Price fixing - the Feds throw the e-book at Apple

[Kristie]

Fuck Apple and there fucking shitty garbage products.

I'm proud to say I've never owned an Apple computer and it makes me even happier saying it out loud.

Their products are just plain shitty. It goes to show what stupid sheep people are that they are actually stupid enough to buy overpriced and largely proprietary shit. I could never do on a Mac what I can do on my PC. But, don't consider this an endorsement of Windows or Microsoft either.

I can forgive someone for owning an ipod, but a Mac computer or an ipad is unforgivable.

Apple will never see a fucking dime of my money. Their products are for idiot amateurs who don't know what their doing, except for audio/video editing, maybe. But my buddy, who's a professional video editor, who used to use a Mac, now uses a PC because he said the new software is too amateurish and not professional. He said lots of people are switching. So Apple sucks so bad, they are even losing out on the professional editing market which they used to have a solid hold on.

I'm assuming you know absolutely nothing about technology and computers and that you've never even used an Apple product. Shitty products can sell like crazy, but only until people realize they're shitty. Apple products are the opposite of shitty.

[Kristie]

Apple Corp. has always been a relentlessly eye-gouging profit-seeker whose modus operandi is to establish and enforce a monopolistic sales environment for its products. That is why I have never availed myself of the use of any of them, and won't as long as the company's behaviour remains unchanged.

In other words, they create outstanding products that are highly popular with consumers because they invest a lot in figuring out what people want and need and then they build it and consumers buy them in droves.

And all the poor pussies who can't compete whine and bitch to the government and get it to sanction one of the most innovative, forward-looking and popular companies on the planet.

I can't believe I agree with Seth.

[Svartalf]

Fuck Apple and there fucking shitty garbage products.

I'm proud to say I've never owned an Apple computer and it makes me even happier saying it out loud.

Their products are just plain shitty. It goes to show what stupid sheep people are that they are actually stupid enough to buy overpriced and largely proprietary shit. I could never do on a Mac what I can do on my PC. But, don't consider this an endorsement of Windows or Microsoft either.

I can forgive someone for owning an ipod, but a Mac computer or an ipad is unforgivable.

Apple will never see a fucking dime of my money. Their products are for idiot amateurs who don't know what their doing, except for audio/video editing, maybe. But my buddy, who's a professional video editor, who used to use a Mac, now uses a PC because he said the new software is too amateurish and not professional. He said lots of people are switching. So Apple sucks so bad, they are even losing out on the professional editing market which they used to have a solid hold on.

I'm assuming you know absolutely nothing about technology and computers and that you've never even used an Apple product. Shitty products can sell like crazy, but only until people realize they're shitty. Apple products are the opposite of shitty.

They are still not necessarily the best... Apple computers were a revolution in the 80s (I still rue not having been able to own an Apple II around 1984), so were the ipod and tablet... but I still remember applists complaining about the 1 button mouse, and nowadays, ipods and ipads are quirky and overpriced in comparison to competitors' products, even if they do have their good points.

[Cormac]

Fuck Apple and there fucking shitty garbage products.

I'm proud to say I've never owned an Apple computer and it makes me even happier saying it out loud.

Their products are just plain shitty. It goes to show what stupid sheep people are that they are actually stupid enough to buy overpriced and largely proprietary shit. I could never do on a Mac what I can do on my PC. But, don't consider this an endorsement of Windows or Microsoft either.

I can forgive someone for owning an ipod, but a Mac computer or an ipad is unforgivable.

Apple will never see a fucking dime of my money. Their products are for idiot amateurs who don't know what their doing, except for audio/video editing, maybe. But my buddy, who's a professional video editor, who used to use a Mac, now uses a PC because he said the new software is too amateurish and not professional. He said lots of people are switching. So Apple sucks so bad, they are even losing out on the professional editing market which they used to have a solid hold on.

I'm assuming you know absolutely nothing about technology and computers and that you've never even used an Apple product. Shitty products can sell like crazy, but only until people realize they're shitty. Apple products are the opposite of shitty.

They are still not necessarily the best... Apple computers were a revolution in the 80s (I still rue not having been able to own an Apple II around 1984), so were the ipod and tablet... but I still remember applists complaining about the 1 button mouse, and nowadays, ipods and ipads are quirky and overpriced in comparison to competitors' products, even if they do have their good points.

They've been trading on a reputation they established in the early 80s, unjustifiably.

[laklak]

iPods are great, if you don't use that iTunes abortion. Nobody else does a 160 Gig mp3/mp4 player, the closest is the Zune 120G and it's over $180 more at discount stores. Most other mp3 players are in the 4 - 32 Gig range.

[Seth]

Fuck Apple and there fucking shitty garbage products.

I'm proud to say I've never owned an Apple computer and it makes me even happier saying it out loud.

Their products are just plain shitty. It goes to show what stupid sheep people are that they are actually stupid enough to buy overpriced and largely proprietary shit. I could never do on a Mac what I can do on my PC.

To each his own. I used to be a Windoze guru. Now I'm a Mac user. The only Windoze box I have is a Toughbook that I need to run some radio programming software from Motorola.

And I can do one thing at least on Mac that nobody using Windoze can do: Be virus-free for 25 years without having to spend thousands on after-market antivirus programs.

And that's because the fuckwits at Windoze built their system so incredibly stupidly that as it comes, all ports are default open and therefore you must monitor and close 65,000 different ports to protect yourself, whereas Apple based its OS on Unix, the most stable, most secure, most widely used professional OS on the planet and it defaults to all ports CLOSED unless explicitly opened.

I'm no code monkey, but I simply cannot comprehend why Windoze has not fixed that by now.

Besides, Windoze is no less rapacious and profiteering than Mac is, as anyone who's ever tried to install Microsoft anything knows.

I like proprietary in this case because it's a synonym for "integration, compatibility and ease of use." I absolutely HATE fucking around with Windoze trying to get diverse accessories to work together, and I fucking LOATHE having to diddle with the System Registry because the Windoze programmers aren't smart enough to make Windoze clean up after itself like Apple does.

But I don't begrudge Windoze users. There are a lot more programs available for it, but since I don't need any of them, outside Microsoft Office (which I still loath...I prefer WordPerfect) which I am required to have to be compatible with my business partners, but I can get that on a Mac platform, so fuck Windoze boxes. Not for me anymore. I'm a True Believer.

[Cormac]

Fuck Apple and there fucking shitty garbage products.

I'm proud to say I've never owned an Apple computer and it makes me even happier saying it out loud.

Their products are just plain shitty. It goes to show what stupid sheep people are that they are actually stupid enough to buy overpriced and largely proprietary shit. I could never do on a Mac what I can do on my PC.

To each his own. I used to be a Windoze guru. Now I'm a Mac user. The only Windoze box I have is a Toughbook that I need to run some radio programming software from Motorola.

And I can do one thing at least on Mac that nobody using Windoze can do: Be virus-free for 25 years without having to spend thousands on after-market antivirus programs.

And that's because the fuckwits at Windoze built their system so incredibly stupidly that as it comes, all ports are default open and therefore you must monitor and close 65,000 different ports to protect yourself, whereas Apple based its OS on Unix, the most stable, most secure, most widely used professional OS on the planet and it defaults to all ports CLOSED unless explicitly opened.

I'm no code monkey, but I simply cannot comprehend why Windoze has not fixed that by now.

Besides, Windoze is no less rapacious and profiteering than Mac is, as anyone who's ever tried to install Microsoft anything knows.

I like proprietary in this case because it's a synonym for "integration, compatibility and ease of use." I absolutely HATE fucking around with Windoze trying to get diverse accessories to work together, and I fucking LOATHE having to diddle with the System Registry because the Windoze programmers aren't smart enough to make Windoze clean up after itself like Apple does.

But I don't begrudge Windoze users. There are a lot more programs available for it, but since I don't need any of them, outside Microsoft Office (which I still loath...I prefer WordPerfect) which I am required to have to be compatible with my business partners, but I can get that on a Mac platform, so fuck Windoze boxes. Not for me anymore. I'm a True Believer.

All that may be TRUE, but another reason there aren't as many Apple viruses is the fact that Microsoft is the boogey man and Apple was the hippy dippy champion of the common man (which it never was). Cruises weren't written for it because they weren't targeted. Not because there weren't weaknesses, but because assholes who write viruses are as prone to marketing budgets as anyone else.

[Seth]

A true market is one where the man in the street can set up a stall, without trillions of capital.

Oh horseshit. You CAN set up a stall at the market if all you want to do is sell vegetables from your garden. But if you want to feed the world a slightly larger investment is required.

Once the entry to the market gets any bigger than that, then it's wide open to corruption.

And you think apple sellers aren't cutthroat competitors? Hah!

Actually, even small local markets get corrupted, as the stall-owners get together, or just observe and adjust to the competitors' prices. Anybody trying to undercut gets squeezed. So price-fixing of markets is as old as the hills.

Yes, it is, and it's in fact an essential component of a free market economy. "Price-fixing" is a Marxist term meaning "you're making it too difficult for the proletarian individual to compete." That's it. The anti-trust laws in the US came about during the Wilsonian Progressive revolution as a way to break up some of the most efficient, productive, profitable and economy-sustaining businesses that have ever been seen. Standard Oil, which was the subject of the first Marxist Progressive strike, had made oil, fuel, and oil-based products so incredibly cheap through massive investment in infrastructure and research that the pissant oil producers who couldn't drill a well for three time what it cost Standard Oil could whined, bitched and complained to the Progressive fucks in Congress to get them to pass the Sherman Act.

It was totally about Marxist proletarian dogma. The "little guy" couldn't compete, so instead of forcing the little guy out of the market, or forcing him to band together with others (co-ops) to put some price competition on Standard, the government intervened and said "Standard Oil, you are forbidden to be profitable and successful in a free market economy because it's not FAIR to the inefficient, wasteful, non-cost-effective small oil producers."

Fuckwits.

It seems odd that the US govt haven't fined Apple. They seem to have got off very lightly, compared to the treatment of European companies by the US. The EU should get in there with a huge fine on Apple. You have to have parity.

Why? Please explain in detail why the government must control market forces artificially to damage a successful company that makes things people want and sells them at a price they can afford in order to support a not-so-successful company that makes inferior products that don't work as well and cost more?

Really. Explain the logic of that if you can. Please.

[Seth]

Fuck Apple and there fucking shitty garbage products.

I'm proud to say I've never owned an Apple computer and it makes me even happier saying it out loud.

Their products are just plain shitty. It goes to show what stupid sheep people are that they are actually stupid enough to buy overpriced and largely proprietary shit. I could never do on a Mac what I can do on my PC.

To each his own. I used to be a Windoze guru. Now I'm a Mac user. The only Windoze box I have is a Toughbook that I need to run some radio programming software from Motorola.

And I can do one thing at least on Mac that nobody using Windoze can do: Be virus-free for 25 years without having to spend thousands on after-market antivirus programs.

And that's because the fuckwits at Windoze built their system so incredibly stupidly that as it comes, all ports are default open and therefore you must monitor and close 65,000 different ports to protect yourself, whereas Apple based its OS on Unix, the most stable, most secure, most widely used professional OS on the planet and it defaults to all ports CLOSED unless explicitly opened.

I'm no code monkey, but I simply cannot comprehend why Windoze has not fixed that by now.

Besides, Windoze is no less rapacious and profiteering than Mac is, as anyone who's ever tried to install Microsoft anything knows.

I like proprietary in this case because it's a synonym for "integration, compatibility and ease of use." I absolutely HATE fucking around with Windoze trying to get diverse accessories to work together, and I fucking LOATHE having to diddle with the System Registry because the Windoze programmers aren't smart enough to make Windoze clean up after itself like Apple does.

But I don't begrudge Windoze users. There are a lot more programs available for it, but since I don't need any of them, outside Microsoft Office (which I still loath...I prefer WordPerfect) which I am required to have to be compatible with my business partners, but I can get that on a Mac platform, so fuck Windoze boxes. Not for me anymore. I'm a True Believer.

All that may be TRUE, but another reason there aren't as many Apple viruses is the fact that Microsoft is the boogey man and Apple was the hippy dippy champion of the common man (which it never was). Cruises weren't written for it because they weren't targeted. Not because there weren't weaknesses, but because assholes who write viruses are as prone to marketing budgets as anyone else.

We like to call that "market savvy." Funny how Apple is what, number 2 in the world of computers? And it's not far enough behind Microsoft to be worried. It has a distinctive product and product line that is, and can be tightly integrated, which means user-friendly, because it's proprietary. People like that, as should be obvious from the popularity of the Mac computer line and the iPhone and the iPod.

And although there are weaknesses in the Unix core (and the Apple OS) it's literally hundreds of thousands of times less likely to be maliciously hacked than any Windoze box. There's something like 40 or so known effective viri for Mac. There's hundreds of thousands of them for Windoze. Enough that it supports and entire INDUSTRY dedicated to closing holes Microsoft left open. One might almost think Bill Gates did so deliberately, to create an entirely new market that supports his OS.

Hm.

Well, it turns out that treating your customers like they are gullible idiots only gets you so far, and some people value competence and genuine concern for their customers rather highly. Like me.

[Cormac]

Fuck Apple and there fucking shitty garbage products.

I'm proud to say I've never owned an Apple computer and it makes me even happier saying it out loud.

Their products are just plain shitty. It goes to show what stupid sheep people are that they are actually stupid enough to buy overpriced and largely proprietary shit. I could never do on a Mac what I can do on my PC.

To each his own. I used to be a Windoze guru. Now I'm a Mac user. The only Windoze box I have is a Toughbook that I need to run some radio programming software from Motorola.

And I can do one thing at least on Mac that nobody using Windoze can do: Be virus-free for 25 years without having to spend thousands on after-market antivirus programs.

And that's because the fuckwits at Windoze built their system so incredibly stupidly that as it comes, all ports are default open and therefore you must monitor and close 65,000 different ports to protect yourself, whereas Apple based its OS on Unix, the most stable, most secure, most widely used professional OS on the planet and it defaults to all ports CLOSED unless explicitly opened.

I'm no code monkey, but I simply cannot comprehend why Windoze has not fixed that by now.

Besides, Windoze is no less rapacious and profiteering than Mac is, as anyone who's ever tried to install Microsoft anything knows.

I like proprietary in this case because it's a synonym for "integration, compatibility and ease of use." I absolutely HATE fucking around with Windoze trying to get diverse accessories to work together, and I fucking LOATHE having to diddle with the System Registry because the Windoze programmers aren't smart enough to make Windoze clean up after itself like Apple does.

But I don't begrudge Windoze users. There are a lot more programs available for it, but since I don't need any of them, outside Microsoft Office (which I still loath...I prefer WordPerfect) which I am required to have to be compatible with my business partners, but I can get that on a Mac platform, so fuck Windoze boxes. Not for me anymore. I'm a True Believer.

All that may be TRUE, but another reason there aren't as many Apple viruses is the fact that Microsoft is the boogey man and Apple was the hippy dippy champion of the common man (which it never was). Cruises weren't written for it because they weren't targeted. Not because there weren't weaknesses, but because assholes who write viruses are as prone to marketing budgets as anyone else.

We like to call that "market savvy." Funny how Apple is what, number 2 in the world of computers? And it's not far enough behind Microsoft to be worried. It has a distinctive product and product line that is, and can be tightly integrated, which means user-friendly, because it's proprietary. People like that, as should be obvious from the popularity of the Mac computer line and the iPhone and the iPod.

And although there are weaknesses in the Unix core (and the Apple OS) it's literally hundreds of thousands of times less likely to be maliciously hacked than any Windoze box. There's something like 40 or so known effective viri for Mac. There's hundreds of thousands of them for Windoze. Enough that it supports and entire INDUSTRY dedicated to closing holes Microsoft left open. One might almost think Bill Gates did so deliberately, to create an entirely new market that supports his OS.

Hm.

Well, it turns out that treating your customers like they are gullible idiots only gets you so far, and some people value competence and genuine concern for their customers rather highly. Like me.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking Apple for that. Just human nature.

Although, I don't think Apple give a tuppenny fuck abou lt their customers. I recall their refusing to provide for networking because the internet was a fad.

[Seth]

Fuck Apple and there fucking shitty garbage products.

I'm proud to say I've never owned an Apple computer and it makes me even happier saying it out loud.

Their products are just plain shitty. It goes to show what stupid sheep people are that they are actually stupid enough to buy overpriced and largely proprietary shit. I could never do on a Mac what I can do on my PC.

To each his own. I used to be a Windoze guru. Now I'm a Mac user. The only Windoze box I have is a Toughbook that I need to run some radio programming software from Motorola.

And I can do one thing at least on Mac that nobody using Windoze can do: Be virus-free for 25 years without having to spend thousands on after-market antivirus programs.

And that's because the fuckwits at Windoze built their system so incredibly stupidly that as it comes, all ports are default open and therefore you must monitor and close 65,000 different ports to protect yourself, whereas Apple based its OS on Unix, the most stable, most secure, most widely used professional OS on the planet and it defaults to all ports CLOSED unless explicitly opened.

I'm no code monkey, but I simply cannot comprehend why Windoze has not fixed that by now.

Besides, Windoze is no less rapacious and profiteering than Mac is, as anyone who's ever tried to install Microsoft anything knows.

I like proprietary in this case because it's a synonym for "integration, compatibility and ease of use." I absolutely HATE fucking around with Windoze trying to get diverse accessories to work together, and I fucking LOATHE having to diddle with the System Registry because the Windoze programmers aren't smart enough to make Windoze clean up after itself like Apple does.

But I don't begrudge Windoze users. There are a lot more programs available for it, but since I don't need any of them, outside Microsoft Office (which I still loath...I prefer WordPerfect) which I am required to have to be compatible with my business partners, but I can get that on a Mac platform, so fuck Windoze boxes. Not for me anymore. I'm a True Believer.

All that may be TRUE, but another reason there aren't as many Apple viruses is the fact that Microsoft is the boogey man and Apple was the hippy dippy champion of the common man (which it never was). Cruises weren't written for it because they weren't targeted. Not because there weren't weaknesses, but because assholes who write viruses are as prone to marketing budgets as anyone else.

We like to call that "market savvy." Funny how Apple is what, number 2 in the world of computers? And it's not far enough behind Microsoft to be worried. It has a distinctive product and product line that is, and can be tightly integrated, which means user-friendly, because it's proprietary. People like that, as should be obvious from the popularity of the Mac computer line and the iPhone and the iPod.

And although there are weaknesses in the Unix core (and the Apple OS) it's literally hundreds of thousands of times less likely to be maliciously hacked than any Windoze box. There's something like 40 or so known effective viri for Mac. There's hundreds of thousands of them for Windoze. Enough that it supports and entire INDUSTRY dedicated to closing holes Microsoft left open. One might almost think Bill Gates did so deliberately, to create an entirely new market that supports his OS.

Hm.

Well, it turns out that treating your customers like they are gullible idiots only gets you so far, and some people value competence and genuine concern for their customers rather highly. Like me.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking Apple for that. Just human nature.

Although, I don't think Apple give a tuppenny fuck abou lt their customers. I recall their refusing to provide for networking because the internet was a fad.

Don't be a crochety old fart. That was then, this is now and Apple is WAY ahead of the game when it comes to networking. I plug in a device or set up a network and my Mac configures itself. Windoze is a network nightmare I have never conquered, not in 20 years of deep Windoze diving.

[klr]

...

"Price-fixing" is a Marxist term meaning "you're making it too difficult for the proletarian individual to compete.

...

There ought to be an equivalent to Godwin's Law, dealing with the likelihood of anything not agreeable to those of a hard-core libertarian persuasion being described as "Marxist".

[Cormac]

Don't get me wrong. I'm not knocking Apple for that. Just human nature.

Although, I don't think Apple give a tuppenny fuck abou lt their customers. I recall their refusing to provide for networking because the internet was a fad.

Don't be a crochety old fart. That was then, this is now and Apple is WAY ahead of the game when it comes to networking. I plug in a device or set up a network and my Mac configures itself. Windoze is a network nightmare I have never conquered, not in 20 years of deep Windoze diving.

I can be a crotchety old fart.

[Seth]

...

"Price-fixing" is a Marxist term meaning "you're making it too difficult for the proletarian individual to compete.

...

There ought to be an equivalent to Godwin's Law, dealing with the likelihood of anything not agreeable to those of a hard-core libertarian persuasion being described as "Marxist".

If it looks like a Marxist, and it walks like a Marxist, and it quacks like a Marxist, then it's a Marxist. Why shouldn't I point out that fact whenever it comes up.

Oh, but I do see a problem, I meant "regulating price fixing" is a Marxist term. Price fixing is fine with me because I know if the price is fixed too high, someone will come along and undercut the price-fixers and demolish the structure...in a free market.

[klr]

...

"Price-fixing" is a Marxist term meaning "you're making it too difficult for the proletarian individual to compete.

...

There ought to be an equivalent to Godwin's Law, dealing with the likelihood of anything not agreeable to those of a hard-core libertarian persuasion being described as "Marxist".

If it looks like a Marxist, and it walks like a Marxist, and it quacks like a Marxist, then it's a Marxist. Why shouldn't I point out that fact whenever it comes up.

Oh, but I do see a problem, I meant "regulating price fixing" is a Marxist term. Price fixing is fine with me because I know if the price is fixed too high, someone will come along and undercut the price-fixers and demolish the structure...in a free market.

Ah well, y'see, there's the problem. Your definition of Marxist has just about nothing in common with any sensible definition I've ever heard.