With Google standing behind Motorola and Microsoft standing behind Nokia...
Interesting analogy. Please allow me to extend it a little, if you will. "Google standing behind Motorola, owning it, and Microsoft standing behind Nokia with a garrot around its skinny corporate neck..."
Google is helping Motorola out of the water, Microsoft is holding Nokia under the water.
Apple and every other company that outsourced it's production and assembly
Here's the difference. A lot of manufacturers have simply bought factories in China. Asus, HTC, Toshiba, Sony, Samsung, all own their own factories in China. So they not only do the design, but they also do the manufacturing. In the case of Asus and HTC, being Taiwanese companies they have to provide the same labour conditions to Chinese workers as they do to Taiwanese workers (it's just that a 6 KM2 factory complex will cost a fortune using Taiwanese real estate compared to Suzhou, China).
Apple on the other hand outsources everything except the marketing to other companies.
Yes, because its rational for you to passionately love one company (an ad network)
I stopped reading after "ad network" because someone who describes Google as such is either biased against Google or for Apple, which makes your comment no more rational than the first post.
But it does raise a good point. Most of Googles revenue comes from advertising and this was a key factor in their decision to buy Motorola Mobility.
I'm not saying the 17k patents were not not a factor in that decision but Google's primary motivation is diversification, they have been trying like buggery to diversify precisely because most of their rev comes from advertising alone.
Oh, it costs a great deal more than 40K to licence a mainstream xbox 360 game. That was the cost of EACH PATCH.
The thing is, yes, gaming used to be cheaper.
PC gaming still is cheaper, even for mutli-million dollar crapfests like Modern Snorefare. take Battlefeild 3 for example (a craptacular addition to what was once a good series). PC - 30 GBP PS3 - 38 GBP Xbox - 38 GBP
That's a difference of US$13 between console and PC for the same game. PC games also tend to drop in price a lot faster meaning if you wait 3-4 months, you get the same game for 1/2 to 1/3 the price. PC's, higher cost of entry, lower TCO, in the end, PC gaming is cheaper then console gaming.
Yeah - a couple of years ago I was on a Malaysia Airlines flight out of Mumbai.
Malaysian has to be the worst airline for picking the right music. Their in flight safety video has to be the most atrocious I've ever seen. Rather then being factual and to the point they tried to make it upbeat with minimal speech, if that video was your first ever flight safety demonstration, you'd be screwed in the event of an emergency.
That being said, I'm yet to see a flight safety video I could call a work of art, but every attempt I've seen has only made it worse.
Rock/Rap are variants that have stemmed from minalist music.
Dont compare rock and rap. Rap is a very simple form of music (if you can even call it that) which emphasises base emotions (mostly around violence and sex).
Rock is very different, some rock songs appeal to base emotion but the majority does not. You want to call The End by The Doors simple? How about Eric Johnson's Cliffs of Dover. Hotel California. Cliffs of Dover is a very good example of emotional complexity with an instrumental piece.
Clearly written by someone who has never attempted to play Layla (Clapton) on the guitar.
I'm not defending the exact numbers, $40,000 does seem rather high, but between actually charging for the certification work, CDN space, and bandwidth used plus adding a "try to get it right the first time" charge it might not be unreasonable.
This is how the console manufacturers make money. The PS3 and Xbox 360 were sold as loss leaders with additional services making up the loss. Of course $40K per patch is ridiculous for CDN and certification. You could host your own patches for 1/4 that, but you have to pay Sony/Microsoft as you have to distribute through XBL/PSN otherwise you cant get it on the PS3/Xbox.
It's not about encouraging developers to get it right the first time, it's about fleecing the developers because they're easier to lock in than the consumers. MS/Sony encorage developers to release early.
There are no U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia. Not since 2003.
I didn't say US bases, I said US forces out of Saudi bases. A nice little loophole that keeps US forces operating with impunity out of Saudi Arabia by simply admitting that the bases belong to the Saudi's. The 64th Air Expeditionary Group for example, is still operating out of Eskan Village.
But far more alarming is the ongoing sale of US weapons and technology to Saudi Arabia.
Unfortunately, the polls don't show that at all. Despite the fact that a huge overwhelming majority of Australians don't like him, they are still indicating that they will vote for him.
This lead is around the 4% mark. So it's not a landslide by any sense of the word.
Also in Australia we elect our members and senators, but not the prime minister. The party who gets the most seats in parliament gets to elect their own leader. Liberal and Labor seem to be changing places of late, even in the Newscorp polls (heavily biased towards the Coalition).
If anything, we'll probably see more votes go to the greens and independents next election. Australia seems to hate both parties.
I highly doubt Abbott will become PM, he is just too batshit insane and his entire campaign is based on attacking Gillard. His supporters don't even know what policies he stands for. If by some horrible event he does get elected, God save the queen because nothing can save the Australian people (with apologies to Gough).
If the Libs wanted to win, they'd put Turnbull in charge, but the power brokers in the Libs want a spineless patsy as a leader and I dont think Turnbull would roll over for them.
Of course they dont represent you, they use people like you much in the same way a parasite uses a host.
They represent themselves and their broken business model. Whinging on/. is all good and well, but you need to write your local member to make your voice heard. More people need to write their local member, getting this mentioned on TV (Something on the ABC like Hungry Beast) would go a long way towards raising public awareness.
These talks and treaties are like DRM, they only work as long as no one knows what they're doing. The minute the public becomes aware of it, the game is up.
It's a pain in the behind to distribute apps with encryption code (even if all your app does is use SSL!) on the app store.
Which is why I ask why they are even using an application at all when a web page would be just as effective? All you need to do is code a new version of the page formatted for mobile devices, plenty of airlines do it. Malaysian Airlines Thai Air Asia
These are three airlines off the top of my head.
If you've got a site, you can do SSL easily and know its secure. The added advantage is that you've got one site to maintain for multiple systems (IOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone).
With Islam, there is no such thing as moderate Islam.
Turn the clock back 600 years or so (the difference in age between Christianity an Islam) and look at the behavior of the Catholic Church.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition....
I expected it, I had my comfy chair out in preparation.
It's a good analogy though, people forget that Christianity used to be as bad as Islam, if not worse. If it still had power Christianity would rival Islam in it's idiocy. The only reason we have rights for women, gays and in many cases, blacks is because people stopped believing in the invisible sky man and figured out that man determines his own destiny, not some fictitious creator.
People like to beleive that Christianity is better when in fact, it's just not powerful enough to get away with it. Take a look at the kiddie fiddling in the church of today and how practically nothing is done about it.
"Moderate" religion exists in places where religion does not hold power. The best way to reduce the power of religion is to drag more people into the middle class. This is the big difference between most Islamic countries and the west. In the west, the average person has money, a comfortable life. He does not need to seek a religious fantasy to give them hope that they could have a better life. The average person in the Middle east is dirt poor, working substance jobs or if they are lucky, for a pittance. You can bet your bottom dollar these people are moderate, they're just powerless. Much like in Christian countries a few hundred years ago, religion is wielded by the powerful few and used as a club to keep people under their heel. The old saying "religion is the opiate of the masses", so keeping a disenfranchised population "high" is a good way to keep them from rising up against a dictator.
We buy our oil from Singapore which is about $0.20 dearer then WTI or Brent crude.
/Smug mode.
Now not buying oil from them wont make them stop acting like idiots, they'll just be poor idiots. Even that is unlikely as they aren't going to run out of customers for their oil any time soon. But yes, the US should pull support from the Saudi's for many more reasons then this, that means pulling US forces out of Saudi bases (even the logistic bases) and stop selling them weapons.
There's a place for the storefront, but it's not mass-market commodity items. I'm sure that in the next couple of decades, storefronts will be pretty much limited to boutiques, custom work, one-of-a-kind things like antiques, and services. And I think our retail districts will be better for it.
Exactly my line of thinking. There are few items I need to see before buying, clothes and cars for example. But these items are few, I might want to try on a new shirt before I buy, but I can order my socks and jocks online with not worries (shoes too).
And I think our retail districts will be better for it.
Read that as red light districts at first glance.
But that has also become something that can be ordered online.
Dick Smith Electronics was once a store where you could go in and buy capacitors, electronics kits (pre-arduino days) and just about anything else you need. Now days they sell phone plans, Norton AV and overpriced HDMI cables.
DSE still sells electronics (at least the stores I've visited). At some DSEs you can still purchase the Funway 1 component sets, just not the bulk kits. Point is they still sell electronics - they just don't move units as much because it's a niche market anyway, so they clearly had to expand (at least as far as Woolworths is concerned with how to run a business).
DSE has converted from an electronics retailer to a box retailer. If you wanted to find capacitors or even a new video card for your PC, DSE is no longer an option for you.
When I said kits, I was thinking of stuff like this. DSE used to be more like Altronics, then it was bought by Woolworths who converted it into a box retailer.
Dick Smith is still good for some things. For example, I wanted a new DVD player (just an el-cheapo) and I went to Dick Smith because they had a dirt cheap unit that works fine and ordering online for something so cheap would have been pointless.
I also bought my current indoor TV antenna from them (being in a ground floor rented apartment means a proper antenna isn't an option) because I wanted TV now, not in a week when the delivery guy gets here.
My point exactly,
DSE has gone from being an electronics store to a box retailer. They occupy the same space as Harvey Norman, Myer and JB HiFi, for our foreign audience, it's more of a Walmart then a Radio Shack. Personally I stopped shopping at DSE when they started stocking Mac's.
Thank god we still have Radio Shack. I went in recently and found they were even selling arduinos. I've bought a bunch of components there for my electronics projects. It's not Fry's, but at least there's one 10 minutes away from my home in Nowhereville Vermont.
Australia lost anything resembling radio shack years ago. Dick Smith Electronics was once a store where you could go in and buy capacitors, electronics kits (pre-arduino days) and just about anything else you need. Now days they sell phone plans, Norton AV and overpriced HDMI cables.
If I want electronics components I go online, especially if I dont want to pay a 400% mark up (this is not hyperbole, it's Australia).
But I figure this is the way all shops are going. Frontage is becoming less and less important with the advent of smart phones. An online business with a warehouse in an industrial district near the airport is just as competitive as a store-front in the CBD with millions walking past each day. If I see a PC component I want in a store, the first thing I'll do is look up prices on StaticIce to see how much cheaper it is if I order online. I dont think the traditional storefront is going to survive for too many more decades, rather we'll start to see kiosks attached to large automated warehouses (basically forklifts on rails). You buy what you want at the kiosk and it gets picked out and delivered to you shortly. We're already hallway there with Australian supermarkets providing an order online function and having that delivered to your house.
I think people are getting over the appeal of seeing a product and will happily give it up for some savings. Obviously this doesn't apply to all industries but to things we consider a chore like grocery shopping are the prime candidates.
How many miles long? Consider the fact that run way for the shuttle land on is actually 15,000 feet long (4572m)
For comparison, most commercial airport runways are 3000 m long. 4000 m is considered long for a commercial airport although common at well used hubs.
A B777 requires about 2500 m for take off at maximum weight, a A380 requires 2800 m and a B747-400 requires about 3100 m.
The Space Shuttle can land on an ordinary commercial runway but uses longer and wider runways for safety purposes. 3200 m is long enough as that is the length of the runways in the former Clark Airforce Base in the Philippines which was listed as an alternate landing site until the base was decommissioned in the 90's. Having landed at CRK, they are noticeably wider then most commercial runways.
Slashdot Mirror
With Google standing behind Motorola and Microsoft standing behind Nokia...
Interesting analogy. Please allow me to extend it a little, if you will. "Google standing behind Motorola, owning it, and Microsoft standing behind Nokia with a garrot around its skinny corporate neck..."
Google is helping Motorola out of the water, Microsoft is holding Nokia under the water.
Yes, because its rational for you to passionately love one company (an ad network)
I stopped reading after "ad network" because someone who describes Google as such is either biased against Google or for Apple, which makes your comment no more rational than the first post.
But it does raise a good point. Most of Googles revenue comes from advertising and this was a key factor in their decision to buy Motorola Mobility.
I'm not saying the 17k patents were not not a factor in that decision but Google's primary motivation is diversification, they have been trying like buggery to diversify precisely because most of their rev comes from advertising alone.
Oh, it costs a great deal more than 40K to licence a mainstream xbox 360 game. That was the cost of EACH PATCH.
The thing is, yes, gaming used to be cheaper.
PC gaming still is cheaper, even for mutli-million dollar crapfests like Modern Snorefare. take Battlefeild 3 for example (a craptacular addition to what was once a good series).
PC - 30 GBP
PS3 - 38 GBP
Xbox - 38 GBP
That's a difference of US$13 between console and PC for the same game. PC games also tend to drop in price a lot faster meaning if you wait 3-4 months, you get the same game for 1/2 to 1/3 the price. PC's, higher cost of entry, lower TCO, in the end, PC gaming is cheaper then console gaming.
More people willing to ride the subway means more revenue.
What about the people (of all ages) less willing to ride the subway because of the irritating music?
I'd much rather Fur Elise on an infinite loop then talk back fucking radio (which is idiocy on an infinite loop).
Malaysian has to be the worst airline for picking the right music. Their in flight safety video has to be the most atrocious I've ever seen. Rather then being factual and to the point they tried to make it upbeat with minimal speech, if that video was your first ever flight safety demonstration, you'd be screwed in the event of an emergency.
That being said, I'm yet to see a flight safety video I could call a work of art, but every attempt I've seen has only made it worse.
Dont compare rock and rap. Rap is a very simple form of music (if you can even call it that) which emphasises base emotions (mostly around violence and sex).
Rock is very different, some rock songs appeal to base emotion but the majority does not. You want to call The End by The Doors simple? How about Eric Johnson's Cliffs of Dover. Hotel California. Cliffs of Dover is a very good example of emotional complexity with an instrumental piece.
Clearly written by someone who has never attempted to play Layla (Clapton) on the guitar.
How much does it cost to do this and how much less does the city have to pay for security?
Saline solution can be bought by the litre, the expense is in paying the person who holds the eye dropper.
I'm not defending the exact numbers, $40,000 does seem rather high, but between actually charging for the certification work, CDN space, and bandwidth used plus adding a "try to get it right the first time" charge it might not be unreasonable.
This is how the console manufacturers make money. The PS3 and Xbox 360 were sold as loss leaders with additional services making up the loss. Of course $40K per patch is ridiculous for CDN and certification. You could host your own patches for 1/4 that, but you have to pay Sony/Microsoft as you have to distribute through XBL/PSN otherwise you cant get it on the PS3/Xbox.
It's not about encouraging developers to get it right the first time, it's about fleecing the developers because they're easier to lock in than the consumers. MS/Sony encorage developers to release early.
There are no U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia. Not since 2003.
I didn't say US bases, I said US forces out of Saudi bases. A nice little loophole that keeps US forces operating with impunity out of Saudi Arabia by simply admitting that the bases belong to the Saudi's. The 64th Air Expeditionary Group for example, is still operating out of Eskan Village.
But far more alarming is the ongoing sale of US weapons and technology to Saudi Arabia.
because nobody's crazy enough to vote for Abbott
Unfortunately, the polls don't show that at all. Despite the fact that a huge overwhelming majority of Australians don't like him, they are still indicating that they will vote for him.
This lead is around the 4% mark. So it's not a landslide by any sense of the word.
Also in Australia we elect our members and senators, but not the prime minister. The party who gets the most seats in parliament gets to elect their own leader. Liberal and Labor seem to be changing places of late, even in the Newscorp polls (heavily biased towards the Coalition).
If anything, we'll probably see more votes go to the greens and independents next election. Australia seems to hate both parties.
I highly doubt Abbott will become PM, he is just too batshit insane and his entire campaign is based on attacking Gillard. His supporters don't even know what policies he stands for. If by some horrible event he does get elected, God save the queen because nothing can save the Australian people (with apologies to Gough).
If the Libs wanted to win, they'd put Turnbull in charge, but the power brokers in the Libs want a spineless patsy as a leader and I dont think Turnbull would roll over for them.
They don't represent me.
Of course they dont represent you, they use people like you much in the same way a parasite uses a host.
/. is all good and well, but you need to write your local member to make your voice heard. More people need to write their local member, getting this mentioned on TV (Something on the ABC like Hungry Beast) would go a long way towards raising public awareness.
They represent themselves and their broken business model. Whinging on
These talks and treaties are like DRM, they only work as long as no one knows what they're doing. The minute the public becomes aware of it, the game is up.
It's a pain in the behind to distribute apps with encryption code (even if all your app does is use SSL!) on the app store.
Which is why I ask why they are even using an application at all when a web page would be just as effective? All you need to do is code a new version of the page formatted for mobile devices, plenty of airlines do it.
Malaysian Airlines
Thai
Air Asia
These are three airlines off the top of my head.
If you've got a site, you can do SSL easily and know its secure. The added advantage is that you've got one site to maintain for multiple systems (IOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone).
With Islam, there is no such thing as moderate Islam.
Turn the clock back 600 years or so (the difference in age between Christianity an Islam) and look at the behavior of the Catholic Church.
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition ....
I expected it, I had my comfy chair out in preparation.
It's a good analogy though, people forget that Christianity used to be as bad as Islam, if not worse. If it still had power Christianity would rival Islam in it's idiocy. The only reason we have rights for women, gays and in many cases, blacks is because people stopped believing in the invisible sky man and figured out that man determines his own destiny, not some fictitious creator.
People like to beleive that Christianity is better when in fact, it's just not powerful enough to get away with it. Take a look at the kiddie fiddling in the church of today and how practically nothing is done about it.
"Moderate" religion exists in places where religion does not hold power. The best way to reduce the power of religion is to drag more people into the middle class. This is the big difference between most Islamic countries and the west. In the west, the average person has money, a comfortable life. He does not need to seek a religious fantasy to give them hope that they could have a better life. The average person in the Middle east is dirt poor, working substance jobs or if they are lucky, for a pittance. You can bet your bottom dollar these people are moderate, they're just powerless. Much like in Christian countries a few hundred years ago, religion is wielded by the powerful few and used as a club to keep people under their heel. The old saying "religion is the opiate of the masses", so keeping a disenfranchised population "high" is a good way to keep them from rising up against a dictator.
We buy our oil from Singapore which is about $0.20 dearer then WTI or Brent crude.
/Smug mode.
Now not buying oil from them wont make them stop acting like idiots, they'll just be poor idiots. Even that is unlikely as they aren't going to run out of customers for their oil any time soon. But yes, the US should pull support from the Saudi's for many more reasons then this, that means pulling US forces out of Saudi bases (even the logistic bases) and stop selling them weapons.
There's a place for the storefront, but it's not mass-market commodity items. I'm sure that in the next couple of decades, storefronts will be pretty much limited to boutiques, custom work, one-of-a-kind things like antiques, and services. And I think our retail districts will be better for it.
Exactly my line of thinking. There are few items I need to see before buying, clothes and cars for example. But these items are few, I might want to try on a new shirt before I buy, but I can order my socks and jocks online with not worries (shoes too).
And I think our retail districts will be better for it.
Read that as red light districts at first glance. But that has also become something that can be ordered online.
DSE still sells electronics (at least the stores I've visited). At some DSEs you can still purchase the Funway 1 component sets, just not the bulk kits. Point is they still sell electronics - they just don't move units as much because it's a niche market anyway, so they clearly had to expand (at least as far as Woolworths is concerned with how to run a business).
DSE has converted from an electronics retailer to a box retailer. If you wanted to find capacitors or even a new video card for your PC, DSE is no longer an option for you.
When I said kits, I was thinking of stuff like this. DSE used to be more like Altronics, then it was bought by Woolworths who converted it into a box retailer.
The IT guy was then shot again, for his incompetence.
Sorry Dr Dre, but having you design speakers is like having an acoustics geek make a hip-hop record.
Isn't Beats by Dre just ordinary audio equipment re-badged with expensive branding?
Dick Smith is still good for some things. For example, I wanted a new DVD player (just an el-cheapo) and I went to Dick Smith because they had a dirt cheap unit that works fine and ordering online for something so cheap would have been pointless.
I also bought my current indoor TV antenna from them (being in a ground floor rented apartment means a proper antenna isn't an option) because I wanted TV now, not in a week when the delivery guy gets here.
My point exactly,
DSE has gone from being an electronics store to a box retailer. They occupy the same space as Harvey Norman, Myer and JB HiFi, for our foreign audience, it's more of a Walmart then a Radio Shack. Personally I stopped shopping at DSE when they started stocking Mac's.
Thank god we still have Radio Shack. I went in recently and found they were even selling arduinos. I've bought a bunch of components there for my electronics projects. It's not Fry's, but at least there's one 10 minutes away from my home in Nowhereville Vermont.
Australia lost anything resembling radio shack years ago. Dick Smith Electronics was once a store where you could go in and buy capacitors, electronics kits (pre-arduino days) and just about anything else you need. Now days they sell phone plans, Norton AV and overpriced HDMI cables.
If I want electronics components I go online, especially if I dont want to pay a 400% mark up (this is not hyperbole, it's Australia).
But I figure this is the way all shops are going. Frontage is becoming less and less important with the advent of smart phones. An online business with a warehouse in an industrial district near the airport is just as competitive as a store-front in the CBD with millions walking past each day. If I see a PC component I want in a store, the first thing I'll do is look up prices on StaticIce to see how much cheaper it is if I order online. I dont think the traditional storefront is going to survive for too many more decades, rather we'll start to see kiosks attached to large automated warehouses (basically forklifts on rails). You buy what you want at the kiosk and it gets picked out and delivered to you shortly. We're already hallway there with Australian supermarkets providing an order online function and having that delivered to your house.
I think people are getting over the appeal of seeing a product and will happily give it up for some savings. Obviously this doesn't apply to all industries but to things we consider a chore like grocery shopping are the prime candidates.
Yet Apple can't seem to open stores up fast enough. Go figure.
That's because you have to have a modicum of intelligence and financial acumen to have the good sense to buy online.
(stewardess) Just switch from Hard Rock to the Easy Listening channel.
80's hair metal is not hard rock.
Oh never mind, the system was probably designed by someone tone deaf enough to think that dubstep is music instead of modem sounds.
Jobs is dead, and as some would have it, God created him.
He was a Buddhist (not a very good one), he has no God.
I'm certain this'll be modded down with the current spate of fanboy moderation going on.
How many miles long? Consider the fact that run way for the shuttle land on is actually 15,000 feet long (4572m)
For comparison, most commercial airport runways are 3000 m long. 4000 m is considered long for a commercial airport although common at well used hubs.
A B777 requires about 2500 m for take off at maximum weight, a A380 requires 2800 m and a B747-400 requires about 3100 m.
The Space Shuttle can land on an ordinary commercial runway but uses longer and wider runways for safety purposes. 3200 m is long enough as that is the length of the runways in the former Clark Airforce Base in the Philippines which was listed as an alternate landing site until the base was decommissioned in the 90's. Having landed at CRK, they are noticeably wider then most commercial runways.