Steve doesn't even have time to fail lately. He is the head of a computer company that is in the midst of revolutionizing the music industry, making great computers(IMHO), with soaring stock values, and record profits. He is also the majority share holder of Pixar, the company most likely to unseat Disney as the the next media monolith. "The Incredibles" was about the smartest thing that Pixar could do to jump out of the path of the rut they were about to step into. It will be a success, so will their next film. Then they are done with Disney and on their own. Suddenly all the work will PAY OFF bigtime. Steve has managed to tie each of his personal investments together into one huge monster in sheep's clothing. He sold NeXT to Apple, became Apple's CEO, then used the NeXT OS to create Mac OS X, then sold lots of OS X Macs to Pixar to make movies for Disney. Then he sells the music from the movies on iTMS. Bill Gates better watch out.
Don't forget that the NYT is distributed nationwide as well as internationally. That is alot of ad space. I agree that 250k still sounds like alot though. 50k maybe, but 250k?
In "A Short History of Nearly Everything" Bill Bryson points out that the ENTIRE collection of human fossils pre-dating modern humans would fit into the bed of a small pick-up with room to spare. There is simply not enough evidence to ever make such wide sweeping assumptions. It is good to hear that some more bones have been added to that small pile and the picture is getting clearer.
There is no way that could be true. Perhaps if you left the drive and/or the battery out, it might cost that much. If you assume that the battery is marked up 100%, that is still $25-$40 depending on who you buy it from. The iPod Mini drives alone, are sold for storage for digital cameras. When iPod minis were first introduced, photographers were buying them and tearing them apart to get the drive out of it. Apple's large purchases drove the price down enough that the entire device was cheaper than the drives alone. So. while I'm sure that Apple is probably marking them up by 30-50%, they still cost more than $12 to make.
The BigMac at VA Tech missed the list this year because they were busy switching over to DP G5 Xserves. Last I heard, they had completed the project and were busy re-benchmarking the beast. I I also heard that it was poised to move to number 2 possibly on the list after it was retested officially. The Army's version of the BigMac will probably take that title away though. That then 2 of the top 3 machines will be G5 based. Too Cool!
Many Windows programs won't function unless you're an admin. Knowing that most users have admin level permissions, they write their programs making that assumption. I've tried locking down Windows users by giving them lower permissions and half of the programs don't work because of read/write access errors. I can make it work by finding all of the folders that the program calls and resetting permissions, but this kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it?
>>Can't help you if you're using OS X though...
Thats because Apple is building this feature into the next version of their OS that is being release in March/April. It is called Spotlight. You should check out the demonstration on Apples Webpage. It goes WAY beyond this though. In their demonstration, it found a reference to a key word that was on a PDF file. Very Cool.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/spotlight.html
I think that you are not in touch with the general population. (don't worry, this is a fairly common affliction for programmers) You seem to think that because OO is Open Source, everyone will, or should modify the code. In reality, only 5% of the users of OO even know that the source code is available, let alone want to muck with it. The selling point for OO is that it is not sold. It is free. People understand free, not "#include blah blah blah"
I think that the problem is that it leads you to believe that you're safe, when in reality you are not.
What is worse than not working at all?-->Thinking that it is doing something when it is actually not doing much.
It would be better to say "there is a problem and you are on your own to fix it", than to release a half-a$$ed tool to half-fix it and then tell you that it is all fixed.
Virus writers tend to be driven by the desire to get recognition for their work from peers or some strange satisfaction from hacking other people's computers. With this logic, OS X should be a prime target. It has been out how long now? 4-5 years and it still has not had any exploits in the wild. Who wouldn't want to be the *FIRST* to write and receive credit for an OS X exploit? If they're trying, they're not having much success. If they're not trying, why not? I don't think that it is obsurity that is stopping them, and I don't think that OS X is impervious to attack. So something else must be going on. But what? I'm a happy Mac user, but I feel that Macs are ripe for hacking. Someone will figure it out and every single Mac will fall victim because none of us use anti-virus software unless we share a network with Windows PCs (how's that for irony). Macs don't get viruses but they can spread them. The infrastructure for the Mac community is not prepared for a virus or worm. The first one to appear will likely be devastating. It won't likely have much of an effect on society, but it will get lots of press. I can just imagine the headlines on/...."Apple has a bite taken out of it..."
OK, maybe I'm blind, but I've looked in the developers section at
www.abisource.com/developers
and I've looked at the download page at www.abisource.com/download
and I can't find anything about Mac OS X. Would you post the link on here so that we can get to it? I'd love to try the OS X version.
I think that this item will be part of the the new iMac, but the screen and the CPU are going to be wirelessly connected. Currently Apple allows you to stream music from your computer to your stereo, but you still must go back to the computer to control it. I think that the Screen is going to be like a wireless thin-client that will allow users to control iTunes from their couch. Visualize this: On your way to the living room of your house/apartment you pluck your iMac's moniter from the cradle and carry it with you to the living room. Your Airport Express is already connected to the stereo and you moniter is now connected to your CPU via the Airport Express. You can now access and control iTunes from you living-room instead of having to walk back to your office to change playlists or select the internet radio station you want to listen too. Want to search the web? Guess what? You portable iMac monitor allows you to do that too from the comfort of your humble living-room. Couchpotato meets Nerd.
I'd agree, except I believe the NRA supports Dubya. I'd like nothing better than an army of heavily armed zealots opposing Dubya. At any rate, this post is off topic and will likely get buried in a mass of Troll/Anti-troll rhetoric...
I wish I had mod points to give you. You are right on. I seem to remember Kennedy saying something like "We choose to go to the moon BECAUSE it is difficult, not because it is easy..."
If Apple had opened its hardware up as IBM did their product would likely have sunk in mediocrity as M$ Windows did (it's getting better though). Opening up the hardware didn't really help IBM. How many computers does IBM actually manufacture and sell anymore. Not many if any at all. They buy cheap 3rd party knock-offs and re-brand them. Microsoft is the one that benefitted from the open hardware availability. Apple has almost always led the pack in terms of development and innovation, but when you only have 3% of the market, the only people who notice are the software engineers working for your comptetitor. If it weren't for Apple pushing the envelope, most people would still be using Windows 95, but it might be renamed Windows 2000 by now.
I agree that Apple has a different view on video than audio. But if you can selectively control what you watch rather than watch what is provided (fed?) for you I think TV would be a different experience altogether. Tivo is heading that way, but it isn't there yet. Tivo attempts to select from the available programming what it thinks you would like and proactively records it for you. Imagine if you could just do a Google search for documentaries, news (of a particular subject even), or whatever, and watch a stream of that whenever you wanted. Sure some people would sink to the lowest common denominator of on-demand Reality TV, but some of us would actually be watching educational TV, documentaries, Art Films, etc. too. As it is now, I have to wait for PBS or Discover to air a show about the subject that I want. TV can still be saved from its current brain-numbing usage. I don't know if Apple will be the one to pull it off, but they sure have a big head start over any competition. Keep in mind that this is not likely to happen in the US anytime soon because the infrastructure is not in place and will cost more than in small but densely populated areas. In Japan and Korea for example they are already streaming video to their Cell Phones!!?! Add a bigger screen, bigger hard drive, faster CPU, and a deal with the RIAA, MPAA, TV networks, and the FCC and and you're set. Apple has the RIAA almost sold on the notion of digital downloads. Apple can use Pixar to pioneer the movie idea. They have the new video compression standard built into their new OS that is due next year that will allow you to stream almost full screen video at normal frame rates. The new version of iChat allows you to video conference call with how many people at once (thanks to the new video compression software)? These things alone give all of the tools needed to get music, video, and communication from one device. Now if you get $.03 from every song sold, $.25 from every movie streamed, and $.0001 from every minute of conversation you've got a pretty good income stream if everyone is doing it that way. I'm not predicting that Apple will dominate all of these markets, but as usual, they are definitely ahead of everyone else. They are making the opportunity happen.
Apple is not planning on living off of the iPod for the long term goal. They are planning on building the hub of your future digital lifestyle. Digital music, movies, communication, etc. DRM is key to that goal. Apple is just funding this project with the iPod. Eventually iTMS will will either dry up or redefine the music distribution model. I think the latter. Apple will develop an iMovie (iTV?) store as well. With Airport express or a similar product they'll be able to stream files to your entertainment center. Eventually your computer will become part of your entertainment center. Who wants to pay for 24x7 Cable or satelite service if you can pay for just the progamming you want to see/hear? In the end, there will probably be Apple computers, Monitors, Amplifiers, speakers, and a multipurpose digital recorder for audio and video. Video will be pay per view while audio will be owned.
Oh, you're that person that always talks about the slow agonizing death of Apple and complains about the price of their equipment. You are absolutely right, you could buy a FW800 card for you PC or Linux box. The point being made here is that it is built into the computer by default. As I'm sure a 1000 people have already tried to show you...if you build a PC that is comparable to a Mac the price difference is not that great. Depending on the computer, sometimes the Mac is even cheaper. A dual G5 Mac is a great example. You can't compare it to a dual Pentium, you have to compare it to a dual Xeon or Itanium. The prices go up a bit in that scenario. I'm not bashing Intel. They make a great product. It is M$ that ruins it for them. They're great with Linux.
Slashdot Mirror
You just need to zoon in a bit. With that kind of resolution, I'm sure it caught one somewhere.
Take a look at this:
1 /0 2/0011220
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/1
Steve doesn't even have time to fail lately. He is the head of a computer company that is in the midst of revolutionizing the music industry, making great computers(IMHO), with soaring stock values, and record profits. He is also the majority share holder of Pixar, the company most likely to unseat Disney as the the next media monolith. "The Incredibles" was about the smartest thing that Pixar could do to jump out of the path of the rut they were about to step into. It will be a success, so will their next film. Then they are done with Disney and on their own. Suddenly all the work will PAY OFF bigtime. Steve has managed to tie each of his personal investments together into one huge monster in sheep's clothing. He sold NeXT to Apple, became Apple's CEO, then used the NeXT OS to create Mac OS X, then sold lots of OS X Macs to Pixar to make movies for Disney. Then he sells the music from the movies on iTMS. Bill Gates better watch out.
Don't forget that the NYT is distributed nationwide as well as internationally. That is alot of ad space. I agree that 250k still sounds like alot though. 50k maybe, but 250k?
Redhad never had dominance in the Linux world. They had dominance in the US, but Suse was always bigger.
In "A Short History of Nearly Everything" Bill Bryson points out that the ENTIRE collection of human fossils pre-dating modern humans would fit into the bed of a small pick-up with room to spare. There is simply not enough evidence to ever make such wide sweeping assumptions. It is good to hear that some more bones have been added to that small pile and the picture is getting clearer.
There is no way that could be true. Perhaps if you left the drive and/or the battery out, it might cost that much. If you assume that the battery is marked up 100%, that is still $25-$40 depending on who you buy it from. The iPod Mini drives alone, are sold for storage for digital cameras. When iPod minis were first introduced, photographers were buying them and tearing them apart to get the drive out of it. Apple's large purchases drove the price down enough that the entire device was cheaper than the drives alone. So. while I'm sure that Apple is probably marking them up by 30-50%, they still cost more than $12 to make.
The BigMac at VA Tech missed the list this year because they were busy switching over to DP G5 Xserves. Last I heard, they had completed the project and were busy re-benchmarking the beast. I I also heard that it was poised to move to number 2 possibly on the list after it was retested officially. The Army's version of the BigMac will probably take that title away though. That then 2 of the top 3 machines will be G5 based. Too Cool!
Many Windows programs won't function unless you're an admin. Knowing that most users have admin level permissions, they write their programs making that assumption. I've tried locking down Windows users by giving them lower permissions and half of the programs don't work because of read/write access errors. I can make it work by finding all of the folders that the program calls and resetting permissions, but this kind of defeats the purpose doesn't it?
>>Can't help you if you're using OS X though... Thats because Apple is building this feature into the next version of their OS that is being release in March/April. It is called Spotlight. You should check out the demonstration on Apples Webpage. It goes WAY beyond this though. In their demonstration, it found a reference to a key word that was on a PDF file. Very Cool. http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/spotlight.html
I think that you are not in touch with the general population. (don't worry, this is a fairly common affliction for programmers) You seem to think that because OO is Open Source, everyone will, or should modify the code. In reality, only 5% of the users of OO even know that the source code is available, let alone want to muck with it. The selling point for OO is that it is not sold. It is free. People understand free, not "#include blah blah blah"
I think that the problem is that it leads you to believe that you're safe, when in reality you are not. What is worse than not working at all?-->Thinking that it is doing something when it is actually not doing much. It would be better to say "there is a problem and you are on your own to fix it", than to release a half-a$$ed tool to half-fix it and then tell you that it is all fixed.
Before too long, I'll be able to tell people that I live in Yakima without them saying, "Oh, I'm sorry."
Virus writers tend to be driven by the desire to get recognition for their work from peers or some strange satisfaction from hacking other people's computers. With this logic, OS X should be a prime target. It has been out how long now? 4-5 years and it still has not had any exploits in the wild. Who wouldn't want to be the *FIRST* to write and receive credit for an OS X exploit? If they're trying, they're not having much success. If they're not trying, why not? I don't think that it is obsurity that is stopping them, and I don't think that OS X is impervious to attack. So something else must be going on. But what? I'm a happy Mac user, but I feel that Macs are ripe for hacking. Someone will figure it out and every single Mac will fall victim because none of us use anti-virus software unless we share a network with Windows PCs (how's that for irony). Macs don't get viruses but they can spread them. The infrastructure for the Mac community is not prepared for a virus or worm. The first one to appear will likely be devastating. It won't likely have much of an effect on society, but it will get lots of press. I can just imagine the headlines on /. ..."Apple has a bite taken out of it..."
OK I found it with Google... http://www.abisource.com/download/development.phtm l
OK, maybe I'm blind, but I've looked in the developers section at www.abisource.com/developers and I've looked at the download page at www.abisource.com/download and I can't find anything about Mac OS X. Would you post the link on here so that we can get to it? I'd love to try the OS X version.
The Mac OS X version, experimental or otherwise, is not even listed on their web-page to download. Where did you get it?
While Apple's DRM is closed, AAC is not. Anyone can use it.
I think that this item will be part of the the new iMac, but the screen and the CPU are going to be wirelessly connected. Currently Apple allows you to stream music from your computer to your stereo, but you still must go back to the computer to control it. I think that the Screen is going to be like a wireless thin-client that will allow users to control iTunes from their couch. Visualize this: On your way to the living room of your house/apartment you pluck your iMac's moniter from the cradle and carry it with you to the living room. Your Airport Express is already connected to the stereo and you moniter is now connected to your CPU via the Airport Express. You can now access and control iTunes from you living-room instead of having to walk back to your office to change playlists or select the internet radio station you want to listen too. Want to search the web? Guess what? You portable iMac monitor allows you to do that too from the comfort of your humble living-room. Couchpotato meets Nerd.
I'd agree, except I believe the NRA supports Dubya. I'd like nothing better than an army of heavily armed zealots opposing Dubya. At any rate, this post is off topic and will likely get buried in a mass of Troll/Anti-troll rhetoric...
I wish I had mod points to give you. You are right on. I seem to remember Kennedy saying something like "We choose to go to the moon BECAUSE it is difficult, not because it is easy..."
If Apple had opened its hardware up as IBM did their product would likely have sunk in mediocrity as M$ Windows did (it's getting better though). Opening up the hardware didn't really help IBM. How many computers does IBM actually manufacture and sell anymore. Not many if any at all. They buy cheap 3rd party knock-offs and re-brand them. Microsoft is the one that benefitted from the open hardware availability. Apple has almost always led the pack in terms of development and innovation, but when you only have 3% of the market, the only people who notice are the software engineers working for your comptetitor. If it weren't for Apple pushing the envelope, most people would still be using Windows 95, but it might be renamed Windows 2000 by now.
I agree that Apple has a different view on video than audio. But if you can selectively control what you watch rather than watch what is provided (fed?) for you I think TV would be a different experience altogether. Tivo is heading that way, but it isn't there yet. Tivo attempts to select from the available programming what it thinks you would like and proactively records it for you. Imagine if you could just do a Google search for documentaries, news (of a particular subject even), or whatever, and watch a stream of that whenever you wanted. Sure some people would sink to the lowest common denominator of on-demand Reality TV, but some of us would actually be watching educational TV, documentaries, Art Films, etc. too. As it is now, I have to wait for PBS or Discover to air a show about the subject that I want. TV can still be saved from its current brain-numbing usage. I don't know if Apple will be the one to pull it off, but they sure have a big head start over any competition. Keep in mind that this is not likely to happen in the US anytime soon because the infrastructure is not in place and will cost more than in small but densely populated areas. In Japan and Korea for example they are already streaming video to their Cell Phones!!?! Add a bigger screen, bigger hard drive, faster CPU, and a deal with the RIAA, MPAA, TV networks, and the FCC and and you're set. Apple has the RIAA almost sold on the notion of digital downloads. Apple can use Pixar to pioneer the movie idea. They have the new video compression standard built into their new OS that is due next year that will allow you to stream almost full screen video at normal frame rates. The new version of iChat allows you to video conference call with how many people at once (thanks to the new video compression software)? These things alone give all of the tools needed to get music, video, and communication from one device. Now if you get $.03 from every song sold, $.25 from every movie streamed, and $.0001 from every minute of conversation you've got a pretty good income stream if everyone is doing it that way. I'm not predicting that Apple will dominate all of these markets, but as usual, they are definitely ahead of everyone else. They are making the opportunity happen.
Apple is not planning on living off of the iPod for the long term goal. They are planning on building the hub of your future digital lifestyle. Digital music, movies, communication, etc. DRM is key to that goal. Apple is just funding this project with the iPod. Eventually iTMS will will either dry up or redefine the music distribution model. I think the latter. Apple will develop an iMovie (iTV?) store as well. With Airport express or a similar product they'll be able to stream files to your entertainment center. Eventually your computer will become part of your entertainment center. Who wants to pay for 24x7 Cable or satelite service if you can pay for just the progamming you want to see/hear? In the end, there will probably be Apple computers, Monitors, Amplifiers, speakers, and a multipurpose digital recorder for audio and video. Video will be pay per view while audio will be owned.
Oh, you're that person that always talks about the slow agonizing death of Apple and complains about the price of their equipment. You are absolutely right, you could buy a FW800 card for you PC or Linux box. The point being made here is that it is built into the computer by default. As I'm sure a 1000 people have already tried to show you...if you build a PC that is comparable to a Mac the price difference is not that great. Depending on the computer, sometimes the Mac is even cheaper. A dual G5 Mac is a great example. You can't compare it to a dual Pentium, you have to compare it to a dual Xeon or Itanium. The prices go up a bit in that scenario. I'm not bashing Intel. They make a great product. It is M$ that ruins it for them. They're great with Linux.