I've got a co-worker, our Oracle admin, who's blind. As things stand, with most cell phones he can't do anything except dial out and answer calls...
This situation seems like a case where speech-to-text translation would be more useful. For example, instead of having to lsten to an address book being read to him, he could simply say "Call Bob Smith" and have the phone dial for him. In fact, some wireless carriers already offer this.
ApplixWare is alive and well
on
Looking At Gobe
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· Score: 1
I've seen several posts raise questions about Applixware. It's currently published by http://www.vistasource.com [VistaSource], and I think it goes by the name AnyWare Desktop.
In any event, it's my top pick for a Linux productivity package, and it's reasonably priced (under $100). The user interface is similar to MS Office or StarOffice, but it is more utilitarian (and quicker to navigate). Plus, I think it is available for Windows desktops as well as most flavors of UNIX.
Having a per se monopoly is not illegal, and in some industries a monopolistic market is the only economically viable alternative. For example, because of high fixed costs, electric utilities are granted a government-sponsored monopoly to sell in their respective markets.
Far more important to regulators is the manner in which the monopoly power was obtained. If I compete in a perfectly fair, competitive manner and my rivals fail only through their own mismanagement or other failure, the monopoly power was obtained legally. If, however, I use anticompetitive behavior such as exclusionary dealing, bundling, and other techniques, then I have obtained monopoly power illegally.
MS has committed criminal acts and therefore is subject to penalties. One part of any settlement should therefore impose large fines on MS for their past actions. The second issue the final resolution must address is how the monopoly will be regulated in the future.
In short, any serious resolution must address two issues: punishing them for prior criminal behavior and controlling their monopoly power in the future. Fines alone will not do much against monopoly power, and publishing API and other technical specifications does not impose a real penalty for past behavior.
...Is a pad of 3 by 3 yellow Post-It notes. They're cheap, reliable, and easy to use. Need to delete a message or the phone number of an ex? Just tear it up and throw it in the trash.
Seriously, do people really need to carry around electronic gizmos with them everywhere they go?
I agree with this 100 percent. The local used records store has tons of great music priced at $3-4 per disk.
More to the point of the article, why would anyone pay $1000 for a device to convert a CD into lower fidelity MP3 files? It doesn't make any sense if this is targeted to the home entertainment market.
If a turntable is not your style, $1000 will buy you a very nice CD player with 24 bit DACS and HDCD decoding.
ApplixWare is a good alternative, too
on
One Year Of OpenOffice
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· Score: 2, Interesting
Although it's not free, I use ApplixWare 5.0 as my main office suite. My experience with StarOffice is that it tries to be too much like M$ Office. I just want a simple, intuitive app. to do word processing, spreadsheeting, drawing, etc.
Unfortunately I still haven't seen anything with perfect M$ Office compatibility, so once in a while I've still got to use a Windoze machine.
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This situation seems like a case where speech-to-text translation would be more useful. For example, instead of having to lsten to an address book being read to him, he could simply say "Call Bob Smith" and have the phone dial for him. In fact, some wireless carriers already offer this.
I've seen several posts raise questions about Applixware. It's currently published by http://www.vistasource.com [VistaSource], and I think it goes by the name AnyWare Desktop.
In any event, it's my top pick for a Linux productivity package, and it's reasonably priced (under $100). The user interface is similar to MS Office or StarOffice, but it is more utilitarian (and quicker to navigate). Plus, I think it is available for Windows desktops as well as most flavors of UNIX.
My coat has a total of six pockets in it. Just imagine ... walking around with a beowul...
Oh never mind.
Having a per se monopoly is not illegal, and in some industries a monopolistic market is the only economically viable alternative. For example, because of high fixed costs, electric utilities are granted a government-sponsored monopoly to sell in their respective markets.
Far more important to regulators is the manner in which the monopoly power was obtained. If I compete in a perfectly fair, competitive manner and my rivals fail only through their own mismanagement or other failure, the monopoly power was obtained legally. If, however, I use anticompetitive behavior such as exclusionary dealing, bundling, and other techniques, then I have obtained monopoly power illegally.
MS has committed criminal acts and therefore is subject to penalties. One part of any settlement should therefore impose large fines on MS for their past actions. The second issue the final resolution must address is how the monopoly will be regulated in the future.
In short, any serious resolution must address two issues: punishing them for prior criminal behavior and controlling their monopoly power in the future. Fines alone will not do much against monopoly power, and publishing API and other technical specifications does not impose a real penalty for past behavior.
...Is a pad of 3 by 3 yellow Post-It notes. They're cheap, reliable, and easy to use. Need to delete a message or the phone number of an ex? Just tear it up and throw it in the trash.
Seriously, do people really need to carry around electronic gizmos with them everywhere they go?
Kenwood != audiophile grade Kenwood has not made anything remotely audiophile grade in decades.
I agree with this 100 percent. The local used records store has tons of great music priced at $3-4 per disk.
More to the point of the article, why would anyone pay $1000 for a device to convert a CD into lower fidelity MP3 files? It doesn't make any sense if this is targeted to the home entertainment market.
If a turntable is not your style, $1000 will buy you a very nice CD player with 24 bit DACS and HDCD decoding.
Although it's not free, I use ApplixWare 5.0 as my main office suite. My experience with StarOffice is that it tries to be too much like M$ Office. I just want a simple, intuitive app. to do word processing, spreadsheeting, drawing, etc. Unfortunately I still haven't seen anything with perfect M$ Office compatibility, so once in a while I've still got to use a Windoze machine.