Because if there's anything foreign policy experience has taught us, it's that other countries are just begging to be "Westernizied."
The US has been interfering in the affairs of Latin America since the Spanish-American War, overthrowing "hostile" democratic governments and instituting US-friendly regimes. Whether these new governments were democracies or brutal dictatorships mattered not, as long as they remained friendly to the US. Needless to say, a number of those citizens of those nations were (and are) more than a little pissed.
Working audio ports on the front which interface properly with the sound card (instead of stupid rear-panel pass-through crap), such that the sound card can detect when headphones are plugged in and reconfigure itself automatically.
Assuming that all of the relevant discs were provided along with the hardware, that would conflict with the right of first sale, which can not be licensed away by any EULA, at least in the United States.
The iLiad also costs $700. Kudos to iRex for making a tablet e-book reader, but at that price it's smarter for students to just get a used tablet PC instead.
It is very unlikely that you will ever see Chromium in the Debain repositories. Two outside programs that the browser uses are under the BSD Protection License, which Debian has not classified as a license that passes the Debian Free Software Guidelines.
Here are the arguments you made in favor of selling:
The money is fair enough, and the employment conditions would seem excellent, since they would enable us to manage good-sized motivated teams,
Here are the ones you made against selling:
but we are very emotionally attached to our development and we place great importance to being independent. We founded our company because we didn't want to follow rules. We wanted to be the ones who make the rules instead. Money really doesn't mean much to us as long as we can do whatever we want while excelling at our passions. We feel that by accepting the offer, we couldn't achieve the maximum of our potential, and one of us joked that if we get in contact with the corporate environment and accept their money, we risk becoming lazy.
Judging by both the quality and quantity of the arguments in both scenarios, it is pretty clear that you really don't want to sell, and are just pondering the benefits of selling rather than seriously considering it. I can understand this kind of dilemma, but it sounds like you really just want someone to convince you that selling is good or bad rather than actually asking about it. You either want someone to go into a detailed rational response in favor of selling, or a simple emotional one against it.
I say do what you think is right for you and your company, rather than listening to a bunch of random Internet users.
Instead of giving Microsoft a scapegoat for even more draconian policies, why not "stick it to the man" and download a free OS that doesn't treat its users like potential criminals?
Also, what happens when Microsoft finally stops allowing activations and WGA validations for Windows XP? Given the XP is Microsoft's biggest competition, and given that computers have been "good enough" for Joe User for the past 5 years, it wouldn't surprise me if they shut down the XP servers once support runs out, if only to coax people into upgrading.
Everyone else is moving away from DRM - think of iTunes...
You're kidding, right? DRM on music died because if interoperability concerns and nothing more. Movies, e-books, software, and especially video games are still extremely DRM'd, and still violating the rights of legitimate customers everywhere.
Vorbis had more of a chance since it actually did get released around the time that there was interest in upgrading from MP3 to something better for some things. However they largely lost out (it does have some use, in game engines for example) in part because of their silly naming and in part because of their poor surround support. However Theora is too little too late as far as I can tell. The world is already settling in to their HD codecs and once the standards get entrenched, they'll stay there until there's a compelling reason to switch.
Timing is important. If your product isn't ready when it is needed, it isn't going to get used no matter how awesome it is in the end.
Timing is important, but so is vendor acceptance and popularity.
The Xiph codecs have failed to reach a mass audience for the same reasons RealMedia, QuickTime, and Windows Media failed: obscurity. MPEG succeeds because it is a de jure standard. In a sane world, supporting a format that costs a grand total of $0 in licensing fees to implement would make complete sense, but because Vorbis and Theora do not have the seal of ISO approval vendors tend to ignore them. The codecs under the Xiph umbrella that do see large adoption usually do so because interoperability is not necessary (Vorbis usage in games) or because MPEG did not fill that niche (FLAC).
More important, however, is popularity. MP3 survives because the computer illiterate associate the very name with digital audio, to the point where it would not surprise me if some people think that CDs literally contain MP3 files. Napster helped considerably here: the fact that it shared exclusively in the MP3 format helped popularize the name and the format, at just the same time that CD rippers started to appear. Digital audio players are called "MP3 players" by the politically incorrect. Not even Microsoft was able to get people to use an alternative format, and they had the advantage (save for the "N" editions) of having their player bundled with Windows for almost a decade now. They finally caved with Windows Media Player 10 after seeing so much usage share lost to Winamp and later iTunes due to Windows Media Player's complete lack of built-in MP3 support up until then. If Microsoft failed to push WMA, and AAC only succeeds where people otherwise have no idea that is is not in fact an MP3 file (such as the default ripping format in iTunes, or on Blu-Ray discs), it's no surprise that Vorbis failed to replace the format by now. Advertising a "Vorbis player" will never work, because no one has any idea what that is. MP3 is the format of Internet distribution thanks to its popularity, and if a digital audio player does not play MP3 files at a minimum, it will never sell, period.
You're kidding, right? GIF is fading away into obscurity, save for animation and simple graphics, and PNG is dominating in the field of lossless images.
GIF's LZW patents may have expired worldwide in 2006, but GIF's suckiness sure hasn't.
I bought the store about 12 years ago. It was one of those boutique record stores that sell obscure, independent releases that no-one listens to, not even the people that buy them. I decided that to grow the business I'd need to aim for a different demographic, the family market. My store specialised in family music - stuff that the whole family could listen to. I don't sell sick stuff like Marilyn Manson or cop-killer rap, and I'm proud to have one of the most extensive Christian rock sections that I know of.
When they came to the counter to make their purchase, I grabbed the little shit by his shirt. "So...you're going to copy this to your friends over The Internet, punk?" I asked him in my best Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry voice.
"Uh y-yeh." He mumbled, shocked.
"That's it. What's your name? You're blacklisted. Now take yourself and your little bitch friend out of my store - and don't come back." I barked. Cravenly, they complied and scampered off.
Great job. Your physically forceful demeanor and choice of words just single-handedly destroyed your business in ways that the Internet never could.
I am sick and tired of articles like this, where the developing community has surrendered to Apple the rights to veto apps, for pretty much any reason, that they no doubt worked hard on, as well as giving Apple the ability to retroactively change their minds and kill apps on paying customer's phones. Why is is so acceptable for Apple to do this, when it clearly is not acceptable in the PC* world? Why do developers put up with this kind of draconian control by a third party over their own apps?
I for one can't stand it. To all developers of the iPhone, please stop developing for the iPhone. Hit Apple where it really hurts and develop for Android (not on the Market), the Freerunner, or pretty much any other platform instead, where you don't have to appease some entity that really needs you more than you need it. Don't just make an app that needs jailbreaking, as this still targets the iPhone and consequently still gives Apple more revenue and more power to control developers. If Apple insists on this kind of control, let them get their comeuppance.
*Note by "PC" I mean microcomputers, not Windows machines.
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Becuase "Open source" has become a buzzword, used to describe something even vaugely similar to the concept.
That's not to say that this textbook initiative is a bad idea, but the terminology is flat out wrong.
These are K-12 textbooks, not college textbooks.
I don't know how your government organized their public schools, but I know mine ordinarily assigned all teachers the same books.
Because if there's anything foreign policy experience has taught us, it's that other countries are just begging to be "Westernizied."
The US has been interfering in the affairs of Latin America since the Spanish-American War, overthrowing "hostile" democratic governments and instituting US-friendly regimes. Whether these new governments were democracies or brutal dictatorships mattered not, as long as they remained friendly to the US. Needless to say, a number of those citizens of those nations were (and are) more than a little pissed.
The submitter just gave us a link to a recording of a recording?
Working audio ports on the front which interface properly with the sound card (instead of stupid rear-panel pass-through crap), such that the sound card can detect when headphones are plugged in and reconfigure itself automatically.
What kind of horrible case has this?
http://laptoping.com/category/barebone-laptops/
The market is not as diverse as that of desktops, and you are limited by more factors, but can most certainly build your own laptop.
Assuming that all of the relevant discs were provided along with the hardware, that would conflict with the right of first sale, which can not be licensed away by any EULA, at least in the United States.
Indeed. I have to wonder why those who want such power don't just build their own machines.
and most important is very open: no DRM bullshit
The iLiad has support for Mibipocket's DRM.
The iLiad also costs $700. Kudos to iRex for making a tablet e-book reader, but at that price it's smarter for students to just get a used tablet PC instead.
Just because you don't deface your textbooks for your own benefit does not mean that others don't find it better for them.
SRWare Iron.
Chromium source code with all of the privacy-infringing stuff removed.
It is very unlikely that you will ever see Chromium in the Debain repositories. Two outside programs that the browser uses are under the BSD Protection License, which Debian has not classified as a license that passes the Debian Free Software Guidelines.
Here are the arguments you made in favor of selling:
The money is fair enough, and the employment conditions would seem excellent, since they would enable us to manage good-sized motivated teams,
Here are the ones you made against selling:
but we are very emotionally attached to our development and we place great importance to being independent. We founded our company because we didn't want to follow rules. We wanted to be the ones who make the rules instead. Money really doesn't mean much to us as long as we can do whatever we want while excelling at our passions. We feel that by accepting the offer, we couldn't achieve the maximum of our potential, and one of us joked that if we get in contact with the corporate environment and accept their money, we risk becoming lazy.
Judging by both the quality and quantity of the arguments in both scenarios, it is pretty clear that you really don't want to sell, and are just pondering the benefits of selling rather than seriously considering it. I can understand this kind of dilemma, but it sounds like you really just want someone to convince you that selling is good or bad rather than actually asking about it. You either want someone to go into a detailed rational response in favor of selling, or a simple emotional one against it.
I say do what you think is right for you and your company, rather than listening to a bunch of random Internet users.
Instead of giving Microsoft a scapegoat for even more draconian policies, why not "stick it to the man" and download a free OS that doesn't treat its users like potential criminals?
Also, what happens when Microsoft finally stops allowing activations and WGA validations for Windows XP? Given the XP is Microsoft's biggest competition, and given that computers have been "good enough" for Joe User for the past 5 years, it wouldn't surprise me if they shut down the XP servers once support runs out, if only to coax people into upgrading.
Tell me something: did any of those machines that you mentioned ever have WGA tell the user that the copy was not "genuine" at any point?
Everyone else is moving away from DRM - think of iTunes...
You're kidding, right? DRM on music died because if interoperability concerns and nothing more. Movies, e-books, software, and especially video games are still extremely DRM'd, and still violating the rights of legitimate customers everywhere.
Vorbis had more of a chance since it actually did get released around the time that there was interest in upgrading from MP3 to something better for some things. However they largely lost out (it does have some use, in game engines for example) in part because of their silly naming and in part because of their poor surround support. However Theora is too little too late as far as I can tell. The world is already settling in to their HD codecs and once the standards get entrenched, they'll stay there until there's a compelling reason to switch.
Timing is important. If your product isn't ready when it is needed, it isn't going to get used no matter how awesome it is in the end.
Timing is important, but so is vendor acceptance and popularity.
The Xiph codecs have failed to reach a mass audience for the same reasons RealMedia, QuickTime, and Windows Media failed: obscurity. MPEG succeeds because it is a de jure standard. In a sane world, supporting a format that costs a grand total of $0 in licensing fees to implement would make complete sense, but because Vorbis and Theora do not have the seal of ISO approval vendors tend to ignore them. The codecs under the Xiph umbrella that do see large adoption usually do so because interoperability is not necessary (Vorbis usage in games) or because MPEG did not fill that niche (FLAC).
More important, however, is popularity. MP3 survives because the computer illiterate associate the very name with digital audio, to the point where it would not surprise me if some people think that CDs literally contain MP3 files. Napster helped considerably here: the fact that it shared exclusively in the MP3 format helped popularize the name and the format, at just the same time that CD rippers started to appear. Digital audio players are called "MP3 players" by the politically incorrect. Not even Microsoft was able to get people to use an alternative format, and they had the advantage (save for the "N" editions) of having their player bundled with Windows for almost a decade now. They finally caved with Windows Media Player 10 after seeing so much usage share lost to Winamp and later iTunes due to Windows Media Player's complete lack of built-in MP3 support up until then. If Microsoft failed to push WMA, and AAC only succeeds where people otherwise have no idea that is is not in fact an MP3 file (such as the default ripping format in iTunes, or on Blu-Ray discs), it's no surprise that Vorbis failed to replace the format by now. Advertising a "Vorbis player" will never work, because no one has any idea what that is. MP3 is the format of Internet distribution thanks to its popularity, and if a digital audio player does not play MP3 files at a minimum, it will never sell, period.
MP3, H.264, MPEG-2.
Can you think of anything else so mainstream whose names are so cryptic?
You're kidding, right? GIF is fading away into obscurity, save for animation and simple graphics, and PNG is dominating in the field of lossless images.
GIF's LZW patents may have expired worldwide in 2006, but GIF's suckiness sure hasn't.
I bought the store about 12 years ago. It was one of those boutique record stores that sell obscure, independent releases that no-one listens to, not even the people that buy them. I decided that to grow the business I'd need to aim for a different demographic, the family market. My store specialised in family music - stuff that the whole family could listen to. I don't sell sick stuff like Marilyn Manson or cop-killer rap, and I'm proud to have one of the most extensive Christian rock sections that I know of.
When they came to the counter to make their purchase, I grabbed the little shit by his shirt. "So...you're going to copy this to your friends over The Internet, punk?" I asked him in my best Clint Eastwood/Dirty Harry voice.
"Uh y-yeh." He mumbled, shocked.
"That's it. What's your name? You're blacklisted. Now take yourself and your little bitch friend out of my store - and don't come back." I barked. Cravenly, they complied and scampered off.
Great job. Your physically forceful demeanor and choice of words just single-handedly destroyed your business in ways that the Internet never could.
I am sick and tired of articles like this, where the developing community has surrendered to Apple the rights to veto apps, for pretty much any reason, that they no doubt worked hard on, as well as giving Apple the ability to retroactively change their minds and kill apps on paying customer's phones. Why is is so acceptable for Apple to do this, when it clearly is not acceptable in the PC* world? Why do developers put up with this kind of draconian control by a third party over their own apps?
I for one can't stand it. To all developers of the iPhone, please stop developing for the iPhone. Hit Apple where it really hurts and develop for Android (not on the Market), the Freerunner, or pretty much any other platform instead, where you don't have to appease some entity that really needs you more than you need it. Don't just make an app that needs jailbreaking, as this still targets the iPhone and consequently still gives Apple more revenue and more power to control developers. If Apple insists on this kind of control, let them get their comeuppance.
*Note by "PC" I mean microcomputers, not Windows machines.
Why anyone would throw down hundreds of dollars for Acrobat when they can get the same functionality from other software is beyond me.
http://tools.services.openoffice.org/odfvalidator/