And it's practical to carry a usb keyboard with you anywhere you might want to use a tablet? This is a ridiculous problem, and shows how the software was never really designed for touch input devices at all, and has only been recently kludged to work with them. I've never seen android or ios display errors demanding i attach a usb keyboard.
Try enabling drive encryption with an on-boot password... You can't boot the device at all until you've entered the password, which you must do with a usb keyboard...
Well, my new macbook has an HDMI port, which i've never used... It requires an adapter to use ethernet, the adapters are quite cheap so i bought one, but so far i only used it once for restoring a backup onto the device which took several hours even over gigabit. I have a friend with an older macbook on which the ethernet port is broken, he's never had need to get it repaired or buy an external adapter. For the vast majority of users, no ethernet or hdmi represents a small cost saving without losing any functionality they will actually use. For those few who need it, the option is available quite cheaply.
One rule for us, another rule for them... How many times have MS pulled shit like this against others? In many cases they don't make any public api available whatsoever, and if they do it's usually crippled. They've done it time and time again with networking protocols, file formats etc.
While i don't agree with what Google are doing, MS actually deserve to have a taste of their own crap for once.
And their response seems to be typical MS arrogance, they expect everyone else to just bend over and take whatever they dish out. Some markets are now so screwed that the users have no choice, but then mobile users have had a taste of something better.
Because by using a patented protocol, you cost more to service than other customers who are using standard protocols like imap (or their own proprietary protocols). Google have to recoup the cost difference somehow, so they charge you. Most of what they charge you will go straight to MS to pay for licensing the patent. The alternative (and previous situation) was that those customers who don't use proprietary patented protocols are subsiding those that do, hardly a fair situation at all.
Yes, market segmentation is their key weakness when it comes to phones/tablets... Windows mobile was their first attempt, put a desktop like interface on a phone - it was terrible, despite not even having any serious competitors at the time.
They need to get away from "windows", and market different products... It worked with the xbox.
MS are generally far too arrogant, they think that everyone loves windows and that users will put up with any old trash because they love the brand... The reality is that people hate windows, and put up with any old trash on the desktop because they don't feel there is any alternative. When it comes to other markets, like phones and tablets, users *do* realise that other alternatives exist and so they aren't willing to put up with the usual crap that MS put out.
Think of it like east german and soviet cars... People wanted them, and would join multi year long waiting lists to get one, because they were the only option available... Once the berlin wall fell and users found out about the alternatives, noone wanted an east german car anymore.
There's very little that the management could have done differently in that case... As a US based company they are beholden to US law, and the shareholders cannot demand that they break the law.
When it comes to poor business decisions, it's ultimately for the shareholders to decide amongst themselves if they want the business they own to be operated by people who make such poor decisions. And if you're only a minor shareholder and the other larger shareholders don't agree with your position then that's that. You knew this *before* you bought these shares, and still decided to buy. Buying shares is gambling, if it doesn't pay off them you have only yourself to blame.
When it comes to lying however, those responsible should be held criminally accountable. Lying in order to secure investment (ie to make your shares appear worth more than they should be and get people to buy them) is fraud and should be treated as such.
As to wether the business decisions were really poor, the problem here is that far too many shareholders are taking a short term view - they want profits NOW and don't care about the long term viability of the company. The fact is MS may currently be highly profitable, but the majority of that profit comes from mature and declining markets, and eventually that source of revenue is going to dry up, and if they have nothing ready to replace it then they will end up bankrupt.
They have generally shown themselves to be rather incompetent at entering new markets, with products that are mediocre to poor and in many cases refusing to fully embrace the new market for fear of getting too far away from traditional markets, and thus being held back. The only real advantage they have is huge cash reserves allowing them to keep slinging enough mud until some of it sticks.
There's a difference between import taxes and arbitrary regional discrimination tho... The seller has no control over import taxes, and so isn't to blame in that instance. Because i'm a foreigner netflix refuses to provide me service, even if i am willing to pay for it. Because i'm foreign, my money isn't good enough. There are all manner of online sellers who *are* willing to sell optical media to me and ship it from a foreign country at my expense, and yet the creators of that media have gone to great lengths in an attempt to prevent me from doing that.
A seller of fruit or meat in another country will have no qualms about selling me their product, assuming i cover any additional costs (shipping, import taxes etc) associated with the purchase. At that point i am paying the same as a local, and it doesn't cost them any more to service me.
Those sellers don't actively refuse to sell me their products just because i'm foreign, nor do they try to erect artificial barriers to prevent me from consuming their product in a foreign country. I've never had a piece of fruit that self destructed when you took it across international borders, and i'm not aware of any cooking equipment that refuses to cook foreign meat.
Back in the days of VHS there were obstacles outside of the control of the film producers which made international distribution more difficult, primarily the varying tv formats which became standardised in different locations... Similarly international communication was more expensive and less common, so there was less chance of hearing spoilers. Even so, there was nothing actively preventing me from buying foreign VHS tapes and appropriately compatible equipment. Today there is no valid technical reason, only artificial ones.
The country where its being shown, and its not about explicitly making it available in another country, its about not arbitrarily blocking access from other countries using technical or other means. There should be nothing to stop someone accessing a streaming service in a foreign country, nor from ordering a dvd and having it shipped internationally.
When there is a fully working connection between us, it should be illegal for you to refuse to serve me based on my location. That's a totally arbitrary discrimination. Providing i'm willing to pay the same price as someone in your country, or pay whatever extra costs are actually incurred for shipping media internationally.
Many people are simply in the habit of torrenting shows, and often have rss feeds or similar automation set up to grab them automatically. I personally wasn't aware that breaking bad was airing here, nor did i know when the rest of the season was due to start. I only found out about it when it popped up in the RSS feed, by which time it had already been downloaded via torrent.
If i had known it was on tv i may well have watched it there (or recorded it for later viewing), but i certainly wouldn't watch it via a drm encumbered streaming service.
Competent windows admins cost just as much as competent linux admins... The only difference is that the market is flooded with incompetent people who (falsely) claim knowledge of windows while very few of those incompetents claim to have linux knowledge. Indeed i have interviewed people who claim to be experienced windows sysadmins, where their experience boils down to "reinstalled xp on my home computer" or something similar. It's a double edged sword for MS, on the one hand they can try to claim lower costs by hiring these incompetents, but on the other this is one of the factors which has earned windows its reputation for being unreliable and insecure.
If you look at the netcraft graph going back several years, you will often see significant bumps in share either for or against IIS. Several of these are down to MS paying large hosting providers to put their parked sites on IIS for promotional reasons.
Why would spammers care what is cheaper? What they're doing is already highly dubious, so chances are they will have no qualms about using warez and/or hacked servers.
What this means is that in order for amazon to profit from the scheme, most users will lose out (ie pay more to subscribe than they would have by just paying for the normal postage) while a few users will benefit at the expense of the others. Effectively those few users are being subsidised by those who are not getting sufficient benefit from the scheme.
Well not in the case given, where you are using the key in order to communicate with the government (eg speeding tickets).
Banks should really do this, supply their customers with keys (store them on the cards that banks already give to customers) and then all electronic communication to/from the bank is verified using these keys. Should cut down on most of the phishing scams targeting banks.
MS exist because of lock-in, if we ever reach a situation where the lock-in is sufficiently broken that it's viable to use something other than windows then noone will use windows at all.
They succeeded in delaying it for several years with IE6, and totally stagnating the web in the process... There was a good few years when nothing changed because IE6 had such a stranglehold over the market.
Windows is also a bad choice for kids, for a similar reason... The system is very fragile, easily broken and difficult to fix, and is also full of big scary warnings to try and stop people from breaking it... Such a system is very bad for kids because it teaches them to be fearful of technology, older systems like the C64 were much better because you couldn't break anything - worse case you hit reset and your back at the default BASIC prompt.
This is why when interviewing people for technical roles, those who are old enough to have started out on such systems are much better candidates in 99% of cases.
Or just not branded it as "windows"... If it was branded differently then people wouldn't have expected compatibility, and thus wouldn't have been disappointed when they found out that it wasn't compatible...
It seemed to work well for apple with ios/ipad, noone expected to be able to run mac applications on them.
The claim of a million infected devices is also press release bullshit, and also says "The number of distinct Android malware specimens detected will reach one million this year, predicts Trend Micro in its annual security roundup report" so there's no guarantee that any of the supposedly infected devices are still actively running today either.
Assuming 1 million infected android devices over all time, comparing it to 1 billion activated devices over all time is actually the most reasonable comparison point.
Neither article makes any claims about how many devices are currently running, both are based on numbers of devices that were (running|infected) at one point.
And if both the vpn and the wifi (and devices beyond the vpn too) use the same authentication? Many organisations are set up this way, using windows domain logins for everything, so if you own one layer you have them all.
It's also possible to push your car to the shops, but most people would never do that under normal circumstances.
On the other hand if your car does break, isn't it preferable that there are other ways to move it? Otherwise there would be defective cars sitting around everywhere...
Installed it from original media, or installed using an oem supplied installer? The latter is usually much easier, because it is tailored for the specific machine and comes with all drivers etc. And there is no reason you couldn't make hardware-specific linux installers which would set everything up exactly.
On any remotely modern machine, installing a typical linux distro is actually much easier than installing xp... No need to load drivers from floppy, no need to enter long complex codes, no need to jump through "activation" hoops, no need to install a bunch of third party drivers afterwards (and good luck trying to work out what hardware you have and thus what drivers you need).
Slashdot Mirror
And it's practical to carry a usb keyboard with you anywhere you might want to use a tablet?
This is a ridiculous problem, and shows how the software was never really designed for touch input devices at all, and has only been recently kludged to work with them. I've never seen android or ios display errors demanding i attach a usb keyboard.
Try enabling drive encryption with an on-boot password... You can't boot the device at all until you've entered the password, which you must do with a usb keyboard...
Well, my new macbook has an HDMI port, which i've never used...
It requires an adapter to use ethernet, the adapters are quite cheap so i bought one, but so far i only used it once for restoring a backup onto the device which took several hours even over gigabit.
I have a friend with an older macbook on which the ethernet port is broken, he's never had need to get it repaired or buy an external adapter.
For the vast majority of users, no ethernet or hdmi represents a small cost saving without losing any functionality they will actually use. For those few who need it, the option is available quite cheaply.
One rule for us, another rule for them...
How many times have MS pulled shit like this against others? In many cases they don't make any public api available whatsoever, and if they do it's usually crippled. They've done it time and time again with networking protocols, file formats etc.
While i don't agree with what Google are doing, MS actually deserve to have a taste of their own crap for once.
And their response seems to be typical MS arrogance, they expect everyone else to just bend over and take whatever they dish out. Some markets are now so screwed that the users have no choice, but then mobile users have had a taste of something better.
Because by using a patented protocol, you cost more to service than other customers who are using standard protocols like imap (or their own proprietary protocols). Google have to recoup the cost difference somehow, so they charge you. Most of what they charge you will go straight to MS to pay for licensing the patent.
The alternative (and previous situation) was that those customers who don't use proprietary patented protocols are subsiding those that do, hardly a fair situation at all.
Yes, market segmentation is their key weakness when it comes to phones/tablets...
Windows mobile was their first attempt, put a desktop like interface on a phone - it was terrible, despite not even having any serious competitors at the time.
They need to get away from "windows", and market different products... It worked with the xbox.
MS are generally far too arrogant, they think that everyone loves windows and that users will put up with any old trash because they love the brand...
The reality is that people hate windows, and put up with any old trash on the desktop because they don't feel there is any alternative.
When it comes to other markets, like phones and tablets, users *do* realise that other alternatives exist and so they aren't willing to put up with the usual crap that MS put out.
Think of it like east german and soviet cars... People wanted them, and would join multi year long waiting lists to get one, because they were the only option available... Once the berlin wall fell and users found out about the alternatives, noone wanted an east german car anymore.
There's very little that the management could have done differently in that case... As a US based company they are beholden to US law, and the shareholders cannot demand that they break the law.
When it comes to poor business decisions, it's ultimately for the shareholders to decide amongst themselves if they want the business they own to be operated by people who make such poor decisions. And if you're only a minor shareholder and the other larger shareholders don't agree with your position then that's that. You knew this *before* you bought these shares, and still decided to buy. Buying shares is gambling, if it doesn't pay off them you have only yourself to blame.
When it comes to lying however, those responsible should be held criminally accountable. Lying in order to secure investment (ie to make your shares appear worth more than they should be and get people to buy them) is fraud and should be treated as such.
As to wether the business decisions were really poor, the problem here is that far too many shareholders are taking a short term view - they want profits NOW and don't care about the long term viability of the company. The fact is MS may currently be highly profitable, but the majority of that profit comes from mature and declining markets, and eventually that source of revenue is going to dry up, and if they have nothing ready to replace it then they will end up bankrupt.
They have generally shown themselves to be rather incompetent at entering new markets, with products that are mediocre to poor and in many cases refusing to fully embrace the new market for fear of getting too far away from traditional markets, and thus being held back. The only real advantage they have is huge cash reserves allowing them to keep slinging enough mud until some of it sticks.
There's a difference between import taxes and arbitrary regional discrimination tho... The seller has no control over import taxes, and so isn't to blame in that instance.
Because i'm a foreigner netflix refuses to provide me service, even if i am willing to pay for it. Because i'm foreign, my money isn't good enough.
There are all manner of online sellers who *are* willing to sell optical media to me and ship it from a foreign country at my expense, and yet the creators of that media have gone to great lengths in an attempt to prevent me from doing that.
A seller of fruit or meat in another country will have no qualms about selling me their product, assuming i cover any additional costs (shipping, import taxes etc) associated with the purchase. At that point i am paying the same as a local, and it doesn't cost them any more to service me.
Those sellers don't actively refuse to sell me their products just because i'm foreign, nor do they try to erect artificial barriers to prevent me from consuming their product in a foreign country. I've never had a piece of fruit that self destructed when you took it across international borders, and i'm not aware of any cooking equipment that refuses to cook foreign meat.
Back in the days of VHS there were obstacles outside of the control of the film producers which made international distribution more difficult, primarily the varying tv formats which became standardised in different locations... Similarly international communication was more expensive and less common, so there was less chance of hearing spoilers. Even so, there was nothing actively preventing me from buying foreign VHS tapes and appropriately compatible equipment.
Today there is no valid technical reason, only artificial ones.
The country where its being shown, and its not about explicitly making it available in another country, its about not arbitrarily blocking access from other countries using technical or other means.
There should be nothing to stop someone accessing a streaming service in a foreign country, nor from ordering a dvd and having it shipped internationally.
When there is a fully working connection between us, it should be illegal for you to refuse to serve me based on my location. That's a totally arbitrary discrimination. Providing i'm willing to pay the same price as someone in your country, or pay whatever extra costs are actually incurred for shipping media internationally.
Intentional region blocking should really be illegal already under anti-discrimination laws...
Many people are simply in the habit of torrenting shows, and often have rss feeds or similar automation set up to grab them automatically. I personally wasn't aware that breaking bad was airing here, nor did i know when the rest of the season was due to start. I only found out about it when it popped up in the RSS feed, by which time it had already been downloaded via torrent.
If i had known it was on tv i may well have watched it there (or recorded it for later viewing), but i certainly wouldn't watch it via a drm encumbered streaming service.
Competent windows admins cost just as much as competent linux admins... The only difference is that the market is flooded with incompetent people who (falsely) claim knowledge of windows while very few of those incompetents claim to have linux knowledge.
Indeed i have interviewed people who claim to be experienced windows sysadmins, where their experience boils down to "reinstalled xp on my home computer" or something similar.
It's a double edged sword for MS, on the one hand they can try to claim lower costs by hiring these incompetents, but on the other this is one of the factors which has earned windows its reputation for being unreliable and insecure.
If you look at the netcraft graph going back several years, you will often see significant bumps in share either for or against IIS. Several of these are down to MS paying large hosting providers to put their parked sites on IIS for promotional reasons.
Why would spammers care what is cheaper?
What they're doing is already highly dubious, so chances are they will have no qualms about using warez and/or hacked servers.
What this means is that in order for amazon to profit from the scheme, most users will lose out (ie pay more to subscribe than they would have by just paying for the normal postage) while a few users will benefit at the expense of the others. Effectively those few users are being subsidised by those who are not getting sufficient benefit from the scheme.
Well not in the case given, where you are using the key in order to communicate with the government (eg speeding tickets).
Banks should really do this, supply their customers with keys (store them on the cards that banks already give to customers) and then all electronic communication to/from the bank is verified using these keys. Should cut down on most of the phishing scams targeting banks.
MS exist because of lock-in, if we ever reach a situation where the lock-in is sufficiently broken that it's viable to use something other than windows then noone will use windows at all.
They succeeded in delaying it for several years with IE6, and totally stagnating the web in the process... There was a good few years when nothing changed because IE6 had such a stranglehold over the market.
Windows is also a bad choice for kids, for a similar reason... The system is very fragile, easily broken and difficult to fix, and is also full of big scary warnings to try and stop people from breaking it... Such a system is very bad for kids because it teaches them to be fearful of technology, older systems like the C64 were much better because you couldn't break anything - worse case you hit reset and your back at the default BASIC prompt.
This is why when interviewing people for technical roles, those who are old enough to have started out on such systems are much better candidates in 99% of cases.
Or just not branded it as "windows"... If it was branded differently then people wouldn't have expected compatibility, and thus wouldn't have been disappointed when they found out that it wasn't compatible...
It seemed to work well for apple with ios/ipad, noone expected to be able to run mac applications on them.
The claim of a million infected devices is also press release bullshit, and also says "The number of distinct Android malware specimens detected will reach one million this year, predicts Trend Micro in its annual security roundup report" so there's no guarantee that any of the supposedly infected devices are still actively running today either.
Assuming 1 million infected android devices over all time, comparing it to 1 billion activated devices over all time is actually the most reasonable comparison point.
Neither article makes any claims about how many devices are currently running, both are based on numbers of devices that were (running|infected) at one point.
And if both the vpn and the wifi (and devices beyond the vpn too) use the same authentication?
Many organisations are set up this way, using windows domain logins for everything, so if you own one layer you have them all.
It's also possible to push your car to the shops, but most people would never do that under normal circumstances.
On the other hand if your car does break, isn't it preferable that there are other ways to move it? Otherwise there would be defective cars sitting around everywhere...
Installed it from original media, or installed using an oem supplied installer?
The latter is usually much easier, because it is tailored for the specific machine and comes with all drivers etc. And there is no reason you couldn't make hardware-specific linux installers which would set everything up exactly.
On any remotely modern machine, installing a typical linux distro is actually much easier than installing xp... No need to load drivers from floppy, no need to enter long complex codes, no need to jump through "activation" hoops, no need to install a bunch of third party drivers afterwards (and good luck trying to work out what hardware you have and thus what drivers you need).