I've been wondering about that since I heard the 10% market-share claim a few days ago.
Apple played the same game and masses of mewling Mac users picked up on it when Apple claimed a high market-share for the iPod by narrowing the playing field to hard-drive-only music players. Of course, Apple did this because, at the time, they didn't sell a memory-based player.
So I suppose it's as fair for Microsoft to narrow the playing field as it was for Apple to do so. Still, I'd love to see the complete set of numbers.
I'd target a high speed intercity train. If I time it right, I should be able to blast a 125mph train into pieces on a high speed track, in time to cause major derailments from other trains. What is this "high-speed train" of which you speak? This is America--we don't do high-speed passenger trains.
Men had to run a certain distance in a certain amount of time. Women had to run the same distance but were given more time. I asked why we had to run the distance anyway and the explanation had something to do with getting away from an enemy searching for you. Made sense, I suppose. But I asked why women were given a different time. After all, it's not like the enemy is going to say, "Oh! We're chasing a woman! Let's give her a ten minute head start!" Heck, I would think that opposite would be more likely...
The answer to my question was basically, "Shut up."
Water--or dihydrogen monoxide--is a dangerous chemical that we treat far too lightly! Water contributes to global warming, soil erosion, and caused the levee failures in New Orleans!
If every child had a school voucher (that could only be given to an education institute that met certain basic academic qualifications) Ah, there's the rub.
What is a "basic academic qualification"? Would you say an understanding of the theory of evolution is a "basic academic qualification"? Many would say yes. Some would say no. Who decides on this list of "basic academic qualifications"?
I mean, in theory, that's what public schools provide. By privatizing it but adding that rider about "basic academic qualification", you're keeping the same mess.
What happened last time was Apple fell downhill [...] Well, depends on your timeline.
While Jobs was there, back in mid-1985, Apple had it's huge reorg and layoff. Apple was losing money on Macs--sales were nowhere near meeting expectations and Apple II sales were dropping. I think this is when Steve was stuck in the corner as Chief Executive in charge of nothing.
Jobs left Apple in late 1985. It wasn't until after Jobs left that Apple produced Macs that weren't completely closed (ie, Macintosh II). Apple had it's largest marketshare and highest profits after Jobs left. Apple developed QuickTime, Hypercard, ColorSync, FireWire, and various other technologies while Jobs was gone.
So after Jobs left, things went uphill for about five years or so, leveled off for a few years, then went downhill.
I didn't see Firewall. In Ford's defense, I think Hollywood was trying to turn him into the new Humphrey Bogart--especially with Sabrina, a remake of an old Humphrey Bogart movie. Six Days and Seven Nights has a sort of an African Queen vibe to it.
I signed up for the free.Mac trial when I got my Mac. While I didn't get charged anything when I didn't sign up, my.Mac account is still buried within Mac OS X and it pops up from time to time when attempting to configure stuff (iChat, Mail, etc.).
iTunes is the more entertaining one. When I set up my iTunes account, it filled in my.Mac account. When I didn't renew it, I set up another iTunes account. So I have a bunch of songs purchased with one account and a bunch of songs purchased with another account. This sometimes confuses iTunes and a batch of songs are unplayable until I reauthorize my computer with one of the accounts.
(This is why I laugh whenever some MacHead tells me about how they "buy" their music rather than "rent" it. Cancel your iTunes account and see what happens to those songs you "bought".)
About the only reason I can see for Circuit City is that it's national. Fry's is a much better choice, but it's a pretty small chain and it's mostly out west.
Of course, one could also make the argument that the absence of a Fry's means that it's not a good tech site. After all, if it were a good tech site, Fry's would build a store there.
Too many "planned communities" around there. Agreed. I'd have to get approval from the homeowners committee to put up an antenna for WiFi. I'd have to stop coding and go out a cut my lawn because the homeowners committee had a meeting last night and decided my grass was too long. The homeowners committee won't let me fly my model helicopter around because it makes too much noise. Forget doing my own car repairs in the driveway...
No way.
About the only advantage Irvine has is lots of bike trails.
I would agree--I don't have a problem with giving "time sensitive data" priority. But there's more to it than that.
Essentially, what the Telecoms want to do is give their "time sensitive data" priority, at the expensive of everyone else's "time sensitive data." So, for example, if my provider is Verizon, I'd be able to download a song from Verizon twice as fast as a song from iTunes. Essentially, Verizon gets to decide who's data is more important.
Telecoms could also enter into agreements with certain services to make sure that the packets from those services have a higher priority. So MSNBC, for example, gets slowed down and FOX news video goes faster. Which would you choose to watch? Add to that things like VOIP. Say, I pay $24.95 a month to Skype and, say, $14.95 a month to Verizon for the broadband connection. Of course, Verizon would love to have some of that $24.95. So they'll charge me $32.99 for VOIP and broadband and it's one bill. Great deal, right? But let's say Skype "sounds better", or I prefer their interface, or Verizon doesn't support Macs or something. In any event, I want Skype. I'm willing to pay the $24.95.
Furthermore, suppose I've paid for Verizon TV and I try to use Vonage as my phone provider. The bandwidth that Vonage would have access to is less than the bandwidth that Verizon VOIP would have. So I couldn't talk on the phone while the TV was on unless I used Verizon's VOIP.
Well, age guessing is always tricky and when in doubt, it's a good idea to ask.
Heck, I got carded for cigarettes this morning and I'm more than twice the legal age. This happened because it was a new employee and the cash register told her to ask. Maybe Best Buy's cash registers have started doing that, just to remind the person that they're supposed to check these things.
Re:It Left a Hole in the Clouds
on
UFOs In the News
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· Score: 4, Insightful
My take is a new stealth military craft - hence all the coverup by the FAA. I don't have a problem with the secret military aircraft theory except for one problem.
What the hell is a secret military aircraft doing in the middle of the busiest airport in America?
First, if it's supposed to be a secret, it certainly shouldn't be hovering over an airport. It should be out in a more deserted environment. Second, even if it was some kind of weird test, the fact that it distracted people who were doing things like driving airplanes, repairing airplanes, etc. implies a threat to public safety and I don't think the military would go for that. Finally, the risk that something could go wrong--collision, malfunction, etc.--and end up spilling the beans and potentially injuring people would be really stupid. Even the military isn't that stupid.
I have a feeling this won't happen, unfortunately.
Take Airport Express. Apple has encrypted all the music that goes from your Mac to the Airport Express so that evil people can't intercept it and steal music, thus making it impossible for anyone other than Apple to take advantage of the audio capabilities of Airport Express in their applications.
It'll work the same here. Some people who have signed the appropriate paperwork may be able to get access to it (eg, El Gato) but I doubt Apple will allow just anybody to work with it.
Well, I'll admit that it's a bit more complex than that...
Essentially, it's the "Your employer has an obligation to keep you safe from sexual harrassment" argument. So if I grope the cute guy down the hall, he can sue my employer. Besides, lawyers will customarily go after the money, and companies have more money than individuals, so you blame the company for hiring me in the first place.
If I bring my puppy to work everyday and he humps your leg and I don't do anything about the puppy humping your leg and basically say, "Hey! It's part of the job. Get over it," then you could sue me for sexual harassment.
Sexual Harassment laws are actually pretty scary. There really are no standards--if you think you were harassed, you were, and it's just a question of how much money you'll get.
[...] they weren't able to prevent clever programmers from putting a notice on the same screen that came up saying "licensed by sega" that says "no, it isn't, but this message has to be here". Sort of off-topic, but I always liked this one.
Supposedly somewhere in the old IBM BIOS ROMs, there's a "Copyright 1981 IBM." Some programs, like IBM's, looked for this and would not run if it wasn't there. Now the cloners, of course, could not put this in. Their solution: Go four bytes in front of it and add "NOT ".
I don't know if it's true or just an urban legend, but it's a funny concept.
I can spend $12 for a CD with one song that I like in high quality. Or I can spend $0.99 and get that one song that I like in "good enough" quality. Since the vast majority of my music-listening is in the car or on the bicycle...
So, let's see. $12 for 1 song I like in exquisite quality, which I will immediate rip to "good enough" quality. Or $0.99 for the one song I want in already "good enough" quality.
Actually, in the original series, I think there were only three episodes that had to do with time travel. There was City on the Edge of Forever--considered one of the best, Assignment: Earth, which was a pilot, and Tomorrow is Yesterday. So three out of seventy some-odd episodes. City on the Edge of Forever was really the only one where they went back into the past to "set things right."
There was arguably one more, where Kirk, Spock, and McCoy got zapped into some other planet's past. And there were a few episodes where they ended up on a planet that managed to either coincidentally or due to manipulation ended up being a "copy" of Earth's past (Bread and Circuses, Patterns of Force, A Piece of the Action). I don't know if you want to count those.
I just got Suzuki Superbikes for PS2. In this game, the riders occasionally kick at each other. Since kicking someone on a motorcycle at race speeds could certainally result in injuries as bad as or worse than a bullet wound, am I playing a violent game?
Yes, it is a violent game if it allows you to do that. Thus, they would have to change the game so that players do not kick at each other. In fact, at the end of the game, all players will be shown joining the winner for a large group hug to show that there is no animosity.
What if I try to take out other drivers in GT4?
Well, then, your car will immediately be stopped by the police and you automatically lose the race. In fact, in order to keep anyone's feelings from being hurt, GT4 will be rewritten so that all races always end in a tie between all drivers.
Oh, and what if I develop a FPS app in Java? The folks at Sun aided and abetted me. Do they go to jail?
Yes they do. In fact, the makers of personal computers will be liable if someone uses their personal computer to virtually harm another being--including making them feel bad. Of course, makers of personal computers will then sue all of their component suppliers and so on down the line.
Slashdot Mirror
Possibly, but unlikely.
I've been wondering about that since I heard the 10% market-share claim a few days ago.
Apple played the same game and masses of mewling Mac users picked up on it when Apple claimed a high market-share for the iPod by narrowing the playing field to hard-drive-only music players. Of course, Apple did this because, at the time, they didn't sell a memory-based player.
So I suppose it's as fair for Microsoft to narrow the playing field as it was for Apple to do so. Still, I'd love to see the complete set of numbers.
I'm always reminded of way back in when in ROTC.
Men had to run a certain distance in a certain amount of time. Women had to run the same distance but were given more time. I asked why we had to run the distance anyway and the explanation had something to do with getting away from an enemy searching for you. Made sense, I suppose. But I asked why women were given a different time. After all, it's not like the enemy is going to say, "Oh! We're chasing a woman! Let's give her a ten minute head start!" Heck, I would think that opposite would be more likely...
The answer to my question was basically, "Shut up."
Water--or dihydrogen monoxide--is a dangerous chemical that we treat far too lightly! Water contributes to global warming, soil erosion, and caused the levee failures in New Orleans!
Become informed of the dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide before it's too late!
Perhaps he plans to attach frickin' laser beams to their heads.
What is a "basic academic qualification"? Would you say an understanding of the theory of evolution is a "basic academic qualification"? Many would say yes. Some would say no. Who decides on this list of "basic academic qualifications"?
I mean, in theory, that's what public schools provide. By privatizing it but adding that rider about "basic academic qualification", you're keeping the same mess.
While Jobs was there, back in mid-1985, Apple had it's huge reorg and layoff. Apple was losing money on Macs--sales were nowhere near meeting expectations and Apple II sales were dropping. I think this is when Steve was stuck in the corner as Chief Executive in charge of nothing.
Jobs left Apple in late 1985. It wasn't until after Jobs left that Apple produced Macs that weren't completely closed (ie, Macintosh II). Apple had it's largest marketshare and highest profits after Jobs left. Apple developed QuickTime, Hypercard, ColorSync, FireWire, and various other technologies while Jobs was gone.
So after Jobs left, things went uphill for about five years or so, leveled off for a few years, then went downhill.
True. Why look how successful the Mac was between 1984 and 1985, while Steve Jobs was in charge. Look how successful it was after he left.
I didn't see Firewall. In Ford's defense, I think Hollywood was trying to turn him into the new Humphrey Bogart--especially with Sabrina, a remake of an old Humphrey Bogart movie. Six Days and Seven Nights has a sort of an African Queen vibe to it.
I signed up for the free .Mac trial when I got my Mac. While I didn't get charged anything when I didn't sign up, my .Mac account is still buried within Mac OS X and it pops up from time to time when attempting to configure stuff (iChat, Mail, etc.).
.Mac account. When I didn't renew it, I set up another iTunes account. So I have a bunch of songs purchased with one account and a bunch of songs purchased with another account. This sometimes confuses iTunes and a batch of songs are unplayable until I reauthorize my computer with one of the accounts.
iTunes is the more entertaining one. When I set up my iTunes account, it filled in my
(This is why I laugh whenever some MacHead tells me about how they "buy" their music rather than "rent" it. Cancel your iTunes account and see what happens to those songs you "bought".)
About the only reason I can see for Circuit City is that it's national. Fry's is a much better choice, but it's a pretty small chain and it's mostly out west.
Of course, one could also make the argument that the absence of a Fry's means that it's not a good tech site. After all, if it were a good tech site, Fry's would build a store there.
No way.
About the only advantage Irvine has is lots of bike trails.
I would agree--I don't have a problem with giving "time sensitive data" priority. But there's more to it than that.
Essentially, what the Telecoms want to do is give their "time sensitive data" priority, at the expensive of everyone else's "time sensitive data." So, for example, if my provider is Verizon, I'd be able to download a song from Verizon twice as fast as a song from iTunes. Essentially, Verizon gets to decide who's data is more important.
Telecoms could also enter into agreements with certain services to make sure that the packets from those services have a higher priority. So MSNBC, for example, gets slowed down and FOX news video goes faster. Which would you choose to watch? Add to that things like VOIP. Say, I pay $24.95 a month to Skype and, say, $14.95 a month to Verizon for the broadband connection. Of course, Verizon would love to have some of that $24.95. So they'll charge me $32.99 for VOIP and broadband and it's one bill. Great deal, right? But let's say Skype "sounds better", or I prefer their interface, or Verizon doesn't support Macs or something. In any event, I want Skype. I'm willing to pay the $24.95.
Furthermore, suppose I've paid for Verizon TV and I try to use Vonage as my phone provider. The bandwidth that Vonage would have access to is less than the bandwidth that Verizon VOIP would have. So I couldn't talk on the phone while the TV was on unless I used Verizon's VOIP.
Well, age guessing is always tricky and when in doubt, it's a good idea to ask.
Heck, I got carded for cigarettes this morning and I'm more than twice the legal age. This happened because it was a new employee and the cash register told her to ask. Maybe Best Buy's cash registers have started doing that, just to remind the person that they're supposed to check these things.
What the hell is a secret military aircraft doing in the middle of the busiest airport in America?
First, if it's supposed to be a secret, it certainly shouldn't be hovering over an airport. It should be out in a more deserted environment. Second, even if it was some kind of weird test, the fact that it distracted people who were doing things like driving airplanes, repairing airplanes, etc. implies a threat to public safety and I don't think the military would go for that. Finally, the risk that something could go wrong--collision, malfunction, etc.--and end up spilling the beans and potentially injuring people would be really stupid. Even the military isn't that stupid.
I have a feeling this won't happen, unfortunately.
Take Airport Express. Apple has encrypted all the music that goes from your Mac to the Airport Express so that evil people can't intercept it and steal music, thus making it impossible for anyone other than Apple to take advantage of the audio capabilities of Airport Express in their applications.
It'll work the same here. Some people who have signed the appropriate paperwork may be able to get access to it (eg, El Gato) but I doubt Apple will allow just anybody to work with it.
"Yippee Ki-yay, Motherfucker."
Sorry.
Well, I'll admit that it's a bit more complex than that...
Essentially, it's the "Your employer has an obligation to keep you safe from sexual harrassment" argument. So if I grope the cute guy down the hall, he can sue my employer. Besides, lawyers will customarily go after the money, and companies have more money than individuals, so you blame the company for hiring me in the first place.
If I bring my puppy to work everyday and he humps your leg and I don't do anything about the puppy humping your leg and basically say, "Hey! It's part of the job. Get over it," then you could sue me for sexual harassment.
Sexual Harassment laws are actually pretty scary. There really are no standards--if you think you were harassed, you were, and it's just a question of how much money you'll get.
Supposedly somewhere in the old IBM BIOS ROMs, there's a "Copyright 1981 IBM." Some programs, like IBM's, looked for this and would not run if it wasn't there. Now the cloners, of course, could not put this in. Their solution: Go four bytes in front of it and add "NOT ".
I don't know if it's true or just an urban legend, but it's a funny concept.
Well, that depends.
I can spend $12 for a CD with one song that I like in high quality. Or I can spend $0.99 and get that one song that I like in "good enough" quality. Since the vast majority of my music-listening is in the car or on the bicycle...
So, let's see. $12 for 1 song I like in exquisite quality, which I will immediate rip to "good enough" quality. Or $0.99 for the one song I want in already "good enough" quality.
Which is the better deal, indeed?
I'm sorry, but that's classified.
Actually, in the original series, I think there were only three episodes that had to do with time travel. There was City on the Edge of Forever--considered one of the best, Assignment: Earth, which was a pilot, and Tomorrow is Yesterday. So three out of seventy some-odd episodes. City on the Edge of Forever was really the only one where they went back into the past to "set things right."
There was arguably one more, where Kirk, Spock, and McCoy got zapped into some other planet's past. And there were a few episodes where they ended up on a planet that managed to either coincidentally or due to manipulation ended up being a "copy" of Earth's past (Bread and Circuses, Patterns of Force, A Piece of the Action). I don't know if you want to count those.
Well, then, your car will immediately be stopped by the police and you automatically lose the race. In fact, in order to keep anyone's feelings from being hurt, GT4 will be rewritten so that all races always end in a tie between all drivers.
Yes they do. In fact, the makers of personal computers will be liable if someone uses their personal computer to virtually harm another being--including making them feel bad. Of course, makers of personal computers will then sue all of their component suppliers and so on down the line.