I won't bow down to Apple, but thanks for asking me to.
It's not their fault that the carrier business is what it is. It's not my fault that the only way to afford an iPhone is through a carrier subsidy on the cheapest possible plan.
It is Apple's fault that they are banning content. As a consequence of this, millions of people on contracts have no recourse aside from taking on onerous fees to extricate themselves. Given this reality, Apple should give up trying to regulate morality. They're not like a grocer, sorry. I'm not locked into a contract with my grocer. I can walk accross the street to another grocer and I didn't have to pay $800 for an unlocked shopping cart for the privilege. There's no friction in (most) normal retail that makes this kind of thing an issue (most of the time). In the handset/carrier arena it's a different matter.
The only option for locked in customers is to bitch each and every time Apple does this until the stink forces them to change their idiot policies. Yay. Success. Now onto the next ban scandal.
Good point. And when my 3 year contract is up, I'll definitely factor whether Apple has changed their tune and choose a different platform if they haven't. In the meantime, the only response is pressure, heat, and mockery. Lying down and saying "Oh well, they have the right to do whatever they want" is idiotic.
Great. In the meantime, Apple customers are stuck in 3 year contracts with an Apple iPhone, feeding Apple and their carriers thousands of dollars.
They can spend the time contemplating the virtues of the Free Market System, while they are locked out of purchasing perfectly legal software, music, books and videos. Or, they can drop their $300 phone and pay a $600 penalty and switch to another platform. Mind you, there's no telling how capricious that vendor/carrier will be with their policies.
Sorry, but they need to get burned every time they pull one of these maneuvers. It's the only way to make Apple stop. They're control freaks. They need to be taught controlling hardware and OS software is one thing. Controlling content and morals is not their job.
Geez. It's like people are afraid of hurting Job's feelings or something.
Neither can Apple. If you don't like their policies: Jailbreak your iPhone or craigslist it and get a more open handset.
Oi. Here's an easier solution: Complain loudly about their fool policies so that they change them. That way you don't have to throw away your $300 phone and pay a $600 penalty for switching carriers or void your warranty.
The mobile phone industry isn't like a physical store. You can't walk across the street to a competing store.
This is different to Walmart deciding not to carry content its store owners find objectionable, how?
Apple can say "no penises on the store, even comic ones" just like network TV can say "no swearing before 9pm" or a store can say "we'll carry all of your products except that flavoured lube you make, it just doesn't fit with our image".
Sure. They have the right. And we have both the right and the duty to mock them when they do. If we don't, all publishers will turn into Disneylands. That would be a bad thing, BTW.
Just cause they're a corp and they have the right doesn't mean they should--and it sure as fuck doesn't mean we should shrug and let them get away with it. If they're gonna be moral gatekeepers for millions and millions of people they need to be accountable. Not to their idiot pandering gormless shareholders, but to their audience.
Ask Jeeves fails if you simply substitute one word:
How many bones are in the parrot's body
The reason? It doesn't actually know anything.
If you RTFA, you'll see that something entirely different is being discussed here. Alpha is supposed to actually answer the question because it knows a lot of facts, not because it's been programmed to look for certain phrases and respond with certain strings of text.
Man, for once I read TFA and what do I get? A barely coherent, unedited swamp of words. Did anyone else find this article a slog to read?
Palm's buyer (and a secure feature for the Touchdown) was secured in a surprising way. During product development, Donna, Jeff and Ed were traveling the country promoting the Touchdown as the platform of choice for hardware and sofware developers.
It's never explained what Touchdown is. It's never explained what the "secure feature" is. I'm assuming Touchdown is the orginal name for what was to become the Pilot. But I don't really know. The word is just used suddenlty out without preamble, as if it had been previously introduced.
How about the following:
A simple benchmark of the efficiency or inefficiency of was to count the number of taps to create an appointment or add an entry to the adress book. This required that all of the most used features be easily accessible, not buried behind menus or in dialog boxes. This concept of ease of use had eluded many of the early PDA's.
Perhaps it's just me, but the whole article read like the above excerpt.
Another reviewer, in Macworld, found that his 'typing' speed on the Newton was "up to 20 words per minute at 0 to 95 percent accuracy."
Really? Zero to 95% accuracy? That's pretty, uh, fucking awful. Somehow I doubt that's what Macword published.
It took ten to fifteen seconds to boot up and to switch between applications, seriosuly hampering its usefulness as a serious business tool.
Wow, spelling mistake and redundancy in the same sentence.
A paper planner was much smaller and allowed the user to see his or her entire day. Little quirks like this also turned off business users.
See how the second sentence here should not follow the first? It should have followed the sentence preceeded the excerpt. This kind of construction left me rereading the same few lines several times over.
A few major candidates were considered (Motorola, Compaq and Nokia), but none of the comapnies were willing to give Palm control...
From the Sony Bravia EULA in the not-too-distant future...
By turning on this television, you hereby agree that television shows ("CONTENT") are paid for by advertising and that avoiding advertising is morally wrong. Fast forwarding, skipping of commercials using technology (PVRs, Tape Recording Devices, Time Machines) is prohibited. Talking to your loved ones during commericials is illegal. Going to the washroom during a commercial is stealing. You hereby agree not avert your eyes or plug your ears during commercial breaks. Deaf and/or dumb people found to be in proximity of this television set while it is turned on will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
What I want to know is, how fat a pipe do you need to survive a slashdotting, given that your server structure is viable? Will a 10mbps pipe keep the barbarians from trampling the gate?
I love downloadable music because I can quickly find those songs I once heard at a friend's party 15 years ago. You just can't find the Crucifucks at HMV.
But what about those songs that are just too subtle to like the first time you hear them, but grow on you? I hated the Police's Behind My Camel the first dozen times I heard it. Now, I'll never again listen to crap like "Do do do do, da da da da", but there are a few gems on Zenyatta Mondatta, an otherwise terrible LP, that I quite dig. Only because I was forced to buy the whole thing.
In a download-only universe, I'd have been a teenager downloading only the hits. A year later I'd no longer be listening to the hits, because they were facile crap that doesn't hold me. I'd also not be listening to the cool stuff in between.
Music is already ridiculously hit-driven. But at least there's space for artists to slip an interesting song on a CD here and there. I don't think there's going to be much of that in a download-only universe.
It seems the researchers at Pinko U finally realize that routers have always been programmed using the enlightened-self-interest model of bandwidth utilization. It's time to shut them down.
The last thing we need is lazy, welfare dependant internet backbones sitting around all day watching The Dukes of Hazzard and drinking Lite Beer. If the altruists win this round, AOL transforms from the gated-suburb of the internet into the "Projects". Aren't we taxed enough?
Actually, Apple hasn't dropped their prices right before Christmas since about 1996. These days, they'll toss in a rebate on a bundle, but not a price cut.
Slashdot Mirror
"Think of it like the difference between quitting smoking with the patch and dead turkey." As God is my witness, Andy, I thought turkeys could fly.
They forgot the Beware the Leopard sign.
Dish towel and a large ziplock bag. You're welcome.
I won't bow down to Apple, but thanks for asking me to.
It's not their fault that the carrier business is what it is. It's not my fault that the only way to afford an iPhone is through a carrier subsidy on the cheapest possible plan.
It is Apple's fault that they are banning content. As a consequence of this, millions of people on contracts have no recourse aside from taking on onerous fees to extricate themselves. Given this reality, Apple should give up trying to regulate morality. They're not like a grocer, sorry. I'm not locked into a contract with my grocer. I can walk accross the street to another grocer and I didn't have to pay $800 for an unlocked shopping cart for the privilege. There's no friction in (most) normal retail that makes this kind of thing an issue (most of the time). In the handset/carrier arena it's a different matter.
The only option for locked in customers is to bitch each and every time Apple does this until the stink forces them to change their idiot policies. Yay. Success. Now onto the next ban scandal.
Sigh. Yes. When your 3 year contract is up.
Good point. And when my 3 year contract is up, I'll definitely factor whether Apple has changed their tune and choose a different platform if they haven't. In the meantime, the only response is pressure, heat, and mockery. Lying down and saying "Oh well, they have the right to do whatever they want" is idiotic.
Great. In the meantime, Apple customers are stuck in 3 year contracts with an Apple iPhone, feeding Apple and their carriers thousands of dollars.
They can spend the time contemplating the virtues of the Free Market System, while they are locked out of purchasing perfectly legal software, music, books and videos. Or, they can drop their $300 phone and pay a $600 penalty and switch to another platform. Mind you, there's no telling how capricious that vendor/carrier will be with their policies.
Sorry, but they need to get burned every time they pull one of these maneuvers. It's the only way to make Apple stop. They're control freaks. They need to be taught controlling hardware and OS software is one thing. Controlling content and morals is not their job.
Geez. It's like people are afraid of hurting Job's feelings or something.
Neither can Apple. If you don't like their policies: Jailbreak your iPhone or craigslist it and get a more open handset.
Oi. Here's an easier solution: Complain loudly about their fool policies so that they change them. That way you don't have to throw away your $300 phone and pay a $600 penalty for switching carriers or void your warranty.
The mobile phone industry isn't like a physical store. You can't walk across the street to a competing store.
This is different to Walmart deciding not to carry content its store owners find objectionable, how?
Apple can say "no penises on the store, even comic ones" just like network TV can say "no swearing before 9pm" or a store can say "we'll carry all of your products except that flavoured lube you make, it just doesn't fit with our image".
Sure. They have the right. And we have both the right and the duty to mock them when they do. If we don't, all publishers will turn into Disneylands. That would be a bad thing, BTW.
Just cause they're a corp and they have the right doesn't mean they should--and it sure as fuck doesn't mean we should shrug and let them get away with it. If they're gonna be moral gatekeepers for millions and millions of people they need to be accountable. Not to their idiot pandering gormless shareholders, but to their audience.
I recommend everyone start calling this thing the GooPh.
He's right! I RTFA'd once and God posted this on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrI7mHVHlEc
Sometimes I wish Slashdot had a "baseless speculation" flag.
Actually, the original source, TechCrunch, not the dumbed down linked article, discusses in much better detail what Alpha is about.
Ask Jeeves fails if you simply substitute one word:
How many bones are in the parrot's body
The reason? It doesn't actually know anything.
If you RTFA, you'll see that something entirely different is being discussed here. Alpha is supposed to actually answer the question because it knows a lot of facts, not because it's been programmed to look for certain phrases and respond with certain strings of text.
It's not a search engine, it's a calculator.
Man, for once I read TFA and what do I get? A barely coherent, unedited swamp of words. Did anyone else find this article a slog to read?
It's never explained what Touchdown is. It's never explained what the "secure feature" is. I'm assuming Touchdown is the orginal name for what was to become the Pilot. But I don't really know. The word is just used suddenlty out without preamble, as if it had been previously introduced.
How about the following:
Perhaps it's just me, but the whole article read like the above excerpt.
Really? Zero to 95% accuracy? That's pretty, uh, fucking awful. Somehow I doubt that's what Macword published.
Wow, spelling mistake and redundancy in the same sentence.
See how the second sentence here should not follow the first? It should have followed the sentence preceeded the excerpt. This kind of construction left me rereading the same few lines several times over.
Guess that woulda bin bad fer bidness.
Hey Silicon User, hire a fucking editor!
...except commercials.
A non-infuriating way to watch Lost.
From the Sony Bravia EULA in the not-too-distant future... By turning on this television, you hereby agree that television shows ("CONTENT") are paid for by advertising and that avoiding advertising is morally wrong. Fast forwarding, skipping of commercials using technology (PVRs, Tape Recording Devices, Time Machines) is prohibited. Talking to your loved ones during commericials is illegal. Going to the washroom during a commercial is stealing. You hereby agree not avert your eyes or plug your ears during commercial breaks. Deaf and/or dumb people found to be in proximity of this television set while it is turned on will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
What I want to know is, how fat a pipe do you need to survive a slashdotting, given that your server structure is viable? Will a 10mbps pipe keep the barbarians from trampling the gate?
I love downloadable music because I can quickly find those songs I once heard at a friend's party 15 years ago. You just can't find the Crucifucks at HMV.
But what about those songs that are just too subtle to like the first time you hear them, but grow on you? I hated the Police's Behind My Camel the first dozen times I heard it. Now, I'll never again listen to crap like "Do do do do, da da da da", but there are a few gems on Zenyatta Mondatta, an otherwise terrible LP, that I quite dig. Only because I was forced to buy the whole thing.
In a download-only universe, I'd have been a teenager downloading only the hits. A year later I'd no longer be listening to the hits, because they were facile crap that doesn't hold me. I'd also not be listening to the cool stuff in between.
Music is already ridiculously hit-driven. But at least there's space for artists to slip an interesting song on a CD here and there. I don't think there's going to be much of that in a download-only universe.
You know it's the Golden Age of awards shows when even God makes an appearance at some b-list event like this.
It seems the researchers at Pinko U finally realize that routers have always been programmed using the enlightened-self-interest model of bandwidth utilization. It's time to shut them down.
The last thing we need is lazy, welfare dependant internet backbones sitting around all day watching The Dukes of Hazzard and drinking Lite Beer. If the altruists win this round, AOL transforms from the gated-suburb of the internet into the "Projects". Aren't we taxed enough?
I agree! Chuck all those silly bibles into space!
I believe they're lovingly referred to as "Pyramidiots" by the archeology set.
Actually, Apple hasn't dropped their prices right before Christmas since about 1996. These days, they'll toss in a rebate on a bundle, but not a price cut.