Printers no longer come with cables?

Since when did printers stop coming with the cables? Does this have anything to do with printers being available in USB form and the manufacturers suddenly assuming that everyone already has USB cables? Or is it some agreement that they have with merchants that requires me to pay $20 for a 6′ cable. Some quick price look ups do show that the standard printer cables cost around the same as USB cables so if they were able to afford to bundle printer cables before USB, they should be able to bundle USB cables now.

Does anyone else find this ridiculous?

Edit: My father tells me that they never came with cables and that I am misinformed. He’s probably right since I wouldn’t trust my childish memory with regard to such things. In any case, printers should come with cables.

Posted in Business, Musings | 1 Comment »

Why we may never colonize space

Although it’s wonderful to think that we will be able to colonize other worlds when we grow too numerous or run out of resources, it may not happen. It seems that given the level of current weapons and state of the world we will more likely try to conquer each other than try to conquer space.

In order to go into space we would need to have an advanced level of technology which could only be created through innovation. I am just worried that technological advances tend to be used as weapons first, and as humanity benefiting objects second. This may have been fine with the technology of old but we are approaching the level where a weapon can wipe us out. The non warlike use may not come to fruition if there will be no one left to develop it.

I just hope we realize that the next global war may be the last war we fight and that we need to control our competitive spirit. A quote that comes to mind is Albert Einstein: “I know not with what weapons World War Three will be fought, but World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones.” I’d just like to add that I’m not so sure there will even be a World War Four.

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Pronunciation

Recently I’ve discovered a few words where I know the definition and spelling but I don’t know the pronunciation. The problem is that I think I know how to pronounce them so when I use them for the first time in conversation, or hear someone using them, some confusion arises (as well as making me look like a fool).

I am not sure if this is isolated to me or society as a whole. The world does seem to be getting more and more open so maybe this is a result of that – the spoken dictionary is getting smaller and smaller so many of the words that were commonly used in conversations decades ago are no longer being used.

In any case I think we should all try to identify such words and try to use commonly written words in conversation, we may be surprised by how wrong we are.

For me, the word I didn’t know how to pronounce was ”albeit.” I was prouncing it as all-bite when it turns out that it is pronounced all-be-it.

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The Homeless in the US

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On Microsoft Walking Away from Yahoo

A little unexpected but I think this was the right decision for Microsoft for a couple of reasons:

1. Jerry Yang was doing everything in his power to prevent MS from acquiring Yahoo – what type of message does that send and how must the employees of Yahoo feel if their CEO is acting this way.

2. In order to compete with Google, the merger must have gotten done quickly and smoothly, this would not have been the case in the case of a hostile takeover.

3. There have been rumors that many of Yahoo’s employees were just waiting for the merger to happen in order to cash in on their new accelerated vesting and compensation packages, immediately leaving Yahoo there after.

4. A lot of the Yahoo employees and MSFT employees and investors did not want the merger to go through. From what I know the largest group that wanted the merger to go through were the Yahoo investors, albeit at a higher price.

5. Yahoo will now have to deal with a variety of problems: shareholder lawsuits, talk of Jerry’s management ability, sudden price drop. All these may in fact lead to another Microsoft offer in maybe a few months at a much lower price – in which case it will probably be accepted.

The only downside that just immediately to my mind is that MS and Yahoo are in deep water and do need to do something in order to compete with Google – but I do not think the merger would have neccesarily helped them, given the merging difficults and the corporate culture clash.

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Video Games as Art

It’s about time video games are considered an art. They are creative endeavours that take as much and as long to make as some movies. There is also a huge distinction between the great and the poor games. Games these days can be considered movies and they should be treated in the same way.

Maybe then will video games no longer be the black sheep of the media and entertainment business. It’s ridiculous that some guy throwing feces at a canvas is considered higher than the developers of video games.

Video games are no longer the simple things of 20 years past but have evolved into their own worlds and stories and should be given the credit they deserve.

It’s a shame people are blaming video games for the violence instead of their own parenting ability. And if they actually cared about how their kids were being raised maybe they should stop the filth on TV from being shown and replace the TV babysitter with themselves.

No one can argue that TV has been getting more and more sexual and violent yet the finger is always pointed at video games – it’s time this stops.

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Why does EA want Take-Two?

I’m not sure why no one is pointing this out but it seems that as soon as EA acquires T2, the T2 folks would just leave to create a new studio. They seem independent and I doubt that they’d want to work for EA. And although EA would get the rights to all of the T2 games and may try to develop the series, they might not have the imagination or the guys to do it. In addition, I don’t know whether EA would even want to develop such products as GTA and Bully given the violence and public relations ordeal that T2 has been going through the past few years.

What EA does want is probably the T2 sports games, then they’ll have a pretty strong hold on the sports games’ market.

So as long as EA does not want the T2 human capital it seems like it makes sense – but given the negative response of T2 to the offer, I doubt EA will be able to retain the developers and artists.

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On Apple Buying PA Semiconductor

Response to: http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20080425_004775.html

The author is giving 2 reasons for the acquisition:1. The short term reason is to force Intel to give Apple price cuts for fear that Apple will make their own chips.

- I do not think that Intel needs to worry about Apple manufacturing their own PC chips as Apple already went through that phase and AMD already provides the necessary pressure on Intel to lower their prices.

2. In the future, software and OSes will not be tied down to a specific chip so Apple will start manufacturing their own processors to increase their margins.

- I think the author is on to something regarding the future of processors but I do not think the PC market will change that drastically. Apple will probably start making their own chips for the iPhone and their new gadgets but I doubt they will do the same for the PC market.

Edit: Just found out that Apple already makes a server (Thanks Brian). I have to start doing some research from now on.

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