Sig Gislason › Comments

"But Mac had viruses in the 90s - their market share was even less then than it is now. Did hackers then think differently? Or maybe you are just repeating nonsense?" - Sig Gislason

"I have - the rural hospitals were quite lacking in the latest equipment but the one's near Colombo were excellent." - Sig Gislason

"Bobcat - each individual country provides health care for their citizens but also cover them if they happen to travel to another EU country and need health care there. I have my EU traveler card which ensures that I don't need travel insurance when traveling within the EU. If I would move to another EU country and register there, I would then be eligible for that country's health care system. So the system is fairly universal, although with local flavour." - Sig Gislason

"This would be great for Apple TV and would add tremendous value to both the iPhone and iPod Touch." - Sig Gislason

"As I saw it the high priest was not surprised in the least - his knowing nod to the "emperor" confirmed to me. Don´t assume that the average Mayan was well versed in mathematics and astronomy though the upper classes may have been. And I saw the Mayan civilisation as depicted in the movie as really a remains of a civilisation." - Sig Gislason

"I used to fix my relatives PCs... and for friends... and for girlfriends... Not any more. They all have Macs now and don´t need help any more." - Sig Gislason

"I understand the difficulty in juggling many obligations but isn't there an overriding principle of impartiality? Each individual company may package this principle in various ways but if you are writing as a journalist there exist in the mind of the reader an assumption of impartiality. Anything that threatens that impartiality should be disclosed, like BlueVulcan suggested, or simply avoided." - Sig Gislason

"I understand the difficulty in juggling many obligations but isn't there an overriding principle of impartiality? Each individual company may package this principle in various ways but if you are writing as a journalist there exist in the mind of the reader an assumption of impartiality. Anything that threatens that impartiality should be disclosed, like BlueVulcan suggested, or simply avoided." - Sig Gislason

"I understand the difficulty in juggling many obligations but isn't there an overriding principle of impartiality? Each individual company may package this principle in various ways but if you are writing as a journalist there exist in the mind of the reader an assumption of impartiality. Anything that threatens that impartiality should be disclosed, like BlueVulcan suggested, or simply avoided." - Sig Gislason

"But shouldn't a freelancer still adhere to the same standards of integrity?" - Sig Gislason

"Yes, I would consider the MacBook if they get rid of the 4gb max." - Sig Gislason

"What actions? Giving you free software? Are we supposed to be so easily bought?" - Sig Gislason

"So, we have 260 cases reported so far... out of how many? Is this within normal boundaries of equipment failure or not? I love these useless pieces of journalism where no attempt is made to frame the problem with some references to ratio or total number sold. If Apple sold 2 million of these devices - 260 faulty units seems not excessive. If Apple only sold 10.000 of these devices, this would be a severe quality issue." - Sig Gislason

"Underwear... you can not return those back. So there is a precedent." - Sig Gislason

"Man up." - Sig Gislason

"Well yes, but the same applies to all the other nations on the Security Council." - Sig Gislason

"Lesson of the day - don´t invade someone's personal space for the purpose of mindless entertainment." - Sig Gislason

"What about somebody who drowns a bag of kittens? 21 years? Animal protectionism is ok, but this is too extreme." - Sig Gislason

"You see - if it was solely up to the victim if perpetrators are prosecuted, criminals would have vested interest in killing the victims, threatening the family or simply purchasing their silence. Now that would not be something we would want." - Sig Gislason

"The prosecutor and the defender had agreed on a plea of guilty for a recommendation for a sentence of probation, meaning no jail time. The judge, which had a reputation as a “tough judge and a tough sentencer", did not agree and wanted some jail time. He then proposed to the lawyers that Polanski would spend some time in diagnostic assessment in Chino Prison, 90 days. I have a feeling that this kind of dealing takes a place a lot more often than we are prepared to believe. Polanski went to Europe prior to this 90 day sentence, started partying and had pictures taken of him with more young women - which pissed off the judge. So far I am in total agreement with the judge and kinda shocked at the leniency displayed by the prosecutor, but hey.. those were the swinging 70s." - Sig Gislason

"labantnet - I really really fail to see how that is relevant. The judge had every right to change his mind - Polanski took the fugitive route. Black and white." - Sig Gislason

"So if we continue with your analogy - a car manufacturer cannot restrict their own service stations to service only their own brand of cars? Apple cannot restrict its iPod management program to service only iPods? Apple has set up a seamless integration for iPod owners to purchase and manage their music on their devices, very similar to BMW ensuring that their customers have access to good BMW service stations. You seem to be arguing that I as a Hyundai customer have a _right_ to have my car serviced by BMW, just because I bought some hubcaps there. Once again - the songs are available for all devices. There is no vertical tying involved. The other companies just need to set up their own sync programs. Hyundai should have Hyundai service stations." - Sig Gislason

"But the point is.. these two seperate products are _not_ tied together. If I buy a song from iTunes - I can play it on my Rio MP3 player. The song can be transported between computers and devices. The song, after being purchased, resides in the library and is available for copying and transporting. This is what RIM is doing and is perfectly fine. You somehow think it is an antitrust issue that the Rio cannot use the iTunes song management program to access the song." - Sig Gislason

"But Apple is not really in the business to sell stuff from the iTunes store. Don't confuse Apple with Virgin or HMV. The iTunes program and the store inclusive is there to maximize the enjoyment of the Ipod - thus making the device more desireable in the eyes of the customer. The "profit" of each sold songs is apparently miniscule. Why _should_ Apple give that benefit away to another company that didn't participate in the development, design and implementation of the store?" - Sig Gislason

"I understand what Palm _wants_. I just don´t get how that is reasonable. Apple spent all this money, time and effort on making the iTunes store possible... and now Palm wants to be able to sell their devices as fully compatible to iTunes for the price of a song? It seems to me that it adds a ton of value for Palm without any extra benefit to Apple." - Sig Gislason

"It would lead to less market value for the iPod, which is the whole reason for iTune´s existence. And you know as well as I do that if Palm owners would run into problems with iTunes they would go screaming about Apple - even though no support was owed them." - Sig Gislason

"For what exactly is RIM paying to Apple? All the news I have heard about the RIM desktop software for Mac is that RIM developed their own software utilizing access to the XML file that iTunes generates. All perfectly fine, legal and most of all, free. If you wish, you could do the same thing yourself. When I say, "giving the infrastructure, the work, the development and the pipeline" to other companies, I meant exactly what I said. When other companies forego developing their own contracts with recording companies or to set up their own infrastructure to cope with the traffic and instead just simply point their customers to buy from Apple - that is a shitty practice. The reason iTunes exist is not to sell music - gaining cents in profit for every song or so. No, the reason iTunes exist is to sell more iPods, it adds value to owning an iPod. When you buy an iPod you know that there is a huge well constructed infrastructure behind it. If Apple stopped selling iPods or any music playing..." - Sig Gislason

"Well, I don´t think I agree with you at all. Is the issue that the iTunes program also happens to have an integral store? If iTunes would not sell music you wouldn´t mind the non-ipod policy? Currently there is no barrier for other MP3 players to access the purchased songs. They just have to access the songs through a drag´n drop file manager system or their own sync programs. Both of which is perfectly acceptable and RIM and others are currently doing so. Its not as if songs purchased through iTunes are locked within iTunes. The analogy with Kodak photo program is still apt. Apple has spent considerable time in setting up contracts with record companies, setting up the pipelines and infrastructure, the manpower to manage the stores and the maintenance/development of the site. I cannot see how it would be reasonable for them to simply "give" all that infrastructure to other companies who wish a free ride. Maybe, if Apple thought they would make money of the extra sales, but apparently..." - Sig Gislason

"My Golf Country Club is exclusive and I like that. It gives me better service and better facilities. What's not to like?" - Sig Gislason

"True - but would it not be completely up to Kodak to make this decision? If it wouldn´t make business sense, then the people always have the choice to go somewhere else. Would we cheer on Fuji to "steal" access to the program that Kodak has spent money developing and implementing?" - Sig Gislason

"I have a hard time with this. If Kodak for example would make their own photo storage and manipulation program for their own Kodak Cameras - would Diggers feel that Kodak _should_ open that program up to other camera manufacturers? If Kodak wanted to give their own cameras added value with that particular program - why not?" - Sig Gislason