I did say it's something you pay for; and rightly so. This is why I'm happy with my 128Mb player. Plug it into a USB port, up pops the drive, drag songs into folder, unplug it from USB. Done.
I've seen some players where you had to install Real(tm) software to build playlists and crap. Just let me play music damnit.
First of all, price point comparisons between other MP3 players doesn't really do the iPod any justice. It is over-priced for what you're given yes; but you're paying a premium for ease-of-use, style and of course the brand name. It's an Apple product, designed to work with other Apple products, and I'm sure that it works quite well. I own a 128 Muvo and that's all I need for an Mp3 player really. It's dual-function (128 Mb USB key acts as a USB drive as well), it's copy and paste in Windows for Mp3s and files (no need to install any extra software or drivers like some minidisc players I know of) and it's pretty sturdy. Granted, I got it for free so it's a bit better deal then a 4GB HD for $250 but hey, to each his own.
Secondly, maybe the Apple marketing team thought that a $50 difference was all that was really stopping them from taking hold of the lower market share. I also think that once people start buying more of the iPod minis, it will force Apple to bring down the price of the iPod Majors. I've yet to find 15Gb of music to fill up my player with, legal and quasi-legal. It really is a mind-game. $50 may put some people above what they wanted to spend on a player. If it stops 1000 people from buying other players, Apple just made $250,000 instead of $0.
Unlimited is your connection. You have unlimited access to everything on the Internet. They don't censor (Unless you want them too). They won't cut you off right away if you exceed a set bandwidth limit. They will however, and do reserve the right to, charge you MORE for it. Working in an ISP, I saw this all the time. 99% of users used the system like a normal person would. We could tell who the Mp3 downloaders were and we had no problems with that. The problem came from those FTP leechers and other obvious abuses of the system. We're talking 5-6Gb a DAY. I'm not going to play innocent and say "I would never download that much etc etc." but I'd say the most I have ever downloaded in one day is about 3Gb. To be honest, if you get cut off for using excess bandwidth, you deserve it. The letter you receive from them talking about using excess bandwidth usually includes a "You should upgrade to X plan which will provide you more bandwidth" and really, if you're using it that much, then you should upgrade. Just because something is 'unlimited', doesn't mean that you're not going to pay for it.
I realize that you may have started your own company, but you can't say you use OSS and at the same time use "Best of Breed" technology. The only "best of breed" OSS project I can think of is Apache, and even it isn't considered "Best of Breed". Nice try though, you've got the marketspeak down pat:)
If I remember correctly, at one point ESR DID have a lot of money...$40 million or so...and if I'm not mistaken a huge rant went up about people shouldn't come to him looking for donations. He, of course, promptly lost this windfall in the stock crash; but I wouldn't consider him very charitable.
Let us not forget...
on
Easter Humor
·
· Score: 4, Funny
And as much as I hate replying to my own post, he's a 5 time CONVICTED felon.
He had his chance to do 'the right thing' and he proved he couldn't do it. Toss this guy out with the trash and give some honest, decent hard-working folks some jobs.
A friend of mine messaged me this morning with "Happy Birthday, I had hoped to get you a war for your birthday, but looks like Mr Bush beat me to it...Hope you have a nice day anyways!"
I hereby dub this war "The Adam War", removing all crappy CNN titles from the possibility of being used...not Gulf War Redux, not Gulf War Two, not Desert Storm Again...The Adam War
Oh, right. Forgot that no one reads the article anymore...
Well, it would be easy to RTFA if Slashdot wouldn't absolutely destroy any chance of actually READING the article. Therefore, I had two options, comment on the submission text or wait for someone to post the text of the original article. Guess what? I went with the submission text because I (incorrectly) assumed that the submitter had done some basic fact-checking before it had been submitted.
Please, PLEASE submitters....I know you get excited when you come across an article you can submit to Slashdot, but please take the time to actually fact-check your submission. In all likelihood, the page/server it's hosted on will disappear within 5 minutes of being posted.
Other bacteria survived frozen in the pressures of an ocean 100 miles deep
I was under the impression that the deepest part of the ocean, the Marianas trench in the Pacific ocean was 'only' 11033 metres below sea level; rougly 6-7 miles deep..Nowhere near the 100 miles in this writeup. Was this explained better in the nature.com article?
Microsoft has a point. These companies are selling their products by the customer association with "Windows", Microsoft Windows. Of course, it's rather DUMB of them to do it, as when walking through a software store, seeing a bunch of programs marketed as "Windows This" "Windows That" creates a mindset in the consumer that Windows has a lot of programs running for it. Just like we have KOffice, KCalc...or GProducts.
Hiding the meat and potatoes of a legal argument behind a layer of fluff and doublespeak is incredibly common. In a "CYA" society, you've got to expect that they're going to say everything and anything they can to protect themselves from any sort of liability. What they don't realize however, is that these agreements probably wouldn't stand up under any light.
For example, one clause "By using the Site, you represent and warrant that you are 18 years of age or older and possess the legal right and ability to enter into this Agreement and to use the Site in accordance with all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement" could cause more than a number of problems. Say someone under the age of 18 purchases a ticket from them online...now what? are they legally obligated to actually provide a service to this person, even though said customer is technically not allowed to use the site?
The rest of the agreement seems to be pretty standard web-related agreements. Agreeing not to upload/download files (1) to a national or resident of or into any country the U.S. has embargoed, including without limitation, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria, or Yugoslavia; (2) to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department's Specially Designated Nationals list, or (3) to anyone on the U.S. Commerce Department's Table of Denial Orders.
And then at the end of it all, there's the biggest CYA: You may not: S. Engage in any other conduct that is, or that American Airlines deems to be, in conflict with this Agreement.
Moreover, then there's the liability agreement for the agreement at the end:
American Airlines may alter, change or improve the Content at any time and without notice.
Then their privacy policy regarding information they take from you. Although this is a bit of a mind-puzzler:
American Airlines will not treat as confidential any communications you send to us by electronic mail or otherwise. American Airlines has no obligation to refrain from publishing, reproducing, or otherwise using your communications in any way and for any purpose.
First company I've seen doing that...Wonder why.
And then, the final straw: You agree that Texas law governs this Agreement's interpretation and/or any dispute arising from your access to, dealings with, or use of the Site, without regard to conflicts of law principles.
Ouch.
The last paragraph, however, is the greatest laugh-inducer:
If any provision of this Agreement is found to be invalid or unenforceable, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be stricken from this Agreement without affecting the validity or enforceability of any other provision.
So, they could essentially put "You must name your first child after American Airlines", have it be struck down as idiotic, but the rest of the agreement still stands...nice:)
Seems analagous to losing your virginity to a prostitute. It's an easy way of getting around to the ultimate goal, but in the end, leaves you quite unsatisfied....
Specfications: P-120 80 Meg Ram 10 base T Ethernet 1.44 floppy drive Soundblaster 16 Serial Mouse Creative Graphics Blaster SVGA 24 hard drives by various manufactures 14 IDE 10 SCSI Soundblaster 16 IDE controller on the sound card 2 Promise ATA 66 crontrollers( Running at 33) 1 Adaptec AHA-1510 SCSI controller. 1 Adaptec AVA-1515 SCSI controller. Windows 95 OSR1
Shame there isn't more information on how he did it and any problems he encountered. I've had a hell of a time in the past getting SCSI and IDE drives to co-operate under Windows:/ Although, 30Gb of space on this is pretty damn impressive..and if it's only a fileserver why do you need any faster a processor?
I'd just hate to be the person to have to move it:/
The second the computer hardware industry gets over it's undying need to profit and destroy its competitors, it can finally do something about Microsoft. If they were all to tell MS at the same time "Hey, guess what, we're going to dictate the terms of what OS goes on our machines now", then MS would be up a creek without a paddle. Unfortunately, the likelihood of this happening is slim to nil, the second a large comp manufacturer did this, the others would go the other way and run to MS saying "Look at what CompStore2002 is doing! We won't do that, give us a break on the licensing!"
Microsoft is using the greed of the industry against itself. Without hardware to run it on, software is useless, and Microsoft is useless. They are in a far more precarious position then they let on...Maybe it's time to give them a little scare
Critical_ wrote "Do you have any extra copies you want to sell? "
Sorry, the only people I buy movies for are me;) I'm sure you can wait the extra week for them to come out:) Besides, you can see how much I paid for them, kinda makes ripping you off almost criminal...
The thought that they can sue the guy whose NAME IS ON THE BLOODY CODEC!
I can just imagine the Apple lawyers sitting around discussing this.
Lawyer 1: Sorenson Codec...Mr Sorenson, I think we can successfully sue him. Lawyer 2: I'm not quite so sure, maybe we should change this press release to say we're NOT going to sue him. Lawyer 1: Hmm, you may be right. No matter, just right click on the word "Sue" and look up an antonym for it Lawyer 2: But this is a Mac Lawyer 1: DOH! Ok, we'll stick with the original plan then...
By dying earlier of other complications such as hypertension.
Short Term side effects of excessive consumption of caffeine include:
Nervousness, anxiety, irritability, headache, disturbed sleep, and stomach upset or peptic ulcers. In women, it may aggravate the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome
Their first mistake: Screwing the customer by over-charging, over-producing and under-acknowledging the hard work of real artists as opposed to hyping studio-created filler.
Their second mistake: Ignoring people TELLING them this
Their third mistake: Continuing this trend by assuming it's actually creating long-term solvency as opposed to an embittered and irritated audience who will be willing to search for bands not under 'Collective Control'
Best Quote of the Article
on
Lineo near Death
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
It's said a lot of embedded engineers regard Linux as "that operating system for pimple-faced computer science nerds dressed in T-shirts they brought at the last 'Star Trek' convention."
This, coupled with "Embedded experts claim the embedded space is practically impossible to play in these days if all you have is an operating system, especially when the OS is basically immaterial to the embedded designer. The fact that Linux is ostensibly free is also reportedly a hurdle to design-wins in view of Lineo's royalty proposition." would seem to indicate what I had thought all along..."Linux is not the be-all and end-all"
Linus seems like a nice enough guy, quiet, proto-typical geek, tends to talk a bit too technical but uses metaphors, comparisons to get his point across...Overall grade: B Bruce Perens knows what he's talking about, but is either A) Amazed at the shiny flashing light on the top of the camera or B) staring at himself in the reflection of the camera. He needs to sit back, relax, and stop swinging around like a monkey...Overall Grade: C+ Mr Stallman handles himself well enough with an interviewer, but tends to talk over the heads of any non-technical viewer. His anecdote is interesting though, the loss of freedom because of having to use passwords..I wonder if he'd still give the same argument...Overall grade: B- Eric Raymond scares me...and his obvious loathing for Microsoft is dripping off of every word "I'm your worst nightmare" That's jokes we tell around the office, not in public...Overall grade: C
9 minutes was enough of an anti-MS stance for me...the female voice, reading Bill Gates' letter to the hobby club was embarassingly melodramaticized.
Slashdot Mirror
I did say it's something you pay for; and rightly so. This is why I'm happy with my 128Mb player. Plug it into a USB port, up pops the drive, drag songs into folder, unplug it from USB. Done.
I've seen some players where you had to install Real(tm) software to build playlists and crap. Just let me play music damnit.
First of all, price point comparisons between other MP3 players doesn't really do the iPod any justice. It is over-priced for what you're given yes; but you're paying a premium for ease-of-use, style and of course the brand name. It's an Apple product, designed to work with other Apple products, and I'm sure that it works quite well. I own a 128 Muvo and that's all I need for an Mp3 player really. It's dual-function (128 Mb USB key acts as a USB drive as well), it's copy and paste in Windows for Mp3s and files (no need to install any extra software or drivers like some minidisc players I know of) and it's pretty sturdy. Granted, I got it for free so it's a bit better deal then a 4GB HD for $250 but hey, to each his own.
Secondly, maybe the Apple marketing team thought that a $50 difference was all that was really stopping them from taking hold of the lower market share. I also think that once people start buying more of the iPod minis, it will force Apple to bring down the price of the iPod Majors. I've yet to find 15Gb of music to fill up my player with, legal and quasi-legal. It really is a mind-game. $50 may put some people above what they wanted to spend on a player. If it stops 1000 people from buying other players, Apple just made $250,000 instead of $0.
Unlimited is your connection. You have unlimited access to everything on the Internet. They don't censor (Unless you want them too). They won't cut you off right away if you exceed a set bandwidth limit. They will however, and do reserve the right to, charge you MORE for it. Working in an ISP, I saw this all the time. 99% of users used the system like a normal person would. We could tell who the Mp3 downloaders were and we had no problems with that. The problem came from those FTP leechers and other obvious abuses of the system. We're talking 5-6Gb a DAY. I'm not going to play innocent and say "I would never download that much etc etc." but I'd say the most I have ever downloaded in one day is about 3Gb. To be honest, if you get cut off for using excess bandwidth, you deserve it. The letter you receive from them talking about using excess bandwidth usually includes a "You should upgrade to X plan which will provide you more bandwidth" and really, if you're using it that much, then you should upgrade. Just because something is 'unlimited', doesn't mean that you're not going to pay for it.
I realize that you may have started your own company, but you can't say you use OSS and at the same time use "Best of Breed" technology. The only "best of breed" OSS project I can think of is Apache, and even it isn't considered "Best of Breed". Nice try though, you've got the marketspeak down pat :)
If I remember correctly, at one point ESR DID have a lot of money...$40 million or so...and if I'm not mistaken a huge rant went up about people shouldn't come to him looking for donations. He, of course, promptly lost this windfall in the stock crash; but I wouldn't consider him very charitable.
...the most dangerous rabbit of all
And as much as I hate replying to my own post, he's a 5 time CONVICTED felon.
He had his chance to do 'the right thing' and he proved he couldn't do it. Toss this guy out with the trash and give some honest, decent hard-working folks some jobs.
I can see Kevin's point: People do change and have the ability to 'grow up' beyond their previous transgressions..
However, he's not just a hacker, he's a felon. Big difference.
A friend of mine messaged me this morning with "Happy Birthday, I had hoped to get you a war for your birthday, but looks like Mr Bush beat me to it...Hope you have a nice day anyways!"
I hereby dub this war "The Adam War", removing all crappy CNN titles from the possibility of being used...not Gulf War Redux, not Gulf War Two, not Desert Storm Again...The Adam War
Oh, right. Forgot that no one reads the article anymore...
Well, it would be easy to RTFA if Slashdot wouldn't absolutely destroy any chance of actually READING the article. Therefore, I had two options, comment on the submission text or wait for someone to post the text of the original article. Guess what? I went with the submission text because I (incorrectly) assumed that the submitter had done some basic fact-checking before it had been submitted.
Please, PLEASE submitters....I know you get excited when you come across an article you can submit to Slashdot, but please take the time to actually fact-check your submission. In all likelihood, the page/server it's hosted on will disappear within 5 minutes of being posted.
Other bacteria survived frozen in the pressures of an ocean 100 miles deep
I was under the impression that the deepest part of the ocean, the Marianas trench in the Pacific ocean was 'only' 11033 metres below sea level; rougly 6-7 miles deep..Nowhere near the 100 miles in this writeup. Was this explained better in the nature.com article?
Microsoft has a point. These companies are selling their products by the customer association with "Windows", Microsoft Windows. Of course, it's rather DUMB of them to do it, as when walking through a software store, seeing a bunch of programs marketed as "Windows This" "Windows That" creates a mindset in the consumer that Windows has a lot of programs running for it. Just like we have KOffice, KCalc...or GProducts.
Hiding the meat and potatoes of a legal argument behind a layer of fluff and doublespeak is incredibly common. In a "CYA" society, you've got to expect that they're going to say everything and anything they can to protect themselves from any sort of liability. What they don't realize however, is that these agreements probably wouldn't stand up under any light.
:)
For example, one clause "By using the Site, you represent and warrant that you are 18 years of age or older and possess the legal right and ability to enter into this Agreement and to use the Site in accordance with all of the terms and conditions of this Agreement" could cause more than a number of problems. Say someone under the age of 18 purchases a ticket from them online...now what? are they legally obligated to actually provide a service to this person, even though said customer is technically not allowed to use the site?
The rest of the agreement seems to be pretty standard web-related agreements. Agreeing not to upload/download files (1) to a national or resident of or into any country the U.S. has embargoed, including without limitation, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria, or Yugoslavia; (2) to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department's Specially Designated Nationals list, or (3) to anyone on the U.S. Commerce Department's Table of Denial Orders.
And then at the end of it all, there's the biggest CYA: You may not: S. Engage in any other conduct that is, or that American Airlines deems to be, in conflict with this Agreement.
Moreover, then there's the liability agreement for the agreement at the end:
American Airlines may alter, change or improve the Content at any time and without notice.
Then their privacy policy regarding information they take from you. Although this is a bit of a mind-puzzler:
American Airlines will not treat as confidential any communications you send to us by electronic mail or otherwise. American Airlines has no obligation to refrain from publishing, reproducing, or otherwise using your communications in any way and for any purpose.
First company I've seen doing that...Wonder why.
And then, the final straw: You agree that Texas law governs this Agreement's interpretation and/or any dispute arising from your access to, dealings with, or use of the Site, without regard to conflicts of law principles.
Ouch.
The last paragraph, however, is the greatest laugh-inducer:
If any provision of this Agreement is found to be invalid or unenforceable, then the invalid or unenforceable provision will be stricken from this Agreement without affecting the validity or enforceability of any other provision.
So, they could essentially put "You must name your first child after American Airlines", have it be struck down as idiotic, but the rest of the agreement still stands...nice
Seems analagous to losing your virginity to a prostitute. It's an easy way of getting around to the ultimate goal, but in the end, leaves you quite unsatisfied. ...
Not speaking from personal experience of course
Visit here
The Dark Ride and Funhouse historical Society
Specfications:
:/ Although, 30Gb of space on this is pretty damn impressive..and if it's only a fileserver why do you need any faster a processor?
:/
P-120
80 Meg Ram
10 base T Ethernet
1.44 floppy drive
Soundblaster 16
Serial Mouse
Creative Graphics Blaster SVGA
24 hard drives by various manufactures
14 IDE
10 SCSI
Soundblaster 16 IDE controller on the sound card
2 Promise ATA 66 crontrollers( Running at 33)
1 Adaptec AHA-1510 SCSI controller.
1 Adaptec AVA-1515 SCSI controller.
Windows 95 OSR1
Shame there isn't more information on how he did it and any problems he encountered. I've had a hell of a time in the past getting SCSI and IDE drives to co-operate under Windows
I'd just hate to be the person to have to move it
The second the computer hardware industry gets over it's undying need to profit and destroy its competitors, it can finally do something about Microsoft. If they were all to tell MS at the same time "Hey, guess what, we're going to dictate the terms of what OS goes on our machines now", then MS would be up a creek without a paddle. Unfortunately, the likelihood of this happening is slim to nil, the second a large comp manufacturer did this, the others would go the other way and run to MS saying "Look at what CompStore2002 is doing! We won't do that, give us a break on the licensing!"
Microsoft is using the greed of the industry against itself. Without hardware to run it on, software is useless, and Microsoft is useless. They are in a far more precarious position then they let on...Maybe it's time to give them a little scare
Critical_ wrote "Do you have any extra copies you want to sell? "
;) I'm sure you can wait the extra week for them to come out :) Besides, you can see how much I paid for them, kinda makes ripping you off almost criminal...
Sorry, the only people I buy movies for are me
Weeird, I just got it yesterday from the local 7-11.
e k2.jpg
h ttp://www3.telus.net/adamonline/LOTR2.jpg
:)
Proof?
http://www3.telus.net/adamonline/StarTr
Of course, I got LOTR then too.
http://www3.telus.net/adamonline/LOTR.jpg
I'm thinking someone ****ed up in my favor..like Monopoly banks except better
The thought that they can sue the guy whose NAME IS ON THE BLOODY CODEC!
I can just imagine the Apple lawyers sitting around discussing this.
Lawyer 1: Sorenson Codec...Mr Sorenson, I think we can successfully sue him.
Lawyer 2: I'm not quite so sure, maybe we should change this press release to say we're NOT going to sue him.
Lawyer 1: Hmm, you may be right. No matter, just right click on the word "Sue" and look up an antonym for it
Lawyer 2: But this is a Mac
Lawyer 1: DOH! Ok, we'll stick with the original plan then...
By dying earlier of other complications such as hypertension.
Short Term side effects of excessive consumption of caffeine include:
Nervousness, anxiety, irritability, headache, disturbed sleep, and stomach upset or peptic ulcers. In women, it may aggravate the symptoms of premenstrual syndrome
Their first mistake:
Screwing the customer by over-charging, over-producing and under-acknowledging the hard work of real artists as opposed to hyping studio-created filler.
Their second mistake:
Ignoring people TELLING them this
Their third mistake:
Continuing this trend by assuming it's actually creating long-term solvency as opposed to an embittered and irritated audience who will be willing to search for bands not under 'Collective Control'
It's said a lot of embedded engineers regard Linux as "that operating system for pimple-faced computer science nerds dressed in T-shirts they brought at the last 'Star Trek' convention."
This, coupled with "Embedded experts claim the embedded space is practically impossible to play in these days if all you have is an operating system, especially when the OS is basically immaterial to the embedded designer. The fact that Linux is ostensibly free is also reportedly a hurdle to design-wins in view of Lineo's royalty proposition." would seem to indicate what I had thought all along..."Linux is not the be-all and end-all"
I have an uncle who looks outright like Richard, minus 100lbs or so...Is this 'Free Software' idealism a genetic thing or what?
On another note, we should have an RMS-shirt watch...There's that maroon one again!
Blatant stealing of link from previous poster
My review of the 9 minutes:
Linus seems like a nice enough guy, quiet, proto-typical geek, tends to talk a bit too technical but uses metaphors, comparisons to get his point across...Overall grade: B
Bruce Perens knows what he's talking about, but is either A) Amazed at the shiny flashing light on the top of the camera or B) staring at himself in the reflection of the camera. He needs to sit back, relax, and stop swinging around like a monkey...Overall Grade: C+
Mr Stallman handles himself well enough with an interviewer, but tends to talk over the heads of any non-technical viewer. His anecdote is interesting though, the loss of freedom because of having to use passwords..I wonder if he'd still give the same argument...Overall grade: B-
Eric Raymond scares me...and his obvious loathing for Microsoft is dripping off of every word "I'm your worst nightmare" That's jokes we tell around the office, not in public...Overall grade: C
9 minutes was enough of an anti-MS stance for me...the female voice, reading Bill Gates' letter to the hobby club was embarassingly melodramaticized.