I called M$ about this one some years ago. They told me there is no problem to copy the windows CD, and use the same install CD on every computer I own if I have a valid license for each computer (i.e. different serial number ) In my case, they were even happy if I copy a friend Windows XP SP2, because I only had the Windows XP normal. I also had access to legit windows license available only online. You had no choice but to download the ISO or to use a friend CD. ( for info, that was the Microsoft program for student in europe: tons of software with proper license for not much $)
I'm not saying that Microsoft is fair and logical: for example you could not upgrade from Windows Me Spanish -> XP English. Also there was no way to "upgrade" XP Spanish to XP English without buying a new *full* version english. But after you paid your 'tax' they used to leave you alone ( they didn't even bother protecting their CD against copy )
Off course now with Genuine Advantage, that may be different ( but no more my concern )
Monetary fine proposed by EU were nothing meaningless: 2 Millions EUR per Day just for a start for 1 violation.
Anyway, revocation of patent would further discredit the patent system in the US. Taking a patent is supposed to be a service you gives to the state: you disclose your invention and in exchange you receive a patent and some rights attached to this patent. Now just imagine the shilling effect on US industry if you could have your patent revoked arbitrarily as a punishment in an *unrelated* crime...
Also in the current system, revoking patent for a company is not only giving its asset for free, it is opening the company to massive number of patents trials.
Whatever the MAFIAA will make available will be LEGAL. As the copyright owners, if they distribute it via P2P, then it becomes legal by definition.
However, the trick is that it is likely that if you picked the xxAA file, that's not the only copyrighted material you are downloading. Also since the xxAA is providing crap content instead of real material it is VERY likely you will download it again from an unauthorized source. They are just harvesting IP addresses, and with it they just need little persuasion on your ISP to release your usage log and pursue you for real "unauthorized" activity.
So the best advise, if you download crap xxAA content ( is there a way to recognise it? ), it is really time to clean your stuff and forget P2P completely with any account in your name. Don't wait a week and think your are safe, legal procedure can take months.
Do I look pessimistic ? Do you speed in front of the Police ? Want it or not, downloading "pirated" material is illegal and can get you into trouble, so don't just google for torrent like a lemming but try to know your sources. Just like in any underground activity really.
The biggest difference with the iPod is that anybody could buy an iPod. With the iPhone, it is only Cingular customer, and even then only the customer planning to stay for another 2 years.
Ok you may say that iPod was for Mac user only in the beginning but I don't think Apple has the same karma appeal with its own customer than with Cingular contract user. In this case Apple must rely on Cingular karma and it is less flawless ( sorry for the 2 Cingular fanboys )
"Microsoft could always bundle RealPlayer or QuickTime instead, amirite? The ruling prevents Microsoft from bundling Windows Media Player. I don't see anywhere, though, that prevents them from shipping a third-party media player (as if they would, though)."
Actually I had the feeling they cannot give ANY media player. Otherwise that would be the same problem : they abused their monopoly to kill competitivity in another market ( even if they are not pushing their own product ).
However, OEM were free to bundle any other media player instead of MediaPlayer. The problem is that with the lack of enthousiasm around XP-E, they didn't bother. ( Normal, unlike Browser war, the war of MediaPlayer it done at provider level ( DRM ), so the EU decision was more symbolic than usefull )
Actually it takes only 1 application that you use frequently that sucks and your overall feeling of the OS is down. Just take an example, how often have you heard "linux sucks because I XXX does not work".
Same happen in Windows. Buy a new laptop and see it painfully load 35 icons in the systray, replace the default association of JPG file to another crapware that display a 30 seconds modal popup dialog that says the viewer you are using is shareware and open IE on the HowTo buy page. The feeling of the user will be: Vista sucks, and I paid 2000$ and my machine is slow like a dog because of Vista. Natural feeling. The same feeling that people in Europe that have been provided with the XP-E edition ( no media player ) think that XP is shit because it cannot read a stupid AVI file.
"The latter KNOW that the laws of physics and mathematics GUARANTEE that *any* copy protection scheme WILL be broken."
Ah, they don't want the protection to be completely unbreakable. They just want to make breaking the protection costing too much for average Joe to make copy of DVD to his friends.
The real value of a DVD for Joe user is something along the line of 20-50$ to purchase and will cost probably around 5$ to rent. If the protection is worth more than 5$ of pain for Joe user, then the mission is already a success. At 50$ worht of trouble, Joe will take its car to walmart and buy the DVD.
If Joe user cannot make an easy almost free copy, he needs to get it from - P2P: Perfect, this channel is closely monitored by RIAA already. Moreover, the power of P2P is what allows the RIAA to buys mandatory taxes on blank CD/DVD in most countries. - Lower quality copy with camcorder ? For people not interested in HD 'quality', there is VHS or DVD. So this side is also covered.
That's the same philosophy you use to secure your house. You don't build a bunker, but you put enough security in and around to make sure it is not worth the pain to break in.
"what would incentvize the lower classes to be more productive"
Successful not productive. By being hardworking and very productive, you just increase the chance of being successful under the right circumstances. Most of the time, you need an opportunity and be able to milk it. If you father is CEO of a Fortune 500 company, you have plenty of possibilities and only need average effort to be successful.
"Exceptional people deserve to be rewarded for their talent, intelligence, and efforts, not brought down to the level of people who toil at menial work and still expect easy access to everything they want."
Unfortunatly that's not the case. People are rewarded for their success. A top-manager that made his way working 20 hours a day/7 days a week is rewarded the same than a top-manager with more luck and made his way only working 8 hours a day/5 days a week.
There are 6 billions people on earth. Since you compare your intelligence/talent/... to other human being, at least 1 billions people on earth should be worthy enough to have a WII...
And how many politician lie not to do themself a favor ? In this case, the lies is so obvious than it can only weaken our credibility.
The role of the community is to debunk their lies with facts. If you start telling obvious lies, your credibility suffer and there is no way you could outgun Microsoft in the propaganda sector.
Agree that Google does not have the monopoly of search on the web. However Microsoft has the monopoly in desktop OS. So far Microsoft hasn't tried to stop me using Linux.
Also slight difference, in the case of Google, the number of people using Google is their product, they are selling 'audience' to other companies. Google will have a monopoly the day companies are in a situation that they cannot realisticaly advertise on the web without paying Google. And even when they pay, they cannot drive the audience to their service because Google make sure they have the top spot all the time on every product that could generate audience and make sure their users stay within the "google advertissement network", reinforcing the need for companies to pay.
In the case of Picassa. Well if you were Adobe and making a living of selling picture management software, you could get pissed if your only advertissement provider: 1. Advertise its own product in your field (i.e. less customer for you -> less $) 2. Give away the product for free while you have to pay at least to put the advertissement 3. If Google is more or less succesful, the price of ads gets even higher ( more traffic )
That's when you buy cheaper illegal copies. You get what you pay for. That's no different than downloading it.
However there are people that believe they are paying for the real stuff: 1. they were customer for the real stuff, only the price point was not ok, but that's temporary: they could have wait one month to find it in the bargain bin, bought second hand,... 2. Also, just imagine that it is a crappy compressed ( DVD9 -> DVD5 conversion). This pirated DVD becomes a bad publicity for the original DVD.
Anyway if making content available can be seen as a noble cause ( information want to free, copyrights are evil,... ) I'm less understanding with copying content and selling it for a profit to people that could afford it at full price.
We live in developped countries and majority of the population in our countries have no problem afford a luxury life by Average World Standard ( including purchase of modern luxury like DVD, iPod, Consoles,... )
So it is one thing to fight against laws like copyrights by downloading stuff, sharing your DVD,... , that's quite another to build a business only designed to make profit using illegal (as by the Law) activities. Businesses selling illegal DVD are not very different than other business doing other illegal activities. And most of the time they are completely illegal business using illegal workers in illegal working condition ( do you really think they are paid a fair salary? )
It was something like there is a premade tree of keys available from the beginning. Not all the keys are used. The circumvented keys only get removed, nothing is added.
At least, that's what I remember. From memory, they were also talking about a hierarchical set of keys.
"Having to install more than one distribution of Linux and having to figure out how each of then work would drive the average person away from Linux really quickly."
Installing more than 1 OS until you get one that fits your need means that you consider it as a serious hobby. Whatever distro zealot may say, choosing your distro is only the very first little step in order to get your system up and running. The most important step is having the rest of the applications up and running ( and by application, I mean the actual reason why you have a computer in the first place )
I've heard other advices for noobs: Step 1: Choose quickly a distro ( eg: a more or less friendly, well supported like Ubuntu ) Step 2: Stick with it. The major distro allow you to do everything a noobs/average user would want to do.
Step 3: Only when you are no more a noob, and if you discover yourself a passion for OS installation, start playing with other distro.
Anyway, that's very hard in pratice to tax a company for the people it employs abroad.
* When the US Company doesn't hire anybody, it just fires people home and buys a contract with another company. Example: if Apple buys CPU from Intel, a leasing contract for management car, a maintenance contract for their buildings, well they can also buy a helpdesk contract from a foreign company. Fiscality will only hurt trully international companies that have employees internally employed in multiple countries, and they will eventually probably only split the company.
* Some companies like a building maintenance company for example can have multiple branches abroad. However the maintenance need to be done on site, so in this case this is silly and anticompetitive.
* Other countries will take similar actions in 'retaliation'
OK I like the idea in theory. I could solve a lot of trouble like: taxing companies for employing children or voluntarily keeping their foreign employees in immoral situation just because it is allowed by foreign country legislation. But practically, until there is a trully internation body with real internation power (i.e. Is respected by the US, China, Europe, Israel and Japan ) that's just a dream.
Unfortunatly there is still a lot of Intel Core Duo and Core Solo on the laptop market. And especially the Core Duo is still a solid offering even in higher-range laptop.
Some brand updated the Core Duo to Core 2 Duo for 'free', but for most, it is still a premium that is not worth it (10% more perf 30% more $). Especially right now before the release of Vista, when you have the choice between a beter graphic card or a marginally beter CPU.
But as you said, probably second quarter next year, that would be a non issue. Until then, for a laptop, if you plan to change again in the next 2 years, I would go for a good deal for the Core Duo. Unless you plan to run Linux, if it's more than 2 years with Microsoft pushing all it can to make Vista64 the main Vista release, I would pay the extra for 64bit or delay my purchase until you don't have the choice.
I really don't get it. To me it seems it would be economically wise to buy these out and then fix the bugs. 1. This could be due to the legal implication
I'm not sure law will look kindly at a company that fund illegal activities to improve their business. And if it comes from a security company, just having your name attached that kind of illegal activity could kill your credibility big time ( like 'they did that to fix the bug, yeah sure like petrol in irak is just a coincidence' whatever true or false that may be )
2. Buying would just drive the prices up, hence increase the prices and therefore maybe get the interest of even bigger player in the field. Logistically expensive venture such as bribes, kidnapping,... would become profitable.
"One of my aims in life is never to buy anything from a company that uses this sort of PR speak."
Ah, I see you lived in some remote island until recently, so let me be the first to welcome you in the "civilisation". Yout nightmare is over.
Here every companies is a leading player in its field, cheaper AND better than everybody else. Oh and they don't "sell" you products like in the dark ages, no they sacrifice themself to offer you an intimate and spiritual experience made just for you. That applies to software off course, but also to hardware and to washing powder, snaks, car, tv, milk, water, holidays,... and even polician.
You are maybe working in a small company that fight for Human/Software Rights or in the right side of the OpenSource Holy war, but I worked in big companies with morality similar to Microsoft (or even worse). And in those companies people are not bad. They have nothing to say in the big picture and they do what they are told, sure. However, after hours meeting at the pub can have interesting "local" results.
So, when the GP said "I'm not sure what MS thought they were going to get by inviting a "true believer""
I said maybe that was just some people inside with respect/admiration for guys like slashdot people that wanted them around. If I was working for Microsoft, I sure could have slipped this brilliant idea to some middle manager. Sure they could not avoid the propaganda, but they would come for free, and I could have the opportunity to show them some cool stuff.
It seems sometimes that Slashdot readers think that everybody in a company think the same, eat the same, say the same. You do not become the company when you enter it (even after the 'induction' meeting), and maybe we in the tech world have more choices than others, but I see that most people around me take a job to pay their bill, because they will work in a nice team with friendly people or because that will boost their career. Hell, by Slashdot standard, everybody should work for either Google or Apple.
Microsoft is full of real people that probably cares about their job and just want to show it in the best light. Maybe some PM managed to bullshit their management and just take the opportunity to invite Slashdot on their campus, just for the fun.
Hmm, optimism, that's what happen when you don't wear your tinfoil hat for almost week:-)
With the same argument 50% of computer users would use Linux everyday.
The question is not how PS3 Linux could fill in the computer needs but rather why would 50% of the PS3 owners feel a sudden need to run Linux / solve their computer problem on the PS3. Especially since
- They bought a gaming machine, or maybe a Media player.
- Probably the vast majority of user buying a PS3 already have a computer. ( and probably running Windows )
- Those who don't have a computer have probably no need of a computer and therefore much less of PS3 running Linux.
- Sony is still selling the PS3 as a gaming console (duh!) that plays blue ray, not a PC running Linux.
If 1% of PS3 owner even bother to use Linux on their PS3 that would be a victory.
Of course, Sony could start a massive campain of Linux promotion:
Instead of having gaming by default on the machine, the PS3 would start in Linux mode, startup firefox, openoffice, your mail application and display a RSS feed of your meeting of the day. They could also implement a feature that disable gaming to be more corporate friendly and maybe start developing a server version ?
Re: Think again, fanboi. Real men play PC games.
on
Two Weeks with the Wii
·
· Score: 5, Funny
That's nothing, real men play with their girlfriend.
"the author promoted the way of thinking used by the iPod designers and the other successful makers of digital players"
I aggree the author makes valid points and his conclusion stands(i.e. avoid the Zune), however the article is so far from being professional or even interesting.
The author promoted nothing. That's plain bashing. This "article" belongs to a blog or somewhere on myspace, not an article and certainly not a review. The only thing the author saves us in his "crusade" is the 1337 speak or SMS style.
Some examples:
"And why (for the love of God) doesn't it support podcasts? That's pure insanity." "Well, Morris is just a big, clueless idiot, of course. Do you honestly want morons like him to have power over your music player?"
For the Apple bias, I guess that's become evident in the following:
"The iPod owns 85 percent of the market because it deserves to. Apple consistently makes decisions that benefit the company, the users and the media publishers"
Professional printer can realiabily print with 300 dpi resolution. The extra dot in 4096 dpi are used only because more than one dot is required to create 1 visual dot : example you need at least 2 dots to create a pure red dot. Also there is diffusion and splatter,...
Now with 300 "realiable" dpi, it still needs to encode (2700*1024*1024*8)/(300*300) values ( ie colors ) = 250 000 colors. I suppose without using ultra calibrated hardware on highly consistent set of paper in a color managed lab, you would have terrible difficulties to distinguish reliabily more than 100 color variation per dot.
Slashdot Mirror
I called M$ about this one some years ago. They told me there is no problem to copy the windows CD, and use the same install CD on every computer I own if I have a valid license for each computer (i.e. different serial number ) In my case, they were even happy if I copy a friend Windows XP SP2, because I only had the Windows XP normal.
I also had access to legit windows license available only online. You had no choice but to download the ISO or to use a friend CD. ( for info, that was the Microsoft program for student in europe: tons of software with proper license for not much $)
I'm not saying that Microsoft is fair and logical: for example you could not upgrade from Windows Me Spanish -> XP English. Also there was no way to "upgrade" XP Spanish to XP English without buying a new *full* version english.
But after you paid your 'tax' they used to leave you alone ( they didn't even bother protecting their CD against copy )
Off course now with Genuine Advantage, that may be different ( but no more my concern )
Monetary fine proposed by EU were nothing meaningless: 2 Millions EUR per Day just for a start for 1 violation.
...
Anyway, revocation of patent would further discredit the patent system in the US. Taking a patent is supposed to be a service you gives to the state: you disclose your invention and in exchange you receive a patent and some rights attached to this patent.
Now just imagine the shilling effect on US industry if you could have your patent revoked arbitrarily as a punishment in an *unrelated* crime
Also in the current system, revoking patent for a company is not only giving its asset for free, it is opening the company to massive number of patents trials.
Whatever the MAFIAA will make available will be LEGAL. As the copyright owners, if they distribute it via P2P, then it becomes legal by definition.
However, the trick is that it is likely that if you picked the xxAA file, that's not the only copyrighted material you are downloading. Also since the xxAA is providing crap content instead of real material it is VERY likely you will download it again from an unauthorized source.
They are just harvesting IP addresses, and with it they just need little persuasion on your ISP to release your usage log and pursue you for real "unauthorized" activity.
So the best advise, if you download crap xxAA content ( is there a way to recognise it? ), it is really time to clean your stuff and forget P2P completely with any account in your name. Don't wait a week and think your are safe, legal procedure can take months.
Do I look pessimistic ? Do you speed in front of the Police ? Want it or not, downloading "pirated" material is illegal and can get you into trouble, so don't just google for torrent like a lemming but try to know your sources. Just like in any underground activity really.
The biggest difference with the iPod is that anybody could buy an iPod.
With the iPhone, it is only Cingular customer, and even then only the customer planning to stay for another 2 years.
Ok you may say that iPod was for Mac user only in the beginning but I don't think Apple has the same karma appeal with its own customer than with Cingular contract user. In this case Apple must rely on Cingular karma and it is less flawless ( sorry for the 2 Cingular fanboys )
"Microsoft could always bundle RealPlayer or QuickTime instead, amirite? The ruling prevents Microsoft from bundling Windows Media Player. I don't see anywhere, though, that prevents them from shipping a third-party media player (as if they would, though)."
Actually I had the feeling they cannot give ANY media player. Otherwise that would be the same problem : they abused their monopoly to kill competitivity in another market ( even if they are not pushing their own product ).
However, OEM were free to bundle any other media player instead of MediaPlayer. The problem is that with the lack of enthousiasm around XP-E, they didn't bother.
( Normal, unlike Browser war, the war of MediaPlayer it done at provider level ( DRM ), so the EU decision was more symbolic than usefull )
To ruin the user experience
Actually it takes only 1 application that you use frequently that sucks and your overall feeling of the OS is down. Just take an example, how often have you heard "linux sucks because I XXX does not work".
Same happen in Windows. Buy a new laptop and see it painfully load 35 icons in the systray, replace the default association of JPG file to another crapware that display a 30 seconds modal popup dialog that says the viewer you are using is shareware and open IE on the HowTo buy page. The feeling of the user will be: Vista sucks, and I paid 2000$ and my machine is slow like a dog because of Vista. Natural feeling.
The same feeling that people in Europe that have been provided with the XP-E edition ( no media player ) think that XP is shit because it cannot read a stupid AVI file.
"The latter KNOW that the laws of physics and mathematics GUARANTEE that *any* copy protection scheme WILL be broken."
Ah, they don't want the protection to be completely unbreakable. They just want to make breaking the protection costing too much for average Joe to make copy of DVD to his friends.
The real value of a DVD for Joe user is something along the line of 20-50$ to purchase and will cost probably around 5$ to rent. If the protection is worth more than 5$ of pain for Joe user, then the mission is already a success. At 50$ worht of trouble, Joe will take its car to walmart and buy the DVD.
If Joe user cannot make an easy almost free copy, he needs to get it from
- P2P: Perfect, this channel is closely monitored by RIAA already. Moreover, the power of P2P is what allows the RIAA to buys mandatory taxes on blank CD/DVD in most countries.
- Lower quality copy with camcorder ? For people not interested in HD 'quality', there is VHS or DVD. So this side is also covered.
That's the same philosophy you use to secure your house. You don't build a bunker, but you put enough security in and around to make sure it is not worth the pain to break in.
"what would incentvize the lower classes to be more productive"
Successful not productive.
By being hardworking and very productive, you just increase the chance of being successful under the right circumstances.
Most of the time, you need an opportunity and be able to milk it.
If you father is CEO of a Fortune 500 company, you have plenty of possibilities and only need average effort to be successful.
"Exceptional people deserve to be rewarded for their talent, intelligence, and efforts, not brought down to the level of people who toil at menial work and still expect easy access to everything they want."
Unfortunatly that's not the case. People are rewarded for their success. A top-manager that made his way working 20 hours a day/7 days a week is rewarded the same than a top-manager with more luck and made his way only working 8 hours a day/5 days a week.
There are 6 billions people on earth. Since you compare your intelligence/talent/... to other human being, at least 1 billions people on earth should be worthy enough to have a WII...
And how many politician lie not to do themself a favor ?
In this case, the lies is so obvious than it can only weaken our credibility.
The role of the community is to debunk their lies with facts. If you start telling obvious lies, your credibility suffer and there is no way you could outgun Microsoft in the propaganda sector.
Agree that Google does not have the monopoly of search on the web.
However Microsoft has the monopoly in desktop OS. So far Microsoft hasn't tried to stop me using Linux.
Also slight difference, in the case of Google, the number of people using Google is their product, they are selling 'audience' to other companies.
Google will have a monopoly the day companies are in a situation that they cannot realisticaly advertise on the web without paying Google. And even when they pay, they cannot drive the audience to their service because Google make sure they have the top spot all the time on every product that could generate audience and make sure their users stay within the "google advertissement network", reinforcing the need for companies to pay.
In the case of Picassa. Well if you were Adobe and making a living of selling picture management software, you could get pissed if your only advertissement provider:
1. Advertise its own product in your field (i.e. less customer for you -> less $)
2. Give away the product for free while you have to pay at least to put the advertissement
3. If Google is more or less succesful, the price of ads gets even higher ( more traffic )
That's when you buy cheaper illegal copies. You get what you pay for. That's no different than downloading it.
...
... )
... )
However there are people that believe they are paying for the real stuff:
1. they were customer for the real stuff, only the price point was not ok, but that's temporary: they could have wait one month to find it in the bargain bin, bought second hand,
2. Also, just imagine that it is a crappy compressed ( DVD9 -> DVD5 conversion). This pirated DVD becomes a bad publicity for the original DVD.
Anyway if making content available can be seen as a noble cause ( information want to free, copyrights are evil,
I'm less understanding with copying content and selling it for a profit to people that could afford it at full price.
We live in developped countries and majority of the population in our countries have no problem afford a luxury life by Average World Standard ( including purchase of modern luxury like DVD, iPod, Consoles,
So it is one thing to fight against laws like copyrights by downloading stuff, sharing your DVD,... , that's quite another to build a business only designed to make profit using illegal (as by the Law) activities.
Businesses selling illegal DVD are not very different than other business doing other illegal activities. And most of the time they are completely illegal business using illegal workers in illegal working condition ( do you really think they are paid a fair salary? )
It was something like there is a premade tree of keys available from the beginning. Not all the keys are used.
The circumvented keys only get removed, nothing is added.
At least, that's what I remember. From memory, they were also talking about a hierarchical set of keys.
Exactly no much doubt about the average reply here on slashdot. Probably the same level of objectivity as asking the same question on MSDN.
Some other insightful questions for the next 'Ask Slashdot':
"Is Microsoft evil?"
"Is OSX beter than Vista?"
"IE7 or Firefox on Mom's PC?"
"Having to install more than one distribution of Linux and having to figure out how each of then work would drive the average person away from Linux really quickly."
Installing more than 1 OS until you get one that fits your need means that you consider it as a serious hobby. Whatever distro zealot may say, choosing your distro is only the very first little step in order to get your system up and running. The most important step is having the rest of the applications up and running ( and by application, I mean the actual reason why you have a computer in the first place )
I've heard other advices for noobs:
Step 1: Choose quickly a distro ( eg: a more or less friendly, well supported like Ubuntu )
Step 2: Stick with it. The major distro allow you to do everything a noobs/average user would want to do.
Step 3: Only when you are no more a noob, and if you discover yourself a passion for OS installation, start playing with other distro.
Anyway, that's very hard in pratice to tax a company for the people it employs abroad.
* When the US Company doesn't hire anybody, it just fires people home and buys a contract with another company. Example: if Apple buys CPU from Intel, a leasing contract for management car, a maintenance contract for their buildings, well they can also buy a helpdesk contract from a foreign company. Fiscality will only hurt trully international companies that have employees internally employed in multiple countries, and they will eventually probably only split the company.
* Some companies like a building maintenance company for example can have multiple branches abroad. However the maintenance need to be done on site, so in this case this is silly and anticompetitive.
* Other countries will take similar actions in 'retaliation'
OK I like the idea in theory. I could solve a lot of trouble like: taxing companies for employing children or voluntarily keeping their foreign employees in immoral situation just because it is allowed by foreign country legislation.
But practically, until there is a trully internation body with real internation power (i.e. Is respected by the US, China, Europe, Israel and Japan ) that's just a dream.
Unfortunatly there is still a lot of Intel Core Duo and Core Solo on the laptop market. And especially the Core Duo is still a solid offering even in higher-range laptop.
Some brand updated the Core Duo to Core 2 Duo for 'free', but for most, it is still a premium that is not worth it (10% more perf 30% more $). Especially right now before the release of Vista, when you have the choice between a beter graphic card or a marginally beter CPU.
But as you said, probably second quarter next year, that would be a non issue.
Until then, for a laptop, if you plan to change again in the next 2 years, I would go for a good deal for the Core Duo.
Unless you plan to run Linux, if it's more than 2 years with Microsoft pushing all it can to make Vista64 the main Vista release, I would pay the extra for 64bit or delay my purchase until you don't have the choice.
I'm not sure law will look kindly at a company that fund illegal activities to improve their business. And if it comes from a security company, just having your name attached that kind of illegal activity could kill your credibility big time ( like 'they did that to fix the bug, yeah sure like petrol in irak is just a coincidence' whatever true or false that may be )
2. Buying would just drive the prices up, hence increase the prices and therefore maybe get the interest of even bigger player in the field. Logistically expensive venture such as bribes, kidnapping,
"One of my aims in life is never to buy anything from a company that uses this sort of PR speak."
... and even polician.
Ah, I see you lived in some remote island until recently, so let me be the first to welcome you in the "civilisation". Yout nightmare is over.
Here every companies is a leading player in its field, cheaper AND better than everybody else. Oh and they don't "sell" you products like in the dark ages, no they sacrifice themself to offer you an intimate and spiritual experience made just for you.
That applies to software off course, but also to hardware and to washing powder, snaks, car, tv, milk, water, holidays,
Rejoice consumer.
You are maybe working in a small company that fight for Human/Software Rights or in the right side of the OpenSource Holy war, but I worked in big companies with morality similar to Microsoft (or even worse). And in those companies people are not bad. They have nothing to say in the big picture and they do what they are told, sure. However, after hours meeting at the pub can have interesting "local" results.
So, when the GP said "I'm not sure what MS thought they were going to get by inviting a "true believer""
I said maybe that was just some people inside with respect/admiration for guys like slashdot people that wanted them around. If I was working for Microsoft, I sure could have slipped this brilliant idea to some middle manager. Sure they could not avoid the propaganda, but they would come for free, and I could have the opportunity to show them some cool stuff.
It seems sometimes that Slashdot readers think that everybody in a company think the same, eat the same, say the same. You do not become the company when you enter it (even after the 'induction' meeting), and maybe we in the tech world have more choices than others, but I see that most people around me take a job to pay their bill, because they will work in a nice team with friendly people or because that will boost their career. Hell, by Slashdot standard, everybody should work for either Google or Apple.
:-)
Microsoft is full of real people that probably cares about their job and just want to show it in the best light. Maybe some PM managed to bullshit their management and just take the opportunity to invite Slashdot on their campus, just for the fun.
Hmm, optimism, that's what happen when you don't wear your tinfoil hat for almost week
With the same argument 50% of computer users would use Linux everyday.
The question is not how PS3 Linux could fill in the computer needs but rather why would 50% of the PS3 owners feel a sudden need to run Linux / solve their computer problem on the PS3.
Especially since
- They bought a gaming machine, or maybe a Media player.
- Probably the vast majority of user buying a PS3 already have a computer. ( and probably running Windows )
- Those who don't have a computer have probably no need of a computer and therefore much less of PS3 running Linux.
- Sony is still selling the PS3 as a gaming console (duh!) that plays blue ray, not a PC running Linux.
If 1% of PS3 owner even bother to use Linux on their PS3 that would be a victory.
Of course, Sony could start a massive campain of Linux promotion:
Instead of having gaming by default on the machine, the PS3 would start in Linux mode, startup firefox, openoffice, your mail application and display a RSS feed of your meeting of the day. They could also implement a feature that disable gaming to be more corporate friendly and maybe start developing a server version ?
That's nothing, real men play with their girlfriend.
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Oh wait
LOL indeed, I was too quick to jump on this one ( and I did it 2 times in this thread ... )
"the author promoted the way of thinking used by the iPod designers and the other successful makers of digital players"
I aggree the author makes valid points and his conclusion stands(i.e. avoid the Zune), however the article is so far from being professional or even interesting.
The author promoted nothing. That's plain bashing. This "article" belongs to a blog or somewhere on myspace, not an article and certainly not a review. The only thing the author saves us in his "crusade" is the 1337 speak or SMS style.
Some examples:
"And why (for the love of God) doesn't it support podcasts? That's pure insanity."
"Well, Morris is just a big, clueless idiot, of course. Do you honestly want morons like him to have power over your music player?"
For the Apple bias, I guess that's become evident in the following:
"The iPod owns 85 percent of the market because it deserves to. Apple consistently makes decisions that benefit the company, the users and the media publishers"
He claims a density of 2.7 GB per square inch.
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Professional printer can realiabily print with 300 dpi resolution. The extra dot in 4096 dpi are used only because more than one dot is required to create 1 visual dot : example you need at least 2 dots to create a pure red dot. Also there is diffusion and splatter,
Now with 300 "realiable" dpi, it still needs to encode (2700*1024*1024*8)/(300*300) values ( ie colors ) = 250 000 colors.
I suppose without using ultra calibrated hardware on highly consistent set of paper in a color managed lab, you would have terrible difficulties to distinguish reliabily more than 100 color variation per dot.