Using his blue box, Steve Wozniak once called the Vatican (for free), and, imitating Henry Kissinger's voice, asked if he could speak with the pope. The pope turned out to be asleep. Wozniak pulled these pranks together with Steve Jobs, with whom he'd found Apple computer not long after. Oh, how the times have changed. How can a company with its roots in phreaking, pranks, and home-made computing end up the way it is today?
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Member since:2005-07-06
Also, there is no issue with anyone liking or disliking a company. "Liking" something is not akin to looking to it for emotional fulfillment, though.
I have nothing against Thom. I was simply pointing out that some people's attachment to Apple is a little bit ridiculous at times. They are not a religion, and they're only selling pretty boxes that do things -- nothing more, nothing less. I think some Internet nerds often forget this.
Member since:2005-09-10
Look, you did quote him out of context, and the only purpose your post served was to ridicule someone who wrote an opinion piece. In fact, you are still at it:
As opposed to Thom? Are you suggesting that unlike you, Thom's sole source of spiritual/emotional satisfaction is Apple or objects in general? It takes a great deal of ill will to twist the meaning of what he wrote to serve your purpose... which still seems to be the same I pointed out.
PS: Don't you dare lecture me about not seeing the finer details in life. You don't know me. What was that about being belittling?
Look, I'm sorry about that, it was a bit overboard. At that time I thought you were a teenager - being a teacher, I routinely lecture them. Still, obviously you're not, and I apologize. (Ok, that was a snide remark too) The point is, that I did exactly what you did and for that, a do feel some regret. Otherwise, 99% of us don't know shit about each other (no need to point out the obvious there), and yet, some of chose to ridicule others by deliberately twisting the meaning of what they wrote. Sad but true. Deal with it. And the occasional consequences.
Member since:2007-10-26
If I buy an expensive iPhone and cannot use it the way I want or was promised I could do, I get pretty emotional about it. Not necessarily in the Amiga Zealot way, but that I just wasted a lot of money.
Things like this Apple Bashing 1984 initiative does give Apple an idea of what people are annoyed with and a business incentive to change it (more sales). Sending emails to bigboss@apple.com will be read by a secretary and then deleted.
I do hope the 1984-thread will contain concrete arguments rather than emotional, otherwise I think it will be ignored. USA based companies, perhaps more than in other places, will look at alternatives and if path B leads to bigger revenue than A, path B will be chosen.
I use MacOS, Linux and Windows everyday and I tend to lean towards Mac because it's a trouble free (relatively) environment to work in. For the same reason I tend to like NetBeans over Eclipse. The day the trouble of using Mac > other platform, Apple will loose me as a customer. For me (self employed programmer) this is strictly a business decision. I do think Microsoft is a better company for us programmers, but that the Apple machines offers higher productivity (my MBP has for example the first usable touchpad I've ever used and has MacOS is a solid UN*X with more or less the same commercial programs as Windows where it counts for me).
Member since:2007-09-06
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently."In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies."The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Member since:
2005-07-06
I'm not attacking. You're perfectly accurate about human nature, and there being some degree of emotion to everything we do or say -- you just proved that, by getting your panties all up in a knot about my comment. :-)
Look, I like my iPhone. It pleases me to keep its case and screen clean. I like using it. I'd be pretty devastated if I lost or broke it. That's definitely a level of emotional attachment -- and I'm not ashamed to admit it. There are people out there who have shed themselves of all emotional attachment to physical possessions, but I myself have not reached that level of enlightenment or whatever you want to call it.
On the other hand, I don't look to Apple (or my iPhone, or MacBook Pro) to fill my heart with longing, or provide some kind of spiritual or emotional satisfaction. Spiritual and emotional satisfaction/attachment I find in people who are close to me, and by travelling and seeing new things and observing how different cultures or groups of people behave.
I look at Apple as a company that makes some great products -- products that are easy to get attached to, but all in all, mass-produced products that are replaceable.
PS: Don't you dare lecture me about not seeing the finer details in life. You don't know me. What was that about being belittling?