Re:apple need to bump up the entry level spec
on
New Apples Next Week
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
Apple should be pushing the minimal spec upwards, not stripping everything off so that it can get it's headlines saying *Mac's are now affordable*
I would like to offer a descenting opinion. I feel that Apple does a great job of specing out systems with standard features that make them relevant years from now. Making a 512MB RAM standard across the line, except the mini, is one example. Standard USB 2, Firewire, Bluetooth, etc are others.
But if every Mac came optioned up with Superdrives and the like, there would be no 'entry level' model. My iMac G5 has Bluetooth and Airport Express standard. I don't use those at all. but I paid for them. It also has a Superdrive I didn't need but have used twice for fun so I'm glad I have it. Still, it would have been nice to save $200, or nearly 15%, and not gotten those options.
Just like people think Apple is the BMW of computers, BMW still has options for their luxury cars.
Where Apple does falter in my opinion is in the video cards. If they are going to make eMacs, iMacs, and Mac minis (as well as iBooks and PBs) without upgradable video chipsets, then they need to put in something that is above par for he rest of the system. How sad to have otherwise snappy system performance slowed down by a poor graphics card. I would gladly trade the forementioned wireless access innards for a better graphics chipset.
But then, really, "Panther" and "Tiger" are just cool names according to Steve J's 12-year-old self... Easier to brand, with fur coat patterns and so on, but no more meaningful.
I don't know, I think the Preditor Cat theme is a powerful one. It is something that we can all envision the same (when a person says "Tiger" we see a similar image in our mind's eye. When someone says "Vista", it coudl be anything). Further, we have seen many of these animals in teh zoo as a kid on on Discovery Chanel. They are powerful. They are fast. They are to be reconed with. The Lion is the king of the beasts. (don't think Lion won't be an OS X version one day).
Longhorns are steak where I come from (Fort Worth, Texas) and Vistas are what you see on vacation. Neither inspires the confidence that it is virus free or will help me get any work done.
TFA says Windows Vista will be upon us in 2006 according to MS. Now we all know how MS handles deadlines that are upon them - they ship the code and let the public QA it.
PLEASE DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN.
I am calling on all/.ers not to be publicly critical of ever slipping Longhorn/Vista deadlines. Just let MS take their time and get it right/better/as good as they can.
IT departments around the world can't take another round of vulerabilities due to poor QA by the world's largest software company.
For those of you considering dropping a land line in favor of VoIP, I have a few items you may be interested in taking note of:
- You can take advantage of your existing home wiring by simply plugging your Vonage/etc line into any phone jack after you unplug the phone company's connection to your house in your main junction box. On newer homes and appartments, this will be a grey box you open and simply unplug the phoen cable. On older homes you may have to disconnect wires (don't forget to wrap ends seprately in electrical tape).
- That step complete, even TIVO should have no problem enjoying VoIP.
- What will not work are alarm systems that are wired directly to your house so a burglar cannot prevent an alarm signal by knocking a phone off the hook. For that, you may need a connector for your alarm that will allow you to not hard wire but plug in the phone line. I choose Brinks because they had such a connection that the service guy said was for VoIP installations, though mine was the first he had done and it was only avalable since Fall 2004. Anyway, you plug your Vonage line out into this line and from there it splits into the alarm and then has another line out you can jack into your home wiring so if there is a breakin, it cuts out the home wiring and goes straight to the Vonage.
- update yout 911 info online. Because you can take your phone box with you anywhere, you have to update your 911 info if you are going to be somewhere, line on vacation, for a while.
- Get ready for lower phone bills, less long distance, and free Vonage to Vonage and inside your area-code dialing!
What I don't get is how these analysts are making the leap that because Apple is negotiating video content, it must be for the iPod.
OS X Tiger shipped with Quicktime 7, and H.264 which delivers awesome HD video. Slap a beefier processor in the Mac mini that can keep up and you have yourself an Apple DVR.
MP3s. AAC. Music Videos. Disney Cartoons. The Matrix Reloaded Again For The Second Time. What have you. It will play it all.
So enough of this "Apple selling video = iPod Video" nonsense.
I grew up playing with jumper switches and waited with anticipation for new issues of Computer Shopper and the like to come out so I could find the best price on drive cables and other crap I don't care about any more.
Point is, PowerPC architecture or x86, if it gives the best price-to-speed-to-wattage-to-size-to-dependability , then sign me up. It no longer matters - not sure it ever did - that it's an Intel processor or AMD. RISC, AltiVec, whatever. To some degree they are marketing slng.
The caveat is research or institutional services like render farms and SETI crunchers. But I am more likely to make the purchasing decision on the next computer for out family room before anyone at NASA asks me what they should put in the server room.
So to answer the original poster's question: No, it doesn't matter that they are going to Intel. I like the Mac user experience so I'm staying put.
Dude, I love the Tree drinking a beer. Is "Treacle Tree" growing beers too or just has beers dangling from it? Whatever the case, that site is fun stuff!
Re:Reminds me of why I hate banking websites
on
A $251 Million Typo
·
· Score: 1
Bank web sites suck. All of them.
I used to agree until I gave Bank of America a try. (There's a demo on the site.)
What set them apart fo rme was: - Works on Firefox, Safari, non-IE/Windows setups - INSTANTLY update your balance - View front and backs of checks only - eBill which looks exactly like the bills you get in the mail from your utilty company, etc. - Bill Pay with many options to auto pay up to a limit, etc - My Portfolio which allows you to get instant updates from non-Bank of America accounts like a credit card of frequent flyer program - HELPFUL customer support
Your loss if you don't want to check it out
Why company culture is important
on
A $251 Million Typo
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
This article exemplifies teh improtance of company culture.
For several years I worked for a US bank with the highest possible bond rating. Though smaller (at the time) than the national banks we all think of today, this bank was well known for its culture of prudence and the quality of our lending.
Why is this important? Because it rolled right over into the IT departments. From suppliers to product purchasing to in house software, everything was done very much "by the book" and we didn't care if we weren't doing things the latest and greatest because we wanted to do things right. And yes, our banking systems had limits on everything so a junior banker could never make a $1,000,000 loan by misplacing a decimal.
It contrasted sharply with my stint in a dot-com where things were fast, furious, and being "by the book" was laughable. Cutting edge might have been cool then, but the bank I worked for is now one of the nations largest, and the dot-com is a dot-bomb.
The iTunes Music Store has "Mac-dotted" themselves. After getting 49, I tried to download some podcasts but the store that can serve up hundreds of millions of tracks is a bit overwhelmed right now. Try again later.
In other news, Apple also modified its iPod line by removing the iPod Photo as a unique line:
20GB COLOR iPod $299 60GB color iPod $399 1GB Shuffle $129
Your post was so full of BS and baiting that I don't have the time to address each element line by line. Try re-reading my post for what I said, not for what you think I'm thinking or want me to say.
But know this, by propogating fear as truth and a one sided view of your personal experience as the norm, you serve only to deceive yourself.
How is this different from what the grandparent post stated, except in degree? The government taking *any* property that disproportionately benifits a single other entity is outrageous. It doesn't make any difference whether the seized property came from a slum lord, or an elderly woman
For starters, the grandparent said the Wal-mart and Target could take the property. Um, false. Secondly, the law doesn't say the municipality can take private property willy nilly, it has to be determined to be for the greater public good. In the case of revitalizing a metropolitain slum, it is in the best interest of the community.
This law isn't to allow a single home owner to be booted out because an office complex next door wants to expand. It is for much larger projects.
As for your two examples, they obviously happened before this law so I don't see them as applicable to it. However, one possibility is that the city purchased land and then the development deal went south. The city would have no choice but to sell the land since it's public project had failed.
Consider the city I live in, Fort Worth, TX. We are undertaking a huge urban lake project that will displace hundreds of small businesses and homes. Many properties have already been purchased. If the deal were to fall through at this point, the land would have to be sold to SOMEONE - perhaps even an auto dealer like in your two examples. Doesn't mean the City of Fort Worth is evil, just recouping taxpayer dollars.
Wow, way to distort the truth while at the same time displaying a complete distrust of government.
1.... Why develop a better Bit Torrent (or whatever) in this country, when you can now be taken to court by very deep pocketed companies who have nothing better to do that sue you into bankruptcy?...
The ruling had issue with the intent of the developers, not the technology. The development showed an intent to distribute protected media. If Henry Ford first introduced the "car" as a device for running over pedestrians, it wouldn't have been legal either.
2....cops can't be sued based on how poorly they enforce, or fail to protect people with restraining orders. So, for existence, your sister gets a restraining order against her ex-husband, and as she's on the phone calling for help, as the cops haven't responded to her first two calls, her ex shoots her....If there's no ramifications to them when they don't enforce these orders, what's the point in having them? There's now 0 incentive for cops to drop their donuts and do their duty, when it comes to victims of stalking and such
This may come to a shock to you, but I don't think that people who make a career of law enforcement are in league with your sister's ex to allow her to be murdered so they can grab a Krispy Kreme. The REAL issue here is that the US is such a litigious society that no matter how well a civil servant performs their duties, someone will look for a payday by filing a law suit. What do they have to loose?
3. Cable companies no longer have to share their lines.
Hey, this might not be great for consumers, but let's be realistic. Why should a company invest in implementing and maintaining any infrastructure when it gives them no competetive advantage? Years ago, banks suied and won a case that allowed them to chanrge a $1.00 - $3.00 service fee for money withdrawn from their ATMs from rival bank card holders. Before that, a Bank may have 1,000 ATMs and had to share access to them, but not the cost of operating them, with their rivals. How is this fair?
4. Reporters can no longer protect their sources due to anotehr ruling today. They can, but they'll face jail time.
So another way to say this is, "Reporters now face possible jail time for protecting sources who are suspected of committing a crime". Hey, this makes sense to me. Since a reporter is neither judge nor jury, why should they be able to decide who is guilty or inocent of wrong doing? That is for our legal system to decide. And since the media wields so much power, (witness Wendy's loosing millions on false claims that someone found a finger in their chili), it makes sense to provide a check and balance to that power.
5. And finally, let's not forget last weeks shit ruling wherein Walmart, Target, and any other retailer now can, or at least has the potential to take your house and land away from your in order to build more stores, in order to make themselves richer.
Um, no. It goes more like this: A municipality (like a city) may force people to sell private property at market rates for both public use (like a highway which has been a law for years) and now also private development (like to build a shopping center or stadium) if it will benefit the public at large by means such as improving the tax base. What this does is allows a city to take a low income urban area filled with rent houses and redevelop it into a new football stadium that will add millions in taxes over the years, without having to pay $250,000 an acer to a slum lord who'se been renting 1 br. appartments for $300 a week.
In closing, you sir, are spinning lies. Way to go!
The author ends the story by saying how they are not surprised people download pirated software but are surprised that people will pay for pirated software on CD, etc.
I share that surprise.
I think that when people use Bittorrent, et al to download wares, movies, TV, etc, they feel like they are just pulling it out of thin air - like tuning their computer into the broadcast radio channel where this stuff is being sent out for free anyway and they are just listening in. Plus, there is nothing "in it" for the distributor. They must be sending this stuff out for good reason becuase they get nothing in return (in reality they get more warez).
When you pay for something, you are setting up an exchange - I bring this to the table, you bring that and we swap. Now becomes more clear what you are doing. Now you are paying for pirated software.
It's kinda like drugs - "I didn't buy the drugs, Pete gave/shared/whatever them to me". Once you go to Pete and pay him for them, all of a sudden Pete isn't your friend, Pete's your dealer and you are a druggie.
Ads, and other things like coupons and laws, should help people, not hurt them.
My wife and I have a rule about coupons, we use them if we don't have an opinion about which salad dressing brand we buy, but if she wants a certain brand of mustard, then we get that brand. The coupon is there to save us money when we would otherwise not have an opinion.
In the same way, "helpful" ads like Google AdWords that give you links to buy whatever you are reading about are great. They identify themselves as ads, stay out of the way, and if you need 'em, they don't even require a search to find. Perfect. Helpful.
Flash ads on the other hand that was me to win a Sony PSP I could care less about make me want to scream. They are distracting and irritating, they don't convince me to buy from the advertiser and to the contrary, push me away from them.
So of my least favorite are on CNN.com. They are the square ones right in the middle of an article. ANNOYING! I would gladly allot a portion of my monthly cable bill to CNN.com in exchange for removing these objects of avoidance.
Sadly, since we don't pay for web content (by and large) the only 'vote' we have is not with our wallets, but with our browsers. We leave the sites. Find alternative, ad free or visitor friendly sources for the same content. The offending ad website's hits go down and they loose ad revenue and visitors. (Ironically, they probably start advertising on other websites and add to the mahem!)
I personally like the way/. ads work. They are non-obtrusive, appropriate for the audience, and don't make sounds or, for the most part, flashes and annimations.
I understand there is a microswitch on the developer boxes that can be puched by inserting a paperclip through the grill and hitting the switch. What does it do?
Perhaps this is part of the key to an Apple hardware only OS??? Try pressing the button while booting!
lot of people are buying software and use cracked version EXACTLY because of the fact that all legitimate software puts totally INSANE overhead that only irritates clients and in the end penalize them.
Fifteen years ago, when I was a kid and didn't have any money, I pirated software to have something useful to do with my computer. With the advent of Linux and having a job, I don't steal software any more. (And oddly, I find the software I do buy to be 21st century versions of the same software I used to steal.)
The one "exception" is the only game I have on my Mac. I bought Civilization III for the Mac because I had loved the previous two's complex strategic systems. But Civ III, to avoid software piracy I suppose, required the CD to always be in the computer. Worse, it would often spin the disc constantly.
On my laptop, this meant hardware strain on an expensive to replace unit and lower battery life.
So I downloaded the ISO and just mount it when I want to play. No overhead of spinning discs and low battery life!
I'd like to see a/. poll about reader's intentions towards OS X Intel: - Don't care - Will buy a new Intel Mac - Will buy an OS X Intel for my Non-Mac PC - Will steal an OS X Intel ISO first chance I get
It is one thing for/.ers to have anti establishment views of Microsoft and want to steal XP ISOs because of the monopolistic hold MS has on the software industry. But that becomes a thinly vailed disguise when confronted with the opportunity to pay for OS X Intel or simply download the torrent.
I think that/.ers are less idealistic and more just plain cheap that I used to believe.
This article, which is an opinion piece, brings up some insightful benefits of Apple reinvigorating the "Red Box" project to allow full compatibility between OS X and Windows apps.
Seems to fit with this whole Intel dev edition story.
Slashdot Mirror
Apple should be pushing the minimal spec upwards, not stripping everything off so that it can get it's headlines saying *Mac's are now affordable*
I would like to offer a descenting opinion. I feel that Apple does a great job of specing out systems with standard features that make them relevant years from now. Making a 512MB RAM standard across the line, except the mini, is one example. Standard USB 2, Firewire, Bluetooth, etc are others.
But if every Mac came optioned up with Superdrives and the like, there would be no 'entry level' model. My iMac G5 has Bluetooth and Airport Express standard. I don't use those at all. but I paid for them. It also has a Superdrive I didn't need but have used twice for fun so I'm glad I have it. Still, it would have been nice to save $200, or nearly 15%, and not gotten those options.
Just like people think Apple is the BMW of computers, BMW still has options for their luxury cars.
Where Apple does falter in my opinion is in the video cards. If they are going to make eMacs, iMacs, and Mac minis (as well as iBooks and PBs) without upgradable video chipsets, then they need to put in something that is above par for he rest of the system. How sad to have otherwise snappy system performance slowed down by a poor graphics card. I would gladly trade the forementioned wireless access innards for a better graphics chipset.
But then, really, "Panther" and "Tiger" are just cool names according to Steve J's 12-year-old self... Easier to brand, with fur coat patterns and so on, but no more meaningful.
I don't know, I think the Preditor Cat theme is a powerful one. It is something that we can all envision the same (when a person says "Tiger" we see a similar image in our mind's eye. When someone says "Vista", it coudl be anything). Further, we have seen many of these animals in teh zoo as a kid on on Discovery Chanel. They are powerful. They are fast. They are to be reconed with. The Lion is the king of the beasts. (don't think Lion won't be an OS X version one day).
Longhorns are steak where I come from (Fort Worth, Texas) and Vistas are what you see on vacation. Neither inspires the confidence that it is virus free or will help me get any work done.
so on the Windows Vista page there is this image of two people looking out over a foggy canyon and the heading reads "Bringing clarity to your world".
TFA says Windows Vista will be upon us in 2006 according to MS. Now we all know how MS handles deadlines that are upon them - they ship the code and let the public QA it.
/.ers not to be publicly critical of ever slipping Longhorn/Vista deadlines. Just let MS take their time and get it right/better/as good as they can.
PLEASE DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN.
I am calling on all
IT departments around the world can't take another round of vulerabilities due to poor QA by the world's largest software company.
For those of you considering dropping a land line in favor of VoIP, I have a few items you may be interested in taking note of:
- You can take advantage of your existing home wiring by simply plugging your Vonage/etc line into any phone jack after you unplug the phone company's connection to your house in your main junction box. On newer homes and appartments, this will be a grey box you open and simply unplug the phoen cable. On older homes you may have to disconnect wires (don't forget to wrap ends seprately in electrical tape).
- That step complete, even TIVO should have no problem enjoying VoIP.
- What will not work are alarm systems that are wired directly to your house so a burglar cannot prevent an alarm signal by knocking a phone off the hook. For that, you may need a connector for your alarm that will allow you to not hard wire but plug in the phone line. I choose Brinks because they had such a connection that the service guy said was for VoIP installations, though mine was the first he had done and it was only avalable since Fall 2004. Anyway, you plug your Vonage line out into this line and from there it splits into the alarm and then has another line out you can jack into your home wiring so if there is a breakin, it cuts out the home wiring and goes straight to the Vonage.
- update yout 911 info online. Because you can take your phone box with you anywhere, you have to update your 911 info if you are going to be somewhere, line on vacation, for a while.
- Get ready for lower phone bills, less long distance, and free Vonage to Vonage and inside your area-code dialing!
Had Al Gore not invented the Internet back in the 90's, we wouldn't have the current movement towards a non-reliance on a specific hardware platform.
Gates says "The fastest growing major is physical education" but we all know that it isn't CS majors jumping ship to do jumping jacks.
What I don't get is how these analysts are making the leap that because Apple is negotiating video content, it must be for the iPod.
OS X Tiger shipped with Quicktime 7, and H.264 which delivers awesome HD video. Slap a beefier processor in the Mac mini that can keep up and you have yourself an Apple DVR.
MP3s. AAC. Music Videos. Disney Cartoons. The Matrix Reloaded Again For The Second Time. What have you. It will play it all.
So enough of this "Apple selling video = iPod Video" nonsense.
Intel Inside? Hemi Hiden Here?
y , then sign me up. It no longer matters - not sure it ever did - that it's an Intel processor or AMD. RISC, AltiVec, whatever. To some degree they are marketing slng.
Who cares?
I grew up playing with jumper switches and waited with anticipation for new issues of Computer Shopper and the like to come out so I could find the best price on drive cables and other crap I don't care about any more.
Point is, PowerPC architecture or x86, if it gives the best price-to-speed-to-wattage-to-size-to-dependabilit
The caveat is research or institutional services like render farms and SETI crunchers. But I am more likely to make the purchasing decision on the next computer for out family room before anyone at NASA asks me what they should put in the server room.
So to answer the original poster's question: No, it doesn't matter that they are going to Intel. I like the Mac user experience so I'm staying put.
In all seriousness, the illustrations are great. You should put a few first chapters on the site so people can tell if the story is worth reading.
Dude, I love the Tree drinking a beer. Is "Treacle Tree" growing beers too or just has beers dangling from it? Whatever the case, that site is fun stuff!
Bank web sites suck. All of them.
I used to agree until I gave Bank of America a try. (There's a demo on the site.)
What set them apart fo rme was:
- Works on Firefox, Safari, non-IE/Windows setups
- INSTANTLY update your balance
- View front and backs of checks only
- eBill which looks exactly like the bills you get in the mail from your utilty company, etc.
- Bill Pay with many options to auto pay up to a limit, etc
- My Portfolio which allows you to get instant updates from non-Bank of America accounts like a credit card of frequent flyer program
- HELPFUL customer support
Your loss if you don't want to check it out
This article exemplifies teh improtance of company culture.
For several years I worked for a US bank with the highest possible bond rating. Though smaller (at the time) than the national banks we all think of today, this bank was well known for its culture of prudence and the quality of our lending.
Why is this important? Because it rolled right over into the IT departments. From suppliers to product purchasing to in house software, everything was done very much "by the book" and we didn't care if we weren't doing things the latest and greatest because we wanted to do things right. And yes, our banking systems had limits on everything so a junior banker could never make a $1,000,000 loan by misplacing a decimal.
It contrasted sharply with my stint in a dot-com where things were fast, furious, and being "by the book" was laughable. Cutting edge might have been cool then, but the bank I worked for is now one of the nations largest, and the dot-com is a dot-bomb.
The iTunes Music Store has "Mac-dotted" themselves. After getting 49, I tried to download some podcasts but the store that can serve up hundreds of millions of tracks is a bit overwhelmed right now. Try again later.
In other news, Apple also modified its iPod line by removing the iPod Photo as a unique line:
20GB COLOR iPod $299
60GB color iPod $399
1GB Shuffle $129
I'll thank you to not put words in my mouth.
Your post was so full of BS and baiting that I don't have the time to address each element line by line. Try re-reading my post for what I said, not for what you think I'm thinking or want me to say.
But know this, by propogating fear as truth and a one sided view of your personal experience as the norm, you serve only to deceive yourself.
For starters, the grandparent said the Wal-mart and Target could take the property. Um, false. Secondly, the law doesn't say the municipality can take private property willy nilly, it has to be determined to be for the greater public good. In the case of revitalizing a metropolitain slum, it is in the best interest of the community.
This law isn't to allow a single home owner to be booted out because an office complex next door wants to expand. It is for much larger projects.
As for your two examples, they obviously happened before this law so I don't see them as applicable to it. However, one possibility is that the city purchased land and then the development deal went south. The city would have no choice but to sell the land since it's public project had failed.
Consider the city I live in, Fort Worth, TX. We are undertaking a huge urban lake project that will displace hundreds of small businesses and homes. Many properties have already been purchased. If the deal were to fall through at this point, the land would have to be sold to SOMEONE - perhaps even an auto dealer like in your two examples. Doesn't mean the City of Fort Worth is evil, just recouping taxpayer dollars.
Ask my mother which video connection she wants from her DVD player, "coax", "RCA" or "S-video" and she will tell you "the one that works with my TV".
Consumers want choice, but they don't care about incremental technical gain if it comes at the price of simplicity.
The ruling had issue with the intent of the developers, not the technology. The development showed an intent to distribute protected media. If Henry Ford first introduced the "car" as a device for running over pedestrians, it wouldn't have been legal either.
This may come to a shock to you, but I don't think that people who make a career of law enforcement are in league with your sister's ex to allow her to be murdered so they can grab a Krispy Kreme. The REAL issue here is that the US is such a litigious society that no matter how well a civil servant performs their duties, someone will look for a payday by filing a law suit. What do they have to loose?
Hey, this might not be great for consumers, but let's be realistic. Why should a company invest in implementing and maintaining any infrastructure when it gives them no competetive advantage? Years ago, banks suied and won a case that allowed them to chanrge a $1.00 - $3.00 service fee for money withdrawn from their ATMs from rival bank card holders. Before that, a Bank may have 1,000 ATMs and had to share access to them, but not the cost of operating them, with their rivals. How is this fair?
So another way to say this is, "Reporters now face possible jail time for protecting sources who are suspected of committing a crime". Hey, this makes sense to me. Since a reporter is neither judge nor jury, why should they be able to decide who is guilty or inocent of wrong doing? That is for our legal system to decide. And since the media wields so much power, (witness Wendy's loosing millions on false claims that someone found a finger in their chili), it makes sense to provide a check and balance to that power.
Um, no. It goes more like this: A municipality (like a city) may force people to sell private property at market rates for both public use (like a highway which has been a law for years) and now also private development (like to build a shopping center or stadium) if it will benefit the public at large by means such as improving the tax base. What this does is allows a city to take a low income urban area filled with rent houses and redevelop it into a new football stadium that will add millions in taxes over the years, without having to pay $250,000 an acer to a slum lord who'se been renting 1 br. appartments for $300 a week.
In closing, you sir, are spinning lies. Way to go!
I was excited to read this article and had some fun touring europe form my desk chair. But all that changed when I Zoomed out.
Just what the hell is going on at Google anyway?
The author ends the story by saying how they are not surprised people download pirated software but are surprised that people will pay for pirated software on CD, etc.
I share that surprise.
I think that when people use Bittorrent, et al to download wares, movies, TV, etc, they feel like they are just pulling it out of thin air - like tuning their computer into the broadcast radio channel where this stuff is being sent out for free anyway and they are just listening in. Plus, there is nothing "in it" for the distributor. They must be sending this stuff out for good reason becuase they get nothing in return (in reality they get more warez).
When you pay for something, you are setting up an exchange - I bring this to the table, you bring that and we swap. Now becomes more clear what you are doing. Now you are paying for pirated software.
It's kinda like drugs - "I didn't buy the drugs, Pete gave/shared/whatever them to me". Once you go to Pete and pay him for them, all of a sudden Pete isn't your friend, Pete's your dealer and you are a druggie.
Ads, and other things like coupons and laws, should help people, not hurt them.
/. ads work. They are non-obtrusive, appropriate for the audience, and don't make sounds or, for the most part, flashes and annimations.
My wife and I have a rule about coupons, we use them if we don't have an opinion about which salad dressing brand we buy, but if she wants a certain brand of mustard, then we get that brand. The coupon is there to save us money when we would otherwise not have an opinion.
In the same way, "helpful" ads like Google AdWords that give you links to buy whatever you are reading about are great. They identify themselves as ads, stay out of the way, and if you need 'em, they don't even require a search to find. Perfect. Helpful.
Flash ads on the other hand that was me to win a Sony PSP I could care less about make me want to scream. They are distracting and irritating, they don't convince me to buy from the advertiser and to the contrary, push me away from them.
So of my least favorite are on CNN.com. They are the square ones right in the middle of an article. ANNOYING! I would gladly allot a portion of my monthly cable bill to CNN.com in exchange for removing these objects of avoidance.
Sadly, since we don't pay for web content (by and large) the only 'vote' we have is not with our wallets, but with our browsers. We leave the sites. Find alternative, ad free or visitor friendly sources for the same content. The offending ad website's hits go down and they loose ad revenue and visitors. (Ironically, they probably start advertising on other websites and add to the mahem!)
I personally like the way
Plus the April 1st ones are funny!
I understand there is a microswitch on the developer boxes that can be puched by inserting a paperclip through the grill and hitting the switch. What does it do?
Perhaps this is part of the key to an Apple hardware only OS??? Try pressing the button while booting!
lot of people are buying software and use cracked version EXACTLY because of the fact that all legitimate software puts totally INSANE overhead that only irritates clients and in the end penalize them.
Fifteen years ago, when I was a kid and didn't have any money, I pirated software to have something useful to do with my computer. With the advent of Linux and having a job, I don't steal software any more. (And oddly, I find the software I do buy to be 21st century versions of the same software I used to steal.)
The one "exception" is the only game I have on my Mac. I bought Civilization III for the Mac because I had loved the previous two's complex strategic systems. But Civ III, to avoid software piracy I suppose, required the CD to always be in the computer. Worse, it would often spin the disc constantly.
On my laptop, this meant hardware strain on an expensive to replace unit and lower battery life.
So I downloaded the ISO and just mount it when I want to play. No overhead of spinning discs and low battery life!
I'd like to see a /. poll about reader's intentions towards OS X Intel:
/.ers to have anti establishment views of Microsoft and want to steal XP ISOs because of the monopolistic hold MS has on the software industry. But that becomes a thinly vailed disguise when confronted with the opportunity to pay for OS X Intel or simply download the torrent.
/.ers are less idealistic and more just plain cheap that I used to believe.
- Don't care
- Will buy a new Intel Mac
- Will buy an OS X Intel for my Non-Mac PC
- Will steal an OS X Intel ISO first chance I get
It is one thing for
I think that
This article, which is an opinion piece, brings up some insightful benefits of Apple reinvigorating the "Red Box" project to allow full compatibility between OS X and Windows apps.
Seems to fit with this whole Intel dev edition story.