Imagine if your friends were able to hit the play Lecuna Coil's latest or first or second album by pressing a button on their car, home, or portable player?
Do you think they would still waste their time making copies of the stuff when all they want to do is listen to it when you want to listen to it.
I predict that artists that use oil and canvas will soon have to DRM their paint if more people had this mentality.
Sun's history is littered with failured "standards".
I guess Sun's success was NFS. Even with its faults, its handy and works "good enough".
SPARC appears dead. Java has landed in the middleware arena. Solaris is OK, but so is BSD, Linux, etc. (No flamewars please).
The best products they sell now under $10k are Opterons that run either Windows, Linux, or Solaris. Its a good business decision to sell such a niche product, eh? They would be in tough shape if other companies offered such products.
Once purchased, I can listen to it on any new form of playback that comes along.
Thats called a service.
Right now you can purchase services like this for movies (pay cable TV movies, pay-per-view, etc) and music with cable/satellite service.
Cable is close with their "on demand" service, but we simply want more. We want to be able to hear Men Without Hats, "The Safety Dance" NOW. Not when we get home, not when we get to our friends house if he is home.
Its called variety and people actually want this stuff.
Re:weird perspective for a conflict... and wrong!
on
Sun's Open Source DRM
·
· Score: 1
The alternative is paying for the service as if it were a service and not an end product.
People pay good money every month for TV and radio service. With TV you have the options of free OTH broadcasts that are supported via advertising or "by the help of people like you":) You can then get basic cable that has 13 or so channels, you can pay more and get more channels like Discovery, etc. You can then pay more for special channels like sports or movie channels. You could pay more and get DVR _service_ where you rent a proprietary box that can store many hours of audio/video content that works like a FIFO and the old stuff goes away.
There is not much value in CDs or DVDs anymore. They are so 90s. It sucks that I have to risk my life and the lives of others to change the CD in my car every 45 minutes or so. I would love a service where I can listen to what I want when I want. But nobody will provide that.
Re:weird perspective for a conflict... and wrong!
on
Sun's Open Source DRM
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
DRM may kill this system, which means I will not be getting new content.
I just thought of what the media people would do if they were in another service industry. Lets take for example, running water. Lets pretend that Sony gets into the water business.
If they were in the running water business, they would probably be in other businesses as well. Like Sony does content, hardware, etc. So you could get a Sony sink and faucet with your Sony water.
The difference is that you would have to use your Sony sink, or Sony licensed sink to drink your Sony water. The Sony water would then have to be protected so that a Panasonic sink would not be able to dispense of the Sony water. How would they do that?
DRM. Yes, they would add a poison to the water, at great expense and danger to the public. The water would kill you in seconds of ingestion without the aid of a Sony sink to remove the poison.
Of course, you could license the rights to drink Sony's poisoned water, but all of the fittings would be nonstandard. You would have to get special tools to work on the sink. Oh, and Sony water would never just go through PVC or copper pipe. The Sony water would need an end to end transport system.
Walking on fire has nothing to do with the power of the mind. I'm assuming you're talking about the old walking on coals trick. The secret is that coals aren't a very good conducter, and as such don't pass their heat onto the walkers feat very well in the brief time that they're in contact. If you were to place a metal sheet on top of the coals and have someone walk across that, well, you'd be in for a very different show.
Maybe that was not a good example. Yeah, I know about the physics of it, but there is psychology as well to get the feet to sweat. There are many people that walk on coals, but only one can claim:
On June 15, 2005, Amanda Dennison of Alberta, Canada broke the world record for completing the longest firewalk on earth. Amanda, at the age of only 23 years old, attended the F.I.R.E. Empowerment Weekend in December of 2004, and within 6 months, she crossed 220 feet of glowing coals measured between 1,600 and 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. (The previous world record was 167 feet.)
If this was only a matter of physics, there would be no world record, everybody would be able to walk across these things indefinitely.
Well, given that we are a social species, and given that for the last few 10's of millions of years of our history we have lived in groups
What species are you?
Homo sapiens have been around roughly 90,000 to 120,000 years.
They aren't studying "god" they are studying "what effect does belief in god have on a sick person."
One aspect of the study tries to quantify the effects of thought on the outside world with the mind only. Its called psychokinesis or telekinesis.
Psychokinesis is the process of moving or otherwise affecting physical objects by the mind only, without making any physical contact. I don't think there has been any evidence of this yet. However, ones thoughts, beliefs, and attitude does effect the chemicals in ones brains and positive thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes have been significantly better for people.
Correct, since this might not change any one who actually believes in praying for a relative.
But suppose the result was positive, that the study proved (under rigorous scietific scrutiny) that the prayers had effect?
In that case, quite a bit of people (who doesnt pray now for the ill) would have changed. Not that all atheists will start beleiveing in God or anything, but at least some will start praying for the relatives etc..
So, I guess you cant say that this study has *no* point at all.
Exactly.
A good scientific study would be for two groups of people where one was a control and did nothing, and the other group actively planned for the heart patient's death by figuring out how to pay for all of the doctor bills, funeral costs, wills, property, etc.
That is what I do when someone is sick. Don't you?
Remember that there were different results when the patient was told they were being prayed for.
Exactly.
The mind is a powerful thing. Thought precedes all action.
I saw on TV the other night where health insurance companies are starting to give patients CDs with soothing positive thoughts and the amount of medication the patients needed was less, they stayed less in hospitals, etc.
Meditating people can do stuff like walk on fire and sleep outside in the freezing cold with only a thin sheet for cover.
Hell, some people's minds tell them that they are billionaires while others just bitch about not having any money. On average, the people whose brains tell them that they are poor are over stressed and less healthy too. Go figure.
For just once, I wish the government would "Protect the Children(tm)" without *Squashing My Rights* !
Aside from the standard, already existing laws against incest, child molestation, exploitation, labor laws, education, etc the government has no new ground to do with children. They have done their job there, its done.
All of this "Protect the Children" stuff are deceptive tactics with ulterior motives. What in the world could the government do to "protect the children" from seeing people fuck on a computer screen? Its already known that the stuff is for those over 18 to do the stuff, what more can they do? What is next? Protecting those under 21 from drinking? Its not going to happen via new legislation.
You ever notice how gov't acts named things like "Protection of Families" or "Protection of Marriage" or "Protection of Children" or "Protection from Terrorists" mainly serve to limit or take away legal protections and rights from the people?
You have to be "pro" something, and the "pro" thing has to be a "good" thing. A friend overtly says he is "pro abortion", not "pro choice", but that is not politically correct. I too am "pro abortion".
One, of many things that is seriously damaged within our government are the rider bills. I've heard that Australia did away with those years ago, and those little laws at the end of the USAPATRIOT Act, and friends have plenty of things embedded in the hundreds of pages of legalese with new laws that sound initially good, but are actually to the detriment of the people as a whole.
I think I have the right to make my own choices and live with the consequences as long as no one else gets hurt and I feel that my fellow Americans deserve the same rights.
Great idea, wrong time. That was a function of the original government founded here in the US. The government does not want, nor needs, free thinking people making their own choices. The prohibition of marijuana should be sufficient evidence here. No piece of government information warrants it being illegal, at least not in the same time having alcohol and cigarettes being legal. But then again, even supposedly "rational" people sitting on the Supreme Court have made a number of completely irrational (or at least, unjust) decisions.
There are dozens of completely bizarre decisions if you look at:
This is not rocket science. Without exception, every single society in all of history has followed the exact same pattern: Dark Ages -> Civilization -> Golden Age -> Decline -> Dark Ages. Without exception.
I don't believe this is true. England, Greece, and Italy (former Roman empire) are not in the "Dark Ages" to my knowledge. Being that the US is declining from its "Golden Age", it would be nice if we simply exercised moderation and simplicity, but what is happening is that the bling! thing is out of control.
A friend of mine that drives an H3 didn't know what kind of car I drove, and saw a modest compact 4 door import, and asked another friend "Who's car is that?" in a condescending voice tone. I do like the H3 guy. But he is much more influenced by the perception of success that is portrayed in the mass media vs true success. Its sad.
Not at all. Do you really think the spy agencies would publicly reveal one of their most valuable assets, just to get some stupid DoJ pet project finished?
Do you think for a minute that any of the potential information that could or would be gathered via such a subpoena would be publicly revealed?
Can somebody please explain why it is that the DoJ is being allowed to write all these subpoenas anyway? I didn't think they had any legal right to do so.
Its borderline legal. These are _civil_ subpoenas. They are not criminal ones. There is no crime involved. Porn is legal. Anybody, including the government can sue anybody in the US, but I don't understand why judges are granting these subpoenas being that nothing can come from the data collected. I don't understand why they forgot about the 1st and 4th amendments.
What they should do is get their goddamn hand out of the pot and let the market decide what it needs. Do people want web filtering to protect their children? Let them pay for filters, or even better, take a hands-on approach with their children online. Either way, this is between consumers and producers. I don't see how the government belongs in this picture.
I of course agree, but this is NOT about "the children".
Its disguised that way, its completely, as well put by the parent to:
to set up a case to argue that Congress needs to legislate more censorship and regulations to protect Americans from our own freedoms.
and I'll expand, by adding to limit our freedoms.
In talking with a friend last night, he believes that we are heading towards being a 3rd world country. And this guy is juiced into the government, bigtime. Former DOE and NSF guy, and still sucks grant money all the time. He said that the discrepancy between the "haves" and the "have nots" is going to keep expanding. Housing prices are through the roof. The banking, oil, and insurance companies pretty much rule this country, etc.
It won't affect me in my lifetime, nor probably my children, but after that, I have no predictions that are positive with the direction things are going.
First, this proves that the government's infamous "Carnivore" either does not exist or does not work. Which is nice.
Second, this proves that something is wrong with the government.
Porn is legal and good. The quality and quantity that you can get now is astounding, and most of it is served straight from the US in very high speed, and the companies comply with all laws, or at least as many if not more than other companies.
Porn is legal. Subpoenaing ISPs and snooping into our business is not legal.
I'm guessing that this is yet another attempt by the feds to get more control of its people they work for, and they are just disguising it as one of those "think of the children" things so that women and the like will say, "Well its for the greater good, right?"
If they really wanted to look for porn, subpoena CCBill, subpoena a porn website, subpoena credit card companies, or bank records. Oh, that might not slip under the "save the children radar" of the courts and the people. So, lets just look at ISP records for now, later....
I usually don't respond to ACs, but... Why people post AC unless its something they really want to be semi-anonymous is unknown to me. But here we go:
You must be one of those guys that never puts error bars in his papers given anecdotal 50% comment. The MARKET AS A WHOLE is realitively small for apple, regardless the merits or demerits of its desktops and laptops, which is what that poster was saying.
Of course I use error bars.
"The Macintosh may only have 10% of the market, but it is clearly the top 10%."
Right now Apple sells relatively low volumes of its laptops and desktops, it could easily double but would still not represent very big numbers, compared to Dell.
Go to a technology or scientific conference, and look around, about 50% of the laptops you see are going to be Apples. Apple powerbooks are the best laptops available, and have been for years. Every IO available (except digital audio in/out). Out of the box support for monitors up to 2500+ pixel resolution 30" displays. They are light, strong, thin, and just look sexy. The backlit keyboards, the auto-correcting backlighting of the display according to the ambient light levels. I could go on an on. I don't consider any other laptop to be near the quality of a powerbook.
The thinking of the "Joe Sixpack doesn't care about things like that" is dying out.
Which is probably why Microsoft was at the bottom of the list, and Dell was near the top.
It used to be that people blamed the "computer" for Windows problems, but now with the prevalence of spyware, viruses, rootkits, adware, and all of that junk that comes with Windows, and other systems don't have these issues, and are becoming more popular, people are beginning to be educated as to who to blame.
At first glance, I thought this article was skewed. Then I read the article (gasp!), and I found out that the grades were on a curve.
Dell is OK. I would give them an A- or B+. Apple would get an A, despite the bugs in Tiger. Bose does well with their target audience. Being an audio snob, I am not in their target audience. But being that they are the only consumer product that I know of that uses non-IR remote controls, and they do provide "good enough" products that have a good user interface and convenience with their size and styling, I would still give them an A. Sony, despite their rootkits, proprietary formats, etc was very good until the past couple of years. Their professional stuff is still pretty good, but consumer level has dropped in quality over the years. Sony used to be the TV manufacturer. Today, its JVC. Back to Sony, do they even still make their ES line of equipment? Or are they more of a Circuit City/Best Buy grade of electronics now?
Oh, and with MS. I would give them a C- or so. I still won't use their stuff. I wouldn't hire a person right out of school that got a C- average in their field either or did C- level work at their previous companies. I found it amusing when the parent said, 'did you install the latest driver, have you rebooted', because when I did inhouse MS support, I told my users not to call me until they rebooted. Back then, it "fixed" 90% of the problems (win95 era).
Honestly, I would like to start a consumer electronics company that does not suck. Ha! Or maybe one that does, but just sucks less like mutt the mail program:) It would be nice to make things like car stereos, cell phones, land phones, home audio, portable audio, etc that is something that I would be happy using. Much of the electronics today get about an A or B in terms of hardware performance. However, I would give most an D or F in terms of usability and user interface.
HDTVs suck in terms of getting 4x3 and 16x9 correct. Currently, I have a $2k video upscaler that upconverts every video signal to 1080p, and even that can't figure out 4x3 and 16x9 correctly. Digital Audio can't figure out if its 2.1, 2.0, [567].1, or whatever without assistance, and even then some electronics won't do it correctly. Ever try to adjust the bass, treble, or subwoofer on an aftermarket car stereo? Ever try to do it while driving?
I believe I have great vision for electronics. I kind of don't want to work hard enough to own my own company, and have no clue where to get X millions of dollars upfront to get a product line going, and then, there may not be a market for quality electronics. Although, the Bose and iPod success stories seems to indicate that there is a market for usability, with sonic fidelity being second.
Anyone have X millions and are interested in a venture like this, reply. Or maybe I should just keep doing my middle class lifestyle. Hmm...
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No it isn't.
Imagine if your friends were able to hit the play Lecuna Coil's latest or first or second album by pressing a button on their car, home, or portable player?
Do you think they would still waste their time making copies of the stuff when all they want to do is listen to it when you want to listen to it.
I predict that artists that use oil and canvas will soon have to DRM their paint if more people had this mentality.
I am not so sure about how prayer (or cursing) may affect people at distance and without their knowledge of it.
Prayer and cursing do nothing at a distance. For that, you need what I have.
A voodoo doll!
Its too cool. I can poke the thing with needles and anyone in the world will then act as though I poked them.
eBay sells them:
Voodoo Dolls for less
Looking for Voodoo Dolls?
Buy direct from sellers and save
everythingelse.ebay.com
Sun's history is littered with failured "standards".
I guess Sun's success was NFS. Even with its faults, its handy and works "good enough".
SPARC appears dead. Java has landed in the middleware arena. Solaris is OK, but so is BSD, Linux, etc. (No flamewars please).
The best products they sell now under $10k are Opterons that run either Windows, Linux, or Solaris. Its a good business decision to sell such a niche product, eh? They would be in tough shape if other companies offered such products.
If I read the article correctly...
I purchase the -right- to listen to a song.
Once purchased, I can replace it if I lose it.
Once purchased, I can listen to it on any new form of playback that comes along.
Thats called a service.
Right now you can purchase services like this for movies (pay cable TV movies, pay-per-view, etc) and music with cable/satellite service.
Cable is close with their "on demand" service, but we simply want more. We want to be able to hear Men Without Hats, "The Safety Dance" NOW. Not when we get home, not when we get to our friends house if he is home.
Its called variety and people actually want this stuff.
The alternative is paying for the service as if it were a service and not an end product.
People pay good money every month for TV and radio service. With TV you have the options of free OTH broadcasts that are supported via advertising or "by the help of people like you"
There is not much value in CDs or DVDs anymore. They are so 90s. It sucks that I have to risk my life and the lives of others to change the CD in my car every 45 minutes or so. I would love a service where I can listen to what I want when I want. But nobody will provide that.
DRM may kill this system, which means I will not be getting new content.
I just thought of what the media people would do if they were in another service industry. Lets take for example, running water. Lets pretend that Sony gets into the water business.
If they were in the running water business, they would probably be in other businesses as well. Like Sony does content, hardware, etc. So you could get a Sony sink and faucet with your Sony water.
The difference is that you would have to use your Sony sink, or Sony licensed sink to drink your Sony water. The Sony water would then have to be protected so that a Panasonic sink would not be able to dispense of the Sony water. How would they do that?
DRM. Yes, they would add a poison to the water, at great expense and danger to the public. The water would kill you in seconds of ingestion without the aid of a Sony sink to remove the poison.
Of course, you could license the rights to drink Sony's poisoned water, but all of the fittings would be nonstandard. You would have to get special tools to work on the sink. Oh, and Sony water would never just go through PVC or copper pipe. The Sony water would need an end to end transport system.
Maybe that was not a good example. Yeah, I know about the physics of it, but there is psychology as well to get the feet to sweat. There are many people that walk on coals, but only one can claim: If this was only a matter of physics, there would be no world record, everybody would be able to walk across these things indefinitely.
Much sillier theories have been put to the test -- and gotten unexpected results.
Yeah, there have been silly experiments where people's health improved after taking sugar pills.
Its called Placebo effect.
What species are you?
Homo sapiens have been around roughly 90,000 to 120,000 years.
They aren't studying "god" they are studying "what effect does belief in god have on a sick person."
One aspect of the study tries to quantify the effects of thought on the outside world with the mind only. Its called psychokinesis or telekinesis.
Correct, since this might not change any one who actually believes in praying for a relative.
..
But suppose the result was positive, that the study proved (under rigorous scietific scrutiny) that the prayers had effect?
In that case, quite a bit of people (who doesnt pray now for the ill) would have changed. Not that all atheists will start beleiveing in God or anything, but at least some will start praying for the relatives etc
So, I guess you cant say that this study has *no* point at all.
Exactly.
A good scientific study would be for two groups of people where one was a control and did nothing, and the other group actively planned for the heart patient's death by figuring out how to pay for all of the doctor bills, funeral costs, wills, property, etc.
That is what I do when someone is sick. Don't you?
Remember that there were different results when the patient was told they were being prayed for.
Exactly.
The mind is a powerful thing. Thought precedes all action.
I saw on TV the other night where health insurance companies are starting to give patients CDs with soothing positive thoughts and the amount of medication the patients needed was less, they stayed less in hospitals, etc.
Meditating people can do stuff like walk on fire and sleep outside in the freezing cold with only a thin sheet for cover.
Hell, some people's minds tell them that they are billionaires while others just bitch about not having any money. On average, the people whose brains tell them that they are poor are over stressed and less healthy too. Go figure.
And if they used (secret government operation) to get the data, it'd be real hard to explain where the summary came from.
47 story steel buildings fall easier than that.
For just once, I wish the government would "Protect the Children(tm)" without *Squashing My Rights* !
s _Supreme_Court_cases
Aside from the standard, already existing laws against incest, child molestation, exploitation, labor laws, education, etc the government has no new ground to do with children. They have done their job there, its done.
All of this "Protect the Children" stuff are deceptive tactics with ulterior motives. What in the world could the government do to "protect the children" from seeing people fuck on a computer screen? Its already known that the stuff is for those over 18 to do the stuff, what more can they do? What is next? Protecting those under 21 from drinking? Its not going to happen via new legislation.
You ever notice how gov't acts named things like "Protection of Families" or "Protection of Marriage" or "Protection of Children" or "Protection from Terrorists" mainly serve to limit or take away legal protections and rights from the people?
You have to be "pro" something, and the "pro" thing has to be a "good" thing. A friend overtly says he is "pro abortion", not "pro choice", but that is not politically correct. I too am "pro abortion".
One, of many things that is seriously damaged within our government are the rider bills. I've heard that Australia did away with those years ago, and those little laws at the end of the USAPATRIOT Act, and friends have plenty of things embedded in the hundreds of pages of legalese with new laws that sound initially good, but are actually to the detriment of the people as a whole.
I think I have the right to make my own choices and live with the consequences as long as no one else gets hurt and I feel that my fellow Americans deserve the same rights.
Great idea, wrong time. That was a function of the original government founded here in the US. The government does not want, nor needs, free thinking people making their own choices. The prohibition of marijuana should be sufficient evidence here. No piece of government information warrants it being illegal, at least not in the same time having alcohol and cigarettes being legal. But then again, even supposedly "rational" people sitting on the Supreme Court have made a number of completely irrational (or at least, unjust) decisions.
There are dozens of completely bizarre decisions if you look at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_State
This is not rocket science. Without exception, every single society in all of history has followed the exact same pattern: Dark Ages -> Civilization -> Golden Age -> Decline -> Dark Ages. Without exception.
I don't believe this is true. England, Greece, and Italy (former Roman empire) are not in the "Dark Ages" to my knowledge. Being that the US is declining from its "Golden Age", it would be nice if we simply exercised moderation and simplicity, but what is happening is that the bling! thing is out of control.
A friend of mine that drives an H3 didn't know what kind of car I drove, and saw a modest compact 4 door import, and asked another friend "Who's car is that?" in a condescending voice tone. I do like the H3 guy. But he is much more influenced by the perception of success that is portrayed in the mass media vs true success. Its sad.
Not at all. Do you really think the spy agencies would publicly reveal one of their most valuable assets, just to get some stupid DoJ pet project finished?
Do you think for a minute that any of the potential information that could or would be gathered via such a subpoena would be publicly revealed?
the end result is the government is building a very large database of information on US citizens.
I don't think so. There are larger and better organized databases out there that already for sale. This is just a power trip thing. Nothing new.
Can somebody please explain why it is that the DoJ is being allowed to write all these subpoenas anyway? I didn't think they had any legal right to do so.
Its borderline legal. These are _civil_ subpoenas. They are not criminal ones. There is no crime involved. Porn is legal. Anybody, including the government can sue anybody in the US, but I don't understand why judges are granting these subpoenas being that nothing can come from the data collected. I don't understand why they forgot about the 1st and 4th amendments.
What they should do is get their goddamn hand out of the pot and let the market decide what it needs. Do people want web filtering to protect their children? Let them pay for filters, or even better, take a hands-on approach with their children online. Either way, this is between consumers and producers. I don't see how the government belongs in this picture.
I of course agree, but this is NOT about "the children".
Its disguised that way, its completely, as well put by the parent to:
to set up a case to argue that Congress needs to legislate more censorship and regulations to protect Americans from our own freedoms.
and I'll expand, by adding to limit our freedoms.
In talking with a friend last night, he believes that we are heading towards being a 3rd world country. And this guy is juiced into the government, bigtime. Former DOE and NSF guy, and still sucks grant money all the time. He said that the discrepancy between the "haves" and the "have nots" is going to keep expanding. Housing prices are through the roof. The banking, oil, and insurance companies pretty much rule this country, etc.
It won't affect me in my lifetime, nor probably my children, but after that, I have no predictions that are positive with the direction things are going.
First, this proves that the government's infamous "Carnivore" either does not exist or does not work. Which is nice.
Second, this proves that something is wrong with the government.
Porn is legal and good. The quality and quantity that you can get now is astounding, and most of it is served straight from the US in very high speed, and the companies comply with all laws, or at least as many if not more than other companies.
Porn is legal. Subpoenaing ISPs and snooping into our business is not legal.
I'm guessing that this is yet another attempt by the feds to get more control of its people they work for, and they are just disguising it as one of those "think of the children" things so that women and the like will say, "Well its for the greater good, right?"
If they really wanted to look for porn, subpoena CCBill, subpoena a porn website, subpoena credit card companies, or bank records. Oh, that might not slip under the "save the children radar" of the courts and the people. So, lets just look at ISP records for now, later....
I usually don't respond to ACs, but... Why people post AC unless its something they really want to be semi-anonymous is unknown to me. But here we go:
You must be one of those guys that never puts error bars in his papers given anecdotal 50% comment. The MARKET AS A WHOLE is realitively small for apple, regardless the merits or demerits of its desktops and laptops, which is what that poster was saying.
Of course I use error bars.
"The Macintosh may only have 10% of the market, but it is clearly the top 10%."
-- Douglas Adams
I'll post anonymously, just because I can!
Please search for "world peace" then.
& q=world+peace
o Z1QQfsopZ3QQxpufuZx
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en
For me, its the 3rd ad on the right. It says:
World Peace
Whatever you're looking for
you can get it on eBay
Here are the eBay listings: http://search.ebay.com/world-peace_W0QQfnuZ1QQfso
Right now Apple sells relatively low volumes of its laptops and desktops, it could easily double but would still not represent very big numbers, compared to Dell.
Go to a technology or scientific conference, and look around, about 50% of the laptops you see are going to be Apples. Apple powerbooks are the best laptops available, and have been for years. Every IO available (except digital audio in/out). Out of the box support for monitors up to 2500+ pixel resolution 30" displays. They are light, strong, thin, and just look sexy. The backlit keyboards, the auto-correcting backlighting of the display according to the ambient light levels. I could go on an on. I don't consider any other laptop to be near the quality of a powerbook.
The thinking of the "Joe Sixpack doesn't care about things like that" is dying out.
Which is probably why Microsoft was at the bottom of the list, and Dell was near the top.
It used to be that people blamed the "computer" for Windows problems, but now with the prevalence of spyware, viruses, rootkits, adware, and all of that junk that comes with Windows, and other systems don't have these issues, and are becoming more popular, people are beginning to be educated as to who to blame.
At first glance, I thought this article was skewed. Then I read the article (gasp!), and I found out that the grades were on a curve.
Dell is OK. I would give them an A- or B+. Apple would get an A, despite the bugs in Tiger. Bose does well with their target audience. Being an audio snob, I am not in their target audience. But being that they are the only consumer product that I know of that uses non-IR remote controls, and they do provide "good enough" products that have a good user interface and convenience with their size and styling, I would still give them an A. Sony, despite their rootkits, proprietary formats, etc was very good until the past couple of years. Their professional stuff is still pretty good, but consumer level has dropped in quality over the years. Sony used to be the TV manufacturer. Today, its JVC. Back to Sony, do they even still make their ES line of equipment? Or are they more of a Circuit City/Best Buy grade of electronics now?
Oh, and with MS. I would give them a C- or so. I still won't use their stuff. I wouldn't hire a person right out of school that got a C- average in their field either or did C- level work at their previous companies. I found it amusing when the parent said, 'did you install the latest driver, have you rebooted', because when I did inhouse MS support, I told my users not to call me until they rebooted. Back then, it "fixed" 90% of the problems (win95 era).
Honestly, I would like to start a consumer electronics company that does not suck. Ha! Or maybe one that does, but just sucks less like mutt the mail program
HDTVs suck in terms of getting 4x3 and 16x9 correct. Currently, I have a $2k video upscaler that upconverts every video signal to 1080p, and even that can't figure out 4x3 and 16x9 correctly. Digital Audio can't figure out if its 2.1, 2.0, [567].1, or whatever without assistance, and even then some electronics won't do it correctly. Ever try to adjust the bass, treble, or subwoofer on an aftermarket car stereo? Ever try to do it while driving?
I believe I have great vision for electronics. I kind of don't want to work hard enough to own my own company, and have no clue where to get X millions of dollars upfront to get a product line going, and then, there may not be a market for quality electronics. Although, the Bose and iPod success stories seems to indicate that there is a market for usability, with sonic fidelity being second.
Anyone have X millions and are interested in a venture like this, reply. Or maybe I should just keep doing my middle class lifestyle. Hmm...
If they do it again tomorrow with text from nytimes.com would that be another story?
:)
Wait a couple of hours, this story could be completely duped