Posted on 12/31/2010 4:21:28 PM PST by Swordmaker
An iCal alarm popped up for us today. It said:
Mark Oct. 22 on your calendar. That's the day that Apple's classic 'I'm a Mac. I'm A PC' attack ads are going to cease to be humorous. Oct. 22 is, of course, the formal release date of Windows 7... Here's what I believe will happen: The Windows 7 launch will take those market-share gains Apple has seen over the past several years and make them disappear... Yes, the Mac has had a great run for the past couple of years. Gartner says Apple's share of the U.S. computer market for the third quarter amounted to 8.8 percent, up from 8.6 percent in the year-ago period. My bet is that market share is going to drop below 5 percent by the end of 2010... Windows 7 is a great product and Apple is going to feel the pain from it. — Steven Burke, CRN, October 15, 2009
Let's check in with Gartner:
Whoopsie. Let's hope for Steven's sake that all he bet was his reputation. Not a big loss. And, Steven, Apple's feeling no pain unless it's from the strain of driving dump trucks full of cash to the bank 24/7/365.
Now, granted, while those are the latest numbers, they're not truly "the end of 2010," so we'll check in again in a few weeks when Gartner releases their numbers for calendar 4th quarter.
Of course, nobody sane expects Apple to go from 10.4% to under 5% in three months, but we're certainly not averse to serving crow twice.
Send your New Year's wishes to Steven here: steve.burke@ec.ubm.com
If you indeed think it’s gramatically incorrect, why don’t you correct it?
I totally agree, by the way, that this exchange is getting old.
I know the reference, by the way, but since he doesn’t do the rest of his talking in the King’s English I was assuming he was not directly quoting Shakespeare. I merely assumed he was continuing his habit of using suspect grammar.
-- Shakespeare, Hamlet III iv.
"Hoist" was in Shakespeare's time the past participle of a verb "to hoise", which meant what "to hoist" does now: to lift. A petard (see under "peter out" for the etymology) was an explosive charge detonated by a slowly burning fuse. If the petard went off prematurely, then the sapper (military engineer; Shakespeare's "enginer") who planted it would be hurled into the air by the explosion. (Compare "up" in "to blow up".) A modern rendition might be: "It's fun to see the engineer blown up with his own bomb."
I know the phrase (despite not caring one whit for Shakespeare) but didn’t think it was a direct quote. I was also thrown off by the use of “hoisting” earlier in the thread which doesn’t fit with the King’s English.
I stand corrected.
As do we, having shot that canard down many times. And, a FAILED, proof of concept is no proof... The concept failed so it is no proof. Had the concept worked, then we would be seeing exploits based on the concept. They were attempts to find viable vectors to spread self-replicating, self-installing, self-transmitting malware on OSX Macs. They all failed. Ergo, although they are called "proof-of-concept" if the concept proof fails it proves nothing except they have to go back to the drawing board.
By the way, cross-platform malware has increased substantially and will continue to do so as the heterogeneity of the computing market increases.
When we start seeing it, not theoretical, then we'll worry. Not before. We've been hearing the same litany for ten years. By not listening, we've saved a lot of aggravation and money.
LOL, rapid web search after my reply, I see. Your intial response belies your backtracking. You did not know the phrase.
You’ve never heard that phrase (or any of its variants) used in the past tense?
People such as yourself, lol.
Is not the replacement of “hoist” with “hoisting” not an incorrect citation? In the original the word “hoist” is not used a verb. I ask because it was not I who made that mistake.
By the way, I as a rule despise Shakespeare and those who think his writing was genius. He wrote almost exclusively in figurative language and by modern standards you would need a translator to determine the meaning of the original in today’s terms. In other words, you’re translating from an effete playwright’s English to modern English. This puts him on the same level as the average rapper.
Can you just not decipher what “hoist” being a past participle means?
Apparently not. So, now we’re just going to feign dark ennui with the whole Shakespeare thang aren’t we, lol.
I hypothesize that he tired of being bested in his trolling on the Mac, and has feinted left to troll on Elizabethan usage in hopes of an improved score.
Sadly, it appears he'll fare about as poorly there, tsk. So perhaps you are correct... :)
I hold a mouses wit not worth a leke,
That hath but on hole for to sterten to.
Speaking of holes... :)
Hold up thy tayl, thou sathanas! -- quod he --Ol' Geoffrey seemed to have a thing about the brothers... but I have only the slimmest acquaintance with Chaucer, so I may be in error.
shewe forth thyn ers, and lat the frere se
Where is the nest of freres in this place!
I take issue with anyone who throws that canard out without knowing all the nuances. Security through obscurity can be useful, as one more stumbling block to break a system, slowing down attackers, or for raising the bar for the talent necessary to break the system. It isn't something to be absolutely relied on in the end, but its use is not automatically invalid.
The argument that the number of installations is smaller creates security through obscurity is invalid here. 50 million vs. install bases as small as about 100 that have been targeted by malware. Apple is the third most valuable brand in the world, even ahead of Microsoft. Their operating systems (OS X and its brother iOS) run almost everything behind that brand. That's not obscure.
Yes. And you've done it again. You are correcting William Shakespeare. Hamelet, scene three, to be precise. And, Flintsilver? "Hoist" IS the past tense of the verb "hoise," meaning "to lift." if you add "Ed" to it you make it doubly past tense, an oxymoron.
I suspect you don't even know what a petard is. Don't bother rushing to look it up. It's a a large open bore mortar used at close quarter by pressing it against a wall or gate, usually without a projectile, to blow a hole through the fortification.
As you may be getting an inkling, my usage was absolutely correct.
Just more of Flint's pattern of trying to be omniscient... trying to correct his errors by revision in later posts. I have seen through his schtick. Now he has moved on to trying to correct his grammar.
By the way, Flint, thanks for pointing out my mis-use of "pre-immiment" when I meant to write "pre-eminent." Sometimes my thinking outpaces my spelling and typing. You were right.
However, Flint, in the give and take of informal threads and Internet discussion, so long as the meaning is transmitted, it is considered RUDE to point out minor spelling errors. It is a form of ad hominem insult.
I have skipped over a few of yours in the past. Shall I continue to ignore them, or do you want me to start correcting you? I have been a writer, publisher, and editor in the past. I can be brutal.
On second thought, I shall remain polite and ignore such foibles. Continue.
“I always thought FR was a conservative website for the posting and discussion of relevant political or social news.”
You’re still confused about this? Get a clue...
FR is a wide-ranging discussion site that covers almost every topic under the sun. It’s easy to filter the things you’re interested in if you try.
Feel free to stay away from threads of which you don’t approve, no one enjoys your negativity.
‘it is clear that any Apple numbers claiming a 10% or greater market share are listing other devices (like the iPhone and its variants) as “computers,”’
Wrong, you should really do your homework before you embarrass yourself.
The 10% figure is for new PCs sold in the US. Your W7 numbers include copies to upgrade computers with earlier, inferior versions of Windows, and are worldwide to boot. ;-)
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