Is James Powers a Democrat? Seems more like he is a bureaucrat. When a new government is elected, all the existing people in various departments aren't fired and replaced with people from the new party.
Right, but that's how people commonly phrase the difference; "Do you have a Mac or a PC?"
Everything else is 100% bullshit marketing.
Obviously not 100%, because people had been saying "Mac or PC" to refer to the difference between Windows and Mac OS for years before Apple started using it in their marketing. Apple just picked up the language people were already using.
Additionally, it's quite funny that you say "Did you fail English class?" in your previous post, when not only do you say "technological terminology" when the correct use is "technical terminology," you also fail to understand that English is a living language where usage and meaning is in flux, not fixed.
"PC" isn't technological terminology. It's more slang derived from a product's trademark. It can mean all kinds of things. Originally it meant "Personal Computer" then it meant IBM PC. Now it can mean either "Personal Computer" or be used to refer to machines which are the descendants of the IBM PC, machines running an OS from Microsoft.
If you wanted to be technical, you wouldn't use such a vague and meaningless term.
No, no it's not. They're clearly two different concepts.
How so? If something is not designed to last more than a year, then clearly it is a deliberate decision.
You interpret BobMcD's comments incorrectly. He does mean that Apple has made their products with deliberately shortened life spans. He has said so much more clearly in previous posts. Even if you there is some ambiguity in his statements in this thread, look at his posting history and you will find there is no ambiguity. He is a believer in conspiracy theories.
Not to be inflammatory, but did you actually manage to get so much of Steve Jobs in your mouth that it hit your brain?
"Not to be inflammatory"? You are outright trolling. What the fuck does this have to do with Steve Jobs? I mentioned a lot of products in my previous post that aren't made by Apple. This is about logic and reason. Somebody makes stupid comments unsupported by evidence, and I call them on it.
How stupid do you have to be to think that companies are totally unconcerned about the quality of their products beyond the next upgrade cycle? Sure, there might be some fly-by-night companies who deliberately make poor quality trash, but that's not the norm with established companies.
Building an iPad right means for him that it will fall appart into pieces exactly the same day Steve announces the new shiny model.
Sure... that's why Jobs is notoriously obsessed with quality, and they do things like mill laptop cases out of a single chunk of aluminum, rather than using the cheapest possible flimsy plastic like most of the others do.
Do you even think before posting, or are you just trolling? As much as any company wants to sell new products, it would be utter stupidity to do what you would describe, as the company would quickly gain a reputation for selling shoddy products.
I've found it far more likely to have bad memory or other non-moving component go bad on a portable computer, than the hard drive, for example.
That's weird, I've found the exact opposite. Hard drives are the most failure-prone component in a computer. Over time, they have 100% failure rate. The solid-state components, on the other hand usually keep working indefinitely, unless they are bad when shipped from the factory.
What does that have to do with anything? You claimed that consumer electronics are designed so they would fail shortly after a new product is released. Not only do you provide no evidence of this, you ignore the vast number of devices out there that prove it wrong.
You claim vast amounts of experience with this, but you must live in an alternate reality. Companies would not get repeat customers and the levels of customer satisfaction that they do if this were the case. Your claim is just ridiculous, let's find some more examples of consumer electronics around me:
TV set: 5 years (the old one still works and was about 20 years old)
Microwave oven: 15 years
Game console: 3 years (old one still works after 10 years)
Surround sound receiver/amplifier: 5 years
Even if we narrow it to just the area of portable computing, I know plenty of people who still use 5 year old laptops with no problems. Given that 1 year is a pretty typical update cycle for Apple, your claim of planned obsolescence is just absurd. I know very few people who replace their laptop every 12 months outside of power users or tech obsessives. At work we have a standard 3 year replacement cycle and there's even talk of extending that out to 4 years in some cases. I don't think they'd be doing that if stuff became unusable whenever new models came out.
So apparently, your vast experience is at odds with the rest of reality's. Perhaps we didn't get the memo?
They don't really have a choice in the matter. According to California law, all citizens must be issued with bellybutton and/or nipple piercings, an Apple product, and a copy of The Gay Agenda (may be pre-loaded onto said Apple product in eBook form.)
Are you asserting that books last less than three years? Because I'm relatively certain that there will be nearly no usable iPads in that same amount of time. They're simply not designed to outlive their replacement models.
Uhh, what? My iPhone is over two years old and still working very well, there have been two subsequent models of iPhone, and it is still getting software updates. I plan to use it for another 1-2 years if I don't lose it. My laptop is approaching three years old, and there have been many updated models released since. Still works fine.
What are you basing your dubious assertion on? Do you buy really shitty products that break easily, or do you not treat your equipment well or something?
"Clunky interface"? Really? The browser is completely configurable. You can make it look like Chrome [mozilla.org], IE [mozilla.org], etc. Mine just has the tab bar, a black status bar and a white "command bar", skinned by Vimperator [vimperator.org].
That's exactly how you get clunky interfaces. By not designing something simple and elegant, but by making it "skinnable." Skinning is the antithesis of good interface design. You give it away when you say it is about what it looks like, rather than how it functions. Interface design is more than skin-deep.
That is really so not true, for so many missionaries...
OK, so if that's not true, why don't they just go over there to feed the starving people, rather than going to feed the starving people and promote Christianity?
In 1995 Bill Gates wrote a panic email to his top execs titled, "Internet Tidal Wave"... why did he write this? Because, he knew that one day the browser could go full screen and become the operating system capable of playing games and complex software.
I doubt very much he "knew this" as such. I think he had only a vague idea of what was going on. Certainly, the way Microsoft reacted (trying to create a proprietary web) didn't really indicate that he understood the problem.
To be fair, nobody really knew in 1995 what was going to happen. It was all USENET and CD-ROM.
I can not for the life of me understand how anyone thinks that Firefox is a substandard browser.
It's slow and has a clunky interface. Not to mention the "automatic updates" bullshit that seems a lot like Windows automatic updating. Have you actually tried using other browsers?
Having music devices around isn't the problem. Stupid overprotective mollycoddling laws are the problem. What you're probably seeing is the result of lowering the speed limit to 40km/hr around school zones while cutting back on educating kids about the danger of cars. The number of kids who should be old enough - in late highschool - to behave at least somewhat sensibly and look both ways, but instead blindly walk out in front of oncoming traffic because they know they won't be blamed if they or someone else is hurt is mind boggling. It is now way too RARE to see kids actually look both ways crossing a road.
This is just a prime example of how badly the Australian political system has gone off the rails.
You know what's stupid? Blaming the government instead of the idiots that don't pay attention while crossing the road.
It's quite ironic, since you complain about mollycoddling and lack of responsibility - but then you want to be mollycoddled and placated by blaming it on government.
So you're saying the whole computer industry would now be companies producing machines made of glued together proprietary custom chips,
Where are you getting your non-proprietary chips from? It doesn't matter whether you buy from Intel, AMD or any other chip maker. The chips in your computer are patented, trademarked and copyrighted out the wazoo.
Personally I blame, in no particular order. Government for telling people that the world is coming to an end, and keep your kids inside.
Uhh, what governments are saying that? Most governments I know of have health programs that encourage children to go outside and exercise, along with funding things like National Parks.
The "keep your children inside because there are pedophiles everywhere" is more a byproduct of tabloid journalism and trashy TV news.
I take it you haven't actually checked the prices that the Apple II goes for on eBay lately. They definitely aren't cheap. Sure, you can get an Apple IIe somewhat cheaper, but they still aren't in the $20-$40 range for working models. I don't think Commodore 64s are either.
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Is James Powers a Democrat? Seems more like he is a bureaucrat. When a new government is elected, all the existing people in various departments aren't fired and replaced with people from the new party.
NOT ONE.
Just the OS.
Right, but that's how people commonly phrase the difference; "Do you have a Mac or a PC?"
Everything else is 100% bullshit marketing.
Obviously not 100%, because people had been saying "Mac or PC" to refer to the difference between Windows and Mac OS for years before Apple started using it in their marketing. Apple just picked up the language people were already using.
Additionally, it's quite funny that you say "Did you fail English class?" in your previous post, when not only do you say "technological terminology" when the correct use is "technical terminology," you also fail to understand that English is a living language where usage and meaning is in flux, not fixed.
"PC" isn't technological terminology. It's more slang derived from a product's trademark. It can mean all kinds of things. Originally it meant "Personal Computer" then it meant IBM PC. Now it can mean either "Personal Computer" or be used to refer to machines which are the descendants of the IBM PC, machines running an OS from Microsoft.
If you wanted to be technical, you wouldn't use such a vague and meaningless term.
Under what possible definition am I trolling? Are you actually willing to have a rational discussion, or are you just here to throw around insults?
No, no it's not. They're clearly two different concepts.
How so? If something is not designed to last more than a year, then clearly it is a deliberate decision.
You interpret BobMcD's comments incorrectly. He does mean that Apple has made their products with deliberately shortened life spans. He has said so much more clearly in previous posts. Even if you there is some ambiguity in his statements in this thread, look at his posting history and you will find there is no ambiguity. He is a believer in conspiracy theories.
Not to be inflammatory, but did you actually manage to get so much of Steve Jobs in your mouth that it hit your brain?
"Not to be inflammatory"? You are outright trolling. What the fuck does this have to do with Steve Jobs? I mentioned a lot of products in my previous post that aren't made by Apple. This is about logic and reason. Somebody makes stupid comments unsupported by evidence, and I call them on it.
How stupid do you have to be to think that companies are totally unconcerned about the quality of their products beyond the next upgrade cycle? Sure, there might be some fly-by-night companies who deliberately make poor quality trash, but that's not the norm with established companies.
No, he didn't. Rather, he said they're not designed so they won't. It's not the same thing.
Uhh, yes it is. Even so, this is false, demonstrated by the fact that the vast majority don't fail after 1 year.
Your version of the statement is that the manufacturer is malicious and wants the item to fail once a new item is available.
That's the subtext of his statement.
The version of the statement from the poster you were responding to is that the manufacturer just doesn't care if it fails after that.
No, he says that it's by design, not by accident.
Against your invincible iPhone, I'll put my two iPods that failed within a month of their warranty expiring.
That's far from the norm.
Building an iPad right means for him that it will fall appart into pieces exactly the same day Steve announces the new shiny model.
Sure... that's why Jobs is notoriously obsessed with quality, and they do things like mill laptop cases out of a single chunk of aluminum, rather than using the cheapest possible flimsy plastic like most of the others do.
Do you even think before posting, or are you just trolling? As much as any company wants to sell new products, it would be utter stupidity to do what you would describe, as the company would quickly gain a reputation for selling shoddy products.
I've found it far more likely to have bad memory or other non-moving component go bad on a portable computer, than the hard drive, for example.
That's weird, I've found the exact opposite. Hard drives are the most failure-prone component in a computer. Over time, they have 100% failure rate. The solid-state components, on the other hand usually keep working indefinitely, unless they are bad when shipped from the factory.
Apple has a history of bad wiring
[citation needed]
What does that have to do with anything? You claimed that consumer electronics are designed so they would fail shortly after a new product is released. Not only do you provide no evidence of this, you ignore the vast number of devices out there that prove it wrong.
You claim vast amounts of experience with this, but you must live in an alternate reality. Companies would not get repeat customers and the levels of customer satisfaction that they do if this were the case. Your claim is just ridiculous, let's find some more examples of consumer electronics around me:
Even if we narrow it to just the area of portable computing, I know plenty of people who still use 5 year old laptops with no problems. Given that 1 year is a pretty typical update cycle for Apple, your claim of planned obsolescence is just absurd. I know very few people who replace their laptop every 12 months outside of power users or tech obsessives. At work we have a standard 3 year replacement cycle and there's even talk of extending that out to 4 years in some cases. I don't think they'd be doing that if stuff became unusable whenever new models came out.
So apparently, your vast experience is at odds with the rest of reality's. Perhaps we didn't get the memo?
Art: Julia Child [amazon.ca]
Science: The Joy of Cooking. [amazon.ca]
Sex: 9 1/2 Weeks
For 8 years I only ate raw vegetable/fruits/nuts, that's pretty much it.
So, what was the cause of your mental lapse, did you get knocked on the head? Or were you stranded on a desert island?
They don't really have a choice in the matter. According to California law, all citizens must be issued with bellybutton and/or nipple piercings, an Apple product, and a copy of The Gay Agenda (may be pre-loaded onto said Apple product in eBook form.)
Are you asserting that books last less than three years? Because I'm relatively certain that there will be nearly no usable iPads in that same amount of time. They're simply not designed to outlive their replacement models.
Uhh, what? My iPhone is over two years old and still working very well, there have been two subsequent models of iPhone, and it is still getting software updates. I plan to use it for another 1-2 years if I don't lose it. My laptop is approaching three years old, and there have been many updated models released since. Still works fine.
What are you basing your dubious assertion on? Do you buy really shitty products that break easily, or do you not treat your equipment well or something?
"Clunky interface"? Really? The browser is completely configurable. You can make it look like Chrome [mozilla.org], IE [mozilla.org], etc. Mine just has the tab bar, a black status bar and a white "command bar", skinned by Vimperator [vimperator.org].
That's exactly how you get clunky interfaces. By not designing something simple and elegant, but by making it "skinnable." Skinning is the antithesis of good interface design. You give it away when you say it is about what it looks like, rather than how it functions. Interface design is more than skin-deep.
That is really so not true, for so many missionaries...
OK, so if that's not true, why don't they just go over there to feed the starving people, rather than going to feed the starving people and promote Christianity?
In 1995 Bill Gates wrote a panic email to his top execs titled, "Internet Tidal Wave"... why did he write this? Because, he knew that one day the browser could go full screen and become the operating system capable of playing games and complex software.
I doubt very much he "knew this" as such. I think he had only a vague idea of what was going on. Certainly, the way Microsoft reacted (trying to create a proprietary web) didn't really indicate that he understood the problem.
To be fair, nobody really knew in 1995 what was going to happen. It was all USENET and CD-ROM.
I can not for the life of me understand how anyone thinks that Firefox is a substandard browser.
It's slow and has a clunky interface. Not to mention the "automatic updates" bullshit that seems a lot like Windows automatic updating. Have you actually tried using other browsers?
Having music devices around isn't the problem. Stupid overprotective mollycoddling laws are the problem. What you're probably seeing is the result of lowering the speed limit to 40km/hr around school zones while cutting back on educating kids about the danger of cars. The number of kids who should be old enough - in late highschool - to behave at least somewhat sensibly and look both ways, but instead blindly walk out in front of oncoming traffic because they know they won't be blamed if they or someone else is hurt is mind boggling. It is now way too RARE to see kids actually look both ways crossing a road.
This is just a prime example of how badly the Australian political system has gone off the rails.
You know what's stupid? Blaming the government instead of the idiots that don't pay attention while crossing the road.
It's quite ironic, since you complain about mollycoddling and lack of responsibility - but then you want to be mollycoddled and placated by blaming it on government.
Back when Microsoft had nothing but BASIC in their product portfolio, they'd port it to anything with a blinking light.
Except that you needed to install Service Patch 2 for blinking light compatibility.
So you're saying the whole computer industry would now be companies producing machines made of glued together proprietary custom chips,
Where are you getting your non-proprietary chips from? It doesn't matter whether you buy from Intel, AMD or any other chip maker. The chips in your computer are patented, trademarked and copyrighted out the wazoo.
Personally I blame, in no particular order. Government for telling people that the world is coming to an end, and keep your kids inside.
Uhh, what governments are saying that? Most governments I know of have health programs that encourage children to go outside and exercise, along with funding things like National Parks.
The "keep your children inside because there are pedophiles everywhere" is more a byproduct of tabloid journalism and trashy TV news.
It's ironic that the most common scams on Ping right now revolve around Apple's own iPhone.
The author might want to look up the definition of irony, because I'm pretty sure this is the opposite.
I've run into that, but subverted... he actually taped the box to his pants and there was an actual gift inside...
Where by "actual gift," you mean his dick, right?
Subject line says it all.
If that's the case, then why did you feel the need to add text in the body of your comment?
At $20-40 on eBay, they're cheap too.
I take it you haven't actually checked the prices that the Apple II goes for on eBay lately. They definitely aren't cheap. Sure, you can get an Apple IIe somewhat cheaper, but they still aren't in the $20-$40 range for working models. I don't think Commodore 64s are either.