Flash being a plugin has one big advantage - it can be filtered. This allows me to avoid the most annoying ads - those with sound and animation. And for those sites that need it, I can turn it on. If/when everything is HTML, separating content and annoying extras will be a lot harder.
Of course, had Apple not produced a locked down, proprietary iPhone, we would have been tethering all along, and it would be easy to assign blame to AT&T. From where I sit, Apple is helping AT&T, and while they may not be the only company to do so, it is certainly not the case that Apple is completely innocent here.
Since Verizon and Sprint don't use GSM like the rest of the world, "being locked down to AT&T" in the US means "not making a separate, completely different model from what the rest of the world uses for Verizon and Sprint". It's not as easy as just having an exclusivity deal expire. Using different networks is one way the US carriers can avoid having the market be as competitive as in Europe.
Does the competition have enough capacity to supply all the demand themselves? I suspect not. IIRC refining is a particular bottleneck.
Are there bottlenecks? Certainly. But the price isn't set by BP as such, they sell their product for the most they can get for it already. They are not a charity, if they could increase the price per liter with 10 cents, they would do so. Company specific fines and costs don't change that.
Bonus: for several years I have proudly demonstrated my nose hairs to a chosen few with Video VOIP using Microsoft Portrait on Windows Mobile (...)I hear that Apple's newest phone may finally have Video VOIP thus summer...
Windows Mobile, eh? The platform that Microsoft has discontinued due to failure and generally being awkward, and Skype dropped. You can't download Skype for Windows mobile anymore.
As for voice chat on cell phones, it was awkward (and thus completely unused, other than once for trying) on my Nokia N95 - and I doubt even Apple can get around the "holding your phone at arms length in front of you is awkward and stupid" issue. Apple certainly needs multitasking (which Microsoft won't have on their phones replacing the now discontinued and obsolete Windows Mobile), and things like FM radio would be really nice. Front facing camera, OTOH, is a waste.
Any damages applied to them would simply be passed on to the consumers.
That's only true if you are a monopolist, and there are no substitutes for your product. BP by itself can't e.g. raise gas prices, because of the competition - so any fines will have to be out of their profits or capital.
No, I would expect a harddrive to work in Linux. A harddrive which relies on ReadyDrive would not be a very good product, as it would only work correctly in Windows. That's why those type of harddisks never caught on, even though Microsoft did try to push this concept.
It would be a good product for the vast majority of laptops sold. Not being linux compatible is not why it didn't catch on as most people unfortunately don't care. There is a huge market for Windows-only hardware and software. The reason is probably as simple as the cost/benefit ratio not being what it should be, or the race to the bottom direction that has dominated the PC market with the exception of Apple.
FWIW, in most of Europe liberal parties are considered to be on the centre-right or right of the political map. To the left, you have social democrats and socialists. Personally, I'm a conservative here... and I consider the most visible factions of the Republicans for right-wing nuts, even though "my" party has the GOP as their "sister party". The democrats are to the right of me in most issues, and to the left of me in some.
Right wing economics is one thing (delusional as some of their ideas are, given the size of your deficit you need tax raises and spending cuts)... but when you even think about teaching creationism, call Obama a socialist or fascist, want to carry concealed guns everywhere, bring up their made up birth certificate stories and support Israel blindly in its occupation of land and displacement of its current populace, they enter the category of "crazy people" as far as I'm concerned. And I'm right leaning here, wanting tax cuts, more personal freedom (which is what being liberal means) and less religion as anything other than a personal life style choice.
Quad-cores had a lot to do with performance, while this technical innovation is more to do with cost.
Not only cost, but also system design. Also, the cost side has more sides than the one you present: Two smaller chips will have larger yields than one large, and Intel is ahead of AMD when it comes to chip manufacturing.
If I ran the country (and I really think I should), carriers would not be allowed to bundle the phones.
Norway has a mobile market that works a lot better than the US, and here are a couple of key reasons why:
One common standard - GSM. This ensures competition, because a phone is compatible with all mobile operators. Thus, you get plans with and without subsidies ("bring your own phone"). In the US, you have different standards which makes switching operators harder
After the carrier subsidy period is over, they are mandated by law to unlock your phone if you ask. The phone is yours, you paid for it.
For consumers, the maximum contract length is 12 months. For businesses, 24 months. This typically means that the monthly rate go down after this period, as you could unlock it and leave otherwise
There also has to be a possibility for the customer to terminate this contract earlier, by paying a prorated fee.
You have plenty of Mobile Virtual Network Operators, which increases the competition. As a condition of using a limited, public resource the mobile network operators have to accommodate them.
Competition is good, but sometimes you need to regulate to ensure a free market.
Name 1 in the past year that was on the level of HL, HL2, DOOM, Monkey Island, Portal. I love gaming and some good games did come out recently but I cannot think of a great 1-2 in the past year.
Here's two: Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2. Sure, I enjoyed many games back then too - the TIE fighter series, Day of the tentacle, Monkey Island, Gabriel Knight and more - but there are plenty of good games today as well.
Systems like these have a very limited lifespan. The military saved a lot of money upfront. The consequence of this is that the number of active nodes in the cluster might go down slightly during the system's remaining lifespan (a couple of years, not more). Negative impact? Yes. But enough so that spending many times the amount on getting custom built hardware would be worth it? Very unlikely. And if you go a couple of levels up the hierarchy, risks like this - and cost savings - are averaged out over many acquisitions and projects. I think your conclusion is extremely unlikely.
(about people running WOW on private servers not being pirates)
That's like saying people who go to burger king instead of mcdonalds are somehow "pirates".
I disagree. Your McDonald's/Burger King analogy would match better with people playing Age of Conan rather than WoW - something that is clearly not piracy, just choosing another vendor. Running WOW on private servers would be more like having someone tape a cinema showing of a movie, then showing that privately to a large group of friends.
(about government's wanting to dish out compensation)
Only when it's to banks.
Or car companies.
Or anyone else who puts money in politician's pockets.
There is a distinct difference between "wanting to" and "having to". If nothing had been done to the banks, almost every single one would be dead - they'd have fallen like dominoes. Both because of their economic interactions with other banks, and because the effect of other failing banks on the economy - and thus on the banks' customers. Not bailing out the banks would have caused complete economic meltdown. Sure, the bailout could have been done better about doing something not too different than what was sod
Letting all the car companies fail at the same time would also have had huge domino effects - retirees would lose their pensions and health insurance, companies delivering to the car companies would fail, all of the people without a job would stop spending money and paying their loans leading to more people being out of a job etc. The economy was in a very bad state, and pumping in money gave a little time for them to either succeed or fail separately, at a better time. The consequences of failure wouldn't have been as catastrophic as with the banks, so here it was weighing the benefits (no big shock at a critical time) vs the cost (money spent).
My desk also happens to be right next to the break room where people religiously burn popcorn, microwave fish, and speak to each other as if they are in a stadium because the television is turned up loud enough to drown out said people. There is someone about 12 feet behind me in a similar such cube whom I constantly hear sucking on one of those water bottles and randomly taking a bite out of an apple or other similar food product
Try some noise canceling head phones - I recommend Bose QuietComfort 15, and most background noise just disappear. I've had noise canceling headsets before, but this one was leagues ahead of my old ones (in price too... but it was worth it).
You don't have to play music for them to be useful, I often just turn them on to blank out noise. It won't protect you from emails constantly arriving, or co-workers approaching you, but it will help with noise not targeted at you.
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin. You are suggesting that they might have alternatives. Here I could chose among many employers with good terms and conditions if I needed to. They might not have a choice - you got to eat. Articles like this one reminds me of why unions were important and necessary 100-150 years ago.
How are you going to use it? Many phones have had front facing cameras, but video calls from cell phones have been a complete failure so far... and I guess one of the reasons is that holding the phone half a meter in front of you is awkward, plus you can't see the one you're calling then.
(and bigger corporate customers might not ask questions before cutting a check to a company already in the system).
Bigger companies would have routines in place that would make this very hard... if you send an invoice, they'd better have a current PO number (or equivalent) or they'd be out of luck. Big companies have routines, and dedicated people to carry them out. This wouldn't be the first scam they'd see...
A better target would be a small company, with just enough people that not everyone knows everything that happens, but too small to actually have rigid routines on everything.
I would seriously like a serious opinion from other people. Are apple's machines, in particluar their notebooks overpriced?
Apple only sell premium systems, and are competitive in that area - try speccing up some of the higher end computers at Dell(Adamo, Precision), instead of their cheapest stuff (latitude, precision). They are also the only game in town running MacOS X, which is a decisive argument for many. Add to this that Apple is among the top ranked in customer support and satisfaction... Dell isn't.
In my opinion, their prices are OK when launching. Apple usually doesn't adjust their prices during the product lifecycle, however, so while e.g. their last generation had a good price when launched (again, in its segment) it wasn't as good last week just before the new generation was released.
Re:Like Woz didn't move on a LONG time ago?
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The Apple Two
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I thought Dell had a touch screen option for one of there netbooks. They do it is the latitude netbook in the business line not the home line. Those school themed colors do not really suit me though.
So what? Having a touchscreen isn't good if you can't make very good use of it. This is one of the reasons previous tablets never made inroads into the market... One of the smart things Apple did with iPad, was to use the iPhone OS rather than MacOS X. The device, and all the existing software on it, is designed for touch. Adding a touchscreen to a normal Windows/Linux notebook just doesn't serve that much purpose.
Most of the jobs that actually pay a salary don't give a rat's ass about any F/OSS projects you've worked on. Recruiters want to know what your paid experience was. If you're applying for your typical corporate IT department (read a MS shop), no one really gives a shit. They want their laundry list of skills and at least 2-3 years experience with each.
One good thing about contributing to OSS, is that you it demonstrates knowledge in areas that your paid job might not. These areas might be relevant for the job you are applying for.
So you're saying that to continue to grow Apple will need to release a phenomenally popular and profitable new product that's a platform for people to attach further hardware, software and media purchases to, and so grow their earnings
No, I'm saying that they are prices as if they will come up with many such new products, improve their market share and keep or improve their margins. I don't think Apple is a bad company, I think they do well and will continue to do well. I just think the stock price is too high.
It's not a matter of if Apple will pass Microsoft now, but when. Google's also making a run at it, but they've got a lot further to go.
Apple's market cap is driven by the same hip image as their hardware. Now, I like Apple products. They are executing extremely well, and delivering high quality, market leading products in their niches. But this is already part of their stock price, and then some. Apple has a 50% higher P/E than Microsoft, and that is a bit much.
How does the existence, or non-existence, of middlemen affect my perceived value?
Indeed, it doesn't. I'm just pointing out how it looks on the other side - publisher and author. Their costs are almost the same, and the point that I was making is that while one middleman is removed, another is added. Thus, there isn't a lot of savings to pass on to the buyer.
Given this, it may be the case that for most people the paper edition is indeed the best value. The idea "but all this paper isn't needed and the bookstore don't get their cut anymore, it should be cheaaap!" doesn't really apply. For the seller, the cost are the same and for the customer, paper might be best.
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Flash being a plugin has one big advantage - it can be filtered. This allows me to avoid the most annoying ads - those with sound and animation. And for those sites that need it, I can turn it on. If/when everything is HTML, separating content and annoying extras will be a lot harder.
Of course, had Apple not produced a locked down, proprietary iPhone, we would have been tethering all along, and it would be easy to assign blame to AT&T. From where I sit, Apple is helping AT&T, and while they may not be the only company to do so, it is certainly not the case that Apple is completely innocent here.
Since Verizon and Sprint don't use GSM like the rest of the world, "being locked down to AT&T" in the US means "not making a separate, completely different model from what the rest of the world uses for Verizon and Sprint". It's not as easy as just having an exclusivity deal expire. Using different networks is one way the US carriers can avoid having the market be as competitive as in Europe.
Does the competition have enough capacity to supply all the demand themselves? I suspect not. IIRC refining is a particular bottleneck.
Are there bottlenecks? Certainly. But the price isn't set by BP as such, they sell their product for the most they can get for it already. They are not a charity, if they could increase the price per liter with 10 cents, they would do so. Company specific fines and costs don't change that.
Bonus: for several years I have proudly demonstrated my nose hairs to a chosen few with Video VOIP using Microsoft Portrait on Windows Mobile (...)I hear that Apple's newest phone may finally have Video VOIP thus summer...
Windows Mobile, eh? The platform that Microsoft has discontinued due to failure and generally being awkward, and Skype dropped. You can't download Skype for Windows mobile anymore.
As for voice chat on cell phones, it was awkward (and thus completely unused, other than once for trying) on my Nokia N95 - and I doubt even Apple can get around the "holding your phone at arms length in front of you is awkward and stupid" issue. Apple certainly needs multitasking (which Microsoft won't have on their phones replacing the now discontinued and obsolete Windows Mobile), and things like FM radio would be really nice. Front facing camera, OTOH, is a waste.
Any damages applied to them would simply be passed on to the consumers.
That's only true if you are a monopolist, and there are no substitutes for your product. BP by itself can't e.g. raise gas prices, because of the competition - so any fines will have to be out of their profits or capital.
No, I would expect a harddrive to work in Linux. A harddrive which relies on ReadyDrive would not be a very good product, as it would only work correctly in Windows. That's why those type of harddisks never caught on, even though Microsoft did try to push this concept.
It would be a good product for the vast majority of laptops sold. Not being linux compatible is not why it didn't catch on as most people unfortunately don't care. There is a huge market for Windows-only hardware and software. The reason is probably as simple as the cost/benefit ratio not being what it should be, or the race to the bottom direction that has dominated the PC market with the exception of Apple.
FWIW, in most of Europe liberal parties are considered to be on the centre-right or right of the political map. To the left, you have social democrats and socialists. Personally, I'm a conservative here... and I consider the most visible factions of the Republicans for right-wing nuts, even though "my" party has the GOP as their "sister party". The democrats are to the right of me in most issues, and to the left of me in some.
Right wing economics is one thing (delusional as some of their ideas are, given the size of your deficit you need tax raises and spending cuts)... but when you even think about teaching creationism, call Obama a socialist or fascist, want to carry concealed guns everywhere, bring up their made up birth certificate stories and support Israel blindly in its occupation of land and displacement of its current populace, they enter the category of "crazy people" as far as I'm concerned. And I'm right leaning here, wanting tax cuts, more personal freedom (which is what being liberal means) and less religion as anything other than a personal life style choice.
Quad-cores had a lot to do with performance, while this technical innovation is more to do with cost.
Not only cost, but also system design. Also, the cost side has more sides than the one you present: Two smaller chips will have larger yields than one large, and Intel is ahead of AMD when it comes to chip manufacturing.
if you're going to be a grammar troll you could at least be right. Policies is the subject in the second sentence and it's plural, are is correct.
Grammar trolls shouldn't confuse "it's" and "its". They should also know when to use capital letters and commas.
If I ran the country (and I really think I should), carriers would not be allowed to bundle the phones.
Norway has a mobile market that works a lot better than the US, and here are a couple of key reasons why:
Competition is good, but sometimes you need to regulate to ensure a free market.
Name 1 in the past year that was on the level of HL, HL2, DOOM, Monkey Island, Portal. I love gaming and some good games did come out recently but I cannot think of a great 1-2 in the past year.
Here's two: Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2. Sure, I enjoyed many games back then too - the TIE fighter series, Day of the tentacle, Monkey Island, Gabriel Knight and more - but there are plenty of good games today as well.
Systems like these have a very limited lifespan. The military saved a lot of money upfront. The consequence of this is that the number of active nodes in the cluster might go down slightly during the system's remaining lifespan (a couple of years, not more). Negative impact? Yes. But enough so that spending many times the amount on getting custom built hardware would be worth it? Very unlikely. And if you go a couple of levels up the hierarchy, risks like this - and cost savings - are averaged out over many acquisitions and projects. I think your conclusion is extremely unlikely.
(about people running WOW on private servers not being pirates) That's like saying people who go to burger king instead of mcdonalds are somehow "pirates".
I disagree. Your McDonald's/Burger King analogy would match better with people playing Age of Conan rather than WoW - something that is clearly not piracy, just choosing another vendor. Running WOW on private servers would be more like having someone tape a cinema showing of a movie, then showing that privately to a large group of friends.
Only when it's to banks. Or car companies. Or anyone else who puts money in politician's pockets.
There is a distinct difference between "wanting to" and "having to". If nothing had been done to the banks, almost every single one would be dead - they'd have fallen like dominoes. Both because of their economic interactions with other banks, and because the effect of other failing banks on the economy - and thus on the banks' customers. Not bailing out the banks would have caused complete economic meltdown. Sure, the bailout could have been done better about doing something not too different than what was sod
Letting all the car companies fail at the same time would also have had huge domino effects - retirees would lose their pensions and health insurance, companies delivering to the car companies would fail, all of the people without a job would stop spending money and paying their loans leading to more people being out of a job etc. The economy was in a very bad state, and pumping in money gave a little time for them to either succeed or fail separately, at a better time. The consequences of failure wouldn't have been as catastrophic as with the banks, so here it was weighing the benefits (no big shock at a critical time) vs the cost (money spent).
My desk also happens to be right next to the break room where people religiously burn popcorn, microwave fish, and speak to each other as if they are in a stadium because the television is turned up loud enough to drown out said people. There is someone about 12 feet behind me in a similar such cube whom I constantly hear sucking on one of those water bottles and randomly taking a bite out of an apple or other similar food product
Try some noise canceling head phones - I recommend Bose QuietComfort 15, and most background noise just disappear. I've had noise canceling headsets before, but this one was leagues ahead of my old ones (in price too... but it was worth it).
You don't have to play music for them to be useful, I often just turn them on to blank out noise. It won't protect you from emails constantly arriving, or co-workers approaching you, but it will help with noise not targeted at you.
These people did it on their own free will.
"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose" - Janis Joplin. You are suggesting that they might have alternatives. Here I could chose among many employers with good terms and conditions if I needed to. They might not have a choice - you got to eat. Articles like this one reminds me of why unions were important and necessary 100-150 years ago.
Then war is art.
One of the world's most famous books might indicate that, but personally I think war is better perceived as inspiration than as an art itself.
A front facing camera
How are you going to use it? Many phones have had front facing cameras, but video calls from cell phones have been a complete failure so far... and I guess one of the reasons is that holding the phone half a meter in front of you is awkward, plus you can't see the one you're calling then.
(and bigger corporate customers might not ask questions before cutting a check to a company already in the system).
Bigger companies would have routines in place that would make this very hard... if you send an invoice, they'd better have a current PO number (or equivalent) or they'd be out of luck. Big companies have routines, and dedicated people to carry them out. This wouldn't be the first scam they'd see...
A better target would be a small company, with just enough people that not everyone knows everything that happens, but too small to actually have rigid routines on everything.
I would seriously like a serious opinion from other people. Are apple's machines, in particluar their notebooks overpriced?
Apple only sell premium systems, and are competitive in that area - try speccing up some of the higher end computers at Dell(Adamo, Precision), instead of their cheapest stuff (latitude, precision). They are also the only game in town running MacOS X, which is a decisive argument for many. Add to this that Apple is among the top ranked in customer support and satisfaction... Dell isn't.
In my opinion, their prices are OK when launching. Apple usually doesn't adjust their prices during the product lifecycle, however, so while e.g. their last generation had a good price when launched (again, in its segment) it wasn't as good last week just before the new generation was released.
I thought Dell had a touch screen option for one of there netbooks. They do it is the latitude netbook in the business line not the home line. Those school themed colors do not really suit me though.
So what? Having a touchscreen isn't good if you can't make very good use of it. This is one of the reasons previous tablets never made inroads into the market... One of the smart things Apple did with iPad, was to use the iPhone OS rather than MacOS X. The device, and all the existing software on it, is designed for touch. Adding a touchscreen to a normal Windows/Linux notebook just doesn't serve that much purpose.
Most of the jobs that actually pay a salary don't give a rat's ass about any F/OSS projects you've worked on. Recruiters want to know what your paid experience was. If you're applying for your typical corporate IT department (read a MS shop), no one really gives a shit. They want their laundry list of skills and at least 2-3 years experience with each.
One good thing about contributing to OSS, is that you it demonstrates knowledge in areas that your paid job might not. These areas might be relevant for the job you are applying for.
So you're saying that to continue to grow Apple will need to release a phenomenally popular and profitable new product that's a platform for people to attach further hardware, software and media purchases to, and so grow their earnings
No, I'm saying that they are prices as if they will come up with many such new products, improve their market share and keep or improve their margins. I don't think Apple is a bad company, I think they do well and will continue to do well. I just think the stock price is too high.
It's not a matter of if Apple will pass Microsoft now, but when. Google's also making a run at it, but they've got a lot further to go.
Apple's market cap is driven by the same hip image as their hardware. Now, I like Apple products. They are executing extremely well, and delivering high quality, market leading products in their niches. But this is already part of their stock price, and then some. Apple has a 50% higher P/E than Microsoft, and that is a bit much.
How does the existence, or non-existence, of middlemen affect my perceived value?
Indeed, it doesn't. I'm just pointing out how it looks on the other side - publisher and author. Their costs are almost the same, and the point that I was making is that while one middleman is removed, another is added. Thus, there isn't a lot of savings to pass on to the buyer.
Given this, it may be the case that for most people the paper edition is indeed the best value. The idea "but all this paper isn't needed and the bookstore don't get their cut anymore, it should be cheaaap!" doesn't really apply. For the seller, the cost are the same and for the customer, paper might be best.