Wow, low end parts in boring basic black cases,,,I wonder why they are having such trouble selling them? It doesn't change a single thing I said, do you think PHBs aren't swayed by perception? Make them slick looking and big, or put some bling bling like card readers or fingerprint scanners, anything to make them think power or speed and they WILL buy. Hell I learned that when I found even a bottom of the line AMD quad would sell faster than a high end Intel dual because "more is better" and that's all the average Joe cares about.
Hell I just sold a fricking Pentium D box for $150! I wasn't even planning on selling it, I was planning on keeping it for a spare, but the guy saw it sitting on the desk and just kept making offers until i sold it. That thing had like a $30 HD5450, 1.5Gb of RAM, i didn't even have $75 in the whole thing but it looked cool with one of these black and red cases i picked up on sale at geeks and all he cared about was it looked snazzy and played DVDs so it looks like the nephew will be getting that Phenom II quad he wanted.
So I can tell you that it doesn't matter who you are selling to, looks and perception matters. Make it slick, stylish, or cool looking and that goes a hell of a long way, make it just another boring black box and enjoy that race to the bottom friend.
Uhhh...you might want to look up the "Peggy commercials' as a company has already done that, they just changed India to Russia so they could use white people and not appear racist. funny enough the one thing I miss about working at a consulting firm in the state capital is we had an Indian gal whose job was pretty much cursing at tech support in Hindi. I use to love to watch her get worked up "NO! You did NOT just tell me to reboot! I have 3 degrees and am a professional in IT you DO NOT give ME that reboot crap!" which would always be followed by a long string of Hindi which i'm sure was quite colorful.
/facepalm/...Its called "public perception" friend, its what makes the world go round. Do you think the public considers the ATM a computer? Nope its a "screen with buttons that takes my card and gives me money". You see THIS, this right here, is why the public don't give a shit about locked down phones, because frankly they don't have ANY expectations of the thing OR the apps lasting one minute past the contract, I mean why should it? Its "A screen that I poke that does Google and comes with my contract" and when the contract is up so is the phone. hell my own family has drawers full of the things, they don't care no matter what I say as its not a computer its a touch phone.
This is why Linux will never get anywhere on the desktop, why ARM is DOA on netbooks, while Win 8 is a failwhale, it all comes down to public perception. the Linux geeks think "It just takes seconds to use CLI and forum hunts are easy" but to the user it might as well be jumping out of an airplane while sewing their own chute for all they understand, their idea of a computer is "I click the Internet thingie and get Google".
And I'm sorry your pad WILL stay a niche for just this reason. A pad is NOT a PC, they have NO expectations of doing anything with it more than angry birds and video playing. That is because "its a screen i poke" and that is that. Maybe in 20 or 30 years when the current generations are dead and the kids that grew up with a smartphone take over maybe, but even then i doubt it as they will probably still see it as a pokey screen. its all down to public perception friend, the same thing that lets obvious liars with good hair become senators and convinces people they have to throw away their computer when it "gets slow" instead of just having the thing cleaned, its all public perception. Depressing huh?
I'm afraid sadly boycotts won't work, because of what I call "PPT math". You see Sony will just bring a projector into congress with a PPT that shows "If we made X last year and Houston is dead you can see by chart B that artists who die have their sales go up by X. Since we didn't see our sales go up by X its those ebil pirates and we need SOPA/PIPA!" and they'll get it.
You see with PPT math they have a great "heads i win tails you lose' scam going as ANY reason for a drop can be blamed on their favorite scapegoat. Doesn't matter what they do, hell they could replace the covers of the albums with Goatse and it won't matter, thanks to PPT math if they made X last year they should make X+Y this year, economy or shitting on customers be damned. I haven't bought a single RIAA product in nearly a decade and instead support local artists, i also haven't touched a Sony product since the PS1 but does it matter that me, my friends and family won't touch a Sony product? No because any drops in sales is those ebil pirates and they get more draconian laws.
So boycott away, hell occupy Sony, it just won't matter, PPT math wins every time, just like it did with "too big to fail", the entire housing bubble, and the gambling that goes on today on wall Street, all PPT math.
Not to mention its all junk compared to the good stuff like Google FS which while built on open source they keep in house so they don't have to share. Make no mistake Google is no more a "friend" to FOSS or anything else for that matter, anymore than Apple "thinks different". they are an ad company that uses these things to get its real commodity which is eyeballs and data which is then sold to companies around the planet. They use FOSS because its free as in beer which minimizes cost but this is also why they won't indemnify and stand by their offerings like WebM or Android, this would cut into profits and is therefor not in their best interests. But if they truly cared about promoting FOSS they would have offered to indemnify those who used WebM and Android and then we might not be looking at H.264 becoming the locked down format that rules the web or having MSFT make more of Android than they do WinPhone.
I'd say the more relevant question is "Is there enough of a difference to care?" because if you are stopping 99.8% and the other guys are stopping 99.7% and 99.6% frankly to the user at home there won't be any real measurable difference. It kinda reminds me of my "must win teh benches!" gamer customers, really are you gonna be able to tell the difference between 143FPS and 152FPS in MW3? of course not. I've used all three and frankly they have all become quite good at stopping spam and I honestly can't think of the last time i saw a spam mail in any of my inboxes, so who cares if MSFT stopped 1 more spam per 100,000 than the other guys?
Or if you don't have the time or skills for that you can just go to your local mom and pop shop where we will actually sell you what you need instead of some gamer rig. Ask around there is always at least one good honest shop in any town and we are happy to build it YOUR way. the first thing i say to a new customer is "What do you want to do with the PC? What things are you gonna be doing the most?" and if what they describe would be served with a dual core than that is what they get although frankly the difference between a dual and triple on the AMD side is practically nothing so i always give them the option and explain the positives and negatives.
So support your local mom and pop shop, our tech support is NOT named Peggy!
Does anyone else read TFA and smell a "Hi my name is Peggy" kinda deal coming up? After all every time i get stuck dealing with Indian tech support i always get a Bob, and I kinda doubt Bob is THAT popular of a name in India, so I have a feeling all females will now be called Sara and all males will now be called Bob and if you ask why their voice is different they'll read from a script "I have that bug that's going around".
Actually it just shows how out of touch geeks are with the public, as someone who has been making his living serving that public since before there even WAS a Windows let me bust some myths okay?
1.-A tablet is NOT a PC, it is in fact not even considered a computer of ANY sort by the masses. its a "screen that plays videos and angry birds" and they look on it as a personal computer about as much as their wristwatch or ATM.
2.-A phone is NOT a personal computer, or even has an OS, again see 1 only add "helps me find stuff and Googles"
3.-The reason ARM netbooks never had a chance is because there is no such thing as a netbook to the masses, its a "baby laptop and baby laptops should do everything a big laptop does only slower, because a baby is smaller than a grown up"
I hope i have cleared up some common myths held by geeks about what is an isn't a PC. to the public the ONLY thing that is a PC is a computer that runs Windows and supports ALL their old programs, be it in desktop or laptop form. That is one of the reasons Windows tablets is DOA, both in X86 and ARM, as it tries to break common perception. If its a tablet its supposed to work like a big phone, if its got Windows its supposed to have a keyboard and a mouse or trackpad. people don't like things that go against perceptions, see the open hostility to Win 8 as an example as i've shown it to over 200 customers and within seconds they are actively hating the thing, its just too alien.
Its a machine for those that do more than mindlessly consume content the corporate approved way? Snarky but true, all the pad owners i know just use the things for angry birds and as a handheld video player.
Because as Apple has learned perception and looks matter? As someone who sells and services to normal folks 6 days a week i can tell you i can take frankly 5 year old parts and double my money simply by slapping them in a $20 fancy case from geeks. Anything with a racing stripe of pretty lights catches the eye and makes people think speed so they are more likely to buy. While I of course don't shortchange folks like that I do put any new build in a flashy case simply because it makes them sell MUCH quicker if there is some bling bling so it really wouldn't be hard for HP to make an "Elite PC" line with some flash and get in the consumers.
That said the problem is gonna be laptops as there is only so much bling you can put on one of those and most folks only care about how it "feels' instead of how it looks. While i will resell frankly any brand I get a good deal on i prefer the Asus lines as to me they just "feel" nicer and at least on the ones I've used seem to be better about heat than HP and Dell. Maybe if HP would quit trying to beat Apple in the thin dept and instead work on having a nice feel with good battery life maybe they can upsell there too, maybe offer more models where you can change out the DVD for an extra battery? Because the biggest complaint I hear from folks is there never is such a thing as too much battery life, its one of the reasons i ended up selling my full size for an Asus EEE 1215B netbook, i went from 3 and a half hours to 6 watching 720p video and from 4 and a half to over 7 for surfing. To me that was worth giving up the burner and I bet a lot of folks would agree, instead of having the burner they should include a USB DVD and add an extra battery in the DVD slot. Easy way to upsell is to be able to brag that while the other guy gets 4 hours on a battery you get 8.
Actually my new Asus EEE didn't have ANY Norton crapware and the few programs it did have I didn't want were things like Adobe Reader which I could see the majority would probably like. So maybe one should be a little more picky about which OEM one chooses? BTW if anybody here is thinking of a netbook the EEE1215B ROCKS HARD, it comes with win 7 HP X64 and holds 8Gb of RAM, and with Brazos Tweaker one can go even farther than the 6 hours watching HD video to more like 7 and a quarter, even longer for just basic web surfing. Truly an awesome little unit and it even games nicely!
I agree but am worried about the slippery slope, what if its a more controversial topic, like screening of DNA for genetic illnesses or weaknesses? Are we gonna tell those people to just use the ER if they don't want to go along? Freedom is in the end the ability to choose for oneself even if others don't like their choices. After all freedom to do exactly how i tell you isn't really freedom is it?
We have so many perception bubbles and foaming at the mouth fanbois i fully expected to be modded down and frankly don't give a shit. i mean look at the "I'm holier than though" bullshit going on right now in the rep POTUS selection, we have out of control debt, have lost more than 40,000 factories in a decade to outsourcing and our unemployment is growing to unmanageable levels, Foxconn and other Chinese manufacturers are using slave labor and China has put tariffs in place to keep our goods OUT while their are given free reign to our markets and THIS, which candidate thumps on the goat herder book or believes in the correct manner, is seriously having an effect on the outcome?
I'm seriously tempted to use that "Opiate of the masses" line because obviously just like a drug it seems to be quite good at turning their brains off.
And according to the Sun God if you don't sacrifice a virgin the world will end. Have you sacrificed a virgin today? Hell the "good book" says you should stone adulterers, have you stoned an adulterer today?
Frankly it amazes me that a race that can go to the moon and build supercomputers with chips smaller than your pinky nail would still have wars and mass killings over a book written by 1800 year dead goat herders at a time they thought the sun was a God in a chariot and based on stories handed down like Chinese Whispers about other goat herders that had been dead for centuries before a single line was written! you are free to believe what you want, hell believe in the great electron if that floats your boat, but seriously treating a patched together contradictory mess like that as the "word of God" is more than a little batshit. Its the word of a bunch of goat herders and ancient priests, nothing more. Hell look at a Strong's version and see how many words are ambiguous and could go one of several ways. if a Deity was writing an instruction manual do you honestly think he/she would leave so much open to interpretation?
As for TFA frankly they are as full of shit as those following the goat herders because until they can recreate those conditions in a lab and actually get life frankly we have NO clue as to which way it happened. it could have been asteroids bring the building blocks, it could have been lightning providing the right spark, could have been thermal vents, could have been pools, who the fuck knows. this planet has had so much turnover in the last 4 billion years frankly we know of maybe 2% of the things that have existed before us and we expect from such a limited dataset to figure out where the first living thing, the patient zero as it were, came from? give me a break.
You seem to be missing the point that the ONLY reason LS was able to get this chunk of the spectrum in the first places was for SAT communications NOT ground, and if LS would have stuck to that frankly there wouldn't be a problem. Its not the fault of the FCC that LS decided they couldn't make a go of it in the business plan they had originally agreed to, they should have to sell the spectrum they bought to someone else or stick with the original agreement. Frankly it doesn't matter what the GPS OEMs did or didn't do, this spectrum was sold with limitations attached and without those limitations would have sold for probably a lot more.
In my mind this is no different than those shady dealers that will pick up Seagate drives designed for video surveillance and because of the flood raising the price of drives trying to pawn them off as regular HDDs. They were sold cheaper than regular drives FOR A REASON and that was because they simply weren't built for the same use case but for stop and go data dumping not running an OS. Same here they got a cheaper deal on something that had been allocated for one use and some hedge fund manager thought he could pull an end run. Well too bad, you read the contract, you rolled the dice, you lost.
Its actually quite simple, the west will become gridlocked, with nobody able to innovate anything the constant copyright and patent trolling shut everything down or drag it for a decade through the courts, while the east that have made it clear they won't be buying our products OR playing our reindeer games will become the new powerhouse while the west rots. We've seen this before, in the rise of the USA who ignored the old world's copyrights and patents and were therefor able to build upon the work done before and "stand on the shoulders of giants" as it were. Now our entire history is being locked behind paywalls, can't anything get done with an army of lawyers, all so the 1% at the top can try to keep their strangehold on the wealth. Sad really but all good things must end and the current reign of the USA as the big dog will end with massive unemployment, out of control debt, and the jobs all being sent to places where they can build without an army or lawyers on retainer.
What bloatware would that be? The firewall in Vista/7 that has pretty damned comprehensive rules based filtering while being easy to use, THAT bloatware? or are you still bitching about a certain 12 year old OS that is going for a record on years of support even though they've passed any legal obligation they had to keep updating the thing, could it be that? Give me a damned break! What's next, you gonna complain that XP which is already 3 generations behind (XP X64, Vista, 7) runs as admin too? Move on dude. Man the world is gonna be full of butthurt nerds when 2014 gets here and XP doesn't get another extension so they will actually have to try to find things in the modern version to bitch about. But don't worry Ballmer is gonna shoot Windows in the face because he wants to be Apple so fucking bad he sleeps with an iPad under his pillow.
As for TFA frankly if that is the WORST thing an AV does color me happy. We've seen dllhost marked as a bug thus disabling the system, we've seen core boot files flagged as bugs thus bricking the system unless you had a second machine to Google how to fix the first, frankly MSE has been so far pretty harmless. That said even though I use it on my netbook and gamer machines I do NOT use it on the machine I actually do any real surfing on because frankly in my tests it doesn't really DO anything. What I mean by that is while it has a pretty decent scanner for downloaded files that is pretty much it, you load up a webpage with malicious code MSE isn't gonna say a word or try to block that site whereas both Comodo Internet Security and Avast Free stop the page from loading. I will give them credit for being just about the lowest resource using on any AV but the flipside is it simply isn't doing much. So while I recommend it for geeks that actually practice safe computing or for machines like my gamer PC and netbook where the only surfing they are doing is checking webmail or going to well vetted sites like this for regular users I simply can't give it out.
Maybe its because it was never really intended to be an AV, it was originally Giant Antispy before being purchased by MSFT, maybe the guys at MSFT got tired of AVs slowing down the system so focused on speed above all, who knows, but for a clean computer in my own tests which involved taking an offlease and hitting every topsite and crapsite I could find then using a disc filled with offline scanners to check the system I found MSE on XP scored horribly, MSE on Vista/7 did better simply because OS protections like low rights mode did most of the work, but in no version of Windows did it stop as much as Comodo IS or Avast Free. Oh and since you seem to hate the firewall so much Comodo IS is not only free for home AND business use but also has its own quite excellent firewall built in, which for those that just want one or the other its as simple as unchecking a box during install. For business users or those that want more finer grained controls I'd go with Comodo IS, for those that want a drop and go solution Avast Free is what you want. MSE? Meh only use it if resources are the highest concern, like say on an underclocked netbook (for those that haven't tried Brazos Tweaker it does rock and added an extra hour on my E350's battery) or a gamer system where you simply aren't doing any risky behavior.
Exactly, its not like MSFT doesn't have serious competition in this market with Sony and Nintendo so it isn't like they are gouging the developers here but you can't expect them to just eat the costs either. Patches have to be tested to make sure they don't cause problems with the system, with the game itself and with the network as a whole, because problems equal bad press and support issues. If these companies don't want to pay to patch they should do more QA and beta testing before shipping and there is always Steam. BTW does anyone know if there is a cost to Steam patching? Hoe about Sony or Nintendo? But considering how many indie game developers are making serious money on XBL I really don't think it is some horror story or people wouldn't be supporting XBL with their games, they'd be voting with their wallets and sticking with the other 3
Also this guy is bitching because he can't get funding for an ADVENTURE game, really? The point and click genre died out in the early 90s and was deader than Dixie by the time DOOM hit so no shit he isn't gonna get game companies to cough up for an adventure game as its doubtful they'd see their ROI even allow them to break even! Hell his Psychonauts took what? something like a decade to see the break even point? he is one of those "art house" style developers that while he wins awards those never seem to turn into sales, so anybody that bitches because he can't get funding for his pet project that is in a genre that's been dead 20 years i gotta take anything else they say with a big dose of salt.
Thank you. This argument that somehow Google is just this hippie software factory that makes all this stuff and gives it away for freedom and kittens and love of their fellow man is frankly as delusional and full of shit as saying MSFT is a cell phone company because they make WinPhone even though that thing hasn't made a red cent. The ONLY reason Google makes all this software is BAIT for their REAL GOAL which is eyeballs which are their PRODUCT. they then sell the data they mine and those very same eyeballs to companies in return for really fat checks. as you so perfectly posted Google admits right there in black and white that is where their money comes from, they certainly are not in any way trying to hide this, so WTF is it with all this "do no evil" RDF bullshit and cheerleading? I mean reading the posts in this thread you would think half of the guys here work in the marketing dept of Google!
So lets just call a spade a spade okay? Apple is a consumer devices company, MSFT is a business software and OS company, and Google is an AD company, why is that so damned hard for the perception bubble impaired to accept? Does apple and MSFT have other products? Yes but that isn't where the majority of their money comes from so saying MSFT is a cell phone company or Apple is a business server company wouldn't be very accurate would it? So saying Google is this free software firm that passes out FOSS like rainbows and puppies is just as much bullshit, they make these thing because the more eyeballs they capture the more money they make, THAT IS ALL. As we saw with buzz and wave any software that doesn't give the requisite ROI will be canned, same as I predict ChromeOS will go next as it isn't giving them the ROI they expected and it overlaps with android. They don't care if you used these services and products, they don't care what you think, its strictly business. Why is that so hard to understand?
And by using it you give them more data to mine and more ways to serve you....drumroll...ADS! Jesus man surely you can't be THAT damned blinded can you? they aren't giving you these things because they love you, because they give a wet fart about FOSS or kittens or saving the whales, they do it because IT MAKES THEM BILLIONS and as we have seen with buzz and wave and a hundred other projects anything that doesn't give them the ROI they expect gets shitcanned.
Dude quit drinking the koolaid and step away from the RDF, if their products work for you that's fine but just remember YOU ARE THEIR PRODUCT because they are selling YOUR ass, YOUR eyeballs and YOUR data to the advertisers who are their REAL customers. this isn't some non profit you know.
Well I figured this would happen after the terrorism meme ran its course. Next up watch as any act which gives the corps or government more power will be given a "protect our childrenz!" name to ensure they can pass it as no politician will want his opponent to be able to come with with ads like this...cue dramatic music..."When congressman porkman was given a chance to protect our children from the criminals that prey on them by passing the "Watch out for the kids" act of 2012 he turned it down and actually worked to block it. if I am elected I will ensure that I, John Kickbackus will ensure that the entire power of the government will be used to watch over our children, our most precious of resources. Won't you help me protect them?" (Kickbackus is surrounded by a bunch of adorable tykes).
You watch, after they are done ramming down the "protect our precious IP...err children!" crap the next to go will be any tools that can allow privacy or security like Truecrypt. They will have talking heads like Nancy Grace wallpaper the airwaves with pictures of some perv and say "This is nothing but a tool for child molesters!" and then you'll be looking at 10 years for even having a copy of software that the government doesn't have a master key to. Kinda sad how the west spent all that money and lives fighting the great totalitarian communist regimes only to slowly become fascist regimes once the wall fell huh? But I'm sure no matter what happens our corporate master will enjoy immunity and make out like robber barons and as long as the 1% have ever increasing wealth its good right?
Kinda hard for congressman Porkman and senator Kickbackus to bring home the bacon anymore with NASA now that the shuttle, which had its parts shotgunned all over the country is dead. as long as the POTUS keeps starting one war after another they can say they are "supporting the troops" which looks great in the commercials while at the same time getting their nephew a cushy job at the MIC and cashing some nice checks while saying they are "Bringing jobs to our district!" so expecting them to give a shit about NASA when there is nothing monetarily in it for them is an impossibility.
While I don't agree with Ron Paul on most of the issues one thing i do agree with him on is the end of fiat money and the MIC is why. as long as they can just print money and the fed can make it painless to put everything off until tomorrow with cheap money they can continue to blow cash like shit through a goose on the military industrial complex with no real short term consequences. If they actually had to raise taxes or cut spending before they could build that 11th aircraft carrier (even when we outnumber everyone on carriers 5 to 1 and the one they are wanting to replace is still serviceable) or sink more cash into the giant fail that is the F35 then maybe they would set some priorities and stop blowing all this cash. And as for TFA maybe if they knew their budgets couldn't be increased without raising taxes maybe NASA wouldn't have let the Webb telescope get so out of hand in the first place.
You joke Mr AC but this kind of crazy is a prime example of why itch scratching and ignoring the users makes Linux a giant fail on the desktop.
I'm sure i'll get hate for not drinking the koolaid and joining the perception bubble but fuck it, I'm a frustrated retailer and this needs to be said. For the first time in history you are being given not one, not two, but THREE incredible gifts, its like the field has been cleared and you are being given a 200 yard head start on a 300 yard race and what do you do? promptly shoot yourselves in the foot and then plop down in the middle of the field to tweet about the latest idea you have for REALLY pissing the users off!
I mean you have your traditional nemesis run by the most incompetent CEO since Apple had the Pepsi and not only that but he's about to shoot his own company right in the face because he is so desperate to get into cell phones and tablets he's gonna force WinPhone on the desktop, which i predict will be the biggest failwhale since MSFT Bob, that's one, two you have the great XP dieoff giving you all these incredibly powerful machines that MSFT has priced themselves out of the running with, we are talking late P4s to early mid dual core desktops and laptops with 1gb+ of RAM and 40Gb+ of HDDs which is more than enough for Linux, and finally you have a population that NEVER BEFORE IN HISTORY does damned near everything online, the one place where Linux has always been strong!
So what do you do? do you give all those businesses and consumers a distro with 10 years of updates so they can be confident they can just slap that OS on and it'll just work? Do you tell Linus to STFU and develop an ABI so the drivers won't break if they DO upgrade? Do you focus on stability and bug fixes and QA to make Linux so damned rock solid frankly no body has to do forum hunts of CLI fixes? NOPE, you throw out BOTH major DEs when they are FINALLY becoming really stable for a blingapaloza that sends you back a good 7 years on the stability front and just to add to the fail replace the sound which again was finally starting to get stable with Pulseaudio which is barely at MSFT first release quality, which is to say it sucks! Oh and if all that weren't bad enough Canonical the ones that were SUPPOSED to be the ones making the noob friendly distro for the masses says "Hey slapping a cell phone UI on the desktop is a GREAT idea, lets do that!" and makes their distro even more of a failwhale than Win 8, which is quite an accomplishment!
I swear the current OS situation reminds me of that old Monty Python skit where the upper class twits couldn't even shoot themselves correctly because they were too fricking stupid and I'm not alone in feeling this way. hell even Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols who is the biggest linTroll and the flipside to the Thurott Wintroll hates the new UIs and for HIM to say anything nasty about Linux is unheard of!
C'mon Linux community, you are better than this I know you are. its obvious the Linux devs are gonna ignore you unless you have a royal screaming shitfit so speak up already! We ALL know what's happening here, its as plain as the nose on your face, Apple released the iPhone and iPad and all the devs done lost their damned minds and are tripping all over themselves trying to come up with the "next iPad" and destroying their core strengths in the process. As someone who has been selling to consumers since before there even was a Windows i can tell you a few things about consumers and the desktop/laptop, 1.-Most of them have NO clue about all the bling bling crap you guys slap in there, and the few bits they know about they don't like. hell they were willing to put up with the Fisher price UI of XP right? all you need is to not make it fugly, maybe a nice metalli
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Wow, low end parts in boring basic black cases,,,I wonder why they are having such trouble selling them? It doesn't change a single thing I said, do you think PHBs aren't swayed by perception? Make them slick looking and big, or put some bling bling like card readers or fingerprint scanners, anything to make them think power or speed and they WILL buy. Hell I learned that when I found even a bottom of the line AMD quad would sell faster than a high end Intel dual because "more is better" and that's all the average Joe cares about.
Hell I just sold a fricking Pentium D box for $150! I wasn't even planning on selling it, I was planning on keeping it for a spare, but the guy saw it sitting on the desk and just kept making offers until i sold it. That thing had like a $30 HD5450, 1.5Gb of RAM, i didn't even have $75 in the whole thing but it looked cool with one of these black and red cases i picked up on sale at geeks and all he cared about was it looked snazzy and played DVDs so it looks like the nephew will be getting that Phenom II quad he wanted.
So I can tell you that it doesn't matter who you are selling to, looks and perception matters. Make it slick, stylish, or cool looking and that goes a hell of a long way, make it just another boring black box and enjoy that race to the bottom friend.
Uhhh...you might want to look up the "Peggy commercials' as a company has already done that, they just changed India to Russia so they could use white people and not appear racist. funny enough the one thing I miss about working at a consulting firm in the state capital is we had an Indian gal whose job was pretty much cursing at tech support in Hindi. I use to love to watch her get worked up "NO! You did NOT just tell me to reboot! I have 3 degrees and am a professional in IT you DO NOT give ME that reboot crap!" which would always be followed by a long string of Hindi which i'm sure was quite colorful.
/facepalm/...Its called "public perception" friend, its what makes the world go round. Do you think the public considers the ATM a computer? Nope its a "screen with buttons that takes my card and gives me money". You see THIS, this right here, is why the public don't give a shit about locked down phones, because frankly they don't have ANY expectations of the thing OR the apps lasting one minute past the contract, I mean why should it? Its "A screen that I poke that does Google and comes with my contract" and when the contract is up so is the phone. hell my own family has drawers full of the things, they don't care no matter what I say as its not a computer its a touch phone.
This is why Linux will never get anywhere on the desktop, why ARM is DOA on netbooks, while Win 8 is a failwhale, it all comes down to public perception. the Linux geeks think "It just takes seconds to use CLI and forum hunts are easy" but to the user it might as well be jumping out of an airplane while sewing their own chute for all they understand, their idea of a computer is "I click the Internet thingie and get Google".
And I'm sorry your pad WILL stay a niche for just this reason. A pad is NOT a PC, they have NO expectations of doing anything with it more than angry birds and video playing. That is because "its a screen i poke" and that is that. Maybe in 20 or 30 years when the current generations are dead and the kids that grew up with a smartphone take over maybe, but even then i doubt it as they will probably still see it as a pokey screen. its all down to public perception friend, the same thing that lets obvious liars with good hair become senators and convinces people they have to throw away their computer when it "gets slow" instead of just having the thing cleaned, its all public perception. Depressing huh?
I'm afraid sadly boycotts won't work, because of what I call "PPT math". You see Sony will just bring a projector into congress with a PPT that shows "If we made X last year and Houston is dead you can see by chart B that artists who die have their sales go up by X. Since we didn't see our sales go up by X its those ebil pirates and we need SOPA/PIPA!" and they'll get it.
You see with PPT math they have a great "heads i win tails you lose' scam going as ANY reason for a drop can be blamed on their favorite scapegoat. Doesn't matter what they do, hell they could replace the covers of the albums with Goatse and it won't matter, thanks to PPT math if they made X last year they should make X+Y this year, economy or shitting on customers be damned. I haven't bought a single RIAA product in nearly a decade and instead support local artists, i also haven't touched a Sony product since the PS1 but does it matter that me, my friends and family won't touch a Sony product? No because any drops in sales is those ebil pirates and they get more draconian laws.
So boycott away, hell occupy Sony, it just won't matter, PPT math wins every time, just like it did with "too big to fail", the entire housing bubble, and the gambling that goes on today on wall Street, all PPT math.
Not to mention its all junk compared to the good stuff like Google FS which while built on open source they keep in house so they don't have to share. Make no mistake Google is no more a "friend" to FOSS or anything else for that matter, anymore than Apple "thinks different". they are an ad company that uses these things to get its real commodity which is eyeballs and data which is then sold to companies around the planet. They use FOSS because its free as in beer which minimizes cost but this is also why they won't indemnify and stand by their offerings like WebM or Android, this would cut into profits and is therefor not in their best interests. But if they truly cared about promoting FOSS they would have offered to indemnify those who used WebM and Android and then we might not be looking at H.264 becoming the locked down format that rules the web or having MSFT make more of Android than they do WinPhone.
I'd say the more relevant question is "Is there enough of a difference to care?" because if you are stopping 99.8% and the other guys are stopping 99.7% and 99.6% frankly to the user at home there won't be any real measurable difference. It kinda reminds me of my "must win teh benches!" gamer customers, really are you gonna be able to tell the difference between 143FPS and 152FPS in MW3? of course not. I've used all three and frankly they have all become quite good at stopping spam and I honestly can't think of the last time i saw a spam mail in any of my inboxes, so who cares if MSFT stopped 1 more spam per 100,000 than the other guys?
Or if you don't have the time or skills for that you can just go to your local mom and pop shop where we will actually sell you what you need instead of some gamer rig. Ask around there is always at least one good honest shop in any town and we are happy to build it YOUR way. the first thing i say to a new customer is "What do you want to do with the PC? What things are you gonna be doing the most?" and if what they describe would be served with a dual core than that is what they get although frankly the difference between a dual and triple on the AMD side is practically nothing so i always give them the option and explain the positives and negatives.
So support your local mom and pop shop, our tech support is NOT named Peggy!
Does anyone else read TFA and smell a "Hi my name is Peggy" kinda deal coming up? After all every time i get stuck dealing with Indian tech support i always get a Bob, and I kinda doubt Bob is THAT popular of a name in India, so I have a feeling all females will now be called Sara and all males will now be called Bob and if you ask why their voice is different they'll read from a script "I have that bug that's going around".
Actually it just shows how out of touch geeks are with the public, as someone who has been making his living serving that public since before there even WAS a Windows let me bust some myths okay?
1.-A tablet is NOT a PC, it is in fact not even considered a computer of ANY sort by the masses. its a "screen that plays videos and angry birds" and they look on it as a personal computer about as much as their wristwatch or ATM.
2.-A phone is NOT a personal computer, or even has an OS, again see 1 only add "helps me find stuff and Googles"
3.-The reason ARM netbooks never had a chance is because there is no such thing as a netbook to the masses, its a "baby laptop and baby laptops should do everything a big laptop does only slower, because a baby is smaller than a grown up"
I hope i have cleared up some common myths held by geeks about what is an isn't a PC. to the public the ONLY thing that is a PC is a computer that runs Windows and supports ALL their old programs, be it in desktop or laptop form. That is one of the reasons Windows tablets is DOA, both in X86 and ARM, as it tries to break common perception. If its a tablet its supposed to work like a big phone, if its got Windows its supposed to have a keyboard and a mouse or trackpad. people don't like things that go against perceptions, see the open hostility to Win 8 as an example as i've shown it to over 200 customers and within seconds they are actively hating the thing, its just too alien.
Its a machine for those that do more than mindlessly consume content the corporate approved way? Snarky but true, all the pad owners i know just use the things for angry birds and as a handheld video player.
Because as Apple has learned perception and looks matter? As someone who sells and services to normal folks 6 days a week i can tell you i can take frankly 5 year old parts and double my money simply by slapping them in a $20 fancy case from geeks. Anything with a racing stripe of pretty lights catches the eye and makes people think speed so they are more likely to buy. While I of course don't shortchange folks like that I do put any new build in a flashy case simply because it makes them sell MUCH quicker if there is some bling bling so it really wouldn't be hard for HP to make an "Elite PC" line with some flash and get in the consumers.
That said the problem is gonna be laptops as there is only so much bling you can put on one of those and most folks only care about how it "feels' instead of how it looks. While i will resell frankly any brand I get a good deal on i prefer the Asus lines as to me they just "feel" nicer and at least on the ones I've used seem to be better about heat than HP and Dell. Maybe if HP would quit trying to beat Apple in the thin dept and instead work on having a nice feel with good battery life maybe they can upsell there too, maybe offer more models where you can change out the DVD for an extra battery? Because the biggest complaint I hear from folks is there never is such a thing as too much battery life, its one of the reasons i ended up selling my full size for an Asus EEE 1215B netbook, i went from 3 and a half hours to 6 watching 720p video and from 4 and a half to over 7 for surfing. To me that was worth giving up the burner and I bet a lot of folks would agree, instead of having the burner they should include a USB DVD and add an extra battery in the DVD slot. Easy way to upsell is to be able to brag that while the other guy gets 4 hours on a battery you get 8.
Actually my new Asus EEE didn't have ANY Norton crapware and the few programs it did have I didn't want were things like Adobe Reader which I could see the majority would probably like. So maybe one should be a little more picky about which OEM one chooses? BTW if anybody here is thinking of a netbook the EEE1215B ROCKS HARD, it comes with win 7 HP X64 and holds 8Gb of RAM, and with Brazos Tweaker one can go even farther than the 6 hours watching HD video to more like 7 and a quarter, even longer for just basic web surfing. Truly an awesome little unit and it even games nicely!
Well if its anything like Dell tech support you may be on the phone for awhile pal.
I agree but am worried about the slippery slope, what if its a more controversial topic, like screening of DNA for genetic illnesses or weaknesses? Are we gonna tell those people to just use the ER if they don't want to go along? Freedom is in the end the ability to choose for oneself even if others don't like their choices. After all freedom to do exactly how i tell you isn't really freedom is it?
We have so many perception bubbles and foaming at the mouth fanbois i fully expected to be modded down and frankly don't give a shit. i mean look at the "I'm holier than though" bullshit going on right now in the rep POTUS selection, we have out of control debt, have lost more than 40,000 factories in a decade to outsourcing and our unemployment is growing to unmanageable levels, Foxconn and other Chinese manufacturers are using slave labor and China has put tariffs in place to keep our goods OUT while their are given free reign to our markets and THIS, which candidate thumps on the goat herder book or believes in the correct manner, is seriously having an effect on the outcome?
I'm seriously tempted to use that "Opiate of the masses" line because obviously just like a drug it seems to be quite good at turning their brains off.
And according to the Sun God if you don't sacrifice a virgin the world will end. Have you sacrificed a virgin today? Hell the "good book" says you should stone adulterers, have you stoned an adulterer today?
Frankly it amazes me that a race that can go to the moon and build supercomputers with chips smaller than your pinky nail would still have wars and mass killings over a book written by 1800 year dead goat herders at a time they thought the sun was a God in a chariot and based on stories handed down like Chinese Whispers about other goat herders that had been dead for centuries before a single line was written! you are free to believe what you want, hell believe in the great electron if that floats your boat, but seriously treating a patched together contradictory mess like that as the "word of God" is more than a little batshit. Its the word of a bunch of goat herders and ancient priests, nothing more. Hell look at a Strong's version and see how many words are ambiguous and could go one of several ways. if a Deity was writing an instruction manual do you honestly think he/she would leave so much open to interpretation?
As for TFA frankly they are as full of shit as those following the goat herders because until they can recreate those conditions in a lab and actually get life frankly we have NO clue as to which way it happened. it could have been asteroids bring the building blocks, it could have been lightning providing the right spark, could have been thermal vents, could have been pools, who the fuck knows. this planet has had so much turnover in the last 4 billion years frankly we know of maybe 2% of the things that have existed before us and we expect from such a limited dataset to figure out where the first living thing, the patient zero as it were, came from? give me a break.
You seem to be missing the point that the ONLY reason LS was able to get this chunk of the spectrum in the first places was for SAT communications NOT ground, and if LS would have stuck to that frankly there wouldn't be a problem. Its not the fault of the FCC that LS decided they couldn't make a go of it in the business plan they had originally agreed to, they should have to sell the spectrum they bought to someone else or stick with the original agreement. Frankly it doesn't matter what the GPS OEMs did or didn't do, this spectrum was sold with limitations attached and without those limitations would have sold for probably a lot more.
In my mind this is no different than those shady dealers that will pick up Seagate drives designed for video surveillance and because of the flood raising the price of drives trying to pawn them off as regular HDDs. They were sold cheaper than regular drives FOR A REASON and that was because they simply weren't built for the same use case but for stop and go data dumping not running an OS. Same here they got a cheaper deal on something that had been allocated for one use and some hedge fund manager thought he could pull an end run. Well too bad, you read the contract, you rolled the dice, you lost.
Its actually quite simple, the west will become gridlocked, with nobody able to innovate anything the constant copyright and patent trolling shut everything down or drag it for a decade through the courts, while the east that have made it clear they won't be buying our products OR playing our reindeer games will become the new powerhouse while the west rots. We've seen this before, in the rise of the USA who ignored the old world's copyrights and patents and were therefor able to build upon the work done before and "stand on the shoulders of giants" as it were. Now our entire history is being locked behind paywalls, can't anything get done with an army of lawyers, all so the 1% at the top can try to keep their strangehold on the wealth. Sad really but all good things must end and the current reign of the USA as the big dog will end with massive unemployment, out of control debt, and the jobs all being sent to places where they can build without an army or lawyers on retainer.
What bloatware would that be? The firewall in Vista/7 that has pretty damned comprehensive rules based filtering while being easy to use, THAT bloatware? or are you still bitching about a certain 12 year old OS that is going for a record on years of support even though they've passed any legal obligation they had to keep updating the thing, could it be that? Give me a damned break! What's next, you gonna complain that XP which is already 3 generations behind (XP X64, Vista, 7) runs as admin too? Move on dude. Man the world is gonna be full of butthurt nerds when 2014 gets here and XP doesn't get another extension so they will actually have to try to find things in the modern version to bitch about. But don't worry Ballmer is gonna shoot Windows in the face because he wants to be Apple so fucking bad he sleeps with an iPad under his pillow.
As for TFA frankly if that is the WORST thing an AV does color me happy. We've seen dllhost marked as a bug thus disabling the system, we've seen core boot files flagged as bugs thus bricking the system unless you had a second machine to Google how to fix the first, frankly MSE has been so far pretty harmless. That said even though I use it on my netbook and gamer machines I do NOT use it on the machine I actually do any real surfing on because frankly in my tests it doesn't really DO anything. What I mean by that is while it has a pretty decent scanner for downloaded files that is pretty much it, you load up a webpage with malicious code MSE isn't gonna say a word or try to block that site whereas both Comodo Internet Security and Avast Free stop the page from loading. I will give them credit for being just about the lowest resource using on any AV but the flipside is it simply isn't doing much. So while I recommend it for geeks that actually practice safe computing or for machines like my gamer PC and netbook where the only surfing they are doing is checking webmail or going to well vetted sites like this for regular users I simply can't give it out.
Maybe its because it was never really intended to be an AV, it was originally Giant Antispy before being purchased by MSFT, maybe the guys at MSFT got tired of AVs slowing down the system so focused on speed above all, who knows, but for a clean computer in my own tests which involved taking an offlease and hitting every topsite and crapsite I could find then using a disc filled with offline scanners to check the system I found MSE on XP scored horribly, MSE on Vista/7 did better simply because OS protections like low rights mode did most of the work, but in no version of Windows did it stop as much as Comodo IS or Avast Free. Oh and since you seem to hate the firewall so much Comodo IS is not only free for home AND business use but also has its own quite excellent firewall built in, which for those that just want one or the other its as simple as unchecking a box during install. For business users or those that want more finer grained controls I'd go with Comodo IS, for those that want a drop and go solution Avast Free is what you want. MSE? Meh only use it if resources are the highest concern, like say on an underclocked netbook (for those that haven't tried Brazos Tweaker it does rock and added an extra hour on my E350's battery) or a gamer system where you simply aren't doing any risky behavior.
Exactly, its not like MSFT doesn't have serious competition in this market with Sony and Nintendo so it isn't like they are gouging the developers here but you can't expect them to just eat the costs either. Patches have to be tested to make sure they don't cause problems with the system, with the game itself and with the network as a whole, because problems equal bad press and support issues. If these companies don't want to pay to patch they should do more QA and beta testing before shipping and there is always Steam. BTW does anyone know if there is a cost to Steam patching? Hoe about Sony or Nintendo? But considering how many indie game developers are making serious money on XBL I really don't think it is some horror story or people wouldn't be supporting XBL with their games, they'd be voting with their wallets and sticking with the other 3
Also this guy is bitching because he can't get funding for an ADVENTURE game, really? The point and click genre died out in the early 90s and was deader than Dixie by the time DOOM hit so no shit he isn't gonna get game companies to cough up for an adventure game as its doubtful they'd see their ROI even allow them to break even! Hell his Psychonauts took what? something like a decade to see the break even point? he is one of those "art house" style developers that while he wins awards those never seem to turn into sales, so anybody that bitches because he can't get funding for his pet project that is in a genre that's been dead 20 years i gotta take anything else they say with a big dose of salt.
Thank you. This argument that somehow Google is just this hippie software factory that makes all this stuff and gives it away for freedom and kittens and love of their fellow man is frankly as delusional and full of shit as saying MSFT is a cell phone company because they make WinPhone even though that thing hasn't made a red cent. The ONLY reason Google makes all this software is BAIT for their REAL GOAL which is eyeballs which are their PRODUCT. they then sell the data they mine and those very same eyeballs to companies in return for really fat checks. as you so perfectly posted Google admits right there in black and white that is where their money comes from, they certainly are not in any way trying to hide this, so WTF is it with all this "do no evil" RDF bullshit and cheerleading? I mean reading the posts in this thread you would think half of the guys here work in the marketing dept of Google!
So lets just call a spade a spade okay? Apple is a consumer devices company, MSFT is a business software and OS company, and Google is an AD company, why is that so damned hard for the perception bubble impaired to accept? Does apple and MSFT have other products? Yes but that isn't where the majority of their money comes from so saying MSFT is a cell phone company or Apple is a business server company wouldn't be very accurate would it? So saying Google is this free software firm that passes out FOSS like rainbows and puppies is just as much bullshit, they make these thing because the more eyeballs they capture the more money they make, THAT IS ALL. As we saw with buzz and wave any software that doesn't give the requisite ROI will be canned, same as I predict ChromeOS will go next as it isn't giving them the ROI they expected and it overlaps with android. They don't care if you used these services and products, they don't care what you think, its strictly business. Why is that so hard to understand?
And by using it you give them more data to mine and more ways to serve you....drumroll...ADS! Jesus man surely you can't be THAT damned blinded can you? they aren't giving you these things because they love you, because they give a wet fart about FOSS or kittens or saving the whales, they do it because IT MAKES THEM BILLIONS and as we have seen with buzz and wave and a hundred other projects anything that doesn't give them the ROI they expect gets shitcanned.
Dude quit drinking the koolaid and step away from the RDF, if their products work for you that's fine but just remember YOU ARE THEIR PRODUCT because they are selling YOUR ass, YOUR eyeballs and YOUR data to the advertisers who are their REAL customers. this isn't some non profit you know.
Well I figured this would happen after the terrorism meme ran its course. Next up watch as any act which gives the corps or government more power will be given a "protect our childrenz!" name to ensure they can pass it as no politician will want his opponent to be able to come with with ads like this...cue dramatic music..."When congressman porkman was given a chance to protect our children from the criminals that prey on them by passing the "Watch out for the kids" act of 2012 he turned it down and actually worked to block it. if I am elected I will ensure that I, John Kickbackus will ensure that the entire power of the government will be used to watch over our children, our most precious of resources. Won't you help me protect them?" (Kickbackus is surrounded by a bunch of adorable tykes).
You watch, after they are done ramming down the "protect our precious IP...err children!" crap the next to go will be any tools that can allow privacy or security like Truecrypt. They will have talking heads like Nancy Grace wallpaper the airwaves with pictures of some perv and say "This is nothing but a tool for child molesters!" and then you'll be looking at 10 years for even having a copy of software that the government doesn't have a master key to. Kinda sad how the west spent all that money and lives fighting the great totalitarian communist regimes only to slowly become fascist regimes once the wall fell huh? But I'm sure no matter what happens our corporate master will enjoy immunity and make out like robber barons and as long as the 1% have ever increasing wealth its good right?
Kinda hard for congressman Porkman and senator Kickbackus to bring home the bacon anymore with NASA now that the shuttle, which had its parts shotgunned all over the country is dead. as long as the POTUS keeps starting one war after another they can say they are "supporting the troops" which looks great in the commercials while at the same time getting their nephew a cushy job at the MIC and cashing some nice checks while saying they are "Bringing jobs to our district!" so expecting them to give a shit about NASA when there is nothing monetarily in it for them is an impossibility.
While I don't agree with Ron Paul on most of the issues one thing i do agree with him on is the end of fiat money and the MIC is why. as long as they can just print money and the fed can make it painless to put everything off until tomorrow with cheap money they can continue to blow cash like shit through a goose on the military industrial complex with no real short term consequences. If they actually had to raise taxes or cut spending before they could build that 11th aircraft carrier (even when we outnumber everyone on carriers 5 to 1 and the one they are wanting to replace is still serviceable) or sink more cash into the giant fail that is the F35 then maybe they would set some priorities and stop blowing all this cash. And as for TFA maybe if they knew their budgets couldn't be increased without raising taxes maybe NASA wouldn't have let the Webb telescope get so out of hand in the first place.
You joke Mr AC but this kind of crazy is a prime example of why itch scratching and ignoring the users makes Linux a giant fail on the desktop.
I'm sure i'll get hate for not drinking the koolaid and joining the perception bubble but fuck it, I'm a frustrated retailer and this needs to be said. For the first time in history you are being given not one, not two, but THREE incredible gifts, its like the field has been cleared and you are being given a 200 yard head start on a 300 yard race and what do you do? promptly shoot yourselves in the foot and then plop down in the middle of the field to tweet about the latest idea you have for REALLY pissing the users off!
I mean you have your traditional nemesis run by the most incompetent CEO since Apple had the Pepsi and not only that but he's about to shoot his own company right in the face because he is so desperate to get into cell phones and tablets he's gonna force WinPhone on the desktop, which i predict will be the biggest failwhale since MSFT Bob, that's one, two you have the great XP dieoff giving you all these incredibly powerful machines that MSFT has priced themselves out of the running with, we are talking late P4s to early mid dual core desktops and laptops with 1gb+ of RAM and 40Gb+ of HDDs which is more than enough for Linux, and finally you have a population that NEVER BEFORE IN HISTORY does damned near everything online, the one place where Linux has always been strong!
So what do you do? do you give all those businesses and consumers a distro with 10 years of updates so they can be confident they can just slap that OS on and it'll just work? Do you tell Linus to STFU and develop an ABI so the drivers won't break if they DO upgrade? Do you focus on stability and bug fixes and QA to make Linux so damned rock solid frankly no body has to do forum hunts of CLI fixes? NOPE, you throw out BOTH major DEs when they are FINALLY becoming really stable for a blingapaloza that sends you back a good 7 years on the stability front and just to add to the fail replace the sound which again was finally starting to get stable with Pulseaudio which is barely at MSFT first release quality, which is to say it sucks! Oh and if all that weren't bad enough Canonical the ones that were SUPPOSED to be the ones making the noob friendly distro for the masses says "Hey slapping a cell phone UI on the desktop is a GREAT idea, lets do that!" and makes their distro even more of a failwhale than Win 8, which is quite an accomplishment!
I swear the current OS situation reminds me of that old Monty Python skit where the upper class twits couldn't even shoot themselves correctly because they were too fricking stupid and I'm not alone in feeling this way. hell even Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols who is the biggest linTroll and the flipside to the Thurott Wintroll hates the new UIs and for HIM to say anything nasty about Linux is unheard of!
C'mon Linux community, you are better than this I know you are. its obvious the Linux devs are gonna ignore you unless you have a royal screaming shitfit so speak up already! We ALL know what's happening here, its as plain as the nose on your face, Apple released the iPhone and iPad and all the devs done lost their damned minds and are tripping all over themselves trying to come up with the "next iPad" and destroying their core strengths in the process. As someone who has been selling to consumers since before there even was a Windows i can tell you a few things about consumers and the desktop/laptop, 1.-Most of them have NO clue about all the bling bling crap you guys slap in there, and the few bits they know about they don't like. hell they were willing to put up with the Fisher price UI of XP right? all you need is to not make it fugly, maybe a nice metalli