It's really hard to explain to people what is usable vs. gloss.
It's like show people a Palm vs a pocket PC and a lot of people will choose a Pocket PC because on the surface and if you work on checkboxes, the Pocket PC wins. Personally, I think they are feature packed but inelegant, and find Palm machines much easier because they work with me.
I was at a presentation about Office 97 and they went through all the features - stuff like HTML creation, drawing tables and I was like "Ooh, impressive".
What drew the most attention of the audience? Clippy and all that guff.
Put a quote of the day, recipe of the day and a fresh clipart image of either a swimsuit babe or kittens on the desktop, and watch the Linux downloads go up.
Yeah, like spending about $500 on a basic CD player was pretty gay in the mid 1980s. Now, they are a feature on a $60 DVD player, even though incomes have probably at least tripled in the same time.
Not many people except for some yuppies paid for those $500 CD players, but that meant they were covering a lot of the initial R&D budget. The growth of sales encouraged more people into the market which reduced prices and created a momentum of sales.
It's only because of the millionaires spending $200,000 a flight that in 20 years time you'll get it for the equivalent of $5,000 a flight.
Re:Porn is the cultural touchstone
on
The Long Tail
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· Score: 1
You've been there too?;)
Joking aside, that's the big thing about the net. It doesn't really help the big guys. High street stores (don't know the US translation for this) in prime locations have nothing to gain. They can now sell on immediacy, being able to touch the product and on local service. Some stores are suffering from people going in, checking out the product and people then buying it cheaper off the net.
The smaller guys running specialist shops that previously couldn't get a big reach can do so now. There are shops like Cybercandy that sell candy from all over the world, so if you live in the UK and want some Hershey bars, you can get them. They can reach the whole country, keep anyone who wants to be kept informed up to date on product ranges, and keep it up to date. Pre-internet, the cost of doing so would have been enormous.
Re:Very interesting article
on
The Long Tail
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· Score: 1
Of all the video clubs in my area, Blockbuster are one of the better ones. They do have at least a few leftfield/subtitled titles, where most of the others stock the big titles and then fill the rest with video premieres (read: straight-to-video crap).
Re:demographics and buying habits
on
The Long Tail
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· Score: 1
I'm not a teen, but celebrity endorsement is one of those things that makes me stop buying a product because I figure that the company is moving from making a good product to lowering the quality and hyping it instead.
Especially if David Beckham is involved.
Re:Interesting article
on
The Long Tail
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· Score: 1
I have a very small bookstore near where I work, and can't be bothered shopping on a weekend.
There's an interesting shift happening with me. TV, Radio and other "old media" used to be my source of trusted reviews and advice, but it's now moved to being far more about the internet, though not necessarily Amazon or other big players.
I recently bought a book because of a recommendation of someone on their blog. It was by a writer I like, and the blog made me aware of it.
There's also "mindset" sales. People on/. or on usenet recommend things, and once you hear it enough, you get tempted to get it. Look at how often "The Mythical Man-Month" gets referenced on/.
Re:I'm not convinced...
on
The Long Tail
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· Score: 1
Hopefully, people will stop wasting millions like they do at the moment on making formulaic J-Lo/Julia Roberts rubbish, and maybe instead make projects that they are passionate about at lower costs.
Re:More Democratic Market
on
The Long Tail
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· Score: 1
It's also about "would this person survive if there were no TV and only radio/theatre existed".
If you go back to singers like Sinatra, Judy Garland etc, image was part of it, but the voice was so much more important. I don't know if someone like Bing Crosby could be a success nowadays.
People should remember just how little space and power that was required to run something like an Amiga. I forget how many Mhz it was, but it wasn't in double figures.
Even Win 3.1/Word 6 would run fine on a 486 DX/66 and I used to write all my project documentation on that.
That's a fair point about passing the crap jobs overseas, but it's still "someone else's job".
In a sense, the jobs that can survive will be jobs that simply can't move. Things like Real Estate agencies, shops and being a plumber are hard to put overseas.
In fact, there's a bit of boom for plumbers here in the UK and people are queueing up to do it.
I've taken an independent route, which means often doing small jobs. The benefit is that there's less chance of someone going through the hassle to hire someone from India/Phillipines instead.
Do you have a problem in legalising prostitution if it was licensed and workers could only be over 21, had regular health test and worked in certain premises that were regularly visited?
I'm not advocating a complete free market, just a regulated one which would protect minors and provide protection for all. In fact, right now, because in many parts of the world (UK, most of the USA), it is illegal, the whole trade is underground. Legalise and regulate, and the people involved in evil will be easier to detect, because you filter out the over 21s working with no coersion.
As for kids and drugs, another filter can occur. Have hash bars selling to over 18s, legalise and regulate them, and you'll get rid of the pushers. Or maybe you can tell me about all the people selling cigarettes and alcohol on the streets to kids. The problem is that an adult buying a small amount of hash won't shop a drug dealer because he's their drug dealer, even though he may sell to kids as well.
You want to stop kids taking drugs? Deal with the issues behind why they take them. Take the money out of the DEA and put it into counselling programmes.
In the Capone situation, I'm talking about why that happened. I'm saying that a result of criminalising something is that the only people who run the market are criminals. Are you suggesting that selling alcohol should be a crime?
I've heard multiple people recently talk about how they're afraid to fly or work in the air transportation industry because of "all the terrorists in airports and on airplanes these days."
So instead, people get in their cars and drive, where the odds are far worse of being in an accident?
There was an incident in the UK where a woman was attacked while parked on the hard shoulder of the motorway and a lot of women said they would stay in their cars now. Completely ignoring the fact that the risk posed of vehicles accidentally smashing into your stationery vehicle is much, much higher.
I can draw a clear distinction between on the one hand slavery, murder and blackmail and on the other hand prostitution and drug dealing.
In prostitution and drug dealing, you have a willing seller and a willing buyer. In the others, you do not. People will tell you about the evils of drug dealers and gangs, but in both cases, the problem is more with the market than anything else.
Do the people who run Heineken and Carlsberg have gangs who shoot each other? No. So why do you think that Al Capone had to? The reason was that there was no regulated market to work for the willing sellers and buyers.
He also said that MS has seen many other competitors, including IBM & OS/2, Borland, Apple etc and have survived them all, and he doesn't see something different with this competitor
Has Gates lost it? Nothing different with this competitor? Except that it's more about a movement. People will spring up to replace others and build on the work done before.
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It's really hard to explain to people what is usable vs. gloss.
It's like show people a Palm vs a pocket PC and a lot of people will choose a Pocket PC because on the surface and if you work on checkboxes, the Pocket PC wins. Personally, I think they are feature packed but inelegant, and find Palm machines much easier because they work with me.
In some ways, governments should be planning for it, but they aren't.
Protectionism won't work, unless you take a North Korean view and shut yourself off completely.
However, if you want to just get some pages together to then use to build some pages with PHP in them later, it's not bad.
Anyway, it's free, so who's complaining? ;)
What drew the most attention of the audience? Clippy and all that guff.
Put a quote of the day, recipe of the day and a fresh clipart image of either a swimsuit babe or kittens on the desktop, and watch the Linux downloads go up.
Not many people except for some yuppies paid for those $500 CD players, but that meant they were covering a lot of the initial R&D budget. The growth of sales encouraged more people into the market which reduced prices and created a momentum of sales.
It's only because of the millionaires spending $200,000 a flight that in 20 years time you'll get it for the equivalent of $5,000 a flight.
Joking aside, that's the big thing about the net. It doesn't really help the big guys. High street stores (don't know the US translation for this) in prime locations have nothing to gain. They can now sell on immediacy, being able to touch the product and on local service. Some stores are suffering from people going in, checking out the product and people then buying it cheaper off the net.
The smaller guys running specialist shops that previously couldn't get a big reach can do so now. There are shops like Cybercandy that sell candy from all over the world, so if you live in the UK and want some Hershey bars, you can get them. They can reach the whole country, keep anyone who wants to be kept informed up to date on product ranges, and keep it up to date. Pre-internet, the cost of doing so would have been enormous.
Of all the video clubs in my area, Blockbuster are one of the better ones. They do have at least a few leftfield/subtitled titles, where most of the others stock the big titles and then fill the rest with video premieres (read: straight-to-video crap).
Especially if David Beckham is involved.
There's an interesting shift happening with me. TV, Radio and other "old media" used to be my source of trusted reviews and advice, but it's now moved to being far more about the internet, though not necessarily Amazon or other big players.
I recently bought a book because of a recommendation of someone on their blog. It was by a writer I like, and the blog made me aware of it.
There's also "mindset" sales. People on /. or on usenet recommend things, and once you hear it enough, you get tempted to get it. Look at how often "The Mythical Man-Month" gets referenced on /.
Hopefully, people will stop wasting millions like they do at the moment on making formulaic J-Lo/Julia Roberts rubbish, and maybe instead make projects that they are passionate about at lower costs.
If you go back to singers like Sinatra, Judy Garland etc, image was part of it, but the voice was so much more important. I don't know if someone like Bing Crosby could be a success nowadays.
Even Win 3.1/Word 6 would run fine on a 486 DX/66 and I used to write all my project documentation on that.
In a sense, the jobs that can survive will be jobs that simply can't move. Things like Real Estate agencies, shops and being a plumber are hard to put overseas.
In fact, there's a bit of boom for plumbers here in the UK and people are queueing up to do it.
I've taken an independent route, which means often doing small jobs. The benefit is that there's less chance of someone going through the hassle to hire someone from India/Phillipines instead.
I'm not advocating a complete free market, just a regulated one which would protect minors and provide protection for all. In fact, right now, because in many parts of the world (UK, most of the USA), it is illegal, the whole trade is underground. Legalise and regulate, and the people involved in evil will be easier to detect, because you filter out the over 21s working with no coersion.
As for kids and drugs, another filter can occur. Have hash bars selling to over 18s, legalise and regulate them, and you'll get rid of the pushers. Or maybe you can tell me about all the people selling cigarettes and alcohol on the streets to kids. The problem is that an adult buying a small amount of hash won't shop a drug dealer because he's their drug dealer, even though he may sell to kids as well.
You want to stop kids taking drugs? Deal with the issues behind why they take them. Take the money out of the DEA and put it into counselling programmes.
In the Capone situation, I'm talking about why that happened. I'm saying that a result of criminalising something is that the only people who run the market are criminals. Are you suggesting that selling alcohol should be a crime?
I wonder what you get it you write "Developers! Developers! Developers!" into a Windows Pocket PC?
Better still, contact the business and tell them why you won't be buying one of their products from them.
So instead, people get in their cars and drive, where the odds are far worse of being in an accident?
There was an incident in the UK where a woman was attacked while parked on the hard shoulder of the motorway and a lot of women said they would stay in their cars now. Completely ignoring the fact that the risk posed of vehicles accidentally smashing into your stationery vehicle is much, much higher.
In prostitution and drug dealing, you have a willing seller and a willing buyer. In the others, you do not. People will tell you about the evils of drug dealers and gangs, but in both cases, the problem is more with the market than anything else.
Do the people who run Heineken and Carlsberg have gangs who shoot each other? No. So why do you think that Al Capone had to? The reason was that there was no regulated market to work for the willing sellers and buyers.
I imagine record stores in the UK are still largely selling on weekends and lunchtimes.
Personally, I buy tons of stuff either online or from supermarkets because I can shop there after 6pm.
There's a macro on ooomacros.org called Document Converter. Haven't tried it myself, but give it a go.
I've got friends running OpenOffice.org because I popped round with a CD and installed it for them.
I've had arguments with guys complaining about jobs going offshore who never batted an eyelid when the same thing happened in the textile industry.
To be honest, every day but Saturday we could have opened 9-9:15, 11:45-14:00 and 17:00 to 17:30. The early morning stuff was nearly non-existent too.
I'm surprised that no-one changed the hours to be 12-8pm. We'd definitely have sold a lot more, particularly to people leaving other shops at 17:30.
I'd say that the mainstream computer industry is even more of a boring manufacturing industry than the music industry.
I get a trade computer magazine (for retailers) and flicked through the ads. I'd guess about 90% of the ads were for sequels or movie spin-offs.
Has Gates lost it? Nothing different with this competitor? Except that it's more about a movement. People will spring up to replace others and build on the work done before.