The iPhone has dropped in price, and some aren't happy. Consider these rules:
1. The price will always drop eventually. This ought to be a reasonable expectation of anyone possessing a cursory knowledge of the prices of expensive electronics (iPhones, PS3s, XBox 360s, PCs, etc).
2. There is always risk in buying an item as soon as it comes out.
3. This is more of an observation than a rule, but it really is naive (and somewhat selfish), if one forgets the first two rules, to then lament if the price later drops, as if you somehow got screwed. Let's say you bought a PS3 for $500, and you're happy with it. Why be jealous of the fortunate consumer how bought it a bit later, for $400? If you have yours, you're happy with it, and it was worth the price, why complain? Now, there are situations in which one could understandably be upset, such as if you bought an iPhone for let's say, $300, and you found out only a day later that Best Buy was selling them for $150. This scenario isn't really likely in the case of the iPhone, but you get the idea. Also, if it's the same store, most times you can get the savings back if you keep your receipt, which serves as a good fourth rule.
Showing posts with label geek stuff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label geek stuff. Show all posts
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The Vista Vice Grip
Bruce Scheiner gives us yet another reason not to upgrade to Windows Vista:
Windows Vista includes an array of "features" that you don't want. These features will make your computer less reliable and less secure. They'll make your computer less stable and run slower. They will cause technical support problems. They may even require you to upgrade some of your peripheral hardware and existing software. And these features won't do anything useful. In fact, they're working against you. They're digital rights management (DRM) features built into Vista at the behest of the entertainment industry.
And you don't get to refuse them.
The details are pretty geeky, but basically Microsoft has reworked a lot of the core operating system to add copy protection technology for new media formats like HD-DVD and Blu-ray disks. Certain high-quality output paths--audio and video--are reserved for protected peripheral devices. Sometimes output quality is artificially degraded; sometimes output is prevented entirely. And Vista continuously spends CPU time monitoring itself, trying to figure out if you're doing something that it thinks you shouldn't. If it does, it limits functionality and in extreme cases restarts just the video subsystem. We still don't know the exact details of all this, and how far-reaching it is, but it doesn't look good.
Microsoft put all those functionality-crippling features into Vista because it wants to own the entertainment industry. This isn't how Microsoft spins it, of course. It maintains that it has no choice, that it's Hollywood that is demanding DRM in Windows in order to allow "premium content"--meaning, new movies that are still earning revenue--onto your computer. If Microsoft didn't play along, it'd be relegated to second-class status as Hollywood pulled its support for the platform.
This is bad news for my mom, who just bought a new Dell laptop with Vista. She's still something of a neophyte when it comes to computers, so I'll have to help her along. I think a forced downgrade back to XP may be in order.
Hat tip: Instapundit
Windows Vista includes an array of "features" that you don't want. These features will make your computer less reliable and less secure. They'll make your computer less stable and run slower. They will cause technical support problems. They may even require you to upgrade some of your peripheral hardware and existing software. And these features won't do anything useful. In fact, they're working against you. They're digital rights management (DRM) features built into Vista at the behest of the entertainment industry.
And you don't get to refuse them.
The details are pretty geeky, but basically Microsoft has reworked a lot of the core operating system to add copy protection technology for new media formats like HD-DVD and Blu-ray disks. Certain high-quality output paths--audio and video--are reserved for protected peripheral devices. Sometimes output quality is artificially degraded; sometimes output is prevented entirely. And Vista continuously spends CPU time monitoring itself, trying to figure out if you're doing something that it thinks you shouldn't. If it does, it limits functionality and in extreme cases restarts just the video subsystem. We still don't know the exact details of all this, and how far-reaching it is, but it doesn't look good.
Microsoft put all those functionality-crippling features into Vista because it wants to own the entertainment industry. This isn't how Microsoft spins it, of course. It maintains that it has no choice, that it's Hollywood that is demanding DRM in Windows in order to allow "premium content"--meaning, new movies that are still earning revenue--onto your computer. If Microsoft didn't play along, it'd be relegated to second-class status as Hollywood pulled its support for the platform.
This is bad news for my mom, who just bought a new Dell laptop with Vista. She's still something of a neophyte when it comes to computers, so I'll have to help her along. I think a forced downgrade back to XP may be in order.
Hat tip: Instapundit
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