = "We don't trust our citizens" Encryption-restrictions = "We want to control our citizens"
If these people wanted to be useful, they would push companies like microsoft (or make a driver) to make a ram image of a freshly booted copy of windows xp (or whatever) upon first boot/after hardware changes, and then continue using that image after every boot.(hell, even store that on some solid state memory provided by phoenix, etc) Every time I've voiced the exact same idea somewhere, people come flying from every direction telling me that this is impossible. Never been able to get a coherent answer as to why this would be impossible though. Anyway, nice to see someone else asking for this functionality. =)
The reason they chose to give it to the iPhone wasn't based upon a checklist of features, but because of how well it was designed and the impact it has had. Apple knows how to make products that people enjoy using. That is a difficult thing to do. Ok, so the iPhone is a nice product. It might even be an innovation. It's still not an invention. A new product of a kind that has existed before (the iPhone is a mobile-phone of the variety smart-phone) isn't an invention no matter how much nicer it is than the other product of similar kinds.
Slashdot Mirror
Mmm... You have a point there.
I still have a feeling that the main reason for releases like Home, Basic, etc are to be able to justify a higher price for the non-crippled versions.
It's easier to swallow a huge price-premium on the full OS if there are cheaper versions out there with less functionality.
If MS had simply released one version of Vista, the same people who today are willing to spend $300-$400 on Vista Ultimate in order to get the "best" version, would scream out loud at the thought of paying that much for an OS license.
Choice is good.
One does wonder, though.
Does the extra work put into removing specific software, services, etc, in the basic versions of windows really motivate a lower price-tag?
I mean, MS prioritize the corporate versions of windows, so that one is finished first and receives most testing.
This means that the lower versions actually did cost more to develop than the corporate one.
Law maybe?
Changing a signed contract after the fact *must* be highly illegal.
There's of course the problem for proving that *your* copy of the contract isn't the one edited afterwards.
Maybe have a lawyer witness the signed contracts before turning one copy in?
The few fun games I've tried on the Wii was hampered by the compulsory us of the wiimote, making them... unfun.
On the other hand, the few games I've tried on PC, PS3, Xbox or Xbox360 lately have been hampered by the games being to much centered on "Oooh! Cool graphics!" rather than gameplay.
Wii minus the wiimote would be a nice thing though.
I have a cluttered apartment. Some Wii-games are almost impossible to play there.
Too few games let you choose for yourself, forcing you to use the wiimote even if you just want to sit in the sofa and enjoy a fun game without having to clear a space around you.
Disclaimer: I don't own a Wii. I've just borrowed one from time to time.
I can run most modern applications on an old 450MHz P2 system with 1.5GB memory and a TNT2 gfx card.
The only pieces of modern applications that simply do not work are most modern games and playing high resolution videos.
Some of the more CPU-hungry applications in other areas work but are a bit slow to work with.
Most applications released during 2006/2007 run just fine if you've got plenty of RAM and a relatively modern hard-drive.
Mostly, it's used for internet browsing, downloading stuff, word processing, running Gimp, burning stuff and playing old games.
A modern 1GHz cpu would probably be at least four times as fast, and I could use a cheap two or three generations old gfx card that would be a hundred times faster.
Since if I was to upgrade this system, I'd have a budget of about $100-150, I'd love there being really cheap modern cpu's.
I'd even settle for paying for channels I like.
At the moment I only have what is included for "free" in my rent. That is 10 channels, of which I watch 2, so I pay for 8 useless channels in my rent.
If I want more channels, I have to subscribe to a packages of channels. The three channels I want are in three different packs, so I would have to pay for about 30 channels to get them!
I'd gladly pay a little more per channel if I could get the 5 channels I want without also getting the other 35 crap channels.
The distracting function of something that moves is exactly what the advertisers want to exploit.
Personally, I've disabled animated gif's and installed Adblock and NoScript.
This helps me avoid almost all web-advertisement and has the added benefit of getting me rid of annoying flash-intros/interfaces and such crap.
Most things that are heavily hyped by either marketing or by word of mouth, will usually create an opposite force that dislike it simply because it is hyped.
The more something is hyped, the stronger and more vocal this anti-hype group will be. do you apply this principle to all internet forums and products, or just those that have an Apple badge on them? I call everything that is too expensive for me too expensive, not just Apple products that are too expensive for me.
One does not follow the other. if you don't think something is worth having, the appropriate response is to not buy it, not claim it's too expensive. If I don't buy it because it's too expensive, can I then claim it's too expensive?
Or if I think it is worth having, but not at that price?
When you pressed play on a playlist or in a directory, it would randomize all the tracks and then stick to that randomized list until you either turned the device off or you looped the list, at which it would do a new random.
You could stop the play and when you pressed play again you'd still have the same list.
This was great since I could listen for eight hours straight and not hear the same song twice.
In my current phone-based mp3 player, it seems to be "truly" random. You can get the same song twice and if you happen to change song by mistake, you can't go back to the one you where listening to since it randomizes backwards too.
So why do people who use Photoshop at work/school/etc pirate Photoshop to use at home instead of using Gimp?
In part, it's name recognition. Lots of people who use Photoshop has never heard of Gimp.
In part, it's features. Gimp doesn't have all the features Photoshop has.
But there's also the fact that if you for instance use Photoshop at work, using Gimp at home is damn inconvenient since the exact same operation/features are named different, sit at different places and the whole program in itself is constructed different than other software on the same platform regardless if you're using OS X or Windows.
This will be fixed once lcd panels start being replaced by oled panels. =)
Yes, the iAudio HDD-series is one of the few I've actually considered.
They have a file-browser interface, which is one of my requirements. Most other players fall on this. =)
I can't stand the ones that browse by the id-tags.
Sorry, I had the year wrong. I bought it the year 2000, not 1999.
It was about 30% larger than a 1:st generation iPod, had a 6GB 2.5" drive but I've used a 30GB without trouble and had about 8 hours operating time if used with 1800mAh rechargeable AA-batteries.
Downsides where the rather small display and the USB 1.0 interface. Took more than half an hour to fill the drive.
On the other hand, it took more than a year before I even filled it up, mp3's weren't as abundant back then.
When I switched to the 30GB drive, I more or less stopped deleting music on the device altogether.
The great strengths was the use of a standard 2.5" harddrive, the use of a file-browser UI (Most important. I would never buy a player without this), that it mounted as a standard usb-mass storage device, used standard AA-batteries, random play was quite random and that it used winamp playlists.
Also tried an elf hunter, because of the elves higher speed when dead and hunters aspect of the cheetah.
Didn't help much though. Sounds like WoW just wasn't your style, though... that's OK, I've always hated FPS games Agreed. FPS sucks. So does sports, car, beat'em up and most strategy games.
RPG's, adventure and platform games is my cup of tea. =)
It's simply irritating to know that I have an unused account.
I'm the same with other online services. If I don't use a certain service, I don't want an account for that service
But it's a personal preference. Many people don't care about having hundreds of unused accounts spread around the internet.
I do. =)
It goes inactive but it isn't removed. Why would one want an dormant account lying around for a game one does not intend to play anymore?
If you want the account actually deleted, you have to contact Blizzard and specifically ask them to delete it for you.
There's also the factor that sometimes, the new stuff just isn't as good!
My old mp3-player from around 1998-1999 was great and every time it broke I went looking for a new one, found them to be crap and fixed my old one instead.
A year ago it broke beyond my repairing skills, and now I have to make do with the crappy player in my "Walkman"-phone.
Still looking for a good replacement, but I still can't find a good mp3-player anywhere. =(
Sure, there are some specific content, but the differences are minor. Even playing one character up the leveling gets repetitive around level 20.
Blizzard don't, but if you ask them, they'll delete your account for you. (Been there, done that)
Though, my reason for quiting WoW wasn't change, but lack of change. None of my issues with the game has changed in the last year and a half.
Of course, I didn't even reach 70, so can't compare pre70 and post70 play.
After running around feeling like my character waded in concrete for the first five minutes if gameplay, my goal was to get to 40 so I could get a mount.
At around level 20, I was bored out of my mind with repetitive quests, hated PvP and loathed playing in groups, but I thought that maybe if my character could move a bit faster, it wouldn't be as bad.
At level 40, I got my mount and found it to be sooo sloooow.
At level 45, I deleted all my characters and contacted Blizzard to have my account removed.
By the way, why on earth don't they have a "Remove User Account" functionality in their account-management?
I thought the robot from the future was currently acting as governor of california... =P
Many governments wants it to be illegal for citizens to use encryption.
In the eyes of a government, encryption is a serious weapon in other peoples hands.
That's why some countries has export and/or import-restrictions on cryptographic technologies.
Some even have restrictions on usage of encryption.
Export-restrictions = "We don't trust other countries"
Import-restrictions = "We don't trust our citizens"
Encryption-restrictions = "We want to control our citizens"
Never been able to get a coherent answer as to why this would be impossible though.
Anyway, nice to see someone else asking for this functionality. =)
A new product of a kind that has existed before (the iPhone is a mobile-phone of the variety smart-phone) isn't an invention no matter how much nicer it is than the other product of similar kinds.
Innovations != Inventions