REZROV ME! SWM (Single Wizard Male), 26, seeks special lady for romance, magic, late night walks along the Flood Control Dam. If you want to glorb, feel free. Box 282. No weirdos or Flatheads.
Thing is, Microsoft needs those people there. To those of you who only jumped on the bandwagon with OS X, you've probably been only passingly familiar with the monstrosity that was Word 6. It was pretty much a straight port of Word 95 (or so I've heard) and was one of the worst recieved Mac apps ever; MS created the MacBU not long after that and junked the compatibility layer.
The end result is that Mac users who do use Microsoft Office get a product created by die-hard Mac addicts for die-hard Mac addicts, and the result is polished, functional software that has been getting grudging raves (as in "it's so bad, but it feels so good") ever since Office 98 came out. I don't use it myself -- I rarely even use IE unless I need to view a java page (Mozilla is my regular browser). But those who use it are using good software.
Just another excuse for us Macheads to laugh at PC users:-)
Believe me. To most average joe users, the distinction is lost (do you realize how many people are running Excel databases?).
That statement isn't quite as silly as it sounds; I once spent the better part of a summer working on an inventory database, and the first thing I did was convert it from an Excel spreadsheet to FileMaker. I don't know if they converted it back... hope they didn't...
Not to mention that even if you're too cheap to get Filemaker, you still have PostgreSQL and MySQL. That and Apache gets you a perfectly serviceable desktop database manager, or so I've heard.
I think the end result will be integration of IE features into Mozilla. Not sure if that's a good thing, but I do agree that using Gecko will definitely cut down on the number of "Best with Internet Explorer" sites.
The only way an MLM can be successful is if it mimics a proper franchise operation. That means sales over recruiting, that means the upline strictly regulates the size and DEPTH of the downline to prevent market saturation, and that means that more product goes out the door than gets bought by the distributors.
It also means that if you're a leaf instead of a branch, you don't get to do any recruiting. Sorta destroys the traditional hypermaterialistic recruiting pitch, doesn't it?
More to the point, MLM is a franchise model gone haywire. No intelligent company would be delegating franchise sales to the local level; the scam in MLM is that with no franchise protection the only reasonable way to make money is to sell distributorships. The product is irrelevant.
I had the same pitch done to me twice. The first one was very cagey about it and took great offense when I sent him an email picking apart his scheme in great detail; the second one was a lot clumsier about it (bugging me while I was helping him at the job I was working at the time) and made the mistake of dropping the Quixtar name in conversation.
Well, first, I'd buy one just for the sheer curiosity of it, but I don't have $500 to spare on a PDA.
That said, I think it's a pretty interesting gadget. I was playing with one in my local Best Buy (Hyannis, MA) today and had to say that even though I didn't get to fiddle with the keyboard it was pretty impressive. Handwriting recognition is Graffiti-like but cleaner, and the screen quality is amazingly good. A hard reboot was done mostly for amusement, but since I couldn't find a terminal, no dmesg after boot time. The salesperson told me they'd found quite a large number of games on there, and I was pretty impressed with the Snake game it came with.
The only downside is that it's a bit on the large side, somewhat larger than an iPaq but quite a bit smaller than a Newton. I think it says a lot in Sharp's favor two; it's a trip upmarket for them into the realm of "better-quality electronics". If they pull the Linux Zaurus off, I think they get to move up into the same territory as TI, HP, Compaq, and Palm for Good Shit (tm).
I do think that it might be wise to streamline the next version, though, and possibly make the keyboard optional. It doesn't seem like it would fit in most pockets, and I'm not about to go looking for a holster for it if I ever decide I want one.
It's a vision in search of a reality. The PDP-11 does not exist until there's something to read the data on the flash card.
See, when you said PDP-11 in a tin of mints, I was thinking maybe some interesting hacks with a couple of FPGAs... that would be as close to the real thing as you could get without getting someone from Compaq to sign off on it.
To be honest with you, before I found out what exactly the joke was I thought the face looked more like Peter Jurasik as Londo in Bab5; it certainly takes some work to get Andre's face out of what looks like a twelfth-gen photocopy.
You're assuming pure Adam Smith economics in a vacuum. When you have a de facto monopoly on the market and a company bent on world domination (essentially a market with little or no viable competition), the rules go out the window.
The fact is that to the bulk of people out there Microsoft is the only game in town (/.ers know better, but unfortunately we're a minority) and they have the power (whether they have the right is another argument entirely) to set prices as they please. When predatory tactics are on the table, you're getting out of the realm of Economics 101.
I personally maintain, btw, that Microsoft is a perfect example of why laissez-faire economics don't work. If a company develops a monopoly in our society and abuses it as Microsoft has, there is (in theory) a buffering effect in governmental regulation. In a libertarian economy, there are no checks and balances but the market itself. If a monopoly goes out of control there is no legal recourse to bring it down, and the possibility of another competitor getting into the market to restabilize it is reduced because the monopoly conditions provide a barrier to entry entirely unrelated to the startup costs for the product in question.
I always wondered about those signs myself, but I never really wanted to get involved enough to find out what the scam was. (In the same vein: Summer Jobs ($15/hr) postings of about the same level of specificity... another bit of weirdness I'd never trusted.
You want a few more interesting things collected from around the Boston area: OBEY (www.obeygiant.com; turns out someone is making a fair amount of money off a weird Andre-the-Giant obsession), "Back the B.B." (before they actually started digging the Big Dig, someone from East Boston had a zillion of these signs on telephone poles promoting something called the Boston Bypass), and Groovasaurus (a local band with a large bumper sticker budget).
Er... you've created a mini-disk pack. When you said that you had a PDP in your wallet I was sort of expecting a PalmPilot or an EspressoPC.
Still, if you think about it... NetBSD on a PowerBook Duo (or equivalent tiny laptop) running this, you'd have a portable PDP-11. That would be pretty cool, IMHO.
Please tell me English is not your first language, because you've got a whopper of a dictionary flame coming if it is. As it is you're either a troll or a moron.
I would like to comment on "the consumers will lose", though. The thing is, if MS goes down Windows will still be out there, and someone will support it. You've got the whole concept of supply and demand inside-out; do you really think a copy of WinXP Home is worth $200, especially when the vast majority of copies that MS is shipping are sold for probably about $40 (or, assuming the troll theory is correct, do you really expect someone else to believe it)?
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Sounds kind of Zorkian...
REZROV ME!
SWM (Single Wizard Male), 26, seeks special lady for romance, magic, late night walks along the Flood Control Dam. If you want to glorb, feel free. Box 282. No weirdos or Flatheads.
/Brian
The idea that the MacOS is a one-button system has been a fiction since MacOS 8. IMHO they should have changed the mouse to a two-button long ago.
/Brian
Even Big Bill was, at the beginning.
:-)
Thing is, Microsoft needs those people there. To those of you who only jumped on the bandwagon with OS X, you've probably been only passingly familiar with the monstrosity that was Word 6. It was pretty much a straight port of Word 95 (or so I've heard) and was one of the worst recieved Mac apps ever; MS created the MacBU not long after that and junked the compatibility layer.
The end result is that Mac users who do use Microsoft Office get a product created by die-hard Mac addicts for die-hard Mac addicts, and the result is polished, functional software that has been getting grudging raves (as in "it's so bad, but it feels so good") ever since Office 98 came out. I don't use it myself -- I rarely even use IE unless I need to view a java page (Mozilla is my regular browser). But those who use it are using good software.
Just another excuse for us Macheads to laugh at PC users
/Brian
Believe me. To most average joe users, the distinction is lost (do you realize how many people are running Excel databases?).
That statement isn't quite as silly as it sounds; I once spent the better part of a summer working on an inventory database, and the first thing I did was convert it from an Excel spreadsheet to FileMaker. I don't know if they converted it back... hope they didn't...
/Brian
Not to mention that even if you're too cheap to get Filemaker, you still have PostgreSQL and MySQL. That and Apache gets you a perfectly serviceable desktop database manager, or so I've heard.
/Brian
[head fills with frightening image of Carrie Fisher screaming "MOMMYYYYYYYY!"]
/brian
As in "Diese Webpage Slaschtot ist"?
I'm going to go watch the blinkenlights on my network hub now...
/Brian
I think in the case of number 3 the end user would more often than not be right :-)
/Brian
I think the end result will be integration of IE features into Mozilla. Not sure if that's a good thing, but I do agree that using Gecko will definitely cut down on the number of "Best with Internet Explorer" sites.
/Brian
The only way an MLM can be successful is if it mimics a proper franchise operation. That means sales over recruiting, that means the upline strictly regulates the size and DEPTH of the downline to prevent market saturation, and that means that more product goes out the door than gets bought by the distributors.
It also means that if you're a leaf instead of a branch, you don't get to do any recruiting. Sorta destroys the traditional hypermaterialistic recruiting pitch, doesn't it?
/Brian
More to the point, MLM is a franchise model gone haywire. No intelligent company would be delegating franchise sales to the local level; the scam in MLM is that with no franchise protection the only reasonable way to make money is to sell distributorships. The product is irrelevant.
/Brian
I had the same pitch done to me twice. The first one was very cagey about it and took great offense when I sent him an email picking apart his scheme in great detail; the second one was a lot clumsier about it (bugging me while I was helping him at the job I was working at the time) and made the mistake of dropping the Quixtar name in conversation.
fscking Ambots...
/Brian
Yeah, but there's no terminal that I could find if I want to dmesg later. Sorry I wasn't clear on that.
/Brian
Well, first, I'd buy one just for the sheer curiosity of it, but I don't have $500 to spare on a PDA.
That said, I think it's a pretty interesting gadget. I was playing with one in my local Best Buy (Hyannis, MA) today and had to say that even though I didn't get to fiddle with the keyboard it was pretty impressive. Handwriting recognition is Graffiti-like but cleaner, and the screen quality is amazingly good. A hard reboot was done mostly for amusement, but since I couldn't find a terminal, no dmesg after boot time. The salesperson told me they'd found quite a large number of games on there, and I was pretty impressed with the Snake game it came with.
The only downside is that it's a bit on the large side, somewhat larger than an iPaq but quite a bit smaller than a Newton. I think it says a lot in Sharp's favor two; it's a trip upmarket for them into the realm of "better-quality electronics". If they pull the Linux Zaurus off, I think they get to move up into the same territory as TI, HP, Compaq, and Palm for Good Shit (tm).
I do think that it might be wise to streamline the next version, though, and possibly make the keyboard optional. It doesn't seem like it would fit in most pockets, and I'm not about to go looking for a holster for it if I ever decide I want one.
/Brian
Go with Ms. I'm pretty sure she's a lesbian.
Liked the song, though. Devo filk is not something you see every day.
/brian
It's a vision in search of a reality. The PDP-11 does not exist until there's something to read the data on the flash card.
See, when you said PDP-11 in a tin of mints, I was thinking maybe some interesting hacks with a couple of FPGAs... that would be as close to the real thing as you could get without getting someone from Compaq to sign off on it.
/Brian
"Pollinate"... appropriate.
To be honest with you, before I found out what exactly the joke was I thought the face looked more like Peter Jurasik as Londo in Bab5; it certainly takes some work to get Andre's face out of what looks like a twelfth-gen photocopy.
/Brian
You're assuming pure Adam Smith economics in a vacuum. When you have a de facto monopoly on the market and a company bent on world domination (essentially a market with little or no viable competition), the rules go out the window.
The fact is that to the bulk of people out there Microsoft is the only game in town (/.ers know better, but unfortunately we're a minority) and they have the power (whether they have the right is another argument entirely) to set prices as they please. When predatory tactics are on the table, you're getting out of the realm of Economics 101.
I personally maintain, btw, that Microsoft is a perfect example of why laissez-faire economics don't work. If a company develops a monopoly in our society and abuses it as Microsoft has, there is (in theory) a buffering effect in governmental regulation. In a libertarian economy, there are no checks and balances but the market itself. If a monopoly goes out of control there is no legal recourse to bring it down, and the possibility of another competitor getting into the market to restabilize it is reduced because the monopoly conditions provide a barrier to entry entirely unrelated to the startup costs for the product in question.
/Brian
Yeah, it's old news (supposedly an experiment in culturejamming). I know. That wasn't quite my point, though.
/Brian
Because otherwise you won't be of interest to all those live nude wet teenage lesbo sluts.
/Brian
I always wondered about those signs myself, but I never really wanted to get involved enough to find out what the scam was. (In the same vein: Summer Jobs ($15/hr) postings of about the same level of specificity... another bit of weirdness I'd never trusted.
You want a few more interesting things collected from around the Boston area: OBEY (www.obeygiant.com; turns out someone is making a fair amount of money off a weird Andre-the-Giant obsession), "Back the B.B." (before they actually started digging the Big Dig, someone from East Boston had a zillion of these signs on telephone poles promoting something called the Boston Bypass), and Groovasaurus (a local band with a large bumper sticker budget).
/Brian
You're looking more at esoteric computing than mainstream emulation, I think.
/Brian
Er... you've created a mini-disk pack. When you said that you had a PDP in your wallet I was sort of expecting a PalmPilot or an EspressoPC.
Still, if you think about it... NetBSD on a PowerBook Duo (or equivalent tiny laptop) running this, you'd have a portable PDP-11. That would be pretty cool, IMHO.
/Brian
Dude, you're getting a DEC.
/Brian
Please tell me English is not your first language, because you've got a whopper of a dictionary flame coming if it is. As it is you're either a troll or a moron.
I would like to comment on "the consumers will lose", though. The thing is, if MS goes down Windows will still be out there, and someone will support it. You've got the whole concept of supply and demand inside-out; do you really think a copy of WinXP Home is worth $200, especially when the vast majority of copies that MS is shipping are sold for probably about $40 (or, assuming the troll theory is correct, do you really expect someone else to believe it)?
Removing the fish hook from my lip,
/Brian