And no I can't switch to Linux untill I get a new modem since mines a Winmodem
I generally agree with your post, old OSes & hardware are useful to people & should be supported. But consider ordering a free Ubuntu Live CD - delivered to your door.
It might be overkill (ie slow) on your old PC (and as someone in this thread's pointed out, xubuntu is probably more appropriate), but you'll be able to boot from the live CD, check if your modem's supported & then decide it's worth installing linux
And if they do get decalred a monopoly, would they then be forced to open up their format?
No - there's absolutely nothing wrong with being a monopoly, just some restrictions on what you can & can't do.
I suspect Apple is a tad worried about being accused of unfairly using a monopoly in one market (mp3 players) to extend into another market (online music sales).
But thats a little Offtopic for this story - which has little to nothing to do with monopolism & everything to do with fair use & DRM.
Don't operate there. I fail to see where this gets complicated. Norway shouldn't be forced to make their legal system work with iTunes.
Norway is an "opt in" legal system, they force not one person to enter the country & operate under their laws. I would assume 99% of other companies that operate from Norway do the same. Don't like Norway's legal system, fine. Vote with your pocket book and don't set up shop there. This forcing everyone to do something because you like it is getting out of hand.
Apple should do the same thing Yahoo, Google, MS & Cisco should do - Don't operate in a country unless you're prepared to follow their laws.
In the case of Google, MS & Cisco - they should pull the hell out of China - their laws are unreasonable, and no company with a conscience should operate there.
Norway on the other hand has perfectly reasonable laws - Apple should change their world wide operations to comply with Norwegian law:-)
While I'm sure we're going to have the inevitable "Apple should withdraw from Scandinavia" posts here, people should really consider that this is a symptom of a wider problem; Apple trying to operate assuming that all legal systems are the same as the US's.
Notions of fair use / legal exchange of copyrighted materials vary all over the world. Apple's DRM ignores all these difference (limitting legal use of content in some countries) and relies on the whip of the US-only DMCA for enforcement.
Its pretty obvious that this isn't really an Apple/Norway problem, but a DRM/Worldwide problem - Apple is just the most successful DRM pusher (the first try is free!) at the moment.
It almost gets to the windows loading screen before the battery dies. hehehhe - so true, but everyone I know who has one of the Acer (or Asus) monster laptops falls into that (quite large) 'other' category of laptop users - those who occasionally lug a laptop between work & home & rarely (if ever) have a need to use a laptop away from AC (that outweighs the need for a cheap laptop with big hdd & screen).
For those users, I guess this laptop will be good, but I bet it will still suffer from the 'goddamn thats one noisy ~0@#\/|3r' problem of having waaaaaaaaay to many fans....
Except that you can only use Windows, MacOS is excluded.
But with ITMS files, you can only play on iTunes. The underlying O/S doesn't seem that relevant to me. If it's still shackled to a single platform, its still crippling choice.
Lets look at last years survey being debunked in a business week analysis. ('cause I'm sure not a damn thing's changed since last year's study).
The biggest criticism of the study is this:
Only people running w2k3 AND linux were allowed to respond. Hmmmmmn, so how many MS shops with an evaluation linux server (installed by their clueless MSCE) were included in this "survey"
Yankee group can claim no bias all they like - but I am sick of Laura DiDio fud being posted here (Oh she of 'SCO's claims are justified after looking at the source' fame).
Call this ad-hominem if you like, but if someone pushes a POV year in, year out, you tend to dismiss them.
If you want to have a say then buy some shares and vote them at the annual meetings,
That's not really a choice for the people in China who're most affected by this decision is it?
otherwise take your nose out the shareholders' business and stick it somewhere else.
Oh right, its none of my business how other people make money, how dare I put anything before the allmighty dollar!
Why not put your money where you mouth is?
Errr right. Thats the most sensible thing to do - rather than criticise corporate governance, I should instead save up billions and billions of dollars and gain a controlling stake in all companies. That's a great suggestion! Thanks for that!
Would that be acting in the shareholders' best interests?
Unbelievably, the choice between "Do Evil" and "Do no Evil" is irrelevant as Google is obliged by law to follow the shareholders interests above everything else.
Sad, sad, sad state of affairs, where a company is required by law to do what many consider to be immoral.
Slashdot Mirror
And no I can't switch to Linux untill I get a new modem since mines a Winmodem
I generally agree with your post, old OSes & hardware are useful to people & should be supported. But consider ordering a free Ubuntu Live CD - delivered to your door.
It might be overkill (ie slow) on your old PC (and as someone in this thread's pointed out, xubuntu is probably more appropriate), but you'll be able to boot from the live CD, check if your modem's supported & then decide it's worth installing linux
Summary: Apple (probably) can't set a worldwide price because it (probably) can't get licenses which would permit a single worldwide price.
Pity Apple charges waaaaaaaaaay more for Apple hardware products (iPods, Macbooks, etc) in their UK store compared to their US store.
Face it - Apple charges what the market can bear & divides the market up to ensure that they maximize their profits!
So true.
In all seriousness, these kids should not have been given linux.
They should be given the choice between windows (for that Real World Experience [tm]) or OS X (for the prettiness).
I mean why pretend that ending developing nations software dependance on the west is a good thing?
(winkie, smiley, etc for the humour impaired)
Holding Google to a standard different than your own is called hypocracy.
I don't operate in China, so am not holding them to a different standard!
I hope you think the same when it comes to Russia whit the mp3 site.
Errr, yes I do. I think allofmp3 shouldn't operate in Norway without obeying their laws.
Easier said than done. If Norwegian residents can browse the internet then they can buy from the iTunes store.
Incorrect. Apple divides the market up. Try buing from the US itunes with a British Credit Card.
And if they do get decalred a monopoly, would they then be forced to open up their format?
No - there's absolutely nothing wrong with being a monopoly, just some restrictions on what you can & can't do.
I suspect Apple is a tad worried about being accused of unfairly using a monopoly in one market (mp3 players) to extend into another market (online music sales).
But thats a little Offtopic for this story - which has little to nothing to do with monopolism & everything to do with fair use & DRM.
Don't operate there. I fail to see where this gets complicated. Norway shouldn't be forced to make their legal system work with iTunes.
Norway is an "opt in" legal system, they force not one person to enter the country & operate under their laws. I would assume 99% of other companies that operate from Norway do the same. Don't like Norway's legal system, fine. Vote with your pocket book and don't set up shop there. This forcing everyone to do something because you like it is getting out of hand.
Apple should do the same thing Yahoo, Google, MS & Cisco should do - Don't operate in a country unless you're prepared to follow their laws.
:-)
In the case of Google, MS & Cisco - they should pull the hell out of China - their laws are unreasonable, and no company with a conscience should operate there.
Norway on the other hand has perfectly reasonable laws - Apple should change their world wide operations to comply with Norwegian law
While I'm sure we're going to have the inevitable "Apple should withdraw from Scandinavia" posts here, people should really consider that this is a symptom of a wider problem; Apple trying to operate assuming that all legal systems are the same as the US's.
Notions of fair use / legal exchange of copyrighted materials vary all over the world. Apple's DRM ignores all these difference (limitting legal use of content in some countries) and relies on the whip of the US-only DMCA for enforcement.
Its pretty obvious that this isn't really an Apple/Norway problem, but a DRM/Worldwide problem - Apple is just the most successful DRM pusher (the first try is free!) at the moment.
PS. FP on my own story submission?
Do you really believe that nothing is more important than money?
Tell me it can't be true !!!?1!!!!
It almost gets to the windows loading screen before the battery dies.
hehehhe - so true, but everyone I know who has one of the Acer (or Asus) monster laptops falls into that (quite large) 'other' category of laptop users - those who occasionally lug a laptop between work & home & rarely (if ever) have a need to use a laptop away from AC (that outweighs the need for a cheap laptop with big hdd & screen).
For those users, I guess this laptop will be good, but I bet it will still suffer from the 'goddamn thats one noisy ~0@#\/|3r' problem of having waaaaaaaaay to many fans....
And at over 17lb you can even use it for weight training
;-)
Thats 7.7kgs for those of us not still using British imperial measurements
Melbourn researchers have, for the first time, managed to grow three dimensional human cells.
Any chance the editors could RTFA and add the "e" to the end of Melbourne?
Errr right, you can rip to legacy formats & then again into a lower quality format.
Celebrate your iTunes freedom brothers!
Except that you can only use Windows, MacOS is excluded.
But with ITMS files, you can only play on iTunes. The underlying O/S doesn't seem that relevant to me. If it's still shackled to a single platform, its still crippling choice.
I've been growing 3D human cells for over 30 years.
;-)
If you've been growing them for over 30 years - they're 4D
You're completely correct - thanks for the clarification :-)
Lets look at last years survey being debunked in a business week analysis. ('cause I'm sure not a damn thing's changed since last year's study).
The biggest criticism of the study is this:
Only people running w2k3 AND linux were allowed to respond. Hmmmmmn, so how many MS shops with an evaluation linux server (installed by their clueless MSCE) were included in this "survey"
Yankee group can claim no bias all they like - but I am sick of Laura DiDio fud being posted here (Oh she of 'SCO's claims are justified after looking at the source' fame).
Call this ad-hominem if you like, but if someone pushes a POV year in, year out, you tend to dismiss them.
If you want to have a say then buy some shares and vote them at the annual meetings,
That's not really a choice for the people in China who're most affected by this decision is it?
otherwise take your nose out the shareholders' business and stick it somewhere else.
Oh right, its none of my business how other people make money, how dare I put anything before the allmighty dollar!
Why not put your money where you mouth is?
Errr right. Thats the most sensible thing to do - rather than criticise corporate governance, I should instead save up billions and billions of dollars and gain a controlling stake in all companies. That's a great suggestion! Thanks for that!
Would that be acting in the shareholders' best interests?
Unbelievably, the choice between "Do Evil" and "Do no Evil" is irrelevant as Google is obliged by law to follow the shareholders interests above everything else.
Sad, sad, sad state of affairs, where a company is required by law to do what many consider to be immoral.
non-transferable to different formats.
As in, worse than iTunes.
That last bit sounds exactly the same as itunes.
1) The fight is caused by the potential movement of java from non-free to free.
I was incorrect - please stop modding up. Java was not in non-free.