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User: joel8x

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  1. Re:Will be ignored until Apple does it on Archos Releases Portable Video/Image/MP3 Player · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well, apparently Archos likes Apple a lot. Just look at the tag-line on their website: "Think Smaller". Sounds pretty familiar, don't you think?

    This thing will not get the mainstream success that the iPod is now seeing because its just too expensive and it does too much. As crazy as that sounds, the majority of consumers wont shell out $570 for the bottom end model when they probably only want/need a couple of its many features. The video-out is great, but for a few hundred dollars more you can buy a much more useful iBook. So you are correct, this will only be a niche product until another company can organize and package it in a reasonably priced way that will appeal to a broader audience.

    BTW, the definition of "innovate" is: To begin or introduce (something new) for or as if for the first time.

    So, if Apple takes a poorly executed and unpopular idea and packages and markets it into a success (iTunes Music Store comes to mind), then yes, it is technically innovating since it is popularizing the product/service as if for the first time. The Beatles didn't invent Rock N' Roll, but they sure innovated.

  2. Replay Rebates Honored by D/M on ReplayTV and TiVo Compared · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I know its slightly OT, but I bought my Replay in February, and it came with 2 $50 rebates that I had never received. I was ready to accept that I was never going to see my money after the bankruptcy, but then I received a letter from D/M last week telling me that they are honoring my rebates!

    The moral of the story is that ReplayTV is in good hands. I cannot stress how good TV is when you have the power to cut out the fat from it!

  3. Mother of all upgrades? on Massively Updating to Mac OS X? · · Score: 2, Funny

    We would like to upgrade to Ma OS X 10.2 and we have a net install server with disk images ready to install.

    Man, I wish I could've upgraded my Ma. She was stuck in the 60's.

  4. Tobey Maguire may pull out of Spider-Man on Spider-Man Has Back Problems · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Tobey Maguire may pull out of Spider-Man" - Thats the title of the linked article. Am I the only one who thinks that sounds funny?

    I gotta grow up.

  5. iBook too big? on Buying a Small, Light Linux Notebook Computer? · · Score: 1

    Seriously, I use my iBook for everything I do, and take it everywhere I want. It's only 5 pounds and it is a full featured computer. I use it for photo management and home movie editing, music listening and recording, it acts as my PDA, I watch DVD's on the train with it, and I bring it to work every day and use it to perform all of the tasks that I can't/won't do on my PC. I have an Airport card which I use at home and comes in handy in strange places (like the new bar in the LIRR section of Penn Station!) I can hook up to my ReplayTV and stream recorded TV shows and movies to my laptop while on the throne. I burn music and video Cds wherever I want. I mange and charge my iPod with it. I can't imagine going back to a life without this machine, and I can't imagine someone thinking that it's too big!! It's so perfect to me that I really would urge you to just go for the iBook (or the new 12" Power Book if you have the $), you won't regret it. You may find an Intel based laptop that can do all that, but I guarantee you you will not find one that can do all that flawlessly and easily in such a small package - with or without Windows.

    You didn't specify what exactly you want to do with your laptop, but given the ports and features you are requesting, these examples are a small representation of what you could do. If you go with the iBook, I guarantee you that you will do things on it you never would have bothered doing before because Apple has a way of making applications like iMovie that make the task simple, fast, and fun.

  6. Exchange 2000 on Microsoft to Add Exchange Support for Mac OS X · · Score: 3, Informative

    In the announcement the say it will be compatible with Exchange 2000 servers and up. This is not good. Most of the corporate world hasn't had a reason to move off of Exchange 5.5 yet!

  7. Why a chip? on Going Cyberpunk · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Who in their right mind would get a chip implanted in their body? With technology advancing as fast as it does, you would be outdated in a couple of years! A better Idea would be a port that can be easily accessed that can support future upgrades without surgery.

  8. OMG - I had no clue! on Open Content Music Database Launched · · Score: 1

    I've been wanting to start something similar to this so that musicians and songwriters could collaborate on songs online and share riffs, lyrics, and chord progressions under an open license (letting people freely sample each others creative work as long as their finished product was also "open sourced"). I can't wait to look into this further! This is a great thing indeed.

  9. Great Idea on Instant Concert CDs? · · Score: 1

    Grab the concert goer when they are still excited about the concert they just saw - I just hope that the artists get a nicer cut than anyone else!

  10. So does this mean .Mac can go back to iTools? on Microsoft Drops .NET Name For Next Windows Server · · Score: 2

    Although iTools always sounded pretty lame, .Mac as a name never made any sense with the exception of its similarity to the name .Net.

  11. No Way on Apple To Introduce Video iPod? · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I really can't see a video iPod being successfull. It would make it so expensive and for what? Who puts on the visualizations and stares at them? I unfortunatley don't have time to get stoned and look at my computer screen, let alone shell out $500 to stare at my screen while listening to Wilco on the train. I am also not going to shell out $500 to watch a DIVX movie on a screen the size of a matchbook. Do you forget that this kind of activity would kill the battery in far less than the 13 hours I get out of mine? I can see them opting for a color screen just for the hell of it and putting an FM tuner in the mix. But as for video, it would have to be a new device altogether to be any good.

  12. LOL - Look at the CD case pics... on Roll Your Own iPod Stand · · Score: 3, Funny

    The pictures of the CD case stand has a PC laptop next to it with the friggin stickers still on it! Where's the "R Type" decal for the iPod itself?

  13. On Demand Computing on IBM Buys Rational Software · · Score: 2

    This purchase is another piece of IBM's new strategy. It will be interesting to see how Rational's offerings contribute to thier new initiative and what software will remain "as is".

  14. Ugh, another thing I can't do.... on Theater Morphing Into Multi-Player Gaming Arena · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This sounds like it will be another case of Simulator Sickness on a grand scale for me. Anyone else who suffers from this knows that since the dawn of Doom, video gaming has been a nightmare for us. I used to play hours upon hours of video games when it was just nice side-scrolling or over-the-head aspects. Now after about 40 seconds of Unreal I'm ready to pass out. The majority of games that come out now that are worth anything are 3D, and I can only manage to play very few of them.

  15. Re:What what? on Lord of the Rings: Two Towers Reviews Rolling In · · Score: 1

    There should have been a sticker on the outside of the plastic wrap saying there was a free ticket inside. Check your packaging!

  16. Too much too early on Movielink.com: Nice But Not Ready For Prime Time · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Unfortunately this is going to fail and paint a bad mark on the future of this idea. I would much rather go to one of the 3 video stores in walking distance of my house and rent the DVD to watch on my 5.1 surround sound system then pay $1 less to wait an hour to download a poor quality version to watch on my computer. This would be cool in a rural backwoods area, but then you most likely will have only a few (if any)expensive broadband options, making it likely that you wont have high speed access anyway. In 2 or 3 years this will probably pan out, but now it's just premature.

  17. Is trhis really news? on Software Choice Group Tells DOD Not to Use Open Source · · Score: 5, Funny

    A group backed by corporations with their own interests says their biggest threat is not a good choice.

    In other news, a group called "The Darkened Lung Group" (backed by R.J. Reynolds and Phillip Morris) are saying that smoking isn't that bad for you and it's not really addictive.

  18. Re:Me, I can't wait for The Two Towers on Review: Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets · · Score: 1

    I feel that the first 2 movies are too rushed. I know they are not short movies, this one was two hours and forty minutes long, but they try to stay too true to the book. Take the Lord of the Rings, they managed to stay somewhat true to the story but at the same time create a new entity in itself to fit the time constraints of piece of film. The end result is probably one of the best movies of all time. I wish Chris Columbus would take more of the same approach in the Harry Potter movies. He's trying way to hard to put the book on film, as opposed to using it as a reference to bring the feeling of the stories to life. Thats what's important and where LOTR succeeded - the spirit and feeling of the story is alive in the movie, while not entirely true to the whole story in print, it is true in its meaning to the audience. I believe that the Harry Potter crew will be forced to take this approach in the next 2 installments, due to the great length of the books (Goblet of Fire is easily three times the size of Secrets). So while Chamber of Secrets is as identical in its screen deployment as the Sorcerers Stone, the Prisoner of Azkaban should be quite interesting.

  19. Outsourcing Blues on Fewer Employees + Same Work = Higher Productivity · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My IT department was outsourced to IBM about 6 months ago. While my direct team was not affected by layoffs, our call center and its staff were completely replaced and moved to a new location. Since then my workload has quadrupled (no exaggeration) due to their lack of proper support and knowledge, and our user base has grown significantly without adding new staff to my department (field support).

    I don't mind the extra work so much, but what really bothers me is the attitude of the customer and its affect on me. Users are pissed off that it takes more than a day for them to be seen as opposed to an hour or so, and they have a very negative attitude towards us now. This is a major problem in my eyes because I find it harder to wake up in the morning and feel motivated to work. I really dread what possible long term affects this may have if it continues like this.

  20. 3WK on Ideas for a Recording Industry Alternative? · · Score: 1

    3WK is a pretty good source for streaming underground music.

  21. Re:Big fan of OSX, but... on Mac OS X 10.2.2 Update Available · · Score: 2, Informative

    VideoLAN Client works fine for me.

  22. YOU have no clue what .mac involves on A Universal Roaming Profile? · · Score: 1

    .mac doesn't have a damned thing to do with your profile or bookmarks, what kind of crack are you smoking? Or did you just include that because you wanted your ask slashdot to look cool?

    .mac includes backup software that backs up you favorites, preferences, contacts, etc. to your iDisk which can be downloaded to another mac very easily. iSync has a feature to synchronize all your Mac's settings using your .mac service/iDisk.
  23. Couldn't this be turned around? on Intel to Build DRM into Next-Generation CPUs · · Score: 1

    What if you are able to develop a site/software that wont run or be viewed on a paladium enabled computer on purpose? Kind of like a rebel internet and rebel SW that spits in the face of DRM. What about using the Paladium technology to keep the SW developers and Media companies out by issueing digital certificates only to your userbase? I can forsee communities of warez traders and pirates operating on their own locked down networks (kind of like how Hotline/Carracho networks work) using the very technology that is trying to stop that activity.

  24. Re:They Forgot.... on Apple Explains Interface Differences · · Score: 1

    I just don't agree with calling the button "Start". It would make more sense to be like KDE or Gnome, who have the same kind of button, but its not called "Start". Why not the Windows button (would make more sense of those windows buttons on the keyboards).

  25. They Forgot.... on Apple Explains Interface Differences · · Score: 1

    They forgot to mention that OS X does not have the most confusing design flaw of Windows: In order to shut down, you need to go to "Start" then "Shutdown". Mentally its like telling a driver "In order to turn off your vehicle, step on the accellerator" (previous versions of Mac OS had the similar design flaw because to shut down you had to go to the "Special" menu, which to me didn't make much sense either - OS X is the most sensible of all - much like Gnome & KDE).