Or that the inclusion of DRM in eBooks would lead to censorship and arbitrary deletions of content you had lawfully purchased.
Re:Apple has made Microsoft look "open".
on
The Apple Two
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· Score: 1
What about those of us who've had to update the firmware in our TVs? Or PVRs?
Then you're part of a minority so tiny as to be statistically insignificant.
My PVR has a couple of in-built games; my TV can surf and play YouTube video and, in some countries, download games, apps, and content. I've written firmware for clock radios, air conditioners, and ovens.
Then your particular TV is a computer. Most don't, therefore most aren't, therefore most are deserving of the name 'appliance'.
Face it: the iPad is an appliance, just a multi-purpose one. Is your mom's MixMaster any less of an appliance just because you can buy juicer, grinder, potato peeler, meat slicer, and pasta maker attachments for it?
No, but neither is it an appliance. It's not an either/or situation, a car engine isn't a computer but neither it is an appliance, it's a *part*, and so is the alleged MixMaster which, together with each part, can form a complete appliance itself.
Define 'work'.
If you mean "it has a CPU and, internally at least, operates like a computer with an OS and programs and shit", then yes, it is a computer. But so is almost everything from your DVD player up to you car.
If you mean "allows you to write and run your own programs, or install whatever software and hardware you want", then it's not. It's an appliance with lots of attachments available from the manufacturer.
I mean "has a CPU and an OS, and is able to have its functions extended by externally-provided software without first modifying the device specifically for such purpose". The iWhatever can get new software from the Apple Store without modifications, therefore it's a computer. To first get external software onto my toaster I have to rewrite its firmware at the *least*, perhaps even hack the hardware itself, therefore it's not a computer.
But what I suspect you really mean is "Waaah! I wanted a cool computer that was flat and light and all screen and did everything I wanted it to and what they gave me was an appliance with a whole stack of extras I have to buy from the manufacturer so I'm gonna say nasty things about them and then I'm gonna hold my breath until I turn blue and that'll make them give me what I want!". In which case I say this: you can either pony up the $100 for a developer account, or you can fuck off and learn to program air-conditioners. It's not hard; they're a lot like moisture vaporators or binary load-lifters...
What I suspect you really mean by your whole post is "Waaah! calling my iShiny a computer makes me look like a nerd, when I wanted to be cool and own a really high-tech appliance instead, so I'll just plug my ears and chant 'I can't hear you' until you stop saying it's a computer!". In which case you need to get over it and face the facts that your iShiny isn't perfect and won't help you get laid in any case.
Do you connect to the internet? then you connect to a service that the government can legal get data from.
Not the US government, though.
Re:Apple has made Microsoft look "open".
on
The Apple Two
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· Score: 1
Raise your hand if you've ever had to update the firmware on your dishwasher. Nobody? at all? thought so.
Raise your hand if you've ever bought a bejeweled game for your dishwasher. Nobody again? alright.
Face it: the iPad is not an appliance. Nor are the iPhone, iPod and iWhatever. They're computers, they work like computers, and they should be judged as computers.
Re:Apple has made Microsoft look "open".
on
The Apple Two
·
· Score: 1
Wrong. Viruses and malware are indicative of monocultures, of which an entirely closed platform such as the iHype product family are the prime examples of.
Only reason you haven't seen viruses for the PS360 is because nobody is stupid enough to use them for banking, so there isn't much money to be made with them.
So they're not breaking their pledge not to sue Open Source Software with their patent portfolio, they're suing OSS while technically still maintaining their pledge. Why does that fail to fill me with joy and relief?
I believe he meant "without draconian DRM while they were still not the multi-billion dollar ventures they are today". I don't think my copy of FIFA '98 had any kind of copy protection at all, let alone DRM, and I'm fairly certain my copy of Diablo 2 didn't.
Actually, real old-school Unix guys love SCO for giving them some sweet x86 love back in the '90s, and wonder why these young Linux guys hate them so much. Then you inform them that years ago some tiny Linux startup led by a giant jackass went, bought the brand from the SCO guys then proceeded to sue everybody left and right while the old SCO changed its name to the horribly-sounding "Tarantella" before being acquired by Sun before being acquired by Oracle, at which point they usually say something along the lines of "man, that's too complicated. Just gimme an old 486, a copy of SCO Unix and lemme do my work in peace, 'kay?".
Honestly, I don't think MW3 & 4 are to blame for it, MW2 was simply made in a different era. I mean, back then MS Flight Sim was one of, if not *the* biggest PC franchise of all, yet the last one sold so badly it killed both the franchise and the studio that developed it. Racing sims, space sims, new installments in those genres used to get front-page ads in gaming magazines, nowadays you're lucky if they get a short review alongside the latest Bejeweled clone.
For whatever reason, PC gamers seem to have abandoned the 'sim' genre this past decade, and that includes the 'mech sim' subgenre that Mechwarrior belongs to. Sure MW3 & 4 weren't perfect, but for all their flaws they had enough improvements as well for me to say that each one was, overall, a better product than its predecessor. Unfortunately however, that wasn't enough to save the genre which is why we're here discussing the free re-release of an almost 10-years-old game instead of the big-budget sequel it deserves (and for the previously announced MW5, I'm still skeptical that it'll ever see the light of day).
Some hold that morals are guidelines that prevent harm and do good for others and self. As such, science and morality are interrelated. Take as an example, adultery. (defined loosely as a person in a committed relationship cheating) The application of the scientific method would show if there was harm done by adultery. Also if there was harm done by faithfulness. Science could tell you what is greater. Another example is smoking around babies. Is second-hand smoking bad for baby's health? Does it convey benefits? Drinking or drug use while pregnant? ditto.
You're describing Consequentialism which, while one of the main forms of Ethics and (I believe) currently the most popular one, isn't the only one either.
So here is where religion and science can meet. A scientist can take the moral tenets of a religion and test their rightness or wrongness (are they harmful or not) i.e. Adultery or 'Love thy Neighbor' or 'Kill the Infidel'
So, what do you think of that argument?
It's not absolute by virtue of Consequentialism not being absolute. So, you can show that a particular tenet of a particular religion is ethically wrong for your own set of beliefs, but you can't show that it's wrong for everybody else which is what I believe you wanted.
Oversimplified analogy: buying chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla would be wrong for me, as I find vanilla has a much better taste, but that doesn't mean my brother is wrong in getting chocolate for himself.
Because the makers of the newton is by far the largest mobile device maker of all time
For all their faults and outbursts of stupidity, Nokia wasn't to blame for the Newton, sorry.
Your comment was so 15 years ago.
Well, it *was* aiming for Funny rather than Insightful, some liberties have to be taken for humor;)
Point is, in spite of all the hype Apple products have never been able to break into the large and very profitable business market, so for any manufacturer wanting to have a slice of it (ie, most) it makes sense *NOT* to follow in their footsteps. It's kind of a pity that they're still trying to see what does work (and failing at it), but at least we do know what does not and "copying Apple" is precisely one of those.
The iPad competes against the Kindle in very much the same way a regular netbook competes against MP4 players. They don't, at *all*.
If you read more than one book a month, the eInk screen is invaluable. And if you don't, why the fuck would you be looking at a Kindle in the first place?
About the only market they overlap in is the "expensive gadget to look cool at the coffee shop" segment, which while profitable, is hardly the core market of Amazon or any other eReader manufacturer.
Even in the worst-possible scenario, with everyone who likes Apple kit being a fan (ahem, including both genders, here) , at least the fans have something they like, appreciate, and enjoy using.
Which they'll remind you at *every* *single* *opportunity*. Article on the iPad? "Apple's design rulez! everybody else suxxorz, lol". Article on the next generation of Windows? "Stop copying Apple, incompetent morons". Article on next generation of Ubuntu? "Start copying Apple, incompetent morons". Article on Sony's new management? "Either they follow Steve Jobs' lead or they'll be bankrupt in a year". Article on the RIAA's current lawsuits? "Abandon your business model and copy Apple's, you idiots". There is no topic in Slashdot that hasn't been hijacked at some point by the Apple zealots in order to masturbate to their favorite company.
Also, I must note that you left out from your list those who already bought an Apple product and became disenchanted with it. Accidental omission, or did the RDF start affecting you as well?
Yeah, Slashdotters really need to understand that most of the world is 95-years-old, has no access to DSL, cable or satellite but has 3G coverage and money to burn.
Or perhaps extrapolating from a single, edge-case scenario to the entirety of humanity is still as stupid as it's always been.
Would you like to explain the technical process by which they managed to cause everyone to go gaga?
It's called "marketing", look it up.
I think a more likely explanation is that some people like it.
One of the most important parts of marketing is to convince you not just of purchasing the product, but that you would've done it regardless of the marketing itself. All ideas are instantly better if you were the one who thought of it.
I know dissing new technology and looking to the past with rose-tinted glasses is all the rage these days, but don't you think that if they had any other leads, they would've pursued them as well?
Besides, not only did the old methods catch only some criminals (so do the newer ones, but for higher values of 'some'), many of those they did catch ended up decades later to not have been criminals after all.
To make money, you don't need to persuade geeks that our stuff is better (even when this is the case, especially now after all the acquisitions -- between stuff like Weblogic, Essbase, dbxml, ocfs, virtualbox, zfs and dtrace I'm sure we can find something you'll like); you only need to persuade managers that our "solution" (including support etc) will cover their ass should anything go wrong.
Exactly Sun's philosophy. The fact that you bought them illustrates how effective that strategy was.
Permanent, inmediate availability regardless of where I am, *that's* what and without jumping through a million hoops to get it (iTunes, I'm looking at you).
Take Steam or Impulse for instance. You pay $9.99 for your game and you can play it anywhere, on your desktop PC, your notebook, your netbook and, safety issues of the idea aside, even download and play it in an internet cafe in the middle of South Africa next year if that's what you desire.
Sure, for the newest and shiniest that all kids are after TPB works pretty much the same, but for older or indie titles such as Project Aftermath or Xpand Rally, you'd be lucky to get a torrent at all let alone speeds over 15kb/s, which is *incredibly* painful when you compare it to the 400-600 kb/s you can get from legit services.
Pity that the only comparable service for music is Magnatune and there's absolutely nothing for movies, but I'm blaming that on the RIAA/MPAA's stupidity rather than there being a lack of a market for such services.
Because I'm an artist, and therefore a very special and unique snowflake who deserves to be protected by the government, unlike you soul-less and boring drones working for The Man.
Or, more realistically, because the RIAA and MPAA bribed enough politicians to make it so. Given enough money, you can even make politicians pass a law saying that math isn't math.
It's not just imagination, though: it also requires some degree of scientific knowledge to make your imagination believable enough.
That's the difference, for instance, between Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Final Fantasy VIII in spite of both being equally fictional: once you make a few concessions the SMAC world is relatively coherent and believable, whereas few over the age of 12 can play FF8 without asking why, in a world with modern weaponry such as sniper rifles and gatling guns, your character is a moron who fights with a goddamned sword and dates a chick with an arm-mounted dog cannon.
Slashdot Mirror
Or that the inclusion of DRM in eBooks would lead to censorship and arbitrary deletions of content you had lawfully purchased.
What about those of us who've had to update the firmware in our TVs? Or PVRs?
Then you're part of a minority so tiny as to be statistically insignificant.
My PVR has a couple of in-built games; my TV can surf and play YouTube video and, in some countries, download games, apps, and content. I've written firmware for clock radios, air conditioners, and ovens.
Then your particular TV is a computer. Most don't, therefore most aren't, therefore most are deserving of the name 'appliance'.
Face it: the iPad is an appliance, just a multi-purpose one. Is your mom's MixMaster any less of an appliance just because you can buy juicer, grinder, potato peeler, meat slicer, and pasta maker attachments for it?
No, but neither is it an appliance. It's not an either/or situation, a car engine isn't a computer but neither it is an appliance, it's a *part*, and so is the alleged MixMaster which, together with each part, can form a complete appliance itself.
Define 'work'.
If you mean "it has a CPU and, internally at least, operates like a computer with an OS and programs and shit", then yes, it is a computer. But so is almost everything from your DVD player up to you car.
If you mean "allows you to write and run your own programs, or install whatever software and hardware you want", then it's not. It's an appliance with lots of attachments available from the manufacturer.
I mean "has a CPU and an OS, and is able to have its functions extended by externally-provided software without first modifying the device specifically for such purpose". The iWhatever can get new software from the Apple Store without modifications, therefore it's a computer. To first get external software onto my toaster I have to rewrite its firmware at the *least*, perhaps even hack the hardware itself, therefore it's not a computer.
But what I suspect you really mean is "Waaah! I wanted a cool computer that was flat and light and all screen and did everything I wanted it to and what they gave me was an appliance with a whole stack of extras I have to buy from the manufacturer so I'm gonna say nasty things about them and then I'm gonna hold my breath until I turn blue and that'll make them give me what I want!". In which case I say this: you can either pony up the $100 for a developer account, or you can fuck off and learn to program air-conditioners. It's not hard; they're a lot like moisture vaporators or binary load-lifters...
What I suspect you really mean by your whole post is "Waaah! calling my iShiny a computer makes me look like a nerd, when I wanted to be cool and own a really high-tech appliance instead, so I'll just plug my ears and chant 'I can't hear you' until you stop saying it's a computer!". In which case you need to get over it and face the facts that your iShiny isn't perfect and won't help you get laid in any case.
Do you connect to the internet? then you connect to a service that the government can legal get data from.
Not the US government, though.
Raise your hand if you've ever had to update the firmware on your dishwasher. Nobody? at all? thought so.
Raise your hand if you've ever bought a bejeweled game for your dishwasher. Nobody again? alright.
Face it: the iPad is not an appliance. Nor are the iPhone, iPod and iWhatever. They're computers, they work like computers, and they should be judged as computers.
Wrong. Viruses and malware are indicative of monocultures, of which an entirely closed platform such as the iHype product family are the prime examples of.
Only reason you haven't seen viruses for the PS360 is because nobody is stupid enough to use them for banking, so there isn't much money to be made with them.
So they're not breaking their pledge not to sue Open Source Software with their patent portfolio, they're suing OSS while technically still maintaining their pledge. Why does that fail to fill me with joy and relief?
Oh, right. They're still suing OSS over patents.
.50 cal?
I believe he meant "without draconian DRM while they were still not the multi-billion dollar ventures they are today". I don't think my copy of FIFA '98 had any kind of copy protection at all, let alone DRM, and I'm fairly certain my copy of Diablo 2 didn't.
Actually, real old-school Unix guys love SCO for giving them some sweet x86 love back in the '90s, and wonder why these young Linux guys hate them so much. Then you inform them that years ago some tiny Linux startup led by a giant jackass went, bought the brand from the SCO guys then proceeded to sue everybody left and right while the old SCO changed its name to the horribly-sounding "Tarantella" before being acquired by Sun before being acquired by Oracle, at which point they usually say something along the lines of "man, that's too complicated. Just gimme an old 486, a copy of SCO Unix and lemme do my work in peace, 'kay?".
Honestly, I don't think MW3 & 4 are to blame for it, MW2 was simply made in a different era. I mean, back then MS Flight Sim was one of, if not *the* biggest PC franchise of all, yet the last one sold so badly it killed both the franchise and the studio that developed it. Racing sims, space sims, new installments in those genres used to get front-page ads in gaming magazines, nowadays you're lucky if they get a short review alongside the latest Bejeweled clone.
For whatever reason, PC gamers seem to have abandoned the 'sim' genre this past decade, and that includes the 'mech sim' subgenre that Mechwarrior belongs to. Sure MW3 & 4 weren't perfect, but for all their flaws they had enough improvements as well for me to say that each one was, overall, a better product than its predecessor. Unfortunately however, that wasn't enough to save the genre which is why we're here discussing the free re-release of an almost 10-years-old game instead of the big-budget sequel it deserves (and for the previously announced MW5, I'm still skeptical that it'll ever see the light of day).
Some hold that morals are guidelines that prevent harm and do good for others and self. As such, science and morality are interrelated.
Take as an example, adultery. (defined loosely as a person in a committed relationship cheating)
The application of the scientific method would show if there was harm done by adultery. Also if there was harm done by faithfulness. Science could tell you what is greater.
Another example is smoking around babies. Is second-hand smoking bad for baby's health? Does it convey benefits?
Drinking or drug use while pregnant? ditto.
You're describing Consequentialism which, while one of the main forms of Ethics and (I believe) currently the most popular one, isn't the only one either.
So here is where religion and science can meet. A scientist can take the moral tenets of a religion and test their rightness or wrongness (are they harmful or not) i.e. Adultery or 'Love thy Neighbor' or 'Kill the Infidel'
So, what do you think of that argument?
It's not absolute by virtue of Consequentialism not being absolute. So, you can show that a particular tenet of a particular religion is ethically wrong for your own set of beliefs, but you can't show that it's wrong for everybody else which is what I believe you wanted.
Oversimplified analogy: buying chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla would be wrong for me, as I find vanilla has a much better taste, but that doesn't mean my brother is wrong in getting chocolate for himself.
Because the makers of the newton is by far the largest mobile device maker of all time
For all their faults and outbursts of stupidity, Nokia wasn't to blame for the Newton, sorry.
Your comment was so 15 years ago.
Well, it *was* aiming for Funny rather than Insightful, some liberties have to be taken for humor ;)
Point is, in spite of all the hype Apple products have never been able to break into the large and very profitable business market, so for any manufacturer wanting to have a slice of it (ie, most) it makes sense *NOT* to follow in their footsteps. It's kind of a pity that they're still trying to see what does work (and failing at it), but at least we do know what does not and "copying Apple" is precisely one of those.
The iPad competes against the Kindle in very much the same way a regular netbook competes against MP4 players. They don't, at *all*.
If you read more than one book a month, the eInk screen is invaluable. And if you don't, why the fuck would you be looking at a Kindle in the first place?
About the only market they overlap in is the "expensive gadget to look cool at the coffee shop" segment, which while profitable, is hardly the core market of Amazon or any other eReader manufacturer.
Even in the worst-possible scenario, with everyone who likes Apple kit being a fan (ahem, including both genders, here) , at least the fans have something they like, appreciate, and enjoy using.
Which they'll remind you at *every* *single* *opportunity*. Article on the iPad? "Apple's design rulez! everybody else suxxorz, lol". Article on the next generation of Windows? "Stop copying Apple, incompetent morons". Article on next generation of Ubuntu? "Start copying Apple, incompetent morons". Article on Sony's new management? "Either they follow Steve Jobs' lead or they'll be bankrupt in a year". Article on the RIAA's current lawsuits? "Abandon your business model and copy Apple's, you idiots". There is no topic in Slashdot that hasn't been hijacked at some point by the Apple zealots in order to masturbate to their favorite company.
Also, I must note that you left out from your list those who already bought an Apple product and became disenchanted with it. Accidental omission, or did the RDF start affecting you as well?
Yeah, Slashdotters really need to understand that most of the world is 95-years-old, has no access to DSL, cable or satellite but has 3G coverage and money to burn.
Or perhaps extrapolating from a single, edge-case scenario to the entirety of humanity is still as stupid as it's always been.
Would you like to explain the technical process by which they managed to cause everyone to go gaga?
It's called "marketing", look it up.
I think a more likely explanation is that some people like it.
One of the most important parts of marketing is to convince you not just of purchasing the product, but that you would've done it regardless of the marketing itself. All ideas are instantly better if you were the one who thought of it.
Yeah, it baffles me that they'd try to follow in Palm's footsteps instead of learning from the makers of the Newton.
I know dissing new technology and looking to the past with rose-tinted glasses is all the rage these days, but don't you think that if they had any other leads, they would've pursued them as well?
Besides, not only did the old methods catch only some criminals (so do the newer ones, but for higher values of 'some'), many of those they did catch ended up decades later to not have been criminals after all.
"He who has the gold makes the rules". So yeah, Apple will try, and Apple will succeed in steamrolling through them.
Sucks to be you, iControlPad guys. Here's hoping you at least don't get sued for patent infringement on top of this.
I happen to be a supertasker
No, you're not. Trust me, you're not.
To make money, you don't need to persuade geeks that our stuff is better (even when this is the case, especially now after all the acquisitions -- between stuff like Weblogic, Essbase, dbxml, ocfs, virtualbox, zfs and dtrace I'm sure we can find something you'll like); you only need to persuade managers that our "solution" (including support etc) will cover their ass should anything go wrong.
Exactly Sun's philosophy. The fact that you bought them illustrates how effective that strategy was.
Permanent, inmediate availability regardless of where I am, *that's* what and without jumping through a million hoops to get it (iTunes, I'm looking at you).
Take Steam or Impulse for instance. You pay $9.99 for your game and you can play it anywhere, on your desktop PC, your notebook, your netbook and, safety issues of the idea aside, even download and play it in an internet cafe in the middle of South Africa next year if that's what you desire.
Sure, for the newest and shiniest that all kids are after TPB works pretty much the same, but for older or indie titles such as Project Aftermath or Xpand Rally, you'd be lucky to get a torrent at all let alone speeds over 15kb/s, which is *incredibly* painful when you compare it to the 400-600 kb/s you can get from legit services.
Pity that the only comparable service for music is Magnatune and there's absolutely nothing for movies, but I'm blaming that on the RIAA/MPAA's stupidity rather than there being a lack of a market for such services.
Because I'm an artist, and therefore a very special and unique snowflake who deserves to be protected by the government, unlike you soul-less and boring drones working for The Man.
Or, more realistically, because the RIAA and MPAA bribed enough politicians to make it so. Given enough money, you can even make politicians pass a law saying that math isn't math.
It's not just imagination, though: it also requires some degree of scientific knowledge to make your imagination believable enough.
That's the difference, for instance, between Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Final Fantasy VIII in spite of both being equally fictional: once you make a few concessions the SMAC world is relatively coherent and believable, whereas few over the age of 12 can play FF8 without asking why, in a world with modern weaponry such as sniper rifles and gatling guns, your character is a moron who fights with a goddamned sword and dates a chick with an arm-mounted dog cannon.
Everybody believes somebody else is the one who needs to go at a 'sane' speed, much like everybody believes their IQ is over 100.
Fact: people are *lousy* at estimating their own abilities.