But 20 years is a very long time for technology. My childhood companies were Amiga, Atari, Commodore, Spectrum etc. and no kids today will have even heard of them (except maybe Atari)
No kids today knew that Apple ever existed before the iPod either...
You've actually illustrated my point... In two ways, actually. First, companies that are on the decline need to change. Amiga and Commodore never changed from the brand niche the way Apple did or Microsoft is doing. Apple survived while Amiga and Commodore didn't. Second, it sounds like back when you were a kid, you liked mucking around with an Amiga and Commodore... If they came back today, wouldn't you take a chance on whatever tech they offered or give them more attention than random FooTech's products? You still remember their brand, after all.
Microsoft will rebrand itself as a Lifestyle technology company and resurface in the future stronger than ever. In 2027, the future thirty-somethings will cheer the renewed strength of their Xbox creators and the rest of us will go "wtf are these kids smoking??!"... The kids of 2027 will probably also not believe Microsoft ever came out with any products before "Super-Xbox20K".
Among its peers in the category of Computers, Peripherals and Computer Software, Microsoft is second to IBM in brand power, with Toshiba a close third, Gregory said. If Microsoft's downward trend continues, Toshiba could pass it in brand power next year, he said.
I'm an educator and work with kids (and some university students) all day. Ask anyone aged 10-25 what Microsoft is known for and they'll say Xbox (or Xbox 360). Sit kids in front of a Mac and they'll start messing with it; sit kids in front of a Windows box and they'll start messing with that. They don't "see" the operating system or the cognitive dissonance of the Office ribbon... They're still platform agnostic. And Microsoft is counting on that.
We associate Microsoft with "Computers, Peripherals and Computer Software", we hate their stuff, and we take glee in the decline of the Evil Empire that brought us Windows, IE, and OOXML. If I were to be associated with the Vista debacle and ActiveX exploits forever, I'd want my brand to die, too!
Don't be fooled by the article however, Microsoft still has the mindshare of future consumers - they're the cool company that brought us the Xbox, Xbox Live, and the Halo franchise... In another 20 years, wouldn't you want to buy technology from the guys who brought you all the great memories from your childhood??
Apple went from a declining "Computers, Peripherals and Computer Software" company to a hot mainstream company, and used the iPod halo effect to come back into their old, failed "Computers, Peripherals and Computer Software" market, hotter than ever. Microsoft is simply stealing a page from Apple and guaranteeing its survival for the next 20 years, when the Xbox gamers of today take their turn at being CIOs and CTOs.
OLPC's commitment to software freedom gives children the opportunity to use their laptops on their own terms. The children--and their teachers--have the freedom to reshape, reinvent, and reapply their software, hardware, and content. There's even a button located on the keyboard that allows children to view the programming behind certain applications.
So, Microsoft wants the XO to run their operating system? Are they willing to release the source code to Windows XP *and* let kids rewrite it??
This isn't merely Microsoft wanting to change one little hardware spec. The ramifications are that the laptops will probably require more power to run that extra SD slot; the laptop will cost more for the redesign, re-molding, extra parts; the whole philosophy of the software will change and the kid's desire to explore and tinker stifled. I don't think Microsoft cares beyond a "developing countries == potential market" attitude...
I have a serious question. So Microsoft has released Office 2007 already. Our school is already using the application and creating all sorts of OOXML documents.
How can you make 662 responses to an existing file format without burning early adopters? And Microsoft isn't even finished yet!
I'm praying that it's not just more bloat like Vista. It seems like Leopard is good on paper, better Boot Camp for those who still need Windows; better iCal for the people who use their Macs for organizing their life; Instruments, Core Animation, Unix certification, built-in Sandboxing for programmers; and other doodads for Joe-user such as a cooler Photobooth... But then, do I need my address book to make calls to Google Maps or the OS-wide dictionary to reach out to Wikipedia? Those last two are cool but I get worried when my "OS experience" is tied in anyway to whether I have network or Internet access.
If someone likes working all the time, why not respect that and move on with your life?
As long as it doesn't intrude on my life, I'm all for that. However, if you work 24/7 and our mutual boss wants to know why I'm not accomplishing 20 tasks a day, that gets annoying and your work habit is affecting me. If our mutual boss decides to make you the "norm" and expects everyone to follow suit, then you've created an environment for burnout and your work habit is affecting me. If you get in the habit of working 24/7 and you catch a cold and come in to work anyway, and I catch your cold, your work habit is affecting me. You infect me with a cold and I'm staying home, dammit. You infect other, saner, people and they'll stay home too.
Allowing someone to behave detrimentally in a work environment sets a dangerous precedent because nobody works in a bubble; it changes the work culture to one that benefits the organization unequally over the individual, it creates health risks, and combined, potentially skews a society's economy. That's why I care if *you* work yourself to the bone. You're not only my colleague but you're a barometer of the world around me.
Neither MySpace or Facebook really have much "purpose" to them (well, MySpace users may claim that it caters to bands, but the connection to me is pretty shallow). Facebook doesn't really have any "purpose" either.
Facebook really does have a purpose and that's probably what TFA was driving at without realizing. Facebook is really for college friends (and high school friends) to "hang out" online. It's the social networking of friends and peers and your friends' and peers' friends and peers - people of similar mindedness. Myspace is the bar-scene of the web; you go there to meet anyone and everyone, people sincerely looking for friends and pick-up artists alike.
TFA seems to think there's a socio-economic divide between Facebook and Myspace and there probably is. But not because poorer, less educated people all decided, hey, let's all hang out on Myspace. Think about your high school experiences. If you don't have friends you liked from high school, you're less likely to use Facebook. If you have high school or college buds that you hang out with exclusively, Facebook is all you need, with the added bonus of seeing the ideas of your friends' friends. Compounding this is the initial seeding of Facebook. If you never went to university or college, the likelihood of you using Facebook plummeted because they originally required you to have an e-mail address at that organization!
The original article was interesting but probably read a little too much into the organization of socio-economic and educational differences and probably didn't look sufficiently at the "why" or purpose of the SNSes, which is probably more benign than some plot by the Man to hold us down as was hinted.
As for Care2, it does look interesting and I may sign up. If I'm feeling particularly sociable, I may troll the "bar" that is Myspace; if I just want to hang out with friends, you'll find me on the "pub" that is Facebook; Care2 sounds kinda neat, like when my friends and I want to do activities together, Care2 may be the online "soupkitchen".
Deeds are a unique element to Lord of the Rings Online, a kind of achievement system somewhat reminiscent of those earned on the Xbox 360. They're discovered by doing the act the deed requires for the first time; for example, many require a certain number of monsters to be slain. The first time you kill a wolf in the Shire, your UI notes that you've begun work on the 'Wolf Slayer' deed.
Deeds are interesting but hardly unique. The MMORPG that captured the spirit of deeds best was "City of Heroes". Even before Xbox 360, CoH allowed your hero to have cool titles. By defeating enough specific mobs or visiting a string of significant locations, even your lowliest characters could have cool titles such as "Dark Mystic" and such. If you were a lowly level ten superhero, you can pass by a unique location and collect a cool badge to tack on to your name. I think the badge/deed system is particularly good for retaining low level characters and for bored high level players.
If everyone's life were public, you'd know if Piotr was an agent.
I think this was the way communism was/is supposed to work. If everyone contributed what they can, there would never be a lack of supply. If everyone took only what they needed, there would never be over-demand. But then, all you need is a handful of cheaters and the system collapses.
How could anyone ensure that the "personal lives of those running the country" wasn't fabricated? I watched episodes of "Big Brother" and "the Simple Life" and that one with Ozzy Osbourne and his family. They were all completely "open" - the cameras appeared to be running all the time. Oddly, their crews all contained "set production" people, creative consultants, and tons of story editors... I bet the people "running the country" can hire these people too, and create something with far better production value.
Anyway, as to what I quoted from your post... I can't speak for anyone else, but if I were to "go postal" (and were still in control of my mind, as it were) I'd actively seek out a place where I *knew* everyone would be disarmed if they were good law-following citizens.
So, following your logic that if everyone carried guns, nobody would be shot... Gang-controlled territory should be the *safest* neighnbourhoods because everyone is assumed to be armed. Police officers should be in the safest profession because everyone knows for a fact that they're armed. Canada and Japan, with very strict gun control laws, should be lands of chaos.
I would argue that preventing guns from entering your country is the best way to ensure safety. True, criminals by definition don't follow laws and will use a weapon if given one - but what if there are none to be had?? Legislate guns out of existence.
"In addition to Russia and China, the 10 countries placed on the priority watch list were Argentina, Chile, Egypt, India,Israel, Lebanon, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela..."
and then
"The countries placed on a lower-level watch list were Belarus, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Jamaica, South Korea, Kuwait, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam."
Pretty soon, the RIAA and MPAA will have every "first world" and most "second world" countries on their list. That should tell them that they need to change strategies at the very least.
Also, when something like this happens, involving multiple countries, shouldn't the World Trade Organization or some such organization step in?
Now you use Parallels and buy a copy of Windows to put in there.
GAME OVER.
That's not entirely true. Apple has been quite transparent about their Mac strategy ever since Bootcamp. They want to attract the Windows users with Bootcamp and Parallels. Microsoft benefits in the short term but the idea for Apple is to ween users off Windows in the long term.
Parallels is a set of training wheels for the Mac. I bought an iMac and I bought Parallels 6 months ago; I now only use Windows XP for one program. If there were a *good* home budgeting program for OS-X, similar to Quicken, I'd ditch Windows altogether. I'd wager a lot of Mac/Parallels users are just as close to abandoning Microsoft as well.
(Incidentally, my current other Parallels setup is Open-SuSE!)
"There's a lot of pirating that goes on, a lot of counterfeiting of movies and songs" and "it really does cost the Canadian economy a huge amount every year, estimated to be from some 10 to 30 billion (dollars) per year,"
A little off topic but when I went to see a preview of "300" last night at a Toronto (Canadian) theatre, there was a guy doing a pat-down with a metal-detecting wand. Then there was the guy who examined our cell phones and other electronics if we were reviewers. Then there was a lady who went through our bags. Finally, as the movie played, there were two uniformed police officers at the front of the theatre as a theatre manager walked up and down the theatre with night-vision goggles. The other staff had a big red anti-piracy binder that they had to check through.
I can safely say that 0-day piracy will not occur in an Ontario theatre. Neither will terrorism!
Seriously, you (a school) can't stop kids from using IM, E-mail, and forums.
Speaking as an educator in a private school, no we don't believe for a second we can stop kids from talking to each other. But there are a bunch of reasons why schools need to make the effort:
1. Legal issues - as a institution offering a "safe environment", schools need to show due diligence in protecting the students or we open ourselves up to lawsuits
2. Community - stuff that happens "out there" more often than not affects how kids perform in the classroom
3. Parents - they'll complain that schools have no right to police and censor their child off school property if their kid was the one caught "cyberbullying" but generally parents assume that schools will educate their child in societal norms - and bullying in any form is not a trait desired by society
4. Did I mention the legal ramifications???
All that being said, I personally believe that the Internet is a great equalizer. In the past, if you were bullied, it was often by someone bigger than you (if you were a boy) or someone more popular than you (if you were a girl). "Cyberbullying" on the Internet can allow the victim to fight back if he or she is intelligent, creative and malicious enough... But again, we don't want to create such a society, do we??
I suspect that he's right, there's a battle brewing for the home server market. I mean, ubiquitous access to everything is both cool and useful. Whoever controls your home server will control your music, you photos, your work... That's pretty big....And we can all envision the world moving that way. But the article is still sensationalist.
There's the big fight for the home server to control our digital content. HD and Blu-Ray are in a big fight to control our digital media. Plasmas/LCDs are mounting a big push to muscle out old CRTs and change how we watch television. Apple is throwing down the gauntlet in how we call people. It's the nature of capitalism; corporations are always looking for a way to dominate a market and lock in their customers. If you can't control the content (what you watch, what you listen to, who you talk to, what you create), control the medium. There's a fight brewing in televisions, phones, servers, storage media, etc... The trick is, however, as the content/need changes, so must the medium. Sony's VHS won the Beta-VHS war and much was made about it in the news, but they've since lost out to DVRs, PVRs, and other digital formats. Was there mourning for VHS??
So the battle for home servers? Another Linux-OSX-Windows battle. Yawn. I'm more intrigued by the new battle for cell phone dominance.
So we'll never max out the resources of the PS3??? The PS3 owners playing "Full Auto 2" and "Fight Night 3" (and "Tiger Woods PGA 07" - as if anyone actually bought the PS3 to play golf) would suggest otherwise.
From a scan of the game reviews and support forums, Sony is just flinging hyperbole again.
"A recent out-of-court settlement between Apple Computer and the owner of the patent that covers the downloading of music and video with the ability to play music and video on a device (technology essential to the iPod and other music and video technology)"
Just like a rachet set has every size from 1/8" to 2", every situation in life is different and requires a different size tool
The question is not as simple as it seems.
From TFA, it's not that you have only a hammer and multiple screws. It's a matter of "you have one single screw, and you have an appropriate screwdriver, an appropriate screwdriver with a blue handle, an appropriate automatic screwdriver, and a screwdriver bit for your drill..." The question is, do we really need that many choices for screwing a screw? In his example, how many people actually use the "standby" option over "hibernate" on their Windows desktops - or "standby"/"hibernate" at all when "logoff" and "shutdown" exist.
Microsoft OSes tend to give users an extraordinary amount of choice to do any one given task. That creates bloated software for them; security issues and training nightmares for us. Is it worth it for the extra "freedom" the developers give to their customers? I'd argue yes if your userbase is large enough where there is great diversity of needs and expertise, but no if your userbase is small and/or has a frequent turnover to simplify training and startup time for the new employees. Not having more choices, for the small business, can be similar to establishing "standards". If the option doesn't exist, the user can't stray off task or get themselves stuck (in theory).
Again, not a simple question. Fewer choices can be better!
Um. The practical application as stated is funny but the principle is actually intriguing... I can see web filtering companies such as WebSense going for something like this. Think of a kid's locked-down desktop that comes with only a bare minimal, barely functioning browser. A web filtering company then totally controls the content (think massive portal with approved applets). You wouldn't be able to hack it or go around it and new anonymous proxies can be detected and dealt with in real time. No spyware can install either. You try to hack the desktop browser and the thing just stops working altogether so no zombie machines.
The downside is that it requires a complete centralization of the Internet. But still... Not out of the realm of possibility.
Has anyone noticed that every time Jack Thompson complains about something, whether it be video games or music CDs, those products do really, really well?? I mean, his attack on Grand Theft Auto seemed to keep it in the public eye forever. It wasn't until he started railing against Bully that GTA fell out of the public attention. Then there was "2 Live Crew" - their sucky lyrics made them a joke but then Jack Thompson made a public stink in the media and warning stickers were placed on the CDs and every teenaged boy in North America had to have a copy.
I'm convinced that Jack Thompson is a corporate shill for the various media companies. I mean, he's too harmless to do any damage to the products in question, he's too laughable to be taken seriously by anyone, and yet he can whip up public attention like nobody else. I wouldn't be surprised at this point if Rockstar starts/is funding Jack Thompson's campaigns.
Counter Strike?? If you want to teach terrorists the fine art of teabagging...
Why hasn't anyone made a stink about "America's Army"? I remember thinking that game was so cool because we could go online and find real soldiers using real military tactics that we could test our skillz against. (Then I realized they were so predictable, they sucked worse than 10 year old noobs and the game got dull.) Wouldn't a game that teaches western combat doctrine with players from the real military be a much more effective training tool for terrorists?
I accidentally nicked myself the other day and went to the medicine cabinet to get my first-aid kit. I touched the box and my nick didn't go away. Following the whole "video games train people for the real world" argument, my cut should have healed the second I touched my first aid kit.
How many of you ever hurt yourself and wasn't instantly healed by your first aid kits??! I say we launch a law-suit against Johnson and Johnson for *decades* of faulty first-aid kits. We'll see if we can hire Jack Thompson! We'll win for sure!
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No kids today knew that Apple ever existed before the iPod either...
You've actually illustrated my point... In two ways, actually. First, companies that are on the decline need to change. Amiga and Commodore never changed from the brand niche the way Apple did or Microsoft is doing. Apple survived while Amiga and Commodore didn't. Second, it sounds like back when you were a kid, you liked mucking around with an Amiga and Commodore... If they came back today, wouldn't you take a chance on whatever tech they offered or give them more attention than random FooTech's products? You still remember their brand, after all.
Microsoft will rebrand itself as a Lifestyle technology company and resurface in the future stronger than ever. In 2027, the future thirty-somethings will cheer the renewed strength of their Xbox creators and the rest of us will go "wtf are these kids smoking??!"... The kids of 2027 will probably also not believe Microsoft ever came out with any products before "Super-Xbox20K".
I'm an educator and work with kids (and some university students) all day. Ask anyone aged 10-25 what Microsoft is known for and they'll say Xbox (or Xbox 360). Sit kids in front of a Mac and they'll start messing with it; sit kids in front of a Windows box and they'll start messing with that. They don't "see" the operating system or the cognitive dissonance of the Office ribbon... They're still platform agnostic. And Microsoft is counting on that.
We associate Microsoft with "Computers, Peripherals and Computer Software", we hate their stuff, and we take glee in the decline of the Evil Empire that brought us Windows, IE, and OOXML. If I were to be associated with the Vista debacle and ActiveX exploits forever, I'd want my brand to die, too!
Don't be fooled by the article however, Microsoft still has the mindshare of future consumers - they're the cool company that brought us the Xbox, Xbox Live, and the Halo franchise... In another 20 years, wouldn't you want to buy technology from the guys who brought you all the great memories from your childhood??
Apple went from a declining "Computers, Peripherals and Computer Software" company to a hot mainstream company, and used the iPod halo effect to come back into their old, failed "Computers, Peripherals and Computer Software" market, hotter than ever. Microsoft is simply stealing a page from Apple and guaranteeing its survival for the next 20 years, when the Xbox gamers of today take their turn at being CIOs and CTOs.
So, Microsoft wants the XO to run their operating system? Are they willing to release the source code to Windows XP *and* let kids rewrite it??
This isn't merely Microsoft wanting to change one little hardware spec. The ramifications are that the laptops will probably require more power to run that extra SD slot; the laptop will cost more for the redesign, re-molding, extra parts; the whole philosophy of the software will change and the kid's desire to explore and tinker stifled. I don't think Microsoft cares beyond a "developing countries == potential market" attitude...
p.s. If you want to buy an XO, that's also the link: http://www.laptopgiving.org/
I have a serious question. So Microsoft has released Office 2007 already. Our school is already using the application and creating all sorts of OOXML documents.
How can you make 662 responses to an existing file format without burning early adopters? And Microsoft isn't even finished yet!
Here's a list of all the new features: http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/300.html
I'm praying that it's not just more bloat like Vista. It seems like Leopard is good on paper, better Boot Camp for those who still need Windows; better iCal for the people who use their Macs for organizing their life; Instruments, Core Animation, Unix certification, built-in Sandboxing for programmers; and other doodads for Joe-user such as a cooler Photobooth... But then, do I need my address book to make calls to Google Maps or the OS-wide dictionary to reach out to Wikipedia? Those last two are cool but I get worried when my "OS experience" is tied in anyway to whether I have network or Internet access.
As long as it doesn't intrude on my life, I'm all for that. However, if you work 24/7 and our mutual boss wants to know why I'm not accomplishing 20 tasks a day, that gets annoying and your work habit is affecting me. If our mutual boss decides to make you the "norm" and expects everyone to follow suit, then you've created an environment for burnout and your work habit is affecting me. If you get in the habit of working 24/7 and you catch a cold and come in to work anyway, and I catch your cold, your work habit is affecting me. You infect me with a cold and I'm staying home, dammit. You infect other, saner, people and they'll stay home too.
Allowing someone to behave detrimentally in a work environment sets a dangerous precedent because nobody works in a bubble; it changes the work culture to one that benefits the organization unequally over the individual, it creates health risks, and combined, potentially skews a society's economy. That's why I care if *you* work yourself to the bone. You're not only my colleague but you're a barometer of the world around me.
Facebook really does have a purpose and that's probably what TFA was driving at without realizing. Facebook is really for college friends (and high school friends) to "hang out" online. It's the social networking of friends and peers and your friends' and peers' friends and peers - people of similar mindedness. Myspace is the bar-scene of the web; you go there to meet anyone and everyone, people sincerely looking for friends and pick-up artists alike.
TFA seems to think there's a socio-economic divide between Facebook and Myspace and there probably is. But not because poorer, less educated people all decided, hey, let's all hang out on Myspace. Think about your high school experiences. If you don't have friends you liked from high school, you're less likely to use Facebook. If you have high school or college buds that you hang out with exclusively, Facebook is all you need, with the added bonus of seeing the ideas of your friends' friends. Compounding this is the initial seeding of Facebook. If you never went to university or college, the likelihood of you using Facebook plummeted because they originally required you to have an e-mail address at that organization!
The original article was interesting but probably read a little too much into the organization of socio-economic and educational differences and probably didn't look sufficiently at the "why" or purpose of the SNSes, which is probably more benign than some plot by the Man to hold us down as was hinted.
As for Care2, it does look interesting and I may sign up. If I'm feeling particularly sociable, I may troll the "bar" that is Myspace; if I just want to hang out with friends, you'll find me on the "pub" that is Facebook; Care2 sounds kinda neat, like when my friends and I want to do activities together, Care2 may be the online "soupkitchen".
Deeds are a unique element to Lord of the Rings Online, a kind of achievement system somewhat reminiscent of those earned on the Xbox 360. They're discovered by doing the act the deed requires for the first time; for example, many require a certain number of monsters to be slain. The first time you kill a wolf in the Shire, your UI notes that you've begun work on the 'Wolf Slayer' deed.
Deeds are interesting but hardly unique. The MMORPG that captured the spirit of deeds best was "City of Heroes". Even before Xbox 360, CoH allowed your hero to have cool titles. By defeating enough specific mobs or visiting a string of significant locations, even your lowliest characters could have cool titles such as "Dark Mystic" and such. If you were a lowly level ten superhero, you can pass by a unique location and collect a cool badge to tack on to your name. I think the badge/deed system is particularly good for retaining low level characters and for bored high level players.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gadgets/dragon-skin-bul letproof-vest-repels-ak47-rounds-203003.php
Dragon Skin bullet proof vests are light weight but can stop (multiple) armor piercing rounds. That's rather impressive.
They use silver-dollar sized "scales" of ceramics. If it's as light and flexible as advertised, this is far better for soldiers and law enforcement.
If everyone's life were public, you'd know if Piotr was an agent.
I think this was the way communism was/is supposed to work. If everyone contributed what they can, there would never be a lack of supply. If everyone took only what they needed, there would never be over-demand. But then, all you need is a handful of cheaters and the system collapses.
How could anyone ensure that the "personal lives of those running the country" wasn't fabricated? I watched episodes of "Big Brother" and "the Simple Life" and that one with Ozzy Osbourne and his family. They were all completely "open" - the cameras appeared to be running all the time. Oddly, their crews all contained "set production" people, creative consultants, and tons of story editors... I bet the people "running the country" can hire these people too, and create something with far better production value.
So, following your logic that if everyone carried guns, nobody would be shot... Gang-controlled territory should be the *safest* neighnbourhoods because everyone is assumed to be armed. Police officers should be in the safest profession because everyone knows for a fact that they're armed. Canada and Japan, with very strict gun control laws, should be lands of chaos.
I would argue that preventing guns from entering your country is the best way to ensure safety. True, criminals by definition don't follow laws and will use a weapon if given one - but what if there are none to be had?? Legislate guns out of existence.
Pretty soon, the RIAA and MPAA will have every "first world" and most "second world" countries on their list. That should tell them that they need to change strategies at the very least.
Also, when something like this happens, involving multiple countries, shouldn't the World Trade Organization or some such organization step in?
That's not entirely true. Apple has been quite transparent about their Mac strategy ever since Bootcamp. They want to attract the Windows users with Bootcamp and Parallels. Microsoft benefits in the short term but the idea for Apple is to ween users off Windows in the long term.
Parallels is a set of training wheels for the Mac. I bought an iMac and I bought Parallels 6 months ago; I now only use Windows XP for one program. If there were a *good* home budgeting program for OS-X, similar to Quicken, I'd ditch Windows altogether. I'd wager a lot of Mac/Parallels users are just as close to abandoning Microsoft as well.
(Incidentally, my current other Parallels setup is Open-SuSE!)
A little off topic but when I went to see a preview of "300" last night at a Toronto (Canadian) theatre, there was a guy doing a pat-down with a metal-detecting wand. Then there was the guy who examined our cell phones and other electronics if we were reviewers. Then there was a lady who went through our bags. Finally, as the movie played, there were two uniformed police officers at the front of the theatre as a theatre manager walked up and down the theatre with night-vision goggles. The other staff had a big red anti-piracy binder that they had to check through.
I can safely say that 0-day piracy will not occur in an Ontario theatre. Neither will terrorism!
Speaking as an educator in a private school, no we don't believe for a second we can stop kids from talking to each other. But there are a bunch of reasons why schools need to make the effort:
1. Legal issues - as a institution offering a "safe environment", schools need to show due diligence in protecting the students or we open ourselves up to lawsuits
2. Community - stuff that happens "out there" more often than not affects how kids perform in the classroom
3. Parents - they'll complain that schools have no right to police and censor their child off school property if their kid was the one caught "cyberbullying" but generally parents assume that schools will educate their child in societal norms - and bullying in any form is not a trait desired by society
4. Did I mention the legal ramifications???
All that being said, I personally believe that the Internet is a great equalizer. In the past, if you were bullied, it was often by someone bigger than you (if you were a boy) or someone more popular than you (if you were a girl). "Cyberbullying" on the Internet can allow the victim to fight back if he or she is intelligent, creative and malicious enough... But again, we don't want to create such a society, do we??
I suspect that he's right, there's a battle brewing for the home server market. I mean, ubiquitous access to everything is both cool and useful. Whoever controls your home server will control your music, you photos, your work... That's pretty big. ...And we can all envision the world moving that way. But the article is still sensationalist.
There's the big fight for the home server to control our digital content. HD and Blu-Ray are in a big fight to control our digital media. Plasmas/LCDs are mounting a big push to muscle out old CRTs and change how we watch television. Apple is throwing down the gauntlet in how we call people. It's the nature of capitalism; corporations are always looking for a way to dominate a market and lock in their customers. If you can't control the content (what you watch, what you listen to, who you talk to, what you create), control the medium. There's a fight brewing in televisions, phones, servers, storage media, etc... The trick is, however, as the content/need changes, so must the medium. Sony's VHS won the Beta-VHS war and much was made about it in the news, but they've since lost out to DVRs, PVRs, and other digital formats. Was there mourning for VHS??
So the battle for home servers? Another Linux-OSX-Windows battle. Yawn. I'm more intrigued by the new battle for cell phone dominance.
So we'll never max out the resources of the PS3??? The PS3 owners playing "Full Auto 2" and "Fight Night 3" (and "Tiger Woods PGA 07" - as if anyone actually bought the PS3 to play golf) would suggest otherwise.
From a scan of the game reviews and support forums, Sony is just flinging hyperbole again.
A link within TFA showed:
v =80
"A recent out-of-court settlement between Apple Computer and the owner of the patent that covers the downloading of music and video with the ability to play music and video on a device (technology essential to the iPod and other music and video technology)"
That's pretty major.
Here's the link:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061130/lath054.html?.
The question is not as simple as it seems.
From TFA, it's not that you have only a hammer and multiple screws. It's a matter of "you have one single screw, and you have an appropriate screwdriver, an appropriate screwdriver with a blue handle, an appropriate automatic screwdriver, and a screwdriver bit for your drill..." The question is, do we really need that many choices for screwing a screw? In his example, how many people actually use the "standby" option over "hibernate" on their Windows desktops - or "standby"/"hibernate" at all when "logoff" and "shutdown" exist.
Microsoft OSes tend to give users an extraordinary amount of choice to do any one given task. That creates bloated software for them; security issues and training nightmares for us. Is it worth it for the extra "freedom" the developers give to their customers? I'd argue yes if your userbase is large enough where there is great diversity of needs and expertise, but no if your userbase is small and/or has a frequent turnover to simplify training and startup time for the new employees. Not having more choices, for the small business, can be similar to establishing "standards". If the option doesn't exist, the user can't stray off task or get themselves stuck (in theory).
Again, not a simple question. Fewer choices can be better!
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNe
Um. The practical application as stated is funny but the principle is actually intriguing... I can see web filtering companies such as WebSense going for something like this. Think of a kid's locked-down desktop that comes with only a bare minimal, barely functioning browser. A web filtering company then totally controls the content (think massive portal with approved applets). You wouldn't be able to hack it or go around it and new anonymous proxies can be detected and dealt with in real time. No spyware can install either. You try to hack the desktop browser and the thing just stops working altogether so no zombie machines.
The downside is that it requires a complete centralization of the Internet. But still... Not out of the realm of possibility.
Point is, it'd be a patentable idea, I'd bet.
Has anyone noticed that every time Jack Thompson complains about something, whether it be video games or music CDs, those products do really, really well?? I mean, his attack on Grand Theft Auto seemed to keep it in the public eye forever. It wasn't until he started railing against Bully that GTA fell out of the public attention. Then there was "2 Live Crew" - their sucky lyrics made them a joke but then Jack Thompson made a public stink in the media and warning stickers were placed on the CDs and every teenaged boy in North America had to have a copy.
I'm convinced that Jack Thompson is a corporate shill for the various media companies. I mean, he's too harmless to do any damage to the products in question, he's too laughable to be taken seriously by anyone, and yet he can whip up public attention like nobody else. I wouldn't be surprised at this point if Rockstar starts/is funding Jack Thompson's campaigns.
Counter Strike?? If you want to teach terrorists the fine art of teabagging...
Why hasn't anyone made a stink about "America's Army"? I remember thinking that game was so cool because we could go online and find real soldiers using real military tactics that we could test our skillz against. (Then I realized they were so predictable, they sucked worse than 10 year old noobs and the game got dull.) Wouldn't a game that teaches western combat doctrine with players from the real military be a much more effective training tool for terrorists?
I accidentally nicked myself the other day and went to the medicine cabinet to get my first-aid kit. I touched the box and my nick didn't go away. Following the whole "video games train people for the real world" argument, my cut should have healed the second I touched my first aid kit.
How many of you ever hurt yourself and wasn't instantly healed by your first aid kits??! I say we launch a law-suit against Johnson and Johnson for *decades* of faulty first-aid kits. We'll see if we can hire Jack Thompson! We'll win for sure!