I don't see it as a "money" thing though. I can't count the amount of time I have lost trying to make my Razr do things I want it to. Sometimes I get billed out at $250 an hour (but usually $90-$120/hr). And if you factor in how much I am charged out at per hour, and then you factor in the hours I have wasted with the Razer, it does not seem expensive to me at all.
My time is worth money to me. If I can buy a device that just works, and I don't have to spend time "fiddling" with it, then that is actually more valuable to me. In fact, it represents a savings. I always look at the Opportunity Cost. Just because something is inexpensive does not mean that it is inexpensive to use. On a per-hour basis the iPhone is actually less expensive for me to use than the Razr - if it works as well as Job's keynote.
That, and you know the price will drop, and the features will rise.
Yes, but more people own phones that are not business phones than those that own business phones. And as another poster pointed out, the crackberry does not open word documents either. So who knows? Maybe it will be successful in the business segment. I still don't think it is their target market though.
The Razr allows you to install your own apps on it.
I know, I own one. And the UI drives me insane. It is poorly thought out, and reminds me of the interfaces pre Windows 3.11 (Not including X of the day).
In the Keynote Jobs stressed how coco ran on the phone. So, if the first revision does not support additional software (and I suspect it will eventually through iTunes just like the ringtunes...) future revisions will. Either way, it does not matter. You are discussing a feature, not a benefit. Geeks buy for features, joe public buys benefits. I know many people with Razrs who do NOT install applications on their phones. Why? Because they don't know how. These are the Joe Publics that Apple is targeting. Joe Public has a small range of features he wants, and anything outside of that range does not even register. Only the geeks want more features, and the target market does not appear to be for the Biz segment, so that is out as well.
It is just like the iPod. It does one thing, and it does it well. Sound familiar? It is like all the command line unix tools. Do one thing, and do it well. This device is designed to do one thing - meet the demands of Joe Public - and do it well. Everyone who wants to do "extra" things with the iPhone is not in the target demographic. These are the same people crying out about the price. Joe Public will pay it, and Joe Public will be happy. It is not aimed at anyone else.
What would you rather sell? 1 iPhone to every business person, or 1 iPhone to 1 out of every 100 Mr. Joe Public? I would rather sell to the Joe Public market because of the sheer volume of sales. The target market of the iPhone is not to kill the blackberry - yet. It is to go after the market that the Razr has. And since it is essentially a pocket PC, if there is demand, then maybe other apps could be installed with later revisions.
Apple is not stupid, they did their market research for this thing and know exactly what features Joe Public wants, not what Mr. Jack Business or Mr. Slashdot Nerdling wants. They want to woo the Joe Publics, and I strongly suspect that they will.
I think MS is complaining because they know that the iPhone is going to destroy the Zune, and they have nothing to compete with it. Not only that, once enough Joe Public's get a hold of these things, there market for WinCE will be under fire - and then their market for Office on such devices. Apple is smart, they are picking their battles. They are not even trying to compete with the business market at this point. They are targeting a totally different segment, and MS is scared that they will win.
Think of the changes in the marketplace, if everyone owns an iPhone in the public space, and becomes accustomed to using OS X on their handheld... What sort of PC will Joe Public consider buying after using a OS X device? I suspect more iMac's will fly off the shelves after the iPhone becomes established. I think Microsoft is seriously afraid of losing the mobile market, the DRM/Music Market, and eventually the desktop market. And the iPhone is the device that will drive in that wedge.
Agreed. I think the only reason I did not go postal was because of my mother, and her caring attitude.
However, after my dad died, I became very depressed, and suddenly, I was the target of abuse from everyone around me. Because being depressed, I did not fit in. I started getting picked on severely. Then, one teacher (who was later fired after a similar incident!) declared me to be "slow" - as opposed to being very unhappy. So, the next thing I know I am put in the class for "disadvantaged children" aka the special class. They run a bunch of tests on me, and find that at 10 years old, I am reading at a grade 12 level, and that my IQ is above normal, that no, I am not slow, just bored and depressed due to the death of my father.
So what happens? The school does the nice thing and gets me *ADVANCED* material. So, there I am in the "slow" class, being given advanced material. The other kids in this class hated me, and picked on me incessantly. I got beaten up in and after school numerous times - often by multiple kids. It is hard to fight back when 7 people are attacking you. To make matters worse, I had no one to teach me how to fight back. So I kept loosing. And I kept getting attacked. The school would not help, and my mother just thought violence was "bad" and that I should "just not fight". (That was about her only negative influence).
I can tell you, if I had access to a weapon, it is entirely possible - in fact, probably very likely - that I would have gone postal in that situation. As it was, I did not have access to one.
Now that I am older, people wonder why I have studied martial arts for 13 years, and keep myself in very good physical condition. Partly because of vanity and wanting to look good. But mostly because I remember what it was like to be opressed so badly for those years.
As a Canadian I am infurated by this article. This was classifed Canadian government information. As such, only Canadians were supposed to know that more women were online - and the fact that more Canadian men were aware of this, as the data shows is no excuse for giving away our secrets!
Still, the cat is out of the bag. We have large and sparsely populated country. By government mandate we are attempting to increase our populace by going online and luring the ladies to our glacial climate via online dating services!
This throws a wrench into our grand plan of luring the likes of nubile young women like "cuteie332" "betty22" and "chicky_54" here so we can increase our populace and dominate the earth with our floppy heads!
I hope the Mac doesn't become marginalized, but I already feel that it has by Apple's actions this year.
I am a recent mac convert, although, I am typing this on my XP machine, my iMac is sitting right next to me. (Yes yes, you zealots out there, there are Linux machines here too).
The thing about the iPhone is that IMO, it will be bigger than the iPod, and will likely be the biggest cell phone to date. I strongly suspect it is going to bury the legacy of the Razr - and I should know as I own a Razr. But, now here is where I think the opposite of what you are worried about will happen. You see, the iPhone RUNS OS X. And people will be using the iPhone as what is most likely to be one of the biggest consumer devices since the iPod, walkman, or Razr. Now, few consumers now use OS X. Most of them are using Windows, just like I am to type this post.
Here is the thing - the interface of the Razr SUCKS. You can bet that the interface of the iPhone will kick ass. So, now you have people who become used to a slimmed down version of OS X, and now it comes time for them to buy a computer... The influence of the iMac and iBooks have been growing. So, what does Joe consumer take a little longer look at? A Mac.
Most consumers only know of an OS as "windows" when they hear OS they think "windows". The iPhone has the potential to change OS to "Mac OS X".
Now, when Joe consumer walks into best buy and asks for the computer that runs the same thing as this here phone thingy, that thing will be a Mac.
The primary goal is to make coin by selling the iPhone, back it up with iTunes and iRingTunes, and then the secondary goal is to slowly migrate people to OS X as a choice because they are now familiar with their great little iPhone.
This thing is going to be a massive change in the industry if it works properly, and I strongly suspect it will. *
* (Expect 1st gen iphones to have problems that get fixed in the second incarnation).
I subscribe to the keteu.org Aurora mail notification. Which is handy for knowing when Aurora will appear where I live.. When I grew up I saw them all the time, where I live now, I have seen 1 set in the last 5 years.
That said, could someone enlighten me on the correlation between sunspots and solar flares? Yes, I know it is flares that cause the Aurora, not sunspots, but do increases in sunspots correlate to an increase in flares? It has been a few years since I was up on my solar topography as it were, so I am hoping for more Aurora in the next little bit - even if I need to travel up to the Youkon this year to see them again.
How long until someone does the reverse with the iPhone when it comes out? Of course, my prediction is that future models of the iPhone will do that on their own. Still. not a bad hack at all, hopefully it won't be long until flash ram fully outpaces hard drive capacity/cost.
Bruce, you can't keep coming in here and providing reasoned commentary. I mean, how will all us slashbots have a good old fashioned flamewar circa 1999?;)
It seems so wasteful to be dragging around two tons of metal to transport one person.
I really wish around here in BC they would change the licence/insurance laws. I used to drive a truck (until the head gasket went and leaked all the coolant into the oil pan) and I now drive a tercel. However, I would like to insure both under a single licence. Why? Because there are times when I could use a truck, and I used to use my truck to fill a need about 1 time every week. The rest of the time I could have got by with a much more fuel efficent car. However, licencing 2 vehicles offsets the value in having more than one. If I could have swapped plates from truck to car, I could have driven the truck 1 day a week, and the car the other 6. But this is not legal here. Hell, if I could do that I would rather have a truck and a smart fortwo car. Because on my own the fortwo would work great, and for those times where I need more space, I can drive the truck.
Changing insurance methods could save gas in situations like these.
You don't? Hell I use psDooM on all my production systems. I like to let my processes sort out their own issues, who needs nice anyways? And boy, with this kind of user interface, I deal with hackers by "iddqd" "idkfa" and then pull out the BFG. Problem solved.
Shaw@Home (Canada) gives you warning phone calls at first, then disconnects your cable modem if you go over. Mind you, their basic cable package gives you 60 GB up/down combined monthly. You only hit that if you go torrent happy. Least ways, that is how I hit it.
Whay should anybody make bussiness with a company that is breaking the law so many times?
Because some people don't believe in the laws that the company has broken, and second, some products are only available from said company. If a consumer wants product "X" and you can only get it from one vendor, that is where you have to go. I have friends, I know that is shocking. My friends play some games. Strangely, I want to play the games that my friends play. I want to play games with my friends. Linux does not do that for me. I can make it work, but the solution is a kludge. I use Linux for servers, for my WRT54G for a NSLU2 running Asterisk. For my file server, but NOT for a gaming machine. I want to play games with my friends. How is that difficult to understand? That, is why I also bought the ATi All In Wonder 9800 Pro - because it does what I want it to do - and I got it for a steal of a price. Again, it only works with Windows, but it does exactly what I ask of it. The newer video card I just bought also is Linux incompatible, but it runs games hella fast. And that is why I bought it.
Why should one not hate a company as dishonest and immoral as Microsoft?
And conversely, why should you hate the same company for acting like nearly all other companies? If you study Adam Smith and kind, you will find that this behavior is common, and in the long run helpful to consumers (Monopoly actions excluded). To refuse to choose a tool that works is, IMO dumb. XP works for the games I want to play, but it does not do many other things that I want. Hence, I have Linux machines, and devices, and I have an Intel iMac as well. For each purpose I select the best tool. For Half Life 2 and Battlefield 2142, a Windows XP gaming machine is far and away the best choice for that purpose.
And for the record, I once built an over clocked Celeron 300A to 450, with a Matrox G400 Dual Head. Everything in that system was very good when it came out, and every part was purchased with Linux in mind. And, I *ONLY* ran Linux on it. Trouble was, it ran games *SLOWER* than windows, and most games did not work at all. I was confined to Quake 3 for shooters, but my friends played HL 1, and I could not play with them. It sucked being a non-windows user and not being able to play with my friends. I use Linux all day at work, I support it in the Enterprise. I get to work with some really serious server hardware running Linux. When asked for server OS recommendations I nearly always suggest Linux. But when I need a tool to perform a job, I use the best tool for that task. And you may dislike Microsoft, but if you want a gaming PC, and I do, you want Windows XP. I am not willing to put up the hassle of a non-windows gaming box again. It was a colossal waste of my time, and I know because I bought *EVERY* game ported by Lokisoft, except Eric's ultimate solitaire.
So, there is your answer. I use the best tool for the job.
I wish them luck, and I think they're going to need it.
I doubt that. I don't think that the iPhone is a Newton. New revisions of the iPhone will certainly come out, and I expect to see one with a 60 GB hard drive sometime in the near future. Currently, it competes with a nano in terms of storage, and any other cell phone around for ease of use.
It DOES bring new stuff to the table. It has the ipod brand for one, second, it changes how the phone itself works to make it easy. Finally, it, like the razr and the ipod will be the sexy thing to have. I got a Razr through work, and even though it is apparently "no longer" the sexy phone, I still get comments about it "ooh! A razr!".
As a Apple brings in new models, this thing will be hotter than the iPod. I have little doubt of that. Because it will have all the sexiness of the ipod, and the razr, and actually be easy to use. My Razr is a POS for ease of use. IMO, it BLOWS from an interface perspective. From what I have seen of the iPhone, it is going to be a knockout blow. And no, I am no apple fanboi.
Apple has thought this through, and done this right, and they are going to sell tons of these things.
Because the ONLY time we call support is when the hardware is actually broken.
Are you certain of this? I have been to some LUG's where there were Linux newbies there who were migrating off of Microsoft not because they like Linux, but rather because they hate Microsoft. (I think that this migration is for entirely the wrong reason.) Many of these kinds of users seemed to blame the hardware of their machines, and feel that they could "demand" support for their hardware, even if it was an unsupported platform (Linux).
The thing is, a serious Linux user will check out the hardware in advance and verify compatibility, and most serious users are knowledgeable in hardware to determine that there are hardware issues. However, newbies are not. You cannot categorically say that all Linux users know their hardware, because I have seen that this is not so. I have seen new users rage against companies like HP, Dell etc. when sometimes they have not bothered to RTFM.
Likewise, I have been admonished for buying hardware that I knew would not be Linux compatible by other users. My Ati All in Wonder 9800 pro does not work under Linux, but I knew that before I bought it. I think that zealots (which is what some of the newbs I met were) harm Linux for all by actually complaining to the companies for the lack of support for Linux, but by doing it in a non-constructive manner.
So, I think that EXPERIENCED Linux users know when the hardware is broken, but then they also know to restore the default OS when getting the hardware fixed.
Perhaps the iPhone is NOT certain to be the most popular up and coming device? Out of all the people I know, noone wants an iPhone. It's just too expensive - pretty much not worth the price tag
Possible, but I doubt it. My guess is that most people on slashdot are not the target demographic. People still buy smartphones, people still buy iPods and Cellphones and carry both. The price IS high, but it will be the sexy thing to have, and non-techy people will be the first to buy it. It will be the ultra cool thing to have, I am certain of it. Geeks like us will wait until it costs less. Joe Public will want it, and want it badly. We will see in June.
Besides, it will cost less eventually. The early adopters will be the ones who will be picking it up. My guess is that it outsells the Razr, and I think that there have been 35 million sold to date. That is the sort of platform you want your software on, so I can see Google working on that.
If anything, they are doing things for the iPhone. Google is a search/software company. We saw google (and others such as Yahoo) at the keynote when the iPhone was introduced. Knowing that Google is partnering w/ apple, you can bet that they have more planned for the iPhone.
Why build a moblie device, when you can take advantage of what is certanly to be the most popular up and coming mobile device?
Search time, 15 seconds. Fire up bittorrent, walk away. I am happy with 128 bit or better. Done. If you are a member of the more exclusive sites, then finding torrents is even easier, but I cannot link to those.
I am not worried about bandwidth, I have more than enough with my cable modem. This process runs when I am away from my home PC which is fairly often. Rip/Encode requires my presence at my PC, and as I mentioned, I sit in front of one here at work, and I don't want to do it at home.
When I am in front of my home PC, I would rather be doing something else than swapping discs. When I downloaded my Zep Collection the last time, it came in 1 big rar file, and had all the albums ripped at 128 bit, and that was exactly what I was looking for. I started the download, and then walked away. When I got back, I had one big file I de-rared, and then burned the MP3's to CD-ROM for use in my car. That was all it took. Total time in front of my PC? ~1 min to start download, then the time to unrar, and burn the CD. Less than 5 min of my time all told.
Remember, I am talking about total time here. I do like to get AWAY from my PC and do other things. I simply cannot rip CD's while I am away from my PC. I *CAN* download torrents while I am away from my PC. Therein lies the difference.
Also, you are assuming I want ogg files. I don't. I want MP3 because my Car Deck cannot play oog, none of my MP3 players can play oog, only my computers can play oog, and unless I am playing games, or getting paid to be in front of a PC, I am not in front of my PC. You also assume I run Linux. I do - at work. At home my primary system runs Win XP* (Secondary systems are OSX and various Linuxes). Un-raring is a right click of my mouse, and "decompress to here".
* (My primary system was a Linux machine once, but for the specific tasks I use it for, Linux does not work very well.)
Slashdot Mirror
You are bang on about that. That is a far better way to say it than I did!
I agree, the price won't plummet - not until the next models come out anyways. I expect the price to stay high for 1-2 years.
I don't see it as a "money" thing though. I can't count the amount of time I have lost trying to make my Razr do things I want it to. Sometimes I get billed out at $250 an hour (but usually $90-$120/hr). And if you factor in how much I am charged out at per hour, and then you factor in the hours I have wasted with the Razer, it does not seem expensive to me at all.
My time is worth money to me. If I can buy a device that just works, and I don't have to spend time "fiddling" with it, then that is actually more valuable to me. In fact, it represents a savings. I always look at the Opportunity Cost. Just because something is inexpensive does not mean that it is inexpensive to use. On a per-hour basis the iPhone is actually less expensive for me to use than the Razr - if it works as well as Job's keynote.
That, and you know the price will drop, and the features will rise.
Yes, but more people own phones that are not business phones than those that own business phones. And as another poster pointed out, the crackberry does not open word documents either. So who knows? Maybe it will be successful in the business segment. I still don't think it is their target market though.
Time to feed the trolls... Nice attack, now apart from your straw man with the fanboy comment, would you care to attack any of my actual points?
I know, I own one. And the UI drives me insane. It is poorly thought out, and reminds me of the interfaces pre Windows 3.11 (Not including X of the day).
In the Keynote Jobs stressed how coco ran on the phone. So, if the first revision does not support additional software (and I suspect it will eventually through iTunes just like the ringtunes...) future revisions will. Either way, it does not matter. You are discussing a feature, not a benefit. Geeks buy for features, joe public buys benefits. I know many people with Razrs who do NOT install applications on their phones. Why? Because they don't know how. These are the Joe Publics that Apple is targeting. Joe Public has a small range of features he wants, and anything outside of that range does not even register. Only the geeks want more features, and the target market does not appear to be for the Biz segment, so that is out as well.
It is just like the iPod. It does one thing, and it does it well. Sound familiar? It is like all the command line unix tools. Do one thing, and do it well. This device is designed to do one thing - meet the demands of Joe Public - and do it well. Everyone who wants to do "extra" things with the iPhone is not in the target demographic. These are the same people crying out about the price. Joe Public will pay it, and Joe Public will be happy. It is not aimed at anyone else.
What would you rather sell? 1 iPhone to every business person, or 1 iPhone to 1 out of every 100 Mr. Joe Public? I would rather sell to the Joe Public market because of the sheer volume of sales. The target market of the iPhone is not to kill the blackberry - yet. It is to go after the market that the Razr has. And since it is essentially a pocket PC, if there is demand, then maybe other apps could be installed with later revisions.
Apple is not stupid, they did their market research for this thing and know exactly what features Joe Public wants, not what Mr. Jack Business or Mr. Slashdot Nerdling wants. They want to woo the Joe Publics, and I strongly suspect that they will.
I think MS is complaining because they know that the iPhone is going to destroy the Zune, and they have nothing to compete with it. Not only that, once enough Joe Public's get a hold of these things, there market for WinCE will be under fire - and then their market for Office on such devices. Apple is smart, they are picking their battles. They are not even trying to compete with the business market at this point. They are targeting a totally different segment, and MS is scared that they will win.
Think of the changes in the marketplace, if everyone owns an iPhone in the public space, and becomes accustomed to using OS X on their handheld... What sort of PC will Joe Public consider buying after using a OS X device? I suspect more iMac's will fly off the shelves after the iPhone becomes established. I think Microsoft is seriously afraid of losing the mobile market, the DRM/Music Market, and eventually the desktop market. And the iPhone is the device that will drive in that wedge.
Great, so you move onto virtual bullying because I made a typo? Well done A.C.
Agreed. I think the only reason I did not go postal was because of my mother, and her caring attitude.
However, after my dad died, I became very depressed, and suddenly, I was the target of abuse from everyone around me. Because being depressed, I did not fit in. I started getting picked on severely. Then, one teacher (who was later fired after a similar incident!) declared me to be "slow" - as opposed to being very unhappy. So, the next thing I know I am put in the class for "disadvantaged children" aka the special class. They run a bunch of tests on me, and find that at 10 years old, I am reading at a grade 12 level, and that my IQ is above normal, that no, I am not slow, just bored and depressed due to the death of my father.
So what happens? The school does the nice thing and gets me *ADVANCED* material. So, there I am in the "slow" class, being given advanced material. The other kids in this class hated me, and picked on me incessantly. I got beaten up in and after school numerous times - often by multiple kids. It is hard to fight back when 7 people are attacking you. To make matters worse, I had no one to teach me how to fight back. So I kept loosing. And I kept getting attacked. The school would not help, and my mother just thought violence was "bad" and that I should "just not fight". (That was about her only negative influence).
I can tell you, if I had access to a weapon, it is entirely possible - in fact, probably very likely - that I would have gone postal in that situation. As it was, I did not have access to one.
Now that I am older, people wonder why I have studied martial arts for 13 years, and keep myself in very good physical condition. Partly because of vanity and wanting to look good. But mostly because I remember what it was like to be opressed so badly for those years.
As a Canadian I am infurated by this article. This was classifed Canadian government information. As such, only Canadians were supposed to know that more women were online - and the fact that more Canadian men were aware of this, as the data shows is no excuse for giving away our secrets!
Still, the cat is out of the bag. We have large and sparsely populated country. By government mandate we are attempting to increase our populace by going online and luring the ladies to our glacial climate via online dating services!
This throws a wrench into our grand plan of luring the likes of nubile young women like "cuteie332" "betty22" and "chicky_54" here so we can increase our populace and dominate the earth with our floppy heads!
--- I need more coffee...
I am a recent mac convert, although, I am typing this on my XP machine, my iMac is sitting right next to me. (Yes yes, you zealots out there, there are Linux machines here too).
The thing about the iPhone is that IMO, it will be bigger than the iPod, and will likely be the biggest cell phone to date. I strongly suspect it is going to bury the legacy of the Razr - and I should know as I own a Razr. But, now here is where I think the opposite of what you are worried about will happen. You see, the iPhone RUNS OS X. And people will be using the iPhone as what is most likely to be one of the biggest consumer devices since the iPod, walkman, or Razr. Now, few consumers now use OS X. Most of them are using Windows, just like I am to type this post.
Here is the thing - the interface of the Razr SUCKS. You can bet that the interface of the iPhone will kick ass. So, now you have people who become used to a slimmed down version of OS X, and now it comes time for them to buy a computer... The influence of the iMac and iBooks have been growing. So, what does Joe consumer take a little longer look at? A Mac.
Most consumers only know of an OS as "windows" when they hear OS they think "windows". The iPhone has the potential to change OS to "Mac OS X".
Now, when Joe consumer walks into best buy and asks for the computer that runs the same thing as this here phone thingy, that thing will be a Mac.
The primary goal is to make coin by selling the iPhone, back it up with iTunes and iRingTunes, and then the secondary goal is to slowly migrate people to OS X as a choice because they are now familiar with their great little iPhone.
This thing is going to be a massive change in the industry if it works properly, and I strongly suspect it will. *
* (Expect 1st gen iphones to have problems that get fixed in the second incarnation).
Your argument against impeachment is an argument from adverse consequence.
That does not preclude impeachment.
I subscribe to the keteu.org Aurora mail notification. Which is handy for knowing when Aurora will appear where I live.. When I grew up I saw them all the time, where I live now, I have seen 1 set in the last 5 years.
That said, could someone enlighten me on the correlation between sunspots and solar flares? Yes, I know it is flares that cause the Aurora, not sunspots, but do increases in sunspots correlate to an increase in flares? It has been a few years since I was up on my solar topography as it were, so I am hoping for more Aurora in the next little bit - even if I need to travel up to the Youkon this year to see them again.
How long until someone does the reverse with the iPhone when it comes out? Of course, my prediction is that future models of the iPhone will do that on their own. Still. not a bad hack at all, hopefully it won't be long until flash ram fully outpaces hard drive capacity/cost.
Bruce, you can't keep coming in here and providing reasoned commentary. I mean, how will all us slashbots have a good old fashioned flamewar circa 1999? ;)
I really wish around here in BC they would change the licence/insurance laws. I used to drive a truck (until the head gasket went and leaked all the coolant into the oil pan) and I now drive a tercel. However, I would like to insure both under a single licence. Why? Because there are times when I could use a truck, and I used to use my truck to fill a need about 1 time every week. The rest of the time I could have got by with a much more fuel efficent car. However, licencing 2 vehicles offsets the value in having more than one. If I could have swapped plates from truck to car, I could have driven the truck 1 day a week, and the car the other 6. But this is not legal here. Hell, if I could do that I would rather have a truck and a smart fortwo car. Because on my own the fortwo would work great, and for those times where I need more space, I can drive the truck.
Changing insurance methods could save gas in situations like these.
You don't? Hell I use psDooM on all my production systems. I like to let my processes sort out their own issues, who needs nice anyways? And boy, with this kind of user interface, I deal with hackers by "iddqd" "idkfa" and then pull out the BFG. Problem solved.
(Screenshots for those who don't remember psDooM: http://psdoom.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html
Shaw@Home (Canada) gives you warning phone calls at first, then disconnects your cable modem if you go over. Mind you, their basic cable package gives you 60 GB up/down combined monthly. You only hit that if you go torrent happy. Least ways, that is how I hit it.
Because some people don't believe in the laws that the company has broken, and second, some products are only available from said company. If a consumer wants product "X" and you can only get it from one vendor, that is where you have to go. I have friends, I know that is shocking. My friends play some games. Strangely, I want to play the games that my friends play. I want to play games with my friends. Linux does not do that for me. I can make it work, but the solution is a kludge. I use Linux for servers, for my WRT54G for a NSLU2 running Asterisk. For my file server, but NOT for a gaming machine. I want to play games with my friends. How is that difficult to understand? That, is why I also bought the ATi All In Wonder 9800 Pro - because it does what I want it to do - and I got it for a steal of a price. Again, it only works with Windows, but it does exactly what I ask of it. The newer video card I just bought also is Linux incompatible, but it runs games hella fast. And that is why I bought it. And conversely, why should you hate the same company for acting like nearly all other companies? If you study Adam Smith and kind, you will find that this behavior is common, and in the long run helpful to consumers (Monopoly actions excluded). To refuse to choose a tool that works is, IMO dumb. XP works for the games I want to play, but it does not do many other things that I want. Hence, I have Linux machines, and devices, and I have an Intel iMac as well. For each purpose I select the best tool. For Half Life 2 and Battlefield 2142, a Windows XP gaming machine is far and away the best choice for that purpose.
And for the record, I once built an over clocked Celeron 300A to 450, with a Matrox G400 Dual Head. Everything in that system was very good when it came out, and every part was purchased with Linux in mind. And, I *ONLY* ran Linux on it. Trouble was, it ran games *SLOWER* than windows, and most games did not work at all. I was confined to Quake 3 for shooters, but my friends played HL 1, and I could not play with them. It sucked being a non-windows user and not being able to play with my friends. I use Linux all day at work, I support it in the Enterprise. I get to work with some really serious server hardware running Linux. When asked for server OS recommendations I nearly always suggest Linux. But when I need a tool to perform a job, I use the best tool for that task. And you may dislike Microsoft, but if you want a gaming PC, and I do, you want Windows XP. I am not willing to put up the hassle of a non-windows gaming box again. It was a colossal waste of my time, and I know because I bought *EVERY* game ported by Lokisoft, except Eric's ultimate solitaire.
So, there is your answer. I use the best tool for the job.
I translate his Russian site and I get: "Where are your nuclear Wessles?"
I doubt that. I don't think that the iPhone is a Newton. New revisions of the iPhone will certainly come out, and I expect to see one with a 60 GB hard drive sometime in the near future. Currently, it competes with a nano in terms of storage, and any other cell phone around for ease of use.
It DOES bring new stuff to the table. It has the ipod brand for one, second, it changes how the phone itself works to make it easy. Finally, it, like the razr and the ipod will be the sexy thing to have. I got a Razr through work, and even though it is apparently "no longer" the sexy phone, I still get comments about it "ooh! A razr!".
As a Apple brings in new models, this thing will be hotter than the iPod. I have little doubt of that. Because it will have all the sexiness of the ipod, and the razr, and actually be easy to use. My Razr is a POS for ease of use. IMO, it BLOWS from an interface perspective. From what I have seen of the iPhone, it is going to be a knockout blow. And no, I am no apple fanboi.
Apple has thought this through, and done this right, and they are going to sell tons of these things.
Are you certain of this? I have been to some LUG's where there were Linux newbies there who were migrating off of Microsoft not because they like Linux, but rather because they hate Microsoft. (I think that this migration is for entirely the wrong reason.) Many of these kinds of users seemed to blame the hardware of their machines, and feel that they could "demand" support for their hardware, even if it was an unsupported platform (Linux).
The thing is, a serious Linux user will check out the hardware in advance and verify compatibility, and most serious users are knowledgeable in hardware to determine that there are hardware issues. However, newbies are not. You cannot categorically say that all Linux users know their hardware, because I have seen that this is not so. I have seen new users rage against companies like HP, Dell etc. when sometimes they have not bothered to RTFM.
Likewise, I have been admonished for buying hardware that I knew would not be Linux compatible by other users. My Ati All in Wonder 9800 pro does not work under Linux, but I knew that before I bought it. I think that zealots (which is what some of the newbs I met were) harm Linux for all by actually complaining to the companies for the lack of support for Linux, but by doing it in a non-constructive manner.
So, I think that EXPERIENCED Linux users know when the hardware is broken, but then they also know to restore the default OS when getting the hardware fixed.
Perhaps the iPhone is NOT certain to be the most popular up and coming device? Out of all the people I know, noone wants an iPhone. It's just too expensive - pretty much not worth the price tag
Possible, but I doubt it. My guess is that most people on slashdot are not the target demographic. People still buy smartphones, people still buy iPods and Cellphones and carry both. The price IS high, but it will be the sexy thing to have, and non-techy people will be the first to buy it. It will be the ultra cool thing to have, I am certain of it. Geeks like us will wait until it costs less. Joe Public will want it, and want it badly. We will see in June.
Besides, it will cost less eventually. The early adopters will be the ones who will be picking it up. My guess is that it outsells the Razr, and I think that there have been 35 million sold to date. That is the sort of platform you want your software on, so I can see Google working on that.
If anything, they are doing things for the iPhone. Google is a search/software company. We saw google (and others such as Yahoo) at the keynote when the iPhone was introduced. Knowing that Google is partnering w/ apple, you can bet that they have more planned for the iPhone.
Why build a moblie device, when you can take advantage of what is certanly to be the most popular up and coming mobile device?
http://thepiratebay.org/search/led%20zeppelin/0/0/ 0
Search time, 15 seconds. Fire up bittorrent, walk away. I am happy with 128 bit or better. Done. If you are a member of the more exclusive sites, then finding torrents is even easier, but I cannot link to those.
I am not worried about bandwidth, I have more than enough with my cable modem. This process runs when I am away from my home PC which is fairly often. Rip/Encode requires my presence at my PC, and as I mentioned, I sit in front of one here at work, and I don't want to do it at home.
When I am in front of my home PC, I would rather be doing something else than swapping discs. When I downloaded my Zep Collection the last time, it came in 1 big rar file, and had all the albums ripped at 128 bit, and that was exactly what I was looking for. I started the download, and then walked away. When I got back, I had one big file I de-rared, and then burned the MP3's to CD-ROM for use in my car. That was all it took. Total time in front of my PC? ~1 min to start download, then the time to unrar, and burn the CD. Less than 5 min of my time all told.
Remember, I am talking about total time here. I do like to get AWAY from my PC and do other things. I simply cannot rip CD's while I am away from my PC. I *CAN* download torrents while I am away from my PC. Therein lies the difference.
Also, you are assuming I want ogg files. I don't. I want MP3 because my Car Deck cannot play oog, none of my MP3 players can play oog, only my computers can play oog, and unless I am playing games, or getting paid to be in front of a PC, I am not in front of my PC. You also assume I run Linux. I do - at work. At home my primary system runs Win XP* (Secondary systems are OSX and various Linuxes). Un-raring is a right click of my mouse, and "decompress to here".
* (My primary system was a Linux machine once, but for the specific tasks I use it for, Linux does not work very well.)
Read my above post, or, clicky: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=227533&cid=184 35449