I know something is wrong when a Dell XPS 13 actually is better than Apple's offerings. In fact, it actually is a better MacBook Pro than what Apple has, because it has two USB ports in addition to a USB-C port, a high res screen, and a recent (as of this year) CPU/chipset. Of course, Windows 10 may not be as nice as OS X to some, but it gets the job done.
Apple just needs to move it or milk it. Put some effort into getting new Macs out or spin off Macs to another company (like how Claris/FileMaker was done.) Keep iOS and macOS source trees open between both ventures.
Ideally, Apple should jettison Macs to a subsidiary that can focus some real attention onto them. Not just consumer level, "shinies", but after other markets, such as schools, colleges, and even the enterprise. With this, the subsidary could offer NDAs and roadmaps to customers, so timing of mass purchases can be synced with model refreshes.
This split will let Apple do what it wants to, but give customers the feeling of stability that is needed when buying bread and butter computing needs.
Maybe moving to a different protocol? I've wondered why someone hasn't done a LAN version of OnLive... send GPU commands via the network to a machine with GPUs, the machine sends streaming video back. This could be done similarly (GL commands one way, video frames coming back), which could allow for more latency due to the physical length.
The biggest thing a desktop gives me is more GPU ability for gaming, as well as access to storage on a faster bus than Ethernet or USB. However, with Thunderbolt 3, decent NAS setups that can be bought relatively inexpensively, the need to have that in a desktop isn't as great.
I wish TB-3 external GPU/video card units were more common. That would probably be the desktop form factor's coup de grace in the mainstream. Having a connector to a NAS using Thunderbolt 3 wouldn't hurt either.
Even with prefabricated items, things can still fail. A mouse can gnaw a wire, an air duct can be misaligned, and so on. A prefab application still has a lot of parts, and the closest thing to a prefab house is likely a RV, and here in the US, RVs are -not- known for their quality in general. We do have tract homes that are already planned out and built... but this doesn't mean electricians and plumbers are obsolete. In fact, because of cheap construction, basic tradespeople are more needed to fix what the builders cut corners on. Even with wiring harnesses, wires can still have problems, and it takes someone that has actual experience and skills to find and fix it.
Prefab doesn't mean perfect. Otherwise, double-wides would be the pinnacle of what the housing industry has to offer.
I'd rather have my taxes go to pay someone to watch soaps on TV than to some brain-dead defense contractor who made no viable product and wound up folding (but before the bankruptcy, all the execs got their bonuses), but yet charged the US taxpayers billions.
The ironic thing is that this is basic investing, that businesses should be glad to be doing. I don't get why this is not done more often. For example, it would be nice for a service like Safari Books Online to be paid for as a way for people to retrain and improve.
Out of the computer arena, shop courses come to mind. Welders, plumbers, morticians, and other staple trades are not going anywhere. Good luck outsourcing an embalmer overseas.
UBI isn't really a handout. With jobs becoming more scarce, to the point where someone who doesn't have specific experience in a topic has zero chance of employment, it becomes a choice between a UBI or having every city in the country wind up having large populations with no food, no way of finding income, and will latch onto any ideology, no matter how toxic. Given the dole or turning every city into mini-Aleppos... I'd rather take the dole, because that money goes right back into the economy. If saved, it empowers banks to loan stuff. If spent on a steak for a dog, it helps out the grocery store.
It might be useful if coupled with self-driving cars, where the tunnels are only for the SDCs. Couple this with underground parking, automated charging stations, and even service garages, and this could be quite useful. Especially for cities like Austin where there are residential towers going up with zero added parking, so having the ability for vehicles to be parked underground will be quite useful, especially with the fact that there is no hope of light rail, much less a viable subway system ever happening.
The introduction of IAP completely killed the quality of games in iOS and Android. Before IAP, game designers had to make something that was usable, charge a decent price, and have something worth playing. Usually there was a demo game which was free, then the paid for app.
Now, almost all games are about a relatively easy 1-2 levels or whatnot, then making the game either impossible or way too time consuming to play, forcing the player to abandon it or start putting money in. You read the reviews of a lot of games, and they state this clearly.
I'd rather pay $20-30 for a good game, like a Square-Enix Chaos Rings sequel up front than to have to be nickeled and dimed every few minutes. The app makers can keep their smurfberries.
I wonder if this second-sourcing is a different issue than the battery clearance space. Having batteries from multiple sources just makes sense, especially another South Korean vendor. I think Samsung learned from its mistake with the Galaxy Note 7, so likely a replacement device is going to be a lot better, as Samsung has to get their rep back.
If there were a way to unlock the bootloader for installing a custom OS on new Samsung devices without frying KNOX, I definitely would move a Samsung device. Otherwise, no thanks.
I wish someone could invent a lock mechanism that would have two parts. A standardized lever key (or a HID style keyfob) for the delivery people (so only one key is needed for all mailboxes), and a unique key or code for the individual. Or, perhaps a system like a KNOX box, where a key to the storage bin is kept in lock box that only the delivery person has access to.
I wonder how much it will help owner/operators and the truck drivers. As it stands now, the truck driving industry is following textiles and meat packing into oblivion, where even a minimal living is tough to do.
Yep, same here. I exported all my notes, deleted the notes, and deactivated the account for good.
If a company is forced to back off once, history shows that it only will be a matter of time before they find another way to get dibs on people's data, and likely in a way that won't cause people to raise a ruckus. Evernote should not have even tried this in the first place because people are sick and tired of the constant encroachment on privacy.
I hate mentioning Microsoft solution, but at least OneNote is decently secure, and one doesn't have to use a cloud provider to store the notes file. So far, it has been a suitable replacement.
Notes.app is another solution. Both OneNote and Notes.app offer password protection/encryption for additional security.
How far do we take this though? Fire is one thing, but I can see this used in other ways. For example, an evil version of Apple pushing out an update that bricks any phone older than an iPhone 5 because the 4S and earlier won't be receiving security updates, and thus could be considered insecure and dangerous. Or a car maker pushing out an update to render older vehicles inoperable because they don't comply to the latest EPA laws.
There is a point where a device maker makes it clear that the owner of the device is 100% responsible for it, in a way that can't be wiggled out of in court. That way, if a phone turns into a bong, it isn't the phone maker's responsibility in any way, shape, or form that it happened.
On the other hand, FB can be important for communicating in daily life because it is used by so many, and one is expected to use it:
There are services which use FB for authentication. An example is Spotify (although they don't require it these days.) I've had more than one prospective employer require a FB account, and stating "I have no FB ID" was an interview breaker. Many people plan events through FB. Many special interest groups have abandoned the Web and moved to FB.
Yes, it is a private service... but it is used by everyone and not being a part of it is like not having a phone or E-mail.
I really don't care who goes to my blog or not. In fact, I tore out anything SEO related. I just prefer to host what I do post on something I "own", as opposed to having the IP ceded (as per FB/Instagram's TOS) to a third party who can use it for what they want. Plus, I rather link to content from FB as opposed to hosting it for similar reasons. Plus, I trust access controls on my own site far more than sharing data on FB and hoping permissions don't revert to Everyone sometime.
It is an easy platform to get on, but I don't have any need whatsoever for Instagram. For $5 a month, I can get a weenie virtual machine from Amazon LightSail with WordPress on it, add a gallery plugin, and call it done. If I need more space for items, I chuck them into a S3 bucket and link to that.
If one can get access to the notes via some recovery mechanism like an E-mail to an account, a SMS, or other means, then it isn't really secure encryption. With services like Hushmail, if you lose your password, you can reset your account... but you will lose all the contents.
I was paying for it, mainly so I can use multiple devices and upload larger documents. Keyword is "was". At least exporting your stuff isn't too hard (install their app, dump your notebooks, delete, flush trash can.)
Wish there is something for Android that would store notes locally and sync them to one's own Dropbox, GDrive, or other account, preferably encrypted... only thing it seems that does is Apple's Notes app.
There will be rolled vehicles, but good luck finding the culprit, assuming the perp tosses their device as soon as they can. It is like cellphone jammers, which can be almost impossible to catch unless someone leaves it running long enough for LEOs to get a good fix on.
I can imagine someone randomly giving "my vehicle is braking hard" just to cause vehicles behind to actually do just that, to cause traffic jams, or deal with yet another tailgater. That or giving fake "this road is congested with cars at a standstill" to get people to go to other routes.
I personally prefer nuclear, especially with the latest thorium innovations. Deaths per terawatt/hour are extremely low, lower than any other energy source out there. It would be an excellent source for energy 24/7 and doesn't require much real estate compared other energy generation plants.
However, nuclear has one major drawback. The lack of willpower for contracting companies to give a flying fuck about how good their work is, because the concept of a stakeholder is replaced by a shareholder. How do we know that some company isn't going to make a reactor head from pot metal or some other corner-cutting measure that isn't immediately obvious, and cause the entire project to be stalled indefinitely with billions of dollars to fix the mess? There is no real penalty attached to officers of a contract firm that does sub-par work, as the execs get their bonuses, the legal system insulates shareholders from what damage the firm does. Heck, there wasn't even a penalty assessed (AFIAK) when showerheads were not grounded, electrocuting troops in Iraq. This isn't just one company; it is the entire structure of how contracting is done, especially here in the US.
Nuclear is better, but it takes a lot of skill to plan, survey the terrain and hazards, build, fuel, run, maintain, upgrade, and eventually decommission. We can't trust some of these companies to even properly change a password in AD... how do we trust them to build something that has potentially devastating ecological consequences, because they have no real stake in quality work.
Solar is a lot more monkey-resistant. Someone drops a panel or electrocutes themselves. Nasty, but even with the mentality of "do it cheap as there is no ROI in doing it right", it will be obvious to an inspector that the work was done sub-par because one can pretty much check the entire system by visual observation, a volt meter, and an ammeter. It is a lot easier to pull some dud panels out of an array because the builder got factory seconds from behind a hardware store than it is to replace the fuel rod holders in a reactor.
tl;dr, if we had stakeholders and a framework where responsibility for a good job is key, I'd say nuclear. As it stands now where there is no real financial or other interest in making anything other than a Superfund site out of a nuclear project, I'd say solar for now.
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I know something is wrong when a Dell XPS 13 actually is better than Apple's offerings. In fact, it actually is a better MacBook Pro than what Apple has, because it has two USB ports in addition to a USB-C port, a high res screen, and a recent (as of this year) CPU/chipset. Of course, Windows 10 may not be as nice as OS X to some, but it gets the job done.
Allowing it to run on ESXi or VMWare Workstation without requiring a SMC would be a start at least.
Apple just needs to move it or milk it. Put some effort into getting new Macs out or spin off Macs to another company (like how Claris/FileMaker was done.) Keep iOS and macOS source trees open between both ventures.
Ideally, Apple should jettison Macs to a subsidiary that can focus some real attention onto them. Not just consumer level, "shinies", but after other markets, such as schools, colleges, and even the enterprise. With this, the subsidary could offer NDAs and roadmaps to customers, so timing of mass purchases can be synced with model refreshes.
This split will let Apple do what it wants to, but give customers the feeling of stability that is needed when buying bread and butter computing needs.
Maybe moving to a different protocol? I've wondered why someone hasn't done a LAN version of OnLive... send GPU commands via the network to a machine with GPUs, the machine sends streaming video back. This could be done similarly (GL commands one way, video frames coming back), which could allow for more latency due to the physical length.
The biggest thing a desktop gives me is more GPU ability for gaming, as well as access to storage on a faster bus than Ethernet or USB. However, with Thunderbolt 3, decent NAS setups that can be bought relatively inexpensively, the need to have that in a desktop isn't as great.
I wish TB-3 external GPU/video card units were more common. That would probably be the desktop form factor's coup de grace in the mainstream. Having a connector to a NAS using Thunderbolt 3 wouldn't hurt either.
Even with prefabricated items, things can still fail. A mouse can gnaw a wire, an air duct can be misaligned, and so on. A prefab application still has a lot of parts, and the closest thing to a prefab house is likely a RV, and here in the US, RVs are -not- known for their quality in general. We do have tract homes that are already planned out and built... but this doesn't mean electricians and plumbers are obsolete. In fact, because of cheap construction, basic tradespeople are more needed to fix what the builders cut corners on. Even with wiring harnesses, wires can still have problems, and it takes someone that has actual experience and skills to find and fix it.
Prefab doesn't mean perfect. Otherwise, double-wides would be the pinnacle of what the housing industry has to offer.
I'd rather have my taxes go to pay someone to watch soaps on TV than to some brain-dead defense contractor who made no viable product and wound up folding (but before the bankruptcy, all the execs got their bonuses), but yet charged the US taxpayers billions.
The ironic thing is that this is basic investing, that businesses should be glad to be doing. I don't get why this is not done more often. For example, it would be nice for a service like Safari Books Online to be paid for as a way for people to retrain and improve.
Out of the computer arena, shop courses come to mind. Welders, plumbers, morticians, and other staple trades are not going anywhere. Good luck outsourcing an embalmer overseas.
UBI isn't really a handout. With jobs becoming more scarce, to the point where someone who doesn't have specific experience in a topic has zero chance of employment, it becomes a choice between a UBI or having every city in the country wind up having large populations with no food, no way of finding income, and will latch onto any ideology, no matter how toxic. Given the dole or turning every city into mini-Aleppos... I'd rather take the dole, because that money goes right back into the economy. If saved, it empowers banks to loan stuff. If spent on a steak for a dog, it helps out the grocery store.
It might be useful if coupled with self-driving cars, where the tunnels are only for the SDCs. Couple this with underground parking, automated charging stations, and even service garages, and this could be quite useful. Especially for cities like Austin where there are residential towers going up with zero added parking, so having the ability for vehicles to be parked underground will be quite useful, especially with the fact that there is no hope of light rail, much less a viable subway system ever happening.
The introduction of IAP completely killed the quality of games in iOS and Android. Before IAP, game designers had to make something that was usable, charge a decent price, and have something worth playing. Usually there was a demo game which was free, then the paid for app.
Now, almost all games are about a relatively easy 1-2 levels or whatnot, then making the game either impossible or way too time consuming to play, forcing the player to abandon it or start putting money in. You read the reviews of a lot of games, and they state this clearly.
I'd rather pay $20-30 for a good game, like a Square-Enix Chaos Rings sequel up front than to have to be nickeled and dimed every few minutes. The app makers can keep their smurfberries.
I wonder if this second-sourcing is a different issue than the battery clearance space. Having batteries from multiple sources just makes sense, especially another South Korean vendor. I think Samsung learned from its mistake with the Galaxy Note 7, so likely a replacement device is going to be a lot better, as Samsung has to get their rep back.
If there were a way to unlock the bootloader for installing a custom OS on new Samsung devices without frying KNOX, I definitely would move a Samsung device. Otherwise, no thanks.
This is probably the best solution out there.
I wish someone could invent a lock mechanism that would have two parts. A standardized lever key (or a HID style keyfob) for the delivery people (so only one key is needed for all mailboxes), and a unique key or code for the individual. Or, perhaps a system like a KNOX box, where a key to the storage bin is kept in lock box that only the delivery person has access to.
I wonder how much it will help owner/operators and the truck drivers. As it stands now, the truck driving industry is following textiles and meat packing into oblivion, where even a minimal living is tough to do.
Yep, same here. I exported all my notes, deleted the notes, and deactivated the account for good.
If a company is forced to back off once, history shows that it only will be a matter of time before they find another way to get dibs on people's data, and likely in a way that won't cause people to raise a ruckus. Evernote should not have even tried this in the first place because people are sick and tired of the constant encroachment on privacy.
I hate mentioning Microsoft solution, but at least OneNote is decently secure, and one doesn't have to use a cloud provider to store the notes file. So far, it has been a suitable replacement.
Notes.app is another solution. Both OneNote and Notes.app offer password protection/encryption for additional security.
How far do we take this though? Fire is one thing, but I can see this used in other ways. For example, an evil version of Apple pushing out an update that bricks any phone older than an iPhone 5 because the 4S and earlier won't be receiving security updates, and thus could be considered insecure and dangerous. Or a car maker pushing out an update to render older vehicles inoperable because they don't comply to the latest EPA laws.
There is a point where a device maker makes it clear that the owner of the device is 100% responsible for it, in a way that can't be wiggled out of in court. That way, if a phone turns into a bong, it isn't the phone maker's responsibility in any way, shape, or form that it happened.
On the other hand, FB can be important for communicating in daily life because it is used by so many, and one is expected to use it:
There are services which use FB for authentication. An example is Spotify (although they don't require it these days.)
I've had more than one prospective employer require a FB account, and stating "I have no FB ID" was an interview breaker.
Many people plan events through FB.
Many special interest groups have abandoned the Web and moved to FB.
Yes, it is a private service... but it is used by everyone and not being a part of it is like not having a phone or E-mail.
I really don't care who goes to my blog or not. In fact, I tore out anything SEO related. I just prefer to host what I do post on something I "own", as opposed to having the IP ceded (as per FB/Instagram's TOS) to a third party who can use it for what they want. Plus, I rather link to content from FB as opposed to hosting it for similar reasons. Plus, I trust access controls on my own site far more than sharing data on FB and hoping permissions don't revert to Everyone sometime.
It is an easy platform to get on, but I don't have any need whatsoever for Instagram. For $5 a month, I can get a weenie virtual machine from Amazon LightSail with WordPress on it, add a gallery plugin, and call it done. If I need more space for items, I chuck them into a S3 bucket and link to that.
I personally prefer PFSense with 2FA. Bonus points if the config page is on its own segment so most machines can't access it.
Done right, it is extremely hard for malware to get access to the configuration, much less trash it.
If one can get access to the notes via some recovery mechanism like an E-mail to an account, a SMS, or other means, then it isn't really secure encryption. With services like Hushmail, if you lose your password, you can reset your account... but you will lose all the contents.
I was paying for it, mainly so I can use multiple devices and upload larger documents. Keyword is "was". At least exporting your stuff isn't too hard (install their app, dump your notebooks, delete, flush trash can.)
Wish there is something for Android that would store notes locally and sync them to one's own Dropbox, GDrive, or other account, preferably encrypted... only thing it seems that does is Apple's Notes app.
There will be rolled vehicles, but good luck finding the culprit, assuming the perp tosses their device as soon as they can. It is like cellphone jammers, which can be almost impossible to catch unless someone leaves it running long enough for LEOs to get a good fix on.
I can imagine someone randomly giving "my vehicle is braking hard" just to cause vehicles behind to actually do just that, to cause traffic jams, or deal with yet another tailgater. That or giving fake "this road is congested with cars at a standstill" to get people to go to other routes.
I personally prefer nuclear, especially with the latest thorium innovations. Deaths per terawatt/hour are extremely low, lower than any other energy source out there. It would be an excellent source for energy 24/7 and doesn't require much real estate compared other energy generation plants.
However, nuclear has one major drawback. The lack of willpower for contracting companies to give a flying fuck about how good their work is, because the concept of a stakeholder is replaced by a shareholder. How do we know that some company isn't going to make a reactor head from pot metal or some other corner-cutting measure that isn't immediately obvious, and cause the entire project to be stalled indefinitely with billions of dollars to fix the mess? There is no real penalty attached to officers of a contract firm that does sub-par work, as the execs get their bonuses, the legal system insulates shareholders from what damage the firm does. Heck, there wasn't even a penalty assessed (AFIAK) when showerheads were not grounded, electrocuting troops in Iraq. This isn't just one company; it is the entire structure of how contracting is done, especially here in the US.
Nuclear is better, but it takes a lot of skill to plan, survey the terrain and hazards, build, fuel, run, maintain, upgrade, and eventually decommission. We can't trust some of these companies to even properly change a password in AD... how do we trust them to build something that has potentially devastating ecological consequences, because they have no real stake in quality work.
Solar is a lot more monkey-resistant. Someone drops a panel or electrocutes themselves. Nasty, but even with the mentality of "do it cheap as there is no ROI in doing it right", it will be obvious to an inspector that the work was done sub-par because one can pretty much check the entire system by visual observation, a volt meter, and an ammeter. It is a lot easier to pull some dud panels out of an array because the builder got factory seconds from behind a hardware store than it is to replace the fuel rod holders in a reactor.
tl;dr, if we had stakeholders and a framework where responsibility for a good job is key, I'd say nuclear. As it stands now where there is no real financial or other interest in making anything other than a Superfund site out of a nuclear project, I'd say solar for now.