I saw one of those clever cars at the Tokyo Motor Show last Autumn. It was set up on a stage and would swivel in a demonstration of its turning process. Dunno how "clever" the thing is, but watching it go through the tilting process was pretty disorienting. I'd hate to be travelling at speed and have one make a lane change in front of me, seemingly falling apart. Also, they're larger than you'd think from those photos -- the length of a subcompact car....
Wasn't this SGI laptop of which you speak foretold in the movie "Twister"? I seem to recall being surprised at spotting an SGI logo on what appeared -- from its off-white colour -- to be a Toshiba laptop in one scene in that movie. (I spent the rest of the movie being surprised at how astonishingly bad the movie was....)
I'm not surprised at the whining from my fellow Ontarioans - after all, it is the provincial sport.
It's stupid to think that Ontario would do otherwise than adopt the US change. Ontario is in the business of selling goods (mostly cars & parts) to the US. Allowing for a difference in time changes would cost far more aggravation than will the three extra hours of DST for people too dim to figure out their VCR's. The TSX will have to remain in the same time zone as the New York indices, as well, if it wants to retain any relevancy at all.
FWIW, my humble home page shows continued growth in Firefox usage every week. It seems to be growing by about 0.3% per week. Right now it's pushing 9%. But then again, it's designed for Firefox and nags at IE users....
http://emuu.net/cgi-bin/hits2.cgi
Incidentally - I use the "User Agent Switcher" Firefox plugin to flag my user agent's otherwise normal name to prevent my own review of the site from being counted.
I don't think the obsession is with greed, per se. I think N. American culture is driven almost exclusively by jealousy. The "need" for the marble bathroom countertops you mention comes from their appearing in a magazine or the house of a friend or sister-in-law....
The car analogy is interesting. But the differences 'under the hood' aren't really all that different. The real differences between the car manufacturers these days is in manufacturing parameters like process and use of union labour. Comparing the car industry to the software industry is extremely difficult. The car industry has enourmous costs of entry and fantastic operating costs that keep new players out. Those same costs and the insanely high level of competition mean that mistakes are quickly fatal.
In fact, I think Toyota and copycats like Hyundai are in the process of turning cars into a commodity. With real incomes sliding and the cost of fuel spiralling upwards ($60/barrel yesterday!) the new car market is moving away from sexy status symbols and towards utility (e.g. pick-ups and compact sedans with a little zip). On top of that they want reliability and support/service. Car manufacturers that don't give their customers what they want will fail. Look at GM's problems or those of Fiat or VW or Ford... The Economist predicts that there will be only six car manufacturers left in a few years time.
When users have a choice in three operating systems that provide the basic functionality and support they need, the rest is up to individual taste. I don't think that MS has the market cornered on any of this.
Slashdot Mirror
I saw one of those clever cars at the Tokyo Motor Show last Autumn. It was set up on a stage and would swivel in a demonstration of its turning process. Dunno how "clever" the thing is, but watching it go through the tilting process was pretty disorienting. I'd hate to be travelling at speed and have one make a lane change in front of me, seemingly falling apart. Also, they're larger than you'd think from those photos -- the length of a subcompact car....
http://www.photo.net/equipment/sony/DSC-R1/
Wasn't this SGI laptop of which you speak foretold in the movie "Twister"? I seem to recall being surprised at spotting an SGI logo on what appeared -- from its off-white colour -- to be a Toshiba laptop in one scene in that movie. (I spent the rest of the movie being surprised at how astonishingly bad the movie was....)
I'm not surprised at the whining from my fellow Ontarioans - after all, it is the provincial sport.
It's stupid to think that Ontario would do otherwise than adopt the US change. Ontario is in the business of selling goods (mostly cars & parts) to the US. Allowing for a difference in time changes would cost far more aggravation than will the three extra hours of DST for people too dim to figure out their VCR's. The TSX will have to remain in the same time zone as the New York indices, as well, if it wants to retain any relevancy at all.
FWIW, my humble home page shows continued growth in Firefox usage every week. It seems to be growing by about 0.3% per week. Right now it's pushing 9%. But then again, it's designed for Firefox and nags at IE users.... http://emuu.net/cgi-bin/hits2.cgi Incidentally - I use the "User Agent Switcher" Firefox plugin to flag my user agent's otherwise normal name to prevent my own review of the site from being counted.
I don't think the obsession is with greed, per se. I think N. American culture is driven almost exclusively by jealousy. The "need" for the marble bathroom countertops you mention comes from their appearing in a magazine or the house of a friend or sister-in-law....
The car analogy is interesting. But the differences 'under the hood' aren't really all that different. The real differences between the car manufacturers these days is in manufacturing parameters like process and use of union labour. Comparing the car industry to the software industry is extremely difficult. The car industry has enourmous costs of entry and fantastic operating costs that keep new players out. Those same costs and the insanely high level of competition mean that mistakes are quickly fatal.
In fact, I think Toyota and copycats like Hyundai are in the process of turning cars into a commodity. With real incomes sliding and the cost of fuel spiralling upwards ($60/barrel yesterday!) the new car market is moving away from sexy status symbols and towards utility (e.g. pick-ups and compact sedans with a little zip). On top of that they want reliability and support/service. Car manufacturers that don't give their customers what they want will fail. Look at GM's problems or those of Fiat or VW or Ford... The Economist predicts that there will be only six car manufacturers left in a few years time.
When users have a choice in three operating systems that provide the basic functionality and support they need, the rest is up to individual taste. I don't think that MS has the market cornered on any of this.