I often enjoy reading Dvorak, but this is just nonsense. Apple's usability comes from their software. Nobody buys Mac because of the hardware no matter what they say. They buy it because of the OS. Apple charges a premium for their hardware, but people are willing to pay this premium because of the software. Apple comes closer to "it just works" because of OS X, not because of the nifty design of the boxes or because they supposedly use "high quality" parts.
Switching to Windows would mean two things: 1) The differentiation factor for Apple decreases, meaning that they would have to compete more on price, and 2) Their support costs would go up because of the number of calls they'd get from users with Windows problems. Hello, spyware anyone? Not a problem for Apple now, but would change instantly with a Windows conversion.
I still think that Apple is slowly making the move to put OS X on generic PC boxes (and eventually more OEMs). Only they're doing it slowly and quietly, so as not to awaken the sleeping giant with the massive war chest. Apple could make a move for just desktop share, as they haven't shown any interest in becoming a large-volume server OS company. Let MS and other *nixes fight over the servers, Apple would be happy with selling boxes to just the end users and software licenses to OEMs and third parties.
Here's hoping that they have a consultant on the show to make it technically accurate.
Why does it have to be techically accurate? If that's their only goal, it probably won't be very funny. I'd rather that it have accurate insights into the way the two distinct mindsets (tech and non-tech) perceive and interact with one another in the workplace. Now that's a potential comedy goldmine.
Hard to say. The RIAA is suing over piracy, not a contract violation. If a kid tried to rip an encryped disk, they're violating the DMCA and not any license agreement that may have come with the disc.
You can sue a minor, you just have to follow special procedure. Part of which is the appointment of someone of age to represent the minor (in addition to the lawyer). The interesting thing about the case is that after the RIAA lost on the technicality they asked for permission to represent so they could follow the rules. The judge said no, which strikes me as a recognition and rejection of the overall end-around tactic.
It would be interesting to review the cases where the RIAA has acted this way and see if they pick cases where the parents may not be of means or legal savvy to fight the way this woman did.
Agreed. The RIAA lost mainly because they tried to sue a parent over the actions of the child. The court said, nice try, but if your beef is with the child, then sue the child. Either the RIAA was suing the parent to get the extortion money to keep paying for the lawsuits, or suing the parent to avoid the unpleasant reaction that would probably ensue for going after a thirteen year old. Both seem plausible. Haven't other parents paid up in other suits that weren't contested like this?
Since this was Federal court, does anyone know if this makes precedent that will force the RIAA to change tactics (i.e., start going after the kids directly)?
Oh please. Blogs are just the next step in vanity publishing, an industry that exists because a lot of people think they have something worthwhile to say and are willing to spend their own money to say it. And while a slim few actually do, most of it is pointless blather or just links to other blogs.
The day that a blog gets more hits than the NYT is the day that the Intarweb is past saving.
So it's nice that this lost, but it lost because the court said the FCC has no jurisdiction. This wasn't a victory for fair use, nor is it the end of the discussion. The MPAA will return to hammering Congress to either make the rule itself or grant the FCC the authority to do so (which the article clearly states at the end). This just gives us more time to get the word out about why the flag is a bad idea.
Why haven't they taken arms up against Redmond? One reason is because most people don't know there are alternatives (how many average lusers can even properly identify the version of Windows they're using?), and the mainstream press has only recently begun to specifically mention Windows as the main culprit.
The non-tech press always talks about spyware and viruses as if they're inherent to the Internet, as opposed to its most common brand of client. Look up a lot of the old stories about the big viruses that struck back a few years ago (when new worms were big enough news to warrant international press attention) and so rarely does the word 'Windows' ever get mentioned. I never could figure that out. Some people blamed MS PR for handling that but I don't think they're that good. My guess is because the average reporter couldn't grok the specific reasons why the worms were spreading. Of course, anyone who asked MS directly probably got the spun answer that blamed the evil hackers. Then they didn't think (or didn't have the technical ability) to probe deeper into the problems.
Delegation and managing that delegation is the trick. For someone who's done it all, learning to delegate can be hard. Just because they don't do it the way you do, doesn't mean that they can't do it well.
The other trouble with managing people is each one has to be considered on an individual basis. The axiom 'manage others as you like to be managed' doesn't always apply. I hate having someone manage how I do my tasks, but some people can't function unless you lead them around by the nose. That doesn't mean that they can't do good work. Nor does it mean that it's not possible to set up a system where they get the guidance they need without taking up all your time. It just means they need more guidance than others.
It gets even more interesting if they think they can work on their own but clearly need you to show the way. That's when you learn diplomacy.
Normally I wouldn't expect MS to allow you to configure something like this, but if you think about it, if there were a user option to turn it off, then it probably wouldn't be that difficult for a trojan to turn it off. Especially since so many people run with admin privs.
Yeah, that nails it. While music is often collaborative like film, the elements of a movie aren't always as tightly integrated or interdependent. You can still like a story while disliking an actor's performance, while you rarely say about a song, 'I liked the bass line and the lyrics, but the rythym guitar sucked'. If part of the song is off, it's difficult for the rest to stand on its own.
Books are also easy to pick apart, as they don't often have a lot going on at once and you can enjoy specific sections more than others. Like Neal Stephenson's books which are great until you have to suffer through his godawful endings.
I always read album reviews with a grain of salt. I've never been able to identify as to why, but I have never found popular music reviews to be very helpful to me. There are only so many ways that you can describe a particular song or expression of a genre and none of them adequately convey the way that I react to music. It's weird because I can read movie and book reviews and understand (and possibly agree on) what the writer is trying to say about the overall quality and purpose of the work.
But when a music review comes along, it just doesn't work. Is it because it's very difficult to describe the collaboration of multiple instruments in a linear and narrow format (i.e., the sentence)?
Along the same lines I've found that I have a very hard time describing music adequately to others. The only thing that occasionally succeeds (and happens to get used in music reviews all the time) is to compare the work to something that went before (like saying Limp Bizkit is a combination of funk and metal, or Britney is bubble gum sex pop). But then that's just a generic description, and not so much a statement on subjective quality.
I don't think I've ever bought an album where I thought a reviewer captured how I felt about the music after I listened to it. It will be interesting to see if this can be accomplished using what sounds like some sort of data mining exercise.
Thank God for try before you buy. This is the one thing that has me buying more music over the last year than the previous four or five.
They've been doing this in Paris for over a year.
on
Segways Roll Over Chicago
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I saw people touring Paris last year on a bunch of these. One of the tourists almost pulled a GW onto the pavement, but the guide showed them how to properly mount the Segway before they tried again. If you're going to Paris, Nice, or New Orleans anytime soon, check out City Segway Tours.
Here in Seattle I've also seen the people who collect the change out of parking meters using Segways to move up and down the sidewalks.
I guess Kamen is managing to sell these things, but not as many as was originally hoped.
Exactly! As entertaining as parts of Quicksilver were, nothing really happened. It read as if it were a 1000-page prologue. Does the story begin in the Confusion? I hope so. I probably will read it, but I won't run to the bookstore today like I did when Quicksilver came out.
That I seriously doubt, unless Apple is paying for all the advertising plus the collateral materials and the marketing stuff and the special french fry boxes (or whatever) that have the pieces of paper with the download codes.
If it is true, then is this the first ever billion-dollar (plus) advertising promotion?
Giving Linux the time udner the radar to mature as a desktop OS with real user feedback could be a good thing. If you took a couple of standard office computer users (not morons here, just regular non-geeky people), Linux would probably just confuse them. While KDE and Gnome can reproduce the look and feel of windows, they can't always match the actual behavior. People hate it when things don't work.
I've often wondered why MS doesn't preemptively dog the Linux desktops by doing more side by side comparisons. They could really divert people from considering Linux at all in the near future. First impressions last a long time.
The decision to which you refer had to do with McDonalds and was handed down by a jury and later overturned by a judge. I guess that just opens the floodgates to bag on us american citizens rather than the judiciary.
Wouldn't these limitations just encourage the press to ignore companies that limit what they can say?
It seems like a reviewer could write: 'We won't talk about these three products because we're not allowed, but there are some others that we like, and here's some information about them."
Is the concert industry in a slump because of the limitations that PW and LL discuss, or is it just because few concerts are worth the spiraling costs of attendance? When I was a kid you could see just about anybody for less than 20 bucks. What do most shows cost these days, $75 and up?
Over here in the UK we've got the Game Network on Sky Digital. It's pretty lame, but it exists. I suppose it would be possible to do more than just show video captures set to music, but for now that's about all they show. Occasionally there are interviews and talking heads bleating about the latest games. I think they're still showing the same E3 wrapup these days.
Slashdot Mirror
I often enjoy reading Dvorak, but this is just nonsense. Apple's usability comes from their software. Nobody buys Mac because of the hardware no matter what they say. They buy it because of the OS. Apple charges a premium for their hardware, but people are willing to pay this premium because of the software. Apple comes closer to "it just works" because of OS X, not because of the nifty design of the boxes or because they supposedly use "high quality" parts.
Switching to Windows would mean two things: 1) The differentiation factor for Apple decreases, meaning that they would have to compete more on price, and 2) Their support costs would go up because of the number of calls they'd get from users with Windows problems. Hello, spyware anyone? Not a problem for Apple now, but would change instantly with a Windows conversion.
I still think that Apple is slowly making the move to put OS X on generic PC boxes (and eventually more OEMs). Only they're doing it slowly and quietly, so as not to awaken the sleeping giant with the massive war chest. Apple could make a move for just desktop share, as they haven't shown any interest in becoming a large-volume server OS company. Let MS and other *nixes fight over the servers, Apple would be happy with selling boxes to just the end users and software licenses to OEMs and third parties.
Here's hoping that they have a consultant on the show to make it technically accurate.
Why does it have to be techically accurate? If that's their only goal, it probably won't be very funny. I'd rather that it have accurate insights into the way the two distinct mindsets (tech and non-tech) perceive and interact with one another in the workplace. Now that's a potential comedy goldmine.
And the media won't get it, because some of the stem cells will 'jokingly' link prominent citizens to forty-year-old conspiracies.
Hard to say. The RIAA is suing over piracy, not a contract violation. If a kid tried to rip an encryped disk, they're violating the DMCA and not any license agreement that may have come with the disc.
You can sue a minor, you just have to follow special procedure. Part of which is the appointment of someone of age to represent the minor (in addition to the lawyer). The interesting thing about the case is that after the RIAA lost on the technicality they asked for permission to represent so they could follow the rules. The judge said no, which strikes me as a recognition and rejection of the overall end-around tactic.
It would be interesting to review the cases where the RIAA has acted this way and see if they pick cases where the parents may not be of means or legal savvy to fight the way this woman did.
True, but first calling the cops and explaining the actions is different than going straight to filing suit in federal court.
Agreed. The RIAA lost mainly because they tried to sue a parent over the actions of the child. The court said, nice try, but if your beef is with the child, then sue the child. Either the RIAA was suing the parent to get the extortion money to keep paying for the lawsuits, or suing the parent to avoid the unpleasant reaction that would probably ensue for going after a thirteen year old. Both seem plausible. Haven't other parents paid up in other suits that weren't contested like this?
Since this was Federal court, does anyone know if this makes precedent that will force the RIAA to change tactics (i.e., start going after the kids directly)?
Blogs have revolutionized information delivery
Oh please. Blogs are just the next step in vanity publishing, an industry that exists because a lot of people think they have something worthwhile to say and are willing to spend their own money to say it. And while a slim few actually do, most of it is pointless blather or just links to other blogs.
The day that a blog gets more hits than the NYT is the day that the Intarweb is past saving.
So it's nice that this lost, but it lost because the court said the FCC has no jurisdiction. This wasn't a victory for fair use, nor is it the end of the discussion. The MPAA will return to hammering Congress to either make the rule itself or grant the FCC the authority to do so (which the article clearly states at the end). This just gives us more time to get the word out about why the flag is a bad idea.
Why haven't they taken arms up against Redmond? One reason is because most people don't know there are alternatives (how many average lusers can even properly identify the version of Windows they're using?), and the mainstream press has only recently begun to specifically mention Windows as the main culprit.
The non-tech press always talks about spyware and viruses as if they're inherent to the Internet, as opposed to its most common brand of client. Look up a lot of the old stories about the big viruses that struck back a few years ago (when new worms were big enough news to warrant international press attention) and so rarely does the word 'Windows' ever get mentioned. I never could figure that out. Some people blamed MS PR for handling that but I don't think they're that good. My guess is because the average reporter couldn't grok the specific reasons why the worms were spreading. Of course, anyone who asked MS directly probably got the spun answer that blamed the evil hackers. Then they didn't think (or didn't have the technical ability) to probe deeper into the problems.
Delegation and managing that delegation is the trick. For someone who's done it all, learning to delegate can be hard. Just because they don't do it the way you do, doesn't mean that they can't do it well.
The other trouble with managing people is each one has to be considered on an individual basis. The axiom 'manage others as you like to be managed' doesn't always apply. I hate having someone manage how I do my tasks, but some people can't function unless you lead them around by the nose. That doesn't mean that they can't do good work. Nor does it mean that it's not possible to set up a system where they get the guidance they need without taking up all your time. It just means they need more guidance than others.
It gets even more interesting if they think they can work on their own but clearly need you to show the way. That's when you learn diplomacy.
The billboard apparently has yet to be notified of his participation: Whag the billboard
Normally I wouldn't expect MS to allow you to configure something like this, but if you think about it, if there were a user option to turn it off, then it probably wouldn't be that difficult for a trojan to turn it off. Especially since so many people run with admin privs.
Yeah, that nails it. While music is often collaborative like film, the elements of a movie aren't always as tightly integrated or interdependent. You can still like a story while disliking an actor's performance, while you rarely say about a song, 'I liked the bass line and the lyrics, but the rythym guitar sucked'. If part of the song is off, it's difficult for the rest to stand on its own.
Books are also easy to pick apart, as they don't often have a lot going on at once and you can enjoy specific sections more than others. Like Neal Stephenson's books which are great until you have to suffer through his godawful endings.
-------------------
and sometimes I'm not even I.
That's just the drugs doing their job.
I always read album reviews with a grain of salt. I've never been able to identify as to why, but I have never found popular music reviews to be very helpful to me. There are only so many ways that you can describe a particular song or expression of a genre and none of them adequately convey the way that I react to music. It's weird because I can read movie and book reviews and understand (and possibly agree on) what the writer is trying to say about the overall quality and purpose of the work.
But when a music review comes along, it just doesn't work. Is it because it's very difficult to describe the collaboration of multiple instruments in a linear and narrow format (i.e., the sentence)?
Along the same lines I've found that I have a very hard time describing music adequately to others. The only thing that occasionally succeeds (and happens to get used in music reviews all the time) is to compare the work to something that went before (like saying Limp Bizkit is a combination of funk and metal, or Britney is bubble gum sex pop). But then that's just a generic description, and not so much a statement on subjective quality.
I don't think I've ever bought an album where I thought a reviewer captured how I felt about the music after I listened to it. It will be interesting to see if this can be accomplished using what sounds like some sort of data mining exercise.
Thank God for try before you buy. This is the one thing that has me buying more music over the last year than the previous four or five.
Here in Seattle I've also seen the people who collect the change out of parking meters using Segways to move up and down the sidewalks.
I guess Kamen is managing to sell these things, but not as many as was originally hoped.
Exactly! As entertaining as parts of Quicksilver were, nothing really happened. It read as if it were a 1000-page prologue. Does the story begin in the Confusion? I hope so. I probably will read it, but I won't run to the bookstore today like I did when Quicksilver came out.
That I seriously doubt, unless Apple is paying for all the advertising plus the collateral materials and the marketing stuff and the special french fry boxes (or whatever) that have the pieces of paper with the download codes.
If it is true, then is this the first ever billion-dollar (plus) advertising promotion?
Giving Linux the time udner the radar to mature as a desktop OS with real user feedback could be a good thing. If you took a couple of standard office computer users (not morons here, just regular non-geeky people), Linux would probably just confuse them. While KDE and Gnome can reproduce the look and feel of windows, they can't always match the actual behavior. People hate it when things don't work.
I've often wondered why MS doesn't preemptively dog the Linux desktops by doing more side by side comparisons. They could really divert people from considering Linux at all in the near future. First impressions last a long time.
The DM in DMCA is Digital Millenium, not digital media.
By everyone except chrisd. I sometimes wonder how much time the editors of Slashdot actually spend reading it.
The decision to which you refer had to do with McDonalds and was handed down by a jury and later overturned by a judge. I guess that just opens the floodgates to bag on us american citizens rather than the judiciary.
Wouldn't these limitations just encourage the press to ignore companies that limit what they can say?
It seems like a reviewer could write: 'We won't talk about these three products because we're not allowed, but there are some others that we like, and here's some information about them."
Is the concert industry in a slump because of the limitations that PW and LL discuss, or is it just because few concerts are worth the spiraling costs of attendance? When I was a kid you could see just about anybody for less than 20 bucks. What do most shows cost these days, $75 and up?
Over here in the UK we've got the Game Network on Sky Digital. It's pretty lame, but it exists. I suppose it would be possible to do more than just show video captures set to music, but for now that's about all they show. Occasionally there are interviews and talking heads bleating about the latest games. I think they're still showing the same E3 wrapup these days.