If you want something that you can be irrationally afraid of try this frightening idea on for size: A single nuclear submarine carries over 150 nuclear warheads. Each one a possible nuclear dissaster! Run for the hills! They even have nuclear reactors to power them! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!
If you are going to run around like an idiot yelling about how scary nuclear power is you should pick your targets more carefully. This is downright mundane by comparison. The US has kept a fleet of nuclear powered vessels in service for decades!
The quality is good enough. I think thats the real issue: its good enough. its certainly not dvd quality but its just a tv show. I don't have a big tv or surround sound. I watch stuff only on my computer, even DVDs. If you wana check out a show and see what its like it only costs you 2 bucks and you get it in 15 min. I think this is the market that apple is shooting for. if you like it you can buy the next episode before you finish watching the first one. I would never have seen LOST if I had to rent or buy the dvd to see it but Apple has lowered the barrier of entry for me. It certainly makes sense for the content creators, it costs them nothing to put the shows out there, its just extra income they probably wouldn't have gotten otherwise (my dollars). You will not see these episodes out on BT because you can find higher quality HDTV captures if you really want them (but you have to find them, hope the tracker is up, hope its not poisoned, edited right, has seeds, etc etc), or you can save yourself the hassle and get it from apple, with decent quality, and quickly, within 15 min or so, for $2. Bravo, now all i need is the nightly news and a few other shows i like.... Come to think of it, i would pay $5-$10 to watch new movie releases at home as well, if they were available the monday after opening weekend and in decent quality. Its also a wet dream for anyone looking to gather data about viewer demographics, purchasing habits, VIEWING habits, etc. Direct access to consumer viewing data is worth a fortune and way better then Nielson could do.
this is true with the CURRENT storage technologies. however what happens when your ipod holds a terrabyte, your cell phone holds a few hundred gigs, your router has a few hundred gigs of storage as does you fridge, tv/tivo/media center and toaster? with storage costs diminishing the ability to sync and backup 'regular' amounts of data for home users is going to expand dramatically. how much space do all your digital photos take up? I bet most people could back them up on to a single thumb drive. Personal data from the 21st century is going to persist not because the storage devices are so durable but because it will be dirt cheap to make copies of the data to multiple locations. If you purchased a new HDD every 5 years and copied the data from your old one to the new one and continued to keep the old one online you would have multiple levels of redundancy. or you could choose to take them offline as backups.
I, for one, look forward to paying a hefty fee for google's services once they are complete. This is simply too much good stuff to remain a free service. I can see the future where I can look up 'coffee shops,' map them out locally, visit their sites, submit a review, and create a map with waypoints to each one, while avoiding heavy traffic. I would be willing to pay quite a bit for this type of service. Sure would make moving to a new city easy, no trouble at all to find good local car repair shops, coffee, etc. Most of this functionality exists out on the web (epinions, maps with traffic, yellow pages, etc) but Google is going to be the one that ties it together seamlessly. Eventually you will be able to search by product(s) and find who has them in stock, for the cheapest price, near your house, in real time. Cool.
Hmm, lets look at this again: Mac mini, explicitly stated by Apple that it is supposed to entice low-end (and cheap) pc users into trying a mac. It specifically targets those people who like the iPod and are tired of dealing with spyware/virii/ms junk/pop-ups/windows etc. A lot of people are like that out there and they have $500 to throw down and 'give the mac a chance'. They don't care if its expandable or has the latest tech. They want it to work and they will toss in in the trash after two years and hopefully buy an iMac or something better. This is what 90% of the public expects from computers, to get a use out of them for a few years and then get a new one. The mac mini is not designed to take the pvr/media center market by storm, you may be able to hack it, add tuners etc. but that is not what it was DESIGNED to do. Complaining about this makes about as much sense as saying a screwdriver makes a poor hammer.
Can't they just move windows update to a standalone executable and simply not allow IE to install ANYTHING? Sounds like an easy fix to me. But what the hell do I know. Seriously, what downsides would there be to this?
Your comment makes no sense. You say you are an apple customer who needs multiple slot towers and yet you have a powerbook? What business would apple be losing from you? They dont make a sub $1000 tower that you say you want, so you CANT buy one. If you are buying used towers for under $1000 then apple isnt seeing any of your money anyway. I fail to see how your comment has any bearing on the topic at all.
umm, the eMac is a sub $1000 computer that competes directly with those 3 slot towers. What could you add to an eMac if it had slots? I would say 90% of people never open the case of their $1000 computer between the time they buy it and the time it dies and they get a new one. As for the 10% that do need to add whatever cards, Apple doesn't need to sell computers to them. They are after the other 90% who want a machine that works and don't want to know what the insides look like. I just dont see what the appeal is with 3 slot towers that make them so much better than the eMac. I mean are you really going to put a high end graphics card in your 2 year old PC or are you gona buy a whole new box with a faster cpu, more HD, RAM, and a faster graphics card, etc.?
It is arguably the best mp3 player and as far as the majority of consumers are concerened iPod == mp3 player. Ford did not invent the automobile but I bet you couldnt name the guy who did. The iPod is a great product at a good price. People know it and people are buying them in droves, not just cause they are 'hip' and 'cool' but because they are good.
of course the inexperienced user who paid 400 bucks for his computer may not be able to fix it himself. He could hire a tech to fix the machine which would probably cost 100 bucks just to reload the os and some apps. if he wants data recovery add a few hundred more bucks, then add some firewall software and antivirus. All that adds up when they could just say "oh, its broken. Lets get a NEW computer for another $400." I know lots of people who have this kind of thought process.
yeah, im gona cry when i have to get rid of my 20" imac and replace it with a 30" model that costs the same amount and has four times the storage, ram and cpu specs. Get it?
By the time most people that buy imacs want to replace them (3-5 years) the new machines will make the 20" look like junk.
Enough to keep everyone happy? Who says there is enough to keep *ME* happy? What if I want ALL of it? And if you have some, I want that too. The fundamental problem is greed. If there is something valuable, someone will want it.
The other problem is that space maybe infinite but our access to it is not. In space resources are limited by our ability to get to them. How valuable is the moon when you can't get to it? How valuable will it be when we can zip around the solar system? the galaxy? If you cant get to it, its almost worthless so you look for things that are more accessible.
As for rich and poor, there will always be people who have a greater control of some resources; through physical strength, intelligence, technology or some other advantage. Life was created through the process of one life form trying to get a bigger chunk of the pie than the others. I don't see that changing anytime soon.
Slashdot Mirror
...terrorists use maps to plan attacks. More at 11.
If you want something that you can be irrationally afraid of try this frightening idea on for size: A single nuclear submarine carries over 150 nuclear warheads. Each one a possible nuclear dissaster! Run for the hills! They even have nuclear reactors to power them! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!
If you are going to run around like an idiot yelling about how scary nuclear power is you should pick your targets more carefully. This is downright mundane by comparison. The US has kept a fleet of nuclear powered vessels in service for decades!
hmm, so why cant we vote at ATM machines?
seems pretty simple:
Welcome to SUPERBANK
1. Withdrawl
2. Deposit
3. Vote for President
I mean we trust this system with huge sums of money, why not voting?
You have earned a Photography Geek Badge for your efforts.
Bravo sir.
And to anyone who says 'why' or 'whats the point': go stuff yourself.
The quality is good enough.
I think thats the real issue: its good enough. its certainly not dvd quality but its just a tv show. I don't have a big tv or surround sound. I watch stuff only on my computer, even DVDs. If you wana check out a show and see what its like it only costs you 2 bucks and you get it in 15 min. I think this is the market that apple is shooting for. if you like it you can buy the next episode before you finish watching the first one. I would never have seen LOST if I had to rent or buy the dvd to see it but Apple has lowered the barrier of entry for me.
It certainly makes sense for the content creators, it costs them nothing to put the shows out there, its just extra income they probably wouldn't have gotten otherwise (my dollars). You will not see these episodes out on BT because you can find higher quality HDTV captures if you really want them (but you have to find them, hope the tracker is up, hope its not poisoned, edited right, has seeds, etc etc), or you can save yourself the hassle and get it from apple, with decent quality, and quickly, within 15 min or so, for $2.
Bravo, now all i need is the nightly news and a few other shows i like....
Come to think of it, i would pay $5-$10 to watch new movie releases at home as well, if they were available the monday after opening weekend and in decent quality.
Its also a wet dream for anyone looking to gather data about viewer demographics, purchasing habits, VIEWING habits, etc.
Direct access to consumer viewing data is worth a fortune and way better then Nielson could do.
cause they DONT taste like chicken.
meows to the mile?
this is true with the CURRENT storage technologies. however what happens when your ipod holds a terrabyte, your cell phone holds a few hundred gigs, your router has a few hundred gigs of storage as does you fridge, tv/tivo/media center and toaster? with storage costs diminishing the ability to sync and backup 'regular' amounts of data for home users is going to expand dramatically. how much space do all your digital photos take up? I bet most people could back them up on to a single thumb drive. Personal data from the 21st century is going to persist not because the storage devices are so durable but because it will be dirt cheap to make copies of the data to multiple locations.
If you purchased a new HDD every 5 years and copied the data from your old one to the new one and continued to keep the old one online you would have multiple levels of redundancy. or you could choose to take them offline as backups.
...not iPod compatible. Thats a show-stopper for the 20 MILLION iPod users out there.
I, for one, look forward to paying a hefty fee for google's services once they are complete. This is simply too much good stuff to remain a free service. I can see the future where I can look up 'coffee shops,' map them out locally, visit their sites, submit a review, and create a map with waypoints to each one, while avoiding heavy traffic. I would be willing to pay quite a bit for this type of service. Sure would make moving to a new city easy, no trouble at all to find good local car repair shops, coffee, etc.
Most of this functionality exists out on the web (epinions, maps with traffic, yellow pages, etc) but Google is going to be the one that ties it together seamlessly.
Eventually you will be able to search by product(s) and find who has them in stock, for the cheapest price, near your house, in real time. Cool.
Hmm, lets look at this again:
Mac mini, explicitly stated by Apple that it is supposed to entice low-end (and cheap) pc users into trying a mac. It specifically targets those people who like the iPod and are tired of dealing with spyware/virii/ms junk/pop-ups/windows etc. A lot of people are like that out there and they have $500 to throw down and 'give the mac a chance'.
They don't care if its expandable or has the latest tech. They want it to work and they will toss in in the trash after two years and hopefully buy an iMac or something better. This is what 90% of the public expects from computers, to get a use out of them for a few years and then get a new one.
The mac mini is not designed to take the pvr/media center market by storm, you may be able to hack it, add tuners etc. but that is not what it was DESIGNED to do.
Complaining about this makes about as much sense as saying a screwdriver makes a poor hammer.
Can't they just move windows update to a standalone executable and simply not allow IE to install ANYTHING? Sounds like an easy fix to me. But what the hell do I know.
Seriously, what downsides would there be to this?
Your comment makes no sense. You say you are an apple customer who needs multiple slot towers and yet you have a powerbook? What business would apple be losing from you? They dont make a sub $1000 tower that you say you want, so you CANT buy one.
If you are buying used towers for under $1000 then apple isnt seeing any of your money anyway. I fail to see how your comment has any bearing on the topic at all.
so what machines have you been buying since apple doesn't make sub $1000 towers?
umm, the eMac is a sub $1000 computer that competes directly with those 3 slot towers. What could you add to an eMac if it had slots?
I would say 90% of people never open the case of their $1000 computer between the time they buy it and the time it dies and they get a new one. As for the 10% that do need to add whatever cards, Apple doesn't need to sell computers to them. They are after the other 90% who want a machine that works and don't want to know what the insides look like.
I just dont see what the appeal is with 3 slot towers that make them so much better than the eMac. I mean are you really going to put a high end graphics card in your 2 year old PC or are you gona buy a whole new box with a faster cpu, more HD, RAM, and a faster graphics card, etc.?
the ICElink is pretty much the same thing as the BMW unit.
It is arguably the best mp3 player and as far as the majority of consumers are concerened iPod == mp3 player.
Ford did not invent the automobile but I bet you couldnt name the guy who did.
The iPod is a great product at a good price. People know it and people are buying them in droves, not just cause they are 'hip' and 'cool' but because they are good.
because Con Artist sounds kinda gay.
yeah, put it in your car.
hit a button every time you see a cop, computer takes note of gps coordinates and passes info to anyone else within range.
transmit messages between cars: "follow me to hooters", "get out of my way" "let me pass you" "your leaking oil" etc.
broadcast your current mp3 selection
display your best time from point to point on a webpage. You could do time trials/drag races with people you have never met or seen.
Send traffic reports.
This is very doable with auto discovery and zeroconf.
of course the inexperienced user who paid 400 bucks for his computer may not be able to fix it himself. He could hire a tech to fix the machine which would probably cost 100 bucks just to reload the os and some apps. if he wants data recovery add a few hundred more bucks, then add some firewall software and antivirus. All that adds up when they could just say "oh, its broken. Lets get a NEW computer for another $400." I know lots of people who have this kind of thought process.
Japan has a niche with a certain segment (nerdy people) but their culture doesn't have broad appeal to the masses.
Two words: Hello Kitty sanrio.com
go to ireland?
yeah, im gona cry when i have to get rid of my 20" imac and replace it with a 30" model that costs the same amount and has four times the storage, ram and cpu specs. Get it?
By the time most people that buy imacs want to replace them (3-5 years) the new machines will make the 20" look like junk.
Enough to keep everyone happy? Who says there is enough to keep *ME* happy? What if I want ALL of it? And if you have some, I want that too.
The fundamental problem is greed. If there is something valuable, someone will want it.
The other problem is that space maybe infinite but our access to it is not. In space resources are limited by our ability to get to them. How valuable is the moon when you can't get to it? How valuable will it be when we can zip around the solar system? the galaxy? If you cant get to it, its almost worthless so you look for things that are more accessible.
As for rich and poor, there will always be people who have a greater control of some resources; through physical strength, intelligence, technology or some other advantage. Life was created through the process of one life form trying to get a bigger chunk of the pie than the others. I don't see that changing anytime soon.