Agreed. This is a console transition year. Any investment you make in a new console now will probably be moot by next Christmas. The new Xbox and new PS are on their way. And while very little is known about them, they will probably launch by next Christmas. By the year after that, there will be a clear winner.
If you're OK with the idea of buying an obsolete console, then go for it. The Xbox has an amazing library of games, though at $250 with hard drive (you need the hard drive), it's hardly disposable income. With the exception of Halo, most 360 games come out on the PS3 anyway. $80 for a used Wii isn't terrible, and it has enough of a back-catalog of great titles that your kids could be happy for a year or two with it. But there aren't any new games that will come out for it.
Really, the other big gaming platform you could go for would be the iPad. But that, of course, would be even pricier.
They're quickly becoming about the same. Linux and OpenOffice on the desktop are still bad, but getting better. Gnome, etc are all pretty trivial to use until you get to things like adding printers, and Open Office is basically Word 2000. Similarly, Windows / Word is fine, but getting worse. Adding networked printers in Windows seems to keep getting harder, and Word keeps adding more and more junk until it's useless. On top of this Google Docs is more than adequate for most tasks, and the multi-user live-document-editing is an amazingly useful feature. That gives 2 solid Windows alternatives.
People don't really need training. The systems are about the same, and the parts that one would need to train for have become so far away from the normal user's abilities that there really isn't a point to training anyone other than your IT people. And your IT people shouldn't have a problem with any of this.
1. Game rental is still in its infancy online, and games are expensive. Get known for renting those. 2. Deliver! Someone might rather wait the 3 days for Netflix delivery of things that can't be streamed, but if you can get it there in 30 minutes or less you're in great competitive shape. 3. If you can solve the licenses, turn a section of the shop into an on-demand movie theater.
Investors do get placated by *making* things, however. Unfortunately, at some point you have to stop making something and actually sell the darned thing. And then it all goes to zune. And that's when the next scheme gets pulled out in an emergency meeting, and the cycle starts again.
The problem with the PC industry is that a lot of OEMs went super cheap, with razor thin margins. Making it up in software bundles and volume. This is not sustainable.
Considering this has been the model for ~15 years now, volume pricing does seem to be sustainable (especially when it's *still* significantly cheaper to build your own desktop).
The problem doesn't seem to be that Johns deserve privacy until proven guilty. The problem is that rich or important Johns deserve privacy until proven guilty, and potentially thereafter as well.
Why are the well-to-do and well-connected being protected from losing their board positions, when the justice system doesn't bat an eye at causing factory workers and office assistants to lose theirs in similar circumstances?
I'll believe that physics is a branch of philosophy when I see philosophers use statistical and experimental methods to refine or dismiss the theories of Heidegger. Or, for that matter, use philosophy to send men to the moon.
While it started as "natural philosophy," you might as well consider Philosophy a branch of studying languages, and language as a form of music research. Science in general has evolved past its philosophy roots. And while philosophy, though, programming, language, social "sciences," politics, and others still influence and form separate basis for how human beings structure their scientific pursuits, it takes quite a bit of twisting of logic to consider physics in its current incarnation as a philosophy pursuit.
I'm a game developer. When I write a game I need to know:
Resolution. You can jam a lot more text on a computer screen than a phone. Input Devices. A phone's touchscreen can do a lot of things that a console's controller can't, and vice-versa. Target functionality. If my game is going to be based around location services, an Xbox isn't the best place for it to be. Target architecture. On a basic level, which chipset am I compiling for? Monetization system. Are we talking web ads? Retail software in a box?
Write-once-run-anywhere software for most developers is a years-old pipe dream. Functionally, it's Write-a-dozen-times-then-package-them-together. And while it's a nice pipe dream and worth pursuing, releasing a hydra OS with two incompatible user interfaces is a horrible way of doing that. By definition, even your single platform isn't a single platform.
In this case it seems like the issue isn't necessarily skeuomorphic relevance but the iconicness of the skeuomorphism chosen. Setting up your preferences doesn't need gears to turn, but in this case that older required interface clearly communicates the intended usage. A notepad app that looks like a yellow sticky, in my opinion, triggers certain automatic assumptions about the usage and impermanence of the data. Again, that's useful. On the other side, the Game Center app that looks like a craps table is downright awful: The colors clash with the text, making it harder to read. The mental context is all wrong for an achievement-driven system ( as oppose to a chance-driven system). Or those old websites that made you "tap the front door to enter." In that case, an old metaphor was just wasting user's time.
Like all things design, within the areas where the old state is iconic and communicates well, skeuomorphic design can help people understand quickly and easily what is going on. Done poorly, it communicates the wrong thing or nothing at all.
1. Send an additional time-sensitive password via 3rd party means. Texting, e-mail, etc. 2. Body-scanney stuff with various time-based encryptions. 3. Use a dongle to encrypt / munge the password before sending it.
Additional answer - stop storing any passwords in plaintext, or on unsecured systems, or with obvious routes in.
Questions & passwords aren't really the right authentication for the future. They're just too easy to defeat.
"UIs can be fantastic while the backend completely sucks."
I'd like to find where the UI's are fantastic. Most of the UI's I've worked with have been godawful, though probably came from pretty static images made by people who have no idea how interactions should happen.
Thunderbird is pretty good. There aren't many open-source graphical mail clients out there that work consistently across all platforms. It is a little over-built and quirky, like all of Firefox. But there isn't really an equivalent alternative, especially if you need a newsgroup client.
The main competition at this point is webmail. But for people who need a desktop platform, Thunderbird is an easy go-to option.
Microsoft has to report that they're unhappy with the result. They have to whine and complain. If they didn't, it wouldn't be seen as sufficient punishment.
It's not really a vague threat. You have to have a patent defense plan if you're starting any sort of tech business. At this point, unless you're going out of business you WILL be sued. Now, sometimes that's being sued by some shmuck that can barely afford a lawyer himself, and all you need is a solid 20k for an IP lawyer of your own. But you better build that into your plan.
This is the most unnecessarily pessimistic summary that I've ever seen. It should be: "Oh look, this experimental Amiga based OS has just updated! Isn't that kitchy and fun?"
Why focus on the lack of wireless networking, running on Power PC (Which still deserves respect as an amazing processor you witless bastard kids), or having a cost of about 1/20th of a computer? It's a custom kernel underdog operating system written for unique and impressive platform. If that doesn't get your juices rolling, turn in your geek card.
Oh, and avoid anything that's too "new" or "clever." 99.99% of these in laptops are showy Sharper-Image Catalog junk. Multitouch touchpads on non-macs are utterly useless, hybrid drives are terrible to debug, those finger scanners are crap, etc. Anything in hardware too new or flashy is going to be unsupported, and likely junk. Meat and potatoes is what you're after, and keep the flash for your software.
Step 1: The biggest problem with laptops are generally reliability. Figure out the reliable brands. Apple, Dell, Toshiba, and oddly Asus generally do well there, and Sony & HP are usually close to last. Start at those manufacturer sites.
Step 2: The major differentiation is in CPU type & Speed. Is it a quad-core i7? an i3? If you're doing video editing or realtime code debugging, you need a top level i7. For gaming, an i5 is fine, and for everyone else an i3 is AOK. Note: Everyone offers laptops in whatever screen size you want. So pick your screen size and ignore the rest. Also, ignore anything over 8 lbs. The weight is never worth it.
Step 3: GPU. If you need a gaming processor, configure the biggest the manufacturer offers. This can never be upgraded, there are no real options, and you can't get it later. So get it. If you don't need gaming, then Great! Nothing else uses the bloody thing, so don't bother.
Step 4: Battery length. It's usually worth splurging on the biggest battery you can find, so configure that into the build. Everyone has a "long" one that lasts about the same length. Look for manufacturers who have battery settings that keep the charge withing 20% min and 80% max... This will greatly extend the lifespan of that extra 100 bucks.
Step 5: Now figure out which setup is the closest to what you want, and go for it! Why haven't I mentioned RAM, Hard drive, software, or other optional extras? Because buying this from the manufacturer is flushing money down the toilet. Buy these after-market.
Being way too damned expensive is killing text messaging. 10c a message? Texting was originally given away free, as it was largely unused portions of the cell phone system. If they were charging normal data rates for texting, it would cost 5 hundredths of a hundredth of a cent. Users are being GOUGED, and we know it.
It's amazing that phone companies' entire business model in the US has been based around pissing their clients off. Ridiculous Russian Roulette overage fees. Lock-in contracts even if you don't use their phones. Refusing to unlock phones. Insane roaming. Now insane data roaming & texting fees. And then they're surprised when their clients find other places to do business. I'm surprised more of them haven't been burned to the ground at the end of pitchforks.
"The company doesn't reveal how it works, but they appear to be flooding clients with fake information, masquerading as legitimate peers."
In the US, this type of behavior in other circumstances is regarded as network intrusion and is considered illegal hacking. What makes this legal? The target also engaging in illegal activity?
Slashdot Mirror
Agreed. This is a console transition year. Any investment you make in a new console now will probably be moot by next Christmas. The new Xbox and new PS are on their way. And while very little is known about them, they will probably launch by next Christmas. By the year after that, there will be a clear winner.
If you're OK with the idea of buying an obsolete console, then go for it. The Xbox has an amazing library of games, though at $250 with hard drive (you need the hard drive), it's hardly disposable income. With the exception of Halo, most 360 games come out on the PS3 anyway. $80 for a used Wii isn't terrible, and it has enough of a back-catalog of great titles that your kids could be happy for a year or two with it. But there aren't any new games that will come out for it.
Really, the other big gaming platform you could go for would be the iPad. But that, of course, would be even pricier.
They're quickly becoming about the same. Linux and OpenOffice on the desktop are still bad, but getting better. Gnome, etc are all pretty trivial to use until you get to things like adding printers, and Open Office is basically Word 2000. Similarly, Windows / Word is fine, but getting worse. Adding networked printers in Windows seems to keep getting harder, and Word keeps adding more and more junk until it's useless. On top of this Google Docs is more than adequate for most tasks, and the multi-user live-document-editing is an amazingly useful feature. That gives 2 solid Windows alternatives.
People don't really need training. The systems are about the same, and the parts that one would need to train for have become so far away from the normal user's abilities that there really isn't a point to training anyone other than your IT people. And your IT people shouldn't have a problem with any of this.
Additional thoughts:
1. Game rental is still in its infancy online, and games are expensive. Get known for renting those.
2. Deliver! Someone might rather wait the 3 days for Netflix delivery of things that can't be streamed, but if you can get it there in 30 minutes or less you're in great competitive shape.
3. If you can solve the licenses, turn a section of the shop into an on-demand movie theater.
Why hasn't anyone kickstartered a competitor?
Investors do get placated by *making* things, however. Unfortunately, at some point you have to stop making something and actually sell the darned thing. And then it all goes to zune. And that's when the next scheme gets pulled out in an emergency meeting, and the cycle starts again.
The problem with the PC industry is that a lot of OEMs went super cheap, with razor thin margins. Making it up in software bundles and volume. This is not sustainable.
Considering this has been the model for ~15 years now, volume pricing does seem to be sustainable (especially when it's *still* significantly cheaper to build your own desktop).
How is that different than what's going on now?
The problem doesn't seem to be that Johns deserve privacy until proven guilty. The problem is that rich or important Johns deserve privacy until proven guilty, and potentially thereafter as well.
Why are the well-to-do and well-connected being protected from losing their board positions, when the justice system doesn't bat an eye at causing factory workers and office assistants to lose theirs in similar circumstances?
I'll believe that physics is a branch of philosophy when I see philosophers use statistical and experimental methods to refine or dismiss the theories of Heidegger. Or, for that matter, use philosophy to send men to the moon.
While it started as "natural philosophy," you might as well consider Philosophy a branch of studying languages, and language as a form of music research. Science in general has evolved past its philosophy roots. And while philosophy, though, programming, language, social "sciences," politics, and others still influence and form separate basis for how human beings structure their scientific pursuits, it takes quite a bit of twisting of logic to consider physics in its current incarnation as a philosophy pursuit.
I'm a game developer. When I write a game I need to know:
Resolution. You can jam a lot more text on a computer screen than a phone.
Input Devices. A phone's touchscreen can do a lot of things that a console's controller can't, and vice-versa.
Target functionality. If my game is going to be based around location services, an Xbox isn't the best place for it to be.
Target architecture. On a basic level, which chipset am I compiling for?
Monetization system. Are we talking web ads? Retail software in a box?
Write-once-run-anywhere software for most developers is a years-old pipe dream. Functionally, it's Write-a-dozen-times-then-package-them-together. And while it's a nice pipe dream and worth pursuing, releasing a hydra OS with two incompatible user interfaces is a horrible way of doing that. By definition, even your single platform isn't a single platform.
In this case it seems like the issue isn't necessarily skeuomorphic relevance but the iconicness of the skeuomorphism chosen. Setting up your preferences doesn't need gears to turn, but in this case that older required interface clearly communicates the intended usage. A notepad app that looks like a yellow sticky, in my opinion, triggers certain automatic assumptions about the usage and impermanence of the data. Again, that's useful. On the other side, the Game Center app that looks like a craps table is downright awful: The colors clash with the text, making it harder to read. The mental context is all wrong for an achievement-driven system ( as oppose to a chance-driven system). Or those old websites that made you "tap the front door to enter." In that case, an old metaphor was just wasting user's time.
Like all things design, within the areas where the old state is iconic and communicates well, skeuomorphic design can help people understand quickly and easily what is going on. Done poorly, it communicates the wrong thing or nothing at all.
Temporary answer - additional authentication.
1. Send an additional time-sensitive password via 3rd party means. Texting, e-mail, etc.
2. Body-scanney stuff with various time-based encryptions.
3. Use a dongle to encrypt / munge the password before sending it.
Additional answer - stop storing any passwords in plaintext, or on unsecured systems, or with obvious routes in.
Questions & passwords aren't really the right authentication for the future. They're just too easy to defeat.
"UIs can be fantastic while the backend completely sucks."
I'd like to find where the UI's are fantastic. Most of the UI's I've worked with have been godawful, though probably came from pretty static images made by people who have no idea how interactions should happen.
True, but Seamonkey, like the current Eudora, is based upon Thunderbird. No more Thunderbird updates, fewer Seamonkey and Eudora updates.
Thunderbird is pretty good. There aren't many open-source graphical mail clients out there that work consistently across all platforms. It is a little over-built and quirky, like all of Firefox. But there isn't really an equivalent alternative, especially if you need a newsgroup client.
The main competition at this point is webmail. But for people who need a desktop platform, Thunderbird is an easy go-to option.
Microsoft has to report that they're unhappy with the result. They have to whine and complain. If they didn't, it wouldn't be seen as sufficient punishment.
It's not really a vague threat. You have to have a patent defense plan if you're starting any sort of tech business. At this point, unless you're going out of business you WILL be sued. Now, sometimes that's being sued by some shmuck that can barely afford a lawyer himself, and all you need is a solid 20k for an IP lawyer of your own. But you better build that into your plan.
I doubt Rhode Island's politicians would bat an eye, considering the crimes they've been convicted of.
This is the most unnecessarily pessimistic summary that I've ever seen. It should be: "Oh look, this experimental Amiga based OS has just updated! Isn't that kitchy and fun?"
Why focus on the lack of wireless networking, running on Power PC (Which still deserves respect as an amazing processor you witless bastard kids), or having a cost of about 1/20th of a computer? It's a custom kernel underdog operating system written for unique and impressive platform. If that doesn't get your juices rolling, turn in your geek card.
Close up of a D3.
Oh, and avoid anything that's too "new" or "clever." 99.99% of these in laptops are showy Sharper-Image Catalog junk. Multitouch touchpads on non-macs are utterly useless, hybrid drives are terrible to debug, those finger scanners are crap, etc. Anything in hardware too new or flashy is going to be unsupported, and likely junk. Meat and potatoes is what you're after, and keep the flash for your software.
Step 1: The biggest problem with laptops are generally reliability. Figure out the reliable brands. Apple, Dell, Toshiba, and oddly Asus generally do well there, and Sony & HP are usually close to last. Start at those manufacturer sites.
Step 2: The major differentiation is in CPU type & Speed. Is it a quad-core i7? an i3? If you're doing video editing or realtime code debugging, you need a top level i7. For gaming, an i5 is fine, and for everyone else an i3 is AOK. Note: Everyone offers laptops in whatever screen size you want. So pick your screen size and ignore the rest. Also, ignore anything over 8 lbs. The weight is never worth it.
Step 3: GPU. If you need a gaming processor, configure the biggest the manufacturer offers. This can never be upgraded, there are no real options, and you can't get it later. So get it. If you don't need gaming, then Great! Nothing else uses the bloody thing, so don't bother.
Step 4: Battery length. It's usually worth splurging on the biggest battery you can find, so configure that into the build. Everyone has a "long" one that lasts about the same length. Look for manufacturers who have battery settings that keep the charge withing 20% min and 80% max... This will greatly extend the lifespan of that extra 100 bucks.
Step 5: Now figure out which setup is the closest to what you want, and go for it! Why haven't I mentioned RAM, Hard drive, software, or other optional extras? Because buying this from the manufacturer is flushing money down the toilet. Buy these after-market.
Being way too damned expensive is killing text messaging. 10c a message? Texting was originally given away free, as it was largely unused portions of the cell phone system. If they were charging normal data rates for texting, it would cost 5 hundredths of a hundredth of a cent. Users are being GOUGED, and we know it.
It's amazing that phone companies' entire business model in the US has been based around pissing their clients off. Ridiculous Russian Roulette overage fees. Lock-in contracts even if you don't use their phones. Refusing to unlock phones. Insane roaming. Now insane data roaming & texting fees. And then they're surprised when their clients find other places to do business. I'm surprised more of them haven't been burned to the ground at the end of pitchforks.
"The company doesn't reveal how it works, but they appear to be flooding clients with fake information, masquerading as legitimate peers."
In the US, this type of behavior in other circumstances is regarded as network intrusion and is considered illegal hacking. What makes this legal? The target also engaging in illegal activity?
Don't forget: The system only costs 5 million dollars per gateway, per year.
If we only put this much effort into curing heart disease, we'd probably save a life or two.