I agree with your Apple comments, in that this behavior can be found in pretty much any closed-source company as well as the open-source world.
I don't know about your comment regarding Apple refusing to support a two-button mouse, though. I replaced my Apple mouse with a two-button mouse and all the right-click context menus were available with no changes needed.
I agree that simplicity is almost always better, but I would say that good usability is always about listening to user feedback. Basically this change flunked the usability test for a lot of folks and the developers should find a way to elegantly implement that option. There's undoubtedly a way to add this ability without adding "useless clutter." And I would say this clutter wouldn't be useless since people are asking for it.
I like DreamWeaver, too, and use if almost every day. But I think I've been in the design view maybe once or twice over the past few years. The editor is much nicer than using simple Notepad or Wordpad, and it includes some nice 508 accessibility reminders. But that design view is something to be avioded in most cases, since the DreamWeaver-generated code is mostly unsupportable garbage.
Actually, those are specifically spelled out as part of IT's job where I work. And people do indeed get fired for violating policies along those lines.
Um, just to try to focus this discussion a bit, remember that this discussion, and the parent post are about hardware. The issues you site are all software related, and none that I see apply specifically to the MacBook and certainly not to drive designs.
I believe it is Philips that controls the CD standard and not Sony. Also, I'm pretty sure DRM in no way is part of a CD standard. That, in fact, is why labels like Sony were forced to stop calling their DRM-laden discs CDs.
I have a letter from CA Attorney General Bill Lockyer from Feb 1994 posted above my desk telling me how pleased he is to bring settlement to the CD pricing antitrust litigation that was brought against the record companies as a class-action suit. Basically, they decided to settle rather than fight the allegations in court. The result was that I got a check for $13 after I entered a claim, which supposedly offsets the millions they made in illegal collusion on pricing. I'm sure the biggest expense was the labels paying for their own legal costs. I would expect about the same thing here, except probably much less than a $13 payout for individuals at the end.
That doesn't really address how much the *IAA will end up paying, but it gives an idea of what any individual claimant is likely to get.
My thoughts exactly. Silverlight is in the MS evolutionary stage where the tech is promising and many developers will want to experiment. Once a user base gets addicted to the crack, the terms will change. Silverlight is an attempt to push the.Net framework as much as possible. Personally, though Flash is kind of fun in some ways, I say no thanks to Flash and Silverlight.
I'm one step past suspicious. I see this as the exact same blather we got from them for years about Longhorn. Any time Linux or OSX came out with a release, we heard all about how Longhorn would do the same thing only better. Of course, when the time came, none of those features were delivered. So now that virtually no one has been won over by IE7 we're starting to hear about how great IE8 will be. The cycle continues.
Actually, I would say that it is quite a bit different. A fool might be duped into believing the sales pitch of enlargement pills or that a Nigerian prince can't find anyone to accept money, but the point of phishing is to establish a false sense of security where the victim believes they're dealing with a secure, reputable business - usually one where they already have a solid relationship. I can see a lot of people falling for well-designed, sophisticated phishing attacks.
I thought that Apple originally engineered the IEEE 1394 standard and that anyone was free to use the technology, but if you wanted to call it Firewire, you had to pay Apple some money. I was under the impression that other tech vendors are using the tech but no one wants to pay to use the recognizable brand name.
The pay would probably be sucky compared to the private sector, but these are probably IT positions that would pay better than the field agent pay due to the difficulty in finding eligible candidates. (A good software developer with no criminal history and no drug use could be a narrow field.) Of course, being in the IT area means that you wouldn't be issued a firearm to carry around.
But I think the job satisfaction level would be great once the arrests start happening.
My bet: They won't ignore it. They'll use the national security ploy to deny the order or delay compliance until they can get legislation passed to make it a non-issue. It's not like Congress has the guts to oppose anything that purports to protect us from terrorists.
I know what you mean, but it's not funny. In fact, it makes perfect sense. If SCO were producing valuable software they probably never would have gone off on their anti-Linux litigation. Same with these guys: if they were burning up the market with quality products, they wouldn't have to be suing others. I guess successful companies keep patents as a defense and lesser companies use them to keep their outdated business models or revenue streams going.
I see the point you're making, but I would say that the success of iTMS relies on keeping consumers happy. I don't think any of the content producers have ever been happy about iTunes, except the indies. The major content producers have grudingly gone along becuase they want that revenue. But Jobs has probably made more enemies there than friends. Microsoft, on the other hand, has apparently made it more a priority to keep the content producers happy, but the Zune and their music deals don't seem to go anywhere.
During the Falklands conflict, the mass media attributed the lopsided British air victories to the Harrier being a superior fighter to the aircraft the Argentines used. According to the British pilots, though, the difference was in their use of Sidewinder missles. Apparently they enjoyed much greater success at staying locked on, ignoring chaff, etc.
So while pilot training may by more important than the aircraft, sometimes its the munitions that matter most of all.
This is the Gartner Group we're talking about. The only thing that amazes me is that anyone still pays them any attention at all. I still have some presentation materials around here somewhere where they warn that 30% of US businesses will fail due to Y2K problems.
I would think the biggest part of the psychological impact of actually being on Mars would be the concept of total isolation on a scale that can't be duplicated. Yes, the artic is remote, but if things get bad you know a support team could hopefully arrive within hours. On Mars, you have the always-present knowledge of the vast gulf of space that separates you from any help. If some strange illness starts dropping your colleagues or cracks begin forming in your habitat/shelter, that sense of isolation would be the thing that eats away at me.
I agree with a lot of what you say, except for the logic in this statement: If DRM free music is a great marketing tool, that means it's a great marketing tool because people will pirate it.
DRM can be a great marketing tool for other reasons. I don't give away the music I have, but I try to buy non-DRM music whenever I can. (Okay, so I have some iTunes tracks with Fairplay.) DRM-free music is a great marketing tool because no one tells me how many times I can play it, how many copies I can make of it (one for home, two cars, office, etc.), or any other issues that aren't really their business. DRM-free tracks also make great promotional material.
Again, my only point is to break the mindset that DRM-free is to be automatically associated with pirating. It's not. It's associated with personal liberties and an outdated concept called Fair Use.
Interesting point. It seems like we've already seen a partial answer with regard to how MS is handling its dispute with the EU. They don't comply with the EU, so we can pretty much be assured of how much they would comply with a smaller policing body.
"Likewise, Vista's increases have come at the expense of Windows XP and Windows 2000, both of which have dropped in usage since January. Windows XP, for instance, accounted for 85.02% of all machines that month but was down to 81.94% in June. Windows overall total has remained flat, ranging between 90.01% and 90.46% through the first six months of the year."
You DID read the article before posting didn't you? Oh wait, I almost forgot, this is Slashdot.
Agreed for the most part, except about the motivations for Safari on Windows. I thought it was clear that WinSafari was the SDK for iPhone applications and the goal was to pave the way for more developers to have access.
While I wouldn't say that this guy had as yet done anything illegal (maybe slimy), you're right about privately owned web sites not having to respect one's right to privacy. Especially because in the USofA, there is no right to privacy. We have that expectation, but there is no constitutional right to it. This was hardly an issue when the constitution was written, but I think the time has come to address that.
I'd say that phrase pretty much sums this up nicely. The only alternative to convenience is inconvenience, which makes this service dead on arrival as long as there's any other alternative. I'm sure the idea is ensure there is no alternative, but if this is where things are heading, then I'll either end up on MythTV or watching even less TV than I do already.
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I don't know about your comment regarding Apple refusing to support a two-button mouse, though. I replaced my Apple mouse with a two-button mouse and all the right-click context menus were available with no changes needed.
I agree that simplicity is almost always better, but I would say that good usability is always about listening to user feedback. Basically this change flunked the usability test for a lot of folks and the developers should find a way to elegantly implement that option. There's undoubtedly a way to add this ability without adding "useless clutter." And I would say this clutter wouldn't be useless since people are asking for it.
I like DreamWeaver, too, and use if almost every day. But I think I've been in the design view maybe once or twice over the past few years. The editor is much nicer than using simple Notepad or Wordpad, and it includes some nice 508 accessibility reminders. But that design view is something to be avioded in most cases, since the DreamWeaver-generated code is mostly unsupportable garbage.
Actually, those are specifically spelled out as part of IT's job where I work. And people do indeed get fired for violating policies along those lines.
I'm just sayin'.
I believe it is Philips that controls the CD standard and not Sony. Also, I'm pretty sure DRM in no way is part of a CD standard. That, in fact, is why labels like Sony were forced to stop calling their DRM-laden discs CDs.
That doesn't really address how much the *IAA will end up paying, but it gives an idea of what any individual claimant is likely to get.
That comment succintly summarizes my entire response to this subject in far fewer words than I could have ever done myself.
My thoughts exactly. Silverlight is in the MS evolutionary stage where the tech is promising and many developers will want to experiment. Once a user base gets addicted to the crack, the terms will change. Silverlight is an attempt to push the .Net framework as much as possible. Personally, though Flash is kind of fun in some ways, I say no thanks to Flash and Silverlight.
I'm one step past suspicious. I see this as the exact same blather we got from them for years about Longhorn. Any time Linux or OSX came out with a release, we heard all about how Longhorn would do the same thing only better. Of course, when the time came, none of those features were delivered. So now that virtually no one has been won over by IE7 we're starting to hear about how great IE8 will be. The cycle continues.
Actually, I would say that it is quite a bit different. A fool might be duped into believing the sales pitch of enlargement pills or that a Nigerian prince can't find anyone to accept money, but the point of phishing is to establish a false sense of security where the victim believes they're dealing with a secure, reputable business - usually one where they already have a solid relationship. I can see a lot of people falling for well-designed, sophisticated phishing attacks.
I thought that Apple originally engineered the IEEE 1394 standard and that anyone was free to use the technology, but if you wanted to call it Firewire, you had to pay Apple some money. I was under the impression that other tech vendors are using the tech but no one wants to pay to use the recognizable brand name.
The pay would probably be sucky compared to the private sector, but these are probably IT positions that would pay better than the field agent pay due to the difficulty in finding eligible candidates. (A good software developer with no criminal history and no drug use could be a narrow field.) Of course, being in the IT area means that you wouldn't be issued a firearm to carry around.
But I think the job satisfaction level would be great once the arrests start happening.
My bet: They won't ignore it. They'll use the national security ploy to deny the order or delay compliance until they can get legislation passed to make it a non-issue. It's not like Congress has the guts to oppose anything that purports to protect us from terrorists.
I know what you mean, but it's not funny. In fact, it makes perfect sense. If SCO were producing valuable software they probably never would have gone off on their anti-Linux litigation. Same with these guys: if they were burning up the market with quality products, they wouldn't have to be suing others. I guess successful companies keep patents as a defense and lesser companies use them to keep their outdated business models or revenue streams going.
I see the point you're making, but I would say that the success of iTMS relies on keeping consumers happy. I don't think any of the content producers have ever been happy about iTunes, except the indies. The major content producers have grudingly gone along becuase they want that revenue. But Jobs has probably made more enemies there than friends. Microsoft, on the other hand, has apparently made it more a priority to keep the content producers happy, but the Zune and their music deals don't seem to go anywhere.
So while pilot training may by more important than the aircraft, sometimes its the munitions that matter most of all.
This is the Gartner Group we're talking about. The only thing that amazes me is that anyone still pays them any attention at all. I still have some presentation materials around here somewhere where they warn that 30% of US businesses will fail due to Y2K problems.
I would think the biggest part of the psychological impact of actually being on Mars would be the concept of total isolation on a scale that can't be duplicated. Yes, the artic is remote, but if things get bad you know a support team could hopefully arrive within hours. On Mars, you have the always-present knowledge of the vast gulf of space that separates you from any help. If some strange illness starts dropping your colleagues or cracks begin forming in your habitat/shelter, that sense of isolation would be the thing that eats away at me.
DRM can be a great marketing tool for other reasons. I don't give away the music I have, but I try to buy non-DRM music whenever I can. (Okay, so I have some iTunes tracks with Fairplay.) DRM-free music is a great marketing tool because no one tells me how many times I can play it, how many copies I can make of it (one for home, two cars, office, etc.), or any other issues that aren't really their business. DRM-free tracks also make great promotional material.
Again, my only point is to break the mindset that DRM-free is to be automatically associated with pirating. It's not. It's associated with personal liberties and an outdated concept called Fair Use.
Interesting point. It seems like we've already seen a partial answer with regard to how MS is handling its dispute with the EU. They don't comply with the EU, so we can pretty much be assured of how much they would comply with a smaller policing body.
"Likewise, Vista's increases have come at the expense of Windows XP and Windows 2000, both of which have dropped in usage since January. Windows XP, for instance, accounted for 85.02% of all machines that month but was down to 81.94% in June. Windows overall total has remained flat, ranging between 90.01% and 90.46% through the first six months of the year."
You DID read the article before posting didn't you? Oh wait, I almost forgot, this is Slashdot.
Agreed for the most part, except about the motivations for Safari on Windows. I thought it was clear that WinSafari was the SDK for iPhone applications and the goal was to pave the way for more developers to have access.
While I wouldn't say that this guy had as yet done anything illegal (maybe slimy), you're right about privately owned web sites not having to respect one's right to privacy. Especially because in the USofA, there is no right to privacy. We have that expectation, but there is no constitutional right to it. This was hardly an issue when the constitution was written, but I think the time has come to address that.
I'd say that phrase pretty much sums this up nicely. The only alternative to convenience is inconvenience, which makes this service dead on arrival as long as there's any other alternative. I'm sure the idea is ensure there is no alternative, but if this is where things are heading, then I'll either end up on MythTV or watching even less TV than I do already.