I don't think it's a good idea, but I'm not even sure it's possible.
For the record, I'm an Apple fanatic that pops wood whenever I see a Mac, and my butthole gets wet at every keynote.
What sort of monopoly are we talking about? A monopoly on music distribution? A monopoly on music players? In regards to Music distribution, Apple would need to wrest control of the content from the RIAA cartel. Certainly, Apple has helped destabilize the music cartel's control of music distribution, but those wheels were set into motion long before the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) by the original Napster and later filesharing technologies.
What's really going to kill the RIAA cartel is artists getting out from under their control. Apple has helped here to a degree, but the real empowerment to creators has, continues to, and will come from file sharing. I think that it's almost impossible for any one company to wrest control of the content from the content creators. If Apple is going to maintain it's dominance in paid online music distribution (or even if it's going to survive), it will need to accommodate the artists, not try to control them. If Apple, or anyone else, attempts to become the "new boss, same as the old boss", I have a feeling that many artists will just release their material as mp3s and accept that there will be a certain amount of unauthorized copying. That's if they strike out on their own and leave the RIAA fold.
If Apple is going to continue to thrive, they're going to have to partner with content creators, not own them.
As far as the iPod goes, I hope they will continue to dominate the market, but there is no guarantee and there is little chance that they will ever exercise a long term monopoly in this segment, despite their DRM lock in. The field is changing too fast, technology changes too fast. We haven't yet seen a true iPod killer, but that doesn't mean we won't. There's too much in play, too many nascent technologies, too many devices converging. (My best guess is that when we do see an iPod Killer, it's going to come out of left field, and no one will have seen it coming.)
I bought my dad an eMac 5 years ago. It just took a crap (judging from what he and my step-mom saw, a capacitor popped. Step-mom wants to get a windows machine to replace it, since it's cheaper. I've been working on both of them to get a Mac Mini Core Duo, which isn't that much more ($100 - $150) than Windows machines with lesser specs from Best Buy, Circuit City, and CompUSA. I know that if worse comes to worse, I can get slighty better specs at Dell for slightly cheaper, but I'm really trying to convince them to get the Mac Mini. My motives, of course, are totally selfish. I've already trained my dad on the Mac, I don't want to retrain. I'm his tech support, and I don't do Windows. And third, I want to play some games!
I've been flirting with the idea of getting a Mac Mini to tide me over for a few years, but if I can get Dad to spring for one, I can wait until Vista comes out. Yeah, it's goofy as hell. I'm totally good to go on my late model 12" Powerbook, I don't need another computer. But. . . You know. =)
Apple = mono Windows = AIDS, Syphilis, Genital Warts, Clymidia, Herpes, and Erectile Dysfucntion
And maybe Apple could get Madonna to do a song for their ads this time. I'm thinking "Like a Virgin". This song would work on many levels, seeing as how it's really a song about a guy with a monster cock.
From IMDB: Mr. Brown: O.K., let me tell you what Like a Virgin's about. It's all about this cooze who's a regular fuck machine, I'm talking morning, day, night, afternoon, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick. Mr. Blue: How many dicks is that? Mr. White: A lot. Mr. Brown: Then one day she meets this John Holmes motherfucker and it's like, whoa baby, I mean this cat is like Charles Bronson in the Great Escape, he's digging tunnels. Now, she's gettin' the serious dick action and she's feeling something she ain't felt since forever. Pain. Pain. It hurts her. It shouldn't hurt her, you know her pussy should be Bubble Yum by now, but when this cat fucks her it hurts. It hurts just like it did the first time. You see the pain is reminding a fuck machine what it once was like to be a virgin. Hence, "Like a virgin."
I'm with you, brother! Why should we trust the opinion of anyone outside of approved opinion channels. When I receive political wisdom, I want it from an unbiased source so I can decide for myself. Just to be clear, I'm the decider. I decide what's best. They're the reporter (or in this case, the opinioner).
It's because the survey wasn't granular enough. If they had drilled a bit deeper, they would have discovered that Nintendo fans that won cats are also Desperate Housewives fans, while those who own dogs prefer Lost.
You just gave me a great idea for an OS though. It would have only one command, but it could do everything you wanted by setting different flags. To complete certain tasks, you might need to input several pages of flags.
I'm more impressed with Microsoft telling me they're offering me options ("Where do you want to go today")
But tell me, does it feel like you just got home?
I thought the ads were funny. They play on some stereotypes. They made me laugh and I think they'll make other people laugh.
The thing about advertising is that the most important thing is to be memorable, to stand out from all the other ads. None of these ads might have convinced you to run out and buy an Apple computer, but you're likely to at least remember them. It's part of the subtle brainwashing to embed the brand identity (further) into your brain.
You kids today! You're so lucky and you don't even know it. When we were growing up, we used to dream about Giant Douches and Turd Sandwiches! Now you just take them for granted.
My mind isn't made up on the Google-in-China thing, but there's plenty that's not black and white. You say, regarding the methods Google uses to censor search results, "If the average person can't get to the site, why show it?" The reason why is that, absent the information, knowing that you are missing it is important. In fact, if you can be more exact about what information you are missing, you actually will have more information than otherwise.
Maybe I'm taking to fine a point. I'm not suggesting that Google is evil for the way they're doing business in China. As others have said, they're obeying the law in order to do business there in the first place. On the other hand, they're not offering certain services, such as Gmail, and I think this is primarily to prevent being put into dilemmas that Yahoo has faced. There are (at least) two people in jail because of Yahoo. If anyone at Yahoo had an ethical bone in their bodies, they would have suspended their email service after (if not before) the first guy went to prison.
That's the difference, in my mind. When Google follows the laws of China, people have their information limited (which arguably would be the situation without Google). When Yahoo follows the rules, specific people suffer greatly. Actual human beings are in prison for political crimes because of Yahoo. If the execs at Yahoo can sleep well at night, it's because they are sociopaths.
As I said, my mind is not made up on Google. Are they the lesser of two evils? Neutral? Good in some far reaching way (in which the ends justify the means, which always makes me suspicious)? I don't know.
Of course I'll be more than happy to buy a government camera for each room of my house. I've got nothing to hide! It would also be a lot more convenient, not having to guess when I should leave the house for a few hours so that the NSA field agent can come in and change the batteries, as is the current case.
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I don't think it's a good idea, but I'm not even sure it's possible.
For the record, I'm an Apple fanatic that pops wood whenever I see a Mac, and my butthole gets wet at every keynote.
What sort of monopoly are we talking about? A monopoly on music distribution? A monopoly on music players? In regards to Music distribution, Apple would need to wrest control of the content from the RIAA cartel. Certainly, Apple has helped destabilize the music cartel's control of music distribution, but those wheels were set into motion long before the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) by the original Napster and later filesharing technologies.
What's really going to kill the RIAA cartel is artists getting out from under their control. Apple has helped here to a degree, but the real empowerment to creators has, continues to, and will come from file sharing. I think that it's almost impossible for any one company to wrest control of the content from the content creators. If Apple is going to maintain it's dominance in paid online music distribution (or even if it's going to survive), it will need to accommodate the artists, not try to control them. If Apple, or anyone else, attempts to become the "new boss, same as the old boss", I have a feeling that many artists will just release their material as mp3s and accept that there will be a certain amount of unauthorized copying. That's if they strike out on their own and leave the RIAA fold.
If Apple is going to continue to thrive, they're going to have to partner with content creators, not own them.
As far as the iPod goes, I hope they will continue to dominate the market, but there is no guarantee and there is little chance that they will ever exercise a long term monopoly in this segment, despite their DRM lock in. The field is changing too fast, technology changes too fast. We haven't yet seen a true iPod killer, but that doesn't mean we won't. There's too much in play, too many nascent technologies, too many devices converging. (My best guess is that when we do see an iPod Killer, it's going to come out of left field, and no one will have seen it coming.)
Humor = Truth
I bought my dad an eMac 5 years ago. It just took a crap (judging from what he and my step-mom saw, a capacitor popped. Step-mom wants to get a windows machine to replace it, since it's cheaper. I've been working on both of them to get a Mac Mini Core Duo, which isn't that much more ($100 - $150) than Windows machines with lesser specs from Best Buy, Circuit City, and CompUSA. I know that if worse comes to worse, I can get slighty better specs at Dell for slightly cheaper, but I'm really trying to convince them to get the Mac Mini. My motives, of course, are totally selfish. I've already trained my dad on the Mac, I don't want to retrain. I'm his tech support, and I don't do Windows. And third, I want to play some games!
I've been flirting with the idea of getting a Mac Mini to tide me over for a few years, but if I can get Dad to spring for one, I can wait until Vista comes out. Yeah, it's goofy as hell. I'm totally good to go on my late model 12" Powerbook, I don't need another computer. But. . . You know. =)
Maybe he's referring to people holding off on buying a Mac until Vista is released.
How about
Apple = mono
Windows = AIDS, Syphilis, Genital Warts, Clymidia, Herpes, and Erectile Dysfucntion
And maybe Apple could get Madonna to do a song for their ads this time. I'm thinking "Like a Virgin". This song would work on many levels, seeing as how it's really a song about a guy with a monster cock.
From IMDB:
Mr. Brown: O.K., let me tell you what Like a Virgin's about. It's all about this cooze who's a regular fuck machine, I'm talking morning, day, night, afternoon, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick, dick.
Mr. Blue: How many dicks is that?
Mr. White: A lot.
Mr. Brown: Then one day she meets this John Holmes motherfucker and it's like, whoa baby, I mean this cat is like Charles Bronson in the Great Escape, he's digging tunnels. Now, she's gettin' the serious dick action and she's feeling something she ain't felt since forever. Pain. Pain. It hurts her. It shouldn't hurt her, you know her pussy should be Bubble Yum by now, but when this cat fucks her it hurts. It hurts just like it did the first time. You see the pain is reminding a fuck machine what it once was like to be a virgin. Hence, "Like a virgin."
I'm with you, brother! Why should we trust the opinion of anyone outside of approved opinion channels. When I receive political wisdom, I want it from an unbiased source so I can decide for myself. Just to be clear, I'm the decider. I decide what's best. They're the reporter (or in this case, the opinioner).
It's because the survey wasn't granular enough. If they had drilled a bit deeper, they would have discovered that Nintendo fans that won cats are also Desperate Housewives fans, while those who own dogs prefer Lost.
It's like the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is rooting.
Last go around I had an XBox and a GameCube (loyalty to Zelda there), and realized too late that the GC seemed to be much more for the kids.
Did you notice this about the time that your voice started changing?
Apparently, you are a prime candidate for "Brand Loyalty Confusion" therapy.
Apparently, you are also a prime candidate for hospitalization.
OK! Who snuck in here and poked a hole in my Wii?
I'm looking at you, Cardinal Mahoney!
Was he talking kernel or userland?
You just gave me a great idea for an OS though. It would have only one command, but it could do everything you wanted by setting different flags. To complete certain tasks, you might need to input several pages of flags.
I'm more impressed with Microsoft telling me they're offering me options ("Where do you want to go today")
But tell me, does it feel like you just got home?
I thought the ads were funny. They play on some stereotypes. They made me laugh and I think they'll make other people laugh.
The thing about advertising is that the most important thing is to be memorable, to stand out from all the other ads. None of these ads might have convinced you to run out and buy an Apple computer, but you're likely to at least remember them. It's part of the subtle brainwashing to embed the brand identity (further) into your brain.
Snap!!
I wonder though. There are people here who weren't even born when the IBM PC came out. They might actually not be aware of the origins of the term.
I'm starting to seriously question your credentials, man.
The two cases where a mac user uses the term PC are:
1) Disparagingly, as in a comparison to Macs
2) Defensively, when claiming that Macs are PCs, since PC stands for Personal Computer.
It's in Chapter 1 of How to Be an Irritating Fanboy, page 17.
If I were the judge, you'd win for best summary.
If anyone out there hasn't read TFA, just read the post above.
Can someone get Hemos a Free and Good spellchecker that isn't too Complex?
It might help him the next time he has an arguement.
Wouldn't you end up with 90% of the stories filtered?
You forgot to sign your name: offended RC Cola drinker.
You kids today! You're so lucky and you don't even know it. When we were growing up, we used to dream about Giant Douches and Turd Sandwiches! Now you just take them for granted.
"At G.E., we don't make nuclear weapons. We make nuclear weapons better."
My mind isn't made up on the Google-in-China thing, but there's plenty that's not black and white. You say, regarding the methods Google uses to censor search results, "If the average person can't get to the site, why show it?" The reason why is that, absent the information, knowing that you are missing it is important. In fact, if you can be more exact about what information you are missing, you actually will have more information than otherwise.
Maybe I'm taking to fine a point. I'm not suggesting that Google is evil for the way they're doing business in China. As others have said, they're obeying the law in order to do business there in the first place. On the other hand, they're not offering certain services, such as Gmail, and I think this is primarily to prevent being put into dilemmas that Yahoo has faced. There are (at least) two people in jail because of Yahoo. If anyone at Yahoo had an ethical bone in their bodies, they would have suspended their email service after (if not before) the first guy went to prison.
That's the difference, in my mind. When Google follows the laws of China, people have their information limited (which arguably would be the situation without Google). When Yahoo follows the rules, specific people suffer greatly. Actual human beings are in prison for political crimes because of Yahoo. If the execs at Yahoo can sleep well at night, it's because they are sociopaths.
As I said, my mind is not made up on Google. Are they the lesser of two evils? Neutral? Good in some far reaching way (in which the ends justify the means, which always makes me suspicious)? I don't know.
What I meant to say was:
Of course I'll be more than happy to buy a government camera for each room of my house. I've got nothing to hide! It would also be a lot more convenient, not having to guess when I should leave the house for a few hours so that the NSA field agent can come in and change the batteries, as is the current case.
(burp)
No, really, I couldn't eat another bite. (I was attempting humor, although it is interesting to see who will bite.)
That's so pedestrian. Better to get a bluetooth dongle for your computer, and then control it from anywhere the world.
Goddamn right! Otherwise we'd drum you out of the apple boy-Army, and you'd have to sip your latte all by your lonesome.