Hmm. How would a locked down device that wont run software I want to run and doesn't give me input mechanisms that I want affect my life in a positive, constructive and more beneficial way than other technology that does meet those needs?
Trust me, Apple's success is very heavily related to their marketing prowess and their trendy logo. I don't need to know a thing about technology to understand and realise that.
Nokia has a number of Symbian phones that are in engineering and quality terms at least the equal of the iPhone.
Apple's logo is currently fashionable. It wasn't in the past, but it is now. Excellent marketing (and adequate design coupled with excellent software support) of the iPod caused that; the phones have leveraged that and Apple has continued with its marketing excellence.
The devices themselves are by no means shabby, but don't dismiss the power of that status boasting logo.
Nokia has an even longer history of providing high quality well engineered products. I don't see people wetting themselves with excitement about buying a new Nokia phone.
Ironic, given Nokia's engineering is better than Apple's. Must be the magic of that logo.
To add to h4rr4r's insightful comment, people have spent a few years building a DVD collection. Many of my purchases have been films from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. I now own those films, so no, I'm not going to buy them again. I'm only going to buy more recent films. I imagine many people are in this situation.
The other factor is the quality of the output. Hollywood really does create a very large volume of very low quality work. Not only do people prefer to avoid paying for shit, but it's discouraging to attend the cinema at great expense when you're not sure whether the film will be any good or not.
I suspect people are also wising up to the marketing practices of the media companies. I want to buy Black Swan on DVD. I think it's a great film - probably the best of the last decade - and I intend to watch it many times. But the Bluray version has additional material on it that the DVD lacks.
I know this. It's an arbitrary decision. I also know that if I wait patiently, I'll be able to eventually buy a DVD with that extra material on. So the producers have deferred a DVD sale. Similarly I'm waiting for Kill Bill to come out with the extra material and versions released in Japan and other territories. I will eventually buy them, but it'll be at a discounted price and they're not getting that revenue now.
(Computer games are even worse than this - I know any game released this year will within 3 years be released on Steam with all its DLC at a heavily discounted price. I have every Dawn of War and Company of Heroes game released by Relic except Dawn of War II: Retribution. To buy that game and all its DLC right now would cost £57; I know it'll be a great game, I really want to play it, and I have enough games to play for a few months longer to wait for the Platinum Gold Game of the Year Complete Special Edition to be released for £30 and then the couple of months longer than that for it to get a substantial discount.)
Conveniently, the artists who aren't getting paid are left out of that equation, because they're a reminder that piracy has a negative effect, which dismantles the ideology that pirates are the good guys.
Which part of "people that pirate spend more on media" leads you to believe that piracy has a negative effect?
Are you suggesting that the extra revenue generated from pirates isn't reaching the artists? I'm not sure that would be attributable to the pirates, in their role of consumers.
Shit, you'll get modded down because you're spouting illogical bullshit, and that's something the Slashdot community picks up on, not because you're anti-piracy. Many people on Slashdot dislike freeloaders; it just happens that many more recognise the reality that there isn't a binary situation here, and that (as recognised in the survey) people that consume more media will pay more for it, even if they don't pay for all of it.
Doom 2, Duke Nukem, Unreal.. Never got into HL. A couple of the LucasArts FPS have been fun, purely because the world environment and technology makes an engaging and fun place to be. GTA3 doesn't qualify, it's more of a driving game. More recently I've really enjoyed Borderlands but just can't be bothered with most of the 'new' FPS.
Online gaming FPS, Unreal Tournament then Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield Vietnam.
Sadly BF:V remains the peak of online FPS for me - the variety, game balance, mix of maps, sheer fun factor.
I know a lot of Counter Strike fans too, just never enjoyed it myself.
But no, modern games aren't innovating, and often aren't delivering on the promises made by earlier games. Or maybe some of them are and the market is too saturated to find them. I just replayed Max Payne and loved it, irrespective of the decade old graphics.
Sadly my landlord's router has FON and you can't turn it off - you have to ask BT to disable FON from your account.
Obviously* my landlord is computer illiterate and wont know how to even ask, so I'm stuck with this second network running on the same bloody channel and no way to switch it off. Stupid fuckwit BT router and firmware.
* it's obvious, because he actually signed up with BT for Internet access. I mean, of all the idiotic decisions in a man's life..
Well, as mentioned elsewhere on this discussion, I own three solar powered quartz movement watches, two of which have both an analogue and digital readout. All three watches are more accurate than my mechanical one, and yet - despite my general techno-lust - none of them are quite as beautiful and elegant.
On my wrist, one of them actually looks just as nice as the mechanical watch that cost (literally) ten times as much, uses atomic clock radio signals to stay accurate and can draw enough power from the sun even in a nuclear winter, so it should be reasonably functional. It just doesn't quite inspire me in the same manner as precision clockwork.
For pure function, my mobile phone does everything my watches can, lots more besides, and is generally within a few feet of me at all times. It's an altogether more impressive beast, and I'd get distressed with one I had to wind up. So the watch is a vanity item, intended to demonstrate visual elegance while providing internal joy that something so archaic and functionally outclassed has been created nonetheless.
I guess it's an emotional thing, but I'm not an EE:)
why aren't people designing / paying top dollar for rotary-dial or steam-powered cellphones
I think the appropriate response would be to pay him for his time and labour in saving this national treasure.
Call it two days work, say $20/hour (generous for a 17yo), round it up to $200.
Now charge him for daily admittance to a museum exhibit, namely a very rare and precious moon rock. $1 feels almost unfairly cheap, but lets acknowledge his regular and repeat visits and give him a 90% discount.
So that's $36.50 a year, based on exceedingly generous terms.
Looks like on balance, he owes them some money, even being generous about it..
You can get innovative, stylish and expensive digital watches. They aren't necessarily bad, but you missed my main point: They aren't mechanical clockwork.
That carries an engineering challenge way beyond the current state of electronics, which no amount of gold plating can mimic. The Urwerk UR-202 isn't worth as much as my house (even though that's what it costs) but the engineering that went into it and the difficulty of manufacturing and constructing it means they couldn't sell it at a profit for less than the cost of a nice car. Making a quartz movement with that display mechanism wouldn't be trivial either, but doing it completely mechanically, with that level of accuracy has an engineering elegance that justifies a significant price premium over any digital or electronic watch.
Hmm. My Omega hasn't managed to run for a month since I bought it without the power reserve expiring and me needing to reset the date on the watch, let alone the actual time.
It's a lovely watch, but after a year the Omega is likely to be accurate twice a day at best.
Everyone, please note that "analog" should usually only be used to refer to an electronic device containing analog electronics.
Bullshit. Most watches (even now) have analogue displays. Whether that display is powered by digital, mechanical or analogue electronic means is irrelevant.
The problem with Casio is that they make ugly watches. The function is superb, and some of their faces are quite elegant (e.g. I like http://amzn.to/qaAH2l ) but the overall package doesn't really feel nice. Instead I greatly prefer Citizen - you pay twice the price, but their cases, bracelets and non-sports faces are far nicer.
Watches and sunglasses are the only acceptable male jewelry equivalent
Earrings are acceptable in certain circles. Piercings in other places are acceptable at times. Necklaces often work too. I wear a titanium one when I'm out dancing, get a few admiring comments from (female) partners. Tie pins or clips work at times, usually in the office or for weddings. Not really a social event thing though. The real winner however: Cufflinks are always fashionable (except when dancing - catching her hair in your cufflink would be a quick and painful end to the dance).
My nicest watch matches my nicest cufflinks; both combine titanium with carbon fibre, and go nicely with the necklace.
show me time in 24-hour format, show me the month/day/year, show me time in different time zones, allow me to set multiple alarms or chime on the hour or converts to a stopwatch if I ever need it (okay, I rarely use that, but it's handy when I do need it)...what's the benefit to analog watches again?
Thing is.. I can program a digital watch to do all that for me. I can design the silicon to do all that for me. It's fairly trivial.
Now, designing a mechanical clockwork device that can do all that? Inventing the new materials needed to make it? Creating the parts and using them to build the finished item?
There's a reason such watches cost 5-6 digit sums, and it's not because they're made of gold.
I have a taste in watches that seriously outclasses my salary, and it's got fuck all to do with chips of diamond.
I own three solar powered electronic watches with analogue time displays. Two of them have digital displays too. Two of them use atomic clock radio signals to stay accurate.
I normally wear the clockwork autowinding mechanical analogue watch. It's not as accurate. It's much much nicer. It's far more impressive in the accuracy it manages than the electronic ones. It appeals to my inner techno-lust just as much as the portable computer I carry, with its inbuilt GPS receiver, four radio transmitters, touch-screen display and digital camera.
I don't recall anybody stating that the US Government funded the IRA.
I am happy to state that the US Government did approximately fuck all to prevent its citizens funding terrorist operations against the UK. There's plenty of evidence of willful inactivity by the US government there.
Why do you think there was so much sardonic humour in 2001 at the US (and particular New York fire and police services) outrage about a terrorist incident; several people found it deliciously ironic.
Slashdot Mirror
Realy?
I say this with incredulity because the Liberals did exactly that.
Realy? I ask only because canajin56 did state up front,
The Liberals did the exact same thing.
Hmm. How would a locked down device that wont run software I want to run and doesn't give me input mechanisms that I want affect my life in a positive, constructive and more beneficial way than other technology that does meet those needs?
Trust me, Apple's success is very heavily related to their marketing prowess and their trendy logo. I don't need to know a thing about technology to understand and realise that.
Nokia has a number of Symbian phones that are in engineering and quality terms at least the equal of the iPhone.
Apple's logo is currently fashionable. It wasn't in the past, but it is now. Excellent marketing (and adequate design coupled with excellent software support) of the iPod caused that; the phones have leveraged that and Apple has continued with its marketing excellence.
The devices themselves are by no means shabby, but don't dismiss the power of that status boasting logo.
You do realise that you can buy an unlocked Android phone direct from the manufacturer, with no carrier software installed at all?
You do realise you can install your own version of Android on many handsets, without needing to "jailbreak" them first?
You do realise that Apple's control of the handset is far more sinister, invasive, arrogant and anti-consumer than any carrier has ever achieved?
No fucking wonder you posted anonymously, you're on Apple's fucking payroll.
Nokia has an even longer history of providing high quality well engineered products. I don't see people wetting themselves with excitement about buying a new Nokia phone.
Ironic, given Nokia's engineering is better than Apple's. Must be the magic of that logo.
I love your argument. "It's not as shit as its predecessor" doesn't mean that it wasn't still shit.
Even Apple admitted it was a fuck up.
To add to h4rr4r's insightful comment, people have spent a few years building a DVD collection. Many of my purchases have been films from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. I now own those films, so no, I'm not going to buy them again. I'm only going to buy more recent films. I imagine many people are in this situation.
The other factor is the quality of the output. Hollywood really does create a very large volume of very low quality work. Not only do people prefer to avoid paying for shit, but it's discouraging to attend the cinema at great expense when you're not sure whether the film will be any good or not.
I suspect people are also wising up to the marketing practices of the media companies. I want to buy Black Swan on DVD. I think it's a great film - probably the best of the last decade - and I intend to watch it many times. But the Bluray version has additional material on it that the DVD lacks.
I know this. It's an arbitrary decision. I also know that if I wait patiently, I'll be able to eventually buy a DVD with that extra material on. So the producers have deferred a DVD sale. Similarly I'm waiting for Kill Bill to come out with the extra material and versions released in Japan and other territories. I will eventually buy them, but it'll be at a discounted price and they're not getting that revenue now.
(Computer games are even worse than this - I know any game released this year will within 3 years be released on Steam with all its DLC at a heavily discounted price. I have every Dawn of War and Company of Heroes game released by Relic except Dawn of War II: Retribution. To buy that game and all its DLC right now would cost £57; I know it'll be a great game, I really want to play it, and I have enough games to play for a few months longer to wait for the Platinum Gold Game of the Year Complete Special Edition to be released for £30 and then the couple of months longer than that for it to get a substantial discount.)
No piracy, drop in revenues..
Conveniently, the artists who aren't getting paid are left out of that equation, because they're a reminder that piracy has a negative effect, which dismantles the ideology that pirates are the good guys.
Which part of "people that pirate spend more on media" leads you to believe that piracy has a negative effect?
Are you suggesting that the extra revenue generated from pirates isn't reaching the artists? I'm not sure that would be attributable to the pirates, in their role of consumers.
Shit, you'll get modded down because you're spouting illogical bullshit, and that's something the Slashdot community picks up on, not because you're anti-piracy. Many people on Slashdot dislike freeloaders; it just happens that many more recognise the reality that there isn't a binary situation here, and that (as recognised in the survey) people that consume more media will pay more for it, even if they don't pay for all of it.
Doom 2, Duke Nukem, Unreal.. Never got into HL. A couple of the LucasArts FPS have been fun, purely because the world environment and technology makes an engaging and fun place to be. GTA3 doesn't qualify, it's more of a driving game. More recently I've really enjoyed Borderlands but just can't be bothered with most of the 'new' FPS.
Online gaming FPS, Unreal Tournament then Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield Vietnam.
Sadly BF:V remains the peak of online FPS for me - the variety, game balance, mix of maps, sheer fun factor.
I know a lot of Counter Strike fans too, just never enjoyed it myself.
But no, modern games aren't innovating, and often aren't delivering on the promises made by earlier games. Or maybe some of them are and the market is too saturated to find them. I just replayed Max Payne and loved it, irrespective of the decade old graphics.
Sadly my landlord's router has FON and you can't turn it off - you have to ask BT to disable FON from your account.
Obviously* my landlord is computer illiterate and wont know how to even ask, so I'm stuck with this second network running on the same bloody channel and no way to switch it off. Stupid fuckwit BT router and firmware.
* it's obvious, because he actually signed up with BT for Internet access. I mean, of all the idiotic decisions in a man's life..
I'm paying each month around half of what I paid 17 years ago. In that time I've gone from 28kbps to 20mbps.
My price hasn't gone up in 8 years. In that time I've gone from 2mbps to 20mbps.
My cost per byte downloaded has gone down exponentially. Maybe I'm just lucky enough to be living in the right country?
That does not make me a rapist does it?
According to certain feminists, having admitted you're male was enough.
Well, as mentioned elsewhere on this discussion, I own three solar powered quartz movement watches, two of which have both an analogue and digital readout. All three watches are more accurate than my mechanical one, and yet - despite my general techno-lust - none of them are quite as beautiful and elegant.
On my wrist, one of them actually looks just as nice as the mechanical watch that cost (literally) ten times as much, uses atomic clock radio signals to stay accurate and can draw enough power from the sun even in a nuclear winter, so it should be reasonably functional. It just doesn't quite inspire me in the same manner as precision clockwork.
For pure function, my mobile phone does everything my watches can, lots more besides, and is generally within a few feet of me at all times. It's an altogether more impressive beast, and I'd get distressed with one I had to wind up. So the watch is a vanity item, intended to demonstrate visual elegance while providing internal joy that something so archaic and functionally outclassed has been created nonetheless.
I guess it's an emotional thing, but I'm not an EE :)
why aren't people designing / paying top dollar for rotary-dial or steam-powered cellphones
http://rotarymechanical.tumblr.com/
I love the looks, but don't think it'll have sufficient specifications to replace my current phone..
I think the appropriate response would be to pay him for his time and labour in saving this national treasure.
Call it two days work, say $20/hour (generous for a 17yo), round it up to $200.
Now charge him for daily admittance to a museum exhibit, namely a very rare and precious moon rock. $1 feels almost unfairly cheap, but lets acknowledge his regular and repeat visits and give him a 90% discount.
So that's $36.50 a year, based on exceedingly generous terms.
Looks like on balance, he owes them some money, even being generous about it..
You can get innovative, stylish and expensive digital watches. They aren't necessarily bad, but you missed my main point: They aren't mechanical clockwork.
That carries an engineering challenge way beyond the current state of electronics, which no amount of gold plating can mimic. The Urwerk UR-202 isn't worth as much as my house (even though that's what it costs) but the engineering that went into it and the difficulty of manufacturing and constructing it means they couldn't sell it at a profit for less than the cost of a nice car. Making a quartz movement with that display mechanism wouldn't be trivial either, but doing it completely mechanically, with that level of accuracy has an engineering elegance that justifies a significant price premium over any digital or electronic watch.
Hmm. My Omega hasn't managed to run for a month since I bought it without the power reserve expiring and me needing to reset the date on the watch, let alone the actual time.
It's a lovely watch, but after a year the Omega is likely to be accurate twice a day at best.
Everyone, please note that "analog" should usually only be used to refer to an electronic device containing analog electronics.
Bullshit. Most watches (even now) have analogue displays. Whether that display is powered by digital, mechanical or analogue electronic means is irrelevant.
But if you want proper top-end digital, surely you need to go Breitling?
http://professionalwatches.com/breitling-chronospace-2010-1.jpg
Breitling really need to release a solar powered titanium hybrid analogue/digital. Even if I'm the only person that wants it.
The problem with Casio is that they make ugly watches. The function is superb, and some of their faces are quite elegant (e.g. I like http://amzn.to/qaAH2l ) but the overall package doesn't really feel nice. Instead I greatly prefer Citizen - you pay twice the price, but their cases, bracelets and non-sports faces are far nicer.
Watches and sunglasses are the only acceptable male jewelry equivalent
Earrings are acceptable in certain circles.
Piercings in other places are acceptable at times.
Necklaces often work too. I wear a titanium one when I'm out dancing, get a few admiring comments from (female) partners.
Tie pins or clips work at times, usually in the office or for weddings. Not really a social event thing though.
The real winner however: Cufflinks are always fashionable (except when dancing - catching her hair in your cufflink would be a quick and painful end to the dance).
My nicest watch matches my nicest cufflinks; both combine titanium with carbon fibre, and go nicely with the necklace.
show me time in 24-hour format, show me the month/day/year, show me time in different time zones, allow me to set multiple alarms or chime on the hour or converts to a stopwatch if I ever need it (okay, I rarely use that, but it's handy when I do need it)...what's the benefit to analog watches again?
Thing is.. I can program a digital watch to do all that for me. I can design the silicon to do all that for me. It's fairly trivial.
Now, designing a mechanical clockwork device that can do all that? Inventing the new materials needed to make it? Creating the parts and using them to build the finished item?
There's a reason such watches cost 5-6 digit sums, and it's not because they're made of gold.
I have a taste in watches that seriously outclasses my salary, and it's got fuck all to do with chips of diamond.
What's next, men wearing nail polish, lipstick, and dresses? LMAO@U sissies!
You call it sissy, I call it a babe magnet. Add high heels and they throw themselves at you.
It shows a man confident in himself, in his sexuality, and in his appearance. Not to mention the agility and musculature to walk in 5" heels..
What, you need to dress like a man to feel like one? Compensating for something?
I own three solar powered electronic watches with analogue time displays. Two of them have digital displays too. Two of them use atomic clock radio signals to stay accurate.
I normally wear the clockwork autowinding mechanical analogue watch. It's not as accurate. It's much much nicer. It's far more impressive in the accuracy it manages than the electronic ones. It appeals to my inner techno-lust just as much as the portable computer I carry, with its inbuilt GPS receiver, four radio transmitters, touch-screen display and digital camera.
Guess I'm a fucking retard.
I don't recall anybody stating that the US Government funded the IRA.
I am happy to state that the US Government did approximately fuck all to prevent its citizens funding terrorist operations against the UK. There's plenty of evidence of willful inactivity by the US government there.
Why do you think there was so much sardonic humour in 2001 at the US (and particular New York fire and police services) outrage about a terrorist incident; several people found it deliciously ironic.
Cantor and Siegel.
I still owe both of them a punch in the face. Some people are worth a criminal record.