I'm having trouble seeing the innovation here. Seems as though the differences from the current model are
(1) Articles cost $11 rather than $30, and (2) There is a rental option for $6.
So, a reasonable improvement perhaps, but hardly a paradigm shift. It's still paywalled, it's still expensive. Open access seems more promising, despite the well-known obstacles to its universal implementation.
(And personally I'd never use the rental option, but maybe there are people for whom it makes sense.)
I get the feeling the MS partnership was completely or largely a top-down decision forced by Elop. The peons presumably knew they were shafted from the start but didn't have a say in the matter. Elop presumably knew they would be shafted, but doesn't care because he gets well paid until Nokia is a gutted shell, at which point he hops off, buys a few yachts, and walks into the next cushy job -- perhaps with his old buddies at MS.
*Everyone* saw this coming, that's the tragic thing. The past 18 months have been like watching a slow-motion train wreck.
When I was shopping for an ultrabook, I found the MacBook Air was quite competitively priced. I wasn't terribly impressed with the competition either -- the Samsung Series 7, for example, is not only more expensive for the same specs, but it's made of plastic!
Not that I'm an expert, but as far as I can tell from some brief Googling, the Samsung Series 7 is:
1. Made of metal not plastic, 2. Not an ultrabook, 3. Cheaper than the Air.
Specs appear generally better than the Air since it's a "full" laptop rather than ultrabook. More memory, more pixels, faster CPU, 1TB HDD vs 128GB SSD on Air, and of course thicker and heavier.
Conjecture. Many long time users I know use Ubuntu because it gets so many things right, has a huge q&a base when things don't go right, and generally is easy to use and change. There are plenty of reasons not to use Ubuntu, philosophical, familiarity with other systems, etc. But it certainly isn't a "dumb"version of Linux or anything. And since it feels very much Ike debian, being debian + stuff, plenty of old timers -- like me -- made the switch and are happily using it.
As an oldtimer using Ubuntu myself, I largely agree. It largely Just Works and gets the job done, and these days that's what I want out of an OS. And yes, the Debian-esqueness makes it very comfortable.
At time of writing, this story is tagged "Netherlands". Is there in fact some connection to the Netherlands here (I can't find one), or is this just geographical delinquency?
(As with arguments over metric/US units, I fear this may trigger a deluge of "STFU OK, Slashdot is a US-based site, deal with it"...)
Ah yes, I didn't mean that valve amps (as I tend to call them, being a Brit) don't sound pleasant. And I can fully believe that their unique sound is currently impossible to replicate by other means. It's the claims of their being more "faithful" or objectively "better" that I object to.
I'm not sure what your point is. Are you saying that, say, the Battle of Austerlitz was not in fact a victory for the French, because the parents of the French emperor had not been French? If you don't consider that the French were the victors at Austerlitz, then who were the true victors? The Genoans, perhaps?
Well yes, I was half-joking. But I feel as though they're more like two cycles behind on this -- 2011 was when NFC really hit the mainstream, there was a fair bit of speculation that the 4S would have it.
Absolutely! I remember all those years when PC and *nix users had to deal with finicky, unreliable 2- and 3-button mice. With Apple you got one button, and you were thankful for it, by Jobs! Deep down we all knew that the second mouse button just wasn't ready for prime time yet.
Fair enough, I phrased my point rather poorly. The point I was attempting to make was this: if your robot is, say, fettling widgets, the important metric is not "time to fettle one widget", it is "cost to fettle one widget". So it doesn't matter if the robot's working slower than a human in the same job, provided that the robot's effective "hourly wage" is correspondingly lower.
(Pulled-out-of-my-ass figures: say your robot costs $22k upfront plus $1k a year, and lasts ten years, for a total cost of $32k a decade. Say your human is paid $15k a year, for a total cost of $150k a decade. Robot can then be four times slower and still represent a saving.)
Wow, thanks for the heads-up. I'll steer clear of Asus, then. Sager look very promising though -- this review seems to indicate that their customer support is pretty decent too.
Slashdot Mirror
On closer inspection, I'd never use the purchase option either. "Researchers cannot print out the articles"? Fuck off, ReadCube. Fuck right off.
I'm having trouble seeing the innovation here. Seems as though the differences from the current model are
(1) Articles cost $11 rather than $30, and
(2) There is a rental option for $6.
So, a reasonable improvement perhaps, but hardly a paradigm shift. It's still paywalled, it's still expensive. Open access seems more promising, despite the well-known obstacles to its universal implementation.
(And personally I'd never use the rental option, but maybe there are people for whom it makes sense.)
Nah, it's more like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzxQgRbTesA
Microsoft can fulfil Nokia's every wish! There's just one small catch, though...
(In this analogy, Elop is the cum-streaked turd which summons Microsoft in the first place.)
I get the feeling the MS partnership was completely or largely a top-down decision forced by Elop. The peons presumably knew they were shafted from the start but didn't have a say in the matter. Elop presumably knew they would be shafted, but doesn't care because he gets well paid until Nokia is a gutted shell, at which point he hops off, buys a few yachts, and walks into the next cushy job -- perhaps with his old buddies at MS.
*Everyone* saw this coming, that's the tragic thing. The past 18 months have been like watching a slow-motion train wreck.
When I was shopping for an ultrabook, I found the MacBook Air was quite competitively priced. I wasn't terribly impressed with the competition either -- the Samsung Series 7, for example, is not only more expensive for the same specs, but it's made of plastic!
Not that I'm an expert, but as far as I can tell from some brief Googling, the Samsung Series 7 is:
1. Made of metal not plastic,
2. Not an ultrabook,
3. Cheaper than the Air.
Specs appear generally better than the Air since it's a "full" laptop rather than ultrabook. More memory, more pixels, faster CPU, 1TB HDD vs 128GB SSD on Air, and of course thicker and heavier.
I'm basing this largely on specs here and here.
Don't these people have anything more useful to do?
I agree entirely. I've never invented a programming language, because I'm always far too busy posting on Slashdot.
Woah shit is that the time? Got to go catch up on my web comic reading for the day.
That's a really interesting approach. Are there any examples of it in the wild? I'd be keen to see what one of these narratives looks like.
Conjecture. Many long time users I know use Ubuntu because it gets so many things right, has a huge q&a base when things don't go right, and generally is easy to use and change. There are plenty of reasons not to use Ubuntu, philosophical, familiarity with other systems, etc. But it certainly isn't a "dumb"version of Linux or anything. And since it feels very much Ike debian, being debian + stuff, plenty of old timers -- like me -- made the switch and are happily using it.
As an oldtimer using Ubuntu myself, I largely agree. It largely Just Works and gets the job done, and these days that's what I want out of an OS. And yes, the Debian-esqueness makes it very comfortable.
long-time *nix users/power-users, who, generally, don't use Ubuntu.
Is that conjecture/anecdata, or verifiable fact?
(Not being snarky, genuinely curious.)
... as to how much of a boost you get for your business when you manage to sneak a link to it into a /. summary.
Well played sir.
2) Yeah. An online petition. That'll learn 'em.
Didn't you hear? It's valiant.
I assumed they meant that Prince Valiant was organizing the petition.
Sorry, if he's not involved then I'm not interested.
At time of writing, this story is tagged "Netherlands". Is there in fact some connection to the Netherlands here (I can't find one), or is this just geographical delinquency?
(As with arguments over metric/US units, I fear this may trigger a deluge of "STFU OK, Slashdot is a US-based site, deal with it"...)
Ah yes, I didn't mean that valve amps (as I tend to call them, being a Brit) don't sound pleasant. And I can fully believe that their unique sound is currently impossible to replicate by other means. It's the claims of their being more "faithful" or objectively "better" that I object to.
I'm not sure what your point is. Are you saying that, say, the Battle of Austerlitz was not in fact a victory for the French, because the parents of the French emperor had not been French? If you don't consider that the French were the victors at Austerlitz, then who were the true victors? The Genoans, perhaps?
Phew, at least it wasn't the same as the top secret US nuclear missile lock code of 00000000.
I'd say last time French got a heavy victory was Poitiers (732).
<cough>Napoleon</cough>
Heaven forfend that anyone should resort to stereotypes in a thread about a "the French always surrender LOL" joke.
It's trolling so hard! It's even got Steve Jobs and a vinyl's-the-best claim in the same sentence! I am disappointed, however, at the lack of:
1. "We should all use valve amps because the sounds just, y'know, warmer, and therefore better.
2. "My sound quality improved 800% when I switched to Neil Young endorsed Monster cables!", exclaimed an unnamed consumer.
3. "Double-blind ABX trials are actually irrelevant because. erm, well you're just not sufficiently attuned to understand. Go away."
Well yes, I was half-joking. But I feel as though they're more like two cycles behind on this -- 2011 was when NFC really hit the mainstream, there was a fair bit of speculation that the 4S would have it.
iPhone 6, duh. Apple's phones are pretty predictable these days, new tech comes a cycle late.
The first phone with NFC was the Nokia 6131, which came out a year before the first iPhone. So maybe new tech comes six cycles late...
Absolutely! I remember all those years when PC and *nix users had to deal with finicky, unreliable 2- and 3-button mice. With Apple you got one button, and you were thankful for it, by Jobs! Deep down we all knew that the second mouse button just wasn't ready for prime time yet.
(See also: virtual desktops.)
Fair enough, I phrased my point rather poorly. The point I was attempting to make was this: if your robot is, say, fettling widgets, the important metric is not "time to fettle one widget", it is "cost to fettle one widget". So it doesn't matter if the robot's working slower than a human in the same job, provided that the robot's effective "hourly wage" is correspondingly lower.
(Pulled-out-of-my-ass figures: say your robot costs $22k upfront plus $1k a year, and lasts ten years, for a total cost of $32k a decade. Say your human is paid $15k a year, for a total cost of $150k a decade. Robot can then be four times slower and still represent a saving.)
Wow, thanks for the heads-up. I'll steer clear of Asus, then. Sager look very promising though -- this review seems to indicate that their customer support is pretty decent too.
My mother works in a factory and I hear all the time about how they expect everyone to work incredibly quickly.
Robots aren't paid by the hour.
*shrug* Slashdot summary sucks, film at 11. RTFA instead.