Their phone chargers are already USB. Check the agreement and you'll see that it's on chargers... and not necessarily cables. Apple can still provide a USB charger AND the existing USB-to-iPod dock connector cable and meet the terms of the agreement.
"In other words, even if your code is written in Objective-C, Apple will still reject it if that Objective-C code was written by a translation program instead of a human being."
Supposition or fact? Got proof or a citation? Because compiled Objective-C is allowed as near as I can tell.
Or we could do true layered defenses in security and redesign the OS to support them. Don't put crap into ring 0 just for "performance" purposes. Use micro-kernels and use messaging systems for interprocess communications. Place OS files into their own, protected partition and control access rigorously. Sign them. Allow unsigned drivers if need be, but sandbox them. Limit "shared" libraries and directories (hello Microsoft and Adobe). Drop legacy application support unless seriously sandboxed in a virtual environment. Heck, sandbox current applications the same way. And so on.
Today's processors and multi-core systems are fast enough to handle the overhead. Drives are huge. Allocate a full 10% of the processor budget to security. Why should we not sacrifice a few FPS in Quake or Unreal for hardened systems that are much, much, much more resistant to tampering and infection?
Not really, in that they suffer from the "Titanic" problem: You know the boat is going to sink. The only real question is whether or not you can make the process interesting. Titanic was so-so. Apollo 13 did it very well. Star Wars sucked.
Many people attribute this to Jar Jar, but my money is on Anakin. Lucas turned Darth Vader -- Darth Vader -- into a petulant spoiled brat full of teenage angst and who was always whining about being misunderstood and about how he wasn't being given enough attention, and so on, and so forth.
The fact that the Emperor could corrupt a child isn't a story, anyone can corrupt a child. They lack the experience to know better. Now if Anakin had been an adult, with an adult's background, knowledge, and convictions... and THEN had been corrupted and turned...
The following book price breakdown from Kindle Review (http://ireaderreview.com/2009/05/03/book-cost-analysis-cost-of-physical-book-publishing/) is instructional:
Basically the numbers of interest are the retailer (45%), printing (just 10%), and the wholesaler (10%). So it's fairly easy to see that online books can dump wholesaling and printing costs... but that's just 20%, or $6. Retailer costs can drop, but most retailers still need to make a profit, even selling ebooks (servers cost money).
Given the breakdown, I can see how a publisher might charge Amazon $15 for a first-run book, and how Amazon might decide to eat the $5 (for first run books) if it means gaining ebook market share and if it also encourages people to buy older books on which they DO make money. And sells the occasional Kindle.
And if you think Amazon would not decide to lose some money now in order to build up market share, then you're completely forgetting how Amazon became Amazon in the first place.
"How can you stop outsourcing without severely damaging the competitiveness of american companies?"
I'm beginning to think that this is a lie.
We're told over and over again that American companies have to outsource production to other countries in order for them to remain "competitive".
Okay, fine. But tell me this: How do Honda and Toyota and Kia and Hyundai BUILD PLANTS HERE IN THE US???
Are they not competitive? If FOREIGN companies can build plants here and produce products here for sale here AND hire American labor to do so... AND still make a profit...
Your original rant picked on "commodity parts" in slick aluminum cases. I pointed out that in many cases they're far from it.
And Apple engineers did in fact work with industry reps to create the custom formed LiPo's, the integrated power controllers, the glass trackpads, the ASICs, the connectors, and many other components that go into a MBP or iMac.
Finally, you seem to worship the holy grail of engineering, and engineering is important, I admit. But design and attention to detail is equally important to many, and the best engineered product may be a complete and utter failure if it doesn't move off the shelf.
Form and function. Engineering and design. Elegance. All are intertwined.
Yeah. Because Apple doesn't tend to use higher quality caps and fans and other components than HP or Dell. Apple doesn't use Intel's high-end processors. Apple doesn't use custom formed LiPo batteries and customized power controllers. Apple doesn't design their own ASICs. Apple doesn't use custom glass trackpads or create innovative connectors (Magsafe) for use in their designs.
And Apple doesn't create, maintain, and run it's own OS.
Oh. Wait. They do.
"... into slick aluminum casings."
They are, aren't they. (grin)
And combined with the above, that's better than 90% of the other manufacturers who shove actual commodity parts into cheap plastic cases and stuff Windows Home Edition on the hard drive....
"It also costs a nonzero amount in server CPU usage and/or dedicated hardware to do the crypto itself...."
I think the rule of thumb was that a server could handle ten HTTP requests for every HTTPS request. Therefore a popular web site (like Slashdot) might find its infrastructure costs increased significantly, with little added benefit. Could add dedicated SSL-enabled network cards, but those are fairly expensive too.
"If you make the age requirement too short, then nobody can remember their passwords. So they start working around it...."
One company I know of had an employee send around a "helpful" email saying pick a password, then just add the month/year to it. As in "password 01/10". Solves the special character and number requirements too. Next month when it expires use the same password and just bump the month.
Got back a ton of "great idea" responses. So now everyone is using xxxx mm/yy formatted passwords... and everyone there knows it.
Yes, but in the case of dedicated servers you were probably each supposed to, you know, BUY THE GAME.
In which case the revenue comes from per-player up-front game sales. In this case, you're paying (one way or another) for THEM to provide the ongoing service.
"The need to store large amounts of data for public consumption is not going to go away..."
The need, no. The need for a bunch of local, physical buildings... probably. Previously, a quarter-million or so books cost a bundle and took up quite a bit of space. Today, a single 1TB drive can do the same thing. Copy it and you have two. Hook one up to the internet...
The Kindle illustrated the allure of buying a book and of having it delivered in seconds. No need to drive to a central storage location. Heck, with a lot of books in Project Gutenberg, you don't even need to buy them.
Libraries coped, somewhat, by providing CDs and DVDs, but downloadable music and video, and video-on-demand will take care of that too. Providing local internet connections? Go to McDonalds or Starbucks and have a cup of coffee at the same time. Gathering places? Isn't that why we have local community centers?
Personally, I think they need to come up with a new mission.
They have a development staff that needs to eat. People don't pay. They don't eat. If they don't eat, they don't develop and expand the game. If the game doesn't expand, people leave.
Slashdot Mirror
Their phone chargers are already USB. Check the agreement and you'll see that it's on chargers... and not necessarily cables. Apple can still provide a USB charger AND the existing USB-to-iPod dock connector cable and meet the terms of the agreement.
So? It's not illegal to be a monopoly.
"In other words, even if your code is written in Objective-C, Apple will still reject it if that Objective-C code was written by a translation program instead of a human being."
Supposition or fact? Got proof or a citation? Because compiled Objective-C is allowed as near as I can tell.
"I would definitely fire anyone who specifies Oracle in my organisation."
Since you can't even spell organization, I doubt you're in a position to fire anyone at all... (grin)
Or we could do true layered defenses in security and redesign the OS to support them. Don't put crap into ring 0 just for "performance" purposes. Use micro-kernels and use messaging systems for interprocess communications. Place OS files into their own, protected partition and control access rigorously. Sign them. Allow unsigned drivers if need be, but sandbox them. Limit "shared" libraries and directories (hello Microsoft and Adobe). Drop legacy application support unless seriously sandboxed in a virtual environment. Heck, sandbox current applications the same way. And so on.
Today's processors and multi-core systems are fast enough to handle the overhead. Drives are huge. Allocate a full 10% of the processor budget to security. Why should we not sacrifice a few FPS in Quake or Unreal for hardened systems that are much, much, much more resistant to tampering and infection?
We know what we need to do. Just do it.
"...will not match the richness and features of Flash games."
All of which assumes that we want them in the first place.
Not really, in that they suffer from the "Titanic" problem: You know the boat is going to sink. The only real question is whether or not you can make the process interesting. Titanic was so-so. Apollo 13 did it very well. Star Wars sucked.
Many people attribute this to Jar Jar, but my money is on Anakin. Lucas turned Darth Vader -- Darth Vader -- into a petulant spoiled brat full of teenage angst and who was always whining about being misunderstood and about how he wasn't being given enough attention, and so on, and so forth.
The fact that the Emperor could corrupt a child isn't a story, anyone can corrupt a child. They lack the experience to know better. Now if Anakin had been an adult, with an adult's background, knowledge, and convictions... and THEN had been corrupted and turned...
THAT would have been a story.
The following book price breakdown from Kindle Review (http://ireaderreview.com/2009/05/03/book-cost-analysis-cost-of-physical-book-publishing/) is instructional:
Book Retail Price: $27.95.
Retailer (discount, staffing, rent, etc.) - $12.58. That's 45%.
Author Royalties - $4.19. Exactly 15%.
Wholesaler - $2.80. Exactly 10%.
Pre-production (Publisher) - $3.55. That's 12.7%.
Printing (Publisher) - $2.83. Translates to 10.125%.
Marketing (Publisher) - $2. That's approximately 7.15%.
Basically the numbers of interest are the retailer (45%), printing (just 10%), and the wholesaler (10%). So it's fairly easy to see that online books can dump wholesaling and printing costs... but that's just 20%, or $6. Retailer costs can drop, but most retailers still need to make a profit, even selling ebooks (servers cost money).
Given the breakdown, I can see how a publisher might charge Amazon $15 for a first-run book, and how Amazon might decide to eat the $5 (for first run books) if it means gaining ebook market share and if it also encourages people to buy older books on which they DO make money. And sells the occasional Kindle.
And if you think Amazon would not decide to lose some money now in order to build up market share, then you're completely forgetting how Amazon became Amazon in the first place.
Porn is speech, haven't you seen The People vs. Larry Flynt?
Though at times it's a little hard to understand, as people keep trying to talk with their mouth full.....
"... any more than drivers licenses have prevented car accidents."
Well.... to be honest, I suspect that if we stopped testing and licensing drivers, the number of accidents would increase significantly.
So licensing has prevented SOME accidents.
"How can you stop outsourcing without severely damaging the competitiveness of american companies?"
I'm beginning to think that this is a lie.
We're told over and over again that American companies have to outsource production to other countries in order for them to remain "competitive".
Okay, fine. But tell me this: How do Honda and Toyota and Kia and Hyundai BUILD PLANTS HERE IN THE US???
Are they not competitive? If FOREIGN companies can build plants here and produce products here for sale here AND hire American labor to do so... AND still make a profit...
THEN WHAT THE FUCK IS OUR PROBLEM??????
Your original rant picked on "commodity parts" in slick aluminum cases. I pointed out that in many cases they're far from it.
And Apple engineers did in fact work with industry reps to create the custom formed LiPo's, the integrated power controllers, the glass trackpads, the ASICs, the connectors, and many other components that go into a MBP or iMac.
Finally, you seem to worship the holy grail of engineering, and engineering is important, I admit. But design and attention to detail is equally important to many, and the best engineered product may be a complete and utter failure if it doesn't move off the shelf.
Form and function. Engineering and design. Elegance. All are intertwined.
"They put commodity parts..."
Yeah. Because Apple doesn't tend to use higher quality caps and fans and other components than HP or Dell. Apple doesn't use Intel's high-end processors. Apple doesn't use custom formed LiPo batteries and customized power controllers. Apple doesn't design their own ASICs. Apple doesn't use custom glass trackpads or create innovative connectors (Magsafe) for use in their designs.
And Apple doesn't create, maintain, and run it's own OS.
Oh. Wait. They do.
"... into slick aluminum casings."
They are, aren't they. (grin)
And combined with the above, that's better than 90% of the other manufacturers who shove actual commodity parts into cheap plastic cases and stuff Windows Home Edition on the hard drive....
Or behave like Microsoft, announcing products just to announce them, or to preempt another companies' products.
"Yep, we've been doing that to, it's great, and it will ship.... (mumble). Look for it!"
"It also costs a nonzero amount in server CPU usage and/or dedicated hardware to do the crypto itself...."
I think the rule of thumb was that a server could handle ten HTTP requests for every HTTPS request. Therefore a popular web site (like Slashdot) might find its infrastructure costs increased significantly, with little added benefit. Could add dedicated SSL-enabled network cards, but those are fairly expensive too.
"This is just one of many reasons it's considered a toy by large enterprises."
Yeah. And those new-fangled personal computers were once considered to be "just toys" by the IT department mainframe jocks.
"If you make the age requirement too short, then nobody can remember their passwords. So they start working around it...."
One company I know of had an employee send around a "helpful" email saying pick a password, then just add the month/year to it. As in "password 01/10". Solves the special character and number requirements too. Next month when it expires use the same password and just bump the month.
Got back a ton of "great idea" responses. So now everyone is using xxxx mm/yy formatted passwords... and everyone there knows it.
First, "And even if they cannot crack the encryption NOW..." Then, "... and relatively easy to crack thanks to a poor encryption implementation..."
So which is it? Cracked or not?
And if not, a successful open-source method to do so simply let's EVERYONE into the playpen.
Who wants it cracked in the first place? The only interests served are those of crooks and spys.
In which case they either adjust the price again, or realize that the game doesn't make sense economically, in which case it folds.
Yes, but in the case of dedicated servers you were probably each supposed to, you know, BUY THE GAME.
In which case the revenue comes from per-player up-front game sales. In this case, you're paying (one way or another) for THEM to provide the ongoing service.
Hey, I pay every week to play volleyball. Games may be games, but nothing says that games have to be free just because they're games.
"The need to store large amounts of data for public consumption is not going to go away..."
The need, no. The need for a bunch of local, physical buildings... probably. Previously, a quarter-million or so books cost a bundle and took up quite a bit of space. Today, a single 1TB drive can do the same thing. Copy it and you have two. Hook one up to the internet...
The Kindle illustrated the allure of buying a book and of having it delivered in seconds. No need to drive to a central storage location. Heck, with a lot of books in Project Gutenberg, you don't even need to buy them.
Libraries coped, somewhat, by providing CDs and DVDs, but downloadable music and video, and video-on-demand will take care of that too. Providing local internet connections? Go to McDonalds or Starbucks and have a cup of coffee at the same time. Gathering places? Isn't that why we have local community centers?
Personally, I think they need to come up with a new mission.
They have a development staff that needs to eat. People don't pay. They don't eat. If they don't eat, they don't develop and expand the game. If the game doesn't expand, people leave.
"... nor do I think that I should constantly pay for a game..."
They provide a continual, ongoing service, and you think that you're entitled to it forever?