On the one hand, what you say sound perfectly reasonably from a corporate perspective.
However, the actual reality of the situation is a little more subtle. There are still plenty of XP machines out there. There are even new machines being sold with it. It wasn't discontinued that long ago and it's intermediary Vista went down in history with Microsoft Bob as one of the most notorious Microsoft products ever.
Although all of this ultimately just hurts Apple. It drives people to buy newer PCs and newer copies of Windows. It drives sales to "the enemy".
It's the same nonsense as not supporting Linux or even being non-hostile to it.
It "seems" reasonable but it's really not at all in their own interests. They're encouraging people that would not otherwise buy a new PC running Windows 7 to go do so.
The discriminatory deals were not Google's idea. The discriminatory deals were the REACTION OF THE PUBLISHERS to Google's attempts to make works more useful and more available including those for which the ownership of the works cannot be easily established.
Google certainly should not have a favored position. However, any favored position was merely a side effect of how middle men reacted to Google.
A more balanced law that acknowledges the problem of orphaned works in a meaningful way is sorely needed. Of course publishers want it both ways and want their stuff treated like real property without any of the down sides including adverse possession.
> That's a good question. I don't really have an answer except to say that > restoring copyright on works for which the term of copyright has already > expired makes "limited times" a meaningless concept.
So does repeated retroactive extension. It's the same problem. It's the same mindset.
I see this stuff and I think of Scalia talking with Vader's voice: "I've altered the bargain. Pray that I don't alter it any further".
> RMS is just being a clueless idiot again. Amazon doesn't force anything. Hook the kindle to a USB port and drag a PDF onto it. Not deletable, not identified, not tracked.
Good luck finding the PDF to begin with.
THAT is the problem he's complaining about. You are just engaging in filmflam and misdirection.
Apple seems to think the war is over. You can use less confrontational terms if you like but it doesn't change the underlying situation or facts. It also doesn't change Apple's rhetoric. They clearly are positioning themselves to be successful in something other than computers.
Apple looks more like a consumer electronics company now. iPod variants are their big thing and something that gives them some degree of momentum in any area they happen to be in now.
The fact that they would push their successful platforms over their relative failures seems pretty obvious.
Their consumer desktop share is meagre. What they would stand to lose from alienating those users is small. Plus, they might not even alienate most of them.
If anything, the anti-college sentiment that has arisen is a manifestation of ICONOCLASM. The idea that being anti-college is anti-intellectual is just the sort of idea that an iconoclast might be inclined to object to. Kill the sacred cow!
The file manager may not be great but if it isn't up to the task then that really needs that the file manager needs an update.
All sorts of sometimes mutually exclusive bits of software that try to organize one bit of information or the other really doesn't cut it.
If you have a good "primary key" that's generally useful most of the time, you can "get by" even with just a simple file manger. In truth, most n00bs probably aren't industrious enough to really make a good multi-key approach work. It would require far too much data entry and most users are really lazy.
That's the real problem here. Apple lost the desktop wars a long LONG time ago. Jobs might be willing to concede that completely and try to displace Windows desktops with some form of their more successful platform rather than trying to fight a losing pointless battle with MacOS.
The mundane desktop MacOS user probably won't even be bothered with the whole MacOS -> PhoneOS thing.
H*ll, your average fanboy will probably declare that such a shift is actually a good thing and defend it with vigor.
> The point is, they are here now and usable (in at least some circumstances)
Really? Do you have one? I had an HD-PVR as soon as it was possible to have one after it was released. It was released on time and there were no delays in the release of the product or extreme backorder delays as have been common with Cable Card tuners.
> under linux. If you are in a situation where you CAN use one of these devices, > then it works out to be superior to the HD-PVR....probably not.
The ugly spectre of DRM raises it's ugly head and makes it very unlikely that a Ceton card is going to be as useful in Linux.
This DRM causes problems and imposes limitations even with non-Linux solutions.
Plus you still can't use it with anything except your local landline cable monopoly.
Cable cards in general are not what they are hyped to be. Many people have been waiting on them longer than some of us have been using alternatives (namely the Hauppauge HD-PVR). PC Cable Card tuners have been somewhat vaporous while you've been able to get older Silicon Dust products and the HD-PVR at places like Frys and Microcenter for quite awhile now.
CC tuners are also completely useless for Satellite cable.
The fact that these technical folks are not acting like salesmen is precisely why they are trusted. You will crassly exploit that trust only at your own peril.
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Are you a consumer, then probably not.
Many laws and regulations that are phrased in terms of consumer protection quite often deny standing to actual victims/consumers.
Either way it goes the most likely set of choices will be:
a) Not bother with iCloud at all.
b) Buy a new Dell with Windows 7 on it.
Neither is really in Apple's interest.
On the one hand, what you say sound perfectly reasonably from a corporate perspective.
However, the actual reality of the situation is a little more subtle. There are still plenty of XP machines out there. There are even new machines being sold with it. It wasn't discontinued that long ago and it's intermediary Vista went down in history with Microsoft Bob as one of the most notorious Microsoft products ever.
Although all of this ultimately just hurts Apple. It drives people to buy newer PCs and newer copies of Windows. It drives sales to "the enemy".
It's the same nonsense as not supporting Linux or even being non-hostile to it.
It "seems" reasonable but it's really not at all in their own interests. They're encouraging people that would not otherwise buy a new PC running Windows 7 to go do so.
The discriminatory deals were not Google's idea. The discriminatory deals were the REACTION OF THE PUBLISHERS to Google's attempts to make works more useful and more available including those for which the ownership of the works cannot be easily established.
Google certainly should not have a favored position. However, any favored position was merely a side effect of how middle men reacted to Google.
A more balanced law that acknowledges the problem of orphaned works in a meaningful way is sorely needed. Of course publishers want it both ways and want their stuff treated like real property without any of the down sides including adverse possession.
The whole "limited" times thing is a pretty obvious legal basis.
The idea that there is "no basis" here for taking a more individualistic approach to the law is entirely bogus.
In fact, it is the "individualistic" aspects of the Constitution that are supposed to take precedence.
> That's a good question. I don't really have an answer except to say that
> restoring copyright on works for which the term of copyright has already
> expired makes "limited times" a meaningless concept.
So does repeated retroactive extension. It's the same problem. It's the same mindset.
I see this stuff and I think of Scalia talking with Vader's voice: "I've altered the bargain. Pray that I don't alter it any further".
> RMS is just being a clueless idiot again. Amazon doesn't force anything. Hook the kindle to a USB port and drag a PDF onto it. Not deletable, not identified, not tracked.
Good luck finding the PDF to begin with.
THAT is the problem he's complaining about. You are just engaging in filmflam and misdirection.
Preventing publishers from screwing around with my personal property rights is not "depriving" them of anything.
Apple seems to think the war is over. You can use less confrontational terms if you like but it doesn't change the underlying situation or facts. It also doesn't change Apple's rhetoric. They clearly are positioning themselves to be successful in something other than computers.
Apple looks more like a consumer electronics company now. iPod variants are their big thing and something that gives them some degree of momentum in any area they happen to be in now.
The fact that they would push their successful platforms over their relative failures seems pretty obvious.
Their consumer desktop share is meagre. What they would stand to lose from alienating those users is small. Plus, they might not even alienate most of them.
Unless you are Steve Jobs, the "profit war" means diddly-squat.
Ok. So now you can brag about how much abuse you tolerate from a particular corporation. Big Fat Hairy Deal.
I am a "consumer". I care about how useful a product is, not how rich it makes the guy a buy it from.
A nice troll icon would be good.
I am sure we all have a few suitable pictures we could submit for something like this.
It should.
Being able to "re-invent" something should nullify a patent completely.
Patents are like nuclear weapons and should be created and deployed accordingly.
I actually encountered the most effective "college skills" instructors in High School, not college.
If you need to be "brought around" by the time you get to college then it's probably too late already.
...so is a library.
Want to be "educated"? Then you can do it in the same manner as Jefferson and skip the student loans.
This is one of the greatest reasons we have public libraries.
Knowledge does not require a college of cardinals and bishops and other assorted gatekeepers and bridge trolls.
If anything, the anti-college sentiment that has arisen is a manifestation of ICONOCLASM. The idea that being anti-college is anti-intellectual is just the sort of idea that an iconoclast might be inclined to object to. Kill the sacred cow!
The file manager may not be great but if it isn't up to the task then that really needs that the file manager needs an update.
All sorts of sometimes mutually exclusive bits of software that try to organize one bit of information or the other really doesn't cut it.
If you have a good "primary key" that's generally useful most of the time, you can "get by" even with just a simple file manger. In truth, most n00bs probably aren't industrious enough to really make a good multi-key approach work. It would require far too much data entry and most users are really lazy.
Correction: Apple is going after the market of users who are sick of dealing with security issues and could never be bothered to dump Windows.
PhoneOS is nothing special in terms of security. Although it is pretty fascist and unecessarily so.
> And people will be much happier. If all the apps out there are vetted by a single reliable source
Then machines will be far less capable. Simple trivial things will be unecessarily difficult or just plain impossible.
Relatively minor tweaks that even a non-developer power user can create will no longer be available to you or ANYONE.
Better competition will be suppressed because Apple has that level of control.
It's everything Microsoft ever dreamed of.
...except the catch is that a "real computer" only needs to cost $300. It doesn't have to cost $2400 or even $3500.
You can modernize an old machine pretty cheaply or completely replace it pretty cheaply.
Spending thousands? PCs weren't that expensive in the 80s. Never mind now.
So what if people stop buying Macs?
That's the real problem here. Apple lost the desktop wars a long LONG time ago. Jobs might be willing to concede that completely and try to displace Windows desktops with some form of their more successful platform rather than trying to fight a losing pointless battle with MacOS.
The mundane desktop MacOS user probably won't even be bothered with the whole MacOS -> PhoneOS thing.
H*ll, your average fanboy will probably declare that such a shift is actually a good thing and defend it with vigor.
Then perhaps the only real Mac that remains available will be the one that starts at $2400.
> The point is, they are here now and usable (in at least some circumstances)
Really? Do you have one? I had an HD-PVR as soon as it was possible to have one
after it was released. It was released on time and there were no delays in the release
of the product or extreme backorder delays as have been common with Cable Card tuners.
> under linux. If you are in a situation where you CAN use one of these devices, ...probably not.
> then it works out to be superior to the HD-PVR.
The ugly spectre of DRM raises it's ugly head and makes it very unlikely that a Ceton card is going to be as useful in Linux.
This DRM causes problems and imposes limitations even with non-Linux solutions.
Plus you still can't use it with anything except your local landline cable monopoly.
Cable cards in general are not what they are hyped to be. Many people have been waiting on them longer than some of us have been using alternatives (namely the Hauppauge HD-PVR). PC Cable Card tuners have been somewhat vaporous while you've been able to get older Silicon Dust products and the HD-PVR at places like Frys and Microcenter for quite awhile now.
CC tuners are also completely useless for Satellite cable.
> there is no way to make an effective Linux DVR other than just over-the-air recordings ...or an analog recorder that can handle HD.
Such an arrangement works very effectively with Linux and even avoids some of the pitfalls of using the DRM encumbered options.
...too many offended 'non-technical' types.
The fact that these technical folks are not acting like salesmen is precisely why they are trusted. You will crassly exploit that trust only at your own peril.