So rather than a cut of profits, Cisco gets to share the name, eh? Oh yeah, like when you hear "iPhone" later this spring anybody is going to be thinking of Cisco! But at least interoperability with a product that no one is going to buy, namely the Cisco iPhone, should be pretty easy to achieve. Sorry, I'm no Apple fanboy, but in this case, it appears that Apple definitely got the better part of this deal which probably means Cisco's lawyers didn't feel they had a strong case.
It's certainly true that there are a number of tools that allow YouTube content to be downloaded, but I suspect that most "ordinary" users aren't likely to be using these any time soon. Why? Because in most cases, what would be the point of doing the extra work required. Most computer users just want to keep it simple.
Hmm, does this all mean that soon actors may be mere meat sacks on which to draw/animate? I suppose it is easier to use a real person as a canvas for the visual bits and then bring in good voice actors for the rest than a completely CG character. Is SAG's days numbered? Who cares? The real question is will this manipulation result in better film making? If not, it's really all irrelevant to the movie going public.
This sounds like pretty good news. While I see nothing wrong with corporations wanting to make a profit, there are, I think, serious ethical problems with withholding information that could save many lives. And in particular, I think that the information in the human genome is something that belongs to all of humankind. Working together, not only will lives be saved and enhanced, but some serious money will be made as well, sooner rather than later.
This reminds me of the customer service at the old INS. It was pretty bad and all because I guess they figured that dealing with non-citizens they didn't need to exercise anything like courtesy. Anytime you're not paying for a particular service, watch out if you have any trouble. Only money talks in the ears of corporates out to make a buck. No one wants to lose a paying customer, but someone getting free stuff, eck! Oh, and seeing ads doesn't count as payment, ever.
The clock is ticking down to the collapse of YouTube and similar sites, or the transformation of these sites into something quite different. The main problem here again is the fact that stuff gets posted without any real humans looking at it ahead of time. They can build all of the filters they want, we've already seen this with the old Napster. Unless postings are moderated before appearing, copyright abuses will continue to happen. Appended ads are just the latest twist. Eventually the courts are going to force YouTube to put the brakes on and humanly review all posted content, which, of course, will take a lot of time and change the way people use YouTube.
An outright ban would be hard to enforce, better would be to provide some kind of incentive to phase out incandescents over a period of years. Maybe a rising tax on incandescents coupled with some kind of credit on fluorescents. And to set a good example, the state should act first to change over the lighting in its various buildings, which all alone would save the taxpayers some money.
Indeed, let the RL police do their job. While there are some laws concerning what kinds of lawbreaking must be reported by covered entities, beyond that, the game developers/publishers have no other responsibility. Some players might appreciate a more proactive publisher, but that can cut the other way too and chase potential customers away.
Your case illustrates all too clearly why it is pointless to repair a computer that you didn't build yourself anymore. In the case of eMachines, I would guess that the OS license is explicitly tied to eMachines hardware only. In other words, you would have had to send the machine to eMachines for repairs. They probably would have ended up replacing the whole thing, if they accepted it at all. If they refused then you're just stuck buying a brand new machine or as it looks like you'll have to do, buy a new copy of Windows XP. Any cost savings of self repair of a box built by a 3rd party like eMachines or Dell, is killed by licensing and software activation.
If you have the time/money, sure go for the class action lawsuit. If not, see if you can pick up an OEM/System Builder copy of XP.
Making it easy to unsubscribe is a definite must do, and it has to work. There have been numerous occasions on which I've wanted to unsubscribe, followed all of the directions without fail, and yet continue to receive the email that I no longer want weeks later. At that point I mark it as spam and that company goes down a bunch of notches in my opinion.
While many here already know that PDF has been an open format for a number of years, that knowledge may not be held by all in the development business. Becoming an ISO standard will be very good PR for Adobe and PDF and will go a long time towards reaching developers who didn't know it was an open standard before. If will also be good for those who have PHBs that insist that everything have the right set of acronyms associated with it!
Buying a duel format player would just be a waste of money. Afterall, the real winner of the format war is going to be media-less digital delivery. With respect to movies and TV shows, there's nothing wrong with the current DVD format. So both HD-DVD and Blu Ray are going to be losers as far as the living room is concerned. I think there's a good chance that HD-DVD will be adopted by computer users for storage and PC games, while Blu Ray will live on for PS3 games. The only reason I don't think Blu Ray will make it on PCs is just the hunch that Sony will make it too expensive and restrictive, in part to protect PS3 games from piracy.
I stumbled into iTMS' Japanese store about a year ago and of course found I couldn't buy Japanese tracks that way. So, I just started writing Apple asking them to add Japanese pop and rock to the US store. Apparently enough people did this to convince someone to make the music available as now you can find music from some to the most popular performers in Japan such as, Ayumi Hamasaki, BoA, Utada, and Amuro Namie. There's a lot of older back catalog stuff, but it appears that the time gap is shrinking with some albums becoming available after 6 months. I don't mind the gap too much given that importing CDs from Japan is very expensive, because CDs in Japan are insanely expensive, costing twice what the typical US released CD costs, and DRM'd to boot!
I don't know if a World iTMS will come to be anytime soon, but it is clear to me that iTMS has already started to change how music is bought on a global scale. The added exposure is great for the artists, but somehow I don't think the big record labels are too happy since it means they can't sustain the huge markups they're accustomed to on CD sales. Still, that's the new world.
While it may be true that a PS3 price drop from Sony is not in the near term, what about things like rebates? Technically a rebate or other incentive, like free games with purchase, are not price drops. I think it is a safe bet that if PS3's continue to lounge about on shelves as some have reported, we'll see some kind of deal sweeteners that effectively reduce the price of ownership for consumers. Once those sales plateau, then the real price drops will come.
Wow, some good news on the PS3 front! While I won't be running out to get a Playstation 3 right away, I'm very glad to hear that the graphics problems with legacy titles has been solved. The fact that the machines got out the door with such egregious issues is a testament to the time pressure Sony was under to launch the PS3. With some luck, the European launch will be a much smoother affair than the US one.
Interesting. I'm actually waiting for the World of Warcraft Index, or WoWEx, myself! In principal, I suppose one can use just about any popular item to track some kind of economic activity or social behavior. The coming years should be fun for economists and sociologists alike!
Sadly, abuse of the system _is_ a part of the legal system, though no one official will admit that. As long as there are no real penalties for bringing bogus DMCA claims and no real penalties for ISPs to honor them, the abuse will continue because the claimants will get what they want. Unfortunately all laws have this feature, you can claim/sue for whatever you want. Until a court rules on the issue, it's generally all fair game. And there are plenty of lawyers, and others, who will take advantage of this legal lag time to get what they want. I suspect that only the penalty of death would put a full stop to this since fines are generally laughed off by large corporations and considered the cost of doing business.
There's still some hope here for the PS3. Afterall, even if the retailer takes a loss to clear the shelves of consoles for now, those buyers will likely be back to buy games once more good games come out. In the meantime, valuable shelf space is freed up for other products, like Wiis maybe.
It's become obvious that the 20GB drive that ships with the premium Xbox 360 is too small for the growing amount of downloadable content available on Xbox Live. And there are rumors that a 60GB model will be coming out probably within the next year. It is also true that there are a good number of core systems out there without hard drives at all.
Well maybe it's time to slash the price of the 20GB addon drive to encourage core system owners to get onboard XBL while transitioning to the 60GB models. This would clear out the 20GB inventory, freeing shelf space for the 60GB drives that many current 20GB owners will probably want to upgrade to when they come out.
From Carmack's comments regarding DX10 and the Xbox 360, I wonder what Microsoft is really up to here. On the surface, tying DX10 to Vista, looks like a strong armed tactic to force gamers to Vista. Clearly, game developers aren't likely to abandon XP anytime soon. Carmack also had good words to say about the Xbox 360, so could the real plan be to nudge developers into more Xbox 360 development and off of the PC? I know, strange plan, but games made and sold for Xbox 360 = royalties for Microsoft, games for the PC do not. Of course, there may not be a plan at all. This could be evidence of different parts of Microsoft pulling in different directions.
Hmmm, this reminds me of those stories that come up from time to time about some big corporation forgetting to renew their domain names. If the outcome of the trademark dispute comes down to this, it will argue strongly for paying attention to the little details. In any case, you can bet corporate lawyers all over the U.S. are going to be checking their trademark papers this weekend!
As usual with this sort of story, the vast majority of people who will buy the iPhone won't care whether there are 3rd party apps or not. They just want the thing to work. And so far the closed architectures of most cell phones have not stopped anyone from buying them. The best guess is that eventually 3rd party software will appear, but only through some tightly controlled process which will involve the 3rd party paying some fees to Apple for the privilege. Again, this is typical in the cell phone world and isn't likely to hurt sales of the iPhone in any significant fashion.
Even though Microsoft may be within their rights to not support a 6 year old OS, it would be a good idea for them to roll out a patch for an annoyance like the DST change. It would be a sign of good will to past and hopefully future customers, and it just plain looks bad for unofficial sources to be offering patches for Windows. Even if the OS has gone past end of life, the Windows brand is Microsoft's bread and butter. They really can't just sit back and let anyone offer up patches for it. Besides, these aren't blue haired grandmas running Windows 2K. Some of these people/companies might just buy something if you treat them right.
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So rather than a cut of profits, Cisco gets to share the name, eh? Oh yeah, like when you hear "iPhone" later this spring anybody is going to be thinking of Cisco! But at least interoperability with a product that no one is going to buy, namely the Cisco iPhone, should be pretty easy to achieve. Sorry, I'm no Apple fanboy, but in this case, it appears that Apple definitely got the better part of this deal which probably means Cisco's lawyers didn't feel they had a strong case.
It's certainly true that there are a number of tools that allow YouTube content to be downloaded, but I suspect that most "ordinary" users aren't likely to be using these any time soon. Why? Because in most cases, what would be the point of doing the extra work required. Most computer users just want to keep it simple.
Hmm, does this all mean that soon actors may be mere meat sacks on which to draw/animate? I suppose it is easier to use a real person as a canvas for the visual bits and then bring in good voice actors for the rest than a completely CG character. Is SAG's days numbered? Who cares? The real question is will this manipulation result in better film making? If not, it's really all irrelevant to the movie going public.
This sounds like pretty good news. While I see nothing wrong with corporations wanting to make a profit, there are, I think, serious ethical problems with withholding information that could save many lives. And in particular, I think that the information in the human genome is something that belongs to all of humankind. Working together, not only will lives be saved and enhanced, but some serious money will be made as well, sooner rather than later.
This reminds me of the customer service at the old INS. It was pretty bad and all because I guess they figured that dealing with non-citizens they didn't need to exercise anything like courtesy. Anytime you're not paying for a particular service, watch out if you have any trouble. Only money talks in the ears of corporates out to make a buck. No one wants to lose a paying customer, but someone getting free stuff, eck! Oh, and seeing ads doesn't count as payment, ever.
The clock is ticking down to the collapse of YouTube and similar sites, or the transformation of these sites into something quite different. The main problem here again is the fact that stuff gets posted without any real humans looking at it ahead of time. They can build all of the filters they want, we've already seen this with the old Napster. Unless postings are moderated before appearing, copyright abuses will continue to happen. Appended ads are just the latest twist. Eventually the courts are going to force YouTube to put the brakes on and humanly review all posted content, which, of course, will take a lot of time and change the way people use YouTube.
An outright ban would be hard to enforce, better would be to provide some kind of incentive to phase out incandescents over a period of years. Maybe a rising tax on incandescents coupled with some kind of credit on fluorescents. And to set a good example, the state should act first to change over the lighting in its various buildings, which all alone would save the taxpayers some money.
Indeed, let the RL police do their job. While there are some laws concerning what kinds of lawbreaking must be reported by covered entities, beyond that, the game developers/publishers have no other responsibility. Some players might appreciate a more proactive publisher, but that can cut the other way too and chase potential customers away.
Your case illustrates all too clearly why it is pointless to repair a computer that you didn't build yourself anymore. In the case of eMachines, I would guess that the OS license is explicitly tied to eMachines hardware only. In other words, you would have had to send the machine to eMachines for repairs. They probably would have ended up replacing the whole thing, if they accepted it at all. If they refused then you're just stuck buying a brand new machine or as it looks like you'll have to do, buy a new copy of Windows XP. Any cost savings of self repair of a box built by a 3rd party like eMachines or Dell, is killed by licensing and software activation.
If you have the time/money, sure go for the class action lawsuit. If not, see if you can pick up an OEM/System Builder copy of XP.
Making it easy to unsubscribe is a definite must do, and it has to work. There have been numerous occasions on which I've wanted to unsubscribe, followed all of the directions without fail, and yet continue to receive the email that I no longer want weeks later. At that point I mark it as spam and that company goes down a bunch of notches in my opinion.
How about a free PS3 instead? Oh wait, that would just introduce more Sony problems into our lives. Whoops.
Naahh, if you got a free PS3 you'd just be induced to run out and buy a Sony HDTV so that in the end Sony would still make money on the deal. They wouldn't learn a thing!;)
While many here already know that PDF has been an open format for a number of years, that knowledge may not be held by all in the development business. Becoming an ISO standard will be very good PR for Adobe and PDF and will go a long time towards reaching developers who didn't know it was an open standard before. If will also be good for those who have PHBs that insist that everything have the right set of acronyms associated with it!
Buying a duel format player would just be a waste of money. Afterall, the real winner of the format war is going to be media-less digital delivery. With respect to movies and TV shows, there's nothing wrong with the current DVD format. So both HD-DVD and Blu Ray are going to be losers as far as the living room is concerned. I think there's a good chance that HD-DVD will be adopted by computer users for storage and PC games, while Blu Ray will live on for PS3 games. The only reason I don't think Blu Ray will make it on PCs is just the hunch that Sony will make it too expensive and restrictive, in part to protect PS3 games from piracy.
I stumbled into iTMS' Japanese store about a year ago and of course found I couldn't buy Japanese tracks that way. So, I just started writing Apple asking them to add Japanese pop and rock to the US store. Apparently enough people did this to convince someone to make the music available as now you can find music from some to the most popular performers in Japan such as, Ayumi Hamasaki, BoA, Utada, and Amuro Namie. There's a lot of older back catalog stuff, but it appears that the time gap is shrinking with some albums becoming available after 6 months. I don't mind the gap too much given that importing CDs from Japan is very expensive, because CDs in Japan are insanely expensive, costing twice what the typical US released CD costs, and DRM'd to boot!
I don't know if a World iTMS will come to be anytime soon, but it is clear to me that iTMS has already started to change how music is bought on a global scale. The added exposure is great for the artists, but somehow I don't think the big record labels are too happy since it means they can't sustain the huge markups they're accustomed to on CD sales. Still, that's the new world.
While it may be true that a PS3 price drop from Sony is not in the near term, what about things like rebates? Technically a rebate or other incentive, like free games with purchase, are not price drops. I think it is a safe bet that if PS3's continue to lounge about on shelves as some have reported, we'll see some kind of deal sweeteners that effectively reduce the price of ownership for consumers. Once those sales plateau, then the real price drops will come.
Wow, some good news on the PS3 front! While I won't be running out to get a Playstation 3 right away, I'm very glad to hear that the graphics problems with legacy titles has been solved. The fact that the machines got out the door with such egregious issues is a testament to the time pressure Sony was under to launch the PS3. With some luck, the European launch will be a much smoother affair than the US one.
Interesting. I'm actually waiting for the World of Warcraft Index, or WoWEx, myself! In principal, I suppose one can use just about any popular item to track some kind of economic activity or social behavior. The coming years should be fun for economists and sociologists alike!
Sadly, abuse of the system _is_ a part of the legal system, though no one official will admit that. As long as there are no real penalties for bringing bogus DMCA claims and no real penalties for ISPs to honor them, the abuse will continue because the claimants will get what they want. Unfortunately all laws have this feature, you can claim/sue for whatever you want. Until a court rules on the issue, it's generally all fair game. And there are plenty of lawyers, and others, who will take advantage of this legal lag time to get what they want. I suspect that only the penalty of death would put a full stop to this since fines are generally laughed off by large corporations and considered the cost of doing business.
There's still some hope here for the PS3. Afterall, even if the retailer takes a loss to clear the shelves of consoles for now, those buyers will likely be back to buy games once more good games come out. In the meantime, valuable shelf space is freed up for other products, like Wiis maybe.
It's become obvious that the 20GB drive that ships with the premium Xbox 360 is too small for the growing amount of downloadable content available on Xbox Live. And there are rumors that a 60GB model will be coming out probably within the next year. It is also true that there are a good number of core systems out there without hard drives at all.
Well maybe it's time to slash the price of the 20GB addon drive to encourage core system owners to get onboard XBL while transitioning to the 60GB models. This would clear out the 20GB inventory, freeing shelf space for the 60GB drives that many current 20GB owners will probably want to upgrade to when they come out.
From Carmack's comments regarding DX10 and the Xbox 360, I wonder what Microsoft is really up to here. On the surface, tying DX10 to Vista, looks like a strong armed tactic to force gamers to Vista. Clearly, game developers aren't likely to abandon XP anytime soon. Carmack also had good words to say about the Xbox 360, so could the real plan be to nudge developers into more Xbox 360 development and off of the PC? I know, strange plan, but games made and sold for Xbox 360 = royalties for Microsoft, games for the PC do not. Of course, there may not be a plan at all. This could be evidence of different parts of Microsoft pulling in different directions.
Hmmm, this reminds me of those stories that come up from time to time about some big corporation forgetting to renew their domain names. If the outcome of the trademark dispute comes down to this, it will argue strongly for paying attention to the little details. In any case, you can bet corporate lawyers all over the U.S. are going to be checking their trademark papers this weekend!
As usual with this sort of story, the vast majority of people who will buy the iPhone won't care whether there are 3rd party apps or not. They just want the thing to work. And so far the closed architectures of most cell phones have not stopped anyone from buying them. The best guess is that eventually 3rd party software will appear, but only through some tightly controlled process which will involve the 3rd party paying some fees to Apple for the privilege. Again, this is typical in the cell phone world and isn't likely to hurt sales of the iPhone in any significant fashion.
Obligatory: Now that's what I call a money shot!
Even though Microsoft may be within their rights to not support a 6 year old OS, it would be a good idea for them to roll out a patch for an annoyance like the DST change. It would be a sign of good will to past and hopefully future customers, and it just plain looks bad for unofficial sources to be offering patches for Windows. Even if the OS has gone past end of life, the Windows brand is Microsoft's bread and butter. They really can't just sit back and let anyone offer up patches for it. Besides, these aren't blue haired grandmas running Windows 2K. Some of these people/companies might just buy something if you treat them right.