Probably not a "X1", the press releases mentioned it is a 'customized' (translation very stripped down, low cost, low power version) of the Terga.
Nintendo has never been about raw power for their consoles. None of their consoles thus far has even tried to match the competition there. The Wii was underpowered compared to the PS3 an X360, but it didn't need the power. Twilight Princess was still a very pretty game and a hell of a lot of fun. The big N has always been about spinning Mario in a new direction, not showing how many bullets can be simulated in Call of Modern Wargame 2099.
Sony has been pushing the "play anywhere" thing with their playstation streaming tech. Nintendo appears to have taken that a step further with "bring it anywhere". I like the idea of having a console within a car to amuse the kids for those long road trips. That's something Sony and MS don't quite have yet.
Because studies have shown it's cheaper to repair the damage after a breach than it is to pay for the best people up front to build that security wall. Compare $4million spent to a credit defense agency and maybe a $2m fine against spending $10mil+ (over many years) to build that security wall. If and until that fact changes, businessmen and women will always go the cheaper route.
I still don't understand all the hate toward systemd.
Linux has had a number of de-facto standard implementations for things through the years: (working from memory)
- For sound we had some various odds and ends, then focus started to go toward ALSA, then later we had JACK, and PulseAudio. Now it seems most major distros use PulseAudio.
- For our displays we've had the X window system for ages. Now we're starting to move toward Wayland and there's still some of the old grey/neckbeards that are simply afraid of change and digging their heels in on X.
Your big complaint is that it was once free-as-in-speech *and* free-as-in-beer. Tell me, how is software that you pay no money for and have access to all source code somehow not both definitions of free? Are you not still free to pick a distribution that uses sysvinit? upstart? openrc? Assuming you have the knowledge, ability, and time, couldn't you roll your own distro with all those features you want *and* pick which init system you wanted? Couldn't you get the source of systemd and rip out those things you don't like?
Looking at it another way, one of the biggest complaints about Linux adoption was the fragmentation across different distributions. Now Linux is starting to approach a standard for user space, which would make cross-distro development easier. Isn't that a good thing?
"Hey, here's the cost of your phone and a little extra to keep this hush-hush"
Samsung doesn't have the experience that Comcast and Microsoft have in bribing. First, it was only $900, not $50k. Second, it was to a private citizen, not an elected official. Third, it should have been a "campaign contribution" not a "bribe". Though I suppose things do work a little different in China than in the U.S.
An old boss of mine said "If you had time to do it a second time, you had enough time to do it right the first time".
While not a direct statement to what Samsung is going through, I do hope that the costs of:
Lost sales/refunds for the original device
Lost sales/refunds for the replacement device
R&D for the creation of both devices
Loss of reputation and related lost sales
Sunk cost in replacement devices (be they samsung or other)
Cost of setting up replacement booths and paying technician salaries (and rental space in an airport)
is enough to make them look closer at what design stupidity they tried to get away with and stop with their nonsense. The consensus on Slashdot and other tech sites I visit seems to be "Give me a phone that I'm not afraid is going to break and goes longer than 8 hours between charges", neither of which are easily done with this race to paper-thin.
Samsung, take note. People like replaceable batteries. They like slightly thicker, stronger phones that don't feel like they are going to snap in half when you take them out of your pocket. People like being able to take their phone through an entire day of whatever, without worrying about recharging in the middle. You guys have the 10nm fab going, start getting better batteries and working on energy efficient phones. I don't care if a web site takes 0.05 seconds longer to load, I'd probably blame my cell providers network anyway.
I've had an Onkyo 7.1 surround unit for years that has Audessey built-in. It sound great hooked up to JBL speakers. The setup is actually very simple. You put a microphone in one of three listening areas at ear level and it calibrates all speaker gain such that those areas can hear everything. The only downside is mixing of the center channel is often lower than others, so I have to manually bring the center channel up a little bit to hear people talking.
The home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) setups can have reasonable sound too. For someone that's a pseudo-audiophile it's worth piecing your setup together.
Unless you can cite a statute to base this idea on you're just blowing hot air and as long as all your doing is complaining on Slashdot you may as well not even do that.
I'm no lawyer, so it would take an absurd amount of time to find any sort of legal citation. My guesstimate (yes, guess, see previous statement about not being a lawyer) would be that something along the lines of Comcast hasn't yet occurred and there would not be a lot of legal precedent. First, we are dealing with a single corporation that does not compete with itself and faces minimal competition in multiple markets, some of which have "government-approved monopolies" (even if it's municipal-level last-mile contracts and not anything federal). Second, there is no inherit problem with incorporating all components of a business per se. Samsung owns everything they need to make a phone, washer/dryer, or TV with minimal purchasing from other companies. Nobody really complains about that, but then again we have competition in all markets that Samsung sells items in.
Write you senator and migrate from big party politics or just settle for more of the same.
This is probably one of the more insightful statements I've seen on/. in a while. Unfortunately the public is too busy using change.org to urge the president to declare the Westboro Baptist Church a Hate Group, or build a death star.
These companies are wireless phone providers, internet service providers, content creators, and cable television companies. When one company owns the full stack of an entertainment channel and can no longer be regulated by a single government agency, then they need to be broken up into their constituent parts. Just like the Ma Bell days of old.
It's nothing more than a different style of monopoly similar to a mafia-run operation. You will buy only their product, from them, at prices they command. They've already killed all real competition, so you don't have a choice.
If I want flavored food, i'll choose to eat something actually good - like cooked by a human who cares about the taste - rather than some prepackaged thing that is optimized for long term storage.
So you do a lot of eating at home, then?
Pretty much *every* chain loads things down with butter to make things taste good. Often masking other nonsense they try to pull. You might also be aware that there is often only a handful of food distributors in any metro area, so your choice at a restaurant is the same base products, dressed up a little differently. That chicken fried steak at Chili's is the same as Applebees, plus or minus a couple spices.
It will take many more people cutting the cord for us to see any changes.
If you're a content provider, your goal is to make money and you project profits based on the bulk licensing for distributors. You can then make some educated guesses about how best to divide up that money to either add more channels (and up those license fees) or spend more on quality programming. Since we have shows that feature idiots form New Jersey, child beauty pageants, and a family only famous due to a sex tape, we know exactly which way the providers went. Throwing a whole bunch of crap at the wall to see what sticks is easier when you have more channels to fling crap with.
Once the providers start to see that piling on brain garbage for consumers isn't working, they will have to find better ways to make money. One would hope that they will see what competition like Netflix is doing with their own programming and quality shows like House of Cards, OITNB, and the Marvel properties and realize they should be giving consumers what they want. Quality content at a reasonable price.
As a parent I'd pay $5 a month for a Toon Disney and Cartoon Network. I'd probably pay another $5 for History, Discovery and G4TV (if it's still around), unless of course they went down the path of "reality TV" instead of actually good stuff. Though I must say being able to pull up the next episode of whatever I'm into at the time is *much* easier than setting aside a particular time of the week to try to catch some show.
I've been a long-time WF customer, and some years ago they started offering "Credit Defense". Credit Defense is an opt-out program that takes something like 0.8% of your current balance as a monthly charge to be used to make minimum payments on your card "in the event of injury or loss of employment". I was clued into it when I started looking closer at my statement after I made a couple large purchases.
After calling the bank about it, I was told it's some separate party that handles that. Great, so my bank is giving my money to some company I've never heard of for something I never signed up for. Doing a little research, you can get a refund... but you have to be persistent. I was offered $50, then $150, then told I could have an "elevation request" or whatever submitted on my behalf. So I did just that. A couple weeks later I got a credit back for over a grand. For them to keep my money, they would have had to prove that I signed up for this (and I use the term loosely) 'service'. I never did, so they had to pay up.
There's also the fact that IMDB's top 250 simply ain't what it used to be. I mean seriously... Deadpool? Zootopia?
I'm going to hazard a guess that you aren't a parent to a kid under 8. I can no longer keep track how many times I've seen Zootopia, but its certainly more often than I've seen Inception.
I think there is only one clear conclusion from this study: Doctors really don't like these apps.
I think there are other possibilities that are maybe a little less obvious:
Data Format - Computers are good, but not as good as people at interpreting a mass of words for actual meaning
Experience - What level of experience do these doctors have? Are they the old-timer 30-years-in docs? or are they still in residency? How do the algorithms compare to different experience levels?
List limits - When people have a limit, such as "Top three guesses", they have an incentive to look a little harder at the data to come up with a conclusion. Computers don't, unless they are expressly programmed to in some way
My takeaway from this is that the machines aren't going to replace doctors, but they may some day help the docs come up with an obscure diagnosis... or maybe train the newbies.
I love to see part of the fine be reimbursing all those effected by this practice. If I can receive a bill (or credit) months after I discontinue service from them, they can certainly send me a check for whatever money they took from me due to this shitty business practice.
If only the world worked that way... and corporations were actually penalized due to this sort of thing.
H.E.B. in Texas already does an order online and pickup later thing. You order online and pick a time slot, they send a confirmation email. When your time comes you have a designated parking area, text a number that you are in parking spot #n, they bring out and load up your food, you sign and you're on your way. It's $5 well spent for anyone that has to deal with kids and shopping... or those that just don't have the time to hunt through the aisles.
Seriously? The whole point of OSS and free software is so you have the choice. You don't like SystemD? roll your own distro or pick one that uses software you like.
If you're going to start with this nonsense, at least have the decency to actually contribute to the conversation in some way. Maybe some reasons why? What it doesn't do that you wish it would? What software does do what you need?
Many of the kids I hung out with in high school started with marijuana and alcohol... then quickly moved on to other drugs such as mushrooms, cocaine, heroine, etc... Best I can tell, the harshest side effects of marijuana are the munchies and some impaired movement. Really it's not that much different than alcohol. My vote would go for decriminalizing (remove some glamour from it), possibly regulating much like what is done in CO.
Those teenagers I hung around saw their lives as so messed up (alcoholic or drug addicted parents, etc...) that the drugs were their escape from reality and they found solace in brotherhood in one another, as they got high. Most of them did not even care if they made it to their 30's and I would honestly be surprised if a quarter of them were alive today. For them, marijuana was the gateway to other substances. Often it was the first drug of the night, which was basically priming the pump for whatever other stuff they managed to get that night. They may not be a representative example for today's teens, but seeing them gradually end their own lives was enough for me to steer clear of drugs myself.
Bought a house? Your name, address, and price paid are on a list for advertisers and lenders to swoop in on.
Recently looked into buying a car? Your name and address are put on a list for lenders and dealers to send crap to.
Anything else involving a credit check? Yup. Your name is on a list for credit card companies to send crap to.
Oddly enough, even if you explicitly opt-out of this advertising, you will still get a ton of garbage. I bought a house earlier this year, opted out of sharing my name to any affiliates and "recent buyers list" (or whatever it's called). I still got mail and phone calls from assorted insurance agencies, mortgage lenders, credit card companies, and banks for 3 solid months.
If you have competition in something, one of the easiest ways to keep them guessing is to hide the costs behind it. Companies keep secrets from another (e.g. "trade secrets", "private financial records", etc...). Countries do the same thing.
Slashdot Mirror
Please. Kids aren't going to lose their expensive gaming tools any more now than before.
Sounds like you've never been around a toddler.
Probably not a "X1", the press releases mentioned it is a 'customized' (translation very stripped down, low cost, low power version) of the Terga.
Nintendo has never been about raw power for their consoles. None of their consoles thus far has even tried to match the competition there. The Wii was underpowered compared to the PS3 an X360, but it didn't need the power. Twilight Princess was still a very pretty game and a hell of a lot of fun. The big N has always been about spinning Mario in a new direction, not showing how many bullets can be simulated in Call of Modern Wargame 2099.
Sony has been pushing the "play anywhere" thing with their playstation streaming tech. Nintendo appears to have taken that a step further with "bring it anywhere". I like the idea of having a console within a car to amuse the kids for those long road trips. That's something Sony and MS don't quite have yet.
Because studies have shown it's cheaper to repair the damage after a breach than it is to pay for the best people up front to build that security wall. Compare $4million spent to a credit defense agency and maybe a $2m fine against spending $10mil+ (over many years) to build that security wall. If and until that fact changes, businessmen and women will always go the cheaper route.
I still don't understand all the hate toward systemd.
Linux has had a number of de-facto standard implementations for things through the years: (working from memory)
- For sound we had some various odds and ends, then focus started to go toward ALSA, then later we had JACK, and PulseAudio. Now it seems most major distros use PulseAudio.
- For our displays we've had the X window system for ages. Now we're starting to move toward Wayland and there's still some of the old grey/neckbeards that are simply afraid of change and digging their heels in on X.
Your big complaint is that it was once free-as-in-speech *and* free-as-in-beer. Tell me, how is software that you pay no money for and have access to all source code somehow not both definitions of free? Are you not still free to pick a distribution that uses sysvinit? upstart? openrc? Assuming you have the knowledge, ability, and time, couldn't you roll your own distro with all those features you want *and* pick which init system you wanted? Couldn't you get the source of systemd and rip out those things you don't like?
Looking at it another way, one of the biggest complaints about Linux adoption was the fragmentation across different distributions. Now Linux is starting to approach a standard for user space, which would make cross-distro development easier. Isn't that a good thing?
"Hey, here's the cost of your phone and a little extra to keep this hush-hush"
Samsung doesn't have the experience that Comcast and Microsoft have in bribing. First, it was only $900, not $50k. Second, it was to a private citizen, not an elected official. Third, it should have been a "campaign contribution" not a "bribe". Though I suppose things do work a little different in China than in the U.S.
What do you call a bunch of blonde's standing shoulder-to-shoulder?
Wind tunnel.
While not a direct statement to what Samsung is going through, I do hope that the costs of:
is enough to make them look closer at what design stupidity they tried to get away with and stop with their nonsense. The consensus on Slashdot and other tech sites I visit seems to be "Give me a phone that I'm not afraid is going to break and goes longer than 8 hours between charges", neither of which are easily done with this race to paper-thin.
Samsung, take note. People like replaceable batteries. They like slightly thicker, stronger phones that don't feel like they are going to snap in half when you take them out of your pocket. People like being able to take their phone through an entire day of whatever, without worrying about recharging in the middle. You guys have the 10nm fab going, start getting better batteries and working on energy efficient phones. I don't care if a web site takes 0.05 seconds longer to load, I'd probably blame my cell providers network anyway.
You aren't a government agency. What do you expect? ;-)
I've had an Onkyo 7.1 surround unit for years that has Audessey built-in. It sound great hooked up to JBL speakers. The setup is actually very simple. You put a microphone in one of three listening areas at ear level and it calibrates all speaker gain such that those areas can hear everything. The only downside is mixing of the center channel is often lower than others, so I have to manually bring the center channel up a little bit to hear people talking.
The home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) setups can have reasonable sound too. For someone that's a pseudo-audiophile it's worth piecing your setup together.
Unless you can cite a statute to base this idea on you're just blowing hot air and as long as all your doing is complaining on Slashdot you may as well not even do that.
I'm no lawyer, so it would take an absurd amount of time to find any sort of legal citation. My guesstimate (yes, guess, see previous statement about not being a lawyer) would be that something along the lines of Comcast hasn't yet occurred and there would not be a lot of legal precedent. First, we are dealing with a single corporation that does not compete with itself and faces minimal competition in multiple markets, some of which have "government-approved monopolies" (even if it's municipal-level last-mile contracts and not anything federal). Second, there is no inherit problem with incorporating all components of a business per se. Samsung owns everything they need to make a phone, washer/dryer, or TV with minimal purchasing from other companies. Nobody really complains about that, but then again we have competition in all markets that Samsung sells items in.
Write you senator and migrate from big party politics or just settle for more of the same.
This is probably one of the more insightful statements I've seen on /. in a while. Unfortunately the public is too busy using change.org to urge the president to declare the Westboro Baptist Church a Hate Group, or build a death star.
These companies are wireless phone providers, internet service providers, content creators, and cable television companies. When one company owns the full stack of an entertainment channel and can no longer be regulated by a single government agency, then they need to be broken up into their constituent parts. Just like the Ma Bell days of old.
It's nothing more than a different style of monopoly similar to a mafia-run operation. You will buy only their product, from them, at prices they command. They've already killed all real competition, so you don't have a choice.
If I want flavored food, i'll choose to eat something actually good - like cooked by a human who cares about the taste - rather than some prepackaged thing that is optimized for long term storage.
So you do a lot of eating at home, then?
Pretty much *every* chain loads things down with butter to make things taste good. Often masking other nonsense they try to pull. You might also be aware that there is often only a handful of food distributors in any metro area, so your choice at a restaurant is the same base products, dressed up a little differently. That chicken fried steak at Chili's is the same as Applebees, plus or minus a couple spices.
It will take many more people cutting the cord for us to see any changes.
If you're a content provider, your goal is to make money and you project profits based on the bulk licensing for distributors. You can then make some educated guesses about how best to divide up that money to either add more channels (and up those license fees) or spend more on quality programming. Since we have shows that feature idiots form New Jersey, child beauty pageants, and a family only famous due to a sex tape, we know exactly which way the providers went. Throwing a whole bunch of crap at the wall to see what sticks is easier when you have more channels to fling crap with.
Once the providers start to see that piling on brain garbage for consumers isn't working, they will have to find better ways to make money. One would hope that they will see what competition like Netflix is doing with their own programming and quality shows like House of Cards, OITNB, and the Marvel properties and realize they should be giving consumers what they want. Quality content at a reasonable price.
As a parent I'd pay $5 a month for a Toon Disney and Cartoon Network. I'd probably pay another $5 for History, Discovery and G4TV (if it's still around), unless of course they went down the path of "reality TV" instead of actually good stuff. Though I must say being able to pull up the next episode of whatever I'm into at the time is *much* easier than setting aside a particular time of the week to try to catch some show.
I've been a long-time WF customer, and some years ago they started offering "Credit Defense". Credit Defense is an opt-out program that takes something like 0.8% of your current balance as a monthly charge to be used to make minimum payments on your card "in the event of injury or loss of employment". I was clued into it when I started looking closer at my statement after I made a couple large purchases.
After calling the bank about it, I was told it's some separate party that handles that. Great, so my bank is giving my money to some company I've never heard of for something I never signed up for. Doing a little research, you can get a refund... but you have to be persistent. I was offered $50, then $150, then told I could have an "elevation request" or whatever submitted on my behalf. So I did just that. A couple weeks later I got a credit back for over a grand. For them to keep my money, they would have had to prove that I signed up for this (and I use the term loosely) 'service'. I never did, so they had to pay up.
There's also the fact that IMDB's top 250 simply ain't what it used to be. I mean seriously... Deadpool? Zootopia?
I'm going to hazard a guess that you aren't a parent to a kid under 8. I can no longer keep track how many times I've seen Zootopia, but its certainly more often than I've seen Inception.
I'm imagining the family van driving by and the 6 year old learning to read: "Mommy, what are adult toys?"
I think there is only one clear conclusion from this study: Doctors really don't like these apps.
I think there are other possibilities that are maybe a little less obvious:
My takeaway from this is that the machines aren't going to replace doctors, but they may some day help the docs come up with an obscure diagnosis... or maybe train the newbies.
I love to see part of the fine be reimbursing all those effected by this practice. If I can receive a bill (or credit) months after I discontinue service from them, they can certainly send me a check for whatever money they took from me due to this shitty business practice.
If only the world worked that way... and corporations were actually penalized due to this sort of thing.
H.E.B. in Texas already does an order online and pickup later thing. You order online and pick a time slot, they send a confirmation email. When your time comes you have a designated parking area, text a number that you are in parking spot #n, they bring out and load up your food, you sign and you're on your way. It's $5 well spent for anyone that has to deal with kids and shopping... or those that just don't have the time to hunt through the aisles.
Please, it's not even a real news story until someone coins a "-gate" name to it. /s
Do not want.
Seriously? The whole point of OSS and free software is so you have the choice. You don't like SystemD? roll your own distro or pick one that uses software you like.
/. and you're an AC.
If you're going to start with this nonsense, at least have the decency to actually contribute to the conversation in some way. Maybe some reasons why? What it doesn't do that you wish it would? What software does do what you need?
Oh wait, this is
Many of the kids I hung out with in high school started with marijuana and alcohol... then quickly moved on to other drugs such as mushrooms, cocaine, heroine, etc... Best I can tell, the harshest side effects of marijuana are the munchies and some impaired movement. Really it's not that much different than alcohol. My vote would go for decriminalizing (remove some glamour from it), possibly regulating much like what is done in CO.
Those teenagers I hung around saw their lives as so messed up (alcoholic or drug addicted parents, etc...) that the drugs were their escape from reality and they found solace in brotherhood in one another, as they got high. Most of them did not even care if they made it to their 30's and I would honestly be surprised if a quarter of them were alive today. For them, marijuana was the gateway to other substances. Often it was the first drug of the night, which was basically priming the pump for whatever other stuff they managed to get that night. They may not be a representative example for today's teens, but seeing them gradually end their own lives was enough for me to steer clear of drugs myself.
Tell that to all credit-related agencies.
Bought a house? Your name, address, and price paid are on a list for advertisers and lenders to swoop in on.
Recently looked into buying a car? Your name and address are put on a list for lenders and dealers to send crap to.
Anything else involving a credit check? Yup. Your name is on a list for credit card companies to send crap to.
Oddly enough, even if you explicitly opt-out of this advertising, you will still get a ton of garbage. I bought a house earlier this year, opted out of sharing my name to any affiliates and "recent buyers list" (or whatever it's called). I still got mail and phone calls from assorted insurance agencies, mortgage lenders, credit card companies, and banks for 3 solid months.
In short? Yes.
If you have competition in something, one of the easiest ways to keep them guessing is to hide the costs behind it. Companies keep secrets from another (e.g. "trade secrets", "private financial records", etc...). Countries do the same thing.
Nah, barely-trained 18 year olds are cheaper than any H1B.