Trust me; if they really wanted to do something useful, they would meet with you during working hours in the office. A dinner is a way to pursue more political ends. See who drinks too much, see who doesn't participate at all. See who comes late or leaves early. And all that for no overtime.
Call me paranoid, but unless they're willing to supersize that meal, it's a bad deal for you. I'm going to guess that something big, like an outsourcing deal, will be announced that night.
Unfortunately, the general public has a mentality that these sort of tools are only used against criminals. "If you don't do anything wrong," they say, "you have nothing to fear from these things."
It's long been understood by leaders from the smallest tribes to the most bloodthirsty dictatorships that these sorts of means of control can be put in place by demonizing a small enough sector of society that a majority is willing to go along with the program.
I very much welcome our new Apple Audio Overlords. I think it's great that they are branching out into more of the specialized niches which appreciate the kind of quality engineering that Apple provides.
For a long time it was just desktop publishing. Then DTP and graphics/photo editing. Then video. Audio just makes sense!
This is as opposed to the Redmond overlords, who seem to be branching into everything that makes any money, from phones to PDAs to video games... What's their business plan again?
Re:Jeez, that review is long
on
Paranoia
·
· Score: 1
Best Metareview Ever!
Jeez, that review is long
on
Paranoia
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Can someone write a review of it so I know if it's worth reading?
Agreed, and even if you bought it a while ago. This is a common problem, and it's more than likely that you're going to have other issues in the next few weeks.
God forbid you use 3rd party RAM and upgrade to Panther...
That specializes in performances in front of traffic cams. On the web site, I'll advertise by saying, "Catch Macbeth by watching the KRTY evening news at 6:52!" I think that these things are just BEGGING for people to use them for all sorts of free expression.
Forget Macbeth... wouldn't you tune in to the news for a rendition of Behind the Green Door on a traffic cam?
And I'd love to see a price comparison between homes in the SF Bay Area to homes in even relatively populated areas like Victoria, BC. What's a few hundred bux when you're getting a home for 1/10th the cost? Who's really getting hosed here?
Actually, my understanding is that Apple is not just licensing the iPod, but manufacturing HP's version as well. One of the Apple head honchos was quoted as saying something like, "We see this as just adding another reseller to the list."
The only risk for Apple would be if it doesn't work out and they end up with a million blue iPods on their hands.
Does anyone know if the earphones are going to be blue, too?
I know this is a common thing to say here at/., but I can't believe that patent was granted. Media players have been doing ram buffering for years. Maybe in the name of skip protection &c, but I can't imagine that nobody recognized the power advantages of ram buffering before 1999.
I've been looking, but I don't find any other comments along these lines: Yes, smaller is cooler for some people, but the new price choice is a smart one.
By putting it just above the price of the next level of competing devices, Apple is making a clear statement. Something like, "Smaller it may be, but it's still a higher class product than those guys."
But by putting it just below the cost of the 10^H5 GB iPod, you're giving people an excuse to buy that instead. The scenario they envision, I would guess, is where not a single iPod mini is sold, but instead something like this happens:
1- Someone goes to the store thinking of getting a flash player. They see one for $199 and they're just about to buy when they see the iPod mini.
2- They're totally stoked that, for just $50.00 more, they can get an iPod with SO MUCH more storage!
3- Then they look over and see that, for just $50.00 more, they can get a 15GB iPod, which suddenly doesn't seem so expensive anymore. In fact, the capacity difference between the 4 and the 15 is so great that, well, what the heck!
And they buy it.
I'm sure they won't be upset if these things sell like hotcakes, but I wouldn't be surprized if what really happens is that there is a huge surge in the 15GB iPods from people who were waiting and waiting... What a brilliant idea--if it works--introduce a lower end product that canibalizes sales of competing products and increases sales of your own higher end products. Pretty slick, I tell's ya!
It's funny about miracles, isn't it? It's like the four minute mile. Once someone does it and proves it can be done, lots of people follow. Within a year after the Mac came out (IIRC), a little company called GeoWorks came out with a GUI-based OS for the Commodore 64. Pretty neat, but unfortunately, it just didn't catch on.
Does it solve the problem, or just work around it? I mean, people might have various reasons not to run a program on their machine, and privacy concerns might be one of them. With this system apparently reporting data to a central server no matter what site the applet is installed on, there are a multitude of privacy concerns, and that is certainly high on list of concerns for the audit-and-build-it-myself set.
Just because something is the norm doesn't mean it should be acceptable. We're already generating enough waste as a society without this sort of give-away of soon-to-be obsolete technology.
Sometimes it pays off, too. My folks were the last of the betamax holdouts, with two betas and no VHS after EVERYONE else had converted. Their favorite rental place finally gave up the beta business and sold off their stock. My folks got something like 100 movies for almost nothing.
Since then, they've gotten 2 VHS players, each of which sits atop its predecessor BETA in the two TV cozies they have in the house. In the interest of moving them into the '00s, just bought them a DVD player. Mom is already talking about those perfect pauses...
LOL! This reminds me of when I first got my driver's license. It was too expensive (insurance-wise) to keep the Alpha Romeo Giulietta in the family with a 16-year-old boy in the house, so the 'rents sold it in favor of a MASSIVELY underpowered Chevy Chevette
I got them back by putting a "cellular phony" in the car: it was a fake phone I mounted on the center console, and a fake corkscrew-style antenna that I mounted on the back window. Then I put a Porsche badge on the front grille, ensuring that mum and pop got laughs, winks and thumbs-up wherever they went.
Slashdot Mirror
Call me paranoid, but unless they're willing to supersize that meal, it's a bad deal for you. I'm going to guess that something big, like an outsourcing deal, will be announced that night.
It's long been understood by leaders from the smallest tribes to the most bloodthirsty dictatorships that these sorts of means of control can be put in place by demonizing a small enough sector of society that a majority is willing to go along with the program.
For a long time it was just desktop publishing. Then DTP and graphics/photo editing. Then video. Audio just makes sense!
This is as opposed to the Redmond overlords, who seem to be branching into everything that makes any money, from phones to PDAs to video games... What's their business plan again?
Best Metareview Ever!
Can someone write a review of it so I know if it's worth reading?
God forbid you use 3rd party RAM and upgrade to Panther...
Awesome! Those brits think of everything!
Forget Macbeth... wouldn't you tune in to the news for a rendition of Behind the Green Door on a traffic cam?
It sounds WONderful. Need a roommate or two? I can play guitar and my fiancee is a great cook if you like vegetarian food...
And I'd love to see a price comparison between homes in the SF Bay Area to homes in even relatively populated areas like Victoria, BC. What's a few hundred bux when you're getting a home for 1/10th the cost? Who's really getting hosed here?
SCO is apparently suing KISS for stealing their business model...
The only risk for Apple would be if it doesn't work out and they end up with a million blue iPods on their hands.
Does anyone know if the earphones are going to be blue, too?
Those f****ers are wreaking havoc with my filters!
I know this is a common thing to say here at /., but I can't believe that patent was granted. Media players have been doing ram buffering for years. Maybe in the name of skip protection &c, but I can't imagine that nobody recognized the power advantages of ram buffering before 1999.
Now we just need 23 more licencees...
What are they going to call it? The hPod?
By putting it just above the price of the next level of competing devices, Apple is making a clear statement. Something like, "Smaller it may be, but it's still a higher class product than those guys."
But by putting it just below the cost of the 10^H5 GB iPod, you're giving people an excuse to buy that instead. The scenario they envision, I would guess, is where not a single iPod mini is sold, but instead something like this happens:
1- Someone goes to the store thinking of getting a flash player. They see one for $199 and they're just about to buy when they see the iPod mini.
2- They're totally stoked that, for just $50.00 more, they can get an iPod with SO MUCH more storage!
3- Then they look over and see that, for just $50.00 more, they can get a 15GB iPod, which suddenly doesn't seem so expensive anymore. In fact, the capacity difference between the 4 and the 15 is so great that, well, what the heck!
And they buy it.
I'm sure they won't be upset if these things sell like hotcakes, but I wouldn't be surprized if what really happens is that there is a huge surge in the 15GB iPods from people who were waiting and waiting... What a brilliant idea--if it works--introduce a lower end product that canibalizes sales of competing products and increases sales of your own higher end products. Pretty slick, I tell's ya!
I knew they came in colors now, but flavors?!
Or, dare I say it, a beowulf cluster?
Why doesn't anyone ever talk about iCab?
I miss my C64...
Does it solve the problem, or just work around it? I mean, people might have various reasons not to run a program on their machine, and privacy concerns might be one of them. With this system apparently reporting data to a central server no matter what site the applet is installed on, there are a multitude of privacy concerns, and that is certainly high on list of concerns for the audit-and-build-it-myself set.
Just because something is the norm doesn't mean it should be acceptable. We're already generating enough waste as a society without this sort of give-away of soon-to-be obsolete technology.
Since then, they've gotten 2 VHS players, each of which sits atop its predecessor BETA in the two TV cozies they have in the house. In the interest of moving them into the '00s, just bought them a DVD player. Mom is already talking about those perfect pauses...
I got them back by putting a "cellular phony" in the car: it was a fake phone I mounted on the center console, and a fake corkscrew-style antenna that I mounted on the back window. Then I put a Porsche badge on the front grille, ensuring that mum and pop got laughs, winks and thumbs-up wherever they went.