You might be interested in Discipline & Punish : The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault. You might not like some of the author's theories*, as they're pretty heady stuff for your typical slashdotter, but the overall examination of the history of punishment is pretty good.
I think imprisonment derives from exile. We can imagine a time when mankind was too mobile or didn't have the resources to imprison, and for whatever reason, a group might not want to kill a transgressor. So the group would kick the transgressor out of the group, and if they were a territorial group, out of that territory. I'm sure that in some cases this would amount to a death sentence, as it might be impossible to survive outside of a group for very long.
Imprisonment is a type of internal exile. It's not quite so easy to exile someone and consign them to the wilderness these days.
*On the other hand, you might like them a great deal.
Ok, so don't drop the soap. Mind your own damn business. Learn not to be piss shy.
I think it's more like: watch your step every single waking moment, because your fellows don't need an excuse to hurt you.
I think it's more like: pack a big jar of vaseline to avoid tearing of the flesh around your anus, because chances are fairly high that you'll get raped if you can't defend yourself.
I think it's more like: what's left of the free food, once those stronger than you have decided they don't want what's left, seeing as you can't even defend what's on your plate.
I don't know where you guys get your ideas about prison and jail, or the idea that you could easily survive there by just minding your own business.
Oh, look at mister big shot, used a computer! I've been dead, stuffed into a trash can, and, ironically enough, rotting in this "self-storage" facility since before there were computers!
I was searching my Digital Cable On Demand movie library database for a really obscure old movie, when I suddenly realized: Digital Cable On Demand doesn't have a movie library data base. I have to watch whatever the hell it is they want to show me.
I've never used Netflix (though one of my roommates does), but I assume they have a large library to choose from and a database to make searching easy.
There were other MP3 players before iPod, but they weren't as easy to use. There were music download services before iTMS that offered music for free, but in addition to not being completely legit, they could be inconvenient if not frustrating to use. Apple could compete with either Netflix or Digital Cable if they can improve on the service. Netflix's only downside is waiting for a video, but users really don't seem to mind the wait, because there is so much value in the other parts of the equation. Digital Cable, on the other hand, is for the time being much more limited, and the value (only pay for what you want to watch when you want to watch it) does not overcome the negatives for you and I. There's a lot of room for improvement there, and Apple or another company could compete.
You know what I miss? There used to be a handful of old timey barbershops where you could get a shave with a straight razor. The whole 9 yards, laying back in the chair, a hot towel covering your face. And it was great! A cheap luxury. You felt great afterwards.
It's no longer legal for barbershops to do this in California, because of the risk from blood transmitted diseases. At least that is what I was told when I asked around.
I think he was judging the Catholic Church by some of their actions, not necessarily by what they profess to believe. So, technically, shill isn't the right word, but I still got the gist of it.
Got a technical question for you Kendall, since you seem to be up on computer playback of movies.
Cringley brought up the "fact" that movies are 24P. Now I know that film has long been shot at 24fps, and that there are high end video cameras that shoot at 24P, but since when has the delivery method (outside of theater projectors) been anything other than 30 (NTSC*) or 25 (PAL)? I know that with the right equipment you can watch DVD non-interlaced, but have they been encoding it at 24P and then letting the equipment sample it to either NTSC or DVD? In other words, WTF? Is cringley just full of shit, or is there something about playback that I missed?
*For you sticklers, I know NTSC is actually approximately 29.97 frames per second. Now, do you know why I said "approximately"?
Unless something changed when I wasn't looking, MS has never made profit on the Xbox itself, nor ever planned to make a profit. The profits are supposed to come from licensing (game revenue); however, MS's first target, before profitability, is market domination.
Interesting article, especially your shock that people do not always buy products for merely their function. It's good that you're thinking about this, but I think it's important that you don't dismiss out-of-hand this behavior as merely herd mentality and slavish devotion to fashion.
On the other hand, I'm not going to preach to you about the ease-of-use, the user experience of Apple products, blah blah blah. I'm not in fanboi mode at the moment.
What I am suggesting is that you look deeper, far deeper, at the phenomenon. Don't ask "What makes one object of desire better than another object of desire with equivalent functionality?" Instead ask, "What purpose does any object of desire serve, beyond its functionality?"
You're obviously capable of making such a leap. And I would suggest to you that understanding this question and its possible implications are far more important than the first question.
Perhaps what confuses me is the mixing of term. You say that Apple is selling the interface or experience. OK, I can accept that equation. interface = experience. Not a stretch.
Then you say that Apple has a corner of the market in content. If you mean that they have a corner in the market on songs, clearly this is incorrect for a variety of reasons.
So you must mean something else by the word content. Are you making a third equation, or redefinition, where content = interface = experience? This is my best guess as to what you mean.
If this is the case, then I think you are wrong on this specific point as well, as all the other MP3 players and all the other online music vendors must also have interfaces for their products to work.
Perhaps our difficulty in understanding this is that interface, or more generally experience, is not fully commoditized. There is room for qualitative differences, and the market itself shows that there is a great deal of value in these qualitative differences. People will pay a premium for the qualitative differences in an Apple product, whereas they probably wouldn't if Apple was selling a true commodity product like coal. Would you pay more for Apple branded coal if there was no true difference between it and other brands of coal? (This question assumes you're a normal person, and not the stereotype of an Apple fanboi.)
If nothing else, I think this points out that computers have not yet reached the stage of being a true commodity, and possibly never will. I won't argue that certain component have become a commodity, but so long as it's people using computers, there will be a segment of the market (people who use computers, oddly enough) that will choose their computers based on qualitative differences. If this were not so, we wouldn't have a variety of linux distros, nor a variety of interface choices on linux (KDE, Gnome, X11).
One of the things "holding linux back" from becoming a commodity OS has been this richness of qualitative difference, whatever one might argue about marginal costs.
Your problem is that you're generalizing from your own experience (I'm used to doing things this way, so anyone who designs for any other way is fuct).
Basically you've said it yourself several times:
pecking out keys that don't generally fall into one's typing pattern
and somewhere else you mention something about those that are "born and bred" using Mac systems.
Meanwhile, you completely ignore any contrary evidence for the benefits of a single button mouse:
1) Easier to learn
2) Forces coherence and discipline on interface designers, who, as is amply illustrated in other OSes, need a little discipline. (Oh, you bring up the example of a highly specialized piece of software, blender, that few ordinary users will ever touch, that requires the functionality of 3 buttons.)
I believe your outrage at the Apple designers is completely misplaced. After all, if you simple purchase a third party multibutton mouse, your objections are satisfied. No, your anger would more fairly aimed at those who designed abusive interfaces on linux and windows. However, since questioning your OS of choice in any way would lead you to question your own judgement (because so MUCH of your self worth is tied to your OS), you cannot do this without risk of deep psychic injury.
A few more comments:
an action that requires two hands is inherently more complex than an action that requires one
Did you have the two hemispheres of your brain surgically separated?
your IQ has fallen into single digits
typical remark from someone whose age only recently left the domain of single digits.
Do a search for games on macupdate or versiontracker. You'll find a mess of games, from freeware to commercial. Try Snood.
If by interface you mean skins, there are ways to futz with it, but they caused stability issues for me, so I don't advise them. Google for OS X and "haxies". As for other ways to change the interface, there are numerous programs that replace the dock, change finder behaviors, etc, that many swear by. I've actually grown to love the simplicity, so I'm not using anything anymore, but I'm sure that there are others that will give recommendations.
When I was in Mexico, I found one internet cafe that was all Macintosh (iMacs, eMacs, and a couple of graphite towers) in Guanajuato. I visited a video production company in San Luis Potosí, and they had two PCs, but 4 Macs (2 x G5 Dualies, 2 X MDD Dualies). The also had one PC based AVID, but it was a much older model. They were quite proud of their Macs.
I occassionally saw Macs in people's homes, and occasionally in someone's place of business, especially if that place of business was in any way creative. But overall, the picture I got was that Macs didn't even have a 1% marketshare. I never saw anywhere that offered Macs for sale.
I was only in DF for a few hours when I entered Mexico, so it might be different there.
As for Korea, do I need to tell you what segment of the market uses Macs? =)
Yeah, I noticed that too. He seems to be arguing that removing his hand from the keyboard to click on the mouse makes him a faster typist. Patently absurd.
When iPod arrived, people said, "who will bring this piece of brick around?"
No, I was there. What they said was, "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."
Then I think someone said something about Ogg Vorbis, but about another 100 people started to kick the shit out of him. Then we all laughed and went out and bought iPods. Except for that Ogg Vorbis guy.
Slashdot Mirror
You might be interested in Discipline & Punish : The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault. You might not like some of the author's theories*, as they're pretty heady stuff for your typical slashdotter, but the overall examination of the history of punishment is pretty good.
I think imprisonment derives from exile. We can imagine a time when mankind was too mobile or didn't have the resources to imprison, and for whatever reason, a group might not want to kill a transgressor. So the group would kick the transgressor out of the group, and if they were a territorial group, out of that territory. I'm sure that in some cases this would amount to a death sentence, as it might be impossible to survive outside of a group for very long.
Imprisonment is a type of internal exile. It's not quite so easy to exile someone and consign them to the wilderness these days.
*On the other hand, you might like them a great deal.
Ok, so don't drop the soap. Mind your own damn business. Learn not to be piss shy.
I think it's more like: watch your step every single waking moment, because your fellows don't need an excuse to hurt you.
I think it's more like: pack a big jar of vaseline to avoid tearing of the flesh around your anus, because chances are fairly high that you'll get raped if you can't defend yourself.
I think it's more like: what's left of the free food, once those stronger than you have decided they don't want what's left, seeing as you can't even defend what's on your plate.
I don't know where you guys get your ideas about prison and jail, or the idea that you could easily survive there by just minding your own business.
That was so lifelike, you actually got moded up!
the Wachowski brothers
What does tightrope walking have to do with it?
Oh, look at mister big shot, used a computer! I've been dead, stuffed into a trash can, and, ironically enough, rotting in this "self-storage" facility since before there were computers!
Thank you for providing evidence for my theory that the razors and blades analogy holds true except when it doesn't, no matter how hard you twist.
See also my "Analogies are like metaphors except they're not" theory.
It's currently in litigation, hasn't gone to trial, and we haven't heard a peep in quite some time.
No one is exactly sure of what Apple is contractually allowed to do and prohibited from doing because the agreement is secret.
The mills of the law grind exceedingly fine, but damn, they sure take a while!
I was searching my Digital Cable On Demand movie library database for a really obscure old movie, when I suddenly realized: Digital Cable On Demand doesn't have a movie library data base. I have to watch whatever the hell it is they want to show me.
I've never used Netflix (though one of my roommates does), but I assume they have a large library to choose from and a database to make searching easy.
There were other MP3 players before iPod, but they weren't as easy to use. There were music download services before iTMS that offered music for free, but in addition to not being completely legit, they could be inconvenient if not frustrating to use. Apple could compete with either Netflix or Digital Cable if they can improve on the service. Netflix's only downside is waiting for a video, but users really don't seem to mind the wait, because there is so much value in the other parts of the equation. Digital Cable, on the other hand, is for the time being much more limited, and the value (only pay for what you want to watch when you want to watch it) does not overcome the negatives for you and I. There's a lot of room for improvement there, and Apple or another company could compete.
You know what I miss? There used to be a handful of old timey barbershops where you could get a shave with a straight razor. The whole 9 yards, laying back in the chair, a hot towel covering your face. And it was great! A cheap luxury. You felt great afterwards.
It's no longer legal for barbershops to do this in California, because of the risk from blood transmitted diseases. At least that is what I was told when I asked around.
I think he was judging the Catholic Church by some of their actions, not necessarily by what they profess to believe. So, technically, shill isn't the right word, but I still got the gist of it.
I'm sorry, but what are magazines and newspapers? If you're going to use technical lingo unfamiliar to most slashdotters, at least define your terms.
Got a technical question for you Kendall, since you seem to be up on computer playback of movies.
Cringley brought up the "fact" that movies are 24P. Now I know that film has long been shot at 24fps, and that there are high end video cameras that shoot at 24P, but since when has the delivery method (outside of theater projectors) been anything other than 30 (NTSC*) or 25 (PAL)? I know that with the right equipment you can watch DVD non-interlaced, but have they been encoding it at 24P and then letting the equipment sample it to either NTSC or DVD? In other words, WTF? Is cringley just full of shit, or is there something about playback that I missed?
*For you sticklers, I know NTSC is actually approximately 29.97 frames per second. Now, do you know why I said "approximately"?
Unless something changed when I wasn't looking, MS has never made profit on the Xbox itself, nor ever planned to make a profit. The profits are supposed to come from licensing (game revenue); however, MS's first target, before profitability, is market domination.
Sassen,
Interesting article, especially your shock that people do not always buy products for merely their function. It's good that you're thinking about this, but I think it's important that you don't dismiss out-of-hand this behavior as merely herd mentality and slavish devotion to fashion.
On the other hand, I'm not going to preach to you about the ease-of-use, the user experience of Apple products, blah blah blah. I'm not in fanboi mode at the moment.
What I am suggesting is that you look deeper, far deeper, at the phenomenon. Don't ask "What makes one object of desire better than another object of desire with equivalent functionality?" Instead ask, "What purpose does any object of desire serve, beyond its functionality?"
You're obviously capable of making such a leap. And I would suggest to you that understanding this question and its possible implications are far more important than the first question.
Interesting, if confusing, idea.
Perhaps what confuses me is the mixing of term. You say that Apple is selling the interface or experience. OK, I can accept that equation. interface = experience. Not a stretch.
Then you say that Apple has a corner of the market in content. If you mean that they have a corner in the market on songs, clearly this is incorrect for a variety of reasons.
So you must mean something else by the word content. Are you making a third equation, or redefinition, where content = interface = experience? This is my best guess as to what you mean.
If this is the case, then I think you are wrong on this specific point as well, as all the other MP3 players and all the other online music vendors must also have interfaces for their products to work.
Perhaps our difficulty in understanding this is that interface, or more generally experience, is not fully commoditized. There is room for qualitative differences, and the market itself shows that there is a great deal of value in these qualitative differences. People will pay a premium for the qualitative differences in an Apple product, whereas they probably wouldn't if Apple was selling a true commodity product like coal. Would you pay more for Apple branded coal if there was no true difference between it and other brands of coal? (This question assumes you're a normal person, and not the stereotype of an Apple fanboi.)
If nothing else, I think this points out that computers have not yet reached the stage of being a true commodity, and possibly never will. I won't argue that certain component have become a commodity, but so long as it's people using computers, there will be a segment of the market (people who use computers, oddly enough) that will choose their computers based on qualitative differences. If this were not so, we wouldn't have a variety of linux distros, nor a variety of interface choices on linux (KDE, Gnome, X11).
One of the things "holding linux back" from becoming a commodity OS has been this richness of qualitative difference, whatever one might argue about marginal costs.
Your problem is that you're generalizing from your own experience (I'm used to doing things this way, so anyone who designs for any other way is fuct).
Basically you've said it yourself several times:
pecking out keys that don't generally fall into one's typing pattern
and somewhere else you mention something about those that are "born and bred" using Mac systems.
Meanwhile, you completely ignore any contrary evidence for the benefits of a single button mouse:
1) Easier to learn
2) Forces coherence and discipline on interface designers, who, as is amply illustrated in other OSes, need a little discipline. (Oh, you bring up the example of a highly specialized piece of software, blender, that few ordinary users will ever touch, that requires the functionality of 3 buttons.)
I believe your outrage at the Apple designers is completely misplaced. After all, if you simple purchase a third party multibutton mouse, your objections are satisfied. No, your anger would more fairly aimed at those who designed abusive interfaces on linux and windows. However, since questioning your OS of choice in any way would lead you to question your own judgement (because so MUCH of your self worth is tied to your OS), you cannot do this without risk of deep psychic injury.
A few more comments:
an action that requires two hands is inherently more complex than an action that requires one
Did you have the two hemispheres of your brain surgically separated?
your IQ has fallen into single digits
typical remark from someone whose age only recently left the domain of single digits.
Do a search for games on macupdate or versiontracker. You'll find a mess of games, from freeware to commercial. Try Snood.
If by interface you mean skins, there are ways to futz with it, but they caused stability issues for me, so I don't advise them. Google for OS X and "haxies". As for other ways to change the interface, there are numerous programs that replace the dock, change finder behaviors, etc, that many swear by. I've actually grown to love the simplicity, so I'm not using anything anymore, but I'm sure that there are others that will give recommendations.
Sorry, I can't help you on the network issue.
When I was in Mexico, I found one internet cafe that was all Macintosh (iMacs, eMacs, and a couple of graphite towers) in Guanajuato. I visited a video production company in San Luis Potosí, and they had two PCs, but 4 Macs (2 x G5 Dualies, 2 X MDD Dualies). The also had one PC based AVID, but it was a much older model. They were quite proud of their Macs.
I occassionally saw Macs in people's homes, and occasionally in someone's place of business, especially if that place of business was in any way creative. But overall, the picture I got was that Macs didn't even have a 1% marketshare. I never saw anywhere that offered Macs for sale.
I was only in DF for a few hours when I entered Mexico, so it might be different there.
As for Korea, do I need to tell you what segment of the market uses Macs? =)
Yeah, I noticed that too. He seems to be arguing that removing his hand from the keyboard to click on the mouse makes him a faster typist. Patently absurd.
the bundled software is not worth twice as much as what's bundled in your average HP/Dell
That is correct, since 2 x 0 = 0. Mac bundled software actually has great value.
They do indeed. I drive a Jaguar and an original Mini. So what do they say about that combination...?
That you spend so much time working on your car to make it run that you don't want to spend any on your computer? =)
JK. I have heard that Jags are much more reliable these days. Just couldn't resist the old stereotype.
Home - No. People MIGHT buy a similar PC, but not an apple. Not running windows is a major drawback to most users.
Ah, but here's the rub. Running windows is also a major drawback to most users.
You guys didn't get the memo? Small is the new big and white is the new black.
When iPod arrived, people said, "who will bring this piece of brick around?"
No, I was there. What they said was, "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."
Then I think someone said something about Ogg Vorbis, but about another 100 people started to kick the shit out of him. Then we all laughed and went out and bought iPods. Except for that Ogg Vorbis guy.
I think you are misinformed and speaking from ignorance. The Mac Mini case is not glued shut, or in any other way hermetically sealed.
Why don't you tell us which Apple computers are glued shut? I don't know of any, but I could be wrong, and I'm always willing to learn something new.