minidisc, sony digital cameras, and I think even the Clei don't seem to have done to well with this model.
If my SonyEricsson cell phone played mp3s we might be in business. Though even if it did play music it would have to be atrac or whatever drm-happy standard they come up with. Memory sticks would be better as memory squares, or compact flash - I'll probably go with whatever manufacturer uses compact flash (hopefully nokia). These proprietary standards are reuining what would otherwise be a very competative lineup of products. Whether or not they can still make money, it's a stupid move.
Sony may be a big company but it cant ignore the consumers, and leaving out mp3 support is not in the consumer's interest. Its mp3 or death in the portable music game. mark my words.
Also, I don't think Sony can teach Apple much about makeing money by building proprietary systems. Apple's experience in this area is actually why I don't own an Apple pc.
Bye bye iPod.
You can have my iPod when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
Atrac only. This is what Sony has learned from its years of experience in consumer electronics: When everyone else is using one format (mp3, compact flash...) you use another (atrac, memory stick...). Congratulations Sony, by using proprietary technology in all you devices, you have guarenteed that i will never buy any of them (gaming excluded). I hope your bean counters are proud of themselves.
Many people pirate to learn how to use software. If I ever any employer of mine ever needs me to do some work in macromedia flash, adobe photoshop, adobe premier, or any other ultra-expensive commonly pirated software than they can buy a copy and have me use it. Why? Because I pirated like a maniac when I was younger. I learned Pascal using a pirated copy of borland turbo-pascal. I learned C++ on a pirated copy of visual studio. Guess what I do now.
The people who pirate lots of software also learn to use lots of software. The software companies benefit from this because they have more potential users for their software. I suspect this is why its so easy to pirate photoshop.
By the way, if I like a piece of software alot, especially a game, I do buy it. I pirated MS flight sim before I bought it. Anybody who doesn't want a virus infected computer pays for windows. As I have gotten older and wealthier (relative to 15 years old with $50 to my name) I have also started buying a higher percentage fo the software I use.
Most pirates are kids as adults usually don't see what is so cool or have the time to find out how much fun it is to track down a version of flash that is crackable, crack it, and learn how to use it. Piracy makes learning fun!
If linux met more users needs, more people would use linux.
I use Opera;-), though when I use IE it usually works fine.
I also run Visual Studio.net (crashes occasionally but isn't always running) and quite a bit of other software that I know not to be buggy. I don't expect anyone that hasn't pulled off this feat of computing to believe me, but it is possible to run windows without crashing.
One way to get your PC's browsers to crash less may be to use them for something other than checking fresh web development. Just a thought.
Last reinstall? Hah! How many have there been? Those two words say more than the rest of your message.
2 reinstalls in 2 years, always for the same reason: installed crappy buggy software that ruined the computer. Solution: Don't install crappy buggy software.
Let me know when you find a find a linux distribution that says editing.conf files can destroy your box, doesn't guarantee its safety--and then makes you do it anyway like MS and editing the registry.
We'll be waiting....
Linux doesn't tell you editing files can ruing destroy your box, it shows you. I changed a setting on my mouse and completely locked myself out of Mandrake linux. If there is a way to navigate KDE with a keyboard I have looked and not found it (insufficient 1337ness?). The simplest solution was a comlete reinstall of linux. Since I mainly use linux to ssh into my school's server I didn't have much to back up so it wasn't a big deal. You can now return from the edge of your seats.
Microsoft doesn't 0wn shit, and I don't own most of my software/music/movies. I use windows because I have better things to do than spend hours trying to get stuff working that should already work in the first place. Those that don't care about usability are welcome to linux, but I have better shit to do.
More than 6 months ago. I'll admit that I had to reinstall because my computer had become somewhat unstable, but the fact that it no longer crashes tells me that the software I had running on it was more to blame than windows. Solution: Don't install buggy software.
On a somewhat related note, My webbrowsers in mandrake linux crash every 6 minutes. I am not exhagerating (or spellchecking). I have a pretty wierd motherboard (asus w/ raid) and video card (ati 9600 pro *cringes at linux support but is unwilling to pick video card based on OS I would rather not use as a primary (getting work done) OS*) so maybe thats partly to blame. Windows crashes every once in a while, less than once a day. Im planning on changing my motherboard when my first paycheck comes in but thats neither here nor there.
The only thing Microsoft could do to improve their software is open their source code? Amazing.
I'll bet the guys in Redmond are slapping their foreheads as they read this post thinking, "All this time we have been doing things like making the Windows more stable (my laptop running XP hasn't crashed ONCE since my last reinstall) and supporting all kinds of wierd software and hardware, and making it easy to use. What we should have done is be more like Linux. That's easy to use and supports almost every component ever made, right?"
I don't know what is more sad, that somebody bothered to post this drivel, that somebody modded it up, or that people actually believe it.
Now if you will excuse me, I have to go find out which.conf file(s) I need to edit to get my tv-tuner card to work in my linux box.
In my post, I was refering to fairly current news stories about fairly current events, post 1st Gulf War.
The kurds Saddam gassed are dead. We watched it happen. We continued to support the government that did it, until they went to far (into our oil supply).
When the story broke about the bomb going off that was hooked up to a sarin gas shell (Sarin is a nerve agent, a weapon of mass destruction), for that day and the next, you could find no news story on CNN.com about it. Not one. It was covered on FOX News and MSNBC's websites. Nothing on cnn.com. On the third day, I did manage to find an article that was discussing something else about the war, and at the bottom it mentioned the sarin bomb found.
I have seen several stories about WMD being found in Iraq since the war began (or ended if you like sticking your head in the ground)and so far not one has turned out to be actual WMD. Still these stories played prominantly on the 24 hour news cycle. Invariably, several days later, the true identitiy of the "WMD" is found and oubviously not as widely publicized, especially on fox. Ever since the WMD mobile lab with canvas sides (that sounds like a sterile environment) which was paraded around as "proof" of WMD, I have taken every such story with a large grain of salt. Especially when it comes from fox. WOLF!
I can't say for sure that this "sarin" is not real, but I can say that so far 100% of the WMD news stories have been fabrications by either the government or the "news" media.
I don't want a game console the size of a cellphone (Nokia8260), and I don't want a cellphone the size of a handheld game console. I do want an MP3 player in my cellphone.
Windows 98 Second Edition boot disk is by far the best boot disk you will ever find. It reads FAT32 and NTFS. It even reads your cdrom. It is one floppy disk. One day, I hope to combine my DNA with this disk in a gruesome mateing of man and removeable media.
I good piece of art is one where you can look back on it and say "this depicts how people were back then" or something. It speaks for them.
I think you may be confusing art with a history textbook.
Fuck if my theoretical [if I paid taxes] tax dollars went to the art it should at least represent me!
Representation is not what art is about. Plenty of lousy movies represent us, but I would say they are not art. A video camera can capture you and television represent you. This is also not art.
Art is about something completely different than representation although it sometimes does represent us. If people like you chose who got art funding, museums would be terribly bland.
Why do you block Google's ads? They are relevent and, since they are text, unintrusive. I will never click on a popup or animated banner and I do my best to block them. I do click on Google's ads if for nothing else than to throw a little money (that isn't mine) their way. Well done, Google.
Their messageing system is extremely reliable. I have not once had a message "lost" in transit. Messages arrive very quickly and if you aren't connected when you recieve a message, it will arrive the instant you sign back on.
Cingular customers can make calls from the AT&T network. I recently bought a GSM phone from Cingular (before they owned AT&T) and the guy at the store told me that Cingular's GSM network wasn't very large so it used AT&T's to make up the slack. Driving through Houston, my phone is always asking me to change the time (only a few seconds) as it goes from Cingular to AT&T and back again.
Just as an aside, Cingular rules. No roaming + rollover minutes = not screwing over customers for $$. They may not have the best network but they know how to treat their customers so im sure they are working on improving it. I'm definately not gunna jump ship just because phone number portability means I can easily go find a slightly cheaper (if that) plan with a company that can't wait till I cross the "roaming line". Go Cingular!
Unwired is a bad thing. At UTDallas we have wireless in almost every school building and in every on-campus apartment. We DON'T have ethernet in the apartments. We are a tech school, and you can just imagine what it's like when hundreds of tech students try to use the wireless network at the same time. I want wires! I can't even imagine why at least the new apartments don't have ethernet. Maybe it's a conspiracy to cut down on filesharing by making it nearly impossible to even access the internet.
I don't want to theorize on why we didn't make the list, but my guess is it's cuz we didn't use Intel. Eat me Intel. AMD for life!
Can anybody name a video player for windows that is better than windows media player?
Can this media player automatically download codecs as needed?
IMO whether there even is a better product is practically ignored in these discussions. For mp3s there is winamp, but nobody ever seems to remember this widely used program when discussing how impossible it is to compete with Microsoft. By the way, It's easy to download and install 3rd party apps thanks to IE coming standard with Windows. How else would you download Opera? I personally would rather watch Microsoft go down because another company beat it in the markeplace instead of in the courtroom.
So let's have it: a video player for Windows that is better than WMP.
I don't know of any other trade group that has been accused of price fixing for similar behavior unless they have a monopoly. Many trade groups engage in the practice of lobbying their members to charge certain prices for their products, but generally only the monopolies get hassled for it. The agriculture industry does this all the time. I'm sure others do too, but for the most part nobody really reports on it. It is my understanding that this is a legitimate function for a trade group.
Considering that the RIAA doesn't have a monopoly over online music, it wouldn't really change the price of online music in general, only their price. Price fixing changes all prices. Anything else is more like attempted price-fixing aka competition.
I am the kind of geek that can appreciate a cool shirt. I am not the only one. I have not been tricked by any commercials to wear certain clothes. I have learned to appreciate good clothes. Despite suggestions to the contrary, I have my own style, which includes my own favorite type of jeans. I am not saying you have to shop at the Gap to have style. I am suggesting that many geeks should broaden their horizons a bit and see what's out there.
This doesn't just apply to clothes either. I say this as someone who has spent too much of his life locked in his room, hacking away at my computer. This summer, spend as much time away from your computer as possible. Get out. See the world. Go out on the weekends, check out a few bars, mingle with the populace.
I'm not saying to ignore your inner geek, I know that's not possible or desireable. On the other hand, there is much more to life than being a good geek. This is not a "cooler than thou" post, it's just what I have learned from my own experiences, and now humbly present for your consideration.
btw, I'm not trying to knock anyone for wearing Walmart clothes, just pointing out that the Gap tends to have cooler stuff, at least for my taste. I don't really care to follow what some massive corporation, Walmart shoves down my throat. Ever notice that their music selection sucks?
To expand on what type of geek I am, I would add that while I do place some importance on my own clothes, I really don't care about anyone else's. I spend way more time on the computer than in any store, or to be honest anywhere else. I have grown weary of this one-track life and have started to appreciate things I once thought of as unimportant. Maybe I've just been online too long.
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minidisc, sony digital cameras, and I think even the Clei don't seem to have done to well with this model.
If my SonyEricsson cell phone played mp3s we might be in business. Though even if it did play music it would have to be atrac or whatever drm-happy standard they come up with. Memory sticks would be better as memory squares, or compact flash - I'll probably go with whatever manufacturer uses compact flash (hopefully nokia). These proprietary standards are reuining what would otherwise be a very competative lineup of products. Whether or not they can still make money, it's a stupid move.
Sony may be a big company but it cant ignore the consumers, and leaving out mp3 support is not in the consumer's interest. Its mp3 or death in the portable music game. mark my words.
Also, I don't think Sony can teach Apple much about makeing money by building proprietary systems. Apple's experience in this area is actually why I don't own an Apple pc.
Bye bye iPod.
You can have my iPod when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
Atrac only. This is what Sony has learned from its years of experience in consumer electronics: When everyone else is using one format (mp3, compact flash...) you use another (atrac, memory stick...). Congratulations Sony, by using proprietary technology in all you devices, you have guarenteed that i will never buy any of them (gaming excluded). I hope your bean counters are proud of themselves.
Slap! I'm Rick James, bitch.
Many people pirate to learn how to use software. If I ever any employer of mine ever needs me to do some work in macromedia flash, adobe photoshop, adobe premier, or any other ultra-expensive commonly pirated software than they can buy a copy and have me use it. Why? Because I pirated like a maniac when I was younger. I learned Pascal using a pirated copy of borland turbo-pascal. I learned C++ on a pirated copy of visual studio. Guess what I do now.
The people who pirate lots of software also learn to use lots of software. The software companies benefit from this because they have more potential users for their software. I suspect this is why its so easy to pirate photoshop.
By the way, if I like a piece of software alot, especially a game, I do buy it. I pirated MS flight sim before I bought it. Anybody who doesn't want a virus infected computer pays for windows. As I have gotten older and wealthier (relative to 15 years old with $50 to my name) I have also started buying a higher percentage fo the software I use.
Most pirates are kids as adults usually don't see what is so cool or have the time to find out how much fun it is to track down a version of flash that is crackable, crack it, and learn how to use it. Piracy makes learning fun!
If linux met more users needs, more people would use linux.
different windows boxes + presenting all sides of issue as best as possible = chill out
I use Opera ;-), though when I use IE it usually works fine.
.net (crashes occasionally but isn't always running) and quite a bit of other software that I know not to be buggy. I don't expect anyone that hasn't pulled off this feat of computing to believe me, but it is possible to run windows without crashing.
I also run Visual Studio
One way to get your PC's browsers to crash less may be to use them for something other than checking fresh web development. Just a thought.
Last reinstall? Hah! How many have there been? Those two words say more than the rest of your message.
.conf files can destroy your box, doesn't guarantee its safety--and then makes you do it anyway like MS and editing the registry.
We'll be waiting....
2 reinstalls in 2 years, always for the same reason: installed crappy buggy software that ruined the computer. Solution: Don't install crappy buggy software.
Let me know when you find a find a linux distribution that says editing
Linux doesn't tell you editing files can ruing destroy your box, it shows you. I changed a setting on my mouse and completely locked myself out of Mandrake linux. If there is a way to navigate KDE with a keyboard I have looked and not found it (insufficient 1337ness?). The simplest solution was a comlete reinstall of linux. Since I mainly use linux to ssh into my school's server I didn't have much to back up so it wasn't a big deal.
You can now return from the edge of your seats.
Microsoft doesn't 0wn shit, and I don't own most of my software/music/movies. I use windows because I have better things to do than spend hours trying to get stuff working that should already work in the first place. Those that don't care about usability are welcome to linux, but I have better shit to do.
More than 6 months ago. I'll admit that I had to reinstall because my computer had become somewhat unstable, but the fact that it no longer crashes tells me that the software I had running on it was more to blame than windows. Solution: Don't install buggy software.
On a somewhat related note, My webbrowsers in mandrake linux crash every 6 minutes. I am not exhagerating (or spellchecking). I have a pretty wierd motherboard (asus w/ raid) and video card (ati 9600 pro *cringes at linux support but is unwilling to pick video card based on OS I would rather not use as a primary (getting work done) OS*) so maybe thats partly to blame. Windows crashes every once in a while, less than once a day. Im planning on changing my motherboard when my first paycheck comes in but thats neither here nor there.
The only thing Microsoft could do to improve their software is open their source code? Amazing.
.conf file(s) I need to edit to get my tv-tuner card to work in my linux box.
I'll bet the guys in Redmond are slapping their foreheads as they read this post thinking, "All this time we have been doing things like making the Windows more stable (my laptop running XP hasn't crashed ONCE since my last reinstall) and supporting all kinds of wierd software and hardware, and making it easy to use. What we should have done is be more like Linux. That's easy to use and supports almost every component ever made, right?"
I don't know what is more sad, that somebody bothered to post this drivel, that somebody modded it up, or that people actually believe it.
Now if you will excuse me, I have to go find out which
In my post, I was refering to fairly current news stories about fairly current events, post 1st Gulf War.
The kurds Saddam gassed are dead. We watched it happen. We continued to support the government that did it, until they went to far (into our oil supply).
When the story broke about the bomb going off that was hooked up to a sarin gas shell (Sarin is a nerve agent, a weapon of mass destruction), for that day and the next, you could find no news story on CNN.com about it. Not one. It was covered on FOX News and MSNBC's websites. Nothing on cnn.com. On the third day, I did manage to find an article that was discussing something else about the war, and at the bottom it mentioned the sarin bomb found.
I have seen several stories about WMD being found in Iraq since the war began (or ended if you like sticking your head in the ground)and so far not one has turned out to be actual WMD. Still these stories played prominantly on the 24 hour news cycle. Invariably, several days later, the true identitiy of the "WMD" is found and oubviously not as widely publicized, especially on fox. Ever since the WMD mobile lab with canvas sides (that sounds like a sterile environment) which was paraded around as "proof" of WMD, I have taken every such story with a large grain of salt. Especially when it comes from fox. WOLF!
I can't say for sure that this "sarin" is not real, but I can say that so far 100% of the WMD news stories have been fabrications by either the government or the "news" media.
I don't want a game console the size of a cellphone (Nokia8260), and I don't want a cellphone the size of a handheld game console. I do want an MP3 player in my cellphone.
Windows 98 Second Edition boot disk is by far the best boot disk you will ever find. It reads FAT32 and NTFS. It even reads your cdrom. It is one floppy disk. One day, I hope to combine my DNA with this disk in a gruesome mateing of man and removeable media.
Dinosaurs couldn't talk. People can.
Dinosaurs couldn't build shelters. People can.
Dinosaurs couldn't generate power from Uranium...
I good piece of art is one where you can look back on it and say "this depicts how people were back then" or something. It speaks for them.
I think you may be confusing art with a history textbook.
Fuck if my theoretical [if I paid taxes] tax dollars went to the art it should at least represent me!
Representation is not what art is about. Plenty of lousy movies represent us, but I would say they are not art. A video camera can capture you and television represent you. This is also not art.
Art is about something completely different than representation although it sometimes does represent us. If people like you chose who got art funding, museums would be terribly bland.
Why do you block Google's ads? They are relevent and, since they are text, unintrusive. I will never click on a popup or animated banner and I do my best to block them. I do click on Google's ads if for nothing else than to throw a little money (that isn't mine) their way. Well done, Google.
how reliable is their messaging system?
Their messageing system is extremely reliable. I have not once had a message "lost" in transit. Messages arrive very quickly and if you aren't connected when you recieve a message, it will arrive the instant you sign back on.
Cingular customers can make calls from the AT&T network. I recently bought a GSM phone from Cingular (before they owned AT&T) and the guy at the store told me that Cingular's GSM network wasn't very large so it used AT&T's to make up the slack. Driving through Houston, my phone is always asking me to change the time (only a few seconds) as it goes from Cingular to AT&T and back again.
Just as an aside, Cingular rules. No roaming + rollover minutes = not screwing over customers for $$. They may not have the best network but they know how to treat their customers so im sure they are working on improving it. I'm definately not gunna jump ship just because phone number portability means I can easily go find a slightly cheaper (if that) plan with a company that can't wait till I cross the "roaming line". Go Cingular!
Unwired is a bad thing. At UTDallas we have wireless in almost every school building and in every on-campus apartment. We DON'T have ethernet in the apartments. We are a tech school, and you can just imagine what it's like when hundreds of tech students try to use the wireless network at the same time. I want wires! I can't even imagine why at least the new apartments don't have ethernet. Maybe it's a conspiracy to cut down on filesharing by making it nearly impossible to even access the internet.
I don't want to theorize on why we didn't make the list, but my guess is it's cuz we didn't use Intel. Eat me Intel. AMD for life!
Can anybody name a video player for windows that is better than windows media player?
Can this media player automatically download codecs as needed?
IMO whether there even is a better product is practically ignored in these discussions. For mp3s there is winamp, but nobody ever seems to remember this widely used program when discussing how impossible it is to compete with Microsoft. By the way, It's easy to download and install 3rd party apps thanks to IE coming standard with Windows. How else would you download Opera? I personally would rather watch Microsoft go down because another company beat it in the markeplace instead of in the courtroom.
So let's have it: a video player for Windows that is better than WMP.
I don't know of any other trade group that has been accused of price fixing for similar behavior unless they have a monopoly. Many trade groups engage in the practice of lobbying their members to charge certain prices for their products, but generally only the monopolies get hassled for it. The agriculture industry does this all the time. I'm sure others do too, but for the most part nobody really reports on it. It is my understanding that this is a legitimate function for a trade group.
My /. uid is better then your /. uid
Pretty sweet, huh.
Considering that the RIAA doesn't have a monopoly over online music, it wouldn't really change the price of online music in general, only their price. Price fixing changes all prices. Anything else is more like attempted price-fixing aka competition.
I am the kind of geek that can appreciate a cool shirt. I am not the only one. I have not been tricked by any commercials to wear certain clothes. I have learned to appreciate good clothes. Despite suggestions to the contrary, I have my own style, which includes my own favorite type of jeans. I am not saying you have to shop at the Gap to have style. I am suggesting that many geeks should broaden their horizons a bit and see what's out there.
This doesn't just apply to clothes either. I say this as someone who has spent too much of his life locked in his room, hacking away at my computer. This summer, spend as much time away from your computer as possible. Get out. See the world. Go out on the weekends, check out a few bars, mingle with the populace.
I'm not saying to ignore your inner geek, I know that's not possible or desireable. On the other hand, there is much more to life than being a good geek. This is not a "cooler than thou" post, it's just what I have learned from my own experiences, and now humbly present for your consideration.
btw, I'm not trying to knock anyone for wearing Walmart clothes, just pointing out that the Gap tends to have cooler stuff, at least for my taste. I don't really care to follow what some massive corporation, Walmart shoves down my throat. Ever notice that their music selection sucks?
To expand on what type of geek I am, I would add that while I do place some importance on my own clothes, I really don't care about anyone else's. I spend way more time on the computer than in any store, or to be honest anywhere else. I have grown weary of this one-track life and have started to appreciate things I once thought of as unimportant. Maybe I've just been online too long.