Note for the approximately six billion people who DON'T live in the US. He means "if you work in IT in the United States in IT, you shouldn't support OLPC". Otherwise welcome this aid to competiting with your most valuable resource: the minds of your people.
There will be no Americans in IT in 20 years
Pssh, let me sell you some long term options then.
What about The Grand Duchy of Luxemburg ? They seem pretty innocent. Could he/she at least get someone from Luxemburg to dig the hole, if they don't actually manufacture laptops ?
In Europe, everyone has GSM. 3G is a reality and vendor lock-in is just as strong: users don't much care whose network the call is carried by, since there is reciprocity. Moreover, reasonably (for Europe) priced European roaming is also possible. And, of course, Vodafone, 3, T-Mobile and Orange are present in practically all of Western Europe. Though, I suspect the desire to switch is diminished. On the other hand, practically every village market has a guy with a stall who will unlock your phone for 10 Euros or so.
And, that my friend, was precisely why Microsoft bought a Mac only game developer in the first place: to sell thousands of original XBOXes. It succeeded then. And, guess what ? It was a great game. To apply reductio ad absudum to your argument, the games you favour would be the ones that suck and no-one buys ?
Me ? I bought a PS1 because I wanted to play Tomb Raider, I bought a PS2 because I wanted to play the the latest incarnation of Tomb Raider, and I bought XBOX because I wanted to play Knights of the Old Republic. When the PS3 has a "must play" game, I expect I'll get that too. While it would be nice if all games appeared on all platforms simultaneously you can't avoid the fact that games ultimately do sell consoles.
But, since the profit is in the games, not the consoles, why criticize the sale of consoles ?
Good point ! Moreover, it begs the comparison with the rest of the cellphone market. Firstly, close to 100% of cellphones are sold tied to a particular network operator. Cellphone manufacturers are utterly beholden to the network operators. Most phones also have features that are tied to that operators services. There are two reasons for this, the first is, of course greed: your phone is subsidised in exchange for a long term contract, the operator want you to use value added features as they bring in more revenue. The other is qualification: operators don't want untrusted devices, or software running on their networks. Software updates that involve the networking stack, and in practice that means any app that isn't sandboxed will need re-qualification, and that costs money.
In my opinion, AT&Ts offer is pretty brave. Because of the behaviour of the phone, you can only countenance using it on an unlimited data plan. Since AT&T gets their dollar if you use the data allowance or not, there is no shame in allowing the phone to have WiFi. You wouldn't get this with a metered data plan. And, $60/m for unlimited data is a pretty good deal.
The problem here, is much less Apple than it is the operators themselves. It is difficult to buy ANY phone unlocked through legitimate channels. If Motorola, for instance, thought it could make more money selling directly, no doubt they would. But, they don't. They can't afford to piss the operators off.
The difference is in the very first clause of the very first section: Unless excluded or modified
A consumer's statutory rights may not be excluded or modified in the UK. A retailer can only grant additional protection to the consumer, NEVER remove a statutory right
US retailers can put up a sign saying: "no returns on sale items." In the UK this is utterly unenforceable. US retailers, as a matter of course, print post-partum conditions of sale on the receipt that they hand you after you have paid for th goods. Again, such clauses are unenforceable, in the UK.
If a retailer offers a 12 month warranty on a product, all that does is simplify your life for 12 months. If you buy, say, a refrigerator and it breaks down 12 months and a day later, British Trading Standards Officers will likely argue that it is reasonable for a fridge to last several years. The 12 month warranty can never mean, under British law, "we wash our hands of the product after 12 months."
Make sure it is the one that covers the area where the store is located. Trading Standards Officers are a pretty smart bunch. You know that bit of the fine print that says "this does not affect your statutory rights" ? Well, it doesn't. Moreover retailers CANNOT deny you your statutory rights, they can only give you additional rights. Finally, you can only be bound by contractual terms that you are made aware of BEFORE you enter in to the contract. Did they tell you: no HW repairs if you install Linux BEFORE you bought it ? Seriously call trading standards, they'll sort you out in a jiffy.
(As an aside, don't give PC World any more of your money. I was assaulted by a security guard for refusing to hand over my carrier bag for a search as I was exiting the Reading store. The entire Dixons Stores Group is notorious for trampling on your statutory rights, and assuming that their customers know little about their consumer rights.)
Actually, my experience of other electoral systems is that rather than having shades of grey, they have shades of liberal. A typical right winger in a European democracy would be on the left hand side of the US spectrum. Show me a British right-wing politician for instance who does not believe in Nationalised Health Care for instance. I don't doubt that there must be some, but it is simply not a position that holds any electoral support.
I think it was David Frost who said that in the US "there are two political parties, The Republicans who are the equivalent of the Conservative Party, and the Democrats who are the equivalent of the Conservative Party."
Well, I foolishly went the the www.winnie-cooper.com website and got some interesting links that mght satisfy you. I've not embedded the URL for obvious reasons, although IMO the link is SFW, I just doubt that what it links to is SFW.
More to the point, can we ensure that those who modded this up never get mod points again ?
Re:So, my DVR is half the monthly subscription.
on
The Trouble With TiVo
·
· Score: 1
Kinda sorta true. But, TiVo has pretty much always sold the devices with a rebate on activation. A big rebate. My last TiVo cost me $49 after the discounts were applied. In this the sense, it's exactly like buying a cellphone - it's just that the mechanics of the pricing is different. Best Buy gets its money on the profit margin of the HW, not the service plan.
I tried to understand the specifics once, but I found that the mere act of understooding one specific meant that I could no longer understand the other specific.
Slashdot Mirror
Now, that's a happy ending
Man, that's five minutes of your life spent correcting Dvorak you'll never get back.
No doubt you are right and, "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."
Otherwise welcome this aid to competiting with your most valuable resource: the minds of your people.
There will be no Americans in IT in 20 years
Pssh, let me sell you some long term options then.
What about The Grand Duchy of Luxemburg ? They seem pretty innocent. Could he/she at least get someone from Luxemburg to dig the hole, if they don't actually manufacture laptops ?
In Europe, everyone has GSM. 3G is a reality and vendor lock-in is just as strong: users don't much care whose network the call is carried by, since there is reciprocity. Moreover, reasonably (for Europe) priced European roaming is also possible. And, of course, Vodafone, 3, T-Mobile and Orange are present in practically all of Western Europe. Though, I suspect the desire to switch is diminished. On the other hand, practically every village market has a guy with a stall who will unlock your phone for 10 Euros or so.
And, that my friend, was precisely why Microsoft bought a Mac only game developer in the first place: to sell thousands of original XBOXes. It succeeded then. And, guess what ? It was a great game. To apply reductio ad absudum to your argument, the games you favour would be the ones that suck and no-one buys ?
Me ? I bought a PS1 because I wanted to play Tomb Raider, I bought a PS2 because I wanted to play the the latest incarnation of Tomb Raider, and I bought XBOX because I wanted to play Knights of the Old Republic. When the PS3 has a "must play" game, I expect I'll get that too. While it would be nice if all games appeared on all platforms simultaneously you can't avoid the fact that games ultimately do sell consoles.
But, since the profit is in the games, not the consoles, why criticize the sale of consoles ?
Good point ! Moreover, it begs the comparison with the rest of the cellphone market. Firstly, close to 100% of cellphones are sold tied to a particular network operator. Cellphone manufacturers are utterly beholden to the network operators. Most phones also have features that are tied to that operators services. There are two reasons for this, the first is, of course greed: your phone is subsidised in exchange for a long term contract, the operator want you to use value added features as they bring in more revenue. The other is qualification: operators don't want untrusted devices, or software running on their networks. Software updates that involve the networking stack, and in practice that means any app that isn't sandboxed will need re-qualification, and that costs money.
In my opinion, AT&Ts offer is pretty brave. Because of the behaviour of the phone, you can only countenance using it on an unlimited data plan. Since AT&T gets their dollar if you use the data allowance or not, there is no shame in allowing the phone to have WiFi. You wouldn't get this with a metered data plan. And, $60/m for unlimited data is a pretty good deal.
The problem here, is much less Apple than it is the operators themselves. It is difficult to buy ANY phone unlocked through legitimate channels. If Motorola, for instance, thought it could make more money selling directly, no doubt they would. But, they don't. They can't afford to piss the operators off.
A consumer's statutory rights may not be excluded or modified in the UK. A retailer can only grant additional protection to the consumer, NEVER remove a statutory right
US retailers can put up a sign saying: "no returns on sale items." In the UK this is utterly unenforceable. US retailers, as a matter of course, print post-partum conditions of sale on the receipt that they hand you after you have paid for th goods. Again, such clauses are unenforceable, in the UK.
If a retailer offers a 12 month warranty on a product, all that does is simplify your life for 12 months. If you buy, say, a refrigerator and it breaks down 12 months and a day later, British Trading Standards Officers will likely argue that it is reasonable for a fridge to last several years. The 12 month warranty can never mean, under British law, "we wash our hands of the product after 12 months."
Make sure it is the one that covers the area where the store is located. Trading Standards Officers are a pretty smart bunch.
You know that bit of the fine print that says "this does not affect your statutory rights" ? Well, it doesn't. Moreover retailers CANNOT deny you your statutory rights, they can only give you additional rights. Finally, you can only be bound by contractual terms that you are made aware of BEFORE you enter in to the contract. Did they tell you: no HW repairs if you install Linux BEFORE you bought it ? Seriously call trading standards, they'll sort you out in a jiffy.
(As an aside, don't give PC World any more of your money. I was assaulted by a security guard for refusing to hand over my carrier bag for a search as I was exiting the Reading store. The entire Dixons Stores Group is notorious for trampling on your statutory rights, and assuming that their customers know little about their consumer rights.)
Surely we can attribute the existence of the USA to a severe anglo-dislike for puritan values.
Remember, this is slashdot, so there's no such thing as a rhetorical question.
Actually, my experience of other electoral systems is that rather than having shades of grey, they have shades of liberal. A typical right winger in a European democracy would be on the left hand side of the US spectrum. Show me a British right-wing politician for instance who does not believe in Nationalised Health Care for instance. I don't doubt that there must be some, but it is simply not a position that holds any electoral support.
I think it was David Frost who said that in the US "there are two political parties, The Republicans who are the equivalent of the Conservative Party, and the Democrats who are the equivalent of the Conservative Party."
I jest.
Am I the only one who thinks that the spaceport looks like the Millenium Falcon ?
If my rooftop is being irradiated by DirectTV's satellite, is it wrong do decode the signal and watch HBO without paying for it ?
That'll be the anaesthetic, not the anti-septic, that numbs your tongue.
Well, I foolishly went the the www.winnie-cooper.com website and got some interesting links that mght satisfy you. I've not embedded the URL for obvious reasons, although IMO the link is SFW, I just doubt that what it links to is SFW.
Ah..British schoolboy humour at its finest.
"Crown" - did I miss something ? Did Canada move on Washington DC again ?
Erm, do what I do when my battery is low: turn it off most of the time and just check in every few hours.
More to the point, can we ensure that those who modded this up never get mod points again ?
Kinda sorta true. But, TiVo has pretty much always sold the devices with a rebate on activation. A big rebate. My last TiVo cost me $49 after the discounts were applied. In this the sense, it's exactly like buying a cellphone - it's just that the mechanics of the pricing is different. Best Buy gets its money on the profit margin of the HW, not the service plan.
understooding ? What the hell was I typing ? That'll be the past perfect progressive form of the verb....
I tried to understand the specifics once, but I found that the mere act of understooding one specific meant that I could no longer understand the other specific.