The prices for music CDs have gone UP since they were first available!
IIRC, when I got my first CD player in 1986, they were $14 or $15 apiece. Today they are not much more than that, and if you index that to inflation or wages, CDs have gotten way cheaper over time.
I will say, though, that your experience is far better than the failure rate I've experienced with Apple products. The only Apple product I've owned (out of 8) that hasn't failed (yet) is my Nano. My 3 macs have each had a motherboard failure (100%), 1 hard drive failure (33%) and my only notebook both a power supply and battery failure (100% each). 4 out of my 5 iPods have failed (80%).
Good gravy! Assuming this is true, I wonder why you keep getting Monday Morning stuff from Apple. My wife and I have owned over a dozen Macs and four iPods between us, and they all still work fine. In fact, my Performa 631CD (note its age from their touting that it came with a CD-ROM drive) is eleven years old and still runs fine. The only failures I've had was a fan bearing going bad after five or six years of intense use, one Quantum Fireball harddrive that went sour six months after warranty, and a six year old mouse that wore out. Oh, come to think of it, my wife did have a couple bad pixels on an old laptop, but Apple fixed those for free (even though she didn't have Applecare) and had it back in her hands less than three days after she got the empty FedEx box. One former coworker had a year old iPod that wouldn't hold a charge, so he took it to the Apple store and game him a brand new, higher capacity iPod for free.
In fact, we have two boys under the age of seven on Apple hardware and even they aren't breaking stuff.
I'm sorry you've had a bad experience with Apple, but my own has been that their hardware is well-built and, when something does go wrong, they fix it quickly and often for free after the warranty (ie the laptop screen and the harddrive).
Like telling the state of California they needed more Oracle licenses than the state had employees that had computer access for example.
You know, there are these people called contractors who are not employees but who often are called upon to create, improve, maintain, and use those databases.
As long as iPods are better than their competitors, you can be complacent about this state of affairs.
Yep, and in the meantime, I'm making MP3 backups of the 600 or so songs I've gotten from iTunes (more than half of them freebies). I dunno, maybe I'm just strange because I try to look out for myself and don't expect others to do so.
The iTunes Store's DRM is pretty light and, in truth, fairly reasonable for non-zealots. And with the burn-rip solution, you also get a hardcopy backup, which is not such a bad habit for people to get into anyway.
Maybe they could change the MS icon to Steve Ballmer as Uncle Fester or Peter Boyle in "Young Frankenstein". I could just hear him shout "Puttin on the Wiiiiiitz!"
I'm going to puke if I see somebody mention that the desktop days are coming to an end!!!! Who says? What proof, besides companies greed, shows that people don't want desktop software?
I remember a few years ago that Steve Jobs, probably at a Macworld keynote or something, said that Apple seemed to be the only company left that cared about the PC. MicroSoft was starting this web services stuff and concentrating on the XBox, PC makers were all about commodity and reducing costs, etc etc etc. Jobs was right, PCs still matter, but once some meme goes out and the the press find it, they grab the wrong end of the stick and beat about the bush with it even after they are proven wrong.
And of course, the support industries for Windows are a false economy; like Y2K, it's a high maintenance cost. If the product was really that good, all the extra resources (people and money) that now go into supporting Windows could be used to create new products and services that would, you know, make life in general better.
Opportunity costs are rarely figured in to a lot of things, because they are not always obvious even if you are aware that they exist.
So let me get this straight: It's illegal to do, basically, a 'grep -i "Kill the infidel"' on newspaper articles that are freely available to every Tom, Dick, and Achmed around the world?
Remember, when grep is outlawed, only outlaws will have grep
One major reason that Japanese companies aren't crippled by health care costs, of course, is that their country has a public healthcare system.
I read and hear this a lot, but the money to pay for that healthcare system has to come from somewhere. The government can print money, but it cannot create wealth, and it takes a good bit of wealth to have a decent healthcare system. I know that Britain uses their North Sea Oil and gas/oil taxes to pay for their system, but I've often wondered where it comes from for most places.
More than anything it is sickening to see these companies (who all made their money off of the labor of the average american who fought for labor rights) completely ignore workers' rights elsewhere--as if the workers' movement in the US was a mistake and not a correct moral stance.
Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man; communism is the reverse.
It's called 'survival'. While the company I work for is competing with other companies, I am also competing against other programmers to maintain my job and to advance my own self.
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What? Make a physical backup? Why, they'll expect me to read instructions, next! It's just the man trying to keep me down.
Or am I worrying too much about technicalities here?
IIRC, when I got my first CD player in 1986, they were $14 or $15 apiece. Today they are not much more than that, and if you index that to inflation or wages, CDs have gotten way cheaper over time.
So, we can just think of the new owvers as AOL twelve years later ...
Yes, and take your g0dd@mn fans with you!
Good gravy! Assuming this is true, I wonder why you keep getting Monday Morning stuff from Apple. My wife and I have owned over a dozen Macs and four iPods between us, and they all still work fine. In fact, my Performa 631CD (note its age from their touting that it came with a CD-ROM drive) is eleven years old and still runs fine. The only failures I've had was a fan bearing going bad after five or six years of intense use, one Quantum Fireball harddrive that went sour six months after warranty, and a six year old mouse that wore out. Oh, come to think of it, my wife did have a couple bad pixels on an old laptop, but Apple fixed those for free (even though she didn't have Applecare) and had it back in her hands less than three days after she got the empty FedEx box. One former coworker had a year old iPod that wouldn't hold a charge, so he took it to the Apple store and game him a brand new, higher capacity iPod for free.
In fact, we have two boys under the age of seven on Apple hardware and even they aren't breaking stuff.
I'm sorry you've had a bad experience with Apple, but my own has been that their hardware is well-built and, when something does go wrong, they fix it quickly and often for free after the warranty (ie the laptop screen and the harddrive).
Because no one put it on the Gantt chart.
Yeah, no kidding. My dad taught me hunting, gun safety, how to fix and ride a go-cart, football, basketball, ... Today he would be denounced.
Hm. I'd say instead that the competent and honest don't need to go into politics to make a decent living.
You know, there are these people called contractors who are not employees but who often are called upon to create, improve, maintain, and use those databases.
Yep, and in the meantime, I'm making MP3 backups of the 600 or so songs I've gotten from iTunes (more than half of them freebies). I dunno, maybe I'm just strange because I try to look out for myself and don't expect others to do so.
The iTunes Store's DRM is pretty light and, in truth, fairly reasonable for non-zealots. And with the burn-rip solution, you also get a hardcopy backup, which is not such a bad habit for people to get into anyway.
I would say yes, because within that 5% is 95% of the innovation in desktops.
I remember a few years ago that Steve Jobs, probably at a Macworld keynote or something, said that Apple seemed to be the only company left that cared about the PC. MicroSoft was starting this web services stuff and concentrating on the XBox, PC makers were all about commodity and reducing costs, etc etc etc. Jobs was right, PCs still matter, but once some meme goes out and the the press find it, they grab the wrong end of the stick and beat about the bush with it even after they are proven wrong.
Opportunity costs are rarely figured in to a lot of things, because they are not always obvious even if you are aware that they exist.
Yes, we are going to watch them like hawks.
Sincerely,
Arthur Andersen, Ken Lay, Jayson Blair, and Hwang Woo Suk
Manipulatees.
Throw in Sam Donaldson and I'll hold its coat and applaud.
Remember, when grep is outlawed, only outlaws will have grep
I read and hear this a lot, but the money to pay for that healthcare system has to come from somewhere. The government can print money, but it cannot create wealth, and it takes a good bit of wealth to have a decent healthcare system. I know that Britain uses their North Sea Oil and gas/oil taxes to pay for their system, but I've often wondered where it comes from for most places.
Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man; communism is the reverse.
s/labor/taxation/g;
s/worker/taxpayer/g;
It's called 'survival'. While the company I work for is competing with other companies, I am also competing against other programmers to maintain my job and to advance my own self.