Most people think of Buckhead for entertainment in Atlanta & World of Coca Cola (you'll be surprised at how high tech Coke is around the world & how cool the museum is) , and there's lots of other touristy things and historical things in Georgia & Atlanta, but if you are in that area - go to the Center for Puppetry Arts. www.puppet.org.
It's a low tech way of how people used to "look high tech" - think of it as "ancient anime". You'll learn some really neat stuff if you do the 4 hour class that allows you to make your own puppet. You'll also see how some of the great animatronic stuff at Disney is made.
People from Henson Studios are trained there, work there, and teach there. They create some of the puppets for TV series there as well as do stuff for Disney World.
Maybe a site like Slashdot could charge "micropayments" but rebate to it's users that have high moderation. This may have an effect on eliminating troll posts and encourage well thought out responses.
I too pride myself in the high moderation I get here & substantial page views/responses I get elsewhere. I mainly use this site & other Mac Chat/Forums sites as a way to "micro-advertise" my website & my eBay auctions. I figure, if people think I say something interesting I must be selling something interesting;)
How does the person who "donated that money" not spending it elsewhere vs the person it was "donated" to spending it going to change the economy in any way?
It's not that Paypal is/was the only success, it's that they hooked everyone with free money and low fees. Since they had "other" (read as offshore gambling) sources of income and HUGE DeutcheBank investment + very lucky for the moment, stock market returns that allowed them to beat out competition. (eCount, PayMe, and there was another that skips my mind, that I used, that was really really good.)
Paypal also had a lot of marketting muscle and a catchy name.
To top this off, Paypal also started to guaranty their purchases.
It also ended up being the way that Paypal was used for other payment services because of the debit card that allowed it to prosper. I would for instance use my Paypal card to pay Billpoint or PayDirect if it was offered. This would get me 1.5% back.
StormPay and C2it are the services frauds use. Bidpay is reasonable, but never use it to pay for anything just to be paid.
The author misses Paydirect, which controls Yahoo payments. This is a decent service and is in some ways a superior "eshopping cart" service. Many small websites or discount hardware websites use Yahoo stores and the PayDirect service.
I do agree with the author that "penny payments will revolutionize the internet though" - I see the internet broadband/wifi/otherwise being free in most cases within 10 years. I see ISPs as selling "credit cards" rather than subscriptions. These cards would allow you to send and receive email and view websites. The ISPs in turn act as a bank for websites such as Slashdot. Paying them for the number of views that have crossed their service say 1/100th of a cent for every page view.
I think email should cost 1 cent to send, 1 cent to receive. I think it should be 1 penny each page/email view or bulk 1000/100MB/views for $1 -- 10,000/ MB/ views $10 -- 100,000/MB / views $50 - therefore sites that want to remain free can, sites that want to charge can almost transparently.
In Triple Strike: If you got behind a cloud and could manage to hide but not stay straight horizontally, if you made it to the edge you'd have two planes when you came out the other side!
In Blackjack, if you followed your disk precisely horizontally with the dealer's eyes if he started to Shift them back and forth he'd throw you the Ace of spades on your discard deal.
That's one thing I love about what I mentioned in the parent. The Blue Sky Ranger newsletter is probably the only internet newsletter I subscribe to and read full through. It covers those quirks and the design and artwork of games each month I still enjoy playing all the games on my Mac through emulation.
I can get a 700Mhz eMac for $599 at the Apple Store right now and at a few resellers - truthfully not figuring in labor to build a computer from parts is not an arguement as "most people" as you say, can't or won't do that. Also, buying a sub $800 computer is foolish at best, you'll be lucky if that's all you end up spending on it. And yes, same arguement applies, WHY wouldn't you want the quality/extra uses even the low end Mac at the slightly higher price provides?
Cover art, packaging, and overall quality was a hallmark of the Intellivision & I think still survives in the newsletters and coverage of art and design from the Blue Sky Rangers at the Intellivision Lives website. So many of the Atari boxes were ugly or were just recycled art because they did so many el cheapo tie in games like ET.
The overlay art on some of the Intellivision game controllers was well thought out and designed too.
Never understood why kids didn't like that about the Intellivision over the Atari - guess it's the same reason people buy Macs & PCs - Macs are superior in just about every way - as far connectivity, design, and interface, yet the crowd goes to what Dick & Jane have.
I played Intellivision a lot as kid. I also played Tetris on my gameboy in high school. However, I didn't have a budget for games. I never bought them. I depended on my parents to buy them or exchange games with friends.
The next door neighbor boy spends his average summer day inside about 4 hours playing video games. He also spends a substantial amount of his allowance and money I give him to wash my car on video games. To top it off, he spends a good portion of his time thinking about video games, talking about video games, and buying/trying out video games.
In my day, we would blow an allowance in an arcade, but it just seems kids spend a lot more money and invest a lot more time into them nowadays.
In part, I think it accounts for the decline in event sales. (Termed Arena events) Kids just aren't interested as much in live action / interaction anymore. This contrasts to my childhood where going to play a video game was just that, GOING to play. Video arcades at least allowed interactions, walking, standing, and well... an event. What is eventfull about sitting on your bed?
Get it right, it's Guilty until proven innocent ..
on
Twist on DNA Privacy
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· Score: 4, Interesting
I have always thought it backwards.... aren't we in technical terms, "guilty until proven innocent?"
I have been falsely arrested twice. These two "false arrests" are on my record from my childhood. I'm now 29. Every 3 years I make "total information requests" from everyone from whom I can think of that collects information from me. (credit, mail, email, post office, clubs, memberships, utility, etc)
One interesting thing is my complete "litigation/arrest" history. Essentially my file that the FBI would "examine".
I find it unfair that my peeping tom arrest from 18 (false arrest) & my theft from Walmart at 22 (false arrest) are still even capable of being associated with me. Also, every traffic ticket I have ever gotten, every court case I have been involved in; are all on an easily accessed file. If I were ever accurately arrested for an associated offense, wouldn't I then have a pattern? Even though wiped from my record or not guilty?
For the peeping tom incident I was handcuffed, made to take a lie detector test (failed), and kept in custody for 4 hours from 11pm to 3am. It wasn't until my girlfriend came in and said she was with me and that I wasn't doing it, that I got off. It was all because the next door neighbor girl was jealous of my having a girlfriend.
If that's true, then why don't you just get a signal sniffer and turn everyone in that has microwaves, 2.4Ghz, & 5Ghz spread spectrum cordless phones. Help your government collect fines.
If you DO have to pay for such a liscense, turn in a few governing officials for using these "waves"
I remember IBM made an interface not long ago that just attached to your modem port and used the same technology as a 900Mhz phone (pre 802.11b days). Who's to say what ANYONE at ANY given time is doing with their lines or those unrestricted airwaves?
I also recall that France had a problem with Apple's Airport when it first came out, and the last Airport Extreme firmware update addressed a lot issues specifically for France. So, you may want to see what the French object to as a place to start.
Graffitti IS urban art - something I'm sure you aren't as talented with a spray can as they are!!!
Who modded you? You apparently didn't read fr comprehension. I ststed that I wasn't really comparing the two; more contrasting the two. Back up your statement that a spammer is NOT a hacker. I gave a specific example.
Today's court ruling in favor of the ISP Earthlink vs Spam Ring Leader Howard Carmack got me to thinking.
Are ALL Spammers doing it for a profit? I find that many to most SPAM emails I receive in my inbox have unresolved links. Meaning; you can't "take advantage of the DEALS you are getting". (not that you'd necessarily want to) What would be the purpose of sending out emails such as this in great quantity, and using the man hours, hardware, etc to do it?
I think it may have to do partially with "the hacker mentality" Not all hackers do things for the common mythical reasons we like to think they do. (Revenge on the corporate world, profit, fame) - they do it because they can and a lot do it because they are mentally obsessed with it.
This was the attitude of a former colleague of mine that was hacker. He came from a rich family, was very well known in the community, and had a 1000 easier ways to get what he was wanting accomplished. He was obsessed first of all with hacking, second doing it with a Macintosh, and 3rd just because he could.
I'm not alluding to hackers having a mental problem, nor really comparing hackers to spammers.
This ruling, just made me think of motivation. Maybe if we can tap the motivation for Spammers, then maybe we can come up with the solution.
I have Cingular, which as far as I can tell, is the better of the service providers in my area. Greenville SC, where I live has the highest cell phone penetration per capita in the country. This is due mainly to the fact that all the collection agencies/collection technologies are based out of Greenville for cell phones and because we have a totally free market; most areas in the country limit the number of carriers in particular region.
As you could imagine, we also have a high concentration of people who don't know how to use cell phones that "use" cell phones here. (May be a southern redneck thing) Anyways, especially on late night Fridays (Saturday mornings at 2 -3am) I get an unknown data call. Several times, I have instantly tried to call the person back. Sometimes, I get no answer. Most times I get, "Oh I'm sorry, I was testing out my phone!" or "I was trin to mess my homies, bro"
Just recently, this activity is increased. I have alerted Cingular about it and they said there's nothing they can or will do.
A local company to me, has a biometric scan + retina and thumbprint scan, but it also takes your body temp average/signature.... the combination of the three are pretty hard, if not impossible, to spoof. And, anyone that can, was going to break into your system anyway. (With the VERY expensive equipment and extensive knowledge it would take to reproduce all three)
Sometimes we give criminals to much credit. Again, if it's someone that can go through all three of those, they were going to get past the toughest of Indiana Jones hurdles.
I bet there are some websites that wish there was such a thing as a national do not/. list. I have seen some people post really nasty messages after a site was linked by/. staff. Such as this one. For about a week this website had a "F*** You/." message on it.
Actually, the intellivision with boxes and games with boxes and overlays go for quite the collector's price on eBay.
NO CONSOLE to me has ever matched the ease and useability of the Intellivision controller. Modern football games are just eye candy and very confusing to me. With the Intellivision you had to understand plays and you could enter them privately without the other guy seeing them on the screen. If someone can see what you are about to run, what's the point? (No, I haven't forgotten that one could run backwards 70 yards and throw the ball the length of the field) Also, Utopia was true HOURS of fun between my brother and I as well as Triple Action Biplanes and Tanks. It was simple but took skill and thought.Games also required imagination. So these consoles also have historical value in the quality of games they had. The Intellivision was truly the Apple Computer of Consoles. Superior product/better graphics/easier to use & underdog.
It takes a lot of "math knowledge" (geometry, trig, calc) to figure out an accuarate celestial calendar. Thanks for putting down and marginalizing everyone who's in the field of astronomy.
For the other post.... our calendar doesn't END every year... one year is PART of our calenadar. The point was, the calendar ends at at the tail of the snake (quazikotel) and is the end of man. No hebrew or gregorian calendar ends to predict the worlds end. There has also not been an accurate "prediction calendar" that also predicts and end other than this one.
Quazikotel & The End Of The World + compurope
on
Incas Used Binary?
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· Score: 1, Interesting
Not sure I spelled the name of their God right, but images of Quazikotel wrapped in a cylinder and in circles with dates are in the Smithsonian that are calendars. These calendars are much more accuarate than the even the modern Gregorian or the Hebrew Calendars. It shows "higher math" knowledge than maybe even Pythagorus or later people like Newton just as this "computer rope" does.
The only caveat to this calendar is that it ends in the year 2012. So far every celestial event, if the demise of the Inca empire was predicted accuartely. (Down to Hale Bopp, Halley's comet, moon and sun eclipses, civilzations, etc etc)
What's interesting about the calendar ending in 2012 is that this is a generally accepted year for The AntiChrist to appear by Bibilical eschatologists. It is also generally the year that is predicted by the Hebrew calendars for the Messiah (the true year 2000 to them I believe) - someone correct my factoids if I'm wrong.
Google, as eBay, and Coke, will forever be the top unless bought out and renamed. Just as many doomsayers say Apple will never be on top. I can say this, it will never cease as a brand. Not only due to the pure popularity of the name but to the way it rolls on the tongue. There's also the thing about brand loyalty thrown into the mix.
I made sure my name for my business was recognizable and easy to remember.
So to dispute Microsoft's attempt, while it may be a very good search engine, it now, at this stage in the game, has very little potential to EVER be as recognizable as Google.
Can someone please point to where the new unabridged dictionary may contain the word "google"?
The p800 is lackluster in comparison. The 80v is one the best integrated gadgets you'll ever see (that is, if it's like NZ90) - While it does stink a little to have to buy a SD to Memory Stick or 6 in 1 reader so you can load programs - the Sony Clies are feature rich and finally got a lot of the AIO I/O right. The universal remote controls are very nice, just select the brands + there's good range. The wifi access and web browser is BEYOND any other offering on a PDA (albeit an addon) The camera is very high quality and a nice bonus. The Mp3 player is great and I've read will support AAC too. My only gripe is that one can't add GPS capabilities to a Clie, but I think that will change with the new Clies as they suppoet more types of compact flash.
In my opinion, a PDA is useless if it has any LESS features than the NZ90 or 80v and any less size of a screen that you can actually see and use. Running the Mac Emulator on a palm requires a nice screen. And now that Sharp went to an ugly less utilitarian design, this looks like the best choice on the market.
I think the 80v will have bluetooth, but it can be added via memory stick.
Does anyone else go along with the conspiracy theory that M$ turns people in who give them trouble? Hopefully not, but Apple may be turned in for collusion if Microsoft doesn't get it's way with the record companies and being able to offer the same service as iTunes.
If Microsoft can't find a legal reason, they find a software component to stick it to you! Just because they also stopped developing IE for Windows, doesn't mean it wasn't a direct blow to Apple and direct "yeah...well up yours, we just won't call it IE anymore and continue to integrate it" to the justice department/netscape case. They also have apparently slid in more and more DRM into WMA and made more and more deals to use the crappy video codec from Windows Media Player by being able to threten Real.
Re:Apple Needs a Little Sun To Grow
on
Sun's Last Stand
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· Score: 1
Actually, those mergers were VERY successful. The Compaq/HP move will prove to benefit HP by leaps and bounds and has already brought great effiency and improvement to both companies.
The AOL/TW was perfect... the management there is what sucks.
Apple has the management / contacts in Jobs and leadership/ contracts in McNealy = the flexibility to make it a great merger.
Apple Needs a Little Sun To Grow
on
Sun's Last Stand
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· Score: 5, Interesting
I've always thought that an Apple / Sun merger would be a good idea. McNealy and Jobs are friends. Apple could use the Sun "know how to build a quality server" and integrate that into the XServe.
Apple would also gain Java as an Apple supported program and language. It would help better, faster Java come to Linux and OSX. Java could be more tightly integrated into Quicktime and thus into mobile phones where Apple is implementing it's latest builds of Quicktime.
Slashdot Mirror
It's a low tech way of how people used to "look high tech" - think of it as "ancient anime". You'll learn some really neat stuff if you do the 4 hour class that allows you to make your own puppet. You'll also see how some of the great animatronic stuff at Disney is made.
People from Henson Studios are trained there, work there, and teach there. They create some of the puppets for TV series there as well as do stuff for Disney World.
It's the most fun I think I've ever had.
That is very insightful ... where's my mod points?
;)
Maybe a site like Slashdot could charge "micropayments" but rebate to it's users that have high moderation. This may have an effect on eliminating troll posts and encourage well thought out responses.
I too pride myself in the high moderation I get here & substantial page views/responses I get elsewhere. I mainly use this site & other Mac Chat/Forums sites as a way to "micro-advertise" my website & my eBay auctions. I figure, if people think I say something interesting I must be selling something interesting
I almost want to pay you for thinking about that!
How does the person who "donated that money" not spending it elsewhere vs the person it was "donated" to spending it going to change the economy in any way?
Paypal also had a lot of marketting muscle and a catchy name.
To top this off, Paypal also started to guaranty their purchases.
It also ended up being the way that Paypal was used for other payment services because of the debit card that allowed it to prosper. I would for instance use my Paypal card to pay Billpoint or PayDirect if it was offered. This would get me 1.5% back.
StormPay and C2it are the services frauds use. Bidpay is reasonable, but never use it to pay for anything just to be paid.
The author misses Paydirect, which controls Yahoo payments. This is a decent service and is in some ways a superior "eshopping cart" service. Many small websites or discount hardware websites use Yahoo stores and the PayDirect service.
I do agree with the author that "penny payments will revolutionize the internet though" - I see the internet broadband/wifi/otherwise being free in most cases within 10 years. I see ISPs as selling "credit cards" rather than subscriptions. These cards would allow you to send and receive email and view websites. The ISPs in turn act as a bank for websites such as Slashdot. Paying them for the number of views that have crossed their service say 1/100th of a cent for every page view.
I think email should cost 1 cent to send, 1 cent to receive. I think it should be 1 penny each page/email view or bulk 1000/100MB /views for $1 -- 10,000/ MB/ views $10 -- 100,000/MB / views $50 - therefore sites that want to remain free can, sites that want to charge can almost transparently.
Good post ....
Actually I loved all those quirks.
Two that I can remember:
In Triple Strike: If you got behind a cloud and could manage to hide but not stay straight horizontally, if you made it to the edge you'd have two planes when you came out the other side!
In Blackjack, if you followed your disk precisely horizontally with the dealer's eyes if he started to Shift them back and forth he'd throw you the Ace of spades on your discard deal.
That's one thing I love about what I mentioned in the parent. The Blue Sky Ranger newsletter is probably the only internet newsletter I subscribe to and read full through. It covers those quirks and the design and artwork of games each month I still enjoy playing all the games on my Mac through emulation.
I can get a 700Mhz eMac for $599 at the Apple Store right now and at a few resellers - truthfully not figuring in labor to build a computer from parts is not an arguement as "most people" as you say, can't or won't do that. Also, buying a sub $800 computer is foolish at best, you'll be lucky if that's all you end up spending on it. And yes, same arguement applies, WHY wouldn't you want the quality/extra uses even the low end Mac at the slightly higher price provides?
The overlay art on some of the Intellivision game controllers was well thought out and designed too.
Never understood why kids didn't like that about the Intellivision over the Atari - guess it's the same reason people buy Macs & PCs - Macs are superior in just about every way - as far connectivity, design, and interface, yet the crowd goes to what Dick & Jane have.
This is a do EASY do it yourself I found:
http://www.scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/magnets/g auss.html
The next door neighbor boy spends his average summer day inside about 4 hours playing video games. He also spends a substantial amount of his allowance and money I give him to wash my car on video games. To top it off, he spends a good portion of his time thinking about video games, talking about video games, and buying/trying out video games.
In my day, we would blow an allowance in an arcade, but it just seems kids spend a lot more money and invest a lot more time into them nowadays.
In part, I think it accounts for the decline in event sales. (Termed Arena events) Kids just aren't interested as much in live action / interaction anymore. This contrasts to my childhood where going to play a video game was just that, GOING to play. Video arcades at least allowed interactions, walking, standing, and well... an event. What is eventfull about sitting on your bed?
I have been falsely arrested twice. These two "false arrests" are on my record from my childhood. I'm now 29. Every 3 years I make "total information requests" from everyone from whom I can think of that collects information from me. (credit, mail, email, post office, clubs, memberships, utility, etc)
One interesting thing is my complete "litigation/arrest" history. Essentially my file that the FBI would "examine".
I find it unfair that my peeping tom arrest from 18 (false arrest) & my theft from Walmart at 22 (false arrest) are still even capable of being associated with me. Also, every traffic ticket I have ever gotten, every court case I have been involved in; are all on an easily accessed file. If I were ever accurately arrested for an associated offense, wouldn't I then have a pattern? Even though wiped from my record or not guilty?
For the peeping tom incident I was handcuffed, made to take a lie detector test (failed), and kept in custody for 4 hours from 11pm to 3am. It wasn't until my girlfriend came in and said she was with me and that I wasn't doing it, that I got off. It was all because the next door neighbor girl was jealous of my having a girlfriend.
If you DO have to pay for such a liscense, turn in a few governing officials for using these "waves"
I remember IBM made an interface not long ago that just attached to your modem port and used the same technology as a 900Mhz phone (pre 802.11b days). Who's to say what ANYONE at ANY given time is doing with their lines or those unrestricted airwaves?
I also recall that France had a problem with Apple's Airport when it first came out, and the last Airport Extreme firmware update addressed a lot issues specifically for France. So, you may want to see what the French object to as a place to start.
Spammers DO HACK my mailbox= hackers
Graffitti IS urban art - something I'm sure you aren't as talented with a spray can as they are!!!
Who modded you? You apparently didn't read fr comprehension. I ststed that I wasn't really comparing the two; more contrasting the two. Back up your statement that a spammer is NOT a hacker. I gave a specific example.
Some Spammers=Some Hackers
Today's court ruling in favor of the ISP Earthlink vs Spam Ring Leader Howard Carmack got me to thinking.
Are ALL Spammers doing it for a profit? I find that many to most SPAM emails I receive in my inbox have unresolved links. Meaning; you can't "take advantage of the DEALS you are getting". (not that you'd necessarily want to) What would be the purpose of sending out emails such as this in great quantity, and using the man hours, hardware, etc to do it?
I think it may have to do partially with "the hacker mentality" Not all hackers do things for the common mythical reasons we like to think they do. (Revenge on the corporate world, profit, fame) - they do it because they can and a lot do it because they are mentally obsessed with it.
This was the attitude of a former colleague of mine that was hacker. He came from a rich family, was very well known in the community, and had a 1000 easier ways to get what he was wanting accomplished. He was obsessed first of all with hacking, second doing it with a Macintosh, and 3rd just because he could.
I'm not alluding to hackers having a mental problem, nor really comparing hackers to spammers.
This ruling, just made me think of motivation. Maybe if we can tap the motivation for Spammers, then maybe we can come up with the solution.
As you could imagine, we also have a high concentration of people who don't know how to use cell phones that "use" cell phones here. (May be a southern redneck thing) Anyways, especially on late night Fridays (Saturday mornings at 2 -3am) I get an unknown data call. Several times, I have instantly tried to call the person back. Sometimes, I get no answer. Most times I get, "Oh I'm sorry, I was testing out my phone!" or "I was trin to mess my homies, bro"
Just recently, this activity is increased. I have alerted Cingular about it and they said there's nothing they can or will do.
Sometimes we give criminals to much credit. Again, if it's someone that can go through all three of those, they were going to get past the toughest of Indiana Jones hurdles.
I bet there are some websites that wish there was such a thing as a national do not /. list. I have seen some people post really nasty messages after a site was linked by /. staff. Such as this one. For about a week this website had a "F*** You /." message on it.
And to think Sharp disagreed with their own innovation! Ala Zaurus 5600 vs Zaurus 5500
NO CONSOLE to me has ever matched the ease and useability of the Intellivision controller. Modern football games are just eye candy and very confusing to me. With the Intellivision you had to understand plays and you could enter them privately without the other guy seeing them on the screen. If someone can see what you are about to run, what's the point? (No, I haven't forgotten that one could run backwards 70 yards and throw the ball the length of the field) Also, Utopia was true HOURS of fun between my brother and I as well as Triple Action Biplanes and Tanks. It was simple but took skill and thought.Games also required imagination. So these consoles also have historical value in the quality of games they had. The Intellivision was truly the Apple Computer of Consoles. Superior product/better graphics/easier to use & underdog.
For the other post.... our calendar doesn't END every year ... one year is PART of our calenadar. The point was, the calendar ends at at the tail of the snake (quazikotel) and is the end of man. No hebrew or gregorian calendar ends to predict the worlds end. There has also not been an accurate "prediction calendar" that also predicts and end other than this one.
The only caveat to this calendar is that it ends in the year 2012. So far every celestial event, if the demise of the Inca empire was predicted accuartely. (Down to Hale Bopp, Halley's comet, moon and sun eclipses, civilzations, etc etc)
What's interesting about the calendar ending in 2012 is that this is a generally accepted year for The AntiChrist to appear by Bibilical eschatologists. It is also generally the year that is predicted by the Hebrew calendars for the Messiah (the true year 2000 to them I believe) - someone correct my factoids if I'm wrong.
Google, as eBay, and Coke, will forever be the top unless bought out and renamed. Just as many doomsayers say Apple will never be on top. I can say this, it will never cease as a brand. Not only due to the pure popularity of the name but to the way it rolls on the tongue. There's also the thing about brand loyalty thrown into the mix.
I made sure my name for my business was recognizable and easy to remember.
So to dispute Microsoft's attempt, while it may be a very good search engine, it now, at this stage in the game, has very little potential to EVER be as recognizable as Google.
Can someone please point to where the new unabridged dictionary may contain the word "google"?
In my opinion, a PDA is useless if it has any LESS features than the NZ90 or 80v and any less size of a screen that you can actually see and use. Running the Mac Emulator on a palm requires a nice screen. And now that Sharp went to an ugly less utilitarian design, this looks like the best choice on the market.
I think the 80v will have bluetooth, but it can be added via memory stick.
If Microsoft can't find a legal reason, they find a software component to stick it to you! Just because they also stopped developing IE for Windows, doesn't mean it wasn't a direct blow to Apple and direct "yeah ...well up yours, we just won't call it IE anymore and continue to integrate it" to the justice department/netscape case. They also have apparently slid in more and more DRM into WMA and made more and more deals to use the crappy video codec from Windows Media Player by being able to threten Real.
Actually, those mergers were VERY successful. The Compaq/HP move will prove to benefit HP by leaps and bounds and has already brought great effiency and improvement to both companies.
... the management there is what sucks.
The AOL/TW was perfect
Apple has the management / contacts in Jobs and leadership/ contracts in McNealy = the flexibility to make it a great merger.
Apple would also gain Java as an Apple supported program and language. It would help better, faster Java come to Linux and OSX. Java could be more tightly integrated into Quicktime and thus into mobile phones where Apple is implementing it's latest builds of Quicktime.