1. Dell claims that all of the hardware is properly supported on these machines. I would be upset if I bought a Dell, with Ubuntu pre-installed, and the fan didn't properly work. 2. The fan on my PowerBook Pismo either stopped working completely, or stopped working with Linux; regardless, that laptop survived 7 years. The only thing that stopped it was the 20th time my wife dropped it. Thus, it is reasonable to believe that a laptop can, and should, survive running without a fan. Anything else is bad engineering;-) (okay, I'm *somewhat* kidding here.. but if really, if my 7-year-old PowerBook ran fine with its fan broken, why should my latest-and-greatest Dell require one? Isn't technology advancing, rather than regressing?)
This isn't the right time, and possibly not the right implementation of such a product. I do expect that smartphones or a similar device will be the 'core' of the emerging personal area network revolution. Your phone will act as your "home directory", will serve as a PDA, etc. This is wearable computing. You "wear" your smartphone, it interacts via bluetooth with your other accessories.
It does make sense that if you will be "wearing a computer", that you have some type of convential interfaces to it such as a keyboard, mouse, and screen. That is what this Palm device is. However, I'm not sure that either the market or the technical is ready for this yet. The "personal area network" isn't well enough developed, bluetooth is too slow, and wireless usb isn't ready.
Palm's device is trying now to suppliment a laptop, but to replace it. That is the wrong way to go. I expect rather than a massive migration from laptops, we will see convergence. Laptops will become smaller and lighter, will employ flash based media, etc. Software will improve. Yes, the laptop of tomorrow will be as foreseen by Hawkins, but not because people will change their platform, but because the platform will change.
I think that for now, with the still limited computing power of phones, and the limited power of this device, users will be better off using laptops. I purchased my Averatec 2370 for $600, weighing only 4.08lbs with a 12" screen, this is a very small and light laptop. With a dual-core processor and 1gb of ram, it is also a powerful one. Sure, it isn't *quite* as small or light as the new Palm unit, but it is also considerably more useful. Loading Ubuntu on it and configuring my UMTS data card was pretty easy, that I'm sure almost anyone could do it. Even software suspend works, so it is also "instant on".
No, it doesn't properly adjust for left-handed usage as it is a technical limitation. There is a pressure-sensitive pad on one side of the mouse and a general 'click' button for the entire mouse surface. A secondary click is determined if both the pressure sensitive area and the 'click' is registered; otherwise, if there is only a 'click', a single click is registered.
Since only one side of the mouse has this pressure sensitive area, it really only works right for right-handed users.
Those expensive drive arrays support SAS not only for pure SAS drives, but in order to support SATA devices. SAS controllers and backplanes are compatable with SATA drives.
Software firewalls have an edge on hardware firewalls in that they can filter according to users and executables on the system. This can go hand in hand with system ACLs.
For instance, you can prevent the 'bind' user, as well as the named binary from accessing port 25, which would prevent a hole in bind from allowing emails to be sent. With hardware-only solutions, to provide this level of security, you would need to setup a separate machine on its own network segment and subnet, running bind, and then block destination traffic to port 25 originating from its IP address.
In comparison, your hardware only solution has just required another machine, which will require additional maintenance and a more complicated/advanced network architecture. What if you wanted to provide this same level of segmentation on a single machine, or more importantly, your laptop? Do you see why software firewalls are useful yet? Of course, hardware firewalls have their place too, for instance, when you have a large number of machines to protect and the network segmentation and segmenting are minor factors.
This product is interesting because it combines a hardware firewall with a software firewall, as well as including some additional features like anti-virus which can be fairly processor-intensive and might very well benefit from cpu offloading. Another thing that wasn't mentioned was the potential battery benefit for laptop users. Benchmarks would have to be performed, but such a usb key *might* be able to reduce battery usage; on the other hand, it *might* also increase battery usage. It would be worth investigating.
HTML files are small, searchable, portable, and easily transformed into other formats. Postscript files are none of these things.
Actually, PostScript and PDF are all of those things. Unfortunately, some applications will create a static image embedded in a PS/PDF, but they can certainly contain formatted text that can be searched, indexed, compressed, and transformed. In practice, PostScript and PDF have a lot in common with HTML. Although the languages are vastly different, they're functionally similar.
1. It is not difficult to extract strings from PostScript or PDF for search or extraction. 2. PostScript/PDF are easily (and highly) compressed. I wouldn't doubt that it is similar in ratio to HTML. Remember, PostScript embeds images, while HTML has them separated, so keep that in mind when making the comparison. 3. In terms of transformation, PostScript or PDF are more easily and more exactly converted to image formats, while HTML has "results that vary". 4. Postscript is just as, if not more portable than HTML. While it might not be hard to make incomplete parsers for HTML, it is nearly impossible to write a complete one. In comparison, it is relatively easy to write a COMPLETE PostScript interpreter.
That said, they're purpose-built. PS/PDF files require a complete implementation and exact formatting, while HTML easily degrades for limited capability devices. These are design goals of the respective technologies and have their own benefits.
It may be less wasteful than generating paper (given some assumption about the environmental and economic costs associated with hard drive space), but an html based solution seems like a much better idea.
I agree, that in general, when archiving HTML, that maintaining the original format is preferable. After all, there is little to gain by converting HTML into PostScript/PDF other than the fact that images become embedded -- which is sometimes a benefit. Today, I use PS/PDF for static data such as receipts from e-stores as I just want a fast, easy, simple, reliable, single-file solution for that... but use the Firefox Scrapbook extension for just about everything else.
I should additionally note that the PS/PDf "everything in one file" approach is nice when you're looking to email and/or GPG/PGP sign the document. With HTML + images, you need to create a zip or tar, and sign/send that.. and have the person on the other end extract the archive; while with PS/PDF you can simply sign the document.
In years past, I used PDFs, but since 2003, I have been using scrapbook.
Personally, I use it for vacations and business trips. When I'm on on the road, I just 'scrapbook' important pages (like Google map directions) and when I need to pull something up, I just open the laptop. Now, on the other hand, its a lot easier to pull the PDF files over to your PDA...
Now-a-days, I use this less frequently due to the rise of high speed cellular internet, but its still extremely useful for times that I leave my coverage area.
In Firefox, on Linux, you can check 'print to file' in the print dialog. This will save a postscript file, which is similar to PDF, and can be easily converted.
One of the problems we're seeing with Virtualization is the increase of address space...
Hosting providers can now offer increasingly competitive rates on VPS plans that compete with standard shared hosting accounts. This means that the advantages we gained with HTTP 1.1 will be lost, and as VPS accounts grow in popularity, the address space will be consumed at alarming rates.
Personally, I'm allocating at least one new IPv4 address every day.
My pandigital not only accepts every media card out there, but it can act as a USB mass storage device with its own internal memory. If you really wanted to, you could take a PanDigital (or another frame that acts as Mass storage device), connect it to a single board computer, and.. voila!
Of course, a SBC with USB will easily cost over $50, maybe $100. Even if altogether it costs $200 for the frame and the SBC, thats still probably better than you would've paid for a basic frame even a year ago, let alone how much decent SBC's have dropped in price!
The problem is that even if someone is technical, they're either too busy blogging, or too busy *not* blogging to care. Wordpress has had a lot of vulnerabilities recently, so these results are no surprise at all.
At least in Poland, there aren't any used cars. This makes the barrier of entry to have a car much higher, so people are forced to use public transportation. I'm not sure what the procedure is in other countries, but I haven't yet seen used car lots in my travels.
Now, in the United States, in the past few years, financing had become so inexpensive that it was often a bad decision to buy used, unless you were paying in cash. That is, would you finance a used car, or a new car.. when the difference in rates was significant enough that your payments would be *higher* on the used car?
How will things look in 5 - 10 years? What will happen with all of those gas-guzzlers? Will the middle class, with their good credit scores, be buying new cars.. while the foor find themselves unable to afford a new car, and having to buy used cars with cash, because the rates on a used car are too high? Will the poorest be stuck purchasing used SUVs, pouring whatever little money they have into gas? Driving a further wedge between classes?
Right now, people think, "my SUV isn't hurting my pocket too much". However, what isn't yet realized is the potential danger it poses to the country when those vehicles are the only ones afforded by the poor. Also, remember that having growing poverty in your country *does* affect you. It affects you because poverty degrades education, and the uneducated are still allowed to vote. Democracy only has a chance if people make educated decisions.
Scranton is a good example of public transportation gone wrong. Just getting from East Scranton to McDade park is a 2-3 hour nightmare.. which, by car, is maybe a 20 minute drive? Not to mention getting back home.
In Poznan, Poland, where trams are common, a similarly lengthy excursion might take me 30-40 minutes, even with no less than 12 stops and a transfer.
Now, one could argue sprawl and economics of it. However, Scranton isn't neither high in sprawl nor in income. It is a fairly small, moderately dense city that could easily support a functional public transportation system -- as it once had.
Of course, there isn't anything to prove by claiming that European public transportation is better.. Its just a shame how bad it is in the States.
True. I remember when my family first got a computer, my parents signed up with America Online for the free trial. Not because we planned to use AOL, but because it was "free".
Well, in those days, you paid about $3 per hour, and the trial was for 50 hours.
Imagine my parent's surprise when the usage was over 100 hours that month...
convince Dub-ya to invade Poland and impose American law.
Wouldn't that be something like pointing two mirrors at one another?
Poland is already in many ways an "American lapdog". Poland was used for CIA flights, the US is pressuring Poland to use it as a defense shield, and the US managed to sell Poland a bunch of supposedly defective F16's. Plus, Poland was one of the strongest European allies for the invasion of Iraq.
I'm honestly not sure what Poland is getting from all of this, but I suspect it has something to do with being afraid to hell of getting thrown back another century when WWIII eventually happens. Although it might be more political or economic in nature -- perhaps they're trying to get more industry to come in? They have low wages, but high crime. Perhaps the US backing is supposed to be seen as a sign to investors that Poland isn't that bad a place to open up shop? A lot of US companies are opening offices and factories in Poland. Just this past year, Google opened up offices here and Dell opened up factories.
Someone legitimately Polish will probably have better ideas than this, I'm not very familiar with Polish politics, not being able to read the language... I just live here.
I don't call it dubbing, I call it voice-over, because there needs to be a better distinction.
Imagine how it is for me, an American in Poland (Pozna).. I can't find anything on television other than news in English. Any movie I might want to watch, from the USA, on television, is with voice-overs.
Legitimately purchased DVDs already have subtitles if they were bought in Poland. On the other hand, Germany and English are not too far away and most Polish DVD players are region-free -- so there might be some possibility for fair-use. I wouldn't doubt that some of the Manta brand DVD players might even let you pull a subtitle file off a USB stick for use with a physical DVD disk.
That said, DVDs are probably quite hefty for Polish pockets. Heck, I have American pockets and I find DVDs quite expensive unless I get them used (like from Blockbuster in the US) or from the discount buckets at Tesco.
Subtitles are popular in Poland for more than just Anime... in fact, most of the DVD players in stores here very clearly note that they support subtitle files, usually in even bigger letters than the words "region-free".
Until department store and grocery store check outs display rechargables, it is a little difficult to accept that the biz has the best interests of the consumer and environment in mind. Selling rechargables is one thing I will credit our local SuperAmerica with precisely because that is the exception.
They *do* display rechargables, at least in my experience. Especially the gadget stores, hardware stores, and pharmacy/convenience stores such as CVS and RiteAid. (the latter being popular places to have photo prints done back in the days of analog -- now, they're doing what they can to stay *current* with digital)
With all of the consumer battery powered electronics that are popping up, such as digital cameras, rechargable batteries are becoming much more mainstream.
For shared hosting, what you're saying shouldn't ever happen.
However, if you have a dedicated server or VPS, the hosting company will need to know your passwords to login -- or they will need SSH keys, assuming they've been configured and haven't been removed. With the servers, the company can 'break in' through a single-user login, but they would have to reboot your machine to do this, or have had editted/etc/inittab to enable a single-user getty.
Asking for, or providing a password over plain-text email is a bad idea... but, what other choices do hosting companies have? Few people use PKI encryption for their email. Telephone is out for many companies due to the expense. (line charges, labor costs). Really, the only secure way is to give the password, for the bulk number of users, is via an SSL webpage, authenticated via some other known information -- such as the customer's username and credit card number... if they pay by credit card, and not paypal. Another option might be to have user-defined security questions.
Another option is to allow customers to provide either an OPTIONAL public key for email, or a public ssh key upon signup -- if they choose not to receive a password. If those aren't provided, then they receive the plain-text password. (or maybe instructions or getting the password through other means as above)
One more important thing to note... buying movies on iTunes can also be very alluring for frequent travelers and expats. While the DRM prevents you from playing the videos on other people's computers (or under Linux, ugh!), it does let you play the files on your own equipment, regardless of where you purchase the files.
Now, on the other hand, someone from the US cannot simply fly to Europe and purchase a DVD and play it on their laptop -- at least not without using one of their precious 5 region changes. In this comparison, the DVD is more "open" because it can play on a wider range of equipment, EXCEPT *your* equipment, which defeats the whole point! Thus, although buying iTunes prevents you from playing the files on other people's equipment, at least it plays on your own system! Either way, you're buying into DRM. Its not even a matter of buying the less evil, but the one that makes the most sense for your purpose.
Also, before someone says, "but who would buy an expensive $15 movies iTunes that lack the special features, when they can just wait until they get back home and buy those DVDs at Blockbuster for $5"? They would be the same people that purchase the expensive coffee at Starbucks, or the people that buy expensive Wifi at the airport... besides, it isn't that much more than seeing the movie in the theater. Or, perhaps, they're the people that don't get back home for months or years at a time, and don't have the luxury of just picking up a movie at Blockbuster?;-)
Living in Europe, I can get movies, but they're Region 2 and lack English subtitles. (some movies are simply too quiet for me)
Interesting you should say that. I'm not a big sports fan, and geeks don't tend to be... However, I was more than slightly dismayed the $2/video NFL downloads are only (iirc) 5 minute game recaps.
Clearly you can't get *everything* online, and sports tends to be the most persuasive reason to still get cable. However, even still, depending on your sport, you might do well to get a free-to-air satellite system, pitching in a friend/family to their cable/internet bill to setup a slingbox, or simply going to a bar. The bar option might not be too bad, depending on where you're at.
Oh, that reminds me, iTunes is also good for finding canceled shows, or those not-on-dvd.
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1. Dell claims that all of the hardware is properly supported on these machines. I would be upset if I bought a Dell, with Ubuntu pre-installed, and the fan didn't properly work. ;-) (okay, I'm *somewhat* kidding here.. but if really, if my 7-year-old PowerBook ran fine with its fan broken, why should my latest-and-greatest Dell require one? Isn't technology advancing, rather than regressing?)
2. The fan on my PowerBook Pismo either stopped working completely, or stopped working with Linux; regardless, that laptop survived 7 years. The only thing that stopped it was the 20th time my wife dropped it. Thus, it is reasonable to believe that a laptop can, and should, survive running without a fan. Anything else is bad engineering
This isn't the right time, and possibly not the right implementation of such a product. I do expect that smartphones or a similar device will be the 'core' of the emerging personal area network revolution. Your phone will act as your "home directory", will serve as a PDA, etc. This is wearable computing. You "wear" your smartphone, it interacts via bluetooth with your other accessories.
It does make sense that if you will be "wearing a computer", that you have some type of convential interfaces to it such as a keyboard, mouse, and screen. That is what this Palm device is. However, I'm not sure that either the market or the technical is ready for this yet. The "personal area network" isn't well enough developed, bluetooth is too slow, and wireless usb isn't ready.
Palm's device is trying now to suppliment a laptop, but to replace it. That is the wrong way to go. I expect rather than a massive migration from laptops, we will see convergence. Laptops will become smaller and lighter, will employ flash based media, etc. Software will improve. Yes, the laptop of tomorrow will be as foreseen by Hawkins, but not because people will change their platform, but because the platform will change.
I think that for now, with the still limited computing power of phones, and the limited power of this device, users will be better off using laptops. I purchased my Averatec 2370 for $600, weighing only 4.08lbs with a 12" screen, this is a very small and light laptop. With a dual-core processor and 1gb of ram, it is also a powerful one. Sure, it isn't *quite* as small or light as the new Palm unit, but it is also considerably more useful. Loading Ubuntu on it and configuring my UMTS data card was pretty easy, that I'm sure almost anyone could do it. Even software suspend works, so it is also "instant on".
No, it doesn't properly adjust for left-handed usage as it is a technical limitation. There is a pressure-sensitive pad on one side of the mouse and a general 'click' button for the entire mouse surface. A secondary click is determined if both the pressure sensitive area and the 'click' is registered; otherwise, if there is only a 'click', a single click is registered.
Since only one side of the mouse has this pressure sensitive area, it really only works right for right-handed users.
Which is funny since it is a java applet...
Those expensive drive arrays support SAS not only for pure SAS drives, but in order to support SATA devices. SAS controllers and backplanes are compatable with SATA drives.
Software firewalls have an edge on hardware firewalls in that they can filter according to users and executables on the system. This can go hand in hand with system ACLs.
For instance, you can prevent the 'bind' user, as well as the named binary from accessing port 25, which would prevent a hole in bind from allowing emails to be sent. With hardware-only solutions, to provide this level of security, you would need to setup a separate machine on its own network segment and subnet, running bind, and then block destination traffic to port 25 originating from its IP address.
In comparison, your hardware only solution has just required another machine, which will require additional maintenance and a more complicated/advanced network architecture. What if you wanted to provide this same level of segmentation on a single machine, or more importantly, your laptop? Do you see why software firewalls are useful yet? Of course, hardware firewalls have their place too, for instance, when you have a large number of machines to protect and the network segmentation and segmenting are minor factors.
This product is interesting because it combines a hardware firewall with a software firewall, as well as including some additional features like anti-virus which can be fairly processor-intensive and might very well benefit from cpu offloading. Another thing that wasn't mentioned was the potential battery benefit for laptop users. Benchmarks would have to be performed, but such a usb key *might* be able to reduce battery usage; on the other hand, it *might* also increase battery usage. It would be worth investigating.
You're probably joking, but there is actually an ISP of that name... I suspect the 42 in their name comes from 42U racks, or maybe just the HHGTG.
Actually, PostScript and PDF are all of those things. Unfortunately, some applications will create a static image embedded in a PS/PDF, but they can certainly contain formatted text that can be searched, indexed, compressed, and transformed. In practice, PostScript and PDF have a lot in common with HTML. Although the languages are vastly different, they're functionally similar.
1. It is not difficult to extract strings from PostScript or PDF for search or extraction.
2. PostScript/PDF are easily (and highly) compressed. I wouldn't doubt that it is similar in ratio to HTML. Remember, PostScript embeds images, while HTML has them separated, so keep that in mind when making the comparison.
3. In terms of transformation, PostScript or PDF are more easily and more exactly converted to image formats, while HTML has "results that vary".
4. Postscript is just as, if not more portable than HTML. While it might not be hard to make incomplete parsers for HTML, it is nearly impossible to write a complete one. In comparison, it is relatively easy to write a COMPLETE PostScript interpreter.
That said, they're purpose-built. PS/PDF files require a complete implementation and exact formatting, while HTML easily degrades for limited capability devices. These are design goals of the respective technologies and have their own benefits.
I agree, that in general, when archiving HTML, that maintaining the original format is preferable. After all, there is little to gain by converting HTML into PostScript/PDF other than the fact that images become embedded -- which is sometimes a benefit. Today, I use PS/PDF for static data such as receipts from e-stores as I just want a fast, easy, simple, reliable, single-file solution for that... but use the Firefox Scrapbook extension for just about everything else.
I should additionally note that the PS/PDf "everything in one file" approach is nice when you're looking to email and/or GPG/PGP sign the document. With HTML + images, you need to create a zip or tar, and sign/send that.. and have the person on the other end extract the archive; while with PS/PDF you can simply sign the document.
I also second this (me too!)
In years past, I used PDFs, but since 2003, I have been using scrapbook.
Personally, I use it for vacations and business trips. When I'm on on the road, I just 'scrapbook' important pages (like Google map directions) and when I need to pull something up, I just open the laptop. Now, on the other hand, its a lot easier to pull the PDF files over to your PDA...
Now-a-days, I use this less frequently due to the rise of high speed cellular internet, but its still extremely useful for times that I leave my coverage area.
In Firefox, on Linux, you can check 'print to file' in the print dialog. This will save a postscript file, which is similar to PDF, and can be easily converted.
One of the problems we're seeing with Virtualization is the increase of address space...
Hosting providers can now offer increasingly competitive rates on VPS plans that compete with standard shared hosting accounts. This means that the advantages we gained with HTTP 1.1 will be lost, and as VPS accounts grow in popularity, the address space will be consumed at alarming rates.
Personally, I'm allocating at least one new IPv4 address every day.
In America. Doing that in some places in the world would make the car much less marketable.
My pandigital not only accepts every media card out there, but it can act as a USB mass storage device with its own internal memory. If you really wanted to, you could take a PanDigital (or another frame that acts as Mass storage device), connect it to a single board computer, and.. voila!
Of course, a SBC with USB will easily cost over $50, maybe $100. Even if altogether it costs $200 for the frame and the SBC, thats still probably better than you would've paid for a basic frame even a year ago, let alone how much decent SBC's have dropped in price!
The problem is that even if someone is technical, they're either too busy blogging, or too busy *not* blogging to care. Wordpress has had a lot of vulnerabilities recently, so these results are no surprise at all.
My wife is from Poznan, I'm from the Philadelphia area. She and I lived in Scranton for a year while I had a job up there for a web hosting company.
At least in Poland, there aren't any used cars. This makes the barrier of entry to have a car much higher, so people are forced to use public transportation. I'm not sure what the procedure is in other countries, but I haven't yet seen used car lots in my travels.
Now, in the United States, in the past few years, financing had become so inexpensive that it was often a bad decision to buy used, unless you were paying in cash. That is, would you finance a used car, or a new car.. when the difference in rates was significant enough that your payments would be *higher* on the used car?
How will things look in 5 - 10 years? What will happen with all of those gas-guzzlers? Will the middle class, with their good credit scores, be buying new cars.. while the foor find themselves unable to afford a new car, and having to buy used cars with cash, because the rates on a used car are too high? Will the poorest be stuck purchasing used SUVs, pouring whatever little money they have into gas? Driving a further wedge between classes?
Right now, people think, "my SUV isn't hurting my pocket too much". However, what isn't yet realized is the potential danger it poses to the country when those vehicles are the only ones afforded by the poor. Also, remember that having growing poverty in your country *does* affect you. It affects you because poverty degrades education, and the uneducated are still allowed to vote. Democracy only has a chance if people make educated decisions.
Scranton is a good example of public transportation gone wrong. Just getting from East Scranton to McDade park is a 2-3 hour nightmare.. which, by car, is maybe a 20 minute drive? Not to mention getting back home.
In Poznan, Poland, where trams are common, a similarly lengthy excursion might take me 30-40 minutes, even with no less than 12 stops and a transfer.
Now, one could argue sprawl and economics of it. However, Scranton isn't neither high in sprawl nor in income. It is a fairly small, moderately dense city that could easily support a functional public transportation system -- as it once had.
Of course, there isn't anything to prove by claiming that European public transportation is better.. Its just a shame how bad it is in the States.
True. I remember when my family first got a computer, my parents signed up with America Online for the free trial. Not because we planned to use AOL, but because it was "free".
Well, in those days, you paid about $3 per hour, and the trial was for 50 hours.
Imagine my parent's surprise when the usage was over 100 hours that month...
Wouldn't that be something like pointing two mirrors at one another?
Poland is already in many ways an "American lapdog". Poland was used for CIA flights, the US is pressuring Poland to use it as a defense shield, and the US managed to sell Poland a bunch of supposedly defective F16's. Plus, Poland was one of the strongest European allies for the invasion of Iraq.
I'm honestly not sure what Poland is getting from all of this, but I suspect it has something to do with being afraid to hell of getting thrown back another century when WWIII eventually happens. Although it might be more political or economic in nature -- perhaps they're trying to get more industry to come in? They have low wages, but high crime. Perhaps the US backing is supposed to be seen as a sign to investors that Poland isn't that bad a place to open up shop? A lot of US companies are opening offices and factories in Poland. Just this past year, Google opened up offices here and Dell opened up factories.
Someone legitimately Polish will probably have better ideas than this, I'm not very familiar with Polish politics, not being able to read the language... I just live here.
I don't call it dubbing, I call it voice-over, because there needs to be a better distinction.
Imagine how it is for me, an American in Poland (Pozna).. I can't find anything on television other than news in English. Any movie I might want to watch, from the USA, on television, is with voice-overs.
Legitimately purchased DVDs already have subtitles if they were bought in Poland. On the other hand, Germany and English are not too far away and most Polish DVD players are region-free -- so there might be some possibility for fair-use. I wouldn't doubt that some of the Manta brand DVD players might even let you pull a subtitle file off a USB stick for use with a physical DVD disk.
That said, DVDs are probably quite hefty for Polish pockets. Heck, I have American pockets and I find DVDs quite expensive unless I get them used (like from Blockbuster in the US) or from the discount buckets at Tesco.
Subtitles are popular in Poland for more than just Anime... in fact, most of the DVD players in stores here very clearly note that they support subtitle files, usually in even bigger letters than the words "region-free".
They *do* display rechargables, at least in my experience. Especially the gadget stores, hardware stores, and pharmacy/convenience stores such as CVS and RiteAid. (the latter being popular places to have photo prints done back in the days of analog -- now, they're doing what they can to stay *current* with digital)
With all of the consumer battery powered electronics that are popping up, such as digital cameras, rechargable batteries are becoming much more mainstream.
For shared hosting, what you're saying shouldn't ever happen.
/etc/inittab to enable a single-user getty.
However, if you have a dedicated server or VPS, the hosting company will need to know your passwords to login -- or they will need SSH keys, assuming they've been configured and haven't been removed. With the servers, the company can 'break in' through a single-user login, but they would have to reboot your machine to do this, or have had editted
Asking for, or providing a password over plain-text email is a bad idea... but, what other choices do hosting companies have? Few people use PKI encryption for their email. Telephone is out for many companies due to the expense. (line charges, labor costs). Really, the only secure way is to give the password, for the bulk number of users, is via an SSL webpage, authenticated via some other known information -- such as the customer's username and credit card number... if they pay by credit card, and not paypal. Another option might be to have user-defined security questions.
Another option is to allow customers to provide either an OPTIONAL public key for email, or a public ssh key upon signup -- if they choose not to receive a password. If those aren't provided, then they receive the plain-text password. (or maybe instructions or getting the password through other means as above)
One more important thing to note... buying movies on iTunes can also be very alluring for frequent travelers and expats. While the DRM prevents you from playing the videos on other people's computers (or under Linux, ugh!), it does let you play the files on your own equipment, regardless of where you purchase the files.
;-)
Now, on the other hand, someone from the US cannot simply fly to Europe and purchase a DVD and play it on their laptop -- at least not without using one of their precious 5 region changes. In this comparison, the DVD is more "open" because it can play on a wider range of equipment, EXCEPT *your* equipment, which defeats the whole point! Thus, although buying iTunes prevents you from playing the files on other people's equipment, at least it plays on your own system! Either way, you're buying into DRM. Its not even a matter of buying the less evil, but the one that makes the most sense for your purpose.
Also, before someone says, "but who would buy an expensive $15 movies iTunes that lack the special features, when they can just wait until they get back home and buy those DVDs at Blockbuster for $5"? They would be the same people that purchase the expensive coffee at Starbucks, or the people that buy expensive Wifi at the airport... besides, it isn't that much more than seeing the movie in the theater. Or, perhaps, they're the people that don't get back home for months or years at a time, and don't have the luxury of just picking up a movie at Blockbuster?
Living in Europe, I can get movies, but they're Region 2 and lack English subtitles. (some movies are simply too quiet for me)
Interesting you should say that. I'm not a big sports fan, and geeks don't tend to be... However, I was more than slightly dismayed the $2/video NFL downloads are only (iirc) 5 minute game recaps.
Clearly you can't get *everything* online, and sports tends to be the most persuasive reason to still get cable. However, even still, depending on your sport, you might do well to get a free-to-air satellite system, pitching in a friend/family to their cable/internet bill to setup a slingbox, or simply going to a bar. The bar option might not be too bad, depending on where you're at.
Oh, that reminds me, iTunes is also good for finding canceled shows, or those not-on-dvd.