Apple has what is known as a stovepipe organization. Some would term it as a firewalled org., too. What that means is that, depending on WHERE you work will determine what products you have access to. The NDAs the employees sign most likely have a clause that prevents them from getting access to information in other parts of the org., to prevent leaks.
That must make for some fun times in the cafeteria...
Guy A: "Hey did you guys see that new Leopard stuff today?" Guy B: "Yeah it was really cool. I especially liked the... oh wait, I didn't see Guy C was here" Guy A: "Oh, guess we can't talk about that. Sorry dude"
Most of the users in here won't say anything if their point has already been made
I disagree. Many discussions feature top-level posts whose main points have already been stated earlier, so instead of reading the comments and replying to the first post which has a similar point, some people just hit the big reply button without reading stuff at all.
In the last five years, in the US, you were 60 times more likely to die in an auto accident than in an act of terrorism.
In the last 5 years in the US, your chances of dying due to terrorism are so low it's not worth worrying about.
Well, obviously security is a good thing to debate and think about. And as much as I dislike how intelligence and security policies are implemented in the US, I do think that they are good things to do. But the main point here is that it's extremely unlikely you will die from terrorism in the US.
I don't understand why we have "entertaiment analysts" commenting on the business of web sites. Sure, one could claim that Youtube is an "entertainment" site. So, um, since cruise ships have entertainment, I guess the entertainment analysts will be giving us their opinions on the cruise ship industry any day now.
I am very dissatisfied when a product that works in one package, is of a completely different spec from another.
Imagine the shitstorm that would follow if other industries followed this approach. For example, General Motors makes a secret revision of a V8, 300 horsepower engine, so it's now a four-cylinder, 150 HP design. Obviously the difference is that most people don't give a shit about what's in the electronics they buy, and this probably isn't helped by general technophobia.
I wonder if lawsuits or the FTC could bring an end to this type of thing.
seeing as they will know who is reporting the abuse
Right. I'm not sure you're aware of this, but we're talking about THE INTERNET here. Assuming Microsoft passes along all the raw data, what parts will actually be useful? Well, you'll have an IP address, as well as the account that sent the report. So you'll be able to tie an account to some physical location (Internet cafe, etc) or an ISP. This is assuming the person doing the reporting is telling the truth. Oh and you're also assuming they aren't using a proxy, or spoofing something, or using any number of other methods that would render this service completely useless.
Churches would fold up because of lack of interest.
This is already happening, but not in the way that you think. Let me explain.
In the US, the fastest-growing "churches" are the so-called evangelical and fundamentalist sects of Christianity. Yeah, that's right, the super-right-wing, self-contradicting groups are growing the fastest. Meanwhile, many of the mainline denominations are declining or stagnating. Even worse, there are non-profit corporations run by these folks with the sole purpose of taking over moderate denominations.
I guess fire and brimstone trumps actually following the Gospels...
I think you're failing to take into account a couple of things. The most obvious one is the history of console releases. The PS2 had a launch shortage, yet this didn't cause tons of gamers to jump ship.
Of course, you could claim that the PS3 is different, as it costs twice as much and people totally hate Sony nowadays. But I think a more interesting point is to look at the launch of the Xbox 360. The Xbox wasn't nearly as successfull as the original Playstation, yet its sequel still managed to sell out on launch day.
I think Sony has learned a lesson from this, and the lesson is pretty simple: videogame nerds will pay a lot of money for stuff.
Re:I liked this little bit...
on
iPods at War
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· Score: 1
Hmm, so this got me thinking about "American Values (tm)". If a large amount of the 1.4 million Americans currently on active duty learn to not really care about copying, this may have an effect on "enforcement of rights" and such...
Re:Sounds like ripe targets for virus attacks
on
iPods at War
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· Score: 1
If the solders are picking up "cheap" cd's/dvd's, what are the chances they are also picking up "cheap" software? Wouldn't this software be a good way for the enemy to deliver viruses? Are command/control systems isolated enough from the solders personal electronics to prevent virus infections?
Um, yeah. But the real question is:
If ordinary citizens are "downloading" CDs/DVDs, what are the chances they are also "downloading" software? Wouldn't this software be a good way for the enemy to deliver viruses? Are command/control systems isolated enough from citizens' personal electronics to prevent virus infections?
--
More generally, I would suggest not subscribing to the complete paranoia that the neocons want you to. When you say "the enemy", I assume you're referring to terrorists, and more specifically, radical "Islamic" terrorists. Sure, cable news channels have daily reports of all the evil things these guys are planning right now this very instant, but the reality is very different. If these guys actually had the ability to create nasty computer viruses, they'd probably release it on the Internet, since computers are most prevalent in the evil western world. Distributing malware to isolated bazaars in Iraq to infect a few dozen laptops seems like a pretty dumb idea in comparison.
Oh, and I realize the obvious reply here is "well they're not that smart so they'll do this". This is completely wrong. Terrorists generally aim for the most terror and least cost. Infecting tons of civilian computers would create much more fear than infecting some random platoon.
Re:Problem?
on
iPods at War
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· Score: 2, Interesting
why do people join up in the US knowing the direction of current foreign policy?
Short answer: they don't. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most recruit-age Americans who understand the consequences of our foreign policies are generally not the ones heading off to Basic. In the interest of disclosure, I consider myself part of this group.
Now we get to the fun (read: scary) part. The US nowadays claims to have a "volunteer" military. This is technically true. However, the reality is very different.
Over the past 30 years, wealth in this country has become extremely concentrated. The obvious effect here is that fewer people own things (home, business, stock, etc), and as a result fewer have financial freedom. Another important effect here is the one of education. Local taxes are used to fund public (state-run) schools, so poor communities often have low-quality schools. This end result is a bunch of people who have no financial freedom and are not very educated (no marketable skills, etc). Those who are smart enough to overcome poor schooling don't have a good chance of making it into and through college.
The military is a pretty attractive option at this point. It's a steady job, provides training (and money for school), and has the bonuses of seeing far-off lands and playing with fun toys (tanks, planes, etc).
The really scary part is the little conspiracy theorist voice in my head is telling me this was the plan all along. The kings and nobles who have all the wealth need people to grow their empire. Vietnam was a PR disaster, which means the draft is going away. Instead, let's squeeze the working classes so many of their sons and daughters are enlisted. Next comes Support The Troops. If you don't Support The Troops, you're a terrorist.
I realize that last paragraph may be seen as inflammatory, but really it's not. This has nothing to do with any political ideology. What it has to do with is the balance of power in this country, and why our current situation is very scary.
The DS is not really that anonymous. If it were, it would not be possible to tie all your friend codes to your DS (which is how it's implemented, IIRC). Nintendo almost certainly tracks your system by MAC address or serial number or something.
Of course, it is possible to be anonymous, to an extent. If you pay for your system and games with cash, and never use an access point that could be tied to you, then it's probably impossible to tie the system or the online usage to your actual person. However, you're still identifying yourself through MAC or something else.
On the end of the spectrum we'd like to be on, several competing vendors would warranty the merchandise as being compatable with linux, and would provide source-code compatable drivers (for kernel independence). We're at the extreme far other end of that spectrum, as far as I can tell.
Ralink provides source code. Of course, they don't make actual cards, but my point is that we're not so far down the spectrum as you claim.
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Apple has what is known as a stovepipe organization. Some would term it as a firewalled org., too. What that means is that, depending on WHERE you work will determine what products you have access to. The NDAs the employees sign most likely have a clause that prevents them from getting access to information in other parts of the org., to prevent leaks.
That must make for some fun times in the cafeteria...
Guy A: "Hey did you guys see that new Leopard stuff today?"
Guy B: "Yeah it was really cool. I especially liked the... oh wait, I didn't see Guy C was here"
Guy A: "Oh, guess we can't talk about that. Sorry dude"
I haven't seen it, and I probably had the same reaction you did to the ads/etc for it, but apparently it got pretty good reviews.
Yeah, good point about how these employees really hurt Apple so bad.
Oh wait.
Most of the users in here won't say anything if their point has already been made
I disagree. Many discussions feature top-level posts whose main points have already been stated earlier, so instead of reading the comments and replying to the first post which has a similar point, some people just hit the big reply button without reading stuff at all.
In the last five years, in the US, you were 60 times more likely to die in an auto accident than in an act of terrorism.
In the last 5 years in the US, your chances of dying due to terrorism are so low it's not worth worrying about.
Well, obviously security is a good thing to debate and think about. And as much as I dislike how intelligence and security policies are implemented in the US, I do think that they are good things to do. But the main point here is that it's extremely unlikely you will die from terrorism in the US.
Kind of a flamebait reply you made here, don't you think so?
I don't understand why we have "entertaiment analysts" commenting on the business of web sites. Sure, one could claim that Youtube is an "entertainment" site. So, um, since cruise ships have entertainment, I guess the entertainment analysts will be giving us their opinions on the cruise ship industry any day now.
In the US, animals are usually referred to be "he", unless you know it's a female. At least, that's my experience.
Two chicks at the same time.
(sorry)
Actually, when you include the Dreamcast in the picture, the PS2 launch was pretty similar to the PS3 launch.
I guess I'd like to say thanks for all the economic and consumer surveys you linked to in this post. I am grateful for them.
I am very dissatisfied when a product that works in one package, is of a completely different spec from another.
Imagine the shitstorm that would follow if other industries followed this approach. For example, General Motors makes a secret revision of a V8, 300 horsepower engine, so it's now a four-cylinder, 150 HP design. Obviously the difference is that most people don't give a shit about what's in the electronics they buy, and this probably isn't helped by general technophobia.
I wonder if lawsuits or the FTC could bring an end to this type of thing.
lol u sound cute. a s l?
seeing as they will know who is reporting the abuse
Right. I'm not sure you're aware of this, but we're talking about THE INTERNET here. Assuming Microsoft passes along all the raw data, what parts will actually be useful? Well, you'll have an IP address, as well as the account that sent the report. So you'll be able to tie an account to some physical location (Internet cafe, etc) or an ISP. This is assuming the person doing the reporting is telling the truth. Oh and you're also assuming they aren't using a proxy, or spoofing something, or using any number of other methods that would render this service completely useless.
Churches would fold up because of lack of interest.
This is already happening, but not in the way that you think. Let me explain.
In the US, the fastest-growing "churches" are the so-called evangelical and fundamentalist sects of Christianity. Yeah, that's right, the super-right-wing, self-contradicting groups are growing the fastest. Meanwhile, many of the mainline denominations are declining or stagnating. Even worse, there are non-profit corporations run by these folks with the sole purpose of taking over moderate denominations.
I guess fire and brimstone trumps actually following the Gospels...
I think you're failing to take into account a couple of things. The most obvious one is the history of console releases. The PS2 had a launch shortage, yet this didn't cause tons of gamers to jump ship.
Of course, you could claim that the PS3 is different, as it costs twice as much and people totally hate Sony nowadays. But I think a more interesting point is to look at the launch of the Xbox 360. The Xbox wasn't nearly as successfull as the original Playstation, yet its sequel still managed to sell out on launch day.
I think Sony has learned a lesson from this, and the lesson is pretty simple: videogame nerds will pay a lot of money for stuff.
Hmm, so this got me thinking about "American Values (tm)". If a large amount of the 1.4 million Americans currently on active duty learn to not really care about copying, this may have an effect on "enforcement of rights" and such...
If the solders are picking up "cheap" cd's/dvd's, what are the chances they are also picking up "cheap" software? Wouldn't this software be a good way for the enemy to deliver viruses? Are command/control systems isolated enough from the solders personal electronics to prevent virus infections?
Um, yeah. But the real question is:
If ordinary citizens are "downloading" CDs/DVDs, what are the chances they are also "downloading" software? Wouldn't this software be a good way for the enemy to deliver viruses? Are command/control systems isolated enough from citizens' personal electronics to prevent virus infections?
--
More generally, I would suggest not subscribing to the complete paranoia that the neocons want you to. When you say "the enemy", I assume you're referring to terrorists, and more specifically, radical "Islamic" terrorists. Sure, cable news channels have daily reports of all the evil things these guys are planning right now this very instant, but the reality is very different. If these guys actually had the ability to create nasty computer viruses, they'd probably release it on the Internet, since computers are most prevalent in the evil western world. Distributing malware to isolated bazaars in Iraq to infect a few dozen laptops seems like a pretty dumb idea in comparison.
Oh, and I realize the obvious reply here is "well they're not that smart so they'll do this". This is completely wrong. Terrorists generally aim for the most terror and least cost. Infecting tons of civilian computers would create much more fear than infecting some random platoon.
why do people join up in the US knowing the direction of current foreign policy?
Short answer: they don't. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that most recruit-age Americans who understand the consequences of our foreign policies are generally not the ones heading off to Basic. In the interest of disclosure, I consider myself part of this group.
Now we get to the fun (read: scary) part. The US nowadays claims to have a "volunteer" military. This is technically true. However, the reality is very different.
Over the past 30 years, wealth in this country has become extremely concentrated. The obvious effect here is that fewer people own things (home, business, stock, etc), and as a result fewer have financial freedom. Another important effect here is the one of education. Local taxes are used to fund public (state-run) schools, so poor communities often have low-quality schools. This end result is a bunch of people who have no financial freedom and are not very educated (no marketable skills, etc). Those who are smart enough to overcome poor schooling don't have a good chance of making it into and through college.
The military is a pretty attractive option at this point. It's a steady job, provides training (and money for school), and has the bonuses of seeing far-off lands and playing with fun toys (tanks, planes, etc).
The really scary part is the little conspiracy theorist voice in my head is telling me this was the plan all along. The kings and nobles who have all the wealth need people to grow their empire. Vietnam was a PR disaster, which means the draft is going away. Instead, let's squeeze the working classes so many of their sons and daughters are enlisted. Next comes Support The Troops. If you don't Support The Troops, you're a terrorist.
I realize that last paragraph may be seen as inflammatory, but really it's not. This has nothing to do with any political ideology. What it has to do with is the balance of power in this country, and why our current situation is very scary.
The DS is not really that anonymous. If it were, it would not be possible to tie all your friend codes to your DS (which is how it's implemented, IIRC). Nintendo almost certainly tracks your system by MAC address or serial number or something.
Of course, it is possible to be anonymous, to an extent. If you pay for your system and games with cash, and never use an access point that could be tied to you, then it's probably impossible to tie the system or the online usage to your actual person. However, you're still identifying yourself through MAC or something else.
That's what I do. I've been doing a silent boycott of EA for, oh about three years now. I should probably send them a letter...
Definition of encumbered: 3. To burden with legal or financial obligations (American Heritage Dict.)
The MPEG "standard" that MP3 is a part of is heavily patented. Patent law creates legal and financial obligations. Therefore, MP3 is encumbered.
QED.
Yeah, wal-mart is the paragon of customer service. Oh wait.
And the reason they can charge so little is that they pay their workers far below what a local "rip-off" store would.
On the end of the spectrum we'd like to be on, several competing vendors would warranty the merchandise as being compatable with linux, and would provide source-code compatable drivers (for kernel independence). We're at the extreme far other end of that spectrum, as far as I can tell.
Ralink provides source code. Of course, they don't make actual cards, but my point is that we're not so far down the spectrum as you claim.
Hmm, I guess I didn't know there were people who enjoyed destroying their local economy...