There are two types of Porsche owners: (1) "image" owners who drive it for the name.
(2) owners who buy them because they are (were) finely crafted machines that are an absolute pleasure to drive and could give a shit about the price.
- Porsches have shared a lot of parts with their cousins the Volkswagens. Does that make them overpriced VWs?
- Ford makes some acceptable cars from a performance standpoint: The Focus and Mustang come to mind.
- A good Focus driver will beat the crap out of an "image" Porsche owner who can't properly operate his vehicle.
- Horsepower by itself is an inadequate measure of a car's value.
While all of these points could be related back to one's choice of computer brand, it's a fundamentally weak association. And it's old.
There should be a corralary to Godwin's Law for this. Something like:
"As a discussion thread involving Apple computers grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving cars grows to 1."
Sure you could get a decent looking, slightly larger Jukebox Xtra [nomadworld.com] that has 7,5 times the capacity of the Mini iPod and replaceable batteries for exactly the same amount of money but it's "just no iPod". And, at that point - as every man knows - there's no reasoning with it.
That's like saying your mom is a decent looking, slightly larger" version of Kylie Minogue.
With 7.5 times the capacity. For pizza.
Enjoy your big ugly Jukebox - it looks like a cool backpack.
2GB for $100 would have really hit a sweet spot, though, and probably would have absolutely destroyed the flash player market in one fell swoop. It would have opened up the iPod line to a vast new customer base and no doubt would have made buckets of money for Apple in the long-term (maybe not the short term due to cost, but if Apple ends up basically monopolizing the entire mp3 market, that can only be good for the bottom line over time). I don't really see the reasoning for what we got instead.
I was thinking the same thing -- it would have been very similar to when Apple announced the color classic in 89-90(?) for $999 -- they got a shitload of marketshare out of the deal.
What they also got was a lot of problems in the supply channel -- I think if they *had* put the minis out at $99 a pop they would have had a fufillment nightmare, which ends up being more damaging to people's perception of Apple in the long-run.
This becomes a relevant issue courtesy of the legions of hairless apes who look for any opportunity to slag Apple.
The interesting thing (to me at least) was the near silence while Jobs was demo-ing the thing: you could hear a pin drop. Thanks to the rumor sites (and coverage of the rumor sites on CNN) the expectation was $99 iPod minis, not $249 dollar iPod minis.
I can't imagine that Jobs was thinking and feeling about the keynote as he walked off the stage, but it can't have been good.
It's the big danger associated with the MacWorld conventions and all of the speculation on the various rumor sites (and speculation on the speculation places like here....): there is an underlying expectation that when Steve says "... oh, and one more thing...."
We'll just have to wait and see how the minis sell. The audience response was not encouraging.
$59/24 months additional coverage works out to a little over $0.08 per day.
I'll pay that rather than deal with hassling with actual batteries -- how 1989.
My iPod took a dump during the warranty period. I walked into an Apple store, they punched in the device's serial number, and handed me a *new* refurbished iPod. I was out the door in under 5 minutes and haven't had a problem since.
I realize this is purely anecdotal, but I wonder how much of this hair-pulling and breast-beating is being done by actual iPod owners.
If you don't like Apple or don't like their products, then cast your vote in the marketplace and don't buy one.
I'm sure some politically correct penguinista organization will build a $20 mp3 player using recycled Brother AX-100 typewriters powered by lentil farts or whatever you vegan hippies are eating this week.
It should accessorize nicely with your pleather Doc Martens. Go roll your eyes at that.
Not particularly "ironic" when you look at the fact that the song is written by someone who like me, grew up in L.A. and feels strongly about what the city has turned into.
Thanks for your insightful analysis. Now I feel like I have my own personal fanboi.
Most of the academy members are 900 years old and read these books when they were kids, read them to their kids, and gave them as presents to their grandchildren.
I live in L.A. and one of the more noxious Oscar-season practices is for publicists to actually visit the nursing homes where academy members are clustered for special "viewings" -- I have three academy members who live in my apartment building: all of them are over 60.
Conventional wisdom at this point is that "RoTK" is this year's 300 lb. gorilla at the Oscars. Where New Line is going to end up screwing themselves is that they are submitting for four potential nominees in Best Supporting Actor and two in Best Supporting Actress. Acadmey voters will tend to go elsewhere if split. See New Line Cinema's awards-shill for RoTK for more information (Flash Required).
Maybe the Oscars are irrelevant to you but they are a cottage industry here in L.A., not to mention one of the top rated shows in the world every year. Finally, a lot of non-blockbuster movies and smaller studios depend on a nomination if not an award for their marketing: The Pianist did most of their box office and almost all of their DVD sales as a result of their Oscars.
Los Angeles (and Hollywood) is a factory town, like any other factory town anywhere in the world -- our products just tend to get noticed more. Don't kid yourself: a lot of people's year-round financial well-being depends on the Oscars, both in Los Angeles and around the world.
the trilogy is usually considered one work even though the three "books" (each one is actually two books) were written and released at different times.
Not so. LOTR was one book: it was published as three separate volumes due to either a post-war paper shortage, or the publisher's concern that it wouldn't be well received, depending on who you talk to.
Wikipedia was where I grabbed the publishing factoid, but I know I've seen it elsewhere.
Your statement on the Oscars is equally incorrect: numerous Oscars have been given out in the more technical categories for the first and second in a three movie serious: check the original star wars trilogy, the godfather trilogy, and the first two Lord of the Rings movies for some examples, which can easily be verified at the oscars.org database.
It only takes a couple of minutes to check your facts before posting. Cheers.
uh. No. I'd be really surprised to hear that the Little Red Book sold 900 million copies, especially when Mao's "People's Revolution" arguably resulted in the deaths of more people than Hitler and Stalin put together, many of starvation: I doubt they had the disposable income to go out and purchase the Chairman's Little Red Book.
But since you asked, per Houghton Mifflin Lord of the Rings has sold over 50 million copys world-wide, which would put it in your Top Ten of all time, right about the same place as Dr. Spock's book.
#5 (The World Almanac) and #4 (The Guiness Book of World Record) are updated annually, and the numbers reflect an aggregation of annual editions. Don't count.
That *still* puts it in 4th place behind the following:
#1 - The Bible.
#2 - The American Spelling Book (Noah Webster) - A book published in 1783 that was "the preferred English textbook in schools throughout 19th Century America"
#3 - The McGuffy Reader - Published in 1836."During the 19th century, 80% of all American schoolchildren used them."
I also don't think textbooks are a fair comparison: if we include the titles above, then we should also include the Yellow Pages, which I'm sure have printed more copies worldwide since they were first introduced then even the Bible.
Agreed and understood that a company exists for the benefit of their customers -- actually so does an internal support group within a larger company -- something a lot of tech support people seem to forget. Please don't presuppose what I do and don't understand without consulting with me first.
My point (which probably got muddled in my post-influenza rant) was that the customer should not expect the vendor to think for them.
In this particular case, it's very clear from the packaging the iPod comes in, the documentation that comes with the iPod, the readme files on the install discs, and the online forums what you can and can't do from a cross-platform perspective - I know this because (a) I own an iPod and (b) I've attempted to use it in a cross-platform environment -- have you?
I've worked in support (both internal and external) for over 10 years: I think it's been helpful to me in my transition to Software Engineer (i.e. coherent requirements gathering and analysis, user-friendly error handling, useful and current online help, documentation and training) in keeping a user-centric focus on my work.
Assisting a user along those lines by referring them to online help or their documentation isn't saying "I don't care". The user has to decide that he/she cares by deciding it's in their best interest to know how to use the hardware or software in question.
Once again I fall back to my original response to your original point: I've been using Apple product for over 15 years, been involved in numerous Apple UGs and SIGs, and supported numerous vendors' product (including Apple) for both internal and external support organizations. I've never encountered the problems I hear mentioned, nor do I know of anyone who has, which leads me to believe that what I read is FUD and/or a troll. Apple has always gone out of their way to solve whatever problem I've thrown at them. Once again, my experience has been that they are infinitely more helpful than H/P, Dell, Sony, or Compaq.
... and thanks for reminding me I need some new shoes!
People think that just because they paid money for a computer that it should "just work" in spite of whatever stupidity they inflict on it.
Kind of like people who never check their oil and wonder why their engines blow up.
Unfortunately, due to Apple's ease of use, almost non-existent learning curve, and price point, people feel entirely justified to act like complete retards and when Apple nicely says "You're a complete retard. That's why it doesn't work. Try being less retarded." people get sensitive and feel like "they're getting screwed".
RTFM. If you want your Mac iPod to work with Windows, reformat using the Windows formatting tool. Vice-versa going from Windows to Mac.
The iPod kicks ass: I installed the 10.3 beta released right after WWDC on it and was able to boot from any Mac with a FireWire port on it: tres convenient for testing purposes.
[RANT]
Today, I overheard a call to our helpdesk -- Software Engineering sits in the same area, and the phone operator was talking to the user on speakerphone because he was trying to do 8 other things at the same time.
We're in the middle of converting a number of users to the PC from the Mac. The operator was explaining the secondary mouse button to the user, who got really frustrated and said "You know you people really should have sent out an email about this 'right-clicking': this is very confusing."
People are lazy and stupid. Some more so than others.
[/RANT]
Bottom line is that I've almost always found Apple support to be helpful in solving my problem. That doesn't mean they've given me the answer I wanted but I've never felt that Apple was screwing me.
Except for the whole IIvi thing, but that was years ago.
P.S. to the Sony fanboi: Their customer support truly does suck. Tried to get upgraded drivers for my burner. Couldn't find them on the site. Sony told me they'd send them to me. For $20.
Thank you for your post. Saved my having to do it:-p
It's just as easy (easier actually)to argue that the real story of LOTR is about the passing of the time of the Elves and their leaving Middle Earth to go to the West, not about whatever Hobbocentric crap everyone's getting so upset about.
The scouring of the Shire is a postscript to the story of the end of the Third Age and is irrelevant to the overall narrative arc of the three movies.
It's Jackson's interpretation of the books.
I just hope he ends it with Aragorn balls-deep in Arwen. Doggy style.
Slashdot Mirror
The logic of being upset with Apple for failing to match a rumor site's price point is questionable at best.
Seems like plenty of people are jumping up and down about how great the Rio players are for the money: go buy one of those.
Or accept the fact that you are in Apple's target demographic for the mini: they don't want you to spend $300 on a player: just $249.
There are two types of Porsche owners:
(1) "image" owners who drive it for the name.
(2) owners who buy them because they are (were) finely crafted machines that are an absolute pleasure to drive and could give a shit about the price.
- Porsches have shared a lot of parts with their cousins the Volkswagens. Does that make them overpriced VWs?
- Ford makes some acceptable cars from a performance standpoint: The Focus and Mustang come to mind.
- A good Focus driver will beat the crap out of an "image" Porsche owner who can't properly operate his vehicle.
- Horsepower by itself is an inadequate measure of a car's value.
While all of these points could be related back to one's choice of computer brand, it's a fundamentally weak association. And it's old.
There should be a corralary to Godwin's Law for this. Something like:
"As a discussion thread involving Apple computers grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving cars grows to 1."
...because it's a brick.
That's like saying your mom is a decent looking, slightly larger" version of Kylie Minogue.
With 7.5 times the capacity. For pizza.
Enjoy your big ugly Jukebox - it looks like a cool backpack.
I was thinking the same thing -- it would have been very similar to when Apple announced the color classic in 89-90(?) for $999 -- they got a shitload of marketshare out of the deal.
What they also got was a lot of problems in the supply channel -- I think if they *had* put the minis out at $99 a pop they would have had a fufillment nightmare, which ends up being more damaging to people's perception of Apple in the long-run.
This becomes a relevant issue courtesy of the legions of hairless apes who look for any opportunity to slag Apple.
The interesting thing (to me at least) was the near silence while Jobs was demo-ing the thing: you could hear a pin drop. Thanks to the rumor sites (and coverage of the rumor sites on CNN) the expectation was $99 iPod minis, not $249 dollar iPod minis.
I can't imagine that Jobs was thinking and feeling about the keynote as he walked off the stage, but it can't have been good.
It's the big danger associated with the MacWorld conventions and all of the speculation on the various rumor sites (and speculation on the speculation places like here....): there is an underlying expectation that when Steve says "... oh, and one more thing...."
We'll just have to wait and see how the minis sell. The audience response was not encouraging.
At least that's what Apple is calling it.
If your demographic is people who base their purchase decisions on rumor sites, it looks like you're correct.
$59/24 months additional coverage works out to a little over $0.08 per day.
I'll pay that rather than deal with hassling with actual batteries -- how 1989.
My iPod took a dump during the warranty period. I walked into an Apple store, they punched in the device's serial number, and handed me a *new* refurbished iPod. I was out the door in under 5 minutes and haven't had a problem since.
I realize this is purely anecdotal, but I wonder how much of this hair-pulling and breast-beating is being done by actual iPod owners.
If you don't like Apple or don't like their products, then cast your vote in the marketplace and don't buy one.
I'm sure some politically correct penguinista organization will build a $20 mp3 player using recycled Brother AX-100 typewriters powered by lentil farts or whatever you vegan hippies are eating this week.
It should accessorize nicely with your pleather Doc Martens. Go roll your eyes at that.
Not particularly "ironic" when you look at the fact that the song is written by someone who like me, grew up in L.A. and feels strongly about what the city has turned into.
Thanks for your insightful analysis. Now I feel like I have my own personal fanboi.
Now get back under the desk.
I live in L.A. and one of the more noxious Oscar-season practices is for publicists to actually visit the nursing homes where academy members are clustered for special "viewings" -- I have three academy members who live in my apartment building: all of them are over 60.
Conventional wisdom at this point is that "RoTK" is this year's 300 lb. gorilla at the Oscars. Where New Line is going to end up screwing themselves is that they are submitting for four potential nominees in Best Supporting Actor and two in Best Supporting Actress. Acadmey voters will tend to go elsewhere if split. See New Line Cinema's awards-shill for RoTK for more information (Flash Required).
Maybe the Oscars are irrelevant to you but they are a cottage industry here in L.A., not to mention one of the top rated shows in the world every year. Finally, a lot of non-blockbuster movies and smaller studios depend on a nomination if not an award for their marketing: The Pianist did most of their box office and almost all of their DVD sales as a result of their Oscars.
Los Angeles (and Hollywood) is a factory town, like any other factory town anywhere in the world -- our products just tend to get noticed more. Don't kid yourself: a lot of people's year-round financial well-being depends on the Oscars, both in Los Angeles and around the world.
Not so. LOTR was one book: it was published as three separate volumes due to either a post-war paper shortage, or the publisher's concern that it wouldn't be well received, depending on who you talk to.
Wikipedia was where I grabbed the publishing factoid, but I know I've seen it elsewhere.
Your statement on the Oscars is equally incorrect: numerous Oscars have been given out in the more technical categories for the first and second in a three movie serious: check the original star wars trilogy, the godfather trilogy, and the first two Lord of the Rings movies for some examples, which can easily be verified at the oscars.org database.
It only takes a couple of minutes to check your facts before posting. Cheers.
ugh.
He's the retarded Andy Rooney of computer journalism.
uh. No. I'd be really surprised to hear that the Little Red Book sold 900 million copies, especially when Mao's "People's Revolution" arguably resulted in the deaths of more people than Hitler and Stalin put together, many of starvation: I doubt they had the disposable income to go out and purchase the Chairman's Little Red Book.
But since you asked, per Houghton Mifflin Lord of the Rings has sold over 50 million copys world-wide, which would put it in your Top Ten of all time, right about the same place as Dr. Spock's book.
#5 (The World Almanac) and #4 (The Guiness Book of World Record) are updated annually, and the numbers reflect an aggregation of annual editions. Don't count.
That *still* puts it in 4th place behind the following:
#1 - The Bible.
#2 - The American Spelling Book (Noah Webster) - A book published in 1783 that was "the preferred English textbook in schools throughout 19th Century America"
#3 - The McGuffy Reader - Published in 1836."During the 19th century, 80% of all American schoolchildren used them."
I also don't think textbooks are a fair comparison: if we include the titles above, then we should also include the Yellow Pages, which I'm sure have printed more copies worldwide since they were first introduced then even the Bible.
Therefore, I hold to my earlier assertion: #2.
Damn the INTARWEB!
The point being the screener was issued from the film transfer (with car) while it was cleaned up for the DVD release.
It's in the U.S. version :-p
Hi.
You're discussing about how a talking tree was presented onscreen.
"Lord of the Rings" was the second best selling book in western literature (behind the Bible) for years.
Now I think it's averaging at #3 behind "Dianetics".
Too bad their movie ("Battlefield Earth") wasn't as good.
registrant-email: vanneistat@hotmail.com
I'm sure Casey would love to hear from everyone!
2. Their mom is going to be so MAD that they X-Acto'ed the dining room table like that.
Feh. Fanboi FUD.
fin.
Now then...
Agreed and understood that a company exists for the benefit of their customers -- actually so does an internal support group within a larger company -- something a lot of tech support people seem to forget. Please don't presuppose what I do and don't understand without consulting with me first.
My point (which probably got muddled in my post-influenza rant) was that the customer should not expect the vendor to think for them.
In this particular case, it's very clear from the packaging the iPod comes in, the documentation that comes with the iPod, the readme files on the install discs, and the online forums what you can and can't do from a cross-platform perspective - I know this because (a) I own an iPod and (b) I've attempted to use it in a cross-platform environment -- have you?
I've worked in support (both internal and external) for over 10 years: I think it's been helpful to me in my transition to Software Engineer (i.e. coherent requirements gathering and analysis, user-friendly error handling, useful and current online help, documentation and training) in keeping a user-centric focus on my work.
Assisting a user along those lines by referring them to online help or their documentation isn't saying "I don't care". The user has to decide that he/she cares by deciding it's in their best interest to know how to use the hardware or software in question.
Once again I fall back to my original response to your original point: I've been using Apple product for over 15 years, been involved in numerous Apple UGs and SIGs, and supported numerous vendors' product (including Apple) for both internal and external support organizations. I've never encountered the problems I hear mentioned, nor do I know of anyone who has, which leads me to believe that what I read is FUD and/or a troll. Apple has always gone out of their way to solve whatever problem I've thrown at them. Once again, my experience has been that they are infinitely more helpful than H/P, Dell, Sony, or Compaq.
People think that just because they paid money for a computer that it should "just work" in spite of whatever stupidity they inflict on it.
Kind of like people who never check their oil and wonder why their engines blow up.
Unfortunately, due to Apple's ease of use, almost non-existent learning curve, and price point, people feel entirely justified to act like complete retards and when Apple nicely says "You're a complete retard. That's why it doesn't work. Try being less retarded." people get sensitive and feel like "they're getting screwed".
RTFM. If you want your Mac iPod to work with Windows, reformat using the Windows formatting tool. Vice-versa going from Windows to Mac.
The iPod kicks ass: I installed the 10.3 beta released right after WWDC on it and was able to boot from any Mac with a FireWire port on it: tres convenient for testing purposes.
[RANT]
Today, I overheard a call to our helpdesk -- Software Engineering sits in the same area, and the phone operator was talking to the user on speakerphone because he was trying to do 8 other things at the same time.
We're in the middle of converting a number of users to the PC from the Mac. The operator was explaining the secondary mouse button to the user, who got really frustrated and said "You know you people really should have sent out an email about this 'right-clicking': this is very confusing."
People are lazy and stupid. Some more so than others.
[/RANT]
Bottom line is that I've almost always found Apple support to be helpful in solving my problem. That doesn't mean they've given me the answer I wanted but I've never felt that Apple was screwing me.
Except for the whole IIvi thing, but that was years ago.
P.S. to the Sony fanboi: Their customer support truly does suck. Tried to get upgraded drivers for my burner. Couldn't find them on the site. Sony told me they'd send them to me. For $20.
Enjoy your Clie.
3 seconds. Changes the entire 3rd act of the movie.
1. Frodo
2. Sam
3. Merry
4. Pippin
5. Gollum (nee Trahald)
Please.
It's just as easy (easier actually)to argue that the real story of LOTR is about the passing of the time of the Elves and their leaving Middle Earth to go to the West, not about whatever Hobbocentric crap everyone's getting so upset about.
The scouring of the Shire is a postscript to the story of the end of the Third Age and is irrelevant to the overall narrative arc of the three movies.
It's Jackson's interpretation of the books.
I just hope he ends it with Aragorn balls-deep in Arwen. Doggy style.