Though I do think it's highly informative, it's unfortunately quite unabashed and unvarnished in it's portrayal of the brutalities perpetrated by the conquistadors and colonists... it's more fit for the college reader, IMHO.
However, an insightful, but pleasant read that I think all high-schoolers should read is James Loewen's "Lies My Teacher told Me" . It talks about why, for example, the Indians had some power and representation in the early days of the USA, while after a while they lost it (hint: economics and trade).
You must have lived in an alternate reality from me. I've worked in Germany, France, the US, and Canada in the past 8 years, and I've seen three examples of "standard" or "decentralized" VOIP:
a few savvy folks who used Vonage/Lingo/etc
a whole PBX goes VOIP and the users don't know/care as long as it works
Conference calls conducted through WebEx/Meetingplace VOIP
In the same time I have seen Skype take off in the past 3 years to be all-encompassing since it's so easy to set up, integrates with POTS and costs very little or completely free. Doesn't hurt that the quality is good, and you have integrated IM (I use the IM more than the voice).
No, what I was trying to say was that if japense companies make most all the lenses, it would be hard to enter the dSLR market for Kodak since it's *the* premier component, and the Japanese have a lock on it.
I love my Canon lens collection. You need to try decaf.
Apparently a study by OKCupid confirms that Kodak's EasyShare cameras are complete shite.
Anecdotally, my sister randomly bought one right before a trip (from Costco) a few years ago, and not only did her vacation pix suck, the damn thing broke in less than 2 months. The charger/connector looked like ass (a whole damn docking station) , and the whole thing just smacked of bad ideas mashed together without any market analysis or taste.
Perhaps it's because Kodak didn't want to jeapordize their film business or because the lenses were all made by the japanese companies anyway? If I had a choice of a decent dSLR from Kodak (back in 2003ish), I might have purchased one... I still have my original Canon Digital Rebel and it still takes awesome pictures with a fixed 50mm f1/8.
Backups are something people just forget. Computers are generally pretty reliable these days and that fools people in to thinking they are totally reliable. They won't want to bother with backups. "
Our workplace policy is that all stuff should live on our network shares. For information that isn't on the share, and for instant recovery purposes, every computer comes with an external disk that can be used for backup or disk imaging software. We also offer something like network backup service, but few use it.
Dealing with the crybabies is hard, but we're a bit lucky in that our management agrees that keeping the users informed and armed is the best approach, so we do monthly training sessions and spam the users semi-regularly for this kind of stuff.
People are lazy, but when they know you're trying to help them, it makes things easier.
How is it that someone has a laptop where important files (files other than the OS and apps that can be re-installed from original media) aren't backed-up to removable media or a service like Carbonite, Mozy, etc.? This isn't 1995 when "backup" meant inserting and removing multiple 1.44MB floppies.
Seriously. When purchasing a laptop for me or a family member, I usually price in two additional things: 1) A service plan if the recipient isn't tech-savvy and 2) An external hard drive with equal or slightly higher capacity for backups. Both of these together usually don't run that much, usually only add about 10-20% to the price, but really make any time investment (usually worth far more than the device) in the laptop worth it.
For backup, I use SuperDuper/CCC/TimeMachine for Mac, and Macrium Reflect (free) for the PC, and just setup a recurring calendar event so the owner is notified to backup the device.
I've found backups on the Mac are a whole lot easier since the cloned boot disks are easily booted on other Mac hardware, but it's pretty livable on the PC side as well.
Now they just need to do the same for economically relevant languages. The top developing countries currently are Brazil, India, and China (in no particular order) and none of them speak Spanish as a primary language.
Querying wolfram alpha, the most spoken languages in the world are:
Madarin - 1 Billion
English - 760 Million
Hindi - 490 Million
Spanish - 417 Million
Russian - 277 Million
So languages #1,3,and 5 all have a completely different character set (esp. Mandarin), while #2 and #4 share the basic roman character set (with a few symbols outstanding). I can see why they went Spanish. Also, many popular travel destinations (i.e., Central and South America, Spain, etc) have spanish signs where this would be useful.
I expect much more from this company... this is an Apple-like rollout, where the novelty and usability of the first release is outstanding but limited, but it's clear there's more to come. I can't wait for the FrenchEnglish.
Similarly, I use 1password (Win/Mac). Main benefit with 1password over Lastpass that I can see is that my keychain lives locally (but can be shared amongst users/computers uisng dropbox).
A password manager is absolutely essential, IMHO and a graceful happy medium between usability and security.
1password has browser integration, so it's quite useful (like roboform)... I simply press CMD-\ and if there's only set of creds for that form, they get populated and submitted.
For password generation, it's also great because it allows you to specify those restrictions.
As long as we're going with the us vs them mentality why don't you check which way the "liberal" and the "conservatives" voted, on this one.
It's not about conservative or liberal, it's about professionalism and avoiding even the appearance of corruption.
I'm likewise upset, for example, that the Obama administration chose Geithner for the Treasury Secretary despite Geithner's close ties to Goldman Sachs and other too-big-to-fail banks.
Took 5 seconds of googling. Here is an analysis of why he should have recused himself rather than writing a poorly reasoned "excuse" to stay on the bench:
United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia should be commended for writing an extraordinarily detailed memorandum explaining his reasons for refusing to recuse himself from a case in which his duck hunting partner, Vice President Richard Cheney, is a named party. The Sierra Club alleges in the litigation that energy industry officials were de facto members of the National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG), a federal energy task force chaired by Cheney, and that NEPDG’s records and minutes therefore must be made public pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The statutory basis for recusal is 28 U.S.C. sec. 455(a), which provides that any judge “shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”
I have several passwords I use. Sites that require accounts for participation get one that I don't care if it gets out in the wild. No big loss. People posting as me is mildly amusing.
This isn't meant as an advert, but I use a password manager that works on all my devices (autofill on Win/Mac), and now ALL my passwords are at least decent. Mind you, I don't create 30char+ passphrases for anything but my most secure items, but, say a 12-14 character generated password with spaces or dashes and single syllable "words" like "boy oft-rong" is both memorable, not easily guessable, and long enough to avoid small-midsize rainbow tables.
I worry that even breaches of sites like slashdot can eventually reveal enough information about me that could lead to social engineering attacks or physical theft (ie, posting about my impending vacation while believing I'm anonymous)
There is a level of trust required, but I'd rather trust the maker of my password manager than some disreputable site like Gawker.
Android is owned by the Open Handset Alliance, not Google. Google only owned it long enough to get people signed up to the OHA and transfer ownership to them.
(The fact that wireless carriers, hardware manufacturers, software and online services firms all have a stake in Android is probably part of the reason for its success.)
That fact is also the reason why Android is chained to phones and will not make a strong move to unlocked tablets like iOS did. A decent non-contract/unlocked tablet with wifi (possibly video) VOIP is a telco's nightmare.
I'm convinced Microsoft hasn't done it for the simple reason that they aren't capable of doing it.
I do think they are quite capable of doing it. I just think they are far more capable of sabotaging any and every threat to Windows and Office even if it's an internal cannibalization/evolution effort. This is the company that has protected that business model from Apple, IBM, Netscape, US Goverment... all comers.
They are king of that mountain, but they're also chained to it. They will milk those cash cows till they're running dry... and then, and only then will they change significantly. Problem is, will it be too late?
The trackpad is absolutely infuriating. It’s as if Google attempted to create a similar trackpad to the Macbook Pro but just got it all wrong. There is two-finger scrolling (good) but no acceleration. Tap-to-click is frustrating and I disabled it immediately. There is no three-finger swipe-to-go-back gesture (which I miss a lot). Performing text selection is absolutely insane. It seems like any combination of having two fingers on the mouse pad simultaneously throws the laptop into “scroll” mode. It’s so bad that it makes me not want to write things on the laptop until it is fixed. As mentioned before there appears to be physical way of doing a right click – but I can’t find a single place in the UI where right-clicking has an effect.
I found this almost exact issue with the cheap netbook trackpads. Too bad Google didn't put a bit more effort into their prototype there.
The keyboard is easily the best part of the Cr-48 hardware. Replacing Capslock with a “New Tab” button is truly inspired. I’ve found myself already starting to rely upon it very heavily. The keyboard feels good to type on and the large Ctrl + Alt keys make for easy key combinations (important when using screen).
Sounds great.
Right now my ideal laptop would be: Take a 13 Macbook Pro, replace the HD with an SSD, replace the DVD drive with more battery, add 3G. I would use that laptop until the end of time.
This is pretty much my setup (external battery unfortunately, and USB 3G card).
Where did you get 9 months? It's 1 year, and has been as long as I can remember. See link.
Apple's Limited Warranty for iPhone covers your iPhone for one year from the date of original purchase. Apple's Limited Warranty begins on the date that the iPhone was originally purchased. To determine your warranty coverage, enter the serial number of your iPhone in the Online Service Assistant section on the Apple Support site. Apple may need to examine your proof of purchase document to verify your iPhone's warranty status.
I might be missing something, but the iPod touch isn't a phone. And I'm not really sure why Google would even want to compete with it.
ie, it's basically a tiny tablet. It's mobile computing just like the iPhone (but without a phone or mobile data). Seems like Google does want to compete or be involved in that market (see Galaxy Tab, Android Honeycomb, supposed hundreds of tablet models next year, etc).
The iPod Touch is a great device and probably accounts for a bit of the iPhone success in that folks who can't afford (or are too young) to own their own cell phone can still participate in the AppStore goodness.
Perhaps Google isn't competing because it would pretty much be a full-out declaration of war against Apple, and that would be bad for business.
Perhaps this is the fabled Atlantis described in Plato's accounts?
Scholars dispute whether and how much Plato's story or account was inspired by older traditions. Some scholars argue Plato drew upon memories of past events such as the Thera eruption or the Trojan War, while others insist that he took inspiration from contemporary events like the destruction of Helike in 373 BC[1] or the failed Athenian invasion of Sicily in 415–413 BC.
Alternatively it may be the basis of the Noah's Ark / Flood mythology.
I would greatly help if there were only half of the keys on the PC keyboard that there are presently. And get rid of the fucking Num-lock key and the stupid Caps-Lock key!
It seems like the most widely distributed low-keycount keyboard.
You know, Slashdot would be a lot more honest with itself if it replaced all of the moderation with just "Like" and "Dislike".
Just take a look at Digg, DailyKos, Facebook, etc. etc.
The "qualified" moderation of slashdot allows for funny comments (eg, brilliant troll vs. great joke) and informative comments that I just don't see as much elsewhere... it could use improving, but that would mean adding more qualifications.
Compare to the sites above, you'll see a lot of groupthink or mod-wars that revolve around groups of like-minded folks blindly up-rating and down-rating comments... sure it happens here, but it's less likely and more easily caught with metamod.
I have yet to see much of a better moderation system (Amazon's reviews area comes close with things like "Verified Purchase", "Real Name", etc).
Single signon to google apps in thirty seconds from cold boot.
I already get this on my Macbook Pro with SSD (Sandforce). If I disable login prompt and have it auto-launch Safari, it takes literally 20 seconds to get to Gmail from boot.
I bet boot times are similar for say, a new Macbook Air which is a retail product.
Slashdot Mirror
Though I do think it's highly informative, it's unfortunately quite unabashed and unvarnished in it's portrayal of the brutalities perpetrated by the conquistadors and colonists... it's more fit for the college reader, IMHO.
However, an insightful, but pleasant read that I think all high-schoolers should read is James Loewen's "Lies My Teacher told Me" . It talks about why, for example, the Indians had some power and representation in the early days of the USA, while after a while they lost it (hint: economics and trade).
Commenting to undo moderation (the new mod system should allow you to undo and lose the point).
This list is pretty awful. Most of it is specific and Joel's original list is quite indicative in and of itself.
'10 MBP 13" 2.4Ghz w/SSD maindisk:
Firefox 4.0b8 = 6623
320 / 33 / 4266
Chrome 8.0.552.231 = 10018
562 / 48 / 6630
Safari 5.0.3 (6533.19.4) = 10210
550 / 39 / 7135
Skype rather than direct voip calls,
You must have lived in an alternate reality from me. I've worked in Germany, France, the US, and Canada in the past 8 years, and I've seen three examples of "standard" or "decentralized" VOIP:
In the same time I have seen Skype take off in the past 3 years to be all-encompassing since it's so easy to set up, integrates with POTS and costs very little or completely free. Doesn't hurt that the quality is good, and you have integrated IM (I use the IM more than the voice).
No, what I was trying to say was that if japense companies make most all the lenses, it would be hard to enter the dSLR market for Kodak since it's *the* premier component, and the Japanese have a lock on it.
I love my Canon lens collection. You need to try decaf.
Apparently a study by OKCupid confirms that Kodak's EasyShare cameras are complete shite.
Anecdotally, my sister randomly bought one right before a trip (from Costco) a few years ago, and not only did her vacation pix suck, the damn thing broke in less than 2 months. The charger/connector looked like ass (a whole damn docking station) , and the whole thing just smacked of bad ideas mashed together without any market analysis or taste.
Perhaps it's because Kodak didn't want to jeapordize their film business or because the lenses were all made by the japanese companies anyway? If I had a choice of a decent dSLR from Kodak (back in 2003ish), I might have purchased one... I still have my original Canon Digital Rebel and it still takes awesome pictures with a fixed 50mm f1/8.
Backups are something people just forget. Computers are generally pretty reliable these days and that fools people in to thinking they are totally reliable. They won't want to bother with backups. "
Our workplace policy is that all stuff should live on our network shares. For information that isn't on the share, and for instant recovery purposes, every computer comes with an external disk that can be used for backup or disk imaging software. We also offer something like network backup service, but few use it.
Dealing with the crybabies is hard, but we're a bit lucky in that our management agrees that keeping the users informed and armed is the best approach, so we do monthly training sessions and spam the users semi-regularly for this kind of stuff.
People are lazy, but when they know you're trying to help them, it makes things easier.
How is it that someone has a laptop where important files (files other than the OS and apps that can be re-installed from original media) aren't backed-up to removable media or a service like Carbonite, Mozy, etc.? This isn't 1995 when "backup" meant inserting and removing multiple 1.44MB floppies.
Seriously. When purchasing a laptop for me or a family member, I usually price in two additional things: 1) A service plan if the recipient isn't tech-savvy and 2) An external hard drive with equal or slightly higher capacity for backups. Both of these together usually don't run that much, usually only add about 10-20% to the price, but really make any time investment (usually worth far more than the device) in the laptop worth it.
For backup, I use SuperDuper/CCC/TimeMachine for Mac, and Macrium Reflect (free) for the PC, and just setup a recurring calendar event so the owner is notified to backup the device.
I've found backups on the Mac are a whole lot easier since the cloned boot disks are easily booted on other Mac hardware, but it's pretty livable on the PC side as well.
Now they just need to do the same for economically relevant languages. The top developing countries currently are Brazil, India, and China (in no particular order) and none of them speak Spanish as a primary language.
Querying wolfram alpha, the most spoken languages in the world are:
So languages #1,3,and 5 all have a completely different character set (esp. Mandarin), while #2 and #4 share the basic roman character set (with a few symbols outstanding). I can see why they went Spanish. Also, many popular travel destinations (i.e., Central and South America, Spain, etc) have spanish signs where this would be useful.
I expect much more from this company... this is an Apple-like rollout, where the novelty and usability of the first release is outstanding but limited, but it's clear there's more to come. I can't wait for the FrenchEnglish.
Imagine instant subtitling!
Digg is collapsing.
I think when the redesign came out, it was clear Digg was already dead.
In a word - Lastpass. 'Nuff said.
Similarly, I use 1password (Win/Mac). Main benefit with 1password over Lastpass that I can see is that my keychain lives locally (but can be shared amongst users/computers uisng dropbox).
A password manager is absolutely essential, IMHO and a graceful happy medium between usability and security.
1password has browser integration, so it's quite useful (like roboform)... I simply press CMD-\ and if there's only set of creds for that form, they get populated and submitted.
For password generation, it's also great because it allows you to specify those restrictions.
Too bad it doesn't work with non-browser apps :-)
As long as we're going with the us vs them mentality why don't you check which way the "liberal" and the "conservatives" voted, on this one.
It's not about conservative or liberal, it's about professionalism and avoiding even the appearance of corruption.
I'm likewise upset, for example, that the Obama administration chose Geithner for the Treasury Secretary despite Geithner's close ties to Goldman Sachs and other too-big-to-fail banks.
Took 5 seconds of googling. Here is an analysis of why he should have recused himself rather than writing a poorly reasoned "excuse" to stay on the bench:
United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia should be commended for writing an extraordinarily detailed memorandum explaining his reasons for refusing to recuse himself from a case in which his duck hunting partner, Vice President Richard Cheney, is a named party. The Sierra Club alleges in the litigation that energy industry officials were de facto members of the National Energy Policy Development Group (NEPDG), a federal energy task force chaired by Cheney, and that NEPDG’s records and minutes therefore must be made public pursuant to the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The statutory basis for recusal is 28 U.S.C. sec. 455(a), which provides that any judge “shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.”
I have several passwords I use. Sites that require accounts for participation get one that I don't care if it gets out in the wild. No big loss. People posting as me is mildly amusing.
This isn't meant as an advert, but I use a password manager that works on all my devices (autofill on Win/Mac), and now ALL my passwords are at least decent. Mind you, I don't create 30char+ passphrases for anything but my most secure items, but, say a 12-14 character generated password with spaces or dashes and single syllable "words" like "boy oft-rong" is both memorable, not easily guessable, and long enough to avoid small-midsize rainbow tables.
I worry that even breaches of sites like slashdot can eventually reveal enough information about me that could lead to social engineering attacks or physical theft (ie, posting about my impending vacation while believing I'm anonymous)
There is a level of trust required, but I'd rather trust the maker of my password manager than some disreputable site like Gawker.
Who refused to recuse himself when presiding over a case involving his good friend and hunting buddy, Dick Cheney.
Meanwhile "conservatives" lose their collective mind that Kagan might "support the RIAA/Hollywood" when in fact she behaves properly.
Android is owned by the Open Handset Alliance, not Google. Google only owned it long enough to get people signed up to the OHA and transfer ownership to them.
(The fact that wireless carriers, hardware manufacturers, software and online services firms all have a stake in Android is probably part of the reason for its success.)
That fact is also the reason why Android is chained to phones and will not make a strong move to unlocked tablets like iOS did. A decent non-contract/unlocked tablet with wifi (possibly video) VOIP is a telco's nightmare.
I'm convinced Microsoft hasn't done it for the simple reason that they aren't capable of doing it.
I do think they are quite capable of doing it. I just think they are far more capable of sabotaging any and every threat to Windows and Office even if it's an internal cannibalization/evolution effort. This is the company that has protected that business model from Apple, IBM, Netscape, US Goverment... all comers.
They are king of that mountain, but they're also chained to it. They will milk those cash cows till they're running dry... and then, and only then will they change significantly. Problem is, will it be too late?
Here:
The trackpad is absolutely infuriating. It’s as if Google attempted to create a similar trackpad to the Macbook Pro but just got it all wrong. There is two-finger scrolling (good) but no acceleration. Tap-to-click is frustrating and I disabled it immediately. There is no three-finger swipe-to-go-back gesture (which I miss a lot). Performing text selection is absolutely insane. It seems like any combination of having two fingers on the mouse pad simultaneously throws the laptop into “scroll” mode. It’s so bad that it makes me not want to write things on the laptop until it is fixed. As mentioned before there appears to be physical way of doing a right click – but I can’t find a single place in the UI where right-clicking has an effect.
I found this almost exact issue with the cheap netbook trackpads. Too bad Google didn't put a bit more effort into their prototype there.
The keyboard is easily the best part of the Cr-48 hardware. Replacing Capslock with a “New Tab” button is truly inspired. I’ve found myself already starting to rely upon it very heavily. The keyboard feels good to type on and the large Ctrl + Alt keys make for easy key combinations (important when using screen).
Sounds great.
Right now my ideal laptop would be: Take a 13 Macbook Pro, replace the HD with an SSD, replace the DVD drive with more battery, add 3G. I would use that laptop until the end of time.
This is pretty much my setup (external battery unfortunately, and USB 3G card).
Where did you get 9 months? It's 1 year, and has been as long as I can remember. See link.
Apple's Limited Warranty for iPhone covers your iPhone for one year from the date of original purchase. Apple's Limited Warranty begins on the date that the iPhone was originally purchased. To determine your warranty coverage, enter the serial number of your iPhone in the Online Service Assistant section on the Apple Support site. Apple may need to examine your proof of purchase document to verify your iPhone's warranty status.
I might be missing something, but the iPod touch isn't a phone. And I'm not really sure why Google would even want to compete with it.
ie, it's basically a tiny tablet. It's mobile computing just like the iPhone (but without a phone or mobile data). Seems like Google does want to compete or be involved in that market (see Galaxy Tab, Android Honeycomb, supposed hundreds of tablet models next year, etc).
The iPod Touch is a great device and probably accounts for a bit of the iPhone success in that folks who can't afford (or are too young) to own their own cell phone can still participate in the AppStore goodness.
Perhaps Google isn't competing because it would pretty much be a full-out declaration of war against Apple, and that would be bad for business.
Perhaps this is the fabled Atlantis described in Plato's accounts?
Scholars dispute whether and how much Plato's story or account was inspired by older traditions. Some scholars argue Plato drew upon memories of past events such as the Thera eruption or the Trojan War, while others insist that he took inspiration from contemporary events like the destruction of Helike in 373 BC[1] or the failed Athenian invasion of Sicily in 415–413 BC.
Alternatively it may be the basis of the Noah's Ark / Flood mythology.
I would greatly help if there were only half of the keys on the PC keyboard that there are presently. And get rid of the fucking Num-lock key and the stupid Caps-Lock key!
It seems like the most widely distributed low-keycount keyboard.
You know, Slashdot would be a lot more honest with itself if it replaced all of the moderation with just "Like" and "Dislike".
Just take a look at Digg, DailyKos, Facebook, etc. etc.
The "qualified" moderation of slashdot allows for funny comments (eg, brilliant troll vs. great joke) and informative comments that I just don't see as much elsewhere... it could use improving, but that would mean adding more qualifications.
Compare to the sites above, you'll see a lot of groupthink or mod-wars that revolve around groups of like-minded folks blindly up-rating and down-rating comments... sure it happens here, but it's less likely and more easily caught with metamod.
I have yet to see much of a better moderation system (Amazon's reviews area comes close with things like "Verified Purchase", "Real Name", etc).
Single signon to google apps in thirty seconds from cold boot.
I already get this on my Macbook Pro with SSD (Sandforce). If I disable login prompt and have it auto-launch Safari, it takes literally 20 seconds to get to Gmail from boot.
I bet boot times are similar for say, a new Macbook Air which is a retail product.