Good point and Apple has been doing well at it. They are currently on pace to sell 1M notebooks this year. That's 250k more than analyst originally though. Sure it's not a lot when compared to the entire market, but what it shows is that apple and osx is growing. The 'ipod is hip' is making macbooks and thus osx hip too.
I think the real upcoming battle ground is going to be in peoples living rooms. Who will supply the device and service to deliver content over the internet to my TV in SD+ quality? The current players that seem to be shaping up are the cable companies, apple, MS, and sony. It's going to be interesting how this plays out, especially since cable has such a huge lead with their ondemand type of service.
I'm with you. As long as it doesn't hurt anyone else, if it helps you get through the day then good for you. The problem is that people from both sides (liberal and conservative) want to push their views on everyone else. True libertarians seem to be the closest to my way of thinking, but some of their ideas can go too far into letting anyone do anything that doesn't directly hurt anyone else.
I think it's important to remember that at the end of the day none of us are all the different from anyone else. We are trying to do what's best for us (and hopefully others), and using whatever tools or knowledge we have to do it.
On another note: something I find I do altogether too often in social situations (pubs, parties etc) is put on a "mask", a persona that makes me less vulnerable. In MMORPGs the implicit existence of a mask often means that people can be more "themselves" than they would otherwise. Maybe that's why it's such a good place for some people to relax and interact. Could be that it's doing wonders for the social skills of some people...
That's funny. In actual social situations I'm usually very outgoing and friendly to everyone. Put me in an MMO and I'd rather just be left alone. Perhaps it's just b/c I deal with people all day long and when I finally get some downtime the last thing I want to do is deal with more people (especially if those people are l337 d00ds).
More people would rather have a beige box than a tiny little cute espresso sipping elite box.
No, more people want something that just works (and often in our consumer driven society something that looks 'cool' too). They don't want to munge around with drivers or kernel compiling. This is why linux and do it yourself PCs remain a niche market. These same people are also willing to pay more for something that just works. This doesn't make them stupid or lazy, it just means they think their time is better spent using their computer to do what they want to, instead of looking up kernel config options so their video card can play some game.
That is the segment that the Mac targets which is for most part currently on windows. I think what you'll find though is that the switch campaign has been pretty successful and the people who do go mac don't often go back.
I agree, been trying to collect all the stars for awhile now and it's not easy to do. In fact NSMB is exactly the way I like games nowadays. It's easy to sit down and play for 5 minutes or an hour and is the classic easy to play hard to master type of game.
I agree. I was talking to a friend the other who just bought an HDTV and he was complaining about the cost to get all of the HD content (other than OTA). Even thought HD has been around for awhile, it's still considered new tech and hasn't really been catching on. Now that you can get huge non-HD TVs at walmart for cheap and $50 DVD players, very few people can justify the cost of 1k or more for an HD set and all of the extras you need to get all your content in HD.
I also agree with your opinion about quality TV to even watch in HD. The way I look at it, sports and action movies (possible some discovery types of stuff) are where HD would be cool. Spending a ton of money to watch CSI or Desperate Housewives (can't believe people actually watch this anyways lol) in HD just seems like a waste to me.
I agree, but the original poster said they emailed him this 'problem' to work on over the weekend. At no point were they watching a possible candidate break down the problem of writing a web server in an hour and studying how they approach it.
These kinds of tests usually tell me I don't want to work at that sort of place. If they are going to expect an interview candidate to write a web server in a few hours, then what will they want when you work there? Expect to have demands like 'we need an entire application written this week, don't worry about design or figuring out what the application really needs to do, just write something.'
Or maybe they're trying to convince the other movie houses that they're really serious about this and that the public is interested enough.
I'd vote for this reason. Apples negotiations with the movie studios was pretty public and is still unresolved. If they get any traction with movies like they did with music then the studios will have to listen.
In my mind a huge content delivery war is on the horizon. You have cable companies doing ondemand, apple with this new device, possibly the xbox360/ps3 with something similar, plus the traditional dvd players. Cable is best positioned to win (ugh!), but only time will tell.
There is a reason for that. Some CC companies (Cap One is one the worst CC companies out of the all them and they do this) report on your credit report your credit limit as your max balance. The do this b/c they don't want other CC companies to know the exact limit they're giving you. It makes it look like you have maxed your card though, which hurts you credit score.
A small town near me just banned all smoking inside bars/restaurants in the town. The bars are taking it to court under the premise that the town has no right to tell a bar owner if people can smoke inside or not. Funny thing is that I fully suppor the bar owners even though I don't smoke. In fact I hate smoking, but I hate the gov. sticking it's nose where it shouldn't be even more.
What you're describing isn't really an mmo anymore. It's more of a TF type of game where every side/person has easy access to all the same items/skills. You can't give item rewards for running long quests or quests that take lots of people in the game you're describing. Anything that could create disparity between a new player and old player also must go. Pretty soon your back to quake except you have different classes, a la TF.
I guess the definition of 'skill' is the problem. Is the fast twitching required to win in FPS considered 'skill'? To win in mmo pvp you need to show up prepared (highest stats you can get) and know when/how to use your abilities. Would that be considered 'skill'? I always hear 'skill', or lack thereof, thrown around but no one ever defines it.
TV sets tend to have an extremely long life relative to most other consumer electronics. Plenty of people run 10 year old sets, only replacing them when they finally die.
I agree. I have a Hitachi 32 inch that was 'new' in '95. I bought it used from a friend of mine in 2000. To this day it still has one of the best tube pictures that I've ever seen. I've looked at getting a new TV a few times, but to match the picture I currently have I would have to spend way more money than I would want to. Especially since my TV still works great. Now when my TV finally goes kaput, 42 inch LCD here I come:)
I'm torn about laptops in schools. I think kids need exposure to technology, but does every student prior to HS need a laptop? As kids are maturing I think they need less distractions in the classroom so that they can learn the basics. Have computer classes or class computer time, but I don't think kids need a laptop prior to HS.
Once in HS, this might change a bit as you would expect students to be more mature and perhaps be able to deal with the additional distractions a laptop in the class could bring.
Guess what. Doing things that may be boring or not that interesting to you is part of life. It's one of the lessons I think more and more people fail to learn. It's a nice fantasy to think everyday you're going to wake up and do things that are exciting and stimulating to you all day, but it doesn't work that way.
It's the parents fault for not letting the schools discipline and for not taking an active role in their childs education.
It's the teachers (moreso the teachers union) fault for allowing teachers who clearly suck stay around (check out some of the crazy things that happen in NYC).
It's the administrators fault for wasting so much money on crap that is useless.
It's fault of society for not putting a higher level of importance on education.
Education in this country is broken. I would argue that for the most part money is not an issue. How it's spent might be though. IMHO, the first issue that needs to be addressed is discipline. When students are threatening teachers, disrupting class, and generally being jerks why can't anything be done? What happened to a good spanking to let them know that this is unacceptable? What happened to parents who would come to school and instead of blaming the teacher, blame their child for being a social deviant? Discipline, or lack thereof, is the problem and until it's fixed, nothing will change!
Just as an example (that I've used before) the only reason to get a MacBook Pro instead of a Compaq nw9440 (or similar) is if you want to run OSX, like Apple's case
In a desktop, case for the most part doesn't matter. In a laptop, the case (and weight) are big considerations. I have a powerbook G4 and it's the best built laptop I've every used. Everything just works and works well. I've used quite a few dells and HPs and they just felt like crap when typing and were just generally cheap machines. In my mind, now that the Macbooks can run xp, macbooks are the way to go.
Way back when I bought a computer that came with window 3.11, I received a coupon for a free upgrade to win95 when it came out. They could end up doing the same thing.
I'm not saying WoW is a bad game. It was pretty fun while I leveled then PvPed some. It's hard to put my finger on it, but I never really felt connected to my WoW characters like I did to the ones in daoc. The exploration and danger aspect really never came together for me in WoW. Maybe it was the carebearing or perhaps it was the lack of good PvP in WoW when I played it. The feeling while PvPing (either solor or 8 man) in DAoC, is a hard thing to match.
In in the end I don't think WoW is this revolutionary mmo that so many seem to think. WoW brought in a lot of new people to the mmo space who have nothing to compare against, so to them WoW is the best. To really say one game is the best though, players need to play more than just one or two. For example, I wasn't a big UO player, but I have some friends who still play it and think it is the best mmo to date.
I also don't think you can judge how great a game is simply by it's subscriber base. If some brand new to the scene company had released a game like WoW would it have been this big? Blizzard made a good game and they leveraged their fan base accordingly to get it going. I definitely applaud them for that. I hope though that this doesn't lead to every new mmo looking and playing just like wow from now going forward:/
I tried Eve and it was okay. I wanted to be able to get out on stations and planets and walk around and do stuff that way. And you're right about the huge divide between the haves and have nots.
Outside of all it's launch issues, AO was probably the best scifi mmo to date. I didn't like how it's combat worked (it felt disconnected), but the world was large and the tech was cool (implants, computers, weapons, etc...)
Blizzard has a knack for taking what's great in all its competition, putting it in one spot, and polishing it to a mirror shine. It's what they do.
I don't think WOW is that good of a game. I think what Blizzard did best was leverage their existing fan base and get them to try an mmo. Personally, I was bored with WoW after 3 months and quit (as did my friends who I started playing with). Keep in mind that we all played DAoC for at least 3 years, so we weren't new to mmos either.
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Good point and Apple has been doing well at it. They are currently on pace to sell 1M notebooks this year. That's 250k more than analyst originally though. Sure it's not a lot when compared to the entire market, but what it shows is that apple and osx is growing. The 'ipod is hip' is making macbooks and thus osx hip too.
I think the real upcoming battle ground is going to be in peoples living rooms. Who will supply the device and service to deliver content over the internet to my TV in SD+ quality? The current players that seem to be shaping up are the cable companies, apple, MS, and sony. It's going to be interesting how this plays out, especially since cable has such a huge lead with their ondemand type of service.
I'm with you. As long as it doesn't hurt anyone else, if it helps you get through the day then good for you. The problem is that people from both sides (liberal and conservative) want to push their views on everyone else. True libertarians seem to be the closest to my way of thinking, but some of their ideas can go too far into letting anyone do anything that doesn't directly hurt anyone else.
I think it's important to remember that at the end of the day none of us are all the different from anyone else. We are trying to do what's best for us (and hopefully others), and using whatever tools or knowledge we have to do it.
On another note: something I find I do altogether too often in social situations (pubs, parties etc) is put on a "mask", a persona that makes me less vulnerable. In MMORPGs the implicit existence of a mask often means that people can be more "themselves" than they would otherwise. Maybe that's why it's such a good place for some people to relax and interact. Could be that it's doing wonders for the social skills of some people...
That's funny. In actual social situations I'm usually very outgoing and friendly to everyone. Put me in an MMO and I'd rather just be left alone. Perhaps it's just b/c I deal with people all day long and when I finally get some downtime the last thing I want to do is deal with more people (especially if those people are l337 d00ds).
More people would rather have a beige box than a tiny little cute espresso sipping elite box.
No, more people want something that just works (and often in our consumer driven society something that looks 'cool' too). They don't want to munge around with drivers or kernel compiling. This is why linux and do it yourself PCs remain a niche market. These same people are also willing to pay more for something that just works. This doesn't make them stupid or lazy, it just means they think their time is better spent using their computer to do what they want to, instead of looking up kernel config options so their video card can play some game.
That is the segment that the Mac targets which is for most part currently on windows. I think what you'll find though is that the switch campaign has been pretty successful and the people who do go mac don't often go back.
I agree, been trying to collect all the stars for awhile now and it's not easy to do. In fact NSMB is exactly the way I like games nowadays. It's easy to sit down and play for 5 minutes or an hour and is the classic easy to play hard to master type of game.
I agree. I was talking to a friend the other who just bought an HDTV and he was complaining about the cost to get all of the HD content (other than OTA). Even thought HD has been around for awhile, it's still considered new tech and hasn't really been catching on. Now that you can get huge non-HD TVs at walmart for cheap and $50 DVD players, very few people can justify the cost of 1k or more for an HD set and all of the extras you need to get all your content in HD.
I also agree with your opinion about quality TV to even watch in HD. The way I look at it, sports and action movies (possible some discovery types of stuff) are where HD would be cool. Spending a ton of money to watch CSI or Desperate Housewives (can't believe people actually watch this anyways lol) in HD just seems like a waste to me.
I agree, but the original poster said they emailed him this 'problem' to work on over the weekend. At no point were they watching a possible candidate break down the problem of writing a web server in an hour and studying how they approach it.
These kinds of tests usually tell me I don't want to work at that sort of place. If they are going to expect an interview candidate to write a web server in a few hours, then what will they want when you work there? Expect to have demands like 'we need an entire application written this week, don't worry about design or figuring out what the application really needs to do, just write something.'
Or maybe they're trying to convince the other movie houses that they're really serious about this and that the public is interested enough.
I'd vote for this reason. Apples negotiations with the movie studios was pretty public and is still unresolved. If they get any traction with movies like they did with music then the studios will have to listen.
In my mind a huge content delivery war is on the horizon. You have cable companies doing ondemand, apple with this new device, possibly the xbox360/ps3 with something similar, plus the traditional dvd players. Cable is best positioned to win (ugh!), but only time will tell.
Where are those kids parents?!
There is a reason for that. Some CC companies (Cap One is one the worst CC companies out of the all them and they do this) report on your credit report your credit limit as your max balance. The do this b/c they don't want other CC companies to know the exact limit they're giving you. It makes it look like you have maxed your card though, which hurts you credit score.
A small town near me just banned all smoking inside bars/restaurants in the town. The bars are taking it to court under the premise that the town has no right to tell a bar owner if people can smoke inside or not. Funny thing is that I fully suppor the bar owners even though I don't smoke. In fact I hate smoking, but I hate the gov. sticking it's nose where it shouldn't be even more.
What you're describing isn't really an mmo anymore. It's more of a TF type of game where every side/person has easy access to all the same items/skills. You can't give item rewards for running long quests or quests that take lots of people in the game you're describing. Anything that could create disparity between a new player and old player also must go. Pretty soon your back to quake except you have different classes, a la TF.
I guess the definition of 'skill' is the problem. Is the fast twitching required to win in FPS considered 'skill'? To win in mmo pvp you need to show up prepared (highest stats you can get) and know when/how to use your abilities. Would that be considered 'skill'? I always hear 'skill', or lack thereof, thrown around but no one ever defines it.
TV sets tend to have an extremely long life relative to most other consumer electronics. Plenty of people run 10 year old sets, only replacing them when they finally die.
:)
I agree. I have a Hitachi 32 inch that was 'new' in '95. I bought it used from a friend of mine in 2000. To this day it still has one of the best tube pictures that I've ever seen. I've looked at getting a new TV a few times, but to match the picture I currently have I would have to spend way more money than I would want to. Especially since my TV still works great. Now when my TV finally goes kaput, 42 inch LCD here I come
I'm torn about laptops in schools. I think kids need exposure to technology, but does every student prior to HS need a laptop? As kids are maturing I think they need less distractions in the classroom so that they can learn the basics. Have computer classes or class computer time, but I don't think kids need a laptop prior to HS.
Once in HS, this might change a bit as you would expect students to be more mature and perhaps be able to deal with the additional distractions a laptop in the class could bring.
Guess what. Doing things that may be boring or not that interesting to you is part of life. It's one of the lessons I think more and more people fail to learn. It's a nice fantasy to think everyday you're going to wake up and do things that are exciting and stimulating to you all day, but it doesn't work that way.
How about this. I'm going to blame everyone.
It's the parents fault for not letting the schools discipline and for not taking an active role in their childs education.
It's the teachers (moreso the teachers union) fault for allowing teachers who clearly suck stay around (check out some of the crazy things that happen in NYC).
It's the administrators fault for wasting so much money on crap that is useless.
It's fault of society for not putting a higher level of importance on education.
Education in this country is broken. I would argue that for the most part money is not an issue. How it's spent might be though. IMHO, the first issue that needs to be addressed is discipline. When students are threatening teachers, disrupting class, and generally being jerks why can't anything be done? What happened to a good spanking to let them know that this is unacceptable? What happened to parents who would come to school and instead of blaming the teacher, blame their child for being a social deviant? Discipline, or lack thereof, is the problem and until it's fixed, nothing will change!
Just as an example (that I've used before) the only reason to get a MacBook Pro instead of a Compaq nw9440 (or similar) is if you want to run OSX, like Apple's case
In a desktop, case for the most part doesn't matter. In a laptop, the case (and weight) are big considerations. I have a powerbook G4 and it's the best built laptop I've every used. Everything just works and works well. I've used quite a few dells and HPs and they just felt like crap when typing and were just generally cheap machines. In my mind, now that the Macbooks can run xp, macbooks are the way to go.
apple has always been reasonably priced they just appear expensive due to the face they don't do the low end tower which best buy flogs for $299
Read this the other day actually. When a dell is similarly configured, the mac can be much cheaper.
Way back when I bought a computer that came with window 3.11, I received a coupon for a free upgrade to win95 when it came out. They could end up doing the same thing.
I'm not saying WoW is a bad game. It was pretty fun while I leveled then PvPed some. It's hard to put my finger on it, but I never really felt connected to my WoW characters like I did to the ones in daoc. The exploration and danger aspect really never came together for me in WoW. Maybe it was the carebearing or perhaps it was the lack of good PvP in WoW when I played it. The feeling while PvPing (either solor or 8 man) in DAoC, is a hard thing to match.
:/
In in the end I don't think WoW is this revolutionary mmo that so many seem to think. WoW brought in a lot of new people to the mmo space who have nothing to compare against, so to them WoW is the best. To really say one game is the best though, players need to play more than just one or two. For example, I wasn't a big UO player, but I have some friends who still play it and think it is the best mmo to date.
I also don't think you can judge how great a game is simply by it's subscriber base. If some brand new to the scene company had released a game like WoW would it have been this big? Blizzard made a good game and they leveraged their fan base accordingly to get it going. I definitely applaud them for that. I hope though that this doesn't lead to every new mmo looking and playing just like wow from now going forward
I don't see how guns are any different than shooting fireballs or using bows and arrows in the fantasy based MMOs.
I tried Eve and it was okay. I wanted to be able to get out on stations and planets and walk around and do stuff that way. And you're right about the huge divide between the haves and have nots.
Outside of all it's launch issues, AO was probably the best scifi mmo to date. I didn't like how it's combat worked (it felt disconnected), but the world was large and the tech was cool (implants, computers, weapons, etc...)
Blizzard has a knack for taking what's great in all its competition, putting it in one spot, and polishing it to a mirror shine. It's what they do.
I don't think WOW is that good of a game. I think what Blizzard did best was leverage their existing fan base and get them to try an mmo. Personally, I was bored with WoW after 3 months and quit (as did my friends who I started playing with). Keep in mind that we all played DAoC for at least 3 years, so we weren't new to mmos either.