This is an area where form follows function and purely functional design considerations can lead to a convergence of things that somewhat look alike. Give any company the right to own the "form" and function is interfered with in a manner that the fanboys of the offending corporation will immediately whine about. It's a nice catch-22.
It's like trademarking aircraft designs....or any number of other devices that end up looking similar for the same reasons: TVs. Toasters. Cars.
Perhaps it's too much to ask the randomly selected jury of people who probably aren't very tech saavy to have a go at this?
Have the jury look at these devices and see if there is any actual "trade dress confusion".
That's what these laws are for. Will granny be confused?
Viewing a hand held device from across a room seems utterly retarded and completely irrelevant to the point here. It seems like an inherently biased legal theory that should be shredded on appeal if it comes to that.
> 1) Simple things like "copy one row to another" regularly crash OpenOffice for many users.
Lack of insight from a support forum might be due to the fact that this sounds less like a genuine problem and more like weak FUD to those of us that have been using the product a long time on a daily basis in corporate environments as an adequate replacement for msoffice.
Anything that is !office will trigger screeching resistance from Lemmings that have enough problems using a commercial alternative, never mind Free Software.
The Lemming attitude about tools on Windows was always terribly annoying and seemed to sabotage the single biggest advantage of MIcrosoft as a monopoly vendor (namely that "it has everything"). What's the point if you can't really run anything you like? Be stuck using the suckage that herd is fixated on? Why bother with that?
If "people have outlived their usefulness" then it's time that corporations step up and bridge the gap. This used to be an expected matter of course but the mentality of next quarter earnings and cost cutting in recent decades have undermined this. You can only treat labor as disposable for so long before "passing the buck" is no longer possible anymore.
The gap is wide enough now that companies have started to change but it's a slow process of course.
GUI's tend to suffer from the pervasive idea that they need to cater to complete blithering idiots and complete blithering idiots only. (The Apple mentality)
The manuals that used to come with DOS and Windows were actually useful. The fact that they existed didn't mean that Windows was inherently difficult. It's like how people said that the Tucker was unsafe just because it had seat belts. The only significance of Macs not coming with any real documentation is the fact that Apple left something out of the package. They can save a few cents on ink and paper and push off the problem to someone else (like the Genius Bar).
PCs that don't have any documentation anymore aren't easier. Corporations are just too cheap to include a manual.
The latest Mac Mini doesn't even have a respectable GPU anymore.
Plus it's expensive. It can't even thrive as a desktop PC in a market where people are used to spending more than they would for a console. How is a Mini going to compete in a market where something like a PS3 is considered an overpriced option?
The Mini is the perfect example of why people would choose a console over PCs for gaming. Consoles represent a cheap, well understood, and STABLE platform that does doesn't do musical chairs with 3 different GPU vendors in short order.
Just getting a real game to install on a random Mini poses a problem.
Today may or may not be fine. Tomorrow, who knows?
The fact remains that the new AppleTV is a far less compelling machine for hackers. The old AppleTV was a nice way to get a cheap low profile box that was generally useful. It eventually became outdated but it was very respectable for it's time. The new AppleTV is just cheap and limited and more of a bother to deal with if you are choosing to hijack the hardware for your own purposes.
It's a real step backwards.
It's nicer from a purely superficial standpoint.
Even the lack of internal storage poses a problem for it's primary intended use case. Even just as a v2 version of a product it's badly hobbled.
Courts have rules too you know. They are very much like machines or computing devices in this regard. You can't just make sh*t up because you think it sounds good or it benefits your pet corporation.
Except this little tempest over vbox would be more like a MythTV developer saying that the driver for a particular capture card or GPU is crap and that you should avoid it. It's not his project. It's not really his place to fix it. Even if he went to the effort to create patches, they still might not get committed.
He just wants people to stop wrongfully pointing out his project as the problem.
He wants people that have problems to complain to the ones creating it.
Slashdot Mirror
...no, not even millions.
The newer iPhones simply aren't that revolutionary anymore. It's just time for Apple to get over themselves. The same goes for fanboys.
If anything, the teaser/spoiler/PT Barnum effect of all of this is an actual net gain.
So I kind of side with the guys arguing the "strict demonstrated damages only" approach.
> There was an obvious need for an investigation, that the police botched it is their problem. And yours if you're a US citizen.
There is frequently an "obvious need for an investigation". Seldom does one actually occur.
THAT is part of the corruption that is being complained about here.
Tort reform for the rich. Crime and punishment for the poor.
This is an area where form follows function and purely functional design considerations can lead to a convergence of things that somewhat look alike. Give any company the right to own the "form" and function is interfered with in a manner that the fanboys of the offending corporation will immediately whine about. It's a nice catch-22.
It's like trademarking aircraft designs. ...or any number of other devices that end up looking similar for the same reasons: TVs. Toasters. Cars.
Perhaps it's too much to ask the randomly selected jury of people who probably aren't very tech saavy to have a go at this?
Have the jury look at these devices and see if there is any actual "trade dress confusion".
That's what these laws are for. Will granny be confused?
Viewing a hand held device from across a room seems utterly retarded and completely irrelevant to the point here. It seems like an inherently biased legal theory that should be shredded on appeal if it comes to that.
> Have you ever seen Apple's packaging?
You confuse me with someone that's bothered by blowing $1000 for a piece of gear just to try it out.
Once again this is an argument that comes down to style versus substance with the Apple fanboys fixating on all the wrong details.
A real manual is larger than the kind of machine you are talking about.
No worries though. The n00b can always go to the Apple store to learn about iTunes. They might even pay for the privelege.
You seriously need to "get out more". You are way out of your depth in this discussion and you aren't even smart enough to realize it.
> 1) Simple things like "copy one row to another" regularly crash OpenOffice for many users.
Lack of insight from a support forum might be due to the fact that this sounds less like a genuine problem and more like weak FUD to those of us that have been using the product a long time on a daily basis in corporate environments as an adequate replacement for msoffice.
Anything that is !office will trigger screeching resistance from Lemmings that have enough problems using a commercial alternative, never mind Free Software.
The Lemming attitude about tools on Windows was always terribly annoying and seemed to sabotage the single biggest advantage of MIcrosoft as a monopoly vendor (namely that "it has everything"). What's the point if you can't really run anything you like? Be stuck using the suckage that herd is fixated on? Why bother with that?
It's the same underdog. It's just under new management.
If "people have outlived their usefulness" then it's time that corporations step up and bridge the gap. This used to be an expected matter of course but the mentality of next quarter earnings and cost cutting in recent decades have undermined this. You can only treat labor as disposable for so long before "passing the buck" is no longer possible anymore.
The gap is wide enough now that companies have started to change but it's a slow process of course.
The real difference is that the "real thing" is of dramatically lower quality.
A copy of a good lecture is worth much more than the live presentation of a bad one.
GUI's tend to suffer from the pervasive idea that they need to cater to complete blithering idiots and complete blithering idiots only. (The Apple mentality)
The manuals that used to come with DOS and Windows were actually useful. The fact that they existed didn't mean that Windows was inherently difficult. It's like how people said that the Tucker was unsafe just because it had seat belts. The only significance of Macs not coming with any real documentation is the fact that Apple left something out of the package. They can save a few cents on ink and paper and push off the problem to someone else (like the Genius Bar).
PCs that don't have any documentation anymore aren't easier. Corporations are just too cheap to include a manual.
> The iPhone is a very good phone first, and a very good smartphone second.
No it isn't.
It's a pretty good pocket computer first (assuming you don't run afoul of it's limitations), and a BAD phone second.
...which is fine so long as you aren't really interested in powerful GUI apps.
At which point, you could just use FreeBSD.
If you think power and flexibility requires dumping the GUI, then you are doing your GUI wrong.
...and that revision of the device actually flopped.
So this is a nice self-nuke you have there. You're just too blindered to notice or acknowledge.
You must be joking.
The latest Mac Mini doesn't even have a respectable GPU anymore.
Plus it's expensive. It can't even thrive as a desktop PC in a market where people are used to spending more than they would for a console. How is a Mini going to compete in a market where something like a PS3 is considered an overpriced option?
The Mini is the perfect example of why people would choose a console over PCs for gaming. Consoles represent a cheap, well understood, and STABLE platform that does doesn't do musical chairs with 3 different GPU vendors in short order.
Just getting a real game to install on a random Mini poses a problem.
Today may or may not be fine. Tomorrow, who knows?
The fact remains that the new AppleTV is a far less compelling machine for hackers. The old AppleTV was a nice way to get a cheap low profile box that was generally useful. It eventually became outdated but it was very respectable for it's time. The new AppleTV is just cheap and limited and more of a bother to deal with if you are choosing to hijack the hardware for your own purposes.
It's a real step backwards.
It's nicer from a purely superficial standpoint.
Even the lack of internal storage poses a problem for it's primary intended use case. Even just as a v2 version of a product it's badly hobbled.
Nonsense. AppleTV doesn't have anything over the competition. They all pretty much have the same sort of interface and the same kinds of limitations.
There is nothing particularly "magical" about the Apple product here.
There are some other older products that one might describe in the terms you are using. They're hardly relevant to this discussion.
The entire market has evolved.
Being able to "just work" with whatever you happen to have doesn't require "arcane menus". It simply requires format support that's not crap.
And what crime is that exactly?
Unlawful finding?
It's not really theft.
Courts have rules too you know. They are very much like machines or computing devices in this regard. You can't just make sh*t up because you think it sounds good or it benefits your pet corporation.
...oh great. Blow more money on systems that don't warrant it to begin with.
I would rather just have a product that lasts longer to begin with, or has a manufacturer that stands behind it.
This is what distinguishes genuine luxury brands from wannabe labels like Apple.
If you are droning on about the payware extended warranty then you've already lost the argument.
Apple customers are probably too stupid to know any better and are aware of nothing beyond "it's pretty".
Being obsolete too quickly is also a part of "quality".
This includes not having enough RAM to run the OS properly.
It also includes having a GPU that's so bad that the bundled apps generate warnings.
I've had plenty of non-Apple's stand the test of time.
Most anything that can break in an Apple product is not something built by them, designed by them, or exclusive to their products.
Except this little tempest over vbox would be more like a MythTV developer saying that the driver for a particular capture card or GPU is crap and that you should avoid it. It's not his project. It's not really his place to fix it. Even if he went to the effort to create patches, they still might not get committed.
He just wants people to stop wrongfully pointing out his project as the problem.
He wants people that have problems to complain to the ones creating it.
A mall cop cannot arrest me.
The cop that comes to clean up the mess can arrest me.
The mall cop is just a hopeless wannabe.
The security guard better have gun if he tries to take my phone or he's going to be on permanent disability.
Some wannabe from Wackenhut is not a real cop. I won't treat him like one.