I don't know if you're old enough to remember the old dial pulse/switch hook phones with a rotary dial but I do.
And one device parents used to use to stop their kids making costly telephone calls was to buy a small cylindrical lock that used to be put over the "1" hole on the rotary dial so it was impossible to get the dial to rotate anywhere beyond "1" to dial numbers.
However, disobedient kids like me used to just flick the switch-hooks after lifting the handset from the cradle - just flick them about once every tenth of a second equivalent to the digit you wanted, then leave a short (one second) pause before doing the next number.
So if the emergency number had been 111, knocking the handset in it's cradle a couple of times (thus operating the switch hooks) could have generated a call to the emergency services without thinking about it.
Sorry, but this sounds like fanboi speak.
I would suggest that you have adapted your music listening to accomodate Apple's DRM - after all, downloading a non-DRMed track format would probably not require any conversion at all before being able to make a CD for the car.
I also fail to understand, even to this day, why anyone would buy an album from iTunes? I can, to a degree, understand why some people want to get individual tracks (although I'm an album person myself & can't think of a worse way to listen to music than treating it like a bag of "Pick N Mix" sweets) but every time I have looked on there, not that I would ever use iTunes, I have easily been able to source the actual CD at a lower price.
Well, whatever works for you, I guess, but I'd really like to understand what the big deal is with downloadable music - okay, maybe if you need a particular piece of music at 2am in the morning possibly... because for less money, I can have a tangible disk, sleeve notes to read, at excellent quality that I can then rip myself at whatever bit rate I see fit.
From my point of view, I'm never ever going to pay for a music download, it's that simple.
Music is my primary hobby, over and above TV and movies - so it's very important to me. I don't own an extortionately expensive hi-fi but I own separates that are good enough quality for my listening habits & I'm very much an album person which means I look for CDs that, in my opinion, are good enough to listen to from start to finish.
I have MP3ed my entire music collection & when I'm programming or surfing on the PC, or indeed stuck in a hotel room halfway across the world, I do play MP3 music - again, mostly albums but I've an MP3 player for the gym which has track selections because without music, I find working out totally boring.
So, yes, I recognise the appeal of MP3 (or other downloadable formats) for the purpose of convenience & portability but when I'm listening to music that way, then it's in the background while I'm doing something else but not for when I'm *really* focusing on listening to music.
Consequently, a download serves no purpose to me if I can buy the CD. Again, music is important to me, as is reading reviews & sourcing CDs as cheaply as possibly - and because of the latter, I have never yet seen one occasion where it has been cheaper to download an album than it is to buy it. And, of course, why would I download any music at more expense but with lower quality?
Some people are of course going to argue that they only want certain tracks from albums rather than the whole thing. Okay, there's a case for that although the way I listen to music, I just wouldn't bother buying the CD in the first place if most of it was filler.
But the fact is, if the music distribution model changes such that bands focus on recording single tracks rather than albums, then a whole lot of other stuff changes with it - for example, what happens if bands are no longer able to tour on the strength of having produced a completely new album? What happens to live music as a result?
To me, the music scene is fine as it is. The record labels pay for a lot of marketing of albums, some of which is absolute rubbish but sometimes has led me to buy a really good album also. If that disappears to replace 100,000 unique bands all selling their music via the web, what's going to help the poor old consumer from sorting the good stuff from the bad? Is everyone currently buying music now prepared to spend A LOT MORE TIME trying to find music that they actually like? And if you don't have record labels doing their market research and targetting specific audiences, what happens to 100,000 bands all trying to market their music all at once? Less sales for each of them... does it then become economical for them to make music any more?
Nobody forces anyone to pay £15 for a CD. There's no need to pay any attention to clever marketing & if consumers exercise better choice & become more discerning in what they are prepared to pay good money for, the quality of musical product has to go up.
To me "pick n mix" music is going to end up drastically changing the whole music scene completely - it's a big mistake to assume that if and when "pay by track" music fully takes off, that many of the good musicians that are around now will also be around then.
I spend a lot of my time researching my music to the point where when I buy a CD, I already know it's going to be good & I've found the best possible price for it - therefore, I'm quite content with the quality of music for the price I pay for it, and I see no reason to switch from buying CDs to a "Pick N Mix" download format that ultimately costs more for lower quality.
But quite frankly, I'm now getting a bit sick and tired of my CD purchases having to subsidise the hobbies of you music thieves.
So how about you people just BUY your music? And if it's too expensive for you, then buy less of it rather than hoarding all the free stuff you can without listening to it properly anyway. What's wrong with being discerning, learning to appreciate a good piece of music and then rewarding the creator(s) accordingly?
Do you REALLY consider yourselves music fans when all you do is steal music & because it's so easy to come by, you don't even appreciate it?
And just how many of you "CDs are too expensive" thieves actually make an anonymous donation to the musicians of an amount YOU consider fair? Or even make a donation to charity on behalf of the band?
No, I'm not a musician and don't work anywhere in the music industry - I'm just a TRUE music fan who believes in paying for stuff he likes and I'm sick of hearing the whining thieves while subsidising their music collections.
1. This is intentional and Microsoft just tries to control this device with all means. By keeping up the NDA they can tolerate what they like to tolerate (and come on, there *are* mailingslists for Dotnet developers and there's also code posted) and at the same time sue everyone to hell and back who they don't like. Of course this means that there will be hardly any books, courses, forums and so on. Which makes first-hand knowledge and programming experience with the Windows OS a kind of intellectual capital which is very valuable to companies. And this might launch the next stage of the Intellectual Property madness. Doom!
2. They just forgot to pull the NDA or haven't been able yet to modify their developer program and paperwork to allow protection of future betas while opening up the currently released NDA. Microsoft is totally overburdened right now and it may well be that there are quite a few people taking a few weeks off after launching the Vista OS Service Pack 1, Intenet Explorer 8 Beta 1 and SDK, working 60h/week for a while. You know how it is.
I'm mainly a Linux/Open Source user but I really don't have a problem with people paying for software if that's what they want to do.
But I really get annoyed with the people on/. who view Apple as a company that does them some kind of favour.
There's no doubt that Microsoft wants nothing more than to lock users into Windows & developers into DotNet but because they're so vocal about it, Apple themselves uses it as marketing tool in order to position themselves into the market also, as being "better than Microsoft".
But the fact is, both companies make use of closed source operating systems and deploy DRM heavily in their products. They are also both owned by shareholders and therefore have a duty to make as much money as possible - any director in either company would be kicked out, and might even find him/herself in a courtroom if he/she didn't make that the first priority.
So let's stop with the pretence that Apple is any different to Microsoft - they're not. And whilst you may think it's "cool" & "geeky" to own a Mac or Macbook, in reality you've just been suckered in by Apple to pay more for a computer purely because it's a fashion accessory - but if you're happy with that then good luck to you.
..."of a browser full of security holes that Apple refuses to fix but foists on everyone at every possible opportunity despite that no (UK) online banking sites recommend it as safe to use for financial transactions?"
...then it's bound to be shaped like a giant alien tentacle and that a partly-dressed cartoon schoolgirl will be involved somewhere in the "docking" sequence with the ISS.
Steve's logic behind the design is that if you've got enough money to waste on a Macbook Air in the first place, then you've probably got enough money to hire your own punkah wallah to carry it for you and open/close the lid when you need him to do so.
Mind you, if you've not got the musculature to be able to even open the lid of a laptop, then you probably shouldn't be putting your body through the trauma of adjusting to differing air pressures on an aircraft - which then makes the Macbook Air redundant anyway.
Maybe Steve should think about a Macbook "Bubble" - for use in sterile, airtight environments away from sunlight where brittle Apple user bones cannot break.
I don't want to play the evangelist here but it could easily be argued that a system based on source code that is open to constant peer review probably wouldn't have been in this long without the hack being discovered much earlier, mayube even before it went in in the first place.
Oh, and before the "Linux fanboi" replies start flooding in, please remember that Open Source software runs equally as well in Windows and other OSes also.
In other words, you're expecting Apple to open up the specification of their locked down hardware in order to allow a Linux kernel to have an appropriate driver for each device built into it?
Here's an experiment for you - go buy a NORMAL iPod Touch, then go try running it with Linux and iTunes... let me know how well you get on.
PS. By the way, you need to be modded "Off-topic". The article is talking about OPEN SOURCE tablets, not those that are locked down with a proprietary Apple OS.
Alternatively, make it 2 inches thick, peel off the Apple logo & sell it to me for £500 (=$1000) on the reassurance that I won't lose any sleep over the fact it doesn't look like a fashion accessory.
How about all you entertainment and media companies just assume that after a hard day's work, all I really want to do is just sit there and BE ENTERTAINED. Yes, you can have a wedge of my cash for the privelige of doing so and if you make it appealing enough to me then I might just drag my fat lazy ass into the car so I can drive to the local cinema to go see what you have on offer.
But please stop with all this "interactive" and gimmicky shit, okay? I can quite happily sit here in front of my computer for the occasionally half-hour and be thoroughly entertained by a 20-year-old 48kb game called "Jet Set Willy" and then be equally entertained by pounding alien heads in Half-Life 2. I don't ALWAYS need whizzy graphics & 8GB of installed game to be immersed, sometimes simple shit does fine.
Likewise, I don't need to "Pick N Mix" my own songs for my own CD compilation because I'm more than happy to accept that an army of musicians, producers & media types are a whole heap better at that shit than I am - most of the time, I just want to give you some money, take a shiny disk in exchange, throw it into my hifi and let it play, okay?
So please don't think I am sat here waiting for 3D TV because somehow I need to be "more immersed" in your shit, okay? Believe it or not, most of the time a 2D TV, a pizza and a few beers is enough to keep me happy.
How about we make it simple? You keep offering good quality shit at a reasonable price and I will just BUY it so I can watch/read/listen to it.
A lot of people do seem to forget that Alan Moore is a writer of very wordy comic books (for me, that's part of his appeal) & to transpose them directly to the screen would make for very wordy movies as a result.
V For Vendetta is my favourite comic book series & I thought the movie was fantastic also - yes, a different ending but so what? It worked for me...
The Watchmen is my second favourite comic book although I've not read it in a few years and have forgotten most of it. But I certainly won't be reading it before the movie because I just want to sit there and be entertained for a couple of hours - if the movie works then it works, whether or not it's identical to the comic book or not.
As for Lord Of The Rings, I've read the book twice and the movies were near-perfect - although they were all the better for the additionals sections that were in the DVD release over the cinema release.
Yep, I'm a middle-aged fan boy of all three - but not rabid. All I care about is I hand over some money to someone and get some entertainment in return - and if it's got to be frigged about with to get the book to entertain me on screen then so be it.
How about getting yourself better informed first before making such a stupid comment?
Yes, a new kernel might well not have any new features in it but it more than likely will have new or improved drivers for specific pieces of hardware as well as a few bug fixes.
This is no different to MS releasing a new patch or Service Pack or Apple doing their updates however the hell they do their updates.
Steve's brain is no different to the brain of any other capitalist - he does things to make as much money for himself and for his company because that what he has to do. End of story.
If you're going to look inside someone's brain, than choose someone who's different to "the pack"...
How about looking into Linus Torvalds' brain to work out why someone would choose NOT to make themselves a billionaire from a brilliant idea?
How about looking into Stepheh Hawking's brain to understand how such a great intellect flourishes inside a "broken" body?
Steve's made his money by selling products that some people like because it makes them feel exclusive and good luck to him - but that's no different Jean Paul Gaultier, Enzo Ferrari or Anita Roddick.
So how about respecting those people who TRULY think differently rather than those who are clever enough to make others buy stuff that makes them feel differently.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't know if you're old enough to remember the old dial pulse/switch hook phones with a rotary dial but I do. And one device parents used to use to stop their kids making costly telephone calls was to buy a small cylindrical lock that used to be put over the "1" hole on the rotary dial so it was impossible to get the dial to rotate anywhere beyond "1" to dial numbers. However, disobedient kids like me used to just flick the switch-hooks after lifting the handset from the cradle - just flick them about once every tenth of a second equivalent to the digit you wanted, then leave a short (one second) pause before doing the next number. So if the emergency number had been 111, knocking the handset in it's cradle a couple of times (thus operating the switch hooks) could have generated a call to the emergency services without thinking about it.
...otherwise your fuel consumption will double overnight!
Sorry, but this sounds like fanboi speak. I would suggest that you have adapted your music listening to accomodate Apple's DRM - after all, downloading a non-DRMed track format would probably not require any conversion at all before being able to make a CD for the car. I also fail to understand, even to this day, why anyone would buy an album from iTunes? I can, to a degree, understand why some people want to get individual tracks (although I'm an album person myself & can't think of a worse way to listen to music than treating it like a bag of "Pick N Mix" sweets) but every time I have looked on there, not that I would ever use iTunes, I have easily been able to source the actual CD at a lower price. Well, whatever works for you, I guess, but I'd really like to understand what the big deal is with downloadable music - okay, maybe if you need a particular piece of music at 2am in the morning possibly... because for less money, I can have a tangible disk, sleeve notes to read, at excellent quality that I can then rip myself at whatever bit rate I see fit.
Isn't the biggest lingerie company in the US called "Victoria's Secret"? Again, WTF?
From my point of view, I'm never ever going to pay for a music download, it's that simple.
Music is my primary hobby, over and above TV and movies - so it's very important to me. I don't own an extortionately expensive hi-fi but I own separates that are good enough quality for my listening habits & I'm very much an album person which means I look for CDs that, in my opinion, are good enough to listen to from start to finish.
I have MP3ed my entire music collection & when I'm programming or surfing on the PC, or indeed stuck in a hotel room halfway across the world, I do play MP3 music - again, mostly albums but I've an MP3 player for the gym which has track selections because without music, I find working out totally boring.
So, yes, I recognise the appeal of MP3 (or other downloadable formats) for the purpose of convenience & portability but when I'm listening to music that way, then it's in the background while I'm doing something else but not for when I'm *really* focusing on listening to music.
Consequently, a download serves no purpose to me if I can buy the CD. Again, music is important to me, as is reading reviews & sourcing CDs as cheaply as possibly - and because of the latter, I have never yet seen one occasion where it has been cheaper to download an album than it is to buy it. And, of course, why would I download any music at more expense but with lower quality?
Some people are of course going to argue that they only want certain tracks from albums rather than the whole thing. Okay, there's a case for that although the way I listen to music, I just wouldn't bother buying the CD in the first place if most of it was filler.
But the fact is, if the music distribution model changes such that bands focus on recording single tracks rather than albums, then a whole lot of other stuff changes with it - for example, what happens if bands are no longer able to tour on the strength of having produced a completely new album? What happens to live music as a result?
To me, the music scene is fine as it is. The record labels pay for a lot of marketing of albums, some of which is absolute rubbish but sometimes has led me to buy a really good album also. If that disappears to replace 100,000 unique bands all selling their music via the web, what's going to help the poor old consumer from sorting the good stuff from the bad? Is everyone currently buying music now prepared to spend A LOT MORE TIME trying to find music that they actually like? And if you don't have record labels doing their market research and targetting specific audiences, what happens to 100,000 bands all trying to market their music all at once? Less sales for each of them... does it then become economical for them to make music any more?
Nobody forces anyone to pay £15 for a CD. There's no need to pay any attention to clever marketing & if consumers exercise better choice & become more discerning in what they are prepared to pay good money for, the quality of musical product has to go up.
To me "pick n mix" music is going to end up drastically changing the whole music scene completely - it's a big mistake to assume that if and when "pay by track" music fully takes off, that many of the good musicians that are around now will also be around then.
You forgot one thing. What about we honest music fans stop buying CDs also? Then the Music Industry dies and you have nothing to steal.
I spend a lot of my time researching my music to the point where when I buy a CD, I already know it's going to be good & I've found the best possible price for it - therefore, I'm quite content with the quality of music for the price I pay for it, and I see no reason to switch from buying CDs to a "Pick N Mix" download format that ultimately costs more for lower quality. But quite frankly, I'm now getting a bit sick and tired of my CD purchases having to subsidise the hobbies of you music thieves. So how about you people just BUY your music? And if it's too expensive for you, then buy less of it rather than hoarding all the free stuff you can without listening to it properly anyway. What's wrong with being discerning, learning to appreciate a good piece of music and then rewarding the creator(s) accordingly? Do you REALLY consider yourselves music fans when all you do is steal music & because it's so easy to come by, you don't even appreciate it? And just how many of you "CDs are too expensive" thieves actually make an anonymous donation to the musicians of an amount YOU consider fair? Or even make a donation to charity on behalf of the band? No, I'm not a musician and don't work anywhere in the music industry - I'm just a TRUE music fan who believes in paying for stuff he likes and I'm sick of hearing the whining thieves while subsidising their music collections.
1. This is intentional and Microsoft just tries to control this device with all means. By keeping up the NDA they can tolerate what they like to tolerate (and come on, there *are* mailingslists for Dotnet developers and there's also code posted) and at the same time sue everyone to hell and back who they don't like. Of course this means that there will be hardly any books, courses, forums and so on. Which makes first-hand knowledge and programming experience with the Windows OS a kind of intellectual capital which is very valuable to companies. And this might launch the next stage of the Intellectual Property madness. Doom!
2. They just forgot to pull the NDA or haven't been able yet to modify their developer program and paperwork to allow protection of future betas while opening up the currently released NDA. Microsoft is totally overburdened right now and it may well be that there are quite a few people taking a few weeks off after launching the Vista OS Service Pack 1, Intenet Explorer 8 Beta 1 and SDK, working 60h/week for a while. You know how it is.
Take a pick.
I'm mainly a Linux/Open Source user but I really don't have a problem with people paying for software if that's what they want to do.
But I really get annoyed with the people on /. who view Apple as a company that does them some kind of favour.
There's no doubt that Microsoft wants nothing more than to lock users into Windows & developers into DotNet but because they're so vocal about it, Apple themselves uses it as marketing tool in order to position themselves into the market also, as being "better than Microsoft".
But the fact is, both companies make use of closed source operating systems and deploy DRM heavily in their products. They are also both owned by shareholders and therefore have a duty to make as much money as possible - any director in either company would be kicked out, and might even find him/herself in a courtroom if he/she didn't make that the first priority.
So let's stop with the pretence that Apple is any different to Microsoft - they're not. And whilst you may think it's "cool" & "geeky" to own a Mac or Macbook, in reality you've just been suckered in by Apple to pay more for a computer purely because it's a fashion accessory - but if you're happy with that then good luck to you.
..."of a browser full of security holes that Apple refuses to fix but foists on everyone at every possible opportunity despite that no (UK) online banking sites recommend it as safe to use for financial transactions?"
...then it's bound to be shaped like a giant alien tentacle and that a partly-dressed cartoon schoolgirl will be involved somewhere in the "docking" sequence with the ISS.
Steve's logic behind the design is that if you've got enough money to waste on a Macbook Air in the first place, then you've probably got enough money to hire your own punkah wallah to carry it for you and open/close the lid when you need him to do so.
Mind you, if you've not got the musculature to be able to even open the lid of a laptop, then you probably shouldn't be putting your body through the trauma of adjusting to differing air pressures on an aircraft - which then makes the Macbook Air redundant anyway.
Maybe Steve should think about a Macbook "Bubble" - for use in sterile, airtight environments away from sunlight where brittle Apple user bones cannot break.
I don't want to play the evangelist here but it could easily be argued that a system based on source code that is open to constant peer review probably wouldn't have been in this long without the hack being discovered much earlier, mayube even before it went in in the first place. Oh, and before the "Linux fanboi" replies start flooding in, please remember that Open Source software runs equally as well in Windows and other OSes also.
The iPod Touch is also a serious contender. No, it's a serious oxymoron - "Apple" and "Open Source".
I want a 9" iPod Touch. Make a Linux based one...
In other words, you're expecting Apple to open up the specification of their locked down hardware in order to allow a Linux kernel to have an appropriate driver for each device built into it?
Here's an experiment for you - go buy a NORMAL iPod Touch, then go try running it with Linux and iTunes... let me know how well you get on.
PS. By the way, you need to be modded "Off-topic". The article is talking about OPEN SOURCE tablets, not those that are locked down with a proprietary Apple OS.
...how about just making BETTER GAMES???
Alternatively, make it 2 inches thick, peel off the Apple logo & sell it to me for £500 (=$1000) on the reassurance that I won't lose any sleep over the fact it doesn't look like a fashion accessory.
How's this for an idea?
How about all you entertainment and media companies just assume that after a hard day's work, all I really want to do is just sit there and BE ENTERTAINED. Yes, you can have a wedge of my cash for the privelige of doing so and if you make it appealing enough to me then I might just drag my fat lazy ass into the car so I can drive to the local cinema to go see what you have on offer.
But please stop with all this "interactive" and gimmicky shit, okay? I can quite happily sit here in front of my computer for the occasionally half-hour and be thoroughly entertained by a 20-year-old 48kb game called "Jet Set Willy" and then be equally entertained by pounding alien heads in Half-Life 2. I don't ALWAYS need whizzy graphics & 8GB of installed game to be immersed, sometimes simple shit does fine.
Likewise, I don't need to "Pick N Mix" my own songs for my own CD compilation because I'm more than happy to accept that an army of musicians, producers & media types are a whole heap better at that shit than I am - most of the time, I just want to give you some money, take a shiny disk in exchange, throw it into my hifi and let it play, okay?
So please don't think I am sat here waiting for 3D TV because somehow I need to be "more immersed" in your shit, okay? Believe it or not, most of the time a 2D TV, a pizza and a few beers is enough to keep me happy.
How about we make it simple? You keep offering good quality shit at a reasonable price and I will just BUY it so I can watch/read/listen to it.
Just DANCE FOR ME MONKEY BOY! Okay?
V For Vendetta is my favourite comic book series & I thought the movie was fantastic also - yes, a different ending but so what? It worked for me...
The Watchmen is my second favourite comic book although I've not read it in a few years and have forgotten most of it. But I certainly won't be reading it before the movie because I just want to sit there and be entertained for a couple of hours - if the movie works then it works, whether or not it's identical to the comic book or not.
As for Lord Of The Rings, I've read the book twice and the movies were near-perfect - although they were all the better for the additionals sections that were in the DVD release over the cinema release.
Yep, I'm a middle-aged fan boy of all three - but not rabid. All I care about is I hand over some money to someone and get some entertainment in return - and if it's got to be frigged about with to get the book to entertain me on screen then so be it.
I like to think of the SCO/Novell debacle like this classic Monty Python sketch - with Michael Palin being SCO & John Cleese being Novell...
Fish Slapping Dance
Yes, a new kernel might well not have any new features in it but it more than likely will have new or improved drivers for specific pieces of hardware as well as a few bug fixes.
This is no different to MS releasing a new patch or Service Pack or Apple doing their updates however the hell they do their updates.
When I see more than one person in every million using an Apple Mac, then maybe I'll start thinking of Apple as a "goliath"...
If you're going to look inside someone's brain, than choose someone who's different to "the pack"...
How about looking into Linus Torvalds' brain to work out why someone would choose NOT to make themselves a billionaire from a brilliant idea?
How about looking into Stepheh Hawking's brain to understand how such a great intellect flourishes inside a "broken" body?
Steve's made his money by selling products that some people like because it makes them feel exclusive and good luck to him - but that's no different Jean Paul Gaultier, Enzo Ferrari or Anita Roddick.
So how about respecting those people who TRULY think differently rather than those who are clever enough to make others buy stuff that makes them feel differently.
You have years before MS stop patching XP.