Too late - Drawn Together does that pretty much every week.
And they forced the superheros to wear women's panties on their heads. But, then again, that did make Superman cry.
Comics in general and Marvel in particular have had a long tradition in embracing social issues - witness the classic Marvel comic series that decried on McCarthyism. This one is interesting because they aren't really taking sides.
Of course, many cartoons these days are overtly political (Southpark, American Dad, Boondocks) - at least Marvel tries hard to let the readers make up their own minds and explore the issue themselves.
I was pretty deeply into the smartcards and biometrics business 7-8 years ago and they had VERY cheap ($2/keyboard on a keyboard) and VERY easy to use embedded keyboard scanners (as well as separate). We built prototypes for folks to easily to computers and web accounts, but it didn't really take off.
Why? Users don't really care - even for bank account logins. Passwords work well enough. Also, everyone 'says' they'd LOVE biometrics, but when you get down to capturing their electronic fingerprint, they start to get nervous.
It's rather like smartcards. While they're superior to credit cards, the credit card system in the US is mature, ubiquitious, integrated, and simple enough that most consumers wouldn't really get a huge benefit. I don't think most identity theft comes from stolen passwords.
Same with biometrics - the technology has been around for 10 years and it's made some headway into niche applications, but it's not going to explode anytime soon unless WalMart or banks requires everyone to use it.
Actually, the real benefit will be that Wal-Mart may force manufacturers to make it easier to work on PCs where you can really have very easy plug and play devices so your mother could install extra RAM.
I had a system with removeable hard drives where I'd just slip it out at night (to lock it up) and it was great.
Why not have similar devices for graphics cards, memory, sound cards, or anything else? Rather than PCI slots, just have slots in the back you could slide pre-packaged devices into that automatically plug-and-play and you don't ever have to open up the computer.
It should be almost as easy to add new internal devices as plugging in an external device with a USB. And Walmart could be the economic force that makes it happen.
as long as they sell major brands (like HP/Compaq or Gateway).
In fact, I MUCH prefer this model where you can semi-customize your own PC from a range of well-defined options. Beats the hell out of CompUSA or Best Buy where you have to take whatever configuration they have have on the shelf.
I'd bet they get exclusive distribution rights to some major brand like Gateway and then sell them at 30% below everyone else's computer.
Don't underestimate the power of WalMart to sell anything to the masses.
At least MS recognizes they can't live on keyboards and mice alone and the future of computing for the masses will not be driven by PCs, but by game consoles, TVs, iPods, cars, and many other non-PC based that integrate into everyday life.
It's all about the user experience, not the keyboard.
But it still remains to be seen how well MS competes in a world dominated by primarily device-driven devices - particularly since this seems almost the exact opposite of their business model and strengths.
A merger between MS and Yahoo! sounds like a great idea. Google's empire isn't about the search - it's about owning the desktop. (Well, of course, it's really about making money/advertising and owning the desktop is a big piece of that). Gmail with it's huge amount of free storage will expand to a virtual, transportable desktop.
MS would LOVE to own the virtual desktop as well, but needs someone like Yahoo! to pull it off. A Yahoo!/MS merger would allow them to create a free, virtual email/storage/desktop model and perhaps even extend IE to mimic your desktop so you could access/edit/save files from anywhere and everywhere.
That's really where Google is headed and I think a MS/Yahoo! merger would be a great alternative to that and might be a substantial leap forward for the computer industry.
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But Al Jazeera said prisoners were abused in Guantanamo, so it must be true!!
:)
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8723
(Added the ':)' in case any lunatics out there thought I was serious).
Too late - Drawn Together does that pretty much every week. And they forced the superheros to wear women's panties on their heads. But, then again, that did make Superman cry.
Kudos to Marvel!
Comics in general and Marvel in particular have had a long tradition in embracing social issues - witness the classic Marvel comic series that decried on McCarthyism. This one is interesting because they aren't really taking sides.
Of course, many cartoons these days are overtly political (Southpark, American Dad, Boondocks) - at least Marvel tries hard to let the readers make up their own minds and explore the issue themselves.
I was pretty deeply into the smartcards and biometrics business 7-8 years ago and they had VERY cheap ($2/keyboard on a keyboard) and VERY easy to use embedded keyboard scanners (as well as separate). We built prototypes for folks to easily to computers and web accounts, but it didn't really take off.
Why? Users don't really care - even for bank account logins. Passwords work well enough. Also, everyone 'says' they'd LOVE biometrics, but when you get down to capturing their electronic fingerprint, they start to get nervous.
It's rather like smartcards. While they're superior to credit cards, the credit card system in the US is mature, ubiquitious, integrated, and simple enough that most consumers wouldn't really get a huge benefit. I don't think most identity theft comes from stolen passwords.
Same with biometrics - the technology has been around for 10 years and it's made some headway into niche applications, but it's not going to explode anytime soon unless WalMart or banks requires everyone to use it.
Actually, the real benefit will be that Wal-Mart may force manufacturers to make it easier to work on PCs where you can really have very easy plug and play devices so your mother could install extra RAM.
I had a system with removeable hard drives where I'd just slip it out at night (to lock it up) and it was great.
Why not have similar devices for graphics cards, memory, sound cards, or anything else? Rather than PCI slots, just have slots in the back you could slide pre-packaged devices into that automatically plug-and-play and you don't ever have to open up the computer.
It should be almost as easy to add new internal devices as plugging in an external device with a USB. And Walmart could be the economic force that makes it happen.
as long as they sell major brands (like HP/Compaq or Gateway).
In fact, I MUCH prefer this model where you can semi-customize your own PC from a range of well-defined options. Beats the hell out of CompUSA or Best Buy where you have to take whatever configuration they have have on the shelf.
I'd bet they get exclusive distribution rights to some major brand like Gateway and then sell them at 30% below everyone else's computer.
Don't underestimate the power of WalMart to sell anything to the masses.
At least MS recognizes they can't live on keyboards and mice alone and the future of computing for the masses will not be driven by PCs, but by game consoles, TVs, iPods, cars, and many other non-PC based that integrate into everyday life.
It's all about the user experience, not the keyboard.
But it still remains to be seen how well MS competes in a world dominated by primarily device-driven devices - particularly since this seems almost the exact opposite of their business model and strengths.
A merger between MS and Yahoo! sounds like a great idea. Google's empire isn't about the search - it's about owning the desktop. (Well, of course, it's really about making money/advertising and owning the desktop is a big piece of that). Gmail with it's huge amount of free storage will expand to a virtual, transportable desktop. MS would LOVE to own the virtual desktop as well, but needs someone like Yahoo! to pull it off. A Yahoo!/MS merger would allow them to create a free, virtual email/storage/desktop model and perhaps even extend IE to mimic your desktop so you could access/edit/save files from anywhere and everywhere. That's really where Google is headed and I think a MS/Yahoo! merger would be a great alternative to that and might be a substantial leap forward for the computer industry.