And that's exactly why there will never be just one computer. We may only *need* a single or a dozen or a hundred of anything, but there will always be someone, or some government, or some billionaire adventurer that wants one of his own.
Then the race starts again.
Companies seem to forget that there is still a market for the simple. It took me two weeks of looking to find a piece of stand alone desktop equipment that satisfactorily met the following requirements:
1) AM/FM radio
2) AC plug
3) Headphone jack
4) Let's try keeping it under $30
5) Doesn't look like crap.
Sometimes, all you want is to listen to the baseball game on the radio. I didn't want to stream online (especially paying the usurious fees charged by MLB). I didn't want to change batteries. I didn't want to bother the folks in the rest of the office. Is that too much to ask, or is it simply not sexy enough for the modern consumer electronics market?
If this is possible in Second Life, how about across other platform games and systems. Wouldn't it be nice to run some of your characters through other maps and worlds?
Why stop there? I'd like to transport my profile, postings and comments between all of the social networking sites. It would also be nice to check all of them from a single page and be able to post/lurk without remembering where I stored the "this thread is useless without pics" icon.
Of course, whomever did this would have some great job opportunities in the Middle East afterwards.
More often than Netflix might like these days, people call to cancel their subscriptions. One reason for emphasizing direct phone contact over e-mail messages is that on the phone, a Netflix employee has a fighting chance of persuading the customer to stay.
I've made a few calls to different companies (credit cards, cable) looking to change my plan, just to cancel it after suffering through the maze of voice mail. Talking to a real human that is instructed to "err on the side of generosity" will keep my business every time.
Props Netflix.
Slashdot Mirror
And that's exactly why there will never be just one computer. We may only *need* a single or a dozen or a hundred of anything, but there will always be someone, or some government, or some billionaire adventurer that wants one of his own. Then the race starts again.
Companies seem to forget that there is still a market for the simple. It took me two weeks of looking to find a piece of stand alone desktop equipment that satisfactorily met the following requirements:
1) AM/FM radio
2) AC plug
3) Headphone jack
4) Let's try keeping it under $30
5) Doesn't look like crap.
Sometimes, all you want is to listen to the baseball game on the radio. I didn't want to stream online (especially paying the usurious fees charged by MLB). I didn't want to change batteries. I didn't want to bother the folks in the rest of the office. Is that too much to ask, or is it simply not sexy enough for the modern consumer electronics market?
If this is possible in Second Life, how about across other platform games and systems. Wouldn't it be nice to run some of your characters through other maps and worlds?
Why stop there? I'd like to transport my profile, postings and comments between all of the social networking sites. It would also be nice to check all of them from a single page and be able to post/lurk without remembering where I stored the "this thread is useless without pics" icon.
Of course, whomever did this would have some great job opportunities in the Middle East afterwards.
More often than Netflix might like these days, people call to cancel their subscriptions. One reason for emphasizing direct phone contact over e-mail messages is that on the phone, a Netflix employee has a fighting chance of persuading the customer to stay. I've made a few calls to different companies (credit cards, cable) looking to change my plan, just to cancel it after suffering through the maze of voice mail. Talking to a real human that is instructed to "err on the side of generosity" will keep my business every time. Props Netflix.