So, I don't quite get it: Are you not old enough to remember thalidomide, or are you so old that you've forgotten it? Thalidomide was the logical result of the kind of free market you're promoting.
If you think that we as a society are now, or will ever be inclined to accept a certain percentage of flipper-babies as the natural result of the implementation of your anarcho-capitalist ideals, well, you're even more naive than you seem.
Having known some people who worked at Adobe, I think it's safe to say that the culture there is split almost 50/50 between artists and engineers, with teams containing both being the norm.
I was referring to where you said: "Ipod, yes. We're talking about a different market here."
I disagree. The potential user for an iPhone is almost identical to the potential user for an iPod. Cell phones are completely ubiquitous, and the non-enterprise market utterly dwarfs the enterprise market. If you created a Venn diagram of people who use cell phones and people who use MP3 players, there will be an enormous overlap. (i.e. almost 100% of people with an MP3 player are going to own a cell. Somewhat lower percentage in the other direction.)
Almost everyone I know has an iPod of some type, which is what I was trying to get across. The few exceptions are people who simply don't enjoy music/audiobooks/whatever.
As far as the rest of your original comment, I think the part on which the disagreement rests is that the iPhone has a lot of mindshare right now, in fact a lot more mindshare than it has marketshare. If you ask a random person off the street, "what's the best cellphone you can buy", there's a good chance you will hear "iPhone".
That is a really difficult barrier to entry for a new product. It isn't really fair, but this is what happens when a formerly dominant company (palm) exits a market, and tries to reenter it years later. They have to prove themselves all over again.
Of course, one thing that doesn't help is that some of us who were serious Palm fans back in the day had big-time issues with syncing and support that left a bad taste in our mouths. Even if it were the best phone in the world, I would have a hard time learning to trust them again.
Also, anyone who has come to rely on Visual Voicemail will have a hard time going back to navigating audio menus.
The "rubber gimp masks" aren't to keep the phones from getting scratched, they are to keep a better grip on them. the damn things are slippery, especially with some of the wii-like games...
The problem is that if everybody pirate, the musician gets no money, starves to death, and stops playing.... Or just stops playing because it can't be their day job;)
My understanding is that the vast majority of musicians make precious little of their income off of CD (mp3, whatever) sales anyway, once the record companies have taken their cut. The idea is that CDs are essentially a promotional item to generate interest in and loyalty to the band and ensure that their tours (where the real money is made, by a couple orders of magnitude) are sold out.
Morally wrong or not, it's inevitable that sales of recorded digital media will eventually become a tiny part of the music industry, perhaps in the same way that CD singles have essentially disappeared aside from a very few exceptions. Copying and sharing is just too easy for it really to be otherwise.
This is obviously bad for Apple. I mean if the iPhone weren't all like, locked down, and, um....
Yeah, anyway, the iPhone is done for, no question. I mean you can't even GET to root shell on an iPhone, and here it is a standard feature on Android! Mind-boggling indeed!
There's an old saying, oft quoted during the S&L scandal (Hello Senator McCaine!) that goes something like this: When you owe the bank ten thousand dollars, you have a problem. When you owe the bank a hundred million dollars, the bank has a problem.
It isn't laziness. The truth is that people change. Who you are and what you're willing to put up with is different at 35 (45, 55) than it is at 18.
Sometimes a relationship can grow and adapt and weather the changes that come with the years, and sometimes it can't. The difference is that in my parent's generation, you just sucked it up and resigned yourself to being miserable for the rest of your life, no matter how often your husband was beating you up, how many affairs he had, and how much he treated you like shit after you gained a few pounds and he started drinking every night. You just sucked it up.
Sometimes marrying someone is a terrible mistake that only becomes apparent years later. As a child of parents who hated each other's guts for pretty much my entire lifetime, couldn't hide it, and didn't get divorced until I turned 18, let me assure you that divorce when I was a little kid would have been far preferable to what I went through.
Now I'm married, and I'm seven years into it. It isn't always easy, but I'm in it for the long haul. I will guarantee to you that if I ever start acting like my parents did for my entire childhood and adolescence, I will do something about it. Immediately. Life is way too short.
Since this thread will soon be filled with the tortured whining of socially stunted geeks who can't figure out how to set up their preferences to not display "idle" submissions, let me be the first to celebrate this week's episode of the best thing about/.
Actually, I love it. In my opinion, it's the best and funniest thing on slashdot these days (kinda sad I know). I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that gets completely nutso, hilarious emails.
See, my random opinion completely cancels out your random opinion. Isn't it awesome how that works?
Plus, my UID is a good bit lower, so my opinion is inherently more valuable. Checkmate.
Well, he was the writer and star of what has been called the most successful television show in history.
If you don't know who he is, I have to assume that you're woefully ignorant of popular culture.
As for why MS thinks that he'll make for a good spokesperson, well, people like him. He's likable.
For evidence of this, take note that for the last episode of his show, an estimated 50 million people tuned in. That's 1 in 6 Americans. The most of any sitcom in history.
Slashdot Mirror
Whenever someone tells me they have a dog, I ask them what make it is. Try it, the reaction is brilliant.
You must be a scream at parties.
So, I don't quite get it: Are you not old enough to remember thalidomide, or are you so old that you've forgotten it? Thalidomide was the logical result of the kind of free market you're promoting.
If you think that we as a society are now, or will ever be inclined to accept a certain percentage of flipper-babies as the natural result of the implementation of your anarcho-capitalist ideals, well, you're even more naive than you seem.
This is the first time I have ever considered the possibility of motor-boating a boat motor.
M-
I think Dick van Dyke probably has more problems. But I'm also betting he's not big into the whole interwebs and online games thing.
Don't bet on it.
I want a Gray Hoverman or something similar, but I would rather just buy one that's been professionally made. Does anyone build these for sale?
M-
They already exist.
Having known some people who worked at Adobe, I think it's safe to say that the culture there is split almost 50/50 between artists and engineers, with teams containing both being the norm.
I was referring to where you said: "Ipod, yes. We're talking about a different market here."
I disagree. The potential user for an iPhone is almost identical to the potential user for an iPod. Cell phones are completely ubiquitous, and the non-enterprise market utterly dwarfs the enterprise market. If you created a Venn diagram of people who use cell phones and people who use MP3 players, there will be an enormous overlap. (i.e. almost 100% of people with an MP3 player are going to own a cell. Somewhat lower percentage in the other direction.)
Almost everyone I know has an iPod of some type, which is what I was trying to get across. The few exceptions are people who simply don't enjoy music/audiobooks/whatever.
As far as the rest of your original comment, I think the part on which the disagreement rests is that the iPhone has a lot of mindshare right now, in fact a lot more mindshare than it has marketshare. If you ask a random person off the street, "what's the best cellphone you can buy", there's a good chance you will hear "iPhone".
That is a really difficult barrier to entry for a new product. It isn't really fair, but this is what happens when a formerly dominant company (palm) exits a market, and tries to reenter it years later. They have to prove themselves all over again.
Of course, one thing that doesn't help is that some of us who were serious Palm fans back in the day had big-time issues with syncing and support that left a bad taste in our mouths. Even if it were the best phone in the world, I would have a hard time learning to trust them again.
Also, anyone who has come to rely on Visual Voicemail will have a hard time going back to navigating audio menus.
What is the "iPod market" exactly? People with pulses? People who aren't deaf?
The "rubber gimp masks" aren't to keep the phones from getting scratched, they are to keep a better grip on them. the damn things are slippery, especially with some of the wii-like games...
OK, it's a manila (as in, the city in the Philippines) envelope, not a "vanilla" envelope.
Funny mistake though.
I guess we have the answer to the question "who watches the Watchmen?"
Nobody.
In South Korea, only old people aggregate memes.
The problem is that if everybody pirate, the musician gets no money, starves to death, and stops playing. ... Or just stops playing because it can't be their day job ;)
My understanding is that the vast majority of musicians make precious little of their income off of CD (mp3, whatever) sales anyway, once the record companies have taken their cut. The idea is that CDs are essentially a promotional item to generate interest in and loyalty to the band and ensure that their tours (where the real money is made, by a couple orders of magnitude) are sold out.
Morally wrong or not, it's inevitable that sales of recorded digital media will eventually become a tiny part of the music industry, perhaps in the same way that CD singles have essentially disappeared aside from a very few exceptions. Copying and sharing is just too easy for it really to be otherwise.
m-
This is obviously bad for Apple. I mean if the iPhone weren't all like, locked down, and, um....
Yeah, anyway, the iPhone is done for, no question. I mean you can't even GET to root shell on an iPhone, and here it is a standard feature on Android! Mind-boggling indeed!
There's an old saying, oft quoted during the S&L scandal (Hello Senator McCaine!) that goes something like this: When you owe the bank ten thousand dollars, you have a problem. When you owe the bank a hundred million dollars, the bank has a problem.
In this case, China is the bank.
completely screw up the pH balance and flood it with sugar.
Dude. You're supposed to use Diet Coke. Duh.
It isn't laziness. The truth is that people change. Who you are and what you're willing to put up with is different at 35 (45, 55) than it is at 18.
Sometimes a relationship can grow and adapt and weather the changes that come with the years, and sometimes it can't. The difference is that in my parent's generation, you just sucked it up and resigned yourself to being miserable for the rest of your life, no matter how often your husband was beating you up, how many affairs he had, and how much he treated you like shit after you gained a few pounds and he started drinking every night. You just sucked it up.
Sometimes marrying someone is a terrible mistake that only becomes apparent years later. As a child of parents who hated each other's guts for pretty much my entire lifetime, couldn't hide it, and didn't get divorced until I turned 18, let me assure you that divorce when I was a little kid would have been far preferable to what I went through.
Now I'm married, and I'm seven years into it. It isn't always easy, but I'm in it for the long haul. I will guarantee to you that if I ever start acting like my parents did for my entire childhood and adolescence, I will do something about it. Immediately. Life is way too short.
Since this thread will soon be filled with the tortured whining of socially stunted geeks who can't figure out how to set up their preferences to not display "idle" submissions, let me be the first to celebrate this week's episode of the best thing about /.
Bring it, haters: I have karma to burn.
No UID under 2^18 is low.
Hey, I never said my UID was low, I just said it was lower than the other guy's.
For example, I'm not necessarily the smartest guy around, but I appear to be smarter than you are. :)
(see what I did there?)
did you just get in a uid pissing match with someone on the internet?
You know, I'm pretty sure that's what the internet is for.
Actually, I love it. In my opinion, it's the best and funniest thing on slashdot these days (kinda sad I know). I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one that gets completely nutso, hilarious emails.
See, my random opinion completely cancels out your random opinion. Isn't it awesome how that works?
Plus, my UID is a good bit lower, so my opinion is inherently more valuable. Checkmate.
Well, he was the writer and star of what has been called the most successful television show in history.
If you don't know who he is, I have to assume that you're woefully ignorant of popular culture.
As for why MS thinks that he'll make for a good spokesperson, well, people like him. He's likable.
For evidence of this, take note that for the last episode of his show, an estimated 50 million people tuned in. That's 1 in 6 Americans. The most of any sitcom in history.
Having spent a few weeks there, it just means that you're blind to it. That doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.
Should I tell you about the Vietnamese noodle (pho) restaurant near me named Pho King?
"Where's our Pho King food?"
"It's right here. Here's your Pho King meal."
(the t-shirts say "It's Pho King Delicious", so it isn't accidental)