It's true that Apple's market share is stuck at three per cent with any wobbles in downward direction, but these tend to be both temporary and so inconclusive. Although well down from the nine per cent share Apple enjoyed in the early 1990s, the users have remained remarkably steady in the past five years of turmoil and provided the company with enough revenue to complete its extremely expensive migration to a new operating system (complete) and a new hardware architecture (getting there) while turning in reliable profits every quarter.
This fits in pretty well with my perception of Apple. A small, but fanatical market share. These people are not going away, and this is a very pretty and fairly cheap machine. Hundreds of thousands of mac owners are going to buy Mac Minis; of this there can be no doubt. The question is, what about iPod owners? My guess is that they are going to pick up these machines in droves, especially as those "first PCs" start to get tired or slow down because of all the crapware that accumulates on them. I believe that this is going to be a huge seller for Apple.
Whatever you think of Mac and Linux (I have both and prefer Linux), Apple is not going anywhere. Even without the Mac Mini they were doing fine. They are going through the roof with this new stuff. No doubt about it.
I think it's unfair that you've been labelled a troll, because the poster you were replying to mis-typed. The BBC is controlled by a Board of Governors. They are proposed by Government ministers, but they are appointed by the Queen (but you should understand that she has zero choice in the matter). In general, the BBC tends to be somewhat anti-government, or at least somewhat sceptical about what the government is doing. Generally speaking, whichever political party is in power accuses the BBC of being biased against it. It's probably fair to say that the BBC is somewhat anti-establishment, even though it is a bastion of the establishment. It's pretty hard to describe the situation actually, but no sane person would call the BBC the mouthpiece of the Government.
Every time anyone posts a story about RMS, there is an almost palpable anger from some people here at Slashdot. I don't understand why some people take what he says so personally. (I should point out that I write and use non-free software and therefore I'm also "anti-social" in RMS's terms). My theory is that subconsciously people feel uncomfortable around RMS because they recognize the debt they (we) owe to him. In other words, although he has made a huge sacrifice on our behalf, his rationale for doing this is something that offends some people. "Thanks for everything you've done, RMS, but we wish you had done it for a different reason!".
This post is really a plea for people to be a bit nicer to and about RMS. Take my word for it, in time he will come to be considered as one of the most important philosophers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Fact is now that you need _several_ programs to remove spyware from a computer[...]
I think this sums up the whole problem. It would appear that you need several programs to remove spyware from a computer which is running Microsoft Windows. I don't need several programs to remove spyware from my SUSE box at home. And I don't need several programs to remove spyware from my Apple laptop either. This problem is specific to Microsoft products - it's not related to computers per se.
I saw that programme and I was very dubious about their testing. They included the car which I recently bought, the Daihatsu Charade. I bought it specifically because of its low emissions and excellent fuel-economy and so far I've been delighted that I've had over 50 mpg (imperial) on every tank of petrol I've put in. On their test, they somehow managed to achieve 35mpg for the Charade. To be honest, I don't think there's much point in putting racing drivers in fuel-efficient cars!
We've had this for a long time in the UK. Or at least I saw this for the first time three years ago; I haven't seen it recently. I tried it twice, and both times it didn't seem to get very hot, although I did follow the instructions.
Seriously, though, how are they going to enforce this?
At the moment it seems to be just a suggestion. But for the majority of students, they could simply configure the IE icon to load up firefox and they would be none-the-wiser.
Mr. Tenet called for industry to lead the way by "establishing and enforcing" security standards. Products need to be delivered to government and private-sector customers "with a new level of security and risk management already built in."
I usually laugh when people see the hand of Microsoft in threat to liberty, but this does sound like something they would say.
They make scads of money as it is, why not a few more free hooks to gain a few more potentially paying customers?
But if it's POP and they don't include ads in the messages, what is there to make me become a paying customer of theirs? In other words, what is the "hook"?
Not disputing what you say, but if they're not going to advertise at you and not going to charge you, surely they would be better off without you as a customer altogether?
I'm not trying to impugn Google here; I like their service and I might even pay for it instead of paying my current paid-for service. But I am struggling to see their angle here.
There. They are acknowledging that you can use the protocols anyway without signing this license agreement.
Well, that's very big of them, but some of these protocols don't belong to Microsoft. For example, TCP/IP was developed before Microsoft existed. You might reasonably call this "stupid". I would also call it "evil", just as I would call a burglar evil if I caught him trying to sell (sorry, "licence") property that belonged to me. I think "strange" is understating the case.
The latest major Man vs Machine match (October 2004) ended in heavy defeat for the humans. These were not world champions, but very strong players. The final score was: humans 3.5 - 8.5 programs
If you don't want to mess with back-ends etc, why not get your program to spit out C code? Then compile that with gcc. I think that SmallEiffel started out this way.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Windows is just not ready for the desktop. Maybe in a few years, but at the moment, it's not quite there yet. It's perfectly OK for a serv.... well, not OK exactly, but more or less adequate... well, not adequate either of course, what with all those security problems, but...
There are a number of octagonal (hexagonal?) discs, about five inches in diameter. These were exposed to space during the vessel's trip around the Solar System. The idea being that they should pick up samples of solar particles for analysis back here on earth. I'm not sure what the discs are made of, but a reporter demonstrated how very fragile they were by bending one slightly and watching it shatter into small pieces. I'm happy that they have got some intact discs, but I wonder about contamination with desert sand etc.
Seriously, is this true now? I was pretty sure that a few years ago take-up of mobiles in the US was lower because of the lousy terms of service you had to put up with. Was that an urban myth? Or was it true but everyone in the US now carries them anyway?
Whatever happened to doing one thing and doing it well?
To understand this sort of thing, you have to accept that everyone in Europe (and I suspect the Far East) has a mobile and carries it everywhere. Actually, that's not true but it's very close, and the younger the person, the more likely they will be to have a phone (down to a point, of course). As far as electronic devices that you carry all the time are concerned, the mobile phone won. In the UK at least, you may well see people with PDAs, but everyone has a phone. Therefore, there is a market for phones which do more. Given that people will always carry their phone, there is the potential for the phone to assimilate the MP3 player, for example. Or the PDA. Or a radio. Or a walkie-talkie. I'm sure you get the general idea. Like it or not, manufacturers have finally found an electronic device that most people want to carry with them all the time.
Slashdot Mirror
I read this, over at The Register only today. Half way down, Orlowski says:
This fits in pretty well with my perception of Apple. A small, but fanatical market share. These people are not going away, and this is a very pretty and fairly cheap machine. Hundreds of thousands of mac owners are going to buy Mac Minis; of this there can be no doubt. The question is, what about iPod owners? My guess is that they are going to pick up these machines in droves, especially as those "first PCs" start to get tired or slow down because of all the crapware that accumulates on them. I believe that this is going to be a huge seller for Apple.
Whatever you think of Mac and Linux (I have both and prefer Linux), Apple is not going anywhere. Even without the Mac Mini they were doing fine. They are going through the roof with this new stuff. No doubt about it.
I think it's unfair that you've been labelled a troll, because the poster you were replying to mis-typed. The BBC is controlled by a Board of Governors. They are proposed by Government ministers, but they are appointed by the Queen (but you should understand that she has zero choice in the matter). In general, the BBC tends to be somewhat anti-government, or at least somewhat sceptical about what the government is doing. Generally speaking, whichever political party is in power accuses the BBC of being biased against it. It's probably fair to say that the BBC is somewhat anti-establishment, even though it is a bastion of the establishment. It's pretty hard to describe the situation actually, but no sane person would call the BBC the mouthpiece of the Government.
Don't you have to be born within earshot of Bow Bells to be a Cockney?
This post is really a plea for people to be a bit nicer to and about RMS. Take my word for it, in time he will come to be considered as one of the most important philosophers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
I think this sums up the whole problem. It would appear that you need several programs to remove spyware from a computer which is running Microsoft Windows. I don't need several programs to remove spyware from my SUSE box at home. And I don't need several programs to remove spyware from my Apple laptop either. This problem is specific to Microsoft products - it's not related to computers per se.
What are you talking about? He is English.
Evidence?
Lucky bugger! A neighbour of mine has one of the new ones, and it is a very sweet looking motor.
I saw that programme and I was very dubious about their testing. They included the car which I recently bought, the Daihatsu Charade. I bought it specifically because of its low emissions and excellent fuel-economy and so far I've been delighted that I've had over 50 mpg (imperial) on every tank of petrol I've put in. On their test, they somehow managed to achieve 35mpg for the Charade. To be honest, I don't think there's much point in putting racing drivers in fuel-efficient cars!
A long way to go for what?
We've had this for a long time in the UK. Or at least I saw this for the first time three years ago; I haven't seen it recently. I tried it twice, and both times it didn't seem to get very hot, although I did follow the instructions.
At the moment it seems to be just a suggestion. But for the majority of students, they could simply configure the IE icon to load up firefox and they would be none-the-wiser.
I usually laugh when people see the hand of Microsoft in threat to liberty, but this does sound like something they would say.
But if it's POP and they don't include ads in the messages, what is there to make me become a paying customer of theirs? In other words, what is the "hook"?
Not disputing what you say, but if they're not going to advertise at you and not going to charge you, surely they would be better off without you as a customer altogether?
I'm not trying to impugn Google here; I like their service and I might even pay for it instead of paying my current paid-for service. But I am struggling to see their angle here.
Well, that's very big of them, but some of these protocols don't belong to Microsoft. For example, TCP/IP was developed before Microsoft existed. You might reasonably call this "stupid". I would also call it "evil", just as I would call a burglar evil if I caught him trying to sell (sorry, "licence") property that belonged to me. I think "strange" is understating the case.
There is a report on the tournament here.
If you don't want to mess with back-ends etc, why not get your program to spit out C code? Then compile that with gcc. I think that SmallEiffel started out this way.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Windows is just not ready for the desktop. Maybe in a few years, but at the moment, it's not quite there yet. It's perfectly OK for a serv.... well, not OK exactly, but more or less adequate... well, not adequate either of course, what with all those security problems, but ...
Hang on, remind me again why people use Windows?
Compared to a fossil-fuel powered power station?
I've been sat on my arse doing fuck-all for thirty-five years. Where's my free money?
There are a number of octagonal (hexagonal?) discs, about five inches in diameter. These were exposed to space during the vessel's trip around the Solar System. The idea being that they should pick up samples of solar particles for analysis back here on earth. I'm not sure what the discs are made of, but a reporter demonstrated how very fragile they were by bending one slightly and watching it shatter into small pieces. I'm happy that they have got some intact discs, but I wonder about contamination with desert sand etc.
Seriously, is this true now? I was pretty sure that a few years ago take-up of mobiles in the US was lower because of the lousy terms of service you had to put up with. Was that an urban myth? Or was it true but everyone in the US now carries them anyway?
To understand this sort of thing, you have to accept that everyone in Europe (and I suspect the Far East) has a mobile and carries it everywhere . Actually, that's not true but it's very close, and the younger the person, the more likely they will be to have a phone (down to a point, of course). As far as electronic devices that you carry all the time are concerned, the mobile phone won. In the UK at least, you may well see people with PDAs, but everyone has a phone. Therefore, there is a market for phones which do more. Given that people will always carry their phone, there is the potential for the phone to assimilate the MP3 player, for example. Or the PDA. Or a radio. Or a walkie-talkie. I'm sure you get the general idea. Like it or not, manufacturers have finally found an electronic device that most people want to carry with them all the time.