If they can afford to sell them cheaply in Canada, they could afford to sell them just a cheaply in the US.
Actually this is probably not true. While drug companies could sell drugs in the USA for less than they do and still make a profit, they probably couldn't sell drugs long term in the USA for the same prices as they do in Canada. This is because the drug companies rely on massive profits in the US market to fund R&D of future drugs. Since we are talking about drugs whose development is already paid for, it makes sense to sell them for less in Canada as opposed to not selling them there at all, but if they sold everywhere at Canadian prices then the development of new drugs would slow down.
Oddly this is the same reason why it doesn't support Ogg. Apple is concerned that Ogg infringes patents owned by the Fraunhofer Institute and that Apple is a company big enough to be worth suing if they put the technology in the iPod.
They should have gone for 86F/30C as well. Just to see if turning off the air conditioner in a warm climate is worse than not turning up the heater in cold one.
If you had spent a day using (and learning how to use) a good trackpoint you would never make statements like this:
Regarding the usability of trackpoints, I don't personally know anyone who likes them. I'm far from a laptop hardware expert, but when I look at them in stores, the trackpoints seem to be relegated to the craptastic bottom-of-the-barrel models. A trackpoint is basically a really tiny joystick; moving a cursor around the screen with a joystick went out of style in the 80s.
I am sorry if you have only been exposed to cheapo trackpoints. Find someone with the sense to buy a Thinkpad and ask the what they think. Your method of wandering around CompUSA (or Walmart) and noticing that you don't like Toshibas is neither rigorous or impressive.
I don't need an econ lesson from you. I took econ from this guy and I think he taught me pretty well. And yes, I know the definition of profit.
I have stated reasons why Apple won't add a trackpoint, so we on the what, just not the why.
I might be biased, but nearly everyone that I have seen that has had a chance to use a trackpoint for a while prefers it. Some have even bought a keyboard with a trackpoint for their desktops. There are several advantages. One is that your fingers don't have to move from the typing position. Another is that you don't have to do the "lift and drag again" thing to move the cursor from one side of the screen to the other. You are free to disagree, but for an x86 laptop giving the consumer both the trackpoint and the pad is a great idea. The cost is insignificant, possibly less than offering the choice, and you please everyone.
While I do prefer a well implemented Trackpoint (read that as an IBM one not a Dell) to a Trackpad, I think IBM has got it right, with the Ultra-Nav, offering both. That way eveybody gets the same thing, and everybody is happy.
Apple would sooner ship a laptop with two mouse buttons than offer one with two pointing devices. In other words, it will happen over Steve's dead body.
Your reasoning about "tens of thousands of dollars" looks pretty silly when you consider that they have $4 billion in the bank. They spend a lot of money on design and adding another pointing device would be a drop in the bucket. Cost is NOT why they don't do this.
You completely misunderstood my post. I am not the one suggesting that MS port Windows to PowerPC again. I never said that the specs that IBM released were intended as Windows machines. In fact, they were specifically intended to be Linux machines.
You aren't answering the question. The question was about PowerPC hardware. This needn't be Mac hardware. IBM has provided open PowerPC hardware architecture specs that anyone is free to implement. There is probably a bad one-button mouse joke to be made here. I will resist.
Of course the question mentions that this question was asked and answered in the past, when IBM produced PowerPC machines that ran WinNT. Notice that there are no such machines (or OS) being produced anymore. Not enough people found the hardware to be an advantage to make it fly.
I'm going to be intentionally vague here so that I don't have to post as an AC.
About two years ago I was speaking to the developer who had ported Linux to a particular hardware security device. I asked him why he had gone with Linux instead of OpenBSD as his base. He stated that it was his preference to go with OpenBSD, or any of the flavors of BSD, but he went with Linux because the company is publically committed to Linux and Linux has a marketing value that the BSDs do not. It is better to say, "Our gadget now runs Linux! Won't your developers be happy?" than it is to say, "Our gagdet now runs OpenBSD! Won't your developers be happy?"
Basically there are often non-technical reasons for wanting to use Linux even when some other OS would be a better technical fit.
Yeah, I am "still" writing it, in fits and starts. The kids are some neighbor kids just for fun. They think that is neat. I'm glad you enjoyed the games. There is a third one that is more polished, "Ultimate Blaster" linked to from the Anirak site. It is a win32 exe but works under WINE.
How is this insightful? Of course the software cost more than $50 to develop. They probably plan on selling more than one copy before getting sued into oblivion by Apple. For all you know Cherry OS hired a bunch of guys in India to write the thing and it did cost $50. In any case prices are governed by the law of supply and demand and not by you.
You should have assembled in a dorm room. I had a sweet room at the top of the stairs in Yost. Between the loft, the floor, and the balcony you could easily hold 100 people. Then go nuts with your cell phones.
It seems from reading the article that the writer can't distinguish between a contactless smart card and an RFID tag. Too bad, because the distinction makes a big difference.
I am shocked, just SHOCKED that this would happen! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that people buying a Linux machine from Walmart might just go home and put a copy of Windows on it! This is a truely interesting and previously unknown development!
I tend to export both.java and.class files to my jar files. So the source is in the jar.
I am guessing that you own a Mac! Java draws things slightlty differently on a Mac. Drawing a circle is always 1 pixel larger to the right and also down on a Mac. Now that I know this I need to take it into account. I also need someone with a Mac to test it.
I will put a fix up and reply to this your comment.
Why any laptop at all? If you are in range of a base station you should be fine. For a sporting event it is reasonable to assume that SI could set up a private network for downloading photos if needed.
My understanding from my years biking is that only an idiot would wear headphones while riding, especially road riding. It makes you deaf to approaching cars, other cyclists, moose, and feral cats.
In fact, if I remember correctly, there was a minor uproar in the early 1990's when Sony ran an ad in Bicycling magazine with a person wearing headphones while riding. Readers were aghast that Bicycling would even run the ad, and the magazine said that in the future they would not allow depictions of cyclists wearing headphones.
That said, even since I bought a small flash based 512MB mp3 player, I have imagined integrating it into a helmet. Instead of headphones you could have small speakers above the ears. This way you could hear noises around you and still have your tunes without wires. Of course modifying a helmet is a good way to make it useless as a helmet so this would have to be done by Bell or Giro or something.
I will award bonus points if they include a handlebar mounted bluetooth remote. Double bonus for making the current song info appear on a cyclometer.
Do you think that Homestar's beannie was outfitted with an Oakley MP3 player?
Isn't two jillion emails every two jillion seconds just one email per second even if "jillion is not a real unit of measure"? Does that qualify me for the cover of Nerdular Nerdence?
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Actually this is probably not true. While drug companies could sell drugs in the USA for less than they do and still make a profit, they probably couldn't sell drugs long term in the USA for the same prices as they do in Canada. This is because the drug companies rely on massive profits in the US market to fund R&D of future drugs. Since we are talking about drugs whose development is already paid for, it makes sense to sell them for less in Canada as opposed to not selling them there at all, but if they sold everywhere at Canadian prices then the development of new drugs would slow down.
Oddly this is the same reason why it doesn't support Ogg. Apple is concerned that Ogg infringes patents owned by the Fraunhofer Institute and that Apple is a company big enough to be worth suing if they put the technology in the iPod.
What about my thinkpad with a trackpoint?
They should have gone for 86F/30C as well. Just to see if turning off the air conditioner in a warm climate is worse than not turning up the heater in cold one.
Regarding the usability of trackpoints, I don't personally know anyone who likes them. I'm far from a laptop hardware expert, but when I look at them in stores, the trackpoints seem to be relegated to the craptastic bottom-of-the-barrel models. A trackpoint is basically a really tiny joystick; moving a cursor around the screen with a joystick went out of style in the 80s.
I am sorry if you have only been exposed to cheapo trackpoints. Find someone with the sense to buy a Thinkpad and ask the what they think. Your method of wandering around CompUSA (or Walmart) and noticing that you don't like Toshibas is neither rigorous or impressive.
I have stated reasons why Apple won't add a trackpoint, so we on the what, just not the why.
I might be biased, but nearly everyone that I have seen that has had a chance to use a trackpoint for a while prefers it. Some have even bought a keyboard with a trackpoint for their desktops. There are several advantages. One is that your fingers don't have to move from the typing position. Another is that you don't have to do the "lift and drag again" thing to move the cursor from one side of the screen to the other. You are free to disagree, but for an x86 laptop giving the consumer both the trackpoint and the pad is a great idea. The cost is insignificant, possibly less than offering the choice, and you please everyone.
Apple would sooner ship a laptop with two mouse buttons than offer one with two pointing devices. In other words, it will happen over Steve's dead body.
Your reasoning about "tens of thousands of dollars" looks pretty silly when you consider that they have $4 billion in the bank. They spend a lot of money on design and adding another pointing device would be a drop in the bucket. Cost is NOT why they don't do this.
You completely misunderstood my post. I am not the one suggesting that MS port Windows to PowerPC again. I never said that the specs that IBM released were intended as Windows machines. In fact, they were specifically intended to be Linux machines.
Of course the question mentions that this question was asked and answered in the past, when IBM produced PowerPC machines that ran WinNT. Notice that there are no such machines (or OS) being produced anymore. Not enough people found the hardware to be an advantage to make it fly.
About two years ago I was speaking to the developer who had ported Linux to a particular hardware security device. I asked him why he had gone with Linux instead of OpenBSD as his base. He stated that it was his preference to go with OpenBSD, or any of the flavors of BSD, but he went with Linux because the company is publically committed to Linux and Linux has a marketing value that the BSDs do not. It is better to say, "Our gadget now runs Linux! Won't your developers be happy?" than it is to say, "Our gagdet now runs OpenBSD! Won't your developers be happy?"
Basically there are often non-technical reasons for wanting to use Linux even when some other OS would be a better technical fit.
Yeah, I am "still" writing it, in fits and starts. The kids are some neighbor kids just for fun. They think that is neat. I'm glad you enjoyed the games. There is a third one that is more polished, "Ultimate Blaster" linked to from the Anirak site. It is a win32 exe but works under WINE.
How is this insightful? Of course the software cost more than $50 to develop. They probably plan on selling more than one copy before getting sued into oblivion by Apple. For all you know Cherry OS hired a bunch of guys in India to write the thing and it did cost $50. In any case prices are governed by the law of supply and demand and not by you.
and then run your webserver on Windows using ASP for static pages.
You should have assembled in a dorm room. I had a sweet room at the top of the stairs in Yost. Between the loft, the floor, and the balcony you could easily hold 100 people. Then go nuts with your cell phones.
It seems from reading the article that the writer can't distinguish between a contactless smart card and an RFID tag. Too bad, because the distinction makes a big difference.
So you mean let's only discuss Apple? That would make this whole article off-topic.
I am shocked, just SHOCKED that this would happen! Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that people buying a Linux machine from Walmart might just go home and put a copy of Windows on it! This is a truely interesting and previously unknown development!
I have seen Attack of the Giant Brine Shrimp and I can tell you that the brine shrimp does not have a laser.
I am guessing that you own a Mac! Java draws things slightlty differently on a Mac. Drawing a circle is always 1 pixel larger to the right and also down on a Mac. Now that I know this I need to take it into account. I also need someone with a Mac to test it.
I will put a fix up and reply to this your comment.
You mean that having someone sitting next to you keeps you off of /., right?
Why any laptop at all? If you are in range of a base station you should be fine. For a sporting event it is reasonable to assume that SI could set up a private network for downloading photos if needed.
But what about the feral cats? Can you hear them? Didn't think so.
In fact, if I remember correctly, there was a minor uproar in the early 1990's when Sony ran an ad in Bicycling magazine with a person wearing headphones while riding. Readers were aghast that Bicycling would even run the ad, and the magazine said that in the future they would not allow depictions of cyclists wearing headphones.
That said, even since I bought a small flash based 512MB mp3 player, I have imagined integrating it into a helmet. Instead of headphones you could have small speakers above the ears. This way you could hear noises around you and still have your tunes without wires. Of course modifying a helmet is a good way to make it useless as a helmet so this would have to be done by Bell or Giro or something.
I will award bonus points if they include a handlebar mounted bluetooth remote. Double bonus for making the current song info appear on a cyclometer.
Do you think that Homestar's beannie was outfitted with an Oakley MP3 player?
Isn't two jillion emails every two jillion seconds just one email per second even if "jillion is not a real unit of measure"? Does that qualify me for the cover of Nerdular Nerdence?
That is an Authentec fingerprint reader, Synaptics is just OEMing it.