We've had 11 digit dialing in the NW suburbs of Chicago for about a year or so. The weird thing about it is the city itself is covered by, I think, 2 area codes, and they do not have 11 digit dialing. The suburbs are covered by 4 area codes, and only one of them, the one that covers the northwest suburbs, requires 11 digit dialing.
I don't mind the 11 digit dialing per se, but I find it strange that it's only required in some of the 'burbs and not in the city itself. I was under the impression that there were more people in the city than out here in the 'burbs....
I'm surprised it took some one at the studios this long to mention this. I don't remember the last time I went to a theater to see a movie (except when using movie passes we've received as gifts). First off, $8 for a ticket is simply too high. Two tickets roughly equals the cost of a DVD (it's actually more, but most people don't shop around as much as I do). Add in food and drinks, and you're looking at $30 for two people to go see a movie. I'll pass, thank you very much! Besides, my popcorn tastes better than the theaters!
First off, I assume that your recent PowerBook purchase did not include the Combo drive, so you have to use an external DVD-burner in order to author DVD's. That being the case, how is it Apple's responsibility to make their software compatible with other vendor's hardware? While I'm not saying it shouldn't be compatible, I am saying it's Apple's choice. iDVD is intended for use on Apple systems that shipped with a DVD-burner. Why is it so hard for people to figure this out. If you don't have an Apple system with a built-in DVD-burner, use one of the other options for external DVD-burners. It isn't Apple's problem if other vendors' products cost more, or aren't as nice, or whatever.
And for iMovie, it's meant as a basic, consumer friendly movie editor. If you need more features, oh no, you'll have to buy another product! iMovie is free, so don't be surprised if it's a bit more limited than other products out there. Or is Apple supposed to supply all the best software at no charge just because you bought an Apple computer? I don't recall Apple ever advertising iMovie as the be-all, end-all movie editor. It just makes basic editing easy for your average comsumer. It's not intended for anything beyond that, and to complain that it doesn't do as much as Final Cut Pro seems to me to be a bit whiny.
And for PowerBook users to do basic DVD authoring, you have two choices. 1. Buy a PowerBook that has a combo drive. 2. Buy a third party external DVD-burner and third party DVD authoring software.
How exactly is this Apple "screwing" PowerBook users???
While I agree that most EULA's are not worth the bits they're stored in, I disagree with your point #1. Yes, you can make back up copies. I have no problem with this, and neither does copyright law. However, if you sell your original, you are no longer entitled to keep those back up copies you made. And no, non-use of those copies is not enough to avoid copyright violations, since you sold the original to some one else. As far as the rest, I just don't see Apple offering a product for free asking that it not be commercially exploited by others. If you, as the owner of the software, want to modify, go ahead. But I don't see how Apple pressuring a vendor who is profiting from Apple's work is wrong. Now if John Doe modified his copy of iDVD, and Apple somehow got word of it and sued him, I would be in favor of John Doe. But if John Doe then tries to profit from this, I would side with Apple. There's a big difference between the two.
One small problem- AFAIK, iDVD does not come on a seperate CD-ROM. It comes bundled on your recovery CD-ROM. So how exactly do you go about selling your copy of iDVD? You could make a copy of the CD, but that's piracy, since you you still have your original. And it's pretty well accepted that piracy is illegal.
If you want to hack iDVD to do whatever you want, feel free. But I don't particularly see a problem with Apple asking one of it's retailers to not commercially distribute a patch that does so.
I find it highly ammusing that everybody wants software for free, but then gets into an uproar when the developer tries to have some control over how the software is used. If you have that much of a problem with it, buy some other DVD-authoring software that works with 3rd party drives. Why is this such a big deal?
The third party wasn't just supplying software- they were supplying a patch to Apple software to allow third party DVD burners to be used with iDVD. Apple won't stop anyone from writing their own software to do this, but they (rightfully, in my opinion) don't want third parties hacking their free software to do things it wasn't intended to do. Now if iDVD weren't free, then my opinion would change. If pay for it, you can do anything you want with it (more or less).
You missed one of the key patent points- that each address is complete, even down to track and sector information. Show me where in a URL the address is complete to that level? A URL is just a pointer, which then needs to be resolved on many levels before actually getting you to the data (DNS being just the first level). A URL by itself is not a complete address, therefore the claims are invalid. And if a URL is not a complete address, then the web does not infringe. This doesn't even start to cover the major difference between the patented system and the web- a widely dispersed data storage scheme is not the same as a centralized one. The web is in effect the opposite of what the patent covers. If you read the judges decision, you'll see his reasoning for his decision plus lots of references to prior cases...
Exactly how is this a free speech issue? Can you point out to me where in the constitution it states that you have a right to use my resources to deliver your speech? Faxing is nothing like snail-mail. Let's see- for snail mail, *you* pay the postage and *you* buy the paper your ad is printed on. For faxing, *I* pay for the paper and toner. You can't be arguing that you have the right to make me pay for your speech, can you? That would be like requiring any copy shop to copy your flyers for free because it's a "free speech" issue.
I agree that Apple being the hw and sw vendor does indeed limit your options, but by doing so they have the ability to make a better functioning (arguably, I grant you) tool. By being able to control both aspects of computing, they can make a better working environment, which, depending on your needs, may make you more productive. If you use a computer only as a tool, I would personally much rather have a tool that functions well "out of the box" rather than one I have to become an expert in configuring just in order to do my work. As a hobbiest, I would much rather be able to dig in and futz around with everything I can, and in that case, some commodity PC hardware is probably better suited to my needs.
As far as upgrades, other vendors do sell upgrades for Mac's- hell, my main Mac has no original components other than the mobo, power supply, and case. I have an aftermarket processor upgrade, a couple of aftermarket drives, and all aftermarket RAM, not to mention the various PCI cards that I've added. All of which I've added incrementaly, at a much lower cost than buying a complete new system. This is one of things Apple has done over the last few years that has a lot of people happy- no more ADB, no more proprietary RAM, etc. PCI is PCI is PCI, after all. Same goes for ATA, USB, and SDRAM for that matter.
As for being locked into a single source for hw & sw, for now, yes, I think it offers consumers a choice of something different than every other PC that's out there. If Apple ever becomes a monopoly (doubtful, in my opinion), maybe I'd agree with making them "open things up" a bit. But until then, how can they have a product that significantly differentiated from a Dell or Gateway PC?
In a completely different thread, I see where you're coming from about foreign cars. However, there is exactly one US car that even remotely fits my desires for an automobile at the moment, and when compared to a number of imports, the imports offer a better all-around product. I recently bought a new car, and my requirements were: -2-door -front- or all-wheel drive -manual transmission -sunroof -4-wheel ABS disc brakes -good performance (cornering, acceleration, etc.)
The only US car that I could find was the Dodge Stratus R/T coupe. Imports that fell within the same price range where the Toyota Celica GT/S, Acura RSX Type S, and Mitsubishi Eclipse GT. All of the cars came in at about the same price. The Acura gave me the most for my money, has the best performance, the most "luxury" items included, the best all-around warranty, and the fewest bad attributes of all the cars. So I went with the Acura. I would've have considered a Pontiac Grand Am or Grand Prix, but no manuals are available (at least not with good performance- the Grand Am used to be able to have a stick with the 2.4L 4 banger, but not the V6).
I still don't see where you're coming from. Apple seels a user experience, which is a combination of their hardware and their software. There are not just a hardware vendor or a software vendor- their product by definition is a combination of the two. Using your argument, you wouldn't buy a BMW unless you buy one manufactured by some other company at a reduced price. Why should Apple license their platform to some other company- so they could purposely lose business? Car manufacturers don't do this, and neither does any other company that I'm aware that sells anything more than commodity hardware. Half the reason you're buying the thing in the first place is that little Apple logo on the case.
You have to remember that what Apple is selling is the experience their products provide- not just the OS or just the case, mobo, drive, and whatever.
As for Microsoft and Windows, I again don't see the comparison you're getting at. The problem with MS is their licensing agreements with hardware manufacturers that make it damn hard for the manufacturer to sell PC's with other OS's on them at a competitive price. Or by their marketing agreements that block other companies from distributing their software. Those are marketing and licensing policies, not something inherent in Windows.
The main reason why Mac OS X is that it "just works". Until you're going to get every hardware vendor out there to work off the same plage and play nice with one another, you won't have an OS that "just works" that also support umpteen hardware vendors. Just look at Linux or Windows- you can't seriously believe that some old lady who wants to get a computer to browse the web and send email and pictures to her grandkids will want to mess with a command line, pseudo-supported hardware, or having to modify some config file somewhere to get her computer to work right.
If you absolutely must have an OS that you have to futz with to get it to do what you want, don't buy a Mac. But rmember that not everybody wants to dig into their computers like you do.
Once I have a modern enough machine to run OS X, I fully plan on changing over to it. It lets me dig around in things *if I want to*, but I don't have to in order to get my printer or scanner to work.
WizKids has licensed out battletech stuff to Fantasy Productions, at least for "classic battletech". WizKids will be releasing a click-base version of the game called MechWarrior: Dark Age next month. Fanpro has put out a few products, and Ral Partha has been more-or-less ressurected in Iron Wind Metals, which released a handful of new mini's before a WizKids-imposed blackout period (I guess WizKids doesn't want any competition for MW:DA- can't say I blame them, it'll need all the help it can get). More new mini's are scheduled for release in October, and there should be more CBT book products out after GenCon. The game year is 3067, by the way.
In your example of a fixed-width gate, and whether I'd rather sell 5 tickets to fat people or 10 tickets to skinny people, as a business I would of course rather sell 10 tickets. But, I have to account for the fat people in my business plan, or narrow the gate so that only skinny people will fit through. Of course, if I do that, I may lose some customers (namely, the fat people), but that's my choice to make, within limits. If too many fat people would cause me to lose money, I have to either up the cost of a ticket, narrow the gate, or close my business and try something else. But to offer "all-you-eat" access, and advertise it as such, and then say "Oh, wait a minute- it's only all-you-can if you don't eat much" is a bit ridiculous.
This isn't really a good analogy. A better one one would be:
-You pay a toll to drive across a bridge and back, and the toll collecting authority complains when you let your friends ride in your car instead of making them drive their own. It's still only one car going across the bridge, but that car is carrying multiple people. Most ISP's set some arbitrary limit on either bandwidth or traffic. You are allowed to use all of it up to that limit. Where's the harm in allowing your roommate to share your connection, as long as it doesn't exceed that limit? Taking it farther, where's the harm in allowing anyone to use that bandwidth, again as long as you don't exceed whatever limits the ISP has set?
"The rules for us to live by" that you mention are a constantly evolving set of "rules" (call them Laws, if you like) that society as a whole has adopted in order to help the society survive. For example, if murder were not "against the rules", society as a whole would be forced to waste many resources in protecting itself from every other member of society. Generally not an efficient way to run things. If you're constantly worried that any citizen may come along and kill you for any reason, you'll be pretty busy attending to your defenses. Don't forget, these rules are constanly changing! It used to be legal to indulge in cocaine use. Now it's not. Did some "God" suddenly have an inspiration and decide that coke use was Bad? No. Society saw the ill effects and changed it's rule accordingly.
As for your comment on Muslims beliefs about 9/11, I think you're overly generalizing. Muslim fundamentalists who believe that the West is corrupting the world may believe that what happened on 09/11 was not mudrer, but plenty of other Muslims agree with us, that it was a crime. When you start lumping all people of a particular faith together, you start down a very slippery slope- "They're different from us- they MUST be bad!"
This ruling has no impact on your ability to practice whatever faith you choose to believe in. It only restricts the US Government from sponsoring one religion or set of religious beliefs above another. No where does it say that you can't continue to recite the Pledge Of Allegiance in it's current form. It only says that the US Government cannot mandate the words "under God" be included. You can change it to say anything you want- that is your right in this country.
I don't know, it just seems to me that many people just can't grasp the concept of other people having different beliefs. Those other people must be wrong, or bad, or terrorists, or something else. Believe what you want, but also let me believe what I want. Is that so hard to understand?
So your "God" knows what's good for everyone? Is that what you're implying? What I fail to understand is why we as a society can't accept the idea that there are multiple religions, and that no one specific religion is any "better" than any other. You believe what you want, and I'll believe what I want. As long as I do not infringe on your rights and you do not infringe on mine, what's the problem? Religion has been (indirectly) the number cause of death in mankind's history- look at the Crusades, the Middle East for the last 50 years, etc. I fail to see the benefit of a belief structure that causes wars to be waged simply because some other group of people disagreed.
I'm not surprised that the studio is trying a DVD release without MacroVision. Before DVD's came out, I owned a number of laserdiscs. I also rented a bunch when they started to become rare. I would video tape the ones I rented, even though they had MacroVision protection. My stereo head unit has an option to "enhance video" that basically eliminates MacroVision. I never had a problem taping these discs. Now I've been bitten by the DVD bug- my wife and I have over 200 DVD's, and there's no end in sight. While I haven't tried copying any of them yet, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have any problem doing so. As for DVD piracy, what's the point? On average, we've paid something like $12.00 per movie (including tax & shipping). Where's the cost savings in piracy? With the original, I have the original case, all the special features, etc., at a price I'm willing to pay. In fact, we hardly go out to theaters anymore, since it's much cheaper to just buy the movie on DVD a few months later.
So you *never* change channels or go to the bathroom or do anything but mindlessly watch commercials when you watch TV? And you believe that you are required to do so? If you don't watch the commercials, you're just as much a "pirate" as PVR users supposedly are.
But only if the "customer" is forced to use the block list. As in the customer has no other options. This is almost never the case. There is almost always another option for an ISP. Even if there is only one ISP available to your "customer", if their user agreement states that they subscribe to "x" list and do not guarantee delivery of mail from any IP on that list, you're out of luck.
So you're saying that people should not be allowed to block spam (or maybe "bad" web sites) if they choose to? I'm against requiring anyone to use censorware, be it antispam, antiporn, or anti-anything. But to not allow people who want to block these is something I can't understand. What you're basically saying is that I can't block spam because blocking it is wrong. Or that I'd have to spend a considerable amount of time creating my own filters instead of using some one elses. By this logic, I guess I should grow my own food, slaughter my own cattle, sew all my own clothes, and figure out a way to build my computer from raw materials too...
While I agree with the comment about processor speeds, I have to disagree with the removable drive bay, at least partially. I started using PowerBooks with the original G3, and it was nice to have the hot-swappable drive bay, as my only other option was a SCSI connection. Nowadays, with USB and FireWire standard, most devices can be powered by the bus, eliminating the need for a power cable. Keeping your other drives external also reduces the cost of the devices- an external USB Zip drive, for example, has a much greater potential market than a Zip drive that will only fit one specific laptop, and thus will cost less due to economies of scale. It also reduces the cost of the laptop, by not having to accomadate a multitude of devices internally.
At work, I have a StinkPad 570, and specifically bought an external Zip drive for it. The external drive had a higher capacity and cost less that the internal version. Also, I don't need the UltraBase to use the external drive, where I would need it for the internal version.
No one's complaining for a few reasons (listed in order of importance):
1. Apple has not been found to be a monopoly, and is not held to the same legal standards that a monopoly, such as Microsoft, is.
2.iTunes and iPhoto are stand-alone applications that Apple includes at no charge. They are not integrated portions of the OS. You can remove them if you choose, with no impact on the OS.
3. Apple supplies both the hardware and software. The software is not licensed by hardware manufacturers. In effect, they can do whatever they want on their own hardware. If Microsoft sold Windows only on Microsoft hardware, the issue wouldn't be nearly as much of an issue.
It's different in that a presumeably legit Chinese business was paid to accept this hardware waste. Presumably, this transaction is not illegal in China. Like it or not drugs are illegal in the US. It's like some recycling company is smuggling old equipment into China- they're paying some one to accept it. When was the last time a Columbian drug lord paid some one in the US to accept his drugs? Don't you think it's usually the other way around?
Yet another "yes" answer:
I installed a Sony head unit in my prevoius car (just totaled last week:( ) that could play "MP3" CD's as well as standard CD's. Let's do the math, here- a normal CD has what, about 15 tracks on it usually? The MP3 CD I created had 109 tracks- all from CD's that I personally own. With that many tracks, that was pretty much the only CD that stayed in the car. In addition, it would be cheap and easy to reproduce that CD if it became scratched or damaged, as any CD that stays in a car is more likely to become. So, am I a pirate for doing this?
I only had these two out of the bunch other posters have listed, and I have to say that I can't really pick one over the other. Meccano (my sets were from Germany...) was alot of fun, and there was a lot of, uh, interesting ways you could assemble them. Lego, on the other hand, let you build things that were more fun to "play" with once they were built. The Technics kits weren't out yet when I started playing with Lego, so I'd have to rank Meccano as marginally better for dynamic toys, but Lego as tremendously better for "static" toys. Of course, with all of the Technics kits out now, I'd have to say that Lego ranks right up there. I do kind of like the idea of bolting things together instead of snapping them though... I wonder if there will ever be something along the lines of a cross between Lego and Meccano? Something that allows you to snap parts together *or* bolt them together when you really need the rigidity...
Any prospective inventors out there?
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We've had 11 digit dialing in the NW suburbs of Chicago for about a year or so. The weird thing about it is the city itself is covered by, I think, 2 area codes, and they do not have 11 digit dialing. The suburbs are covered by 4 area codes, and only one of them, the one that covers the northwest suburbs, requires 11 digit dialing.
I don't mind the 11 digit dialing per se, but I find it strange that it's only required in some of the 'burbs and not in the city itself. I was under the impression that there were more people in the city than out here in the 'burbs....
I'm surprised it took some one at the studios this long to mention this.
I don't remember the last time I went to a theater to see a movie (except when using movie passes we've received as gifts).
First off, $8 for a ticket is simply too high. Two tickets roughly equals the cost of a DVD (it's actually more, but most people don't shop around as much as I do). Add in food and drinks, and you're looking at $30 for two people to go see a movie. I'll pass, thank you very much!
Besides, my popcorn tastes better than the theaters!
First off, I assume that your recent PowerBook purchase did not include the Combo drive, so you have to use an external DVD-burner in order to author DVD's. That being the case, how is it Apple's responsibility to make their software compatible with other vendor's hardware? While I'm not saying it shouldn't be compatible, I am saying it's Apple's choice. iDVD is intended for use on Apple systems that shipped with a DVD-burner. Why is it so hard for people to figure this out. If you don't have an Apple system with a built-in DVD-burner, use one of the other options for external DVD-burners. It isn't Apple's problem if other vendors' products cost more, or aren't as nice, or whatever.
And for iMovie, it's meant as a basic, consumer friendly movie editor. If you need more features, oh no, you'll have to buy another product! iMovie is free, so don't be surprised if it's a bit more limited than other products out there. Or is Apple supposed to supply all the best software at no charge just because you bought an Apple computer? I don't recall Apple ever advertising iMovie as the be-all, end-all movie editor. It just makes basic editing easy for your average comsumer. It's not intended for anything beyond that, and to complain that it doesn't do as much as Final Cut Pro seems to me to be a bit whiny.
And for PowerBook users to do basic DVD authoring, you have two choices.
1. Buy a PowerBook that has a combo drive.
2. Buy a third party external DVD-burner and third party DVD authoring software.
How exactly is this Apple "screwing" PowerBook users???
While I agree that most EULA's are not worth the bits they're stored in, I disagree with your point #1. Yes, you can make back up copies. I have no problem with this, and neither does copyright law. However, if you sell your original, you are no longer entitled to keep those back up copies you made. And no, non-use of those copies is not enough to avoid copyright violations, since you sold the original to some one else.
As far as the rest, I just don't see Apple offering a product for free asking that it not be commercially exploited by others. If you, as the owner of the software, want to modify, go ahead. But I don't see how Apple pressuring a vendor who is profiting from Apple's work is wrong. Now if John Doe modified his copy of iDVD, and Apple somehow got word of it and sued him, I would be in favor of John Doe. But if John Doe then tries to profit from this, I would side with Apple. There's a big difference between the two.
One small problem- AFAIK, iDVD does not come on a seperate CD-ROM. It comes bundled on your recovery CD-ROM. So how exactly do you go about selling your copy of iDVD? You could make a copy of the CD, but that's piracy, since you you still have your original. And it's pretty well accepted that piracy is illegal.
If you want to hack iDVD to do whatever you want, feel free. But I don't particularly see a problem with Apple asking one of it's retailers to not commercially distribute a patch that does so.
I find it highly ammusing that everybody wants software for free, but then gets into an uproar when the developer tries to have some control over how the software is used. If you have that much of a problem with it, buy some other DVD-authoring software that works with 3rd party drives. Why is this such a big deal?
The third party wasn't just supplying software- they were supplying a patch to Apple software to allow third party DVD burners to be used with iDVD. Apple won't stop anyone from writing their own software to do this, but they (rightfully, in my opinion) don't want third parties hacking their free software to do things it wasn't intended to do. Now if iDVD weren't free, then my opinion would change. If pay for it, you can do anything you want with it (more or less).
You missed one of the key patent points- that each address is complete, even down to track and sector information. Show me where in a URL the address is complete to that level? A URL is just a pointer, which then needs to be resolved on many levels before actually getting you to the data (DNS being just the first level). A URL by itself is not a complete address, therefore the claims are invalid. And if a URL is not a complete address, then the web does not infringe.
This doesn't even start to cover the major difference between the patented system and the web- a widely dispersed data storage scheme is not the same as a centralized one. The web is in effect the opposite of what the patent covers.
If you read the judges decision, you'll see his reasoning for his decision plus lots of references to prior cases...
Exactly how is this a free speech issue? Can you point out to me where in the constitution it states that you have a right to use my resources to deliver your speech? Faxing is nothing like snail-mail. Let's see- for snail mail, *you* pay the postage and *you* buy the paper your ad is printed on. For faxing, *I* pay for the paper and toner.
You can't be arguing that you have the right to make me pay for your speech, can you? That would be like requiring any copy shop to copy your flyers for free because it's a "free speech" issue.
I agree that Apple being the hw and sw vendor does indeed limit your options, but by doing so they have the ability to make a better functioning (arguably, I grant you) tool. By being able to control both aspects of computing, they can make a better working environment, which, depending on your needs, may make you more productive. If you use a computer only as a tool, I would personally much rather have a tool that functions well "out of the box" rather than one I have to become an expert in configuring just in order to do my work. As a hobbiest, I would much rather be able to dig in and futz around with everything I can, and in that case, some commodity PC hardware is probably better suited to my needs.
As far as upgrades, other vendors do sell upgrades for Mac's- hell, my main Mac has no original components other than the mobo, power supply, and case. I have an aftermarket processor upgrade, a couple of aftermarket drives, and all aftermarket RAM, not to mention the various PCI cards that I've added. All of which I've added incrementaly, at a much lower cost than buying a complete new system. This is one of things Apple has done over the last few years that has a lot of people happy- no more ADB, no more proprietary RAM, etc. PCI is PCI is PCI, after all. Same goes for ATA, USB, and SDRAM for that matter.
As for being locked into a single source for hw & sw, for now, yes, I think it offers consumers a choice of something different than every other PC that's out there. If Apple ever becomes a monopoly (doubtful, in my opinion), maybe I'd agree with making them "open things up" a bit. But until then, how can they have a product that significantly differentiated from a Dell or Gateway PC?
In a completely different thread, I see where you're coming from about foreign cars. However, there is exactly one US car that even remotely fits my desires for an automobile at the moment, and when compared to a number of imports, the imports offer a better all-around product. I recently bought a new car, and my requirements were:
-2-door
-front- or all-wheel drive
-manual transmission
-sunroof
-4-wheel ABS disc brakes
-good performance (cornering, acceleration, etc.)
The only US car that I could find was the Dodge Stratus R/T coupe. Imports that fell within the same price range where the Toyota Celica GT/S, Acura RSX Type S, and Mitsubishi Eclipse GT. All of the cars came in at about the same price. The Acura gave me the most for my money, has the best performance, the most "luxury" items included, the best all-around warranty, and the fewest bad attributes of all the cars. So I went with the Acura. I would've have considered a Pontiac Grand Am or Grand Prix, but no manuals are available (at least not with good performance- the Grand Am used to be able to have a stick with the 2.4L 4 banger, but not the V6).
I still don't see where you're coming from. Apple seels a user experience, which is a combination of their hardware and their software. There are not just a hardware vendor or a software vendor- their product by definition is a combination of the two. Using your argument, you wouldn't buy a BMW unless you buy one manufactured by some other company at a reduced price. Why should Apple license their platform to some other company- so they could purposely lose business? Car manufacturers don't do this, and neither does any other company that I'm aware that sells anything more than commodity hardware. Half the reason you're buying the thing in the first place is that little Apple logo on the case.
You have to remember that what Apple is selling is the experience their products provide- not just the OS or just the case, mobo, drive, and whatever.
As for Microsoft and Windows, I again don't see the comparison you're getting at. The problem with MS is their licensing agreements with hardware manufacturers that make it damn hard for the manufacturer to sell PC's with other OS's on them at a competitive price. Or by their marketing agreements that block other companies from distributing their software. Those are marketing and licensing policies, not something inherent in Windows.
The main reason why Mac OS X is that it "just works". Until you're going to get every hardware vendor out there to work off the same plage and play nice with one another, you won't have an OS that "just works" that also support umpteen hardware vendors. Just look at Linux or Windows- you can't seriously believe that some old lady who wants to get a computer to browse the web and send email and pictures to her grandkids will want to mess with a command line, pseudo-supported hardware, or having to modify some config file somewhere to get her computer to work right.
If you absolutely must have an OS that you have to futz with to get it to do what you want, don't buy a Mac. But rmember that not everybody wants to dig into their computers like you do.
Once I have a modern enough machine to run OS X, I fully plan on changing over to it. It lets me dig around in things *if I want to*, but I don't have to in order to get my printer or scanner to work.
WizKids has licensed out battletech stuff to Fantasy Productions, at least for "classic battletech". WizKids will be releasing a click-base version of the game called MechWarrior: Dark Age next month. Fanpro has put out a few products, and Ral Partha has been more-or-less ressurected in Iron Wind Metals, which released a handful of new mini's before a WizKids-imposed blackout period (I guess WizKids doesn't want any competition for MW:DA- can't say I blame them, it'll need all the help it can get). More new mini's are scheduled for release in October, and there should be more CBT book products out after GenCon. The game year is 3067, by the way.
In your example of a fixed-width gate, and whether I'd rather sell 5 tickets to fat people or 10 tickets to skinny people, as a business I would of course rather sell 10 tickets. But, I have to account for the fat people in my business plan, or narrow the gate so that only skinny people will fit through. Of course, if I do that, I may lose some customers (namely, the fat people), but that's my choice to make, within limits.
If too many fat people would cause me to lose money, I have to either up the cost of a ticket, narrow the gate, or close my business and try something else. But to offer "all-you-eat" access, and advertise it as such, and then say "Oh, wait a minute- it's only all-you-can if you don't eat much" is a bit ridiculous.
This isn't really a good analogy. A better one one would be:
-You pay a toll to drive across a bridge and back, and the toll collecting authority complains when you let your friends ride in your car instead of making them drive their own. It's still only one car going across the bridge, but that car is carrying multiple people. Most ISP's set some arbitrary limit on either bandwidth or traffic. You are allowed to use all of it up to that limit. Where's the harm in allowing your roommate to share your connection, as long as it doesn't exceed that limit? Taking it farther, where's the harm in allowing anyone to use that bandwidth, again as long as you don't exceed whatever limits the ISP has set?
"The rules for us to live by" that you mention are a constantly evolving set of "rules" (call them Laws, if you like) that society as a whole has adopted in order to help the society survive.
For example, if murder were not "against the rules", society as a whole would be forced to waste many resources in protecting itself from every other member of society. Generally not an efficient way to run things. If you're constantly worried that any citizen may come along and kill you for any reason, you'll be pretty busy attending to your defenses.
Don't forget, these rules are constanly changing! It used to be legal to indulge in cocaine use. Now it's not. Did some "God" suddenly have an inspiration and decide that coke use was Bad? No. Society saw the ill effects and changed it's rule accordingly.
As for your comment on Muslims beliefs about 9/11, I think you're overly generalizing. Muslim fundamentalists who believe that the West is corrupting the world may believe that what happened on 09/11 was not mudrer, but plenty of other Muslims agree with us, that it was a crime. When you start lumping all people of a particular faith together, you start down a very slippery slope- "They're different from us- they MUST be bad!"
This ruling has no impact on your ability to practice whatever faith you choose to believe in. It only restricts the US Government from sponsoring one religion or set of religious beliefs above another. No where does it say that you can't continue to recite the Pledge Of Allegiance in it's current form. It only says that the US Government cannot mandate the words "under God" be included. You can change it to say anything you want- that is your right in this country.
I don't know, it just seems to me that many people just can't grasp the concept of other people having different beliefs. Those other people must be wrong, or bad, or terrorists, or something else. Believe what you want, but also let me believe what I want. Is that so hard to understand?
So your "God" knows what's good for everyone? Is that what you're implying?
What I fail to understand is why we as a society can't accept the idea that there are multiple religions, and that no one specific religion is any "better" than any other. You believe what you want, and I'll believe what I want. As long as I do not infringe on your rights and you do not infringe on mine, what's the problem?
Religion has been (indirectly) the number cause of death in mankind's history- look at the Crusades, the Middle East for the last 50 years, etc. I fail to see the benefit of a belief structure that causes wars to be waged simply because some other group of people disagreed.
I'm not surprised that the studio is trying a DVD release without MacroVision. Before DVD's came out, I owned a number of laserdiscs. I also rented a bunch when they started to become rare. I would video tape the ones I rented, even though they had MacroVision protection. My stereo head unit has an option to "enhance video" that basically eliminates MacroVision. I never had a problem taping these discs.
Now I've been bitten by the DVD bug- my wife and I have over 200 DVD's, and there's no end in sight. While I haven't tried copying any of them yet, I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't have any problem doing so. As for DVD piracy, what's the point? On average, we've paid something like $12.00 per movie (including tax & shipping). Where's the cost savings in piracy? With the original, I have the original case, all the special features, etc., at a price I'm willing to pay. In fact, we hardly go out to theaters anymore, since it's much cheaper to just buy the movie on DVD a few months later.
So you *never* change channels or go to the bathroom or do anything but mindlessly watch commercials when you watch TV? And you believe that you are required to do so? If you don't watch the commercials, you're just as much a "pirate" as PVR users supposedly are.
But only if the "customer" is forced to use the block list. As in the customer has no other options. This is almost never the case. There is almost always another option for an ISP. Even if there is only one ISP available to your "customer", if their user agreement states that they subscribe to "x" list and do not guarantee delivery of mail from any IP on that list, you're out of luck.
So you're saying that people should not be allowed to block spam (or maybe "bad" web sites) if they choose to? I'm against requiring anyone to use censorware, be it antispam, antiporn, or anti-anything. But to not allow people who want to block these is something I can't understand.
What you're basically saying is that I can't block spam because blocking it is wrong. Or that I'd have to spend a considerable amount of time creating my own filters instead of using some one elses. By this logic, I guess I should grow my own food, slaughter my own cattle, sew all my own clothes, and figure out a way to build my computer from raw materials too...
While I agree with the comment about processor speeds, I have to disagree with the removable drive bay, at least partially. I started using PowerBooks with the original G3, and it was nice to have the hot-swappable drive bay, as my only other option was a SCSI connection. Nowadays, with USB and FireWire standard, most devices can be powered by the bus, eliminating the need for a power cable. Keeping your other drives external also reduces the cost of the devices- an external USB Zip drive, for example, has a much greater potential market than a Zip drive that will only fit one specific laptop, and thus will cost less due to economies of scale. It also reduces the cost of the laptop, by not having to accomadate a multitude of devices internally.
At work, I have a StinkPad 570, and specifically bought an external Zip drive for it. The external drive had a higher capacity and cost less that the internal version. Also, I don't need the UltraBase to use the external drive, where I would need it for the internal version.
No one's complaining for a few reasons (listed in order of importance):
1. Apple has not been found to be a monopoly, and is not held to the same legal standards that a monopoly, such as Microsoft, is.
2.iTunes and iPhoto are stand-alone applications that Apple includes at no charge. They are not integrated portions of the OS. You can remove them if you choose, with no impact on the OS.
3. Apple supplies both the hardware and software. The software is not licensed by hardware manufacturers. In effect, they can do whatever they want on their own hardware. If Microsoft sold Windows only on Microsoft hardware, the issue wouldn't be nearly as much of an issue.
It's different in that a presumeably legit Chinese business was paid to accept this hardware waste. Presumably, this transaction is not illegal in China. Like it or not drugs are illegal in the US. It's like some recycling company is smuggling old equipment into China- they're paying some one to accept it. When was the last time a Columbian drug lord paid some one in the US to accept his drugs? Don't you think it's usually the other way around?
Yet another "yes" answer: :( ) that could play "MP3" CD's as well as standard CD's. Let's do the math, here- a normal CD has what, about 15 tracks on it usually? The MP3 CD I created had 109 tracks- all from CD's that I personally own. With that many tracks, that was pretty much the only CD that stayed in the car. In addition, it would be cheap and easy to reproduce that CD if it became scratched or damaged, as any CD that stays in a car is more likely to become. So, am I a pirate for doing this?
I installed a Sony head unit in my prevoius car (just totaled last week
I only had these two out of the bunch other posters have listed, and I have to say that I can't really pick one over the other. Meccano (my sets were from Germany...) was alot of fun, and there was a lot of, uh, interesting ways you could assemble them. Lego, on the other hand, let you build things that were more fun to "play" with once they were built. The Technics kits weren't out yet when I started playing with Lego, so I'd have to rank Meccano as marginally better for dynamic toys, but Lego as tremendously better for "static" toys. Of course, with all of the Technics kits out now, I'd have to say that Lego ranks right up there. I do kind of like the idea of bolting things together instead of snapping them though... I wonder if there will ever be something along the lines of a cross between Lego and Meccano? Something that allows you to snap parts together *or* bolt them together when you really need the rigidity...
Any prospective inventors out there?