What the user wants is not always fair to every party involved. Corporations do not exist to cater to what the consumer wants. They exist to make money. If that means giving the consumer what they want, fine. A good business deal is one where everyone comes away with something in their favor. Giving the consumer exactly what they want would screw Apple over. This guy wants to listen to music on whatever portable music device he wants. Fine. He should have done some more homework and figured out that if that's what he wants, he shouldn't have bought his music through iTunes. He shouldn't buy the music through iTunes without finding out which music player Apple supports. Apple shouldn't have to support all music players. As I hinted at before, no one in their right mind would buy a DVD player to watch VHS movies. You have the same content, a movie, on both a DVD and a VHS tape. However, the two media are not cross compatible. Same with AAC, iPods, and non-Apple music players. They all play music but there is a different delivery method for that music.
I agree with you when you imply that a customer should not have to resort to circumventing the copy protection schemes. I just think that the customer is not always right and shouldn't always get their way. THere is something to be said for being an informed customer which apparently this man was not.
The people I know that are such early adopters (I can count them on three fingers) buy that stuff because they can afford to replace a $10,000 TV if it craps out on them in a couple years.
Exactly. I have 280 gigs worth of HD space across two drives. However, my "critical" files all fit on two DVD+Rs (approx. 6 Gigs worth of data). I burn them once a month. Why have 280 gigs, you ask? Cost per gig drops significantly around 120 gigs. I got my 140 gig drive for $90 while the 40 gig drive next to it cost $80. Sure, it was good marketing, but why not. $10 for 100 gigs seemed like good math to me. Also, MP3s, Linux distros, video games, and applications take up quite a bit of space, but I have original media for all of them (except the Linux.ISOs, but that's what the 'Net is for). I use 80 gigs worth of software and other crap to produce 6 gigs worth of useful data. I also keep redundant copies of my home directory on the drives. It's a multi-tiered backup strategy. Haven't lost anything yet.
Money spent on lighting and air are legitimate business expenses. Most places (at least in the U.S.) pump their air through air conditioner/filtration systems. Most places (legitimate ones, of course) pay for the electricity that powers their lighting fixtures, air conditioners, and etc. Gravity, on the other hand, is not a resource but a force of nature and cannot (yet) be generated (that I'm aware of. Anyone know of any man-made gravity field generators?.
So, the definition the article presents for a leecher is indeed rather accurate. Plugging your laptop, cell phone, PDA, or whatever into an outlet that was not intentionally provided as a service to the customer is an unplanned increase in operating expenses for the business. It would be similar to connecting a hose to the outside of their building and using it to water your lawn. The business has to pay for the water but they got no ROI from it. Now, telling people they can no longer plug in may actually hurt them more than just not addressing the issue.
"contunually lose audio fidelity and quality everytime you go through another coding step."
Just like you lost quality when the sound studio mixed the album and encoded it to put it on a CD. The only way you're going to get a perfect reproduction with all the clarity is to go listen to a live concert. Even then you have to deal with noise on the speaker wire, distortions caused by a bad mic, or the occasional bleed from a radio station.
I agree that the solution isn't ideal, but he cannot make the claim that he was "forced to buy an iPod." Sounds to me like he just didn't do his homework before he downloaded iTunes. I wonder if he bought a DVD player to watch VHS movies?
The lawsuit isn't over sound quality, and it's no secret that the buy-burn-rip method will allow this guy to do what he claims he can't. Hopefully he'll get nowhere with this.
Little Jimmy-bob reads some website that talks about bypassing thumbprint scanners with gummy bears. Daddy just happens to be napping on the couch. Little Jimmy-Bob grabs a gummy bear out of the cupboard...yada yada...he shoots his friend while showing off.
Biometric security devices are easily bypassed/tricked/hacked. Putting them on guns would just provide a false sense of security and appease ignorant anti-gun lobbyists.
"Why should we make auto theft illegal, when it's not going to stop auto theft?"
You're kidding, right? It is illegal to steal cars so that if someone does steal a car and they are caught, they can be prosecuted. Imagine if it wasn't illegal and someone took your car. You would have no legal recourse for getting it back. Now you're stuck with a car payment, but you have no car. It most likely would not be covered under your auto insurance policy either since it's not breaking the law to steal a car. Yeah! Free cars for everyone!
Laws don't stop the bad guys from doing bad things. They protect the good guys' interests when the bad guys do bad things. Laws provide state-mandated consequences for certain actions or inactions.
My neighbor did just that. Some guy with WAY too much free time on his hands called and said the HOA had gotten complaints about his cats not being on a leash. Now, who in their right mind puts a cat on a damn leash. So, when the guy called, my neighbor started swearing at him telling him to mind his own f**king business and to get a life. No fines ever got to his mailbox and he never received another phone call on the matter. Also, the neighborhood can collectively fire their HOA and hire or form a new one (that may depend on local laws).
Does anyone know just how much influence Apple had in the development of the PowerPC? It is supposedly a joint venture among Apple, IBM, and Motorola. What was everyone's level of participation? From what I understand, Apple is neither IBM's nor Motorola's largest buyer of PowerPC chips. However, it is a bit naive to think that just because IBM is bigger than Apple, they won't change a design based on Apple's input. Case in point: I work for a LARGE software/hardware developer. Our company has $billions in quarterly revenue. We will practically bend over backwards to integrate a component into one of our products if it means selling several thousand additional units regardless of who the customer is.
Pipe dream? Yes. Corporate politics? Hardly. It's the marketplace. Seriously, what is the market for a Mac/Xbox hybrid machine? Look at what happened to Sony with the PSX. PS2s and PVRs are flying off shelves, but Sony may very well pull the product. Why? Because it's not selling. And no, a Mac and Xbox2 combination does not make me smile. It makes me ill.
Video games are like any other aspect of your life: when made your primary focus, they will take the place of every other aspect of your life: drugs, alcohol, sex, dating relationships, movies (you LOTR fans know who you are),/., and anything else that consumes the majority of your time and energy. Maintaining a healthy balance (this does not mean devoting equal time to all of them) of your pursuits (seriously, no drugs) is a healthy way to go. It's all about managing your priorities.
Might it help if the gamers significant other took an active interest in what the gamer was doing? I don't mean joining. I mean taking an active role in learning why the significant other finds the games so attractive and why they are willing to devote so much time to them. That may cause the gamer to go "Hey, they're into whay I'm doing, maybe I should look into what they're doing." Just a thought.
I'm surprised that you think MMORPGs are a true escape from reality. They might be an escape from your set of personal circumstances and experiences, but the unspoken laws that govern human behavior offline also govern it online.
If I'm not mistaken, they track search queries based on originating IP address. That's not personally identifiable...yet, but it's pretty close. Also, I'm guessing if someone really wanted to (and who's to say Google hasn't already done so) they could easily detect predictable behavior patterns in searches originating from certain geographical areas, IP addresses, ISPs, etc. They may not be tracking searches by your name, Social Security #, DOB, or mother's maiden name, but there are many other methods for determining who is doing a search.
Remember, just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not watching you. Cheers!
Did anyone else notice the picture in the upper-right-hand corner of this page http://lightscribe.com/howlightscribeworks.aspx?
What's up with the kid and some guy (presumably his father) playing with PS1/2 controllers? Are they saying you can rip PS2 games, burn them, and then label your stash of w4R3z with their new technology? Now, giving them the benefit of the doubt, they are using their PS1/2 controllers to...gosh, I really can't think of a legitimate reason for this picture.
"Hey, Bob. Put some technology related pictures on this web page."
All right, here's why I have problems with voice-driven phone systems: I have young children. Here's a typical scenario in my house:
I call the bank to check on my balance...
"Thank you for calling Bank WeHaveYourMoney. Please say your 16 digit account num..."
"DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD"
"I'm sorry, I didn't understand your request. Please..."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...DON'T HIT!"
"It sounds like you're having trouble. Please say one of the following support options for further assistance. For assistance with your account balance say..."
*CRASH* "STOP IT!"
"It sounds like you're having trouble. Please say one of the following support options for further assistance. For assistance with your..."
"Stupid, fucking phone! Just give me an operator!"
Not to further beat the dead horse, but degrees do matter these days. I work for a large (read very, VERY large) corporation that produces all manner of computer-related gadgetry and the manager that hired me won't even consider people for positions if they don't have at least a four-year degree in a relevant field (CS, CIS, MIS, EE, etc.). The software dev. team I work with all have at least a B.S. and many have an M.S. or Ph.D. in CS. Trust me, degrees do matter. The System Architect on our team has so many diplomas (he has an M.S. in CS from Stanford among others) on his wall that you wonder how he had the time to do all that, and he's only in his early thirties. I passed up several people for my job who had worked here at least twice as long as I had in part because I had a degree and they didn't, and these are mostly intelligent, hard-working people...the point is, that piece of paper with the fancy writing matters, so get one.
I'm sure the viewer overlap is quite large between/. and PA, but the Mr. Period cartoons seem appropriate (WARNING: Explicit material. Funny, but explicit).
Yes, the CPU does affect game performance although not nearly as much as does the GPU. One of the reviews I read of Half Life 2 contained performance testing results on various CPU/GPU combinations. Unfortunately, I don't remember where I read the review (Google should "remember"). I know it's not FarCry, but the results did show that outdoor levels in HL2 put quite a strain on the CPU, much more so than they did on the GPU. Also, whenever I run any 3D game on my PC, the CPU temp. rises by about 5 degrees which indicates an increased load on the CPU. Anyone who actually works on 3D game design/game code optimization care to elaborate?
Slashdot Mirror
What the user wants is not always fair to every party involved. Corporations do not exist to cater to what the consumer wants. They exist to make money. If that means giving the consumer what they want, fine. A good business deal is one where everyone comes away with something in their favor. Giving the consumer exactly what they want would screw Apple over. This guy wants to listen to music on whatever portable music device he wants. Fine. He should have done some more homework and figured out that if that's what he wants, he shouldn't have bought his music through iTunes. He shouldn't buy the music through iTunes without finding out which music player Apple supports. Apple shouldn't have to support all music players. As I hinted at before, no one in their right mind would buy a DVD player to watch VHS movies. You have the same content, a movie, on both a DVD and a VHS tape. However, the two media are not cross compatible. Same with AAC, iPods, and non-Apple music players. They all play music but there is a different delivery method for that music.
I agree with you when you imply that a customer should not have to resort to circumventing the copy protection schemes. I just think that the customer is not always right and shouldn't always get their way. THere is something to be said for being an informed customer which apparently this man was not.
The people I know that are such early adopters (I can count them on three fingers) buy that stuff because they can afford to replace a $10,000 TV if it craps out on them in a couple years.
Exactly. I have 280 gigs worth of HD space across two drives. However, my "critical" files all fit on two DVD+Rs (approx. 6 Gigs worth of data). I burn them once a month. Why have 280 gigs, you ask? Cost per gig drops significantly around 120 gigs. I got my 140 gig drive for $90 while the 40 gig drive next to it cost $80. Sure, it was good marketing, but why not. $10 for 100 gigs seemed like good math to me. Also, MP3s, Linux distros, video games, and applications take up quite a bit of space, but I have original media for all of them (except the Linux .ISOs, but that's what the 'Net is for). I use 80 gigs worth of software and other crap to produce 6 gigs worth of useful data. I also keep redundant copies of my home directory on the drives. It's a multi-tiered backup strategy. Haven't lost anything yet.
Good point.
Money spent on lighting and air are legitimate business expenses. Most places (at least in the U.S.) pump their air through air conditioner/filtration systems. Most places (legitimate ones, of course) pay for the electricity that powers their lighting fixtures, air conditioners, and etc. Gravity, on the other hand, is not a resource but a force of nature and cannot (yet) be generated (that I'm aware of. Anyone know of any man-made gravity field generators?.
So, the definition the article presents for a leecher is indeed rather accurate. Plugging your laptop, cell phone, PDA, or whatever into an outlet that was not intentionally provided as a service to the customer is an unplanned increase in operating expenses for the business. It would be similar to connecting a hose to the outside of their building and using it to water your lawn. The business has to pay for the water but they got no ROI from it. Now, telling people they can no longer plug in may actually hurt them more than just not addressing the issue.
"contunually lose audio fidelity and quality everytime you go through another coding step."
Just like you lost quality when the sound studio mixed the album and encoded it to put it on a CD. The only way you're going to get a perfect reproduction with all the clarity is to go listen to a live concert. Even then you have to deal with noise on the speaker wire, distortions caused by a bad mic, or the occasional bleed from a radio station.
I agree that the solution isn't ideal, but he cannot make the claim that he was "forced to buy an iPod." Sounds to me like he just didn't do his homework before he downloaded iTunes. I wonder if he bought a DVD player to watch VHS movies?
The lawsuit isn't over sound quality, and it's no secret that the buy-burn-rip method will allow this guy to do what he claims he can't. Hopefully he'll get nowhere with this.
I agree with you there. Multiple levels of security are required.
Three words: gummy bear mouldings.
Little Jimmy-bob reads some website that talks about bypassing thumbprint scanners with gummy bears. Daddy just happens to be napping on the couch. Little Jimmy-Bob grabs a gummy bear out of the cupboard...yada yada...he shoots his friend while showing off.
Biometric security devices are easily bypassed/tricked/hacked. Putting them on guns would just provide a false sense of security and appease ignorant anti-gun lobbyists.
"Why should we make auto theft illegal, when it's not going to stop auto theft?"
You're kidding, right? It is illegal to steal cars so that if someone does steal a car and they are caught, they can be prosecuted. Imagine if it wasn't illegal and someone took your car. You would have no legal recourse for getting it back. Now you're stuck with a car payment, but you have no car. It most likely would not be covered under your auto insurance policy either since it's not breaking the law to steal a car. Yeah! Free cars for everyone!
Laws don't stop the bad guys from doing bad things. They protect the good guys' interests when the bad guys do bad things. Laws provide state-mandated consequences for certain actions or inactions.
My neighbor did just that. Some guy with WAY too much free time on his hands called and said the HOA had gotten complaints about his cats not being on a leash. Now, who in their right mind puts a cat on a damn leash. So, when the guy called, my neighbor started swearing at him telling him to mind his own f**king business and to get a life. No fines ever got to his mailbox and he never received another phone call on the matter. Also, the neighborhood can collectively fire their HOA and hire or form a new one (that may depend on local laws).
"You can't install shit."
You did install Windows. That's about as close to shit as it comes.
It is not impossible to login as root. It's easy to do. Just don't blame me when you hose your system.
n /index.ws
http://www.osxfaq.com/Tutorials/Root_User_Creatio
Check out ZSculpt. They are working on Dark Castle and have a few other well-done Mac-only games. http://zsculpt.com/
That's just what NASA wants to do...polute Mars with Seran wrap.
Does anyone know just how much influence Apple had in the development of the PowerPC? It is supposedly a joint venture among Apple, IBM, and Motorola. What was everyone's level of participation? From what I understand, Apple is neither IBM's nor Motorola's largest buyer of PowerPC chips. However, it is a bit naive to think that just because IBM is bigger than Apple, they won't change a design based on Apple's input. Case in point: I work for a LARGE software/hardware developer. Our company has $billions in quarterly revenue. We will practically bend over backwards to integrate a component into one of our products if it means selling several thousand additional units regardless of who the customer is.
Pipe dream? Yes. Corporate politics? Hardly. It's the marketplace. Seriously, what is the market for a Mac/Xbox hybrid machine? Look at what happened to Sony with the PSX. PS2s and PVRs are flying off shelves, but Sony may very well pull the product. Why? Because it's not selling. And no, a Mac and Xbox2 combination does not make me smile. It makes me ill.
Video games are like any other aspect of your life: when made your primary focus, they will take the place of every other aspect of your life: drugs, alcohol, sex, dating relationships, movies (you LOTR fans know who you are), /., and anything else that consumes the majority of your time and energy. Maintaining a healthy balance (this does not mean devoting equal time to all of them) of your pursuits (seriously, no drugs) is a healthy way to go. It's all about managing your priorities.
Might it help if the gamers significant other took an active interest in what the gamer was doing? I don't mean joining. I mean taking an active role in learning why the significant other finds the games so attractive and why they are willing to devote so much time to them. That may cause the gamer to go "Hey, they're into whay I'm doing, maybe I should look into what they're doing." Just a thought.
I'm surprised that you think MMORPGs are a true escape from reality. They might be an escape from your set of personal circumstances and experiences, but the unspoken laws that govern human behavior offline also govern it online.
If I'm not mistaken, they track search queries based on originating IP address. That's not personally identifiable...yet, but it's pretty close. Also, I'm guessing if someone really wanted to (and who's to say Google hasn't already done so) they could easily detect predictable behavior patterns in searches originating from certain geographical areas, IP addresses, ISPs, etc. They may not be tracking searches by your name, Social Security #, DOB, or mother's maiden name, but there are many other methods for determining who is doing a search.
Remember, just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not watching you. Cheers!
Did anyone else notice the picture in the upper-right-hand corner of this page http://lightscribe.com/howlightscribeworks.aspx? What's up with the kid and some guy (presumably his father) playing with PS1/2 controllers? Are they saying you can rip PS2 games, burn them, and then label your stash of w4R3z with their new technology? Now, giving them the benefit of the doubt, they are using their PS1/2 controllers to ...gosh, I really can't think of a legitimate reason for this picture.
"Hey, Bob. Put some technology related pictures on this web page."
Flamebait?
All right, here's why I have problems with voice-driven phone systems: I have young children. Here's a typical scenario in my house:
I call the bank to check on my balance...
"Thank you for calling Bank WeHaveYourMoney. Please say your 16 digit account num..."
"DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD"
"I'm sorry, I didn't understand your request. Please..."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...DON'T HIT!"
"It sounds like you're having trouble. Please say one of the following support options for further assistance. For assistance with your account balance say..."
*CRASH* "STOP IT!"
"It sounds like you're having trouble. Please say one of the following support options for further assistance. For assistance with your..."
"Stupid, fucking phone! Just give me an operator!"
"Thank you. Our mailing address is..."
*CLICK*
Not to further beat the dead horse, but degrees do matter these days. I work for a large (read very, VERY large) corporation that produces all manner of computer-related gadgetry and the manager that hired me won't even consider people for positions if they don't have at least a four-year degree in a relevant field (CS, CIS, MIS, EE, etc.). The software dev. team I work with all have at least a B.S. and many have an M.S. or Ph.D. in CS. Trust me, degrees do matter. The System Architect on our team has so many diplomas (he has an M.S. in CS from Stanford among others) on his wall that you wonder how he had the time to do all that, and he's only in his early thirties. I passed up several people for my job who had worked here at least twice as long as I had in part because I had a degree and they didn't, and these are mostly intelligent, hard-working people...the point is, that piece of paper with the fancy writing matters, so get one.
I'm sure the viewer overlap is quite large between /. and PA, but the Mr. Period cartoons seem appropriate (WARNING: Explicit material. Funny, but explicit).
7 -07&res=l
1 -03
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2003-0
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2004-1
Yes, the CPU does affect game performance although not nearly as much as does the GPU. One of the reviews I read of Half Life 2 contained performance testing results on various CPU/GPU combinations. Unfortunately, I don't remember where I read the review (Google should "remember"). I know it's not FarCry, but the results did show that outdoor levels in HL2 put quite a strain on the CPU, much more so than they did on the GPU. Also, whenever I run any 3D game on my PC, the CPU temp. rises by about 5 degrees which indicates an increased load on the CPU. Anyone who actually works on 3D game design/game code optimization care to elaborate?