for the ABM crowd cmusphinx might be a better toolkit. It has the open source goodness, is multi-platform (no wine shit) and has several versions in differnt programming languages including a pure java version (sphinx-4).
"A company as popular as google might have the size to convince the labels that DRM isn't needed"
modern mp3 encoders have thousands of tweakable parameters and so there are billions of possible permutations that would have very little audiable effect (especially at higher bit-rates). If each track is completely re-encoded for each customer - and the seller keeps the md5 then its a traceable file (but not watermarked - watermaking does not work, it is trivial to remove) and thats a strong deterent against sharing. Of course you could re-encode the track and change the md5 but that would be lossy and is no different to what itunes customers can already do (burn cd, rerip). Of course this would take much more computing power than a standard drm store - bi-jiminy-joe only a google could pull it off. i hearby patent this idea.
is there any technical reason the original xbox live can't support an arcade? seems like an artificial marketing trick - to take a new software feature and artificially make it exclusive to expensive new hardware platform - but NOT a next gen feature (eg hd graphics, 3d controller), just a software trick to drive upgrades.
if this is such a killer app with huge consumer demand and money to be made them microsoft shareholders should demand arcade like features rolled back to the original xbox live platform. or maybe its just fluff.
i think you're wrong about there being a lack of customer loyalty for microsoft. for a long time microsoft were seen as the challenger to encumbents ibm and apple, fighting on behalf of the little guy and lowering prices. Its only recently that this goodwill has began to erode under an onslaght of virus, instability, higher prices and relia~~~~|||||||E71
1. It is not illegal to use mono or to develop mono. 2. C#/.net libraries are ECMA standards
However,
1. Microsoft has the right to charge a RAND (reasonable and non-descriminatory) fee at any time for the use of these standards. 2. They have never, ever, stated in any binding way that they would not do so in the future. 3. *any* fee, even minimal would result in the instant death of any OSS project dependent on those standards. 4. RAND can (and frequently does in the proprietary software world) mean several dollars per download! Or requiring build licenses for all developers producing binaries (every end user of gentoo for example!) that are in the hundreds of $ range. These are all reasonable and non-descriminatory in that context!
Miguel De Icasa and Ximian/Mono people *know* this full well but don't want to admit how dangerous mono adoption is for the gnome community. They cite a BS casual mailing list post from the head engineer of.net as their claim that MS will never sue.
See how much crap this is for yourself (from official Mono faq):
Jim Miller's off hand email is the *only* assurance anyone has ever received that MS would never charge a RAND fee! If this were truly MS's commitment then they could release a statement or legally commit themselves to that! This email is not not not legally binding people! Until MS makes a legally binding agreement to never charge for use of these standards, it is not ok to use mono!
See also Seth Nickels' blog on this subject "Why Mono is currently an unnacceptable risk":
The two main arguments against what I'm saying are realy crap also:
1. Java is also proprietary:
Yes but Sun has licensed Java in such a way that they are legally prohibited from charging *any* royalties at all for existing releases of Java. We know with 100% certainty that Sun will never try and collect any RAND fee. Ever. The situation with Java is totally different for this reason. Even if Sun changed its mind or was purchased by a less generous company (like MS for example), existing releases of Java and alternative implementations based on existing released specs would always remain free as in beer. The no version of the.net ecma standards ever has been comparably free.
2. You are always infringing somewhere, worrying about this is wasting your time:
True, there is always a danger of unknowingly infringing. However, in this case mono is knowingly using patented software. If MS decided to collect or sue, mono and gnome would have absolutely zero defense! Furthermore, MS is well known for destroying threatening companies when it suits them to do so! They have done this many times in the past. Remeber how they *lost* an anti-trust lawsuit? It is because they are agressive, unscrupulous and incredibly rich and illegal monopoly that used its power to destroy competition. They can and will crush gnome if gnome threatens MS! Mono is the ultimate submarine. We build it, integrate it so gnome can't live without it, then they kill gnome by charging for builds. Bam. Gnome is dead on that day.
Take Away: Mono is cool but way too dangerous. Smart people and companies are staying away from it (which turns out to be *most* companies by the way. That is why Redhat and others are pushing Java as an alternative). People who back mono either have motive (ximian), are misinformed (most of the people on this forum), or just dumb (people who are really drooling over the potential of mono so they are ignoring the risk, probably ximian and some gnome developers again)
I've only seen Balmer once when he wasn't on a podium, and it was scary...
Here's the story.
It was in one of the newer buildings and they were having one of those "not retreating is actually a victory" meetings about how they'd spent several million $ persuading some local council in South America to upgrade their copy of Exchange Server, or something, instead of buying some semi-functional 'open-source' alternative...
All the people around me were going "Steve Balmer... It's Steve Balmer..." in awed tones, so I took notice, for a change, rather than just keeping my lowly-assed head down, like I usually do...
Anyway, HE emerges (THE Balmer, I mean) from this meeting room - all smiles, and everyone is slapping each other on the back, and saying how great things were, and Balmer (not a word of a lie) leans forwards, furrows those beetle brows of his, and strikes a he-man pose... you know the kind I mean, surely? Elbow crooked, upper arm raised, fist clenched...?
For a moment, I thought "Yes! This is surely a sign that the man has a sense of self-irony! Surely he realises how ridiculous that looks: 'Uncle Fester strikes heroic pose'" - Yeah, I know we're not supposed to use the UF analogy, but honestly, guys... that's he looked like: Uncle Fester, in a suit, striking a Mr Universe pose...
Anyway, like I say, for one giddy moment, this girl thought we were actually being led by a guy with a sense of self awareness and humour... That he was about to turn around and say that the last few years have just been one gigantic joke...
You know?
But no. The Laughs and smiles continued among his groupies... and my heart sank.
Here he was, Mr Balmer, in all his frail male ego-trip glory... He actually believes that stuff, you know? He probably even thinks women find him more attractive!
I was told the other day (and this is probably old news to you geeks), that Steve Jobs has a 'reality distortion' field that takes in those around him and converts them to his way of thinking... If that's the case, then OUR Steve is like that in reverse: a kind of "Black Hole" of reality distortion. He surrounds himself with people who radiate distortion... and he kind of just sucks it all in and believes it all HIMSELF!
After all, why waste your time convincing the rest of the company that you're right, when you can just believe all that crap, yourself?
Can anyone else remember seeing this performance and fill in the blanks about where it was and how it happened? I KNOW I saw it: I'm not making this up!
I know I'm pretty low down the scale, and probably come across as such - in fact, I'm probably on my way to my first 3.0 - but maybe someone else who was there can verify this?
I just remember thinking at the time: "If that guy was a South American dictator, he'd be one of those ones that wears a colonel's uniform - even though everyone can see he's actually a fat bald guy!"
I decided, then and there, that all of our personal futures was being run, so as to flatter the ego of a fat bald guy!
Does that sound like a personal attack on Steve? Maybe we need that! maybe we need to get personal, before we puncture his ego-shield and deliver a good dose of clue to the guy?
I have no solutions, but I can say that even from my lowly position, 'Our Great Helmsman' look deluded.
"Good. Half of the above projects (particularly those started by the former Ximian people) are "me too" efforts that have done more to fragment the community than to help it. I hope Nat Friedman and Miguel de Icaza are wandering the streets of Boston begging for food by next week".
"the Java requirement of Blue-Ray must be killing them"
almost all microsoft phones come with a full java (mobile) virtual machine. Bill Gates was furious when the handset makers and carriers adopted java (see famous dwarfs quote) but microsoft are so terrified of being eclipsed by a mass consumer shift that they allow manufacters/carriers to put a jvm on their handsets to get a foot in the door. Some motorola windows phones have a richer api for accessing phone features (bluetooth, camera) through java than the.net cf api. Since the antitrust ms are relatively toothless and manufacturers can walk all over them (see all dell/hp pcs shipping with modern sun jvm and applet plugin) why are we even listening to these gangsters with regard to next-gen dvd formats? XP/media player and x-box can't even play a dvd unless you buy extra software/license!!! wma/plays-for-sure[BUT NOT IPODS!] has had its ass handed to it by apples aac and fairlay 70% share of players (obsenely higher share of active online drm music purchasing dollars). The jvm issue is a non-issue (sun lawsuit settled, copperation and ip croisslicense deal difused it - bill $5bn) compared to the fear of a sony and apple one-two punch to take the digital home media crown.
By the way its already over, microsoft lost. They lost when xbox 1.5 announced dvd only for first year. They traded an early launch rather than wait for HD-DVD because they know sony, apple et al have picked the winner.
"OASIS chartered what was originally called the OpenOffice XML Format Technical Committee (TC) in December of 2002. The original members of the TC were nothing if not diverse: Arbortext, Boeing, Corel, CSW Informatics, Drake Certivo, National Archive of Australia, New York State Office of the Attorney General, Society of Biblical Literature, Sony,.........."
wtf is sony doing on the committee? onenOffice rebadged as sonyOffice for ps3 anyone?
1. It is not illegal to use mono or to develop mono. 2. C#/.net libraries are ECMA standards
However,
1. Microsoft has the right to charge a RAND (reasonable and non-descriminatory) fee at any time for the use of these standards. 2. They have never, ever, stated in any binding way that they would not do so in the future. 3. *any* fee, even minimal would result in the instant death of any OSS project dependent on those standards. 4. RAND can (and frequently does in the proprietary software world) mean several dollars per download! Or requiring build licenses for all developers producing binaries (every end user of gentoo for example!) that are in the hundreds of $ range. These are all reasonable and non-descriminatory in that context!
Miguel De Icasa and Ximian/Mono people *know* this full well but don't want to admit how dangerous mono adoption is for the gnome community. They cite a BS casual mailing list post from the head engineer of.net as their claim that MS will never sue.
See how much crap this is for yourself (from official Mono faq):
Jim Miller's off hand email is the *only* assurance anyone has ever received that MS would never charge a RAND fee! If this were truly MS's commitment then they could release a statement or legally commit themselves to that! This email is not not not legally binding people! Until MS makes a legally binding agreement to never charge for use of these standards, it is not ok to use mono!
See also Seth Nickels' blog on this subject "Why Mono is currently an unnacceptable risk":
The two main arguments against what I'm saying are realy crap also:
1. Java is also proprietary:
Yes but Sun has licensed Java in such a way that they are legally prohibited from charging *any* royalties at all for existing releases of Java. We know with 100% certainty that Sun will never try and collect any RAND fee. Ever. The situation with Java is totally different for this reason. Even if Sun changed its mind or was purchased by a less generous company (like MS for example), existing releases of Java and alternative implementations based on existing released specs would always remain free as in beer. The no version of the.net ecma standards ever has been comparably free.
2. You are always infringing somewhere, worrying about this is wasting your time:
True, there is always a danger of unknowingly infringing. However, in this case mono is knowingly using patented software. If MS decided to collect or sue, mono and gnome would have absolutely zero defense! Furthermore, MS is well known for destroying threatening companies when it suits them to do so! They have done this many times in the past. Remeber how they *lost* an anti-trust lawsuit? It is because they are agressive, unscrupulous and incredibly rich and illegal monopoly that used its power to destroy competition. They can and will crush gnome if gnome threatens MS! Mono is the ultimate submarine. We build it, integrate it so gnome can't live without it, then they kill gnome by charging for builds. Bam. Gnome is dead on that day.
Take Away: Mono is cool but way too dangerous. Smart people and companies are staying away from it (which turns out to be *most* companies by the way. That is why Redhat and others are pushing Java as an alternative). People who back mono either have motive (ximian), are misinformed (most of the people on this forum), or just dumb (people who are really drooling over the potential of mono so they are ignoring the risk, probabl
the bundled trial-ware with dells is complete bullshit. at first you think this is a good deal with paint-shop pro and mcaffee, but a after 30 days (or whenever tech-support stops being free) the software justs keeps nagging you for your credit card details - and then stops working. I think mcaffee started having little popup bubbles like "YOU ARE NOT PROTECTED, YOUR LAPTOP WILL BE DESTROYED UNLESS YOU SHOW MCAFFEE THE MONEY. BOOHAAAHAAAAAAAAHAAAA". Saved any pictures in psp format - unlucky! i genuinly thought i was getting the full (at least one year of updates) versions, the information was buried on dells site in small-print. so thankyou dell, customers tend not to come back to establishments that take their money and then fuck them in the ass (in the bad non-consentual way)
that is a very insightful comment. i havn't seen anyone else reach that conclusion before, but it makes absolute sense. we know microsoft are willing to use litigation offensively and aggressivly against google witness balmers chair-throwing "kill google" temper tantrums - so google would want all the angles covered in advance. Also Sun have built a huge onDemand service grid which apparently has not attracted any customers yet. That infrastructure may have always been intended for one BIG customer. I don't see why google couldn't implement an vnc/nx/thinClient viewer as an applet/activex control of even javascript ala googleMaps which could consume the full thick client running remotely. That way users only need to learn one interface and can choose to dwnload a full-fat gOffice which is really just Open-office rebranded with integrated remote storage and google desktop search and gmail integration. Of course only Open document could be supported locally with MS format conversions provided as a sun-hosted-web-service to avoid patent infringement. It could work - and explains the sun grid which otherwise looks like an answer in search of a problem.
the reality is the vast majority of creative types/musicians are natural born mac users and ipod owners. They rightly/wrongly love all that think-different, counter-cuture kool-aid. So when the artists realise fans and contempories are unable to buy their latest shit electronica from itunes its a real WTF moment.
The labels are supposed to promote, maximise distribution and redistribute profits. But the artist can seee for themseles the label is blocking promotion and distribution and raising the ire of fans and contempories.
question "hey music labels WTF are you for again?"
yeah, since the basic and severley limited live service is going to be free, and early xbox1.5 consumers will be in a demographic that mostly already has a suitable high-bandwidth connection - obviously 50% to use live is a conservative estimate. How many will subscribe? -probably a high proporion of early adopters but a year in, when the cost of the console drops - a much smaller proportion since these are mostly casual gamers with lower disposable income.
i saw a presention the other day that predicted the ps2 will outsell (worldwide) the 360 this christmas by at least a factor of 5. The psp is expected to just outsell the 360 with many playstation-lifestylers opting to put a shiny psp in their stocking and wait for the ps3.
it is incredible testement to sony that a six year old console is expected to be able to hold off competion from a new console one-and-a-half generations ahead in technology.
Also if microsoft launched the 360 with halo3 then they could guarantee non-damp first month sales. Because the launch line-up is weak tithout a new halo incarnation there is a very real chance that this baby will be a flop for its first 6 months.
Other factors worrying for microsoft: 1. Many Xbox owners, are relatively recent purchacers - they are not ready for the next cycle and still want to get value from exiting generation (they are about to feel abandonned when microsoft halt all xbox1 activity in next few months)
2. Use of DVD media. A percieved weakness by publishers - allows cheap piracy to continue for next decade when the DRM is inevitably cracked. Publishers suspect microsoft may be using easy-piracy to drive next gen sales. note blueray will not be easy for j6p to crack for several years (or ever if blue-ray fals on its face - in this sense sony are playing a clever no-lose game).
3. lack of inovation. in fact innovation has moved backwards with no harddrive as standard. In the face of the revolution controller (and sonys eye-toy as standard with ps3) and even NO WIRELESS AS STANDARD the package is looking decidedly not very next generation.
4. lack of backwards compatibility. not a big deal - or at least never has been, but nintendo are going to have compatibility going 4 generations back! and sony will have ps1/ps2 compatibilty. so while nobody really cares after a month of ownership - it looks really lame in the shop window.
5. japan. MS are going to spend $billions this time - and eveyone (EVERYONE) knows it will flop. 100% certainty. Microsoft shareholders should be screaming murder (but they are sheep)
Its ok for consoles to have slow starts. But if xbox360 has a slow first 6 months and then gets lost in ps3 and revolution hype - then it will be a disaster for microsoft as they will face a 2nd generation where they must effectively bribe (both in subsidies and easily pirated games) consumers to buy their product. MS have budgeted to lose money in console business for one generation only. Their pockets may be bottomless but their shareholders patience is not. Heres my quote to take away:
there are better things to blow $10billion on than coming joint second in a one horse race.
Slashdot Mirror
just tell me its not google
for the ABM crowd cmusphinx might be a better toolkit. It has the open source goodness, is multi-platform (no wine shit) and has several versions in differnt programming languages including a pure java version (sphinx-4).
do microsoft worry vista will be remembered as their 'batman and robin edition'?
please
the fat lady just stfu
is there any technical reason the original xbox live can't support an arcade? seems like an artificial marketing trick - to take a new software feature and artificially make it exclusive to expensive new hardware platform - but NOT a next gen feature (eg hd graphics, 3d controller), just a software trick to drive upgrades.
if this is such a killer app with huge consumer demand and money to be made them microsoft shareholders should demand arcade like features rolled back to the original xbox live platform. or maybe its just fluff.
i think you're wrong about there being a lack of customer loyalty for microsoft. for a long time microsoft were seen as the challenger to encumbents ibm and apple, fighting on behalf of the little guy and lowering prices. Its only recently that this goodwill has began to erode under an onslaght of virus, instability, higher prices and relia~~~~|||||||E71
you can use taxis, to take you back to the last mission you failed
yeah, remember how red hat spread fud about mp3
1. It is not illegal to use mono or to develop mono.
.net as their claim that MS will never sue.
.net ecma standards ever has been comparably free.
2. C#/.net libraries are ECMA standards
However,
1. Microsoft has the right to charge a RAND (reasonable and non-descriminatory) fee at any time for the use of these standards.
2. They have never, ever, stated in any binding way that they would not do so in the future.
3. *any* fee, even minimal would result in the instant death of any OSS project dependent on those standards.
4. RAND can (and frequently does in the proprietary software world) mean several dollars per download! Or requiring build licenses for all developers producing binaries (every end user of gentoo for example!) that are in the hundreds of $ range. These are all reasonable and non-descriminatory in that context!
Miguel De Icasa and Ximian/Mono people *know* this full well but don't want to admit how dangerous mono adoption is for the gnome community. They cite a BS casual mailing list post from the head engineer of
See how much crap this is for yourself (from official Mono faq):
http://web.archive.org/web/20030609164123/http://m ailserver.di.unip
http://www.go-mono.com/faq.html#patents
Jim Miller's off hand email is the *only* assurance anyone has ever received that MS would never charge a RAND fee! If this were truly MS's commitment then they could release a statement or legally commit themselves to that! This email is not not not legally binding people! Until MS makes a legally binding agreement to never charge for use of these standards, it is not ok to use mono!
See also Seth Nickels' blog on this subject "Why Mono is currently an unnacceptable risk":
http://www.gnome.org/~seth/blog/2004/May
The two main arguments against what I'm saying are realy crap also:
1. Java is also proprietary:
Yes but Sun has licensed Java in such a way that they are legally prohibited from charging *any* royalties at all for existing releases of Java. We know with 100% certainty that Sun will never try and collect any RAND fee. Ever. The situation with Java is totally different for this reason. Even if Sun changed its mind or was purchased by a less generous company (like MS for example), existing releases of Java and alternative implementations based on existing released specs would always remain free as in beer. The no version of the
2. You are always infringing somewhere, worrying about this is wasting your time:
True, there is always a danger of unknowingly infringing. However, in this case mono is knowingly using patented software. If MS decided to collect or sue, mono and gnome would have absolutely zero defense! Furthermore, MS is well known for destroying threatening companies when it suits them to do so! They have done this many times in the past. Remeber how they *lost* an anti-trust lawsuit? It is because they are agressive, unscrupulous and incredibly rich and illegal monopoly that used its power to destroy competition. They can and will crush gnome if gnome threatens MS! Mono is the ultimate submarine. We build it, integrate it so gnome can't live without it, then they kill gnome by charging for builds. Bam. Gnome is dead on that day.
Take Away: Mono is cool but way too dangerous. Smart people and companies are staying away from it (which turns out to be *most* companies by the way. That is why Redhat and others are pushing Java as an alternative). People who back mono either have motive (ximian), are misinformed (most of the people on this forum), or just dumb (people who are really drooling over the potential of mono so they are ignoring the risk, probably ximian and some gnome developers again)
Microsoft's recent actio
I've only seen Balmer once when he wasn't on a podium, and it was scary...
Here's the story.
It was in one of the newer buildings and they were having one of those "not retreating is actually a victory" meetings about how they'd spent several million $ persuading some local council in South America to upgrade their copy of Exchange Server, or something, instead of buying some semi-functional 'open-source' alternative...
All the people around me were going "Steve Balmer... It's Steve Balmer..." in awed tones, so I took notice, for a change, rather than just keeping my lowly-assed head down, like I usually do...
Anyway, HE emerges (THE Balmer, I mean) from this meeting room - all smiles, and everyone is slapping each other on the back, and saying how great things were, and Balmer (not a word of a lie) leans forwards, furrows those beetle brows of his, and strikes a he-man pose... you know the kind I mean, surely? Elbow crooked, upper arm raised, fist clenched...?
For a moment, I thought "Yes! This is surely a sign that the man has a sense of self-irony! Surely he realises how ridiculous that looks: 'Uncle Fester strikes heroic pose'" - Yeah, I know we're not supposed to use the UF analogy, but honestly, guys... that's he looked like: Uncle Fester, in a suit, striking a Mr Universe pose...
Anyway, like I say, for one giddy moment, this girl thought we were actually being led by a guy with a sense of self awareness and humour... That he was about to turn around and say that the last few years have just been one gigantic joke...
You know?
But no. The Laughs and smiles continued among his groupies... and my heart sank.
Here he was, Mr Balmer, in all his frail male ego-trip glory... He actually believes that stuff, you know? He probably even thinks women find him more attractive!
I was told the other day (and this is probably old news to you geeks), that Steve Jobs has a 'reality distortion' field that takes in those around him and converts them to his way of thinking... If that's the case, then OUR Steve is like that in reverse: a kind of "Black Hole" of reality distortion. He surrounds himself with people who radiate distortion... and he kind of just sucks it all in and believes it all HIMSELF!
After all, why waste your time convincing the rest of the company that you're right, when you can just believe all that crap, yourself?
Can anyone else remember seeing this performance and fill in the blanks about where it was and how it happened? I KNOW I saw it: I'm not making this up!
I know I'm pretty low down the scale, and probably come across as such - in fact, I'm probably on my way to my first 3.0 - but maybe someone else who was there can verify this?
I just remember thinking at the time: "If that guy was a South American dictator, he'd be one of those ones that wears a colonel's uniform - even though everyone can see he's actually a fat bald guy!"
I decided, then and there, that all of our personal futures was being run, so as to flatter the ego of a fat bald guy!
Does that sound like a personal attack on Steve? Maybe we need that! maybe we need to get personal, before we puncture his ego-shield and deliver a good dose of clue to the guy?
I have no solutions, but I can say that even from my lowly position, 'Our Great Helmsman' look deluded.
microsoft to sun after settling lawsuit: "we love you, we love, you long time, we no hate java no more, happy, trust, love"
microsoft to sony this afternoon : "get that fucking java off those fucking blu discs or we'll fucking kill you motherfuckers!"
don't trust gangsters
By the way its already over, microsoft lost. They lost when xbox 1.5 announced dvd only for first year. They traded an early launch rather than wait for HD-DVD because they know sony, apple et al have picked the winner.
i agree, i find the whole tone of this story deeply troubling
1. It is not illegal to use mono or to develop mono.
.net as their claim that MS will never sue.
.net ecma standards ever has been comparably free.
2. C#/.net libraries are ECMA standards
However,
1. Microsoft has the right to charge a RAND (reasonable and non-descriminatory) fee at any time for the use of these standards.
2. They have never, ever, stated in any binding way that they would not do so in the future.
3. *any* fee, even minimal would result in the instant death of any OSS project dependent on those standards.
4. RAND can (and frequently does in the proprietary software world) mean several dollars per download! Or requiring build licenses for all developers producing binaries (every end user of gentoo for example!) that are in the hundreds of $ range. These are all reasonable and non-descriminatory in that context!
Miguel De Icasa and Ximian/Mono people *know* this full well but don't want to admit how dangerous mono adoption is for the gnome community. They cite a BS casual mailing list post from the head engineer of
See how much crap this is for yourself (from official Mono faq):
http://web.archive.org/web/20030609164123/http://m ailserver.di.unip
http://www.go-mono.com/faq.html#patents
Jim Miller's off hand email is the *only* assurance anyone has ever received that MS would never charge a RAND fee! If this were truly MS's commitment then they could release a statement or legally commit themselves to that! This email is not not not legally binding people! Until MS makes a legally binding agreement to never charge for use of these standards, it is not ok to use mono!
See also Seth Nickels' blog on this subject "Why Mono is currently an unnacceptable risk":
http://www.gnome.org/~seth/blog/2004/May
The two main arguments against what I'm saying are realy crap also:
1. Java is also proprietary:
Yes but Sun has licensed Java in such a way that they are legally prohibited from charging *any* royalties at all for existing releases of Java. We know with 100% certainty that Sun will never try and collect any RAND fee. Ever. The situation with Java is totally different for this reason. Even if Sun changed its mind or was purchased by a less generous company (like MS for example), existing releases of Java and alternative implementations based on existing released specs would always remain free as in beer. The no version of the
2. You are always infringing somewhere, worrying about this is wasting your time:
True, there is always a danger of unknowingly infringing. However, in this case mono is knowingly using patented software. If MS decided to collect or sue, mono and gnome would have absolutely zero defense! Furthermore, MS is well known for destroying threatening companies when it suits them to do so! They have done this many times in the past. Remeber how they *lost* an anti-trust lawsuit? It is because they are agressive, unscrupulous and incredibly rich and illegal monopoly that used its power to destroy competition. They can and will crush gnome if gnome threatens MS! Mono is the ultimate submarine. We build it, integrate it so gnome can't live without it, then they kill gnome by charging for builds. Bam. Gnome is dead on that day.
Take Away: Mono is cool but way too dangerous. Smart people and companies are staying away from it (which turns out to be *most* companies by the way. That is why Redhat and others are pushing Java as an alternative). People who back mono either have motive (ximian), are misinformed (most of the people on this forum), or just dumb (people who are really drooling over the potential of mono so they are ignoring the risk, probabl
the bundled trial-ware with dells is complete bullshit. at first you think this is a good deal with paint-shop pro and mcaffee, but a after 30 days (or whenever tech-support stops being free) the software justs keeps nagging you for your credit card details - and then stops working. I think mcaffee started having little popup bubbles like "YOU ARE NOT PROTECTED, YOUR LAPTOP WILL BE DESTROYED UNLESS YOU SHOW MCAFFEE THE MONEY. BOOHAAAHAAAAAAAAHAAAA". Saved any pictures in psp format - unlucky! i genuinly thought i was getting the full (at least one year of updates) versions, the information was buried on dells site in small-print. so thankyou dell, customers tend not to come back to establishments that take their money and then fuck them in the ass (in the bad non-consentual way)
that is a very insightful comment. i havn't seen anyone else reach that conclusion before, but it makes absolute sense. we know microsoft are willing to use litigation offensively and aggressivly against google witness balmers chair-throwing "kill google" temper tantrums - so google would want all the angles covered in advance. Also Sun have built a huge onDemand service grid which apparently has not attracted any customers yet. That infrastructure may have always been intended for one BIG customer. I don't see why google couldn't implement an vnc/nx/thinClient viewer as an applet/activex control of even javascript ala googleMaps which could consume the full thick client running remotely. That way users only need to learn one interface and can choose to dwnload a full-fat gOffice which is really just Open-office rebranded with integrated remote storage and google desktop search and gmail integration. Of course only Open document could be supported locally with MS format conversions provided as a sun-hosted-web-service to avoid patent infringement. It could work - and explains the sun grid which otherwise looks like an answer in search of a problem.
the reality is the vast majority of creative types/musicians are natural born mac users and ipod owners. They rightly/wrongly love all that think-different, counter-cuture kool-aid. So when the artists realise fans and contempories are unable to buy their latest shit electronica from itunes its a real WTF moment.
The labels are supposed to promote, maximise distribution and redistribute profits. But the artist can seee for themseles the label is blocking promotion and distribution and raising the ire of fans and contempories.
question "hey music labels WTF are you for again?"
yeah, since the basic and severley limited live service is going to be free, and early xbox1.5 consumers will be in a demographic that mostly already has a suitable high-bandwidth connection - obviously 50% to use live is a conservative estimate. How many will subscribe? -probably a high proporion of early adopters but a year in, when the cost of the console drops - a much smaller proportion since these are mostly casual gamers with lower disposable income.
i saw a presention the other day that predicted the ps2 will outsell (worldwide) the 360 this christmas by at least a factor of 5. The psp is expected to just outsell the 360 with many playstation-lifestylers opting to put a shiny psp in their stocking and wait for the ps3.
it is incredible testement to sony that a six year old console is expected to be able to hold off competion from a new console one-and-a-half generations ahead in technology.
Also if microsoft launched the 360 with halo3 then they could guarantee non-damp first month sales. Because the launch line-up is weak tithout a new halo incarnation there is a very real chance that this baby will be a flop for its first 6 months.
Other factors worrying for microsoft:
1. Many Xbox owners, are relatively recent purchacers - they are not ready for the next cycle and still want to get value from exiting generation (they are about to feel abandonned when microsoft halt all xbox1 activity in next few months)
2. Use of DVD media. A percieved weakness by publishers - allows cheap piracy to continue for next decade when the DRM is inevitably cracked. Publishers suspect microsoft may be using easy-piracy to drive next gen sales. note blueray will not be easy for j6p to crack for several years (or ever if blue-ray fals on its face - in this sense sony are playing a clever no-lose game).
3. lack of inovation. in fact innovation has moved backwards with no harddrive as standard. In the face of the revolution controller (and sonys eye-toy as standard with ps3) and even NO WIRELESS AS STANDARD the package is looking decidedly not very next generation.
4. lack of backwards compatibility. not a big deal - or at least never has been, but nintendo are going to have compatibility going 4 generations back! and sony will have ps1/ps2 compatibilty. so while nobody really cares after a month of ownership - it looks really lame in the shop window.
5. japan. MS are going to spend $billions this time - and eveyone (EVERYONE) knows it will flop. 100% certainty. Microsoft shareholders should be screaming murder (but they are sheep)
Its ok for consoles to have slow starts. But if xbox360 has a slow first 6 months and then gets lost in ps3 and revolution hype - then it will be a disaster for microsoft as they will face a 2nd generation where they must effectively bribe (both in subsidies and easily pirated games) consumers to buy their product. MS have budgeted to lose money in console business for one generation only. Their pockets may be bottomless but their shareholders patience is not. Heres my quote to take away:
there are better things to blow $10billion on than coming joint second in a one horse race.
in other news: microsoft anounce plans burn the word "chairface" onto the lunar surface
do you dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?
"they sell eyeballs. When you buy a paper, you're the product and not the client."
ditto for this place