I'd reverse the order, and tchange it to "big business and its minions, the government": it's not as if politicians care one way or the other, but their paymasters do.
1- I don't have much of value to encrypt. Clearly, that's not the case for everyone, but encrypting my to-do list, address book, birthday list, and pathetic attempts at programming seem very much overkill. 2- I don't feel confident I would do encryption right. I COULD encrypt my password list, but right now it's on a piece of paper hidden somewhere. If it were on my PC or cellphone, even encrypted, I'm not confident that i would be using a secure encryption method, nor that it wouldn't be short-circuited by a trojan/keylogger 3- I'm afraid I'll get encrypted out of my data. A few times a year, I have to clean up my HD and recover broken files. What happens when the files are encrypted on top of it ? Any way to recover them ? 4- Is encryption reliable ? what if I can't recover my data after I encrypted it ? 5- I'm not sure what programs I should use. Windows has some basic stuff, then there's PGP, Truecrypt...
More seriously, computers are used by everyone these days. This means they should be usable by anyone. That includes video files. So yes,.x264 is guilty: of not working reliably for ignorant users.
depends: - some costs are fixed: design, overheads - some costs are linearly progressive: materials, though may be degressive w/ volume discounts - some costs are degressive : marketing, certification and legal (if applicable), maintenance infrastructure (if any)...
so as a general rules, the more you sell, the cheaper it is to make. The exceptions are capacity constraints, either materials or manufacturing capacity.
now, price != cost, and prices may rise even though your costs fall: - limited market: no point cutting prices if you end up selling as much, not more, as with higher prices - capacity constraints: if you can't make more, even though your costs are going down, there's no point - unelastic demand: if demand does not react to price changes, no point to lowering prices - luxury market: it has been proven that demand for some items actually falls when prices fall, because people are buying an image of exclusivity, quality... rather than a product.
I think MS is being hamstrung by the 90's mentality, when one company did the OS, another hardware, and yet another software. And nobody really did content. End result: shitty user experience, flexible but complicated uses, compatibility issues, difficulties getting content...
Apple does OS, Hardware, Software, and content distribution (as a step to doing content ?) and reaps huge benefits from that, from easier development to better user experience to network effects. The issue is getting people to accept lock-in. Apple does this via a better user experience and nice designs, but not everyone can pull that off, and not every customer will accept it.
As Google's rapid release of Android proves, OSes are not that hard to build quickly anymore, just customize Linux, as with Moblin, Maemo... Hardware isn't a problem either, plenty of ODMs have ready-made designs you can tweak, or OEMs will build to your specs. Apple's stuff does not have innovative hardware specs, just nice design. Software isn't that hard either, 10 apps will cover 99.9% of the users's needs (office, mail, IM, media player, web, social sites...).
I think the issue is, if MS builds a phone, they'll... build a phone. With so-so user experience (my mobile runs Winmob, I want to thrash it twice a day; I'm holding off on an upgrade until I see an HD2-like with Android or AppleOS); with passable design, no sexy content or content marketplace...
And the issue is not "building a phone", it's creating an ecosystem where people feel at ease (no constantly looking over your shoulder for viruses, no complicated ergonomics, no driver issues...) and are enticed to keep forking over money (easy software + content purchases) and using your stuff (video, music...).
Google has the advantages of 1) not having MS's baggage, and 2) being able to do much for free thank to the advertising revenue they can milk off pretty much anything. I'm not sure they can pull off an Apple though, since they relinquished control fo the platform, and don't have much to offer in termes of content.
Part of what makes life interesting is that things and people change ?
Sean Connery was my favorite James bond, but what makes him so is that the ones after him were not as good, and that he stopped doing it ?
I already find today's entertainers way to artificial, what with all the nip tucks, the postprocessing, and the training... the last thing I'd like would be for them to be REALLy artificial.
Oh, OK sorry, didn't realize you wanted specific apps for the thing. The way I see it, I don't, it's just a more portable way to do the same things, and it's easier to add a keyboard want I want one than to rip it away when I don't ^^
the "compelling suite of apps" is already there, on the web: facebook, email, IM, twitter, browsing. Throw in google maps, an ebook reader, remote terminal... I don't think apps are that critical anymore, because they are already there.
As far as a keyboard is concerned, I'd rather have a tablet + separate keyboard/mouse for when I need them, rather than lug them around all the time. A pure tablet is better when not inputting much info, which is 50-75% of my time on a netbook.
I find it actually easier to build from scratch and install from scratch than to try and figure out what Dell components are standard or not, what leads the PSU has... and get rid of all the junkware. It's cheaper, too, strangely.
I've taught a couple of friends to assemble their PCs too. The key is Adamesque: Don't panic ! If you don't try fancy coolers or other things, you won't have to touch a jumper, just be careful to lay out everything, find where it fits without having to force it, and spend half an hour calmly doing all the cables. A bit harder than Lego, but easier than Mecano or model building. And then the Windows install is fully automatic, and the Linux one should be, if you've carefully chosen your components.
I'm trying to figure out your reasoning, even wrong trains of thought are interesting sometimes. Even your combinations tree does NOT make sense to me, 2 x "HH" but 0 x "TT", and one each "TH" and "HT"... I'm besumed by how one can reach that conclusion.
The for possibilites are, again
Tails-Tails Tails-Heads Heads-Tails Tails-Tails
We discard the first one, because it doesn't satisfy the "one of them is Heads" criteria. We're left with 3 combinations in which "one of them is Heads". Out of these 3 combinations, only in one is the other one also Heads. One out of three is 33%, QED.
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I don't think that's the point... they're doing it 'coz they can.
I'm holding out for dinosaurs myself... or the dodo bird. An oversize gazelle doesn't sound like much fun.
mod: -10 dispiriting...
the tricky part is to NOT use half the caches when running 32 bit apps :-p
I'd reverse the order, and tchange it to "big business and its minions, the government": it's not as if politicians care one way or the other, but their paymasters do.
But I'm not really using encryption because
1- I don't have much of value to encrypt. Clearly, that's not the case for everyone, but encrypting my to-do list, address book, birthday list, and pathetic attempts at programming seem very much overkill.
2- I don't feel confident I would do encryption right. I COULD encrypt my password list, but right now it's on a piece of paper hidden somewhere. If it were on my PC or cellphone, even encrypted, I'm not confident that i would be using a secure encryption method, nor that it wouldn't be short-circuited by a trojan/keylogger
3- I'm afraid I'll get encrypted out of my data. A few times a year, I have to clean up my HD and recover broken files. What happens when the files are encrypted on top of it ? Any way to recover them ?
4- Is encryption reliable ? what if I can't recover my data after I encrypted it ?
5- I'm not sure what programs I should use. Windows has some basic stuff, then there's PGP, Truecrypt...
I smell a Linux guy :-p
More seriously, computers are used by everyone these days. This means they should be usable by anyone. That includes video files. So yes, .x264 is guilty: of not working reliably for ignorant users.
Hasn't Apple's success taught us anything ?
depends:
- some costs are fixed: design, overheads
- some costs are linearly progressive: materials, though may be degressive w/ volume discounts
- some costs are degressive : marketing, certification and legal (if applicable), maintenance infrastructure (if any)...
so as a general rules, the more you sell, the cheaper it is to make. The exceptions are capacity constraints, either materials or manufacturing capacity.
now, price != cost, and prices may rise even though your costs fall:
- limited market: no point cutting prices if you end up selling as much, not more, as with higher prices
- capacity constraints: if you can't make more, even though your costs are going down, there's no point
- unelastic demand: if demand does not react to price changes, no point to lowering prices
- luxury market: it has been proven that demand for some items actually falls when prices fall, because people are buying an image of exclusivity, quality... rather than a product.
really, who does ?
idiot grad for headlines about news of no import whatosever.
rather probably orchestrated by Apple marketing.
I think MS is being hamstrung by the 90's mentality, when one company did the OS, another hardware, and yet another software. And nobody really did content. End result: shitty user experience, flexible but complicated uses, compatibility issues, difficulties getting content...
Apple does OS, Hardware, Software, and content distribution (as a step to doing content ?) and reaps huge benefits from that, from easier development to better user experience to network effects. The issue is getting people to accept lock-in. Apple does this via a better user experience and nice designs, but not everyone can pull that off, and not every customer will accept it.
As Google's rapid release of Android proves, OSes are not that hard to build quickly anymore, just customize Linux, as with Moblin, Maemo... Hardware isn't a problem either, plenty of ODMs have ready-made designs you can tweak, or OEMs will build to your specs. Apple's stuff does not have innovative hardware specs, just nice design. Software isn't that hard either, 10 apps will cover 99.9% of the users's needs (office, mail, IM, media player, web, social sites...).
I think the issue is, if MS builds a phone, they'll... build a phone. With so-so user experience (my mobile runs Winmob, I want to thrash it twice a day; I'm holding off on an upgrade until I see an HD2-like with Android or AppleOS); with passable design, no sexy content or content marketplace...
And the issue is not "building a phone", it's creating an ecosystem where people feel at ease (no constantly looking over your shoulder for viruses, no complicated ergonomics, no driver issues...) and are enticed to keep forking over money (easy software + content purchases) and using your stuff (video, music...).
Google has the advantages of 1) not having MS's baggage, and 2) being able to do much for free thank to the advertising revenue they can milk off pretty much anything. I'm not sure they can pull off an Apple though, since they relinquished control fo the platform, and don't have much to offer in termes of content.
isn't google's core business advertising ?
Part of what makes life interesting is that things and people change ?
Sean Connery was my favorite James bond, but what makes him so is that the ones after him were not as good, and that he stopped doing it ?
I already find today's entertainers way to artificial, what with all the nip tucks, the postprocessing, and the training... the last thing I'd like would be for them to be REALLy artificial.
Other companies didn't seem to have issues with Nokia's terms, though ?
the ensuing protests will be worth a laugh or two.
what version of windows ?
do you login as an admin by default ?
If the Chinese dare do it quasi-officially, I dare not think about the amount of corporate espionage that uses the same tools.
the sad thing is, he's probably not mentally ill, just astute enough to take advantage of the stupidity of a bunch of worshipers.
They are the mentally deficient ones. He's a successful businessman.
it is fair to compare products available now that represent the best and brightest of what I can buy with my money.
+1 funny
i'm fairly sure it doesn't: it would most probaby be possible to feed 3.5" or at least 2.5" HDs down these tube. Every few seconds.
the latency certainly, though.
Oh, OK sorry, didn't realize you wanted specific apps for the thing. The way I see it, I don't, it's just a more portable way to do the same things, and it's easier to add a keyboard want I want one than to rip it away when I don't ^^
the "compelling suite of apps" is already there, on the web: facebook, email, IM, twitter, browsing. Throw in google maps, an ebook reader, remote terminal... I don't think apps are that critical anymore, because they are already there.
As far as a keyboard is concerned, I'd rather have a tablet + separate keyboard/mouse for when I need them, rather than lug them around all the time. A pure tablet is better when not inputting much info, which is 50-75% of my time on a netbook.
I find it actually easier to build from scratch and install from scratch than to try and figure out what Dell components are standard or not, what leads the PSU has... and get rid of all the junkware. It's cheaper, too, strangely.
I've taught a couple of friends to assemble their PCs too. The key is Adamesque: Don't panic ! If you don't try fancy coolers or other things, you won't have to touch a jumper, just be careful to lay out everything, find where it fits without having to force it, and spend half an hour calmly doing all the cables. A bit harder than Lego, but easier than Mecano or model building. And then the Windows install is fully automatic, and the Linux one should be, if you've carefully chosen your components.
I give up... methinks you'll never get it
Oops, the last one should read "heads-heads", not Tails-Tails". Sorry.
I'm trying to figure out your reasoning, even wrong trains of thought are interesting sometimes. Even your combinations tree does NOT make sense to me, 2 x "HH" but 0 x "TT", and one each "TH" and "HT"... I'm besumed by how one can reach that conclusion.
The for possibilites are, again
Tails-Tails
Tails-Heads
Heads-Tails
Tails-Tails
We discard the first one, because it doesn't satisfy the "one of them is Heads" criteria. We're left with 3 combinations in which "one of them is Heads". Out of these 3 combinations, only in one is the other one also Heads. One out of three is 33%, QED.
Are you Immathemacitulate ?