Life and some Misc Thoughts + Creative/Apple Spat
Life has been pretty good, except that I'm a cripple - more on that in a moment. Life is really simple, I love it when my daily To-Do lists are two or three points and then I can just play for the rest of the time. A lot of friends have left for the summer and the campus is very quiet. Such things make me think of how short time is and how quickly it just goes by and of the importance of valuing the live's we have and of those around us.
Now, back onto my cripplage. Last Friday, I was running around having a grand old time. SCRUUNCHHELSH*! Oww. Pain of the knee. As a result, the last few days I've been hobbling around with the aid of crutches and Kelsey who is doing an incredible job taking care of me because I can't do very much without being it a lot of pain. Other than the pain, it's been really fun going around with crutches since about everyone (including myself) has been having fun with them and making fun of me. This evening, I found out one of my friends - Cindy for fellow Hampsters - has a crutches fetish. Needless to say I didn't let that little fact slip past me.
Tomorrow night, Kelsey and I are going over (I shall hobble at Lightspeed!) to Orli and Letty's and I'm going to first talk to Orli more about my Imperial Uniform and get the specifics down, and then we're going to cook and eat dinner while watching the last two episodes of Casanova and some Doctor Who. It will be a lovely evening filled with David Tennant. Will Peter be able to not cry at the end of Casanova like he always does? Tune in tomorrow for another episode of the exciting adventures of Peter's LiveJournal!
Made even more exciting by the giant Moments of Zen I left for you at the bottom! It's been awhile and my LJing has been inconsistent to say the least, so just think of it as a reward!
*The closest approximation of the sound my knee makes.
Creative Sues Apple
Apple has clearly won the MP3 player market with the iPod, at least for now. Apparently, Creative has given up trying to compete with Apple and instead has settled on trying to litigate Apple in what at best must be a pathetic attempt for some publicity since they are trying to sue Apple over the interface that Apple themselves designed and that Creative copied (albeit poorly).
The patent was granted in August 2005 and filed just months before Apple unveiled the iPod, making it unlikely Apple "borrowed" anything. The patent itself describes an extremely general concept: “[the] automatic hierarchical categorization of music by metadata.” Yes folks, it's that innovative! And so very, very, very vague! But it's the vague description of a commonly used concept that forms the crux of their argument against Apple. Music players like WinAmp have used such an interface since 1997.
Creative is seeking an injunction against Apple selling their hit iPod and is seeking monetary damages. Creative joins a long list of companies hoping to cash in on the success of the iPod and the iTunes Music Store, some with stronger cases than others.
Think what you may of Apple, but cases like these are a sad, sad reminder of how terrible our patent system is since a viable strategy across the board seems to be: If you can't compete - litigate! Competing companies have no one to blame but themselves for failing to topple Apple. Apple's dominance has gone completely almost completely unchallenged due entirely to the competing companies, who have yet to produce an as an attractive, integrated, easy-to-use, full-featured and innovative product. Likewise, rather than competing on a product's merits the competitors have been unwilling to break much below Apple's pricing, and end up peddling clearly inferior products for the same price (or at most $50 cheaper).
So it's little surprise that they haven't had any luck and that Apple instead chooses to compete with itself in terms of iPod development. In response to repeated failures, Apple's competitors have focused on trying to join forces, often with Microsoft, to topple Apple. The results of these alliances have lead to unwieldy devices that are not attractive to consumers, because of politicking, infighting, and pandering to the content cartels.
The timing of the lawsuit isn't all that surprising when we consider Creative's most recent quarter announcement of a $114.3 million dollar loss, due entirely to their failing MP3 player business. Hoping to get that stock bumped up a bit maybe?
Now, back onto my cripplage. Last Friday, I was running around having a grand old time. SCRUUNCHHELSH*! Oww. Pain of the knee. As a result, the last few days I've been hobbling around with the aid of crutches and Kelsey who is doing an incredible job taking care of me because I can't do very much without being it a lot of pain. Other than the pain, it's been really fun going around with crutches since about everyone (including myself) has been having fun with them and making fun of me. This evening, I found out one of my friends - Cindy for fellow Hampsters - has a crutches fetish. Needless to say I didn't let that little fact slip past me.
Tomorrow night, Kelsey and I are going over (I shall hobble at Lightspeed!) to Orli and Letty's and I'm going to first talk to Orli more about my Imperial Uniform and get the specifics down, and then we're going to cook and eat dinner while watching the last two episodes of Casanova and some Doctor Who. It will be a lovely evening filled with David Tennant. Will Peter be able to not cry at the end of Casanova like he always does? Tune in tomorrow for another episode of the exciting adventures of Peter's LiveJournal!
Made even more exciting by the giant Moments of Zen I left for you at the bottom! It's been awhile and my LJing has been inconsistent to say the least, so just think of it as a reward!
*The closest approximation of the sound my knee makes.
Creative Sues Apple
Apple has clearly won the MP3 player market with the iPod, at least for now. Apparently, Creative has given up trying to compete with Apple and instead has settled on trying to litigate Apple in what at best must be a pathetic attempt for some publicity since they are trying to sue Apple over the interface that Apple themselves designed and that Creative copied (albeit poorly).
The patent was granted in August 2005 and filed just months before Apple unveiled the iPod, making it unlikely Apple "borrowed" anything. The patent itself describes an extremely general concept: “[the] automatic hierarchical categorization of music by metadata.” Yes folks, it's that innovative! And so very, very, very vague! But it's the vague description of a commonly used concept that forms the crux of their argument against Apple. Music players like WinAmp have used such an interface since 1997.
Creative is seeking an injunction against Apple selling their hit iPod and is seeking monetary damages. Creative joins a long list of companies hoping to cash in on the success of the iPod and the iTunes Music Store, some with stronger cases than others.
Think what you may of Apple, but cases like these are a sad, sad reminder of how terrible our patent system is since a viable strategy across the board seems to be: If you can't compete - litigate! Competing companies have no one to blame but themselves for failing to topple Apple. Apple's dominance has gone completely almost completely unchallenged due entirely to the competing companies, who have yet to produce an as an attractive, integrated, easy-to-use, full-featured and innovative product. Likewise, rather than competing on a product's merits the competitors have been unwilling to break much below Apple's pricing, and end up peddling clearly inferior products for the same price (or at most $50 cheaper).
So it's little surprise that they haven't had any luck and that Apple instead chooses to compete with itself in terms of iPod development. In response to repeated failures, Apple's competitors have focused on trying to join forces, often with Microsoft, to topple Apple. The results of these alliances have lead to unwieldy devices that are not attractive to consumers, because of politicking, infighting, and pandering to the content cartels.
The timing of the lawsuit isn't all that surprising when we consider Creative's most recent quarter announcement of a $114.3 million dollar loss, due entirely to their failing MP3 player business. Hoping to get that stock bumped up a bit maybe?
- Moment of Zen
- The Sony E3 2006 Press Conference in 1 minute. This is hilarious even to people who don't care/know anything about video games. This is video is going to be big.
- Japan the only place where elitist Geek cat-fights spill into the mainstream press.
- Naughty Australia you can't put New Zealand up for sale!
- An oldie but sooo good: The Super Soaker Oozinator! You may wonder how something like this ever even made it past product testing.
- Animal-shaped Dildos...It's better than furries actually abusing animals. Here you'll find everything from bunnies, to horses, all the way to Dragons and Gryphons!
- A Coming of Age Tale...
- Eurobad '74: The Worst Interior Desgins 1974 Europe has to offer.
- New Jersey still struggling to attract tourists on its own "merits" scraps its second slogan in two years. My suggestion: "New Jersey: We're close to New York!"
- Uhh, this is kinda nice and kinda a little weird too.
- Sleep well tonight, the breast-feeding record has been beaten!
- Hate Fight Club (Good for you), Like Fight Club (You pretentious little shits) - either way you'll enjoy this alternative theory into the silly plot development at the end.
- Groucho Marx in one of the earliest displays of Corporate resistance. A brilliant (and funny) man who was way ahead of his time.
- Now, see this is what commercials should be! Too bad, such ads in America are limited to so-called viral advertising so it will be quite awhile before it's safe to turn the TV on again.
- A Classic! One of the most amusing an hypnotizing flash games ever made. Instead of a whore toss around Bush instead!
- For those who haven't seen it: The Twinkies Project! Truly a triumph of the scientific method!