- I can buy a cheap extra set of rechargeable batteries. - I can simply insert a new set of fresh batteries without having to wait for them to charge. - I don't depend on some proprietary Nintendo battery pack. - I can use a set of plain Duracells, if I forgot to recharge.
Oh, I love standards. We should use it a lot more!
"Windows NT 3.0 will be the most secure OS ever!" - Anything beats Winows 95. This baby comes with military grade security and all!
"Windows NT 4.0 will be the most secure OS ever!" - NT 3.0 was obviously redicules...
"Windows XP will be the most secure OS ever!" - I thought so: Windows NT 40 was actually crap!
"Windows Vista is the moste secure OS ever!" - now hold it... This is getting boring!
How about simply admitting that the Windows you're using is crap, right our of the box! It's not that Microsoft doesn't know: they're just a bit slow to admit it!
A couple of years ago, I bought a brand new Sony Ericsson P900 super phone. After some time, I discovered some software bugs, and I had the first software update installed. One of the very good aspects of this phone was, that I could update the software myself, over the internet. Some of the bugs were fixed, and new ones were discovered. Sony Ericsson however, stopped releasing new software revisions for the phone, and after some correspondance, they more or less told me to buy their next model instead, since there would be no more bug new releases for the P900!
Since the phone was still under warranty, I got the money back from the shop, and bought a Motorola A1000 instead. Another super phone, and in many ways even more clever than the P900. But same story: I now have a "smart" phone with a bunch of errors and bugs, and a producer that doesn't give a damn. Despite memory leaks, random crashes, numerous GUI stupidities, Bluetooth problems etc. there will be no more updates. This despite the fact that the phone is less than two years old!
I use my phone A LOT every day, and this particular phone is also used for GPS navigation. But I'm not so sure about my next phone. If the producer isn't going to keep the product alive for longer than 10 months, I'm really not that inclined to buy a $1000 phone - or any other product for that matter! If however, they start to maintain their phones for years to come, perhaps add new features (eg. A2DP Bluetooth), I would actually be willing to pay for it. I like to have one device with GPS, calendar, notebook etc. but treating customers who bought a $1000 phone the same way as customers wo bought a $50 phone simply does not make sense.
However, the appeals court did affirm in part Judge Jackson's ruling on monopolization. ...
On November 2, 2001, the DOJ reached an agreement with Microsoft to settle the case. ... ...required Microsoft to share its application programming interfaces with third-party companies and... ...
The dissenting States regarded the settlement as merely a slap on the wrist. ...
Microsoft's obligations under the settlement expire on November 12, 2007.
Of course, there is a good reason for Microsoft to do this: If Microsoft had to just fight fair, like Google and many other companies, they probably wouldn't stand a chance!
...in the US. The anti trush law is a very peculiar law, at least in the US.
First of all, it states that special rules apply, as soon as you're a monopoly, or will become one. You are not allowed to compete in the same way anymore, hence Microsoft broke the law when they bundled Windows with IE to obtain a browser monopoly. It's probably still illegal, but there is a problem...
In the US, breaking the anti trust law cannot be fined. You may be forced to forced to pay some sort of remedy, or do something (eg. break up the company into two independant competing companies). But the state cannot issue a fine! In other words: Microsoft can probably just continue, as long as the remedy doesn't work!
Now EU is another matter! This is why the EU case with Microsoft's media player is interesting. The EU may force Microsoft to pay a fine, that even Microsoft will notice... I can't wait!:-]
The difference is in the control: Microsoft are illegally using their monopoly to gain a competetive advantage. They control their browser through an OS/browser monopoly. Google is playing fair, and simply paying for product placement.
You could argue that Microsoft is behaving double badly here: They are illegally using their illegally acheived browser monopoly to leverage their search enging, instead of fighting fair with Google. No wonder some people see them as the spoiled child, that never won anything in a fair fight...
So by virtue of their "monopoly", you're suggesting that they should be forbidden to set MSN as the default search engine for IE.
In short: Yes. A company is simply not allowed to use a monopoly to promote their product. As soon as you become a monopoly, special rules apply.
As a curiosity, in the US, Microsoft cannot be fined for doing this, but they can be imposed a remedy. In EU it's different, hence the case with their media player.
I do not know what they should do instead, but as long as they don't break the law, I really don't care. This hugely innovative company should be able to find a solution for that without breaking the law!;-)
Sorry, but this is not the same. GM does not use one monopoly to leverage another monopoly. That's the difference.
Microsoft used their OS monopoly to gain a browser monopoly. Thats illegal - even in the liberal US!
Microsoft is now using their browser monopoly to promote Microsoft's search engine. That's illegal. When you have a monopoly, there are certain rules you must follow.
Using Google as the default browser in Firefox, having GM install a certain radio in their cars, or pre-loading PCs with Windows is legal.
I notice that in my version of Firefox the search box defaults to Google, and that the pulldown menu of pre-entered options doesn't even include MSN Search...
IMHO Google is rigt here. The difference is the use of an existing market dominance to create a new one. In the case of the "browser war", Microsoft illegally misused their OS monopoly to create a browser monopoly, and that's illegal both in the US and in EU.
In this case, Microsoft are using their existing market dominance to promote their own search engine, which I see as a clear violation of the anti trust law.
In the case of Firefox, neither the Mozilla organization nor Google are misusing a market dominance to promote a product. Google is simply the default, probably because it's the bigest search engine. This is legal in just about the same way as it's legal for PC producers to preload PCs with Windows.
About 7 years ago, I bought a Palm V. It was a great device, and though I didn't use the calendar as much as some, I used it for notes during meetings. Grafitti took some learning, but it was effective (and I had the local high-score in Giraffe...!). The Palm was merely a smart electronic notebook, but it was good at it. Its biggest problem: I was never on-line. I couldn't send/receive e-mails without connecting to my PC first, and thought AvantGo was great, it was still off-line.
About 4 years ago, I bought a Palm Tungsten. Color screen and all, and being Bluetooth enabled, my plan was to make it go on-line through my phone, and perhaps e-mail pictures from my cameras SD card. It was a joke: The Bluetooth implementation and the IMAP protocol was basically crappy and useless, and the OS couldn't handle even medium sized images. So I ended up using it as a primitive and clunky music player and for some notes during meetings, though the battery life was a bit on the short side. Still off-line, and it appeared that Palm couldn't decide if they wanted to be a highly efficient device for a small number of things, or equally poor for just about anything. IMHO they got stuck between the two chairs.
Today I use a Motorola A1000. The Symbian OS works great, and it's multitasking and memory handling beats the snot out of PALM OS. The phone hardware is a technical marble with 3G, GPS receiver, cameras, PDA-functionality, touch-screen - the works! At least on paper, that is. In reality, it's half a PDA and half a phone being half integrated. I use Wayfinder for GPS navigation with the built-in GPS receiver, and when it works it is GREAT!
That, however was the keywords: "WHEN it works...". The software built by Motorola really stinks! Menus contains spelling errors. Simple things like the alarm clock doesn't work. Sometimes the time is way off, until I reset the device! Sometimes the alarm wakes me up at 0:00 UTC, informing me that it's now 0:00 UTC, and that I'm supposed to get up in 5 hours! The text input is slow, buggy and highly unprecise. The phone and the PDA are in no way integrated: Eg. I cannot make it silent during meetings! The phone has no sound profile support. Bluetooth support is unstable, and only the handsfree profile is supported. The worst part: Motorola has stopped all support on the phone. No new versions will be made, no matter what! A2DP will never be supported, the many small and annoying bugs will never be corrected.
My point. Well, more than one, actually...
1) An on-line PDA or a smart phone would be great, but we're not there yet. Aparently the phone manufacturers cannot make effective PDAs, PALM OS is basicalli where Windows 3.10 were 12 years ago, and in general PDA manufacturers cannot make phones.
2) The devices are pretty expensive, yet support and software stinks. Stopping further development on a device that expensive within 5 years is completely unreasonable, and I cannot even pay to get uprades. "Throw the thing away, and se if you can find a new one..."
3) The devices are somehow seen as "toy gadgets", whereas the original Palm probably was more of an effective tool! This doesn't just go for the lousy support. Take input: In my opinion, nothing has really been as effective as Grafitti! In many ways, the devices are designed as small PCs with files, programs, clipboard etc. rather than exploring more effective ways of creating smart PDAs and smart phones!
He had a habit of making things too cheaply and compromising the quality...
I couldn't agree more! I had a ZX81, and I held my breath every time I saved, because the machine was so fragile and had so many bad connections to the 64K RAM extension board. I always saved 2-3 times on the casette tape, just to be almost sure that I could read the 300 BAUD data back again. Oh, the "good" old days of computing...! A lot was learned, and a lot of time was wasted on this crappy hardware!:-)
I think I've heard something like this before. AFAIR Sir Clive Sinclair experimented with something very similar to this 20 years ago? Where did that research go? Was it never put in production?
Just like parking tickets will be used to build better parking facilities, speed ticket are being used to improve traffic safety, or environmental taxes are being used to improve the environment.... Nah!;-)
Well, in Denmark we still have some protection of the consumers. A wine retail company recently agreed to pay a fine of 40,000 DKR (roughly $6200 or 5300) for sending about 950 unsolicited e-mails.
I think this is the way it should be. As long as it pays to send SPAM, it will be sent - it's a plain and simple business calculation.
what a great idea: If a game has a flaw, the producer could make an online patch, that everyone could download FOR FREE. Just like Office Tools and PC operating systems! (This of course also means, that games needs not to be finished, before they are sent to market... Just like...)
Nah - probably not a good idea. I'll just stick with Zelda and Mario on one of the last off-line consoles on the market!;-)
Well, jokes aside: Dear game producers. Please keep up the good work on the consoles, and make some games that never crashes. It's bad enough to waste hours at work, because of a software glitch, but it is even worse when you're supposed to have fun.
...I hope! While I do look forward to play online games on my (soon to come to Europe) DS Lite and Revolution, I would most certainly also enjoy Brain Age, Zelda, Super Mario etc.
I hope that Nintendo will succeed in their quest to reinvent console gaming, and not fall into the pit where Sony and Microsoft are fighting: Competing to be the best non PC PC multimedia entertainment home media center.
As I see it, online is just another game enabling tool, like the new controller, the touch screen, 3D accelleration.
Nintendo isn't exactly new in this field either. Their extremely popular DS and DS Lite has passed one million unique gamers. Though the DS / DS Lite handhelds aren't stationary consoles, the principles are the same. Handheld consoles has more or less the same problems and the same gaming possibilities, and it does appear to be a huge success.
"The next version will be lots better then what our competitor offers so please buy our [inferior] product now,..."
Well, actually: Microsoft is rather consequently comparing the blueprint of their next product with competitors current product. "Vista is going to be better than current Linux/MacOS/...", "Next version of word will be better than current version of OpenOffice", the next IE is going to be better than Firefox/Mozilla/Opera"... Of course, since their current version is usually vastly inferior when compared to competitors current version.
Hardly fair, but it does aparently work as magic on the masses.
I'm just wondering, how long it will take, until our vigilant IT press has to publish "newly discovered holes in other system", minimizing the significance of this problem...;-)
Slashdot Mirror
- I can buy a cheap extra set of rechargeable batteries.
- I can simply insert a new set of fresh batteries without having to wait for them to charge.
- I don't depend on some proprietary Nintendo battery pack.
- I can use a set of plain Duracells, if I forgot to recharge.
Oh, I love standards. We should use it a lot more!
...what they called the first version, to make it sound like it wasn't their first try... :-D
"Windows NT 3.0 will be the most secure OS ever!"
- Anything beats Winows 95. This baby comes with military grade security and all!
"Windows NT 4.0 will be the most secure OS ever!"
- NT 3.0 was obviously redicules...
"Windows XP will be the most secure OS ever!"
- I thought so: Windows NT 40 was actually crap!
"Windows Vista is the moste secure OS ever!"
- now hold it... This is getting boring!
How about simply admitting that the Windows you're using is crap, right our of the box! It's not that Microsoft doesn't know: they're just a bit slow to admit it!
Even just a forgotten part of a dentist' drill in a tooth could pull the tooth rught through your scull in an MR scanner!
Come to think about it, this could be a potentially powerfull sixth sense...
http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/nanoc apacitors.htm
http://www.physorg.com/news10525.html
..at least for me!
A couple of years ago, I bought a brand new Sony Ericsson P900 super phone. After some time, I discovered some software bugs, and I had the first software update installed. One of the very good aspects of this phone was, that I could update the software myself, over the internet. Some of the bugs were fixed, and new ones were discovered. Sony Ericsson however, stopped releasing new software revisions for the phone, and after some correspondance, they more or less told me to buy their next model instead, since there would be no more bug new releases for the P900!
Since the phone was still under warranty, I got the money back from the shop, and bought a Motorola A1000 instead. Another super phone, and in many ways even more clever than the P900. But same story: I now have a "smart" phone with a bunch of errors and bugs, and a producer that doesn't give a damn. Despite memory leaks, random crashes, numerous GUI stupidities, Bluetooth problems etc. there will be no more updates. This despite the fact that the phone is less than two years old!
I use my phone A LOT every day, and this particular phone is also used for GPS navigation. But I'm not so sure about my next phone. If the producer isn't going to keep the product alive for longer than 10 months, I'm really not that inclined to buy a $1000 phone - or any other product for that matter! If however, they start to maintain their phones for years to come, perhaps add new features (eg. A2DP Bluetooth), I would actually be willing to pay for it. I like to have one device with GPS, calendar, notebook etc. but treating customers who bought a $1000 phone the same way as customers wo bought a $50 phone simply does not make sense.
However, the appeals court did affirm in part Judge Jackson's ruling on monopolization.
...
...
...required Microsoft to share its application programming interfaces with third-party companies and...
...
...
On November 2, 2001, the DOJ reached an agreement with Microsoft to settle the case.
The dissenting States regarded the settlement as merely a slap on the wrist.
Microsoft's obligations under the settlement expire on November 12, 2007.
Of course, there is a good reason for Microsoft to do this: If Microsoft had to just fight fair, like Google and many other companies, they probably wouldn't stand a chance!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_antitrust_c ase
Now we're getting somewhere! :-))
...in the US. The anti trush law is a very peculiar law, at least in the US.
First of all, it states that special rules apply, as soon as you're a monopoly, or will become one. You are not allowed to compete in the same way anymore, hence Microsoft broke the law when they bundled Windows with IE to obtain a browser monopoly. It's probably still illegal, but there is a problem...
In the US, breaking the anti trust law cannot be fined. You may be forced to forced to pay some sort of remedy, or do something (eg. break up the company into two independant competing companies). But the state cannot issue a fine! In other words: Microsoft can probably just continue, as long as the remedy doesn't work!
Now EU is another matter! This is why the EU case with Microsoft's media player is interesting. The EU may force Microsoft to pay a fine, that even Microsoft will notice... I can't wait! :-]
The difference is in the control: Microsoft are illegally using their monopoly to gain a competetive advantage. They control their browser through an OS/browser monopoly. Google is playing fair, and simply paying for product placement.
You could argue that Microsoft is behaving double badly here: They are illegally using their illegally acheived browser monopoly to leverage their search enging, instead of fighting fair with Google. No wonder some people see them as the spoiled child, that never won anything in a fair fight...
So by virtue of their "monopoly", you're suggesting that they should be forbidden to set MSN as the default search engine for IE.
In short: Yes. A company is simply not allowed to use a monopoly to promote their product. As soon as you become a monopoly, special rules apply.
As a curiosity, in the US, Microsoft cannot be fined for doing this, but they can be imposed a remedy. In EU it's different, hence the case with their media player.
I do not know what they should do instead, but as long as they don't break the law, I really don't care. This hugely innovative company should be able to find a solution for that without breaking the law! ;-)
Sorry, but this is not the same. GM does not use one monopoly to leverage another monopoly. That's the difference.
Microsoft used their OS monopoly to gain a browser monopoly. Thats illegal - even in the liberal US!
Microsoft is now using their browser monopoly to promote Microsoft's search engine. That's illegal. When you have a monopoly, there are certain rules you must follow.
Using Google as the default browser in Firefox, having GM install a certain radio in their cars, or pre-loading PCs with Windows is legal.
I notice that in my version of Firefox the search box defaults to Google, and that the pulldown menu of pre-entered options doesn't even include MSN Search...
IMHO Google is rigt here. The difference is the use of an existing market dominance to create a new one. In the case of the "browser war", Microsoft illegally misused their OS monopoly to create a browser monopoly, and that's illegal both in the US and in EU.
In this case, Microsoft are using their existing market dominance to promote their own search engine, which I see as a clear violation of the anti trust law.
In the case of Firefox, neither the Mozilla organization nor Google are misusing a market dominance to promote a product. Google is simply the default, probably because it's the bigest search engine. This is legal in just about the same way as it's legal for PC producers to preload PCs with Windows.
About 7 years ago, I bought a Palm V. It was a great device, and though I didn't use the calendar as much as some, I used it for notes during meetings. Grafitti took some learning, but it was effective (and I had the local high-score in Giraffe...!). The Palm was merely a smart electronic notebook, but it was good at it. Its biggest problem: I was never on-line. I couldn't send/receive e-mails without connecting to my PC first, and thought AvantGo was great, it was still off-line.
About 4 years ago, I bought a Palm Tungsten. Color screen and all, and being Bluetooth enabled, my plan was to make it go on-line through my phone, and perhaps e-mail pictures from my cameras SD card. It was a joke: The Bluetooth implementation and the IMAP protocol was basically crappy and useless, and the OS couldn't handle even medium sized images. So I ended up using it as a primitive and clunky music player and for some notes during meetings, though the battery life was a bit on the short side. Still off-line, and it appeared that Palm couldn't decide if they wanted to be a highly efficient device for a small number of things, or equally poor for just about anything. IMHO they got stuck between the two chairs.
Today I use a Motorola A1000. The Symbian OS works great, and it's multitasking and memory handling beats the snot out of PALM OS. The phone hardware is a technical marble with 3G, GPS receiver, cameras, PDA-functionality, touch-screen - the works! At least on paper, that is. In reality, it's half a PDA and half a phone being half integrated. I use Wayfinder for GPS navigation with the built-in GPS receiver, and when it works it is GREAT!
That, however was the keywords: "WHEN it works...". The software built by Motorola really stinks! Menus contains spelling errors. Simple things like the alarm clock doesn't work. Sometimes the time is way off, until I reset the device! Sometimes the alarm wakes me up at 0:00 UTC, informing me that it's now 0:00 UTC, and that I'm supposed to get up in 5 hours! The text input is slow, buggy and highly unprecise. The phone and the PDA are in no way integrated: Eg. I cannot make it silent during meetings! The phone has no sound profile support. Bluetooth support is unstable, and only the handsfree profile is supported. The worst part: Motorola has stopped all support on the phone. No new versions will be made, no matter what! A2DP will never be supported, the many small and annoying bugs will never be corrected.
My point. Well, more than one, actually...
1) An on-line PDA or a smart phone would be great, but we're not there yet. Aparently the phone manufacturers cannot make effective PDAs, PALM OS is basicalli where Windows 3.10 were 12 years ago, and in general PDA manufacturers cannot make phones.
2) The devices are pretty expensive, yet support and software stinks. Stopping further development on a device that expensive within 5 years is completely unreasonable, and I cannot even pay to get uprades. "Throw the thing away, and se if you can find a new one..."
3) The devices are somehow seen as "toy gadgets", whereas the original Palm probably was more of an effective tool! This doesn't just go for the lousy support. Take input: In my opinion, nothing has really been as effective as Grafitti! In many ways, the devices are designed as small PCs with files, programs, clipboard etc. rather than exploring more effective ways of creating smart PDAs and smart phones!
Don't forget the bless of ignorance! ;-)
I couldn't agree more! I had a ZX81, and I held my breath every time I saved, because the machine was so fragile and had so many bad connections to the 64K RAM extension board. I always saved 2-3 times on the casette tape, just to be almost sure that I could read the 300 BAUD data back again. Oh, the "good" old days of computing...! A lot was learned, and a lot of time was wasted on this crappy hardware! :-)
I think I've heard something like this before. AFAIR Sir Clive Sinclair experimented with something very similar to this 20 years ago? Where did that research go? Was it never put in production?
Just like parking tickets will be used to build better parking facilities, speed ticket are being used to improve traffic safety, or environmental taxes are being used to improve the environment.... Nah! ;-)
Well, in Denmark we still have some protection of the consumers. A wine retail company recently agreed to pay a fine of 40,000 DKR (roughly $6200 or 5300) for sending about 950 unsolicited e-mails.
I think this is the way it should be. As long as it pays to send SPAM, it will be sent - it's a plain and simple business calculation.
what a great idea: If a game has a flaw, the producer could make an online patch, that everyone could download FOR FREE. Just like Office Tools and PC operating systems! (This of course also means, that games needs not to be finished, before they are sent to market... Just like...)
;-)
Nah - probably not a good idea. I'll just stick with Zelda and Mario on one of the last off-line consoles on the market!
Well, jokes aside: Dear game producers. Please keep up the good work on the consoles, and make some games that never crashes. It's bad enough to waste hours at work, because of a software glitch, but it is even worse when you're supposed to have fun.
...I hope! While I do look forward to play online games on my (soon to come to Europe) DS Lite and Revolution, I would most certainly also enjoy Brain Age, Zelda, Super Mario etc.
;-)
I hope that Nintendo will succeed in their quest to reinvent console gaming, and not fall into the pit where Sony and Microsoft are fighting: Competing to be the best non PC PC multimedia entertainment home media center.
As I see it, online is just another game enabling tool, like the new controller, the touch screen, 3D accelleration.
At least I hope so...!
Nintendo isn't exactly new in this field either. Their extremely popular DS and DS Lite has passed one million unique gamers. Though the DS / DS Lite handhelds aren't stationary consoles, the principles are the same. Handheld consoles has more or less the same problems and the same gaming possibilities, and it does appear to be a huge success.
Well, actually: Microsoft is rather consequently comparing the blueprint of their next product with competitors current product. "Vista is going to be better than current Linux/MacOS/...", "Next version of word will be better than current version of OpenOffice", the next IE is going to be better than Firefox/Mozilla/Opera"... Of course, since their current version is usually vastly inferior when compared to competitors current version.
Hardly fair, but it does aparently work as magic on the masses.
I'm just wondering, how long it will take, until our vigilant IT press has to publish "newly discovered holes in other system", minimizing the significance of this problem... ;-)