The Slashdot effect is now largely psychological. The server, knowing it has been linked to by Slashdot, pre-emptively dies irrespective of the fact no one is actually reading it.
They'd only be giving it away to people too poor to pay for it in the first place. Actually read the proposal, eh?
That's delightfully simplistic.
The individuals can't afford it, sure. But they live in countries that drug companies are quite happy to sell to. Whether or not the products actually filter down to those who need them in some cases.
University funding plummets as drug companies refuse to allow others to reduce their profits by giving away the fruits of research for which they paid.
Nice sentiment. Terrible idea.
It would be nice if it was true but you can only price yourself out of the market if there are alternatives in that market. Much as we love Linux, as far as most consumers and businesses are concerned, it's still not in that market.
So Vista's real rival is...WinXP. What inflated prices will do is simply delay the roll-out of Vista. Companies will almost certainly wait until their next hardware upgrade cycle at which point they will have little choice but to go with Vista anyway.
Although it's true that many people can do without the bundled Media Centre in preference of alternatives and will probably experience *better* performance Aero-free, that's not all they've stripped out.
Laptop users with basic may be feeling a little chilly without Windows Mobility Centre. Sure, you don't *need* it travel, connect wirelessly and work, but in this day and age of mobile communication those are pretty basic OS features they've decided to limit to enhanced editions.
The other issue is that Aero is not purely aesthetic and does offer some functional usability features too. Just how long it will be until a developer of one of those Open Source apps you love decides to utilise a cool element of the Aero interface, forgetting momentarily that not everyone has it. After all, he doesn't code for Macs for exactly that reason...
Why is this distressing? That just sounds *accurate*. Err, I mean by all accounts...
I still remember my Design Tech teacher sternly warning us all to be careful with soldering irons as they are very hot, which he proceeded to demonstrate by pressing it against his fingers with a hiss, then sniffing and exclaiming, "Smells like bacon!"
In fairness the multimedia devices/game consoles are guaranteed to be in short supply at launch, regardless of marketing benefits, because ramping up production of new technology cannot be done instantaneously.
AFAIK moulding plastic bricks ain't exactly new technology...
I agree the user experience has changed little (privacy controls were suitably robust after consultation following hiccups with feed privacy settings) with opening up to the public. However my point was more whether *perception* has changed.
Existing users are clearly not leaving, but will new university students still be drawn to Facebook (rather than altenatives) in droves the way they were when it appeared entirely uni-focused? That, I think, still remains to be seen.
Although the MySpace empire may well topple if kids move on to the next big thing, I'm not sure it's for the criticisms you cite. Why? Every one f those can be directly applied to a larger beast called "the internet" and its subsidiary "e-mail". Its not as if these are going out of fashion because of the issues we face with spam, viruses and all the other pleasures of the net's digital underbelly.
My hope is that as internet content creation becomes more accessible, people will become empowered to design their own sites or mini-sites in a slightly less crass way so that large networks like that devolve into linkups between user-run websites. I've never been bothered by how many "online friends" I have - I just wish that they could write blogs that didn't make my eyes bleed when I tried to read them...
Although I agree Facebook's advertising is less intrusive than the alternatives, I highly doubt that's the reason for its appeal. Many uni students joined up because this closed network WASN'T MySpace and seemed to be offering something genuinely different. While the innovative changes always result in some backlash before people get used to them, none have been so large as against the idea of Facebook "going public".
Now much of the user protest was hot air as few truly intended to stop using the site. However it may well result in a decline in popularity among uni students who no longer view it as an exclusive network serving to their needs. If its open to everyone anyway, why not just bite the bullet and join MySpace...
Maybe not, but some of that major feeling may emerge. I sincerely miss Looking Glass and was genuinely disappointed to hear of their demise. No one will ever make a System Shock 3 like they could have, given the chance...
Give the industry time and it may well produce some real heroes in the same way the movie industry has.
While this introduces a major spec difference, bear in mind that current generation of consoles aren't identical either. The producers switch between manufacturers of individual components (the Xbox harddisk being a case in point) based on cost and availability. This results in individual consoles that will perform noticably differently from one another, such as variations in loading and saving speed and reliability.
All MS need to do is ensure that the software released fully supports all hardware configurations.
Parent is right right about immersion being a key feature. While a decent pair of headphones (not the tacky white ones your iPod came with, sorry) will provide decent audio-immersion while you're travelling or engaged in another activity, staring at an iPod-sized screen will never provide the required immersion for a movie. Even portable DVD players largely fail in this respect.
Slashdot Mirror
The Slashdot effect is now largely psychological. The server, knowing it has been linked to by Slashdot, pre-emptively dies irrespective of the fact no one is actually reading it.
That's delightfully simplistic.
The individuals can't afford it, sure. But they live in countries that drug companies are quite happy to sell to. Whether or not the products actually filter down to those who need them in some cases.
Actually read the news, eh?
University funding plummets as drug companies refuse to allow others to reduce their profits by giving away the fruits of research for which they paid. Nice sentiment. Terrible idea.
It would be nice if it was true but you can only price yourself out of the market if there are alternatives in that market. Much as we love Linux, as far as most consumers and businesses are concerned, it's still not in that market.
So Vista's real rival is...WinXP. What inflated prices will do is simply delay the roll-out of Vista. Companies will almost certainly wait until their next hardware upgrade cycle at which point they will have little choice but to go with Vista anyway.
Although it's true that many people can do without the bundled Media Centre in preference of alternatives and will probably experience *better* performance Aero-free, that's not all they've stripped out. Laptop users with basic may be feeling a little chilly without Windows Mobility Centre. Sure, you don't *need* it travel, connect wirelessly and work, but in this day and age of mobile communication those are pretty basic OS features they've decided to limit to enhanced editions. The other issue is that Aero is not purely aesthetic and does offer some functional usability features too. Just how long it will be until a developer of one of those Open Source apps you love decides to utilise a cool element of the Aero interface, forgetting momentarily that not everyone has it. After all, he doesn't code for Macs for exactly that reason...
Why is this distressing? That just sounds *accurate*. Err, I mean by all accounts... I still remember my Design Tech teacher sternly warning us all to be careful with soldering irons as they are very hot, which he proceeded to demonstrate by pressing it against his fingers with a hiss, then sniffing and exclaiming, "Smells like bacon!"
In fairness the multimedia devices/game consoles are guaranteed to be in short supply at launch, regardless of marketing benefits, because ramping up production of new technology cannot be done instantaneously. AFAIK moulding plastic bricks ain't exactly new technology...
I agree the user experience has changed little (privacy controls were suitably robust after consultation following hiccups with feed privacy settings) with opening up to the public. However my point was more whether *perception* has changed. Existing users are clearly not leaving, but will new university students still be drawn to Facebook (rather than altenatives) in droves the way they were when it appeared entirely uni-focused? That, I think, still remains to be seen.
Although the MySpace empire may well topple if kids move on to the next big thing, I'm not sure it's for the criticisms you cite. Why? Every one f those can be directly applied to a larger beast called "the internet" and its subsidiary "e-mail". Its not as if these are going out of fashion because of the issues we face with spam, viruses and all the other pleasures of the net's digital underbelly. My hope is that as internet content creation becomes more accessible, people will become empowered to design their own sites or mini-sites in a slightly less crass way so that large networks like that devolve into linkups between user-run websites. I've never been bothered by how many "online friends" I have - I just wish that they could write blogs that didn't make my eyes bleed when I tried to read them...
Although I agree Facebook's advertising is less intrusive than the alternatives, I highly doubt that's the reason for its appeal. Many uni students joined up because this closed network WASN'T MySpace and seemed to be offering something genuinely different. While the innovative changes always result in some backlash before people get used to them, none have been so large as against the idea of Facebook "going public". Now much of the user protest was hot air as few truly intended to stop using the site. However it may well result in a decline in popularity among uni students who no longer view it as an exclusive network serving to their needs. If its open to everyone anyway, why not just bite the bullet and join MySpace...
If you think this has run its course, turn to error 404.
Maybe not, but some of that major feeling may emerge. I sincerely miss Looking Glass and was genuinely disappointed to hear of their demise. No one will ever make a System Shock 3 like they could have, given the chance... Give the industry time and it may well produce some real heroes in the same way the movie industry has.
While this introduces a major spec difference, bear in mind that current generation of consoles aren't identical either. The producers switch between manufacturers of individual components (the Xbox harddisk being a case in point) based on cost and availability. This results in individual consoles that will perform noticably differently from one another, such as variations in loading and saving speed and reliability. All MS need to do is ensure that the software released fully supports all hardware configurations.
Parent is right right about immersion being a key feature. While a decent pair of headphones (not the tacky white ones your iPod came with, sorry) will provide decent audio-immersion while you're travelling or engaged in another activity, staring at an iPod-sized screen will never provide the required immersion for a movie. Even portable DVD players largely fail in this respect.