Bill Gates Swears Vow Against 'Son of iPod'

Future Linux-Guru writes "The LA Times is running an article on Microsoft's efforts to preempt any single manufacturer from dominating the online video market. Among the scarier revelations is the development of AACS, a new already approved security system designed to prevent piracy on HD DVDs, which subjects users to forced upgrades." From the article: "Whichever way it shakes out, Gates vows not to play the victim in 'Son of iPod.' After learning a hard lesson in the digital music business, 'we're really having to work more closely with partners in the hardware industry and content industry, to really think through the whole end-to-end experience and make it better,' Gates said. 'That's where we've done our mea culpa. We are fixing that.'"

Son of iPod?

[Da Fokka]

So, what's the son of iPod going to be called?

e-Sus?

... done our mea culpa?

[dscho]

Not parse this sentence does.

mea culpa

[myukew]

obviously bill gates doesn't know that "mea culpa" translates to "my fault [wikipedia.org]" and thus the sentence "we did our mea culpa" is wrong. tztztz

I am your Father

[urbanshepherd]

Is the son of an iPod an iPea?

Define irony

[FidelCatsro]

Microsoft Taking a stand against monopolys

Tasty lawsuit

[al_fruitbat]

Parsons later directed Time Warner to join with Microsoft in buying a combined majority stake in ContentGuard, which holds patents on anti-copying techniques

I'd love to see 'em take someone to court for copying their anti-copying techniques ;-)

Bill gates means

[Arthur B.]

"we're really having to work more closely with partners in the hardware industry and content industry, to really think through the whole end-to-end experience and make it better"

work more closely -> control
think thorugh the whole experience -> control
make it better -> abuse our vertical dominant position

The theme of the article...

[gunpowda]

The Microtunes store: 30 pieces of silver per track.

Re: Son of iPod?

[Black Parrot]

> So, what's the son of iPod going to be called?

O'iPod?

MaciPod?

Ben iPod?

iPodson?

Re:Define Paradoxical

[Anonymous Coward]

It's paradoxical, actually -- not ironic.

Re:why be concerned?

[DrJimbo]

maxpublic said:

Conspiracies between megalomaniacs rarely end well.

J.R.R. Tolkien said:

There is only one Lord of the Ring, only one who can bend it to his will. And he does not share power.

Re:Son of iPod?

[shiller]

Son of a bitch?

Re:Son of iPod?

[damsa]

Apple likes to use i,power and e as prefixes. So it will either be called powerPod, or ePod. I think ePod as son of the iPod, and PowerPod will be the father of the iPod, and my guess will be //Pod will be the grand father of the ipod. Oh, and the Uncle of the iPod, that no one talks about will be called the LisaPod.

Other things Bill Gates swore by

[sl4shd0rk]

There won't be anything we won't say to people to try and convince them that our way is the way to go.
--
In the decade ahead I can predict that we will provide over twice the productivity improvement that we provided in the '90s."
--
Let's face it, the average computer user has the brain of a Spider Monkey.
--
If you can't make it good, at least make it look good.
--
Microsoft programs are generally bug-free. If you visit the Microsoft hotline, you'll literally have to wait weeks if not months until someone calls in with a bug in one of our programs. 99.99% of calls turn out to be user mistakes. I know not a single less irrelevant reason for an update than bugfixes.
The reasons for updates are to present more new features.

(sources)
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/bill_g ates.html [brainyquote.com]
http://www.antioffline.com/HUM/bill.gates.quotes.h tml [antioffline.com]

Re:Apple's success is Gates' failure?

[Fahrvergnuugen]

"He seems to get it backwards, every time." And it has made him the richest man in the world. Sucks, doesn't it?

Re:I am your Father

[Coelacanth]

No, it's an iFlea. [nytimes.com] Wait thru the ad, it's worth it...

Article summary:

[An Onerous Coward]

Bill Gates realizes that he made a bunch of hugely arrogant mistakes that sabotaged his efforts with the content providers, but has humbled himself, turned over a new leaf, and is now ready to make a bunch of hugely arrogant mistakes that will sabotage his efforts with the content buyers.

What's the old saying? Something about it being impossible for a Microsoft product to not suck before version 3.0? It sounds like Gates has a whole new series of lessons to learn before Microsoft gets this right.

Hello!

[Anonymous Coward]

My name is Inigo iPod.
You killed my father.
Prepare to die.

But...

[Anonymous Coward]

You can always get more women...

We control the horizontal

[BaudKarma]

We control the vertical.

Who knew they were talking about markets?

Re:mea culpa

[hoggoth]

Bill: "I was wro..."
Bill: "I admit I was wro..."
Bill: "WROOOO..."
Bill: "Yes, I was wroooo..."
Bill: "umm... mea culpa."

Re:Son of iPod?

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

Presumably on the plane you weren't watching "Where the Boys Aren't, Vol. 37".

Re:Son of iPod?

[Aumaden]

Does this mean MS will strike back with ...

iePod!?

Re:Who are Microsoft making their products for ?

[amliebsch]

Who are Microsoft making their products for ?

Developers!

Developers!

Developers!

Developers!

Re:Why is everybody saying Apple has a monopoly?

[argent]

What is the problem?

The problem is that Microsoft isn't getting a free pass from the market for a change, so their hired legislators are casting aspertions and viewing in alarm and so on.

Microsoft actually has a plausible business case for not supporting the Mac, by the way. Apple doesn't have a strong DRM framework! iTunes doesn't have components that run in the kernel to keep people from hooking in to the audio stream after it's decrypted and before it's converted to analog! My god, can you imagine what would happen if people could do that! Chaos! Anarchy! Dogs and cats living together! Someone might even burn a track to an audio CD and then rip it back to... wait... don't they allow that anyway? Oh, hush, don't tell anyone...