"...and the rumours and speculation we've discussed promote the theory that Apple is setting itself up as a major player in the media-distribution industry."
Since what seems like the dawn of computer time, Apples have been the choice of "creative professionals" and others involved in media creation. It makes perfect sense for them to continue to build on and extend from that market position. I just hope that now all of the fanbois can realize where Apple fits in the overall computer landscape and stay there, sipping their lattes, staring at their 20+ inch displays and being "creative." =)
This is just an antecdotal story, but it did give me pause.
The other night I finally caved in to my girl friend's desires to have a cat. Of course I can't just have any cat so I went on Google to do some research. I decided that I want an American Bobtail (at least until I figured out that the damn things can cost in excess of $2000 but that's another story). Once I decided I wanted a bobtail, I Googled "american bobtail breeders". Of course the context sensative ad came on the right hand side of the page. I thought about clicking on it but instead went for the first result from Google which was something about the American Bobtail Breeders Association or something like that. I browsed through the site, found a link to the breeders and looked up one in my local neighbor.
The breeder in my local neighborhood was the exact same breeder whose link was the link that I ignored before it was a context sensative ad on the right side of the page. It turns out that Google knew where I wanted to go before I did. It was kind of creepy.
You can keep your hill and climbing to the top of it. I guess I'll just wallow down here in the Valley of Sorrowfully inexperienced 20 and 30 somethings.
We all know that at least 69% of those "females" are really 40+ year old guys living in their parent's basement, or 15- year old guys living in their parent's basement.
I am interested in buying your product. However, I can't talk to you because we've never been in communication before and you have no idea who I am. I guess I'm going to have to go buy your competitor's product because I can actually communicate with them without having to jump through a bunch of hoops first.
Clearly MS does understand the market and how far you can push it.
I agree. The fact of the matter seems to be that the pay for "additional" content model will work and the publishers are going for it. Just about the only thing that you can do is stop playing video games if you don't like it.
You seem to perceive the "message that there are "tons" of applications available for Windows. " to mean that those applications are all shareware like crap that nobody really wants. The reality of the situation is that there are a whole slew of custom, business centric applications that only run on Microsoft platforms. I've never seen a Macintosh POS system. I've never seen a Macintosh timeclock (ie. Kronos like application). I've never seen a Mac waste hauling program. I've never seen a major financial package that runs on Mac, or even has a Mac client (think SAP, Oracle, etc). I've never seen a medical billing package that runs on the Mac. Could such things be developed? Sure they could, but they won't be. There are already PC versions out there that are getting the job done. Nobody is going to go out and buy a Mac to replace their $400-500 general office PC to run an immature application that duplicates functionality that has been on the PC for over a decade.
Or should we rather hope that Windows users finally grow up and start using computers as adults, as tools, not toys.
I know better than to get involved in a flame war over drivel like this, but none the less. WTF are you on? Windows users needing to grow up and start?? using computers as tools? I guess I better go let everyone in my company know that they're acting like kids because they're using Windows. I better go tell every company in America who has generated lord only knows how many billions of dollars worth of revenue this year that they are immature non-adults who are getting their jobs done with toys.
But come on, Mac users are the most uber elite, hip, techno savy individuals to ever grace a computer keyboard with their keystrokes. I'd think that they'd be using the hell out of the interwebs. =)
We buy HP desktops from CDW and they all come pre-installed with XP SP2. We just bought five dx7600's last week. The sticker on the box says, "Designed for Windows XP, Microsoft Vista Capable" The OEM serial number sticker is for XP too.
What's so surprising about that? The majority of the world knows better than to rush right out and install a brand new Microsoft OS. Just like people might be waiting for Leopard, there are a lot of people waiting for Vista SP1 before they even consider touching Vista. Personally I'm not going anywhere near Vista until I have to, and that won't be for quite some time.
Anecdotally x2. I only buy Asus motherboards because they are hands down the best boards I've ever used. I've never had a single problem with any of them going back to the days of the P3/400mhz.
The truth is that many WoW players prefer to trade cash for gold instead of time for gold. Until you deal with this demand, you'll never achieve your ideal fantasy world uncorrupted by companies like IGE.
I am about at that point myself. I play WoW on a casual basis. I started playing about six months ago and my main is up to level 62. I still don't have an epic mount and the amount of time required to get one is ridiculous. I don't even want to spend the time that it would take to come up with 540 gold to learn the stupid skill, so I will probably plunk down $50 or whatever it will cost to buy that much gold. For me it's worth it. It's a shame that WoW is such a time sink. The game itself is pretty fun, but the amount of time that you need to invest in it to experience the "end game" content is absolutely ridiculous. I don't have the time to deal with people getting bent out of shape because I won't run the same instance with them three times in a row so they can try to get a drop.
I didn't say the first thing about having problems finding files. The point I was making is that in the real world people don't usually organize their files in any sort of logical hierarchy. Microsoft's incorporation of the My Documents directory as the default save location for their applications has been a big step forward. The days of search in the world of Microsoft have come a long way since having to do a dir/s *. > files.txt.
The point that I was trying to make is that a user won't go to Best Buy or Dell and buy a computer right out of the store and have driver issues with it. In both of your cases you messed with it after the fact and ran into problems. Granted the XP issue blows. I personally never install any of those drivers that are offered through Windows Update, but it isn't unreasonable to expect that a home user might do that.
Honestly, though, you can't expect that your average user is going to do this sort of research, or even that he'll choose his own components. Whether it's Joe Sixpack or Granny Sixpack, there's a good chance they'll just go to Dell or BestBuy and pick something, expecting it should work.
From what you wrote it seems to me like you're trying to imply that Joe Sixpack is going to go buy a Dell, bring it home and have it BSOD because of some sort of driver incompatibility. Want to try again?
Wouldn't it make sense to put "flaky Taiwanese drivers" as a con against Windows?
It would make sense to put that as con against Windows. Just like the correlated column against Apple would read something to the effect of, "Can't upgrade hardware/hardware choice limited to few, overpriced options". =)
I wonder if these same arguments occur when new cars come out...
The same kind of things happen with cars too. My first car was a 1987 Mitsubishi Starion ESi-R turbo. It was the first generation of ESi-R model. The 1987 version was plagued with all sorts of electrical gremlins that were sorted out by the 1988-89 model year. The later version also ran 1psi more boost because the retuned ECU could handle it better.
Very very true. Everyone who has been around the block a few times understands this. Only the truly brain dead try to roll out a Microsoft product (any product, not just the OS but Exchange, SQL server, etc) before the first service pack. What I don't get is why people are bitching. If your XP box is getting the job done then why are you whining about Vista not being any better? I didn't upgrade to XP until well after SP2 was out because honestly, Win2K SP4 was getting the job done just fine. It wasn't until I saw that XP booted faster on a P3 800mhz than Win2K did I think, "Hmmmmm, maybe it's worth putting up with the new UI."
I've never found a use for the indexing and search functions that people are happily touting with Vista, Google Desktop, and others... Instead, I use a logical directory naming convention that makes looking for what I need a simple matter of choosing the directory that has what I need.
Good for you. I'm happy that you're happy in your own little, perfectly orchastrated world. In the real world, where people are required to work on other people's computers and find files that those other people seem to have lost, having a good search utility is wonderful.
There was an article here on/. about a month ago that talked about what Vista is doing with all of that memory. In essense as soon as the computer needs that memory for any other applications, the memory is freed up and the application gets it. I think that Mark Russanovich (sp?) of Sysinternals fame wrote a couple of articles about Vista's kernel and memory architecture. You can probably Google them. I'm 95% certain that it was one of his articles that explains why it looks like Vista is "using so much RAM."
They are right that it definitely changes the "pro gaming" landscape. On a game like Counter-Strike or BF1942 or Quake 3 everyone is playing on the same level. They all have access to the exact same character. WoW is a whole new ballgame with regards to talent builds and equipment. I'm not sure but I think that a character needs to be level 70 to compete in the arena. Getting to level 70 takes a long time. I've been playing casually for about 6 months and my character is only 62, but sure, there are guys out there who have gone from 0-70 in the space of a few weeks. Beyond the sheer time required to level up to the point where you can compete in the arenas there is the matter of gear. Hard to get gear requires raiding. A raiding talent build is different than a PvP talent build. I understand that there is arena specific PvP gear and I'm not sure how that stacks up against raid/quest gear. Whatever the case, I'm sure that the ePeen WoW egos will grow even bigger because of this. Not only can they brag about being the biggest p-killing bastard (not that I mind PvP, I play on a PvP server), but now they can brag about getting paid because of the size of their ePeen.
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Since what seems like the dawn of computer time, Apples have been the choice of "creative professionals" and others involved in media creation. It makes perfect sense for them to continue to build on and extend from that market position. I just hope that now all of the fanbois can realize where Apple fits in the overall computer landscape and stay there, sipping their lattes, staring at their 20+ inch displays and being "creative." =)
The other night I finally caved in to my girl friend's desires to have a cat. Of course I can't just have any cat so I went on Google to do some research. I decided that I want an American Bobtail (at least until I figured out that the damn things can cost in excess of $2000 but that's another story). Once I decided I wanted a bobtail, I Googled "american bobtail breeders". Of course the context sensative ad came on the right hand side of the page. I thought about clicking on it but instead went for the first result from Google which was something about the American Bobtail Breeders Association or something like that. I browsed through the site, found a link to the breeders and looked up one in my local neighbor.
The breeder in my local neighborhood was the exact same breeder whose link was the link that I ignored before it was a context sensative ad on the right side of the page. It turns out that Google knew where I wanted to go before I did. It was kind of creepy.
You can keep your hill and climbing to the top of it. I guess I'll just wallow down here in the Valley of Sorrowfully inexperienced 20 and 30 somethings.
We all know that at least 69% of those "females" are really 40+ year old guys living in their parent's basement, or 15- year old guys living in their parent's basement.
I am interested in buying your product. However, I can't talk to you because we've never been in communication before and you have no idea who I am. I guess I'm going to have to go buy your competitor's product because I can actually communicate with them without having to jump through a bunch of hoops first.
Maybe it was Vice City. They all sort of run together after a while. Now that you mention it, it definitely was Vice City that I flew the helo in.
I did it. You could fly the Apache around. It had rockets to blow things up with.
I agree. The fact of the matter seems to be that the pay for "additional" content model will work and the publishers are going for it. Just about the only thing that you can do is stop playing video games if you don't like it.
That's what your friends should be for. Nobody wants to get high alone. =)
Or should we rather hope that Windows users finally grow up and start using computers as adults, as tools, not toys.
I know better than to get involved in a flame war over drivel like this, but none the less. WTF are you on? Windows users needing to grow up and start?? using computers as tools? I guess I better go let everyone in my company know that they're acting like kids because they're using Windows. I better go tell every company in America who has generated lord only knows how many billions of dollars worth of revenue this year that they are immature non-adults who are getting their jobs done with toys.
But come on, Mac users are the most uber elite, hip, techno savy individuals to ever grace a computer keyboard with their keystrokes. I'd think that they'd be using the hell out of the interwebs. =)
We buy HP desktops from CDW and they all come pre-installed with XP SP2. We just bought five dx7600's last week. The sticker on the box says, "Designed for Windows XP, Microsoft Vista Capable" The OEM serial number sticker is for XP too.
What's so surprising about that? The majority of the world knows better than to rush right out and install a brand new Microsoft OS. Just like people might be waiting for Leopard, there are a lot of people waiting for Vista SP1 before they even consider touching Vista. Personally I'm not going anywhere near Vista until I have to, and that won't be for quite some time.
Why would anybody spend the extra money on Apple hardware if they are going to run Windows on it?
Anecdotally x2. I only buy Asus motherboards because they are hands down the best boards I've ever used. I've never had a single problem with any of them going back to the days of the P3/400mhz.
I am about at that point myself. I play WoW on a casual basis. I started playing about six months ago and my main is up to level 62. I still don't have an epic mount and the amount of time required to get one is ridiculous. I don't even want to spend the time that it would take to come up with 540 gold to learn the stupid skill, so I will probably plunk down $50 or whatever it will cost to buy that much gold. For me it's worth it. It's a shame that WoW is such a time sink. The game itself is pretty fun, but the amount of time that you need to invest in it to experience the "end game" content is absolutely ridiculous. I don't have the time to deal with people getting bent out of shape because I won't run the same instance with them three times in a row so they can try to get a drop.
I didn't say the first thing about having problems finding files. The point I was making is that in the real world people don't usually organize their files in any sort of logical hierarchy. Microsoft's incorporation of the My Documents directory as the default save location for their applications has been a big step forward. The days of search in the world of Microsoft have come a long way since having to do a dir/s *. > files.txt.
The point that I was trying to make is that a user won't go to Best Buy or Dell and buy a computer right out of the store and have driver issues with it. In both of your cases you messed with it after the fact and ran into problems. Granted the XP issue blows. I personally never install any of those drivers that are offered through Windows Update, but it isn't unreasonable to expect that a home user might do that.
From what you wrote it seems to me like you're trying to imply that Joe Sixpack is going to go buy a Dell, bring it home and have it BSOD because of some sort of driver incompatibility. Want to try again?
It would make sense to put that as con against Windows. Just like the correlated column against Apple would read something to the effect of, "Can't upgrade hardware/hardware choice limited to few, overpriced options". =)
The same kind of things happen with cars too. My first car was a 1987 Mitsubishi Starion ESi-R turbo. It was the first generation of ESi-R model. The 1987 version was plagued with all sorts of electrical gremlins that were sorted out by the 1988-89 model year. The later version also ran 1psi more boost because the retuned ECU could handle it better.
Very very true. Everyone who has been around the block a few times understands this. Only the truly brain dead try to roll out a Microsoft product (any product, not just the OS but Exchange, SQL server, etc) before the first service pack. What I don't get is why people are bitching. If your XP box is getting the job done then why are you whining about Vista not being any better? I didn't upgrade to XP until well after SP2 was out because honestly, Win2K SP4 was getting the job done just fine. It wasn't until I saw that XP booted faster on a P3 800mhz than Win2K did I think, "Hmmmmm, maybe it's worth putting up with the new UI."
Good for you. I'm happy that you're happy in your own little, perfectly orchastrated world. In the real world, where people are required to work on other people's computers and find files that those other people seem to have lost, having a good search utility is wonderful.
There was an article here on /. about a month ago that talked about what Vista is doing with all of that memory. In essense as soon as the computer needs that memory for any other applications, the memory is freed up and the application gets it. I think that Mark Russanovich (sp?) of Sysinternals fame wrote a couple of articles about Vista's kernel and memory architecture. You can probably Google them. I'm 95% certain that it was one of his articles that explains why it looks like Vista is "using so much RAM."
They are right that it definitely changes the "pro gaming" landscape. On a game like Counter-Strike or BF1942 or Quake 3 everyone is playing on the same level. They all have access to the exact same character. WoW is a whole new ballgame with regards to talent builds and equipment. I'm not sure but I think that a character needs to be level 70 to compete in the arena. Getting to level 70 takes a long time. I've been playing casually for about 6 months and my character is only 62, but sure, there are guys out there who have gone from 0-70 in the space of a few weeks. Beyond the sheer time required to level up to the point where you can compete in the arenas there is the matter of gear. Hard to get gear requires raiding. A raiding talent build is different than a PvP talent build. I understand that there is arena specific PvP gear and I'm not sure how that stacks up against raid/quest gear. Whatever the case, I'm sure that the ePeen WoW egos will grow even bigger because of this. Not only can they brag about being the biggest p-killing bastard (not that I mind PvP, I play on a PvP server), but now they can brag about getting paid because of the size of their ePeen.