"You cite form filling as an example of something Joe Average would never want.
It has been my experience that your average clueless n00b
1) does not even know that such things exist right now
2) struggles to learn how to use the functionality that was provided when they first purchased thier PC
3) Would be incapable of upgrading such things on a micro level were they to ever decide to try.
It is much better to take the responsibility away from them altogether. Give them a fixed set of functional;ity that does not change over time and confuse them (best case) or morph into a spyware infested security liability (worst case). If new functionality is required they could easily upgrade the system on a macro level using something such like a new memory stick or firmware flashing bootable DVD.
Of course, if all this is too restrictive for them, you could argue that they are approaching geek status and might be better off buying a real PC. I am not saying the fixed functionality PC is a suitable solution for everyone after all.
" Because HP/Compaq, Gateway and Dell motherboards AND cases are ALL MADE IN TAIWAN.
Yes, but these parts are all custom made for each of the individual companies you have mentioned. And guess what, it costs money to custom design a board and set up a custom manufacturing run to assemble it
There is no cost/price related reason that you would want to make a motherboard that has its mount holes in non standard places. Even if you wanted to screw down your costs by buying job-lots of Tiawanese motherboards that are made to the lowest possible quality/price point using the cheapest possible componments there is no cost saving to be had by specifying an oddly shaped motherboard. The smaller=cheaper argument doesn't apply because I don't think Dell/HP/Gateway et all make anything smaller than a miniATX, so if they are interested in smallness, they could just use one of those. Most of the proprietary motherboards I have seen have been considerably larger than their "standard " counterparts in fact.
It would be much cheaper for Dell to buy standard ATX motherboards and not have to wear the extra costs involved in the custom design and manufacturing of parts, so clearly it is not the costs that they are mostly concerned with. They can (and do) drive the costs down by specifying the cheapest possible componentry, but they are equally interestet in being seen as different to all the others out there. Anybody can buy stock parts from Tiawan and build their own range of PC's, but then they are no different than any of the other guys who do the exact same thing. Dell, Compaq, et all do not want to be "just another white-box assembler". I can absolutely understand why they feel this way. If a Dell was exactly the same as the Mom and Pop Tiawanese beige box you can buy down on the high street, then why exactly would you buy a Dell?
The way it is now is that Dell can say "Yes, we are diffeerent than the rest", and trust that nobody notices that although they are different, they are not necessarily different in ways that are particularly good to be so. And it seems that they are right, because they sell shitloads of PC's every single day.
"Soon, soon enough, the whole OS and all apps that go with it is gonna show up inside machines as something like a stick of memory. Pop it in the slot, and away you go.
Want an upgrade? Fine, go buy a new stick and pop it in the slot. NOTHING runs from ANY storage medium. Period.
I agree. There is no reason that you should be able to execute stuff off a storage medium really.
The downside to all this is that the Large Corporations who manufacture and load these "sticks" are going to have their own "approved" house brand spyware preinstalled and there's not going to be any way to remove it.
This is certainly an issue to be aware of, but I reckon that if this sort of system comes about, it will be the Linux people driving it. For example Knoppix is already doing this to a point, only they are motivated by different reasons.
Improvement? Hard to say. Probably not.
I see it as a definite improvement, as long as you still have the option of buying a proper PC with a proper OS (The Geek Option). If The Geek Option is taken out of the equation then I agree it will probably be a bad thing.
But it's where we're going, mark my words.
Can't disagree with you there. I wonder if anyone has patented the idea yet?
"That is all very fine, but it requires that what you originally have is perfect."
Perfect? No. Functional? Yes, I agree.
"You won't be able to patch it"
Actually, this is the whole point and is a good thing. If something needs patching and it doesn't get patched, then you have a problem. This is what is happening out there in Windows Land right now.
"put on new codecs for the multimedia"
I have seen people using 5 year old PC's that look as if they are stuck in a timewarp. If they do happen to go to a website and cannot view a video because they don't have the latest version of some codec they just shrug and move along. If there were large numbers of people out there using this sort of "fixed functionality" equipment, then perhaps webmasters would think twice about putting stuff on their sites that requires the latest and greatest codec or version of flash to be viewable, or at least offer both the "latest and greatest version for geeks" along with the "compatible" version. This would not be such a bad thing IMHO.
"new functionality for the email, provide any new form of automation (eg form filling and workflow for the office suite) client"
This comment just serves to demonstrate that you don't understand what non-geeks are all about. Joe Average does not want "new email functionality", especially when "new functionality" often translates to "spyware and browser hijackers". Once again, I will remind you that the whole point of a fixed functionality system is to make it impossible to install spyware under the guise of "enhanced functionality". Joe Average just wants to send and receive emails. He doesn't want spyware, and he doesn't want "enhanced functionality". If he does want these things then he can go out and buy a proper PC and be prepared to learn how to use it. It's quite simple really.
See the other poster who replied to the parent. He makes a good point
You can still provide "upgrades" to the user in a more holistic fashion through provision of an updated "memory stick" or a bootable DVD ala some of the upgradeable DVD players you can get these days. It's not a whole lot different to how Knoppix works actually.
Maybe they do make smaller, cheaper PC's, but to be quite honest on the odd occasion where I have looked inside of name brand PC's, I have usually been struck by the bigger than usual motherboards they have in them. It's been a few years since the last time I looked in one, so I don't doubt that they are wanting to make smaller PC's these days, but then that is what I thought miniATX boards were for.
The fact is it would be cheaper for them to use off the shelf Tiawanese motherboards, but they don't want to do that because then they wouldn't be any different than all the other white box assemblers out there, albeit with a fancier looking case perhaps.
I can certainly understand why they want to differentiate themselves from the pack, and why they don't want to become just another white box assembler. From their perspective it is a good business decision, pure and simple.
From my perspective however, I prefer to assemble my own white boxen. Isn't choice a wonderful thing?
Almost none of the big name brands use a standard ATX layout. They want to discourage you from pulling their stuff apart and putting new parts in. If they could figure a way to make hard drives and CPU's "different" without it costing them too much to do so they would, I assure you.
I know the answer, and the answer is fixed functionality, ala something like WebTV.
Joe Average goes to the store and buys himself a PC-Appliance, it has a webbrowser, an email client, an office suite, media players and whatever else you like, but none of these things are upgradeable at all. The core OS and application space is on non-writeable media. The only things that can be written to the appliance by the end user are document files. No exececutables or scripts are allowed and even if they do manage to get on there they cannot be executed.
Of course all we geeks will recoil in horror at the very thought of not being the Masters Of Our Domains, but quite honestly, it is the only way that non-geek users should be allowed anywhere near The Internet. And quite frankly, from what I have seen of the average non-geek users PC's, they don't require upgradeability anyway. Most of the time they are running the exact same versions of the apps that were on there when they first got their PC. Usually, the only new stuff on there is the viruses & spyware.
The problem is that Dell hides these little morsels of information so that unless you are already determined to buy a Dell with Red Hat on it you would never know you even had the option.
The very fact that you have been modded informative serves to demonstrate that Dell + RedHat is not an obvious option and most people remain blissfully unaware that it exists.
Dell only offer Linux as an option to appease the Linux crowd. They certainly don't want to be hit by a backlash from the rabid Linux fanboys. But at the same time they are keeping on BillG's good side by sticking "Dell recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP" graphics all over their webstore and ensuring that the Linux option is kept pretty much hidden from the general publics view.
Try going to the Dell website and browsing to a PC with Linux. Don't do a site search for Linux, as that defeats the purpose. Joe Average won't be doing that after all. I just tried looking around for a few minutes. You would think that if you were to check out the "Learn more about operating systems" links on most of their store pages you might see a mention of the Linux option?. No, there is no mention of Linux in there, just descriptions of XP Home vs XP Professional. Yay! It's as if Linux doesn't even exist.
Dell might technically sell you Linux if you ask for it, but they sure go out of their way to make sure you don't ask about it.
No. No it's not. In fact Star Wars was the first movie to introduce the new style of sci-fi, where laser blasts and whooshing space ships are all the rage.
Old fashioned sci-fi is more intellectual, story driven fare. Modern sci-fi relies heavily on in-your-face excitement, spectacular special effects and vapid storylines that are becoming increasingly hard to spot.
The 1977 Star Wars has a decent enough story, but it is essentially a fairly simple hero vs villian with damsel in distress tacked on for good measure type story, hardly groundbreaking stuff. Since then, sci-fi has been getting progressively less story based. We can all see the culmination of that process with the totally banal rubbish that Lucas has served up with the latest Star Wars movies, Episodes I-III
Great special effects, shame about the crap story.
" I can't think of how many people have told me something like: "I'm thinking about this new 60 gigabyte computer"
They don't know what that means. They just picked the biggest number."
This is so right. What usually happens is that Mr Clueless Consumer will go to Mr Slightly Less Clueless and ask him what sort of computer they should buy. Mr Slightly Less Clueless' sole claim to expert status is that he subscribes to PC Authority or somesuch consumer oriented PC magazine.
Mr Clueless Consumer will emerge from his consultation gripping a checklist that tells him he must have a nGhz Pentium, nMb of unspecified RAM and nGb of generic hard disk. If Mr Slightly Less Clueless is gravitating towards the upper spectrum of knowledge he may also include a reference to an ATi video card.
I try to avoid advising people on what to buy. I invariably tell them that it depends on what they want to do and get them to choose between gaming and general apps. They always decide that general business apps will be all they will need once they are presented with the far more exciting cost involved in buying a gaming rig, so they duly obtain for themselves a machine with a low end onboard video card and generic parts so they can run MS Word and browse the internet.
Of course the first thing that happens is that their offspring will clamour for them to buy the latest and greatest game to play on it and then get all snooty when they discover that it doesn't run so well on their brand new business class computer. DOH!
Frankly, helping these sort of people is not worth the hassle.
You are quite correct, the wealthy class were in the habit of stealing the most of the produce from the peasant farmers, causing the peasant farmers to rely solely on potatoes for their own sustenance. But a significant problem was that since potatoes were newly introduced to Europe they all came from the same seedstock. ie They were genetically similar.
The Irish peasants at the time looked at potatoes as being some sort of super food. They were easy to grow, yielded more food per acre and were easily hidden from their wealthy landlords and marauding troops. This was all well and good, until the potato blight hit and killed all the potatoes, leaving them next to nothing to eat. If they had have had a variety of genetically different potatoes then it is entirely possible that some of those different strains may have been less susceptible to the blight and consequently the severity of the ensuing famine would have been greatly reduced.
This was my point.
The lack of genetic diversity which by definition applies to GM organisms is something that could definitely rear up and bite us on the arse one day. The fact that the stuff is "Genetically Modified! OMG OMG" is not the issue, it is the resulting lack of gentic diversity that goes along with it that is the problem.
When Monsanto comes up with some sort of Super Wheat Seed that requires less water and provides more grains per acre and grows in half a season then all the farmers will start using it because they have to keep their productivity up compared to the other farmers lest they fall behind and when some disease strikes that the Super Wheat has no immunity to it could wipe out vast amounts of the worlds grain production. World wide famine is not out of the question.
"If I flee Supercuts after getting my hair cut, I'm not denying anyone a subsequent haircut from the same person, but I am definitely stealing something."
Firstly, given that that hairdresser is able to cut the hair on a finite number of people a day, you have denied exactly one person the ability to have a hair cut.
Secondly, when you sit down in the hairdressers chair, you have implicitely agreed to exchange money for services rendered. That hairdresser then expends time and effort on providing a haircut specifically for you.
You are both, of course, assuming that this Cherry OS actually exists in the first place, let alone that it works as advertised. If the software doesn't exist or work then I don't expect apple will give two hoots and this whole conversation is moot.
They seem to have this belief that as long as things works with the other stuff the same company makes (or maybe a few selected partners) it is AOK and if it doesn't work in brand X then that is stiff cheese, you should have bought our version instead of product X. From their perspective it seems like a rather good way to ensure you remain loyal to their brand.
In reality of course, all they are doing is causing people to ditch their brand in favour of someone elses. What the execs in these companies fail to understand is that it is no longer the 1970's, and people are no longer willing to devote their spending dollars to just the one brand. Intercompatibility is what people want, and ultimately it will be the companies that provide what people want who will survive into the future. Funny that.
Sony in particular have fallen into that trap. For years they have been selling goods under the Sony name at 10% higher levels than everyone else. This 10% surcharge has often been dubbed "The Sony Tax", but quality problems and draconian attempts to burden their customers with proprietary technology and DRM has affected their ability to continue charging like they used to. Nowadays, the Sony logo is no longer perceived as a sure sign of a quality product, and is just as often seen as an indicator that a product is likely to have been cheaply made in a Malaysian sweatshop, and is unecessarily restrictive in what it allows its user to do with it to boot.
Hardly a good image for a high tech consumer goods company, but then I'm sure all those Sony execs know what they are doing. Just look at their market share for MP3 players!
What exactly is so obnoxious about this particular EULA? What makes it more obnoxious than any other Microsoft EULA? They all pretty much suck, so what's so different about this one?
"So you're saying all genetically modified life is extremely vulnerable to disease?"
Nope, but as another poster suggested, it is the monoculture that you get as a result of using GM plants that is the problem. In normal situations natural selection can be relied upon to at least produce some survivors from a devastating event such as a disease outbreak. When every single tree in a forest is genetically identical, then any disease that strikes will strike them all, and natural selection cannot come to your aid.
It doesn't just apply to GM plants though, it can occur when a single type or strain of non GM plant is solely relied upon with no alternative kept available. I suggest you read up on The Irish Potato Famine if you want to learn more about what happens when monocultures are too heavily relied upon. The whole Irish nation relied solely on potatoes (all of the same strain) and when the potato blight hit, the whole frigging country starved because they weren't growing anything else.
Slashdot Mirror
"though lately i've been dreaming of a quieter machine - the mobile is looking pretty good for that.
Did you know that you can turn a normal "Desktop" Athlon into a Mobile Athlon simply by connecting up some of the L5 bridges?
Once you have done so you can download a utility that lets you change the CPU multiplier on the fly.
How to create Mobile Athlon (desktop to mobile change)
"You cite form filling as an example of something Joe Average would never want.
It has been my experience that your average clueless n00b
1) does not even know that such things exist right now
2) struggles to learn how to use the functionality that was provided when they first purchased thier PC
3) Would be incapable of upgrading such things on a micro level were they to ever decide to try.
It is much better to take the responsibility away from them altogether. Give them a fixed set of functional;ity that does not change over time and confuse them (best case) or morph into a spyware infested security liability (worst case). If new functionality is required they could easily upgrade the system on a macro level using something such like a new memory stick or firmware flashing bootable DVD.
Of course, if all this is too restrictive for them, you could argue that they are approaching geek status and might be better off buying a real PC. I am not saying the fixed functionality PC is a suitable solution for everyone after all.
" Because HP/Compaq, Gateway and Dell motherboards AND cases are ALL MADE IN TAIWAN.
Yes, but these parts are all custom made for each of the individual companies you have mentioned. And guess what, it costs money to custom design a board and set up a custom manufacturing run to assemble itThere is no cost/price related reason that you would want to make a motherboard that has its mount holes in non standard places. Even if you wanted to screw down your costs by buying job-lots of Tiawanese motherboards that are made to the lowest possible quality/price point using the cheapest possible componments there is no cost saving to be had by specifying an oddly shaped motherboard. The smaller=cheaper argument doesn't apply because I don't think Dell/HP/Gateway et all make anything smaller than a miniATX, so if they are interested in smallness, they could just use one of those. Most of the proprietary motherboards I have seen have been considerably larger than their "standard " counterparts in fact.
It would be much cheaper for Dell to buy standard ATX motherboards and not have to wear the extra costs involved in the custom design and manufacturing of parts, so clearly it is not the costs that they are mostly concerned with. They can (and do) drive the costs down by specifying the cheapest possible componentry, but they are equally interestet in being seen as different to all the others out there. Anybody can buy stock parts from Tiawan and build their own range of PC's, but then they are no different than any of the other guys who do the exact same thing. Dell, Compaq, et all do not want to be "just another white-box assembler". I can absolutely understand why they feel this way. If a Dell was exactly the same as the Mom and Pop Tiawanese beige box you can buy down on the high street, then why exactly would you buy a Dell?
The way it is now is that Dell can say "Yes, we are diffeerent than the rest", and trust that nobody notices that although they are different, they are not necessarily different in ways that are particularly good to be so. And it seems that they are right, because they sell shitloads of PC's every single day.
"Soon, soon enough, the whole OS and all apps that go with it is gonna show up inside machines as something like a stick of memory. Pop it in the slot, and away you go.
Want an upgrade? Fine, go buy a new stick and pop it in the slot. NOTHING runs from ANY storage medium. Period.
I agree. There is no reason that you should be able to execute stuff off a storage medium really.
The downside to all this is that the Large Corporations who manufacture and load these "sticks" are going to have their own "approved" house brand spyware preinstalled and there's not going to be any way to remove it.
This is certainly an issue to be aware of, but I reckon that if this sort of system comes about, it will be the Linux people driving it. For example Knoppix is already doing this to a point, only they are motivated by different reasons.
Improvement? Hard to say. Probably not.
I see it as a definite improvement, as long as you still have the option of buying a proper PC with a proper OS (The Geek Option). If The Geek Option is taken out of the equation then I agree it will probably be a bad thing.But it's where we're going, mark my words.
Can't disagree with you there. I wonder if anyone has patented the idea yet?
"That is all very fine, but it requires that what you originally have is perfect."
Perfect? No. Functional? Yes, I agree.
"You won't be able to patch it"
Actually, this is the whole point and is a good thing. If something needs patching and it doesn't get patched, then you have a problem. This is what is happening out there in Windows Land right now.
"put on new codecs for the multimedia"
I have seen people using 5 year old PC's that look as if they are stuck in a timewarp. If they do happen to go to a website and cannot view a video because they don't have the latest version of some codec they just shrug and move along. If there were large numbers of people out there using this sort of "fixed functionality" equipment, then perhaps webmasters would think twice about putting stuff on their sites that requires the latest and greatest codec or version of flash to be viewable, or at least offer both the "latest and greatest version for geeks" along with the "compatible" version. This would not be such a bad thing IMHO.
"new functionality for the email, provide any new form of automation (eg form filling and workflow for the office suite) client"
This comment just serves to demonstrate that you don't understand what non-geeks are all about. Joe Average does not want "new email functionality", especially when "new functionality" often translates to "spyware and browser hijackers". Once again, I will remind you that the whole point of a fixed functionality system is to make it impossible to install spyware under the guise of "enhanced functionality". Joe Average just wants to send and receive emails. He doesn't want spyware, and he doesn't want "enhanced functionality". If he does want these things then he can go out and buy a proper PC and be prepared to learn how to use it. It's quite simple really.
See the other poster who replied to the parent. He makes a good point
You can still provide "upgrades" to the user in a more holistic fashion through provision of an updated "memory stick" or a bootable DVD ala some of the upgradeable DVD players you can get these days. It's not a whole lot different to how Knoppix works actually.
Maybe they do make smaller, cheaper PC's, but to be quite honest on the odd occasion where I have looked inside of name brand PC's, I have usually been struck by the bigger than usual motherboards they have in them. It's been a few years since the last time I looked in one, so I don't doubt that they are wanting to make smaller PC's these days, but then that is what I thought miniATX boards were for.
The fact is it would be cheaper for them to use off the shelf Tiawanese motherboards, but they don't want to do that because then they wouldn't be any different than all the other white box assemblers out there, albeit with a fancier looking case perhaps.
I can certainly understand why they want to differentiate themselves from the pack, and why they don't want to become just another white box assembler. From their perspective it is a good business decision, pure and simple.
From my perspective however, I prefer to assemble my own white boxen. Isn't choice a wonderful thing?
Almost none of the big name brands use a standard ATX layout. They want to discourage you from pulling their stuff apart and putting new parts in. If they could figure a way to make hard drives and CPU's "different" without it costing them too much to do so they would, I assure you.
Yes, well I was emulating "Joe Average" after all so I was looking in the "Home" section as a result.
I'll take your word for it that the option is reasonably easy to find in the business section.
"Quite frankly I don't know the answer."
I know the answer, and the answer is fixed functionality, ala something like WebTV.
Joe Average goes to the store and buys himself a PC-Appliance, it has a webbrowser, an email client, an office suite, media players and whatever else you like, but none of these things are upgradeable at all. The core OS and application space is on non-writeable media. The only things that can be written to the appliance by the end user are document files. No exececutables or scripts are allowed and even if they do manage to get on there they cannot be executed.
Of course all we geeks will recoil in horror at the very thought of not being the Masters Of Our Domains, but quite honestly, it is the only way that non-geek users should be allowed anywhere near The Internet. And quite frankly, from what I have seen of the average non-geek users PC's, they don't require upgradeability anyway. Most of the time they are running the exact same versions of the apps that were on there when they first got their PC. Usually, the only new stuff on there is the viruses & spyware.
The problem is that Dell hides these little morsels of information so that unless you are already determined to buy a Dell with Red Hat on it you would never know you even had the option.
The very fact that you have been modded informative serves to demonstrate that Dell + RedHat is not an obvious option and most people remain blissfully unaware that it exists.
Dell only offer Linux as an option to appease the Linux crowd. They certainly don't want to be hit by a backlash from the rabid Linux fanboys. But at the same time they are keeping on BillG's good side by sticking "Dell recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP" graphics all over their webstore and ensuring that the Linux option is kept pretty much hidden from the general publics view.
Try going to the Dell website and browsing to a PC with Linux. Don't do a site search for Linux, as that defeats the purpose. Joe Average won't be doing that after all. I just tried looking around for a few minutes. You would think that if you were to check out the "Learn more about operating systems" links on most of their store pages you might see a mention of the Linux option?. No, there is no mention of Linux in there, just descriptions of XP Home vs XP Professional. Yay! It's as if Linux doesn't even exist.
Dell might technically sell you Linux if you ask for it, but they sure go out of their way to make sure you don't ask about it.
"Isn't "Star Wars" good old fashioned sci-fi?"
No. No it's not. In fact Star Wars was the first movie to introduce the new style of sci-fi, where laser blasts and whooshing space ships are all the rage.
Old fashioned sci-fi is more intellectual, story driven fare. Modern sci-fi relies heavily on in-your-face excitement, spectacular special effects and vapid storylines that are becoming increasingly hard to spot.
The 1977 Star Wars has a decent enough story, but it is essentially a fairly simple hero vs villian with damsel in distress tacked on for good measure type story, hardly groundbreaking stuff. Since then, sci-fi has been getting progressively less story based. We can all see the culmination of that process with the totally banal rubbish that Lucas has served up with the latest Star Wars movies, Episodes I-III
Great special effects, shame about the crap story.
"hey honey wanna see my lightsaber?"
Surely you mean "porksaber", no?
If that is all you require, why not just just run Linux PPC today? It works as well as Windows for these things but has far less baggage.
" I can't think of how many people have told me something like: "I'm thinking about this new 60 gigabyte computer" They don't know what that means. They just picked the biggest number."
This is so right. What usually happens is that Mr Clueless Consumer will go to Mr Slightly Less Clueless and ask him what sort of computer they should buy. Mr Slightly Less Clueless' sole claim to expert status is that he subscribes to PC Authority or somesuch consumer oriented PC magazine.
Mr Clueless Consumer will emerge from his consultation gripping a checklist that tells him he must have a nGhz Pentium, nMb of unspecified RAM and nGb of generic hard disk. If Mr Slightly Less Clueless is gravitating towards the upper spectrum of knowledge he may also include a reference to an ATi video card.
I try to avoid advising people on what to buy. I invariably tell them that it depends on what they want to do and get them to choose between gaming and general apps. They always decide that general business apps will be all they will need once they are presented with the far more exciting cost involved in buying a gaming rig, so they duly obtain for themselves a machine with a low end onboard video card and generic parts so they can run MS Word and browse the internet.
Of course the first thing that happens is that their offspring will clamour for them to buy the latest and greatest game to play on it and then get all snooty when they discover that it doesn't run so well on their brand new business class computer. DOH!
Frankly, helping these sort of people is not worth the hassle.
You are quite correct, the wealthy class were in the habit of stealing the most of the produce from the peasant farmers, causing the peasant farmers to rely solely on potatoes for their own sustenance. But a significant problem was that since potatoes were newly introduced to Europe they all came from the same seedstock. ie They were genetically similar.
The Irish peasants at the time looked at potatoes as being some sort of super food. They were easy to grow, yielded more food per acre and were easily hidden from their wealthy landlords and marauding troops. This was all well and good, until the potato blight hit and killed all the potatoes, leaving them next to nothing to eat. If they had have had a variety of genetically different potatoes then it is entirely possible that some of those different strains may have been less susceptible to the blight and consequently the severity of the ensuing famine would have been greatly reduced.
This was my point.
The lack of genetic diversity which by definition applies to GM organisms is something that could definitely rear up and bite us on the arse one day. The fact that the stuff is "Genetically Modified! OMG OMG" is not the issue, it is the resulting lack of gentic diversity that goes along with it that is the problem.
When Monsanto comes up with some sort of Super Wheat Seed that requires less water and provides more grains per acre and grows in half a season then all the farmers will start using it because they have to keep their productivity up compared to the other farmers lest they fall behind and when some disease strikes that the Super Wheat has no immunity to it could wipe out vast amounts of the worlds grain production. World wide famine is not out of the question.
"If I flee Supercuts after getting my hair cut, I'm not denying anyone a subsequent haircut from the same person, but I am definitely stealing something."
Firstly, given that that hairdresser is able to cut the hair on a finite number of people a day, you have denied exactly one person the ability to have a hair cut.
Secondly, when you sit down in the hairdressers chair, you have implicitely agreed to exchange money for services rendered. That hairdresser then expends time and effort on providing a haircut specifically for you.
You are both, of course, assuming that this Cherry OS actually exists in the first place, let alone that it works as advertised. If the software doesn't exist or work then I don't expect apple will give two hoots and this whole conversation is moot.
They seem to have this belief that as long as things works with the other stuff the same company makes (or maybe a few selected partners) it is AOK and if it doesn't work in brand X then that is stiff cheese, you should have bought our version instead of product X. From their perspective it seems like a rather good way to ensure you remain loyal to their brand.
In reality of course, all they are doing is causing people to ditch their brand in favour of someone elses. What the execs in these companies fail to understand is that it is no longer the 1970's, and people are no longer willing to devote their spending dollars to just the one brand. Intercompatibility is what people want, and ultimately it will be the companies that provide what people want who will survive into the future. Funny that.
Sony in particular have fallen into that trap. For years they have been selling goods under the Sony name at 10% higher levels than everyone else. This 10% surcharge has often been dubbed "The Sony Tax", but quality problems and draconian attempts to burden their customers with proprietary technology and DRM has affected their ability to continue charging like they used to. Nowadays, the Sony logo is no longer perceived as a sure sign of a quality product, and is just as often seen as an indicator that a product is likely to have been cheaply made in a Malaysian sweatshop, and is unecessarily restrictive in what it allows its user to do with it to boot.
Hardly a good image for a high tech consumer goods company, but then I'm sure all those Sony execs know what they are doing. Just look at their market share for MP3 players!
What exactly is so obnoxious about this particular EULA? What makes it more obnoxious than any other Microsoft EULA? They all pretty much suck, so what's so different about this one?
"So you're saying all genetically modified life is extremely vulnerable to disease?"
Nope, but as another poster suggested, it is the monoculture that you get as a result of using GM plants that is the problem. In normal situations natural selection can be relied upon to at least produce some survivors from a devastating event such as a disease outbreak. When every single tree in a forest is genetically identical, then any disease that strikes will strike them all, and natural selection cannot come to your aid.
It doesn't just apply to GM plants though, it can occur when a single type or strain of non GM plant is solely relied upon with no alternative kept available. I suggest you read up on The Irish Potato Famine if you want to learn more about what happens when monocultures are too heavily relied upon. The whole Irish nation relied solely on potatoes (all of the same strain) and when the potato blight hit, the whole frigging country starved because they weren't growing anything else.So, mebbe they went back to their old page or something but the one I loaded as of this time says "Powered by IBM".
There is a Sun logo at the bottom of the screen alongside those of other IT behemomoths such as Burger King and Toyota though.
It is a vehicle for the transmission of the Microsoft DRM virus.
" Who knew that a communist regime could be moral"
One could muster a good argument that what they are doing is completely immoral actually. Loss of human rights and all that guff.
Perhaps a more accurate term would be moralistic
What on earth would make you think that?
"I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!"
Nooobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!