Where is this rebuttal you speak of? I listed all the things that makes Google more than a "madison avenue huckster," and you simply listed some competing services to Google's. Then you sprinkled on some of your paranoid delusions at the end.
BTW, you are high when it comes to Google Maps. Do you remember what the competing services looked like before Google Maps came out and its ajax interface blew them completely out of the water? All of those other services have played nothing but catch up with Google on every feature.
Seriously, you're going to try to reduce Google to this level?
First and foremost, they provide you with the best search results, and have done so for years, for free.
They provide an outstanding email system, with now 5GB of free space and growing, for free.
They provide one of the most amazing mapping systems ever, continually adding new, cutting edge features, for free, both on the web, on your phone and in Google Earth.
They provide office collaboration online apps in Google Docs (which I use almost every day with friends spread out across the globe), for free.
They provide a really great photo organizing software (Picasa) and even some space on their site to upload pictures to, for free.
They provide a place to share gigabytes of video with everyone on earth in Google Video and YouTube, for free.
And we're merely scratching the surface.
And you're going to try and reduce them to the level of "Madison Avenue hucksters"?
Oh, that's right, they developed a cutting edge advertising system that provides context-sensitive, extremely-low-key advertisements in an un-annoying way, and a backend system that allows any size company to competitively bid for ad placement in this system at a reasonable rate.
Nice straw man disassembly, but I do believe the original author was thinking "personal responsibility" as in it's up to you whether or not you want to do a background check on someone, and not up to the State.
these numbers are handed out in blocks to manufacturers, much like MAC addresses
and then you said
If you think Apple, or any other site is identifying your iPhone via IMEI, not UserAgent, you're utterly, laughably wrong.
I'm curious why exactly Apple would NOT know what IMEI numbers it has used on iPhones? They made the devices and were assigned the blocks of numbers as you stated above.
Vonage sold its service to tons of DSL customers. DSL customers who were using the ILEC wires. This pretty much means the ILEC was supplying their competitor so the competitor could beat them over the head.
ILECs that were given monopolies in areas in exchange for precisely the scenario you describe -- opening up their copper to competitors.
Not to mention my vonage service is only $17 a month, not $25. (I get 500 minutes, long distance and several other features included, more than I need.)
Could it be because you can't "feel" the keys? I don't have an iPhone (though I did get to play with one a few times), but the main thing I didn't like about it is that you (1) have to look at the keyboard/keypad to use it (and can't feel your way through it),
I have a blackberry. I type at a very fast WPM rate on a regular keyboard (without looking), and I do not use the traditional style of typing (home keys based). This would make me an ideal candidate for touch-typing on a blackberry -- yet it's fucking impossible. Perhaps if I used the blackberry exclusively for all my typing. The primary issue is the small keys and using only your thumbs to type. You can't get a 'feel' for the keyboard like you can with a regular-sized board. In that case, I am always looking at the blackberry keyboard to some degree, and I don't see a big deal about doing the same on the iPhone.
As to your second point, where to hit the key. Just aim for the center. Even if you spill over, the algorithm is designed to understand which key you were aiming for based on the percentage of hit, plus the current word you appear to be spelling. E.g. If you've typed "kiddin" and then you mash between G and H pretty evenly, it would get that you were typing "kidding" and not "kiddin."
Contrast this to a physical keyboard, where you either physically mash two keys or you don't. And since the keys are so much smaller then the iPhones, it's more likely.
OK, you can hate the iPhone if you want, and the fact that it was picked for this honor. And you can bitch and moan about whatever feature you feel it's lacking. But you can't tell me it lacks novelty and ingenuity. It's a phone, an iPod, and a REAL web browser packed into a single device, with no physical buttons, and it WORKS GREAT. That is definitely novel and ingenious.
Umm nope, that is just what people like you assumed based on rumors. If you actually look at the current ZFS support in Mac OS (read only), you would understand it wouldn't have been nearly ready for primetime on Leopard.
And Apple has never NIXED a product due to some spilling beans. They have, however, given contracts to other companies.
I don't care if it asks you for an admin password, automatically running things downloaded from the internet shouldn't ever be a "default".
Careful who you paint with the idiot-brush.
This doesn't run executables, it displays media using the default player. In this case the media was a disk image, and the default player was Disk Utility. The password prompt came when the installation tried to do something naughty.
Seems like they found a good combination of ease and security.
Its both stupid and ironic that many of the same people bitching about taxes pay this voluntary tax!
1. It's definitely not ironic. 2. Most people prefer voluntary over involuntary. 3. In both cases I'm flushing my money down the toilet -- but in one case, at least there's a chance something good will come from it. 4. If I bought a ticket every megamillions drawing, I'd be spending $104/year. Compare this to my tax bill, and you may understand why I bitch about taxes and not lottery.
(Special note: I only play the lottery about 10 times a year.)
I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is the deal with you SLASHDOT fanatics? I've been sitting here at my freelance gig in front of a HOOKER (a HARDBODY w/TIGHT ASS for RAMming) for about 20 minutes now while it attempts to BLOW ME on the hard dick. 20 minutes. At home, on my ancient WIFE running HER MOUTH, which by all standards should be a lot slower than this SLUT, the same operation would take about 2 minutes. If that. In addition, during this SEMEN transfer, MYDICK will not work. And everything else has ground to a halt. Even HER HAND is straining to keep up as I type this. I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while working on various BITCHES, but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen a WHORE that has run faster than its WIFE counterpart, despite the WHORE's same architecture. My WIFE with 200 POUNDS of ram runs faster than this SLUT machine at times. From a productivity standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that PROSTITUTE is a superior operating system. SEX lovers, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use THIS PENIS SHEATH over other faster, cheaper, more stable systems.
If you want things to really change, then instead of not voting, vote for a third party candidate, and convince your similarly-minded friends and family to do the same thing.
In both cases, your vote is having no effect on the current outcome of the race. But when you vote for a third party rather than not voting at all, it at least works against the self-fulfilling prophecy you are creating now -- whereby a third party cannot win because no one thinks they can.
I will be voting Libertarian in this and all future elections, as my only alternative would be to stop voting entirely, since I hardly ever agree with the republicrat party members.
I don't see a problem with a tax for internet access
Fine, take $5 each month and flush it down your toilet.
Its the equivalent of giving the federal government your tax payment -- same end result. You're out $5, and the money's been wasted on accomplishing absolutely nothing.
Name one other thing that I carry with me at almost all times, and has the spare computing cycles to perform these other actions?
I don't need a tire pressure gauge, a fountain pen, blood pressure monitor, or a cigarette lighter in my phone. I'll use my phone for making phone calls.
There are probably many more reasons than that, but those are the three most obvious reasons why what you suggest should happen almost never actually does.
I don't care if it hardly ever happens. Monopolies themselves hardly ever happen and are hardly ever sustained, that's why you can't name too many longstanding monopolies. The fact is, it does happen.
And the one entity you seem to want to help break down the monopoly -- the government -- is usually the one that prevents markets from working to that end in the first place. Witness the 700Mhz spectrum auction. This could provide major competition to all existing communications companies. Do you think the FCC will handle it in the best way for competition?
Oh no, the entrenched phone companies have a monopoly in Canada. Oops, here comes WiFi, VoIP, etc., etc. to gum up the works after all...
But why wait a few years, let's get the government involved. They're "here to help," after all.
strictly speaking the high fees are NOT required to stay in business, they're just fucking greedy
No shit.
Everyone is greedy -- you, me, the companes -- that's how markets work. You're "greedy" in that you don't want to spend much money. Businesses are "greedy" in that they want to keep their prices as high as possible. A group of you get together and the optimum price point is reached, balancing resources, competition, supply and demand.
Only when governments get involved do things get royally fucked up.
"But, but but what about monopolies??" is the next sentence out of your mouth.
Monopolies that are not maintained by the government are eventually eroded by market forces.
"But why shouldn't we use the power of government to erode all monopolies prematurely?"
This is a difficult question, but what it comes down to is... freedom. Every power you give to the government erodes your freedom, and they aren't giving that power back, ever. Choose wisely.
LTC (Lithium Technologies Corp) also makes a battery competing with A123. My impression is A123 basically belongs to GM, but LTC could possibly make these batteries for anyone (like Toyota, Ford, etc).
Slashdot Mirror
ok, I had to provide a rebuttal.
Where is this rebuttal you speak of? I listed all the things that makes Google more than a "madison avenue huckster," and you simply listed some competing services to Google's. Then you sprinkled on some of your paranoid delusions at the end.
BTW, you are high when it comes to Google Maps. Do you remember what the competing services looked like before Google Maps came out and its ajax interface blew them completely out of the water? All of those other services have played nothing but catch up with Google on every feature.
Seriously, you're going to try to reduce Google to this level?
First and foremost, they provide you with the best search results, and have done so for years, for free.
They provide an outstanding email system, with now 5GB of free space and growing, for free.
They provide one of the most amazing mapping systems ever, continually adding new, cutting edge features, for free, both on the web, on your phone and in Google Earth.
They provide office collaboration online apps in Google Docs (which I use almost every day with friends spread out across the globe), for free.
They provide a really great photo organizing software (Picasa) and even some space on their site to upload pictures to, for free.
They provide a place to share gigabytes of video with everyone on earth in Google Video and YouTube, for free.
And we're merely scratching the surface.
And you're going to try and reduce them to the level of "Madison Avenue hucksters"?
Oh, that's right, they developed a cutting edge advertising system that provides context-sensitive, extremely-low-key advertisements in an un-annoying way, and a backend system that allows any size company to competitively bid for ad placement in this system at a reasonable rate.
You're right, Google sucks, man! Fight the power!
Nice straw man disassembly, but I do believe the original author was thinking "personal responsibility" as in it's up to you whether or not you want to do a background check on someone, and not up to the State.
What do Senators have to do with the value of the dollar? Should the pass a law stating the dollar is now worth more than other currencies?
Sadly, that bill sounds about as well thought out as 99% of the shit they pass.
these numbers are handed out in blocks to manufacturers, much like MAC addresses
and then you said
If you think Apple, or any other site is identifying your iPhone via IMEI, not UserAgent, you're utterly, laughably wrong.
I'm curious why exactly Apple would NOT know what IMEI numbers it has used on iPhones? They made the devices and were assigned the blocks of numbers as you stated above.
Vonage sold its service to tons of DSL customers. DSL customers who were using the ILEC wires. This pretty much means the ILEC was supplying their competitor so the competitor could beat them over the head.
ILECs that were given monopolies in areas in exchange for precisely the scenario you describe -- opening up their copper to competitors.
Not to mention my vonage service is only $17 a month, not $25. (I get 500 minutes, long distance and several other features included, more than I need.)
We're talking about what Slashdot is, not what it claims to be. :-)
Could it be because you can't "feel" the keys? I don't have an iPhone (though I did get to play with one a few times), but the main thing I didn't like about it is that you (1) have to look at the keyboard/keypad to use it (and can't feel your way through it),
I have a blackberry. I type at a very fast WPM rate on a regular keyboard (without looking), and I do not use the traditional style of typing (home keys based). This would make me an ideal candidate for touch-typing on a blackberry -- yet it's fucking impossible. Perhaps if I used the blackberry exclusively for all my typing. The primary issue is the small keys and using only your thumbs to type. You can't get a 'feel' for the keyboard like you can with a regular-sized board. In that case, I am always looking at the blackberry keyboard to some degree, and I don't see a big deal about doing the same on the iPhone.
As to your second point, where to hit the key. Just aim for the center. Even if you spill over, the algorithm is designed to understand which key you were aiming for based on the percentage of hit, plus the current word you appear to be spelling. E.g. If you've typed "kiddin" and then you mash between G and H pretty evenly, it would get that you were typing "kidding" and not "kiddin."
Contrast this to a physical keyboard, where you either physically mash two keys or you don't. And since the keys are so much smaller then the iPhones, it's more likely.
"No novelty or ingenuity."
OK, you can hate the iPhone if you want, and the fact that it was picked for this honor. And you can bitch and moan about whatever feature you feel it's lacking. But you can't tell me it lacks novelty and ingenuity. It's a phone, an iPod, and a REAL web browser packed into a single device, with no physical buttons, and it WORKS GREAT. That is definitely novel and ingenious.
Was it the ZFS debacle?
Umm nope, that is just what people like you assumed based on rumors. If you actually look at the current ZFS support in Mac OS (read only), you would understand it wouldn't have been nearly ready for primetime on Leopard.
And Apple has never NIXED a product due to some spilling beans. They have, however, given contracts to other companies.
I don't care if it asks you for an admin password, automatically running things downloaded from the internet shouldn't ever be a "default".
Careful who you paint with the idiot-brush.
This doesn't run executables, it displays media using the default player. In this case the media was a disk image, and the default player was Disk Utility. The password prompt came when the installation tried to do something naughty.
Seems like they found a good combination of ease and security.
Any statistical deviation in the balls is going to be microscopic.
Speak for yourself.
Its both stupid and ironic that many of the same people bitching about taxes pay this voluntary tax!
1. It's definitely not ironic.
2. Most people prefer voluntary over involuntary.
3. In both cases I'm flushing my money down the toilet -- but in one case, at least there's a chance something good will come from it.
4. If I bought a ticket every megamillions drawing, I'd be spending $104/year. Compare this to my tax bill, and you may understand why I bitch about taxes and not lottery.
(Special note: I only play the lottery about 10 times a year.)
Yeah, but this is America.
If you try hard enough, you too could become financially elite and control the Federal Reserve.
Or whatever crazy belief you have about the illuminati.
I don't want to start a holy war here, but what is the deal with you SLASHDOT fanatics? I've been sitting here at my freelance gig in front of a HOOKER (a HARDBODY w/TIGHT ASS for RAMming) for about 20 minutes now while it attempts to BLOW ME on the hard dick. 20 minutes. At home, on my ancient WIFE running HER MOUTH, which by all standards should be a lot slower than this SLUT, the same operation would take about 2 minutes. If that. In addition, during this SEMEN transfer, MYDICK will not work. And everything else has ground to a halt. Even HER HAND is straining to keep up as I type this. I won't bore you with the laundry list of other problems that I've encountered while working on various BITCHES, but suffice it to say there have been many, not the least of which is I've never seen a WHORE that has run faster than its WIFE counterpart, despite the WHORE's same architecture. My WIFE with 200 POUNDS of ram runs faster than this SLUT machine at times. From a productivity standpoint, I don't get how people can claim that PROSTITUTE is a superior operating system. SEX lovers, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use THIS PENIS SHEATH over other faster, cheaper, more stable systems.
If you want things to really change, then instead of not voting, vote for a third party candidate, and convince your similarly-minded friends and family to do the same thing.
In both cases, your vote is having no effect on the current outcome of the race. But when you vote for a third party rather than not voting at all, it at least works against the self-fulfilling prophecy you are creating now -- whereby a third party cannot win because no one thinks they can.
I will be voting Libertarian in this and all future elections, as my only alternative would be to stop voting entirely, since I hardly ever agree with the republicrat party members.
I don't see a problem with a tax for internet access
Fine, take $5 each month and flush it down your toilet.
Its the equivalent of giving the federal government your tax payment -- same end result. You're out $5, and the money's been wasted on accomplishing absolutely nothing.
Why do we keep putting crap in phones?
Name one other thing that I carry with me at almost all times, and has the spare computing cycles to perform these other actions?
I don't need a tire pressure gauge, a fountain pen, blood pressure monitor, or a cigarette lighter in my phone. I'll use my phone for making phone calls.
Yippee for you, don't buy one. I bet you don't own a TV either, right?
There are probably many more reasons than that, but those are the three most obvious reasons why what you suggest should happen almost never actually does.
I don't care if it hardly ever happens. Monopolies themselves hardly ever happen and are hardly ever sustained, that's why you can't name too many longstanding monopolies. The fact is, it does happen.
And the one entity you seem to want to help break down the monopoly -- the government -- is usually the one that prevents markets from working to that end in the first place. Witness the 700Mhz spectrum auction. This could provide major competition to all existing communications companies. Do you think the FCC will handle it in the best way for competition?
Oh no, the entrenched phone companies have a monopoly in Canada. Oops, here comes WiFi, VoIP, etc., etc. to gum up the works after all...
But why wait a few years, let's get the government involved. They're "here to help," after all.
JOBS, look out!
The nerds are mad... and they REALLY want to buy your phone.
What's worse, they don't understand that no one else really gives a shit, since it's just a phone.
strictly speaking the high fees are NOT required to stay in business, they're just fucking greedy
... freedom. Every power you give to the government erodes your freedom, and they aren't giving that power back, ever. Choose wisely.
No shit.
Everyone is greedy -- you, me, the companes -- that's how markets work. You're "greedy" in that you don't want to spend much money. Businesses are "greedy" in that they want to keep their prices as high as possible. A group of you get together and the optimum price point is reached, balancing resources, competition, supply and demand.
Only when governments get involved do things get royally fucked up.
"But, but but what about monopolies??" is the next sentence out of your mouth.
Monopolies that are not maintained by the government are eventually eroded by market forces.
"But why shouldn't we use the power of government to erode all monopolies prematurely?"
This is a difficult question, but what it comes down to is
LTC (Lithium Technologies Corp) also makes a battery competing with A123. My impression is A123 basically belongs to GM, but LTC could possibly make these batteries for anyone (like Toyota, Ford, etc).
What does one stupid thing have to do with the other?
Ironically enough, I don't pay any taxes either. I just pass the costs onto the corporations by buying less stuff.
:)
To not pay corporate taxes, you should also not be: (a) working for a corporation or (b) investing in corporations through stock or mutual funds.
But based on your signature, I'm going to assume your post was just a joke.