Slashback: Drives, Pods, OEMs 392
Drive-n to strong drink and harsh words. Kenneth Yu writes: "You might recall the overwhelming response to a recent 'Ask Slashdot' regarding the abnormally high failure rates of IBM 75GXP Hard drives, and the pulling of all 75GXP from Pair Networks' Servers. A class action lawsuit has been filed by Michael Granido, Jr., on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated. You can view the complaint in PDF format at http://www.sheller.com/IBM_complaint.pdf. This story was initially reported by Tech Report (http://www.tech-report.com)."
Apropos that, jriskin writes: "Storagereview.com has its new reliability database up and running. I have no affiliation with the site, but it only benifits the community to have as many people contribute as possible. The database is a listing of hard drives and whether or not they have failed, when they were purchased, etc. So get over there and put in all your HD data!" Things like this could help eliminate the anecdotal-only nature of many of hardware complaints, especially if people who are happy with their hardware bother to report it.
Falling far from a tree has nothing to do with it. Majik writes "A quick correction - the iPod has *10* gigs of storage, not 5 (or 6 like the Nomad). And with the Firewire interface you can move an entire CD in under a minute. Although I admit I was hoping for more out of the product announcement, it's still pretty darn cool ... "
On the other hand, jchristopher writes: "Love it or hate it, Apple's new iPod digital music player is here. Yesterday, many people commented that "at least it has no copy protection" and praised Apple's attitude toward digital music. Unfortunately, this may not be the case - according to this New York Times article, the iPod does indeed have copy protection - MP3 files copied to the iPod from one Mac to the iPod CAN'T be offloaded onto a different computer. Ouch!" That means (at least without further hacking) it can't be used as a transfer medium between the G3 and work and the iMac kept hidden in your darkest closet, which is sort of a shame considering that it has all the right things built in to be even better than the several portable firewire drives on the market.
Unorginal Equipment Makers. An Anonymous Coward writes: "This is a follow-up on a previous story posted to Slashdot about Microsoft's anti-competitive OEM contracts." It's a report by German journalist Erik Möller (hi, Erik!), who too an extremely thorough look at the details of OEM bundling deals, and what they mean to customers. Möller's conclusion: "No operating system will ever be able to compete with Microsoft Windows on the desktop market as long as OEMs cannot legally install it besides Windows without losing their license."
'Technical meaures' covers a pretty broad swath. Robotech_Master writes "The RIAA has responded to the 'license to virus' story, calling it a false Internet rumor and explaining their side of the story." So the RIAA officially does not want a license to hack, at least on paper.
Apple Hype (Score:5, Funny)
One upset consumer was heard to say, "I read on some web site claiming to have apple insiders that their new digital device was going to be a fully digital electric car with handwriting recognition, 14 pci slots, and a breakfast buffet in the trunk. How dare Apple promise something so great and then deliver a simple mp3 player?"
Other people have complained about the price, feeling that even though the hard drive that powers the iPod costs $400 all by itself, Apple should've cut the price significantly so that their customers don't have to spend so much money. An stock analyst in an expensive suit told us, "I don't get it. Apple somehow managed to post a profit this past quarter, despite everyone else bleeding money and complaining how bad the economy is for computer makers. Where do they get the gall to not be losing millions of dollars?"
After this extreme disappointment, Apple watchers are all looking into the future, hoping for better results from their favorite company next time. Rumors of a levitating PDA that has voice recognition, does tarot card readings, and has wireless access that allows it to communicate with NASA's Cassini space probe have gotten everyone excited!
Re:10 gigs? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Ipod will redefine music listening (Score:2, Funny)
Two Favorite Lines in the RIAA Article (Score:4, Funny)
"What's worse - we were accused of equating Internet piracy with terrorism. We may take Internet piracy seriously, but we're not insane."
Oh, I beg to differ... ;-)
"It's one thing to be criticized for what we do - that's fair game. But to be vilified for what we don't do - that's very disheartening."
Maybe if we vilify them even more, they'll be so disheartened that they'll give up! Wouldn't that be the day?
language as a weapon (Score:2, Funny)
One needs a license to hack? That'll be the day...
Re:10 Gigs? (Score:3, Funny)
... unless you're selling tape drives. %#@%$^#@$ marketing weasels!
Maybe that's it - "10G capacity [assuming a 2:1 compression ratio for your MP3s; only has 5G "native" capacity but buy it anyway because 10 is a nice big number and only whiny nerds read these footnotes]".
Re:iPod does *not* have 10 gigs (Score:3, Funny)
really? I hadn't heard anything about an 8ghz chip. I'm gonna submit that to slashdot!
...wow, imagine a beowulf cluster of those rendering final fantasy with natalie portman.
More reliable ipod facts (Score:1, Funny)
Also, if you copy an MP3 to it, it's permanently deleted from your hard drive so you cannot listen to it again. As well, iTunes calls up the RIAA to tell them what you copied.
Also iTunes only lets you make MP3's at the 16 kbit level. It's limited like that because Macs have only one mouse button.