This is a symptom of the down economy, but also of the must-make-earnings-or-else management style.
PHB's don't see design and development as needing different skillets, they just see two jobs that can be consolidated into one. If you have a programmer who does a B+ job programming and a C- job on design, eliminate the design, produce a C+ product, and then go tell your C*O you eliminated positions without impacting productivity.
Amongst its weaponry are such diverse elements as fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to financial windfall in the form of large government grants
I have been thinking this was the main issue. How will an expensive 3D TV set improve most of my TV watching? It won't really enhance news, informational, sitcom kinds of shows. Some dramas and movies, perhaps. Sports and action-type programming, sure.
I think most people shrug at 3DTV because, who needs it?
Especially as expensive as it currently is, and since most cable operators are probably going to charge extra for it (and most are already paying extra for HD capability). This isn't a boom time, economically speaking, to be asking people to upgrade all their equipment.
I don't think most people see the benefits as being worth the expense.
Mango, last holiday season, was supposed to take WP7 and make it really good. I'm not sure if it has - I have never used one of their phones. By most accounts they have a pretty decent product, but no way into a market that isn't very interested in another mobile OS.
Are you certain about that? I would think that for a phone to be GSM and CDMA it would need to have hardware for both on board... doesn't seem like a very cost effective way to manufacture. Interesting...
I like Android, I think it's good, I've been using it for the past year. I used an iPhone for the previous year or so.
I don't think there is any question that on things like graphics and UI issues, iOS is more polished. Apple is very good at the user experience.
Android is a good balance. My android phone has more options, more customizability. I used a Blackberry before this, and it really took the cake on options/customizability (to the point of confusion, often).
Android has strengths and weaknesses, polish is one of the weaknesses.
Well, you can't blame HP for trying. If the folks at Facebook think the masses will clammor for a Facebook phone when the mobile market is already saturated, maybe they'd take the bait on acquiring WebOS, something that is more or less device-ready and which they could own themselves?
Owning an OS puts them on the same footing as Android - not as advantageous as Apple who owns the OS and the device, but it would be a step up from licensing a phone to customize for your app. Facebook today is still just an app.
I think with Hollywood you're dealing with a corporation, investors, and people who want guaranteed returns. They want to make a certain number of risky films a year just because they are the high risk/high reward types, but mostly they want sure things. The big hit holiday kid movie. Big silly high-grossing action movies.
Movie studios are essentially managing a portfolio, with the right mix of risks and yield investments.
We the consumers need to make them adapt if we want to see better films - don't pay for the cash cows, the celluloid cheetos. See the risky movies, the original ideas.
I don't understand the constant Slashdot slurring against MBAs. Yes, I have one. But MBA means you can't use Google now? It means you can't understand anything related to IT in any form? Why do slashdotters use MBA as an interchangeable term for "idiot"?
They drive down the cost of accessories by offering a product that works just as well as the other brands but is more reasonably priced.
As a consumer, it makes no difference to me if an obvious design is "copied". What I really want is a piece of plastic molded to certain dimensions, without paying $40 like Marware demanded for their Fire case, something that undoubtedly cost less than $1 to make.
Amazon has actually done a service to consumers by offering their Amazon Basics line of... stuff. Cases for their devices, as well as general computer/home theatre cables at reasonable prices in basic packaging. They are the best option for an HDMI cable or a Micro USB cable, for example.
I'm sure brick and mortars don't like them for driving down costs for consumers, and I'm sure these accessory makers don't like Amazon driving down the overinflated cost of accessories. (I bought a Kindle Fire case from Marware that they sold for $30 - it wasn't even worth $5)
I don't see what about "crushing competition and stealing the best ideas from its partners" is in play here. Slashdot always seems to feel that you shouldn't be able to patent things that are obvious - like a Kindle case.
I'll be amazed if there is actually any smoke to this fire - personally.
The carriers' defense against that is "early upgrades" are available 18 months into your 24 month contract. (AT&T openly advertises this on the website you sign into in order to pay your bill)
Most of the people you refer to will take the "early upgrade" (with a new 2-year commitment) at 18 months, rather than wait 6 more months to switch to a competitor. Thus, they never allow the customer to hit the open market, at least not without an early termination fee.
It's possible but unlikely. The Android phone business model guarantees that updates will be a mess. Putting Android updates on older phones decreases the likelihood that people will buy new phones, and it costs them support and engineering to put out an update.
Yes - the only reason to invest development time is to create revenue, and it's pretty hard to draw a straight line between a phone update and revenue - beyond generating loyalty from 1%ers like Slashdotters.
If all the glaring bugs and defects are fixed, the kinds of things that make the average subscriber say "this stupid phone" "my phone sucks" and switch carriers, then why would SprATTVerizonMobile invest expensive development hours in a handset, particularly after that handset is no longer being sold?
The carriers are wise to invest development hours in getting the very latest versions of Android on the very newest handsets only. This can be advertised and drive revenue.
It's an inherent weakness in the fragmented Android platform.
My guess is that no one who has an interest in moving this cheap chinese hardcrap inventory is not laughing. This guy irreparably damaged sales and the brand image.
The question is, what is a "Fender". Guitars are not complicated things... there are plenty of companies out there making strat clones - solid body guitars with three single coil pickups, a five way selector, with the same body shape and constructed from the same materials. They don't really have a copyright they are clubbing people with. There are lots of Nothingcasters hanging up in music stores today.
More than this... there's not really any mystery involved in how guitar pickups work. They can be wound different ways, different components such as the magnets may be used... but I'm having a hard time understanding, from TFA, what we are endeavoring to do here.
The manufacturing process for guitars is pretty commonly understood. Some companies use different woods, some use different bracing in acoustics, but... the evil in patents doesn't seem to apply here. There's not a whole lot of squelch going on in the guitar industry by patent concerns. You'll hear of a model in the past being nixed in court because too much aesthetic resemblance to another brand's competing model, but the factors that contribute to sound character are well known. Anyone can build a solid body guitar with an alder body and a maple neck. Anyone can build an acoustic out of rosewod, spruce, etc. What makes a great guitar sound great is obvious.
Some main reason high quality guitars are expensive are brand loyalty, brand recognition being important to buyers, and the fact that the higher end of the market wants an instrument that's hand made in the United States with high end materials. But this is one industry where those making the highest quality really are winning.
The size of the market and the specific demands of production cause this market to self regulate.
I don't think tethering costing a few extra dollars is unreasonable when you consider that if it didn't, people would choke their network with all their pirate bay and netflix traffic
Slashdot Mirror
This is a symptom of the down economy, but also of the must-make-earnings-or-else management style.
PHB's don't see design and development as needing different skillets, they just see two jobs that can be consolidated into one. If you have a programmer who does a B+ job programming and a C- job on design, eliminate the design, produce a C+ product, and then go tell your C*O you eliminated positions without impacting productivity.
No one predicts manbearpig!
Amongst its weaponry are such diverse elements as fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to financial windfall in the form of large government grants
Avatar seemed very well done in 3D, at least with better effects than anything before or since. The problems with Avatar were two:
1. As a film, Avatar just wasn't very good.
2. It's all CGI anyway. A live action film with 3D use so effective would be much more impressive.
I have been thinking this was the main issue. How will an expensive 3D TV set improve most of my TV watching? It won't really enhance news, informational, sitcom kinds of shows. Some dramas and movies, perhaps. Sports and action-type programming, sure.
I think most people shrug at 3DTV because, who needs it?
Especially as expensive as it currently is, and since most cable operators are probably going to charge extra for it (and most are already paying extra for HD capability). This isn't a boom time, economically speaking, to be asking people to upgrade all their equipment.
I don't think most people see the benefits as being worth the expense.
Mango, last holiday season, was supposed to take WP7 and make it really good. I'm not sure if it has - I have never used one of their phones. By most accounts they have a pretty decent product, but no way into a market that isn't very interested in another mobile OS.
Are you certain about that? I would think that for a phone to be GSM and CDMA it would need to have hardware for both on board... doesn't seem like a very cost effective way to manufacture. Interesting...
I like Android, I think it's good, I've been using it for the past year. I used an iPhone for the previous year or so.
I don't think there is any question that on things like graphics and UI issues, iOS is more polished. Apple is very good at the user experience.
Android is a good balance. My android phone has more options, more customizability. I used a Blackberry before this, and it really took the cake on options/customizability (to the point of confusion, often).
Android has strengths and weaknesses, polish is one of the weaknesses.
Well, you can't blame HP for trying. If the folks at Facebook think the masses will clammor for a Facebook phone when the mobile market is already saturated, maybe they'd take the bait on acquiring WebOS, something that is more or less device-ready and which they could own themselves?
Owning an OS puts them on the same footing as Android - not as advantageous as Apple who owns the OS and the device, but it would be a step up from licensing a phone to customize for your app. Facebook today is still just an app.
I think with Hollywood you're dealing with a corporation, investors, and people who want guaranteed returns. They want to make a certain number of risky films a year just because they are the high risk/high reward types, but mostly they want sure things. The big hit holiday kid movie. Big silly high-grossing action movies.
Movie studios are essentially managing a portfolio, with the right mix of risks and yield investments.
We the consumers need to make them adapt if we want to see better films - don't pay for the cash cows, the celluloid cheetos. See the risky movies, the original ideas.
I don't understand the constant Slashdot slurring against MBAs. Yes, I have one. But MBA means you can't use Google now? It means you can't understand anything related to IT in any form? Why do slashdotters use MBA as an interchangeable term for "idiot"?
They drive down the cost of accessories by offering a product that works just as well as the other brands but is more reasonably priced.
As a consumer, it makes no difference to me if an obvious design is "copied". What I really want is a piece of plastic molded to certain dimensions, without paying $40 like Marware demanded for their Fire case, something that undoubtedly cost less than $1 to make.
Weasel words in a /. summary... say it ain't so :)
Amazon has actually done a service to consumers by offering their Amazon Basics line of... stuff. Cases for their devices, as well as general computer/home theatre cables at reasonable prices in basic packaging. They are the best option for an HDMI cable or a Micro USB cable, for example.
I'm sure brick and mortars don't like them for driving down costs for consumers, and I'm sure these accessory makers don't like Amazon driving down the overinflated cost of accessories. (I bought a Kindle Fire case from Marware that they sold for $30 - it wasn't even worth $5)
I don't see what about "crushing competition and stealing the best ideas from its partners" is in play here. Slashdot always seems to feel that you shouldn't be able to patent things that are obvious - like a Kindle case.
I'll be amazed if there is actually any smoke to this fire - personally.
I'm not saying you didn't hear that iOS5 is horrible on the 3GS, but I have heard the opposite - that it actually works very well.
The carriers' defense against that is "early upgrades" are available 18 months into your 24 month contract. (AT&T openly advertises this on the website you sign into in order to pay your bill)
Most of the people you refer to will take the "early upgrade" (with a new 2-year commitment) at 18 months, rather than wait 6 more months to switch to a competitor. Thus, they never allow the customer to hit the open market, at least not without an early termination fee.
It's possible but unlikely. The Android phone business model guarantees that updates will be a mess. Putting Android updates on older phones decreases the likelihood that people will buy new phones, and it costs them support and engineering to put out an update.
Yes - the only reason to invest development time is to create revenue, and it's pretty hard to draw a straight line between a phone update and revenue - beyond generating loyalty from 1%ers like Slashdotters.
If all the glaring bugs and defects are fixed, the kinds of things that make the average subscriber say "this stupid phone" "my phone sucks" and switch carriers, then why would SprATTVerizonMobile invest expensive development hours in a handset, particularly after that handset is no longer being sold?
The carriers are wise to invest development hours in getting the very latest versions of Android on the very newest handsets only. This can be advertised and drive revenue.
It's an inherent weakness in the fragmented Android platform.
He does seem like the blowhard/BSer/sales/marketing type, but there's a big difference between being Full of S--t and being a S--thead
Damn.. double negatives... but "I love the PR! LOL! " ...
My guess is that no one who has an interest in moving this cheap chinese hardcrap inventory is not laughing. This guy irreparably damaged sales and the brand image.
Another problem is that it's trivial to lock someone out by intentionally missing the password more than the allowed number of times.
Moreover, if you're running a 5 year old version of a computer, maybe a 5 year old version of KDE would be a better comparison...?
Might be time to put the ol' Packard Bell running Win 98 SE out to pasture. ;)
The question is, what is a "Fender". Guitars are not complicated things... there are plenty of companies out there making strat clones - solid body guitars with three single coil pickups, a five way selector, with the same body shape and constructed from the same materials. They don't really have a copyright they are clubbing people with. There are lots of Nothingcasters hanging up in music stores today.
More than this... there's not really any mystery involved in how guitar pickups work. They can be wound different ways, different components such as the magnets may be used... but I'm having a hard time understanding, from TFA, what we are endeavoring to do here.
The manufacturing process for guitars is pretty commonly understood. Some companies use different woods, some use different bracing in acoustics, but... the evil in patents doesn't seem to apply here. There's not a whole lot of squelch going on in the guitar industry by patent concerns. You'll hear of a model in the past being nixed in court because too much aesthetic resemblance to another brand's competing model, but the factors that contribute to sound character are well known. Anyone can build a solid body guitar with an alder body and a maple neck. Anyone can build an acoustic out of rosewod, spruce, etc. What makes a great guitar sound great is obvious.
Some main reason high quality guitars are expensive are brand loyalty, brand recognition being important to buyers, and the fact that the higher end of the market wants an instrument that's hand made in the United States with high end materials. But this is one industry where those making the highest quality really are winning.
The size of the market and the specific demands of production cause this market to self regulate.
Unlimited data from your handset.
I don't think tethering costing a few extra dollars is unreasonable when you consider that if it didn't, people would choke their network with all their pirate bay and netflix traffic