Neither Apple nor Linux is really a big player. I have never seen Linux's desktop user base go much beyond 1%, which makes Apple's 3-5% look big. The server space is a different story, but I expect that this discussion is really about personal devices, not computing in general.
However, Microsoft and Apple are influential, I'm struggling to figure out Linux's level of influence in determining the direction of personal computers and personal electronic devices.
Let's not forget it wasn't long ago that MSFT basically ripped off apple [who rippled off PARC]
If Woz's explanation is correct, no one did any "ripping off" in this case. Apple paid for the rights to various parts of GUI from Xerox, and Microsoft traded rights to Apple II Basic in exchange for the GUI rights to make Windows.
Its technicians like myself who appreciate having an Internet accessible toaster (ok, so its not yet accessible) that have already started the ball rolling.
Why add another point of failure for this? Is it really worth doing this so you can SSH into your toaster? Toasters that I use only tend to break down maybe, well, never. I don't see this as anything other than a problem posing as a solution looking for a problem. I also don't see the value in a toaster having a publicly accessible IP address, unless maybe you want to see what happens when someone DoSs an appliance.
I have a lot of high-tech devices, and even lust after an HD projector, but a high-tech toaster is not something I need, nor want, because the risks and costs far exceed any benefit that I can see.
Combine that with power-over-ethernet (which would be plausible for such a low power device), and you have a really cool toy.:-)
Yes, but do you *honestly* think that your mother would want to deal with buying a PoE injector (which waste power) and installing a wired network hookup? Such a device would fit in well with the other devices at the Computer History Museum, in the "Cool Devices Built Without Real Users In Mind" exhibit.
The battery life is partly because they are using the Ultra Low Volt (ULV) chips, which run at about 1.33GHz at most now, but they take a third the power of the 2.33GHz chips. Intel's ULV chips start with a letter "U", so if you can find the processor model, that's an easy way to tell.
There are several notebooks out there that run 8 to 11 hours, just that they are slower and generally cost more than faster, hotter notebooks that drain their battery in 3 hours.
I think that more battery life was squeezed out by using newer display technologies and better wireless efficiency.
I know it's a joke, but I kind of feel sorry for the suckers that do work overtime at a job. I think a person ends up devaluing their life a lot while working significant overtime. In IT, that basically shows the lie of technology meaning a better life. A few hours here and there is fine, but consistent overtime is stupid.
Market share is an irrelevant game, there's no point in fighting over Walmart customers when the margins may very well be less than 1% and is likely to undercut the rest of their business.
Dell may not have the most unit sales, but it seems like they still make more net profits from personal computers than HP does, and I see no reason to throw it away to get market share through low margin computers. I'm still deciphering the numbers from their quarterly reports though. I wish there was an easier way to do this.
Here's the test: can you go out and form your own company and make more than you are being offered?
That would be a different situation because your career would change from math/science to entrepreneur. It's a different ball game. There are people that do just that and just fail, some do OK, and others make millions, it depends more on their business skills and creative thinking than their degree.
The discussion also ignores the fact that H1B visas help hold down the cost of hiring a particular kind of talent, or at least, that's how it looks to me because rather than making up for the shortfall by hiring with better pay. They'll just push Congress for more visas and import said talent.
Your suggestions look to be highly technocratic to me. Remember, non-nerds have to use this stuff, and the suggestions given here are given by nerds, and only useful for nerds.
There is no inexpensive and hassle-free way to selectively grant and deny based on whether you are a customer.
AllofMP3 was operating on dark grey margins of legality, so it's not as if you are just now starting piracy, you were pretty much supporting such an operation. They stretch the loophole a lot. The licensing clause they are operating under was one that allows for radio over cable TV networks as a broadcast mechanism, not for the sales of music tracks.
I really don't have a problem with PDFs, and I really don't think Acrobat is as bad as you suggest. I don't see why PDFs need a warning. Sometimes I do run into suggestions, there is a PDF reader from Foxit that works pretty well.
I really don't use much by the way of consumer hardware, so the hardware problems you cite really aren't a problem for me.
It's not that simple. I've seen this discussed in other forums, most monitors that are 6-bit are usually not advertised using such stretched language as Apple did. Apple even claims that their displays are higher in quality than can be found in any competing product, which is simply not true.
I don't see that Uranium dependence as an economic liability, Canada and Australia combined produce about half of the world's Uranium.
The problem isn't that though, the problem is storing the waste, no one wants it in their region. The fear of a meltdown and emissions is also tangible, though burning coal actually emits more radiation than TMI ever did. I think the fear is largely misguided, but there is still a risk. The NRC isn't a very good regulatory agency either, it's as if their inspectors really don't grasp the gravity of their duties.
If you mean by the size of the internet being how many bytes you can get to if you want, then that's only half the concern. Getting access to the bytes in a timely manner is another serious concern.
I think that's a fanciful notion. The world is interconnected. Third party compatibility for Microsoft documents still isn't all that great.
Re:What about piracy psycology though?
on
Piracy Economics
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· Score: 1
The problem he is having is getting paid over and over again for work that he did yesterday
For one, I don't think that situation is necessarily a problem because that's an oversimplified explaination. I really don't think the custom sounds market is necessarily an answer. Say a work is worth $100 if it was custom, but it's hard to sell it as custom because of the cost. A person can recoup the effort by selling that work 20x over at $5 a piece, but if the 5th person just makes a copy and puts it out on bittorrent such that the next 15 would-be buyers don't, then there is a problem. I think people are more honest than that, but this a hypothetical situation.
I see arguments that the cost per copy should be close to zero because the marginal cost is zero, but that does absolutely nothing for recouping the initial investment and the above situation discourages the initial investment. In smaller markets, there are fewer buyers to spread those costs over, so it's not as if a seller can just cut costs and expect to make that investment back if it hasn't happened. This is why we do have copyright laws. I do get that we shouldn't have draconian laws or overly long protection, but I don't understand the crowd that basically says that there should never be copyright at all. I don't assign anthropomorphic properties to information because I think it's an absurd phrase.
He can hope all he wants that more stringent laws will make people quit stop sharing, but they won't.
That wasn't mentioned by the original poster, so you are making assumptions that he was doing that. The original point is that piracy doesn't help everyone and shouldn't be justified on that point alone.
Re:Piracy is marker of immature market
on
Piracy Economics
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· Score: 1
That's not the whole story. You can buy knock-off parts, and usually they aren't very good.
Slashdot Mirror
The easy solution is to make one great idea and one good idea.
Neither Apple nor Linux is really a big player. I have never seen Linux's desktop user base go much beyond 1%, which makes Apple's 3-5% look big. The server space is a different story, but I expect that this discussion is really about personal devices, not computing in general.
However, Microsoft and Apple are influential, I'm struggling to figure out Linux's level of influence in determining the direction of personal computers and personal electronic devices.
Let's not forget it wasn't long ago that MSFT basically ripped off apple [who rippled off PARC]
If Woz's explanation is correct, no one did any "ripping off" in this case. Apple paid for the rights to various parts of GUI from Xerox, and Microsoft traded rights to Apple II Basic in exchange for the GUI rights to make Windows.
I agree. It's very handy to have. I keep records of my online bill payments that way too. It might not do away with the formatting problems though.
Its technicians like myself who appreciate having an Internet accessible toaster (ok, so its not yet accessible) that have already started the ball rolling.
Why add another point of failure for this? Is it really worth doing this so you can SSH into your toaster? Toasters that I use only tend to break down maybe, well, never. I don't see this as anything other than a problem posing as a solution looking for a problem. I also don't see the value in a toaster having a publicly accessible IP address, unless maybe you want to see what happens when someone DoSs an appliance.
I have a lot of high-tech devices, and even lust after an HD projector, but a high-tech toaster is not something I need, nor want, because the risks and costs far exceed any benefit that I can see.
Combine that with power-over-ethernet (which would be plausible for such a low power device), and you have a really cool toy. :-)
Yes, but do you *honestly* think that your mother would want to deal with buying a PoE injector (which waste power) and installing a wired network hookup? Such a device would fit in well with the other devices at the Computer History Museum, in the "Cool Devices Built Without Real Users In Mind" exhibit.
I think that's the problem with Slashdot and other sites. Too often, I see suggestions that only make sense within the "bubble" of that site.
The battery life is partly because they are using the Ultra Low Volt (ULV) chips, which run at about 1.33GHz at most now, but they take a third the power of the 2.33GHz chips. Intel's ULV chips start with a letter "U", so if you can find the processor model, that's an easy way to tell.
There are several notebooks out there that run 8 to 11 hours, just that they are slower and generally cost more than faster, hotter notebooks that drain their battery in 3 hours.
I think that more battery life was squeezed out by using newer display technologies and better wireless efficiency.
I know it's a joke, but I kind of feel sorry for the suckers that do work overtime at a job. I think a person ends up devaluing their life a lot while working significant overtime. In IT, that basically shows the lie of technology meaning a better life. A few hours here and there is fine, but consistent overtime is stupid.
Market share is an irrelevant game, there's no point in fighting over Walmart customers when the margins may very well be less than 1% and is likely to undercut the rest of their business.
Dell may not have the most unit sales, but it seems like they still make more net profits from personal computers than HP does, and I see no reason to throw it away to get market share through low margin computers. I'm still deciphering the numbers from their quarterly reports though. I wish there was an easier way to do this.
Here's the test: can you go out and form your own company and make more than you are being offered?
That would be a different situation because your career would change from math/science to entrepreneur. It's a different ball game. There are people that do just that and just fail, some do OK, and others make millions, it depends more on their business skills and creative thinking than their degree.
The discussion also ignores the fact that H1B visas help hold down the cost of hiring a particular kind of talent, or at least, that's how it looks to me because rather than making up for the shortfall by hiring with better pay. They'll just push Congress for more visas and import said talent.
Your suggestions look to be highly technocratic to me. Remember, non-nerds have to use this stuff, and the suggestions given here are given by nerds, and only useful for nerds.
There is no inexpensive and hassle-free way to selectively grant and deny based on whether you are a customer.
AllofMP3 was operating on dark grey margins of legality, so it's not as if you are just now starting piracy, you were pretty much supporting such an operation. They stretch the loophole a lot. The licensing clause they are operating under was one that allows for radio over cable TV networks as a broadcast mechanism, not for the sales of music tracks.
I really don't have a problem with PDFs, and I really don't think Acrobat is as bad as you suggest. I don't see why PDFs need a warning. Sometimes I do run into suggestions, there is a PDF reader from Foxit that works pretty well.
I really don't use much by the way of consumer hardware, so the hardware problems you cite really aren't a problem for me.
My point is that inline spell checking is not that hard.
I find it harder to give an argument credibility when the spelling and grammar isn't up to the eight grade level.
That's true to an extent, but most of the other marketing I see don't stretch the truth as much as Apple's marketing does.
I suppose using spell checking is too much of a "hassel" too.
It's not that simple. I've seen this discussed in other forums, most monitors that are 6-bit are usually not advertised using such stretched language as Apple did. Apple even claims that their displays are higher in quality than can be found in any competing product, which is simply not true.
I don't see that Uranium dependence as an economic liability, Canada and Australia combined produce about half of the world's Uranium.
The problem isn't that though, the problem is storing the waste, no one wants it in their region. The fear of a meltdown and emissions is also tangible, though burning coal actually emits more radiation than TMI ever did. I think the fear is largely misguided, but there is still a risk. The NRC isn't a very good regulatory agency either, it's as if their inspectors really don't grasp the gravity of their duties.
Most WiFi parts I've seen are under 30mW. I do have a few that are 200mW but they are not common.
If you mean by the size of the internet being how many bytes you can get to if you want, then that's only half the concern. Getting access to the bytes in a timely manner is another serious concern.
I don't think those unit numbers are terribly small, but I think maybe their volumes have increased since then.
I think that's a fanciful notion. The world is interconnected. Third party compatibility for Microsoft documents still isn't all that great.
The problem he is having is getting paid over and over again for work that he did yesterday
For one, I don't think that situation is necessarily a problem because that's an oversimplified explaination. I really don't think the custom sounds market is necessarily an answer. Say a work is worth $100 if it was custom, but it's hard to sell it as custom because of the cost. A person can recoup the effort by selling that work 20x over at $5 a piece, but if the 5th person just makes a copy and puts it out on bittorrent such that the next 15 would-be buyers don't, then there is a problem. I think people are more honest than that, but this a hypothetical situation.
I see arguments that the cost per copy should be close to zero because the marginal cost is zero, but that does absolutely nothing for recouping the initial investment and the above situation discourages the initial investment. In smaller markets, there are fewer buyers to spread those costs over, so it's not as if a seller can just cut costs and expect to make that investment back if it hasn't happened. This is why we do have copyright laws. I do get that we shouldn't have draconian laws or overly long protection, but I don't understand the crowd that basically says that there should never be copyright at all. I don't assign anthropomorphic properties to information because I think it's an absurd phrase.
He can hope all he wants that more stringent laws will make people quit stop sharing, but they won't.
That wasn't mentioned by the original poster, so you are making assumptions that he was doing that. The original point is that piracy doesn't help everyone and shouldn't be justified on that point alone.
That's not the whole story. You can buy knock-off parts, and usually they aren't very good.