That people who lived under communism for so long have mastered capitalism so quickly.
Must we really squash this beautiful flickering light?
Seriously, has anyone seen screenshots? From what I understand, only source code was stolen - no artwork or textures. Someone went to a lot of trouble to get this into a playable condition, I'd imagine. Of course, since we don't know who someone is, "Half-Life 2" could also be searching our hard drives for credit card numbers and PayPal logins while we amuse ourselves. I don't care how desperate you are to see Half-Life 2 early, I wouldn't take the risk of installing this "demo"
I mean besides boring others and fragmenting discussion, thus depriving some of potentially critical insights. Other than that, there is nothing wrong with dupes! And even better, it gives us a second chance for First Post!
But seriously - I think this study is one of those self fufilling prophecies - some geek whose friends told him he spends too much time online was like, "I'll show THEM!" Then he designs a protocol and a study, and lo and behold, but frequent Internet Users are actually MORE social!
Or, it could be that Internet Users (on average):
1. Have more income than non-users. 2. Have a better education than non-users. 3. Have more leisure time than non-users.
All of these things contribute seriously to "being social." After all, if you're technologically illiterate, you probably aren't working in a white collar job that's all about networking. You're probably slinging hash at a Waffle House, hoping the truckers don't spit at you tonight.
Just do what most everyone does...
on
Enterprise IM?
·
· Score: 2, Funny
Get certified as HIPPA compliant by some scamming agency like TruSecure. They'll spend fifteen minutes onsite, take you to a nice lunch, then rubber stamp you as certified and send you a cool plaque. Tell all your customer's that you're "Certified". Then, keep instant messaging and sending unencrypted email like you always have. When you get busted for a HIPPA violation, sue the FUCK out of your certifying agency, since they "audited" your compliance measures. The extra $$$ you make off the lawsuits should buy you a nice iPod.
1. Don't think of beta testers as unpaid labor. Most beta testers are in it for a greedy reason - to get an early look at the next big thing. Spend more time in Alpha, working with PAID testers to refine gameplay and eliminate major bugs - use Beta testing as a final "shakedown", but realize that it's more usability testing than anything else.
2. Keep it small. If you want to spend less time working on community problems and more time fixing code, don't open the beta process to everyone and their brother. Get people who are going to play and report bugs - if they don't, don't invite them to participate in the next beta.
3. Develop comprehensive crash reporting, if possible. Tell the user what went wrong where, and give them the opportunity to send it to you via email or web. I can't imagine that MS got much good feedback from Windows beta testing when the only error people got was "General Protection Fault".
4. Listen to feedback - nothing is more annoying than filing a bug report during beta and seeing the same bug in the shipping product. Have at least two people touch each bug report to avoid the "rubber stamp" syndrome.
Of course, the fact of the matter is that a lot of MMORPG's use Beta testing as an opportunity to "hook em' early". They should offer a preview edition to do this, not get people who are more interested in playing games that squashing bugs disappointed with the quality of their product.
They need to start offering "Windows Services for Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000", because this is where a lot of their customers hopped off the upgrade bus.
C'mon, raise your hands, how many of you are still administering a pair of Windows NT 4.0 domain controllers because Active Directory was overkill for your single-site 100 employee company? I know I am.
Re:Apple has the right to do this...
on
No WMA for HP iPod
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
There are tons of reasons to license the iPod and iTunes:
1. System Bundles - Buy your HP PC, HP Monitor, HP Printer, and now, your HP Portable Music Player, all at once for a discount.
2. Even if they aren't allowed to undersell Apple, they reach different markets, so they're pushing the device at consumers Apple can't reach. Selling the iPod allows HP to get to market NOW, without R&D expense.
3. Tons of favorable press, by aligning with one of the industry's percieved "Good Guys". Imagine what Slashdot would look like it the headlines were: "HP Announces New Music Player, and Launch Support for the Bill Gates Music Store". You think the Ogg trolls are out in full force now...
4. Use your imagination! I don't have all day to sit here making lists.
Anyway, I don't think we'll see HP-branded Macs anytime soon. It would be nice to see someone create a desktop Mac at a, say, $500 price point that I could bring my own 19" monitor to. I guess Apple is content to see that business go to eBay, though.
Apple has the right to do this...
on
No WMA for HP iPod
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
It's HP licensing Apple's technology and manufacturing capability, not the other way around. Apple has the right to support whatever file formats it wants (and can pay license fees for, if appropriate). It also has the right to determine what formats WON'T be played on its devices.
If HP wants to demand WMA support, and Apple doesn't want to budge, HP can spend the R&D dollars to build its own portable music player.
This isn't a Bad Thing. This is a company acting in what it feels are its best interests.
They promote an alternative to WMA in the AAC format, and it seems that incorporating WMA support into the iPod would only hurt iTunes Music Store, since many of its competitors sell WMA files.
I wonder if WMA will be available only on HP's version of the iPod, and if so, will HP's device support the Macintosh?
Hardly "fast-paced mechanized fighting action"
on
Your Own Mecha
·
· Score: 5, Funny
3km/h! Even the useless walkers from Star Wars were faster than that. Imagine if these things were destoying Tokyo:
Random Japanese Person 1: Aaaaaagh! The evil robots are coming!
Random Japanese Person 2: It certainly does seem as if this is the end. They are only six kilometers from here!
Time Passes
Random Japanese Person 1: This is boring. Perhaps we should go to them.
Random Japanese Person 2: My grandma could outrun these fucking evil robots. What a bunch of losers.
More Time Passes
Random Japanese Person 1: Do you realize we could have watched "Amelie" by now?
Random Japanese Person 2: Yes, perhaps the evil robots are not ready for prime-time yet.
Still More Time Passes
Random Japanese Person 1: Well, I'm tired of waiting. I'm going to hop a bullet train for Kyoto and catch a baseball game.
Random Japanese Person 2: I'm in. Those robots are still over a kilometer from here, and it looks like some kid just took one out with a "Red Ryder" BB gun.
Having an army that sits in front of a PC all days becoming more pasty and corpulent by the day is not a great way to build an army, unless your goal is to take a Ben and Jerry's franchise by force.
And then they go and cite an example where there WOULD be an end user impact.
Although unlikeley, there is a potential for collateral damage here. Is there anyone at Verisign willing to post the logic behind making the changes in the fist place? I can't see where there would be a business case when someone would jump up and say "We could make a billion dollars, but only if we change the way we determine DNS serial numbers for the.COM and.ORG domain. I guess we're screwed, guys!" Then the brave tech raises his hand and says "You know, with my Dell laptop and wireless LAN, I can change the way the serial number is incremented from anywhere."
I've been watching too many Dell commercials lately...
"...he wants to turn Xbox Live, the trash-talking meeting ground of testosterone jazzed gamers, into a kinder, gentler realm reminiscent of Microsoft's other online playground, the Zone.com."
Obviously, he's never played Chess on Zone. They trash-talk like nobody's business on there!
Seriously, I'm not so sure this is a great idea. One of the main appeals of the XBox to me is that it really, really, really tries to cater to the 18-44 year old male gamer who otherwise would do all his gaming on a PC.
To that population (which, of course, I'm a part of), videogames are an escapist pursuit - you tend to dissociate from the real-world a bit. Some of the nicest people I know have totally different, hyper-competitive personalities when playing videogames. The person who works out his agression on Xbox Live doesn't want it turned into My Little Pony Meets Rainbow Brite in The Land Of Cotton Candy.
People trash talk on Xbox live because the games and the environment are conducive to it - it's semi-anonymous, and you're playing games like Madden and Wolfenstein. You pop someone from all the way across the map, you want to brag about it. That's what the Xbox Communicator is for...
Go on any job board or discussion about outsourcing and you'll see the trolls and out-of-work complaining about how Indians are "stealing" American jobs, either through H-1B visas or overseas outsourcing. This is a case of blaming the wrong people.
The Indians aren't "stealing" anything. American CEOs, with the willing complacence of their bought-and-paid for politicians, are giving them the jobs. Until last year, the H-1B visa caps were permitted to increase despite convincing evidence of a slowdown in the tech market. Outsourcing advocates have convinced American companies that lower hourly pay rates are the savior of their bottom lines.
Some jobs, especially call center work and manufacturing are gone and aren't coming back. Others may drift back and forth as industry discovers a balance.
It's a supply and demand thing. One thing that you might also want to to worry about is those "schools" churning out paper MCSEs month after month, advertising big $$$ and life on Easy Street by passing a few tests and getting a few certificates. In an already overcrowded tech market, these places are turning out tons of folks with overblown expectations. Once their dreams are crushed, who knows how cheap they'll be willing to work?
By far, my worst tech mistake was dropping out of college to take a full time job as an outsourced computer admin. Not having my degree has kept me from being competitive for better jobs with larger companies.
I love job now, but I don't have much room to grow, being as I'm the top IT guy in a 70-person company that's family owned (and I'm not in the family). I'm working on finishing my degree now so that when the time comes to move on, I'll be able to find jobs that have room for growth.
My little bother did a steady business in TI-8x calculators during high school. Our high school required "accelerated" math students to purchase a TI-81 (or 83 or 85, whatever the "state of the art" was at the time) to use in class and on homework.
My brother would buy calculators cheap from kids at the end of school in June and sell them to the next year's students the next year for about $10 less than the school asked for the new ones. He probably made $250-$500 a year off those calculators. Not exactly chump change to a 15 year old.
Will games be able to write back out to the MD they're stored on? The PSP looks like it has the potential to be a great RPG platform, if you can save games and pick back up later.
These are the kinds of things that will interest people in space exploration again. Although the site is "conserving bandwidth", and didn't have as much info as I would like available right this second, the idea that I can be reviewing the data returned by the Mars rovers at the same time as NASA's scientists is really, really appealing.
This is the kind of thing that makes people seriously consider careers in science. Imagine a father and son (or mother and daughter) pouring over this info together, comparing their take with NASA's. That's super exciting.
Maybe one of the kids downloading Maestro today will take the first steps on Mars tomorrow...
But it's not just $7.9 million once, it's a recurring expense every two to three years. Getting off the upgrade Merry-Go-Round pays dividends immediately AND going forward. Once they've endured the pain of the switchover, it will be easier the next time they want to roll out a new distro, upgrade X, whatever. In fact, this could lead to some cool tools like ZENworks, but for the Linux desktop. In fact, IBM *did* just invest $50 million in Novell! Wonder what those guys in Utah are up to, anyway?
But the business reason probably has something to do with Longhorn shipping 2006ish, and avoiding paying an upgrade fee to MS for desktops for over 300,000 employees worldwide. Even if the upgrade costs them just $79 and they only have to upgrade 100,000 computers, they could still save a cool $7.9 million by switching to a Linux desktop.
You talk about an MS tax, an additional $7.9 million looks good on anyone's bottom line. I wish IBM good luck with this one!
Of course, if they got rid of PC's altogether and replaced them with 3270 terminals and daisy wheel printers, they would be able to save $$$ on desktop management costs.;-)
There are a lot more "gravel lot" used car dealers than franchise dealers in the US. Most every one of those guys will sell you a car and finance it themselves. The price, the interest rate, and the terms for default will be ridiculous, but they will do it.
The used auto market is a huge cash generator. Even the franchise dealers make more money on used cars than new ones. And even if the dealer isn't the actual lender, many times he is "spiffed" for each load he directs to a certain bank or finance company.
Yes, actually, I'm moderately familiar with the history of Ogg, if that means following it since it was covered in Linux Journal a few years back (I think it was the November or December 200 issue).
And yes, I understand the patent controversy surrounding MP3. But why exactly is it a patent uproar? Shouldn't people expect to be compensated for their work in creating something? Even if you reverse-engineered the file format to create your encoders and players, the desire to do so wouldn't exist without the original work.
And if by charging through the roof, you mean $0.75/unit for decoders, yes, I can see where Fraunhofer was being so harsh. In a $250-$500 player, that royalty can make or break a company. Besides, of the royalty free nature of Ogg is so great, then why does every Ogg player on the market also support MP3 (presumably paying Fraunhofer to do so)?
The fact of the matter is that 0.01% of Ogg users use it because they're convinced it's superior way to encode music. The rest of them do because they are contrary, self-important egomaniacs. Ogg as a technology is unimportant, no matter how many soon-to-be out of business Korean electronics manufacturers support it, because (almost) NO ONE CARES ABOUT IT!
Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. As soon as I hit Submit on my previous, I thought of Perl as my personal favorite piece of open source software, and Perl definitely fits in the "original" category of software. But that's the beauty of Slashdot - you can shoot off at the mouth in front of the whole world!
Most every car dealer either arranges financing for their customers, and many are actual lenders. You know those "Buy Here, Pay Here" lots you pass on the way to work every morning? Those are cash cows, that border on usury. They sell a $1000 car for $3000, financed through them at 14-18%, and if you miss a payment, they drag it away with a tow truck and sell it to someone else.
Car dealers pull tons of credit reports, too. Some dealers won't let you test drive a car without pulling your credit. These guys are savvy financial operators, from the lowliest used-car dealer to the biggest multi-dealership operations.
I know this was meant to be funny, but you're right. When you buy an iPod, you get (for better or worse) the support from Apple, in the form of iTunes, warranty support, and technical support. Who is iRiver, and does anyone have any idea what their support is going to be like?
I know everyone's going to hit me with the "iPod's non-replaceable battery dies after 18 months", but the fact of the matter is that both Apple and the aftermarket have addressed this. You can get the battery in your iPod replaced. Granted, it's a bit of a PITA, but you can do it.
And, for the love of Bob, is Ogg support or the lack thereof really a deal-breaker to you people? The open source community's fascination with creating "open source replacements" for applications and file formats strikes me as little less than plagarism - I'd like to see open source programmers use their talents to create new categories of software altogether. THAT would be more impressive than Yet Another Audio Codec...
during Steve Job's keynote. If you have a few hours of spare time, and really enjoy Apple Cheerleading and John Mayer, consider watching the whole keynote:
Slashdot Mirror
Must we really squash this beautiful flickering light?
Seriously, has anyone seen screenshots? From what I understand, only source code was stolen - no artwork or textures. Someone went to a lot of trouble to get this into a playable condition, I'd imagine. Of course, since we don't know who someone is, "Half-Life 2" could also be searching our hard drives for credit card numbers and PayPal logins while we amuse ourselves. I don't care how desperate you are to see Half-Life 2 early, I wouldn't take the risk of installing this "demo"
I mean besides boring others and fragmenting discussion, thus depriving some of potentially critical insights. Other than that, there is nothing wrong with dupes! And even better, it gives us a second chance for First Post!
But seriously - I think this study is one of those self fufilling prophecies - some geek whose friends told him he spends too much time online was like, "I'll show THEM!" Then he designs a protocol and a study, and lo and behold, but frequent Internet Users are actually MORE social!
Or, it could be that Internet Users (on average):
1. Have more income than non-users.
2. Have a better education than non-users.
3. Have more leisure time than non-users.
All of these things contribute seriously to "being social." After all, if you're technologically illiterate, you probably aren't working in a white collar job that's all about networking. You're probably slinging hash at a Waffle House, hoping the truckers don't spit at you tonight.
Get certified as HIPPA compliant by some scamming agency like TruSecure. They'll spend fifteen minutes onsite, take you to a nice lunch, then rubber stamp you as certified and send you a cool plaque. Tell all your customer's that you're "Certified". Then, keep instant messaging and sending unencrypted email like you always have. When you get busted for a HIPPA violation, sue the FUCK out of your certifying agency, since they "audited" your compliance measures. The extra $$$ you make off the lawsuits should buy you a nice iPod.
1. Don't think of beta testers as unpaid labor. Most beta testers are in it for a greedy reason - to get an early look at the next big thing. Spend more time in Alpha, working with PAID testers to refine gameplay and eliminate major bugs - use Beta testing as a final "shakedown", but realize that it's more usability testing than anything else.
2. Keep it small. If you want to spend less time working on community problems and more time fixing code, don't open the beta process to everyone and their brother. Get people who are going to play and report bugs - if they don't, don't invite them to participate in the next beta.
3. Develop comprehensive crash reporting, if possible. Tell the user what went wrong where, and give them the opportunity to send it to you via email or web. I can't imagine that MS got much good feedback from Windows beta testing when the only error people got was "General Protection Fault".
4. Listen to feedback - nothing is more annoying than filing a bug report during beta and seeing the same bug in the shipping product. Have at least two people touch each bug report to avoid the "rubber stamp" syndrome.
Of course, the fact of the matter is that a lot of MMORPG's use Beta testing as an opportunity to "hook em' early". They should offer a preview edition to do this, not get people who are more interested in playing games that squashing bugs disappointed with the quality of their product.
They need to start offering "Windows Services for Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000", because this is where a lot of their customers hopped off the upgrade bus.
C'mon, raise your hands, how many of you are still administering a pair of Windows NT 4.0 domain controllers because Active Directory was overkill for your single-site 100 employee company? I know I am.
There are tons of reasons to license the iPod and iTunes:
1. System Bundles - Buy your HP PC, HP Monitor, HP Printer, and now, your HP Portable Music Player, all at once for a discount.
2. Even if they aren't allowed to undersell Apple, they reach different markets, so they're pushing the device at consumers Apple can't reach. Selling the iPod allows HP to get to market NOW, without R&D expense.
3. Tons of favorable press, by aligning with one of the industry's percieved "Good Guys". Imagine what Slashdot would look like it the headlines were: "HP Announces New Music Player, and Launch Support for the Bill Gates Music Store". You think the Ogg trolls are out in full force now...
4. Use your imagination! I don't have all day to sit here making lists.
Anyway, I don't think we'll see HP-branded Macs anytime soon. It would be nice to see someone create a desktop Mac at a, say, $500 price point that I could bring my own 19" monitor to. I guess Apple is content to see that business go to eBay, though.
It's HP licensing Apple's technology and manufacturing capability, not the other way around. Apple has the right to support whatever file formats it wants (and can pay license fees for, if appropriate). It also has the right to determine what formats WON'T be played on its devices.
If HP wants to demand WMA support, and Apple doesn't want to budge, HP can spend the R&D dollars to build its own portable music player.
This isn't a Bad Thing. This is a company acting in what it feels are its best interests.
how come it looks like they added CPU architectures and features in 2003?
They promote an alternative to WMA in the AAC format, and it seems that incorporating WMA support into the iPod would only hurt iTunes Music Store, since many of its competitors sell WMA files.
I wonder if WMA will be available only on HP's version of the iPod, and if so, will HP's device support the Macintosh?
Random Japanese Person 1: Aaaaaagh! The evil robots are coming!
Random Japanese Person 2: It certainly does seem as if this is the end. They are only six kilometers from here!
Time Passes
Random Japanese Person 1: This is boring. Perhaps we should go to them.
Random Japanese Person 2: My grandma could outrun these fucking evil robots. What a bunch of losers.
More Time Passes
Random Japanese Person 1: Do you realize we could have watched "Amelie" by now?
Random Japanese Person 2: Yes, perhaps the evil robots are not ready for prime-time yet.
Still More Time Passes
Random Japanese Person 1: Well, I'm tired of waiting. I'm going to hop a bullet train for Kyoto and catch a baseball game.
Random Japanese Person 2: I'm in. Those robots are still over a kilometer from here, and it looks like some kid just took one out with a "Red Ryder" BB gun.
Having an army that sits in front of a PC all days becoming more pasty and corpulent by the day is not a great way to build an army, unless your goal is to take a Ben and Jerry's franchise by force.
And then they go and cite an example where there WOULD be an end user impact.
.COM and .ORG domain. I guess we're screwed, guys!" Then the brave tech raises his hand and says "You know, with my Dell laptop and wireless LAN, I can change the way the serial number is incremented from anywhere."
Although unlikeley, there is a potential for collateral damage here. Is there anyone at Verisign willing to post the logic behind making the changes in the fist place? I can't see where there would be a business case when someone would jump up and say "We could make a billion dollars, but only if we change the way we determine DNS serial numbers for the
I've been watching too many Dell commercials lately...
Obviously, he's never played Chess on Zone. They trash-talk like nobody's business on there!
Seriously, I'm not so sure this is a great idea. One of the main appeals of the XBox to me is that it really, really, really tries to cater to the 18-44 year old male gamer who otherwise would do all his gaming on a PC.
To that population (which, of course, I'm a part of), videogames are an escapist pursuit - you tend to dissociate from the real-world a bit. Some of the nicest people I know have totally different, hyper-competitive personalities when playing videogames. The person who works out his agression on Xbox Live doesn't want it turned into My Little Pony Meets Rainbow Brite in The Land Of Cotton Candy.
People trash talk on Xbox live because the games and the environment are conducive to it - it's semi-anonymous, and you're playing games like Madden and Wolfenstein. You pop someone from all the way across the map, you want to brag about it. That's what the Xbox Communicator is for...
This post is symptomatic of a larger problem.
Go on any job board or discussion about outsourcing and you'll see the trolls and out-of-work complaining about how Indians are "stealing" American jobs, either through H-1B visas or overseas outsourcing. This is a case of blaming the wrong people.
The Indians aren't "stealing" anything. American CEOs, with the willing complacence of their bought-and-paid for politicians, are giving them the jobs. Until last year, the H-1B visa caps were permitted to increase despite convincing evidence of a slowdown in the tech market. Outsourcing advocates have convinced American companies that lower hourly pay rates are the savior of their bottom lines.
Some jobs, especially call center work and manufacturing are gone and aren't coming back. Others may drift back and forth as industry discovers a balance.
It's a supply and demand thing. One thing that you might also want to to worry about is those "schools" churning out paper MCSEs month after month, advertising big $$$ and life on Easy Street by passing a few tests and getting a few certificates. In an already overcrowded tech market, these places are turning out tons of folks with overblown expectations. Once their dreams are crushed, who knows how cheap they'll be willing to work?
(comic book guy voice)
By far, my worst tech mistake was dropping out of college to take a full time job as an outsourced computer admin. Not having my degree has kept me from being competitive for better jobs with larger companies.
I love job now, but I don't have much room to grow, being as I'm the top IT guy in a 70-person company that's family owned (and I'm not in the family). I'm working on finishing my degree now so that when the time comes to move on, I'll be able to find jobs that have room for growth.
My little bother did a steady business in TI-8x calculators during high school. Our high school required "accelerated" math students to purchase a TI-81 (or 83 or 85, whatever the "state of the art" was at the time) to use in class and on homework.
My brother would buy calculators cheap from kids at the end of school in June and sell them to the next year's students the next year for about $10 less than the school asked for the new ones. He probably made $250-$500 a year off those calculators. Not exactly chump change to a 15 year old.
Will games be able to write back out to the MD they're stored on? The PSP looks like it has the potential to be a great RPG platform, if you can save games and pick back up later.
These are the kinds of things that will interest people in space exploration again. Although the site is "conserving bandwidth", and didn't have as much info as I would like available right this second, the idea that I can be reviewing the data returned by the Mars rovers at the same time as NASA's scientists is really, really appealing.
This is the kind of thing that makes people seriously consider careers in science. Imagine a father and son (or mother and daughter) pouring over this info together, comparing their take with NASA's. That's super exciting.
Maybe one of the kids downloading Maestro today will take the first steps on Mars tomorrow...
But it's not just $7.9 million once, it's a recurring expense every two to three years. Getting off the upgrade Merry-Go-Round pays dividends immediately AND going forward. Once they've endured the pain of the switchover, it will be easier the next time they want to roll out a new distro, upgrade X, whatever. In fact, this could lead to some cool tools like ZENworks, but for the Linux desktop. In fact, IBM *did* just invest $50 million in Novell! Wonder what those guys in Utah are up to, anyway?
(I guess that rates a big DUH!)
;-)
But the business reason probably has something to do with Longhorn shipping 2006ish, and avoiding paying an upgrade fee to MS for desktops for over 300,000 employees worldwide. Even if the upgrade costs them just $79 and they only have to upgrade 100,000 computers, they could still save a cool $7.9 million by switching to a Linux desktop.
You talk about an MS tax, an additional $7.9 million looks good on anyone's bottom line. I wish IBM good luck with this one!
Of course, if they got rid of PC's altogether and replaced them with 3270 terminals and daisy wheel printers, they would be able to save $$$ on desktop management costs.
There are a lot more "gravel lot" used car dealers than franchise dealers in the US. Most every one of those guys will sell you a car and finance it themselves. The price, the interest rate, and the terms for default will be ridiculous, but they will do it.
The used auto market is a huge cash generator. Even the franchise dealers make more money on used cars than new ones. And even if the dealer isn't the actual lender, many times he is "spiffed" for each load he directs to a certain bank or finance company.
Yes, actually, I'm moderately familiar with the history of Ogg, if that means following it since it was covered in Linux Journal a few years back (I think it was the November or December 200 issue).
And yes, I understand the patent controversy surrounding MP3. But why exactly is it a patent uproar? Shouldn't people expect to be compensated for their work in creating something? Even if you reverse-engineered the file format to create your encoders and players, the desire to do so wouldn't exist without the original work.
And if by charging through the roof, you mean $0.75/unit for decoders, yes, I can see where Fraunhofer was being so harsh. In a $250-$500 player, that royalty can make or break a company. Besides, of the royalty free nature of Ogg is so great, then why does every Ogg player on the market also support MP3 (presumably paying Fraunhofer to do so)?
The fact of the matter is that 0.01% of Ogg users use it because they're convinced it's superior way to encode music. The rest of them do because they are contrary, self-important egomaniacs. Ogg as a technology is unimportant, no matter how many soon-to-be out of business Korean electronics manufacturers support it, because (almost) NO ONE CARES ABOUT IT!
Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut. As soon as I hit Submit on my previous, I thought of Perl as my personal favorite piece of open source software, and Perl definitely fits in the "original" category of software. But that's the beauty of Slashdot - you can shoot off at the mouth in front of the whole world!
Most every car dealer either arranges financing for their customers, and many are actual lenders. You know those "Buy Here, Pay Here" lots you pass on the way to work every morning? Those are cash cows, that border on usury. They sell a $1000 car for $3000, financed through them at 14-18%, and if you miss a payment, they drag it away with a tow truck and sell it to someone else.
Car dealers pull tons of credit reports, too. Some dealers won't let you test drive a car without pulling your credit. These guys are savvy financial operators, from the lowliest used-car dealer to the biggest multi-dealership operations.
I know this was meant to be funny, but you're right. When you buy an iPod, you get (for better or worse) the support from Apple, in the form of iTunes, warranty support, and technical support. Who is iRiver, and does anyone have any idea what their support is going to be like?
I know everyone's going to hit me with the "iPod's non-replaceable battery dies after 18 months", but the fact of the matter is that both Apple and the aftermarket have addressed this. You can get the battery in your iPod replaced. Granted, it's a bit of a PITA, but you can do it.
And, for the love of Bob, is Ogg support or the lack thereof really a deal-breaker to you people? The open source community's fascination with creating "open source replacements" for applications and file formats strikes me as little less than plagarism - I'd like to see open source programmers use their talents to create new categories of software altogether. THAT would be more impressive than Yet Another Audio Codec...
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/mwsf04/
Yes, I'm karma-whoring...and you do it too, damnit!