I just got one in London, it carries an Apple one year on-site warranty, and comes with 256MB RAM, OS X (shrinkwrapped) and a mail in coupon for a free VST external FireWire CDRW.
I paid 1,799 sterling for it, making it only incrementally more expensive than the DVD iBook, and a little cheaper than the top end iBook with a "combo" DVD/CDRW drive. I actually went to the store intending to purchase the DVD iBook to replace my Lombard class G3.
Bigger screen too - seems like a far better *nix notebook computer to me.
and although I haven't worked on Defense stuff since 1984 (there is far more money in Investment Banking), that experience taught me one thing.
The US Military is exceedingly conservative. F-117' and other neat stuff that we know about now has been around and under development for a while. This is the Military-Industrial complexes public face. The old stuff.
I'm quite sure they've got loads of really wild Top Secret (and stuff that requires higher clearance) weapons that we won't know about for a similar length of time.
MS-DOS came first, and DR-DOS was built and marketed by Digital Research as a "better DOS".
I used it pretty heavily, and in addition to all sorts of neat (for a DOS platform at least) such as on-line help, it was ultra compatible.
At least it was until Windows 3.1 came out. It just wouldn't run on top of DR-DOS, although Digital' OS would run other MS products such as Flight Simulator.
I distinctly remember calling MS technical support, hoping there was an install / config option to Windows 3.1 that would allow me to keep using DR-DOS.
I explained the problem to the tech rep, and when he asked me what version of MS-DOS I was running, I said "But I'm runing DR-DOS, not MS-DOS".
His response - "Now why would you want to go and do something like that?".
And the SEC imposes a limit of $1 million on the entire deal.
Its cheaper since the firm and their underwriters don't have to file paperwork in all states where the stock will be issued to the general public.
Thats the good news.
Bad news is that prospective investors must be "accredited"; under SEC regulation D section 501, you must have either a net worth of $1 million, or an annual income of at least $200,000 for the previous two years (and a reasonable expectation of this income continuing in the near future).
And before you piss and moan, its all done to protect the "little guy" from fraudsters and such (by no mean implying the good folks at Mandrake are of such ilk).
The article mentions "the existing fiber-optic line from the North Slope". Well, I'm a native New York living in London for the past four years, and frequently have experienced problems getting to North American internet sites.
And this wasn't related solely to my provider (Demon), as I also use Virgin and Freenet. When Demon can't reach Noth American, frequently they can't either.
It was out for an entire weekend about nine months ago.
Just seems problematic to me if they've only got a single pipe - no matter how thick - to the Lower 48.
Because of M$ three year - ahemmm - "rental" policy, other firms will be quick to offer two classes of tools which will immediately have wide appeal :
Competing Office Suites will be the first, as you might expect. Nobody uses all of the features of MS Word; I bet if this was formally studied you'd find %90 of users working with at most %20 of the functions.
Next will come a variety of translators which will allow non M$ products to read (and possibly write) the native Microsoft formats.
These tools will (and currently are) created by two distinct classes of firms; only the larger Corporations like Sun can resource up to build Office Suites, while smaller companies - maybe even open source projects - can handle the quite smaller file translators.
I don't see this helping M$ at all, as they are now trying to formally lock users into the constant upgrade cycle that they previously had to do via a bunch of arm twisting.
Their web site claimsWe never sleep. Our IOS software is constantly searching the Internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our intelligent scanning probes are customized to each client's needs and patrol the Internet searching for suspicious sites.
if further goes on Our intelligent probes assess the behavior patterns of the site and decide whether its actions look suspect. If the assessment is positive then our probes dig deeper into the site and analyze its content. Algorithms are continually modified based on the ever-changing nature of the Internet.
Almost seems like a click-thru terms of use, stating that "I am not involved in assesing the legality or illegality of the contents of this web site" would be enough to give their "case building" pause.
The United States clearly instigated this - just think of what Bush has to gain. Arm sales to Taiwan are coming up, WTO entry, the 2008 Olympics, etc, etc.
Bush and his advisors set it up so they could smear China right proper, the way they've been planning to all along, but didn't have a mandate to do.
The Chinese clearly instigated this; just think of what they've got to gain. They're looking at four years of Bush - time to push his nose in the dirt now. Bush also scares the Chinese - Cheney, Rumsfeld and Powell are either from or formed by the generation that broke the Soviet Unions back. Better teach the Americans a lesson early on, and dictate terms for the next four years.
I think its a pretty murky situation all around, and the truth is not in the middle of the two alternatives I've presented - but at one end.
Simply put, someone screwed up. Brinksmanship failed here, and one side has found itself backed into a corner that they created and now they don't know how to get out.
It will be interesting to see how this shakes out, but it wouldn't surprise me to see those poor airmen (and women) detained for a long, long time.
If they are really serious about this then they should finance implementation of some kind of Palm OS emulator, and have it ready to go from the first day they ship. And even if it means licensing the ROMS from Palm.
Linux as the underlying OS would be cool but only hard core geeks will buy a PDA for that reason alone..
If they've got Palm OS (optionally) on top, and Linux underneath they've drastically expanded the potential user base.
Its a little extreme to say M$ will be forced out of business by Mac OS X, even with X-Windows.
I think you might see slowing sales and penetration into the OS Market, but *thats* been slowing of its own accord as PC shipments decline.
But I don't think M$ ever generated the bulk of its revenue via OS sales - AFAIK, Windows has been mostly a "loss leader".
Once M$ got Windows installed across a firm, great pressure was then exterted to get that company to use the M$ Office suite (as well as other M$ products), and UPGRADE UPGRADE UPGRADE!
What you may see is M$ porting Office and other products to not only Mac OS X but Linux as well.
But I was doing weapons research, so I guess its comparing Apples and Oranges.
Funny thing is, almost every project I worked on that was classified was documented pretty throughly at some point in Aviation Week and Space Technology, or similar publications.
Slashdot Mirror
Why does MS ship it with most services running? Apple does the opposite with OS X; almost everything is disabled by default.
I paid 1,799 sterling for it, making it only incrementally more expensive than the DVD iBook, and a little cheaper than the top end iBook with a "combo" DVD/CDRW drive. I actually went to the store intending to purchase the DVD iBook to replace my Lombard class G3.
Bigger screen too - seems like a far better *nix notebook computer to me.
The US Military is exceedingly conservative. F-117' and other neat stuff that we know about now has been around and under development for a while. This is the Military-Industrial complexes public face. The old stuff.
I'm quite sure they've got loads of really wild Top Secret (and stuff that requires higher clearance) weapons that we won't know about for a similar length of time.
I'm not too worried.
I used it pretty heavily, and in addition to all sorts of neat (for a DOS platform at least) such as on-line help, it was ultra compatible.
At least it was until Windows 3.1 came out. It just wouldn't run on top of DR-DOS, although Digital' OS would run other MS products such as Flight Simulator.
I distinctly remember calling MS technical support, hoping there was an install / config option to Windows 3.1 that would allow me to keep using DR-DOS.
I explained the problem to the tech rep, and when he asked me what version of MS-DOS I was running, I said "But I'm runing DR-DOS, not MS-DOS".
His response - "Now why would you want to go and do something like that?".
Its cheaper since the firm and their underwriters don't have to file paperwork in all states where the stock will be issued to the general public.
Thats the good news.
Bad news is that prospective investors must be "accredited"; under SEC regulation D section 501, you must have either a net worth of $1 million, or an annual income of at least $200,000 for the previous two years (and a reasonable expectation of this income continuing in the near future).
And before you piss and moan, its all done to protect the "little guy" from fraudsters and such (by no mean implying the good folks at Mandrake are of such ilk).
Anyone want to venture a guess? I bet nobody is gonna be able to suck up that 2.1TB of disk space.
Also, they are probably going to virtualize X86 sessions, so from the point of view of any given user, they've got a dedicated box, running one CPU.
How many profitable firms find it necessary to build such a complex model?
And no, its not because Amazon.bomb' business is so complex.
This is just more of Bezos' BS. Stuff that will hopefully impress folks in the capital markets so he can raise more money.
800K equations. Shees!
Letting non scientists spend time on Alpha just because they can pay is a really, really bad idea.
Some nut with cash and a cause is gonna be remembered for a long, long time.
The article mentions "the existing fiber-optic line from the North Slope". Well, I'm a native New York living in London for the past four years, and frequently have experienced problems getting to North American internet sites.
And this wasn't related solely to my provider (Demon), as I also use Virgin and Freenet. When Demon can't reach Noth American, frequently they can't either.
It was out for an entire weekend about nine months ago.
Just seems problematic to me if they've only got a single pipe - no matter how thick - to the Lower 48.
Competing Office Suites will be the first, as you might expect. Nobody uses all of the features of MS Word; I bet if this was formally studied you'd find %90 of users working with at most %20 of the functions.
Next will come a variety of translators which will allow non M$ products to read (and possibly write) the native Microsoft formats.
These tools will (and currently are) created by two distinct classes of firms; only the larger Corporations like Sun can resource up to build Office Suites, while smaller companies - maybe even open source projects - can handle the quite smaller file translators.
I don't see this helping M$ at all, as they are now trying to formally lock users into the constant upgrade cycle that they previously had to do via a bunch of arm twisting.
if further goes on Our intelligent probes assess the behavior patterns of the site and decide whether its actions look suspect. If the assessment is positive then our probes dig deeper into the site and analyze its content. Algorithms are continually modified based on the ever-changing nature of the Internet.
Almost seems like a click-thru terms of use, stating that "I am not involved in assesing the legality or illegality of the contents of this web site" would be enough to give their "case building" pause.
Bush and his advisors set it up so they could smear China right proper, the way they've been planning to all along, but didn't have a mandate to do.
The Chinese clearly instigated this; just think of what they've got to gain. They're looking at four years of Bush - time to push his nose in the dirt now. Bush also scares the Chinese - Cheney, Rumsfeld and Powell are either from or formed by the generation that broke the Soviet Unions back. Better teach the Americans a lesson early on, and dictate terms for the next four years.
I think its a pretty murky situation all around, and the truth is not in the middle of the two alternatives I've presented - but at one end.
Simply put, someone screwed up. Brinksmanship failed here, and one side has found itself backed into a corner that they created and now they don't know how to get out.
It will be interesting to see how this shakes out, but it wouldn't surprise me to see those poor airmen (and women) detained for a long, long time.
So, uhh, is this the first time you've looked at /. in a long, long time?
And while we're at it, how many other firms all together paid Amazon for a license?
Does anyone out there know the terms? It is an annual license fee or lifetime? And how much?
Linux as the underlying OS would be cool but only hard core geeks will buy a PDA for that reason alone..
If they've got Palm OS (optionally) on top, and Linux underneath they've drastically expanded the potential user base.
Remake the original episodes! Identical stories, characters, but with todays special effects.
They wouldn't have to pay writers, and use unknown actors so production costs would be minimal.
Sorta like that remake of Psycho that was done a few years ago by Gus VanSant.
I think you might see slowing sales and penetration into the OS Market, but *thats* been slowing of its own accord as PC shipments decline.
But I don't think M$ ever generated the bulk of its revenue via OS sales - AFAIK, Windows has been mostly a "loss leader".
Once M$ got Windows installed across a firm, great pressure was then exterted to get that company to use the M$ Office suite (as well as other M$ products), and UPGRADE UPGRADE UPGRADE!
What you may see is M$ porting Office and other products to not only Mac OS X but Linux as well.
I'd don't think they can milk the Star Trek franchise any longer - let it die already!
And some of his other projects that never saw the light of day while he was alive - Andromeda or Earth Final Conflict - were pretty damn weak.
Its pretty clear that someone is trying to market the Roddenberry name pothumously.
Don't worry about it - you'll have OS X in about six weeks.
They are going to make it as difficult as possible for you to get the money back. Or make it take as long as possible.
After all, how many folks will not claim the rebate at all, or give up after just oneattempt?
If they can weed out more and more folks at each step, its cheaper for them in the long run.
And rebates are good press!
It seems like shell access is an endangered species, as ISPs prefer lower maintenance web / email only type of accounts.
One of my shell ISPs, panix.com , recently picked up a lot of ex-netcom users once that ISP dropped shell access.
Funny thing is, almost every project I worked on that was classified was documented pretty throughly at some point in Aviation Week and Space Technology, or similar publications.
I thought they wanted to move out of the slowing PC market, and focus on areas where they could capture higher margins?
Boy I sure as hell hope you haven't posted message this from your home or work computer.
This is just damage control; Amazon screwed up and people are pissed.
Given past behaviour, how can you trust them to tell you when they are running their "experiments".