Uhh...every job I've had as long as I can remember? (USA BTW) Health insurance usually kicks in 30 days or so after hiring, but then they usually have pre-existing conditions clauses for an additional 90 days or 6 months (an abomination IMO, because everyone has pre-existing conditions!) Lots of places you can't use your PTO (paid time off) for 90 days, and then of course you have to earn those hours first by working a set amount of hours.
And I'm not talking as a contractor, I'm talking straight-up regular salaried work.
That was one of the things that bugged me most about TNG. Build a tiny camera into every communicator badge! They even went so far as to test out an interface into Geordi's VISOR during one episode and transmit it back to the main viewscreen, and everyone thought it worked great! Until it malfunctioned because of some radiation or something. But apparently no one thought of the obvious: video cameras.
The other most annoying thing to me was that they would transport onto a planet with questionable atmosphere wearing only their normal uniform jumpsuit. And the doctor would warn them "you only have 30 minutes in this atmosphere or it could be dangerous" or something. Ever heard of a spacesuit? Instead they'd send Data. Good excuse to have Data in the episode I suppose.
I'm sure the reason for both was budgetary on the show. Jumpsuits are cheap, spacesuits are expensive. Having the characters describe the action is cheap, creating a bunch of camera shots from the viewpoint of communicator badges are expensive. Still, it makes you want to scream at the TV sometimes.:)
There's a free Tricorder app for Android (no cost and open source.) It accesses your Android's sensors, and has gravity, magnetic, acoustic, geological, ems, and solar modes, and has the LCARS interface look.
And who do non-geeks come to when they're looking to get a new phone and they want advice? Their geek friends or co-workers. I've advised several of my non-geek friends to get an Android phone. I've advised all of them to avoid iPhones...because they're locked down and not open. So even though the non-geek people don't directly care, us geeks do, and we pass that on in our advice.
Just this last weekend at a party, I had a friend that was considering a Droid X, but wasn't 100% sure, and he hadn't ever used an Android phone in person. I let him play with my Moto Droid for about an hour, and he was sold on Android. And he is by no means geeky at all.
I work at a pediatric clinic, in IT. Many of our physicians picked up iPhones when they first came out, and we supported connecting them to Exchange (we don't really have a choice, the clinic is owned by the physicians.)
Our electronic medical records system (i.e. electronic patient charts) vendor came out with an iPhone app last year, and they now support Android as well. Like most EMR's, it works only on the dominant OS - Windows - the fact that their new mobile app supports only iPhone and Android (not Windows Mobile) definitely says something about how they view the future of the smartphone market (for physicians at least.)
At the vendor's user group meeting in November of last year, I saw iPhones all over - I don't think I'd ever seen so many iPhones in one place. So physicians at least love the iPhone. The Moto Droid had just released, so I didn't see any there. Our IT department has gone Android (thanks to me - my cell contract was up for renewal and I couldn't wait to get rid of my crappy HTC Windows Mobile smartphone), and at least 5 or 6 employees in management-type positions have since gotten Android phones of some sort.
I'm sorry, but what does a paper stating what candidate Obama supported in 2008 have to do with the actual 2010 healthcare measure that passed?
I would have loved to see socialized, centralized healthcare in the US. Unfortunately, that's not what we got. I think that's the point that stewbacca was making above.
I was simply responding to aristotle-dude's post that said "Any phone that has an integrated antenna will have diminished signal when you hold them from the bottom instead of how almost everyone in the civilized world holds a cellphone when making a call." Clearly this is not true. Some phones have these issues. Some don't. The iPhone has this issue for some people. Sounds like a design flaw to me. It's also a design flaw that the Nexus One has issues with its reception if you hold it a certain way. The iPhone 4 is still a great phone, but people are acting like they're being personally attacked when you point out any flaws with it.
Fair enough. Personal preference, and all that. I happen to really like the stock Android UI (which is what my Droid has.) And I actually think that "you can get porn on Android!" is a pretty weak argument - a 4 inch screen and surfing over 3G is not my preferred porn experience.
No, I don't have much experience with the iPhone. From what I've heard though, it has a great interface that works very well, and has quality hardware. And Apple's industrial design is second to none - I wish the Android manufacturers would take a hint from Apple and design better-looking phones.
But none of that is really that important to me. To me, it's all about what you can do with it.
The reason I'd never own an iPhone is because of Apple's and Jobs' app store policies, the fact that the iPhone UI is not very customizable, the apps you can get on Android but not on iPhone (old console game emulators are one example, but there are many.)
And most importantly, the features Android phones have that iPhones do not:
- swappable batteries - I've gotten in the habit of hardly ever charging my phone, I just swap out with my spare battery when it gets low. I have a battery charger that cost $20.
- direct USB drive letter access to the internal memory - no drivers needed, no iTunes sync needed.
- cloud backup - all my contacts are automatically synced to Google, and in the upcoming 2.2 release of Android, app data will also be synced. You do need to connect with USB to copy over music and video though.
- USB tethering - iPhone finally has this also I believe.
- ability to change just about any setting I want on the phone. Can use any mp3 as a ringtone. Can change the wallpaper. Can even completely replace the UI with a different one if I want (but I like the stock UI personally.)
- homescreen widgets - on my homescreens, I have: widgets to turn on and off all the radios (bluetooth/wifi/gps), a WeatherBug widget, a battery level widget, a calendar widget so I can see my next appointment at a glance, and many web page shortcuts. Also folders, but iPhone has those now. You can put direct links to any contact on your home screens - when you click on one, it gives you the option to Navigate to their address, call them, text message them, email, Google talk, Facebook, etc.
- Google Maps Navigation - so good that I got rid of my standalone GPS. Plus it's integrated into the phone all over - if you have an address in one of your contacts, it'll give you the option to Navigate there.
- Flash in the browser (coming soon). No, I don't want to play flash games, but there are a lot of websites that I visit that use flash for their video players, like CNN. I wish everyone was using HTML 5 and not flash, but like it or not, flash is very common on the web right now today.
- notification panel - Android has a notification panel at the top that saves all your notifications until you dismiss them. Easy to see at a glance from anywhere that you have new email, voicemails, which radios are on and connected, etc.
- standard USB connections - my Droid uses micro USB, my wife's Eris uses mini USB. All Droids use one or the other. This makes it very easy to buy extra power cords (got a phone charger for $12), and you don't have to buy them from Apple, or pay extra to an approved manufacturer to cover the dock royalty fee.
So you're saying that you want to switch away from AT&T, but instead of getting an Android phone, if you can't have an iPhone you'd settle for a crappy flip phone? I call BS. Have you even tried an Android phone for yourself, or are you relying on everyone else's opinion to make your choices?
Just don't tell Verizon that you are using corporate email - there's no way they will ever know unless you tell them. Push Outlook email works the same whether you pay them the extra money or not. They're just trying to get businesses to pay more than consumers - consumers tend to be more cost-conscious, while businesses generally just chalk up the higher prices as a cost of doing business. And it's $15 a month extra over the normal $30 unlimited data package - it's not $45 just by itself.
Personal preference, but I would rather pay a few dollars more for data and not have to worry about going over my limit. I think if AT&T were to ALSO offer a higher-priced unlimited data package in addition to the limited data packages, there wouldn't be so much outcry over it. But they've made it so that you can't EVER go over 2 GB a month unless you pay outrageous overage fees. That right there would be a deal-breaker fr me if I was shopping for a cell service.
Verizon does not charge extra for regular voice mail. Yes, they charge a monthly fee for visual voice mail. That's why I don't have it.:)
My Moto Droid works fine making calls when I hold it at the bottom. So does my wife's Eris And I know for a fact that my Droid's antenna is at the bottom - the way I usually hold my phone, I cup and completely engulf the bottom section with my hand. I never ever have dropped calls.
Yes, SOME phones have problems with dropped calls when held from the bottom. Please don't try to make the argument that ALL phones have this issue, when it's just SOME phones that have this issue. Including the iPhone 4. Just admit - it's a design flaw in the phone. I really don't think this would have been a very big issue, except Steve Jobs and Apple are trying to pretend that there is no issue or it's the users' fault. THAT is what all the hoopla about the antenna has been about.
The iPhone 4 does has a pretty nice display at 960x640 and it's true you can't see the pixels. Then again, on my Droid's 854 x 480 screen, I can't see the pixels either - that was one thing I marveled at when I first got it, and I still do. I too can view a web page zoomed all the way out and still read it - not comfortably, but you can at least see how the page is supposed to look. I think we're at the point of diminishing returns here with display resolution on these small screens. And my display is perfectly readable in full sunlight - not sure how the iPhone is.
But I'll give you the fact that the iPhone has a superb camera. Android manufacturers need to take the hint from Apple and work on BETTER cameras, not just more megapixels.
Some things that some Android phones have that iPhone does not: 4G (Sprint EVO 4G), swappable battery, wireless syncing (you only have to plug an Android phone into your computer to sync music, video, and files - all the contact data and etc. is backed up in the cloud automatically).
Yep, Verizon seems to have realized that if they gimp their Android phones (which are marketed to geeks), they would end up repelling those very geeks that they are trying to woo. I know I would not have got my Droid if Verizon had blocked all the fun stuff that comes stock with Android.
Tech companies must know by now that a lot of non-geeks ask their geek friends and colleagues for tech advice - including what new smartphone to buy. Piss off or disappoint the geeks, and they will talk trash about your product - remember Vista?
Case in point: Because I liked my Droid so much, we bought my wife a Droid Eris. I've convinced two of my friends to drop their iPhones when their contracts are up and jump ship to Android (not that it took much convincing - they were getting pissed off about all the things you can't do with an iPhone - no Flash, no ability to have a spare battery, no USB drive access to the phone's memory or SD card) and another non-iPhone-using friend is upgrading from a feature phone to a Droid X soon. Seems like their new policy of not hobbling their phones is working out for Verizon so far.
We definitely do berries right.:) If you're headed up here for the berries, hold off a month or so - the berries get ripe in late July or early August.
Burgerville (a Northwest fast food chain that specializes in fresh locally produced food) has an absolutely amazing blackberry lemonade late in the summer (with an inch of blackberry chunks in the bottom.) Best place to get your berries is at one of the many farmer's markets in the Portland area, directly from the growers. Don't get your fresh fruits and veggies at the grocery store, they're never ripe. Fruits and veggies from the farmer's markets are always ripe and generally organically grown, you just have to make sure to eat them quick or freeze them.
As an Oregonian, I always found the name of the former DC mayor pretty amusing - we have a delicious blackberry variety named the marionberry. Named after Marion County, Oregon.
Or if your DVD player in the living room is a PC, run AnyDVD and it will make everything skippable - or you can set it to skip directly to either the menu or the main title.
AnyDVD-HD will even remove the Blu-Ray HDCP protection so you can plug your computer into a non-HDCP monitor or HDTV.
Pixar movies are some of my all-time favorite movies. If it's made by Pixar, I see it in the theater, no question. No, not every Pixar movie is a winner, but 9 out of 10 are. Animation isn't just for kids, and Pixar knows how to make a good STORY, as well as make movies that are a visual treat. And Pixar movies are loaded up with jokes and references that kids will never understand - as well as silly kid jokes. Pixar movies don't talk down to kids like a lot of other animated movies do.
Same can be said for Mario games, IMO (at least the platformers, 3-D titles like Galaxy, and the Mario Kart games - I skip the Mario Party-type games.) Mario games are cartoonish, but they're FUN to play. I have no desire to shoot realistic human enemies and see blood in my video games. Video games to me are about fun and fast reflexes, not carnage.
I'm 37 years old BTW. I've been married 15 years to an awesome woman, I own my own home, and I have a great job in IT.
Maybe they have different boxes in different areas. Mine required no activation, just plug it in, it takes a few minutes to download its guide info, and it works. Got an IR blaster, and my Windows Media Center controls it just fine.
They "gave" it to me in the sense of I gave them no money and they sent it to me, and I pay no lease per month for it. Why would you want to keep them anyway? They're proprietary to the Comcast cable system, they likely wouldn't work with another cable provider's system.
If you hate Comcast so much and don't like what equipment they require you to use, find an alternative. They're not forcing you to purchase service from them. Satellite TV service is available just about everywhere. I plan on canceling Comcast cable at the end of the year when my contract expires. The house we bought has a big 'ol 30 year old antenna on the roof that gives me 26 crystal clear digital stations, most HD.
That's not really true. With Comcast, you just need a small digital converter box for each TV. The box is about the size of an external USB hard drive, about 4x4 inches square and a half an inch thick. Comcast provides 2 free for each household, any additional cost $3 a month ($36 a year each.) Yes this sucks and the old way of just plugging the cable into your TV was easier, but they are by no means "mammoth" and by no means $60 a year each.
My work's Verizon USB 3G dongle installed in Windows 7 on my laptop automatically without needing a driver disc (I think it automatically downloaded an up-to-date driver from Windows Update when I plugged it in) and worked without installing the Verizon connection manager. It made a dial-up-networking connection automatically, and I entered #77 or something like that as the phone number - you can find out the parameters to enter with a quick google search. You can install the connection manager but it's not required.
So it's possible some of the new 3G dongles will also auto-install and work automatically in Linux also. The cell companies tend to like to buy the cheapest equipment to give to customers these days, so the dongle is probably a cheap Chinese piece - which tend to be very compatible standard USB stuff. Has pretty good speed and connection strength - I shared a user's desktop while my wife was driving us in the car on the way to see Avatar a while back - allowed me to get that taken care of before we got to the movie, and I didn't miss any of it.:) NE Portland Oregon near Lloyd district.
That was my thought when I saw this article, thank you for putting it so well.
When it comes to computers and technology, you hope for the best and plan for the worst.
All the talk in the comments about "Windows is insecure, Linux is way more secure, so use Linux" is missing the point. Can you GUARANTEE, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Linux is 100% secure now and forever and its security will NEVER be compromised? Doesn't everyone on here always say no system is secure except one that isn't connected to anything? If it exists, it will be cracked eventually. So design your online banking system to assume everyone is compromised, and you'll be in a much better position.
The big cost in running a usenet server is the hard drive storage space. Although Cox only had 3-4 days retention, so that expense probably wasn't too bad. But if usenet is a service you provide according to your TOS, you have to pay someone to keep it running, provide refunds if the service is offline, then you have to deal with the headache of copyright violation take-down notices, and the possible legal liability of having copyright violating files (and child porn) residing on servers you own. I'm actually surprised they didn't shut down their usenet service before now. The writing has been on the wall for ISP-provided usenet for 5-10 years now.
Slashdot Mirror
Uhh...every job I've had as long as I can remember? (USA BTW) Health insurance usually kicks in 30 days or so after hiring, but then they usually have pre-existing conditions clauses for an additional 90 days or 6 months (an abomination IMO, because everyone has pre-existing conditions!) Lots of places you can't use your PTO (paid time off) for 90 days, and then of course you have to earn those hours first by working a set amount of hours.
And I'm not talking as a contractor, I'm talking straight-up regular salaried work.
That was one of the things that bugged me most about TNG. Build a tiny camera into every communicator badge! They even went so far as to test out an interface into Geordi's VISOR during one episode and transmit it back to the main viewscreen, and everyone thought it worked great! Until it malfunctioned because of some radiation or something. But apparently no one thought of the obvious: video cameras.
:)
The other most annoying thing to me was that they would transport onto a planet with questionable atmosphere wearing only their normal uniform jumpsuit. And the doctor would warn them "you only have 30 minutes in this atmosphere or it could be dangerous" or something. Ever heard of a spacesuit? Instead they'd send Data. Good excuse to have Data in the episode I suppose.
I'm sure the reason for both was budgetary on the show. Jumpsuits are cheap, spacesuits are expensive. Having the characters describe the action is cheap, creating a bunch of camera shots from the viewpoint of communicator badges are expensive. Still, it makes you want to scream at the TV sometimes.
There's a free Tricorder app for Android (no cost and open source.) It accesses your Android's sensors, and has gravity, magnetic, acoustic, geological, ems, and solar modes, and has the LCARS interface look.
Not sure if it's also available for iOS.
It's making you look like either Glenn Beck or a Retard...
What's the difference?
And who do non-geeks come to when they're looking to get a new phone and they want advice? Their geek friends or co-workers. I've advised several of my non-geek friends to get an Android phone. I've advised all of them to avoid iPhones...because they're locked down and not open. So even though the non-geek people don't directly care, us geeks do, and we pass that on in our advice.
Just this last weekend at a party, I had a friend that was considering a Droid X, but wasn't 100% sure, and he hadn't ever used an Android phone in person. I let him play with my Moto Droid for about an hour, and he was sold on Android. And he is by no means geeky at all.
I work at a pediatric clinic, in IT. Many of our physicians picked up iPhones when they first came out, and we supported connecting them to Exchange (we don't really have a choice, the clinic is owned by the physicians.)
:)
Our electronic medical records system (i.e. electronic patient charts) vendor came out with an iPhone app last year, and they now support Android as well. Like most EMR's, it works only on the dominant OS - Windows - the fact that their new mobile app supports only iPhone and Android (not Windows Mobile) definitely says something about how they view the future of the smartphone market (for physicians at least.)
At the vendor's user group meeting in November of last year, I saw iPhones all over - I don't think I'd ever seen so many iPhones in one place. So physicians at least love the iPhone. The Moto Droid had just released, so I didn't see any there. Our IT department has gone Android (thanks to me - my cell contract was up for renewal and I couldn't wait to get rid of my crappy HTC Windows Mobile smartphone), and at least 5 or 6 employees in management-type positions have since gotten Android phones of some sort.
So obviously every business is different.
I'm sorry, but what does a paper stating what candidate Obama supported in 2008 have to do with the actual 2010 healthcare measure that passed?
I would have loved to see socialized, centralized healthcare in the US. Unfortunately, that's not what we got. I think that's the point that stewbacca was making above.
I was simply responding to aristotle-dude's post that said "Any phone that has an integrated antenna will have diminished signal when you hold them from the bottom instead of how almost everyone in the civilized world holds a cellphone when making a call." Clearly this is not true. Some phones have these issues. Some don't. The iPhone has this issue for some people. Sounds like a design flaw to me. It's also a design flaw that the Nexus One has issues with its reception if you hold it a certain way. The iPhone 4 is still a great phone, but people are acting like they're being personally attacked when you point out any flaws with it.
Fair enough. Personal preference, and all that. I happen to really like the stock Android UI (which is what my Droid has.) And I actually think that "you can get porn on Android!" is a pretty weak argument - a 4 inch screen and surfing over 3G is not my preferred porn experience.
No, I don't have much experience with the iPhone. From what I've heard though, it has a great interface that works very well, and has quality hardware. And Apple's industrial design is second to none - I wish the Android manufacturers would take a hint from Apple and design better-looking phones.
But none of that is really that important to me. To me, it's all about what you can do with it.
The reason I'd never own an iPhone is because of Apple's and Jobs' app store policies, the fact that the iPhone UI is not very customizable, the apps you can get on Android but not on iPhone (old console game emulators are one example, but there are many.)
And most importantly, the features Android phones have that iPhones do not:
- swappable batteries - I've gotten in the habit of hardly ever charging my phone, I just swap out with my spare battery when it gets low. I have a battery charger that cost $20.
- direct USB drive letter access to the internal memory - no drivers needed, no iTunes sync needed.
- cloud backup - all my contacts are automatically synced to Google, and in the upcoming 2.2 release of Android, app data will also be synced. You do need to connect with USB to copy over music and video though.
- USB tethering - iPhone finally has this also I believe.
- ability to change just about any setting I want on the phone. Can use any mp3 as a ringtone. Can change the wallpaper. Can even completely replace the UI with a different one if I want (but I like the stock UI personally.)
- homescreen widgets - on my homescreens, I have: widgets to turn on and off all the radios (bluetooth/wifi/gps), a WeatherBug widget, a battery level widget, a calendar widget so I can see my next appointment at a glance, and many web page shortcuts. Also folders, but iPhone has those now. You can put direct links to any contact on your home screens - when you click on one, it gives you the option to Navigate to their address, call them, text message them, email, Google talk, Facebook, etc.
- Google Maps Navigation - so good that I got rid of my standalone GPS. Plus it's integrated into the phone all over - if you have an address in one of your contacts, it'll give you the option to Navigate there.
- Flash in the browser (coming soon). No, I don't want to play flash games, but there are a lot of websites that I visit that use flash for their video players, like CNN. I wish everyone was using HTML 5 and not flash, but like it or not, flash is very common on the web right now today.
- notification panel - Android has a notification panel at the top that saves all your notifications until you dismiss them. Easy to see at a glance from anywhere that you have new email, voicemails, which radios are on and connected, etc.
- standard USB connections - my Droid uses micro USB, my wife's Eris uses mini USB. All Droids use one or the other. This makes it very easy to buy extra power cords (got a phone charger for $12), and you don't have to buy them from Apple, or pay extra to an approved manufacturer to cover the dock royalty fee.
So you're saying that you want to switch away from AT&T, but instead of getting an Android phone, if you can't have an iPhone you'd settle for a crappy flip phone? I call BS. Have you even tried an Android phone for yourself, or are you relying on everyone else's opinion to make your choices?
Contracts can be renegotiated. Don't you think Apple had a pretty strong bargaining position with AT&T when they were negotiating their iPad deal?
Just don't tell Verizon that you are using corporate email - there's no way they will ever know unless you tell them. Push Outlook email works the same whether you pay them the extra money or not. They're just trying to get businesses to pay more than consumers - consumers tend to be more cost-conscious, while businesses generally just chalk up the higher prices as a cost of doing business. And it's $15 a month extra over the normal $30 unlimited data package - it's not $45 just by itself.
:)
Personal preference, but I would rather pay a few dollars more for data and not have to worry about going over my limit. I think if AT&T were to ALSO offer a higher-priced unlimited data package in addition to the limited data packages, there wouldn't be so much outcry over it. But they've made it so that you can't EVER go over 2 GB a month unless you pay outrageous overage fees. That right there would be a deal-breaker fr me if I was shopping for a cell service.
Verizon does not charge extra for regular voice mail. Yes, they charge a monthly fee for visual voice mail. That's why I don't have it.
My Moto Droid works fine making calls when I hold it at the bottom. So does my wife's Eris And I know for a fact that my Droid's antenna is at the bottom - the way I usually hold my phone, I cup and completely engulf the bottom section with my hand. I never ever have dropped calls.
Yes, SOME phones have problems with dropped calls when held from the bottom. Please don't try to make the argument that ALL phones have this issue, when it's just SOME phones that have this issue. Including the iPhone 4. Just admit - it's a design flaw in the phone. I really don't think this would have been a very big issue, except Steve Jobs and Apple are trying to pretend that there is no issue or it's the users' fault. THAT is what all the hoopla about the antenna has been about.
The iPhone 4 does has a pretty nice display at 960x640 and it's true you can't see the pixels. Then again, on my Droid's 854 x 480 screen, I can't see the pixels either - that was one thing I marveled at when I first got it, and I still do. I too can view a web page zoomed all the way out and still read it - not comfortably, but you can at least see how the page is supposed to look. I think we're at the point of diminishing returns here with display resolution on these small screens. And my display is perfectly readable in full sunlight - not sure how the iPhone is.
But I'll give you the fact that the iPhone has a superb camera. Android manufacturers need to take the hint from Apple and work on BETTER cameras, not just more megapixels.
Some things that some Android phones have that iPhone does not: 4G (Sprint EVO 4G), swappable battery, wireless syncing (you only have to plug an Android phone into your computer to sync music, video, and files - all the contact data and etc. is backed up in the cloud automatically).
Yep, Verizon seems to have realized that if they gimp their Android phones (which are marketed to geeks), they would end up repelling those very geeks that they are trying to woo. I know I would not have got my Droid if Verizon had blocked all the fun stuff that comes stock with Android.
Tech companies must know by now that a lot of non-geeks ask their geek friends and colleagues for tech advice - including what new smartphone to buy. Piss off or disappoint the geeks, and they will talk trash about your product - remember Vista?
Case in point: Because I liked my Droid so much, we bought my wife a Droid Eris. I've convinced two of my friends to drop their iPhones when their contracts are up and jump ship to Android (not that it took much convincing - they were getting pissed off about all the things you can't do with an iPhone - no Flash, no ability to have a spare battery, no USB drive access to the phone's memory or SD card) and another non-iPhone-using friend is upgrading from a feature phone to a Droid X soon. Seems like their new policy of not hobbling their phones is working out for Verizon so far.
We definitely do berries right. :) If you're headed up here for the berries, hold off a month or so - the berries get ripe in late July or early August.
Burgerville (a Northwest fast food chain that specializes in fresh locally produced food) has an absolutely amazing blackberry lemonade late in the summer (with an inch of blackberry chunks in the bottom.) Best place to get your berries is at one of the many farmer's markets in the Portland area, directly from the growers. Don't get your fresh fruits and veggies at the grocery store, they're never ripe. Fruits and veggies from the farmer's markets are always ripe and generally organically grown, you just have to make sure to eat them quick or freeze them.
As an Oregonian, I always found the name of the former DC mayor pretty amusing - we have a delicious blackberry variety named the marionberry. Named after Marion County, Oregon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marionberry
Or if your DVD player in the living room is a PC, run AnyDVD and it will make everything skippable - or you can set it to skip directly to either the menu or the main title.
AnyDVD-HD will even remove the Blu-Ray HDCP protection so you can plug your computer into a non-HDCP monitor or HDTV.
Pixar movies are some of my all-time favorite movies. If it's made by Pixar, I see it in the theater, no question. No, not every Pixar movie is a winner, but 9 out of 10 are. Animation isn't just for kids, and Pixar knows how to make a good STORY, as well as make movies that are a visual treat. And Pixar movies are loaded up with jokes and references that kids will never understand - as well as silly kid jokes. Pixar movies don't talk down to kids like a lot of other animated movies do.
Same can be said for Mario games, IMO (at least the platformers, 3-D titles like Galaxy, and the Mario Kart games - I skip the Mario Party-type games.) Mario games are cartoonish, but they're FUN to play. I have no desire to shoot realistic human enemies and see blood in my video games. Video games to me are about fun and fast reflexes, not carnage.
I'm 37 years old BTW. I've been married 15 years to an awesome woman, I own my own home, and I have a great job in IT.
Maybe they have different boxes in different areas. Mine required no activation, just plug it in, it takes a few minutes to download its guide info, and it works. Got an IR blaster, and my Windows Media Center controls it just fine.
They "gave" it to me in the sense of I gave them no money and they sent it to me, and I pay no lease per month for it. Why would you want to keep them anyway? They're proprietary to the Comcast cable system, they likely wouldn't work with another cable provider's system.
If you hate Comcast so much and don't like what equipment they require you to use, find an alternative. They're not forcing you to purchase service from them. Satellite TV service is available just about everywhere. I plan on canceling Comcast cable at the end of the year when my contract expires. The house we bought has a big 'ol 30 year old antenna on the roof that gives me 26 crystal clear digital stations, most HD.
That's not really true. With Comcast, you just need a small digital converter box for each TV. The box is about the size of an external USB hard drive, about 4x4 inches square and a half an inch thick. Comcast provides 2 free for each household, any additional cost $3 a month ($36 a year each.) Yes this sucks and the old way of just plugging the cable into your TV was easier, but they are by no means "mammoth" and by no means $60 a year each.
Jobs is really trying to make a parallel-to-the-web, not-free (as in speech) platform for media content delivery.
Sounds like the return of AOL.
It's a trap!
My work's Verizon USB 3G dongle installed in Windows 7 on my laptop automatically without needing a driver disc (I think it automatically downloaded an up-to-date driver from Windows Update when I plugged it in) and worked without installing the Verizon connection manager. It made a dial-up-networking connection automatically, and I entered #77 or something like that as the phone number - you can find out the parameters to enter with a quick google search. You can install the connection manager but it's not required.
:) NE Portland Oregon near Lloyd district.
So it's possible some of the new 3G dongles will also auto-install and work automatically in Linux also. The cell companies tend to like to buy the cheapest equipment to give to customers these days, so the dongle is probably a cheap Chinese piece - which tend to be very compatible standard USB stuff. Has pretty good speed and connection strength - I shared a user's desktop while my wife was driving us in the car on the way to see Avatar a while back - allowed me to get that taken care of before we got to the movie, and I didn't miss any of it.
That was my thought when I saw this article, thank you for putting it so well.
When it comes to computers and technology, you hope for the best and plan for the worst.
All the talk in the comments about "Windows is insecure, Linux is way more secure, so use Linux" is missing the point. Can you GUARANTEE, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Linux is 100% secure now and forever and its security will NEVER be compromised? Doesn't everyone on here always say no system is secure except one that isn't connected to anything? If it exists, it will be cracked eventually. So design your online banking system to assume everyone is compromised, and you'll be in a much better position.
The big cost in running a usenet server is the hard drive storage space. Although Cox only had 3-4 days retention, so that expense probably wasn't too bad. But if usenet is a service you provide according to your TOS, you have to pay someone to keep it running, provide refunds if the service is offline, then you have to deal with the headache of copyright violation take-down notices, and the possible legal liability of having copyright violating files (and child porn) residing on servers you own. I'm actually surprised they didn't shut down their usenet service before now. The writing has been on the wall for ISP-provided usenet for 5-10 years now.