Re:So where are the rest of the super hi-res scree
on
Apple Unveils New iPad
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· Score: 1
Alright, so count me as a doubter that didn't think they'd pull out the super hi-res screen and keep it at the same price. So all of a sudden Apple comes out of nowhere with screen resolution that leapfrogs everything out there, including pretty much all of the LCD desktop monitors that I've used. So where is everyone else with super hi-res screens on commodity LCD monitors, laptops, etc.? Let alone Android tablets? When and where will we see those?
What about trackpads? The Unibody Macbook (and MBP) in 2008 ushered in a whole new era of unbelievable trackpad usability that is as of yet unmatched in the PC world. I have literally tried dozens of trackpads, trackpoints and trackballs in the PC world and they all have issues (the trackpoint is my fallback for the windows laptop - it is good, but my 2011 thinkpad still exhibits ghost-movement).
So, regarding screen resolution - don't hold your breath. It might take a LONG time, if ever that it comes to the commoditized PC world. Apple would be quite happy to be an exclusive provider of retina displays.
The best thing might be to zip your lip and burn the laptop, and move on.
Smouldering laptops attract no attention at all, and now it really does look bad. Stop deluding yourself into thinking there's any reasonable escape from a witch-hunt gone sour.
The reasonable escape is to put the thumb screws to the witch-hunt itself. Social conservatives will never allow this because abortion might be next to enter a sane discussion. Whatever your political stripe, when values are hostage to tactics, you're part of the problem.
Smouldering laptops? No, I'm pretty sure C0L0PH0N was NOT indicating that you physically scorch the laptop. Just scrub it clean. A good way of doing this is to physically or logically nuke the hard drive. Simply wipe or buy a new one, and restore or load new OS. Verify, rinse, repeat until verifyably clean.
One catch - and this is a *windows* problem, is licensing/restore. Linux is free to download and install, and Macs have always had painless DVD, flashdrive or internet-based restore, and licensing is no-hassle. With windows, if you're lucky, the PC has some hidden restore drive/flashdrive. Otherwise, you're pretty much screwed.
With a modicum of knowledge, an end user should be using backups and restore points. It's possible on Windows, easy on the Mac. However, the kind of folks who would be doing this are likely NOT the ones who would involuntarily get CP on their system.
That screen is just incredible. I mean, here I am working on a dual monitor setup - two 22" 1680x1050 monitors, side by side. That's about 3.5 megapixels. But along comes the new iPad, with a 3 megapixel screen in a 10" form factor - 85% of the pixels in about 15% of the area. Crazy. I'm not planning on buying one right now (already have iPad 1, which at this point I'll use until it dies), but I'm really glad that somebody is pushing screen resolutions above the relatively low 1080p we seem to be stuck with today on virtually every LCD.
The sad thing this device exposes is how current desktop operating systems don't handle resolution independence nearly as well. I have 3x1080p 24" screens on my work desktop setup, and I still have to squint to see stuff because Windows7 and the apps I run have built-in assumptions about pixel sizing. Hopefully Win8, ChromeOS or OSX-next help to resolve this.
The main reason that integrated GPU performance matters(aside from the fact that it is all the GPU you get in any too-cheap or too-skinny device that doesn't have a discrete option) is that it defines the (overwhelmingly common) baseline for what 'PC graphics' means. If that situation is uniformly awful, GPU intensive stuff will continue to be fairly niche, which leads to a chicken-and-egg issue: if integrated graphics suck, the market for GPU intensive stuff will be constrained, which will reduce the incentive to improve GPU performance, and so it goes...
And this is exactly how Intel wants it - any level playing field that emphasizes GPU would have them at the mercy of ATI/NVidia as Intel's previous efforts at a competetive GPU (see Larabee) were pretty dismal.
However, with the rise of mobile devices (iOS, Android) and ARM (even Microsoft is targeting ARM for Win8), they are cooking their own goose. They can't keep fighting yesterday's battle - it will be a Pyrrhic victory. When Win8 releases with full ARM support and PC laptop manufacturers (likely following Apple putting an A6 or A7 into a MacBook Air) put quad+ core ARMs into laptops with competent graphics platforms, Intel will wish they had been leading instead of following.
Each of these industries are entrenched in more than a hundred years of business law and protect their regional fiefdoms viciously. They do so because they all know the internet makes them completely obsolete. They know that without the anchor of a physical pretense some small company anywhere in the world can beat them.
Yet, with Apple, you can do all of this and more with iCloud + iTunes Match in 19+ countries. What it means is that Apple figured out there is no winning against the MAFIAA, and have paid their cut. Google is slowly starting to get with the program.
It's unfortunate, but it does appear that the media industry is going to win vs. the internet by balkanizing or eliminating it entirely.
And yes, WD MyBook drives are absolute shit too. Don't use them for backups. They last about year or so and that's it.
I'll see your anecdote and call: I have a 500GB WD MyBook from 2006-ish working perfectly as a Dish extended storage drive for the past 2 years, and a Time Machine target before that... it's a bit louder and noisier than I'd have liked (and I'm now using a 2.5" Firewire drive as my backup target), but it's ticking along fine.
So this brings up the question, why offer grandfathering anyways
Likely due to the fact that it's a contract. If they changed policy, they would require the customer to agree to the new contractual terms. Many would leave, also likely causing a PR incident.
The big benefit of the unlimited plan is that you pay $X a month, regardless of usage, and you're guaranteed bandwidth and never have to pay more or worry about disconnection. Another pricing victory for Apple, who really innovated with the original iPhone ($20/mo for unlimited), which AT&T was forced to swallow, but profited heavily from.
AT&T embodies the worst of big-business-thinking. Not only do they provide poor service and quality (in my 6+ years as a subscriber on and off), they nickel and dime you and make it seem like they're doing you a favor when they don't. They are truly exhibit the view that you don't have a choice (when in reality, you often do). They are penny-wise and pound-foolish, sacrificing customer loyalty and brand image to make a few extra million here and there, while ignoring large opportunities unless forced upon them.
So perhaps this decision to go javascript was influenced by the programming luminary John Resig (he recently joined Khan Academy [1] )?
Or is it the other way around, did Khan Academy go and hire Resig because he's a javascript ninja [2] ?
Either way, despite my discomfort with some of the features of javascript, this decision makes complete sense. JS has really been pushed forward by the ECMA [3] giving it a strong momentum for solid, controlled, future growth. Finally and most importantly, unlike any other language, javascript has the most available full programming environment, as the VM exists in every browser and IDE and testing tools (firebug, webkit inspector, etc) are numerous and powerful.
I think there is some confusion about the dictionary definition of monopoly and the legal definition. In the UK, at least, you are deemed to hold a monopoly position within a market if you control more than 25%, which apple certainly does in the smartphone market.
Also, and I admit it might be a tenuous, you could argue that apps for iOS is a single market, and therefore apple has a 100% monopoly on the supply of apps for iOS, a position that I think most of us agree the abuse to one degree or another.
So therefore Toyota should be considered a monopoly for their 100% domination of the Prius market? No, it doesn't work that way. Markets (at least for the purposes of anti-trust) cannot by definition refer to specific products or brands, or the entire meaning of monopoly would be meaningless.
Burson-Marsteller should be familiar to all Slashdot denizens - they've been long-term astroturfers here for both Microsoft and Facebook. Both companies have been caught using them for smear campaigns against Google.
The current CEO of Burson-Marsteller is Mark Penn, who is also famous for heading Hillary Clinton's election campaign [1] for the Democratic presidential candidacy in 2008. Many folks blamed Penn for his mis-handling of the primary, which was seen as Clinton's to lose.
Who cares whether or not Science Fiction films receive Oscars? I just enjoy watching them (aside: I just ordered another copy of "Forbidden Planet" : ) ).
Close the loop. Oscars (and other awards) drive sales, which are basically promoting the film. Without adequate representation, SciFi films suffer from depressed potential turnout and lower overall response - this in turn drives film-makers to not avoid the subject (ie, I can make a police-buddy flick that could gross $300M or a scifi flick that would likely gross 1/2 to 1/3 the cost - oh, and the special effects for the scifi film will add a lot more overall cost to produce).
You want more SciFi films? They should be rewarded similarly... if you like them you should care.
As I understand it, all major social networks operating in the United States collect date of birth to be COPPA compliant.
So what is the penalty for flat-out lying to them? No social network has my (real) birth date, as that would weaken the already weak security on my existing accounts - DoB, like SSN is a superkey that can, with others, backdoor any of my accounts - giving that out is simply foolish.
So provide a number that is valid, but goes nowhere. Everyone you know chips in the for the cost of a single POTS line, which is minimal, and a phone is never attached to it. Nobody has to hear it ring, there is no answering machine, and it's a legal, legit number. As far as anyone who calls it is concerned, you're just never home.
No need to pay, I just give out my Google Voice number - combined with a whitelist who get through without a message and voicemail transcription to my email, it's perfect... and I get zero spam. I also have a backup GV that's just a floating voicemail that I check the Inbox once in a while if I'm feeling in the need for a few laughs (transcription can be hilarious).
I DO run a pair of holmes 3500 humidifiers here to keep the humidity between 30-50%. It fluctuates quite a bit during the winter days because of the cycle of furnace activity between daytime and nighttime. I got the second unit so it'd catch up faster in the morning after the heat kicked on. I do keep my furnace filter changed regularly but don't use any of the expensive filters.
If I may be so bold, I'd recommend you do consider something better than the basic filtration. We own our house, and have had really good experience with a electronic whole house filter, but even when we were renting we used 3M Filtrete 1500+ or MR13+ rated filters and found vast improvement over Filtrete 1200 or MR10 (which is probabably better than the basic 300 or 600/MR7). We also have one of these [1] for each bedroom (they don't sell those anymore, though).
No I don't rinse my nostrils.
I strongly recommend you try it... I know at least a dozen folks I've converted to doing this occasionally
My sinus problems aren't allergy-based. They just plain have issues. Not sure exactly what. I've heard horror stories of what my mom went through when she was younger, she had cases of having to pull dried mucus out of her nostrils in strips. Glad mine's not that bad. I think I just have issues with my sinuses being a little more restrictive than usual, plus they are prone to swelling up if irritated, closing my sinus passages, creating a sealed environment for bacteria to grow in.
Again, I'd strongly recommend you see an ENT, or if that's not possible, to do some experimentation with nasal rinses and stronger air purification... my daughter had these issues when she was younger, and now she's familiar with the rinsing and we make sure the house air is as clean as possible (we do run humidifiers during the winter, also).
Maybe if you established a relationship with a regular GP or ENT Dr, maybe he would become familiar with your history and not wait to prescribe the antibiotics?
My fiance's family doctor who she had been seeing her whole childhood did the same thing. Every winter she would get a bad sinus infection, but he wouldn't prescribe antibiotics until the second trip, even if they waited until it was really bad the first trip. Same with doctor she saw during college for 6 years.
This would make me switch my doctor. I want someone who knows me enough to trust when I can self-diagnose, and acts as a (knowledgeable) medical partner. At my clinic, I know the provider very well, and he is often very cautious about prescribing things but trusts me when I come in once every year or so and I say, "I've got a sinus infection - here are my symptoms, tried nasal rinsing, tried decongestants - nothings been working for a couple of weeks".
Fortunately for me genetics diluted the problem and I don't get one more than once a year usually. I've tried to tough it out, load up on decongestants and expectorants (due to drainage) etc and all that happens is it gets my throat torn up like hamburger from the infected runoff combined with coughing. Lucky me, I'm going through my yearly round of that right now actually. I started myself on decongestants immediately and have been pounding down pepsi almost nonstop to try to keep my sinuses and throat clear, but it still looks like the throat version of red-eye in there. I might actually beat it without antibiotics for the first time this time since I've jumped on it so aggressively.
As someone who has similar (but milder) seasonal issues, I'm wondering... do you rinse [1] your nostrils? Do you keep your house air clean (HEPA or whole-house filter)? How about cortico-steriods [2]?
I've also found much relief with some anti-allergens like cetirizine, which also reduce inflammation.
But why does that have to be *in* the TV? If all it does is display a video signal at as high of quality as possible, it can last for many years.
Let me tell you something.... many MANY people can't hook up a TV input to save their lives (or would be glad to avoid having to do that). For every one of you and me who could do this in their sleep, there are probably 3-5 people who either can't or would be very anxious if asked to do so. The vast proliferation of inputs (HDMI, Component, Composite, Coax) and ambiguous and tough setup conspire to make this uncomfortable even to me.
What does this mean in terms of market? It is possible (though not certain) that TV installation and setup could go mainstream and bypass the "knowledgeable enthusiast" and address the lager market of technically incompetent/insecure
Like the iPhone (which at first seemed a bit dumbed down to me, coming from a Treo), if Apple can completely avoid the need for inputs (think plug in power and internet signal (likely wireless), and if you're really pushing it, buy and position auto-connecting bluetooth speakers), these folks could "safely" buy and use a TV without us.
Apple would make a killing - and Siri would be icing on that cake.
No you're not. You're not even in the minority. There have always been Apple doom-n-gloomers since, well, the beginning of the interwebs. Many respectable trolls^Wtech journalists (Henry Blodgett, John C. Dvorak, have been negative on Apple for decades. What's news now, is that Apple, long the doomed company, is now ascendant, and has not only beat Microsoft at the finances game, they've got more market capitalization than ExxonMobil.
Apple is here to stay for the long term... for good or ill.
A ScanSnap costs $400, obviously quite an intricate product (iphones are less than this)
Gotta nip this bullshit in the bud. iPhones are susidized such that even the "free" 3GS is costs a cancellation fee (~$400) and activation fee ($50ish). So the ScanSnap is *not* more expensive than an iPhone, even a 2 year old design.
I also set all the controls so my friends can't do anything like tag me or such. And I don't post my every whim/though/status update there. Actually, I don't bother posting at all - it's just a token account I use to control my online identity. (I also don't spend more than a few minutes every few months).
Another thing you might want to do is to not only restrict all information to "self" as opposed to "friends" or "public" is to enter false information. I call this my "fakebook" data, and was surprised (when facebook reset it's privacy rules like they do occasionally) when I got tons of "happy birthday" wall postings (and subsequent notification spam) on some random date (which is what I falsely entered in facebook).
However, ultimately, this is not the problem. Zuckerberg and many others know that the really valuable data are the connections (graph). The fact that facebook constantly pesters you to extend your graph is reason enough to believe it's valuable to them that you're further ensnared. Even a single connection is a way to trace you. Unfortunately, I'm ensared when it comes to this, and thus despite my "fakebook" data and faceblocker browser-plugins, I'm contributing to their collective assets.
Your ISP does not see the information you transmit if it's encrypted, or email, chat, etc. Facebook CAN see the messages you send, even if your communication to and from facebook is encrypted.
Following this logic, GMail, hotmail and other webmail providers are themselves MITM attacks, and have been serving as identity proxies for entire online presences since the mid-nineties.
Which in fact makes sense - Facebook's big market opportunity is to corner the public identity management space, and they've been trying to topple plain ol email as a communications method for several years now (facebook messaging).
If person A commits a given action, and person B does the exact same, you don't want the judge to have leeway to execute A and give B a month's probation. This means that laws have to be specific about different cases and their distinctions. Complexity arises naturally from that.
Yet, this is exactly *not* what France does, for example... they don't abide by stare decisis [1], which states that lower courts must abide by precedent set of previous court decisions, although their jurisprudence is followed by custom, they can and do break from precedent.
The entire idea of jurisprudence (the creation of law by judicial ruling) is fraught with danger - in that precedent, once set, can make for bizarre outcomes - take for example corporate personhood [2] - Now corporations are super-people, that have free-speech rights.
Slashdot Mirror
Alright, so count me as a doubter that didn't think they'd pull out the super hi-res screen and keep it at the same price. So all of a sudden Apple comes out of nowhere with screen resolution that leapfrogs everything out there, including pretty much all of the LCD desktop monitors that I've used. So where is everyone else with super hi-res screens on commodity LCD monitors, laptops, etc.? Let alone Android tablets? When and where will we see those?
What about trackpads? The Unibody Macbook (and MBP) in 2008 ushered in a whole new era of unbelievable trackpad usability that is as of yet unmatched in the PC world. I have literally tried dozens of trackpads, trackpoints and trackballs in the PC world and they all have issues (the trackpoint is my fallback for the windows laptop - it is good, but my 2011 thinkpad still exhibits ghost-movement).
So, regarding screen resolution - don't hold your breath. It might take a LONG time, if ever that it comes to the commoditized PC world. Apple would be quite happy to be an exclusive provider of retina displays.
Smouldering laptops attract no attention at all, and now it really does look bad. Stop deluding yourself into thinking there's any reasonable escape from a witch-hunt gone sour.
The reasonable escape is to put the thumb screws to the witch-hunt itself. Social conservatives will never allow this because abortion might be next to enter a sane discussion. Whatever your political stripe, when values are hostage to tactics, you're part of the problem.
Smouldering laptops? No, I'm pretty sure C0L0PH0N was NOT indicating that you physically scorch the laptop. Just scrub it clean. A good way of doing this is to physically or logically nuke the hard drive. Simply wipe or buy a new one, and restore or load new OS. Verify, rinse, repeat until verifyably clean.
One catch - and this is a *windows* problem, is licensing/restore. Linux is free to download and install, and Macs have always had painless DVD, flashdrive or internet-based restore, and licensing is no-hassle. With windows, if you're lucky, the PC has some hidden restore drive/flashdrive. Otherwise, you're pretty much screwed.
With a modicum of knowledge, an end user should be using backups and restore points. It's possible on Windows, easy on the Mac. However, the kind of folks who would be doing this are likely NOT the ones who would involuntarily get CP on their system.
That screen is just incredible. I mean, here I am working on a dual monitor setup - two 22" 1680x1050 monitors, side by side. That's about 3.5 megapixels. But along comes the new iPad, with a 3 megapixel screen in a 10" form factor - 85% of the pixels in about 15% of the area. Crazy. I'm not planning on buying one right now (already have iPad 1, which at this point I'll use until it dies), but I'm really glad that somebody is pushing screen resolutions above the relatively low 1080p we seem to be stuck with today on virtually every LCD.
The sad thing this device exposes is how current desktop operating systems don't handle resolution independence nearly as well. I have 3x1080p 24" screens on my work desktop setup, and I still have to squint to see stuff because Windows7 and the apps I run have built-in assumptions about pixel sizing. Hopefully Win8, ChromeOS or OSX-next help to resolve this.
The main reason that integrated GPU performance matters(aside from the fact that it is all the GPU you get in any too-cheap or too-skinny device that doesn't have a discrete option) is that it defines the (overwhelmingly common) baseline for what 'PC graphics' means. If that situation is uniformly awful, GPU intensive stuff will continue to be fairly niche, which leads to a chicken-and-egg issue: if integrated graphics suck, the market for GPU intensive stuff will be constrained, which will reduce the incentive to improve GPU performance, and so it goes...
And this is exactly how Intel wants it - any level playing field that emphasizes GPU would have them at the mercy of ATI/NVidia as Intel's previous efforts at a competetive GPU (see Larabee) were pretty dismal.
However, with the rise of mobile devices (iOS, Android) and ARM (even Microsoft is targeting ARM for Win8), they are cooking their own goose. They can't keep fighting yesterday's battle - it will be a Pyrrhic victory. When Win8 releases with full ARM support and PC laptop manufacturers (likely following Apple putting an A6 or A7 into a MacBook Air) put quad+ core ARMs into laptops with competent graphics platforms, Intel will wish they had been leading instead of following.
Each of these industries are entrenched in more than a hundred years of business law and protect their regional fiefdoms viciously. They do so because they all know the internet makes them completely obsolete. They know that without the anchor of a physical pretense some small company anywhere in the world can beat them.
Yet, with Apple, you can do all of this and more with iCloud + iTunes Match in 19+ countries. What it means is that Apple figured out there is no winning against the MAFIAA, and have paid their cut. Google is slowly starting to get with the program.
It's unfortunate, but it does appear that the media industry is going to win vs. the internet by balkanizing or eliminating it entirely.
really? a windows user with an iPhone would have all their contacts synced with the iPhone?
As of iOS 2.0, yes. Using either CalDav+IMAP or Exchange ActiveSync you could sync your calendar and email fine with an original iPhone in 2008.
And yes, WD MyBook drives are absolute shit too. Don't use them for backups. They last about year or so and that's it.
I'll see your anecdote and call: I have a 500GB WD MyBook from 2006-ish working perfectly as a Dish extended storage drive for the past 2 years, and a Time Machine target before that... it's a bit louder and noisier than I'd have liked (and I'm now using a 2.5" Firewire drive as my backup target), but it's ticking along fine.
So this brings up the question, why offer grandfathering anyways
Likely due to the fact that it's a contract. If they changed policy, they would require the customer to agree to the new contractual terms. Many would leave, also likely causing a PR incident.
The big benefit of the unlimited plan is that you pay $X a month, regardless of usage, and you're guaranteed bandwidth and never have to pay more or worry about disconnection. Another pricing victory for Apple, who really innovated with the original iPhone ($20/mo for unlimited), which AT&T was forced to swallow, but profited heavily from.
AT&T embodies the worst of big-business-thinking. Not only do they provide poor service and quality (in my 6+ years as a subscriber on and off), they nickel and dime you and make it seem like they're doing you a favor when they don't. They are truly exhibit the view that you don't have a choice (when in reality, you often do). They are penny-wise and pound-foolish, sacrificing customer loyalty and brand image to make a few extra million here and there, while ignoring large opportunities unless forced upon them.
So perhaps this decision to go javascript was influenced by the programming luminary John Resig (he recently joined Khan Academy [1] )?
Or is it the other way around, did Khan Academy go and hire Resig because he's a javascript ninja [2] ?
Either way, despite my discomfort with some of the features of javascript, this decision makes complete sense. JS has really been pushed forward by the ECMA [3] giving it a strong momentum for solid, controlled, future growth. Finally and most importantly, unlike any other language, javascript has the most available full programming environment, as the VM exists in every browser and IDE and testing tools (firebug, webkit inspector, etc) are numerous and powerful.
[1] http://ejohn.org/blog/next-steps-in-2011/
[2] http://jsninja.com/
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECMAScript
I think there is some confusion about the dictionary definition of monopoly and the legal definition. In the UK, at least, you are deemed to hold a monopoly position within a market if you control more than 25%, which apple certainly does in the smartphone market.
Also, and I admit it might be a tenuous, you could argue that apps for iOS is a single market, and therefore apple has a 100% monopoly on the supply of apps for iOS, a position that I think most of us agree the abuse to one degree or another.
So therefore Toyota should be considered a monopoly for their 100% domination of the Prius market? No, it doesn't work that way. Markets (at least for the purposes of anti-trust) cannot by definition refer to specific products or brands, or the entire meaning of monopoly would be meaningless.
Burson-Marsteller should be familiar to all Slashdot denizens - they've been long-term astroturfers here for both Microsoft and Facebook. Both companies have been caught using them for smear campaigns against Google.
The current CEO of Burson-Marsteller is Mark Penn, who is also famous for heading Hillary Clinton's election campaign [1] for the Democratic presidential candidacy in 2008. Many folks blamed Penn for his mis-handling of the primary, which was seen as Clinton's to lose.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Penn#Presidential_campaign_-_2008
Who cares whether or not Science Fiction films receive Oscars? I just enjoy watching them (aside: I just ordered another copy of "Forbidden Planet" : ) ).
Close the loop. Oscars (and other awards) drive sales, which are basically promoting the film. Without adequate representation, SciFi films suffer from depressed potential turnout and lower overall response - this in turn drives film-makers to not avoid the subject (ie, I can make a police-buddy flick that could gross $300M or a scifi flick that would likely gross 1/2 to 1/3 the cost - oh, and the special effects for the scifi film will add a lot more overall cost to produce).
You want more SciFi films? They should be rewarded similarly... if you like them you should care.
As I understand it, all major social networks operating in the United States collect date of birth to be COPPA compliant.
So what is the penalty for flat-out lying to them? No social network has my (real) birth date, as that would weaken the already weak security on my existing accounts - DoB, like SSN is a superkey that can, with others, backdoor any of my accounts - giving that out is simply foolish.
Windows has supported changing the DPI (so widgets use more pixels) since Windows 3.1. Talk to the application developers.
Guess what the iOS and Mac App Stores allow Apple to do (same with Windows and their upcoming App Store)?
It can force App developers (over successive releases) to support 4x resolution. It can give carrots and has a big huge stick (removal from store).
So provide a number that is valid, but goes nowhere. Everyone you know chips in the for the cost of a single POTS line, which is minimal, and a phone is never attached to it. Nobody has to hear it ring, there is no answering machine, and it's a legal, legit number. As far as anyone who calls it is concerned, you're just never home.
No need to pay, I just give out my Google Voice number - combined with a whitelist who get through without a message and voicemail transcription to my email, it's perfect... and I get zero spam. I also have a backup GV that's just a floating voicemail that I check the Inbox once in a while if I'm feeling in the need for a few laughs (transcription can be hilarious).
I DO run a pair of holmes 3500 humidifiers here to keep the humidity between 30-50%. It fluctuates quite a bit during the winter days because of the cycle of furnace activity between daytime and nighttime. I got the second unit so it'd catch up faster in the morning after the heat kicked on. I do keep my furnace filter changed regularly but don't use any of the expensive filters.
If I may be so bold, I'd recommend you do consider something better than the basic filtration. We own our house, and have had really good experience with a electronic whole house filter, but even when we were renting we used 3M Filtrete 1500+ or MR13+ rated filters and found vast improvement over Filtrete 1200 or MR10 (which is probabably better than the basic 300 or 600/MR7). We also have one of these [1] for each bedroom (they don't sell those anymore, though).
No I don't rinse my nostrils.
I strongly recommend you try it... I know at least a dozen folks I've converted to doing this occasionally
My sinus problems aren't allergy-based. They just plain have issues. Not sure exactly what. I've heard horror stories of what my mom went through when she was younger, she had cases of having to pull dried mucus out of her nostrils in strips. Glad mine's not that bad. I think I just have issues with my sinuses being a little more restrictive than usual, plus they are prone to swelling up if irritated, closing my sinus passages, creating a sealed environment for bacteria to grow in.
Again, I'd strongly recommend you see an ENT, or if that's not possible, to do some experimentation with nasal rinses and stronger air purification... my daughter had these issues when she was younger, and now she's familiar with the rinsing and we make sure the house air is as clean as possible (we do run humidifiers during the winter, also).
[1] http://www.air-purifier-power.com/vornado-aqs35.html
Maybe if you established a relationship with a regular GP or ENT Dr, maybe he would become familiar with your history and not wait to prescribe the antibiotics?
My fiance's family doctor who she had been seeing her whole childhood did the same thing. Every winter she would get a bad sinus infection, but he wouldn't prescribe antibiotics until the second trip, even if they waited until it was really bad the first trip. Same with doctor she saw during college for 6 years.
This would make me switch my doctor. I want someone who knows me enough to trust when I can self-diagnose, and acts as a (knowledgeable) medical partner. At my clinic, I know the provider very well, and he is often very cautious about prescribing things but trusts me when I come in once every year or so and I say, "I've got a sinus infection - here are my symptoms, tried nasal rinsing, tried decongestants - nothings been working for a couple of weeks".
Fortunately for me genetics diluted the problem and I don't get one more than once a year usually. I've tried to tough it out, load up on decongestants and expectorants (due to drainage) etc and all that happens is it gets my throat torn up like hamburger from the infected runoff combined with coughing. Lucky me, I'm going through my yearly round of that right now actually. I started myself on decongestants immediately and have been pounding down pepsi almost nonstop to try to keep my sinuses and throat clear, but it still looks like the throat version of red-eye in there. I might actually beat it without antibiotics for the first time this time since I've jumped on it so aggressively.
As someone who has similar (but milder) seasonal issues, I'm wondering... do you rinse [1] your nostrils? Do you keep your house air clean (HEPA or whole-house filter)? How about cortico-steriods [2]?
I've also found much relief with some anti-allergens like cetirizine, which also reduce inflammation.
[1] http://www.neilmed.com/usa/sinusrinse.php
[2] http://allergies.about.com/od/noseandsinusallergies/a/nasalsprays.htm
Bison, Sagat and Balrog.
But why does that have to be *in* the TV? If all it does is display a video signal at as high of quality as possible, it can last for many years.
Let me tell you something.... many MANY people can't hook up a TV input to save their lives (or would be glad to avoid having to do that). For every one of you and me who could do this in their sleep, there are probably 3-5 people who either can't or would be very anxious if asked to do so. The vast proliferation of inputs (HDMI, Component, Composite, Coax) and ambiguous and tough setup conspire to make this uncomfortable even to me.
What does this mean in terms of market? It is possible (though not certain) that TV installation and setup could go mainstream and bypass the "knowledgeable enthusiast" and address the lager market of technically incompetent/insecure
Like the iPhone (which at first seemed a bit dumbed down to me, coming from a Treo), if Apple can completely avoid the need for inputs (think plug in power and internet signal (likely wireless), and if you're really pushing it, buy and position auto-connecting bluetooth speakers), these folks could "safely" buy and use a TV without us.
Apple would make a killing - and Siri would be icing on that cake.
I am just tired of all news Apple. Am I alone?
No you're not. You're not even in the minority. There have always been Apple doom-n-gloomers since, well, the beginning of the interwebs. Many respectable trolls^Wtech journalists (Henry Blodgett, John C. Dvorak, have been negative on Apple for decades. What's news now, is that Apple, long the doomed company, is now ascendant, and has not only beat Microsoft at the finances game, they've got more market capitalization than ExxonMobil.
Apple is here to stay for the long term... for good or ill.
A ScanSnap costs $400, obviously quite an intricate product (iphones are less than this)
Gotta nip this bullshit in the bud. iPhones are susidized such that even the "free" 3GS is costs a cancellation fee (~$400) and activation fee ($50ish). So the ScanSnap is *not* more expensive than an iPhone, even a 2 year old design.
I also set all the controls so my friends can't do anything like tag me or such. And I don't post my every whim/though/status update there. Actually, I don't bother posting at all - it's just a token account I use to control my online identity. (I also don't spend more than a few minutes every few months).
Another thing you might want to do is to not only restrict all information to "self" as opposed to "friends" or "public" is to enter false information. I call this my "fakebook" data, and was surprised (when facebook reset it's privacy rules like they do occasionally) when I got tons of "happy birthday" wall postings (and subsequent notification spam) on some random date (which is what I falsely entered in facebook).
However, ultimately, this is not the problem. Zuckerberg and many others know that the really valuable data are the connections (graph). The fact that facebook constantly pesters you to extend your graph is reason enough to believe it's valuable to them that you're further ensnared. Even a single connection is a way to trace you. Unfortunately, I'm ensared when it comes to this, and thus despite my "fakebook" data and faceblocker browser-plugins, I'm contributing to their collective assets.
Your ISP does not see the information you transmit if it's encrypted, or email, chat, etc.
Facebook CAN see the messages you send, even if your communication to and from facebook is encrypted.
Following this logic, GMail, hotmail and other webmail providers are themselves MITM attacks, and have been serving as identity proxies for entire online presences since the mid-nineties.
Which in fact makes sense - Facebook's big market opportunity is to corner the public identity management space, and they've been trying to topple plain ol email as a communications method for several years now (facebook messaging).
If person A commits a given action, and person B does the exact same, you don't want the judge to have leeway to execute A and give B a month's probation. This means that laws have to be specific about different cases and their distinctions. Complexity arises naturally from that.
Yet, this is exactly *not* what France does, for example... they don't abide by stare decisis [1], which states that lower courts must abide by precedent set of previous court decisions, although their jurisprudence is followed by custom, they can and do break from precedent.
The entire idea of jurisprudence (the creation of law by judicial ruling) is fraught with danger - in that precedent, once set, can make for bizarre outcomes - take for example corporate personhood [2] - Now corporations are super-people, that have free-speech rights.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judiciary_of_France#Glossary_of_Key_Terms
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_personhood#Case_law_in_the_United_States