Remove the greybeards in congress and corporations that have been out-of-touch with reality for the last 30 years, and put people in power that have a good understanding of technology. Like an RIAA executive said, "Wow, they have the internet on computers now!"
"DARN!! This stupid mouse made me die in Guild Wars! Man, I really need higher DPI and a more responsive sensor!" I doubt anyone else has thought that either.
- Reports about someone earning "X" per month are meaningless out of context. How much, exactly, do other workers in their locale earn? What is the overall cost of living? (Yes, I'm aware that the article makes reference to food and rent consuming "half" their salary.) If the pay is "dismal" even by China's standards, as one of the articles asserts, then why is anyone even working there?
Apparently you've forgotten that China is a Communist country. Where you work isn't a choice, you are assigned a job by the government.
E-mail can be presented in a much more convincing manner than voice mail. Spamming on VOIP would be more akin to telemarketing on traditional phones. E-mail spam is sent en masse and is impersonal.
I'm surprised no one has brought this us even. The Porn industry is one of the richest in this country, and they are also the most heavily pirated. Kind of destroys the "Piracy hurts record sales" argument.
more like some greasy-haired goombah explaining the benefits of "protection money"
This is a lot like Sears, Best Buy, Home Depot, CompUSA, and Circuit City having their salesman over-exaggerate potential (yet very rare) problems in order to sell the extended warranty.
I am currently at work using Windows 98. From my perspective, using Windows 98 is getting more and more awful. Especially since I have to coordinate with Engineers using AutoCAD 2007 on Windows XP machines, making it work with my Acad 2002 win98 machine.
Arguing against stopping support for windows 98 makes about as much sense as being against companies stopping support for DOS or CP/M. Windows 98 is in the same boat, eventually the only users will be people running highly specialized custom niche software that CANT run on any other OS.
I'm not too familiar with it. Do you still have to pay for each song you download? Do the songs really become yours after your download them (they don't "expire" if you cancel your subscription)?
Exactly. It's the same idiot mentality that has Best Buy cashiers selling magazine subscriptions. Subscriptions suck, people hate them. Subscription services are a scheme to "compete" with iTunes while charging more overall. The problem is, people just aren't that stupid. Most people can do simple math and realize that they have to buy 100 songs every month to save over iTunes. They think that telling you that YOU want a subscription is going to work. I want to just buy a song, I don't want ANOTHER monthly bill headache.
possibly, but it is now. The PS3 is another year or so away. My point was is that PC's aren't thought of as toys just because they're good with games, so Apple's concern is unfounded and reveals their insecurity about their product. They are the ones labelling their products as toys by making them unfriendly to upgraders.
the PC platform is the vastly superior platform for gaming for most types. it will always have the most powerful hardware, run the games in a much higher resolution, and are upgradable and expandable. Don't like the keyboard and mouse? Buy a USB gamepad, the possibilities are endless. With a PC you can even load every console from the past and all of their games onto one machine.
All that said, I don't think anyone views the PC as a "toy" because it kicks ass at games. It can do a lot of other things too (all of the stuff an Apple can do). It requires more tinkering to do a lot of specific tasks, as opposed to Apples "ready out of the box" approach. In fact, the lack of expandability is what contributes most to Apple being viewed as more of a toy or appliance than a computer, not the lack of gaming software.
"Well, it's true that we don't have hardly any games out for our platform, but that's okay, because games are for toys that kids play with and our stuff is for adults." It sounds a lot like "Ahhh I can't reach those grapes, it's okay though, they were probably sour anyway."
Re:Apple has always been about Jobs
on
It's No Game At Apple
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
That's all true until Steve Jobs changes his mind.
Recall that Steve Jobs thought putting video on an iPod was a bad idea. Yet, the very next iPod released had that capability. Maybe he really changed his mind or maybe he was trying to throw folks like ThinkSecret off his trail. Apple has a history of shunning and then embracing new markets.
I always found Net2Phone to be just a shitty operation borderlining on spam. Of course that may be because I haven't looked at it since the 90's. But in this world it's becoming dangerous to have made something that is popular and everyone likes (Skype) because either some two-bit operation that failed at it in the 90's or a patent troll are going to sue you.
How do these patents get past the patent office anyway? Is there anybody even LOOKING at these things? Doesn't anyone EVER get denied? Or is it just a wide open frontier where anyone can claim ownership of an idea that a)they didn't come up with and b)have no plans to implement.
I think the solution is to start a technology and software branch of the patent office, and have TECHNOLOGICALLY LITERATE adjusters running it. I've said it before, but why do we seem to have no problem with technology being regulated by people that know nothing about it?
OpenOffice.org = $0
MS Office = $500+ for the professional version.
I think losing a few seconds here and there is worth saving $500.
This is exactly what they're doing with their JPG alternative. They blow non-issues out of proportion and come up with "solutions" for them. If anyone from MS is reading this, please, get back to writing software and quit trying to mess with stable, well-accepted standards. Maybe you should try coming up with something on your own instead of buying it and retrofitting it to work with your broken operating system.
It's not that so much as adding HDTV technology into these machines drive the price point up. For most of us without HDTV, it doesn't make sense to pay for something we don't use.
Another point about the HD screen. All these peripheral manufacturers are trying to force the world into HD when it isn't ready. Actual HD TV's are still in the $1,000s and most of us just can't justify spending that much on a piece of hardware that has limited programming available to it. Most of us are content with our standard low-def TVs and have to worry more about how we're going to pay to heat our houses in the winter than having the luxury of HD. By the time HD is in the majority of houses, the next generation of consoles will be out anyway. Nintendo is making a smart move by keeping with what most people have, not hanking on the fact that everyone is going to spend large amounts of money on a new TV so their video games are better.
Perhaps from a vendor's standpoint, the Microsoft model is much better for them. They get what they need from Microsoft and write their own driver. Their proprietary chipsets and hardware can remain proprietary trade secrets. I'm not suprised nVidia and ATI aren't so willing to just hand over their Intellectual Property (driver source code, or certain hardware information) to the public. It's a pain in the ass for them to maintain drivers, but at the same time, they don't have to worry about rogue chip manufacturers selling knockoffs of their products (even though it does happen, it would be much more widespread and uncontrolled if certain info about their hardware was public knowledge).
Yet another example of non-technical lawmakers regulating technology.
senator:"holy moly! These new computers are made in China! They could spy on us using the interweb through our home sites!"
IT tech: "actually senator, this would be nearly impossible since Lenovo has no way of knowing which computers are going where, and our hardware would detect.."
senator: "Oh sonny, why don't you go back to your little screens there, let us real senators handle this, we know what we're talking about"
IT tech: "but...they can't..."
senator: "now you go back to your desk and I'll call you if I have a problem with Excel or something."
Slashdot Mirror
Remove the greybeards in congress and corporations that have been out-of-touch with reality for the last 30 years, and put people in power that have a good understanding of technology. Like an RIAA executive said, "Wow, they have the internet on computers now!"
"10 Blu-Ray titles will be available as well"
A whopping TEN movies to choose from! That's certainly worth dropping $1k on a piece of equipment.
Slashdot: "Bill Gates to Step Down from Microsoft"
Wired: "Gates Easing out at Microsoft"
Gotta love slashdot's speciality: inaccurate, sensationalist headlines.
"DARN!! This stupid mouse made me die in Guild Wars! Man, I really need higher DPI and a more responsive sensor!"
I doubt anyone else has thought that either.
- Reports about someone earning "X" per month are meaningless out of context. How much, exactly, do other workers in their locale earn? What is the overall cost of living? (Yes, I'm aware that the article makes reference to food and rent consuming "half" their salary.) If the pay is "dismal" even by China's standards, as one of the articles asserts, then why is anyone even working there?
Apparently you've forgotten that China is a Communist country. Where you work isn't a choice, you are assigned a job by the government.
E-mail can be presented in a much more convincing manner than voice mail. Spamming on VOIP would be more akin to telemarketing on traditional phones. E-mail spam is sent en masse and is impersonal.
I'm surprised no one has brought this us even. The Porn industry is one of the richest in this country, and they are also the most heavily pirated. Kind of destroys the "Piracy hurts record sales" argument.
more like some greasy-haired goombah explaining the benefits of "protection money"
This is a lot like Sears, Best Buy, Home Depot, CompUSA, and Circuit City having their salesman over-exaggerate potential (yet very rare) problems in order to sell the extended warranty.
The reality of the situation is that you pull facts out of your air and state them as absolutes.
I am currently at work using Windows 98. From my perspective, using Windows 98 is getting more and more awful. Especially since I have to coordinate with Engineers using AutoCAD 2007 on Windows XP machines, making it work with my Acad 2002 win98 machine.
Arguing against stopping support for windows 98 makes about as much sense as being against companies stopping support for DOS or CP/M. Windows 98 is in the same boat, eventually the only users will be people running highly specialized custom niche software that CANT run on any other OS.
I'm not too familiar with it. Do you still have to pay for each song you download? Do the songs really become yours after your download them (they don't "expire" if you cancel your subscription)?
Exactly. It's the same idiot mentality that has Best Buy cashiers selling magazine subscriptions. Subscriptions suck, people hate them. Subscription services are a scheme to "compete" with iTunes while charging more overall. The problem is, people just aren't that stupid. Most people can do simple math and realize that they have to buy 100 songs every month to save over iTunes. They think that telling you that YOU want a subscription is going to work. I want to just buy a song, I don't want ANOTHER monthly bill headache.
possibly, but it is now. The PS3 is another year or so away. My point was is that PC's aren't thought of as toys just because they're good with games, so Apple's concern is unfounded and reveals their insecurity about their product. They are the ones labelling their products as toys by making them unfriendly to upgraders.
the PC platform is the vastly superior platform for gaming for most types. it will always have the most powerful hardware, run the games in a much higher resolution, and are upgradable and expandable. Don't like the keyboard and mouse? Buy a USB gamepad, the possibilities are endless. With a PC you can even load every console from the past and all of their games onto one machine.
All that said, I don't think anyone views the PC as a "toy" because it kicks ass at games. It can do a lot of other things too (all of the stuff an Apple can do). It requires more tinkering to do a lot of specific tasks, as opposed to Apples "ready out of the box" approach. In fact, the lack of expandability is what contributes most to Apple being viewed as more of a toy or appliance than a computer, not the lack of gaming software.
"Well, it's true that we don't have hardly any games out for our platform, but that's okay, because games are for toys that kids play with and our stuff is for adults." It sounds a lot like "Ahhh I can't reach those grapes, it's okay though, they were probably sour anyway."
That's all true until Steve Jobs changes his mind.
Recall that Steve Jobs thought putting video on an iPod was a bad idea. Yet, the very next iPod released had that capability. Maybe he really changed his mind or maybe he was trying to throw folks like ThinkSecret off his trail. Apple has a history of shunning and then embracing new markets.
The patent system is against individual inventors. I suspect that the only way to get your invention patented is a big, fat bribe.
I always found Net2Phone to be just a shitty operation borderlining on spam. Of course that may be because I haven't looked at it since the 90's. But in this world it's becoming dangerous to have made something that is popular and everyone likes (Skype) because either some two-bit operation that failed at it in the 90's or a patent troll are going to sue you.
How do these patents get past the patent office anyway? Is there anybody even LOOKING at these things? Doesn't anyone EVER get denied? Or is it just a wide open frontier where anyone can claim ownership of an idea that a)they didn't come up with and b)have no plans to implement.
I think the solution is to start a technology and software branch of the patent office, and have TECHNOLOGICALLY LITERATE adjusters running it. I've said it before, but why do we seem to have no problem with technology being regulated by people that know nothing about it?
OpenOffice.org = $0
MS Office = $500+ for the professional version.
I think losing a few seconds here and there is worth saving $500.
This is exactly what they're doing with their JPG alternative. They blow non-issues out of proportion and come up with "solutions" for them. If anyone from MS is reading this, please, get back to writing software and quit trying to mess with stable, well-accepted standards. Maybe you should try coming up with something on your own instead of buying it and retrofitting it to work with your broken operating system.
It's not that so much as adding HDTV technology into these machines drive the price point up. For most of us without HDTV, it doesn't make sense to pay for something we don't use.
Could you please name some graphics card companies that release open source drivers?
jpegs formatted for the web are quite small anyway. With the size of hard drives today, is file size REALLY an issue?
Another point about the HD screen. All these peripheral manufacturers are trying to force the world into HD when it isn't ready. Actual HD TV's are still in the $1,000s and most of us just can't justify spending that much on a piece of hardware that has limited programming available to it. Most of us are content with our standard low-def TVs and have to worry more about how we're going to pay to heat our houses in the winter than having the luxury of HD. By the time HD is in the majority of houses, the next generation of consoles will be out anyway. Nintendo is making a smart move by keeping with what most people have, not hanking on the fact that everyone is going to spend large amounts of money on a new TV so their video games are better.
Perhaps from a vendor's standpoint, the Microsoft model is much better for them. They get what they need from Microsoft and write their own driver. Their proprietary chipsets and hardware can remain proprietary trade secrets. I'm not suprised nVidia and ATI aren't so willing to just hand over their Intellectual Property (driver source code, or certain hardware information) to the public. It's a pain in the ass for them to maintain drivers, but at the same time, they don't have to worry about rogue chip manufacturers selling knockoffs of their products (even though it does happen, it would be much more widespread and uncontrolled if certain info about their hardware was public knowledge).
Yet another example of non-technical lawmakers regulating technology.
senator:"holy moly! These new computers are made in China! They could spy on us using the interweb through our home sites!"
IT tech: "actually senator, this would be nearly impossible since Lenovo has no way of knowing which computers are going where, and our hardware would detect.."
senator: "Oh sonny, why don't you go back to your little screens there, let us real senators handle this, we know what we're talking about"
IT tech: "but...they can't..."
senator: "now you go back to your desk and I'll call you if I have a problem with Excel or something."
Than why didn't the Chinese government add so-called "spy devices" to, oh, all the parts they make for Dell, HP, Compaq, Apple, etc. etc.?