You've hit the nail on the head and your post has made today's visit to slashdot personally worthwhile. It seems to me that only those with an axe to grind indulge themselves in "witty" attacks on religion or science (on slashdot it's usually the latter).
In fact both terms are complete garbage anyway since nobody can define "religion" or "physics" or even "geography", "history" or "art". The world can't be so simply partitioned and so to attack somebody in the name of one of these banners is just foolish.
I don't know why but I just had an uncontrollable urge to post a link to this comment (that I'm writing now). Couldn't predict the comment id used in the url to get this recursion to work though:-)
I, for one, look forward to this wonderful "Post-PC Utopia."
Another perspective: production of PCs has benefited enormously from economies of scale, effectively subsidised by ordinary users who will _never_ take full advantage of their investment. It will take time but as these users migrate to devices that more closely match their needs, the price of PCs will inevitably rise.
I just hope you can afford the entrance fee to this "Post-PC Utopia"!
I'm asking because if you want to set an example for us to follow, then convince us that we aren't being fucked just as hard with sharp business practices, privacy violations and "Foxconn inside". You know, all that bullshit that you said you were concerned about.
Well I disagree with this notion that good natured humor based around differences in appearance is objectionable, what a fucking miserable world that would be. I'm always making jokes to my wife who is of ginger persuasion and she responds in kind about me being a short-ass. Then there is her brother, whose email address has the word "gingersack" in it - mind you he's just changed that in the interest of employability!
If somebody makes a put-down, ie a comment of _any_ sort made in order to make somebody feel miserable, then fine, they should back off. But I dont see that here and anyway the fix isn't to portray it as a cause on par with African slavery.
I'm a robotics researcher and an electronics hobbiest to boot - I'm the target demographic for this product.
But this is a tool for learning isn't it? Unless you are interested in teaching, then experts in robotics are pretty much outside the target market.
and I'm so sick of hearing about it [therefore] I'm not going to buy one out of interest.
Seems like a pretty mean spirited and irrational basis for your decision (as was the unnecessary swipe at RP in the summary). I have a young son who is starting to ask lots of questions about computers and I've always thought that the barrier for getting started is way too high. Software such as Alice is well meaning and all that, but there is still a lot of setting up to do that looks too much like voodoo to the uninitiated. I'm hoping that RP will let my son do lots of investigation on his own with only the occassional corrective input from me.
Whoa, 1cm sounds pretty darned big for a flea. That's about the same size as a typical bee.
That can't be right [places thumb and forefinger about a cm apart], let me check that. Ok so I couldn't persuade a bee to let me measure him but I did find a link that says they are double that at about 2cm: http://nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens/research_regional.html
Jees, I can't believe I looked that fact up, pathetic!!:-)
You could also use Google's walled garden, or Microsoft's walled garden, or RIMs walled garden.
Google doesn't have a walled garden. it's an open park you can walk into and out of all of your own accord.
I think you need to look up the definition of "walled garden" or actually use Android for yourself. It's nothing like Apple's system of lockdown.
Actually I've never been sure of the meaning of "walled garden". For example most gardens I know of have a gate that you can use to exit and explore the wider, ahem, HTML fauna. I know the term is used pejoratively here on slashdot but to most other people it sounds kind of nice. You know, like maybe there is a tea shop you can visit just next door. Perhaps it's time to revisit our horticultural themed analogy, would critics be better off using "prison yard"?
So where do people put android in this analogy - is it like one of those houses that don't have a garden at all, perhaps the front door leads straight out into the street? Or perhaps the landlord allows you to grow whatever the hell you like in the garden, beautiful flowers or thorny old weeds.
Whatever, the whole walled garden meme seems like it needs more work.
Hi, UK user here, I have to disagree with the summary when it says:
It does appear to matter to Apple that Siri doesn't function that well in the U.K., because of a lack of good localisation.
Maybe it just so happens that I speak with just the right accent and have a decent wifi connection but I swear I've never had any problems making it understand me. Anyway right or wrong, isn't that sort of quote known as weasel words: "It does appear"?
All the companies are just interested in making Apple sit down and shut the fuck up
So the only evidence you have of this is a timeline in which Apple made the first move? Go ahead and project your own bias onto it but the more likely situation is that they are all money grabbing bastards the same as each other, including googlerola. The board have sanctioned this move because they think there is a competetive advantage to be had, not because they want play bitch slappin high fives.
In fact I am rooting for apple not because I am a fanboy (which I am) but because I find this cross licensing consolidation, that is just a club for the big boys, slightly disturbing. And the support of it on slashdot even more so.
I will risk saying this without the Anonumous box checked, what the fuck is going on with the mass histeria? As if we are curing cancer several times per year now! It is a damn gadget, and a nice looking one to be honest, but a gadget it remains.
Well this is a gadget website amongst other things, and the headline clearly mentioned apple. Anyway it's not as if the existence of this story means there is now less space on the interweb for cancer-talk.
Because troll moderators have taken over the site and are trying to subvert it
A-fucking-men. I only signed up a few weeks ago (was anonymous coward) and already I'm starting to wonder what's the point. I mean at least on cnet people are openly dicks, whereas here it seems more underhand. The endgame of all of this will be a collection of very similar and extreme opinions, doesn't sound very intellectually stimulating to me.
B-bye any chance of good karma:-) not sure I care anymore! Which saddens me because slashdot has been part of my routine for so long.
Cross-licensing of patents is actually a good thing, and something everybody in the cell phone market (except Qualcomm) was already doing for decades before Apple decided to enter the market. Price fixing, bad. But using ridiculous patents like "sliding an image to unlock the screen" is worse.
It's such a contentious issue that before I type any more I want to be clear that I am entirely against patents in their current form. So I'm comparing two evils here since I haven't seen any evidence that convinces me that cross licensing is a "good thing".
So lets use your example of the slide to unlock feature that we both agree is a stupid patent. Would it be better for the giants to get together on this and lock it up for themselves with a cosy agreement? Maybe my argument is a little too simplistic and if so point out the error of my ways!
You're the perfect example of what's wrong with the current state of corrupt corporate culture. Actually competing on merit is something that isn't even considered.
Sorry to set such a bad example;) my comment was merely restricted to the matter of patents. Of course I have an opinion on competing on merit, but I won't offer it here - that would be a completely different point to the one I am making.
Which is the comparison of cross patent agreements vs litigation. I would be most interested in hearing your take on _that_ point.
That google has had for a long time, and they had search by image. Please apple try and infringe on this. I hope google sue you into oblivion.
An alternative viewpoint is those companies that aren't actively engaged in patent litigation are instead involved in cross licensing agreements. BTW I find it hard to believe that there is a third category where the patent holder simply sits on their patents with no attempt to monetise them, although i have no evidence for this.
And isn't it the case that to join in this ecosystem of patent cross licensing you have to already be a big player with a large stake to put in the game? If that's true then I would say this silent cooperation is a bigger validation of a corrupt patent system than the legal dogfights that we are witnessing.
I like my Apple products, but this endless pissing match between them and Samsung doesn't endear them to me.
The alternative is that they and similar companies silently cooperate with each other with practices like price fixing, cross licensing of patents and behaviour befitting a cartel.
So on balance I prefer it when these companies engage in a fight to the death, no one else is powerful enough to keep them honest.
The feature grid on the wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iOS_devices) should underscore how non-homogeneous the platform is.
If you look at the cold, analytical cross product of everything that Apple sell then you are right. However if you apply some "reasonable" weightings, such as limit the models to those that are actually sold and supported today as well as take into account the fact that most customers upgrade to the latest version of iOS http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support then I would say that intuitively iOS is the most homogeneous of all the platforms. Of course, games consoles are in a class of their own when it comes to homogeneity.
To me at least, "expanse of choice" and "fragmentation" are two ways of saying the same thing, one negative, one positive. So of course Android has both properties and Apple/iOS much less so.
I don't know why anybody cares, Siri isn't very useful at the present time anyway.
It's right that you qualified this, but all the same I find it incredibly useful right now for a limited number of scenarios. For example to set an alarm I just hold down the home button and say "wake me at six" - that's it, alarm set.
Another example, I'm walking down the street after work and want to send a text to the wife that maybe I'll be late. Well I just hold the phone to my ear, say "send a text" and take it from there. Could never do this obviously using the touch interface.
One more, locating a particular song: "play me Always crashing in the Same Car". That would normally take me ages to do.
All those thing may seem trivial to you, but not having all the options buried deep down to me, seems obviously the way to go. The nerd in me thinks of it as all commands being the same short distance away from me, the discrete metric space.
Slashdot Mirror
In fact both terms are complete garbage anyway since nobody can define "religion" or "physics" or even "geography", "history" or "art". The world can't be so simply partitioned and so to attack somebody in the name of one of these banners is just foolish.
I don't know why but I just had an uncontrollable urge to post a link to this comment (that I'm writing now). Couldn't predict the comment id used in the url to get this recursion to work though :-)
Then we can discuss what constitutes sanitary.
I, for one, look forward to this wonderful "Post-PC Utopia."
Another perspective: production of PCs has benefited enormously from economies of scale, effectively subsidised by ordinary users who will _never_ take full advantage of their investment. It will take time but as these users migrate to devices that more closely match their needs, the price of PCs will inevitably rise.
I just hope you can afford the entrance fee to this "Post-PC Utopia"!
How ironic that it used to be Apple that was known for empowering the creative types.
Well now that Apple sell smartphones and tablets in addition to desktops, haven't the number of ways to create increased rather than decreased?
Anybody
any android maker is far better than apple
And yet still you won't commit.
Microsoft? Sony? Verizon? Amazon? Samsung? Google???
I'm asking because if you want to set an example for us to follow, then convince us that we aren't being fucked just as hard with sharp business practices, privacy violations and "Foxconn inside". You know, all that bullshit that you said you were concerned about.
Just wondering which honest and venerable businesses you will be supporting as an alternative.
If somebody makes a put-down, ie a comment of _any_ sort made in order to make somebody feel miserable, then fine, they should back off. But I dont see that here and anyway the fix isn't to portray it as a cause on par with African slavery.
I'm a robotics researcher and an electronics hobbiest to boot - I'm the target demographic for this product.
But this is a tool for learning isn't it? Unless you are interested in teaching, then experts in robotics are pretty much outside the target market.
and I'm so sick of hearing about it [therefore] I'm not going to buy one out of interest.
Seems like a pretty mean spirited and irrational basis for your decision (as was the unnecessary swipe at RP in the summary). I have a young son who is starting to ask lots of questions about computers and I've always thought that the barrier for getting started is way too high. Software such as Alice is well meaning and all that, but there is still a lot of setting up to do that looks too much like voodoo to the uninitiated. I'm hoping that RP will let my son do lots of investigation on his own with only the occassional corrective input from me.
Whoa, 1cm sounds pretty darned big for a flea. That's about the same size as a typical bee.
That can't be right [places thumb and forefinger about a cm apart], let me check that. Ok so I couldn't persuade a bee to let me measure him but I did find a link that says they are double that at about 2cm: http://nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens/research_regional.html
Jees, I can't believe I looked that fact up, pathetic!! :-)
And the movie would be lame too: "Run for your lives these fleas are slightly bigger!"
Hoots mon a cribbens even if ya did haf prublems wud ya admit it or b a fanboi?
Och if ah had a wee problem I would nae longer be a fanboi. Now run along yer coward.
You could also use Google's walled garden, or Microsoft's walled garden, or RIMs walled garden.
Google doesn't have a walled garden. it's an open park you can walk into and out of all of your own accord. I think you need to look up the definition of "walled garden" or actually use Android for yourself. It's nothing like Apple's system of lockdown.
Actually I've never been sure of the meaning of "walled garden". For example most gardens I know of have a gate that you can use to exit and explore the wider, ahem, HTML fauna. I know the term is used pejoratively here on slashdot but to most other people it sounds kind of nice. You know, like maybe there is a tea shop you can visit just next door. Perhaps it's time to revisit our horticultural themed analogy, would critics be better off using "prison yard"?
So where do people put android in this analogy - is it like one of those houses that don't have a garden at all, perhaps the front door leads straight out into the street? Or perhaps the landlord allows you to grow whatever the hell you like in the garden, beautiful flowers or thorny old weeds.
Whatever, the whole walled garden meme seems like it needs more work.
It does appear to matter to Apple that Siri doesn't function that well in the U.K., because of a lack of good localisation.
Maybe it just so happens that I speak with just the right accent and have a decent wifi connection but I swear I've never had any problems making it understand me. Anyway right or wrong, isn't that sort of quote known as weasel words: "It does appear"?
Of course I can't speak on behalf of those broader accented inhabitants of these isles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGxKhUuZ0Rc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
All the companies are just interested in making Apple sit down and shut the fuck up
So the only evidence you have of this is a timeline in which Apple made the first move? Go ahead and project your own bias onto it but the more likely situation is that they are all money grabbing bastards the same as each other, including googlerola. The board have sanctioned this move because they think there is a competetive advantage to be had, not because they want play bitch slappin high fives.
In fact I am rooting for apple not because I am a fanboy (which I am) but because I find this cross licensing consolidation, that is just a club for the big boys, slightly disturbing. And the support of it on slashdot even more so.
I will risk saying this without the Anonumous box checked, what the fuck is going on with the mass histeria? As if we are curing cancer several times per year now! It is a damn gadget, and a nice looking one to be honest, but a gadget it remains.
Well this is a gadget website amongst other things, and the headline clearly mentioned apple. Anyway it's not as if the existence of this story means there is now less space on the interweb for cancer-talk.
Maybe now his company will take a closer look at the conditions under which their Xoom manufacturers force upon the slaves.
Emphasis mine. Also works well if you substitute any of:
Honestly, if I had to sit down and design a hypocritical post I don't think I could beat yours.
Because troll moderators have taken over the site and are trying to subvert it
A-fucking-men. I only signed up a few weeks ago (was anonymous coward) and already I'm starting to wonder what's the point. I mean at least on cnet people are openly dicks, whereas here it seems more underhand. The endgame of all of this will be a collection of very similar and extreme opinions, doesn't sound very intellectually stimulating to me.
B-bye any chance of good karma :-) not sure I care anymore! Which saddens me because slashdot has been part of my routine for so long.
Cross-licensing of patents is actually a good thing, and something everybody in the cell phone market (except Qualcomm) was already doing for decades before Apple decided to enter the market. Price fixing, bad. But using ridiculous patents like "sliding an image to unlock the screen" is worse.
It's such a contentious issue that before I type any more I want to be clear that I am entirely against patents in their current form. So I'm comparing two evils here since I haven't seen any evidence that convinces me that cross licensing is a "good thing".
So lets use your example of the slide to unlock feature that we both agree is a stupid patent. Would it be better for the giants to get together on this and lock it up for themselves with a cosy agreement? Maybe my argument is a little too simplistic and if so point out the error of my ways!
You're the perfect example of what's wrong with the current state of corrupt corporate culture. Actually competing on merit is something that isn't even considered.
Sorry to set such a bad example ;) my comment was merely restricted to the matter of patents. Of course I have an opinion on competing on merit, but I won't offer it here - that would be a completely different point to the one I am making.
Which is the comparison of cross patent agreements vs litigation. I would be most interested in hearing your take on _that_ point.
That google has had for a long time, and they had search by image. Please apple try and infringe on this. I hope google sue you into oblivion.
An alternative viewpoint is those companies that aren't actively engaged in patent litigation are instead involved in cross licensing agreements. BTW I find it hard to believe that there is a third category where the patent holder simply sits on their patents with no attempt to monetise them, although i have no evidence for this.
And isn't it the case that to join in this ecosystem of patent cross licensing you have to already be a big player with a large stake to put in the game? If that's true then I would say this silent cooperation is a bigger validation of a corrupt patent system than the legal dogfights that we are witnessing.
I like my Apple products, but this endless pissing match between them and Samsung doesn't endear them to me.
The alternative is that they and similar companies silently cooperate with each other with practices like price fixing, cross licensing of patents and behaviour befitting a cartel.
So on balance I prefer it when these companies engage in a fight to the death, no one else is powerful enough to keep them honest.
Rorschach? Is that you?
The feature grid on the wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iOS_devices) should underscore how non-homogeneous the platform is.
If you look at the cold, analytical cross product of everything that Apple sell then you are right. However if you apply some "reasonable" weightings, such as limit the models to those that are actually sold and supported today as well as take into account the fact that most customers upgrade to the latest version of iOS http://theunderstatement.com/post/11982112928/android-orphans-visualizing-a-sad-history-of-support then I would say that intuitively iOS is the most homogeneous of all the platforms. Of course, games consoles are in a class of their own when it comes to homogeneity.
This link discusses the degrees of freedom of fragmentation: http://newspano.com/news/how-google-has-lost-control-of-android :-) http://ceklog.kindel.com/2012/01/14/fragmentation-is-not-the-end-of-android/
and this link debunks it somewhat
To me at least, "expanse of choice" and "fragmentation" are two ways of saying the same thing, one negative, one positive. So of course Android has both properties and Apple/iOS much less so.
I don't know why anybody cares, Siri isn't very useful at the present time anyway.
It's right that you qualified this, but all the same I find it incredibly useful right now for a limited number of scenarios. For example to set an alarm I just hold down the home button and say "wake me at six" - that's it, alarm set.
Another example, I'm walking down the street after work and want to send a text to the wife that maybe I'll be late. Well I just hold the phone to my ear, say "send a text" and take it from there. Could never do this obviously using the touch interface.
One more, locating a particular song: "play me Always crashing in the Same Car". That would normally take me ages to do.
All those thing may seem trivial to you, but not having all the options buried deep down to me, seems obviously the way to go. The nerd in me thinks of it as all commands being the same short distance away from me, the discrete metric space.