The problem is, he hasn't received millions of emails from people who haven't made the switch. This is why "buzz" is misleading instead of using real data. Maybe the "buzz" leads to more people switching to Apple, but if you don't actually measure it, how would you know??
I figured I'd take you up on that and note that we should look at OS market share among established computer users and new computer owners. I tried to find some numbers but failed.You're right though, anecdotal "switching" evidence is useless.
The fact that a competing OS with a growing if small market share isn't something to be ignored is a good point though.
How many people buy Windows because everyone else uses it and not because it's the best system out there? If another OS can pick up the enough market share then the race will actually be about quality. And since Windows has been coasting on their ubiquity for a long time now perhaps the market is ready for a change.
That's a much tougher sell, especially when you're charging up front for a phone when most providers offer a phone for "free."
Just to comment on this one part of your post.
I really truly hope that they succeed in changing this totally moronic paradigm. Because of this we in the US have phones that are years behind our competitors and a completely ass backward system where your provider pretty much owns your phone.
I would be tremendously happier actually paying for my phone as long as I wasn't locked into a two year service agreement and got a quality phone that I could use to its full potential.
Re:This whole article is an embarrassment to Slash
on
AppleTV Hits the Streets
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· Score: 5, Interesting
That's actually a pretty interesting point. I'll give it a try.
Netflix $15/Mo * 12 Mo = 180/Yr Cable $40/Mo * 12 = 480/Yr (I get some crazy package deal with cable and internet so I'm not sure if suddenly my internet bill will go up, worth considering.) No Tivo:( Total = 660/Year
Shows I watch regularly: Lost, Heroes, random junk
iTunes store: Lost = 34.99/Season Heroes = 42.99/Season Total = 78/Year Leaving me with $582 to buy my iTV and random junk...
The OP has an interesting point. On the other hand it'd make it mighty hard for me to watch sports, CNN and other live programming only found on cable.
As a former WoWer I always liked the 4+ hour 40 man raids. The big instances always provided the most interesting challenges and rewarding experiences.
I quit because nobody really has that much time to devote to games. It's especially true of the huge raids that require formal scheduling to get enough experienced (qualified) people together to complete anything.
It sounds like the BC expansion made good changes but still requires the huge time commitment. I'll stick with my former plan to return to WoW when I retire. (Hopefully there will be improvements made in the next 40 years)
I like the suggestion of a tax much better than a formal ban.
I switched eight 60 watt and four 100 watt bulbs in my house over to CFLs this past weekend. They've been great so far but I did notice a significant ringing noise with the 100 watt replacements. It was especially bad when I put them next to the glass plates that cover some of our fixtures. I'm a huge fan of CFLs but there are some uses for which incandescents are still better. One other use is in closets or places where the bulb will be on infrequently and for a short period of time.
Neither of the options that you describe would have addressed the "Hot Coffee" mini-game in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. It's content that a play-reviewer wouldn't have seen without knowledge of how to get to the content.
I don't see what's wrong with the fact that it's clearly impossible to properly screen a game for every possibility. Prior to the "Hot Coffee" incident reviewers didn't realize that they should ask about removed content, now they do. There will always be things that get through the reviewer net, hopefully we'll learn from them.
I really don't see what's wrong with a system where game companies are asked to provide representative content and some questions about their games. As long as very strict penalties are enforced for misrepresenting their games it's a very good system.
I would expect that giving users with high karma the ability to censor Wikipedia would actually cause more bias because power would be more limited to a specific group.
Also, I looked up George W. Bush, christianity, and the Republican Party and they're all very good, factual articles. There seems to be a lot of misplaced criticism of wikipedia for being biased, incorrect, and misinformed.
While I agree with most of your rant against Verizon's anti-file-transfer policy your point about iSync is incorrect. I have a Motorola RAZR V3c and I use iSync all the time to sync my contacts. (The calender sync doesn't work though I can't figure out if that's iCal's fault. And I don't much care.)
That aside I think it's pretty pathetic that because of Verizon's policies the $250 phone in my pocket functions more like a $20 phone.
Odd, most of the best college pranks I've heard of involve filling rooms with garbage bags, covering them with tinfoil, or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pw8u-ll0M0 flipping them upside down.
Potentially killing people in a fire just doesn't sound so funny.
No, it would be more like if bars could be sued for the date-rape that occurs because drunk people are easy targets.
Bars can be sued for drunk driving accidents because they are expected to monitor the state of their customers and not serve anyone who is obviously drunk. (Not that it happens, but still.)
Sure you weren't surprised. But that's because the mac rumor sites announced everything imaginable. The only thing that would be surprising is if Apple had come out with a "phone gene" that you injected into your brain.
What I think will be truly interesting is when Google gets these things indexed and searchable far faster and better than the original agencies had them. I've already started hearing stories from various media outlets about how intel analysts have an easier time finding good information searching on Google than they do from the classified databases.
Very, very, very VERY few people buy Apple primarily because they like the hardware.
I slightly beg to differ. It's not that people buy Macs because they think the graphics cards are great or the processors are the best. Though for a time some did.
Apple products are extremely stylish and trendy. The brushed metal look is in along with everything turning white, something I have heard described as the iPod effect.
People also buy apple because of the simplicity of their hardware. I'm very fond of the little things they do like the magnetic power cable and a power supply with a place to wind up the cord.
Still though it's a small consideration in the grand scheme of things. It's OSX that I'm really buying and if I could buy the less expensive and sometimes the better desktop parts I would likely just use the OS on a box of my own construction.
In fact I'm not sure how this study ever received Institutional Review Board approval for human subjects research.
First I don't see what this study achieves. It recreates an immensely harmful and unethical study with some slight tweaks to make it less harmful. The Miligram study already exists, we don't need to re-try it to ensure that people will follow orders.
Second just because someone is consented to a study does not mean that it is acceptable to harm them. Just to discover how much harm a study does to the subjects does not justify doing that study.
4)Things like configuring wireless interfaces were endlessly confusing. Theres about 4 different places to enter a wireless key - but only one of them accepts my home key, as the rest claim it is too long! With linux I just typed it in and it worked.
Can you name the FOUR places where you had to enter your wep key? you just need to run the network wizzard and it is done, in contrast with Linux where, well, it depends the distribution you are using the program you will have to use but only *if* your wireless network card is supported (my notebook network card just keeps turning on and off but does not works... oh and I have the "supported drivers" and the firmware... go figure).
I always found the windows XP wireless configuration to be endlessly confusing. Then again I've never had wireless work flawlessly out of the box. Even OSX does things that make no sense to me from time to time.
Those four places though, I can think of three off the top of my head. There's the place where you set up trusted networks that for some reason seems to automatically forget whatever you typed (1). There's the available networks place (2). Most wireless cards come with their own software (3) (this one is especially confusing because you then have two totally separate wireless network managers). I can't think up a fourth though you do mention the network setup wizard though I don't think that should count.
I don't know if the OP meant that there are four places which expect a key (untrue) or just that there are lots of potential places to enter your key (true). Either way XP is far more difficult and confusing than it should be and OSX is my favorite.
Perhaps I'm simply naive here but if the RFID tag requires information printed inside the passport be entered into a computer then why have RFID at all? There's no need to use a contactless method unless someone is picturing a scenario where customs will be something that you just walk through with your passport in your pocket or just have it tapped on a reader.
I don't think the major concern here is the government tracking people from outer space with RFID tags. If the government really wants to track me they have plenty of ways of doing that already. It seems more likely that identity and other thieves would be able to use RFID to steal with very little risk.
The RFID tag in a passport could be used to steal a social security number assuming that it's one of the things being broadcast. Or, as pointed out above, just to know who is going away for a while and where they live and then rob their houses.
There is an RFID tag in my ATM card and it's probably coming soon to my credit cards so someone with a powerful enough reader can steal my credit card information without me ever noticing.
New cars have RFID keys instead of regular keys. The chips are powerful enough that the cars unlock when the key is a few feet away. It wouldn't be too hard to steal cars by say waiting in a movie theater parking lot. A thief would be guaranteed two hours before the owner noticed the theft.
Even if the required reader is large a thief could simply walk around with a backpack. Sure a powerful RFID tag reader would be expensive but once the profit motive is big enough it will easily catch on as a way to steal without much risk.
So, they're offering the browser for free for a few months and then they expect me to pay 500 points for it. (Basically 500 points = $5)
Why on earth would I pay to browse the web on my wii? It seems to me that the whole environment of low resolution and difficult pointing and terrible typing is sub-optimal to begin with. Especially considering that I can get firefox for my computer for free I'm not sure why they expect this to appeal to.
Is there a large market of people with no computers and home wireless networks with broadband access I'm not aware of?
I think your comment illustrates a major flaw with the current TV/Movie distribution method. Certain products, I think sci-fi falls into this category more often than other genres, take time to build up a critical mass of fan base. This means low ratings when the show first airs but as time goes on it picks up steam.
It's tough to generate more audience when there's a lot of back story to pick up on so people who would be new viewers don't tune in even once their friends start talking about it. With DVDs on the other hand you can start from the beginning. Almost all the shows I watch now I've gotten into in this way.
The fact is the TV distribution method is killing great shows. I doubt straight to DVD is the best method, perhaps iTunes or on demand cable can pick up the slack.
How about scissors? My bank recently switched me to an RFID ATM card when my old one expired. While unhappy I was at least a bit curious so I've used it a few times to buy things. It seems that you have to really try to get the readers in the store to read the card. Even touching the wrong side of the card to the reader doesn't work. This would explain why there's a stamp on my card exactly where the RFID tag is.
So as long as the RFID tag isn't under the magnetic strip or another vital part of the card I could just cut it out. Of course looking at it now it seems to be right under the magnetic strip.
I think it's just sad that people accept anything that Bill O'Reilley and his brand of pundits say. Their opinions are based on a simple formula of outrage. They simply find an easy target and then express some sort of outrage against that target. Anybody remember last year's "War on Christmas?"
I wonder if O'Reilley actually believes the things he says or if he understands them to be opinions manufactured for ratings and political results.
Slashdot Mirror
The fact that a competing OS with a growing if small market share isn't something to be ignored is a good point though.
How many people buy Windows because everyone else uses it and not because it's the best system out there? If another OS can pick up the enough market share then the race will actually be about quality. And since Windows has been coasting on their ubiquity for a long time now perhaps the market is ready for a change.
I really truly hope that they succeed in changing this totally moronic paradigm. Because of this we in the US have phones that are years behind our competitors and a completely ass backward system where your provider pretty much owns your phone.
I would be tremendously happier actually paying for my phone as long as I wasn't locked into a two year service agreement and got a quality phone that I could use to its full potential.
Netflix $15/Mo * 12 Mo = 180/Yr
Cable $40/Mo * 12 = 480/Yr (I get some crazy package deal with cable and internet so I'm not sure if suddenly my internet bill will go up, worth considering.)
No Tivo
Total = 660/Year
Shows I watch regularly: Lost, Heroes, random junk
iTunes store: Lost = 34.99/Season
Heroes = 42.99/Season
Total = 78/Year
Leaving me with $582 to buy my iTV and random junk...
The OP has an interesting point. On the other hand it'd make it mighty hard for me to watch sports, CNN and other live programming only found on cable.
Hard core players dress up in full armor and masks.
I quit because nobody really has that much time to devote to games. It's especially true of the huge raids that require formal scheduling to get enough experienced (qualified) people together to complete anything.
It sounds like the BC expansion made good changes but still requires the huge time commitment. I'll stick with my former plan to return to WoW when I retire. (Hopefully there will be improvements made in the next 40 years)
I'm not so sure about that, I've seen Bush's comment history.
I switched eight 60 watt and four 100 watt bulbs in my house over to CFLs this past weekend. They've been great so far but I did notice a significant ringing noise with the 100 watt replacements. It was especially bad when I put them next to the glass plates that cover some of our fixtures. I'm a huge fan of CFLs but there are some uses for which incandescents are still better. One other use is in closets or places where the bulb will be on infrequently and for a short period of time.
I don't see what's wrong with the fact that it's clearly impossible to properly screen a game for every possibility. Prior to the "Hot Coffee" incident reviewers didn't realize that they should ask about removed content, now they do. There will always be things that get through the reviewer net, hopefully we'll learn from them.
I really don't see what's wrong with a system where game companies are asked to provide representative content and some questions about their games. As long as very strict penalties are enforced for misrepresenting their games it's a very good system.
I would expect that giving users with high karma the ability to censor Wikipedia would actually cause more bias because power would be more limited to a specific group.
Also, I looked up George W. Bush, christianity, and the Republican Party and they're all very good, factual articles. There seems to be a lot of misplaced criticism of wikipedia for being biased, incorrect, and misinformed.
That aside I think it's pretty pathetic that because of Verizon's policies the $250 phone in my pocket functions more like a $20 phone.
Potentially killing people in a fire just doesn't sound so funny.
Bars can be sued for drunk driving accidents because they are expected to monitor the state of their customers and not serve anyone who is obviously drunk. (Not that it happens, but still.)
Ok, so why does the US have a ban on reprocessing then?
Sure you weren't surprised. But that's because the mac rumor sites announced everything imaginable. The only thing that would be surprising is if Apple had come out with a "phone gene" that you injected into your brain.
What I think will be truly interesting is when Google gets these things indexed and searchable far faster and better than the original agencies had them. I've already started hearing stories from various media outlets about how intel analysts have an easier time finding good information searching on Google than they do from the classified databases.
I slightly beg to differ. It's not that people buy Macs because they think the graphics cards are great or the processors are the best. Though for a time some did.
Apple products are extremely stylish and trendy. The brushed metal look is in along with everything turning white, something I have heard described as the iPod effect.
People also buy apple because of the simplicity of their hardware. I'm very fond of the little things they do like the magnetic power cable and a power supply with a place to wind up the cord.
Still though it's a small consideration in the grand scheme of things. It's OSX that I'm really buying and if I could buy the less expensive and sometimes the better desktop parts I would likely just use the OS on a box of my own construction.
In fact I'm not sure how this study ever received Institutional Review Board approval for human subjects research.
First I don't see what this study achieves. It recreates an immensely harmful and unethical study with some slight tweaks to make it less harmful. The Miligram study already exists, we don't need to re-try it to ensure that people will follow orders.
Second just because someone is consented to a study does not mean that it is acceptable to harm them. Just to discover how much harm a study does to the subjects does not justify doing that study.
I always found the windows XP wireless configuration to be endlessly confusing. Then again I've never had wireless work flawlessly out of the box. Even OSX does things that make no sense to me from time to time.
Those four places though, I can think of three off the top of my head. There's the place where you set up trusted networks that for some reason seems to automatically forget whatever you typed (1). There's the available networks place (2). Most wireless cards come with their own software (3) (this one is especially confusing because you then have two totally separate wireless network managers). I can't think up a fourth though you do mention the network setup wizard though I don't think that should count.
I don't know if the OP meant that there are four places which expect a key (untrue) or just that there are lots of potential places to enter your key (true). Either way XP is far more difficult and confusing than it should be and OSX is my favorite.
Perhaps I'm simply naive here but if the RFID tag requires information printed inside the passport be entered into a computer then why have RFID at all? There's no need to use a contactless method unless someone is picturing a scenario where customs will be something that you just walk through with your passport in your pocket or just have it tapped on a reader.
The RFID tag in a passport could be used to steal a social security number assuming that it's one of the things being broadcast. Or, as pointed out above, just to know who is going away for a while and where they live and then rob their houses.
There is an RFID tag in my ATM card and it's probably coming soon to my credit cards so someone with a powerful enough reader can steal my credit card information without me ever noticing.
New cars have RFID keys instead of regular keys. The chips are powerful enough that the cars unlock when the key is a few feet away. It wouldn't be too hard to steal cars by say waiting in a movie theater parking lot. A thief would be guaranteed two hours before the owner noticed the theft.
Even if the required reader is large a thief could simply walk around with a backpack. Sure a powerful RFID tag reader would be expensive but once the profit motive is big enough it will easily catch on as a way to steal without much risk.
Why on earth would I pay to browse the web on my wii? It seems to me that the whole environment of low resolution and difficult pointing and terrible typing is sub-optimal to begin with. Especially considering that I can get firefox for my computer for free I'm not sure why they expect this to appeal to.
Is there a large market of people with no computers and home wireless networks with broadband access I'm not aware of?
It's tough to generate more audience when there's a lot of back story to pick up on so people who would be new viewers don't tune in even once their friends start talking about it. With DVDs on the other hand you can start from the beginning. Almost all the shows I watch now I've gotten into in this way.
The fact is the TV distribution method is killing great shows. I doubt straight to DVD is the best method, perhaps iTunes or on demand cable can pick up the slack.
So as long as the RFID tag isn't under the magnetic strip or another vital part of the card I could just cut it out. Of course looking at it now it seems to be right under the magnetic strip.
I wonder if O'Reilley actually believes the things he says or if he understands them to be opinions manufactured for ratings and political results.