OK, so maybe there was a bit more than computer services involved, but after spending some late nights with a friend of the family optimizing his system and setting up a wireless network, he offered me their condo in San Francisco for six weeks! I'm now living there, having a great time!
By the way, I long ago decided not to charge money for my services. I always get something much more valuable when I ask for in-kind payment!
To me, this is an infrastructure issue, kind of like building good roads and highways.
Good infrastructure makes everybody feel more secure in transporting things around.
Yeah, it's clearly something that should be of transparent design, although I personally believe that Microsoft/Phoenix do have the ability to design and ram through a standard that wouldn't be too bad for most parties, at least for a start. (i.e. compromise) (after all, take a look at where the pc started out)
Back to the road analogy, though, we can keep driving off-road or dune buggies, but in a few years, most people will wonder how we did without a more stable infrastructure, and *most* (but not all) people who talk about venturing outside it will be like the folks who buy SUV's but never leave the asphalt.
I had great fondness for my first mouse: the original Logitech 3-button mouse released in the mid-80's. The WEDGE! The DOORSTOP! I thought it was so cool.
I never used the first "soap bar" microsoft mouse, because that Logitech was clearly superior in my mind (although it was a struggle to find many uses for the 3rd button back then.)
More recently, I really have enjoyed the original MS Intellimouse Pro. Its exaggerated height actually made it fit my hand well. Alas, it is a mechanical mouse, and I wanted the accuracy and reliability of optical.
Right now, I am using an MS IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0. It's OK, but it doesn't have the solid feel and nice shape of the original Pro.
I've been tempted to try the Logitech MX700 rechargable cordless, but haven't yet. Any comments on that?
That said, I think it'd be neat if Sony had a third UXx0 model- perhaps the UX60- that did include cellular capabilities.
I still have my trusty Palm V from 1998 or thereabouts. It is functional, I love the design, and at the $350+ I paid for it originally, it has more than paid for itself over the years.
I lost my Palm V for a year, starting about 18 months ago. It was under my couch. During that time, I considered several times whether I should replace it, and always decided not to. I was so relieved to find it again, even though it's practically antique by current standards.
So why didn't I buy a replacement?
Because when I move up to that next level, I want the device to have all the features I could reasonably predict I would want in a PDA for the next 5 years or so.
The UX50 has most of them. The two things I'd add are at least a 2 MP camera and GPRS, possibly also with an upgrade to vga (640x480) resolution. I do NOT want to replace WiFi with GPRS, though. Take out Bluetooth, please. That is a much more logical step.
WiFi, from my point of view, is indispensable for a "real" web appliance today. And GPRS provides a handy, if slow, way to get things done out of broadband range. Not to mention the voice functionality.
A little more memory would be nice, but I guess with the memory stick slot, that's not so critical.
So, from my point of view, as I happily use my Palm V and wait to make the leap, I'll gladly pay even more than $700, even up to $1000! But the thing has to cover all the bases.
By the way, it seemed to me that most of Mossberg's gripes were about the software, not the hardware. You want predictive input? No problem. A better e-mail client? Sure. To me, the hardware concept here is excellent, close to ideal.
Just close the few remaining gaps, and I'll fork over a grand for five more years of PDA bliss.
Liability protection is one of the main reasons people incorporate in the first place. Of course, special laws govern the behavior of corporate officers, so they aren't totally immune either.
Unfortunately, people like Lay, Ebbers, and Kozlowski are given the velvet slap even when they've destroyed thousands of lives.
Whatever you might think of Gates, he has been responsible for far more wealth-creation (and not just his own) than wealth-depletion.
Not when free software has gone further, faster, and without obectionable and occasionally illegal business practices it isn't.
Nobody cares about the tens of thousands of shady deals or strongarm tactics employed by thousands of smaller corporations every day. People despise MS not because of their practices, but because it has succeeded.
That doesn't excuse them, but if you condemn MS, I hope you're prepared to condemn a lot of western capitalism along with it.
After all, cars emit poison gas, some more than others, but most people can still admire a nice one and sleep well at night.
Millions of people have made hundreds of billions of dollars because of the platforms and "standards" that Microsoft has created. So it is not a giant vacuum cleaner.
And, in my opinion, Microsoft's sins rank nowhere near those of Enron, for instance, where boundaries weren't just pushed, they were ignored or flaunted.
Would MS be more palatable if it were lazy, lucky and sinful rather than hard-working, lucky and sinful? At least then we wouldn't be forced to wonder if it's our own lack of initiative that has allowed them to build their hegemony.
get a product out the door before it's bug-list is even resolved
It's a balance, right? When you're operating as a public company, you have a responsibility to the families holding your stock in their kids' college funds to get the product to market. And do it as soon as possible without any major negative ramifications. Microsoft Word, for instance, does not need the kind of stability that the avionics code in a 747 does. There is blowback from the strategy, but it's part of the business.
I'm sure there are a lot of idealistic (and extremely talented) programmers who knock Microsoft's software, but couldn't compete with them in the marketplace, because shipping with a known (but relatively rare) bug is unacceptable to them.
Nobody said MS was nice. Or that their software was perfect. But I think it's pretty darn good, considering it was created by a huge, monopolistic corporation.
The issue is that they honestly value bloatware over quality
I would say you're half right. To me what is more accurate is that they value REVENUE over quality.
After all, MS is a business, not a religion.
MS serves so many customers, they could publish 20 different builds of Word alone (academic, legal, engineering, literary, journalist, beginning user, etc...) And each one could be much smaller. Instead, they sell one build that includes all this, and it DOES erode the usability overall. However, from a cost-benefit standpoint, it's a much better business choice.
It's like Democracy. Can't please everybody all the time.
And, I just don't understand the "bloatware" concern in this era of consumer quarter-terabyte drives and 3 GHz processors. Granted, not everyone has this kind of hardware, but even on my 700MHz (500MHz SpeedStepped) 20GB laptop, I regularly run XP, IE, Word, and Excel with no problems. If the issue is with their interface design (to expose needed features), that's legitimate. But it's been a while since I've heard believable complaints about the size of an Office install.
No pitchforks, please. I'm just trying to keep it real.
I've crashed IE 6 several times with this HTML just fooling around, and each time, an exception is raised, a debug report generated, an optional offer is made to submit the report to the OS manufacturer to inform them of the problem, upon which immediate technical support is often given. After that action is complete, the OS remains stable, and the crash can be repeated ad nauseum, experimenting with different tags/debugger experiments/versions.
That is in a consumer OS (XP Home) that costs less than $100, and has tens of thousands of commercial apps available in almost every language. (probably millions if you include shareware/freeware)
Whether it's my mom or another engineer, I feel pretty good about telling them XP is a solid OS that can do what they need. (likewise with IE)
Not many years ago, it would have seemed pretty petty to obsess about such a bug--and that's when it would've forced a reboot.
I'm not shy about criticizing MS when appropriate, but to come from Windows for Workgroups to XP in 10 years is pretty impressive, especially for a company of its size.
If it were me, I'd spend my time debating the Software Formerly Known As Palladium, and not lose the forest for the trees by mocking MS for this kind of item. I fart bugs bigger than this.
I think I would agree with everything the reviewer said about this machine. Who knows, maybe it will actually be useful in version 3 or 4 (like most Microsoft ideas).
But of course, 10 years ago, this would have been considered unbelievably cool, just like the amazing Apple Newton a guy brought to work. I still remember trying to push through the crowd to see that thing.
What's interesting to me is that the aspects of this product which would have seemed most magical then (internet, wireless networking, 15" flat panel touchscreen, handwriting recognition, USB) hardly bear mentioning today, while the things that are bothersome (network configuration, battery life, X-style remote terminal, Microsoft's participation) would have been just as familiar and bothersome then.
use this opportunity to invalidate the lifetime subscriptions for the older players, in an attempt to either force us to buy new units, or cough up subscription fees.
I hope you're wrong, and I think it would be very foolish of D&M to do this. I am one of the early ReplayTV customers. I have a Replay 2020 which I've upgraded, swapping in an 80GB drive for the 20GB. The original cost of the machine to me was $700, and the drive cost about $300 (80GB were just out at the time).
So, with $1000 sunk into my machine, I was hoping to not replace it until I jump to HD, probably next year.
What I would say is that, this may be kind of like the airlines and their frequent fliers. If an airline goes into bankrupcy, the mileage plans are generally safe because the company doesn't want to alienate their best customers.
I think the same may apply here.
However, when I upgrade to an HD unit in the next 18 months, I fully expect to pay a monthly. So, if they're nice to me, they might have a nice little sale there.
I look forward to being moderated down once again.
Simply, Bill Gates' comments are probably close to the truth. He is not a stupid man. You may hate him for being rich. You may despise his tactics. But to dismiss his analysis of his own company and industry?
Even if you feel his domination of the industry is unjust, his views cannot be dismissed as inaccurate. Or swept aside just because they "sound arrogant". So he's direct and straightforward. It's not a crime. It worked for him.
I don't object to debating the man's ideas. I don't object to disagreeing with everything he says! But the editor who posted this article added "Boy, where do you even begin...", which implies to me an attitude not of one who hopes to learn that he may one day rule (or at least compete), but, more likely, one who despises authority of all kinds.
"Boy, where do you even begin..." is a rallying cry for the lazy and unimaginative, not the industrious and analytical.
Many postings in this thread have been thoughtful, but I wish in the future, the editorial staff could be more thoughtful themselves, and avoid such cliche commentary.
Hey, people like to complain. About the weather, their cars, their spouses, their neighbors and their computers.
Complaining about bugs *is* "cool." Especially Microsoft bugs. That's like making fun of lawyers. Everybody "hates" them, but we all need them (unless we all want to manage the complexities of a nation based on "laws" without specialists to assist us), and we'd love our kids to be one! (I wouldn't stop my kid, if I had one, from taking a job at MS.)
Most of the people on this board probably would prefer discussing technical matters with people who understand them, rather than confused, frightened end-users. Isn't it obvious that most of Microsoft's support calls (of its hundreds of millions of users) are non-bug-related issues having to do with the vast percentage of the functionality they ship which *does* work?
It's fun to pile on, but try re-reading the intro to this article from a more balanced perspective. Put yourself in the shoes of a Product Support Engineer at Microsoft, who doesn't care about "technical politics," but just wants to do his/her job. I think Bill Gates is representing them very well.
"Kids, this is your principal, Mr. Johnson. Thanks to your boosters, we will have a secret vote at the end of the year. The ten students voted 'nicest' by the student body will each secretly receive $25,000, which they may reveal or not. The ten students voted 'cruelest' will be our janitors for summer session. Have a 'nice' year!"
This "CyberCafe" may offer thrill-seeking Westerners and Japanese their last opportunity to communicate with their right-thinking loved ones, and be talked out of another ridiculous ego trip.
I, for one, would sponsor an EverQuest account at this cafe to snag these folks in a more controlled environment. At least until they are incapacitated by repetitive-stress injuries.
Then they could be transported to a safer uber-thrill, like a ride on the Vomit Comet or, perhaps, a scintillating decade of psychotherapy.
These people were pioneers. They would not be pioneers without risk, and they knew the risks. They were brilliant, dedicated, highly trained people who knew the risks.
The blow we felt wasn't just the loss of these people, it was also the loss of their spirit, which exceeded immeasurably their mortal selves. This spirit carries us aloft with them, and when it is suddenly gone, we fall.
May they rest in peace, and may their memories live on.
I like where the resort manager assures us that the Australian people are "mature" enough to see what a great idea this is.
I'm not sure it would be the "mature" individual who would be enthused about skiing on their own excrement.
And if the Australian people are "mature" enough, what people isn't? The Chinese? The Jamaicans? Perhaps he feels he'll only alienate the 'childish,' 'spoiled' populace of Switzerland with his revolutionary shit-shooters.
It's a disconnect between legal protection and practical protection. Illegal or unauthorized distribution has always been possible, whether through transcription, photography, photocopy, whatever. But in the end, those aren't very practical or threatening.
The sheer fluidity of the digital world makes almost anything practical. For instance, even if a security mechanism could be created by which a program or macro could not copy (either text or graphics) the contents of an ebook reader while scrolling through (erect a kind of region protection all the way through to the video card), it's not going to stop anyone.
What about a cam pointed at the monitor? Either from the same computer or another one? Or just videotape separately as the ebook scrolls by, then have some ocr software decode it.
I'm just having a hard time figuring out how ebooks will ever enjoy the same "practical" protection that wood books do.
I've given up trying to make the case for PVRs. At this point, I'm just selfish.
My ReplayTV 2020, which I upgraded a while back with a somewhat noisier but much larger drive, will be perfectly good enough for me until I move to digital television. That is, as long as the nightly feeds continue.
I hope enough people buy MP3 players to keep SonicBlue afloat for a few more years, for that reason alone. (When I bought my machine, it came with a lifetime subscription.)
By that time, the concept of an analog tape recorder for video will seem so hopelessly outdated to everyone (as they do to me today), PVRs will be plentiful, and I'll have plenty of options for my next generation.
Now, I must say, I think people are just plain used to recording onto some kind of removable media. So, DVD recorders may wean some people off VCRs in the interim. But I just can't imagine why we will need to rely on hideous bastardizations like these HD Videocasette players available now. With hard drives at 200GB and counting, by the NTSC "cutoff date" (yeah, right), there is no way anybody will argue that random access media don't have the data density and economy to serve in this market.
Slashdot Mirror
OK, so maybe there was a bit more than computer services involved, but after spending some late nights with a friend of the family optimizing his system and setting up a wireless network, he offered me their condo in San Francisco for six weeks! I'm now living there, having a great time!
;)
By the way, I long ago decided not to charge money for my services. I always get something much more valuable when I ask for in-kind payment!
Wish you were here!
To me, this is an infrastructure issue, kind of like building good roads and highways.
Good infrastructure makes everybody feel more secure in transporting things around.
Yeah, it's clearly something that should be of transparent design, although I personally believe that Microsoft/Phoenix do have the ability to design and ram through a standard that wouldn't be too bad for most parties, at least for a start. (i.e. compromise) (after all, take a look at where the pc started out)
Back to the road analogy, though, we can keep driving off-road or dune buggies, but in a few years, most people will wonder how we did without a more stable infrastructure, and *most* (but not all) people who talk about venturing outside it will be like the folks who buy SUV's but never leave the asphalt.
I had great fondness for my first mouse: the original Logitech 3-button mouse released in the mid-80's. The WEDGE! The DOORSTOP! I thought it was so cool.
I never used the first "soap bar" microsoft mouse, because that Logitech was clearly superior in my mind (although it was a struggle to find many uses for the 3rd button back then.)
More recently, I really have enjoyed the original MS Intellimouse Pro. Its exaggerated height actually made it fit my hand well. Alas, it is a mechanical mouse, and I wanted the accuracy and reliability of optical.
Right now, I am using an MS IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0. It's OK, but it doesn't have the solid feel and nice shape of the original Pro.
I've been tempted to try the Logitech MX700 rechargable cordless, but haven't yet. Any comments on that?
That said, I think it'd be neat if Sony had a third UXx0 model- perhaps the UX60- that did include cellular capabilities.
I still have my trusty Palm V from 1998 or thereabouts. It is functional, I love the design, and at the $350+ I paid for it originally, it has more than paid for itself over the years.
I lost my Palm V for a year, starting about 18 months ago. It was under my couch. During that time, I considered several times whether I should replace it, and always decided not to. I was so relieved to find it again, even though it's practically antique by current standards.
So why didn't I buy a replacement?
Because when I move up to that next level, I want the device to have all the features I could reasonably predict I would want in a PDA for the next 5 years or so.
The UX50 has most of them. The two things I'd add are at least a 2 MP camera and GPRS, possibly also with an upgrade to vga (640x480) resolution. I do NOT want to replace WiFi with GPRS, though. Take out Bluetooth, please. That is a much more logical step.
WiFi, from my point of view, is indispensable for a "real" web appliance today. And GPRS provides a handy, if slow, way to get things done out of broadband range. Not to mention the voice functionality.
A little more memory would be nice, but I guess with the memory stick slot, that's not so critical.
So, from my point of view, as I happily use my Palm V and wait to make the leap, I'll gladly pay even more than $700, even up to $1000! But the thing has to cover all the bases.
By the way, it seemed to me that most of Mossberg's gripes were about the software, not the hardware. You want predictive input? No problem. A better e-mail client? Sure. To me, the hardware concept here is excellent, close to ideal.
Just close the few remaining gaps, and I'll fork over a grand for five more years of PDA bliss.
Liability protection is one of the main reasons people incorporate in the first place. Of course, special laws govern the behavior of corporate officers, so they aren't totally immune either.
Unfortunately, people like Lay, Ebbers, and Kozlowski are given the velvet slap even when they've destroyed thousands of lives.
Whatever you might think of Gates, he has been responsible for far more wealth-creation (and not just his own) than wealth-depletion.
HAHA! Well, the story was posted by a (relatively) non-techie slashdot newbie friend of mine, and I am just sitting here laughing.
After a few days on Slashdot she knew exactly how to get a story on the board!
Good goin' B!
Way to work the system!
LOL
Not when free software has gone further, faster, and without obectionable and occasionally illegal business practices it isn't.
Nobody cares about the tens of thousands of shady deals or strongarm tactics employed by thousands of smaller corporations every day. People despise MS not because of their practices, but because it has succeeded.
That doesn't excuse them, but if you condemn MS, I hope you're prepared to condemn a lot of western capitalism along with it.
After all, cars emit poison gas, some more than others, but most people can still admire a nice one and sleep well at night.
Millions of people have made hundreds of billions of dollars because of the platforms and "standards" that Microsoft has created. So it is not a giant vacuum cleaner.
And, in my opinion, Microsoft's sins rank nowhere near those of Enron, for instance, where boundaries weren't just pushed, they were ignored or flaunted.
Would MS be more palatable if it were lazy, lucky and sinful rather than hard-working, lucky and sinful? At least then we wouldn't be forced to wonder if it's our own lack of initiative that has allowed them to build their hegemony.
get a product out the door before it's bug-list is even resolved
It's a balance, right? When you're operating as a public company, you have a responsibility to the families holding your stock in their kids' college funds to get the product to market. And do it as soon as possible without any major negative ramifications. Microsoft Word, for instance, does not need the kind of stability that the avionics code in a 747 does. There is blowback from the strategy, but it's part of the business.
I'm sure there are a lot of idealistic (and extremely talented) programmers who knock Microsoft's software, but couldn't compete with them in the marketplace, because shipping with a known (but relatively rare) bug is unacceptable to them.
Nobody said MS was nice. Or that their software was perfect. But I think it's pretty darn good, considering it was created by a huge, monopolistic corporation.
lol
The issue is that they honestly value bloatware over quality
I would say you're half right. To me what is more accurate is that they value REVENUE over quality.
After all, MS is a business, not a religion.
MS serves so many customers, they could publish 20 different builds of Word alone (academic, legal, engineering, literary, journalist, beginning user, etc...) And each one could be much smaller. Instead, they sell one build that includes all this, and it DOES erode the usability overall. However, from a cost-benefit standpoint, it's a much better business choice.
It's like Democracy. Can't please everybody all the time.
And, I just don't understand the "bloatware" concern in this era of consumer quarter-terabyte drives and 3 GHz processors. Granted, not everyone has this kind of hardware, but even on my 700MHz (500MHz SpeedStepped) 20GB laptop, I regularly run XP, IE, Word, and Excel with no problems. If the issue is with their interface design (to expose needed features), that's legitimate. But it's been a while since I've heard believable complaints about the size of an Office install.
No pitchforks, please. I'm just trying to keep it real.
I've crashed IE 6 several times with this HTML just fooling around, and each time, an exception is raised, a debug report generated, an optional offer is made to submit the report to the OS manufacturer to inform them of the problem, upon which immediate technical support is often given. After that action is complete, the OS remains stable, and the crash can be repeated ad nauseum, experimenting with different tags/debugger experiments/versions.
That is in a consumer OS (XP Home) that costs less than $100, and has tens of thousands of commercial apps available in almost every language. (probably millions if you include shareware/freeware)
Whether it's my mom or another engineer, I feel pretty good about telling them XP is a solid OS that can do what they need. (likewise with IE)
Not many years ago, it would have seemed pretty petty to obsess about such a bug--and that's when it would've forced a reboot.
I'm not shy about criticizing MS when appropriate, but to come from Windows for Workgroups to XP in 10 years is pretty impressive, especially for a company of its size.
If it were me, I'd spend my time debating the Software Formerly Known As Palladium, and not lose the forest for the trees by mocking MS for this kind of item. I fart bugs bigger than this.
Everybody knows only bad programmers write spaghetti code. Nature clearly writes fusilli lunghi code. Just look at it!
I think I would agree with everything the reviewer said about this machine. Who knows, maybe it will actually be useful in version 3 or 4 (like most Microsoft ideas).
But of course, 10 years ago, this would have been considered unbelievably cool, just like the amazing Apple Newton a guy brought to work. I still remember trying to push through the crowd to see that thing.
What's interesting to me is that the aspects of this product which would have seemed most magical then (internet, wireless networking, 15" flat panel touchscreen, handwriting recognition, USB) hardly bear mentioning today, while the things that are bothersome (network configuration, battery life, X-style remote terminal, Microsoft's participation) would have been just as familiar and bothersome then.
use this opportunity to invalidate the lifetime subscriptions for the older players, in an attempt to either force us to buy new units, or cough up subscription fees.
I hope you're wrong, and I think it would be very foolish of D&M to do this. I am one of the early ReplayTV customers. I have a Replay 2020 which I've upgraded, swapping in an 80GB drive for the 20GB. The original cost of the machine to me was $700, and the drive cost about $300 (80GB were just out at the time).
So, with $1000 sunk into my machine, I was hoping to not replace it until I jump to HD, probably next year.
What I would say is that, this may be kind of like the airlines and their frequent fliers. If an airline goes into bankrupcy, the mileage plans are generally safe because the company doesn't want to alienate their best customers.
I think the same may apply here.
However, when I upgrade to an HD unit in the next 18 months, I fully expect to pay a monthly. So, if they're nice to me, they might have a nice little sale there.
Is it simply a matter of keeping up with the Joneses?
I know this guy named Jones who is a complete dummy. Keeping up with him is like sleeping in slow motion.
It's got to be something else.
I look forward to being moderated down once again.
Simply, Bill Gates' comments are probably close to the truth. He is not a stupid man. You may hate him for being rich. You may despise his tactics. But to dismiss his analysis of his own company and industry?
Even if you feel his domination of the industry is unjust, his views cannot be dismissed as inaccurate. Or swept aside just because they "sound arrogant". So he's direct and straightforward. It's not a crime. It worked for him.
I don't object to debating the man's ideas. I don't object to disagreeing with everything he says! But the editor who posted this article added "Boy, where do you even begin...", which implies to me an attitude not of one who hopes to learn that he may one day rule (or at least compete), but, more likely, one who despises authority of all kinds.
"Boy, where do you even begin..." is a rallying cry for the lazy and unimaginative, not the industrious and analytical.
Many postings in this thread have been thoughtful, but I wish in the future, the editorial staff could be more thoughtful themselves, and avoid such cliche commentary.
Hey, people like to complain. About the weather, their cars, their spouses, their neighbors and their computers.
Complaining about bugs *is* "cool." Especially Microsoft bugs. That's like making fun of lawyers. Everybody "hates" them, but we all need them (unless we all want to manage the complexities of a nation based on "laws" without specialists to assist us), and we'd love our kids to be one! (I wouldn't stop my kid, if I had one, from taking a job at MS.)
Most of the people on this board probably would prefer discussing technical matters with people who understand them, rather than confused, frightened end-users. Isn't it obvious that most of Microsoft's support calls (of its hundreds of millions of users) are non-bug-related issues having to do with the vast percentage of the functionality they ship which *does* work?
It's fun to pile on, but try re-reading the intro to this article from a more balanced perspective. Put yourself in the shoes of a Product Support Engineer at Microsoft, who doesn't care about "technical politics," but just wants to do his/her job. I think Bill Gates is representing them very well.
"Kids, this is your principal, Mr. Johnson. Thanks to your boosters, we will have a secret vote at the end of the year. The ten students voted 'nicest' by the student body will each secretly receive $25,000, which they may reveal or not. The ten students voted 'cruelest' will be our janitors for summer session. Have a 'nice' year!"
This "CyberCafe" may offer thrill-seeking Westerners and Japanese their last opportunity to communicate with their right-thinking loved ones, and be talked out of another ridiculous ego trip.
I, for one, would sponsor an EverQuest account at this cafe to snag these folks in a more controlled environment. At least until they are incapacitated by repetitive-stress injuries.
Then they could be transported to a safer uber-thrill, like a ride on the Vomit Comet or, perhaps, a scintillating decade of psychotherapy.
These people were pioneers. They would not be pioneers without risk, and they knew the risks. They were brilliant, dedicated, highly trained people who knew the risks.
The blow we felt wasn't just the loss of these people, it was also the loss of their spirit, which exceeded immeasurably their mortal selves. This spirit carries us aloft with them, and when it is suddenly gone, we fall.
May they rest in peace, and may their memories live on.
Yeah, good point! Really good point!
And hey! A "sufficiently" mature individual might also recognize sarcasm and humor as well!
Now pardon me while I sip on some apple juice.
I like where the resort manager assures us that the Australian people are "mature" enough to see what a great idea this is.
I'm not sure it would be the "mature" individual who would be enthused about skiing on their own excrement.
And if the Australian people are "mature" enough, what people isn't? The Chinese? The Jamaicans? Perhaps he feels he'll only alienate the 'childish,' 'spoiled' populace of Switzerland with his revolutionary shit-shooters.
John
It's a disconnect between legal protection and practical protection. Illegal or unauthorized distribution has always been possible, whether through transcription, photography, photocopy, whatever. But in the end, those aren't very practical or threatening.
The sheer fluidity of the digital world makes almost anything practical. For instance, even if a security mechanism could be created by which a program or macro could not copy (either text or graphics) the contents of an ebook reader while scrolling through (erect a kind of region protection all the way through to the video card), it's not going to stop anyone.
What about a cam pointed at the monitor? Either from the same computer or another one? Or just videotape separately as the ebook scrolls by, then have some ocr software decode it.
I'm just having a hard time figuring out how ebooks will ever enjoy the same "practical" protection that wood books do.
I've given up trying to make the case for PVRs. At this point, I'm just selfish.
My ReplayTV 2020, which I upgraded a while back with a somewhat noisier but much larger drive, will be perfectly good enough for me until I move to digital television. That is, as long as the nightly feeds continue.
I hope enough people buy MP3 players to keep SonicBlue afloat for a few more years, for that reason alone. (When I bought my machine, it came with a lifetime subscription.)
By that time, the concept of an analog tape recorder for video will seem so hopelessly outdated to everyone (as they do to me today), PVRs will be plentiful, and I'll have plenty of options for my next generation.
Now, I must say, I think people are just plain used to recording onto some kind of removable media. So, DVD recorders may wean some people off VCRs in the interim. But I just can't imagine why we will need to rely on hideous bastardizations like these HD Videocasette players available now. With hard drives at 200GB and counting, by the NTSC "cutoff date" (yeah, right), there is no way anybody will argue that random access media don't have the data density and economy to serve in this market.
Hey, back off the Skittles, dude.