Regardless, I'm heavily invested in Windows and Windows applications, I'm not about to ditch it all and start over or even start to migrate. One of the cool things about Windows is that I can still run custom software that I wrote back in the 80s. Can't really do that with an Apple OS.

Course, you're acting in the exact same manner as all those Apple zealots that have annoyed me for years. How about one purely non-Apple post (preferably Vegas related) for every Apple post? Is that too much to ask?

I'm through with this particular thread.

"Google is phasing out the internal use of Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows operating system because of security concerns, according to several Google employees."

I find this predicts nothing at all.

Google's thousands of servers run Linux last I heard, and they've been running them for years.

To me, Google is all about their servers, not what they use on their desktops!

Sony - Please bring back the IGNOR feature on this forum!

It's a bit more than just the servers. Every person who writes a letter, assembles a presentation, builds a spreadsheet, authors web pages or applications... it's 10,000 people ( I was surprised Google is that small. Heck, HP just announced that it plans to lay off that many people.)

For video editing, Google has standardized on FCP. We interviewed with them a few years ago and their requirements were pretty strict because they want everyone's work to be interchangeable. In the end we decided that they were offering too much work and we had very little slack time to give them. We'd have had to move to new lodgings, bring on more employees, and adopt FCP much more broadly than we had at the time. (Yeah, we should all be so busy!)

Google's concerns here are very different from Apple's drive to become a consumer appliance company. They actually need to do work at Google and they won't be developing for Apple appliances.

In the end, I think Google will probably push Unices farther down the road. That's a good thing. Is it a Microsoft killer? Meh! Apple has managed to keep trundling along with ~10% share of the PC market. I suppose Microsoft could find itself in the same position someday, but I doubt it. Even if it did, it's obviously not the end of the world to be reduced to Apple's measly share of the market.

The problem for the PC market is that there's not much growth left. That affects everyone.

Rob

"The problem for the PC market is that there's not much growth left. That affects everyone."

Indeed! I was pondering this during my morning commute today. The computer industry has been driven by convincing customers that they need the newest, greatest thing more than anything else. That is certainly a much bigger driver than actual consumer needs. Of course, the industry has only been able to keep this up for so long because their labs actually do turn out some new step forward every now and then. What's gonna happen when the development curve starts falling off sharply and we get only tiny incremental steps forward at ever lengthening intervals?

How many improvements have toasters had in the last 25 years? How often do people buy them? Do you buy a new one because it toasts better and faster than last year's model? Or do you only buy one when your old one breaks down or as a wedding/housewarming gift? Toaster manufacturers survive by providing a decent, valuable, boring, and durable product, the same as they have for a generation. Imagine the current computer industry adapting to that sales model. They'd go out of business in a month.

I just looked at my favorite auto manufacturer's website. The big headline news is the new green next-generation hybrid that gets a smashing 40mpg. Hmmmmm. I bought a car from them 22 years ago that got 44mpg fueled by nothing other than plain, ordinary unleaded. Not really a lot of innovation there in 22 years. But they're in business because they sell a reliable, valuable, and durable product. I drove that old heap for 235,000 miles. Just like toasters, and quite unlike computers.

Somewhere in the last few years computers crossed over into the commodity category. No one buys a computer to have a computer anymore. People have a task that needs solving and the computer is the tool that gets the task done. The price point is low enough for almost all families to get one of their own. You want to drive, you buy a car; you want to sit, you buy a chair; you want to crunch numbers or email, you buy a computer; you want toast, you buy a toaster.

I don't think computer manufacturers are quite prepared to handle this shift. Some are trying. I'll grant Apple that the iPad is a good stab at filling a commodity niche. It's not useful for me or many others, but it's a fun gadget for those that do want it. I might actually consider one if i could load Windows or Gnome/Redmond on it instead. I'm sure many who do use it happily think more of it as a gadget than a computer. Thing is, more computer companies have to start thinking this way and offer long term value for their commodity rather than trying to top the next guy with flash that loses it's appeal quickly. They'll soon need to concentrate on providing solutions that get the job done for people for 10, 15, 20+ years and make money at that, because it won't be that much longer before most new computer purchases are driven by wearing the old one out after that long.

I can easily imagine my grandkids (well, my neighbor's grandkids) saying "We'll just clean up gramp's old computer and put on a fresh coat of paint. It runs just as good as the new models so why spend any money on them?"

I have built my own computers for years. I don't want it to be "an appliance." I want it to be my computer that does what I need it to do. Didn't Apple mock the "herd" or "collective" mentality in one of the all-time great commercials (1984)? Has the situation reversed itself?

Apple's Steve, who believes in charging a premium price for Apple products appears to not to believe that "his" workers laboring 12 hour days, 6 days a week, for £90 a month is not sweatshop conditions if the factories offers restaurants(food charged for) and movie theatres(shows charged for) and hospitals and swimming pools. Does these workers have any money leave?

Its appears, after the number of suicides this year reached world press, the workers will receive a 30% raise now, No doubt, Steve and company will charge the workers more at restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals. Apple has been know to draft secret side deals like Att contracts(Apple gets a piece), what "slice" does Foxconn have to give back to Apple or Steve's secondary interest? Does the workers pay Apple a fee to work on their product (not a trick question).

I could detail out that the suicides are strictly at contracted factories assembling Apple products and are under Apple security force inspections ( secret police state has new meaning). But l'm going to let Coursedesign re-education us how great Apple's Steve is and that he is CEO of year...................... with a "little" help from sweatshops and "borrowed" IP patents ..... gee..... just hope he avoids the food business, or anything that public safety can be an issue

or

where users may have a conscience about what they buy!.


from BBC news below or use the link:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10212604.stm
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Apple boss defends conditions at iPhone factory

Page last updated at 9:11 GMT, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 10:11 UK

Staff walk at the giant Foxconn complex in Shenzhen, China, on 26 May 2010 The Shenzhen factory employs more than 400,000 workers

Apple boss Steve Jobs has defended conditions at a Taiwanese electronics firm that produces the firm's popular iPhone, following a spate of suicides.

"Foxconn is not a sweatshop," he told a conference in the US.

Mr Jobs said that Apple representatives were working with Foxconn to find out why 10 workers had killed themselves at a factory in Shenzhen, China.

An eleventh worker recently died at another factory in northern China.

In total, there have been 13 suicides and suicide attempts at Foxconn factories this year.

"We're all over this," said Mr Jobs at the All Things Digital conference in California.
Continue reading the main story Steve Jobs

You go in this place and it's a factory but, my gosh, they've got restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals and swimming pools

Steve Jobs Apple CEO

Foxconn has said that it will give its assembly line workers a 30% pay rise.

The firm had previously said that it would offer a 20% pay increase to its Chinese workers, who earn 900 yuan (£90) per month at entry-level.

"We hope the hike in wages will help improve the living standards of the workers and allow them to have more leisure time, which is good for their health," an official of Foxconn's parent company Hon Hai precision told AFP.

Hon Hai Precision is the world's largest maker of consumer electronics, and employs 800,000 workers worldwide, mostly in China.

Foxconn makes a range of products for manufacturers including Apple, Dell and Nokia.

The deaths have shone a spotlight on working conditions at the factory, where workers - often from rural China - work up to 12 hours a day, six days a week.

But Mr Jobs defended the conditions.

"You go in this place and it's a factory but, my gosh, they've got restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals and swimming pools. For a factory, it's pretty nice," he said.
Surreal moment

Mr Jobs addressed a number of other issues at the All Things Digital conference.

Last week, Apple overtook Microsoft to become the world's largest technology company by market value.

"For those of us that have been in the industry a long time, it's surreal. But it doesn't matter very much, it's not what's important," Mr Jobs said.

"It's not what makes you come to work every morning."

He also claimed that Apple's controversial move to block Adobe Flash animation and video technology from its popular iPhones and iPads was "a technical decision".

"We didn't start off to have a war with Flash or anything else," he said.

The comments are the latest step in a long-running dispute between Apple and Adobe over the Flash platform.


=-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Life is meaningless, " quoted from one of the hospitalized workers from the iPhone plant.

And how does 12hr/6days a week for L90/month fit within Apple's green image and Apple's board-member Al Gore's Climate Change position?

Sony gets slap a lot about Corp direction here, that Sony employees aren't available 24/7/365 somewhere to answer some minor issues and a few major ones. Then a few individuals always point out Apple "greatness".......... and now enlighten Apple users are and that how "connected" to the "powers to-be" in Hollywood and social networks everywhere. Many of these individuals also attack Walmart for buying from companies that manufacture products from China. Now these enlighten individuals need to rethink Apple "greatness" and appreciate that Sony has a true conscious as a corp compared to Apple which clearly does not demonstrate with its contracted workers.

How many more workers worldwide must die for Apple image and profit? Apple's stock price?

from Tom's hardware/Bloomfield article read below or use the Link: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Foxcon-Suicides-China-Hon-Hai-Precision,10597.html
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Two Foxconn employees speak to Bloomberg about what it's like to work at the factory long term.

By now we've heard a lot from undercover investigators appalled by the working conditions at Foxconn. However, some people argue that the staff are either used to these kinds of conditions, glad of the job or relieved they aren't in another factory where things are much, much worse.

Bloomberg
recently spoke to one Foxconn employee who says the reason for the suicides at the factory is because life there is so meaningless.

"Life is meaningless, " said Ah Wei having just come off a 12 hour shift. "Everyday, I repeat the same thing I did yesterday. We get yelled at all the time. It’s very tough around here."

Ah Wei explains how conversation is forbidden on the production line and bathroom breaks are restricted to a scheduled ten minutes every two hours. The noise from the factory has damaged his hearing and management has rejected his three requests for transfer.

Another employee says about 80 percent of the front-line production staff have to work standing up for 12 hours a day, six days a week.

"It’s hard to make friends because you aren’t allowed to chat with your colleagues during work," he said from Shenzhen Kang Ning Hospital where he was seeking treatment for insomnia. "Most of us have little education and have no skills so we have no choice but to do this kind of job. I feel no sense of achievement and I’ve become a machine."

Foxconn says it is doing everything it can to prevent the suicides, of which there have been at least ten in the last few months. Erecting nets around the buildings to prevent people from jumping, the company has also hired councilors for employees to talk to. Foxconn is also paying for the medical care for at least one employee, a girl who jumped from her fourth story dormitory in March. She was in a coma for two months and even now, her father is afraid to ask why she jumped.

Bloomberg reports that less than a day after Chairman Terry Gou opened the factory to the press and admitted he had no way of knowing if it would happen again, a 23-year-old worker jumped to his death and another was hospitalized after he slit his wrists.
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OK, here's the 35th post in this bloated thread.

Yes, I've read all of them, and I've seen nothing yet that either I didn't know, or want to know.

Think I'll go to bed now.
Yawn . . . . .

Ah, and to quote a famous newsman....

"That's the way it is"