Perhaps the felt that it was insensitive to boobies? Since it was American soldiers being killed by these things, referring to American soldiers as boobs might not be considered politically correct?
Just a thought.
Well, yeah. But a magazine like this would be much cooler. As a battery goes dead, you insert the dead one in the top and a fresh one pops out the bottom with a reassuring ka-chunk. You could sell units that hold two, four, and eight batteries. Make it look cool...
Speaking of parents and video games, this one struck me the other day when discussing "The Battle For The Living Room."
In environments where the kids play video games and the adults don't, how often is the video game system in the living room?
I know three families in this situation. In 2 of them, the video game is not hooked to the TV in the living room--it is hooked to either another TV in the corner of the living room or is hooked to a TV in the kid's room. Only in one family is the video-game console hooked to the family TV in the living room.
Now, this is anecdotal and I'd be curious if other people have similar experiences. But "trans-generational games" like this will help Nintendo beat PlayStation and Xbox in "The Battle For The Living Room."
A lot of companies have an Apple computer lying around just to test their webpage under Safari. 17% of companies probably means they have 1 Apple computer for every 1000 Dells.
Agreed, but I think there's more to it. I can't imagine that those companies would really count Apple as an "IT Vendor" nor have much of an opinion one way or another.
More likely, IMHO, these are companies that have an Art/Video department and use Macs in that department. Also, 65% of the companies depended on Apple as a software vendor. I'll rashly assume this means products like Final Cut, Logic, FileMaker, WebObjects, and the QuickTime server software.
Then why does it cost more to get more channels? If your assertion is true, then it should cost the same no matter how many channels your cable box is authorized to decrypt.
*blink*
Access, as in access to the content. You want SciFi's content, you have to pay SciFi to access their content. That's why it costs more if you have more channels.
Also, who pays for ACCESS to broadcast stations? There's the same quantity of ads on cable as there is on broadcast TV.
Actually, I believe cable operators have to pay the stations in order to broadcast their content. They can't just stick up their own antenna and funnel that to their subscribers.
Also, arguably, you're paying for the convenience of accessing broadcast stations over cable with great reception. Remember one of the complaints about satellite was/is that you can't get your "local stations" so you still need an antenna.
By the way, the reason there are ads on basic cable stations is that they wouldn't sell enough subscriptions at a price that would make it worthwhile. How much does HBO charge? $9.95/mo? $12.95/mo? Would enough people pay $9.95/mo for, say, commercial-free Sci-Fi channel to make it worthwhile?
Re:How is Apple an important vendor to CIOs?
on
Top 40 IT Vendors Rated
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Well, according to the page, 17% of the companies questioned dealt with Apple. So I assume it's a case where not too many people do, but those who do are pretty happy.
I was amused by the individual rankings, though. Apple's highest scores came in "increasing revenue", "solves problems", and "high quality." Apple's lowest scores were "costs", "return on investment" (related to cost), and "flexible and responsive." In others words, they love Macs but they think they cost too much.
Well, part of the issue I have with this opinion is the dreaded concept of "computer literacy."
Years and years ago, I bumped into my old elementary school principal. He asked me to come back and talk to some of the teachers about using computers in their classrooms. Every teacher I spoke to said the same thing, "We have to teach kids not to be afraid of computers."
Now, I grew up using a computer--a multimillion dollar mainframe. I was never "afraid" of using it. As I mentioned to the principal, "These are kids who hang upside-down from steel jungle gyms. They aren't afraid of anything--least of all a hunk of plastic." It is adults who wasted time with the whole concept of "computer literacy" because they had to go back and relearn this stuff, so the kids obviously had to as well.
Where computers work in the classroom is the same way that they work in business: they enhance productivity. Whether that means they can assist in communicating concepts that the teacher is trying to communicate or they can remove some of drudgework of school (eg, writing a paper, drawing graphs) is unimportant. The computers are tools for the student, like pencils, pens, notebook paper, graph paper, etc. They are not a raison d'etre in of themselves.
The one issue I always have is "What is an emergency?" Trust me, there are people who call 911 because their neighbors are too loud, they're lost, or they need the correct time.
Your property rights end when they violate my rights if you are operating a business for the consumption of the general public.
Well, there's lots of case law here which I'll skip. But you're arguing that you have some sort of "right" to use a cell phone. That strikes me as particularly bogus. You don't have a "right" to use a cell phone.
Why do they need to ban cell phones? Ban the morons that abuse them and ruin it for everybody else.
In an ideal world, I agree with you. The difficulty is that removing the annoying person using the cellphone can be as disruptive--or moreso--than the act of using a cellphone. Suppose the person refuses to leave? Which is going to be worse? Trying to watch a movie while some asshole talks on their cellphone or argues with the usher?
If I ran a movie theatre and this technology were available, I would use it. However, I do believe that patrons should be notified before purchasing their tickets so they have an option to go to another theatre. It shouldn't be an unpleasant surprise--you get into the theatre and suddenly "NO SIGNAL" unexpectedly appears. At the very least, let the market decide. If there are more people who would rather be connected while sitting in a theatre than people who are annoyed by it, my profits will suffer and I'll turn the jammer off or I might only use it in certain theatres or certain times and not others.
And unless they know I have it on me then how are they going to enforce it? Strip search?
Sure. Remember, you have every right to not enter the private property of another person. If I come up to you and say, "I think you have a cell phone. I'm going to perform a cavity search and find it," you have every right to say, "Screw you! I'm leaving."
Now would they strip search you before entering the theatre? Probably not. But if you start talking on your phone in the movie theatre, they can throw you out, ban you from re-entering, and not refund your money.
I won't argue that there are things that are useful. It's more a question of will anybody care?
I, too, will go get 10.5 when it comes out because I like having the latest and greatest. But I know plenty of people who are still using 10.2 and 10.3. In fact, a couple of years ago at WWDC, Apple had some statistics that showed something like 50% of all Mac users were using 10.3, 25% were using 10.4, and 10.2 and "Other" split the remaining 25%. I don't remember the exact percentages, but they were something like that.
First, some people will wait for 10.5.n or Vista SPn or whatever. They can't afford to be guinea pigs on production equipment. Also, with PCs (and to a lesser degree, Macs), there's the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" POV. If I'm using the computer for e-mail and web surfing, and it works fine for sending e-mail and web surfing, why tempt the fates by installing a new OS? For that matter, assuming I'm using the computer for e-mail and web surfing, what do Exposé, FileVault, Spotlight, Dashboard, Time Machine, or Spaces give me? It sounds like I'd be more interested in what the bundled Mail and Safari apps give me. I might end up being forced to upgrade if there's some feature in iLife or some other application that I want to use.
"oooh, but the 3rd gen MS product is when it really gets good," people say.
This is the one that makes me laugh.
As an old-time Mac user, I remember when AutoDesk released AutoCAD for the Mac. They did a straight port of the DOS software to the Mac, knowing full well that this was not what Mac users wanted. Their plan was that they would sell this crappy version, take the profits from that and make a "sort-of Mac" version, take the profits from that and sell a "real Mac" version.
So customers said, "Okay, cool. We'll wait for the real Mac version." Nobody bought the first generation of AutoCAD for the Mac and AutoDesk abandoned the market due to lack of customer interest. Of course, it wasn't that customers weren't interested--it's that customers weren't interested in paying for a product three times until AutoDesk got it "right."
That's the problem with the "Microsoft gets it right eventually." I guess I'll not bother buying a Zune v.1--I'll wait to see if they get it right. Meanwhile, I'll buy an iPod.
Well, yes and no. Choices are good, but choices that make little difference are bad.
Consider the difference between hibernate and sleep. Most users will have no idea what the difference is and why they would want to choose one over the other. To my eye, this seems like a choice the computer could make for the user with a simple rule: After fixed amount of time (5 minutes, 2 hours, etc.), the computer will hibernate. Until then it will sleep. This solves the confusion and creates a clear rule as to what will happen that the user can understand.
Consider Log Off and Switch User as another example. If I'm the only user on the machine, I probably wouldn't want to log off just to log back in again. I'd probably want to restart or shut down. And if I have no other users, who would I switch to? So you could optionally remove these if there is only one user.
Personally, I agree with the article about 'Restart'--it shouldn't be needed but, as you said, it's not going anywhere soon. I still use it when my computer just seems too confused.
You see, the Ares is top-heavy. Thus, it'll climb a certain distance and then it will crash. Coincidentally, it will kill those people who use words like "blogosphere" and "information superhighway."
Sure, there'll be some collateral damage. But it's a small price to pay.:^)
There are the persistent rumors that the YellowBox technology from NextSTEP is still alive and well on the Apple Campus, and is just waiting for The Steve to give the "And one more thing..." signal for it to come back into the light.
I'm not convinced that it will happen.
First, there are better "least common denominator" approaches than YellowBox and the industry has already chosen Java. So YellowBox doesn't really give you any advantages.
Second, it adds more hassles for Apple to keep it compatible with Windows. Why should Apple bother with this? Remember that Apple doesn't make any money off it's development tools, so where's the advantage? I suppose that developers would buy Macs to develop on instead of Windows machines, but Mac developers already do this.
Finally, Apple uses Cocoa as an "easy" way to roll out access to Mac OS X features to developers. How is Apple going to roll out, say, Spotlight support to Mac developers if Windows doesn't support it. You would essentially end up with two flavors of Cocoa--least common denominator Cocoa to run in Mac OS X and Windows and "full on" Mac OS X.
So, in the end, you end up with YellowBox costing Apple money in development time with next to no benefit for Apple (unless they sold YellowBox for money). I'm not sure why Apple would choose to do this.
A guy I work with used to work at a print house where Apple did their banners--you know, the big ones you'll see at WWDCs or in the Apple booth at a tradeshow? Well, the security when they were doing the printing was incredible!
There were only a couple of people on the premises who were actually allowed to do the actual printing--they had signed on the NDAs and such. All the windows in the room were covered so nobody could see in while they were printing and the door had to be locked so non-NDAed people could come in. If the material was being left overnight, they had to hire a security guard to make sure that no one came in during the night.
With the Macs, it's their refusal to ship the things with 2-button mice. Withe the iPod, it's their refusal to include an FM tuner.
I'll stay away from the obvious flame-bait-encouraging two-button mouse thing. But the iPod one about the FM tuner? Let's see...I have a choice of listening to my favorite music on the go or listen to what somebody else thinks should be my favorite music.
Gee, I wonder which I would choose...
Frankly, it's not like Apple's selling a ton of FM tuners to go with iPods. I think that should tell you something right there.
My guess is the iPhone will have no "7" button. Steve hates the number 7
That explains it. The other day, Steve was supposed to call me but he never did. When I asked him why he didn't, he said, "I can't call you. My iPhone has no 7." "That's really weird," I said, "How long have you had it?" "I don't know. My iCal has no 5s."
(Yes, I know, I transposed the numbers. Apologies to the other Steven Wright fans...)
Agreed! We will immediate create a large government bureaucracy, the Federal Elevator Administration, whose job it is to verify that elevators are safe--whether they are taking you between floors or to orbit. All local elevator inspectors will be drafted into the new Federal Elevator Administration and be given jackets with 'FEA' in big letters on the back.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps the felt that it was insensitive to boobies? Since it was American soldiers being killed by these things, referring to American soldiers as boobs might not be considered politically correct? Just a thought.
Well, yeah. But a magazine like this would be much cooler. As a battery goes dead, you insert the dead one in the top and a fresh one pops out the bottom with a reassuring ka-chunk. You could sell units that hold two, four, and eight batteries. Make it look cool...
Quick! Let me run off to the patent office!
Speaking of parents and video games, this one struck me the other day when discussing "The Battle For The Living Room."
In environments where the kids play video games and the adults don't, how often is the video game system in the living room?
I know three families in this situation. In 2 of them, the video game is not hooked to the TV in the living room--it is hooked to either another TV in the corner of the living room or is hooked to a TV in the kid's room. Only in one family is the video-game console hooked to the family TV in the living room.
Now, this is anecdotal and I'd be curious if other people have similar experiences. But "trans-generational games" like this will help Nintendo beat PlayStation and Xbox in "The Battle For The Living Room."
More likely, IMHO, these are companies that have an Art/Video department and use Macs in that department. Also, 65% of the companies depended on Apple as a software vendor. I'll rashly assume this means products like Final Cut, Logic, FileMaker, WebObjects, and the QuickTime server software.
Access, as in access to the content. You want SciFi's content, you have to pay SciFi to access their content. That's why it costs more if you have more channels.
Actually, I believe cable operators have to pay the stations in order to broadcast their content. They can't just stick up their own antenna and funnel that to their subscribers.
Also, arguably, you're paying for the convenience of accessing broadcast stations over cable with great reception. Remember one of the complaints about satellite was/is that you can't get your "local stations" so you still need an antenna.
By the way, the reason there are ads on basic cable stations is that they wouldn't sell enough subscriptions at a price that would make it worthwhile. How much does HBO charge? $9.95/mo? $12.95/mo? Would enough people pay $9.95/mo for, say, commercial-free Sci-Fi channel to make it worthwhile?
Well, according to the page, 17% of the companies questioned dealt with Apple. So I assume it's a case where not too many people do, but those who do are pretty happy.
I was amused by the individual rankings, though. Apple's highest scores came in "increasing revenue", "solves problems", and "high quality." Apple's lowest scores were "costs", "return on investment" (related to cost), and "flexible and responsive." In others words, they love Macs but they think they cost too much.
Well, part of the issue I have with this opinion is the dreaded concept of "computer literacy."
Years and years ago, I bumped into my old elementary school principal. He asked me to come back and talk to some of the teachers about using computers in their classrooms. Every teacher I spoke to said the same thing, "We have to teach kids not to be afraid of computers."
Now, I grew up using a computer--a multimillion dollar mainframe. I was never "afraid" of using it. As I mentioned to the principal, "These are kids who hang upside-down from steel jungle gyms. They aren't afraid of anything--least of all a hunk of plastic." It is adults who wasted time with the whole concept of "computer literacy" because they had to go back and relearn this stuff, so the kids obviously had to as well.
Where computers work in the classroom is the same way that they work in business: they enhance productivity. Whether that means they can assist in communicating concepts that the teacher is trying to communicate or they can remove some of drudgework of school (eg, writing a paper, drawing graphs) is unimportant. The computers are tools for the student, like pencils, pens, notebook paper, graph paper, etc. They are not a raison d'etre in of themselves.
Did you ever notice that people driving slower than you are idiots and that people driving faster than you are maniacs?
I'm sorry...I just couldn't resist. BOMBARDMENT!
The one issue I always have is "What is an emergency?" Trust me, there are people who call 911 because their neighbors are too loud, they're lost, or they need the correct time.
In an ideal world, I agree with you. The difficulty is that removing the annoying person using the cellphone can be as disruptive--or moreso--than the act of using a cellphone. Suppose the person refuses to leave? Which is going to be worse? Trying to watch a movie while some asshole talks on their cellphone or argues with the usher?
If I ran a movie theatre and this technology were available, I would use it. However, I do believe that patrons should be notified before purchasing their tickets so they have an option to go to another theatre. It shouldn't be an unpleasant surprise--you get into the theatre and suddenly "NO SIGNAL" unexpectedly appears. At the very least, let the market decide. If there are more people who would rather be connected while sitting in a theatre than people who are annoyed by it, my profits will suffer and I'll turn the jammer off or I might only use it in certain theatres or certain times and not others.
Now would they strip search you before entering the theatre? Probably not. But if you start talking on your phone in the movie theatre, they can throw you out, ban you from re-entering, and not refund your money.
I won't argue that there are things that are useful. It's more a question of will anybody care?
I, too, will go get 10.5 when it comes out because I like having the latest and greatest. But I know plenty of people who are still using 10.2 and 10.3. In fact, a couple of years ago at WWDC, Apple had some statistics that showed something like 50% of all Mac users were using 10.3, 25% were using 10.4, and 10.2 and "Other" split the remaining 25%. I don't remember the exact percentages, but they were something like that.
First, some people will wait for 10.5.n or Vista SPn or whatever. They can't afford to be guinea pigs on production equipment. Also, with PCs (and to a lesser degree, Macs), there's the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" POV. If I'm using the computer for e-mail and web surfing, and it works fine for sending e-mail and web surfing, why tempt the fates by installing a new OS? For that matter, assuming I'm using the computer for e-mail and web surfing, what do Exposé, FileVault, Spotlight, Dashboard, Time Machine, or Spaces give me? It sounds like I'd be more interested in what the bundled Mail and Safari apps give me. I might end up being forced to upgrade if there's some feature in iLife or some other application that I want to use.
As an old-time Mac user, I remember when AutoDesk released AutoCAD for the Mac. They did a straight port of the DOS software to the Mac, knowing full well that this was not what Mac users wanted. Their plan was that they would sell this crappy version, take the profits from that and make a "sort-of Mac" version, take the profits from that and sell a "real Mac" version.
So customers said, "Okay, cool. We'll wait for the real Mac version." Nobody bought the first generation of AutoCAD for the Mac and AutoDesk abandoned the market due to lack of customer interest. Of course, it wasn't that customers weren't interested--it's that customers weren't interested in paying for a product three times until AutoDesk got it "right."
That's the problem with the "Microsoft gets it right eventually." I guess I'll not bother buying a Zune v.1--I'll wait to see if they get it right. Meanwhile, I'll buy an iPod.
Consider the difference between hibernate and sleep. Most users will have no idea what the difference is and why they would want to choose one over the other. To my eye, this seems like a choice the computer could make for the user with a simple rule: After fixed amount of time (5 minutes, 2 hours, etc.), the computer will hibernate. Until then it will sleep. This solves the confusion and creates a clear rule as to what will happen that the user can understand.
Consider Log Off and Switch User as another example. If I'm the only user on the machine, I probably wouldn't want to log off just to log back in again. I'd probably want to restart or shut down. And if I have no other users, who would I switch to? So you could optionally remove these if there is only one user.
Personally, I agree with the article about 'Restart'--it shouldn't be needed but, as you said, it's not going anywhere soon. I still use it when my computer just seems too confused.
...and that's fine. But the concept that Apple is going to do this or actively support developers doing this is wishful thinking.
This is actually part of the plan, silly.
:^)
You see, the Ares is top-heavy. Thus, it'll climb a certain distance and then it will crash. Coincidentally, it will kill those people who use words like "blogosphere" and "information superhighway."
Sure, there'll be some collateral damage. But it's a small price to pay.
First, there are better "least common denominator" approaches than YellowBox and the industry has already chosen Java. So YellowBox doesn't really give you any advantages.
Second, it adds more hassles for Apple to keep it compatible with Windows. Why should Apple bother with this? Remember that Apple doesn't make any money off it's development tools, so where's the advantage? I suppose that developers would buy Macs to develop on instead of Windows machines, but Mac developers already do this.
Finally, Apple uses Cocoa as an "easy" way to roll out access to Mac OS X features to developers. How is Apple going to roll out, say, Spotlight support to Mac developers if Windows doesn't support it. You would essentially end up with two flavors of Cocoa--least common denominator Cocoa to run in Mac OS X and Windows and "full on" Mac OS X.
So, in the end, you end up with YellowBox costing Apple money in development time with next to no benefit for Apple (unless they sold YellowBox for money). I'm not sure why Apple would choose to do this.
A guy I work with used to work at a print house where Apple did their banners--you know, the big ones you'll see at WWDCs or in the Apple booth at a tradeshow? Well, the security when they were doing the printing was incredible!
There were only a couple of people on the premises who were actually allowed to do the actual printing--they had signed on the NDAs and such. All the windows in the room were covered so nobody could see in while they were printing and the door had to be locked so non-NDAed people could come in. If the material was being left overnight, they had to hire a security guard to make sure that no one came in during the night.
Gee, I wonder which I would choose...
Frankly, it's not like Apple's selling a ton of FM tuners to go with iPods. I think that should tell you something right there.
That explains it. The other day, Steve was supposed to call me but he never did. When I asked him why he didn't, he said, "I can't call you. My iPhone has no 7." "That's really weird," I said, "How long have you had it?" "I don't know. My iCal has no 5s."
(Yes, I know, I transposed the numbers. Apologies to the other Steven Wright fans...)
Agreed! We will immediate create a large government bureaucracy, the Federal Elevator Administration, whose job it is to verify that elevators are safe--whether they are taking you between floors or to orbit. All local elevator inspectors will be drafted into the new Federal Elevator Administration and be given jackets with 'FEA' in big letters on the back.
Heck, they even made a movie about it.