Dell and HP went the "market share" route, offering "competitive" hardware and prices... to the point where they're now primarily competing against each other on cost, and with razor thin profit margins to show for it.
Well, to be fair, Dell and HP probably looked at capturing the "I have more money than sense, and like to convince myself that Apple actually sells something worth the premium" market, but found it pretty well saturated already.
Step Four: This is more preventative measures. Don't install crap you don't need. In Windows installing any program permanently slows down Windows (this is why I mentioned just formatting the Windows computer and reinstalling Windows). This has to do with the registry. In *nix this is not an issue if handled correctly. Usually if it isn't handled correctly your system becomes unusable either way.
Or alternately:
Step Four: Install pagedefrag, set it to defragment every boot, and don't worry about your registry or pagefile getting fragmented all to hell any more, and the "Windows slowdown" problem goes away. (I have an XP install that I used daily for 3 years, and still use regularly. It's still just as snappy as the day I set it up.)
You heard wrong, then. The first console to be sold at a loss was the Saturn. Sega even went as far as to ask retailers to sell it at a loss to help eat some of the expense. The PS1, N64, and Gamecube were all sold for a profit. Everyone (including Microsoft) seems to have bought into the give-away-the-razor, sell-the-blades urban legend in regards to game consoles though.
Hardware improvements have significantly slowed in recent years (hey, why did processors all of a sudden hit that 3GHz brick wall?).
*rolls eyes*
Yeah, because a 3GHz processor you can buy today looks and performs *so* much like a 3GHz processor from 7-8 years ago.
Just to clue you in: 3GHz isn't a measure of performance. And Muramasa: The Demon Blade is one of the most gorgeous games I've ever had the pleasure of seeing on my 42" HDTV. And it's only available for the Wii.
This is the exact attitude that creates the problem in the first place.
It's not that nobody is grateful that you spent your time working on this and giving it away for free. The problem is that if nobody can figure out how to use it, then you might as well have not given it away in the first place.
And then the BIGGER problem is that you've become emotionally invested in it (which is something that most creative people do when they create something) and you shout down anyone who tries to offer suggestions to make it work better. Or you just tell them to fuck off and fix it themselves, because hey, the code is out there. But that's again *useless* to the non-programmer who just wants to be able to use this free Linux/free software thing they heard about because people were telling them that it can do everything they want.
I've released some code through SourceForge, and most of it has been aimed at a programmer audience. As in, "here's something I put together, you might be able to use it as a basis to do something similar with it". Would I respond to someone saying, "hey, could you make it do X" or "Feature Y would work better this way"? Probably not, as I don't really have time to maintain it. However, the difference between me and bigger want-to-get-on-the-desktop projects is that I'm not claiming that my software is ready for the desktop and then arguing with people about why "it *really* is ready for the desktop, you're just not using it right".
I find it ironic that many people on the left would passionately defend those who burn our flag while condemning those who would hang a noose in the middle of a protest.
Hmm, maybe if you had read the summary, you'd see that the problem stemmed from something called SchoolMax. I know nothing about them except what's on their web page, but the fact that it's not a.gov address and that they have contact information for their sales and marketing makes it appear that they are a private entity.
But yeah, I'm sure it was solely the fault of that incompetent guv'ment that originally contracted them to the tune of $4.1 million to provide the system. If they'd just let the free market decide, it would have been only $50k and worked perfectly.
It sounds like you'll do just about anything you can to rationalize the decision you've made.
A number of people have offered reasonable solutions to the question you initially posed, and you find ways to discount every one.
Maybe you really are the ideal candidate that really does get 100% out of their SUV or truck, and that's fine, it means you made a wise decision. However, that doesn't change the fact that you're in the distinct minority of SUV/truck owners.
And the thought that scientific conclusions couldn't be understood by a mere judge is about the most pompous, egotistical thing I've heard. It would be hard to take any profession seriously if they constantly thought all others were beneath them intellectually.
I don't see where that was claimed.
Are you seriously arguing that a judge (presumably someone who went to law school) would have no trouble with the statistics and models that trained scientists have spent years developing, after years of education in how to develop them? I mean, I have a degree in computer science and a solid background in computer engineering, but no way in hell would that qualify me to double-check Intel's engineers' work, and that's in a *related field*. It'd be ludicrous for me to think that I could, say, walk into Canon and tell them that they're building their camera lenses all wrong.
If it goes to trial, it will at best come down to which side's "expert witnesses" give the most convincing arguments, regardless of the correctness or honesty of the arguments.
First, I once believed like you apparently do about the McDonald's coffee lawsuit. I then learned about the facts of the case, and I was wrong, as you are. This rant has been thoroughly debunked many, many times, and I'm not going to do it again, so I encourage you to look it up. It turns out it was a case of the McDonald's owner needing to take personal responsibility for his illegally hot coffee. (It keeps longer that way, he was trying to save a buck.)
Second, NONE of those things you listed are comparable to adding a disclaimer that, "this information might not be accurate and this website is in no way affiliated with MTA." All of those things are common sense, and no reasonable person would think otherwise. If I go to a website that claims to have the MTA schedule and has generally been reliable in the past, it's not unreasonable to believe that its data will be accurate if you don't know that the site isn't actually affiliated with MTA, or that it doesn't get its data directly from MTA in an automated fasion.
Last, I hate overbroad comments like yours. PC is typically a code word for "evil liberals," and your post reeks of accusing the damn libs of removing personal responsibility and common sense from our lives. I'm as liberal as they come, and I think that if anyone needs a warning label that jars of peanuts contain peanuts, they're an idiot and society would probably be better off without them.
Has the healthcare "protesting" spilled into other discussions now? This is the second post already that I've read that's completely offtopic. Are you being encouraged to shout down *everyone*?
Also, to respond directly to your post, how is your scenario of mistaking "Matt Hew Johnson" with "Matthew Johnson" in adjacent rooms relevant to anything?
It sure would be great to hear a logical argument against government healthcare that couldn't be countered with, "but how is that any different than what we already have?" But instead, all we get to hear about is government incompetence and SOCIALISM!!!!
If you're asking a search engine "why," you're doing it wrong.
It's probably going to parse out everything but "Windows" and "expensive" anyway, and then search on those keywords, which (surprise) will show up on a bunch of pages that aren't related to what you're looking for. At that point, it's just up to the engine to decide which ones are most relevant, and apparently Bing's relevancy algorithm or data (or both) suck.
Universities are selling a product. As with any merchant, their success is measured by their ability to provide a service that people want at a price they are willing to pay, while making a profit at it.
With attitudes like this so commonplace, it's no wonder our higher education system is so screwed up.
It is apparent that Microsoft feels they only made made minor changes from Vista to Win7, and that's why the only incremented the number from 6.0 to 6.1
In that case, one can only assume that you must feel the same way about OSX and Linux point releases.
Also, I see that you've incorporated this rant into your sig. I find it amusing that you apparently feel so passionately about such a non-issue.
For the record, I'm planning on buying Windows 7. It will be the first MS OS that I've purchased since '98. (And no, I don't pay the MS tax either -- I build my own PCs) I've been using the RC for a couple of months now and am very happy with it.
I enjoy reading all of these posts from people complaining about the unsustainability of "organic" (which, BTW, is nothing more than a marketing term in the US) farming.
So industrial agriculture is better? Your idea of "sustainable" is depleting the topsoil, pumping it full of fertilizers based on fossil-fuel, and then having most of that nitrogen leach out into the water supply to choke out marine life? Sounds like either a short-sighted solution, or willful rationalization to me.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, to be fair, Dell and HP probably looked at capturing the "I have more money than sense, and like to convince myself that Apple actually sells something worth the premium" market, but found it pretty well saturated already.
--Jeremy
Nice job spreading that myth. Wikipedia (and many others in a quick Google search) says otherwise.
Check it out.
--Jeremy
No, sleep is sleep. Suspend is suspend, and hibernate is hibernate. They're all completely different levels of powered down.
And I haven't had issues with any of them not working right on any Windows machine I've built or bought in the last several years.
--Jeremy
Or alternately:
Step Four: Install pagedefrag, set it to defragment every boot, and don't worry about your registry or pagefile getting fragmented all to hell any more, and the "Windows slowdown" problem goes away. (I have an XP install that I used daily for 3 years, and still use regularly. It's still just as snappy as the day I set it up.)
--Jeremy
You heard wrong, then. The first console to be sold at a loss was the Saturn. Sega even went as far as to ask retailers to sell it at a loss to help eat some of the expense. The PS1, N64, and Gamecube were all sold for a profit. Everyone (including Microsoft) seems to have bought into the give-away-the-razor, sell-the-blades urban legend in regards to game consoles though.
Here's an analysis of the state of the current generation.
--Jeremy
*rolls eyes*
Yeah, because a 3GHz processor you can buy today looks and performs *so* much like a 3GHz processor from 7-8 years ago.
Just to clue you in: 3GHz isn't a measure of performance. And Muramasa: The Demon Blade is one of the most gorgeous games I've ever had the pleasure of seeing on my 42" HDTV. And it's only available for the Wii.
--Jeremy
Wait, when did Microsoft make money on their XBox fiasco? Was it before or after the $3 billion they set aside for warranty repairs?
--Jeremy
This is the exact attitude that creates the problem in the first place.
It's not that nobody is grateful that you spent your time working on this and giving it away for free. The problem is that if nobody can figure out how to use it, then you might as well have not given it away in the first place.
And then the BIGGER problem is that you've become emotionally invested in it (which is something that most creative people do when they create something) and you shout down anyone who tries to offer suggestions to make it work better. Or you just tell them to fuck off and fix it themselves, because hey, the code is out there. But that's again *useless* to the non-programmer who just wants to be able to use this free Linux/free software thing they heard about because people were telling them that it can do everything they want.
I've released some code through SourceForge, and most of it has been aimed at a programmer audience. As in, "here's something I put together, you might be able to use it as a basis to do something similar with it". Would I respond to someone saying, "hey, could you make it do X" or "Feature Y would work better this way"? Probably not, as I don't really have time to maintain it. However, the difference between me and bigger want-to-get-on-the-desktop projects is that I'm not claiming that my software is ready for the desktop and then arguing with people about why "it *really* is ready for the desktop, you're just not using it right".
--Jeremy
Ok, you convinced me. We should outlaw other potential weapons too, like spoons and medium- to large-sized rocks.
--Jeremy
That's actually hypocrisy, not irony.
--Jeremy
Are you seriously suggesting that the claim that the mind is a biological function is a "quasi-religious belief"?
--Jeremy
I read your link. It's a joke. It's unfortunate that you believe that it validates your misguided opinions.
--Jeremy
Hmm, maybe if you had read the summary, you'd see that the problem stemmed from something called SchoolMax. I know nothing about them except what's on their web page, but the fact that it's not a .gov address and that they have contact information for their sales and marketing makes it appear that they are a private entity.
But yeah, I'm sure it was solely the fault of that incompetent guv'ment that originally contracted them to the tune of $4.1 million to provide the system. If they'd just let the free market decide, it would have been only $50k and worked perfectly.
--Jeremy
It sounds like you'll do just about anything you can to rationalize the decision you've made.
A number of people have offered reasonable solutions to the question you initially posed, and you find ways to discount every one.
Maybe you really are the ideal candidate that really does get 100% out of their SUV or truck, and that's fine, it means you made a wise decision. However, that doesn't change the fact that you're in the distinct minority of SUV/truck owners.
--Jeremy
I don't see where that was claimed.
Are you seriously arguing that a judge (presumably someone who went to law school) would have no trouble with the statistics and models that trained scientists have spent years developing, after years of education in how to develop them? I mean, I have a degree in computer science and a solid background in computer engineering, but no way in hell would that qualify me to double-check Intel's engineers' work, and that's in a *related field*. It'd be ludicrous for me to think that I could, say, walk into Canon and tell them that they're building their camera lenses all wrong.
If it goes to trial, it will at best come down to which side's "expert witnesses" give the most convincing arguments, regardless of the correctness or honesty of the arguments.
--Jeremy
First, I once believed like you apparently do about the McDonald's coffee lawsuit. I then learned about the facts of the case, and I was wrong, as you are. This rant has been thoroughly debunked many, many times, and I'm not going to do it again, so I encourage you to look it up. It turns out it was a case of the McDonald's owner needing to take personal responsibility for his illegally hot coffee. (It keeps longer that way, he was trying to save a buck.)
Second, NONE of those things you listed are comparable to adding a disclaimer that, "this information might not be accurate and this website is in no way affiliated with MTA." All of those things are common sense, and no reasonable person would think otherwise. If I go to a website that claims to have the MTA schedule and has generally been reliable in the past, it's not unreasonable to believe that its data will be accurate if you don't know that the site isn't actually affiliated with MTA, or that it doesn't get its data directly from MTA in an automated fasion.
Last, I hate overbroad comments like yours. PC is typically a code word for "evil liberals," and your post reeks of accusing the damn libs of removing personal responsibility and common sense from our lives. I'm as liberal as they come, and I think that if anyone needs a warning label that jars of peanuts contain peanuts, they're an idiot and society would probably be better off without them.
--Jeremy
Yeah, because when you buy a 360 or a PS3, you have to account for the fact that the increased prices include all those extra controllers and games.
Or wait, no they don't, you still have to buy them, and the games and controllers are both more expensive than their Wii counterparts.
--Jeremy
And they did, and there was so much garbage that nobody knew what to buy, and then there was that whole video game crash thing around 1984.
In fact, it's kind of like what we have today, except for some reason people buy the garbage anyway.
--Jeremy
And you think that some random semi-crazy woman blogger with a police fetish is going to dig up more information than a cocaine cartel would?
--Jeremy
Now, please, go take your meds.
This coming from someone that brings up Pearl Harbor in response to a discussion about police oversight...
--Jeremy
Has the healthcare "protesting" spilled into other discussions now? This is the second post already that I've read that's completely offtopic. Are you being encouraged to shout down *everyone*?
Also, to respond directly to your post, how is your scenario of mistaking "Matt Hew Johnson" with "Matthew Johnson" in adjacent rooms relevant to anything?
It sure would be great to hear a logical argument against government healthcare that couldn't be countered with, "but how is that any different than what we already have?" But instead, all we get to hear about is government incompetence and SOCIALISM!!!!
--Jeremy
If you're asking a search engine "why," you're doing it wrong.
It's probably going to parse out everything but "Windows" and "expensive" anyway, and then search on those keywords, which (surprise) will show up on a bunch of pages that aren't related to what you're looking for. At that point, it's just up to the engine to decide which ones are most relevant, and apparently Bing's relevancy algorithm or data (or both) suck.
--Jeremy
Universities are selling a product. As with any merchant, their success is measured by their ability to provide a service that people want at a price they are willing to pay, while making a profit at it.
With attitudes like this so commonplace, it's no wonder our higher education system is so screwed up.
--Jeremy
In that case, one can only assume that you must feel the same way about OSX and Linux point releases.
Also, I see that you've incorporated this rant into your sig. I find it amusing that you apparently feel so passionately about such a non-issue.
For the record, I'm planning on buying Windows 7. It will be the first MS OS that I've purchased since '98. (And no, I don't pay the MS tax either -- I build my own PCs) I've been using the RC for a couple of months now and am very happy with it.
--Jeremy
I enjoy reading all of these posts from people complaining about the unsustainability of "organic" (which, BTW, is nothing more than a marketing term in the US) farming.
So industrial agriculture is better? Your idea of "sustainable" is depleting the topsoil, pumping it full of fertilizers based on fossil-fuel, and then having most of that nitrogen leach out into the water supply to choke out marine life? Sounds like either a short-sighted solution, or willful rationalization to me.
--Jeremy