Versus what? Leaving the fate of humanity subject to the power of those that control the coercive reigns of government? A power which is ultimately derived from the coercive use of force. Government power should be employed to balance humanity's worst impulses and not allowed to be used as a vehicle to magnify them.
Do you understand what laissez-faire capitalism means? It does not mean government balancing humanity's worst impulses, it means that government should not be allowed to interfere with making profits, under any conditions. In other words, government should not be allowed to step in and prevent private entities from using coercive force or violence.
The libertarian solution would be to allow the guillotine thus periodically cleansing the population of sociopaths.
WTF? What kind of libertarian allows arbitrary executions? Isn't that the exact opposite of libertarian principles? I know there are about 10,000 different kinds of libertarian, but can't they at least agree on this one?
Well since Apple was working with the same RIAA people that Amazon was working with, they would have learned that Amazon was going to be DRM-Free.
OK, do you have any evidence of that? Apple has managed to keep projects (even ones involving multiple partner companies) secret unit their announcement, why should we assume that Amazon can't also do so?
I'm going to want to use it to read the long volumes I encounter on a daily basis because seeing them on a backlit screen is far more comfortable than seeing black text on a white background on a computer monitor.
How is your computer monitor not a backlit screen?
(look when Jobs wrote that letter declaring 'Oh we don't like DRM, we were strong armed...' a few months before Amazon started selling DRM free music).
Are you chronologically challenged or something? Your own post says that Jobs wrote the letter months before Amazon's music store launched. So, how could it be in response to Amazon?
Since WikiLeaks was already being called a "terrorist" organization by high ranking US officials before Anonymous started its DDoS attacks how much more damage was there to do?
There is immense potential for damage in reinforcing the slurs against Wikileaks. Politicians can accuse Wikileaks of terrorism all they like, but few people will believe them, because people generally don't trust what politicians say. However, if third parties start reinforcing what they say with their actions, then people will start believing those politicians.
It would be better if Wikileaks, which actually serves a valuable (although controversial) role, is not associated with Anonymous and their juvenile DDOS attacks and Rick-rolling.
Why would you need a "dialer app" when the phone can already dial numbers out of the box? Moreover, why would this have any relevance to market analysis? I think you're grasping at straws here.
Why do we do anything? It's a statistic that tells us that app makers targetting cell phone users will find a larger market in android for example.
That doesn't make any sense. If it were about selling apps, then why would developers care if the buyer owned a phone or a non-phone device? More to the point, if it were about selling apps, wouldn't the relevant metric be the number of apps sold, rather than the number of handsets sold?
This is comparing apples to oranges. The iPhone is a single device from a single manufacturer. "Android market share" consists of many different devices from several different manufacturers. Why are they comparing two unlike things? If you wanted to compare Android to anything, it should include all iOS devices, such as the iPod Touch and iPad as well as the iPhone.
Apple is interfering with free markets and capitalism,
How so?
And Apple should be the last company to complain about that; without anti-trust enforcement against IBM and Microsoft, Apple wouldn't even exist.
How so? Apple was established quite independently of IBM and Microsoft, and had nothing to do with anti-trust litigation against those companies. Are you just making stuff up here?
A "free market" doesn't mean that companies can do whatever they like, it means that customers have a free choice to buy and use what they want in the market.
And how does Apple deny them that choice? Apple products are available to buy at the purchaser's discretion. There is nothing forcing people to buy them. There is no forced monopoly like there is with companies such as telecommunication providers, where there might only be one choice in a particular region.
What you refer to is not a real stylus, and will not give you the precision or pressure sensitivity of one.
You think that most stylus-driven tablets or devices are pressure-sensitive?? Hardly any of them are, only the high-end ones. In fact, many of them are crappy resistive touch-screens. A "fake" stylus for an iPad will perform just as well as 99% of the "real" stylus-driven devices out there.
Have you met any artists who hate stylus input? How about taking notes, drawing, or entering symbols not found on your keyboard, as with most non-latin languages including mathematics.
So, buy a stylus for the iPad. They are readily available, for only a few bucks.
Slashdot Mirror
Versus what? Leaving the fate of humanity subject to the power of those that control the coercive reigns of government? A power which is ultimately derived from the coercive use of force. Government power should be employed to balance humanity's worst impulses and not allowed to be used as a vehicle to magnify them.
Do you understand what laissez-faire capitalism means? It does not mean government balancing humanity's worst impulses, it means that government should not be allowed to interfere with making profits, under any conditions. In other words, government should not be allowed to step in and prevent private entities from using coercive force or violence.
The libertarian solution would be to allow the guillotine thus periodically cleansing the population of sociopaths.
WTF? What kind of libertarian allows arbitrary executions? Isn't that the exact opposite of libertarian principles? I know there are about 10,000 different kinds of libertarian, but can't they at least agree on this one?
Hume, Kant & Smith are *long* dead.
What a remarkable statement of the obvious! Do you have anything to say that's actually relevant to the conversation?
Well since Apple was working with the same RIAA people that Amazon was working with, they would have learned that Amazon was going to be DRM-Free.
OK, do you have any evidence of that? Apple has managed to keep projects (even ones involving multiple partner companies) secret unit their announcement, why should we assume that Amazon can't also do so?
Am I am that engineer!
Yes, I'm sure You Is You that engineer.
One must examine all possibilities before jumping to any conclusions.
If you're just going to jump to conclusions anyway, why waste time examining all possibilities?
I'm going to want to use it to read the long volumes I encounter on a daily basis because seeing them on a backlit screen is far more comfortable than seeing black text on a white background on a computer monitor.
How is your computer monitor not a backlit screen?
(look when Jobs wrote that letter declaring 'Oh we don't like DRM, we were strong armed...' a few months before Amazon started selling DRM free music).
Are you chronologically challenged or something? Your own post says that Jobs wrote the letter months before Amazon's music store launched. So, how could it be in response to Amazon?
Since WikiLeaks was already being called a "terrorist" organization by high ranking US officials before Anonymous started its DDoS attacks how much more damage was there to do?
There is immense potential for damage in reinforcing the slurs against Wikileaks. Politicians can accuse Wikileaks of terrorism all they like, but few people will believe them, because people generally don't trust what politicians say. However, if third parties start reinforcing what they say with their actions, then people will start believing those politicians.
if you push people to a situation in which the only practical and doable thing they can do is ddos, they will ddos.
How is DDoS the only practical and "doable" option?
anonymous is people. wikileaks serves people. anyone who tries to separate people with what serves them, are against people.
Oookaaaay... would you like some Soylent Green with that? I have my copy of "How to Serve Man" right here if you want to refer to it.
It would be better if Wikileaks, which actually serves a valuable (although controversial) role, is not associated with Anonymous and their juvenile DDOS attacks and Rick-rolling.
Why would you need a "dialer app" when the phone can already dial numbers out of the box? Moreover, why would this have any relevance to market analysis? I think you're grasping at straws here.
Why do we do anything? It's a statistic that tells us that app makers targetting cell phone users will find a larger market in android for example.
That doesn't make any sense. If it were about selling apps, then why would developers care if the buyer owned a phone or a non-phone device? More to the point, if it were about selling apps, wouldn't the relevant metric be the number of apps sold, rather than the number of handsets sold?
The article is measuring what OS is running on all cellphones regardless of make or model
But for what purpose is it doing so?
I'm carrying on with this discussion on an iPhone and I'm not as bent out of shape or butthurt as the pair of you
WTF?
Is it a cellular phone?
Why does it matter?
Again, I asked what are you trying to measure? Perhaps more importantly, why are you trying to measure?
an iPod is not a phone. Yes, using a wifi connection an app you can make VOIP calls, but it is not a cellular phone.
I'm not sure what your point is. The iPad is available in versions that connect to a celular network. What exactly are you trying to measure?
The conversation is about the market penetration of cellular phone OS's, not about the market penetration of the physical phones themselves.
Did you even read my comment? If it was about OS penetration then why are they excluding some of Apple's devices that use the same OS?
This is comparing apples to oranges. The iPhone is a single device from a single manufacturer. "Android market share" consists of many different devices from several different manufacturers. Why are they comparing two unlike things? If you wanted to compare Android to anything, it should include all iOS devices, such as the iPod Touch and iPad as well as the iPhone.
Apple is interfering with free markets and capitalism,
How so?
And Apple should be the last company to complain about that; without anti-trust enforcement against IBM and Microsoft, Apple wouldn't even exist.
How so? Apple was established quite independently of IBM and Microsoft, and had nothing to do with anti-trust litigation against those companies. Are you just making stuff up here?
A "free market" doesn't mean that companies can do whatever they like, it means that customers have a free choice to buy and use what they want in the market.
And how does Apple deny them that choice? Apple products are available to buy at the purchaser's discretion. There is nothing forcing people to buy them. There is no forced monopoly like there is with companies such as telecommunication providers, where there might only be one choice in a particular region.
We're not exactly known for downright murdering our public officials.
Except for the fact of all the murdered public officials in American history. Yeah, we're pretty well known for this kind of thing.
What you refer to is not a real stylus, and will not give you the precision or pressure sensitivity of one.
You think that most stylus-driven tablets or devices are pressure-sensitive?? Hardly any of them are, only the high-end ones. In fact, many of them are crappy resistive touch-screens. A "fake" stylus for an iPad will perform just as well as 99% of the "real" stylus-driven devices out there.
You could have just bought an iPod Touch if you want the "smart" without the phone plan.
I'm not aware of any current tablets that don't support a USB connector, so you're not exactly narrowing it down there, pal.
Have you met any artists who hate stylus input? How about taking notes, drawing, or entering symbols not found on your keyboard, as with most non-latin languages including mathematics.
So, buy a stylus for the iPad. They are readily available, for only a few bucks.