For example, Windows Vista will support an unprecedented level of DRM (digital rights management), but that's at the behest of the content providers rather than Microsoft itself.
Why can't Microsoft use its position in the software industry to leverage content providers away from DRM. What if Microsoft stopped supporting DRM... what would the Record/Movie Industry do? They'd be forced to adopt a universal standard, to ensure their music could be played (because we all know that someone would hack the encryption, convert to mp3, and find a way to distribute it anyways). I'd really hope that Microsoft, instead of buckling to DRM requests, refused and did something that helped the consumer.
Oh, and make a decent operating system which doesn't have a blue screen of death, require over 4GB of RAM to make worthwhile, and necessitate the latest graphics card to gain access to the "revolutionary" (*cough* Aqua-like *cough*) new graphical interface. That might be nice too...
Forget letters... what about numbers replacing whole words! it hurts my brain even thinking about it!
Oh, and lets see, from a business stand point, this is probably a good move my Google. granted, $900M is a ton of money, but with myspace generating over 27.4 billion page views per month (article here), that's a huge income stream for Google. Even if only 1% of those people even click on a link, which is probably an underestimate, thats 274 million ad clicks per month. At a minimum of $0.01/click, that's $2.74M. Also, don't forget that Google does Cost Per Impressions, or per 1000 ad views. Lets assume you use minimums, as I have throughout this post, and you will see that Google generates another $6.85M/ad displayed. Since Google usually puts up about 5 ads per search, you can assume that they are making $34.25M/month at a minimum. Total, they have a revenue of appoximately $37M/month, all at minimums. Now, this doesn't take into account the fact that most advertisers pay more than the minimums since Google uses cost competitive advertising. However, at minimums, it only takes Google a little over 24 months to recover their costs and start making money. Seems pretty smart to me!
Hopefully places will stop coding for IE since they dropped Mac support. While the Mac user is not the biggest user, it is a percentage, and coding to IE will certainly remove their ability to use the site.
Just stick to open standards... is it really that hard?
In light of the additions to firmware, it might make sense to think of Apple as bringing together the markets. I think, and this is just my opinion, that Apple is laying the ground to make your Cell Phone and iPod work together, similar to how they worked with Nike to combine the nano with their shoes. Let me explain further.
Lets imagine that Apple's new iPod, to be released at the Paris Expo, will have bluetooth capability. Now, with the new nano firmware, this feature lets you do some really cool stuff. Imagine that your nano can bluetooth to your phone, which is also bluetoothed to your earpiece. You can listen to your music through your phone's headpiece, change music using your iPod, and when you get a call, the music pauses to let you pick up. As soon as you hang up, your music resumes. To me, this seems like the most likely method of use for the new iPod firmware additions.
The nice thing is that this firmware is completely and totally independent from the phone manufacturer's decisions. You can imagine more integration too, since your iPod can store contacts. Same thing as using your computer to call someone, but now you can navigate to your address book on your iPod, push the center button and it beams the number to your phone, which calls it. It could be far fetched, but it is more likely than an iPhone, even if I would want one of those:-P
while it is clear that hydrogen appears to be the future, it is important to recognize that our current hydrogen supply is derived from hydrocarbons like oil and coal. although coal gassification + the water-gas shift reaction do provide hydrogen and carbon dioxide, it is not in pure form (containing too much water vapor) which will allow for a closed loop system necessary for a car. additionally, getting hydrogen from a hydrocarbon source does not remove our dependency on foreign sources of fuel, but merely recycles them. we need to find ways to gain hydrogen and alternative energies which allow us to be independent of others.
this could be real good if AMD's acquisition of ATI allows them to produce full chipsets in the same fashion Intel has with its Centrino line. let the competition begin!
also, not official yet, as government regulatory bodies need to approve it.
while i agree that most of what you're saying should be put in a book, a company already has a comprehensive history of the internet and the technology used to create it at Ironbound Press. you should give it a quick glance just to make sure you don't double it;)
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Perhaps a little ability to check tags before posting might be nice...?
Why can't Microsoft use its position in the software industry to leverage content providers away from DRM. What if Microsoft stopped supporting DRM... what would the Record/Movie Industry do? They'd be forced to adopt a universal standard, to ensure their music could be played (because we all know that someone would hack the encryption, convert to mp3, and find a way to distribute it anyways). I'd really hope that Microsoft, instead of buckling to DRM requests, refused and did something that helped the consumer.
Oh, and make a decent operating system which doesn't have a blue screen of death, require over 4GB of RAM to make worthwhile, and necessitate the latest graphics card to gain access to the "revolutionary" (*cough* Aqua-like *cough*) new graphical interface. That might be nice too...
i think he ment cojones... or balls. testicles, if you don't think balls is descriptive enough.
Forget letters... what about numbers replacing whole words! it hurts my brain even thinking about it!
Oh, and lets see, from a business stand point, this is probably a good move my Google. granted, $900M is a ton of money, but with myspace generating over 27.4 billion page views per month (article here), that's a huge income stream for Google. Even if only 1% of those people even click on a link, which is probably an underestimate, thats 274 million ad clicks per month. At a minimum of $0.01/click, that's $2.74M. Also, don't forget that Google does Cost Per Impressions, or per 1000 ad views. Lets assume you use minimums, as I have throughout this post, and you will see that Google generates another $6.85M/ad displayed. Since Google usually puts up about 5 ads per search, you can assume that they are making $34.25M/month at a minimum. Total, they have a revenue of appoximately $37M/month, all at minimums. Now, this doesn't take into account the fact that most advertisers pay more than the minimums since Google uses cost competitive advertising. However, at minimums, it only takes Google a little over 24 months to recover their costs and start making money. Seems pretty smart to me!
Then again, what do I know!
Hopefully places will stop coding for IE since they dropped Mac support. While the Mac user is not the biggest user, it is a percentage, and coding to IE will certainly remove their ability to use the site. Just stick to open standards... is it really that hard?
In light of the additions to firmware, it might make sense to think of Apple as bringing together the markets. I think, and this is just my opinion, that Apple is laying the ground to make your Cell Phone and iPod work together, similar to how they worked with Nike to combine the nano with their shoes. Let me explain further. Lets imagine that Apple's new iPod, to be released at the Paris Expo, will have bluetooth capability. Now, with the new nano firmware, this feature lets you do some really cool stuff. Imagine that your nano can bluetooth to your phone, which is also bluetoothed to your earpiece. You can listen to your music through your phone's headpiece, change music using your iPod, and when you get a call, the music pauses to let you pick up. As soon as you hang up, your music resumes. To me, this seems like the most likely method of use for the new iPod firmware additions. The nice thing is that this firmware is completely and totally independent from the phone manufacturer's decisions. You can imagine more integration too, since your iPod can store contacts. Same thing as using your computer to call someone, but now you can navigate to your address book on your iPod, push the center button and it beams the number to your phone, which calls it. It could be far fetched, but it is more likely than an iPhone, even if I would want one of those :-P
while it is clear that hydrogen appears to be the future, it is important to recognize that our current hydrogen supply is derived from hydrocarbons like oil and coal. although coal gassification + the water-gas shift reaction do provide hydrogen and carbon dioxide, it is not in pure form (containing too much water vapor) which will allow for a closed loop system necessary for a car. additionally, getting hydrogen from a hydrocarbon source does not remove our dependency on foreign sources of fuel, but merely recycles them. we need to find ways to gain hydrogen and alternative energies which allow us to be independent of others.
this could be real good if AMD's acquisition of ATI allows them to produce full chipsets in the same fashion Intel has with its Centrino line. let the competition begin!
also, not official yet, as government regulatory bodies need to approve it.
while i agree that most of what you're saying should be put in a book, a company already has a comprehensive history of the internet and the technology used to create it at Ironbound Press. you should give it a quick glance just to make sure you don't double it ;)