...the profit to the company is determined by the cost to them.
Partly correct. Maybe you're just simplifying this, but the profit isn't simply a function of cost. There are many products which sell for 100x their actual cost whereas commodity products might do well to sell at 5% above cost. Think of software which you can purchase and download online. What's the actual cost of the sale? 40 cents plus 2% of the transaction to the credit card company, and maybe 10 cents extra to cover bandwidth, hardware depreciation, office overhead, personnel costs, etc.
A bigger problem, in my mind anyway, with the DRM is this: Imagine, 3 years from now, Apple, or iTMS, or both, fail, and I buy a new machine that runs some other hypothetical operating system, and no existing version of iTunes will run on it, what do I do then?
If that were to happen, someone would see it as an opportunity and purchase the rights to iTunes from Apple. Companies rarely just abandon technology and an established market since that userbase can be sold to someone else for profit. The exception to this is unless there's a much more profitable alternative for them -- in which case, you'd likely see Apple offering an upgrade path... for a small fee, of course.
Don't see what the big deal is. Why is MS even bothering? Nobody's going to confuse "Turbo Excel" with "Microsoft Excel" - nobody that *uses* Office or Windows, anyway.
The big deal is that if they don't enforce their trademark, they could lose it. Just like how aspirin is now a generic term in the US but a trademark everywhere else. If that were to happen, anyone could start calling their spreadsheet software Excel.
But he is the Commander in Chief, and is briefed on everything that might be relevant to the country, it's economy, and it's security. Seeing as he's probably not one to have used "The Internet" much, he may not have realized (in the split second that he uttered it) how silly "internets" sounds to the common person.
So probably about as silly as "it is economy, and it is security" sounds to the common person?:)
It comes down to this: Arlo Rose was porting Konfabulator over to Windows way before Apple even announced Dashboard.
Arlo knew about Dashboard (as an OS X tester) before Apple formally announced it. Likely he announced the Windows port shortly after learning it would be cloned in Tiger.
I'd rather have 18 months of revenues from 95% of the market than 6 months of revenues from 2%.
Well of course. Anyone would rather have 18 months of revenue @ 2% over 6 months of revenue @ 2% even. Or did you mean 6 years of revenue at 2% vs. 18 months at 95%?
This isn't a new product logo, it's a new company logo. I'm sure you'd consider it news if Microsoft changed its corporate logo for ALL of its products.
So what is SP2 going to give me except likely headaches?
Well, probably about the same as upgrading to the Linux 2.6 kernel. Unless you really need the features it offers over 2.4, why bother? That said, I was hesitant to install SP2 and eventually bit the bullet. I haven't yet had any problems with any software, and the new features in IE make it worthwhile to use again.
99% +/- 10% means that the theory is most likely correct as 100% falls within the expected values. 99.9% +/- 0.01%, though a much more accurate experiment, means that the theory is certainly wrong.
During WWII, the Manhattan Project had problems getting copper for the huge electromagnets that they needed to build. No problem- they just went to the Treasury, borrowed 15,000 tons of silver bullion, and wound it into coils!
What's really impressive is the transformation from silver into copper!:)
Re:If You Want a Serious Answer... Don't Get Cute
on
Rob Pike Responds
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Pike: "The promoters of object-oriented design sometimes sound like master woodworkers waiting for the beauty of the physical block of wood to reveal itself before they begin to work."
Comparing programming to woodworking is a bit extreme.
Please think of the children... exactly what the hell are you talking about? Respect them for not serving their customers in the US? Decisions for the Japanese market are mutually exclusive to decisions in the US market. Sharp is either being stupid or bribed by M$ to stay out of the market. Either way, it's anti-consumer.
Good god man, you think companies exist solely to serve your every whim and that they have a responsibility to do so? Grow up! If Sharp thought there were a lot of profit to be made in the US market, do you think they would choose to not jump in with both feet and satisfy that market? Don't you think Sharp's shareholders would perhaps have something to say about it? "Anti-consumer"... that's the best one I've heard all week.
It doesn't matter how often or regularly such events happen, if there is a specific case going on at the moment the news has a responsibility to try and inform those people who might be affected so they can take appropriate action.
No, "the news" doesn't have a responsibility to do anything. The only reason media companies do things is because there's a profit in it. Every media outlet wants to gather more eyeballs to their magazine, newspaper, TV station, etc. The more eyeballs they have, the more advertisers pay for advertising spots. Now if giving you such news would increase their userbase, then you'd get that kind of news. If withholding that news would increase the userbase, then guess what... you won't get the news.
Slashdot Mirror
For a second there I thought you might be my ex-wife.
Take another look... he IS your ex-wife!!
Sure, but who is Daryl McBride? We all know who Darl is, so is that his brother Daryl, or his other brother Daryl?
Rather than the chipper AOL greeting, he'll be hearing in a deep, growling voice:
You've got MALE!
And PT Barnum's top competitor said, "There's a sucker born every minute."
I've pretty much lost hope for the species.
Is that why in your sig you're promoting a "free flat screen" to those suckers? Or were you trying to maximize the irony of the whole situation?
...the profit to the company is determined by the cost to them.
Partly correct. Maybe you're just simplifying this, but the profit isn't simply a function of cost. There are many products which sell for 100x their actual cost whereas commodity products might do well to sell at 5% above cost. Think of software which you can purchase and download online. What's the actual cost of the sale? 40 cents plus 2% of the transaction to the credit card company, and maybe 10 cents extra to cover bandwidth, hardware depreciation, office overhead, personnel costs, etc.
A bigger problem, in my mind anyway, with the DRM is this: Imagine, 3 years from now, Apple, or iTMS, or both, fail, and I buy a new machine that runs some other hypothetical operating system, and no existing version of iTunes will run on it, what do I do then?
If that were to happen, someone would see it as an opportunity and purchase the rights to iTunes from Apple. Companies rarely just abandon technology and an established market since that userbase can be sold to someone else for profit. The exception to this is unless there's a much more profitable alternative for them -- in which case, you'd likely see Apple offering an upgrade path... for a small fee, of course.
Don't see what the big deal is. Why is MS even bothering? Nobody's going to confuse "Turbo Excel" with "Microsoft Excel" - nobody that *uses* Office or Windows, anyway.
The big deal is that if they don't enforce their trademark, they could lose it. Just like how aspirin is now a generic term in the US but a trademark everywhere else. If that were to happen, anyone could start calling their spreadsheet software Excel.
They also developed Firestarter if you played it.
And if I didn't play it, does that mean they didn't necessarily develop it?
But he is the Commander in Chief, and is briefed on everything that might be relevant to the country, it's economy, and it's security. Seeing as he's probably not one to have used "The Internet" much, he may not have realized (in the split second that he uttered it) how silly "internets" sounds to the common person.
:)
So probably about as silly as "it is economy, and it is security" sounds to the common person?
Right, and I guess this also means that the terror threat level should be moved back to green, right? Right? Hello? Anyone?
It comes down to this: Arlo Rose was porting Konfabulator over to Windows way before Apple even announced Dashboard.
Arlo knew about Dashboard (as an OS X tester) before Apple formally announced it. Likely he announced the Windows port shortly after learning it would be cloned in Tiger.
I'd rather have 18 months of revenues from 95% of the market than 6 months of revenues from 2%.
Well of course. Anyone would rather have 18 months of revenue @ 2% over 6 months of revenue @ 2% even. Or did you mean 6 years of revenue at 2% vs. 18 months at 95%?
This isn't a new product logo, it's a new company logo. I'm sure you'd consider it news if Microsoft changed its corporate logo for ALL of its products.
How about "albeit, a lengthy process..."? That makes sense and could have just been somebody mixing the words up.
So what is SP2 going to give me except likely headaches?
Well, probably about the same as upgrading to the Linux 2.6 kernel. Unless you really need the features it offers over 2.4, why bother? That said, I was hesitant to install SP2 and eventually bit the bullet. I haven't yet had any problems with any software, and the new features in IE make it worthwhile to use again.
99% +/- 10% means that the theory is most likely correct as 100% falls within the expected values.
99.9% +/- 0.01%, though a much more accurate experiment, means that the theory is certainly wrong.
Therein lies the difference.
Yo mama's so fat, we're all inside her right now!
During WWII, the Manhattan Project had problems getting copper for the huge electromagnets that they needed to build. No problem- they just went to the Treasury, borrowed 15,000 tons of silver bullion, and wound it into coils!
:)
What's really impressive is the transformation from silver into copper!
Pike:
"The promoters of object-oriented design sometimes sound like master woodworkers waiting for the beauty of the physical block of wood to reveal itself before they begin to work."
Comparing programming to woodworking is a bit extreme.
Please think of the children... exactly what the hell are you talking about? Respect them for not serving their customers in the US? Decisions for the Japanese market are mutually exclusive to decisions in the US market. Sharp is either being stupid or bribed by M$ to stay out of the market. Either way, it's anti-consumer.
Good god man, you think companies exist solely to serve your every whim and that they have a responsibility to do so? Grow up! If Sharp thought there were a lot of profit to be made in the US market, do you think they would choose to not jump in with both feet and satisfy that market? Don't you think Sharp's shareholders would perhaps have something to say about it? "Anti-consumer"... that's the best one I've heard all week.
It doesn't matter how often or regularly such events happen, if there is a specific case going on at the moment the news has a responsibility to try and inform those people who might be affected so they can take appropriate action.
No, "the news" doesn't have a responsibility to do anything. The only reason media companies do things is because there's a profit in it. Every media outlet wants to gather more eyeballs to their magazine, newspaper, TV station, etc. The more eyeballs they have, the more advertisers pay for advertising spots. Now if giving you such news would increase their userbase, then you'd get that kind of news. If withholding that news would increase the userbase, then guess what... you won't get the news.
"In btw" In by the way??? Do you mean 'and by the way' or something??? C'mon now! Thats just... bad.
Perhaps he's trying to put it into DNS format?
IN BTW 127.0.0.1
IN BTW2 12.34.56.78
...fair use allows quoting of copyrighted works. Why should I not be allowed to cut and paste (to prevent distorting a quote)?
Does fair use state that you must be able to do this with a computer? Your pencil and paper still work, don't they?
This is not insightful, this is an appeal to ridicule and an appeal to belief.
Your approximation of reality does not have a god. Mine does. No one knows what reality actually holds.
And your belief is an appeal to ignorance.
The text above says fountain pen, that's where I took it from.
The text says that fountain pens are still ineffective -- as in, they never were effective because the tool used was a BIC [ballpoint] pen.