Posted on 03/08/2005 12:06:04 PM PST by r5boston
Nearly a decade ago, just a few months after Microsoft shipped Windows 95, I asked Bill Gates if it was a conscious decision in the development of that product to give Windows more of a Mac look and feel. Of course I knew he'd say it wasn't, but I couldn't resist asking. "There was no goal even to compete with Macintosh," Gates proclaimed. "We don't even think of Macintosh as a competitor."
That was a crock, so I pressed the issue a little. I asked him how he accounted for the widespread perception that Windows 95 looked a lot like Mac 88, and whether the similarity was just a coincidence. I didn't expect a sobbing confession of mimicry, but I thought it would be cool to see how he'd respond. Surprisingly enough, Gates shifted gears and became more forthcoming.
(Excerpt) Read more at macworld.com ...
Just in case any reader would be tempted to believe any of your very imaginative post, I'd like to point out that there isn't any truth here.
The man who was behind the pc effort was Philip "Don" Estridge. He had nothing to do with typewriters. He was a highly valued employee (he may have been an IBM Fellow at the time). IBM Sr. management gave him a very low budget for developing a pc, because in their "wisdom", they thought the market was about 100,000 units. So Don used off the shelf components only.
And he wasn't fired, he and his wife were tragically killed in a plane crash on their way to Texas for an awards conference.
From the news.
You have the wrong people. The retail people don't stock for 2% of the market. If you don't see it on the shelves, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. BTW, I also can't find Photoshop on the shelves at Circuit City or Office Depot, yet it's the premiere photo editing software on the planet.
That's fine with me. He doesn't have the insane ego that jobs does.
I have also been at a keynote given by Steve Ballmer, energy radiates from the man - he is the Anti-BillGates.
Are you referring to the infamous Ballmer Monkey Dance?
You just have to read the forums. We hear everything from first generation iPods still going (as one on this thread wrote) to as little as 18 months. But it's a moot point since, as I said, batteries failing in warranty are replaced for free. Those failing after warranty can be replaced for $30 without worrying about violating a warranty that no longer exists (you seem to have a hard time grasping that concept).
Why? Trying to conceal the Windows logo you have branded there?
Good point.
I doubt it if they're difficult for you to administer. I still remember my first bout with administering IIS long ago. I had to wade through various dialog boxes with various settings and checkboxes to get my work done. I was wishing for a simple Apache httpd.conf file to edit -- especially when I had to mirror those IIS configuration settings on another server, which would have been a simple file copy on Linux.
Do you have any supporting evidence for this claim?
You sound like Intel pushers, who think that clock speed is everything in a system, forgetting several other factors that make for a good, fast system.
Just as Apple lost when they tried to sue Microsoft.
You are, of course, correct*. The best bet is to avoid WMA altogether and go with a better format such as AAC.
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* Unless you convert it to Apple's lossless format. No, not uncompressed, just lossless compressed. It's bigger than the other formats, but I could still put my 7.8 day long music collection on a 60 GB iPod in that format.
Ignore that last bit of 285. You got it.
Exactly. Going on the original post, there was legally no piracy on the part of anyone. However, the trophy for least innovation in the field of graphical user interfaces definitely goes to Microsoft. In other words, they wanted to copy, not improve and innovate based on another's idea.
To me, the clear evidence is that they started off with an inferior implementation of the idea of their predecessor (Apple) that took over a decade and four full versions to approach what they were trying to copy. Apple and Xerox both vastly improved upon the knowledge gained from their predecessors and developed innovative products that were unmatched by anything previous.
What are these other factors? The Apple logo? Name these other factors and we will do a comparison. I will help you out:
Signal to Noise Ratio:
Ipod: 98db
Nomad: 98db
Frequency Response:
Ipod: 20-20kHz
Nomad: 20-20kHz
Harmonic Distortion:
Ipod: >1%
Nomad: >1%
Show me the factors, other than the little Apple logo, where the Ipod shines.
Do you have anything to back this up other than your undying love for all things Apple?
* Unless you convert it to Apple's lossless format. No, not uncompressed, just lossless compressed.
Whenever you go from one compression scheme to another you degrade the quality - it has nothing to do with lossless or not (that only applies to if the file can be reconstituted to its original form which is of very little interest in audio compression).
Like I said, MacHeads have the best weed.
Mac's memory management was a joke and Mac's did not do multitasking until the late 1990's - that is why the Mac has never been considered a business machine. Mac lost because they had an inferior product. Spin all you want, the computer industry does not buy the MacMythology. Numbers talk and BS walks.
Since you've started off acting like an impudent ass, what makes you think we're going to converse?
#205, 11:59 AM ET: ...or you can buy a Creative Nomad that is designed to open and uses a readily available battery.
#257, 5:10 PM ET: I made no comment about availablity.
You can't look up anything for yourself, can you? If you've been into digital audio as long as I have*, you'd know. AAC just sounds better at the same bitrate. For a more in-depth review, check out this article from a PC-centric site. Notice the poor sound reproduction and nasty cut-off of WMA?
Whenever you go from one compression scheme to another you degrade the quality
Nope. Whenever you compress into a lossy format you degrade the quality. Converting from WMA to a lossless format will give you exactly the same audio quality as you get playing the WMA file.
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I lived 30 minutes from the Frauenhofer institute, which created the MP3 format, and had a friend who worked there. He hooked me on to it not long after it was created, and I loved it since I was tired of only being able to choose from one CD worth of music at a time before swapping CDs.
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