Again, I'll ask you, how is China at all relevant to this particular story? It's about an incident that took place - and which was quickly dealt with in the appropriate manner - in India. The only one talking about China here is you.
Hiding your backdoor xenophobia - sorry, that's what it looks like from where I'm standing - by saying that you were simply "providing China as a counterexample" is ridiculous. It's the kind of tangential and tenuous link that has sheriff departments in the US excusing their locking up of law-abiding citizens for using uncommon but legal tender as terrorism-related vigilance.
Really? Apple is the only company that does this? What complete and utter rubbish.
When Microsoft releases a new version of Windows does it give free or even cheaper upgrades to people that purchased the previous version just prior to the launch? No, they don't and neither do a lot of other software companies. Some do, and that's a good thing, but let's not pretend that Apple is unique in its position with regards to who does and who doesn't qualify for a free or minimal-cost upgrade.
1. The people posting here are (or should be) "up on all the Apple minutae". They have no excuses for not knowing that Tiger was immenent, because it's been talked about on Slashdot at least once a month for the past few months.
2. Most of the "less tech. savvy people and ex windows users" who've bought Mac Minis prior to the official release of Tiger are undoubtedly happy with what they've got and probably don't even know Tiger exists: can you really miss something you don't even know about?
3. It's not just Mac Mini owners that are affected by Apple's well-known and well-established upgrade policy; other Mac owners are affected too. In fact, I'd go as far to say Mac Mini owners are most probably a very small percentage (maybe 5 percent at most?) of the Jaguar-using Mac community. Everyone else has to live with it, so why should Mac Mini owners be any different?
4. Software development costs money. Someone has to pay for it and that someone is the customer. And that means upgrade customers as well as new ones: why should new customers subsidise existing ones? Like I said before, no matter where you draw the line there's always going to be someone who's disappointed that you drew it just too short for them.
Who mentioned China? The story summary didn't and neither did anyone in this thread until you.
Heck, if you're going to bring China into this, why not bring up Switzerland? Swiss companies are pretty well protected by Swiss law, so aren't they a danger too? Heck, why stop there? What about the danger Freedonia poses?
I'm guessing that most American Mac users won't even notice - after all, it's just foreign words, right?
OK, so that's a tongue-in-cheek comment but I'm guessing it's not as far from the truth as you might like to think. I do believe it was Dubya - with his Harvard education - who came out with the immortal line "The problem with the French is that they have no word for 'entrepreneur'".
There is a restriction. It's called the license agreement.
By the way, your English teacher is probably crying right now. "[T]here isn't any restrictions"? I wouldn't mention it except I know that you're quite particular about getting these things right yourself, aren't you?
OK, even if that is the case - which I'm perfectly happy to concede without argument - who's fault is that?
Anyone who's even vaguely familiar with Apple - anyone who's read any Apple Expo news, anyone who reads any Apple magazines or websites, anyone who reads the Apple stories on Slashdot - knew full well that Apple were going to be realising Tiger soon. And, anyone who fit into that category also knew full well that they weren't guaranteed a free upgrade, and that how much they were going to have to pay for it would depend on when they bought their Apple machine in relation to the official launch/announcement date for Tiger.
How hard is it to put off your Mac purchase for a few weeks if you're that concerned about saving yourself the upgrade cost? If money's that important - and having Tiger as opposed to Jaguar is as well - then can't buying that new machine wait a few more days?
Come on, who's fault is all this? Apple's? How? They're damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they said anyone who bought their machine in the last year was entitled to a free upgrade you'd still have someone who'd bought their machine 366 days ago posting here about how pissed off he felt at the injustice of it all.
What makes you think that their wouldn't be pressure on the police force from politicians concerned about the negative impact of such incidents?
I think - actually, I know - that they'd be very concerned about the potential for lost jobs if these incidents weren't properly dealt with as well as the potential bad publicity that they bring.
So you think that the Indian authorities would be soft on this sort of crime because the victims aren't Indian citizens? Please.
If anything - and I speak with a great deal of personal knowledge about the country having travelled there many times - they're probably more vigilant about crimes against westerners than they are about crime in general.
Cleaning takes me about 30 mins tops. Putting it back together takes me about 5 mins. That's hardly eternity, is it?
Even if my keyboard didn't cost me any more than $8 - which it did, because I don't see the point on skimping on something that I have constant interaction with - I'd still do it, because I prefer to reuse something that's still useful rather than throw it away.
Similarly, I prefer to take the (little) time necessary for me to recycle plastics, cardboard, paper, glass and tin rather than throw them all in the same bag as rubbish that can't be recycled.
It's called saving the environment, in case you were wondering.
So do this instead then: wash the keyboards without removing a single screw or key in a antiseptic solution. Have an excess stock of keyboards - say 10 percent more than you need - and rotate in clean ones where you rotate out ones that need to be cleaned.
It doesn't take long for a keyboard cleaned in this way to dry out naturally - less than 48 hours, in my experience - and I'm sure it could be acheived in less time if some simple accelerated drying technique was used.
Take it apart and clean it every six months or so.
Unscrew what can be unscrewed, and lever the keys off with a screwdriver. Clean the under-key area as well as everywhere else with some window cleaner (or whatever solvent you have around) and clean the keys one-by-one in warm, soapy water. Then let everything dry (a hair dryer set on a cool setting can speed things up with the main part of the keyboard) and put everything back together again.
By the way, if you're unable to put together a keyboard layout from memory, I suggest taking a couple of quick pictures of your keyboard with a digital camera - at least that way you won't be left wondering which key goes where.
I'll accept the sound app thing (although who buys a Mac Mini for audio processing?) but why do you need the very latest version of OpenOffice when you've already got the installed application suite that Apple bundles with its machines?
Last time I checked the Mac Mini shipped with MacOS X included, so you've got free (as in beer) software with it already. Apart from being free (as in speech), just what do NetBSD and Yellow Dog Linux have that the pre-installed software doesn't have? Can someone please enlighten me?
Buying a Mac Mini specifically to install another less polished OS onto it (NetBSD and Yellow Dog Linux may be many things, but neither is polished to MacOS X's standards) seems like really flawed logic.
Fool, since decimalisation occured, the 1/2 pence coin was withdrawn, the 5 pence and 10 pence coins have been changed (they're smaller now than they were in, say, the 1980s), the 20 pence, one pound and two pound coints have been introduced. Five pound coins also exist, but are very rare: they're predominantly minted to celebrate special anniversaries and events and are mostly of interest to coin collectors.
The grandparent post wasn't referring to the change in coinage that took place when decimalisation took place, he was referring to the change in coinage (and notes - none of the existing note designs is more than about a decade old, and the three most common are all less than six years old) that has taken place since that time.
But it's a partial solution though: offer torrents of the video after the event and you significantly lower you bandwidth bill for the post-live portion of your event.
They hide the risks partially because if they were to openly admit that strapping people onto a rocket and firing them into space was dangerous then politicians and the public would start asking if there really was a point to manned orbital missions if they're so dangerous, which is a question that would leave NASA up shit creek and without a paddle.
On the other hand, you don't have to be poor to be so consumed by greed that you're willing to steal or commit fraud to further line your pockets. Just look at Enron, Worldcom, etc if you want proof of that.
I don't think it's racist per se to point out that the scammers were Indian - because they were, and that's not going to change - but it would be racist to extrapolate from that that Indians in general can't be trusted because of the actions of one or two people.
Shit man, then pick an actor who wouldn't have cost as much to hire. It's not as if a million RADA actors wouldn't have killed their own mothers for the part, is it?
And it's not as if it's the actor that defines the role, is it? Who knew Tom Baker before he got the part? Getting a known name was far from necessary.
Also, whatever happened to creative contracts? Give him a percentage of merchandising rights for x many years while he plays the part, etc. These things aren't exactly rocket science, are they?
Slashdot Mirror
Just be thankful that we don't have PCI Extreme. Yet.
Again, I'll ask you, how is China at all relevant to this particular story? It's about an incident that took place - and which was quickly dealt with in the appropriate manner - in India. The only one talking about China here is you.
Hiding your backdoor xenophobia - sorry, that's what it looks like from where I'm standing - by saying that you were simply "providing China as a counterexample" is ridiculous. It's the kind of tangential and tenuous link that has sheriff departments in the US excusing their locking up of law-abiding citizens for using uncommon but legal tender as terrorism-related vigilance.
Sharks wanted for air traffic control duties. No previous aviation knowledge required but any laser-wearing experience would be advantageous.
Really? Apple is the only company that does this? What complete and utter rubbish.
When Microsoft releases a new version of Windows does it give free or even cheaper upgrades to people that purchased the previous version just prior to the launch? No, they don't and neither do a lot of other software companies. Some do, and that's a good thing, but let's not pretend that Apple is unique in its position with regards to who does and who doesn't qualify for a free or minimal-cost upgrade.
1. The people posting here are (or should be) "up on all the Apple minutae". They have no excuses for not knowing that Tiger was immenent, because it's been talked about on Slashdot at least once a month for the past few months.
2. Most of the "less tech. savvy people and ex windows users" who've bought Mac Minis prior to the official release of Tiger are undoubtedly happy with what they've got and probably don't even know Tiger exists: can you really miss something you don't even know about?
3. It's not just Mac Mini owners that are affected by Apple's well-known and well-established upgrade policy; other Mac owners are affected too. In fact, I'd go as far to say Mac Mini owners are most probably a very small percentage (maybe 5 percent at most?) of the Jaguar-using Mac community. Everyone else has to live with it, so why should Mac Mini owners be any different?
4. Software development costs money. Someone has to pay for it and that someone is the customer. And that means upgrade customers as well as new ones: why should new customers subsidise existing ones? Like I said before, no matter where you draw the line there's always going to be someone who's disappointed that you drew it just too short for them.
Who mentioned China? The story summary didn't and neither did anyone in this thread until you.
Heck, if you're going to bring China into this, why not bring up Switzerland? Swiss companies are pretty well protected by Swiss law, so aren't they a danger too? Heck, why stop there? What about the danger Freedonia poses?
I'm guessing that most American Mac users won't even notice - after all, it's just foreign words, right?
OK, so that's a tongue-in-cheek comment but I'm guessing it's not as far from the truth as you might like to think. I do believe it was Dubya - with his Harvard education - who came out with the immortal line "The problem with the French is that they have no word for 'entrepreneur'".
There is a restriction. It's called the license agreement.
By the way, your English teacher is probably crying right now. "[T]here isn't any restrictions"? I wouldn't mention it except I know that you're quite particular about getting these things right yourself, aren't you?
OK, even if that is the case - which I'm perfectly happy to concede without argument - who's fault is that?
Anyone who's even vaguely familiar with Apple - anyone who's read any Apple Expo news, anyone who reads any Apple magazines or websites, anyone who reads the Apple stories on Slashdot - knew full well that Apple were going to be realising Tiger soon. And, anyone who fit into that category also knew full well that they weren't guaranteed a free upgrade, and that how much they were going to have to pay for it would depend on when they bought their Apple machine in relation to the official launch/announcement date for Tiger.
How hard is it to put off your Mac purchase for a few weeks if you're that concerned about saving yourself the upgrade cost? If money's that important - and having Tiger as opposed to Jaguar is as well - then can't buying that new machine wait a few more days?
Come on, who's fault is all this? Apple's? How? They're damned if they do and damned if they don't. If they said anyone who bought their machine in the last year was entitled to a free upgrade you'd still have someone who'd bought their machine 366 days ago posting here about how pissed off he felt at the injustice of it all.
Is it worth all that hassle to save $10? Really?
What makes you think that their wouldn't be pressure on the police force from politicians concerned about the negative impact of such incidents?
I think - actually, I know - that they'd be very concerned about the potential for lost jobs if these incidents weren't properly dealt with as well as the potential bad publicity that they bring.
So you think that the Indian authorities would be soft on this sort of crime because the victims aren't Indian citizens? Please.
If anything - and I speak with a great deal of personal knowledge about the country having travelled there many times - they're probably more vigilant about crimes against westerners than they are about crime in general.
Cleaning takes me about 30 mins tops. Putting it back together takes me about 5 mins. That's hardly eternity, is it?
Even if my keyboard didn't cost me any more than $8 - which it did, because I don't see the point on skimping on something that I have constant interaction with - I'd still do it, because I prefer to reuse something that's still useful rather than throw it away.
Similarly, I prefer to take the (little) time necessary for me to recycle plastics, cardboard, paper, glass and tin rather than throw them all in the same bag as rubbish that can't be recycled.
It's called saving the environment, in case you were wondering.
So do this instead then: wash the keyboards without removing a single screw or key in a antiseptic solution. Have an excess stock of keyboards - say 10 percent more than you need - and rotate in clean ones where you rotate out ones that need to be cleaned.
It doesn't take long for a keyboard cleaned in this way to dry out naturally - less than 48 hours, in my experience - and I'm sure it could be acheived in less time if some simple accelerated drying technique was used.
Take it apart and clean it every six months or so.
Unscrew what can be unscrewed, and lever the keys off with a screwdriver. Clean the under-key area as well as everywhere else with some window cleaner (or whatever solvent you have around) and clean the keys one-by-one in warm, soapy water. Then let everything dry (a hair dryer set on a cool setting can speed things up with the main part of the keyboard) and put everything back together again.
By the way, if you're unable to put together a keyboard layout from memory, I suggest taking a couple of quick pictures of your keyboard with a digital camera - at least that way you won't be left wondering which key goes where.
I'll accept the sound app thing (although who buys a Mac Mini for audio processing?) but why do you need the very latest version of OpenOffice when you've already got the installed application suite that Apple bundles with its machines?
Last time I checked the Mac Mini shipped with MacOS X included, so you've got free (as in beer) software with it already. Apart from being free (as in speech), just what do NetBSD and Yellow Dog Linux have that the pre-installed software doesn't have? Can someone please enlighten me?
Buying a Mac Mini specifically to install another less polished OS onto it (NetBSD and Yellow Dog Linux may be many things, but neither is polished to MacOS X's standards) seems like really flawed logic.
Oh wait, they are.
Fool, since decimalisation occured, the 1/2 pence coin was withdrawn, the 5 pence and 10 pence coins have been changed (they're smaller now than they were in, say, the 1980s), the 20 pence, one pound and two pound coints have been introduced. Five pound coins also exist, but are very rare: they're predominantly minted to celebrate special anniversaries and events and are mostly of interest to coin collectors.
The grandparent post wasn't referring to the change in coinage that took place when decimalisation took place, he was referring to the change in coinage (and notes - none of the existing note designs is more than about a decade old, and the three most common are all less than six years old) that has taken place since that time.
But it's a partial solution though: offer torrents of the video after the event and you significantly lower you bandwidth bill for the post-live portion of your event.
They hide the risks partially because if they were to openly admit that strapping people onto a rocket and firing them into space was dangerous then politicians and the public would start asking if there really was a point to manned orbital missions if they're so dangerous, which is a question that would leave NASA up shit creek and without a paddle.
On the other hand, you don't have to be poor to be so consumed by greed that you're willing to steal or commit fraud to further line your pockets. Just look at Enron, Worldcom, etc if you want proof of that.
I don't think it's racist per se to point out that the scammers were Indian - because they were, and that's not going to change - but it would be racist to extrapolate from that that Indians in general can't be trusted because of the actions of one or two people.
For an April Fools joke to work it has to be even a teeny weeny bit plausible.
Shit man, then pick an actor who wouldn't have cost as much to hire. It's not as if a million RADA actors wouldn't have killed their own mothers for the part, is it?
And it's not as if it's the actor that defines the role, is it? Who knew Tom Baker before he got the part? Getting a known name was far from necessary.
Also, whatever happened to creative contracts? Give him a percentage of merchandising rights for x many years while he plays the part, etc. These things aren't exactly rocket science, are they?