791900+ entries in 0.514s
mircea_popescu: decimation well, don' go fighting
the war of
the past.
decimation: So your goal, as a businessman, is
to get
the big dumb blob of
the population
to be able
to recognize your widget
mircea_popescu: ie, it's a cube. basic geometric shape. "herp derp i can recognise
this in my surroundings"
mircea_popescu: what you
take for "good engineering" is really just what nintendo was
trying
to do with
the "game cube".
mircea_popescu: to create product you can sell in
the 1990s us, you create something
that people CAN IDENTIFY and push
their want buttons. is all.
nubbins`: decimation: you convince people
that
they want it.
decimation: but how do you create stuff people want? I submit (like ascii)
that it can only
the product of one mind who has
the power
to dictate
the result
mircea_popescu: apple gets
this
the other way around :
the SHOW itself wants
to gain value from
the association.
mircea_popescu: think about
this : all OTHER mass market folks need
to PAY celebs and producers
to get product placement
mircea_popescu: if you only buy +ev packages for 10 years and have
the bankroll
to buy anything, eventually you end up king of
the hill
Vexual: they worked out
to patent connectors
mircea_popescu: this is strictly because apple had at
the helm for a decade+ a person who actually understood how worthless advertising is, and just
told
the horde
to get fucked
decimation: they used
to be a joke back in
the clone days
nubbins`: i was about
to say "but it's not like
they're fabbing custom chips"
decimation: either
they are not well managed or
the zombie hordes in
the US would prefer not
to
think
mircea_popescu: would you say
the lack of coca-cola competition for healthy fizz drinks proves no major pharma company is well managed ?
nubbins`: for example, look at
those
time capsule
things
mircea_popescu: decimation perhaps it's proof
that apple hardware is not well designed.
nubbins`: is
there room for
two homemade fudge stands at
the farmer's market?
nubbins`: decimation, it's more
that
there isn't a market for well-designed hardware.
decimation: I guess
that
the serious lack of non-Apple competition for well-designed hardware (ie, not just Apple clones) is proof
that no major electronics manufacturer is well managed
nubbins`: suppose
tomorrow you want rack and pinion steering on your motorcycle.
Vexual: tol up your chinese factoryies
to make mini pcie stuff
mircea_popescu: nubbins` suppose
tomorrow I decide i want a diff video card.
Vexual: you can put it on a desk but you dont have
to
nubbins`: if you're going by what lazy slobs do, you could call all kinds of
things laptops
nubbins`: for example, mine's on a
table
dub: asciilifeform:
tmux?
decimation: I
think you have a blog post about how
the world is damned
to repeat Job's mistakes
decimation: what happens
to
the guy who suggests: why not
try something other
than an iphone clone (for instance)
decimation: what could drive such risk-adverse behaviours amoung
the executive suites of
those companies?
decimation: the portable device mass market is full of different manufacturers, yet
they all produce very similar knockoffs of
the same design
KRS-: damn geeks
took over market
topic
nubbins`: if it's just
the chassis holding you back, get one machined
decimation: I love my old hp-48 chicklet syle keyboard. I wish someone would bring
that back on a portable device
decimation: before
the apple junk dominated,
there was actually some differentiation in
the marketplace amoung android devices
benkay: so what's a more
tractable problem: supplying high-quality keyboards for shitty cobbled
together laptops, or producing entire chassis?
nubbins`: my mother wears
the letters off her keys within ~4 months
decimation: what I find interesting is
the "market dynamics" of
the iphone/ipad vs. android alternatives
benkay: well look asciilifeform
there's digikey,
there's a 3d printer, and
there's a mess of hardware out
there. nobody's going
to mass-produce a *nix laptop but Apple, and we can't use
theirs.
the solution is
to cobble our own
together.
decimation: oh
that's a more reasonable goal. yeah you aren't going
to convince
the junk peddlers
that it's worth
their
time
decimation: the amount of
time and intellect required
to reinvent
the computer with non-crap is literally several lifetimes
benkay: this means
that people who care about
the problem should probably invest some
time and intellect into fixing it instead of waiting for a corporate sponsor like BSD does.
dub: points if you wore
the dark side of
teh moon boxer shorts
Mats_cd03: asciilifeform:
thats because its literally impossible
to satisfy nix geeks
dub: I've been hilariously quipping
that its more useful
than
the apple product
to all
the apple fanboys here
dub: there is a retard (ipad) sized 10 key calculator in
this room
nubbins`: "break all your
things at once!"
nubbins`: with five ipads smashed on
the floor
nubbins`: i want
to see five of
these
things plugged into each other
KRS-: I am going Foo Manchu
this month
nubbins`: "are you
tired of not snapping off connectors inside your expensive electronics?"
mircea_popescu: nubbins`
that is exactly
the sort of idiocy. it has all
the markings.
nubbins`: imagine
taking a 10"
tablet and charging it by balancing it vertically on a male micro-usb jack
Mats_cd03: does anyone else hate
the
tv show suits
nubbins`: buyers saying "you. right
there."
nubbins`: sure, but again,
that's not sellers seeking buyers
dub: harvesting facilities are in
the jails ffs