Of all the places where you could get information about who a good choice was - TV, papers, radio, Internet, the pulpit - why would you want to reject talking about it with your friends, family, neighbors? They're the people who have the concerns you do, and the motivations you do. They're not censored, staged.
In my head, "none of your damn business" is the answer of someone who has a bias and doesn't want to disclose it because they know it's indefensible.
Now realize that you have to add in the cost of design, transport, storage, inventory, sales, customer service, finance, hr, and so on - all of which are incremental costs which add into every product.
If places could profitably sell that toy cheaper than Wal-Mart, they would.
(And also, realize that these costs are probably more or less constant regardless of the quality of the item manufactured; that's a whole different issue)
Did you even read the link? He never lost the domain. For a while, he was enjoined from certain activities, although from looking at his site, even that was turned over on appeal.
Yes, I've used Smarty. It's not bad, but if you try Django, you'll probably like it better. At least, syntactically speaking, I enjoy typing up Django templates quite a bit more.
I'm not sure what you're sick of with C++, but I've been writing objC lately for the iphone, and I'm definitely enjoying it a lot more than I ever enjoyed c++. (Although that may be just because I like Apple's nextstep object hierarchy more that I ever liked the c++ libs)
PHP and Perl don't really deserve to be labeled "scripting languages" in my head either any more. PHP has had growing object oriented capabilities for ages - PHP 5.3a1 even got lambdas w/ closures. PHP is a fairly great language; it got a bad rap due to the way it enabled horrible security practices so well in the PHP3 days. I think I prefer Python/Django due to the more expressive syntax and superior templating, but PHP is good and getting better. Is it dynamically interpreted? Sure, but you can use bytecode caching to save compiled copies. Likewise, Perl may be suitable for use as a scripting language, but it has obviously become a lot more.
Because I was just reading a Nokia E71 review the other day, and it's $500, and the iPhone is simply better (for me, anyhow).
Tom's Hardware just said that Mac and PC prices are about equal when you take into account the components. I think the perception that Apple is more expensive comes from the fact that they just don't compete in the low-end segment of the market.
I don't get why you think apple is getting a free pass. I read 3-4 articles a day about 3G iPhone issues. I'd be willing to bet it is now a serious anchor on sales.
Actually, some independent analysis has shown that's the issue - the firmware is too anxious to jump to EDGE. Another problem is that in some places, ATT's equipment is placed at 2.5G distances, but 3G needs closer towers, so ATT needs to step up and get some upgrades in place. But there are a lot of indicators that it's the immature software ON the infineon chip, not the chip itself, that is causing issues.
Anything digital is subject to piracy. Why does music get some sort of compulsory license deal? What about Movies, Games? What about lesser known/less publicized piracy, such as books, or 3D Models, comics, and so on?
If I'm out there grinding to produce, for example, a 3D Model of a chair that you can import into 3dsMax and I sell it online, why do musicians get compulsory licensing for music, but I can't get the same for my 3D Chair?
For that matter, if I'm providing a website, and a bunch of people are viewing my content while running the AdBlock plugin, shouldn't I be able to get a compulsory license fee from the ISP for their users viewing my content?
It's fairly absurd. It's not that I don't sympathize with artists getting paid. I'm involved in a digital content business, and piracy is hurting us. I know artists, struggling to make enough to do their art full time. And I know there are people out there who opt to steal the digital stuff because they *can't* go steal a coffee. And while the digital copies are "free", and it's easy to say, "They wouldn't buy it anyhow", that's not true. Some wouldn't, but some would pay if that *had* to, they just won't if they don't. And that's what this is all about.
But in the end, the RIAA and the Music industry have proven themselves broken; they're willing to bury services like Pandora rather than utilize them.
For that matter, 30% of Americans don't know who controls congress. 44% don't know what state Senator McCain is a Senator from.
It's depressing, and it's time to stop thinking polls should control policy. If you want to control policy, you should be able to:
(1) Elucidate the problem to someone (2) Propose a solution which stands reasonable scrutiny, and can be defended without violating obvious tenets of logic (3) Propose inviolable metrics which would determine the success or failure, the timeframe, and the response to success or failure
I think all these polls should ask 10 questions on the issue so we can see how educated people are before they cast their votes. Notice how we have polls showing us most Americans are grossly ignorant about basic government facts. How many could explain what a Filibuster or a cloture vote is? How many have read the Federalist Papers, or can even name all three branches of government? Let's poll on an issue like this, and then let's see which side has the larger proportion of ignorance on it.
3.5B ending in the trailing 12 months ending september 29, 07.
But in the 3 quarters since (ending 12/29/07, 3/29/08, 6/28/08), Apple has already made 3.7B, and they still have a quarter to go.
That type of profitability with that type of growth comes at a premium, especially when people see upside. That's why XOM (Exxon-Mobile) has a 400B market cap despite over 40B in profits in the last year - because people see Apple's star rising and see the possibility that Apple will supplant Microsoft-based PCs as the de facto computing choice, and the possibility that Apple could devour huge amounts of market share from Nokia and RIM with their phone, and continue to grow their media empire as the place of choice to sell digital content.
On the other hand, people look at XOM and see a bloated giant, dependent in many ways on leases it holds in a myriad of foreign countries, selling a product which has clearly jumped the shark. It's not a question of if the world moves away from oil, just when and how fast. It's the same reason VCs aren't funding oil services companies but are pouring money into green tech - because we know how this ends. If there is to be anything left of civilization, it won't have XOM in it. (At least, not as an oil company of any size)
I can't imagine what someone is thinking when they moderate this tripe as insightful. No one can "make" wealth? Wealth is value.
What is more valuable to you: food, or a pile of carbon/nitrogen/etc atoms? When we grow food, we're just using tools and knowledge to "move reality around", so we're not really "making" anything, right?
Wrong, obviously. This is the very nature of "value added". Wealth is not a zero sum game. They "moved stuff around" to make computers 40 years ago. And it was more stuff. Were those rooms filled with hot, vacuum-tube using computers better because they had more "stuff"?
And to top it off, the Second Law of Thermodynamics only applies to closed systems, which the planet is not, and no one has shown the universe to be either.
I greatly respect what RMS has done, but there are a lot of things I really enjoy that I can't really see coming out in a noncommercial form. I can *maybe* see some tipjar model where copies are freely made but the game still is commercially successful, but only maybe.
Would I have gotten Baldur's Gate 2, Dark Knight, Portal, or a hundred other amazing pieces of IP if those people couldn't expect to get paid?
I do believe that DRM should have a backdoor. All DRM should have to explicitly spell out what you CANNOT do, and everything else should be allowed. The "cannot do" and the product should be registered with someone (library of congress?) along with software capable of removing it entirely. In the event someone is restricted from doing something not on the predeclared "cannot" list, they should be able to acquire the "crack" from the LoC.
I think a system like this, where people could, in general, feel comfortable they'd get what they paid for, would make people much more ready to buy things with DRM. Maybe not. It would for me.
I've often thought that offering a "format guarantee" sticker on media would spur sales. I think people are tired of having bought the vinyl, the 8-track, the cassette, the CD, the mp3; or, alternately, the betamax tape, the VHS tape, the laserdisc, the DVD, the HD-DVD/Bluray disc. Enough. I want to pay for content once. Then I want to get it in whatever formats I want for a nominal fee (ie, cost of media). I want to be able to send in a hundred DVDs, and get back a hundred blu-ray discs for $200 + $10 shipping.
Anyhow, I digress. I think opposing the moral rights DRM tries to protect is in error. Original, creative works deserve some measure of limited-time protection. But I also think trampling consumers on the way to maximizing profits is both self-destructive for the creators and unpleasant for consumers.
I hate being this much of a cynic, but - 1-man indie game developer hits slashdot and such twice in a week, talking about how his recent game was his "best game ever" and he was GOING to price it much higher but now he's thinking he'll price it lower because of what pirates told him?
And there are now like 20x as many people who have heard of him as before? Well, more power to him.
I know it's fun to beat a dead horse, but it isn't YouTube's job to police content. They are acting as a service provider. Anyone can send a DMCA takedown request to YouTube; youtube has to comply to risk liability. It is up to the uploader to file a counterclaim, at which point youtube must restore it, and it is up to the filer to pursue the counterclaimant if they so desire.
Computer systems design and
related services............ 1,369.0 1,407.3 1,414.3 1,421.7 1,366.8 1,391.3 1,403.9 1,408.9 1,412.2 1,419.3 7.1
There's also growth in "management and technical consulting", and "architectural and engineering services". (no idea if software engineering is grouped in that line)
I think InfoWeek is misunderstanding what constitutes the "information industry". It isn't IT people:
With the exception of, perhaps, Telecomm companies, there's no reason to infer that those are even IT jobs. When a book publisher cuts an editor, that's an "information" job.
IANAL, but if Apple can show that permitting people to install their OS on unapproved hardware causes them harm (which seems easy to do if you can show that it is less reliable because Apple has done more rigorous testing and compatibility checks on their own builds), and you can show that the PC manufacturer is in any way encouraging the users to violate the terms of the EULA, then it seems like you have a case of tortious interference.
Any of the actual lawyers on/. know if anyone has ever tried to claim tortious interference over an explicit or implied encouragement to break a shrink-wrap EULA?
Slashdot Mirror
Ditto. Nor am I buying Mass Effect, which I want more. And if they release Dragon Age with this shit, I'm not buying that either.
Of all the places where you could get information about who a good choice was - TV, papers, radio, Internet, the pulpit - why would you want to reject talking about it with your friends, family, neighbors? They're the people who have the concerns you do, and the motivations you do. They're not censored, staged.
In my head, "none of your damn business" is the answer of someone who has a bias and doesn't want to disclose it because they know it's indefensible.
nt
Now realize that you have to add in the cost of design, transport, storage, inventory, sales, customer service, finance, hr, and so on - all of which are incremental costs which add into every product.
If places could profitably sell that toy cheaper than Wal-Mart, they would.
(And also, realize that these costs are probably more or less constant regardless of the quality of the item manufactured; that's a whole different issue)
Did you even read the link? He never lost the domain. For a while, he was enjoined from certain activities, although from looking at his site, even that was turned over on appeal.
I am glad for the reminder, though. Screw Nissan.
Yes, I've used Smarty. It's not bad, but if you try Django, you'll probably like it better. At least, syntactically speaking, I enjoy typing up Django templates quite a bit more.
I'm not sure what you're sick of with C++, but I've been writing objC lately for the iphone, and I'm definitely enjoying it a lot more than I ever enjoyed c++. (Although that may be just because I like Apple's nextstep object hierarchy more that I ever liked the c++ libs)
PHP and Perl don't really deserve to be labeled "scripting languages" in my head either any more. PHP has had growing object oriented capabilities for ages - PHP 5.3a1 even got lambdas w/ closures. PHP is a fairly great language; it got a bad rap due to the way it enabled horrible security practices so well in the PHP3 days. I think I prefer Python/Django due to the more expressive syntax and superior templating, but PHP is good and getting better. Is it dynamically interpreted? Sure, but you can use bytecode caching to save compiled copies. Likewise, Perl may be suitable for use as a scripting language, but it has obviously become a lot more.
Because I was just reading a Nokia E71 review the other day, and it's $500, and the iPhone is simply better (for me, anyhow).
Tom's Hardware just said that Mac and PC prices are about equal when you take into account the components. I think the perception that Apple is more expensive comes from the fact that they just don't compete in the low-end segment of the market.
I don't get why you think apple is getting a free pass. I read 3-4 articles a day about 3G iPhone issues. I'd be willing to bet it is now a serious anchor on sales.
Actually, some independent analysis has shown that's the issue - the firmware is too anxious to jump to EDGE. Another problem is that in some places, ATT's equipment is placed at 2.5G distances, but 3G needs closer towers, so ATT needs to step up and get some upgrades in place. But there are a lot of indicators that it's the immature software ON the infineon chip, not the chip itself, that is causing issues.
You discover that music causes cancer.
Statistical sampling allocates the funds. (They don't mention it, but I'm sure "after an enormous cut for the licensing agency" is a given.)
Anything digital is subject to piracy. Why does music get some sort of compulsory license deal? What about Movies, Games? What about lesser known/less publicized piracy, such as books, or 3D Models, comics, and so on?
If I'm out there grinding to produce, for example, a 3D Model of a chair that you can import into 3dsMax and I sell it online, why do musicians get compulsory licensing for music, but I can't get the same for my 3D Chair?
For that matter, if I'm providing a website, and a bunch of people are viewing my content while running the AdBlock plugin, shouldn't I be able to get a compulsory license fee from the ISP for their users viewing my content?
It's fairly absurd. It's not that I don't sympathize with artists getting paid. I'm involved in a digital content business, and piracy is hurting us. I know artists, struggling to make enough to do their art full time. And I know there are people out there who opt to steal the digital stuff because they *can't* go steal a coffee. And while the digital copies are "free", and it's easy to say, "They wouldn't buy it anyhow", that's not true. Some wouldn't, but some would pay if that *had* to, they just won't if they don't. And that's what this is all about.
But in the end, the RIAA and the Music industry have proven themselves broken; they're willing to bury services like Pandora rather than utilize them.
For loose definitions of "upcoming".
Who Harry Reid is or how many troops we've lost in Iraq.
For that matter, 30% of Americans don't know who controls congress. 44% don't know what state Senator McCain is a Senator from.
It's depressing, and it's time to stop thinking polls should control policy. If you want to control policy, you should be able to:
(1) Elucidate the problem to someone
(2) Propose a solution which stands reasonable scrutiny, and can be defended without violating obvious tenets of logic
(3) Propose inviolable metrics which would determine the success or failure, the timeframe, and the response to success or failure
I think all these polls should ask 10 questions on the issue so we can see how educated people are before they cast their votes. Notice how we have polls showing us most Americans are grossly ignorant about basic government facts. How many could explain what a Filibuster or a cloture vote is? How many have read the Federalist Papers, or can even name all three branches of government? Let's poll on an issue like this, and then let's see which side has the larger proportion of ignorance on it.
3.5B ending in the trailing 12 months ending september 29, 07.
But in the 3 quarters since (ending 12/29/07, 3/29/08, 6/28/08), Apple has already made 3.7B, and they still have a quarter to go.
That type of profitability with that type of growth comes at a premium, especially when people see upside. That's why XOM (Exxon-Mobile) has a 400B market cap despite over 40B in profits in the last year - because people see Apple's star rising and see the possibility that Apple will supplant Microsoft-based PCs as the de facto computing choice, and the possibility that Apple could devour huge amounts of market share from Nokia and RIM with their phone, and continue to grow their media empire as the place of choice to sell digital content.
On the other hand, people look at XOM and see a bloated giant, dependent in many ways on leases it holds in a myriad of foreign countries, selling a product which has clearly jumped the shark. It's not a question of if the world moves away from oil, just when and how fast. It's the same reason VCs aren't funding oil services companies but are pouring money into green tech - because we know how this ends. If there is to be anything left of civilization, it won't have XOM in it. (At least, not as an oil company of any size)
I can't imagine what someone is thinking when they moderate this tripe as insightful. No one can "make" wealth? Wealth is value.
What is more valuable to you: food, or a pile of carbon/nitrogen/etc atoms? When we grow food, we're just using tools and knowledge to "move reality around", so we're not really "making" anything, right?
Wrong, obviously. This is the very nature of "value added". Wealth is not a zero sum game. They "moved stuff around" to make computers 40 years ago. And it was more stuff. Were those rooms filled with hot, vacuum-tube using computers better because they had more "stuff"?
And to top it off, the Second Law of Thermodynamics only applies to closed systems, which the planet is not, and no one has shown the universe to be either.
Expand on their iPod and Computer empire by inventing an awesome phone? ...
Oh.
iCar, anyone?
Dude, take your phone to an Apple store and the genius bar ppl will swap it out for you. No need to be a martyr.
I greatly respect what RMS has done, but there are a lot of things I really enjoy that I can't really see coming out in a noncommercial form. I can *maybe* see some tipjar model where copies are freely made but the game still is commercially successful, but only maybe.
Would I have gotten Baldur's Gate 2, Dark Knight, Portal, or a hundred other amazing pieces of IP if those people couldn't expect to get paid?
I do believe that DRM should have a backdoor. All DRM should have to explicitly spell out what you CANNOT do, and everything else should be allowed. The "cannot do" and the product should be registered with someone (library of congress?) along with software capable of removing it entirely. In the event someone is restricted from doing something not on the predeclared "cannot" list, they should be able to acquire the "crack" from the LoC.
I think a system like this, where people could, in general, feel comfortable they'd get what they paid for, would make people much more ready to buy things with DRM. Maybe not. It would for me.
I've often thought that offering a "format guarantee" sticker on media would spur sales. I think people are tired of having bought the vinyl, the 8-track, the cassette, the CD, the mp3; or, alternately, the betamax tape, the VHS tape, the laserdisc, the DVD, the HD-DVD/Bluray disc. Enough. I want to pay for content once. Then I want to get it in whatever formats I want for a nominal fee (ie, cost of media). I want to be able to send in a hundred DVDs, and get back a hundred blu-ray discs for $200 + $10 shipping.
Anyhow, I digress. I think opposing the moral rights DRM tries to protect is in error. Original, creative works deserve some measure of limited-time protection. But I also think trampling consumers on the way to maximizing profits is both self-destructive for the creators and unpleasant for consumers.
I hate being this much of a cynic, but - 1-man indie game developer hits slashdot and such twice in a week, talking about how his recent game was his "best game ever" and he was GOING to price it much higher but now he's thinking he'll price it lower because of what pirates told him?
And there are now like 20x as many people who have heard of him as before? Well, more power to him.
I know it's fun to beat a dead horse, but it isn't YouTube's job to police content. They are acting as a service provider. Anyone can send a DMCA takedown request to YouTube; youtube has to comply to risk liability. It is up to the uploader to file a counterclaim, at which point youtube must restore it, and it is up to the filer to pursue the counterclaimant if they so desire.
There's also growth in "management and technical consulting", and "architectural and engineering services". (no idea if software engineering is grouped in that line)
I think InfoWeek is misunderstanding what constitutes the "information industry". It isn't IT people:
With the exception of, perhaps, Telecomm companies, there's no reason to infer that those are even IT jobs. When a book publisher cuts an editor, that's an "information" job.
IANAL, but if Apple can show that permitting people to install their OS on unapproved hardware causes them harm (which seems easy to do if you can show that it is less reliable because Apple has done more rigorous testing and compatibility checks on their own builds), and you can show that the PC manufacturer is in any way encouraging the users to violate the terms of the EULA, then it seems like you have a case of tortious interference.
Any of the actual lawyers on /. know if anyone has ever tried to claim tortious interference over an explicit or implied encouragement to break a shrink-wrap EULA?