I hope Google enforces the hell out of this patent. No, really - enforce it rigorously and we may have an internet that actually is a world wide web. Perhaps then I'll be able to view content on Hulu, for example. I may think patents are borked beyond saving but I'll be more than fine with this one being enforced.
I believe I'm saying that the iPad isn't a computer. Given that virtually everyone agrees that netbooks are computers, I believe the obvious extension of that is that I believe the iPad is not a netbook.
You clearly want a computer. Buy a computer. A tablet is not a computer.
Feel free to point out all the tablets that are trying to be a computer. Now try pointing out the ones that have been successful products. Perhaps the market does not want a tablet that is a computer. Perhaps the market wants computers that are computers and tablets that are something else. Perhaps what you want is not what the market wants.
Opting out is effortless. Scroll to the bottom of your gmail page. Turn Buzz off. You can also turn off chat. The links are there. Not hidden unless you consider "bottom of the page" hidden.
Whenever anyone says that they hate Facebook's new layout because it's 'less useful' and 'cluttered' what they really mean is that they hate change.
No. When most people say they hate Facebook's new layout what they mean is they hate the fact that it's now easier to find out who friends have friended, what achievements friends have gotten in stupid games that you don't give a rat's ass about, and other virtually useless crap while it's become harder to see people's status updates and recent posts (notes, links, and photos).
Every time Facebook has updated their site, they've increased the ease for users to find garbage they don't care about and harder for people to find the core information they really do care about.
With Facebook, yet again, "updating" their layout in such a way that they've made their site (again) less useful and more cluttered, now is the time for a big player to make a serious push for a replacement social network. Facebook has consistently managed to make their site less and less and less friendly and useful so much of what drew people to it is being eroded so if someone were to enter the market with a streamlined, elegant social networking tool that allowed people to easily stay in touch with their friends without useless crap getting in the way, they'd stand a very good chance of taking a bite out of Facebook.
And, for anyone (especially Facebook!) who thinks it's impossible to topple Facebook from their throne, just think back to MySpace. Everyone figured MySpace had the social networking website locked up and then this upstart came out with this streamlined and elegant tool for staying in touch with your friends and family. Now, Facebook is cluttered and bloated and becoming less and less useful - all traits that MySpace had shortly before the end began.
What will it take to steal people away from Facebook? Simple, initially - integration with Twitter and Facebook. If a new network can link into both of those sites and do it better than they do it themselves, people will switch because it's zero risk - you're not turning your back on your contacts on Twitter or Facebook - you're just using a different tool. And then, over time, people will talk more about "Buzz" (or whatever the network is to step up and do it) and less about "tweets" or "Facebook".
The time is now. I _really_ hope Google can do it with Buzz because I _REALLY_ loathe the new layout for Facebook. I hated the old new one but the new new one sucks hardcore.
I don't think you could have missed the point more if you tried.
Yes, there have been tablets that are computers-in-tablet-form for years. Yes. We all know that. Apple is gambling that a tablet should _NOT_ be a computer-in-tablet-form. Time will tell if this gamble is right or not, but that is what they are working towards. And, as I said, I agree with them. If I want a computer, I'll buy a computer. If I want a smartphone, I'll buy a smartphone. If I want a tablet, I'll buy a tablet. When manufacturers think one is the other they will fail to make a great product.
Or, to put it clearer - why do you think _every_ tablet has failed so far? They were made by manufacturers who though the tablet should be a computer-in-tablet-form. As I said in my original post, a computer will ALWAYS be a superior computer. A computer-in-tablet-form will ALWAYS be inferior _as a computer_. So, explain to me why any intelligent manufacturer would attempt to make a tablet into a computer-in-tablet-form? Nobody has done it successfully so why do it? Why not do something _DIFFERENT?_
What do you want to buy, a computer or a tablet? They aren't the same thing. People may have thought they were but Apple's arguing they aren't and I tend to agree with them (actually, as I think about it more and more, I really strongly agree with them). People don't look at a smartphone and compare them to laptops so why compare a tablet to a laptop? Not the same thing. Different benefits and drawbacks. If you want a computer, buy a computer. If you want a tablet, compare it to other tablets and buy the best tablet.
The sooner slashdotters stop thinking of a tablet as a laptop-without-a-keyboard, the better they will be able to actually discuss this new product segment.
Or, to put it differently, if you think of a tablet as a computer than tablets will ALWAYS come out second to an actual laptop. As a computer a real computer is ALWAYS the superior choice. A tablet will NEVER be a better computer than an actual computer.
MySpace became irrelevant because they were the geocities of social networking. Too many people doing things to their pages simply because they could rather than because it made for a nice page. While I visited very few MySpace pages, the vast majority of the time that I did do so I was greeted by a page overloaded with crap. Sound and flashing graphics and insane background images and everything possible that could make a page as offensive to the senses as possible. And I'm confident that I can't be the only person who was overwhelmingly turned off by MySpace pages...
Sure, the problem being that you are renting a seat but paying enough to buy the cinema outright!
Are we trying to imply that the iPad is expensive? If we are, I think you'll have a hard time convincing anyone who's paying attention, given that other manufacturers are scrambling to deal with the fact that the iPad price was about half what everyone expected it to be...
Could you please explain to me exactly how I'm trolling. No - really - I know when I'm being a bit dickish and that certainly wasn't even remotely dickish so please enlighten me as to how I was being a troll.
While I'm sure many will eagerly jump forward to proclaim, yet again, how evil Apple has become, to me, this just makes sense. Mentioning that the app was a finalist in Google's Android Developer's Challenge implies that the app is compatible with an Android system. Even if one moron downloads it thinking that it will work on their Andriod phone, it's one person too many. Makes sense to me.
It's also an issue of fast vs accurate. Drawing your gun quickly and snapping off a shot may make a bang but your goal is to hit the mark. Taking a smidge more time to actually get a kill shot can make a big difference.
It also helps to have the script writer and director on your side as well as your name on the marquee...
...an OS so crippled that users don't even like it when it's on a *phone*.
Back up your claim with fact.
Sorry, what's that? You can't? Thought so.
Important lesson all slashdot readers should learn - we are not the norm. We do not represent the majority of users. Not by a long shot. What we like/dislike often has absolutely zero bearing on what the vast majority of people like/dislike.
How is not adding a feature that "fewer than 1% of people will use" (which I think is missing "significantly" at the beginning...) a massive oversight? It's an insignificant oversight, given your own numbers.
Ok, when they have something more than entirely made up concept stuff, then we might be able to have a discussion about serious competition for a given product. Until then, it's made up shit. I can make a video of someone using a supercomputer the size of a wrist watch, if I want - until it's actually made, however, it's just concept art.
Do you work for free? Why should people - you know, editors, typesetters, designers, copyeditors, etc. - in the publishing industry? And, even if the ebook is a digital translation of the print product, somebody still needs to make that digital translation and check it over to make sure all the i's stayed dotted and t's stayed crossed. Until you're willing to work for free, don't expect other people to do so.
Don't abbreviate it to NPE. Spell it out, each time - non-practicing entity. By just saying three letters, it weakens the point that these companies do nothing. They exist solely to sue. They are the personification of what is wrong with the patent system. Make it clear that these companies are leaches that do nothing of good. They are non-practicing entities.
We may have issues when companies like (for example) Nokia and Apple wage patent warfare but both of these companies spend enormous fortunes on R&D and they both produce exceptional products. While the patent system may be borked, it exists so that companies like Nokia and Apple may exist and view R&D as a worthwhile expense. Patent trolls should be legislated out of existence. Don't produce anything using the patent? Bye bye patent. Your business model is built around "buy patent, sue everybody in sight"? Bye bye company. Start with that and we might get closer to a point where the patent system isn't a joke.
Non-practicing entity. Spell it out. Make it clear. Leaches who do nothing of value.
Slashdot Mirror
Let market forces deal with bandwidth.
Yeah, because that really seems to be working out so far. Clearly the competition between the major providers is pushing them to improve and excel.
I hope Google enforces the hell out of this patent. No, really - enforce it rigorously and we may have an internet that actually is a world wide web. Perhaps then I'll be able to view content on Hulu, for example. I may think patents are borked beyond saving but I'll be more than fine with this one being enforced.
Who's going to design their logo? Rob Leifeld or Jim Lee? I really hope Jim - Rob's a hack.
I believe I'm saying that the iPad isn't a computer. Given that virtually everyone agrees that netbooks are computers, I believe the obvious extension of that is that I believe the iPad is not a netbook.
You clearly want a computer. Buy a computer. A tablet is not a computer.
Feel free to point out all the tablets that are trying to be a computer. Now try pointing out the ones that have been successful products. Perhaps the market does not want a tablet that is a computer. Perhaps the market wants computers that are computers and tablets that are something else. Perhaps what you want is not what the market wants.
Something to contemplate.
Shocking, one of Microsoft's largest shareholders is talking down about a competitor's product. Who would have guessed?...
Opting out is effortless. Scroll to the bottom of your gmail page. Turn Buzz off. You can also turn off chat. The links are there. Not hidden unless you consider "bottom of the page" hidden.
Whenever anyone says that they hate Facebook's new layout because it's 'less useful' and 'cluttered' what they really mean is that they hate change.
No. When most people say they hate Facebook's new layout what they mean is they hate the fact that it's now easier to find out who friends have friended, what achievements friends have gotten in stupid games that you don't give a rat's ass about, and other virtually useless crap while it's become harder to see people's status updates and recent posts (notes, links, and photos).
Every time Facebook has updated their site, they've increased the ease for users to find garbage they don't care about and harder for people to find the core information they really do care about.
With Facebook, yet again, "updating" their layout in such a way that they've made their site (again) less useful and more cluttered, now is the time for a big player to make a serious push for a replacement social network. Facebook has consistently managed to make their site less and less and less friendly and useful so much of what drew people to it is being eroded so if someone were to enter the market with a streamlined, elegant social networking tool that allowed people to easily stay in touch with their friends without useless crap getting in the way, they'd stand a very good chance of taking a bite out of Facebook.
And, for anyone (especially Facebook!) who thinks it's impossible to topple Facebook from their throne, just think back to MySpace. Everyone figured MySpace had the social networking website locked up and then this upstart came out with this streamlined and elegant tool for staying in touch with your friends and family. Now, Facebook is cluttered and bloated and becoming less and less useful - all traits that MySpace had shortly before the end began.
What will it take to steal people away from Facebook? Simple, initially - integration with Twitter and Facebook. If a new network can link into both of those sites and do it better than they do it themselves, people will switch because it's zero risk - you're not turning your back on your contacts on Twitter or Facebook - you're just using a different tool. And then, over time, people will talk more about "Buzz" (or whatever the network is to step up and do it) and less about "tweets" or "Facebook".
The time is now. I _really_ hope Google can do it with Buzz because I _REALLY_ loathe the new layout for Facebook. I hated the old new one but the new new one sucks hardcore.
I don't think you could have missed the point more if you tried.
Yes, there have been tablets that are computers-in-tablet-form for years. Yes. We all know that. Apple is gambling that a tablet should _NOT_ be a computer-in-tablet-form. Time will tell if this gamble is right or not, but that is what they are working towards. And, as I said, I agree with them. If I want a computer, I'll buy a computer. If I want a smartphone, I'll buy a smartphone. If I want a tablet, I'll buy a tablet. When manufacturers think one is the other they will fail to make a great product.
Or, to put it clearer - why do you think _every_ tablet has failed so far? They were made by manufacturers who though the tablet should be a computer-in-tablet-form. As I said in my original post, a computer will ALWAYS be a superior computer. A computer-in-tablet-form will ALWAYS be inferior _as a computer_. So, explain to me why any intelligent manufacturer would attempt to make a tablet into a computer-in-tablet-form? Nobody has done it successfully so why do it? Why not do something _DIFFERENT?_
What do you want to buy, a computer or a tablet? They aren't the same thing. People may have thought they were but Apple's arguing they aren't and I tend to agree with them (actually, as I think about it more and more, I really strongly agree with them). People don't look at a smartphone and compare them to laptops so why compare a tablet to a laptop? Not the same thing. Different benefits and drawbacks. If you want a computer, buy a computer. If you want a tablet, compare it to other tablets and buy the best tablet.
The sooner slashdotters stop thinking of a tablet as a laptop-without-a-keyboard, the better they will be able to actually discuss this new product segment.
Or, to put it differently, if you think of a tablet as a computer than tablets will ALWAYS come out second to an actual laptop. As a computer a real computer is ALWAYS the superior choice. A tablet will NEVER be a better computer than an actual computer.
MySpace became irrelevent through obsolescence...
MySpace became irrelevant because they were the geocities of social networking. Too many people doing things to their pages simply because they could rather than because it made for a nice page. While I visited very few MySpace pages, the vast majority of the time that I did do so I was greeted by a page overloaded with crap. Sound and flashing graphics and insane background images and everything possible that could make a page as offensive to the senses as possible. And I'm confident that I can't be the only person who was overwhelmingly turned off by MySpace pages...
Sure, the problem being that you are renting a seat but paying enough to buy the cinema outright!
Are we trying to imply that the iPad is expensive? If we are, I think you'll have a hard time convincing anyone who's paying attention, given that other manufacturers are scrambling to deal with the fact that the iPad price was about half what everyone expected it to be...
...if Ellison drops the ball and things start going south for Oracle, it's the employees who will suffer for it, and he'll be doing just fine.
Welcome to the real world. This is the way of things. Get used to it because it's never going to change.
Could you please explain to me exactly how I'm trolling. No - really - I know when I'm being a bit dickish and that certainly wasn't even remotely dickish so please enlighten me as to how I was being a troll.
You know that an iTunes App Store application won't work on an Android phone. I know that. Do you think every single "average" user knows that?
And thanks for highlighting my typo. Good on ya.
While I'm sure many will eagerly jump forward to proclaim, yet again, how evil Apple has become, to me, this just makes sense. Mentioning that the app was a finalist in Google's Android Developer's Challenge implies that the app is compatible with an Android system. Even if one moron downloads it thinking that it will work on their Andriod phone, it's one person too many. Makes sense to me.
Not true.
Han shot first and he's a good guy.
SHUT UP!! HAN SHOT FIRST DAMMIT!!!
Stupid Lucas.
It's also an issue of fast vs accurate. Drawing your gun quickly and snapping off a shot may make a bang but your goal is to hit the mark. Taking a smidge more time to actually get a kill shot can make a big difference.
It also helps to have the script writer and director on your side as well as your name on the marquee...
...an OS so crippled that users don't even like it when it's on a *phone*.
Back up your claim with fact.
Sorry, what's that? You can't? Thought so.
Important lesson all slashdot readers should learn - we are not the norm. We do not represent the majority of users. Not by a long shot. What we like/dislike often has absolutely zero bearing on what the vast majority of people like/dislike.
How is not adding a feature that "fewer than 1% of people will use" (which I think is missing "significantly" at the beginning...) a massive oversight? It's an insignificant oversight, given your own numbers.
Ok, when they have something more than entirely made up concept stuff, then we might be able to have a discussion about serious competition for a given product. Until then, it's made up shit. I can make a video of someone using a supercomputer the size of a wrist watch, if I want - until it's actually made, however, it's just concept art.
Do you work for free? Why should people - you know, editors, typesetters, designers, copyeditors, etc. - in the publishing industry? And, even if the ebook is a digital translation of the print product, somebody still needs to make that digital translation and check it over to make sure all the i's stayed dotted and t's stayed crossed. Until you're willing to work for free, don't expect other people to do so.
Read this post from one of Macmillan's authors (Tobias Buckell). An excellent explanation for why tiered pricing is a good business practice.
http://www.sfwa.org/2010/01/why-my-books-are-no-longer-available-on-amazon-com/
Don't abbreviate it to NPE. Spell it out, each time - non-practicing entity. By just saying three letters, it weakens the point that these companies do nothing. They exist solely to sue. They are the personification of what is wrong with the patent system. Make it clear that these companies are leaches that do nothing of good. They are non-practicing entities.
We may have issues when companies like (for example) Nokia and Apple wage patent warfare but both of these companies spend enormous fortunes on R&D and they both produce exceptional products. While the patent system may be borked, it exists so that companies like Nokia and Apple may exist and view R&D as a worthwhile expense. Patent trolls should be legislated out of existence. Don't produce anything using the patent? Bye bye patent. Your business model is built around "buy patent, sue everybody in sight"? Bye bye company. Start with that and we might get closer to a point where the patent system isn't a joke.
Non-practicing entity. Spell it out. Make it clear. Leaches who do nothing of value.