Based on the famous quote below from Dr. Alexander Tytler, it appears that we are quickly approaching the dictatorship & bondage part of the cycle. ----------
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.
"From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, AND IS ALWAYS FOLLOWED BY A DICTATORSHIP.
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:
"From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to apathy;
from apathy to dependence;
from dependency back again into bondage."
I'm not sure how practical this even is. They seem to have left off one very serious requirement that would be directly affected by the effort. The vehicle should also be required to pass the mandated crash tests.
It's probably not that hard to build a car that will get 100mpg. It's probably a bit harder to do that while also including sufficient mass around the occupants to protect them.
20 years of watching the man, as well as many other technology CEOs + 6 years of working for him.
He is passionate about some things amd music is one of them. He manages his brand (meaning the brand of "Steve Jobs") even more carefully than he manages the Apple brand, and I can tell you that he cares deeply about music and that he would NEVER write a public letter to the industry as a cheap bit of marketing hype.
The fact that, within weeks of that letter, Apple has taken today's step of releasing DRM free music in a higher bit rate and in an open standard format provides hard evidence that he wasn't blowing smoke.
I think you are completely wrong.
If there is one thing that should be fairly obvious to the world, it is that Steve Jobs quite unlike other CEOs. Yes, he is a very good a managing public perception, but, when he says he loves music and writes a letter regarding DRM - He is NOT just blowing marketing smoke.
If it was any other CEO, I'd ask myself if they were just positioning things to their own strategic advantage. With Steve, I'm pretty certain that what he says is what he is truely passionate about. If he thought DRM was the future, he would ride the company into the toilet supporting it. If he says that it is a barrier to the success of the music industry and Apple would give it up if they could - that is what he truely believes in his heart.
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Based on the famous quote below from Dr. Alexander Tytler, it appears that we are quickly approaching the dictatorship & bondage part of the cycle.
----------
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.
"From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, AND IS ALWAYS FOLLOWED BY A DICTATORSHIP.
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:
"From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to apathy;
from apathy to dependence;
from dependency back again into bondage."
Some of the coolest computer art available is generated by Michael Trott, an employee at Wolfram Research using very specific algorithms and Mathematica. http://www.apple.com/science/profiles/trott/ http://www.graphica.com/gallery/
I'm not sure how practical this even is. They seem to have left off one very serious requirement that would be directly affected by the effort. The vehicle should also be required to pass the mandated crash tests. It's probably not that hard to build a car that will get 100mpg. It's probably a bit harder to do that while also including sufficient mass around the occupants to protect them.
20 years of watching the man, as well as many other technology CEOs + 6 years of working for him. He is passionate about some things amd music is one of them. He manages his brand (meaning the brand of "Steve Jobs") even more carefully than he manages the Apple brand, and I can tell you that he cares deeply about music and that he would NEVER write a public letter to the industry as a cheap bit of marketing hype. The fact that, within weeks of that letter, Apple has taken today's step of releasing DRM free music in a higher bit rate and in an open standard format provides hard evidence that he wasn't blowing smoke.
I think you are completely wrong. If there is one thing that should be fairly obvious to the world, it is that Steve Jobs quite unlike other CEOs. Yes, he is a very good a managing public perception, but, when he says he loves music and writes a letter regarding DRM - He is NOT just blowing marketing smoke. If it was any other CEO, I'd ask myself if they were just positioning things to their own strategic advantage. With Steve, I'm pretty certain that what he says is what he is truely passionate about. If he thought DRM was the future, he would ride the company into the toilet supporting it. If he says that it is a barrier to the success of the music industry and Apple would give it up if they could - that is what he truely believes in his heart.