...but when will it be available to those of us living out in the country, miles away from a phone company switch? At this point I would kill for a reliable 128K where I live, as my dial-up modem is lucky to connect at 33.6K, but more often 28.8K. There is no other option. Sure 100Mbps is sweet if you happen to live in downtown Tokyo or London or Seattle, but what about those of us "out in the stick" who would pay almost anything to get off of dial-up?
Reading the papers and listening to the politicians, you'd think there were daily terrorist attacks going on. Here's a story in USA Today that uses terrorist attacks to justify allowing people to work away from their office? Give me a break! If memory serves, there have been exactly TWO "terror" attacks in the history of the United States. That's 230 years, now 300,000,000 people -- and TWO terror attacks. One being committed by just TWO American wackos and a truckload of fertilizer. Get over it, people, and get on with your lives! Worry about your kids, your weight, your smoking, your binge drinking, the bald tires on your car, your crack-addicted cousin, the viruses on your computer, the e-coli on your spinach, and getting hit by lightning while you're golfing. But for God's sake, stop worrying about the fucking terrorist attacks! There aren't any!
The last software Microsoft produced that was even remotely stable was the operating system for the Commodore PET back in 1977. It's all gone downhill from there. Microsoft should make keyboards and mice and leave the tough stuff to the experts.
Microsoft has only one thing to thank for its success today: IBM. In 1980, IBM was getting its butt kicked in the exploding desktop computer market by companies like Commodore, Atari, and Apple. And IBM was in a big hurry to join the party. IBM had all the hardware plans for its new 8088 desktop computer in place, but the operating system software was a much different story. The problem was, IBM was a huge, bloated company with layer upon layer of management and bureaucracy that stood in the way of accomplishing anything quickly. Even IBM's own leadership optimistically guessed that it would take them 2-3 years to build a working operating system from scratch. Clearly this would not do. They had only one year to get their new computer to market, and IBM could not do it themselves.
In July 1980 the founder of a small software company called "Microsoft" answered a phone call and very soon after met with IBM's top executives. Bill Gates confidently said that only he could write the code IBM needed in the time available -- nobody else in the world was up to the task. But in order to do it, Microsoft wanted to keep full control of their software. This was completely unheard of -- a brash little programmer playing hardball with one of the richest companies in the world. However IBM realized they were stuck between a rock and hard place and Bill Gates was right. If they wanted their operating system within a year, they had to agree. So IBM and Microsoft entered into a deal that essentially saw IBM make money by selling the hardware, while Microsoft made money by selling IBM copies of their OS. IBM's PC was released on August 12, 1981 running exclusively on Microsoft software -- and the rest is history.
Of course almost 25 years later the irony is clear. In 2005 Microsoft has become IBM -- the bloated, bureaucratic dinosaur that now stands in the way of its own success. Admittedly developing Longhorn must be a massive undertaking, however so was MS-DOS 1.0 back in 1980. The development cycle of Longhorn is now five years (and counting) with no firm end in sight. Meanwhile the development time of virtually every other product is getting shorter and shorter. Perhaps Microsoft needs a history lesson, or at least a sharper focus on what it is really trying to accomplish. That is what Steve Jobs brought back to Apple, and that is what Microsoft now desperately needs.
In the ocean there's always a bigger fish. In technology there's always a smaller, faster, and more responsive competitor.
I am sick and tired of people complaining about Apple's "incompatible" Digital Rights Management. You know what? Back in the 70's I had a big 8-track tape collection that was "incompatible" with my new cassette deck. Then I bought a turntable that was "incompatible" with all my cassettes. Then I bought a CD player that was "incompatible" with my vinyl LP collection. Now I can get DVD-Audio that's "incompatible" with my CD player. Yet somehow I have accepted all this; I didn't sue anybody and I didn't complain, because each new format was somehow better than the one before. So give me a break! Nobody's forcing anybody to buy iPod's or purchase songs from iTMS. If you're not happy with your iPod, take it back and find some other medium to play your music. There's still lots of cassette Walkman's out there....
1) Maybe "Lowkee" had a secret deal with the MPAA to do this from the start -- as a way of harvesting torrent users' IP's, and to give a very public scare to the entire P2P community.
2) Exactly how many minutes/seconds/frames of a movie does the MPAA consider as a violation? I've never downloaded a movie, but I'm worried that the bit patterns in my college thesis text from 1989 may co-incidentally match part of a frame from "Dude Where's My Car?". I guess I'd better wipe my hard drive just to be on the safe side.
The best time to switch to Mac is before some new virus attacks and kills your PC. So how about now? Honestly, until you've run with a Mac and with no worries about viruses and spyware and IE popups and all the annoying little things that make using any PC frustrating......
The best time to switch is when you're ready to stop worrying about your computer and start enjoying it again.
Ten years ago this would have been proof of alien visitation. Now, when 95% of the world's computers are functionally similar, only cutting-edge industrial design, packaging, and marketing will differentiate them. Like it or not, Apple is still way out front of everybody else on all counts. They will sell 20,000,000 of these this year.
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...because when I think of Apple, I think of videogames! (-;
...but when will it be available to those of us living out in the country, miles away from a phone company switch? At this point I would kill for a reliable 128K where I live, as my dial-up modem is lucky to connect at 33.6K, but more often 28.8K. There is no other option. Sure 100Mbps is sweet if you happen to live in downtown Tokyo or London or Seattle, but what about those of us "out in the stick" who would pay almost anything to get off of dial-up?
So Mario Garzia is Microsoft's "Director of Windows Reliability". Now there's an oxymoron for the ages. Hey Mario, you're fired!
Reading the papers and listening to the politicians, you'd think there were daily terrorist attacks going on. Here's a story in USA Today that uses terrorist attacks to justify allowing people to work away from their office? Give me a break! If memory serves, there have been exactly TWO "terror" attacks in the history of the United States. That's 230 years, now 300,000,000 people -- and TWO terror attacks. One being committed by just TWO American wackos and a truckload of fertilizer. Get over it, people, and get on with your lives! Worry about your kids, your weight, your smoking, your binge drinking, the bald tires on your car, your crack-addicted cousin, the viruses on your computer, the e-coli on your spinach, and getting hit by lightning while you're golfing. But for God's sake, stop worrying about the fucking terrorist attacks! There aren't any!
The last software Microsoft produced that was even remotely stable was the operating system for the Commodore PET back in 1977. It's all gone downhill from there. Microsoft should make keyboards and mice and leave the tough stuff to the experts.
Microsoft has only one thing to thank for its success today: IBM. In 1980, IBM was getting its butt kicked in the exploding desktop computer market by companies like Commodore, Atari, and Apple. And IBM was in a big hurry to join the party. IBM had all the hardware plans for its new 8088 desktop computer in place, but the operating system software was a much different story. The problem was, IBM was a huge, bloated company with layer upon layer of management and bureaucracy that stood in the way of accomplishing anything quickly. Even IBM's own leadership optimistically guessed that it would take them 2-3 years to build a working operating system from scratch. Clearly this would not do. They had only one year to get their new computer to market, and IBM could not do it themselves. In July 1980 the founder of a small software company called "Microsoft" answered a phone call and very soon after met with IBM's top executives. Bill Gates confidently said that only he could write the code IBM needed in the time available -- nobody else in the world was up to the task. But in order to do it, Microsoft wanted to keep full control of their software. This was completely unheard of -- a brash little programmer playing hardball with one of the richest companies in the world. However IBM realized they were stuck between a rock and hard place and Bill Gates was right. If they wanted their operating system within a year, they had to agree. So IBM and Microsoft entered into a deal that essentially saw IBM make money by selling the hardware, while Microsoft made money by selling IBM copies of their OS. IBM's PC was released on August 12, 1981 running exclusively on Microsoft software -- and the rest is history. Of course almost 25 years later the irony is clear. In 2005 Microsoft has become IBM -- the bloated, bureaucratic dinosaur that now stands in the way of its own success. Admittedly developing Longhorn must be a massive undertaking, however so was MS-DOS 1.0 back in 1980. The development cycle of Longhorn is now five years (and counting) with no firm end in sight. Meanwhile the development time of virtually every other product is getting shorter and shorter. Perhaps Microsoft needs a history lesson, or at least a sharper focus on what it is really trying to accomplish. That is what Steve Jobs brought back to Apple, and that is what Microsoft now desperately needs. In the ocean there's always a bigger fish. In technology there's always a smaller, faster, and more responsive competitor.
I am sick and tired of people complaining about Apple's "incompatible" Digital Rights Management. You know what? Back in the 70's I had a big 8-track tape collection that was "incompatible" with my new cassette deck. Then I bought a turntable that was "incompatible" with all my cassettes. Then I bought a CD player that was "incompatible" with my vinyl LP collection. Now I can get DVD-Audio that's "incompatible" with my CD player. Yet somehow I have accepted all this; I didn't sue anybody and I didn't complain, because each new format was somehow better than the one before. So give me a break! Nobody's forcing anybody to buy iPod's or purchase songs from iTMS. If you're not happy with your iPod, take it back and find some other medium to play your music. There's still lots of cassette Walkman's out there....
The best part about this entire article? The Google Ads at the end all advertise DVD copying software!
1) Maybe "Lowkee" had a secret deal with the MPAA to do this from the start -- as a way of harvesting torrent users' IP's, and to give a very public scare to the entire P2P community. 2) Exactly how many minutes/seconds/frames of a movie does the MPAA consider as a violation? I've never downloaded a movie, but I'm worried that the bit patterns in my college thesis text from 1989 may co-incidentally match part of a frame from "Dude Where's My Car?". I guess I'd better wipe my hard drive just to be on the safe side.
The best time to switch to Mac is before some new virus attacks and kills your PC. So how about now? Honestly, until you've run with a Mac and with no worries about viruses and spyware and IE popups and all the annoying little things that make using any PC frustrating...... The best time to switch is when you're ready to stop worrying about your computer and start enjoying it again.
I always figured he named his company after his medical condition!
Ten years ago this would have been proof of alien visitation. Now, when 95% of the world's computers are functionally similar, only cutting-edge industrial design, packaging, and marketing will differentiate them. Like it or not, Apple is still way out front of everybody else on all counts. They will sell 20,000,000 of these this year.
I like to think I need to "Optimize my Form Factor". Others think I just need to eat more salads.