http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/202/1050202/microsoft-patents-pay-as-you-go-computing MICROSOFT HAS come up with a pay-as-you-go scheme for which it applied for a patent last week. Although unique, this scheme appears to be nothing more than another way for the company to spy on its users.
Let's figure this out: Turn the computer on, access an operating system. CHA-CHING! Open an email program. CHA-CHING! Access the internet. CHA-CHING! Connect to an email server. Incoming or outgoing, CHA-CHING, (only one email cha-ching per internet access cha-ching) Gather email. Play-time! Open your fav GPU-hog game CHA-CHING + premium GPU usage CHA-CHING! Have fun. Seems Net-Neutrality is morphing into PC-Neutrality. hmmm, this plays in nicely with the upcoming net-neutrality initiatives coupled with infrastructure spending to modernize and deploy the next generation of communication, including broadband and wireless everywhere. A happy and prosperous New Year for the poor, indeed. Obama-lama
Has a Ma BELL feel to it. Softie either is gonna have to subsidize PC's to the public or make them property of the "phone" company that you have to return. You're right Banjo as far as the Orwellian feel is concerned. But all in all, it clears the final hurdle of getting a PC (that just happens to run a windows OS) into every home on the planet... theoretically.
MS will never get away with this. Not with the likes of Google and a billion other companies and people waiting to slice Microsoft's throat.
To me it just seems like a way to limit the damage the Internet can do to an oppressive gummint. They can't really control what is on the Internet, so fuck it- let's just figure a way to price everyone out. Just another way to control information flow...
Mr Softie has been losing sleep for years now trying to come up with a way to keep getting into your pocket AFTER they sell you something and their revenue stream from you to them ends. How frustrating it must be for them to sell you something for a one time charge and you continue to benefit and they continue to get zip. We are starting to see the cable/DSL providers do the same thing. PAY-PER-USE, be in in the form of hours, bits, software etc, etc, they are out to stiff us as much as possible. We might not like it but smoke signals to the exchange are kinda slow and a pain on windy days.
Let's face it, the MS business model and revenue stream is on shaky ground. MS makes most of its revenue from Windows and Office sales. You can get Linux and OpenOffice for free. MS keeps its enterprise market share because only Office seamlessly integrate into Exchange. But for home computers there is a landslide waiting to happen especially when consumers are strapped for cash and their credit is being cut off. So the idea is to provide the computer for free and suck the money out of the consumer a little bit at a time, slowly like boiling a frog so it is not noticed.