Why does the above qualify as flamebait? As a US citizen, I have no objection to the above post. The person makes some valid points and I don't find it rude or offensive in any way.
Because the last M$ employee that posted an anti-M$ statement under his log in name on slashdot was found dead in his appartment 5 days later. The official autopsy ruled he was killed by a vicious virus contracted via his workstation the next day.
Re:Three years, and still no Supreme Court decisio
on
Three Years Under the DMCA
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I actualy submitted to Ask Slashdot an idea revolving arround forming an interest group (kind of like an ACLU for Slashdotters). The basic idea was if we have a group of people willing to take these things to court and they get the money from people on slashdot donating, we might actualy get something out of this. We might be able to fight the DMCA. But the story got rejected. Any ways, that's the only real way I see of getting this done. We need our own group of lobyists.
What US are you living in that the government plays no role in the economy? Businesses are regulated all the time by the government, child labor laws, minimum wage, polution restrictions, taxes (cigarette tax anyone?), anti-trust laws, trade tarrifs, import / export restrictions all of these are govenment interventions in the economy. A truly free market has no government involvment at all, the problem with a truly free economy is that it often under produces items which the bennifit society as a whole, but no the individual business (i.e. Highways, Military defence, public education etc) all of which are important to the economy, but which would be underproduced without government interference. Therefore we really have a mixed economy, not that that is a truly bad thing, but the more control the government exerts, the more they will restrict the economy. I can't speak for other countries, but I really don't see the US being a greatly superior country in terms of an economic standpoint than most other advanced countries.
You missed what I said. I said that the windows platform was not known for it's graphics and video design, I did not say that it didn't have programs for it. There is a difference.
And as I tell every PC zealot who complains that the numbers on the mac are slow and that the macs are behind the tech curve, go out, buy one and use it for a while. Do reall work on it. Use it as your primary machine for a few weeks, then tell me what you think. If you don't like the mahcine, sell it, you'll get back most of your money because the resale value of a mac is huge.
And before you ask me if I've done that with a PC, I have. I used a Win2k box as my primary machine for about a month. The only thing I discovered that the PC (1.2 Ghz, 512M, 30G, 32M, DVD) could do that my iBook (300 Mhz, 192M, 6G, 4M[?], CD-ROM) could not do, or not do well was: a) Play DVDs b) Play Unreal Tournament and RTCW well.
I was expecting a whole lot more from the PC, and I got very little out of it. And when I got the iBook back. I went back to using that as my primary machine and now my W2K box is a Hotline server remotely administered by the iBook.
Read the book "The Hacker Ethic" and you will discover that it is possible for a companies bottom line to be contributing to the good of the market and not profits.
In apple's case, the more ties they have in the opensource world, the more resources they have availible to them, the better off they are when the market changes, and they can be at the front as the company with money to throw at the ideas that are being developed.
Apple buys companies and kills competing versions for two reasons. One why should they promote their competitors? Don't like M$ confuse you, they didn't pay money and continue development of IE and Office for mac out of the goodness of their heart, the mac Office sales are huge, every single school that has a mac lab has Office, and it's a new license for each computer, that's a lot of money.
Two, they do it for the same reason they keep a tight control over their OS and Hardware, they can optimise them to work together. The reason apple can afford to be behind in the technology curve is because the software that they put out and the hardware are so tightly integrated they have the same comparable speed as the faster technology PCs.
So why did they kill the windows version? Well, it seems to me that the reason they would do that is because Windows is not a platform condusive to graphic and video design (for instance, for a very long time Intel's advertising department was a mac shop). I think that they are killing the windows version because they don't see a profit in it, and they're waiting to see what profits they can pull from Linux and Irix before they make a desicison about it.
X is a rewrite because Classic finaly got to old for the new computers.
VPC is an emulator, it doesn't do anythign to the hardware.
And yes PCI did exist on the PC when apple adopted it, but when Apple went PCI, PCs wer still using ISA. It's the same thing as USB was on PCs before Apple adopted it, but none of the PC people inlcuded it.
Did it occur to you that Apple might not want to make $$$ they may be happy with $? Think about it, if Apple can turn a business sustaining profit with a small number of people, and make those people happy, what need to they have of getting a larger and more diverse market? It's easier to win in Niches than it is to win in the general public. Besides, since they only make $, Apple doesn't get viewed with the same resentment that M$ does.
The other possibility is that Apple just enjoys what it does, hence, in the 90's when they tried to go to a PC business model they almost killed themselves and so they returned to the "hacker model". That is, doing what you do because you enjoy it. Apple likes making new, odd and niche computers, M$ does not.
Is it possible that Apple might actualy be doing things to the market again? Like it or not, Apple is here and they are influencing again. Unix as a viable OS, not just for servers but for everyone, external products that seamlessly integrate with the machine, pushing new and better products (USB, Firewire, even to an extent LCD). Yes, Apple is becoming a real company again, a computer that you are no longe afraid to say you own.
When are you morons going to learn that you don't get anywhere in life trying to please everyone, you get there by saying my way or the highway. Even though I hate microsoft, they had the right idea for being succesful, us or nothing, except they went wrong when they started supporting everything. That's what makes Windows so unstable, they tried to please everyone. When Appple was screwing up in 96 they were doing the same thing, hundreds of possible configurations for everything you could want.
Apple's policy is very simple, we release what we think is right, and it's what you will use. If you want things to change, complain to us and if we get enough complaints, change it. But if not, too bad. Yes, Apple pisses some people off by being restricting, but because they insist on one way of doing things, they also remain succesful. Yes, you are being told what you can have. And if you don't want it, you don't have to take it.
Did it ever occur to you that despite Apple's short commings, people still enjoy usign the platform and the computers? They like what they do and the computer they do it on? The reason people screamed bloody murder over microsoft was because they kept restricting the user (read binding IE to the system), and because they didn't enjoy the Microsoft system. There is nothing wrong with being competative, and no company has the responsibility to promote competition (even M$) however, if you read the lawsuit information at www.beincorporated.com, you will find that M$ has done some rather vicious things to their "partners". Yes, Apple and Microsoft are held to two different standards. The reason is, mac users like Apple (for the most part) Windows users don't like Microsoft (for the most part).
a) They're warning users that if they are using the alternate platforms, they might want to start looking for new renderers (if the software no longer seems profitable)
or
b) They are saying that under the name Shake, the program will last till 2003, but when 2003 rolls arround, they hope to have a comprehensive version which will be released under the Apple name and have maybe a new interface and code. Perhaps with an optimised version for OS X.
Seems to me like Apple is simply trying to draw people away from Microsoft. Remember, if you can convince them that Microsoft is not the only way (or the Way Out ) you can then convince them to buy alternative software. I don't think Apple is keeping the Linux and Irix versions because they don't want to loose the market (since when has apple cared about lossing markets by killing programs?) I think they're keeping them because it makes a statement that they aren't supporting M$.
You do realize that the conservative viewpoint is to have as little government control over people as possible? The whole idea that we make our own decisions and call our own shots. Just because the conservative viewpoint promotes big business does not mean they're out to take your freedoms away. Remember, Bush wanted to give the extra money you gave the government (tax surplus) back to you. Gore wanted to put it in a "lock box".
Suggestion, stay out of CompUSA, and try your local apple retailer. Just as you wouldn't go to a Volkswagon dealer to test drive a Honda, you shouldn't go to a PC store to test a mac.
In all honesty, video CODECs should be closed source (but I don't think they should be licenced like ht MPEG 4 stuff is going). If you open source a video CODEC, you run the big risk of hundreds of variations on the same format, which can cause muchos confusion.
I could have sworn I've seen this somewhere before. Oh yeah, like at the links in the post above me! Not only are you too afraid of loosing face to post under your login name, but you also can't say anythign new. I don't mind arguing a point, and conseeding defeats, but if your not goign to argue, don't post.
Could I ask why? Seriously? I dont' find it that bad. I little bloated, but it does a lot of stuff for a (mostly) free player. And I much prefer it over WMP cause I can actualy save a file in other formats than just.mov (or.asf in WMP).
The irony of it all being that this was the same type of death mongering we heard in 1996, and in 97, and in 98 when they released the iMac, and we heard this in 99 too and 2000, and 20001, and 2002. Whether you like them or not, Apple (and unfortunately Microsoft) is not going away. Learn to live with it. ANd take what you can get.
sorry, hit the wrong button. Anyways, if you pick up the codec from that site. The new Divx CODEC allows for direct Divx viewing within quicktime. No external player nessesary. And if that isn't the one, I have the one that works, just ask me. The only problem is the WMA soundtrack seems to play faster than the video on some computers, this problem is solved by simply extracting the audio track (no time at all, once the file is open, it extracts in a second, and since you most likely have the file open already, and then, just set the video track ahead slightly (however much the video is normal behind by) and select play all movies. It isn't pretty, but they're working on a fix.
Slashdot Mirror
Imagine if every slashdot reader contributed $100? Or even $50? And I'm sure that our interest group could get some external support.
Also:
Reading a magazine, news paper etc etc with out also reading advertisements will be ilegal.
Reading bed time stories to your children will be an offense punishable by a minimum of 20 years in jail.
Discussing the DMCA on web boards such as slashdot will constitute as high treason.
Listening to a CD or Tape while driving from one state to another will constitue interstate commerce and will be ilegal.
Borrowing tapes/CDs/DVDs/Books etc etc etc from friends/libraries/Block Buster etc etc etc will be punishable by death.
Why does the above qualify as flamebait? As a US citizen, I have no objection to the above post. The person makes some valid points and I don't find it rude or offensive in any way.
Because the last M$ employee that posted an anti-M$ statement under his log in name on slashdot was found dead in his appartment 5 days later. The official autopsy ruled he was killed by a vicious virus contracted via his workstation the next day.
I actualy submitted to Ask Slashdot an idea revolving arround forming an interest group (kind of like an ACLU for Slashdotters). The basic idea was if we have a group of people willing to take these things to court and they get the money from people on slashdot donating, we might actualy get something out of this. We might be able to fight the DMCA. But the story got rejected. Any ways, that's the only real way I see of getting this done. We need our own group of lobyists.
What US are you living in that the government plays no role in the economy? Businesses are regulated all the time by the government, child labor laws, minimum wage, polution restrictions, taxes (cigarette tax anyone?), anti-trust laws, trade tarrifs, import / export restrictions all of these are govenment interventions in the economy. A truly free market has no government involvment at all, the problem with a truly free economy is that it often under produces items which the bennifit society as a whole, but no the individual business (i.e. Highways, Military defence, public education etc) all of which are important to the economy, but which would be underproduced without government interference. Therefore we really have a mixed economy, not that that is a truly bad thing, but the more control the government exerts, the more they will restrict the economy. I can't speak for other countries, but I really don't see the US being a greatly superior country in terms of an economic standpoint than most other advanced countries.
You missed what I said. I said that the windows platform was not known for it's graphics and video design, I did not say that it didn't have programs for it. There is a difference.
And as I tell every PC zealot who complains that the numbers on the mac are slow and that the macs are behind the tech curve, go out, buy one and use it for a while. Do reall work on it. Use it as your primary machine for a few weeks, then tell me what you think. If you don't like the mahcine, sell it, you'll get back most of your money because the resale value of a mac is huge.
And before you ask me if I've done that with a PC, I have. I used a Win2k box as my primary machine for about a month. The only thing I discovered that the PC (1.2 Ghz, 512M, 30G, 32M, DVD) could do that my iBook (300 Mhz, 192M, 6G, 4M[?], CD-ROM) could not do, or not do well was:
a) Play DVDs
b) Play Unreal Tournament and RTCW well.
I was expecting a whole lot more from the PC, and I got very little out of it. And when I got the iBook back. I went back to using that as my primary machine and now my W2K box is a Hotline server remotely administered by the iBook.
Read the book "The Hacker Ethic" and you will discover that it is possible for a companies bottom line to be contributing to the good of the market and not profits.
In apple's case, the more ties they have in the opensource world, the more resources they have availible to them, the better off they are when the market changes, and they can be at the front as the company with money to throw at the ideas that are being developed.
Apple buys companies and kills competing versions for two reasons. One why should they promote their competitors? Don't like M$ confuse you, they didn't pay money and continue development of IE and Office for mac out of the goodness of their heart, the mac Office sales are huge, every single school that has a mac lab has Office, and it's a new license for each computer, that's a lot of money.
Two, they do it for the same reason they keep a tight control over their OS and Hardware, they can optimise them to work together. The reason apple can afford to be behind in the technology curve is because the software that they put out and the hardware are so tightly integrated they have the same comparable speed as the faster technology PCs.
So why did they kill the windows version? Well, it seems to me that the reason they would do that is because Windows is not a platform condusive to graphic and video design (for instance, for a very long time Intel's advertising department was a mac shop). I think that they are killing the windows version because they don't see a profit in it, and they're waiting to see what profits they can pull from Linux and Irix before they make a desicison about it.
X is a rewrite because Classic finaly got to old for the new computers.
VPC is an emulator, it doesn't do anythign to the hardware.
And yes PCI did exist on the PC when apple adopted it, but when Apple went PCI, PCs wer still using ISA. It's the same thing as USB was on PCs before Apple adopted it, but none of the PC people inlcuded it.
Could someone tell me which PCI card for PCs has a mac counterpar that costs 3 times as much and runs 5 times slower?
Did it occur to you that Apple might not want to make $$$ they may be happy with $? Think about it, if Apple can turn a business sustaining profit with a small number of people, and make those people happy, what need to they have of getting a larger and more diverse market? It's easier to win in Niches than it is to win in the general public. Besides, since they only make $, Apple doesn't get viewed with the same resentment that M$ does.
The other possibility is that Apple just enjoys what it does, hence, in the 90's when they tried to go to a PC business model they almost killed themselves and so they returned to the "hacker model". That is, doing what you do because you enjoy it. Apple likes making new, odd and niche computers, M$ does not.
If they bundled shake with the G4s would it justify the 3,000+ price tag in the eyes of PC users
Is it possible that Apple might actualy be doing things to the market again? Like it or not, Apple is here and they are influencing again. Unix as a viable OS, not just for servers but for everyone, external products that seamlessly integrate with the machine, pushing new and better products (USB, Firewire, even to an extent LCD). Yes, Apple is becoming a real company again, a computer that you are no longe afraid to say you own.
When are you morons going to learn that you don't get anywhere in life trying to please everyone, you get there by saying my way or the highway. Even though I hate microsoft, they had the right idea for being succesful, us or nothing, except they went wrong when they started supporting everything. That's what makes Windows so unstable, they tried to please everyone. When Appple was screwing up in 96 they were doing the same thing, hundreds of possible configurations for everything you could want.
Apple's policy is very simple, we release what we think is right, and it's what you will use. If you want things to change, complain to us and if we get enough complaints, change it. But if not, too bad. Yes, Apple pisses some people off by being restricting, but because they insist on one way of doing things, they also remain succesful. Yes, you are being told what you can have. And if you don't want it, you don't have to take it.
Did it ever occur to you that despite Apple's short commings, people still enjoy usign the platform and the computers? They like what they do and the computer they do it on? The reason people screamed bloody murder over microsoft was because they kept restricting the user (read binding IE to the system), and because they didn't enjoy the Microsoft system. There is nothing wrong with being competative, and no company has the responsibility to promote competition (even M$) however, if you read the lawsuit information at www.beincorporated.com, you will find that M$ has done some rather vicious things to their "partners". Yes, Apple and Microsoft are held to two different standards. The reason is, mac users like Apple (for the most part) Windows users don't like Microsoft (for the most part).
I think they're doing one of two things here:
a) They're warning users that if they are using the alternate platforms, they might want to start looking for new renderers (if the software no longer seems profitable)
or
b) They are saying that under the name Shake, the program will last till 2003, but when 2003 rolls arround, they hope to have a comprehensive version which will be released under the Apple name and have maybe a new interface and code. Perhaps with an optimised version for OS X.
Seems to me like Apple is simply trying to draw people away from Microsoft. Remember, if you can convince them that Microsoft is not the only way (or the Way Out ) you can then convince them to buy alternative software. I don't think Apple is keeping the Linux and Irix versions because they don't want to loose the market (since when has apple cared about lossing markets by killing programs?) I think they're keeping them because it makes a statement that they aren't supporting M$.
You do realize that the conservative viewpoint is to have as little government control over people as possible? The whole idea that we make our own decisions and call our own shots. Just because the conservative viewpoint promotes big business does not mean they're out to take your freedoms away. Remember, Bush wanted to give the extra money you gave the government (tax surplus) back to you. Gore wanted to put it in a "lock box".
Suggestion, stay out of CompUSA, and try your local apple retailer. Just as you wouldn't go to a Volkswagon dealer to test drive a Honda, you shouldn't go to a PC store to test a mac.
In all honesty, video CODECs should be closed source (but I don't think they should be licenced like ht MPEG 4 stuff is going). If you open source a video CODEC, you run the big risk of hundreds of variations on the same format, which can cause muchos confusion.
I could have sworn I've seen this somewhere before. Oh yeah, like at the links in the post above me! Not only are you too afraid of loosing face to post under your login name, but you also can't say anythign new. I don't mind arguing a point, and conseeding defeats, but if your not goign to argue, don't post.
Could I ask why? Seriously? I dont' find it that bad. I little bloated, but it does a lot of stuff for a (mostly) free player. And I much prefer it over WMP cause I can actualy save a file in other formats than just .mov (or .asf in WMP).
The irony of it all being that this was the same type of death mongering we heard in 1996, and in 97, and in 98 when they released the iMac, and we heard this in 99 too and 2000, and 20001, and 2002. Whether you like them or not, Apple (and unfortunately Microsoft) is not going away. Learn to live with it. ANd take what you can get.
sorry, hit the wrong button. Anyways, if you pick up the codec from that site. The new Divx CODEC allows for direct Divx viewing within quicktime. No external player nessesary. And if that isn't the one, I have the one that works, just ask me. The only problem is the WMA soundtrack seems to play faster than the video on some computers, this problem is solved by simply extracting the audio track (no time at all, once the file is open, it extracts in a second, and since you most likely have the file open already, and then, just set the video track ahead slightly (however much the video is normal behind by) and select play all movies. It isn't pretty, but they're working on a fix.