I don't see why everybody has a problem with security on Android. Like others have said, a dialog shows everything an app needs permission to do. Beyond that, install Droid Wall. It lets you approve or deny access to the Internet for each app (it's an iptables front end). You can also set it to block by default as I have, so that new apps never get the chance to connect until you allow them to. It requires root, but it's worth it. Don't forget to install a superuser whitelist program too so that you must approve any apps that want root.
Actually, ShapeWriter for Android, which is functionally similar to Swype, appears to support multiple dictionaries at once. Available for download are French, German, Spanish, etc.
Since everyone else just seems to tell you to get a console, I'd thought I'd actually list a few good PC games that are actually fun to play multiplayer on the same screen. Yes, they do exist. It's a great platform for the task, and if people started actually taking it seriously as such, we could probably see more games like this.
Worms Armageddon (already been mentioned a few times)
You Don't Know Jack (fun and wacky non-trivia game, huge series of them)
Also, try looking at the list of simultaneous player games at Home of the Underdogs. There are a LOT of games. (http://www.the-underdogs.info/multi.php?sort=SHS)
I'd second many people's comments. NiMH batteries are very very nice these days, and have far more capacity then they used to. http://thomasdistributing.com/ is good, and if you want cheap batteries, http://batteryspace.com/ is good, but their ratings are 400 mAh or so above their actual capacity. Sanyo or PowerEx is certainly good if you have the money, and 2500 mAh Energizers are a good locally available option. The real key is to get a good charger. I just got one of the new Maha MH-C9000 chargers (http://www.thomas-distributing.com/maha-mh-c9000- battery-charger.php) and it has the ability to do break-in charges, discharge, refreshing, etc. You can also just put batteries in it and it will charge them with a safe rate.
For applications like remotes, or other devices you want sitting around for a long time and ready to use, there are new NiMH batteries that have much lower self discharge rates. Eneloop batteries by Sanyo (http://www.eneloop.info/) have performed the best, and they can be picked up locally at Ritz camera locations as well as ordered online for a little less. They only lose a little of their charge over a years time. For more information about rechargable batteries, try the batteries forum over at candlepowerforums. (http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay. php?s=04cb1ed93243098d9b7795bae32555cb&f=9)
XMPlay! Great player, supports all the major formats, including rock solid MOD support, free, wonderful interface, etc. It's really amazing. www.un4seen.com
Congradulations to the both of you. May you happily explore each other bit by bit all night long. Now the question: where to get married? Do it in Quake, so we can all attend.:)
If you really want to do reliable tests on wav files, then visit PCABX to get the PCABX program and to read more about the testing methodology. The program takes in two wav files, and then chooses one of the two randomly and lets the user decide which of the two is the one chosen randomly. Basically, once this done a good number of times (say, 20) the program can then tell whether the user can actually tell the difference between the two files.
Also, a wonderful website dedicated to the task of creating archival quality encoded audio (which is indistinguishable from the original) is r3mix. Lame even has an optimized parameter that comes from the work at the site, --r3mix! This VBR parameter gives incredible quality at a fairly low bitrate. Check out too a listening test carried out at r3mix that showed the blind preferences of 42 users over a month of time.
For starters, a SeberTool is a great keychain for whenever you quickly need a locking Phillips head screwdriver (among lots and lots of other things)...
Second, I wouldn't mind one of these mp3 cd players. They also plays VCD, and are fairly inexpensive.
Finally, for sheer coolness factor and utility, I would take a Ricoh RDC-7 "Image Capture Device". This thing is amazing! It can fit in a shirt pocket, has a very high-res 2" LCD, zoom to 3x optically, and can record movies with sound or just sound alone (with a built-in speaker for playback). It also has a 3 megapixel CCD chip with two focusing modes which makes it a very capable digital camera. Need to become an international spy? This thing quickly sucks up highly compressed blank and white.tif files for OCR. As if that's not enough, it also places the CCD on a special piezo-electric mount so that it can shift it by a half a pixel and combine two exposures into a 7 megapixel image for when you need that extra, extra, extra fine detail. Phew! I've got to stop talking about it. Just go to either here or here for a review. And it only ranges from around $600 to $900, too! Just don't expect to have too much manual photographic control over aperture or shutter speed. But screw a Handspring, I'd take one of those and keep all my documents on it! Just think of it as a pocket size tape recorder, digital camera, camcorder, scanner, and taker of big-ass 7 megapixel files. (And the unreleased successer in Japan has wireless Internet access, a touchscreen, and PDA functionality! Imagine that...)
Ah, yes, the RSOD. You can actually do this too, you know. I guess they figured that we'd be seeing the screen so much, that we deserved at least that much. Mine's a nice black background with the ever-stylish green text, a la The Matrix. It's just so angst-ridden.
Both CVS and VSS can work in lock mode or concurrent mode. It's just a matter of defaults: CVS defaults to concurrent, whereas VSS (as everybody else has been saying) defaults to lock mode. While you can lock a file in CVS easily, you can also put a watch on a file, which is probably a better solution. You will then get notified when something happens to the watched file, such as when a developer gets write permission. Then, you can immediately take action without having to be quite so draconian.
Can't emphasize this enough... don't let Sony strong-arm their own proprietary format into the market. Why would I want to buy one of their cameras when I have invested in Compactflash? More importantly, why can't Sony support a standard? Why didn't they use Compactflash or Smartmedia? Or, like Olympus does in it's newest camera, both? Money is the only reason I can think of. Problem is, it doesn't work. Look at the whole Betamax vs. VHS case. Betamax was Sony's format, and while technically superior, it lost out to VHS because of Sony's unwillingness to play nice. Problem is, in this situation, that Sony doesn't even have a better product! In fact, they have in inferior product! Enough said.
Both smartmedia and Compactflash have multiple ways of transferring photos. They can both be put into pcmcia adapters and usb readers (for desktops. Also, every camera comes with some kind of cable connection between it and the computer (either serial (PC/Mac or both) or USB). Between these three methods (I have used them all) you really don't need a floppy. Besides, doesn't anybody remember how unreliable and slow floppy disks are? How many times have we all had floppy disks fail on us? Face it: floppy disks are an outdated technology. Best stick with newer-and faster-technology that can work with nearly any computer, and arguably any computer that you'd actually want to do photo work on. The whole floppy disk argument is moot, IMHO.
Yes, you can. With a 950, you can put it into either shutter priority mode, where you can manually adjust the shutter speed and it will calculate the aperature for you, or aperature priority mode, where you can manually adjust between three f-stop steps and it will calculate the shutter speed for you. You can also apply exposure compensation to manually lower and raise the shutter speed. Also, you can do manual focus, manual ISO adjustment, and manual white balance. These features are matched nearly point by point in many of Olympus's models and other's, I'm sure. The one high end feature not commonly available is true de-coupled manual control... other then that, sub-$1000 digitals have many advanced manual controls. I have done 8 second exposures with my 950, the background flatten effect, etc. A 950 can do up to 1/750sec exposure, in fact, and you can set it to manually do up to 1/500.
First, make sure to look at sample images of whatever camera you buy. The best site that I've found for this is Imaging Resource. It has tons of sample images at full resolution and compressions quality, as well as very detailed reviews of nearly every camera out there. They also update their news section frequently, usually more then once a day.
As far as my experiences have gone, Nikon makes great digital cameras with lots of useful features. My Coolpix 950 has served me very well. For instance, one unique feature it sports is one where it will take a number of shots in a row and automatically select the sharpest and only save that one! Very nice in low light. Kodak also makes nice cameras. My first camera was a one-megapixel Kodak DC200. I took to school every day and ended up with over 3,600 pictures by the time I got my new Nikon! Kodak generally has very good lenses with accurate color balance.
Be sure to get at least 2 megapixels. By now you can get 3 if you really want to shell out the money. Of course, when you get into the professional models, the sky's the limit. I've seen an in creadible 6 megapixel that Kodak makes for thousands of dollers. At this point, digitals can really replace film cameras, since often these cameras are traditional film cameras with the film area replaced with digital circuitry; professionals can therefore use their lenses.
Be careful about interpolation; some companies will try to pass off their cameras as a higher res then they really are. Fuji and Agfa are two examples with their SuperCCD and PhotoGenie technologies, respectively. While these special techniques might do more then a typical resample, they are still no substitute for a higher CCD. Same applies for "digital zoom". That's marketing speak for resizing or resampling in the camera. Don't expect anything from it.
One more thing: be careful what kind of media you are investing in. Some like Sony's Mavica line, but I would rather not carry around a bunch of unreliable floppy disks if I don't have to. Also, Sony's other new camera uses their own Memory Stick format too, which will make me avoid them flat out. I've already invested a lot in CompactFlash, and I don't want to support a proprietary format with no real advantages and a few disadvantages (higher price, lower space, etc.) CompactFlash is, IMHO, the better standard when compared to Smartmedia, as it is generally cheaper and available in higher capacities. There are two types of Compactflash slots; type 1, and type 2. Type 2 slots are really nice; they take IBM Microdrives that hold 340 megs of pictures!
By now, Digital Cameras can definately take very good pictures that rivel film based cameras. When they are printed out on a modern color ink-jet priter with photo paper, they make very sharp prints indeed! I would encourage anyone to go to a local computer store and print some sample photos from a store inkjet. Or even better: you can download a jpeg from Imaging Resource and print it out. You WILL be impressed.
As far as I can tell, Sony's fatal flaw has always been their insistance on making their own competing proprietary format. Why must they do this? Pure greed and desire to monopolize seems to be the only reason for introducing the memory stick. They don't even have any extra features to fall back on now. Sure, Beta and Minidisc perhaps have something different to offer. But can anyone think of any reason to use a memory stick over either a CompactFlash or SmartMedia card? In fact, I can think of a few reasons not to. Less storage. The fact that if I invest in any of their storage media, I'm tied to Sony if I want to make full use of it. The only advantage is the bully factor: if you want to play with us, you've got to by EVERYTHING from us. This is no advantage. I like the fact that I can move around my CompactFlash cards between my palmtop, my three digital cameras, and my laptop. Should I be forced to buy all of this equipment from Sony?Sony should try to compete more on the merits of their individual products (which, don't get me wrong, are often very nice) instead of continuing this consumer-unfriendly scheme.
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I don't see why everybody has a problem with security on Android. Like others have said, a dialog shows everything an app needs permission to do. Beyond that, install Droid Wall. It lets you approve or deny access to the Internet for each app (it's an iptables front end). You can also set it to block by default as I have, so that new apps never get the chance to connect until you allow them to. It requires root, but it's worth it. Don't forget to install a superuser whitelist program too so that you must approve any apps that want root.
Actually, ShapeWriter for Android, which is functionally similar to Swype, appears to support multiple dictionaries at once. Available for download are French, German, Spanish, etc.
I hate achievements. Did I mention that?
Since everyone else just seems to tell you to get a console, I'd thought I'd actually list a few good PC games that are actually fun to play multiplayer on the same screen. Yes, they do exist. It's a great platform for the task, and if people started actually taking it seriously as such, we could probably see more games like this.
Worms Armageddon (already been mentioned a few times)
Heboris (great customizable two player Tetris game)
http://tetrisconcept.com/wiki/index.php?title=Heboris
Super Mario War (very fun party game where the goal is to stomp on the other player's heads)
http://smw.72dpiarmy.com/
Stepmania (DDR style game that can take all sorts of songs)
http://www.stepmania.com/
Atomic Bomberman (8 player Bomberman on the PC)
You Don't Know Jack (fun and wacky non-trivia game, huge series of them)
Also, try looking at the list of simultaneous player games at Home of the Underdogs. There are a LOT of games. (http://www.the-underdogs.info/multi.php?sort=SHS)
No, no, you've got it all wrong. XP is the ME version of 2000. Vista... is a whole new ring of hell.
I'd second many people's comments. NiMH batteries are very very nice these days, and have far more capacity then they used to. http://thomasdistributing.com/ is good, and if you want cheap batteries, http://batteryspace.com/ is good, but their ratings are 400 mAh or so above their actual capacity. Sanyo or PowerEx is certainly good if you have the money, and 2500 mAh Energizers are a good locally available option. The real key is to get a good charger. I just got one of the new Maha MH-C9000 chargers (http://www.thomas-distributing.com/maha-mh-c9000- battery-charger.php) and it has the ability to do break-in charges, discharge, refreshing, etc. You can also just put batteries in it and it will charge them with a safe rate.
. php?s=04cb1ed93243098d9b7795bae32555cb&f=9)
For applications like remotes, or other devices you want sitting around for a long time and ready to use, there are new NiMH batteries that have much lower self discharge rates. Eneloop batteries by Sanyo (http://www.eneloop.info/) have performed the best, and they can be picked up locally at Ritz camera locations as well as ordered online for a little less. They only lose a little of their charge over a years time. For more information about rechargable batteries, try the batteries forum over at candlepowerforums. (http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay
Get these--great audio quality, and open design. http://www.koss.com/koss/kossweb.nsf/p?openform&pc ^sc^KSC75
My first and last first post.
XMPlay! Great player, supports all the major formats, including rock solid MOD support, free, wonderful interface, etc. It's really amazing. www.un4seen.com
Congradulations to the both of you. May you happily explore each other bit by bit all night long. Now the question: where to get married? Do it in Quake, so we can all attend. :)
If you really want to do reliable tests on wav files, then visit PCABX to get the PCABX program and to read more about the testing methodology. The program takes in two wav files, and then chooses one of the two randomly and lets the user decide which of the two is the one chosen randomly. Basically, once this done a good number of times (say, 20) the program can then tell whether the user can actually tell the difference between the two files.
Also, a wonderful website dedicated to the task of creating archival quality encoded audio (which is indistinguishable from the original) is r3mix. Lame even has an optimized parameter that comes from the work at the site, --r3mix! This VBR parameter gives incredible quality at a fairly low bitrate. Check out too a listening test carried out at r3mix that showed the blind preferences of 42 users over a month of time.
Second, I wouldn't mind one of these mp3 cd players. They also plays VCD, and are fairly inexpensive.
Finally, for sheer coolness factor and utility, I would take a Ricoh RDC-7 "Image Capture Device". This thing is amazing! It can fit in a shirt pocket, has a very high-res 2" LCD, zoom to 3x optically, and can record movies with sound or just sound alone (with a built-in speaker for playback). It also has a 3 megapixel CCD chip with two focusing modes which makes it a very capable digital camera. Need to become an international spy? This thing quickly sucks up highly compressed blank and white .tif files for OCR. As if that's not enough, it also places the CCD on a special piezo-electric mount so that it can shift it by a half a pixel and combine two exposures into a 7 megapixel image for when you need that extra, extra, extra fine detail. Phew! I've got to stop talking about it. Just go to either here or here for a review. And it only ranges from around $600 to $900, too! Just don't expect to have too much manual photographic control over aperture or shutter speed. But screw a Handspring, I'd take one of those and keep all my documents on it! Just think of it as a pocket size tape recorder, digital camera, camcorder, scanner, and taker of big-ass 7 megapixel files. (And the unreleased successer in Japan has wireless Internet access, a touchscreen, and PDA functionality! Imagine that...)
Ah, yes, the RSOD. You can actually do this too, you know. I guess they figured that we'd be seeing the screen so much, that we deserved at least that much. Mine's a nice black background with the ever-stylish green text, a la The Matrix. It's just so angst-ridden.
Both CVS and VSS can work in lock mode or concurrent mode. It's just a matter of defaults: CVS defaults to concurrent, whereas VSS (as everybody else has been saying) defaults to lock mode. While you can lock a file in CVS easily, you can also put a watch on a file, which is probably a better solution. You will then get notified when something happens to the watched file, such as when a developer gets write permission. Then, you can immediately take action without having to be quite so draconian.
Can't emphasize this enough... don't let Sony strong-arm their own proprietary format into the market. Why would I want to buy one of their cameras when I have invested in Compactflash? More importantly, why can't Sony support a standard? Why didn't they use Compactflash or Smartmedia? Or, like Olympus does in it's newest camera, both? Money is the only reason I can think of. Problem is, it doesn't work. Look at the whole Betamax vs. VHS case. Betamax was Sony's format, and while technically superior, it lost out to VHS because of Sony's unwillingness to play nice. Problem is, in this situation, that Sony doesn't even have a better product! In fact, they have in inferior product! Enough said.
Both smartmedia and Compactflash have multiple ways of transferring photos. They can both be put into pcmcia adapters and usb readers (for desktops. Also, every camera comes with some kind of cable connection between it and the computer (either serial (PC/Mac or both) or USB). Between these three methods (I have used them all) you really don't need a floppy. Besides, doesn't anybody remember how unreliable and slow floppy disks are? How many times have we all had floppy disks fail on us? Face it: floppy disks are an outdated technology. Best stick with newer-and faster-technology that can work with nearly any computer, and arguably any computer that you'd actually want to do photo work on. The whole floppy disk argument is moot, IMHO.
Yes, you can. With a 950, you can put it into either shutter priority mode, where you can manually adjust the shutter speed and it will calculate the aperature for you, or aperature priority mode, where you can manually adjust between three f-stop steps and it will calculate the shutter speed for you. You can also apply exposure compensation to manually lower and raise the shutter speed. Also, you can do manual focus, manual ISO adjustment, and manual white balance. These features are matched nearly point by point in many of Olympus's models and other's, I'm sure. The one high end feature not commonly available is true de-coupled manual control... other then that, sub-$1000 digitals have many advanced manual controls. I have done 8 second exposures with my 950, the background flatten effect, etc. A 950 can do up to 1/750sec exposure, in fact, and you can set it to manually do up to 1/500.
As far as my experiences have gone, Nikon makes great digital cameras with lots of useful features. My Coolpix 950 has served me very well. For instance, one unique feature it sports is one where it will take a number of shots in a row and automatically select the sharpest and only save that one! Very nice in low light. Kodak also makes nice cameras. My first camera was a one-megapixel Kodak DC200. I took to school every day and ended up with over 3,600 pictures by the time I got my new Nikon! Kodak generally has very good lenses with accurate color balance.
Be sure to get at least 2 megapixels. By now you can get 3 if you really want to shell out the money. Of course, when you get into the professional models, the sky's the limit. I've seen an in creadible 6 megapixel that Kodak makes for thousands of dollers. At this point, digitals can really replace film cameras, since often these cameras are traditional film cameras with the film area replaced with digital circuitry; professionals can therefore use their lenses.
Be careful about interpolation; some companies will try to pass off their cameras as a higher res then they really are. Fuji and Agfa are two examples with their SuperCCD and PhotoGenie technologies, respectively. While these special techniques might do more then a typical resample, they are still no substitute for a higher CCD. Same applies for "digital zoom". That's marketing speak for resizing or resampling in the camera. Don't expect anything from it.
One more thing: be careful what kind of media you are investing in. Some like Sony's Mavica line, but I would rather not carry around a bunch of unreliable floppy disks if I don't have to. Also, Sony's other new camera uses their own Memory Stick format too, which will make me avoid them flat out. I've already invested a lot in CompactFlash, and I don't want to support a proprietary format with no real advantages and a few disadvantages (higher price, lower space, etc.) CompactFlash is, IMHO, the better standard when compared to Smartmedia, as it is generally cheaper and available in higher capacities. There are two types of Compactflash slots; type 1, and type 2. Type 2 slots are really nice; they take IBM Microdrives that hold 340 megs of pictures!
By now, Digital Cameras can definately take very good pictures that rivel film based cameras. When they are printed out on a modern color ink-jet priter with photo paper, they make very sharp prints indeed! I would encourage anyone to go to a local computer store and print some sample photos from a store inkjet. Or even better: you can download a jpeg from Imaging Resource and print it out. You WILL be impressed.
As far as I can tell, Sony's fatal flaw has always been their insistance on making their own competing proprietary format. Why must they do this? Pure greed and desire to monopolize seems to be the only reason for introducing the memory stick. They don't even have any extra features to fall back on now. Sure, Beta and Minidisc perhaps have something different to offer. But can anyone think of any reason to use a memory stick over either a CompactFlash or SmartMedia card? In fact, I can think of a few reasons not to. Less storage. The fact that if I invest in any of their storage media, I'm tied to Sony if I want to make full use of it. The only advantage is the bully factor: if you want to play with us, you've got to by EVERYTHING from us. This is no advantage. I like the fact that I can move around my CompactFlash cards between my palmtop, my three digital cameras, and my laptop. Should I be forced to buy all of this equipment from Sony?Sony should try to compete more on the merits of their individual products (which, don't get me wrong, are often very nice) instead of continuing this consumer-unfriendly scheme.