I'll take the cynical stance and say that this is a good thing. We need fewer people on the Internet. We need to return the 'net to the state it was in circa '92.
Absofreakinglutely correct!
With all of this distributed crap, we've lost the best of it. Sigs - bah! A dreary shadow of finger. I want my gopher holes back. I want to use tin. I'm still ok with the @ for email and automatic routing (sure, bang routing was fun, but it was too traceable by the unwashed (read, the boss)). Let's get stochastic about it - like God intended.
Given that.mac/.me user web pages built via their iWeb app are rife with JS, I'm now even more mystified at their barrier to Java apps. The devices (iPhone/iPod Touch) would seem to include necessary run-time stuff already, so the limitation seems arbitrary.
Anyway, while I still maintain that their practices are no more anti-competitve than FMC selling Chevies, I repeat, many thanks for helping me to understand some of these issues - for me, it's difficult to do so when hyperbole is involved.
Apple's never been free and easy with their developer leash, so far as I recall. But I do wonder if there's a way to create a non-Apple Store vector to distribute things to those devices without violating agreements - from what you say, that would be a game changer.
Thanks - and by the way, I admitted my ignorance, the clueless tag was not required.
So, to smarten up over here, I went over to Apple and started to apply as an iPhone developer. However, as I could not in honesty list my company as being part of all that, and not being an out and out liar, I couldn't complete the free developer application. Neither did I want to invent one to go to all that trouble and end up with an NDA problem.
Nowhere does the agreement state that you can't develop apps that compete with Apple's apps.
Nowhere does it state that your apps may only be distributed via the Apple Store.
Now, I freely acknowledge that having product at the Apple Store for the iPhone is highly beneficial, but restricting the Store is not anti-competitive. And it's not clear to me that the only vector for app distritribution for an iPhone is the Apple Store. But restraining one's place of business to not distribute competing products is simply not an anti-competitive practice.
Unless you consider the Ford Motor Company anti-competitive because Ford doesn't sell Chevies.
Now, it was time to put up or shut up and I've put up, AC, so it's your turn - kindly point us all at a reference where we can objectively judge these "anti-competitive rules in their SDK license agreements" that everyone seems to just know all about.
And for the other ACs who want to jack off calling me a fanboi - I'm not an iPhone fan and I don't own one. Get a life.
OK. I thought this was about Opera Mini, but if it's Fair Play, boookay.
AFAIR, it wasn't the EU that busted them, it was one country that tried - and failed as the case was without foundation.
I guess as an iPod nano user - that doesn't direct connect via wifi like an iPod Touch or iPhone - I'm not on the right wavelength. To answer your question, I can copy Fair Play protected music from my computer iTunes to my iPod, but not other players.
The way I get around this is to avoid all Fair Play music. Enough codecs work just peachy on an iPod that I needed add DRM to the fray.
I've posted many times from the fossil record that Apple is clearly on the record recommending people to challenge the record companies to end DRM once and for all. I'll leave you to google that for yourself. As there is a clear historical record of Apple denouncing DRM and MS doing the opposite, my mind would boggle at the idea that MS is far less restrictive were it not so late and this not a sandwich break during the director's cut of Blade Runner on TV tonight.
You might want to research your facts. Your mind might become less boggled.
There's no question that Apple's iPhone/iPod touch behavior is anti-competitive.
Educate me, please. I question that - in fact, I'm not sure what you're referring to. I'm not baiting you, I am assuming that you know what you're referring to - so please help by way of explanation.
I'm trying to decide if it's the patented (not sure if that went through or not) side of their touch interface or not.
Apple never promised a netbook - they promised what they promised and they delivered on it. They are very competitive w.r.t. Blackberries, et al.
Stretching my imagination further, iPods are anti-competitive in that they don't run Zune software (so far as I know) and vice versa. My Ocean is anti-competitive because they'll do nothing to support Safari - by my imagination of your use of the term anti-competitive.
I'd rather admit my ignorance and remove all doubt - I'm really confused. What are you talking about?
Seriously - you're boycotting the iPhone for some reason other than to fit in with the majority of slashdot?
And you've already made your choice? And it's much cheaper? And it's better? And you've got a tech buzzword like DRM to add in, even though that really has nothing to do with voice, web, email, non-iTMS purchases, SMS, or photosharing?
I grew up in Detroit. In the fucking ghetto. The war zone. The Moon. My family is multi-racial; I'm the white boy that grew up in a black neighborhood.
White is a skin color. White is also a state of mind that need not coincide with the skin color.
Black is a skin color. It is not a state of mind. It is something not just inherited, it very may well be earned.
(PS - I get yours was humor, but this reply is for all of the ghetto-talking Jerry Springer-walking white trash ignorant wannabees that get nothing right. Sadly, they too seem to post now/.)
This is just another sad example of the American tendency to live beyond one's means. This is another symptom of the disease that is eating this country: financial illiteracy.
As I did RTFA to confirm that there's no mention of credit card, I question if you're referring to living with credit cards - completely off-topic but still highly modded (?!?) - or if you're asserting that the phone and plan are beyond the means of the poor and therefore postulate that in addition to living beyond their means, they're idiotically subsidizing the credit card companies.
In the case of the latter, you're not insightful at all. In fact, you're so far out of your depth that it's not funny.
I have a son - single parent, almost full-time college, full-time job - in other words, a man of limited means. He has a couple hundred dollar phone - gifted from me - and an unlimited voice/data/roaming plan for $99/month.
For $99, he gets full phone service, voice mail - for his boss asking when school's out, for his profs asking if his papers will be in on time, for daycare to let him know if his kid is sick - and caller id to avoid slacker friends at inconvenient times.
It's his complete email portal - the phone will USB to his laptop where he can offload a PDF of a paper and email it to his so-understanding profs when his dad duties keep him at home. He doesn't have time to surf and play on the net, but it is way handy for WebMD, class changes, syllabus updates from home, etc.
He has no broadband at home. He has no land line at home. Just an unlimited 3G voice/data plan. Not paid for by credit card.
BTW - that pesky built-in camera that most of us don't care about is his only way to track his kid's growing up right now.
Find me a better deal. One that REALLY helps someone of son's means cope with life's rich tapestry. I'll tell my son all about it.
Until then, I don't think you know what the fuck you're talking about - you're just getting points spouting off cliches.
Beeeep. Thanks for playing. Absolutely dead-dog wrong.
This lengthy criterion was developed at defense and national laboratories by me by necessity and later made a world-wide business of it. I was known to each manufacturer as a highly influential jackass that had to be pleased and those entities were buying scopes by the truckloads at the time.
Later, I branched to the private sector still doing engineering software, some years later needed an oscope, expected a lot of improvement and was handed a lot of gee-whiz. So I rolled up my sleeves and pitched in.
I assume you didn't mean to call me a liar. I say this because I disclosed myself as much as NDAs allow. I could easily imagine a quite different disclosure had I been with NI - in fact, I'd have snuck in freaking VISA as a requirement.
So, your head is definitely screwed on just slightly off-kilter to believe so definitely that I'm from NI.
I still don't give a toot about scopes - except that a real-time controllable voltmeter is awfully important to gather the needed data to solve things I do care about.
Please. Overliteralizing helps not at all. Techies are the target market for *some tech* - not all. The parent was clear enough, no? Again, compare Linux desktop market share to Apple and both combined to Windows. The parent simply put the phone to the same scale of users.
People who are willing to spend $200 + $60/month for a high end cell phone with a data plan are a specific market segment (of consumers), and that market segment has massive overlap with "techies".
Emmkay. So. I'm trying to make a Venn diagram to explain how wrong that is to use to draw conclusions, but maybe the following mods will help:
People who are willing to spend $200 + $60/month for a high end cell phone with a data plan are a specific market segment (of consumers), and that market segment has massive overlap with "real estate agents".
People who are willing to spend $200 + $60/month for a high end cell phone with a data plan are a specific market segment (of consumers), and that market segment has massive overlap with "traveling salesmen".
People who are willing to spend $200 + $60/month for a high end cell phone with a data plan are a specific market segment (of consumers), and that market segment has massive overlap with "lawyers".
Because some large percentage of the techies (as you define/visualize the term) goes with the expensive phone and data plan does not imply the inverse - that a large percentage of those customers are techies.
Further, I think the circle influencing you may be too small. Anecdotally, I offer that I'll certainly do until a techie comes along, and I've been writing code since the early '70s. I have a Helio Ocean with a $99/month unlimited voice/data/time-of-day/roaming-in-the-US plan. I am convinced that this is the best deal for mobile email and (not-wow-iPhone) web access going.
But work required that - so I selected the tech that made the most sense, damn the torpedos.
Prior to that requirement, I used a Motorola StarTac - and I still miss the hell out of it. Great voice, large numbers onscreen and pad - a phone that worked most anywhere I was, digital or analog. Nothing more - I could wait to get home or office to see the email or whatever.
But I got that so my kids could reach me. Prior to that, I carried no damn cell phone at all - that's the mark of a true techie: if it's not sufficient tech with a sufficient reason to engage, don't compromise.
Finally:
It's not like there's a line somewhere, and on one side of the line are "geeks who don't count" and on the other side of the line is "Joe Sixpack who can't set the clock on his VCR".
Again, literally true, but there is a boundary between the two, it is quite defined, and it's a very wide stripe rather than a line - they are the common market for most decent tech, and I'd guesstimate that it's well above 80% of the whole.
Yeah, ok, but I personally am way ok with this bitch taking a fall. She had a virtual marriage. She got a virtual divorce. I know you RTFA, but for others her reaction was:
"I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.
I'll grant I lack the gamester mindset, but fer cryin' out loud - if this individual gets that whacked on a freaking game, then give her the adult equivalent of what many parents give to petulant children - a time out. In this case, from society.
Maybe the dude divorced her without warning because he became aware of what a whack job she was. And he was a dolt for not changing his compromised password.
But ethically, if you have someone's password, and the relationship goes south, and you then use it in retribution, it's wrong. Ethically wrong.
I've been to Japan very often. They're a lot stricter on a great many things than the US. I don't say that they're perfect, but maybe we'd have a lot less governmental, corporate and social malfeasance if our laws didn't end with all of the "letter-of" and "spirit-of" hair-splitting.
So if the bad ethics she used is criminal in Japan, then I say go Japan, and wouldn't it be nice if we could try it their way for a change.
One of the brands you mention isn't clear on SRQ programming sequences.
SCPI is step forward from terser commands - but not a panacea.
My last company built aftermarket and for-manufacturer o-scope software under NDA and partnership agreements - I'm still peripherally related to them. Some of what you know as built-in or branded software was mine. I know I'm right to raise this issue, sorry.
Everyone expressing an opinion based on experience is dead right, teddaw152 - I've used all three and can say I see no BS.
But you're missing a most important criterion - how easy will it be to offload your data, because I don't care what you think your requirement is or will be, you're going to need this badly - or the next user will.
For any given model of features/performance/price tickling your fancy, insist to see the full configuration used to offload data to a PC.
I'm dead serious, full configuration. Do not ever accept rep claims of way-easy-all-our-customers-do-it, do not accept quick looks at user manuals showing code slices that make it all so obvious.
Do not accept that USB, GPIB, or Ethernet obviously imply that you can do this.
Do require code that: 1. Is in a language that your site will support long term 2. Allows for external configuration of the scope 3. Allows for external software trigger of recording 4. Allows for data acquisition by a PC 5. Allows for usable data, post acquisition
PLEASE USE THIS DEFINITION ONLY FOR THE WORDS "Allows for" IN THE ABOVE: 1. Full source code in your selected language 2. Full clarity of hardware interface required - price, performance and gotchas 3. You get a peer review of this
For "usable data" this damn well means that the data feed of (usually) start-time, stop-time, delta-time and Y values or X-Y pairs can not only be read in, they can be easily read in, easily put into another format, and easily absorbed by other post-processing software.
And for god's sake, make sure that status register and SRQ handling - in software - is clearly explained, and that you get routines for SRQ handling, and THE RULES FOR WHEN TO USE SRQs or NOT (typical GPIB issue).
I disclose that I have inside info on the brands you consider so I can only give these hints on approaching the problem. I cannot be trusted to be objective - due to associations - on saying which brands/models excel on this.
But I can be trusted to tell you this - your rep for any given brand will shuck and jive a *little* (and that really is an OK thing, it's a people skill), and he/she will give you assurances out the yin-yang (that's their job) - but they fucking-a well know what you're asking and will give you the straight dope if you are friendly while being persistent.
Please believe me, if you overlook this criterion now, you're almost guaranteed to screw the next guys after you - I don't believe you'd want that if you had a choice.
I seem to recall that part of dot-com roller-coaster included a day where bad computer mojo triggered a shitload of evil resulting in something to do with automatic trading run amok after market close. Something like that.
We all bought it. And woopie-doopie, dumb Financial Sector, at least they got shit right, post-trauma.
Our top story today: in the housing roller-coaster, it includes a day where bad computer mojo is responsible for a shitload of evil in the Financial Sector that...
Fooled me once. Fuck 'em - fuck 'em all. Not worth one iota more of my brainpower on this issue.
So one day my boss walks in and asks what I'm doing with a ready-to-be-retired laptop. I answer that I'm planning on carrying two laptops, one Windows for Powerpoint (presentation wasn't OpenOffice compatible, not my fault) and software demo and troubleshooting, one Linux for all other, as I just couldn't hack Windows at the 100% rate (my desktop was Linux). So he's happy that I'm security conscious but unhappy for more junk for me to haul. Next question, was there any way to do this from one machine? Wine not being good enough for my needs, and running OS X with Virtual PC at home, I opened my big mouth - expecting that this would give me space to do my 2 laptop thing.
Most sincere apologies if this was coming across as ad hominem. Never intended that. Never intended to proselytize Macs to you.
My reality on/. is that the next time something controversial comes up about iPods, someone will trot out the old "won't play MP3" or "only works with iTMS music" memes.
Your initial post sounded a lot like that, but you had a lower user number (where I find less of that nonsense) and I stopped and sampled a great deal of your other posts in order to gauge whether I was about to engage a decent human or a shill, ie, bother or not bother to reply.
My brusque loquaciousness was driven by the cognitive dissonance you created (thankyouverymuch) on this issue.
That I came across in any way that caused you to have to stoop to the works for you, works for me lesson embarrasses me and I apologize - it's a lesson I don't need and a defense you didn't have coming.
I am guilty of drinking a little Kool Aide on the adapter dongle and I'm glad for this exchange as I'd lost track of that. You are right, any extra anything is a point of failure. That the burden transfers to the user and that I and others I know haven't had the problem (birds of feather, etc.) doesn't excuse that I once hated the thing, got over it, accommodated it (Kool Aide, Kool Aide, tastes great...) is no excuse for pompousness.
I guess I've just had to flatline my brain so many times at smart remarks when I pulled out my Mac to present, that I jumped on compatibility in firmware/sofware(OS) terms and got the better of myself. Were I to just be a regular user, as I once was before all of that traveling and presented, and was asked to present what was seen over my shoulder, I wouldn't have the dongle, either. I'd be frustrated, and I'd call it unsuitable.
So, how about meeting me halfway and next time call it unsuitable rather than incompatible? OK, that's not a requirement.
PS - not trolling or baiting - how well does a Linux laptop work for presentations? Does the external display mirror primary or is there an option? Etc? Sincerely curious, but understand if you've had enough.
OK, once again, Apple disgusts me. I just discovered that they include ZERO external display adapters in the new MacBook box. You want DVI or VGA, you buy one separately. Maybe they once again lose their minds and think that typical presenters will only use MacBook Pros.
What isn't clearly shown - but attempted - is that OS X gives easy accessibility to have the external display mirror or not mirror the primary display, and resolutions can be different.
PS on your other points - where I've been, any failure to present becomes a no-starter. I can think of maybe two places where I could've borrowed power adapters - partners' offices or scientific/technical conferences - even assuming that an Apple supply would be available. Otherwise, for my customers, it would've been a case of, "Thanks. Next!" And to credit your point further, I've had 3 physically different laptop supplies to contend with from Apple. So, it's backup battery or nothing when in hostile territory - true for PC users as well.
Again, I would be SOL losing the Mac VGA adapter. Given my habits, I still say that that's up there with losing the laptop. That leaves outright port failure, which I've not seen on Macs nor on PCs.
Which makes another traveler tactic, one I was always prepared for and never had to use. "Airport security fragged my laptop. I have the presentation here on CD. May I kindly ask one of you to load this and navigate my slides with me?" I've seen this done - with honestly by the afflicted - many times. No one kicks at this, as nearly everyone can relate to the issue.
OK, in an effort to see it your way, I just checked out the MacBooks - I've used PowerBooks and MacBook Pros (and that icebook - the dual-USB iBook of so many years ago).
The MacBook is using the mini display port, as they call it. If you mean fragile as in HDMI, as in the connector won't screw down and can come undone if pulled, the icebook and new MacBook is guilty of that (as was my PowerBook G4). If you mean physically fragile, that's on the user. As a onetime user of that sort of connector in international travel - and all that that implies by security and customs handlers everywhere - I'm not out to lunch when I say that the little beastie is physically robust. Mac instructions - for those that RTFM - as well as common sense dictates that one attaches the VGA connector (screws and all) first to the adapter, then plug the adapter into the laptop. Some of the time I'm sure that I broke that rule, with no ill effects.
Pink/green woes are obviously a hardware problem. The press-to-fit connectors are sufficiently snug to make me really question PEBKAC if the laptop has that much crud in the socket or if the adapter is stressed beyond what I've encountered in international security handling of my laptop bag.
So what we've had is really two discussions. You called into question compatibility with projection systems, I've addressed that.
You've called into question the fragile (your word) adapter and I'm addressing that now. I don't say you're wrong - I'm not a dolt, emkay? - but our mileage varies - a LOT. I'm not easy on my gear, nor were my Apple-carrying compadres. We found no fragility in the earlier adapters. I have not personally used a MacBook - just the models I've stated. Maybe there's something endemic to them I don't get. Based on my experience, you'll understand my skepticism, as I restate that their display connector looks way close to another I and others I know have used without trouble.
No way am I out to lunch on this. I am curious that what I hear to be an outlyer problem is something you're facing regularly. Can you say in a public forum what the common factor might be? Students? Salesmen? Happened a lot lately? Used to happen a lot?
For the sake of completeness - apologies in advance for being slightly off-topic - the MacBook Pro has a full DVI connector and its VGA adapter is screw-secured both sides, and the whole dongle is just way AOK physically.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll take the cynical stance and say that this is a good thing. We need fewer people on the Internet. We need to return the 'net to the state it was in circa '92.
Absofreakinglutely correct!
With all of this distributed crap, we've lost the best of it. Sigs - bah! A dreary shadow of finger. I want my gopher holes back. I want to use tin. I'm still ok with the @ for email and automatic routing (sure, bang routing was fun, but it was too traceable by the unwashed (read, the boss)). Let's get stochastic about it - like God intended.
Many thanks!
Given that .mac/.me user web pages built via their iWeb app are rife with JS, I'm now even more mystified at their barrier to Java apps. The devices (iPhone/iPod Touch) would seem to include necessary run-time stuff already, so the limitation seems arbitrary.
Anyway, while I still maintain that their practices are no more anti-competitve than FMC selling Chevies, I repeat, many thanks for helping me to understand some of these issues - for me, it's difficult to do so when hyperbole is involved.
Apple's never been free and easy with their developer leash, so far as I recall. But I do wonder if there's a way to create a non-Apple Store vector to distribute things to those devices without violating agreements - from what you say, that would be a game changer.
Thanks - and by the way, I admitted my ignorance, the clueless tag was not required.
So, to smarten up over here, I went over to Apple and started to apply as an iPhone developer. However, as I could not in honesty list my company as being part of all that, and not being an out and out liar, I couldn't complete the free developer application. Neither did I want to invent one to go to all that trouble and end up with an NDA problem.
So, I can't access the free SDK nor its terms and conditions that way. However, the ever-friendly Google led me to a MacNN article that led me to http://developer.apple.com/iphone/terms/registered_iphone_developer.pdf - the REGISTERED IPHONE DEVELOPER AGREEMENT.
Now, I've RTFA (A for agreement) - and either I'm just more clueless than ever or you are.
By the way, the IDA was modified very recently and the NDA was relaxed - http://www.ipodnn.com/articles/08/10/01/apple.drops.iphone.nda/
Nowhere does the agreement state that you can't develop apps that compete with Apple's apps.
Nowhere does it state that your apps may only be distributed via the Apple Store.
Now, I freely acknowledge that having product at the Apple Store for the iPhone is highly beneficial, but restricting the Store is not anti-competitive. And it's not clear to me that the only vector for app distritribution for an iPhone is the Apple Store. But restraining one's place of business to not distribute competing products is simply not an anti-competitive practice.
Unless you consider the Ford Motor Company anti-competitive because Ford doesn't sell Chevies.
Now, it was time to put up or shut up and I've put up, AC, so it's your turn - kindly point us all at a reference where we can objectively judge these "anti-competitive rules in their SDK license agreements" that everyone seems to just know all about.
And for the other ACs who want to jack off calling me a fanboi - I'm not an iPhone fan and I don't own one. Get a life.
that I needed add
that I needn't add
Hey, I'm late for more Blade Runner....
OK. I thought this was about Opera Mini, but if it's Fair Play, boookay.
AFAIR, it wasn't the EU that busted them, it was one country that tried - and failed as the case was without foundation.
I guess as an iPod nano user - that doesn't direct connect via wifi like an iPod Touch or iPhone - I'm not on the right wavelength. To answer your question, I can copy Fair Play protected music from my computer iTunes to my iPod, but not other players.
The way I get around this is to avoid all Fair Play music. Enough codecs work just peachy on an iPod that I needed add DRM to the fray.
I've posted many times from the fossil record that Apple is clearly on the record recommending people to challenge the record companies to end DRM once and for all. I'll leave you to google that for yourself. As there is a clear historical record of Apple denouncing DRM and MS doing the opposite, my mind would boggle at the idea that MS is far less restrictive were it not so late and this not a sandwich break during the director's cut of Blade Runner on TV tonight.
You might want to research your facts. Your mind might become less boggled.
There's no question that Apple's iPhone/iPod touch behavior is anti-competitive.
Educate me, please. I question that - in fact, I'm not sure what you're referring to. I'm not baiting you, I am assuming that you know what you're referring to - so please help by way of explanation.
I'm trying to decide if it's the patented (not sure if that went through or not) side of their touch interface or not.
Apple never promised a netbook - they promised what they promised and they delivered on it. They are very competitive w.r.t. Blackberries, et al.
Stretching my imagination further, iPods are anti-competitive in that they don't run Zune software (so far as I know) and vice versa. My Ocean is anti-competitive because they'll do nothing to support Safari - by my imagination of your use of the term anti-competitive.
I'd rather admit my ignorance and remove all doubt - I'm really confused. What are you talking about?
Proof that a similar purchase can very well be within one's limited means, in contradiction to the parent, is a troll.
Add to the "disagree != troll" list:
Can't take the truth != troll
Seriously - you're boycotting the iPhone for some reason other than to fit in with the majority of slashdot?
And you've already made your choice? And it's much cheaper? And it's better? And you've got a tech buzzword like DRM to add in, even though that really has nothing to do with voice, web, email, non-iTMS purchases, SMS, or photosharing?
Wow. What originality.
I grew up in Detroit. In the fucking ghetto. The war zone. The Moon. My family is multi-racial; I'm the white boy that grew up in a black neighborhood.
White is a skin color. White is also a state of mind that need not coincide with the skin color.
Black is a skin color. It is not a state of mind. It is something not just inherited, it very may well be earned.
(PS - I get yours was humor, but this reply is for all of the ghetto-talking Jerry Springer-walking white trash ignorant wannabees that get nothing right. Sadly, they too seem to post now /.)
This is just another sad example of the American tendency to live beyond one's means. This is another symptom of the disease that is eating this country: financial illiteracy.
As I did RTFA to confirm that there's no mention of credit card, I question if you're referring to living with credit cards - completely off-topic but still highly modded (?!?) - or if you're asserting that the phone and plan are beyond the means of the poor and therefore postulate that in addition to living beyond their means, they're idiotically subsidizing the credit card companies.
In the case of the latter, you're not insightful at all. In fact, you're so far out of your depth that it's not funny.
I have a son - single parent, almost full-time college, full-time job - in other words, a man of limited means. He has a couple hundred dollar phone - gifted from me - and an unlimited voice/data/roaming plan for $99/month.
For $99, he gets full phone service, voice mail - for his boss asking when school's out, for his profs asking if his papers will be in on time, for daycare to let him know if his kid is sick - and caller id to avoid slacker friends at inconvenient times.
It's his complete email portal - the phone will USB to his laptop where he can offload a PDF of a paper and email it to his so-understanding profs when his dad duties keep him at home. He doesn't have time to surf and play on the net, but it is way handy for WebMD, class changes, syllabus updates from home, etc.
He has no broadband at home. He has no land line at home. Just an unlimited 3G voice/data plan. Not paid for by credit card.
BTW - that pesky built-in camera that most of us don't care about is his only way to track his kid's growing up right now.
Find me a better deal. One that REALLY helps someone of son's means cope with life's rich tapestry. I'll tell my son all about it.
Until then, I don't think you know what the fuck you're talking about - you're just getting points spouting off cliches.
Beeeep. Thanks for playing. Absolutely dead-dog wrong.
This lengthy criterion was developed at defense and national laboratories by me by necessity and later made a world-wide business of it. I was known to each manufacturer as a highly influential jackass that had to be pleased and those entities were buying scopes by the truckloads at the time.
Later, I branched to the private sector still doing engineering software, some years later needed an oscope, expected a lot of improvement and was handed a lot of gee-whiz. So I rolled up my sleeves and pitched in.
I assume you didn't mean to call me a liar. I say this because I disclosed myself as much as NDAs allow. I could easily imagine a quite different disclosure had I been with NI - in fact, I'd have snuck in freaking VISA as a requirement.
So, your head is definitely screwed on just slightly off-kilter to believe so definitely that I'm from NI.
I still don't give a toot about scopes - except that a real-time controllable voltmeter is awfully important to gather the needed data to solve things I do care about.
How are techies not consumers?
Please. Overliteralizing helps not at all. Techies are the target market for *some tech* - not all. The parent was clear enough, no? Again, compare Linux desktop market share to Apple and both combined to Windows. The parent simply put the phone to the same scale of users.
People who are willing to spend $200 + $60/month for a high end cell phone with a data plan are a specific market segment (of consumers), and that market segment has massive overlap with "techies".
Emmkay. So. I'm trying to make a Venn diagram to explain how wrong that is to use to draw conclusions, but maybe the following mods will help:
People who are willing to spend $200 + $60/month for a high end cell phone with a data plan are a specific market segment (of consumers), and that market segment has massive overlap with "real estate agents".
People who are willing to spend $200 + $60/month for a high end cell phone with a data plan are a specific market segment (of consumers), and that market segment has massive overlap with "traveling salesmen".
People who are willing to spend $200 + $60/month for a high end cell phone with a data plan are a specific market segment (of consumers), and that market segment has massive overlap with "lawyers".
Because some large percentage of the techies (as you define/visualize the term) goes with the expensive phone and data plan does not imply the inverse - that a large percentage of those customers are techies.
Further, I think the circle influencing you may be too small. Anecdotally, I offer that I'll certainly do until a techie comes along, and I've been writing code since the early '70s. I have a Helio Ocean with a $99/month unlimited voice/data/time-of-day/roaming-in-the-US plan. I am convinced that this is the best deal for mobile email and (not-wow-iPhone) web access going.
But work required that - so I selected the tech that made the most sense, damn the torpedos.
Prior to that requirement, I used a Motorola StarTac - and I still miss the hell out of it. Great voice, large numbers onscreen and pad - a phone that worked most anywhere I was, digital or analog. Nothing more - I could wait to get home or office to see the email or whatever.
But I got that so my kids could reach me. Prior to that, I carried no damn cell phone at all - that's the mark of a true techie: if it's not sufficient tech with a sufficient reason to engage, don't compromise.
Finally:
It's not like there's a line somewhere, and on one side of the line are "geeks who don't count" and on the other side of the line is "Joe Sixpack who can't set the clock on his VCR".
Again, literally true, but there is a boundary between the two, it is quite defined, and it's a very wide stripe rather than a line - they are the common market for most decent tech, and I'd guesstimate that it's well above 80% of the whole.
Cheers, hope this helps.
Yeah, ok, but I personally am way ok with this bitch taking a fall. She had a virtual marriage. She got a virtual divorce. I know you RTFA, but for others her reaction was:
"I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.
I'll grant I lack the gamester mindset, but fer cryin' out loud - if this individual gets that whacked on a freaking game, then give her the adult equivalent of what many parents give to petulant children - a time out. In this case, from society.
Maybe the dude divorced her without warning because he became aware of what a whack job she was. And he was a dolt for not changing his compromised password.
But ethically, if you have someone's password, and the relationship goes south, and you then use it in retribution, it's wrong. Ethically wrong.
I've been to Japan very often. They're a lot stricter on a great many things than the US. I don't say that they're perfect, but maybe we'd have a lot less governmental, corporate and social malfeasance if our laws didn't end with all of the "letter-of" and "spirit-of" hair-splitting.
So if the bad ethics she used is criminal in Japan, then I say go Japan, and wouldn't it be nice if we could try it their way for a change.
One of the brands you mention isn't clear on SRQ programming sequences.
SCPI is step forward from terser commands - but not a panacea.
My last company built aftermarket and for-manufacturer o-scope software under NDA and partnership agreements - I'm still peripherally related to them. Some of what you know as built-in or branded software was mine. I know I'm right to raise this issue, sorry.
PS - Remember - if "it's easy, everyone does that" or "you bet, it's designed for it" that clear source code should just be commonly available.
And it isn't.
Trust me, that tells you something. Hope this helps.
Everyone expressing an opinion based on experience is dead right, teddaw152 - I've used all three and can say I see no BS.
But you're missing a most important criterion - how easy will it be to offload your data, because I don't care what you think your requirement is or will be, you're going to need this badly - or the next user will.
For any given model of features/performance/price tickling your fancy, insist to see the full configuration used to offload data to a PC.
I'm dead serious, full configuration. Do not ever accept rep claims of way-easy-all-our-customers-do-it, do not accept quick looks at user manuals showing code slices that make it all so obvious.
Do not accept that USB, GPIB, or Ethernet obviously imply that you can do this.
Do require code that:
1. Is in a language that your site will support long term
2. Allows for external configuration of the scope
3. Allows for external software trigger of recording
4. Allows for data acquisition by a PC
5. Allows for usable data, post acquisition
PLEASE USE THIS DEFINITION ONLY FOR THE WORDS "Allows for" IN THE ABOVE:
1. Full source code in your selected language
2. Full clarity of hardware interface required - price, performance and gotchas
3. You get a peer review of this
For "usable data" this damn well means that the data feed of (usually) start-time, stop-time, delta-time and Y values or X-Y pairs can not only be read in, they can be easily read in, easily put into another format, and easily absorbed by other post-processing software.
And for god's sake, make sure that status register and SRQ handling - in software - is clearly explained, and that you get routines for SRQ handling, and THE RULES FOR WHEN TO USE SRQs or NOT (typical GPIB issue).
I disclose that I have inside info on the brands you consider so I can only give these hints on approaching the problem. I cannot be trusted to be objective - due to associations - on saying which brands/models excel on this.
But I can be trusted to tell you this - your rep for any given brand will shuck and jive a *little* (and that really is an OK thing, it's a people skill), and he/she will give you assurances out the yin-yang (that's their job) - but they fucking-a well know what you're asking and will give you the straight dope if you are friendly while being persistent.
Please believe me, if you overlook this criterion now, you're almost guaranteed to screw the next guys after you - I don't believe you'd want that if you had a choice.
Cheers, best luck.
I seem to recall that part of dot-com roller-coaster included a day where bad computer mojo triggered a shitload of evil resulting in something to do with automatic trading run amok after market close. Something like that.
We all bought it. And woopie-doopie, dumb Financial Sector, at least they got shit right, post-trauma.
Our top story today: in the housing roller-coaster, it includes a day where bad computer mojo is responsible for a shitload of evil in the Financial Sector that...
Fooled me once. Fuck 'em - fuck 'em all. Not worth one iota more of my brainpower on this issue.
AT&T genius at work: available features include Caller ID and Privacy Manager.
I'm a developer and was wondering what kind of testing is done to verify the code.
Guinea pigs. Millions of us.
Take one down, pass it around, 9,999,998 lines of code from SCO
So one day my boss walks in and asks what I'm doing with a ready-to-be-retired laptop. I answer that I'm planning on carrying two laptops, one Windows for Powerpoint (presentation wasn't OpenOffice compatible, not my fault) and software demo and troubleshooting, one Linux for all other, as I just couldn't hack Windows at the 100% rate (my desktop was Linux). So he's happy that I'm security conscious but unhappy for more junk for me to haul. Next question, was there any way to do this from one machine? Wine not being good enough for my needs, and running OS X with Virtual PC at home, I opened my big mouth - expecting that this would give me space to do my 2 laptop thing.
Next day I was the new owner of Mac laptop.
Hope you enjoyed the story, cheers, thanks again.
Most sincere apologies if this was coming across as ad hominem. Never intended that. Never intended to proselytize Macs to you.
My reality on /. is that the next time something controversial comes up about iPods, someone will trot out the old "won't play MP3" or "only works with iTMS music" memes.
Your initial post sounded a lot like that, but you had a lower user number (where I find less of that nonsense) and I stopped and sampled a great deal of your other posts in order to gauge whether I was about to engage a decent human or a shill, ie, bother or not bother to reply.
My brusque loquaciousness was driven by the cognitive dissonance you created (thankyouverymuch) on this issue.
That I came across in any way that caused you to have to stoop to the works for you, works for me lesson embarrasses me and I apologize - it's a lesson I don't need and a defense you didn't have coming.
I am guilty of drinking a little Kool Aide on the adapter dongle and I'm glad for this exchange as I'd lost track of that. You are right, any extra anything is a point of failure. That the burden transfers to the user and that I and others I know haven't had the problem (birds of feather, etc.) doesn't excuse that I once hated the thing, got over it, accommodated it (Kool Aide, Kool Aide, tastes great...) is no excuse for pompousness.
I guess I've just had to flatline my brain so many times at smart remarks when I pulled out my Mac to present, that I jumped on compatibility in firmware/sofware(OS) terms and got the better of myself. Were I to just be a regular user, as I once was before all of that traveling and presented, and was asked to present what was seen over my shoulder, I wouldn't have the dongle, either. I'd be frustrated, and I'd call it unsuitable.
So, how about meeting me halfway and next time call it unsuitable rather than incompatible? OK, that's not a requirement.
PS - not trolling or baiting - how well does a Linux laptop work for presentations? Does the external display mirror primary or is there an option? Etc? Sincerely curious, but understand if you've had enough.
OK, once again, Apple disgusts me. I just discovered that they include ZERO external display adapters in the new MacBook box. You want DVI or VGA, you buy one separately. Maybe they once again lose their minds and think that typical presenters will only use MacBook Pros.
If anyone is following this and wants to see the adapter in action, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xopfGRwNpU - 8 minutes, not exciting, and not me. :)
What isn't clearly shown - but attempted - is that OS X gives easy accessibility to have the external display mirror or not mirror the primary display, and resolutions can be different.
PS on your other points - where I've been, any failure to present becomes a no-starter. I can think of maybe two places where I could've borrowed power adapters - partners' offices or scientific/technical conferences - even assuming that an Apple supply would be available. Otherwise, for my customers, it would've been a case of, "Thanks. Next!" And to credit your point further, I've had 3 physically different laptop supplies to contend with from Apple. So, it's backup battery or nothing when in hostile territory - true for PC users as well.
Again, I would be SOL losing the Mac VGA adapter. Given my habits, I still say that that's up there with losing the laptop. That leaves outright port failure, which I've not seen on Macs nor on PCs.
Which makes another traveler tactic, one I was always prepared for and never had to use. "Airport security fragged my laptop. I have the presentation here on CD. May I kindly ask one of you to load this and navigate my slides with me?" I've seen this done - with honestly by the afflicted - many times. No one kicks at this, as nearly everyone can relate to the issue.
Thanks for the bandwidth on this.
OK, in an effort to see it your way, I just checked out the MacBooks - I've used PowerBooks and MacBook Pros (and that icebook - the dual-USB iBook of so many years ago).
The MacBook is using the mini display port, as they call it. If you mean fragile as in HDMI, as in the connector won't screw down and can come undone if pulled, the icebook and new MacBook is guilty of that (as was my PowerBook G4). If you mean physically fragile, that's on the user. As a onetime user of that sort of connector in international travel - and all that that implies by security and customs handlers everywhere - I'm not out to lunch when I say that the little beastie is physically robust. Mac instructions - for those that RTFM - as well as common sense dictates that one attaches the VGA connector (screws and all) first to the adapter, then plug the adapter into the laptop. Some of the time I'm sure that I broke that rule, with no ill effects.
Pink/green woes are obviously a hardware problem. The press-to-fit connectors are sufficiently snug to make me really question PEBKAC if the laptop has that much crud in the socket or if the adapter is stressed beyond what I've encountered in international security handling of my laptop bag.
So what we've had is really two discussions. You called into question compatibility with projection systems, I've addressed that.
You've called into question the fragile (your word) adapter and I'm addressing that now. I don't say you're wrong - I'm not a dolt, emkay? - but our mileage varies - a LOT. I'm not easy on my gear, nor were my Apple-carrying compadres. We found no fragility in the earlier adapters. I have not personally used a MacBook - just the models I've stated. Maybe there's something endemic to them I don't get. Based on my experience, you'll understand my skepticism, as I restate that their display connector looks way close to another I and others I know have used without trouble.
No way am I out to lunch on this. I am curious that what I hear to be an outlyer problem is something you're facing regularly. Can you say in a public forum what the common factor might be? Students? Salesmen? Happened a lot lately? Used to happen a lot?
For the sake of completeness - apologies in advance for being slightly off-topic - the MacBook Pro has a full DVI connector and its VGA adapter is screw-secured both sides, and the whole dongle is just way AOK physically.