I think this company could have simply made more money by selling cases and maybe other components like power supplies and heatsinks -- if you look at their site, they focus 99% of the features on the damned case....
They mention specifically that they are going to use a facial recognition computer to monitor mental health, but what do they intend to do in the event someone snaps. Even if they decided to "turn the ship around", they probably couldn't do anything before the person snapped.
Personally, I would think the best people would be a mixture of task-oriented and more lax individuals. I mean, no group can survive in a vaccum,
This smacks of someone holding onto this thing as their baby and not letting it die the death it not only deserves, but needs. The N-Gage has been plagued by numerous hardware problems (you have to take the battery out to change the game cartridge -- seriously WTF, mate?), not to mention a lack of, well, anything even with big names attached (Hell, it had a Tomb Raider game, and it still couldn't push units). My impression of the unit, however, is that it suffers from one major fault: teenage consumerism.
A huge segment of the market for cellphones and game consoles are teenagers. Teenagers do not have a lot of money (yet they debuted the device for something like 499 initially), they fawn over the latest shiny (especially cell phones, and so they are often getting new ones), but want to continue to play their games (so they have to luge around an outdated [by their standards] device in conjunction with their new shiny cellphone. They often don't have credit cards (and many do not have parents willing to put a contract on their credit bill) and yet you couldn't use prepaid phone cards with it. I mean, this device couldn't fail more if they purposefully tried!
Well, FreeZone(rs) is certainly as valid as any religion claiming a son of god died for my sins, thereby absolving me of mine (and yet, I am born into sin a la Original Sin). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Zone_(Scientolog y)
Well, I don't see this as necessarily true. First off, I'm a Canadian, born and bred. My state has free health-care, government subsidies, and disaster relief and yet I do not have to worry about (yet) a national ID card. Nor cameras on every street corner, or anything as ridiculous as what you are proposing. Of course this probably will change, but I notice that the US seems to definitely be spearheading this survelliance-wet-dream while they are often credited as being one of the worst for social services....
While the article mentions that too much time is spent re-implementing new code, I disagree that this is necessarily a bad thing (tm). Re-inventing the wheel can often cause evolution of code, as opposed to the stagnation that can occur if something remains static. Now, of course people will say that this is GPL code, and people can then modify it -- this is of course true, but modification on that level seldom equates to evolution per se, sometimes because the changes as specific to the application, sometimes because you are trying to do something with code that simply wasn't designed for (I guess you could equate it to trying to run a a web server from Windows 95).
Now, I have to say that while you bring up some valid points, you also let slide a really big one. While you say that one is by virtue more secure than fifty, I would argue the counter-point. One means that if I want multiple IDs, all I need is someone on the inside of the central DB. Further, if I want to commit identity theft, I only have to deal with one standard as opposed to fifty. Likewise, if I find I am being monitored unjustly from one state, I can move to another, and then to re-monitor me would require knowing someone on the inside in more than one state -- not as easy as simply having one guy who can tamper with a single DB. You say not to drink the koolaid, but frankly it looks as if you are taking a big swig yourself.
I saw the pics (which are quite nice!) and the first this that jumped into my mind was the ages old (by hardware standards) but infinitely cool eMate 300 based on Apple's Newton platform. Those things were nigh indestructible and were marketed at he education market. All of those schools that are looking to invest thousands of dollars for computer equipment should really turn an eye to this unit -- cheap, infinitely flexible, and incorporating a lot of things that could be educational...
Canada -- you know, the land of ice, snow and the Eskimo has been unusually warm this year. We are having the hottest winter on record (we hit 12*C in January when we are normally around -30*C). Not only that, but the East Coast is getting nice balmy climates as well. All of our ski hills in this area have been closed down and people are actively biking. I gotta say -- while I fear we might be running into the flames of our own self-destruction, we will be nicely tanned!
According to TFA -- yes, because the case was dropped/dismissed 'without prejudice', they could indeed do that. Though I have a feeling even the counrts would start to catch on if they did it too often.
As the submitter, I would also like to point out that FightGoliath is the legal defense fund for Patti Santangelo, and appears to still be taking donations.
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I think this company could have simply made more money by selling cases and maybe other components like power supplies and heatsinks -- if you look at their site, they focus 99% of the features on the damned case....
Stay the out of my country
They mention specifically that they are going to use a facial recognition computer to monitor mental health, but what do they intend to do in the event someone snaps. Even if they decided to "turn the ship around", they probably couldn't do anything before the person snapped.
Personally, I would think the best people would be a mixture of task-oriented and more lax individuals. I mean, no group can survive in a vaccum,
This smacks of someone holding onto this thing as their baby and not letting it die the death it not only deserves, but needs. The N-Gage has been plagued by numerous hardware problems (you have to take the battery out to change the game cartridge -- seriously WTF, mate?), not to mention a lack of, well, anything even with big names attached (Hell, it had a Tomb Raider game, and it still couldn't push units). My impression of the unit, however, is that it suffers from one major fault: teenage consumerism.
A huge segment of the market for cellphones and game consoles are teenagers. Teenagers do not have a lot of money (yet they debuted the device for something like 499 initially), they fawn over the latest shiny (especially cell phones, and so they are often getting new ones), but want to continue to play their games (so they have to luge around an outdated [by their standards] device in conjunction with their new shiny cellphone. They often don't have credit cards (and many do not have parents willing to put a contract on their credit bill) and yet you couldn't use prepaid phone cards with it. I mean, this device couldn't fail more if they purposefully tried!
Well, FreeZone(rs) is certainly as valid as any religion claiming a son of god died for my sins, thereby absolving me of mine (and yet, I am born into sin a la Original Sin). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Zone_(Scientolog y)
Guy:Hey
Girl:Hey
Guy:Hey, I've got a nano!
Girl:I have to go... and... wash my hair...
Well, I don't see this as necessarily true. First off, I'm a Canadian, born and bred. My state has free health-care, government subsidies, and disaster relief and yet I do not have to worry about (yet) a national ID card. Nor cameras on every street corner, or anything as ridiculous as what you are proposing. Of course this probably will change, but I notice that the US seems to definitely be spearheading this survelliance-wet-dream while they are often credited as being one of the worst for social services....
While the article mentions that too much time is spent re-implementing new code, I disagree that this is necessarily a bad thing (tm). Re-inventing the wheel can often cause evolution of code, as opposed to the stagnation that can occur if something remains static. Now, of course people will say that this is GPL code, and people can then modify it -- this is of course true, but modification on that level seldom equates to evolution per se, sometimes because the changes as specific to the application, sometimes because you are trying to do something with code that simply wasn't designed for (I guess you could equate it to trying to run a a web server from Windows 95).
Now, I have to say that while you bring up some valid points, you also let slide a really big one. While you say that one is by virtue more secure than fifty, I would argue the counter-point. One means that if I want multiple IDs, all I need is someone on the inside of the central DB. Further, if I want to commit identity theft, I only have to deal with one standard as opposed to fifty. Likewise, if I find I am being monitored unjustly from one state, I can move to another, and then to re-monitor me would require knowing someone on the inside in more than one state -- not as easy as simply having one guy who can tamper with a single DB. You say not to drink the koolaid, but frankly it looks as if you are taking a big swig yourself.
I saw the pics (which are quite nice!) and the first this that jumped into my mind was the ages old (by hardware standards) but infinitely cool eMate 300 based on Apple's Newton platform. Those things were nigh indestructible and were marketed at he education market. All of those schools that are looking to invest thousands of dollars for computer equipment should really turn an eye to this unit -- cheap, infinitely flexible, and incorporating a lot of things that could be educational...
Canada -- you know, the land of ice, snow and the Eskimo has been unusually warm this year. We are having the hottest winter on record (we hit 12*C in January when we are normally around -30*C). Not only that, but the East Coast is getting nice balmy climates as well. All of our ski hills in this area have been closed down and people are actively biking. I gotta say -- while I fear we might be running into the flames of our own self-destruction, we will be nicely tanned!
(Oh, and CAPTCHA: flushes)
According to TFA -- yes, because the case was dropped/dismissed 'without prejudice', they could indeed do that. Though I have a feeling even the counrts would start to catch on if they did it too often.
As the submitter, I would also like to point out that FightGoliath is the legal defense fund for Patti Santangelo, and appears to still be taking donations.