Funny, I was just making that argument to my baker that his cakes were way over priced. I mean, $1 for flour, another $1.25 in sugar, an egg or two... his are a total rip off.
Your comparison is not fair. You are comparing a fully assembled PC with a single warranty to a bunch of parts that you need to assemble yourself (here Mom. It's a computer from Ikea. Good luck.) I won't even get into the quality differences. That 17" LCD compared to the Apple widscreen, the tin-can case you're quoting for $50, not to mention that you completely forgot the operating system, anything to replace iPhoto, iDvd, Garageband, you missed the camera and speakers altogether...
With all taken into account, yours may be even more expensive in the end. And it would still be a tin can.
There are three reasons why this makes good sense:
1. Pixar is at the top of its game. There may still be some upside on the company's value, but a lot of that will depend on Cars. All of the other studios are nipping on their heels. Their technological advantage is eroding as the technology matures, and creativity is something that can be bought/developed/stolen. Today's unstoppable team can become tomorrow's slump.
2. Steve is trying to build a relationship with the same media companies that he competes with through Pixar. He wants video content for iTMS, but at the same time kicks their ass at the box office. It's hard to play both sides; it's best to just be a distributor, not a competitor.
3. Pixar still wants to play tough with Disney, but Steve wants Disney/ABC to play nice with iTMS. Can't have it both ways. Best way out is to cut the cord w/ Pixar.
This tax comment comes up so often. "They only do it for the tax refund" is not a reason to donate money; you don't come out ahead. If I give $100 away, I'll get to deduct it off of my taxes. Sure, after-tax, that $100 may only have been $60, but in the end you never come out ahead (or even) by donating cash to a charity.
The only time there can be a pay off is by donating an asset that receives a fair market valuation above and beyond what one could reasonably expect to get if you tried to sell it. Jewelry would be the first thing that would come to mind, where resale is almost always lower than FMV.
Kudos for that idea (hey, patent it). Your point is great -- the patent system is not to protect the idea, but to protect the effort required to get there. If you can produce proof that you were beavering away on making something of your idea, then it's yours. But squatters get nothing.
I agree in principal, but what is to stop an organization with more resources from simply waiting out the small guy? No doubt, the independent inventor would have to shop around their idea, find someone with the resources to make it real. Sooner or later, word will get around. Company X could refuse to meet the inventor when approached (you'd want to avoid the perception of stealing) and set out on their "parallel path" of development. They would develop their concept, create a tangible product/prototype, and win the patent.
I think that the greater problem is how long an abstract patent is allowed to exist. Sooner or later, you have to use it or lose it. This leaves a problem of "waiting out" the small guy, but still provides him with ample opportunity to sell the concept. There should be stronger limits on conceptual patents. Patenting wireless email. Wow. I should have thought of that. Perhaps I should run out and patent the concept of speech (or thought) based sms messaging input. Although I have no idea how to implement it, I can make a good buck of someone who does.
You have to get some background on Bronfman to fully understand what a raging idiot he is. He is a a stupid son of the very successful Bronfman empire. Like the Rockefellers, the Bronfmans made their fortune during prohibition, building Seagrams. Once Edgar rose to the helm (earned only by name, not talent), he decided that profitable booze was just too boring for him. He started getting into the entertainment business, eventually making a horrible deal with Vivendi to save his skin and destroying the great Seagrams company. It was a massive shame.
He has always been a huge opponent of digital music. He has never understood it, nor will he ever. He is an arrogant moron. Steve must just roll his eyes everytime he sees his number on caller ID.
Bad news: You do break the law. Downloading is legal here, but uploading definitely is not. While you're downloading, you are feeding data to peers and that makes you an uploader. Also, if you leave the torrent open after downloading, you are seeding (which of course you should do, lest you be branded a leecher).
I think that these are more common in countries outside of North America. I have a friend in the financial industry in the UK and they have what is known as "gardening leave" -- when you get sacked you are still on the payroll for six months, but your job is to stay home and do nothing. This is, I believe, in addition to any severance.
The idea is to keep you out of play so that you can't take clients with you, and/or ensure that any inside knowledge you have is stale by the time you can use it.
A traditional North American non-compete would still allow one to get a job, but would prevent you from engaging in activities that are directly competitive, such as picking off clients. These need to be very narrow in North America; any attempt to make them so broad as to have them viewed as restricting one's employment would result in the non-compete being stricken down.
What's with all of the WINE talk? Why is everyone so keen to run lousy non-Cocoa apps on their Mac? There is a fantastic Mac substitute for virtually every PC app. Yes, there are some issues with more obscure apps. But guess what? They probably don't work right under WINE because it has never been tested/tuned. All WINE will get you is the right to make an Windows app run like an X app. To my knowledge, WINE will not turn a Windows program into a native Cocoa app.
As for the Classic apps... then don't upgrade. There will also be plenty of old PPCs to buy used. If you are still running apps that are 6-7 years old (which they will be by the time the Intels launch), then you'll be happy with old hardware. What's with the Quark example? It is available as an OS X native app.
How do you get to "one" ticket? Take Mac OSX as an example: How many 1000's of copies were downloaded? As a downloader, the cost of the crime is $8. But as the poster, the cost is far, far, more than that.
The term is a "maximum" not an absolute. You need something sufficiently severe to nail repeat offenders. The current approach of just saying that "If you do that, we will be angry. Very, very angry" is simply not effective in deterring this crime.
Your bank pays you interest! Awesome! Mine shells out less than one percent, hardly an amount sufficient to service a lease.
Alternatively, you could invest is something that will provide sufficient return, but carries a greater risk. Then you may lose the principal and raise the overall cost of the asset.
The only thing you should be investing that money in is your core business -- r&d, staff, equipment. Keep a "rainy day" cash hoard if you can, but don't go investing it in an effort to service your debt. That would only result in not having your rainy day reserve when it starts to pour.
For example, if the purcahse price of a server is $10,000, and its residual value after 3 years is $2,500, then the lease is effectively a loan for $7,500, repaid over 3 years.
Actually, you're only half right. The payments are intended to cover a $7500 loan over 3 years. However, there is also a $2500 loan that is not repaid -- only the flat interest is paid over the life.
So your monthly payment is made up of:
Payment of part of $7500 loan
Interest on the remaining balance of the $7500 loan.
Layout is a hassle, for sure. But even more painful is the cost -- Canadian carriers charge a fair bit for GPRS traffic and overage is charged at $0.01-$0.03/KB. Sites are getting fatter on images all the time -- and ads make it worse. Hit the wrong sites and you will end up with a very hefty bill.
Right around the part where you were accusing GL of "raping your fond memories" or something to that effect.
I love the animated Grinch. I'm certain that the live action one sucks ass. Of course, my impression of the Grinch has never changed because I NEVER SAW THE REMAKE.
Get it? Don't watch it, no fond memories raped, it's all good.
It's close to satellite, but not exactly the same. Satellite radio offers more than you'd get from Napster: programming (they build playlists for you) and content that is not available elsewhere (especially talk radio).
I think that the talk stations are the backbone to satellite; so does Sirius given their massive contract with Howard Stern. The truth is, now that digital players are integrating into cars, satellite music will lose some of its value.
Don't forget iLife. Just Photoshop Album adds $50 to your PC. DVD Authoring? More. Garageband? More. iMovie? Depends on whether you can deal with Windows Movie Maker.
That's because 80% of people chose the iPod. Unlike Windows, they didn't pick it because they had to interoperate, because MS Office didn't run on their platform, or because they couldn't share drives or get support.
I could buy a Rio. I just don't want to because the iPod is better. And if I had a Rio, or thought I ever would, I would know better than to buy from iTunes.
Same with razor blades. Buy Gilette blades, use Gilette handles.
I wonder if Apple continued their approach with Safari and used OpenOffice as the core for iWorks. On one hand, it makes sense; all *known* Mac development on OO is at a halt and it offers more credibility than being suite #4. But on the other hand, the reasons for stopping development seem to be more related to the code within OO itself and Apple would be unlikely to take on such a daunting cleanup task.
Funny you should bring up the drugs argument, as I was just thinking of that while reading the last post. I'm not a lawyer and don't know for certain, but somehow I think that telling someone would be illegal.
If you were to stand outside of a schoolyard and tell kids where to buy crack, right down to the right street corner and the secret password, don't you think that you're guilty of something? Most certainly you'd be arrested for facilitating the sale of drugs.
Regardless of legality, I doubt that there is anyone here who could be the person outside the schoolyard and yet hold their heads high saying that they had nothing to do with the actual crime.
I agree with most of these points. As an independent body, you don't need some of these items, such as insurance, that would typically be required if you were providing the actual service (i.e. you were the consulting company with the promised deliverable).
However, many have not mentioned a couple of important points:
1. Sales. When you're working, you're not selling. When you're done working, you start to sell, thus creating lag time between jobs. If you can tap into a good referral network, then maybe you can hold zero lag. Some of these contractor agencies take a piece of the action, though.
2. Benefits. The 401k is important, but don't forget health insurance! Unless you're covered under someone else's plan, this can be a huge expense. Although you may not be considering this today because you're healthy, insurance will eventually become essential. And it's not cheap. A good family plan can cost up to $1000/month.
3. FTE vs. Contractor. I need to underscore what was just mentioned: contractors are the first to go. At my company, that is always the case. Second, contractors are often "outsiders". You may not have the same sense of community and ownership. You may be excluded from corporate events, some meetings, etc. This can bother some people who give equal importance to the social aspects of work.
Despite all of this, you do get flexibility. I was self-employed (had my own firm & staff) for about a decade. I eventally decided to get a "normal" career because of the crazy amounts of travel I was doing. During that time, though, there were periods of cash drought, and others when it was raining cash. Overall, no regrets. But you have to be able to deal with uncertainty. There can be no doubt that FTE is uncertain, but far less than contracting. The last poster's suggesting of 1 month's salary is, in my opinion, quite low. I would not feel safe without 3 months or more in the bank (this depends on your financial commitments -- mortgage, loan payments, dependents, etc...)
You point out the exact benefit. In most searches where it could apply, your first five pages are mata-shopping engines. People are using tactics like creating stupid page names based on popular searches that the manage to push to the the top of the rankings.
This is a battle that will always go on. Change your page rank system and people will just start gaming it again.
What Clusty/Vivisimo accomplishes is that by clustering data, it takes sequence out of play. Even if my preferred pages for "Debian's social contract" appear deep into a search on Debian, it comes front & center on a clustered search.
If this catches on, I'm certain that people will figure out how to game that too. One feature that I'm surprised was never implemented is an option to suppress meta-engines from search results. That would clean up results a lot.
Are you implying that Gates manipulated Kildall's life? That's nonsense.
Kildall, if anything had the edge. He had the first meeting and a potential exclusive on providing IBM with an OS. He blew off the meeting (rumor is that he went flying), and DR demanded an unreasonable price and license for their product.
Next, he is first to market with a PC windowing system (GEM). He fails to market it, then pulls it, not believing in the potential of GUIs. MS, on the other hand, goes full tilt on the promotion of theirs.
How is this manipulation? Kildall may have been "tech-smart" but lacked marketing savvy and was not wise enough to recognize this shortcoming and partner with someone who complimented his skills. The two key personal computing success stories of that era (MS & Apple) were founded by partners, one technically savvy, one with market vision and knowledge to make a product succeed.
IF Kildall did commit suicide, it is the regrets of looking back on his own stupid mistakes and seeing what could have been that triggered it. Having your failures rubbed in your face my historians certainly would not have helped that.
The good news is that you can still head down to your local Wal-Mart or Jim-bo's Guns 'n Booze emporium and buy yourself enough ammo for even the most psychotic killing rampage.
But of course, these guys aren't terrorists, they're just exercising their constitutional rights. After all, a few thousand people have did at the hands of terrorists, clearly making them the clear & present danger.
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Funny, I was just making that argument to my baker that his cakes were way over priced. I mean, $1 for flour, another $1.25 in sugar, an egg or two... his are a total rip off.
Your comparison is not fair. You are comparing a fully assembled PC with a single warranty to a bunch of parts that you need to assemble yourself (here Mom. It's a computer from Ikea. Good luck.) I won't even get into the quality differences. That 17" LCD compared to the Apple widscreen, the tin-can case you're quoting for $50, not to mention that you completely forgot the operating system, anything to replace iPhoto, iDvd, Garageband, you missed the camera and speakers altogether...
With all taken into account, yours may be even more expensive in the end. And it would still be a tin can.
There are three reasons why this makes good sense:
1. Pixar is at the top of its game. There may still be some upside on the company's value, but a lot of that will depend on Cars. All of the other studios are nipping on their heels. Their technological advantage is eroding as the technology matures, and creativity is something that can be bought/developed/stolen. Today's unstoppable team can become tomorrow's slump.
2. Steve is trying to build a relationship with the same media companies that he competes with through Pixar. He wants video content for iTMS, but at the same time kicks their ass at the box office. It's hard to play both sides; it's best to just be a distributor, not a competitor.
3. Pixar still wants to play tough with Disney, but Steve wants Disney/ABC to play nice with iTMS. Can't have it both ways. Best way out is to cut the cord w/ Pixar.
This tax comment comes up so often. "They only do it for the tax refund" is not a reason to donate money; you don't come out ahead. If I give $100 away, I'll get to deduct it off of my taxes. Sure, after-tax, that $100 may only have been $60, but in the end you never come out ahead (or even) by donating cash to a charity.
The only time there can be a pay off is by donating an asset that receives a fair market valuation above and beyond what one could reasonably expect to get if you tried to sell it. Jewelry would be the first thing that would come to mind, where resale is almost always lower than FMV.
Kudos for that idea (hey, patent it). Your point is great -- the patent system is not to protect the idea, but to protect the effort required to get there. If you can produce proof that you were beavering away on making something of your idea, then it's yours. But squatters get nothing.
I agree in principal, but what is to stop an organization with more resources from simply waiting out the small guy? No doubt, the independent inventor would have to shop around their idea, find someone with the resources to make it real. Sooner or later, word will get around. Company X could refuse to meet the inventor when approached (you'd want to avoid the perception of stealing) and set out on their "parallel path" of development. They would develop their concept, create a tangible product/prototype, and win the patent.
I think that the greater problem is how long an abstract patent is allowed to exist. Sooner or later, you have to use it or lose it. This leaves a problem of "waiting out" the small guy, but still provides him with ample opportunity to sell the concept. There should be stronger limits on conceptual patents. Patenting wireless email. Wow. I should have thought of that. Perhaps I should run out and patent the concept of speech (or thought) based sms messaging input. Although I have no idea how to implement it, I can make a good buck of someone who does.
You have to get some background on Bronfman to fully understand what a raging idiot he is. He is a a stupid son of the very successful Bronfman empire. Like the Rockefellers, the Bronfmans made their fortune during prohibition, building Seagrams. Once Edgar rose to the helm (earned only by name, not talent), he decided that profitable booze was just too boring for him. He started getting into the entertainment business, eventually making a horrible deal with Vivendi to save his skin and destroying the great Seagrams company. It was a massive shame.
He has always been a huge opponent of digital music. He has never understood it, nor will he ever. He is an arrogant moron. Steve must just roll his eyes everytime he sees his number on caller ID.
Bad news: You do break the law. Downloading is legal here, but uploading definitely is not. While you're downloading, you are feeding data to peers and that makes you an uploader. Also, if you leave the torrent open after downloading, you are seeding (which of course you should do, lest you be branded a leecher).
I think that these are more common in countries outside of North America. I have a friend in the financial industry in the UK and they have what is known as "gardening leave" -- when you get sacked you are still on the payroll for six months, but your job is to stay home and do nothing. This is, I believe, in addition to any severance.
The idea is to keep you out of play so that you can't take clients with you, and/or ensure that any inside knowledge you have is stale by the time you can use it.
A traditional North American non-compete would still allow one to get a job, but would prevent you from engaging in activities that are directly competitive, such as picking off clients. These need to be very narrow in North America; any attempt to make them so broad as to have them viewed as restricting one's employment would result in the non-compete being stricken down.
What's with all of the WINE talk? Why is everyone so keen to run lousy non-Cocoa apps on their Mac? There is a fantastic Mac substitute for virtually every PC app. Yes, there are some issues with more obscure apps. But guess what? They probably don't work right under WINE because it has never been tested/tuned. All WINE will get you is the right to make an Windows app run like an X app. To my knowledge, WINE will not turn a Windows program into a native Cocoa app.
As for the Classic apps... then don't upgrade. There will also be plenty of old PPCs to buy used. If you are still running apps that are 6-7 years old (which they will be by the time the Intels launch), then you'll be happy with old hardware. What's with the Quark example? It is available as an OS X native app.
Move forward, people.
How do you get to "one" ticket? Take Mac OSX as an example: How many 1000's of copies were downloaded? As a downloader, the cost of the crime is $8. But as the poster, the cost is far, far, more than that.
The term is a "maximum" not an absolute. You need something sufficiently severe to nail repeat offenders. The current approach of just saying that "If you do that, we will be angry. Very, very angry" is simply not effective in deterring this crime.
Your bank pays you interest! Awesome! Mine shells out less than one percent, hardly an amount sufficient to service a lease.
Alternatively, you could invest is something that will provide sufficient return, but carries a greater risk. Then you may lose the principal and raise the overall cost of the asset.
The only thing you should be investing that money in is your core business -- r&d, staff, equipment. Keep a "rainy day" cash hoard if you can, but don't go investing it in an effort to service your debt. That would only result in not having your rainy day reserve when it starts to pour.
Actually, you're only half right. The payments are intended to cover a $7500 loan over 3 years. However, there is also a $2500 loan that is not repaid -- only the flat interest is paid over the life.
So your monthly payment is made up of:
Payment of part of $7500 loan
Interest on the remaining balance of the $7500 loan.
Interest on the flat $2500 loan.
Layout is a hassle, for sure. But even more painful is the cost -- Canadian carriers charge a fair bit for GPRS traffic and overage is charged at $0.01-$0.03/KB. Sites are getting fatter on images all the time -- and ads make it worse. Hit the wrong sites and you will end up with a very hefty bill.
Right around the part where you were accusing GL of "raping your fond memories" or something to that effect.
I love the animated Grinch. I'm certain that the live action one sucks ass. Of course, my impression of the Grinch has never changed because I NEVER SAW THE REMAKE.
Get it? Don't watch it, no fond memories raped, it's all good.
It's close to satellite, but not exactly the same. Satellite radio offers more than you'd get from Napster: programming (they build playlists for you) and content that is not available elsewhere (especially talk radio).
I think that the talk stations are the backbone to satellite; so does Sirius given their massive contract with Howard Stern. The truth is, now that digital players are integrating into cars, satellite music will lose some of its value.
Don't forget iLife. Just Photoshop Album adds $50 to your PC. DVD Authoring? More. Garageband? More. iMovie? Depends on whether you can deal with Windows Movie Maker.
No kidding. Apparently the whole drive to the moon was Kennedy hoping to get some action just like Captain Kirk's.
That's because 80% of people chose the iPod. Unlike Windows, they didn't pick it because they had to interoperate, because MS Office didn't run on their platform, or because they couldn't share drives or get support.
I could buy a Rio. I just don't want to because the iPod is better. And if I had a Rio, or thought I ever would, I would know better than to buy from iTunes.
Same with razor blades. Buy Gilette blades, use Gilette handles.
I wonder if Apple continued their approach with Safari and used OpenOffice as the core for iWorks. On one hand, it makes sense; all *known* Mac development on OO is at a halt and it offers more credibility than being suite #4. But on the other hand, the reasons for stopping development seem to be more related to the code within OO itself and Apple would be unlikely to take on such a daunting cleanup task.
Funny you should bring up the drugs argument, as I was just thinking of that while reading the last post. I'm not a lawyer and don't know for certain, but somehow I think that telling someone would be illegal.
If you were to stand outside of a schoolyard and tell kids where to buy crack, right down to the right street corner and the secret password, don't you think that you're guilty of something? Most certainly you'd be arrested for facilitating the sale of drugs.
Regardless of legality, I doubt that there is anyone here who could be the person outside the schoolyard and yet hold their heads high saying that they had nothing to do with the actual crime.
I agree with most of these points. As an independent body, you don't need some of these items, such as insurance, that would typically be required if you were providing the actual service (i.e. you were the consulting company with the promised deliverable).
However, many have not mentioned a couple of important points:
1. Sales. When you're working, you're not selling. When you're done working, you start to sell, thus creating lag time between jobs. If you can tap into a good referral network, then maybe you can hold zero lag. Some of these contractor agencies take a piece of the action, though.
2. Benefits. The 401k is important, but don't forget health insurance! Unless you're covered under someone else's plan, this can be a huge expense. Although you may not be considering this today because you're healthy, insurance will eventually become essential. And it's not cheap. A good family plan can cost up to $1000/month.
3. FTE vs. Contractor. I need to underscore what was just mentioned: contractors are the first to go. At my company, that is always the case. Second, contractors are often "outsiders". You may not have the same sense of community and ownership. You may be excluded from corporate events, some meetings, etc. This can bother some people who give equal importance to the social aspects of work.
Despite all of this, you do get flexibility. I was self-employed (had my own firm & staff) for about a decade. I eventally decided to get a "normal" career because of the crazy amounts of travel I was doing. During that time, though, there were periods of cash drought, and others when it was raining cash. Overall, no regrets. But you have to be able to deal with uncertainty. There can be no doubt that FTE is uncertain, but far less than contracting. The last poster's suggesting of 1 month's salary is, in my opinion, quite low. I would not feel safe without 3 months or more in the bank (this depends on your financial commitments -- mortgage, loan payments, dependents, etc...)
Actually, just like in the good 'ol US they refer to Southeners as "Crackers". It's actually a big cooperation / peace project.
I'm actually imagining, like a big Moonie wedding, 600 gap-toothed rednecks in wife-beater shirts being trained by their Northern overlord.
You point out the exact benefit. In most searches where it could apply, your first five pages are mata-shopping engines. People are using tactics like creating stupid page names based on popular searches that the manage to push to the the top of the rankings.
This is a battle that will always go on. Change your page rank system and people will just start gaming it again.
What Clusty/Vivisimo accomplishes is that by clustering data, it takes sequence out of play. Even if my preferred pages for "Debian's social contract" appear deep into a search on Debian, it comes front & center on a clustered search.
If this catches on, I'm certain that people will figure out how to game that too. One feature that I'm surprised was never implemented is an option to suppress meta-engines from search results. That would clean up results a lot.
Are you implying that Gates manipulated Kildall's life? That's nonsense.
Kildall, if anything had the edge. He had the first meeting and a potential exclusive on providing IBM with an OS. He blew off the meeting (rumor is that he went flying), and DR demanded an unreasonable price and license for their product.
Next, he is first to market with a PC windowing system (GEM). He fails to market it, then pulls it, not believing in the potential of GUIs. MS, on the other hand, goes full tilt on the promotion of theirs.
How is this manipulation? Kildall may have been "tech-smart" but lacked marketing savvy and was not wise enough to recognize this shortcoming and partner with someone who complimented his skills. The two key personal computing success stories of that era (MS & Apple) were founded by partners, one technically savvy, one with market vision and knowledge to make a product succeed.
IF Kildall did commit suicide, it is the regrets of looking back on his own stupid mistakes and seeing what could have been that triggered it. Having your failures rubbed in your face my historians certainly would not have helped that.
The good news is that you can still head down to your local Wal-Mart or Jim-bo's Guns 'n Booze emporium and buy yourself enough ammo for even the most psychotic killing rampage.
But of course, these guys aren't terrorists, they're just exercising their constitutional rights. After all, a few thousand people have did at the hands of terrorists, clearly making them the clear & present danger.