Correction: They make reasonably good "old-timey" style keyboards, (the type with the big clunky keys that have to travel a half inch to register a press), if you like that sort.
Even then you have to be a fan of those split in half, curved ones designed to banish the spectre of carpal tunnel to really get behind Microsoft's keyboards. (I say "spectre" because we now know that carpel tunnel was basically imaginary for the most part).
Wow. Having written several large books on a regular keyboard and having my wrists lock up on me, I can assure you that ergonomic keyboards made a *huge* difference in my case. Perhaps I'm not typical, but the difference was amazing to me.
I don't drink coffee that was produced using child labor either, but most people don't have time or interest to even find out where the big green machine gets there supply from.
IBM makes more money than they used to, too, but they no longer rule the tech world. Microsoft may continue making lots of money for a long time, but they are no longer any sort of force in the industry.
And someday, regrettably, Apple will be in that position. No one is top dog forever.
I don't drink coffee that was produced using child labor either, but most people don't have time or interest to even find out where the big green machine gets there supply from.
Coffee produced using child labor isn't necessarily evil, for example on a small family owned finca it would be quite normal for the children to be involved in the picking and processing. There's still plenty of child labor going on on farms and orchards in this country (U.S.).
Besides, I thought big green bought triage coffee?
But interestingly.... the ratio of gross to net is in MS favor by a long shot. I thought Apple was supposed to be the high margin money grubbing villain that everyone loves to complain about?? Maybe it's an accounting thing.........
Maybe someone already answered this, but on case they haven't, I'll try.
Software margins can be as high as 90%, if paper manuals, disks, packaging, shipping, etc. Isn't required. MS has much higher margins because they are mostly a software company.
It can also be said that software companies rip off their customers with those high margins, and perhaps that's so, but whether it is true or not, the margins are very high if the company is successful.
Yes, and Microsoft stock was up .50 a share today, while Apple was down again at -$3.50 a share. Not sure what's going on with Apple stock, but its ridiculous. How can you have the earnings and innovation that this company has had over the past straight two quarters, and they are only a couple dollars over stock prices way back in January. Something is amiss. Although 'Boo Ya' Cramer says to "be patient", and remains a strong buy.
Well, there was anticipation that MS would beat the numbers, so it went up 1.25% during the day, but it's down 1.65% after hours so far. Apple went down 0.97% during the day, and is up 0.22% after hours.
We'll see what happens tomorrow. Apple is being pounded in the markets for nutty reasons, but it did rise nicely for several days after their earning report. It's stuck right now.
Neither do I. Then again, I don't drink coffee at all.
Yeah, I'm sure you vet out everything you use, right?
Keep in mind, if those child laborers weren't working for next to nothing picking coffee all day long, they'd just be *starving*.
Cheers.
Easy for you to imagine it being so black and white but it isn't that simple. Their parents make them work instead of letting them go to school where they would be fed and where they might grow up educated and make a difference in the society instead of just making the same mistakes over and over for generations. Coffee pickers make around 10 cents a pound which ultimately is sold in modern countries for more than 10 dollars. 99% of the profit on coffee is made after it reaches our shores. Profits made on the backs of children. But very few coffee drinkers know or care.
On the other hand wages in China are rising rapidly and they have an aging population problem just slightly behind the US and Japan. Many high tech manufacturers are already moving away from China to seek cheaper labor in Cambodia and Laos for example. The age of cheap Chinese made goods is quickly coming to a close. But greedy corporations will continue to exploit workers anywhere they can get away with it.
Correction: They make reasonably good "old-timey" style keyboards, (the type with the big clunky keys that have to travel a half inch to register a press), if you like that sort.
Even then you have to be a fan of those split in half, curved ones designed to banish the spectre of carpal tunnel to really get behind Microsoft's keyboards. (I say "spectre" because we now know that carpel tunnel was basically imaginary for the most part).
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a very serious problem. I had it myself. My doctor told me to buy the best, most adjustable computer chair available with an adjustable headrest, and I did. After a couple of months using that my problems went away.
Microsoft is still doing very well. They're making the best products they ever have done, such as:
- Zune desktop software
- Zune hardware and mobile software
- Windows Phone 7
- Windows 7
- Office 2010
- Office 2011 for Mac
- Xbox 360
- Xbox Live
All great products and deserve to be class leaders if they are not already. I can't think of another company (including Apple) that has put out such a fantastic range of very good products. I'm very pleased with all of my recent purchases from Microsoft.
Huh? The revenue and profit is a huge rise on last year and also stands as a record for this period in any year the company has operated. Of course, if Apple makes more, Microsoft must have failed
RSI is a real thing, but the solution is basically not doing so much of whatever the repetitive thing is that causes the pain. Carpal Tunnel syndrome on the other hand, basically doesn't exist anymore and was a dubious proposition even at the time it was being heavily promoted.
Anyone who's been around computers long enough knows this instinctively because at the time it was being promoted so heavily, almost everyone had it, but nowadays, no one has it at all. I distinctly remember buying bushels and bushels of those silly spilt keyboards and wrist thingies and pressure wraps for large numbers of our employees and I remember setting them up on people's desks. I remember the lawsuits, the sick leaves and the union grievances over it. I remember reading the tech press talking about how we were all doomed and that there simply "wasn't an answer" for carpal tunnel. There were people talking about alternative interfaces simply because they thought the "death of the keyboard" was just around the corner.
Now here we are years later and maybe two people out of a thousand even use those silly things and I haven't even heard of anyone taking sick leave for such a thing for at least five years.
Lots of illnesses even ones that require surgery or ones that eventually kill you, turn out to be imaginary, it's hardly unusual. It doesn't make them any less painful, but it does make them "not real."
So we can assume that the NIH is concerned about an imaginary problem?
Fifteen years ago, nobody would have guessed this. I guess the tech industry can still surprise. And interestingly, Apple actually makes good products!
I don't drink coffee that was produced using child labor either, but most people don't have time or interest to even find out where the big green machine gets there supply from.
Unfortunately, all third world countries, and some that are no so third world, rely on child labor. The mantra for thousands of years has been that everyone who can support the family, does so. Only when countries get a big enough, and rich enough middle class, do their attitudes change.
I don't think that we have the right to tell everyone else that what we do is always going to be best for them. That's amazingly arrogant.
Easy for you to imagine it being so black and white but it isn't that simple. Their parents make them work instead of letting them go to school where they would be fed and where they might grow up educated and make a difference in the society instead of just making the same mistakes over and over for generations. Coffee pickers make around 10 cents a pound which ultimately is sold in modern countries for more than 10 dollars. 99% of the profit on coffee is made after it reaches our shores. Profits made on the backs of children. But very few coffee drinkers know or care.
On the other hand wages in China are rising rapidly and they have an aging population problem just slightly behind the US and Japan. Many high tech manufacturers are already moving away from China to seek cheaper labor in Cambodia and Laos for example. The age of cheap Chinese made goods is quickly coming to a close. But greedy corporations will continue to exploit workers anywhere they can get away with it.
You're oversimplifying. Since when don't parents make their children do anything? You think that going to school in these countries makes much of a difference? It doesn't. There are few jobs available for more educated people. But these children do get to learn how to read and write in most instances, except perhaps for those living well out of the way in small groups.
I had two guys from India working for me who had degrees and licenses in India as MD's. But there were no jobs available for them there, and they couldn't pass the licensing exams here. This is nothing unusual. In China, there is lots of child labor. Same in India, Taiwan, and just about anywhere else.
In many of these countries, you take away child labor, and you severely damage the economy. They wouldn't thank you for it.
There have been some publications that dispute the link between computer use / typing and the condition itself, which is undoubtedly real.
For example, from The Journal of hand surgery33 (7): 1076?80
Disparity between popular (Internet) and scientific illness concepts of carpal tunnel syndrome causation.
Scangas G, Lozano-Calderón S, Ring D.
Massachusetts General Hospital, Hand and Upper Extremity Service, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Abstract
PURPOSE:
To determine whether there are notable disparities between popular (Internet) and scientific (Index Medicus) theories of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) causation.
METHODS:
Reports from 3 sources were evaluated with regard to support for etiological theories of CTS: 1) patient-oriented information on CTS from the Internet, 2) recent physician-oriented information on CTS from medical journals indexed on Index Medicus, and 3) articles addressing the etiology of CTS from the 1997 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health report. Multiple logistic regression analyses evaluated differences in etiological theories from the 3 sources.
RESULTS:
Internet sites implicated vitamin B(6) deficiency, tenosynovitis, and typing or computer use as causes for idiopathic CTS considerably more often and genetic predisposition considerably less often than recent Index Medicus scientific reports and reports reviewed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
CONCLUSIONS:
There are notable disparities between popular (Internet) and scientific (Index Medicus) theories of CTS causation.
Correction: They make reasonably good "old-timey" style keyboards, (the type with the big clunky keys that have to travel a half inch to register a press), if you like that sort.
Even then you have to be a fan of those split in half, curved ones designed to banish the spectre of carpal tunnel to really get behind Microsoft's keyboards. (I say "spectre" because we now know that carpel tunnel was basically imaginary for the most part).
Well, to be perfectly honest, I am only using the Microsoft Natural Keyboard on my work (Windows 7) machine.
I used to have the same keyboard on my home system (a Mac mini), but I've since switched to the Apple Keyboard and the Magic Trackpad (which is awesome).
Not only have they increased both profit and revenue but more importantly they have shown they can seek out new sources of revenue to combat the reduction in PC sales.
I'd love to see what would happen if they released a version of Office for iDevices.
Comments
Correction: They make reasonably good "old-timey" style keyboards, (the type with the big clunky keys that have to travel a half inch to register a press), if you like that sort.
Even then you have to be a fan of those split in half, curved ones designed to banish the spectre of carpal tunnel to really get behind Microsoft's keyboards. (I say "spectre" because we now know that carpel tunnel was basically imaginary for the most part).
Wow. Having written several large books on a regular keyboard and having my wrists lock up on me, I can assure you that ergonomic keyboards made a *huge* difference in my case. Perhaps I'm not typical, but the difference was amazing to me.
I really don't have a problem at all with that.
To each his own.
I don't drink coffee that was produced using child labor either, but most people don't have time or interest to even find out where the big green machine gets there supply from.
IBM makes more money than they used to, too, but they no longer rule the tech world. Microsoft may continue making lots of money for a long time, but they are no longer any sort of force in the industry.
And someday, regrettably, Apple will be in that position. No one is top dog forever.
To each his own.
I don't drink coffee that was produced using child labor either,
Neither do I. Then again, I don't drink coffee at all.
but most people don't have time or interest to even find out where the big green machine gets there supply from.
Yeah, I'm sure you vet out everything you use, right?
Keep in mind, if those child laborers weren't working for next to nothing picking coffee all day long, they'd just be *starving*.
Cheers.
To each his own.
I don't drink coffee that was produced using child labor either, but most people don't have time or interest to even find out where the big green machine gets there supply from.
Coffee produced using child labor isn't necessarily evil, for example on a small family owned finca it would be quite normal for the children to be involved in the picking and processing. There's still plenty of child labor going on on farms and orchards in this country (U.S.).
Besides, I thought big green bought triage coffee?
Seconded
But interestingly.... the ratio of gross to net is in MS favor by a long shot. I thought Apple was supposed to be the high margin money grubbing villain that everyone loves to complain about?? Maybe it's an accounting thing.........
Maybe someone already answered this, but on case they haven't, I'll try.
Software margins can be as high as 90%, if paper manuals, disks, packaging, shipping, etc. Isn't required. MS has much higher margins because they are mostly a software company.
It can also be said that software companies rip off their customers with those high margins, and perhaps that's so, but whether it is true or not, the margins are very high if the company is successful.
Steve Jobs should send Mr. Gates a thank you note for that 400 million dollar loan
It was a $150 million investment in non voteing stock, and MS made a bundle on it.
Yes, and Microsoft stock was up .50 a share today, while Apple was down again at -$3.50 a share. Not sure what's going on with Apple stock, but its ridiculous. How can you have the earnings and innovation that this company has had over the past straight two quarters, and they are only a couple dollars over stock prices way back in January. Something is amiss. Although 'Boo Ya' Cramer says to "be patient", and remains a strong buy.
Well, there was anticipation that MS would beat the numbers, so it went up 1.25% during the day, but it's down 1.65% after hours so far. Apple went down 0.97% during the day, and is up 0.22% after hours.
We'll see what happens tomorrow. Apple is being pounded in the markets for nutty reasons, but it did rise nicely for several days after their earning report. It's stuck right now.
Neither do I. Then again, I don't drink coffee at all.
Yeah, I'm sure you vet out everything you use, right?
Keep in mind, if those child laborers weren't working for next to nothing picking coffee all day long, they'd just be *starving*.
Cheers.
Easy for you to imagine it being so black and white but it isn't that simple. Their parents make them work instead of letting them go to school where they would be fed and where they might grow up educated and make a difference in the society instead of just making the same mistakes over and over for generations. Coffee pickers make around 10 cents a pound which ultimately is sold in modern countries for more than 10 dollars. 99% of the profit on coffee is made after it reaches our shores. Profits made on the backs of children. But very few coffee drinkers know or care.
On the other hand wages in China are rising rapidly and they have an aging population problem just slightly behind the US and Japan. Many high tech manufacturers are already moving away from China to seek cheaper labor in Cambodia and Laos for example. The age of cheap Chinese made goods is quickly coming to a close. But greedy corporations will continue to exploit workers anywhere they can get away with it.
Correction: They make reasonably good "old-timey" style keyboards, (the type with the big clunky keys that have to travel a half inch to register a press), if you like that sort.
Even then you have to be a fan of those split in half, curved ones designed to banish the spectre of carpal tunnel to really get behind Microsoft's keyboards. (I say "spectre" because we now know that carpel tunnel was basically imaginary for the most part).
Carpal tunnel syndrome is a very serious problem. I had it myself. My doctor told me to buy the best, most adjustable computer chair available with an adjustable headrest, and I did. After a couple of months using that my problems went away.
Microsoft is still doing very well. They're making the best products they ever have done, such as:
- Zune desktop software
- Zune hardware and mobile software
- Windows Phone 7
- Windows 7
- Office 2010
- Office 2011 for Mac
- Xbox 360
- Xbox Live
All great products and deserve to be class leaders if they are not already. I can't think of another company (including Apple) that has put out such a fantastic range of very good products. I'm very pleased with all of my recent purchases from Microsoft.
Huh? The revenue and profit is a huge rise on last year and also stands as a record for this period in any year the company has operated. Of course, if Apple makes more, Microsoft must have failed
You're kidding of course. At least, I hope so.
Besides, I thought big green bought triage coffee?
Triage is really bad crap. But it has nothing to do with child labor.
it's true, look it up.
RSI is a real thing, but the solution is basically not doing so much of whatever the repetitive thing is that causes the pain. Carpal Tunnel syndrome on the other hand, basically doesn't exist anymore and was a dubious proposition even at the time it was being heavily promoted.
Anyone who's been around computers long enough knows this instinctively because at the time it was being promoted so heavily, almost everyone had it, but nowadays, no one has it at all. I distinctly remember buying bushels and bushels of those silly spilt keyboards and wrist thingies and pressure wraps for large numbers of our employees and I remember setting them up on people's desks. I remember the lawsuits, the sick leaves and the union grievances over it. I remember reading the tech press talking about how we were all doomed and that there simply "wasn't an answer" for carpal tunnel. There were people talking about alternative interfaces simply because they thought the "death of the keyboard" was just around the corner.
Now here we are years later and maybe two people out of a thousand even use those silly things and I haven't even heard of anyone taking sick leave for such a thing for at least five years.
Lots of illnesses even ones that require surgery or ones that eventually kill you, turn out to be imaginary, it's hardly unusual. It doesn't make them any less painful, but it does make them "not real."
So we can assume that the NIH is concerned about an imaginary problem?
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/c...pal_tunnel.htm
To each his own.
I don't drink coffee that was produced using child labor either, but most people don't have time or interest to even find out where the big green machine gets there supply from.
Unfortunately, all third world countries, and some that are no so third world, rely on child labor. The mantra for thousands of years has been that everyone who can support the family, does so. Only when countries get a big enough, and rich enough middle class, do their attitudes change.
I don't think that we have the right to tell everyone else that what we do is always going to be best for them. That's amazingly arrogant.
Easy for you to imagine it being so black and white but it isn't that simple. Their parents make them work instead of letting them go to school where they would be fed and where they might grow up educated and make a difference in the society instead of just making the same mistakes over and over for generations. Coffee pickers make around 10 cents a pound which ultimately is sold in modern countries for more than 10 dollars. 99% of the profit on coffee is made after it reaches our shores. Profits made on the backs of children. But very few coffee drinkers know or care.
On the other hand wages in China are rising rapidly and they have an aging population problem just slightly behind the US and Japan. Many high tech manufacturers are already moving away from China to seek cheaper labor in Cambodia and Laos for example. The age of cheap Chinese made goods is quickly coming to a close. But greedy corporations will continue to exploit workers anywhere they can get away with it.
You're oversimplifying. Since when don't parents make their children do anything? You think that going to school in these countries makes much of a difference? It doesn't. There are few jobs available for more educated people. But these children do get to learn how to read and write in most instances, except perhaps for those living well out of the way in small groups.
I had two guys from India working for me who had degrees and licenses in India as MD's. But there were no jobs available for them there, and they couldn't pass the licensing exams here. This is nothing unusual. In China, there is lots of child labor. Same in India, Taiwan, and just about anywhere else.
In many of these countries, you take away child labor, and you severely damage the economy. They wouldn't thank you for it.
So we can assume that the NIH is concerned about an imaginary problem?
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/c...pal_tunnel.htm
There have been some publications that dispute the link between computer use / typing and the condition itself, which is undoubtedly real.
For example, from The Journal of hand surgery 33 (7): 1076?80
Disparity between popular (Internet) and scientific illness concepts of carpal tunnel syndrome causation.
Scangas G, Lozano-Calderón S, Ring D.
Massachusetts General Hospital, Hand and Upper Extremity Service, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Abstract
PURPOSE:
To determine whether there are notable disparities between popular (Internet) and scientific (Index Medicus) theories of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) causation.
METHODS:
Reports from 3 sources were evaluated with regard to support for etiological theories of CTS: 1) patient-oriented information on CTS from the Internet, 2) recent physician-oriented information on CTS from medical journals indexed on Index Medicus, and 3) articles addressing the etiology of CTS from the 1997 National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health report. Multiple logistic regression analyses evaluated differences in etiological theories from the 3 sources.
RESULTS:
Internet sites implicated vitamin B(6) deficiency, tenosynovitis, and typing or computer use as causes for idiopathic CTS considerably more often and genetic predisposition considerably less often than recent Index Medicus scientific reports and reports reviewed by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
CONCLUSIONS:
There are notable disparities between popular (Internet) and scientific (Index Medicus) theories of CTS causation.
Correction: They make reasonably good "old-timey" style keyboards, (the type with the big clunky keys that have to travel a half inch to register a press), if you like that sort.
Even then you have to be a fan of those split in half, curved ones designed to banish the spectre of carpal tunnel to really get behind Microsoft's keyboards. (I say "spectre" because we now know that carpel tunnel was basically imaginary for the most part).
Well, to be perfectly honest, I am only using the Microsoft Natural Keyboard on my work (Windows 7) machine.
I used to have the same keyboard on my home system (a Mac mini), but I've since switched to the Apple Keyboard and the Magic Trackpad (which is awesome).
Not only have they increased both profit and revenue but more importantly they have shown they can seek out new sources of revenue to combat the reduction in PC sales.
I'd love to see what would happen if they released a version of Office for iDevices.