I'm using a TiVo Roamio OTA which has been fantastic and has no monthly fees (high initial cost - $400). I also used professional installers for the antenna, and they were able to get a strong signal when I couldn't (they tried two different antennas and took off the reflector on one of them to get better positioning). Last weird note for soccer fans, Verizon Wireless's go90 tv service carries a bunch of soccer games because of a deal with beinTV.
Just refuting the claim that ARM and its related operating systems are a single window system. And if it's a watery thing to say - I quite like water, it's been integral to my survival up to this point.
I would think that porting non-web apps to Chrome OS would be a substantial amount of work - basically just as difficult as converting them to web apps. Google has added a tool which will allow you to remote to a desktop computer from a Chromebook and run desktop apps in that manner (using chrome extensions I think). Enabling developer mode and getting Xfce running isn't terribly difficult, but I'd be tempted to wait a few months and keep tabs on the Xfce distributions. They feel like Alpha technology to me right now, and I think that at least Beta quality would make the experience much better (and should be forthcoming as many Linux distribution developers are hacking on the samsung box right now - Fedora, Bodhi, openSUSE, Chrubuntu, Arch, and others). Regardless, I'm surprised at how nice the browsing experience is on the Chromebook and am looking forward to upcoming releases from the above linux distros.
Steps needed to get Xfce up would include flipping to dev mode on the Chromebook (easy), purchasing an appropriately sized SD card (also easy, just buy high performance as this will be a performance bottleneck), and then depending on the OS you attempt to install to the SD card, you may have steps as easy as putting an image onto the SD card (fairly easy) or manually copying numerous files from various different Chromebook directories and linux distributions onto the SD card (involved but well documented). This last step will be significantly easier if you already have a linux box to use - most of the documentation and tools are linux centric. The linux install probably voids the warranty, but I haven't actually checked.
I'm running multiple windows on ARM simultaneously on my ARM samsung chromebook this very moment, and it's very fast and very crisp. It feels like using chrome on a fresh windows install. I've also tried opensuse on this machine, and while its buggy, the processor runs XFCE very quickly. While ARM may not currently be the performance king, ARM is already viable on the desktop for users without high performance computing needs.
I'd have to dig out the paper, but I'm 95% sure that his initial quote was 600 dollars. Regardless, it's near that even if it isn't spot on. He's a fairly inexpensive carpenter though, so your mileage may vary. There are probably some commercial offerings in this range (although many are way more), but the benefits of the custom-design and getting solid wood made that a better alternative for me. He did say that depending on the complexity and quality of the wood, prices could change dramatically. For example, when I showed him a furniture piece made with antiqued wood of some sort, he said that it would cost significantly more just from raw materials.
My work over the past 6 months has varied between programming (small component of my work), extensive spreadsheet monkeying, writing quick reference training documentation, end user training, project management, and an embarrassing amount of emailing. I haven't noticed a drop in typing speed, and for any work that needs more dexterity, I just slow down the treadmill. If you get the treadmill moving slowly enough, there shouldn't be much degradation of your working capabilities at all. Also, somewhere else in these comments, someone recommended a trackball instead of a mouse, which actually makes a ton of sense to me after my experience.
As for eyesight/reading, I'm a tough person to speak on that as my eyesight is pretty good. I have not noticed an issue there; my eyes don't seem to have an issue locking onto words at a strolling pace. I think I might actually have to hit a full jog before noticing any difference on that front.
As I mentioned in my original post, mousing at faster walking paces was the most challenging thing for me.
Also, I would think that working at a standing desk for a few days would actually be a good trial run. It will allow you to get used to spending more time in an upright posture, which is a significant adjustment. I think it's helpful to start out only doing that for an hour or two a day and then increasing it as you like it. You can get a taste of it by putting a box on a counter top with a laptop on it and working for a couple of hours. If that feels like an improvement, then keep doing more. If it drives you nuts, then you've saved yourself some time and money. Lastly, I also tighten up some as I stand/walk, which makes me stretch every now and then. I didn't do this at a seated desk but probably should have.
I put together a treadmill desk about six months ago. Typing/mousing and walking is definitely a consideration. I had to reduce my mouse sensitivity slightly, and I also have to keep my walking speed at or below 2 mph in order to have any chance of typing accurately. I find I'm quite accurate at 1 mph. I reserve 2 mph for times when I'm mostly reading.
I also was unpleasantly surprised by the prices of the commercial offerings for these desks. I'm currently using a DIY cardboard desk and have a carpenter building a custom-made wooden desk, which will still be cheaper than the commercial offerings.
Regardless, I got into this because of 1. Ergonomics - sitting kills my back and 2. Health - this allows me to put in a decent amount of exercise with little to no joint impact while I work.
Plus, I'm slightly less stressed if I'm walking as I work.
Downsides: Until I get into the "zone" as I work, walking and managing a computer is annoying. Decent treadmills take up a ton of room. It's noisy enough that I have to stop it every time I get a phone call.
All in all, I'm glad I did it. And it provided me with a great excuse to wall mount a 60" HDTV as my computer monitor.:-D
As a quick followup, here are some quotes on 3G call quality from the iphone blog:
I’ve been using Skype over 3G ever since it came out (first with VoIPover3G, now with 3G Unrestrictor) and I have to say that quality sucks. I get dropped calls, sound dropping in and out, weird noises during the call, etc."
We have the largest and fastest 3G network in the world here in Australia (44mbps downlink in the cities, 21mbps everywhere else – 99% of the population have 3G), and being a fairly small population – congestion isn’t an issue. VOIP over 3G works, but it totally sux. Like really, unless you can’t afford to make a phone call (unlikely if you have an iPhone) then it’s not worth the mucking about.
Cellular data connections are very bursty with high amounts of latency. Fine for browsing the web, or streaming media where the player has a buffer, but pretty awful for having a real-time duplex conversation. Which is why I really am ok with just using Skype over wifi.
A few people post quotes to the effect "quality is so-so but it's good enough for me," but most responses seem pretty negative towards the call quality.
My 3G cell connection has nasty latency (200ish pings generally) and made for a poor skype experience when tethered to my computer. Delays in voice calls are pretty obnoxious when accustomed to cell and landline connections - I don't see this as a viable competitor to cell minute usage even if Verizon allowed skype over 3G to US landlines.
The Palm WebOS multi-tasking UI is pretty rock-solid. I was reconciling numbers between an email and a text memo earlier with both windows open side by side "deck of cards" view. The phone has plenty of quirks - including some OS-level memory issues, but everybody should start copying their multi-tasking UI. It's very easy to switch between apps and close extra open apps.
WebOS from Palm has a very strong multi-tasking UI. I think Maemo from Nokia will as well. I use and love the Palm Pre, and I'm very interested in Maemo - it looks like it will be a fantastic new smartphone platform for Nokia.
I've heard other people echo your point. My experience on the Moto Q (the original) was that the phone was absolutely worthless. I don't know if it was WinMo 5, Motorola, or the combination of the two, but it was by a long shot the worst cell phone experience I've ever had. I've spoken with other Q users who had similar experiences. This might not be the fault of MS, but Apple, controlling their hardware and the interaction between the hardware and OS may have generated a better product than MS because of that control. I'm currently using a Palm Pre, which has some issues, but drastically fewer than what I experienced on the Q. If one company has total responsibility for the customer experience, they probably have more ability and initiative to improve the user experience through the entire product pipeline. Nokia, Palm, Apple, and possibly Google (Nexus One) have this advantage.
T-Mobile just started offering discounts for bringing your own devices. It's pretty compelling from a price perspective, but I'm still not sure if they get decent coverage where I live.
As an off-again-on-again linux user since the early days of Redhat and Caldera, I would have historically agreed with the need for a relatively long-use release. However, I think Ubuntu has become very easy to use for the installation of new programs. Apt-get is a huge win. This helps eliminate the difficulty of setting up a new environment when you reinstall the OS. For the few applications that aren't available via apt-get, I'm willing to spend some extra time (although installing the latest version of ruby/gems/somewhat rarely used gems/rails on my last ubuntu install was a bit brutal).
That said, I probably will stick with the next long-term release for an extended time period for many of the reasons you mention compounded by my general laziness.
I think the actions of building an atomic bomb or a biological weapon should be illegal for the public good. It's too late to prosecute someone for "blowing something up" with a highly-destructive device. As for possessing explosive material - what about ammonium nitrate? It's a high explosive with legitimate uses as a fertilizer. The "act of fiddling" with it is what makes it dangerous, not the inherently useful materials to begin with.
I understand your argument and where you're trying to go with it, but there are many shades of grey here that aren't handled. I'd tend to argue that the cops may be doing something correct by arresting someone who is modding consoles solely for the purpose of copyright violation (which I'd be shocked if he wasn't), but I'd say the main error here is that the potential penalty is too draconian. Furthermore, if they apply DMCA to more legitimate practices, such as modifying the PS3 to run home-made programs that you couldn't otherwise run, the cops should take it on the nose. I haven't heard of that happening; although as crappy as the DMCA is, I won't be surprised to hear it.
Sorry, apparently I'm completely incompetent at using a browser; here's what I actually meant to say (and this time not anonymously).
I only speak a tiny bit of French, though this seems to be greatly appreciated. I could imagine being treated rudely if I didn't know any of the language (and rightfully so).
I couldn't disagree with this statement more. I spent my school years learning Spanish. I believe I should be treated well even if I go to China or France, places where I have little-to-no language ability. That said, the French people I met in Paris and Nice when I visited seemed quite nice to me. All this is predicated on the traveler treating the locals respectfully
t-mobile's phones are generally as locked down as any other vendor
I find this statement to be mis-leading. While locked-down out-of-the-box, t-mobile has far and away the best policy when it comes to unlocking the phone. If you're a customer for over 90 days, in good standing, they'll unlock the phone. At AT&T, you can only get that if you have a nice store rep. At Sprint and Verizon, dream on.
Has Windows Mobile improved dramatically? WinMo 5 is the worst operating system I've ever used:
Phone locked up
Needed to go into memory to close open apps on a regular basis - the UI for this was quite poor
Doesn't update the signal strength properly
Frequently sends calls to voicemail when clicking the answer key
Must remove the battery to properly restart the phone
The interface with my bluetooth randomly decides to disconnect/reconnect
I could go on listing issues all day, but it suffices to say, the OS is terrible. I'm willing to believe that M$ can improve this product, but they have so far to go from my original Moto Q. Also, any copy paste support yet? I don't get why Apple and MS didn't have those working out of the gates.
In a car, road, wind, and other external noises will eliminate any ability to hear the difference between most lossy and lossless formats.
Many recordings and/or masterings of recordings are not of sufficient quality for anyone to be able to tell the difference between FLAC, MP3, etc.
High quality recorded and mastered music with a high quality stereo is the only time a consumer would typically be able to discern any difference.
Professional and semi-professional musicians and recording engineers spend enough time listening to almost indecipherable sound nuances through top notch equipment that they probably do notice and care what formats they listen to in a professional environment.
I'm running 8.10 on a Dell Latitude D620, and the default settings already have one of the workarounds implemented. The laptop-mode-tools package workaround mentioned at Ubuntu's wiki has already been implemented. Lower the FUD meters.
I recently had a discussion with a friend who works at Id. He says that their new engine has virtually identical quality on both the PS3 and 360, which fixes one huge issue with the Unreal engine that so many companies have been using. So, hopefully, as more games come out using Id tech, there will be greater parity between the consoles. For Id's latest game, the DVD capacity vs Bluray capacity supposedly hurts the 360 graphics relative to the PS3.
Totally agree. I've used HDMI and component inputs to connect a PS3 and an Xbox to my 1080p 46" Samsung. I get no noticeable lag, even in FPS games where I might notice it. It also has a "game mode" which I don't use because I don't have noticeable lag to need it.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm using a TiVo Roamio OTA which has been fantastic and has no monthly fees (high initial cost - $400). I also used professional installers for the antenna, and they were able to get a strong signal when I couldn't (they tried two different antennas and took off the reflector on one of them to get better positioning). Last weird note for soccer fans, Verizon Wireless's go90 tv service carries a bunch of soccer games because of a deal with beinTV.
Just refuting the claim that ARM and its related operating systems are a single window system. And if it's a watery thing to say - I quite like water, it's been integral to my survival up to this point.
I would think that porting non-web apps to Chrome OS would be a substantial amount of work - basically just as difficult as converting them to web apps. Google has added a tool which will allow you to remote to a desktop computer from a Chromebook and run desktop apps in that manner (using chrome extensions I think). Enabling developer mode and getting Xfce running isn't terribly difficult, but I'd be tempted to wait a few months and keep tabs on the Xfce distributions. They feel like Alpha technology to me right now, and I think that at least Beta quality would make the experience much better (and should be forthcoming as many Linux distribution developers are hacking on the samsung box right now - Fedora, Bodhi, openSUSE, Chrubuntu, Arch, and others). Regardless, I'm surprised at how nice the browsing experience is on the Chromebook and am looking forward to upcoming releases from the above linux distros.
Steps needed to get Xfce up would include flipping to dev mode on the Chromebook (easy), purchasing an appropriately sized SD card (also easy, just buy high performance as this will be a performance bottleneck), and then depending on the OS you attempt to install to the SD card, you may have steps as easy as putting an image onto the SD card (fairly easy) or manually copying numerous files from various different Chromebook directories and linux distributions onto the SD card (involved but well documented). This last step will be significantly easier if you already have a linux box to use - most of the documentation and tools are linux centric. The linux install probably voids the warranty, but I haven't actually checked.
I'm running multiple windows on ARM simultaneously on my ARM samsung chromebook this very moment, and it's very fast and very crisp. It feels like using chrome on a fresh windows install. I've also tried opensuse on this machine, and while its buggy, the processor runs XFCE very quickly. While ARM may not currently be the performance king, ARM is already viable on the desktop for users without high performance computing needs.
I'd have to dig out the paper, but I'm 95% sure that his initial quote was 600 dollars. Regardless, it's near that even if it isn't spot on. He's a fairly inexpensive carpenter though, so your mileage may vary. There are probably some commercial offerings in this range (although many are way more), but the benefits of the custom-design and getting solid wood made that a better alternative for me. He did say that depending on the complexity and quality of the wood, prices could change dramatically. For example, when I showed him a furniture piece made with antiqued wood of some sort, he said that it would cost significantly more just from raw materials.
My work over the past 6 months has varied between programming (small component of my work), extensive spreadsheet monkeying, writing quick reference training documentation, end user training, project management, and an embarrassing amount of emailing. I haven't noticed a drop in typing speed, and for any work that needs more dexterity, I just slow down the treadmill. If you get the treadmill moving slowly enough, there shouldn't be much degradation of your working capabilities at all. Also, somewhere else in these comments, someone recommended a trackball instead of a mouse, which actually makes a ton of sense to me after my experience.
As for eyesight/reading, I'm a tough person to speak on that as my eyesight is pretty good. I have not noticed an issue there; my eyes don't seem to have an issue locking onto words at a strolling pace. I think I might actually have to hit a full jog before noticing any difference on that front.
As I mentioned in my original post, mousing at faster walking paces was the most challenging thing for me.
Also, I would think that working at a standing desk for a few days would actually be a good trial run. It will allow you to get used to spending more time in an upright posture, which is a significant adjustment. I think it's helpful to start out only doing that for an hour or two a day and then increasing it as you like it. You can get a taste of it by putting a box on a counter top with a laptop on it and working for a couple of hours. If that feels like an improvement, then keep doing more. If it drives you nuts, then you've saved yourself some time and money. Lastly, I also tighten up some as I stand/walk, which makes me stretch every now and then. I didn't do this at a seated desk but probably should have.
I put together a treadmill desk about six months ago. Typing/mousing and walking is definitely a consideration. I had to reduce my mouse sensitivity slightly, and I also have to keep my walking speed at or below 2 mph in order to have any chance of typing accurately. I find I'm quite accurate at 1 mph. I reserve 2 mph for times when I'm mostly reading.
I also was unpleasantly surprised by the prices of the commercial offerings for these desks. I'm currently using a DIY cardboard desk and have a carpenter building a custom-made wooden desk, which will still be cheaper than the commercial offerings.
Regardless, I got into this because of 1. Ergonomics - sitting kills my back and 2. Health - this allows me to put in a decent amount of exercise with little to no joint impact while I work.
Plus, I'm slightly less stressed if I'm walking as I work.
Downsides: Until I get into the "zone" as I work, walking and managing a computer is annoying. Decent treadmills take up a ton of room. It's noisy enough that I have to stop it every time I get a phone call.
All in all, I'm glad I did it. And it provided me with a great excuse to wall mount a 60" HDTV as my computer monitor. :-D
I’ve been using Skype over 3G ever since it came out (first with VoIPover3G, now with 3G Unrestrictor) and I have to say that quality sucks. I get dropped calls, sound dropping in and out, weird noises during the call, etc."
We have the largest and fastest 3G network in the world here in Australia (44mbps downlink in the cities, 21mbps everywhere else – 99% of the population have 3G), and being a fairly small population – congestion isn’t an issue. VOIP over 3G works, but it totally sux. Like really, unless you can’t afford to make a phone call (unlikely if you have an iPhone) then it’s not worth the mucking about.
Cellular data connections are very bursty with high amounts of latency. Fine for browsing the web, or streaming media where the player has a buffer, but pretty awful for having a real-time duplex conversation. Which is why I really am ok with just using Skype over wifi.
A few people post quotes to the effect "quality is so-so but it's good enough for me," but most responses seem pretty negative towards the call quality.
My 3G cell connection has nasty latency (200ish pings generally) and made for a poor skype experience when tethered to my computer. Delays in voice calls are pretty obnoxious when accustomed to cell and landline connections - I don't see this as a viable competitor to cell minute usage even if Verizon allowed skype over 3G to US landlines.
Has anyone else had any contrary experience?
The Palm WebOS multi-tasking UI is pretty rock-solid. I was reconciling numbers between an email and a text memo earlier with both windows open side by side "deck of cards" view. The phone has plenty of quirks - including some OS-level memory issues, but everybody should start copying their multi-tasking UI. It's very easy to switch between apps and close extra open apps.
WebOS from Palm has a very strong multi-tasking UI. I think Maemo from Nokia will as well. I use and love the Palm Pre, and I'm very interested in Maemo - it looks like it will be a fantastic new smartphone platform for Nokia.
I've heard other people echo your point. My experience on the Moto Q (the original) was that the phone was absolutely worthless. I don't know if it was WinMo 5, Motorola, or the combination of the two, but it was by a long shot the worst cell phone experience I've ever had. I've spoken with other Q users who had similar experiences. This might not be the fault of MS, but Apple, controlling their hardware and the interaction between the hardware and OS may have generated a better product than MS because of that control. I'm currently using a Palm Pre, which has some issues, but drastically fewer than what I experienced on the Q. If one company has total responsibility for the customer experience, they probably have more ability and initiative to improve the user experience through the entire product pipeline. Nokia, Palm, Apple, and possibly Google (Nexus One) have this advantage.
T-Mobile just started offering discounts for bringing your own devices. It's pretty compelling from a price perspective, but I'm still not sure if they get decent coverage where I live.
There are some fantastic add-ons that do this, but I agree, it would be great to have this in the core functionality of Firefox.
As an off-again-on-again linux user since the early days of Redhat and Caldera, I would have historically agreed with the need for a relatively long-use release. However, I think Ubuntu has become very easy to use for the installation of new programs. Apt-get is a huge win. This helps eliminate the difficulty of setting up a new environment when you reinstall the OS. For the few applications that aren't available via apt-get, I'm willing to spend some extra time (although installing the latest version of ruby/gems/somewhat rarely used gems/rails on my last ubuntu install was a bit brutal).
That said, I probably will stick with the next long-term release for an extended time period for many of the reasons you mention compounded by my general laziness.
I think the actions of building an atomic bomb or a biological weapon should be illegal for the public good. It's too late to prosecute someone for "blowing something up" with a highly-destructive device. As for possessing explosive material - what about ammonium nitrate? It's a high explosive with legitimate uses as a fertilizer. The "act of fiddling" with it is what makes it dangerous, not the inherently useful materials to begin with.
I understand your argument and where you're trying to go with it, but there are many shades of grey here that aren't handled. I'd tend to argue that the cops may be doing something correct by arresting someone who is modding consoles solely for the purpose of copyright violation (which I'd be shocked if he wasn't), but I'd say the main error here is that the potential penalty is too draconian. Furthermore, if they apply DMCA to more legitimate practices, such as modifying the PS3 to run home-made programs that you couldn't otherwise run, the cops should take it on the nose. I haven't heard of that happening; although as crappy as the DMCA is, I won't be surprised to hear it.
I only speak a tiny bit of French, though this seems to be greatly appreciated. I could imagine being treated rudely if I didn't know any of the language (and rightfully so).
I couldn't disagree with this statement more. I spent my school years learning Spanish. I believe I should be treated well even if I go to China or France, places where I have little-to-no language ability. That said, the French people I met in Paris and Nice when I visited seemed quite nice to me. All this is predicated on the traveler treating the locals respectfully
t-mobile's phones are generally as locked down as any other vendor
I find this statement to be mis-leading. While locked-down out-of-the-box, t-mobile has far and away the best policy when it comes to unlocking the phone. If you're a customer for over 90 days, in good standing, they'll unlock the phone. At AT&T, you can only get that if you have a nice store rep. At Sprint and Verizon, dream on.
I could go on listing issues all day, but it suffices to say, the OS is terrible. I'm willing to believe that M$ can improve this product, but they have so far to go from my original Moto Q. Also, any copy paste support yet? I don't get why Apple and MS didn't have those working out of the gates.
HL2 Highlights:
Halo Highlights (from 1 and 2, unfortunately don't have a 360):
I would tend to give Halo the edge due to multiplayer being so fantastic, but I haven't given the HL2 partner games a fair shake - CS or TF2.
I'm running 8.10 on a Dell Latitude D620, and the default settings already have one of the workarounds implemented. The laptop-mode-tools package workaround mentioned at Ubuntu's wiki has already been implemented. Lower the FUD meters.
I'm only going to be happy with DLC if I get to play as Liberty Prime.
I recently had a discussion with a friend who works at Id. He says that their new engine has virtually identical quality on both the PS3 and 360, which fixes one huge issue with the Unreal engine that so many companies have been using. So, hopefully, as more games come out using Id tech, there will be greater parity between the consoles. For Id's latest game, the DVD capacity vs Bluray capacity supposedly hurts the 360 graphics relative to the PS3.
Totally agree. I've used HDMI and component inputs to connect a PS3 and an Xbox to my 1080p 46" Samsung. I get no noticeable lag, even in FPS games where I might notice it. It also has a "game mode" which I don't use because I don't have noticeable lag to need it.