Sorry,
Being 'first to market' had nothing to do with it. The attitude, the plan, and the deep legal fees pockets 'DOS/Windows isn't done until WordPerfect doesn't work' is the explanation that matches the facts.
Any company with a sufficiently large legal budget can ignore the law, ethics, and morality with impunity. By the time you've been convicted, your competitors will already be out of business, leaving you a monopoly.
Christians believe the universe was created out of nothing in 6 days by God, and the scientific world believes that the universe was created instantaneously out of nothing BY nothing. Either position takes an extra-large metric asston of faith.
Slight correction to the scientific position:
Not all Christians are creationists, and you will find creationists among others that regard the Bible as literal truth.
The scientific world believes that the universe was created in an extremely short time out of 'nobody knows - yet' BY 'nobody knows - yet'.
I never said Murder was one of Joshua's teachings; just that people claiming to be his followers did.
And if (all in translation, of course) 'Love your neighbor as yourself' isn't a paraphrase of 'That which is hateful to you, do not do to another.', what is?
Peter may have been the first bishop of Rome, but it was Paul who moved the sabbath to Sunday, broke with the laws of kashrut and circumcision, and the rejection of the Jewish covenant with God. He was also the leader in the fight to wrestle control of the early church from Joshua's brother James (or Jacob).
And, I didn't say Jews killed millions; it was the people who claimed to be Christians that killed millions. My great grandmother in Pinsk was one of them in the 1890's, most of my uncle's family in what is now Slovakia were among the others in the 1940's. My father was a medic in the US Army and setup hospitals to treat the survivors.
Today, it is Christians in charge of the large oil companies who fund the countries funding terrorism.
I am NOT saying that all Christians are murderers, like most other people, most Christians are reasonably decent people. They are however bigoted in thinking they are the only ones deserving of God's attention. And that is a particularly christian view of Heaven.
Whether Jesus (or his real name, Joshua - a good Jewish name) actually lived or is a synthesis of multiple people is simply irrelevant. Christians (people following a religion founded by Paul of Tarsus) believe it, and they have acted for almost two thousand years as though they are correct. They have killed millions, both recently and over the centuries, claiming to be 'in the right'. And yet, if you look at Joshua's teachings, he simply paraphrased Rabbi Hillel (about 100 years earlier) and added marketing (Only way to God is though me' language). BTW, the imagery of being God's son is duplicated in an ancient Jewish prayer used on our holiest holidays ('Alvenu Malkainu', or 'Our Father, Our King') - so, nothing new there...
Google already offers a free copy of Star Office, the Sun proprietary version of Open Office for free as part of Google Apps on Windows. The support business is left to Sun for making it available thru Google. Since the Online Google docs are compatable with the Sun (and OOo) product, it is already there without the overhead of support.
Opera's widgets are a good thing, but they do not run under the OS, but within a web browser. The advantage of Google gadgets, Konfabulator, Karamba, or indvidual apps like Rainlendar is that they are available without needing to load a browser. As much as I like Karamba, I welcome another Open Source solution. There may be an opportunity to recognize that all gadgets ought to be runnable under a common framework. Anybody remember TSR's (early MSDOS/DRDOS/other variants days).
I've spent most of my multi-decade career providing end-users with access to their data. Several of the previous suggestions are part of the solution. You do need to engineer a solution that allows valid secured access from individuals trained for that that purpose without affecting overall system performance. Some of the good ideas:
- database replica, hopefully tuned for queries. If the data is not onerous, some user-oriented views can go a long way in preventing Cartesian solutions.
- an end-user oriented query tool that allows previously-defined queries to be rerun as needed. For eleven years, I've used PeopleSoft's Query (which is proprietary to their systems) as the end-user tool, to give you an idea. This type of tool can also be configured to minimize the number of joins allowed by user id. Many of these tools allow power users and DBA's to define queries for others who can only execute the canned query.
- require minimum training requirements for the end users like basic Select statements and a copy of the data structure.
- phase in the end-users. There may only be a few individuals who need the direct access.
Bad idea:
- Try to prevent users from getting to their data. From your comments, you are an external service and the customer owns the data. That is how you lose a customer!
Worst idea:
- They didn't need it before, why do it now? ANY analyst that thinks today's specs aren't already obsolete doesn't belong in business! Go work for the government!
There are any number of collaborative group sites from Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, and Airset; any of which is a better choice for your purposes. All allow the individual member to get emails, notifications of postings and other information as they choose. All provide for easy posting of text and files for group distribution.
This is like using a screwdriver for a screw instead of a hammer.
This is simply a jurisdiction (State, County or City) trying to make tax collection easier for themselves. I don't know of any jurisdiction with a Sales Tax that doesn't already have a corresponding Use tax, which is intended to tax anything that was purchased from out of Jurisdiction. Unfortunately, collecting that Use tax is difficult with the number of possible filers and the jurisdiction's desire to verify that the filers aren't under-reporting. Generally, they have dealt with this by going after businesses and big-ticket items like cars, boats, and airplanes. But, governments are getting greedier. If they can't get the online retailers to collect the taxes for them, the next option for them is to go after the banking industry to collect enforcement data. They will simply require banks to collect information on the items purchased so they can collect the Use tax based on that information. In pre-computer days, that would have been impossible given the volume of data, but today, it is clearly possible. Especially if you realize that any internet purchasing goes through some kind of bank or payment service (Paypal). I don't want that much 'Big Brother' looking over my shoulder; I'd rather pay sales tax via the retailer who simply can report it by category, not item.
"Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?"
Yes, actually, coconuts do migrate, that is how they spread from island to island. They just don't summer on the Riviera, and then go home.
If you are successful, you have to plan for future advances in communications technology, otherwise you will be a dead end. If you fail, it won't matter. Keep the name general and prevent the need to change it when the technology changes.
The problem here is that you are asking about 'budget laptops' without first determining the USER's needs. Why should all inexpensive laptops have the same goal? Do all inexpensive cars have the same target audience? OF COURSE NOT!
I have two laptops for different uses; one is a relatively inexpensive Acer desktop replacement with DVDRW drive, large HD, and 2gb RAM. A very nice, if heavy machine with a lot of power. The second is an Asus eeepc 4gb that is small enough and light enough to take with me whenever I leave the house. In the four months that I've had it, I have wondered many times what I would do without it. It has served me well on a two week personal trip and enabled me to do the little bit of work that came up in the middle, keep in touch with my family and friends, all without being a drain on my luggage allowance or arm! I DON'T EXPECT IT to replace it's big brother; they serve different purposes.
The question you should be asking is 'What do I need a laptop to do?'. And that assumes you have first asked yourself if you need a lappy or another type of computer.
BTW, determining user requirements BEFORE system design is a major part of what I do for a living.
So, you could get a more powerful and larger machine for the same amount of money. Power and speed are not the only things interesting in a computer. My $399 eeepc with a 7" screen gives me the flexibility to have a computer anywhere I go without the size and bulk of my larger machine - and at a fraction of the cost of it's available competitors in the US retail market (a Sony machine at $1600+). It took Asus to recognize the existance of a market niche; they announced half a year ago when everyone else sneered. Now, all the big players are scrambling to get into the market with copycat machines that are months away from being real.
Of course it is more effective to sell online - than WHEN YOU NEVER HAVE ANY STOCK IN THE STORE. I went into several area Walmarts, just to see what the hype was all about - and never got to see any Linux box.
I agree adding apps to the eee delivered 'easy' mode is more difficult than it ought to be. But remember, Asus thought they were including all the apps their target audience would need. Not the first company to be wrong and it won't be the last to make this mistake! A suggestion for you, if you haven't found it yourself:
http://eeeuser.com/
There are forums, a wiki, and a large body of developers with solutions to many problems. For example, there is a developer with a set of Launcher tools that makes it much easier to add apps to the 'easy' mode.
I agree, different target audiences; different compromises made.
Abraham was/is the father of both Christianity (Issac) and the Muslim Religions (Ishmael). Time to call BULLSHIT!
Issac is/was and always will be Jewish! It is fair to call Abraham the father of both Judaism and Islam, but Christianity is the child of the mad hunchback, PAUL. PAUL, who defiled the memory of his one-time friend, Joshua, and created a religion out of whole cloth. PAUL, who made up stories about a deity-fathered man (by way of a virgin) and took control of an Jewish sect from Joshua's older brother, James. (Tough being a deity out of a virgin when you have an older brother!!) Paul, who 'borrowed' the virgin birth from Greek and Roman mythology and the idea of a devil and Hell from the Zoroastrians and sold the whole thing to the ignorant Romans and Greeks who couldn't READ.
Hilarious!!!!!
Well, technically, Christians aren't allowed to make images of Jesus/God either. The original text of the commandment in Exodus about graven images is:
You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. As published in the AUTHORITATIVE Translation into English by the JPS (Exodus was written in Hebrew for Jews!) and on the following webpage; http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/jps/exo020.htm
"3 Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto, thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; 6 and showing mercy unto the thousandth p. 89 generation of them that love Me and keep My commandments."
Both Christians and Muslims seem to think that a book written for Jews by Jews (the first five Books are credited to my Great Uncle Moses (approx 175 times removed)) is theirs!
Get your own covenant - this one is taken!
Instead of growing new capacity and adding capabilities, sit on what you got and charge more. Nobody really needs more capacity! 64k bytes is the largest computer anyone will ever need!
Slashdot Mirror
I disagree. The RIAA's stance is; "Better to make all eleven persons pay than to let ten innocent men off the hook."
Sorry, Being 'first to market' had nothing to do with it. The attitude, the plan, and the deep legal fees pockets 'DOS/Windows isn't done until WordPerfect doesn't work' is the explanation that matches the facts.
Any company with a sufficiently large legal budget can ignore the law, ethics, and morality with impunity. By the time you've been convicted, your competitors will already be out of business, leaving you a monopoly.
Not all Christians are creationists, and you will find creationists among others that regard the Bible as literal truth.
The scientific world believes that the universe was created in an extremely short time out of 'nobody knows - yet' BY 'nobody knows - yet'.
I never said Murder was one of Joshua's teachings; just that people claiming to be his followers did.
And if (all in translation, of course) 'Love your neighbor as yourself' isn't a paraphrase of 'That which is hateful to you, do not do to another.', what is?
Peter may have been the first bishop of Rome, but it was Paul who moved the sabbath to Sunday, broke with the laws of kashrut and circumcision, and the rejection of the Jewish covenant with God. He was also the leader in the fight to wrestle control of the early church from Joshua's brother James (or Jacob).
And, I didn't say Jews killed millions; it was the people who claimed to be Christians that killed millions. My great grandmother in Pinsk was one of them in the 1890's, most of my uncle's family in what is now Slovakia were among the others in the 1940's. My father was a medic in the US Army and setup hospitals to treat the survivors.
Today, it is Christians in charge of the large oil companies who fund the countries funding terrorism.
I am NOT saying that all Christians are murderers, like most other people, most Christians are reasonably decent people. They are however bigoted in thinking they are the only ones deserving of God's attention. And that is a particularly christian view of Heaven.
Whether Jesus (or his real name, Joshua - a good Jewish name) actually lived or is a synthesis of multiple people is simply irrelevant. Christians (people following a religion founded by Paul of Tarsus) believe it, and they have acted for almost two thousand years as though they are correct. They have killed millions, both recently and over the centuries, claiming to be 'in the right'. And yet, if you look at Joshua's teachings, he simply paraphrased Rabbi Hillel (about 100 years earlier) and added marketing (Only way to God is though me' language). BTW, the imagery of being God's son is duplicated in an ancient Jewish prayer used on our holiest holidays ('Alvenu Malkainu', or 'Our Father, Our King') - so, nothing new there...
I just don't want to live in Colorado when the rocks start falling! (for the uninitiated, a Moon is a Harsh Mistress' reference).
TANSTAAFL!
and use it to get Smith's parents to Mars.
GROK????
Google already offers a free copy of Star Office, the Sun proprietary version of Open Office for free as part of Google Apps on Windows. The support business is left to Sun for making it available thru Google. Since the Online Google docs are compatable with the Sun (and OOo) product, it is already there without the overhead of support.
Opera's widgets are a good thing, but they do not run under the OS, but within a web browser. The advantage of Google gadgets, Konfabulator, Karamba, or indvidual apps like Rainlendar is that they are available without needing to load a browser. As much as I like Karamba, I welcome another Open Source solution. There may be an opportunity to recognize that all gadgets ought to be runnable under a common framework. Anybody remember TSR's (early MSDOS/DRDOS/other variants days).
I've spent most of my multi-decade career providing end-users with access to their data. Several of the previous suggestions are part of the solution. You do need to engineer a solution that allows valid secured access from individuals trained for that that purpose without affecting overall system performance. Some of the good ideas:
- database replica, hopefully tuned for queries. If the data is not onerous, some user-oriented views can go a long way in preventing Cartesian solutions.
- an end-user oriented query tool that allows previously-defined queries to be rerun as needed. For eleven years, I've used PeopleSoft's Query (which is proprietary to their systems) as the end-user tool, to give you an idea. This type of tool can also be configured to minimize the number of joins allowed by user id. Many of these tools allow power users and DBA's to define queries for others who can only execute the canned query.
- require minimum training requirements for the end users like basic Select statements and a copy of the data structure.
- phase in the end-users. There may only be a few individuals who need the direct access.
Bad idea: - Try to prevent users from getting to their data. From your comments, you are an external service and the customer owns the data. That is how you lose a customer!
Worst idea: - They didn't need it before, why do it now? ANY analyst that thinks today's specs aren't already obsolete doesn't belong in business! Go work for the government!
Microsoft once again proves they are more stupid than AOL... nuf said.
There are any number of collaborative group sites from Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, and Airset; any of which is a better choice for your purposes. All allow the individual member to get emails, notifications of postings and other information as they choose. All provide for easy posting of text and files for group distribution. This is like using a screwdriver for a screw instead of a hammer.
This is simply a jurisdiction (State, County or City) trying to make tax collection easier for themselves. I don't know of any jurisdiction with a Sales Tax that doesn't already have a corresponding Use tax, which is intended to tax anything that was purchased from out of Jurisdiction. Unfortunately, collecting that Use tax is difficult with the number of possible filers and the jurisdiction's desire to verify that the filers aren't under-reporting. Generally, they have dealt with this by going after businesses and big-ticket items like cars, boats, and airplanes. But, governments are getting greedier. If they can't get the online retailers to collect the taxes for them, the next option for them is to go after the banking industry to collect enforcement data. They will simply require banks to collect information on the items purchased so they can collect the Use tax based on that information. In pre-computer days, that would have been impossible given the volume of data, but today, it is clearly possible. Especially if you realize that any internet purchasing goes through some kind of bank or payment service (Paypal). I don't want that much 'Big Brother' looking over my shoulder; I'd rather pay sales tax via the retailer who simply can report it by category, not item.
Even Heinlein had others to give him ideas. I know that E. E. Smith's Lensman series had powered suits before Starship Troopers.
"Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?" Yes, actually, coconuts do migrate, that is how they spread from island to island. They just don't summer on the Riviera, and then go home.
At least they don't have to worry about US or Imperial in measuring distance! Trinary not spoken here.
If you are successful, you have to plan for future advances in communications technology, otherwise you will be a dead end. If you fail, it won't matter. Keep the name general and prevent the need to change it when the technology changes.
The problem here is that you are asking about 'budget laptops' without first determining the USER's needs. Why should all inexpensive laptops have the same goal? Do all inexpensive cars have the same target audience? OF COURSE NOT! I have two laptops for different uses; one is a relatively inexpensive Acer desktop replacement with DVDRW drive, large HD, and 2gb RAM. A very nice, if heavy machine with a lot of power. The second is an Asus eeepc 4gb that is small enough and light enough to take with me whenever I leave the house. In the four months that I've had it, I have wondered many times what I would do without it. It has served me well on a two week personal trip and enabled me to do the little bit of work that came up in the middle, keep in touch with my family and friends, all without being a drain on my luggage allowance or arm! I DON'T EXPECT IT to replace it's big brother; they serve different purposes. The question you should be asking is 'What do I need a laptop to do?'. And that assumes you have first asked yourself if you need a lappy or another type of computer. BTW, determining user requirements BEFORE system design is a major part of what I do for a living.
So, you could get a more powerful and larger machine for the same amount of money. Power and speed are not the only things interesting in a computer. My $399 eeepc with a 7" screen gives me the flexibility to have a computer anywhere I go without the size and bulk of my larger machine - and at a fraction of the cost of it's available competitors in the US retail market (a Sony machine at $1600+). It took Asus to recognize the existance of a market niche; they announced half a year ago when everyone else sneered. Now, all the big players are scrambling to get into the market with copycat machines that are months away from being real.
Does this quality as 'intelligent design'?? Are humans intelligent (dispite evidence to the contrary)?
Of course it is more effective to sell online - than WHEN YOU NEVER HAVE ANY STOCK IN THE STORE. I went into several area Walmarts, just to see what the hype was all about - and never got to see any Linux box.
I agree adding apps to the eee delivered 'easy' mode is more difficult than it ought to be. But remember, Asus thought they were including all the apps their target audience would need. Not the first company to be wrong and it won't be the last to make this mistake! A suggestion for you, if you haven't found it yourself:
http://eeeuser.com/
There are forums, a wiki, and a large body of developers with solutions to many problems. For example, there is a developer with a set of Launcher tools that makes it much easier to add apps to the 'easy' mode.
I agree, different target audiences; different compromises made.
Issac is/was and always will be Jewish! It is fair to call Abraham the father of both Judaism and Islam, but Christianity is the child of the mad hunchback, PAUL. PAUL, who defiled the memory of his one-time friend, Joshua, and created a religion out of whole cloth. PAUL, who made up stories about a deity-fathered man (by way of a virgin) and took control of an Jewish sect from Joshua's older brother, James. (Tough being a deity out of a virgin when you have an older brother!!) Paul, who 'borrowed' the virgin birth from Greek and Roman mythology and the idea of a devil and Hell from the Zoroastrians and sold the whole thing to the ignorant Romans and Greeks who couldn't READ.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/jps/exo020.htm "3 Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. 4 Thou shalt not make unto, thee a graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 thou shalt not bow down unto them, nor serve them; for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me; 6 and showing mercy unto the thousandth p. 89 generation of them that love Me and keep My commandments."
Both Christians and Muslims seem to think that a book written for Jews by Jews (the first five Books are credited to my Great Uncle Moses (approx 175 times removed)) is theirs!
Get your own covenant - this one is taken!
Instead of growing new capacity and adding capabilities, sit on what you got and charge more. Nobody really needs more capacity! 64k bytes is the largest computer anyone will ever need!