Lindows is a terrible name. How about now that they've ripped off much of the appearance of Windows, they have some balls and come up with something a bit more unique in the name department? (Witness all the Linux distros with unique and memorable names - I don't use Linux, but companies like Mandrake, RedHat, SuSE, etc all have pretty decent branding.)
Oh, and while Lindows.com is at it, what about coming up with a site design that's less of a rip-off of the Apple site?
I haven't bought a CD in 5 years. File-sharing will cop the majority of blame, but why don't they look a little closer at those economic conditions and the fact that most people in certain demographics would rather spend on DVDs or games (more quality in console and PC games these days than there is in most of the music industry).
Even if I did like some of the music coming out, why would I want it on CD? I have a 6-stack CD player that I don't use. In my car, I use a 40GB iPod and an iTrip. Who can be bothered switching CDs every hour or so?
Additionally, if the US continually reduces the H1-Bs or whatever allows foreigners to pick up jobs on American turf (where they'd throw their salary back into local companies), they'll just do the jobs from abroad and spend their earnings in their home countries.
It's recently been admitted by the largest service providers in the mobile/cell phone industry that even if you delete your SMS/Text messages, the telcos retain the data for a period. Telstra holds your messages for 28 days, and Optus holds them for 3 days.
There is a murder case running in Queensland where messages (thought to have been deleted by the accused) are being used as evidence of planning the incident.
Still, 100 meg is a lot of storage for a free service. Yahoo used to offer 15, then decided they couldn't afford it. If it were anybody but Google, I'd dismiss the whole thing as another dotcom boondoggle. But Google has a talent for making money on services you wouldn't believe are profitable.
Wait until they're running adsense/adwords in the sidebar with advertising pertaining to your email contents. Which might get interesting if you're reading spam a lot!
But then I realised that the actual April Fool's joke on Slashdot this year was the ad for the OSDN Singles dating site saying "Your options are endless".
Endless indeed: endless numbers of overweight males, confined indoors. Great.
On one hand, I don't think that's a real negative, as my proposal would be an improvement on the existing system -- users would see more ads they were interested in or found entertaining, advertisers would have better targetting, and the media giants in the middle would just charge everyone more.
But as you've suggested, one thing further that could apply to some (but not all ads) would be a little quiz to show that users were paying attention. "What discount are we offering on office chairs? 20%, 30% or 50%", etc.
User must watch 5 ads in any given ad break. If an ad comes on that they're not interested in, they just hit NEXT. They can keep calling up new ads, but they must fully play 5 before the program will continue. That way, consumers are shown stuff in which they're interested, and advertisers aren't wasting impressions on others.
Xbox has some great games (Halo is definitely one of the best, but I also like Splinter Cell a lot). I really wouldn't write it off until you've tried a lot of the games. One of my Xbox's has about 30 games on the drive, of which 15 I play quite often and would recommend.
Do Nintendo have plans for online gaming? Does their current system do it? Can you load MP3s onto the console, play DVDs? These are things that PS2 and Xbox do, and that the media are watching with anticipation of the future of consoles and media units in lounge rooms across the planet.
I can't see how this would be too widely adopted. I work in an open-plan office where sound is already an issue (people talking over each other on phones, music playing, etc) and the lasts thing we'd need is the general rhubarb-rhubarb of people talking to their computers.
Yes, on PDAs where input options are potentially more limited, the opportunities would be greater, but that's about it.
Would you want to be doing a presentation saying "next", "next" and risking it misinterpreting your words, not hearing you, embarrassing you in front of clients -- or would you rather just use a clicker or mouse and make sure that your presentation is going exactly where you want it to go?
The applications, IMHO, would be largely limited to use by the disabled.
I think that might be because Nintendo has traditionally marketed at younger kids, and the future of any type of media centre is going to lie with early adopters (15-35 year old males).
Perhaps the media noticed this a couple of years ago, and now there is a wave of news that's carrying only Sony and Microsoft, and leaving Nintendo behind.
In the last 2 years, I've heard people arguing Xbox vs PS2, and weighing up which they'd prefer to buy, but I've never heard anyone consider the purchase of a GameCube.
(Got my second Xbox delivered today -- 8 controllers and 370GB of storage between them. Lots of fun!)
Yes, but what's stopping people for clicking the ad anyway, even if they already own the product? It doesn't cost them anything to check the price and see if they got a good deal, see if the page has any links to the data they're after, etc.
The advertiser might not get a sale, but they increase brand awareness.
I was an Australian in the UK trying to deal with Dell there and suffered delays in getting an Inspiron delivered. After a few problems from them (not returning calls when promised, delivering it to the wrong address, etc), I complained persistently until they gave up an Axim for nothing.
If they fuck you around, be persistent, deal only through email (gives you a record of what they've said/promised) and talk it through like a lawyer. Don't let them start thinking like they'll get away with an apology!
Oh, so tough you are writing them a "nastygram" from afar!
Chances are that they didn't develop their site, and contracted developers did it for them. You'd be better off sending your nastygrams to their web contacts, or emailing the sporting company *politely*, outlining the situation, and have them either find new developers, or talk to those they're already using.
It's nicer and you'll probably get the result you were after (or a voucher!).;)
Additionally, it's been recently reported in Australia that the method of calculation for awarding gold and platinum designations to albums and artists is majorly flawed.
The count is not on how many albums/CDs have actually sold, but on how many units the record companies have shipped to the stores, regardless of whether or not they ever actually sell. In this way, artists can have a platinum album on hype without even selling a single CD.
Slashdot Mirror
Lindows is a terrible name. How about now that they've ripped off much of the appearance of Windows, they have some balls and come up with something a bit more unique in the name department? (Witness all the Linux distros with unique and memorable names - I don't use Linux, but companies like Mandrake, RedHat, SuSE, etc all have pretty decent branding.)
Oh, and while Lindows.com is at it, what about coming up with a site design that's less of a rip-off of the Apple site?
I haven't bought a CD in 5 years. File-sharing will cop the majority of blame, but why don't they look a little closer at those economic conditions and the fact that most people in certain demographics would rather spend on DVDs or games (more quality in console and PC games these days than there is in most of the music industry).
Even if I did like some of the music coming out, why would I want it on CD? I have a 6-stack CD player that I don't use. In my car, I use a 40GB iPod and an iTrip. Who can be bothered switching CDs every hour or so?
What about 2 hours of a one-legged man on a dance machine then?
About 5 years ago, I assisted in designing some Linux Badges. These guys are so behind!
Oh, badgers...
Not according to dictionary.com (which may very well be wrong, but if they were, surely someone would've notified them already).
Good post.
Additionally, if the US continually reduces the H1-Bs or whatever allows foreigners to pick up jobs on American turf (where they'd throw their salary back into local companies), they'll just do the jobs from abroad and spend their earnings in their home countries.
Platypuses is the correct plural, NOT platypae.
So witty that you had to share it with us too, huh? ;)
It's recently been admitted by the largest service providers in the mobile/cell phone industry that even if you delete your SMS/Text messages, the telcos retain the data for a period. Telstra holds your messages for 28 days, and Optus holds them for 3 days.
There is a murder case running in Queensland where messages (thought to have been deleted by the accused) are being used as evidence of planning the incident.
Weakling! Real Men put lead in their bare hands and hold them in a furnace. Or the sun (whichever is closer to their sofa and TV remote).
There was a guy at uni when I was there: Wayne King.
Wait until they're running adsense/adwords in the sidebar with advertising pertaining to your email contents. Which might get interesting if you're reading spam a lot!
It's almost an April Fool's Prank.
But then I realised that the actual April Fool's joke on Slashdot this year was the ad for the OSDN Singles dating site saying "Your options are endless".
Endless indeed: endless numbers of overweight males, confined indoors. Great.
Just wanted to point something out -- PR most commonly denotes "Public Relations" rather than "Press Release" as this submitter has implied.
On one hand, I don't think that's a real negative, as my proposal would be an improvement on the existing system -- users would see more ads they were interested in or found entertaining, advertisers would have better targetting, and the media giants in the middle would just charge everyone more.
But as you've suggested, one thing further that could apply to some (but not all ads) would be a little quiz to show that users were paying attention. "What discount are we offering on office chairs? 20%, 30% or 50%", etc.
The killer idea will be this:
User must watch 5 ads in any given ad break. If an ad comes on that they're not interested in, they just hit NEXT. They can keep calling up new ads, but they must fully play 5 before the program will continue. That way, consumers are shown stuff in which they're interested, and advertisers aren't wasting impressions on others.
Xbox has some great games (Halo is definitely one of the best, but I also like Splinter Cell a lot). I really wouldn't write it off until you've tried a lot of the games. One of my Xbox's has about 30 games on the drive, of which 15 I play quite often and would recommend.
Do Nintendo have plans for online gaming? Does their current system do it? Can you load MP3s onto the console, play DVDs? These are things that PS2 and Xbox do, and that the media are watching with anticipation of the future of consoles and media units in lounge rooms across the planet.
I can't see how this would be too widely adopted. I work in an open-plan office where sound is already an issue (people talking over each other on phones, music playing, etc) and the lasts thing we'd need is the general rhubarb-rhubarb of people talking to their computers.
Yes, on PDAs where input options are potentially more limited, the opportunities would be greater, but that's about it.
Would you want to be doing a presentation saying "next", "next" and risking it misinterpreting your words, not hearing you, embarrassing you in front of clients -- or would you rather just use a clicker or mouse and make sure that your presentation is going exactly where you want it to go?
The applications, IMHO, would be largely limited to use by the disabled.
I think that might be because Nintendo has traditionally marketed at younger kids, and the future of any type of media centre is going to lie with early adopters (15-35 year old males).
Perhaps the media noticed this a couple of years ago, and now there is a wave of news that's carrying only Sony and Microsoft, and leaving Nintendo behind.
In the last 2 years, I've heard people arguing Xbox vs PS2, and weighing up which they'd prefer to buy, but I've never heard anyone consider the purchase of a GameCube.
(Got my second Xbox delivered today -- 8 controllers and 370GB of storage between them. Lots of fun!)
When I first heard about Sedna, I wondered if it'd been discovered by astronomers in South America -- reverse the letters in "sedna"...
Yes, but what's stopping people for clicking the ad anyway, even if they already own the product? It doesn't cost them anything to check the price and see if they got a good deal, see if the page has any links to the data they're after, etc.
The advertiser might not get a sale, but they increase brand awareness.
I was an Australian in the UK trying to deal with Dell there and suffered delays in getting an Inspiron delivered. After a few problems from them (not returning calls when promised, delivering it to the wrong address, etc), I complained persistently until they gave up an Axim for nothing.
If they fuck you around, be persistent, deal only through email (gives you a record of what they've said/promised) and talk it through like a lawyer. Don't let them start thinking like they'll get away with an apology!
Walk over them, or they'll walk over you.
Hey, he could save some money and just look in the mirror. Ladies and gentlement, here's your alien:
Paul Alien!
Oh, so tough you are writing them a "nastygram" from afar!
;)
Chances are that they didn't develop their site, and contracted developers did it for them. You'd be better off sending your nastygrams to their web contacts, or emailing the sporting company *politely*, outlining the situation, and have them either find new developers, or talk to those they're already using.
It's nicer and you'll probably get the result you were after (or a voucher!).
Additionally, it's been recently reported in Australia that the method of calculation for awarding gold and platinum designations to albums and artists is majorly flawed.
The count is not on how many albums/CDs have actually sold, but on how many units the record companies have shipped to the stores, regardless of whether or not they ever actually sell. In this way, artists can have a platinum album on hype without even selling a single CD.
Ridiculous.