Whatever the turnout from this is (technically speaking that is), I think it's a good thing creating a little extra competition for the big boys. Whereas they were able to pretty much keep any other DSL company from joining the game, all of a sudden there is a new broadband provider to make these established DSL fellas make sure they have competitive pricing and decent customer service. That's definitely a good thing and I'm looking forward to the competitive benefits. Now to see how all this VoIP works out...
That's actually one of the main concerns with this. While I think it's a cool idea, the interference is supposed to be pretty rough. Bad enough to mess up ham radio operators and such.
That said, I guess we have to wait and see just HOW bad it is. Maybe it's worse on paper than it is in reality. Or maybe it's worse out in the real world, destroying everyone's wireless networks, phones, cell phones, radions, etc...worse than anyone thought of. We have to wait and see. And how will we know until we do a full scale rollout? I'm going to be watching this one like a hawk, as I'm sure you will.
This doesn't surprise me as much as it seems to surprise other people. Look at how the iPod started...as a simple mp3 player. Then you could take notes on it. Then you could keep your addresses in there. Now you can download MapQuest directions, take audio notes on it, store pictures. When Apple sees people doing things for their iPod (such as Windows users finding hacks so they too can use them...Apple said "hm...ok...we'll make them available for Windows too"), they see if it's viable and if so, they go for it. I don't for one second believe the iPod is done with its evolutionary process.
Heh heh...I see anti-MS people plotting and planning new ways to make Microsoft spend lots of money on things other than business development/eating other companies. "Hmmm...let's have everyone we know download the source code. Then MS will have to pay for paper, envelopes, postage, time...that'll surely put 'em under!"
You're absolutely correct. Five seconds of a game won't tell you how safe a game is for your child. Unfortunately, that's about all the time a majority of the partents these days really want to put into their children's lives. If it's not five seconds of a video game, it's five seconds to scan the TV Guide or a movie collection.
The point is, even if a game is rated, you still need to check it out as a parent. Maybe the content is worse than the rating says. Maybe it's nothing and is something your family is fine with. How will you know if you don't even bother to check it out though. And even more importatnly, by checking it out you actually show that you have an interest in what your child is doing which speaks volumes compared to "just checking to make sure the rating is good"
The interesting thing to note about these social networks (which seems to have been overlooked) is that everyone will put different weights on what is important when deciding their social cirlcles. You can have ten people, with each having all the same interests. Soccer, computers, ramen noodles, Coors Light, Chihuahuas, and small-waisted women with big breasts. Yet each of these people will probably rank each differently. While one may go right up to Chihuahua lover at a party and strike up a conversation, another will go straight to the kitchen and see who else is looking at the ramen noodle collection.
Basically, we have to find a way to "train" the software. It's not going to be easy. Training the TiVo still doesn't give you the best results. The personality compatibility tests sure are interesting, eh? Who here has been matched with the perfect roommate in college? Yet I haven't seen much yet on the weights of interests, just discussions about clusters of tight-knit social groups.
Well...there ARE plenty of ex-military pilots out there. How many have $9 million is beyond me.
I wonder what the legalities of such are. The government imposes rules on exporting software and supercomputers to other nations. Can you really buy a current military plane? Can someone buy it without a background check? Kinda scary actually...
It's funny that this debate still rages on and I'm sure it will for some time to come. While some may say "ok, it's time to stop talking about it", I disagree. I'm sure the TCO race is much closer now than it was a decade ago when Macs were rather flaky and there's wasn't as much hard core business and research software for the Mac, thus making it rather useless for non-creatives and such.
Now for the sanity issue...time definitely has a value that nobody seems to take into account here. Same with sanity. For instance, with the PC you're constantly looking for drivers and DLLs that you need, that break, that disappear, that need to be updated, etc. With the Mac...it just WORKS. Any of you have a girlfriend that has a PC and it's constantly not working and YOU get all the abuse because of it? Then you suggest using a Mac because it simply works ("Look, all you gotta do is plug in your digital camera, and it works. And now you can view the pictures with no additional software. And check this out...you can burn them onto a CD now with no additional software..."). It really is that easy. I know if my gf had a PC, I would be a lot more sane from not having to listen to "great, I can't use my camera now because it changed the settings to HP instead of Sony and I can't find the software..."
Sanity...it's a good thing. Just as "goodwill" isn't a concrete number to put on a company's spreadsheet, it still has a value. Same with the value of time and sanity. Let's not forget that.
There are a few scenarios we can look at that may help explain why this works. First, when it's winter time and you go outside without a hat, your entire body seems a lot colder than it would be if you had a hat on. The head can be quite a source of heat loss. Have you ever seen a thermo map of the human body? A lot of heat escaping the head...hence one would figure it has less isulation than the rest of the body and thus you could chill the brain that way. Also...the rest of the body (generally...less the hands and feet, etc) have fat and muscle insulation.
Think about hibernating animals also. Again, they pack on the fat and such before taking their winter nap. They have the more insulating fur around their bodies. They slumber. Their brain chills and allows them to pretty much cease all functions for months on end.
These are just a couple reasons I can think of. If I'm incorrect, please let me know so I don't continue through life sounding like an idiot. If I'm right, let me know too.;)
I especially enjoyed reading your comments on this. I too am kind of torn by all this. I've been on both sides of the equation, being both a consumer and as a consultant providing WiFi services to organizations and setting up pricing schemes. As a consumer, when you find free WiFi, you are happy and will gravitate to that area. That was especially nice when I lived in Santa Cruz (a bit south of San Fran for those that don't know) and could generally find free WiFi wherever I went. I especially loved finding the small coffee shops that provided free WiFi. I found myself going there more often than I would a Starbucks that "provided" me with WiFi. However here on the east coast (I'm near Philly now), it's much tougher to find free WiFi and it drives me nuts.
As a consultant however, I'm looking at this and going "hm..crap. If this is the new business model, how do I continue to make money? It's not charging per minute. Is it simply in setup?" There's a lot to take in and I'm still torn. As a businessman, I feel we should provide what the consumers want...and the consumers want free WiFi.
Let's not forget about who you're talking about. Remember when the first trilogy was released on VHS? And then the widescreen edition. And then the digitally remastered edition. I'm sure they'll just release this, wait a year or two and then release the "classic" edition for people clamoring for it and they'll make loads of money yet again.
After reading some of people's responses, I see a lot of hootin' and hollerin' for just one solution or another. But in life, and especially now in the workplace, it's a combination of skills and talents. I went to CMU...started out as an engineer but went to Industrial Management (business) because I planned on starting my own some day. As someone else posted, CMU has some of the best programs in the nation/world for Business, CS, Art, etc. That being said, I got my ass kicked a few times there as did a lot of my friends. It's not the easiest of schools. But when you make it through there, life is pretty damn easy comparitavely.
Now to the main point of my post. As a business owner emphasizing in technology and a consulting in various netwworking, I've come to realize a few things over the years. Yes, I could have gone to an easier school and focused more on the "people networking", but I liked the challenge and being forced to stay on the cutting edge. Hence, put some weight on going to a good school but don't rely on it. It then makes it easier to do the "people networking" when you're schmoozing it up. "Oh, you went to CMU? Wow...impressive". It doesn't ALWAYS work, but at least you've got something good to talk about. Arming yourself with as much knowledge and more advantages than any other random Joe is always a key thing.
My suggestion...go to a good school. May not have to be the best, but get a good solid education. Work on your computer networking skills hands-on as much as possible. The stuff changes monthly. And never forget the importance of networking with the people.
I hope nobody is reading this and going "wow, strong electrical currents aren't good for the body". I know there have been studies and reports before on people living under powerlines and such and the ill effects it has on the body.
We tend to forget that the body is a collection of systems and messing with any of these systems can have a positive or negative effect. It's an mechanical system so applying too much pressure in the wrong area can break that part (stress the muscles, tear ligaments, break at a joint, etc). It's a chemical system and dumping too much (or having too little) of chemicals (drugs, minerals, etc) can wreak havoc on that system. It has an electrical system and only stands to reason that exposing it to large amounts of electromagnetic ratiation (or even direct electrical stimuli) will have some sort of effect on us. I think as people we tend to forget just how complex the body is.
Have you tried the Sagemore store in Marleton, NJ? I think I saw it there last time I went. Not only do they have a good selection of stuff, but you pass a Hooters on your way there from Philly. It makes a good day for shopping at Apple. I found the Sagemore store to have a LOT of stuff and the staff seemed even more helpful than most stores.
I'd have to say Space Invaders was one of the better conversions too. It looked and played like the arcade game (unlike Pac Man which had hideous noises and had him moving backward and such when you changed directions).
I find it interesting that Fossil is dumping the PDA watch that was supposed to use the Palm OS. Yet, in my latest issue of Maxim, there was this nice little pullout for the Fossil/MSN watch. I wonder if Microsoft had anything to do with Fossil dumping the Palm-driven PDA watch. No fair...I thought that would have been pretty cool. Monopolies...I tell ya...
This is yet just another thing that shows how bit iTunes is. An RSS feed? Not that it's the hardest thing to do, but I'm not aware of any other music services having that (am I missing anyone?). Apple keeps doing little things here and there that make their products and services the standard to follow.
Why do that to our email addresses? Because it actually DOES help a little bit. Why lock our doors at night? Why lock our car when we park downtown? Why encrypt our WiFi network? Why install SOME sort of security on our network? Because we don't want to make it blatantly easy for someone to compromise. If someone really wants that car, they'll get it. If someone really wants to break into your network, they'll do it. But this is one easy level of "security" that will stop the basic script kiddies/thieves/spammers from doing all the damage they want. It may not be the most effective way of stopping spam, but why put a sign on your car (or website) that says "hey, I'm unlocked and the keys are in the ignition"?
"The NPD Group, an independent market research firm, reported on Friday that peer-to-peer usage was up 14 percent in November 2003 from September. This upturn comes after six straight months of declines in digital file sharing. Usage dropped dramatically starting in April 2003..."
The first thing from the article that caught my eye was the timing. So the usage declined right around the time all the college students started exams and then went home. Then it picked up again in September...just in time for school to start again.
Next...just what is "usage"? It doesn't specify mp3s, video, documents...nothing. It just says usage. Yet the RIAA will assume it's all mp3s and go nuts again.
There will never be a way to truly determine why usage drops and rises. The RIAA likes to say "it's because we're educating the public", news sources like to say "it's because everyone is afraid of the RIAA's lawsuits", music download companies (ie, iTunes, Napster, etc) like to say "it's because of our services and people would rather get legitimate copies". Nobody knows. This battle will rage for years, we'll see different theories on why it rises and drops, and people will continue to download their files whenever and however they want.
Big question just popped in my head. We all know Microsoft loses money for every XBox unit sold. The more they sell, the more MS loses. Now they just dumped more R&D into the unit and has this add-on. When do they plan on making money on this or are they still trying to simply saturate the market and gain market share and then increase prices and/or subscription fees? I know it's a reaction to PSX and to Apple's Digital Hub (in a roundabout way), but adding it to a loss-leader doesn't seem to make sense to me.
Out of curiosity, how long did you give the original iPod to survive? The one that came out two years ago amongst other mp3 players, mp3 players that worked with PCs, cheaper mp3 players, players that are not "those damn Apple products"? Did you plan on them becoming the dominant player or did you plan on them dying? I'll be honest...I wasn't that excited when they came out two years ago. But then I saw this as something big. When I finally saw the dominant numbers that the iPod commands in the market, I was truly impressed. So now Apple has the opportunity to expand that lead even more and edge out the competition. I take your bet and raise you a few years with a much larger market share owned by iPod devices.
Why? Because Apple gets one of the largest computer makers to pre-install one of their apps on their computer. iTunes is wildly successful from people downloading it. Now just imagine Joe Shmoe who isn't a Mac follower or even a computing enthusiast who knows there are non-MS options out there discovers this "cool iTunes thing". It's huge. Hopefully some day Apple will be able to get a little more money for each song that is downloaded, but for now the market penetration of iTunes and the increased exposure of Apple is enough.
And then you've got the iPod deal. Again...huge. First Apple gets revenue from the licensing deal. Then they again reap the benefits of more exposure. Apple already commands a 31% market share with iPod as it is. With HP selling the wares, it's gonna be huge, and I believe the iPod has one of (if the THE) largest profit margins. So again, they get money from the sales, more exposure, and more non-Mac people going "I just got this at the HP store and it rocks".
Those are only two reasons why. I'm sure there's more that will come to me when it fully sinks in. Like how Apple is solidifying its lead with iTunes Music Service and iPod and will thus drive out the copycat services (which in my opinion really blow), will perhaps have other companies clamoring to jump on board and take advantage of Apple's R&D and amazing design, and so forth. Let's not forget, Apple has iTunes in all sorts of deals now...AOL, Pepsi, now HP. They've got something here. Something big.
I wholeheartedly agree with you here. People went apeshit a few years ago in the dot com craze and thew money into companies that had no true business model. Where are those companies today? Gone. Yet the companies that had an actual business model and just used the Internet as their new source of distribution continued to survive and even prosper when other business (Internet and brick-and-mortar alike) were floundering.
The key word here is "business". If you plan on running a business and using the Internet, don't forget to follow sound business principles. The Internet is just another tool for you to use, like catalogs, phone centers, retail locations, kiosks, etc.
I now ask the Slashdot community: which internet business models they believe are going to succeed?
It's an interesting question but we need to know exactly what the business model entails. Is it PURELY Internet? If this was the case, I would say Google has a good model. They managed to stand above when there were a huge number of search engines available for users. They managed to find the righ mix of algorithm coding, marketing, and selling adwords.
Same goes with eBay. Remember when there were a few different auction sites available to users? Yet eBay managed to differentiate themselves and move to prosperity.
When we define "Internet business" though, do we mean only "Internet"? No brick-and-mortar ties at all? Meaning we exclude entities such as Dell?
I think the basic formula for a successful Internet business has these following traits:
1) Be the first to gain as much market share as possible. This includes Amazon, eBay, iTunes. In eBay and Amazon's case, they gobbled up the share and let the other's die out. iTunes happened to do it by providing the most viable and easy to use music download service. Others are finally getting on the bandwagon but have to play catch up with them now.
2) Differentiate yourself. When you can stand out from the crowd, people use you. Dozens of booksellers, everyone uses Amazon because of their mix of ratings, price, one-click buying, etc. Google differentiated themselves in the beginning when they claimed to have indexed over 1 million pages. iTunes by being amazingly easy to use and by getting major labels to jump on board.
3) Ease of use. Google is damn easy. Amazon is easy. eBay is easy. iTunes is easy. Sure you can use other services, but Amazon has spent a lot of time, money, and research on ways to make their user experience easy and enjoyable.
4) Act like a normal business. Gone are the days of getting $4.4 billion for an idea with no real business sense. If you want to have a successful BUSINESS model, act like a business.
I'm sure there are more, but these four basic rules will be seen in all successful Internet businesses.
It's easy to complain about product liability lawsuits. But without them, companies would feel even more free to sell dangerous products.
I agree with you here. Without liability, I'm sure there would be a lot of dangerous products on the market. I don't dispute that at all. I am however disheartened by the rediculous nature of some of these lawsuits. Suing fast food places because you got fat and didn't know you'd get fat by eating fast food three times a day for 20 years. Some are just rediculous. As far as the coffee, I don't know what the boiling point of coffee is, but assuming it's rather close to water then the hottest it can be is 100 deg C, otherwise it would turn to steam. People should know hot coffee is well...hot. When I get hot coffee from a restaurant, or mother, or friend, I let it cool down before trying to chug it.
All back to the point...some laws are good. But are we really becoming so lazy as a society that we need laws to protect us from common sense things? "Don't burn yourself on hot coffee". "Don't watch a movie in the front seat while driving down the highway". Makes me want to go to Macy's and bash my head through the window because "I didn't see a sign that told me the window is dangerous".
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Whatever the turnout from this is (technically speaking that is), I think it's a good thing creating a little extra competition for the big boys. Whereas they were able to pretty much keep any other DSL company from joining the game, all of a sudden there is a new broadband provider to make these established DSL fellas make sure they have competitive pricing and decent customer service. That's definitely a good thing and I'm looking forward to the competitive benefits. Now to see how all this VoIP works out...
That's actually one of the main concerns with this. While I think it's a cool idea, the interference is supposed to be pretty rough. Bad enough to mess up ham radio operators and such.
That said, I guess we have to wait and see just HOW bad it is. Maybe it's worse on paper than it is in reality. Or maybe it's worse out in the real world, destroying everyone's wireless networks, phones, cell phones, radions, etc...worse than anyone thought of. We have to wait and see. And how will we know until we do a full scale rollout? I'm going to be watching this one like a hawk, as I'm sure you will.
This doesn't surprise me as much as it seems to surprise other people. Look at how the iPod started...as a simple mp3 player. Then you could take notes on it. Then you could keep your addresses in there. Now you can download MapQuest directions, take audio notes on it, store pictures. When Apple sees people doing things for their iPod (such as Windows users finding hacks so they too can use them...Apple said "hm...ok...we'll make them available for Windows too"), they see if it's viable and if so, they go for it. I don't for one second believe the iPod is done with its evolutionary process.
Heh heh...I see anti-MS people plotting and planning new ways to make Microsoft spend lots of money on things other than business development/eating other companies. "Hmmm...let's have everyone we know download the source code. Then MS will have to pay for paper, envelopes, postage, time...that'll surely put 'em under!"
You're absolutely correct. Five seconds of a game won't tell you how safe a game is for your child. Unfortunately, that's about all the time a majority of the partents these days really want to put into their children's lives. If it's not five seconds of a video game, it's five seconds to scan the TV Guide or a movie collection.
The point is, even if a game is rated, you still need to check it out as a parent. Maybe the content is worse than the rating says. Maybe it's nothing and is something your family is fine with. How will you know if you don't even bother to check it out though. And even more importatnly, by checking it out you actually show that you have an interest in what your child is doing which speaks volumes compared to "just checking to make sure the rating is good"
The interesting thing to note about these social networks (which seems to have been overlooked) is that everyone will put different weights on what is important when deciding their social cirlcles. You can have ten people, with each having all the same interests. Soccer, computers, ramen noodles, Coors Light, Chihuahuas, and small-waisted women with big breasts. Yet each of these people will probably rank each differently. While one may go right up to Chihuahua lover at a party and strike up a conversation, another will go straight to the kitchen and see who else is looking at the ramen noodle collection.
Basically, we have to find a way to "train" the software. It's not going to be easy. Training the TiVo still doesn't give you the best results. The personality compatibility tests sure are interesting, eh? Who here has been matched with the perfect roommate in college? Yet I haven't seen much yet on the weights of interests, just discussions about clusters of tight-knit social groups.
Well...there ARE plenty of ex-military pilots out there. How many have $9 million is beyond me.
I wonder what the legalities of such are. The government imposes rules on exporting software and supercomputers to other nations. Can you really buy a current military plane? Can someone buy it without a background check? Kinda scary actually...
It's funny that this debate still rages on and I'm sure it will for some time to come. While some may say "ok, it's time to stop talking about it", I disagree. I'm sure the TCO race is much closer now than it was a decade ago when Macs were rather flaky and there's wasn't as much hard core business and research software for the Mac, thus making it rather useless for non-creatives and such.
Now for the sanity issue...time definitely has a value that nobody seems to take into account here. Same with sanity. For instance, with the PC you're constantly looking for drivers and DLLs that you need, that break, that disappear, that need to be updated, etc. With the Mac...it just WORKS. Any of you have a girlfriend that has a PC and it's constantly not working and YOU get all the abuse because of it? Then you suggest using a Mac because it simply works ("Look, all you gotta do is plug in your digital camera, and it works. And now you can view the pictures with no additional software. And check this out...you can burn them onto a CD now with no additional software..."). It really is that easy. I know if my gf had a PC, I would be a lot more sane from not having to listen to "great, I can't use my camera now because it changed the settings to HP instead of Sony and I can't find the software..."
Sanity...it's a good thing. Just as "goodwill" isn't a concrete number to put on a company's spreadsheet, it still has a value. Same with the value of time and sanity. Let's not forget that.
There are a few scenarios we can look at that may help explain why this works. First, when it's winter time and you go outside without a hat, your entire body seems a lot colder than it would be if you had a hat on. The head can be quite a source of heat loss. Have you ever seen a thermo map of the human body? A lot of heat escaping the head...hence one would figure it has less isulation than the rest of the body and thus you could chill the brain that way. Also...the rest of the body (generally...less the hands and feet, etc) have fat and muscle insulation.
;)
Think about hibernating animals also. Again, they pack on the fat and such before taking their winter nap. They have the more insulating fur around their bodies. They slumber. Their brain chills and allows them to pretty much cease all functions for months on end.
These are just a couple reasons I can think of. If I'm incorrect, please let me know so I don't continue through life sounding like an idiot. If I'm right, let me know too.
I especially enjoyed reading your comments on this. I too am kind of torn by all this. I've been on both sides of the equation, being both a consumer and as a consultant providing WiFi services to organizations and setting up pricing schemes. As a consumer, when you find free WiFi, you are happy and will gravitate to that area. That was especially nice when I lived in Santa Cruz (a bit south of San Fran for those that don't know) and could generally find free WiFi wherever I went. I especially loved finding the small coffee shops that provided free WiFi. I found myself going there more often than I would a Starbucks that "provided" me with WiFi. However here on the east coast (I'm near Philly now), it's much tougher to find free WiFi and it drives me nuts.
As a consultant however, I'm looking at this and going "hm..crap. If this is the new business model, how do I continue to make money? It's not charging per minute. Is it simply in setup?" There's a lot to take in and I'm still torn. As a businessman, I feel we should provide what the consumers want...and the consumers want free WiFi.
Let's not forget about who you're talking about. Remember when the first trilogy was released on VHS? And then the widescreen edition. And then the digitally remastered edition. I'm sure they'll just release this, wait a year or two and then release the "classic" edition for people clamoring for it and they'll make loads of money yet again.
After reading some of people's responses, I see a lot of hootin' and hollerin' for just one solution or another. But in life, and especially now in the workplace, it's a combination of skills and talents. I went to CMU...started out as an engineer but went to Industrial Management (business) because I planned on starting my own some day. As someone else posted, CMU has some of the best programs in the nation/world for Business, CS, Art, etc. That being said, I got my ass kicked a few times there as did a lot of my friends. It's not the easiest of schools. But when you make it through there, life is pretty damn easy comparitavely.
Now to the main point of my post. As a business owner emphasizing in technology and a consulting in various netwworking, I've come to realize a few things over the years. Yes, I could have gone to an easier school and focused more on the "people networking", but I liked the challenge and being forced to stay on the cutting edge. Hence, put some weight on going to a good school but don't rely on it. It then makes it easier to do the "people networking" when you're schmoozing it up. "Oh, you went to CMU? Wow...impressive". It doesn't ALWAYS work, but at least you've got something good to talk about. Arming yourself with as much knowledge and more advantages than any other random Joe is always a key thing.
My suggestion...go to a good school. May not have to be the best, but get a good solid education. Work on your computer networking skills hands-on as much as possible. The stuff changes monthly. And never forget the importance of networking with the people.
I hope nobody is reading this and going "wow, strong electrical currents aren't good for the body". I know there have been studies and reports before on people living under powerlines and such and the ill effects it has on the body.
We tend to forget that the body is a collection of systems and messing with any of these systems can have a positive or negative effect. It's an mechanical system so applying too much pressure in the wrong area can break that part (stress the muscles, tear ligaments, break at a joint, etc). It's a chemical system and dumping too much (or having too little) of chemicals (drugs, minerals, etc) can wreak havoc on that system. It has an electrical system and only stands to reason that exposing it to large amounts of electromagnetic ratiation (or even direct electrical stimuli) will have some sort of effect on us. I think as people we tend to forget just how complex the body is.
Have you tried the Sagemore store in Marleton, NJ? I think I saw it there last time I went. Not only do they have a good selection of stuff, but you pass a Hooters on your way there from Philly. It makes a good day for shopping at Apple. I found the Sagemore store to have a LOT of stuff and the staff seemed even more helpful than most stores.
I'd have to say Space Invaders was one of the better conversions too. It looked and played like the arcade game (unlike Pac Man which had hideous noises and had him moving backward and such when you changed directions).
I find it interesting that Fossil is dumping the PDA watch that was supposed to use the Palm OS. Yet, in my latest issue of Maxim, there was this nice little pullout for the Fossil/MSN watch. I wonder if Microsoft had anything to do with Fossil dumping the Palm-driven PDA watch. No fair...I thought that would have been pretty cool. Monopolies...I tell ya...
This is yet just another thing that shows how bit iTunes is. An RSS feed? Not that it's the hardest thing to do, but I'm not aware of any other music services having that (am I missing anyone?). Apple keeps doing little things here and there that make their products and services the standard to follow.
Why do that to our email addresses? Because it actually DOES help a little bit. Why lock our doors at night? Why lock our car when we park downtown? Why encrypt our WiFi network? Why install SOME sort of security on our network? Because we don't want to make it blatantly easy for someone to compromise. If someone really wants that car, they'll get it. If someone really wants to break into your network, they'll do it. But this is one easy level of "security" that will stop the basic script kiddies/thieves/spammers from doing all the damage they want. It may not be the most effective way of stopping spam, but why put a sign on your car (or website) that says "hey, I'm unlocked and the keys are in the ignition"?
"The NPD Group, an independent market research firm, reported on Friday that peer-to-peer usage was up 14 percent in November 2003 from September. This upturn comes after six straight months of declines in digital file sharing. Usage dropped dramatically starting in April 2003..."
The first thing from the article that caught my eye was the timing. So the usage declined right around the time all the college students started exams and then went home. Then it picked up again in September...just in time for school to start again.
Next...just what is "usage"? It doesn't specify mp3s, video, documents...nothing. It just says usage. Yet the RIAA will assume it's all mp3s and go nuts again.
There will never be a way to truly determine why usage drops and rises. The RIAA likes to say "it's because we're educating the public", news sources like to say "it's because everyone is afraid of the RIAA's lawsuits", music download companies (ie, iTunes, Napster, etc) like to say "it's because of our services and people would rather get legitimate copies". Nobody knows. This battle will rage for years, we'll see different theories on why it rises and drops, and people will continue to download their files whenever and however they want.
Big question just popped in my head. We all know Microsoft loses money for every XBox unit sold. The more they sell, the more MS loses. Now they just dumped more R&D into the unit and has this add-on. When do they plan on making money on this or are they still trying to simply saturate the market and gain market share and then increase prices and/or subscription fees? I know it's a reaction to PSX and to Apple's Digital Hub (in a roundabout way), but adding it to a loss-leader doesn't seem to make sense to me.
I give this one year, max.
Out of curiosity, how long did you give the original iPod to survive? The one that came out two years ago amongst other mp3 players, mp3 players that worked with PCs, cheaper mp3 players, players that are not "those damn Apple products"? Did you plan on them becoming the dominant player or did you plan on them dying? I'll be honest...I wasn't that excited when they came out two years ago. But then I saw this as something big. When I finally saw the dominant numbers that the iPod commands in the market, I was truly impressed. So now Apple has the opportunity to expand that lead even more and edge out the competition. I take your bet and raise you a few years with a much larger market share owned by iPod devices.
Why? Because Apple gets one of the largest computer makers to pre-install one of their apps on their computer. iTunes is wildly successful from people downloading it. Now just imagine Joe Shmoe who isn't a Mac follower or even a computing enthusiast who knows there are non-MS options out there discovers this "cool iTunes thing". It's huge. Hopefully some day Apple will be able to get a little more money for each song that is downloaded, but for now the market penetration of iTunes and the increased exposure of Apple is enough.
And then you've got the iPod deal. Again...huge. First Apple gets revenue from the licensing deal. Then they again reap the benefits of more exposure. Apple already commands a 31% market share with iPod as it is. With HP selling the wares, it's gonna be huge, and I believe the iPod has one of (if the THE) largest profit margins. So again, they get money from the sales, more exposure, and more non-Mac people going "I just got this at the HP store and it rocks".
Those are only two reasons why. I'm sure there's more that will come to me when it fully sinks in. Like how Apple is solidifying its lead with iTunes Music Service and iPod and will thus drive out the copycat services (which in my opinion really blow), will perhaps have other companies clamoring to jump on board and take advantage of Apple's R&D and amazing design, and so forth. Let's not forget, Apple has iTunes in all sorts of deals now...AOL, Pepsi, now HP. They've got something here. Something big.
I wholeheartedly agree with you here. People went apeshit a few years ago in the dot com craze and thew money into companies that had no true business model. Where are those companies today? Gone. Yet the companies that had an actual business model and just used the Internet as their new source of distribution continued to survive and even prosper when other business (Internet and brick-and-mortar alike) were floundering.
The key word here is "business". If you plan on running a business and using the Internet, don't forget to follow sound business principles. The Internet is just another tool for you to use, like catalogs, phone centers, retail locations, kiosks, etc.
I now ask the Slashdot community: which internet business models they believe are going to succeed?
It's an interesting question but we need to know exactly what the business model entails. Is it PURELY Internet? If this was the case, I would say Google has a good model. They managed to stand above when there were a huge number of search engines available for users. They managed to find the righ mix of algorithm coding, marketing, and selling adwords.
Same goes with eBay. Remember when there were a few different auction sites available to users? Yet eBay managed to differentiate themselves and move to prosperity.
When we define "Internet business" though, do we mean only "Internet"? No brick-and-mortar ties at all? Meaning we exclude entities such as Dell?
I think the basic formula for a successful Internet business has these following traits:
1) Be the first to gain as much market share as possible. This includes Amazon, eBay, iTunes. In eBay and Amazon's case, they gobbled up the share and let the other's die out. iTunes happened to do it by providing the most viable and easy to use music download service. Others are finally getting on the bandwagon but have to play catch up with them now.
2) Differentiate yourself. When you can stand out from the crowd, people use you. Dozens of booksellers, everyone uses Amazon because of their mix of ratings, price, one-click buying, etc. Google differentiated themselves in the beginning when they claimed to have indexed over 1 million pages. iTunes by being amazingly easy to use and by getting major labels to jump on board.
3) Ease of use. Google is damn easy. Amazon is easy. eBay is easy. iTunes is easy. Sure you can use other services, but Amazon has spent a lot of time, money, and research on ways to make their user experience easy and enjoyable.
4) Act like a normal business. Gone are the days of getting $4.4 billion for an idea with no real business sense. If you want to have a successful BUSINESS model, act like a business.
I'm sure there are more, but these four basic rules will be seen in all successful Internet businesses.
It's easy to complain about product liability lawsuits. But without them, companies would feel even more free to sell dangerous products.
I agree with you here. Without liability, I'm sure there would be a lot of dangerous products on the market. I don't dispute that at all. I am however disheartened by the rediculous nature of some of these lawsuits. Suing fast food places because you got fat and didn't know you'd get fat by eating fast food three times a day for 20 years. Some are just rediculous. As far as the coffee, I don't know what the boiling point of coffee is, but assuming it's rather close to water then the hottest it can be is 100 deg C, otherwise it would turn to steam. People should know hot coffee is well...hot. When I get hot coffee from a restaurant, or mother, or friend, I let it cool down before trying to chug it.
All back to the point...some laws are good. But are we really becoming so lazy as a society that we need laws to protect us from common sense things? "Don't burn yourself on hot coffee". "Don't watch a movie in the front seat while driving down the highway". Makes me want to go to Macy's and bash my head through the window because "I didn't see a sign that told me the window is dangerous".