"sorry, but that's a load of crap - Quicktime is deliberately designed to run processes at startup without asking. That's plain bad manners, and entirely Apple's fault."
But you can remove it. Try removing MSN Messenger from startup, pre SP1 WinXP. Quicklaunchers are commonplace with Windows programs; QuickTime is not alone in that manner. Try ICQ. Real Player. SETI@home. Norton AntiVirus. AOL/AIM. Mozilla. Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft Office. And even though you cannot see it, IE in the background does too.
Microsoft associate general counsel for Europe Horacio Gutierrez said in a statement the fine was unjustified. "We believe it's unprecedented and inappropriate for the Commission to impose a fine on a company's U.S. operations when those operations are already regulated by the U.S. government and the conduct at issue has been permitted by both the Department of Justice and the U.S. courts," he said.
"I'm sorry, but if you trade into the EU, then you are expected to obey the laws of that market. Doesn't matter where the head office is. I'd have thought that Bill would employ lawyers with a clue - at least enough of a clue not to make a stupid statement like this."
There is prescidence for allowing this penalty to go through even on the U.S. side of Microsoft's operations. In the early 1990s, during the recession, the great State of California (excuse me, California Republic!) issued a corporate tax that was based upon the worldwide income of corporations operating in California. To my knowledge, the federal government did not intervene with this nor did NAFTA or the WTO strike it down. So I doubt Microsoft crying "uncle" will prevent the EU from doing whatever it pleases in this issue. If the EU was able to say "no" to Mr. Jack Welch, they can say "no" to Mr. Gates.
I'm glad to see that Sony's version is backing DVD-R, the most compatible with set-top DVD players. And then you have Philips backing DVD+R which has in the past few weeks been labelled as the competing *standard* that is failing in the marketplace.
Now, the better question is, when will the Sony drives be appearing in Macs as the new "SuperDrive"?:0
"Dragging QuickTime player to the trash does not remove all the "shared DLLs". Anyone who has used MacOS long enough to open the System directory can figure this out."
I use both Windows and OS X. You obviously do not know what you are talking about and that is why you are posting as an anonymous coward. OS X doesn't have DLLs so how can dragging it to the trash can not delete all of them in OS X when there were none to begin with? Try doing a Microsoft Search on "circular logic". You might learn something. But that might be asking for too much.
"Also, QuickTime Player really sucks ass, even on OS X. After I spend $129 for an OS, Apple should not be spamming me with popups."
No it [QuickTime - on Windows or OS X] doesn't [suck]. And you are complaining about pop ups? I certainly hope you aren't using IE as your browser of choice...
"According to La Repubblica online (try the fish if necessary), Sun, Nokia, Yahoo and Oracle are asking the EU Antitrust to intervene about Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Windows Messanger and Windows Movie Maker 2 as well."
Windows Movie Maker2? Who is filing a complaint based upon that? Pinnacle? Adobe? Roxio?
You probably should also add SuSE (Novell, cough cough) to the list. Considering how successful SuSE was in getting the SCO monkey off their back in German, I'm sure SuSE will lobby the EC to investigate this whole "litigation financing" racket Redmond cooked up... and that will be the Mt. Pinatubo of feces slapping the fan blades to bust their chops over with.
"Are you some kind of Apple flunky? I've installed quicktime under Windows and I'll never do it again. I don't care how many movie trailers I mess. You can't even fully uninstall it. It's ugly and bloated. It's almost as bad as Real-Whatever, which I also refuse to install."
The problem you just described is Microsoft's own fault. It lies with "installing programs" and shared DLL files in the Registry. At the expense of being labelled a troll or a flamebait post, that doesn't happen with a "real" operating system (Unix, BSD (OS X), Linux). Say you want to remove a program on a Mac in OS X. Drag the program icon to the trash. *Poof*! Can Windows do that? Nope - and it should, right out of the retail box. Not even Norton SystemWorks can always get rid of DLL clutter even after "uninstalling" programs even in WinXP. Now that chaps my hide!
So to recap, don't blame Apple for leaving items clogging up your registry after you tried deleting their "free" program. Send your complaint to Bill G. or Steve B. and demand that they clean up the Registry mess once and for all...and in a free update to their existing operating system before punking it to the industry in the form of Longhorn.
"Both VC-9 and AVC have substantial, provable enhancements in compression efficiency over the MPEG-4 Simple Profile used in DivX's HD profiles. What's your issue here?"
What's my issue? My issue is the DVD Forum selecting a codec from a convicted monopolist that cares little for respecting "standards" when whatever format they are pimping is rejected. My issue is on one hand, the DVD Forum selects Microsoft's codec and then chooses AAC for yet another standard.
So in retrospect, my beef is that the DVD Forum selected a codec too early in the process. There is no great demand for HDTV based DVD as of this moment. They should've waited a while. Considering the advances in DVD technology with blue ray laser and better usage of dual layers, perhaps the Forum should've just went along with MPEG2 compression until the other codecs improved instead of backing a format from a company hellbent upon imposing an IP tax upon the entire industry. After all, its not like the cable or satellite companies (and not to mention the broadcasters) will be switching away from MPEG2 in any of their digital systems.
...when an individual tries to extort Google, the U.S. Secret Service gets involved. Yet when a *business* (cough cough) like SCO tries to do the same thing, its board of directors is free to do as they please. Yep, that's justice.
And I'd say its compressed.:) All digital music "samples" the analog source. A music CD is only 16-bit (I'm not counting the 20-bit gold plated ones - Rykodisc?) for the most part, and 24-bit audio is the *gold* standard for getting near the fidelity of vinyl with a quality turn table and speakers without the drawbacks associated with analog.
I'd say we all need some good DSP usage on files such as MP3s, WMAs, AAC, and OGG files to reinsert the "lost layers" on the fly during playback...
"Again I reiterate. Only one player plays DRM AAC files, and thats Apples iTunes hence it is lockin to Apples player."
Wha, you never heard of Real Player? The last time I heard, it will do AAC files.
Granted, very few people use Real Player anymore in comparison to other alternatives...
And (speculation follows) its only a matter of time before WinAmp will play AAC considering how much of an emphasis AOL is giving to iTunes, and as you know, AOL owns WinAmp (Nullsoft)...
Who is greasing the palms (so to speak) of the DVD Forum?
Just short of two weeks ago, the *malakas* announce to the world that they'd selected Windows Media as the standard video compression for the HDTV DVD standard. As if it was better than Divx or QuickTime after a little more work.
"I bet Napster, MusicMatch, etc... are already getting their lawyers warmed up for this."
Well, its all those company's faults for ever even tinkering with a Microsoft-controlled media file format that made them dependent upon them. I can already foresee that those two will be switching to Sony's proprietary format to be unveiled later this year. That is, unless Apple gets wise and simply buys out Roxio. Toast6 definitely belongs in OS X 10.4 - and eliminating an iTunes competitor (Napster is Roxio) in the process!
"One thing Microsoft could do (and I hope they do), is pay a commission to affiliates that make sales through their store. It would be nice if they opened it up with WebServices, and acted more as a music supply platform than the itms. Of course as long as they stick with wma they're pretty much out of the game."
No they couldn't. You don't think Apple wouldn't do that too? The reason why Apple isn't paying a commission is because they aren't making any profit off the individual songs as it is. To do that, the RIAA's cut would have to be reduced, greatly. The RIAA itself (not counting the music label) is collecting over 20 cents per iTunes sale. Then you add the artist's cut, the music label's, the credit card micropayment charge, and then the 10 cents or so that Apple takes in to pay the hosting, and there's no room in there for commissions. Unless the RIAA's intake is cut by half under your scenario, Microsoft would have to sell loss-leader per song. Sure, they could do that, but they'd take great heat from the institutional shareholders since MSN and the Xbox (not to mention UltimateTV, and the modest licensing fees PocketPC brings in) have been boat anchors around the profitability of the company over all. And unlike Apple, Microsoft does not have a hit portable music player to make any profits from to justify such an entry into a market except for defense of Windows...
"You're correct so far you go, but what you've said doesn't really apply if your ultimate goal isn't to win any of the battles. SCO can talk all they want about how they are simply "protecting valuable intellectual property" but I think we all know that they don't care if they win any of these courtroom conflicts or not. That would be icing on the cake, but I doubt they expect it. This is all about damaging the competition (Microsoft's competition) and keeping stock prices as high as possible for as long as possible. You can bet that when SCO's house of cards finally tumbles McBride and Co. will cash out, move to the Caribbean somewhere and the company will fold."
I see it differently. I think McBride and company will have a vision of the need for a quick conversion to Judaism and book flights as quickly as possible to Israel. After all, Israel rarely, if ever, extradicts...
Greece is another option. Just bribe the local officials and have them put yourself under house arrest in some plush villa. That can happen in Columbia too, but there's more risk of being kidnapped by the leftist terrorists...
"It was once said after World War II that the United States should be ready to fight two and a half wars at any point, anywhere in the world. Other conflict management is just like this idea. You can only have so many fights before you will not effectively be able to handle them all. SCO not only has too many fights right now, but their fights are way too large for the relative size of their company. Anyone who takes on IBM, an assortment of other companies, and then the United States Federal Government needs to have their heads checked."
Yes, SCO seems to be using the old "fight a land war in Asia" strategy now that you mention it...
Somehow, I find the thought of a cluster of Atari 2600s far more impressive. Then again, the last time SCO's platform was updated was probably about the same time the 2600 received its last facelift, come to think of it...:)
"I don't know about you, but it certainly gives new meaning to some already existing sites.
tomshardware.sex
slashdot.sex
irs.sex
gateway.sex"
Don't forget about Microsoft.sex. Of course, it would be a source for penis enlargement spam, or leaked video footage starring Mr. Gates or Mr. Ballmer.
And no, I did not suggest the video would feature both of them together, thank you very much!
"Burned by who? The general public barely cared. Big business told the DOJ breaking MS up would be a terrible idea. The administration doesn't care about what the EU thought of it. In my view the actions of the administration were horrible regarding the antitrust action. But overall I don't see how they got burned."
I'll explain my statement. The Bush Justice Dept. settled with Microsoft because they believed there were serious flaws in the case and they wanted the inherited case put to an end (anyone remember the antitrust case against IBM?).
Now let us assume the Bush Administration wins the election. Just in the past week, we've seen "proof" that Microsoft is behind the SCO lawsuits. Much more will come out when IBM decides to go for the jugular. Then it will hit the media outlets late this year that Microsoft violated its favorable settlement and then the media will make an issue out of campaign contributions to Republicans. The Bush Administration will have to work extra hard to dismiss such allegations if they want to prevent a backlack in the midterm elections of their second term. After all, Cheney potentially has problems with the whole Enron stuff, and if more comes out, he'll swear his name is Spiro Agnew. One thing the Bush supporters and critics can all agree upon about the man is that personal loyalty is highly valued by him. If he feels Bill Gates screwed him over in the settlement, its likely you could be turning on the evening news to find a report of WMD being found in Redmond, Washington.:)
So that's my basis for the statement. Despite what his [Bush] critics say about him, I highly doubt he'll ever pardon Kenneth Lay, unlike say what Clinton did on his last day in office in regard to the various people connected with the Rose Law Firm. But that's a whole different story...:0
Re:day of idiotic faux tech news...
on
TiVo Will Die
·
· Score: 1
"Sure, that's great. But, where I live, my cable company is Time-Warner. My local cable company dosen't just share a single board member with a large media producer: they are part of the same company. That has real possibility: they own the pipe, they own a piece of the content on the pipe, and they own one of the production companies producing the content on the pipe. Netflix is a red herring: who needs to ship out discs to your customers when you have a nice fat pipe between you and them that you control? Netflix is also increasingly getting competition, and it will be interesting to see five years from now where they stand, especially with Wal-Mart getting in the "mailing discs rental" business."
NetFlix isn't receiving any noteworthy competition with their business model. Wal-Mart's efforts are a joke and if I do recall, NetFlix is suing them. Besides, do you really think the Wal-Mart version would have such great titles as "Jesus Christ - Vampire Hunter" to pick from?
Second of all, I suggest you try NetFlix before entertaining the proposition that the cable companies are effective competition with their PPV. How many movies on PPV are actually shown in widescreen format? Not too many. Can you listen to the director's commentary while watching that PPV? Nope. Deleted scenes? Nope. Re-inserted scenes? Bonus features? Cast and crew info? Nope.
Next, look at how much money PPV is for Joe Consumer. $5 a pop? Geez, I get unlimited rentals for $20 a month via NetFlix.
In terms of On-Demand and PPV, do they offer a large selection of movies like NetFlix? No. You have the latest releases and some signature titles. But they don't have the large catalog to pull from. And again, no widescreen presentation.
Now how can TiVo pull off a coup by its close assocation with NetFlix? Well, TiVo monitors what you watch. It could suggest certain rentals to you, and then they'd be sent out to your home. I'm surprised they don't already have something like that tied in with Amazon or any other e-tailer. So if I watch "Angel" one night, the TiVo would ask "would you like to purchase *Angel Season 3* on DVD at Amazon?" Thumbs up for yes, thumbs down for no.
I would lay money down that such features will be included in the stand alone Series3 units when they hit the market. Of course, those features won't be included in the DirecTV versions since DirecTV wouldn't want to jeopardize their own PPV investments.
The PVR market is getting more interesting as we speak...the fasten your seat belts type of exciting... and TiVo will be leading the way. I have my fingers crossed Apple will debut their own branded TiVo that streams iTunes within the next year.
I'd also like to bring up one other point. You, like Time Warner and the other cable companies, tout ON DEMAND. $10 a month to watch "Sex and the City" and a few other limited shows any time I want, in addition to the subscription fee to that particular channel. Now if I'm already an HBO subscriber, I could just set my TiVo to record that episode whenever it aired without paying an extra $10 for that priviledge. Thus my TiVo saves me money.
"Mozilla's not the default on any of those, except some breeds of Linux."
Strange how my Mozilla FireFox has had a Google search bar at the top right hand corner since how many name revisions ago?
day of idiotic faux tech news...
on
TiVo Will Die
·
· Score: 1
First story today...Apple is losing market share, the iPod isn't driving Mac sales, and the Apple branded stores are a failure.
Second story...Microsoft is in talks to purchase the AOL division from Time Warner. Idiot. A simpleton would understand that there are far too many antitrust issues involved to allow such an acquisition.
And now we have the "TiVo dying" story. The author even gives valuable word space to mention Replay even though that product is for all tense and purposes, finished. The author goes into great detail about how smart the cable company offerings are and digital-to-analog arugments without even mentioning the fact that the majority of cable television subscribers are analog customers.
The author also failed to mention that the chairman of TiVo also sits on the board of directors at NetFlix. Imagine the possibilities there.
And just because Microsoft throws in basic PVR functions in WindowsXP Media Center does not mean that will wipe out stand-alone PVRs. Including DVD drives in computers failed to wipe out the market for stand-alone DVD players.
What about the TiVo units now being shipped in DVD and DVD burner units? The author strikes out in that area as well. What about TiVo-2-Go? Oh, he failed to research that as well.
This is idle speculation and it is completely unrealistic for all of the antitrust reasons.
1. AOL has the option to buy a large chunk on Google and Google is AOL's preferred search option. AOL promotes Google in their commercials.
It is no secret Microsoft wishes to bury Google with Longhorn.
2. AOL owns WinAmp.
Microsoft getting its grubby hands on WinAmp and other Nullsoft properties wouldn't be allowed. See the European Union's (non Mad Cow) beef with Microsoft and Windows Media Player.
3. AOL owns AIM and ICQ.
Microsoft acquiring either or both of these Instant Messenger platforms would not be permitted. AIM is essentially the standard IM client on mobile phones in America. AIM is also the basis for Apple's iChat software. There are too many parties involved that would object to this.
4. AOL has options to buy Amazon.com stock and owns shares.
'Nuff said.
5. AOL owns shares in TiVo and is a partner.
'Nuff said. See UltimateTV. Also see "WindowsXP Media Center."
6. AOL is an active partner in Sony's plans of offering IM services to the Playstation platform. While this has not happened on the PS2, it is most likely scheduled for the PS3.
Microsoft and the Xbox, not to mention the Xbox Next. 'Nuff said.
7. AOL is a preferred partner with Apple's iTunes.
Microsoft acquiring AOL will again be seen as a move to squeeze Apple out of the market just like over the AIM situation. This will only aide the antitrust lawsuit Real Networks has leveraged against Microsoft.
8. AOL was an institutional shareholder in Palm since the spin-off from 3Com.
Again, Microsoft acquiring AOL would be a headache because this would be yet another example of Microsoft hitting at its various competitors.
The Bush Justice Dept., already burned over the Antitrust Settlement, will in no way allow this to go through.
Slashdot Mirror
"sorry, but that's a load of crap - Quicktime is deliberately designed to run processes at startup without asking. That's plain bad manners, and entirely Apple's fault."
But you can remove it. Try removing MSN Messenger from startup, pre SP1 WinXP. Quicklaunchers are commonplace with Windows programs; QuickTime is not alone in that manner. Try ICQ. Real Player. SETI@home. Norton AntiVirus. AOL/AIM. Mozilla. Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft Office. And even though you cannot see it, IE in the background does too.
Microsoft associate general counsel for Europe Horacio Gutierrez said in a statement the fine was unjustified. "We believe it's unprecedented and inappropriate for the Commission to impose a fine on a company's U.S. operations when those operations are already regulated by the U.S. government and the conduct at issue has been permitted by both the Department of Justice and the U.S. courts," he said.
"I'm sorry, but if you trade into the EU, then you are expected to obey the laws of that market. Doesn't matter where the head office is. I'd have thought that Bill would employ lawyers with a clue - at least enough of a clue not to make a stupid statement like this."
There is prescidence for allowing this penalty to go through even on the U.S. side of Microsoft's operations. In the early 1990s, during the recession, the great State of California (excuse me, California Republic!) issued a corporate tax that was based upon the worldwide income of corporations operating in California. To my knowledge, the federal government did not intervene with this nor did NAFTA or the WTO strike it down. So I doubt Microsoft crying "uncle" will prevent the EU from doing whatever it pleases in this issue. If the EU was able to say "no" to Mr. Jack Welch, they can say "no" to Mr. Gates.
I'm glad to see that Sony's version is backing DVD-R, the most compatible with set-top DVD players. And then you have Philips backing DVD+R which has in the past few weeks been labelled as the competing *standard* that is failing in the marketplace.
Now, the better question is, when will the Sony drives be appearing in Macs as the new "SuperDrive"?
"Dragging QuickTime player to the trash does not remove all the "shared DLLs". Anyone who has used MacOS long enough to open the System directory can figure this out."
I use both Windows and OS X. You obviously do not know what you are talking about and that is why you are posting as an anonymous coward. OS X doesn't have DLLs so how can dragging it to the trash can not delete all of them in OS X when there were none to begin with? Try doing a Microsoft Search on "circular logic". You might learn something. But that might be asking for too much.
"Also, QuickTime Player really sucks ass, even on OS X. After I spend $129 for an OS, Apple should not be spamming me with popups."
No it [QuickTime - on Windows or OS X] doesn't [suck]. And you are complaining about pop ups? I certainly hope you aren't using IE as your browser of choice...
"According to La Repubblica online (try the fish if necessary), Sun, Nokia, Yahoo and Oracle are asking the EU Antitrust to intervene about Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, Windows Messanger and Windows Movie Maker 2 as well."
Windows Movie Maker2? Who is filing a complaint based upon that? Pinnacle? Adobe? Roxio?
You probably should also add SuSE (Novell, cough cough) to the list. Considering how successful SuSE was in getting the SCO monkey off their back in German, I'm sure SuSE will lobby the EC to investigate this whole "litigation financing" racket Redmond cooked up... and that will be the Mt. Pinatubo of feces slapping the fan blades to bust their chops over with.
"Are you some kind of Apple flunky? I've installed quicktime under Windows and I'll never do it again. I don't care how many movie trailers I mess. You can't even fully uninstall it. It's ugly and bloated. It's almost as bad as Real-Whatever, which I also refuse to install."
The problem you just described is Microsoft's own fault. It lies with "installing programs" and shared DLL files in the Registry. At the expense of being labelled a troll or a flamebait post, that doesn't happen with a "real" operating system (Unix, BSD (OS X), Linux). Say you want to remove a program on a Mac in OS X. Drag the program icon to the trash. *Poof*! Can Windows do that? Nope - and it should, right out of the retail box. Not even Norton SystemWorks can always get rid of DLL clutter even after "uninstalling" programs even in WinXP. Now that chaps my hide!
So to recap, don't blame Apple for leaving items clogging up your registry after you tried deleting their "free" program. Send your complaint to Bill G. or Steve B. and demand that they clean up the Registry mess once and for all...and in a free update to their existing operating system before punking it to the industry in the form of Longhorn.
"Both VC-9 and AVC have substantial, provable enhancements in compression efficiency over the MPEG-4 Simple Profile used in DivX's HD profiles. What's your issue here?"
What's my issue? My issue is the DVD Forum selecting a codec from a convicted monopolist that cares little for respecting "standards" when whatever format they are pimping is rejected. My issue is on one hand, the DVD Forum selects Microsoft's codec and then chooses AAC for yet another standard.
So in retrospect, my beef is that the DVD Forum selected a codec too early in the process. There is no great demand for HDTV based DVD as of this moment. They should've waited a while. Considering the advances in DVD technology with blue ray laser and better usage of dual layers, perhaps the Forum should've just went along with MPEG2 compression until the other codecs improved instead of backing a format from a company hellbent upon imposing an IP tax upon the entire industry. After all, its not like the cable or satellite companies (and not to mention the broadcasters) will be switching away from MPEG2 in any of their digital systems.
Let's file this in the "already been done" category. That would be under Atari MindLink System controller, circa 1984.
"I'd say it's encoded, but not compressed."
:) All digital music "samples" the analog source. A music CD is only 16-bit (I'm not counting the 20-bit gold plated ones - Rykodisc?) for the most part, and 24-bit audio is the *gold* standard for getting near the fidelity of vinyl with a quality turn table and speakers without the drawbacks associated with analog.
And I'd say its compressed.
I'd say we all need some good DSP usage on files such as MP3s, WMAs, AAC, and OGG files to reinsert the "lost layers" on the fly during playback...
"Again I reiterate. Only one player plays DRM AAC files, and thats Apples iTunes hence it is lockin to Apples player."
Wha, you never heard of Real Player? The last time I heard, it will do AAC files.
Granted, very few people use Real Player anymore in comparison to other alternatives...
And (speculation follows) its only a matter of time before WinAmp will play AAC considering how much of an emphasis AOL is giving to iTunes, and as you know, AOL owns WinAmp (Nullsoft)...
"The only reason I buy CDs at the moment is because it's not compressed, I can encode it into my format of choice - whatever that may be..."
How is an audio CD not compressed music? By its very nature, that being digital, the music is compressed.
Who is greasing the palms (so to speak) of the DVD Forum?
Just short of two weeks ago, the *malakas* announce to the world that they'd selected Windows Media as the standard video compression for the HDTV DVD standard. As if it was better than Divx or QuickTime after a little more work.
Great job, DVD Forum!
"I bet Napster, MusicMatch, etc... are already getting their lawyers warmed up for this."
Well, its all those company's faults for ever even tinkering with a Microsoft-controlled media file format that made them dependent upon them. I can already foresee that those two will be switching to Sony's proprietary format to be unveiled later this year. That is, unless Apple gets wise and simply buys out Roxio. Toast6 definitely belongs in OS X 10.4 - and eliminating an iTunes competitor (Napster is Roxio) in the process!
"One thing Microsoft could do (and I hope they do), is pay a commission to affiliates that make sales through their store. It would be nice if they opened it up with WebServices, and acted more as a music supply platform than the itms. Of course as long as they stick with wma they're pretty much out of the game."
No they couldn't. You don't think Apple wouldn't do that too? The reason why Apple isn't paying a commission is because they aren't making any profit off the individual songs as it is. To do that, the RIAA's cut would have to be reduced, greatly. The RIAA itself (not counting the music label) is collecting over 20 cents per iTunes sale. Then you add the artist's cut, the music label's, the credit card micropayment charge, and then the 10 cents or so that Apple takes in to pay the hosting, and there's no room in there for commissions. Unless the RIAA's intake is cut by half under your scenario, Microsoft would have to sell loss-leader per song. Sure, they could do that, but they'd take great heat from the institutional shareholders since MSN and the Xbox (not to mention UltimateTV, and the modest licensing fees PocketPC brings in) have been boat anchors around the profitability of the company over all. And unlike Apple, Microsoft does not have a hit portable music player to make any profits from to justify such an entry into a market except for defense of Windows...
"You're correct so far you go, but what you've said doesn't really apply if your ultimate goal isn't to win any of the battles. SCO can talk all they want about how they are simply "protecting valuable intellectual property" but I think we all know that they don't care if they win any of these courtroom conflicts or not. That would be icing on the cake, but I doubt they expect it. This is all about damaging the competition (Microsoft's competition) and keeping stock prices as high as possible for as long as possible. You can bet that when SCO's house of cards finally tumbles McBride and Co. will cash out, move to the Caribbean somewhere and the company will fold."
I see it differently. I think McBride and company will have a vision of the need for a quick conversion to Judaism and book flights as quickly as possible to Israel. After all, Israel rarely, if ever, extradicts...
Greece is another option. Just bribe the local officials and have them put yourself under house arrest in some plush villa. That can happen in Columbia too, but there's more risk of being kidnapped by the leftist terrorists...
"It was once said after World War II that the United States should be ready to fight two and a half wars at any point, anywhere in the world. Other conflict management is just like this idea. You can only have so many fights before you will not effectively be able to handle them all. SCO not only has too many fights right now, but their fights are way too large for the relative size of their company. Anyone who takes on IBM, an assortment of other companies, and then the United States Federal Government needs to have their heads checked."
Yes, SCO seems to be using the old "fight a land war in Asia" strategy now that you mention it...
"Imagine a Beowulf cluster of SCO licenses!"
:)
Somehow, I find the thought of a cluster of Atari 2600s far more impressive. Then again, the last time SCO's platform was updated was probably about the same time the 2600 received its last facelift, come to think of it...
"VinDiesel.xxx And then sell the domain to that loser for hefty sum."
Or, you could host that "How to Breakdance" video he was featured in (when he was nearly a teen) on the site. Talk about embarassing!
"I don't know about you, but it certainly gives new meaning to some already existing sites.
tomshardware.sex
slashdot.sex
irs.sex
gateway.sex"
Don't forget about Microsoft.sex. Of course, it would be a source for penis enlargement spam, or leaked video footage starring Mr. Gates or Mr. Ballmer.
And no, I did not suggest the video would feature both of them together, thank you very much!
"Burned by who? The general public barely cared. Big business told the DOJ breaking MS up would be a terrible idea. The administration doesn't care about what the EU thought of it. In my view the actions of the administration were horrible regarding the antitrust action. But overall I don't see how they got burned."
:)
:0
I'll explain my statement. The Bush Justice Dept. settled with Microsoft because they believed there were serious flaws in the case and they wanted the inherited case put to an end (anyone remember the antitrust case against IBM?).
Now let us assume the Bush Administration wins the election. Just in the past week, we've seen "proof" that Microsoft is behind the SCO lawsuits. Much more will come out when IBM decides to go for the jugular. Then it will hit the media outlets late this year that Microsoft violated its favorable settlement and then the media will make an issue out of campaign contributions to Republicans. The Bush Administration will have to work extra hard to dismiss such allegations if they want to prevent a backlack in the midterm elections of their second term. After all, Cheney potentially has problems with the whole Enron stuff, and if more comes out, he'll swear his name is Spiro Agnew. One thing the Bush supporters and critics can all agree upon about the man is that personal loyalty is highly valued by him. If he feels Bill Gates screwed him over in the settlement, its likely you could be turning on the evening news to find a report of WMD being found in Redmond, Washington.
So that's my basis for the statement. Despite what his [Bush] critics say about him, I highly doubt he'll ever pardon Kenneth Lay, unlike say what Clinton did on his last day in office in regard to the various people connected with the Rose Law Firm. But that's a whole different story...
"Sure, that's great. But, where I live, my cable company is Time-Warner. My local cable company dosen't just share a single board member with a large media producer: they are part of the same company. That has real possibility: they own the pipe, they own a piece of the content on the pipe, and they own one of the production companies producing the content on the pipe. Netflix is a red herring: who needs to ship out discs to your customers when you have a nice fat pipe between you and them that you control? Netflix is also increasingly getting competition, and it will be interesting to see five years from now where they stand, especially with Wal-Mart getting in the "mailing discs rental" business."
NetFlix isn't receiving any noteworthy competition with their business model. Wal-Mart's efforts are a joke and if I do recall, NetFlix is suing them. Besides, do you really think the Wal-Mart version would have such great titles as "Jesus Christ - Vampire Hunter" to pick from?
Second of all, I suggest you try NetFlix before entertaining the proposition that the cable companies are effective competition with their PPV. How many movies on PPV are actually shown in widescreen format? Not too many. Can you listen to the director's commentary while watching that PPV? Nope. Deleted scenes? Nope. Re-inserted scenes? Bonus features? Cast and crew info? Nope.
Next, look at how much money PPV is for Joe Consumer. $5 a pop? Geez, I get unlimited rentals for $20 a month via NetFlix.
In terms of On-Demand and PPV, do they offer a large selection of movies like NetFlix? No. You have the latest releases and some signature titles. But they don't have the large catalog to pull from. And again, no widescreen presentation.
Now how can TiVo pull off a coup by its close assocation with NetFlix? Well, TiVo monitors what you watch. It could suggest certain rentals to you, and then they'd be sent out to your home. I'm surprised they don't already have something like that tied in with Amazon or any other e-tailer. So if I watch "Angel" one night, the TiVo would ask "would you like to purchase *Angel Season 3* on DVD at Amazon?" Thumbs up for yes, thumbs down for no.
I would lay money down that such features will be included in the stand alone Series3 units when they hit the market. Of course, those features won't be included in the DirecTV versions since DirecTV wouldn't want to jeopardize their own PPV investments.
The PVR market is getting more interesting as we speak...the fasten your seat belts type of exciting... and TiVo will be leading the way. I have my fingers crossed Apple will debut their own branded TiVo that streams iTunes within the next year.
I'd also like to bring up one other point. You, like Time Warner and the other cable companies, tout ON DEMAND. $10 a month to watch "Sex and the City" and a few other limited shows any time I want, in addition to the subscription fee to that particular channel. Now if I'm already an HBO subscriber, I could just set my TiVo to record that episode whenever it aired without paying an extra $10 for that priviledge. Thus my TiVo saves me money.
"Mozilla's not the default on any of those, except some breeds of Linux."
Strange how my Mozilla FireFox has had a Google search bar at the top right hand corner since how many name revisions ago?
First story today...Apple is losing market share, the iPod isn't driving Mac sales, and the Apple branded stores are a failure.
Second story...Microsoft is in talks to purchase the AOL division from Time Warner. Idiot. A simpleton would understand that there are far too many antitrust issues involved to allow such an acquisition.
And now we have the "TiVo dying" story. The author even gives valuable word space to mention Replay even though that product is for all tense and purposes, finished. The author goes into great detail about how smart the cable company offerings are and digital-to-analog arugments without even mentioning the fact that the majority of cable television subscribers are analog customers.
The author also failed to mention that the chairman of TiVo also sits on the board of directors at NetFlix. Imagine the possibilities there.
And just because Microsoft throws in basic PVR functions in WindowsXP Media Center does not mean that will wipe out stand-alone PVRs. Including DVD drives in computers failed to wipe out the market for stand-alone DVD players.
What about the TiVo units now being shipped in DVD and DVD burner units? The author strikes out in that area as well. What about TiVo-2-Go? Oh, he failed to research that as well.
Good job!
This is idle speculation and it is completely unrealistic for all of the antitrust reasons.
1. AOL has the option to buy a large chunk on Google and Google is AOL's preferred search option. AOL promotes Google in their commercials.
It is no secret Microsoft wishes to bury Google with Longhorn.
2. AOL owns WinAmp.
Microsoft getting its grubby hands on WinAmp and other Nullsoft properties wouldn't be allowed. See the European Union's (non Mad Cow) beef with Microsoft and Windows Media Player.
3. AOL owns AIM and ICQ.
Microsoft acquiring either or both of these Instant Messenger platforms would not be permitted. AIM is essentially the standard IM client on mobile phones in America. AIM is also the basis for Apple's iChat software. There are too many parties involved that would object to this.
4. AOL has options to buy Amazon.com stock and owns shares.
'Nuff said.
5. AOL owns shares in TiVo and is a partner.
'Nuff said. See UltimateTV. Also see "WindowsXP Media Center."
6. AOL is an active partner in Sony's plans of offering IM services to the Playstation platform. While this has not happened on the PS2, it is most likely scheduled for the PS3.
Microsoft and the Xbox, not to mention the Xbox Next. 'Nuff said.
7. AOL is a preferred partner with Apple's iTunes.
Microsoft acquiring AOL will again be seen as a move to squeeze Apple out of the market just like over the AIM situation. This will only aide the antitrust lawsuit Real Networks has leveraged against Microsoft.
8. AOL was an institutional shareholder in Palm since the spin-off from 3Com.
Again, Microsoft acquiring AOL would be a headache because this would be yet another example of Microsoft hitting at its various competitors.
The Bush Justice Dept., already burned over the Antitrust Settlement, will in no way allow this to go through.