" This activity as of late harkens back to the DEC and SGI days. SGI took a similar route to Apple, ditching their high-performance IRIX and MIPS workstation platform in favor of a lower-powered, but Windows NT-based x86 workstation. In the end, SGI did end up returning to their IRIX/MIPS roots, but it was not enough. They had dischanted enough of their userbase that they never fully recovered."
SGI was already dead. That's why they were looking at the x86 solution. Sun is facing the same problem today. Apple has recognized the problem while they're still alive and kicking. What is the problem? If you have a small market share, it is impossible to support your own microprocessor at a reasonable cost. With a 2 percent marketshare, IBM is undoubtably charging quite a bit for the PowerPC, and provides no significant benefit over the Pentium.
" A good evangelist, though vocal and possibly in-your-face, is rational and can explain why he believes as he does and why you should too, but will not insist you beleive as he does "or else.""
Evangelists are not rational. They make up arguements to support beliefs, not facts. The article points this out by example, saying that the Mac evangelists bashed Intel until the day Jobs said Apple was switching to Intel. Now they're adjusting their arguements to fit in with the new belief that Intel is good.
"Not that I would use a WMA-based service even if it didn't try to force a subscription model on me; for all the ranting about FairPlay being a closed format, WMA is an even more closed format. Fairplay is the open AAC format, then uses AES encryption (another standard) for DRM; all the details are documented and freely available on the web (albeit not from Apple). WMA? It's not even published; the exact nature of it's non-DRM compression isn't available; in fact, more is known about its DRM than about its codec."
WMA can be licensed by any compay that wants to use it. No company can license fairplay to use it. If the reverse engineer it, Apple sues them. If this is your idea of an open format, then I'll take closed formats.
"Um, because they want a more proprietary format to monopolize the online music industry? They know that most users don't know that they can convert file formats and will blissfully by themselves an ipod/whatever crappy mp3 player microsoft will certainly launch soon, if they own a bunch of songs with that format."
MS licenses wma to whoever wants to use it. Apple is the only lame ass company that "want a more proprietary format to monopolize the online music industry"
There a number of PC makers with a bigger market share, and it would be stupid to align with any computer maker, anyway, even if it were the largest, because you piss off your other customers.
Here's the real story: Apple will sell the same shiny boxes to Mac customers at the same prices, and pocket the savings from the lower priced Intel hardware, with respect to whatever IBM is gouging them on for the PowerPC.
"Let me get this straight... a copy of windows is worth 1$ illegally pirated, but a CD is worth what was that again? $20,000? Someone PLEASE explain that one to me."
1) Fines paid to RIAA members were by people distributing music illegally, whereas the Indonesian govt. was just using illegal software.
2) A dollar goes a lot farther in Indonesia, so $1 for them means a lot more than it does for a US citizen.
3) MS sees the Indonesian govt. as someone they can work with, so they're compromising, whereas RIAA members see no advantage in showing mercy to people ditributing their music illegally.
"You didn't get it: 1. The guy came up with a technique to interact with Access and Excel while doing graduate studies and gets a patent. 2. He approached Microsoft Corp. in the 90s and offered them his patent. Microsoft rejects the idea and say they're not interested. 3. About the same time, Microsoft adds the same technique to his products, makes a great deal of it and gets millions in revenue. 4. Then, and only then, the guy went to court, proved that he was the first to come up with the technique , proved that he approached Microsoft, proved that he showed it to them before they ever thought about it and then gets a fair amount of money.
I don't support software patents, but if Microsoft is promoting that nasty game, they have to obey the nasty game's rules."
Sounds a lot like the claims SCO claimed against IBM. I suppose you're SCO's bitch too. This patent is a joke.
"This is why your operating system should be free (both freedom & beer). It's one thing to charge for an application...but without an OS, that computer is just a worthless hunk of metal and plastic."
Without applications, a computer and an OS is still "just a worthless hunk of metal and plastic".
"I would like to kick the person who is in charge of Texas Instruments calculators in the genitals repeatedly. These damned things haven't increased in processing power, display or anything to warrant the price that they get for these damned things. They do the same thing they did 10 years ago and they haven't dropped in price."
So design a competing product and make some money.
From the article, it appears TI was told to disable the function, but instead, only remapped to an odd set of key strokes and left in as an Easter Egg.
"Apparently all you have to install it, and the secret "doesn't crash or get hacked" function starts working, giving administrators an unfair advantage over other administrators."
The function must not be well written, since I've seen Linux boxes crash and get hacked regularly.
"I think you misunderstand. We don't rail against the eternal corporation, they do indeed die. Often times, this is not a good thing though... it usually means they were killed by an even worse corporation. It's like locking 1000 psychopaths in the room with guns and knives, the ones that are left are the *worst* of the bunch.
All you are saying is that some of the psychopaths are female also, and assuming that they fuck around enough, babies are born. Gee, I wonder how that kid will grow up, eh? "
Corporations become successfull because people choose of their own free will to buy their products. Who the hell mods up this gibberish. So you're saying we're all pychopaths for supporting corporations? If you think you're not supporting corporations, go check the brand name on your car, tv, stereo, computer, refrigerator, etc.
" That's easy! History has taught us: 1/ MS will offer this as a 'critical' update. 2/ Sheeple will install it 3/ IE7 automagically becomes the new default browser 4/ Profit!! (sorry I couldn't resist)"
You forgot the most important line: 1/ MS will offer this as a 'critical' update. 2/ Sheeple will install it 3/ IE7 automagically becomes the new default browser 4/... 5/ Profit!! (sorry I couldn't resist)
from cdfreaks:
"With this step, eDonkey is now able to push more users to its network. It is almost reaching 3 million simultaneous users, and it's still growing."
How can can iTunes beat nearly 3 million simultaneous users with 1.7 million users who downloaded at least 1 track all month? True these 2 stats are difficult to compare, but it raises doubts about the iTunes article.
The trend that p2p use is growing, not declining, alone, shows the iTune is #2 article is misleading. It's impossible to get hard stats, but if you believe iTunes has any real significant music download marketshare, you've been drink to much of the/. kool-aid.
The point is, India needs to recruit x Europeans who can speak French, Dutch, etc. and English, so they can take away 100x French, Dutch, etc. jobs. They need more resource to allow other countries to outsource to India is all. When INdians figure out this is profitable, they'll study French, Dutch, etc., and eliminate the need for foreign workers here too.
"Why do governments feel the need to continually prop up the record industry? Its primary business model is clearly doomed in the long run, so why delay the inevitable?
Let's face it, unless the indsutry starts embracing the future and changing the way they do business, it's only a matter of time before they are rendered obsolete by self-publication and internet distribution by artists themselves."
ok. I've seen a lot of non-sequitars on/., but how do you go from extending copyright to limiting who has copyright?
"It seems to me that copyrights are turning from a temporary privilege into an actual property right, despite all indications that only a self-interested minority of our society wants that. So when are copyright holders going to pay property tax on their holdings?"
All people are self-interested. What you're saying is that most people are self-interested in getting copyrighted material for free, while only a small minority that profit from copyrighted works want to charge you for them.
The only proerty with an annual tax is land in most places (and cars in some US states). Do you want to start paying a yearly tax on your computer , refrigerator, etc? Is that the precedent you want to set? Do you want GPL authors to start paying taxes to maintain the GPL license?
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" This activity as of late harkens back to the DEC and SGI days. SGI took a similar route to Apple, ditching their high-performance IRIX and MIPS workstation platform in favor of a lower-powered, but Windows NT-based x86 workstation. In the end, SGI did end up returning to their IRIX/MIPS roots, but it was not enough. They had dischanted enough of their userbase that they never fully recovered."
SGI was already dead. That's why they were looking at the x86 solution. Sun is facing the same problem today. Apple has recognized the problem while they're still alive and kicking. What is the problem? If you have a small market share, it is impossible to support your own microprocessor at a reasonable cost. With a 2 percent marketshare, IBM is undoubtably charging quite a bit for the PowerPC, and provides no significant benefit over the Pentium.
" A good evangelist, though vocal and possibly in-your-face, is rational and can explain why he believes as he does and why you should too, but will not insist you beleive as he does "or else.""
Evangelists are not rational. They make up arguements to support beliefs, not facts. The article points this out by example, saying that the Mac evangelists bashed Intel until the day Jobs said Apple was switching to Intel. Now they're adjusting their arguements to fit in with the new belief that Intel is good.
" I believe he's successfully stayed away from the 'Quality Software' niche, no? ;-)"
Yes, Debian appears to have a monopoly on quality
"Not that I would use a WMA-based service even if it didn't try to force a subscription model on me; for all the ranting about FairPlay being a closed format, WMA is an even more closed format. Fairplay is the open AAC format, then uses AES encryption (another standard) for DRM; all the details are documented and freely available on the web (albeit not from Apple). WMA? It's not even published; the exact nature of it's non-DRM compression isn't available; in fact, more is known about its DRM than about its codec."
WMA can be licensed by any compay that wants to use it. No company can license fairplay to use it. If the reverse engineer it, Apple sues them. If this is your idea of an open format, then I'll take closed formats.
"Um, because they want a more proprietary format to monopolize the online music industry? They know that most users don't know that they can convert file formats and will blissfully by themselves an ipod/whatever crappy mp3 player microsoft will certainly launch soon, if they own a bunch of songs with that format."
MS licenses wma to whoever wants to use it. Apple is the only lame ass company that "want a more proprietary format to monopolize the online music industry"
There a number of PC makers with a bigger market share, and it would be stupid to align with any computer maker, anyway, even if it were the largest, because you piss off your other customers.
Here's the real story: Apple will sell the same shiny boxes to Mac customers at the same prices, and pocket the savings from the lower priced Intel hardware, with respect to whatever IBM is gouging them on for the PowerPC.
"Somehow it seems unlikely the same rules will be applied to developing companies and poorer individuals in the United States."
There's no way I should pay more for a product because I make more than someone else. I hope it's illegal in the US to do this.
"Let me get this straight... a copy of windows is worth 1$ illegally pirated, but a CD is worth what was that again? $20,000? Someone PLEASE explain that one to me."
1) Fines paid to RIAA members were by people distributing music illegally, whereas the Indonesian govt. was just using illegal software.
2) A dollar goes a lot farther in Indonesia, so $1 for them means a lot more than it does for a US citizen.
3) MS sees the Indonesian govt. as someone they can work with, so they're compromising, whereas RIAA members see no advantage in showing mercy to people ditributing their music illegally.
"Everybody should immediatly be very, very suspicious of this bill if that's the case. What do they stand to gain then, exactly?"
MS is often sued over frivolous software patents, like the patent to move data from excel to access. They have a lot to gain by patent reform.
Don't worry, they'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.
"You didn't get it:
1. The guy came up with a technique to interact with Access and Excel while doing graduate studies and gets a patent.
2. He approached Microsoft Corp. in the 90s and offered them his patent. Microsoft rejects the idea and say they're not interested.
3. About the same time, Microsoft adds the same technique to his products, makes a great deal of it and gets millions in revenue.
4. Then, and only then, the guy went to court, proved that he was the first to come up with the technique , proved that he approached Microsoft, proved that he showed it to them before they ever thought about it and then gets a fair amount of money.
I don't support software patents, but if Microsoft is promoting that nasty game, they have to obey the nasty game's rules."
Sounds a lot like the claims SCO claimed against IBM. I suppose you're SCO's bitch too. This patent is a joke.
Samba didn't get any help from MS before, and now they still won't. Didn't stop them before.
"This is why your operating system should be free (both freedom & beer). It's one thing to charge for an application...but without an OS, that computer is just a worthless hunk of metal and plastic."
Without applications, a computer and an OS is still "just a worthless hunk of metal and plastic".
"I would like to kick the person who is in charge of Texas Instruments calculators in the genitals repeatedly. These damned things haven't increased in processing power, display or anything to warrant the price that they get for these damned things. They do the same thing they did 10 years ago and they haven't dropped in price."
So design a competing product and make some money.
From the article, it appears TI was told to disable the function, but instead, only remapped to an odd set of key strokes and left in as an Easter Egg.
"Apparently all you have to install it, and the secret "doesn't crash or get hacked" function starts working, giving administrators an unfair advantage over other administrators."
The function must not be well written, since I've seen Linux boxes crash and get hacked regularly.
"I think you misunderstand. We don't rail against the eternal corporation, they do indeed die. Often times, this is not a good thing though... it usually means they were killed by an even worse corporation. It's like locking 1000 psychopaths in the room with guns and knives, the ones that are left are the *worst* of the bunch.
All you are saying is that some of the psychopaths are female also, and assuming that they fuck around enough, babies are born. Gee, I wonder how that kid will grow up, eh?
"
Corporations become successfull because people choose of their own free will to buy their products. Who the hell mods up this gibberish. So you're saying we're all pychopaths for supporting corporations? If you think you're not supporting corporations, go check the brand name on your car, tv, stereo, computer, refrigerator, etc.
" That's easy! History has taught us:
...
1/ MS will offer this as a 'critical' update.
2/ Sheeple will install it
3/ IE7 automagically becomes the new default browser
4/ Profit!! (sorry I couldn't resist)"
You forgot the most important line:
1/ MS will offer this as a 'critical' update.
2/ Sheeple will install it
3/ IE7 automagically becomes the new default browser
4/
5/ Profit!! (sorry I couldn't resist)
from cdfreaks:
"With this step, eDonkey is now able to push more users to its network. It is almost reaching 3 million simultaneous users, and it's still growing."
How can can iTunes beat nearly 3 million simultaneous users with 1.7 million users who downloaded at least 1 track all month? True these 2 stats are difficult to compare, but it raises doubts about the iTunes article.
The trend that p2p use is growing, not declining, alone, shows the iTune is #2 article is misleading. It's impossible to get hard stats, but if you believe iTunes has any real significant music download marketshare, you've been drink to much of the /. kool-aid.
according to slyk, p2p users are over 10 million, which is more than 5 times the number of people using iTunes. And p2p use is growing, not shrinking.
parent post severely affected by Linux reality distortion field.
The point is, India needs to recruit x Europeans who can speak French, Dutch, etc. and English, so they can take away 100x French, Dutch, etc. jobs. They need more resource to allow other countries to outsource to India is all. When INdians figure out this is profitable, they'll study French, Dutch, etc., and eliminate the need for foreign workers here too.
"Why do governments feel the need to continually prop up the record industry? Its primary business model is clearly doomed in the long run, so why delay the inevitable?
/., but how do you go from extending copyright to limiting who has copyright?
Let's face it, unless the indsutry starts embracing the future and changing the way they do business, it's only a matter of time before they are rendered obsolete by self-publication and internet distribution by artists themselves."
ok. I've seen a lot of non-sequitars on
"It seems to me that copyrights are turning from a temporary privilege into an actual property right, despite all indications that only a self-interested minority of our society wants that. So when are copyright holders going to pay property tax on their holdings?"
All people are self-interested. What you're saying is that most people are self-interested in getting copyrighted material for free, while only a small minority that profit from copyrighted works want to charge you for them.
The only proerty with an annual tax is land in most places (and cars in some US states). Do you want to start paying a yearly tax on your computer , refrigerator, etc? Is that the precedent you want to set? Do you want GPL authors to start paying taxes to maintain the GPL license?