Posts by deadlockvictim 1395 publicly visible posts • joined 19 Jun 2009
Could there be a connection between all of those almost-naked selfies that are posted online, tell-all-entries on facebook, sexted files between youths and this?
For a generation that is supposed to understand the internet, it does seem to be particularly blind to the consequences of their actions. Or does Youth today have no respect for one another?
I'm getting old.
I wonder if this is the latter day equivalent of writing 'xxx is a slut' inside a toilet-cubicle?
What should Apple have done 20-25 years' ago?
The macs that came out in the late 80's and early 90's were all overpriced. Apple could have surely increased her market share with cheaper macs. However, in relation to PCs the low end macs (LCs and Performas) in the mid-90's weren't especially expensive and were quite popular.
Apple divided people then as they do now. I remember university students have clear preferences as to the macs and PCs. Both were available. Both had the same software installed. There were some faculty differences — the PCs in architecture went almost unused as did the macs in the business school.
Apple went mad with product diversication from the mid-90s onwards and also seemed to lose its focus with the plethora of new products (Newtons, QuickTakes and so on) . It lost out with Windows 95 or rather the competition was beginning to catch up then.
Another factor was the role of the Killer App. Apple had its cute OS, PhotoShop and PageMaker (and Quark and friends) up to the mid-90's and these made Macs very popular then. In the mid-90s the first First-Person-Shooters started appearing and they were released initially for DOS. Doom, Quake, Unreal would follow and with the introduction of Windows 95, the PCs had their own Killer Apps and mac sales suffered as a consequence. I switched from macs to PCs on account of games — Half Life, in particular.
So, back to the question — What should Apple do? licence iOS to third parties as they were encouraged to do back in the early 90s? That almost killed them when they did it with System 7.
Develop a plethora of barely indistinguishable products? That didn't help them either.
Apple occupies the upper end of the market. They can't stay as they are and be all things to all people. Competition and diversity eventually kick in. Besides the upper end of the market is a nice place to be, as they long as they don't annoy their current users and drive them away.
A pity. I rather like boxen.
Origin:
< French: box; Old French boiste < Vulgar Latin *buxita, for Late Latin buxida, formation based on Latin pyxis box (see pyx), stem pyxid-, conflated with buxus box3
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bo%C3%AEte
The Oxford Dictionaries site gives:
Origin:
late Old English, probably from late Latin buxis, from Latin pyxis 'boxwood box', from Greek puxos;
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/box?q=box:
Next you'll be telling us that it's not 'irony' but 'ferrous'.
Hi Jake,
Trust on whose side? We have a guy who claims to be a whistleblower and who reveals claims about the American Government's dirty little secrets. Given their response to him, I trust what he says to be true. The American Government just doesn't annul people's passports for no good reason. They are angry with him. He has made his life miserable for he believes to be right.
He is calling the American Government's bluff by playing his China card. Since there is a good chance that he had access to this material, can the American Government afford not to trust what he says to be true?
Thanks for the downvote, btw.
I wonder if the timing of the release had anything to do with the US spat over its household budget. China is the USA's biggest creditor and it is generally very foolish to upset one's creditors. they may decide that they want their money back.
Or is this simply a warning to US death squads? Assassinate me and the World will know what you've been up to in regards to China.
As anyone who has watched 'Yes Minister' [1] will know, the purpose of any government agency is to grow and increase its budget and staff count. Companies measure their success by profits, govenrment departments by the number of employees and the size of their allocated budget.
[1] http://www.yes-minister.com/introduc.htm
and youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aom7Cwvt56U
Alas, I didn't mean it so.
The point was more grammatical than political and I was being a classical snob — we say bacteria and not bacteriums and so forth. I blame the current linguistic immigration process.
I actually quite like referenda. They add a lot of colour to political and social life and obliges one to show one's hand politically. Now, if only the Irish would copy the Swiss and have 3 or 4 referenda every season, then that would be fun. Democratic, too.
On the topic of buying Ireland, I've long thought that Bill Gates or Warren Buffet should make the Irish an offer — re-establish the monarchy by means of a few referenda [1], crown Bill as King of Ireland and Bill then takes care of the irish financial woes.
If nothing else, it would make a great movie.
[1] Down with referendums!
Dear Business Types (who aren't reading this anyway)
Every time a Microsoft type tells you that Microsoft products lower your TCO, just remember what happened when you tied all of your business-relevant code into a system that will not be supported after 7 years, like ActiveX and IE6. Oh well, it's somebody else's problem now, isn't it?
The first hit is always free.
Kind regards
By diet, I understand it to mean what we eat, not what is available.
The previous posters are correct. The availability of food has increased massively. The choice of food has increased greatly. These are good things (although they have bad as well consequences). The mechanisation of agriculture and food-processing as well as a clever use of new fertilisers and pesticides lead to much greater harvests than ever before.
However, the national diet in the First World has collectively deteriorated. Look at the increased numbers of obese people. Look at the increased incidents of circulatory conditions, diabetes and depression [1]. To be sure, we in the First World do less exercise and we have not adjusted the quality or quantity our food intake to offset this.
We need to be reminded on a constant basis to eat "5-a-day". Up until the 1970's, one didn't need to be told this because it was a part of life. Children got fruit in their lunchboxes, vegetables were cooked for meals. Office workers went to restaurants for lunch. We didn't eat pre-processed meals as a matter of course. Chocolate and such like were treats and not hourly snacks. We consumed less alcohol per head.
This is all based on personal observation. If anyone can provide a link with objective evidence that contradicts what I've written, I shall admit that I'm wrong and go over and grumble in the corner.
[1] I'm not sure about this one. Flame me please if I'm way off here.
Esteemed Author» and the diet is considerably better too
Is it? Sugar and salt in everything, live animals being hauled hundreds or thousands of kilometers for the sake of a better profit, less fresh fruit being consumed, greater quantities of mass-produced "food" (for want of a better word) being consumed. No fish left in the sea.
I'm not so sure that our diet is better, let alone considerably better.
Veti» Quick - without looking, what colour socks do you have on right now?
Easy. Black, or, at least, originally black und now washed out black [1], and they are the first two that were pulled out of the sock drawer this morning. They might even match. I haven't looked yet.
[1] cue Father Ted quote about black socks.
I brought all of my SCSI cables (old and new) in hand-luggage in 2004 or so and the people at security didn't know what to make of them. Computer equipment, I said. I had to take them out of my suitcase because it was already too heavy. It must have looked very impressive on the x-ray machine.
Still, they let me through and I am thankful for that.
Something is worth what buyers are prepared to pay for it.
It seems that Facebook is worth $45 a share. If it stays this high, I will admit that I was wrong in my estimation of its value.
I wonder who will be the next high-profile Facebook executive to cash in, now that the share price is so high.
I always get suspicious when people talk about TCO. It is one of the Microsoft mantras. They say it, so it must be true.
Microsoft products come out so often, and with the dropping of support after 7 years of official release, there is always a game of catch-up to be played. This edition works well and we are used to it and can work quickly with it but is no longer supported, so we are obliged to buy the newest package that has hit SP1. And it costs a hell of a lot more. Lower TCO my arse.
I came across a nice quote from Brent Ozar that is highly relevant here [1]:
Right up there with data integrity, security's really important.
Who else has sysadmin or securityadmin rights on this instance?
I care about securityadmin users because they can add themselves to the SA
role at any time to do their dirty work, then remove themselves back out.
Don't think of them as other sysadmins.
Think of them as users who can get you fired.
[1] http://www.brentozar.com/blitz/security-sysadmins/
In my experience, people in IT (sysadmins, DBAs, devs) dress very minimally and casually. They are proud of their T-shirt collection and spend much money on them. They get their hair cut when it gets too long and buy new runners only when they must.
When I wear an expensive suit into work, colleagues ask me if I'm going to an interview. Why otherwise would I be wearing a suit? I am attracting attention to myself by changing the uniform, or worse still, wearing the hated uniform of marketing or sales.
In the IT world it depends how good you are at your chosen field. And by 'good', I mean how knowledgeable you are and how good you are at solving problems. Enthusiasm helps greatly. Back in the late 90's, a colleague came in all excited because he had spent the previous few nights and mornings writing his own web browser. This sort of thing of impresses fellow IT-people.
You can wear formal business-wear all you like, but if you can impress those with whom you work, you will earn the respect of colleagues. I really don't believe that there is much of a sex-bias amongst geeks.
And finally, as for selling yourself to your bosses, guys have to do it too and many, many IT-guys are very poor at it.
I don't really care who takes over the helm at Microsoft as long as the new person realises that Microsoft is primarily an OS and Server company.
The new person needs to get the company to focus on these two areas and needs to be able to see the company's products from the perspective of the user.
This, I believe, was Steve Jobs' great gift. He saw himself as the User and all products had to impress him. Since he set his standards quite high, what impressed him, impressed many others too. The new Microsoft CEO needs to be able to place him or herself in the position of the typical developer, home-user, DBA, office worker and build products that people would choose of their own accord, rather than be told to use them.
Douglas Adams commented that the purpose of the Galactic President was not to wield power, rather to deflect attention away from those who did. Obama does this very well. He is (or was, until recently) a great face for America — for those inside America proof that the American Dream was still viable and for those outside America proof that America was no longer the rapid country run by the likes of Reagan, Bush and Cheney.
It seems to me that Obama is, to all intents and purposes, powerless. He can choose to swim with the current that the various agencies and departments have decided upon (as his predecessors did) or he can choose to swim against it.
Given how much success he has had with Obamacare, I don't see what chance he would have to undo the work done by his predecessors. He is little more than a pretty face.
There should be many retired or redundant metalsmiths in Romania and other ex-Soviet-Block countries with ample experience of making oversized statues.
The statue-commissioners should check there first, because if few know more about deified larger-than-life figures than they.
On a more serious note, if you want a monument to Steve Jobs, go buy an original mac (the one from Jan 1984) or a bondi-blue iMac. Either of these will honour his vision and an important contribution that he made to society.
I always wondered why Apple hasn't EA. Release all of their games on the mac first and then on PCs a few weeks' later. It would certainly make the mac more popular in gaming circles, which is a space that Apple should really be in. Many gamers spend a lot of money on their rigs.
But then Apple doesn't seem to care about macs any more.
sniff.
Actually that Steve Jobs fellow does have a connection with apples (which is what this thread is all about).
He apparently worked on an apple farm in the early 70's and then founded a computer company after said fruit. It has become quite popular since too.
Back on track, though, I far prefer the small, wild crab-apples. Their high pectin content allows for lower amounts of added sucrose when making apple jelly and they taste superb in apple pies.
I disagree.
The people I know who have acquired macs mostly did so because they liked the interface and because it just worked. They have absolutely no intention of opening it up, expanding it, upgrading it bit by bit.
If it breaks, they take it to me (alas) and then to the nearest Apple store. Furthermore, if past experience is anything to go by, they will use it for about 5 years until it breaks down or they are given a new one.
They are well aware that PCs are cheaper and could have gotten one for less.
Apple's success in the last 10 years has been due to iPods, iPads and iPhones. Mac sales are higher than before, but not that much higher. Apple designed and marketed devices that people wanted to have and liked to use. They were at the pricier end of normal and they were considered items worth spending a little bit more on. The iTunes store and massive number of non-buggy apps made for a very comfortable experience.
Microsoft, in their perennial role of one playing catch-up, will surely produce a pair of internet-connected glasses.
I'm already smiling at the travesty they will produce — so heavy and thick to support the drive for Windows 8, with transparent tiles that obscure one's vision, obligatory and unwanted onenote integration and very, very expensive.
PJI» But then, USA is not strong on justice, just like so many Register commenters.
There is no justice, just us?
I do hope that you not confusing justice with fairness. The former deals with adherence to the law while the latter deals with the distribution of resources and the making of decisons thereof.
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