How would you know what they do on their computers? My mom is a fairly average computer user, but she has a consumer level video camera and consumer level video editing software. She's often the one filming our family events (birthday's, marriages, etc), but she's pretty much the definition of an average PC user. Soon she won't even need that camera, and will be able to film HD video on tomorrow's consumer level smart phones. Things everyone will have eventually.
Not all computer consumers are simple Facebook and media consumers. People have hobbies and interests, and often that will mesh well with a decent PC.
What I predict is something that's happened before. Thinking that they know what consumers want, companies will push these ARM PC replacements and realize that they won't sell. They didn't sell in the 90s and they won't sell today. Granted, tablets have their place and people love them, but I haven't heard of anyone throwing away a good PC over it. They certainly wouldn't replace their perfectly good x86 PC with a computer running 'tablet' hardware and OSes.
One thing I like about x86 PCs is the fact that if you start out with one and you have zero knowledge, you could eventually learn how to do anything you want with it. That's how I started as a teen. I learned everything I could about these machines, to the point that I make money with them. I learned DOS, I learned the internal workings of Windows, I learned how to fix them. And then, as my machine grew ever more powerful and software ever more available online, I learned how to program, I learned how to use 3DSMax, I learned how to use Blender, I know how to setup FL Studio with my Midi Controller, and so on.
Recently I bought Piano for Dummies, which is a software package meant to teach you how to play the piano. It works with my M-Audio keyboard and eventually I'll know how to create music (hint, I love electronica).
I've seen the resources software like FL Studio and 3DSMax requires, something like that isn't going to run on a tablet without being limited in some way. There is 3D software, music software, and painting software on ARM tablets, but they're all toys. You can't make money with them. You can't develop software for them without a PC. There's no challenge and no need to learn their inner workings. Tablets and the future ARM toy computers are a dead end for people.
Granted many folks aren't going to do what I did with mine, but the potential was unknown to me as well. In the pursuit of increasingly dumbed down and locked down equipment, they won't know what they're missing. And their kids especially won't know.
If Microsoft is doing it, then there is a lot going on like this in the business world that we're not aware of. There will be no change unless businesses demand the change. They aren't demanding it. They are embracing the current status-quo.
It's probably been like this in some form or another since the beginning. Expecting better and thinking you can change things is probably somewhat of a folly. It's just business. If you don't like it, you stay out of business. Capitalism is more than a monetary system, it's a philosophy. If your competitor buys a huge war chest of patents you better do the same. If they lobby the government and put politicians in their back pockets, so should you. Failure to do so is essentially failure to compete. Google is at risk because they didn't want to be 'evil'. They need to grow up, and from their recent actions (buying patents), it looks like they are. I just hope that for them it isn't too late.
If I recall from the webcast, they said it's the consumer market they want to get out of. They will probably continue to sell z800 workstations, servers, and the like. At least I hope so.
In Cuba, young people often scrounge up whatever they can find to make motor bikes. These little bikes can get up to 90-100 mpg and travel at 40 mph. I built one from a kit - it's not safe, is prone to technical problems, but it works.
In India (which is not as poor as Cuba, but still poorer than the US), motorbikes and scooters are very common, and share the road with cars and bicycles.
Anywhere, a fit rider can travel up to 30 mph on a regular unpowered bicycle. Anywhere, a rider can order an electric or gasoline powered 'pedal assist' motor to attach to their bike.
Peak oil has nothing to do with the freedom of transportation. If we have to ride bikes we will (and do), others put little motors on their bikes, buy scooters, and if they can afford it even cars. My car was $1600, came out in 1991, and gets 30 mpg. I'm poor by US standards and $4 gas doesn't scare me one bit. Almost all of today's modern sedans get 30mph or above.
However, 'peak oil' has everything to do with the cost of goods, since they have to be transported by big rigs that get a gas mileage as low as 8 mpg. You can say... 'our food economy is unsustainable' and you might have an argument. Maybe we can't support the number of people that we do... but we'll have problems with that long before we stop driving ourselves.
Step 1) Break Internet
Step 2) Introduce heavily centralized Internet 2
Step 3)...
Step 4) Profit!!
And this time, #4 is a real step that really happens.. for the right people. For the rest of us it will be more expensive, we'll have less control, less access to information, and a harder time communicating with other internet users. Hopefully it'll severely hurt the economy and the educational system, otherwise there's no chance of getting the government to back pedal on this once it's passed. These guys barely understand what the Internet is, let alone what it does when it's broken.
I expect Slashdot to eventually run a-foul of it and get blocked, after all, we post the video encryption codes and talk about bit-torrent.
Agreed... it wouldn't be impossible to write a book though. If you're an author, you'll be required to license the plot elements and sued into poverty if you don't comply.
At the end of the day, if you write software, you will violate a patent. But it's not all bad. Most companies won't care to go after you because it wouldn't be cost effective. But at some point, you'll make enough money. When you do, most companies will ask you to license their ideas. If you can't afford the license and you don't halt all distribution and sales of your product, they will take you to a court in Texas and win. The legal system will put an injunction on your product. If it's your only product, your business is finished.
It's definitely a wrong and corrupt system designed to benefit stagnant large corporations rather than innovative small businesses. As long as it exists it will be fought against, but until then, you have no choice but to participate in it. Unfortunately, while your participation might guarantee material success, by the time your business is large enough to influence anything, it'll have invested millions into its own patent portfolio. As a result, it'll be unwilling to change anything, just as willing to license/sue future violators, and possibly even desperate enough to hire lobbyists to keep things they way they are.
Just how is this slavery? And where do you draw upon the justification of getting the government to come in and ban proprietary e-book libraries? "Oh those poor consumers, they're enslaving themselves to Barnes & Noble by buying eBooks with their own money and on their own time for their own tablets. Surely the government has an answer to this!"
I have an answer, but it's laced with expletives. All I can say is that I love my (rooted) Nook Color, and to hell with anyone who thinks the government should come in and take it from me. What kind of freedom is that?
That's nice, but a lot of software is purchased online these days. Some packages are online-only. Most of the more reputable vendors present the license before you buy it, and some of them even decifer those difficult to understand licenses with FAQs.
That would be OK in of itself. But another trend is to limit the computers you can install their software on. After all, you just licensed it, if they say you can only install it on one computer, then you can only install it on one computer. Period. If you format or buy a new computer, you have to ask them nicely to disable the license on your old computer.
I bought Unity, and this is a constant irritant for me. I use many computers through out the day, and yet I have to make do with the licenses on my home desktop, and my laptop. I bought Unity - yet I don't have control over it. It's almost like I rented the thing.
I thought Obama would change this, because his election campaign was funded by crowd-sourcing and he railed against the “Special interests” in public debates.
It’s the public’s interests vs. those of a business elite with a powerful lobby. Guess where the Administration’s placing its support. Change we can believe in, indeed.
I knew all along he wouldn't change a thing about that. After all, Biden is the one who wants you to go to Federal prison for downloading mp3s. Someone who supports the idea of copy-left and new media technologies doesn't pick Biden as a running mate. I knew it and I still voted for Obama like a dummy.
Now look at us, we've got a former senator running MPAA, and Obama hasn't done a damned thing about the level of control corporate lobbies have in the government. Couple that with ACTA, the third middle east war, the continuation of guantanamo bay, and the debt crisis... heck I don't even need to say it. Everyone is thinking it already.
Still, I can see the government using such a device to easily map out and explore hard to reach places - such as the inside of a breached reactor or spent fuel rod containment vessel. The ability to buzz around on it's own helps a lot, but the resulting point cloud generated seems even more valuable to me.
There's no 'may' to that. You must. Failure to pay Microsoft will mean costly drawn out lawsuits. So if you're a phone manufacturer, your phones had better run Windows... or else.
Slashdot Mirror
Linux now officially belongs to Microsoft. Pay up.
How would you know what they do on their computers? My mom is a fairly average computer user, but she has a consumer level video camera and consumer level video editing software. She's often the one filming our family events (birthday's, marriages, etc), but she's pretty much the definition of an average PC user. Soon she won't even need that camera, and will be able to film HD video on tomorrow's consumer level smart phones. Things everyone will have eventually.
Not all computer consumers are simple Facebook and media consumers. People have hobbies and interests, and often that will mesh well with a decent PC.
What I predict is something that's happened before. Thinking that they know what consumers want, companies will push these ARM PC replacements and realize that they won't sell. They didn't sell in the 90s and they won't sell today. Granted, tablets have their place and people love them, but I haven't heard of anyone throwing away a good PC over it. They certainly wouldn't replace their perfectly good x86 PC with a computer running 'tablet' hardware and OSes.
One thing I like about x86 PCs is the fact that if you start out with one and you have zero knowledge, you could eventually learn how to do anything you want with it. That's how I started as a teen. I learned everything I could about these machines, to the point that I make money with them. I learned DOS, I learned the internal workings of Windows, I learned how to fix them. And then, as my machine grew ever more powerful and software ever more available online, I learned how to program, I learned how to use 3DSMax, I learned how to use Blender, I know how to setup FL Studio with my Midi Controller, and so on.
Recently I bought Piano for Dummies, which is a software package meant to teach you how to play the piano. It works with my M-Audio keyboard and eventually I'll know how to create music (hint, I love electronica).
I've seen the resources software like FL Studio and 3DSMax requires, something like that isn't going to run on a tablet without being limited in some way. There is 3D software, music software, and painting software on ARM tablets, but they're all toys. You can't make money with them. You can't develop software for them without a PC. There's no challenge and no need to learn their inner workings. Tablets and the future ARM toy computers are a dead end for people.
Granted many folks aren't going to do what I did with mine, but the potential was unknown to me as well. In the pursuit of increasingly dumbed down and locked down equipment, they won't know what they're missing. And their kids especially won't know.
System 76.
If Microsoft is doing it, then there is a lot going on like this in the business world that we're not aware of. There will be no change unless businesses demand the change. They aren't demanding it. They are embracing the current status-quo.
It's probably been like this in some form or another since the beginning. Expecting better and thinking you can change things is probably somewhat of a folly. It's just business. If you don't like it, you stay out of business. Capitalism is more than a monetary system, it's a philosophy. If your competitor buys a huge war chest of patents you better do the same. If they lobby the government and put politicians in their back pockets, so should you. Failure to do so is essentially failure to compete. Google is at risk because they didn't want to be 'evil'. They need to grow up, and from their recent actions (buying patents), it looks like they are. I just hope that for them it isn't too late.
I'm in total agreement, except... Ayn Rand was an Atheist.
"Please state the nature of the medical emergency."
If I recall from the webcast, they said it's the consumer market they want to get out of. They will probably continue to sell z800 workstations, servers, and the like. At least I hope so.
In Cuba, young people often scrounge up whatever they can find to make motor bikes. These little bikes can get up to 90-100 mpg and travel at 40 mph. I built one from a kit - it's not safe, is prone to technical problems, but it works.
In India (which is not as poor as Cuba, but still poorer than the US), motorbikes and scooters are very common, and share the road with cars and bicycles.
Anywhere, a fit rider can travel up to 30 mph on a regular unpowered bicycle. Anywhere, a rider can order an electric or gasoline powered 'pedal assist' motor to attach to their bike.
Peak oil has nothing to do with the freedom of transportation. If we have to ride bikes we will (and do), others put little motors on their bikes, buy scooters, and if they can afford it even cars. My car was $1600, came out in 1991, and gets 30 mpg. I'm poor by US standards and $4 gas doesn't scare me one bit. Almost all of today's modern sedans get 30mph or above.
However, 'peak oil' has everything to do with the cost of goods, since they have to be transported by big rigs that get a gas mileage as low as 8 mpg. You can say... 'our food economy is unsustainable' and you might have an argument. Maybe we can't support the number of people that we do... but we'll have problems with that long before we stop driving ourselves.
If robots can commit suicide, can robotic suicide booths commit suicide?
Step 1) Break Internet ...
Step 2) Introduce heavily centralized Internet 2
Step 3)
Step 4) Profit!!
And this time, #4 is a real step that really happens.. for the right people. For the rest of us it will be more expensive, we'll have less control, less access to information, and a harder time communicating with other internet users. Hopefully it'll severely hurt the economy and the educational system, otherwise there's no chance of getting the government to back pedal on this once it's passed. These guys barely understand what the Internet is, let alone what it does when it's broken.
I expect Slashdot to eventually run a-foul of it and get blocked, after all, we post the video encryption codes and talk about bit-torrent.
Agreed... it wouldn't be impossible to write a book though. If you're an author, you'll be required to license the plot elements and sued into poverty if you don't comply.
At the end of the day, if you write software, you will violate a patent. But it's not all bad. Most companies won't care to go after you because it wouldn't be cost effective. But at some point, you'll make enough money. When you do, most companies will ask you to license their ideas. If you can't afford the license and you don't halt all distribution and sales of your product, they will take you to a court in Texas and win. The legal system will put an injunction on your product. If it's your only product, your business is finished.
It's definitely a wrong and corrupt system designed to benefit stagnant large corporations rather than innovative small businesses. As long as it exists it will be fought against, but until then, you have no choice but to participate in it. Unfortunately, while your participation might guarantee material success, by the time your business is large enough to influence anything, it'll have invested millions into its own patent portfolio. As a result, it'll be unwilling to change anything, just as willing to license/sue future violators, and possibly even desperate enough to hire lobbyists to keep things they way they are.
With the exception of Android phone & tablet owners, I thought almost all Linux users were 'nerdy'.
Just how is this slavery? And where do you draw upon the justification of getting the government to come in and ban proprietary e-book libraries? "Oh those poor consumers, they're enslaving themselves to Barnes & Noble by buying eBooks with their own money and on their own time for their own tablets. Surely the government has an answer to this!"
I have an answer, but it's laced with expletives. All I can say is that I love my (rooted) Nook Color, and to hell with anyone who thinks the government should come in and take it from me. What kind of freedom is that?
That's nice, but a lot of software is purchased online these days. Some packages are online-only. Most of the more reputable vendors present the license before you buy it, and some of them even decifer those difficult to understand licenses with FAQs.
That would be OK in of itself. But another trend is to limit the computers you can install their software on. After all, you just licensed it, if they say you can only install it on one computer, then you can only install it on one computer. Period. If you format or buy a new computer, you have to ask them nicely to disable the license on your old computer.
I bought Unity, and this is a constant irritant for me. I use many computers through out the day, and yet I have to make do with the licenses on my home desktop, and my laptop. I bought Unity - yet I don't have control over it. It's almost like I rented the thing.
If we outlawed the minimum wage those jobs will return. We need wages at China and India's level in order to compete.
I thought Obama would change this, because his election campaign was funded by crowd-sourcing and he railed against the “Special interests” in public debates.
It’s the public’s interests vs. those of a business elite with a powerful lobby. Guess where the Administration’s placing its support. Change we can believe in, indeed.
I knew all along he wouldn't change a thing about that. After all, Biden is the one who wants you to go to Federal prison for downloading mp3s. Someone who supports the idea of copy-left and new media technologies doesn't pick Biden as a running mate. I knew it and I still voted for Obama like a dummy.
Now look at us, we've got a former senator running MPAA, and Obama hasn't done a damned thing about the level of control corporate lobbies have in the government. Couple that with ACTA, the third middle east war, the continuation of guantanamo bay, and the debt crisis... heck I don't even need to say it. Everyone is thinking it already.
Still, I can see the government using such a device to easily map out and explore hard to reach places - such as the inside of a breached reactor or spent fuel rod containment vessel. The ability to buzz around on it's own helps a lot, but the resulting point cloud generated seems even more valuable to me.
There's no 'may' to that. You must. Failure to pay Microsoft will mean costly drawn out lawsuits. So if you're a phone manufacturer, your phones had better run Windows... or else.
Up vote this man. He needs to be on top.
I live in Arkansas, and this proposal scares me. Our wages here are among the lowest in the country, and we are very car dependent.
That was too easy.
Better watch out or he'll 'make you his bitch'.
At least they arn't sueing him like McDonalds did in the "McLibel" case.
So what you are saying is that theft is legal?
Lots of terrible things are legal. This is of no surprise.