It's not about "better bang for the buck," it's just to say that you custom built your Mac.
I agree completely.
FWIW, if you're looking for better bang for the buck, would you really be use Macintosh in the first place? (That is NOT troll or flamebait...keep reading:) )
Apple's own Mac systems aren't pitched as 'best bang for the buck' - these are highly integrated, highly specialized computers, designed to 'rise above the masses' of wintel machines. The concept behind the 'build your own' PC follows a different set of rules when its applied to a Mac, because the Mac itself follows a different set of rules. Its great that more companies are offering customizable Mac systems - there is a market for this sort of thing!
you only have to respond once to get the full run of earthlink
You can't simply 'respond once' to have full access to Earthlink email accounts using their challenge/response system. Each individual user has to 'whitelist' each email sender that asks them to. The system really will prevent spam, as long as users are smart enough to figure out how to work the system correctly (that is another matter entirely).
Like charging a nickel for email, or some shit like that.
You're correct... eventually, some company or companies will develop some kind of email system that they think is worth charging for, and they'll start charging people to send email. Some email systems will likely remain free and co-exist w/ these, however, much like other industries (TV vs. Cable vs. Digital Cable vs. Sattelite; Radio(FM/AM) vs. XM; Geocities web hosting vs. Paid web hosting; etc etc). The 'pay for priveledge' vs. 'free, but you suffer' product design model is a hallmark of capitalism.
they made regular FM radio suck
Also, fwiw, the 'they' that made FM radio suck are the FCC, FTC, and Clear Channel Communications, which has a monopoly on radio stations that is essentially endorsed by the aforementioned federal commissions. But, you're absolutely correct that FM now sucks - the demise of the indy DJ after the '70s due to the mass conglomerate, national-brand, vanilla-format stations that replaced the indies have definitely killed radio.
Microsoft is treading on shaky ground here. What is to stop Dell from suing Microsoft for collaborating w/ HP on Athens? Who owns the rights to the manufacturing concepts behind this PC - HP, or MS? If its HP, then this partnership puts other PC manufacturers at a serious disadvantage, as they wouldn't have access to the IP to build a similar or identical PC... not that I'm against companies suing MS over this sort of thing, but you'd think that w/ MS' past legal troubles, they'd stay out of manufacturing or collarborating w/ manufacturers unilaterally.
Actually, another part of the reason Lucas decided to shoot return of the jedi on endor was to allow Kyshyyk (the wookie home planet) to be used in the prequels. Seeing as the wookie planet hasn't yet made an appearance in PM or AotC, I would assume we'll see the wookie home in FotJ (Fall of the Jedi - this is my own personal guess as to the title of the 3rd prequel:)), esp. seeing as lucas has confirmed that chewbacca will be making an appearance in FotJ.
"...but why aren't the benefits of lower production costs being passed on to the consumer?"
This question deserves an explanation of how record companies finance record production.
First, once an artist has been 'signed' (which essentially means that the record company retains all legal rights to material produced by artist 'x' for a specific duration of output, determined in either number of albums or number of years, contingent on performance, behavior, and sales), the record company then forwards the artist an advance on their future record sales with which to have their album written, produced, tracked, and recorded to a medium.
This forwarded money is expected to be paid back to the record company by the artist once the record is on store shelves, regardless of how many are sold.
Recording artists receive a pittance of record sales revenues, touring revenues, and royalties from radio stations, commercials, and the like for the playing of their songs... remember, the record company had the artist sign a contract which passed those rights onto the record company. Additionally, the record company applies all revenue to the repayment of their loan, and until this has been repaid in full, the artist does not receive any profit.
Many recording artists (take TLC, the female african-american rap group, for instance) make an average salary of $30,000/yr - or less - after paying the record company back for their loan.
This terrible financial arrangement being the case, the only way for recording artists to maximize their revenue potential is to retain a larger portion of the original recording loan, which can then be used to either pay the record company back more readily, or invested to generate its own revenue, etc etc. This being the case, many recording artists turn to commercial recording equipment in order to cut production costs, and actually stand a chance of making money off of their creative material.
Actually, the in-house Apple code name for 10.4 is "MacOSX Cougar Meloncamp"; however, after its been released, it will drop the 'Cougar' from its name.
The guesses at inhabitable worlds sure fits in with assumptions of Trekkies. It assumes that other life on other planets would be humanlike and thus need a similar environment.
The only differences being that, while human like, the aliens have blue skin and green afros. Oh, and if we were to visit the surface of their world, the lowest-ranking member of the party would always be turned into a rock, or eaten by a giant alien squid, or killed in hand-to-hand combat with their greatest warrior.
Anecdotal 'evidence' isn't worth the toilet paper you wiped your ass with to collect it in the first place.
Any yet, anecdotal evidence is all you provide, later on in your own post.
kids: computer use is in their DNA. Near 100% assimilation.
This is patently false. How can you ascribe a 100% internet usage rate to a generation which does not uniformly have access to the internet?
college punks: what better tool for dick-measuring and acting like immature assholes could possibly exist? Near-total assimilation, with certain exempted segments.
In your 'dick-measuring' analogy, you have completely excluded 51% of the collegiate population - women.
gen-x: iffy. Have to use the blasted thing for work. Still think there's a division between 'real life' and 'virtual life', so the computer isn't nearly as enthralling to them. Silly gits think that real-world sex is better than getting online and downloading porn. GenX? Iffy? Are you insane? The late 90's internet revolution workforce was composed almost entirely of GenXers!!!
boomers: heavily invested in the status quo. Hate change of any kind. Think the computer is a tool of the devil, primarily because the young 'get it' intuitively and they hate the young with a passion. The computer is just another sign that they're getting old and that immortality drugs won't be invented before they're all dead (thank the gods for that one). Would ban the damned thing if they could, if just to punish everyone under the age of 30.
Again, you have only proven that you are completely ignorant of the facts. Baby Boomers in a very large way contributed to the financial underpinnings of the internet boom in the 90's. Do you honestly think that legions of venture capitalists materialized from GenX and GenY?
the elderly: hell, they're already on death's door. Why not experiment with something new? Usage much higher in this group than with the boomers. No comment needed here... you've dug yourself a nice hole in the ground with your meaningless arguments.
In short, growth will stop when we hit the luddites and the elderly.
First of all, segregating the population in any way by age is discriminatory, and therefore ignorant.
Secondly, did you bother to read the Washington Post article? This highlights a 22 year old Comms major who lives w/ his 60-something grandmother. Guess which one is the prolific web user? The grandmother. The elderly are not necessarily slow to adopt technology which meets their needs - keep in mind that the generation that we describe as the 'elderly' invented the computer, television, modern radio, etc etc. How can this generation be slow to adopt technologies which they helped bring into existence?
My own 75-yr old grandmother is one of the most web-savvy people I know. She communicates with all of her children & grandchildren via email & chat (she's on AIM, ICQ, and MSN chats, btw); does the majority of her shopping online (though she never did like to drive); and gets her news, etc online as well. In addition to that, she's on a Windows machine that she administers - i.e., she installs new versions of Windows, applications, configures her own web access, etc.
Nothing. Apple adds value to its products by developing integrated software and hardware solutions for information technology and entertainment purposes. Venturing into the source of entertainment itself could only potentially distance Apple from the very media sources it should be trying to court in promotion of its core businesses (i.e., why would Warner, Sony, etc do business w/ Apple if they owned Universal?). Purchasing Universal, or any other media company, would not add value to Apple's product lines. If merging with media companies were such a priority for Apple, wouldn't it then make more sense to merge Apple with Pixar? Wouldn't that logically happen before any merger of Apple and Universal?
The only 'good' that could come out of an Apple/Universal merger would be the launching of a royalty-free music sharing service, in which Apple would permit clients to freely distribute Universal-produced music. But, seeing as Apple charges $99/yr for its.Mac service (which includes various things, not all of which I'm familiar w/, tho I do know that a few of them, such as email & web page building, can be had for free elsewhere), what would be the likelyhood of Apple allowing free distribution of Apple-owned music? Slim to none. If Apple will charge clients $99/yr for email/webpages, there is no reason to believe that they would allow free distribution of music.
The music world is better off w/o Apple purchasing Universal; the 'Apple' world is better off guarding the sanctity of Apple's core product lines w/o the confusion that would ensue if Apple tried to manage both Universal and its computer business. The merger won't happen, because it shouldn't happen.
Samba's existence is vastly important to the adoption by corporate management of perceived 'alternate' computing systems (i.e., Linux, Mac, sometimes Unix, as opposed to Windows) in the datacenter. The simple fact that there exists an easy-to-use, open source method of interconnecting disparate file systems, allowing multiple OS co-existance, is often the lynchpin in convincing managers to permit non-Windows systems to be deployed in a company. I have worked in several situations where employees have wanted to use Mac OSX desktops or Linux/Unix servers (etc.) in an all-Windows shop, and managers balked at the idea until they were convinced that data could still be exchanged, and that the 'alternative' OS'es could still 'talk' to the Windows machines.
With this established managerial behavior in mind, isn't it interesting that IBM would have hired Samba's creator outright, to work on a project which furthers Samba's ability to communicate with additional operating systems? Samba in many ways is a 'license to change' computers in a datacenter for IT staff. IBM has positioned itself to pump funding directly into the Samba project, as well as to have a say in which file systems it supports; this gives IBM the ability to write its own ticket in terms of promoting its disparate filesystem architectures' usage in the datacenter, alongside their Windows brethren.
SCO Group, inheritor of the intellectual property for the Unix operating system, has sued itself for more than $1 billion, alleging that SCO misappropriated their own Unix technology and built it into Linux.
The suit, filed Thursday afternoon in the 3rd District Court of Salt Lake County in Utah, alleges misappropriation of trade secrets, unfair competition, breach of contract and tortious interference with SCO's business, the Lindon, Utah-based company said. SCO also sent a letter to itself on Thursday demanding that if it doesn't meet various demands, SCO will revoke it's own license to ship its version of Unix, in 100 days.
"We are alleging we have contaminated our UnitedLinux work with inappropriate knowledge from Unix," said Chris Sonfag, senior vice president of operating systems at SCO and head of the company's SCO source effort to make more money from its intellectual property.
Analysts saw the move as a desperate one for SCO, a company that hasn't been profitable in its current incarnation.
"It's a fairly end-of-life move for the stockholders and managers of that company," said Jonthan Unice, an Illuminato analyst. "I mean, hell, they've already gone ahead and filed suit against IBM - but, this is really over the top."
Well, considering the Bush Administration appointed Gale Norton (whose environmental record is questionable, at best) to head the EPA, is it any surprise that they would appoint a 'privacy' executive from the web's largest spam-ad agency to head their privacy office in the Homeland Security Dept.?
Norton was appointed to help the administration push development in ANWR (& other anti-environmental causes), not to protect the environment; likewise, OConnor Kelly was appointed to help push Total Information Awareness, not to protect privacy.
of using imbedded linux if it doesn't reduce the cost of the final product in some way? seems like philips is using linux to maximize their own profit margins, instead of passing on the savings from not licensing a proprietary OS onto their customers...
"Though his early work has earned him a reputation as a brilliant mathematician, Dr. Perelman spent the last eight years sequestered in Russia, not publishing."
"However, according to the rules of the Clay Institute, the paper must survive two years of academic scrutiny before the prize can be collected."
So, all told, Perelman is going to wait a total of 10 years from the time he started to work on the solution to the Conjecture, to the time where the scientific community lets him know if his answer is correct. Wow.
You have a good point. RH 7.0 did have issues. My MS slight was not meant to be to the exclusion of other software companies... however, MS is the best-known example of this practice. I honestly do wish that all tech companies, be they software || hardware, would do more to thoroughly test their products before shipment. Intel has provided a good example of this, despite the heat they received from Wallstreet as a result.
Sorry, but the verbal lashing I dished out to you was only in response to the overly accusitory tone of your response to my post, as well as the over reaching in your 'logic' by making an analogy about 'good films' to illustrate your 'point'.
I honestly could care less about my 'karma' - I reply to/. articles when I have something to say, not becuase I think I'll get points for what I say. Do those points mean anything? Can I claim them as tax credits? Use them to finance a house? Pay for software with them? No. Karma points are fun, but functionally useless in real life.
Perhaps in the future, you'll base your posts on your insights, rather than your ego, and refrain from mindlessly lashing out at people regardless of your absolute ignorance of what their experience is.
Well, seeing as I'm a professional software developer, I think I've been part of a development process before.
I was not in any way saying that only perfect software/hardware should be released. What I plainly said was that Intel did the right thing by delaying a product launch after finding a flaw. Regardless of the seriousness of this flaw, instead of sending the product out with a minor/medium/major flaw, they decided to fix it first, then ship the product.
I'm sorry, but last time I checked, Microsoft was notorious - in the opinion of its own employees, even - of sending out half-baked products and using their customer base to test the software.
I remember Front Page...
From the accusitory nature of your post, it sounds like the real issue here is that you work for Microsoft, and know for a fact that my little slight on MS is completely valid, and I have in some way bruised your fragile, pathetically weak ego. Well, I'm sorry if your company can't get their product launches right the first time - maybe if instead of launching half-baked, insecure products, you actually tested them thoroughly first, your company wouldn't have such a crappy reputation. Perhaps getting sued by the US Government has finally straightened MS out to their constant product release problems? Or, maybe Mr. Gates' little memo did the trick?
... its great to see Intel take the initiative on their product and prevent a chip w/ even a minor flaw from entering the marketplace. While their stock price might take a minor hit today on the news that shipment has been delayed, imagine the fiasco down the line if thousands of flawed processors were in the wild, and Intel had to do a recall? FWIW, this was the "Right Thing To Do".
If only other prominent tech companies (*cough* *microsoft* *cough*) would take this sort of lead and ensure that only products which were found to be free of flaws entered the market, instead of releasing half-baked products and using the customer base as guinea pigs... just imagine how better off we'd all be...
This article really serves to highlight issues w/ US-based ISPs and the services they offer.
What are the options for a US citizen to get online right now?
Pay AOL || MSN || Earthlink $20> / mo. for dialup
Pay local Cable or Telephony Monopoly $50> / mo. for "broadband"
US ISP have some serious issues w/ their services - essentially, theres price fixing in both dialup and DSL/Cable options, which the FCC and the FTC are ignoring; despite continuous adoption of broadband, prices have yet to drop in the slightest - in fact, broadband providers regularly announce additional restrictions on bandwidth, personal site/email hosting, file upload/download, P2P file sharing, etc.
It just seems like for all of our technological advantages, the US should have the highest rate of households w/ broadband, at the lowest prices, in comparison to any other nation. Instead, you have telephony companies in India providing their customers with affordable broadband, and nations like South Korea with the highest levels per capita of broadband usage.
... if we don't establish any kind of permanent installation on Mars?
It just seems like, if there is ice on both our Moon and Mars, that we should first develop, test, and then implement technology that would allow us to use the ice on the Moon to power a small terra-firma based installation, as well as refuel any craft used to travel there, and then take this same base station & ice-to-fuel technology on the Mars mission. As long as we're making the trip to Mars, why not make the best use of it, and establish refueling stations on the Moon & Mars that can be used to minimize the fuel impact on future missions? There is an obvious advantage to having fueling stations along the way to Mars as well as on Mars itself - hauling fuel is expensive, in terms of the additional payload as well as the added risk of having all of that extra explosive material on board. Also, FWIW, water is also heavy & expensive to haul... having a base on the Moon & Mars where water stores could be replenished would be more economical as well. It seems logical that we could put this together between now and 2014 or 2018...
Slashdot Mirror
...by Jason Blair, formally of the NYT
It's not about "better bang for the buck," it's just to say that you custom built your Mac.
:) )
I agree completely. FWIW, if you're looking for better bang for the buck, would you really be use Macintosh in the first place? (That is NOT troll or flamebait...keep reading
Apple's own Mac systems aren't pitched as 'best bang for the buck' - these are highly integrated, highly specialized computers, designed to 'rise above the masses' of wintel machines. The concept behind the 'build your own' PC follows a different set of rules when its applied to a Mac, because the Mac itself follows a different set of rules. Its great that more companies are offering customizable Mac systems - there is a market for this sort of thing!
you only have to respond once to get the full run of earthlink
You can't simply 'respond once' to have full access to Earthlink email accounts using their challenge/response system. Each individual user has to 'whitelist' each email sender that asks them to. The system really will prevent spam, as long as users are smart enough to figure out how to work the system correctly (that is another matter entirely).
Like charging a nickel for email, or some shit like that.
You're correct... eventually, some company or companies will develop some kind of email system that they think is worth charging for, and they'll start charging people to send email. Some email systems will likely remain free and co-exist w/ these, however, much like other industries (TV vs. Cable vs. Digital Cable vs. Sattelite; Radio(FM/AM) vs. XM; Geocities web hosting vs. Paid web hosting; etc etc). The 'pay for priveledge' vs. 'free, but you suffer' product design model is a hallmark of capitalism.
they made regular FM radio suck
Also, fwiw, the 'they' that made FM radio suck are the FCC, FTC, and Clear Channel Communications, which has a monopoly on radio stations that is essentially endorsed by the aforementioned federal commissions. But, you're absolutely correct that FM now sucks - the demise of the indy DJ after the '70s due to the mass conglomerate, national-brand, vanilla-format stations that replaced the indies have definitely killed radio.
Microsoft is treading on shaky ground here. What is to stop Dell from suing Microsoft for collaborating w/ HP on Athens? Who owns the rights to the manufacturing concepts behind this PC - HP, or MS? If its HP, then this partnership puts other PC manufacturers at a serious disadvantage, as they wouldn't have access to the IP to build a similar or identical PC... not that I'm against companies suing MS over this sort of thing, but you'd think that w/ MS' past legal troubles, they'd stay out of manufacturing or collarborating w/ manufacturers unilaterally.
Actually, another part of the reason Lucas decided to shoot return of the jedi on endor was to allow Kyshyyk (the wookie home planet) to be used in the prequels. Seeing as the wookie planet hasn't yet made an appearance in PM or AotC, I would assume we'll see the wookie home in FotJ (Fall of the Jedi - this is my own personal guess as to the title of the 3rd prequel :)), esp. seeing as lucas has confirmed that chewbacca will be making an appearance in FotJ.
" ...but why aren't the benefits of lower production costs being passed on to the consumer?"
This question deserves an explanation of how record companies finance record production.
First, once an artist has been 'signed' (which essentially means that the record company retains all legal rights to material produced by artist 'x' for a specific duration of output, determined in either number of albums or number of years, contingent on performance, behavior, and sales), the record company then forwards the artist an advance on their future record sales with which to have their album written, produced, tracked, and recorded to a medium.
This forwarded money is expected to be paid back to the record company by the artist once the record is on store shelves, regardless of how many are sold.
Recording artists receive a pittance of record sales revenues, touring revenues, and royalties from radio stations, commercials, and the like for the playing of their songs... remember, the record company had the artist sign a contract which passed those rights onto the record company. Additionally, the record company applies all revenue to the repayment of their loan, and until this has been repaid in full, the artist does not receive any profit.
Many recording artists (take TLC, the female african-american rap group, for instance) make an average salary of $30,000/yr - or less - after paying the record company back for their loan.
This terrible financial arrangement being the case, the only way for recording artists to maximize their revenue potential is to retain a larger portion of the original recording loan, which can then be used to either pay the record company back more readily, or invested to generate its own revenue, etc etc. This being the case, many recording artists turn to commercial recording equipment in order to cut production costs, and actually stand a chance of making money off of their creative material.
Actually, the in-house Apple code name for 10.4 is "MacOSX Cougar Meloncamp"; however, after its been released, it will drop the 'Cougar' from its name.
Tim's web browser was called "WorldWideWeb" ...
W3.org
(Using md5() ... )
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The guesses at inhabitable worlds sure fits in with assumptions of Trekkies. It assumes that other life on other planets would be humanlike and thus need a similar environment.
The only differences being that, while human like, the aliens have blue skin and green afros. Oh, and if we were to visit the surface of their world, the lowest-ranking member of the party would always be turned into a rock, or eaten by a giant alien squid, or killed in hand-to-hand combat with their greatest warrior.
Anecdotal 'evidence' isn't worth the toilet paper you wiped your ass with to collect it in the first place.
Any yet, anecdotal evidence is all you provide, later on in your own post.
kids: computer use is in their DNA. Near 100% assimilation.
This is patently false. How can you ascribe a 100% internet usage rate to a generation which does not uniformly have access to the internet?
college punks: what better tool for dick-measuring and acting like immature assholes could possibly exist? Near-total assimilation, with certain exempted segments.
In your 'dick-measuring' analogy, you have completely excluded 51% of the collegiate population - women.
gen-x: iffy. Have to use the blasted thing for work. Still think there's a division between 'real life' and 'virtual life', so the computer isn't nearly as enthralling to them. Silly gits think that real-world sex is better than getting online and downloading porn.
GenX? Iffy? Are you insane? The late 90's internet revolution workforce was composed almost entirely of GenXers!!!
boomers: heavily invested in the status quo. Hate change of any kind. Think the computer is a tool of the devil, primarily because the young 'get it' intuitively and they hate the young with a passion. The computer is just another sign that they're getting old and that immortality drugs won't be invented before they're all dead (thank the gods for that one). Would ban the damned thing if they could, if just to punish everyone under the age of 30.
Again, you have only proven that you are completely ignorant of the facts. Baby Boomers in a very large way contributed to the financial underpinnings of the internet boom in the 90's. Do you honestly think that legions of venture capitalists materialized from GenX and GenY?
the elderly: hell, they're already on death's door. Why not experiment with something new? Usage much higher in this group than with the boomers.
No comment needed here... you've dug yourself a nice hole in the ground with your meaningless arguments.
In short, growth will stop when we hit the luddites and the elderly.
First of all, segregating the population in any way by age is discriminatory, and therefore ignorant.
Secondly, did you bother to read the Washington Post article? This highlights a 22 year old Comms major who lives w/ his 60-something grandmother. Guess which one is the prolific web user? The grandmother. The elderly are not necessarily slow to adopt technology which meets their needs - keep in mind that the generation that we describe as the 'elderly' invented the computer, television, modern radio, etc etc. How can this generation be slow to adopt technologies which they helped bring into existence?
My own 75-yr old grandmother is one of the most web-savvy people I know. She communicates with all of her children & grandchildren via email & chat (she's on AIM, ICQ, and MSN chats, btw); does the majority of her shopping online (though she never did like to drive); and gets her news, etc online as well. In addition to that, she's on a Windows machine that she administers - i.e., she installs new versions of Windows, applications, configures her own web access, etc.
Nothing. Apple adds value to its products by developing integrated software and hardware solutions for information technology and entertainment purposes. Venturing into the source of entertainment itself could only potentially distance Apple from the very media sources it should be trying to court in promotion of its core businesses (i.e., why would Warner, Sony, etc do business w/ Apple if they owned Universal?). Purchasing Universal, or any other media company, would not add value to Apple's product lines. If merging with media companies were such a priority for Apple, wouldn't it then make more sense to merge Apple with Pixar? Wouldn't that logically happen before any merger of Apple and Universal?
.Mac service (which includes various things, not all of which I'm familiar w/, tho I do know that a few of them, such as email & web page building, can be had for free elsewhere), what would be the likelyhood of Apple allowing free distribution of Apple-owned music? Slim to none. If Apple will charge clients $99/yr for email/webpages, there is no reason to believe that they would allow free distribution of music.
The only 'good' that could come out of an Apple/Universal merger would be the launching of a royalty-free music sharing service, in which Apple would permit clients to freely distribute Universal-produced music. But, seeing as Apple charges $99/yr for its
The music world is better off w/o Apple purchasing Universal; the 'Apple' world is better off guarding the sanctity of Apple's core product lines w/o the confusion that would ensue if Apple tried to manage both Universal and its computer business. The merger won't happen, because it shouldn't happen.
Samba's existence is vastly important to the adoption by corporate management of perceived 'alternate' computing systems (i.e., Linux, Mac, sometimes Unix, as opposed to Windows) in the datacenter. The simple fact that there exists an easy-to-use, open source method of interconnecting disparate file systems, allowing multiple OS co-existance, is often the lynchpin in convincing managers to permit non-Windows systems to be deployed in a company. I have worked in several situations where employees have wanted to use Mac OSX desktops or Linux/Unix servers (etc.) in an all-Windows shop, and managers balked at the idea until they were convinced that data could still be exchanged, and that the 'alternative' OS'es could still 'talk' to the Windows machines.
With this established managerial behavior in mind, isn't it interesting that IBM would have hired Samba's creator outright, to work on a project which furthers Samba's ability to communicate with additional operating systems? Samba in many ways is a 'license to change' computers in a datacenter for IT staff. IBM has positioned itself to pump funding directly into the Samba project, as well as to have a say in which file systems it supports; this gives IBM the ability to write its own ticket in terms of promoting its disparate filesystem architectures' usage in the datacenter, alongside their Windows brethren.
SCO Group, inheritor of the intellectual property for the Unix operating system, has sued itself for more than $1 billion, alleging that SCO misappropriated their own Unix technology and built it into Linux.
The suit, filed Thursday afternoon in the 3rd District Court of Salt Lake County in Utah, alleges misappropriation of trade secrets, unfair competition, breach of contract and tortious interference with SCO's business, the Lindon, Utah-based company said. SCO also sent a letter to itself on Thursday demanding that if it doesn't meet various demands, SCO will revoke it's own license to ship its version of Unix, in 100 days.
"We are alleging we have contaminated our UnitedLinux work with inappropriate knowledge from Unix," said Chris Sonfag, senior vice president of operating systems at SCO and head of the company's SCO source effort to make more money from its intellectual property.
Analysts saw the move as a desperate one for SCO, a company that hasn't been profitable in its current incarnation.
"It's a fairly end-of-life move for the stockholders and managers of that company," said Jonthan Unice, an Illuminato analyst. "I mean, hell, they've already gone ahead and filed suit against IBM - but, this is really over the top."
My bad. You're right. Had 'em switched.
Well, considering the Bush Administration appointed Gale Norton (whose environmental record is questionable, at best) to head the EPA, is it any surprise that they would appoint a 'privacy' executive from the web's largest spam-ad agency to head their privacy office in the Homeland Security Dept.?
Norton was appointed to help the administration push development in ANWR (& other anti-environmental causes), not to protect the environment; likewise, OConnor Kelly was appointed to help push Total Information Awareness, not to protect privacy.
of using imbedded linux if it doesn't reduce the cost of the final product in some way? seems like philips is using linux to maximize their own profit margins, instead of passing on the savings from not licensing a proprietary OS onto their customers...
"Though his early work has earned him a reputation as a brilliant mathematician, Dr. Perelman spent the last eight years sequestered in Russia, not publishing."
"However, according to the rules of the Clay Institute, the paper must survive two years of academic scrutiny before the prize can be collected."
So, all told, Perelman is going to wait a total of 10 years from the time he started to work on the solution to the Conjecture, to the time where the scientific community lets him know if his answer is correct. Wow.
You have a good point. RH 7.0 did have issues. My MS slight was not meant to be to the exclusion of other software companies... however, MS is the best-known example of this practice. I honestly do wish that all tech companies, be they software || hardware, would do more to thoroughly test their products before shipment. Intel has provided a good example of this, despite the heat they received from Wallstreet as a result.
Sorry, but the verbal lashing I dished out to you was only in response to the overly accusitory tone of your response to my post, as well as the over reaching in your 'logic' by making an analogy about 'good films' to illustrate your 'point'.
/. articles when I have something to say, not becuase I think I'll get points for what I say. Do those points mean anything? Can I claim them as tax credits? Use them to finance a house? Pay for software with them? No. Karma points are fun, but functionally useless in real life.
I honestly could care less about my 'karma' - I reply to
Perhaps in the future, you'll base your posts on your insights, rather than your ego, and refrain from mindlessly lashing out at people regardless of your absolute ignorance of what their experience is.
Well, seeing as I'm a professional software developer, I think I've been part of a development process before.
I was not in any way saying that only perfect software/hardware should be released. What I plainly said was that Intel did the right thing by delaying a product launch after finding a flaw. Regardless of the seriousness of this flaw, instead of sending the product out with a minor/medium/major flaw, they decided to fix it first, then ship the product.
I'm sorry, but last time I checked, Microsoft was notorious - in the opinion of its own employees, even - of sending out half-baked products and using their customer base to test the software.
I remember Front Page...
From the accusitory nature of your post, it sounds like the real issue here is that you work for Microsoft, and know for a fact that my little slight on MS is completely valid, and I have in some way bruised your fragile, pathetically weak ego. Well, I'm sorry if your company can't get their product launches right the first time - maybe if instead of launching half-baked, insecure products, you actually tested them thoroughly first, your company wouldn't have such a crappy reputation. Perhaps getting sued by the US Government has finally straightened MS out to their constant product release problems? Or, maybe Mr. Gates' little memo did the trick?
... its great to see Intel take the initiative on their product and prevent a chip w/ even a minor flaw from entering the marketplace. While their stock price might take a minor hit today on the news that shipment has been delayed, imagine the fiasco down the line if thousands of flawed processors were in the wild, and Intel had to do a recall? FWIW, this was the "Right Thing To Do".
If only other prominent tech companies (*cough* *microsoft* *cough*) would take this sort of lead and ensure that only products which were found to be free of flaws entered the market, instead of releasing half-baked products and using the customer base as guinea pigs... just imagine how better off we'd all be...
What are the options for a US citizen to get online right now?
- Pay AOL || MSN || Earthlink $20> / mo. for dialup
- Pay local Cable or Telephony Monopoly $50> / mo. for "broadband"
US ISP have some serious issues w/ their services - essentially, theres price fixing in both dialup and DSL/Cable options, which the FCC and the FTC are ignoring; despite continuous adoption of broadband, prices have yet to drop in the slightest - in fact, broadband providers regularly announce additional restrictions on bandwidth, personal site/email hosting, file upload/download, P2P file sharing, etc.It just seems like for all of our technological advantages, the US should have the highest rate of households w/ broadband, at the lowest prices, in comparison to any other nation. Instead, you have telephony companies in India providing their customers with affordable broadband, and nations like South Korea with the highest levels per capita of broadband usage.
... if we don't establish any kind of permanent installation on Mars?
It just seems like, if there is ice on both our Moon and Mars, that we should first develop, test, and then implement technology that would allow us to use the ice on the Moon to power a small terra-firma based installation, as well as refuel any craft used to travel there, and then take this same base station & ice-to-fuel technology on the Mars mission. As long as we're making the trip to Mars, why not make the best use of it, and establish refueling stations on the Moon & Mars that can be used to minimize the fuel impact on future missions? There is an obvious advantage to having fueling stations along the way to Mars as well as on Mars itself - hauling fuel is expensive, in terms of the additional payload as well as the added risk of having all of that extra explosive material on board. Also, FWIW, water is also heavy & expensive to haul... having a base on the Moon & Mars where water stores could be replenished would be more economical as well. It seems logical that we could put this together between now and 2014 or 2018...