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New York, 8:05 PM
Sun Nov 22
11 posts in the last 24 hours
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08/27/09
A state does not need to be all-powerful in order to be oppressive. They simply need to convince enough people to act as spies and censors on their behalf so as to intimidate or throttle dissent.
Knowing Yahoo's history as I do (as a former customer) I am quite willing to chalk this one up to incompetence, coupled with a good dose of political bias. Don't expect the Yahoo's to fess up to either. Their efforts to reinforce the illusion that they have done no wrong, and can do no wrong only adds to my contempt for the company. Eventually everyone will figure out that their ability to deliver falls far short of their promises. My only regret is that the primary beneficiary of Yahoo's demise will likely be Microsoft.
08/27/09
-J.S. Mill
Ryan, thanks for following up on this story.
08/22/09
Also, is Andy Kessler (A Wall Street Journal op-ed, written by a Silicon Valley hedge fund manager) back to managing money? Because my understanding was that he's been out of that game for almost ten years now.
08/22/09
08/22/09
08/22/09
08/22/09
you must be fun to play at poker...
08/22/09
And as a neutral outsider on the topic, I have to say it's a bit startling how many Apple devotees there are.
I don't know if you're one of them, but I think your comment seems a bit reactionary - where's the hate? Apple has behaved badly. This is pointing that out. There are many people out there who don't like to admit Apple behaves badly, and thus it needs to be said, and clearly.
08/22/09
i suppose i should have said "blinded by his fashionable outrage" - just what you get when you call someone "evil" - puts a bias to it, you know, hate because Ryan's is a rant against a man: "Apple is uniquely molded to the whims of a single man..." & not to shock you, sweetie, but bigger picture - this has very little to do with one man, that's the play.
and Noelle, this isn't a new story - been soaking the trades for like a month, pointed out by everyone from techcrunch to gigaom to mashable, it's definitely "out there." so i guess i'm just saying that if ryan wants to take down some corporate douchebags, tell us something we don't know.
08/23/09
If you read the trades then you should know that Steve Jobs and his vision and priorities are massively important to his company and the decisions it makes. That's just the way it is, and has been confirmed. New facts have come out, this addresses them. *Shrug* You're trying to discredit the post on several fronts, but I'm not seeing a central point.
08/22/09
Either that or Steve Jobs is just obsessed with control.
08/21/09
08/22/09
The thing I find fascinating in strings like this is how adept a lot of people are at putting themselves in the shoes of the CEOs involved and understanding their interests. Congratulations. But you know what, you don't actually run any of these companies, so who gives a fuck? Better to argue your own interests as a user, no?
The bigger issue here is, why should any device be locked to a specific service provider rather than you take the service THAT YOU'RE PAYING FOR to whatever device you feel like? These exclusive contracts should be flat-out banned by the FCC.
And before any CEO-for-a-day bitches that this would be unfair gub'mint intrusion in the "free market," the correct, non-bullshit answer is, no, an FCC ban would make for a FREER market, with more competition on both service and hardware. The current behavior of the companies that provide those products, not the regulatory framework, is what's anti-free market in the setup we have. You need rules to have capitalism, assholes.
08/21/09
How many apps are being developed for the iphone by Microsoft? Not many. And that's because they have their own handheld OS to market, and they don't really gain any profile by legitimating the Apple product by creating new functionality for it. Google, on the other hand, is a fledgling competitor in the handheld OS market. They have a lot of profile to gain by selling Google iphone apps, getting users addicted to them, and then saying "Hey, it works well on the iphone, but it fully integrated and works much better over here on the Android handsets." Exactly why Apple should have to let them do this, under threat of being deemed "evil," eludes me.
08/21/09
C'mon, you all know he's probably got at max a cancerous decade left of stealing himself some new ice-filled-bathtub organs. Does he go out and donate his fortune as a last goodwill gesture like Gates? Nope. Still parking in the handicapped spot. Without a license plate. Still playing God like a fuckface.
Lighten up "Steve". Go do hookers and blow like anyone else who is dying would do. I hear it's legal in Mexico now.
08/22/09
08/22/09
08/22/09
08/21/09
08/21/09
"There is a provision in Apple’s agreement with AT&T that obligates Apple not to include functionality in any Apple phone that enables a customer to use AT&T’s cellular network service to originate or terminate a VoIP session without obtaining AT&T’s permission."
08/21/09
08/20/09
08/20/09
Was that convincing? Would it help if I stood in front of a billowing American flag?
08/19/09
It's a hideous image, graphical violence done to Obama's face, simultaneously scarring and disfiguring him in Photoshop and making a mocking commentary on his race by putting him in Joker whiteface.
What does this have to do with his politics? Tell me. This image has been brandished at Town Halls with the word "Socialist" underneath it. Please explain that to me. Because it makes no fucking sense. The Joker is a socialist?
Boo hoo for you. Flickr deleted links to a godawful, degrading, yes racist picture some 20 year old Palestinian with no social skills spent 5 hours, defacing Obama's image. What's your problem with this? You can't get enough of this brilliant satire? It's artistic expression to you? It's a really cool picture to you?
Satire ought to have a point. Obama is the Joker? I seriously don't get it- no one does. It makes no sense, is not funny, and ultimately is some kid degrading Obama's face in a dehumanizing way. That right wing sites adopted as some sort of wit. That you're now defending.
Oh, is that censorship?
Tell us what's so fucking great about this nasty piece of work. One damned redeeming point about it.
08/19/09
If it were a piece of graf on the street, it would have been tagged over in hours.
08/20/09