Can somebody explain to me how a battery, heating element, plastic case, and filter can POSSIBLY be as cheap to manufacture as dried leaves, paper, and a filter? Am I missing something here?
Doesn't matter if it's as cheap as a regular cigarette. Right now anyway. How was it put in "The Insider"? All cigarettes are is a nicotine delivery vehicle. If they can find a way to "safely" sell nicotine to people they'll be all over it and make it cheaper!
The majority of the bad health affects from smoking are from the biproducts of the combustion. You can get the same nicotine from the tobaco just by heating. If they can perfect this they'll have a whole new generaion of addicts to support them.
What about the companies they work for. We recently got better looking (more fashionable) flat screens at work these are also used by our security and IT despite them not being fashionable or even seen by those outside the company.
That just means the company might be more fashionable, not the people it hires.
Maybe they didn't choose the flast sceens to be more fashionable. Maybe now that LCD's are almost as cheap as CRTs they saw that as an advantage in that they can save more then the difference in electricy and air conditioning.
Business in general will rarely do things just because it is fashionable. There usually has to be some sort of cost savings or potential for profit.
Part of this has been that the people writing the games probably knew one platform well, and there were tremendous technical hurdles to get the games going on the other machines.
Technical hurdles caused by their taking hardware specific short cuts that make future porting difficult. Why not write the games (or any software for that matter) with porting or multiple platforms in mind?
I wish they'd just release the "home on ipod" feature. It was pulled from 10.3 at the last minute and been talked about in the last few updates but never seems to materialize.
I've had that problem occasionally. Logged out and logged in again all was well. I'm guessing something went funny with the mounting process during log on.
10.3.0 had some issue with corrupting user setting and files, but they were fixed with 10.3.1. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to disable it and re-enable it once in a while just to get a fresh sparse image. I've read they do have issues when they grow to twice their original size.
Just another good excuse to back up the data inside it or at the very least back up the sparse image itself as part of your regular process.
It's nice to see government agencies not waste our (sorry: your) tax dollars and instead produce something useful and not hiding it in one of their many shelfs.
I'll give it a read while I'm sitting on my $900 toilet seat.
I still have my G1 5GB iPod and it's battery is going strong.
I took it on an 8 hour road trip recently and it provided me with music all the way there and about an hour on the way back before I had to plug in the charger.
Can't some industry body sit all these whiny companies down and tell them we're not going to put up with this different standards crap like VHS and Beta. You guys play nice and come up with a standard that works and everyone use it. That seemed to work well for DVD.
I realize Microsoft wasn't involved then, but still, it would be beneficial to the entire industry.
So, do you know any open source groups pushing for a standardization of the online media purchasing commerce? If not, we need to ask ourselves why not? This is gonna be HUGE, and it would sure be nice if I didn't need to have specific hardware or software to buy somthing from iTunes, for example. There should be a standard client protocol that I can connect to any standards compliant eStore with and browse/purchase media.
According to Steve Jobs, the downloading service, ie ITMS, is a money loosing venture. It just sells iPods.
Pioneering companies like Time Warner and Sony stuck their necks out in 1997 (yes, DVD is that old) to provide content for an unproven format. While companies like M$ sat on the sidelines and watched it play out. Warner / Sony deserve to make the cash now.
At least they decided (or were forced to decide) on an standard format. I can see it now in 10 years. Sorry you don't have Windows Media Player 15.1.334, you can't watch that movie. The consumer will love that!
The new hub will be a media PC, esentially (though not really like the ones you see now). Give people this option, and they will go for it in a heartbeat.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, If it is true (and it is) they are on /. now so it seemed to work for them. Good or bad.
Can somebody explain to me how a battery, heating element, plastic case, and filter can POSSIBLY be as cheap to manufacture as dried leaves, paper, and a filter? Am I missing something here?
Doesn't matter if it's as cheap as a regular cigarette. Right now anyway. How was it put in "The Insider"? All cigarettes are is a nicotine delivery vehicle. If they can find a way to "safely" sell nicotine to people they'll be all over it and make it cheaper!
The majority of the bad health affects from smoking are from the biproducts of the combustion. You can get the same nicotine from the tobaco just by heating. If they can perfect this they'll have a whole new generaion of addicts to support them.
What about the companies they work for. We recently got better looking (more fashionable) flat screens at work these are also used by our security and IT despite them not being fashionable or even seen by those outside the company.
That just means the company might be more fashionable, not the people it hires.
Maybe they didn't choose the flast sceens to be more fashionable. Maybe now that LCD's are almost as cheap as CRTs they saw that as an advantage in that they can save more then the difference in electricy and air conditioning.
Business in general will rarely do things just because it is fashionable. There usually has to be some sort of cost savings or potential for profit.
I think mac users are a very bimodal group. There are lots of pros, comfortable with various OS's. However, there are tons of totally clueless folks.
Just like Windoze. I'm sure you will run across this in any OS. Linux might be the exception though.
Last time I checked there was no DirectX implementation for the Mac. That makes a big difference.
Had the industry gone with OpenGL instead of an OS specific standard, porting would have been alot easier.
Just another example of Microsquish crushing any competition out of the industry and leaving nothing but stagnation and lack of innovation.
Part of this has been that the people writing the games probably knew one platform well, and there were tremendous technical hurdles to get the games going on the other machines.
Technical hurdles caused by their taking hardware specific short cuts that make future porting difficult. Why not write the games (or any software for that matter) with porting or multiple platforms in mind?
Macs (sadly) are for the rich and the fashionable.
I've noticed alot of IT and security people using them now.
These people are rarely rich or fashionable let alone both.
I'm not sure who said it but
"vote early and vote often". Mitght be more appropriate as e-voting takes off.
I wish they'd just release the "home on ipod" feature. It was pulled from 10.3 at the last minute and been talked about in the last few updates but never seems to materialize.
I've had that problem occasionally. Logged out and logged in again all was well. I'm guessing something went funny with the mounting process during log on.
10.3.0 had some issue with corrupting user setting and files, but they were fixed with 10.3.1. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to disable it and re-enable it once in a while just to get a fresh sparse image. I've read they do have issues when they grow to twice their original size.
Just another good excuse to back up the data inside it or at the very least back up the sparse image itself as part of your regular process.
I'll give it a read while I'm sitting on my $900 toilet seat.
Arn't we going through the same thing with the Music industry right now? People stop buying CD's because they can download them.
What happens when every one stops watching the commercials and buying DVD's? The MPAA and televisions industries will start sueing people I guess.
iTV movies store is on the way I guess!
Just like Apple is suposed to have gone out of business every year or two since the mid 80s?
I still have my G1 5GB iPod and it's battery is going strong.
I took it on an 8 hour road trip recently and it provided me with music all the way there and about an hour on the way back before I had to plug in the charger.
What I want is a nice little camera from Apple(probably Canon more likely) that clips right onto my ipod and uses it for storage.
Why stop there, why not just plug your iSight right in and use it as a camcorder. Hell forget the plug it in stuff... let's just do wireless!
What was that abaout a wireless engineer posting at apple a while back?
Give it a year or so and maybe we'll see it!
More like, what the public are told they want they get....
(NOTE: Intended. I make no predictions about whether or not it will actually happen.)
Of course it won't happen. With the great unwashed masses out there blindly downloading and using the default settings in Windows Media Player.
Sure MP3s work, but no DRM. Sorry.
Can't some industry body sit all these whiny companies down and tell them we're not going to put up with this different standards crap like VHS and Beta. You guys play nice and come up with a standard that works and everyone use it. That seemed to work well for DVD.
I realize Microsoft wasn't involved then, but still, it would be beneficial to the entire industry.
I'm sure if you called U2 British to thier face they would have something to say about it.
According to Steve Jobs, the downloading service, ie ITMS, is a money loosing venture. It just sells iPods.
Some other noteable quotes:
From Mr Gates himself:
"Who will ever need more the 640k of memory?"
Can't remember who said this one:
"The planet will only need about 4 or 5 very large computers" IBM or NASA?
At least they decided (or were forced to decide) on an standard format. I can see it now in 10 years. Sorry you don't have Windows Media Player 15.1.334, you can't watch that movie. The consumer will love that!
Centered around and iMac of some sort!
With a little luck maybe Microsoft will be obsolete in 10 years. We can only hope.