The Linux-based studio is looming ever closer -- in fact, it's here!"
Great. But why would any pro or semi-pro studio migrate from the ProTools and OS X solution they almost certainly already have?
I think it's great that Linux supports tools powerful enough that they could conceivably be used to run a recording studio, but realistically I don't expect market penetration to be significant.
Imagine a superset of `ant build` that not only compiles your binaries, but also generates your documentation and install and test everything you need to run your application out-of-the-box in a single step.
Should I trick elderly people into signing their life's savings over to me? That's a scam too, same thing.
Horrible analogy.
It can be assumed that an elderly person does not possess the facilities to practice due diligence -- they can't be reasonable expected to understand what it is that they're agreeing to. Such a contract would be null and void, and would indeed constitute fraud.
Unless you're arguing that Apple's legal acuity was so bad as to have been absent (and if it were, we would have seen a lawsuit from their shareholders for negligence), it's NOT the same thing.
Apple made a bad, but completely honest, business decision. If they thought they were being scammed, they would not have signed the contract. And they had the resources to reasonably have known whether or not they were being scammed.
Musicians used to write for the love of writing and they performed for the love of performance, they were Artists.
When was this... the 14th century?
Britney Spears doesn't perform purely because of her love of music. But neither did Madonna, Pavarotti, the Beatles, Gene Krupa, Scott Joplin, Wagner, Beethoven, or Vivaldi. The goal of even the most philanthropic musician has always been to make at least enough money to support their next endeavor.
You've never met kids who've gone through the D.A.R.E. program. They tell all kinds or horrific lies about drugs. Crap like pot will turn you into a heroin junkie.
Yes, I've met those kids. I was one of them, actually.
And then I went to college and, like most people that age, learned that smoking dope or doing 'shrooms every once in a while doesn't cause lethal overdoses, or make you insane, or ruin your life.
D.A.R.E. may indeed be exaggerating the dangers of many drugs, but it's not as though kids believe what they're taught forever.
Microsoft's arrangement with Apple more directly resembles contract theft.
Apple shouldn't have signed the contract, then.
I don't understand why you're lambasting Microsoft (even accusing them of "theft") when as far as I can tell they acted entirely in accordance with the law.
Hopefully what you learned today is that people on Slashdot, who may know a lot about computers or science fiction, may not necessarily know anything about other subjects, such as the media.
I work in the media industry, so I can say with a lot more surety than you that advertising revenue is far from sufficient to cover the costs of producing and distributing content -- this is true for both print and online.
I don't understand the logic behind charging to read news articles online
It's a pretty simple system, actually:
1) Articles cost money to write 2) Websites cost money to run 3) Businesses want to take in more money than they spend 4) Charging to read news articles online can offset the costs of writing the articles and running the website.
This is what Bill Gates really succeeded at: making computers easy enough for the masses to use.
I'm going to assume that you're talking about Apple BASIC here... only a fool or a Microserf would give Gates and Windows the credit for making computers usable by regular people.
I don't mind getting up from my couch to swap media once every hour or two. Is it really THAT onerous not to have your entire DVD collection available in a way that requires no physical effort?
What possible reason would Microsoft [...] care about it [DRM]? Seriously. They don't produce movies. They don't produce music.
No, but they would like to establish themselves as a distribution channel for movies and music. If MSN promises the movie studios and record labels that their content can't get copied and redistributed if it's served through them, then the studios and labels are going to choose MSN for their online distribution efforts (that's the theory, anyway).
The content producers want DRM to get money from you. Microsoft wants DRM to get money from the content producers.
Dell Japan offers TV tuners for their desktops only in Japan.
Well, I wouldn't expect Dell Japan to sell TV tuners in the United States.
Dell USA does, though -- they have a line of Windows Media Center PCs.
While we're on the subject of japanese notebooks, the US notebooks suck in terms of case design and overall size/weight.
US notebooks are designed to meet a different set of requirements than those sold in Japan. For instance, more of us in America have our own cars -- traveling with a big heavy laptop is not as much of a concern for many of us, because the car often does the work of bearing the weight, instead of our shoulders. Because minimizing weight and form factor are thusly a lower priority, more attention can be given to other concerns such as durability and battery life.
A laptop screen (or a desktop screen, for that matter) that is wider than it is tall fits in our field of vision better than on that is taller.
Yes, but if you lay out text so that it spans your entire field of vision, your eyes will tire quickly from scanning back and forth. It's not a coincidence that the vast majority of printed material from the past several thousand years is presented in "portrait mode", usually in columns with a width of roughly three to ten inches.
This doesn't preclude the usefulness of widescreen displays on notebooks and other computers, as you mention -- you can set up two document pages side-by-side and either page will be easy to read.
it's preventing themselves from having to answer support calls from paying customers who are wondering why it isn't working.
It's also preventing them from having as many paying customers as possible. Which is stupid.
Why not just design your site in a way that doesn't crash browsers that aren't IE?
(Of course, being that I have no idea what Oddpost is, and the story submission doesn't explain it anywhere, that may not be possible. What does Oddpost do, anyway?)
Think about it -- how many computers do you use every day? You've got a workstation at work, maybe two, a desktop and probably a notebook of your own, plus a percentage of all the other servers at work you connect to.
And then there's your PDA -- that's a computer -- and your cell phone, your TiVo, two or three gaming consoles. One person can account for ten computers without much difficulty, making it irrelevant if 9 out of 10 people in the world have never even touched a computer.
Slashdot Mirror
Anyway Pocket PC viruses are going to be rarer than one for Macs ...
And Apple Newton viruses are going to be even rarer than THAT!
(and now, someone will reply with an obligatory Newton handwriting-recognition joke.)
The Linux-based studio is looming ever closer -- in fact, it's here!"
Great. But why would any pro or semi-pro studio migrate from the ProTools and OS X solution they almost certainly already have?
I think it's great that Linux supports tools powerful enough that they could conceivably be used to run a recording studio, but realistically I don't expect market penetration to be significant.
I still don't know what it is :(
Imagine a superset of `ant build` that not only compiles your binaries, but also generates your documentation and install and test everything you need to run your application out-of-the-box in a single step.
Should I trick elderly people into signing their life's savings over to me? That's a scam too, same thing.
Horrible analogy.
It can be assumed that an elderly person does not possess the facilities to practice due diligence -- they can't be reasonable expected to understand what it is that they're agreeing to. Such a contract would be null and void, and would indeed constitute fraud.
Unless you're arguing that Apple's legal acuity was so bad as to have been absent (and if it were, we would have seen a lawsuit from their shareholders for negligence), it's NOT the same thing.
Apple made a bad, but completely honest, business decision. If they thought they were being scammed, they would not have signed the contract. And they had the resources to reasonably have known whether or not they were being scammed.
Musicians used to write for the love of writing and they performed for the love of performance, they were Artists.
When was this... the 14th century?
Britney Spears doesn't perform purely because of her love of music. But neither did Madonna, Pavarotti, the Beatles, Gene Krupa, Scott Joplin, Wagner, Beethoven, or Vivaldi. The goal of even the most philanthropic musician has always been to make at least enough money to support their next endeavor.
You've never met kids who've gone through the D.A.R.E. program. They tell all kinds or horrific lies about drugs. Crap like pot will turn you into a heroin junkie.
Yes, I've met those kids. I was one of them, actually.
And then I went to college and, like most people that age, learned that smoking dope or doing 'shrooms every once in a while doesn't cause lethal overdoses, or make you insane, or ruin your life.
D.A.R.E. may indeed be exaggerating the dangers of many drugs, but it's not as though kids believe what they're taught forever.
The students were not malicious, simply self-serving.
Look, all I wanted to do was take your car stereo. I didn't want to have to smash your window to get to it, but I had no other choice.
What? No, don't call the cops, I wasn't being malicious, simply self-serving!
Of course, in this case they were researching for an article for the university paper.
Note to self: next time I do some blackhat network hacking, claim that I'm just doing research for an article.
Japanese Government:
"You round eye henna gaijin who dances badly, all your base are belong to us. Prepare to die."
Ahahaha, subtle racism, the best way to get modded +5 Funny. I'm laffin' a lot.
Microsoft's arrangement with Apple more directly resembles contract theft.
Apple shouldn't have signed the contract, then.
I don't understand why you're lambasting Microsoft (even accusing them of "theft") when as far as I can tell they acted entirely in accordance with the law.
Microsoft, on the other hand, licenced nothing and had access to Apple source code when developing the original Word application.
Yep, and Torvalds had licensed nothing and had access to SCO source code when developing the original Linux kernel.
Speculate much?
Hopefully what you learned today is that people on Slashdot, who may know a lot about computers or science fiction, may not necessarily know anything about other subjects, such as the media.
I work in the media industry, so I can say with a lot more surety than you that advertising revenue is far from sufficient to cover the costs of producing and distributing content -- this is true for both print and online.
I don't understand the logic behind charging to read news articles online
It's a pretty simple system, actually:
1) Articles cost money to write
2) Websites cost money to run
3) Businesses want to take in more money than they spend
4) Charging to read news articles online can offset the costs of writing the articles and running the website.
Logical, yes?
The NYT's has a history of slanting and even making up its news.
But then again, so does every other newspaper or other media outlet in the history of communication. You do know that, don't you?
So what makes the Times so different?
You'll be able to take the monitor (via built in handle) to your couch and surf wirelessly.
Don't computer displays usually require power?
This is what Bill Gates really succeeded at: making computers easy enough for the masses to use.
I'm going to assume that you're talking about Apple BASIC here... only a fool or a Microserf would give Gates and Windows the credit for making computers usable by regular people.
Yes, if software is too hard to use, it's the USER'S fault, for being "too dumb to keep on living."
You're not helping with that attitude.
Who wants to muck about with discs?
I don't mind getting up from my couch to swap media once every hour or two. Is it really THAT onerous not to have your entire DVD collection available in a way that requires no physical effort?
What possible reason would Microsoft [...] care about it [DRM]? Seriously. They don't produce movies. They don't produce music.
No, but they would like to establish themselves as a distribution channel for movies and music. If MSN promises the movie studios and record labels that their content can't get copied and redistributed if it's served through them, then the studios and labels are going to choose MSN for their online distribution efforts (that's the theory, anyway).
The content producers want DRM to get money from you. Microsoft wants DRM to get money from the content producers.
Dell Japan offers TV tuners for their desktops only in Japan.
Well, I wouldn't expect Dell Japan to sell TV tuners in the United States.
Dell USA does, though -- they have a line of Windows Media Center PCs.
While we're on the subject of japanese notebooks, the US notebooks suck in terms of case design and overall size/weight.
US notebooks are designed to meet a different set of requirements than those sold in Japan. For instance, more of us in America have our own cars -- traveling with a big heavy laptop is not as much of a concern for many of us, because the car often does the work of bearing the weight, instead of our shoulders. Because minimizing weight and form factor are thusly a lower priority, more attention can be given to other concerns such as durability and battery life.
A laptop screen (or a desktop screen, for that matter) that is wider than it is tall fits in our field of vision better than on that is taller.
Yes, but if you lay out text so that it spans your entire field of vision, your eyes will tire quickly from scanning back and forth. It's not a coincidence that the vast majority of printed material from the past several thousand years is presented in "portrait mode", usually in columns with a width of roughly three to ten inches.
This doesn't preclude the usefulness of widescreen displays on notebooks and other computers, as you mention -- you can set up two document pages side-by-side and either page will be easy to read.
it's preventing themselves from having to answer support calls from paying customers who are wondering why it isn't working.
It's also preventing them from having as many paying customers as possible. Which is stupid.
Why not just design your site in a way that doesn't crash browsers that aren't IE?
(Of course, being that I have no idea what Oddpost is, and the story submission doesn't explain it anywhere, that may not be possible. What does Oddpost do, anyway?)
How come you guys are just sitting on your hands hoping the media picks it up instead of pooling your money together and getting a commercial on TV?
Because it's the media's job to disseminate important information, not ours. Do you have any idea how much it costs to run a commercial on network TV?
Think about it -- how many computers do you use every day? You've got a workstation at work, maybe two, a desktop and probably a notebook of your own, plus a percentage of all the other servers at work you connect to.
And then there's your PDA -- that's a computer -- and your cell phone, your TiVo, two or three gaming consoles. One person can account for ten computers without much difficulty, making it irrelevant if 9 out of 10 people in the world have never even touched a computer.
When your market share is 96% it is difficult to be too optimistic about growth.
Actually, it's really easy to be overly optimistic; what it isn't is smart.