(I'm aware that Intel do a lot more than just x86 processors, was just saying that in terms of desktop computing they are no longer untouchable, especially now that the authorities are aware of their anti-competitive practices and can keep an eye on them)
Wintel still sits comfortably above a throne of untouchable marketshare.
I wouldn't call it untouchable. There was that recent article about Windows/.NET officially running on ARM processors. Intel are a massive player obviously, but it sounds like the x86 market could be going downhill rapidly within the next few years. Making everything.NET compatible presumably will also make it easier for WINE/mono/whatever to run Windows apps on other OS platforms. Interesting times ahead:)
Not quite the same as taking charge of a construction convoy and using it to surround and trap a government official with very large and heavy vehicles, before burying him alive with the cement from your captured cement truck.
Whether Gates has benefited from them does not matter, the point is if he has caused them. OSX/Linux/BSD don't magically backup papers no, but they got their shit together in terms of using more stable driver architectures faster than Windows did.
My point was about spam sent by zombie machines, which basically will be 100% Windows machines. Yes people would still fall for scams, but the volume of spam would be much lower without the zombies. I remember stats from maybe 3 years ago saying that 50% of all web traffic was spam. That's a crazy waste of resources.
They are getting better yes, but it's annoying that it's only 12 years after I had to give up on other options and start using Windows. And I switched to Mac OS then Ubuntu a couple of years ago anyway. Thankfully things like Firefox helped to turn the web into a much more standards oriented place and made it possible to switch platform without too much hassle.
I'm quite aware of the problems with Slashdot groupthink, and stupid users, but I also feel that companies like Microsoft and Intel with their proven criminal anti-competitive practices have held back the world of computing for perhaps 5-10 years. In terms of the tech world, that's a lot of time. Things are looking bright for the future at least, with Linux and ARM on the rise, we're finally seeing some real competition:)
My point was that if you stop paying attention to the driving and just relax, then you're a lot more likely to fall asleep. Though most people should be able to get by fine with an audible alarm and/or vibrating chair to wake them up once they near their destination.
Then again, there's not too much to admire about Bill Gates if you consider that the damage he's done with Windows may outstrip the philanthropic work he's done. I wonder how many homework assignments/theses etc have been lost to BSODs, and how much money people have lost to malware and zombie-assisted spam scams, etc.
Okay, I had a further look, and the figures are still all over the place and comparing apples to oranges. Physical video game sales are obviously going to dwindle into nothingness. For another thing if you're not just counting game apps, you should be comparing app sales to the whole of the software industry, and there's no way in hell that mobile apps are going to overtake that. We pay over £20,000 a year just for a two processor license for one application, then another £12,000 or so for 5 floating 3D CAD licenses. Until phones can be used for serious design work, mobile app sales are never going to overtake PC app sales. And while the mobile gaming industry is a profitable segment with room for growth, the Wii showed that there is still room for growth in the traditional home console market too. Likewise Zynga is making a killing on PC gaming with their Facebook shovelware (though technically you can probably play these games on mobile devices since Android 2.2 - I haven't tried any flash games on my droid).
Comparing iPhone/Droid games sales to physical and digital downloads would be a much more interesting article. Which is not saying very much.
WTF. I just RTFA and it's comparing music sales to apps, not game sales. And these apps are not all just games either, so it seems a pointless comparison to make even if you can get it right. I probably wouldn't pay for a game on my phone, but I would perhaps pay for something like a navigation app if I didn't already have a good one built in.
Wasn't my first experience, but I wrote some AI for it when I was on holiday once, and the only computer around was an old 386 laptop. The opponents ranged from an artificial simulation of me which played pretty well, down to one of my brother - which I rather harshly set to throw the banana completely randomly, meaning he often destroyed himself!:)
I just wonder how heavy it is, the article doesn't seem to mention anything about that. Though of course even if it's very heavy it would probably be good for armour plating.
This story just reminded me of a friend ~2 years ago talking about buying dodgy DVDs. I didn't get why if she was going to being going the illegal route that she wouldn't just download them. She had a computer with a DVD burner and decent internet access. I suppose it does somewhat reduce the chance of the RIAA and their ilk catching up to you.
Wouldn't a court have the power to order a check their records, email addresses, names, photos and other details, etc? I'm sure it would be pretty easy to show that 99% were fake accounts. You could argue that people were using fake names and throwaway accounts, etc to register, but for them to have 340 million accounts would be pretty dubious when hardly anyone has even heard of them. I think even Facebook only has something like 700-800 million accounts right now?
I think you're right about the publicity thing.
Personally I say OKcupid ftw. It's free, and full of geeky women.
Someone needs to learn about BitTorrent. If he's hoping to make money off of it, he could just burn games and movies onto DVDs and sell them to other people who are ignorant of BitTorrent.
I don't approve of illegal downloads, but this is just stupid. Which is even worse than "slightly immoral".
Slashdot Mirror
(I'm aware that Intel do a lot more than just x86 processors, was just saying that in terms of desktop computing they are no longer untouchable, especially now that the authorities are aware of their anti-competitive practices and can keep an eye on them)
Wintel still sits comfortably above a throne of untouchable marketshare.
I wouldn't call it untouchable. There was that recent article about Windows/.NET officially running on ARM processors. Intel are a massive player obviously, but it sounds like the x86 market could be going downhill rapidly within the next few years. Making everything .NET compatible presumably will also make it easier for WINE/mono/whatever to run Windows apps on other OS platforms. Interesting times ahead :)
Not quite the same as taking charge of a construction convoy and using it to surround and trap a government official with very large and heavy vehicles, before burying him alive with the cement from your captured cement truck.
Nah, I looked at the graph and went into a apoplectic statistics fuelled rage at how dumb the caption was.
I did read more of it after I got some replies, and I still think it's dumb.
That's why I said "heavy" sleepers. Some people will sleep through anything :P
Whether Gates has benefited from them does not matter, the point is if he has caused them. OSX/Linux/BSD don't magically backup papers no, but they got their shit together in terms of using more stable driver architectures faster than Windows did.
My point was about spam sent by zombie machines, which basically will be 100% Windows machines. Yes people would still fall for scams, but the volume of spam would be much lower without the zombies. I remember stats from maybe 3 years ago saying that 50% of all web traffic was spam. That's a crazy waste of resources.
They are getting better yes, but it's annoying that it's only 12 years after I had to give up on other options and start using Windows. And I switched to Mac OS then Ubuntu a couple of years ago anyway. Thankfully things like Firefox helped to turn the web into a much more standards oriented place and made it possible to switch platform without too much hassle.
I'm quite aware of the problems with Slashdot groupthink, and stupid users, but I also feel that companies like Microsoft and Intel with their proven criminal anti-competitive practices have held back the world of computing for perhaps 5-10 years. In terms of the tech world, that's a lot of time. Things are looking bright for the future at least, with Linux and ARM on the rise, we're finally seeing some real competition :)
My point was that if you stop paying attention to the driving and just relax, then you're a lot more likely to fall asleep. Though most people should be able to get by fine with an audible alarm and/or vibrating chair to wake them up once they near their destination.
What is there to admire about the Pope?
Then again, there's not too much to admire about Bill Gates if you consider that the damage he's done with Windows may outstrip the philanthropic work he's done. I wonder how many homework assignments/theses etc have been lost to BSODs, and how much money people have lost to malware and zombie-assisted spam scams, etc.
Okay, I had a further look, and the figures are still all over the place and comparing apples to oranges. Physical video game sales are obviously going to dwindle into nothingness. For another thing if you're not just counting game apps, you should be comparing app sales to the whole of the software industry, and there's no way in hell that mobile apps are going to overtake that. We pay over £20,000 a year just for a two processor license for one application, then another £12,000 or so for 5 floating 3D CAD licenses. Until phones can be used for serious design work, mobile app sales are never going to overtake PC app sales. And while the mobile gaming industry is a profitable segment with room for growth, the Wii showed that there is still room for growth in the traditional home console market too. Likewise Zynga is making a killing on PC gaming with their Facebook shovelware (though technically you can probably play these games on mobile devices since Android 2.2 - I haven't tried any flash games on my droid).
Comparing iPhone/Droid games sales to physical and digital downloads would be a much more interesting article. Which is not saying very much.
WTF. I just RTFA and it's comparing music sales to apps, not game sales. And these apps are not all just games either, so it seems a pointless comparison to make even if you can get it right. I probably wouldn't pay for a game on my phone, but I would perhaps pay for something like a navigation app if I didn't already have a good one built in.
Yuh-huh
Going to be fun for heavy sleepers.. fall asleep for a couple of hours.. oops, you're now 150 miles past your destination!
No more stopping at Burger King? The horror!
Only certain vehicles can be lead vehicles.
At least until the system is cracked. There must be all kinds of fun things you can do if you spoof it.
Wasn't my first experience, but I wrote some AI for it when I was on holiday once, and the only computer around was an old 386 laptop. The opponents ranged from an artificial simulation of me which played pretty well, down to one of my brother - which I rather harshly set to throw the banana completely randomly, meaning he often destroyed himself! :)
Weight might not matter in space, but mass does.
Ahem
I just wonder how heavy it is, the article doesn't seem to mention anything about that. Though of course even if it's very heavy it would probably be good for armour plating.
Oh "really"?
"Why" do you "cower"? What are "you" "afraid" of?
morality is a matter of choice
Unless you're stupid.
I see.
This story just reminded me of a friend ~2 years ago talking about buying dodgy DVDs. I didn't get why if she was going to being going the illegal route that she wouldn't just download them. She had a computer with a DVD burner and decent internet access. I suppose it does somewhat reduce the chance of the RIAA and their ilk catching up to you.
Sure, but you also have much more chance of getting caught if you physically break into a store.
In a manner of speaking
How can they be proven false?
Wouldn't a court have the power to order a check their records, email addresses, names, photos and other details, etc? I'm sure it would be pretty easy to show that 99% were fake accounts. You could argue that people were using fake names and throwaway accounts, etc to register, but for them to have 340 million accounts would be pretty dubious when hardly anyone has even heard of them. I think even Facebook only has something like 700-800 million accounts right now?
I think you're right about the publicity thing.
Personally I say OKcupid ftw. It's free, and full of geeky women.
Someone needs to learn about BitTorrent. If he's hoping to make money off of it, he could just burn games and movies onto DVDs and sell them to other people who are ignorant of BitTorrent.
I don't approve of illegal downloads, but this is just stupid. Which is even worse than "slightly immoral".