Ninjas lose when the other guy isn't using a sword. That's why the US had a ton of farm boys coming home with souvenir samurai swords in 1945. A decade of practice with a sword just can not compete with a couple of weeks practice with a Colt. I can't watch anime with chuckling to myself as I think of the Indiana Jones scene.:-)
See Roman history for an example of an unstoppable juggernaut of a country suffering from incompetant leadership.
Actually the Roman citizens were just as much to blame, if not more, than the Roman leaders. The citizens were no longer willing to serve in their own military, the citizens were no longer willing to accept dirty or difficult work, and the citizens developed a culture of entitlement rather than responsibility and merit.
This is a maliciously motivated, willful misunderstanding of how software development is performed... This is government harassment, pure and simple.
You are seriously mistaken, the rules are very different when you are putting your investor's money at risk. A company is legally required to inform investors of risks. Leaving content in a game that may result in product recalls, remastering and replacements, lawsuits, etc may be the sort of thing that investors have a right to know about. Having the SEC look into this seems very reasonable.
The "offensive" data was disconnected from the main game, but not fully removed. The reason it wasn't removed is because, when you're that close to a drop-dead ship date, you don't suddenly start yanking out huge wads of data and code because that will invalidate all your testing to date, and you'll have to re-test the entire damned game, which you don't have time for. So they did the next best thing -- they severed all the connections to it. In the annals of software engineering, this is considered, "good enough." And it's more than good enough for the likes of these pencil-pushing bureaucrats.
All owners know that when they take their company public there will be a huge increase in regulations and paperwork, and changes in day-to-day business practices. If you want to take investor's money, you have to accept the former. When management makes decisions like those you describe they are legally required to consider the potential impact on investors.
Yeah, but they were business students. They were dorks. I won't pay for a damn radio in an iPod. I want my 10,000 songs so I don't have to listen to that crap.
No, business students only conducted the survey. The students surveyed were from several local high schools. Prime Apple market segment.
It wasn't my study. I merely know the people who conducted it and supervised it. I also saw the presentation on methodologies and results. I don't have the data and it isn't my place to release it. Regarding my characterization of one respondent as a zealot. It wasn't the legitimate request for data, it was the tone and numerous erroneous assumptions/rationalizations.
I'm not sure I can agree with your logic here. I would be pissed if the stuff I bought couldn't play anymore because I bought an iRiver to replace my iPod. It's not like being pissed because I can't play 8 tracks anymore, I bought those decades ago. We're speaking of something I bought a couple of months back. People are going to keep buying iPods to not lose the songs. Steve Jobs says that only to give himself a good concience. It is a lock-in.
iPod/iRiver is very much like 8track/casette. The difference in your examples seem to be that of time. You don't mind the 8track since you purchased those "decades ago", and you are annoyed about iPod because you purchased those a "couple of months back". A couple of months after swithing to casette didn't you feel some annoyance that most of your music was on 8track and decades after leaving iPod won't you not care as well?
Regarding the things that I used to own on 8track, I've purchased CDs for those tapes I really liked. For those iTMS downloads that people really liked, they'll probably just repurchase. Since we are discussing $70 worth of downloads there is not much of an expense to repurchase, not much of a deterrent to switch *if* a more desirable product emerges on day. We have seen consumer "abandonment" of past music purchases as they replace 8track with casette in their cars, and repace casette with CD. Digital music will follow a similar pattern. After all, you will always be able to listen to your old tunes at home on your computer. You only lose them when you are on the move, hence the "bad car analogy".
It wasn't my study but I did get to sit in on the presentation where methodology and results were covered. There was a conjoint analysis, I don't recall the numbers but I do recall that status symbol/fashion was singled out by presenters as being important.
"iTune isn't really much of a factor anyways."
I disagree with this.
This referred to the study:
"They did not like being unable to transfer the files, a general DRM problem. MP3s were the preferred format."
The following was my own opinion, I apologize for the [sidebar] tags not being explicit enough. I used "sidebar" since I was going off on a tangent regarding lock-in, future success rather than past success.
"[sidebar] iTune isn't really much of a factor anyways. I believe Jobs once stated that the average customer spent US$70. Not much of a lock-in, but that's a different thread (literally). [/sidebar]"
Which means absolutely nothing in the long run. Nada zip zilch. Most surveys are unreliable in the extreme. Especially coming out of todays institutions. Until I see the polling data itself as well as the methedology, I never quote a survey because until those things are made public one cannot treat the survey/experiment as reliable. At all, not if one is being honest.
The professor supervising the project is occasionally hired by major corporations to conduct such surveys. I know him well enough to trust him, I am a former student of his. I know of at least one project that was canceled because results were "heading in the wrong direction" to quote the corporation paying the bills. He saw it coming, knew they would be unhappy, but kept his integrity. He stressed the importance of this in class. This is not a guy that Micorosft goes to when they want a comparison against Linux. He supervised the work, his goal was to train these MBA candidates to do this for real, so I am personaly satisfied. Again, with the caveat that this was small scale and localized, as the students pointed out themselves in their presentation.
"Now if only Microsoft would expand the policy to include music I purchased on LPs, 8 tracks, and casettes.;-)"
How about your CDs?
The first thing I did with iTunes way back when was to reconfigure it to rip to MP3s rather than AACs. I didn't get an iPod until the 2nd generation so it's capacity greatly exceeded my library. I considered "future proofing" far more important than saving space.
What they mean is that music from iTunes is playable only on iPods and a given number of computers. That's a lock-in.
I'm referring to a digital music platform, not specific music files. The later is not very important. My point is that there is no platform lock-in because a $70 invenstment will not deter many from switching to an alternative they find more attractive than iPod/iTunes, should such a mythical beast come into existence.
Worthless car analogy:;-)
It's like saying someone with $70 worth of casettes is locked into choosing the casette player in their new car rather than a CD player.
"Bad guess. These business students were working professional working on MBAs, not drunken frat boys. The study was supervised by a professor and doctoral candidates who *are* hired by major corporations to do just this sort of thing."
It all sounds good, so where are your reference? Oh wait, you don't have any. In fact these professors and PhD students only live in your arse.
It's not my survey. I know the people who conducted it and supervised it, and I sat in on the presentation of the results. I don't have the data, and it's not my place to publish it in any case. It was a serious effort, and it was qualified as small scale and localized by those conducting it. I could care less what you think of the results, you come off as a zealot so your opinion is worthless. I respond only so that other readers can make their own informed opinion.
I'm pretty sure they'd find the same exact results if they substituted the iPod for any cellphone, or any other MP3 player on the market.
The survey's meaningless because there's nothing to compare it to (no control group). Get me a survey done by a group of statisticians, and then I'll start listening.
The survey was not about iPod. It was about wants, needs, perceptions, and customer satisfaction with respect to digital music players. iPod was just the most common product the respondents talked about. The study was conducted by working professionals as part of an MBA program, these weren't drunken frat boys. They had statistics and marketing at this point and were supervised by pros who do hire out for this sort of stuff.
So let me guess, the business students didn't run their methodology past some psych students. I can imagine the questions:
"Would you like it if your ipod had more features?"
"Does the lack of an FM radio function affect your view of the ipod?"
Bad guess. These business students were working professional working on MBAs, not drunken frat boys. The study was supervised by a professor and doctoral candidates who *are* hired by major corporations to do just this sort of thing.
Forgive me if I don't take a secondhand version of a college project where students interviewed students as a reliable report on what the general consumer wants in a Mp3 player.
These were part-tme MBA students (ie worknig professionals by day) who had taken statistics and maketing and were working under the supervision of a professor who has been hired by large corporation to do just such studies. Now this was a class project, not a corporate sponsord project, so it was small scale and regional (southern California) compared to an Apple sponsored study but it included interviews, questionaires, and focus groups. The results are not so easily dismissed. The sample size was significant, distributions, p-values, and other sanity checks on the data were good.
You object to students being the segment studied? Have you seen Apple's commercials? This is Apple's target market.
You fail to mention the players the iPod was compared to.
The survey covered needs, wants, perceptions, and customer satisfaction for whatever portable digital player were used. It was not an iPod study per se, iPod was just the most common player.
You say lack of AM/FM is seen as a negative. But is it a missing feature that would influence a significant amount of people's buying decisions?
It was a recurring missing "want". As stated in the original posts, the respondents said that they traded this want for the "status symbol" nature of the iPod.
"(*) I expect Apple has similar research of their own and it probably inspired the Radio Remote. I'd wager future models will have it built in."
I'll take that bet. I don't think those things are flying off the shelves. Seems more like a specialty add-on for the small minority who want it to me.
The fact that Apple introduced such a product undermines your argument. If Apple's research showed it to be such a niche product they would have left it to third parties.
You fail to mention the iTunes factor. It's not all about the hardware. How did that figure into this survey?
They did not like being unable to transfer the files, a general DRM problem. MP3s were the preferred format.
[sidebar] iTune isn't really much of a factor anyways. I believe Jobs once stated that the average customer spent US$70. Not much of a lock-in, but that's a different thread (literally). [/sidebar]
I can't stress enough that I do not own an iPod, or care to.
I own one, 2nd generation, the first that were available for PCs. I happy with it.
I just hate to see know-it-alls throw around pointless and and arbitrary surveys like this as data we should all respect.
Really, from reading your post it seemed that you disliked the results and made many erroneous assumptions to rationalize why you should reject the data. As I pointed out it seems consistent with Apple's behavior with respect to radio. It's small scale and regional, but it was done by knowledgeable people under the supervision of experts.
How was that tried with IBM? They gave us a 16-bit Windows implementation, then promised a Win32 implementation with their next revision of OS/2, and never delivered on it.
16-bit Windows was the current implementation. Win95 did not ship until long after OS/2 2.0. By the time market switched from 16-bit to 32-bit Windows , and that day was *not* the day Win95 shipped, the battle was lost. If 32-bit protected multitasking OS/2 could not beat 16-bit Win3.1 what chance did it have against Win95, the window of opportunity had closed.
It'll be built with the reliability and simplicity you've come to expect from Microsoft.
Actually Microsoft has a pretty good track record with their hardware products. I'd put experience with Windows and the politics of slashdot aside and give it an open minded look.
"It'll be built with the reliability and simplicity you've come to expect from Microsoft."
If you want something that's built to last, get an iPod.;)
Business Students at a local university surveyed a bunch of local high schools. They found that Apple scored low on reliability. Apple also scored low on features, the kids really thought the lack of AM/FM was a negative(*). However, iPod was the most common player. Apple did win on ease of use. Many iPod owners admitted they traded functionality/reliability for "status symbol"/fashion. The kids were fairly well informed since there was a lot of comparing and contrasting of the various players they had.
(*) I expect Apple has similar research of their own and it probably inspired the Radio Remote. I'd wager future models will have it built in.
Microsoft will also allow you to download from its store any song that you've purchased from Apple, unlocking users from iPod's vendor lock-in.
The iTunes Music Store (iTMS) lock-in is exaggerated. I think Jobs mentioned that the average iTMS customer purchased US$70 worth of music. That's not much of a lock-in, especially given that we're talking about folks with the resources to buy an iPod - a digital player at the expensive end of the spectrum.
Now if only Microsoft would expand the policy to include music I purchased on LPs, 8 tracks, and casettes.;-)
Seems like a great time to buy Apple shares right now as they are in a dip at around $57. Peaking at around $85 earlier this month with news of this and the new powermacs expected it will definitely be an easy jump if you are looking for a short term investment.
Uh, in recent history Apple stock has dropped in the same timeframes that new Mac systems were being announced. And these are some of the best systems that Apple has ever released. Apple stock movement beyond $30 or so has been all about iPod. Apple is a pretty volative and risky stock stock right now. Sure volatility can lead to short term profit but be very willing to accept the high risk.
Actually, I'd say that implementing Win32 on Mac OS X would be a way that Apple could screw Microsoft, but good. A second implementation would freeze it: "Why aren't you using the normal win32? I want to use your app on my Mac!"
This was already tried with IBM OS/2 and it failed, and IBM was even requiring that users have a real copy of Windows. The future is vitualization and being able to run any version or patch of Windows. BootCamp is cool but it is temporary.
I actually was talking about vaginas, maybe you've heard about them before...
Recall "Learning to operate it truly is the best way to move things in the direction you want" from an ealier post? I guess your head never made the connection.;)
"No mouse pointer in the middle of the keyboard like is found on the Thinkpads or the Toshiba Tecra line."
Oooh, I would never trust a computer with a clit.
Someday, when you get some experience with one, you will learn to love it. Learning to operate it truly is the best way to move things in the direction you want. Good luck and have fun.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm still amazed there's not a Pirates v Ninjas v Zombies v Robots MMOG.
...
... and then I skinned Bambi and Thumper too.
I think I fought all those in WoW
They didn't bother because the ninjas always win.
:-)
Ninjas lose when the other guy isn't using a sword. That's why the US had a ton of farm boys coming home with souvenir samurai swords in 1945. A decade of practice with a sword just can not compete with a couple of weeks practice with a Colt. I can't watch anime with chuckling to myself as I think of the Indiana Jones scene.
See Roman history for an example of an unstoppable juggernaut of a country suffering from incompetant leadership.
...
Actually the Roman citizens were just as much to blame, if not more, than the Roman leaders. The citizens were no longer willing to serve in their own military, the citizens were no longer willing to accept dirty or difficult work, and the citizens developed a culture of entitlement rather than responsibility and merit.
Wait, a minute, this all sounds familiar too
This is a maliciously motivated, willful misunderstanding of how software development is performed ... This is government harassment, pure and simple.
You are seriously mistaken, the rules are very different when you are putting your investor's money at risk. A company is legally required to inform investors of risks. Leaving content in a game that may result in product recalls, remastering and replacements, lawsuits, etc may be the sort of thing that investors have a right to know about. Having the SEC look into this seems very reasonable.
The "offensive" data was disconnected from the main game, but not fully removed. The reason it wasn't removed is because, when you're that close to a drop-dead ship date, you don't suddenly start yanking out huge wads of data and code because that will invalidate all your testing to date, and you'll have to re-test the entire damned game, which you don't have time for. So they did the next best thing -- they severed all the connections to it. In the annals of software engineering, this is considered, "good enough." And it's more than good enough for the likes of these pencil-pushing bureaucrats.
All owners know that when they take their company public there will be a huge increase in regulations and paperwork, and changes in day-to-day business practices. If you want to take investor's money, you have to accept the former. When management makes decisions like those you describe they are legally required to consider the potential impact on investors.
Yeah, but they were business students. They were dorks. I won't pay for a damn radio in an iPod. I want my 10,000 songs so I don't have to listen to that crap.
No, business students only conducted the survey. The students surveyed were from several local high schools. Prime Apple market segment.
It wasn't my study. I merely know the people who conducted it and supervised it. I also saw the presentation on methodologies and results. I don't have the data and it isn't my place to release it. Regarding my characterization of one respondent as a zealot. It wasn't the legitimate request for data, it was the tone and numerous erroneous assumptions/rationalizations.
I'm not sure I can agree with your logic here. I would be pissed if the stuff I bought couldn't play anymore because I bought an iRiver to replace my iPod. It's not like being pissed because I can't play 8 tracks anymore, I bought those decades ago. We're speaking of something I bought a couple of months back. People are going to keep buying iPods to not lose the songs. Steve Jobs says that only to give himself a good concience. It is a lock-in.
iPod/iRiver is very much like 8track/casette. The difference in your examples seem to be that of time. You don't mind the 8track since you purchased those "decades ago", and you are annoyed about iPod because you purchased those a "couple of months back". A couple of months after swithing to casette didn't you feel some annoyance that most of your music was on 8track and decades after leaving iPod won't you not care as well?
Regarding the things that I used to own on 8track, I've purchased CDs for those tapes I really liked. For those iTMS downloads that people really liked, they'll probably just repurchase. Since we are discussing $70 worth of downloads there is not much of an expense to repurchase, not much of a deterrent to switch *if* a more desirable product emerges on day. We have seen consumer "abandonment" of past music purchases as they replace 8track with casette in their cars, and repace casette with CD. Digital music will follow a similar pattern. After all, you will always be able to listen to your old tunes at home on your computer. You only lose them when you are on the move, hence the "bad car analogy".
It wasn't my study but I did get to sit in on the presentation where methodology and results were covered. There was a conjoint analysis, I don't recall the numbers but I do recall that status symbol/fashion was singled out by presenters as being important.
"iTune isn't really much of a factor anyways."
I disagree with this.
This referred to the study:
"They did not like being unable to transfer the files, a general DRM problem. MP3s were the preferred format."
The following was my own opinion, I apologize for the [sidebar] tags not being explicit enough. I used "sidebar" since I was going off on a tangent regarding lock-in, future success rather than past success.
"[sidebar] iTune isn't really much of a factor anyways. I believe Jobs once stated that the average customer spent US$70. Not much of a lock-in, but that's a different thread (literally). [/sidebar]"
It was not published. It was a class project. I was not involved, I did get to sit in on the presentation where methodology and results were covered.
Which means absolutely nothing in the long run. Nada zip zilch. Most surveys are unreliable in the extreme. Especially coming out of todays institutions. Until I see the polling data itself as well as the methedology, I never quote a survey because until those things are made public one cannot treat the survey/experiment as reliable. At all, not if one is being honest.
The professor supervising the project is occasionally hired by major corporations to conduct such surveys. I know him well enough to trust him, I am a former student of his. I know of at least one project that was canceled because results were "heading in the wrong direction" to quote the corporation paying the bills. He saw it coming, knew they would be unhappy, but kept his integrity. He stressed the importance of this in class. This is not a guy that Micorosft goes to when they want a comparison against Linux. He supervised the work, his goal was to train these MBA candidates to do this for real, so I am personaly satisfied. Again, with the caveat that this was small scale and localized, as the students pointed out themselves in their presentation.
"Now if only Microsoft would expand the policy to include music I purchased on LPs, 8 tracks, and casettes. ;-)"
How about your CDs?
The first thing I did with iTunes way back when was to reconfigure it to rip to MP3s rather than AACs. I didn't get an iPod until the 2nd generation so it's capacity greatly exceeded my library. I considered "future proofing" far more important than saving space.
What they mean is that music from iTunes is playable only on iPods and a given number of computers. That's a lock-in.
;-)
I'm referring to a digital music platform, not specific music files. The later is not very important. My point is that there is no platform lock-in because a $70 invenstment will not deter many from switching to an alternative they find more attractive than iPod/iTunes, should such a mythical beast come into existence.
Worthless car analogy:
It's like saying someone with $70 worth of casettes is locked into choosing the casette player in their new car rather than a CD player.
"Bad guess. These business students were working professional working on MBAs, not drunken frat boys. The study was supervised by a professor and doctoral candidates who *are* hired by major corporations to do just this sort of thing."
It all sounds good, so where are your reference? Oh wait, you don't have any. In fact these professors and PhD students only live in your arse.
It's not my survey. I know the people who conducted it and supervised it, and I sat in on the presentation of the results. I don't have the data, and it's not my place to publish it in any case. It was a serious effort, and it was qualified as small scale and localized by those conducting it. I could care less what you think of the results, you come off as a zealot so your opinion is worthless. I respond only so that other readers can make their own informed opinion.
I'm pretty sure they'd find the same exact results if they substituted the iPod for any cellphone, or any other MP3 player on the market. The survey's meaningless because there's nothing to compare it to (no control group). Get me a survey done by a group of statisticians, and then I'll start listening.
The survey was not about iPod. It was about wants, needs, perceptions, and customer satisfaction with respect to digital music players. iPod was just the most common product the respondents talked about. The study was conducted by working professionals as part of an MBA program, these weren't drunken frat boys. They had statistics and marketing at this point and were supervised by pros who do hire out for this sort of stuff.
So let me guess, the business students didn't run their methodology past some psych students. I can imagine the questions: "Would you like it if your ipod had more features?" "Does the lack of an FM radio function affect your view of the ipod?"
Bad guess. These business students were working professional working on MBAs, not drunken frat boys. The study was supervised by a professor and doctoral candidates who *are* hired by major corporations to do just this sort of thing.
Forgive me if I don't take a secondhand version of a college project where students interviewed students as a reliable report on what the general consumer wants in a Mp3 player.
These were part-tme MBA students (ie worknig professionals by day) who had taken statistics and maketing and were working under the supervision of a professor who has been hired by large corporation to do just such studies. Now this was a class project, not a corporate sponsord project, so it was small scale and regional (southern California) compared to an Apple sponsored study but it included interviews, questionaires, and focus groups. The results are not so easily dismissed. The sample size was significant, distributions, p-values, and other sanity checks on the data were good.
You object to students being the segment studied? Have you seen Apple's commercials? This is Apple's target market.
You fail to mention the players the iPod was compared to.
The survey covered needs, wants, perceptions, and customer satisfaction for whatever portable digital player were used. It was not an iPod study per se, iPod was just the most common player.
You say lack of AM/FM is seen as a negative. But is it a missing feature that would influence a significant amount of people's buying decisions?
It was a recurring missing "want". As stated in the original posts, the respondents said that they traded this want for the "status symbol" nature of the iPod.
"(*) I expect Apple has similar research of their own and it probably inspired the Radio Remote. I'd wager future models will have it built in." I'll take that bet. I don't think those things are flying off the shelves. Seems more like a specialty add-on for the small minority who want it to me.
The fact that Apple introduced such a product undermines your argument. If Apple's research showed it to be such a niche product they would have left it to third parties.
You fail to mention the iTunes factor. It's not all about the hardware. How did that figure into this survey?
They did not like being unable to transfer the files, a general DRM problem. MP3s were the preferred format.
[sidebar] iTune isn't really much of a factor anyways. I believe Jobs once stated that the average customer spent US$70. Not much of a lock-in, but that's a different thread (literally). [/sidebar]
I can't stress enough that I do not own an iPod, or care to.
I own one, 2nd generation, the first that were available for PCs. I happy with it.
I just hate to see know-it-alls throw around pointless and and arbitrary surveys like this as data we should all respect.
Really, from reading your post it seemed that you disliked the results and made many erroneous assumptions to rationalize why you should reject the data. As I pointed out it seems consistent with Apple's behavior with respect to radio. It's small scale and regional, but it was done by knowledgeable people under the supervision of experts.
How was that tried with IBM? They gave us a 16-bit Windows implementation, then promised a Win32 implementation with their next revision of OS/2, and never delivered on it.
16-bit Windows was the current implementation. Win95 did not ship until long after OS/2 2.0. By the time market switched from 16-bit to 32-bit Windows , and that day was *not* the day Win95 shipped, the battle was lost. If 32-bit protected multitasking OS/2 could not beat 16-bit Win3.1 what chance did it have against Win95, the window of opportunity had closed.
It'll be built with the reliability and simplicity you've come to expect from Microsoft.
Actually Microsoft has a pretty good track record with their hardware products. I'd put experience with Windows and the politics of slashdot aside and give it an open minded look.
"It'll be built with the reliability and simplicity you've come to expect from Microsoft."
;)
If you want something that's built to last, get an iPod.
Business Students at a local university surveyed a bunch of local high schools. They found that Apple scored low on reliability. Apple also scored low on features, the kids really thought the lack of AM/FM was a negative(*). However, iPod was the most common player. Apple did win on ease of use. Many iPod owners admitted they traded functionality/reliability for "status symbol"/fashion. The kids were fairly well informed since there was a lot of comparing and contrasting of the various players they had.
(*) I expect Apple has similar research of their own and it probably inspired the Radio Remote. I'd wager future models will have it built in.
Microsoft will also allow you to download from its store any song that you've purchased from Apple, unlocking users from iPod's vendor lock-in.
;-)
The iTunes Music Store (iTMS) lock-in is exaggerated. I think Jobs mentioned that the average iTMS customer purchased US$70 worth of music. That's not much of a lock-in, especially given that we're talking about folks with the resources to buy an iPod - a digital player at the expensive end of the spectrum.
Now if only Microsoft would expand the policy to include music I purchased on LPs, 8 tracks, and casettes.
Seems like a great time to buy Apple shares right now as they are in a dip at around $57. Peaking at around $85 earlier this month with news of this and the new powermacs expected it will definitely be an easy jump if you are looking for a short term investment.
Uh, in recent history Apple stock has dropped in the same timeframes that new Mac systems were being announced. And these are some of the best systems that Apple has ever released. Apple stock movement beyond $30 or so has been all about iPod. Apple is a pretty volative and risky stock stock right now. Sure volatility can lead to short term profit but be very willing to accept the high risk.
Actually, I'd say that implementing Win32 on Mac OS X would be a way that Apple could screw Microsoft, but good. A second implementation would freeze it: "Why aren't you using the normal win32? I want to use your app on my Mac!"
This was already tried with IBM OS/2 and it failed, and IBM was even requiring that users have a real copy of Windows. The future is vitualization and being able to run any version or patch of Windows. BootCamp is cool but it is temporary.
I actually was talking about vaginas, maybe you've heard about them before...
;)
Recall "Learning to operate it truly is the best way to move things in the direction you want" from an ealier post? I guess your head never made the connection.
Well, you know I have learned that there are things beyond clits that are way more fun to tinker with...
;-)
I apologize, I did not consider folks with alternative orientations.
"No mouse pointer in the middle of the keyboard like is found on the Thinkpads or the Toshiba Tecra line."
Oooh, I would never trust a computer with a clit.
Someday, when you get some experience with one, you will learn to love it. Learning to operate it truly is the best way to move things in the direction you want. Good luck and have fun.