In addition - 3D headsets with 1.44 megapixel/eye glasses have been out for some time. All it would take would be a few minor upgrades, and for about a grand, you'd have the equivalent of a 3D 70" set at 13'. See, for example:
Earlier this year, the blu-ray.com team unanimously decided to use the spelling "3-D", with a hyphen, for everything related to stereoscopic images, and "3D", without a hyphen, for three-dimensional graphics and animation. We shall continue to do so, except when citing the name of the "Blu-ray 3D" specification, which doesn't use the hyphen.
OBTW - Did we all notice that the proposed tech is going to eat an additional 50% of bandwidth? For those suffering from compression/decompression artifacting - read: for everyone with digital cable or satellite HD - it's going to get worse as the 3D premiums are added. Woot!
I loved David Pogue's view (amusing as always) on 3D TV in his Truth Serum video.
Your suggestion of the NYT cutting ties with New York somehow reminded me of the establishment of Byzantium and later it's declaration (as Constantinople) as the heart of the Roman Empire.
Something I don't get, and is unanswered in general. When the ISS was first assembled back in 1998, it was asserted at the time that this was going to be the first permanent outpost of humanity in space.
Perhaps I'm getting senile in my old age and not remembering things very clearly.
YOU are doing just fine, my friend. Those were my first thoughts reading the TFS. Your post really sparked the old gray cells and I thank you for that. That said, google is my friend, and the fossil record indeed supports the idea that we were promised and sold as taxpayers the idea that this would be a permanent station - I simply googled "iss permanent outpost" and got some interesting stuff right off the bat:
However, note that in 2000, there came the obscure quote from a NASA mgr - "This is the beginning of what we hope is at least 15 years of continuous human presence in space, and personally, I hope its much, much longer than that that once we get this crew on orbit, well have spacecraft flying with people on board for centuries to come." Source -
And what's NASA's real plan? Get a load of the roadmap on slide 2 - and the clever glyph at the right end of the ISS bar, showing neither certainty nor commitment -
That has a recording of her appearing at a George McGovern ('72 Democratic presidential candidate) fund-raising event, smoking a joint between songs, saying as I recall something like - "We have to face our problems head-on!"
That entrenched her as an icon for Democrats and liberalism.
Second:
There was no internet in Nixon's day. Whoever gets there first gets it named after them - so Streisand Effect is valid.
The argument on unlocked phone expense makes a LOT of sense to me, personally.
If we take an iPod touch as a model for an 8 or 16 GB device at $200 to $300, with wireless and Bluetooth radios built-in, along with an operating system and very decent pre-loaded application base - then how, seriously, is adding a cell phone radio and just bit more software suddenly worth an extra $300 to $400???
It's "worth it" in the sense that the market is bearing it - but it's not "worth it" as a reflection of costs and any reasonable markup.
Further, with this model, they get you coming and going if you buy the phone protection at better than $10/month for two years, as I do.
The contract prices, at around $200 for anyone's deal, is actually pretty good, again using an iPod touch as a cost model - but - the unlocked price is simply exorbitant.
I'd read somewhere that is was capped at $30k per copyright infringement, $150k for distribution of same.
I should think that, if true, the caps are there for rationality and that they're high to discourage infringement - but should never be used as analogous to a sentencing guideline.
Ray, I get the beef (from reading your info) about the judge being wrong in taking the defendant's statement of liability into account - but further, was it right to suggest those limits to the jury, in any case?
Thanks in advance for answering (and only if my question makes sense or is worthy).
fm6 - I was going to thank you for your constructive criticism - but - you've called it like it is, and I own it.
The trouble is - getting to cell phone OSes becomes emotional at a certain point, and rather than exercise discipline, I simply hid behind a wall of text.
I was responding to you hoping that an exchange occurred where I learned something - and that wasn't fair.
Why Android is important - I'm representative of the frustrated buyer. I have no trouble picking out the right OS for the right job with computers. I think that's complex. I think I should be smart enough to pick out a cell phone OS - and even the right phone to go with.
And with my US choices, I feel stupid - not ignorant, curable by education - I feel stupid.
So, my emotional response is to avoid the problem. This means that some magic vendor should give me something that gets rid of my problem.
Apple, as in iPhone - whatever OS that is, it's Apple-y, I can be ok with it (but I'm not OK with the limited hardware choice or AT&T lock-in, so that decision is easy).
Google on a phone - some flavor of Linux at heart. A big company whose other services I use can make the decisions I need and I can be OK with it.
Other cell phone OSes - whatever flavor of whatever (Linux-based or other), the learning curve to couple it with the right handset and the right carrier is daunting.
I'm irrationally afraid that I can't get smart enough to make the right choice.
Android becomes important to my purchase decision in probably the same way religion is an opiate for the masses - I'm given justification free of real thought.
Because for me, every time I look into this whole subject - I end up concluding that the right handset with the right carrier with the right services and features and price simply do not exist - in this day and age - and that's simply unpossible.
It's either that - or I'm stupid. And the cognitive dissonance that creates becomes self-fulfilling and something like Android feels like I can hide behind and others won't call me lunatic fringe or stupid - and I won't call myself that.
Otherwise, I have to justify spending $600 on what looks to me like a $200 iPod touch with an extra phone radio and then picking the right carrier - as if the right carrier can't make that easy for me.
And there is my endless cognitive loop.
Android - Google - probably as easy as a phone and as easy as googling and as easy as gmail and.... no thinking.
So - how did I do at an honest answer that you (representative of the rational out there) can understand?
Of course that would also mean much higher phone prices, how many people would buy the iphone or Droid at $600?
600 hundred smackers gets me a Dell Inspiron notebook or a Mac mini why does a cell phone magically have to cost so much?
An iPod touch - beaucoup computing power, touchscreen, WiFi and Bluetooth is $200.
Tell me why adding a 3G radio to that costs an additional $400?
I keep hearing how stupid we all are not to just lay down and spend 500 to $700 on a phone. Again - on a PHONE.
NO - it's not in my best interests to keep feeding from the trough and buying a phone for cheap with lock in.
NO - it's not in my best interests to encourage an industry without monopolies to sell me hardware at more than twice its value, had it been any other consumer electronics good - just because I can call Aunt Grammy on it.
I don't want to spend more than a couple hundred bucks because when it comes to a phone - I really can make do with less than an iPod Touch - and that's my logical price-equivalent for the tech involved.
Somebody please explain to me why Android matters.
FWIW, I can share why it matters to me and why I'm shopping for it (and I'm an American):
1. Fear factor 2. Price 3. Openmoko
I'll take them in turn. Not being a pro writer, I'll have to babble colloquially.
Fear factor:
I've owned four cell phones in my life. My first, a Qualcomm brick was very cool - it was a phone. I torched it and got a Motorola StarTac and it was very cool - it was a phone and I got occasional SMSes on it that I ignored. It started falling apart after years of abuse and I replaced it with a Motorola RAZR. It was sorta cool. For the first time, buttons were harder to see and get to in a hurry. I got into SMS and had slow but fun access to Opera. Then I got two more for the family (same carrier, same supposed model) and they were three different phones as far as I'm concerned. My wife's phone's interface was so different - as was the construction quality. My fourth and current for 2+ years is a Helio Ocean. I get 3G coverage most everywhere, and get great service from it. Except - as CDMA from a MVNO (Sprint backbone, I believe) - I didn't stand a chance with it in Asia or Europe - or the Upper Peninsula, Michigan for data or GPS (yikes!!!) for that matter. And as a feature phone, it's just a pain to text and talk simultaneously.
And about a year and a half ago, downloading an Opera Mini upgrade totally bricked my phone (good thing I had the extended warranty). I haven't attempted a new app or upgrade since - fear factor.
I was sitting in Germany with a couple of buddies last year, both sporting their new BlackBerries (they're longtime BB users - "experts") but one had a phone that wouldn't work there (had to replace it with a different model when he got back home). Funny keyboard, lousy display compared to my Ocean.
Based on a tip in another thread, I've just learned about the Nokia N900 (very cool sounding!) - and that T-Mobile or ATT would give me 3G with that. No ATT - I will not do business with them again - their pricing is predatory compared to my Helio (now Virgin Mobile) plan and I tried them for a few years - I fear AT&T billing. So, I check out T-Mobile and there's no 3G where I live.
So - I need a feature or smartphone with: a) upgrades I can trust, b) apps I can trust, c) features I can trust, d) billing I can trust, e) user-accessible batteries. I even expect that - in 2010!!!! - I may need to get two phones - one for domestic, one for occasional international work travel. I fear learning curve, interoperability issues and data syncing if I have to get two phones.
I've had to learn way too much just to get a freaking cell phone. I already maintain in my head too much about WinXP, Vista, Tiger, Leopard and I don't know - 5?? - unices for work. I do not need CVS, apt-get or anything else for a phone.
So - debates about evil aside - I'm simply less fearful of Apple and Google. And AT&T and no-battery-swap make Apple a non-starter.
Price:
I do NOT like the idea of paying $600 or more for hardware freedom - but if it would really get me what I want, I'll bite that bullet. Otherwise, given that I cannot believe the US market will make sense in my lifetime and given that I may need TWO phones, then going with a subsidized phone is attractive.
Openmoko:
I thought that that would be my answer. Everything about it said Fuck You to the existing cell phone industry. I was willing to take whatever restrictions applied just to own one and join the chorus. For where I sit, Openmoko became a non-starter. So that's out.
So that's why Android matters to me - I want something with low fear factors, decent prices and I've given up on anyone making a big enough Fuck You to the US cell phone industry that we somehow roll in to the 21st century like the rest of the world.
So, today, I'm waiting to see what Sprint will do with 4G and how the new toy-looking Samsung Android phone they have wil
I, on the other hand, am a 6'6" tall, bulging muscles on skeleton type of guy who has any woman I desire at any time, even when fighting off foes, a superb intellect and the sun shines out of my arse (ass for you yanks). Now where's my avatar?
Your avatar request is fully noted and your order parameters and pre-ship details appear below.
Many good lucks to you in your gaming!/snappy SALUTE!
Sincerely yours, Orders@Aurora_Avatars.com
Order fulfillment details:
1. You are exceptionally well-built and can get laid all the time by any woman you desire.
2. Avatar Analysis Wizard results indicate that there are not enough women you desire to lay, and would prefer to fill your time role-playing in a game.
3. Your avatar is one with a chiseled face, piercing eyes, skin colored a near-perfect, brushed-metal bronze, a shock of thick, yet somehow simultaneously lithe and responsive, magnificent mane of hair - in short, nearly possessing the good looks of an Auroran (such as the the real-life appearance of the president and founder of Aurora Avatars).
4 The most outstanding feature of your new avatar is the letter on your forehead in hyper-glow, yellow-green-white, that eerily seems to almost float, retaining its holographic-like legibility regardless of how you turn your head.
(** Copyright claimed by me, as creator, for Aurora Avatars and all related trade names, and product descriptions)
So I'm try to post - the peanut gallery walks by, asks what I'm doing, we stop, talk about the same scenario with the moon... exact argument ensues and instead of typing "anticipated mid-point"....
I just appreciate your not flaming me, because my dumb ass deserved it!
The only SF work dealing with Earth-Moon L1 that I've ever read is Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes Encounter with Tiber. If you've read that, then you have some hope that I'm not a total-face-saving liar.
I read the article - despite many correctly spelled words, it is absolutely devoid of strategic or tactical thought and shows evidence that the author has no combat planning experience - and I'll go out on a limb and say that there are so many artificial constraints that I very sincerely he ever read - or understood if he did - the Art of War.
You're a Mars Colonist. You revolt. OK - you're _expecting_ an attack. You won't wait for anything orbital from Earth - you'll pre-position killer drones - a mine field if you will - beginning at the LaGrange point between Earth and Mars and in layers anticipating the attacking fleet. Somewhere within the field - or to its edges - you'll arrange tracker-transmitters that will generate fake attack messages seemingly from Earth friendlies in an effort to steer the attackers into the mine field.
You're an Earth administrator and you're not idiot - your agents on Mars tells you that not only is the violent revolt coming, deep space assets are being prepared to thwart your approach.
You're a Mars propagandist - you shape public messages in order to inflame Earth, but one of your messages is seeming fuck-up, and you accidentally give away a secret regarding your strategic forces - but it's a plant to entrap Earth forces at a point besides the (kinda) mid-flight-point minefield - you're actually planning to outflank Earth.
You're a Mars agent - you seize an Earth civilian spaceliner and announce terrorist demands. You're not Earth, so you're not evil, it's a complete distraction, so your partner agents already on Earth can try to mess up launch logistics for Earth forces while paying attention to the wrong crisis.
And after a mile of more text like this - you can have all the space opera that the author wanted.
Space is simply not Earth.
TFA reads to me like Mars is supposed be some kind of Fort Apache - and I don't buy it.
I copyrighted punctuation to piss of the grammar Nazis. Unfortunately, the value has been dropping ever since the advent of the internet.:(
If you weren't perfectly aware of it - I happen to hold the software patent whereby you can post comments on the internet using the word "of" in place of "off" and still get mod points for being funny.
Generously, I'm willing to negotiate a settlement.
Slashdot Mirror
http://corporate.discovery.com/discovery-news/discovery-communications-sony-and-imax-announce-pl/
Yep - a 24/7 fully dedicated 3D network in the US.
I think 3D is an epic fail right out of the gate. Autostereoscopy has been on the market already, so the whole add glasses thing is idiotic.
Samsung showed it at this year's CES, but it didn't get the big exposure... but still, it's out there:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1379458976&play=1
Autostereoscopic info here (one example) - meaning, 3D without glasses:
http://www.xyz3d.tv/
In addition - 3D headsets with 1.44 megapixel/eye glasses have been out for some time. All it would take would be a few minor upgrades, and for about a grand, you'd have the equivalent of a 3D 70" set at 13'. See, for example:
http://www.i-glassesstore.com/ig-hrvpro.html
Oh - and wait for it - the Blu-ray kiddies have decided that the correct term is now 3-D, not 3D, unless it is.
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3924
A note on spelling
Earlier this year, the blu-ray.com team unanimously decided to use the spelling "3-D", with a hyphen, for everything related to stereoscopic images, and "3D", without a hyphen, for three-dimensional graphics and animation. We shall continue to do so, except when citing the name of the "Blu-ray 3D" specification, which doesn't use the hyphen.
OBTW - Did we all notice that the proposed tech is going to eat an additional 50% of bandwidth? For those suffering from compression/decompression artifacting - read: for everyone with digital cable or satellite HD - it's going to get worse as the 3D premiums are added. Woot!
I loved David Pogue's view (amusing as always) on 3D TV in his Truth Serum video.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1386497920&play=1
Let's not forget - the Avatar craze was with circularly polarized PASSIVE GLASSES - not Bluetooth'd active shutters!
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/164200,3d-tv-buzz-at-ces-2010-just-another-gimmick-or-should-you-hang-onto-those-avatar-glasses.aspx
I think this is a simple case of **I AM** ready for 3D-D ... ready to wait until it dies or makes sense!
BTW - Let's not forget Johnny Lee's head-tracking system (if you watch nothing else - watch this!!) - at least that was cool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw
Very good point!
Attention grammar people - yeah - I know - its not it's. Sorry.
Your suggestion of the NYT cutting ties with New York somehow reminded me of the establishment of Byzantium and later it's declaration (as Constantinople) as the heart of the Roman Empire.
Something I don't get, and is unanswered in general. When the ISS was first assembled back in 1998, it was asserted at the time that this was going to be the first permanent outpost of humanity in space.
Perhaps I'm getting senile in my old age and not remembering things very clearly.
YOU are doing just fine, my friend. Those were my first thoughts reading the TFS. Your post really sparked the old gray cells and I thank you for that. That said, google is my friend, and the fossil record indeed supports the idea that we were promised and sold as taxpayers the idea that this would be a permanent station - I simply googled "iss permanent outpost" and got some interesting stuff right off the bat:
http://www.space.com/common/media/show/player.php?show_id=26&ep=4
http://science.howstuffworks.com/space-station.htm
However, note that in 2000, there came the obscure quote from a NASA mgr - "This is the beginning of what we hope is at least 15 years of continuous human presence in space, and personally, I hope its much, much longer than that that once we get this crew on orbit, well have spacecraft flying with people on board for centuries to come." Source -
http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/missions/exp_one_iss_001030.html
Nonetheless, the "permanent outpost" meme was alive and well in 2007 -
http://eu.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=24180
And what's NASA's real plan? Get a load of the roadmap on slide 2 - and the clever glyph at the right end of the ISS bar, showing neither certainty nor commitment -
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/203075main_ECLSS%20Technology%20Exchange%20Conference%20briefing.pdf
I never attacked.
I simply explained the genesis of her association with liberal Democrats.
You have no clue what "side" I may be on.
You've read quite a bit into me, whole cloth, all on your own.
As far as not seeing comparable behavior between conservatives and liberals - you simply don't know enough liberals and conservatives.
And unlike you, I know nothing of your personal experiences other than what you tell me.
Keep laughing Coward - for you, it's clearly part of your rationalization that you can substitute screed for rational thought - obviously.
BTW - some of us have a better grasp of history and a better sampling of humanity. Get over it.
You're missing the valid double-Streisand play by the parent poster possibly because you overlook two things:
First, see:
http://www.amazon.com/Live-Concert-Forum-Barbra-Streisand/dp/B0000024ZL/
That has a recording of her appearing at a George McGovern ('72 Democratic presidential candidate) fund-raising event, smoking a joint between songs, saying as I recall something like - "We have to face our problems head-on!"
That entrenched her as an icon for Democrats and liberalism.
Second:
There was no internet in Nixon's day. Whoever gets there first gets it named after them - so Streisand Effect is valid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
So, no, it's not about being unfair, it's not about who invented the cover-up and having it backfire.
It's about iconography - and the parent did a bang up job with just one line.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconography
An internal power source must obey the laws of thermodynamics and thus would cause the craft as a whole to be an infrared emitter.
Now you're just being silly.
As IR is still light, put a second cloak inside the first cloak, but this time FACING the satellite, so the satellite can't see the earth either.
Now - that surely sounds like fractured logic - until you add a third cloak so the earth can't see that the satellite's not seeing the earth.
Wait - can you tell it's beer-thirty on Friday???
The argument on unlocked phone expense makes a LOT of sense to me, personally.
If we take an iPod touch as a model for an 8 or 16 GB device at $200 to $300, with wireless and Bluetooth radios built-in, along with an operating system and very decent pre-loaded application base - then how, seriously, is adding a cell phone radio and just bit more software suddenly worth an extra $300 to $400???
It's "worth it" in the sense that the market is bearing it - but it's not "worth it" as a reflection of costs and any reasonable markup.
Further, with this model, they get you coming and going if you buy the phone protection at better than $10/month for two years, as I do.
The contract prices, at around $200 for anyone's deal, is actually pretty good, again using an iPod touch as a cost model - but - the unlocked price is simply exorbitant.
In my opinion.
I'd read somewhere that is was capped at $30k per copyright infringement, $150k for distribution of same.
I should think that, if true, the caps are there for rationality and that they're high to discourage infringement - but should never be used as analogous to a sentencing guideline.
Ray, I get the beef (from reading your info) about the judge being wrong in taking the defendant's statement of liability into account - but further, was it right to suggest those limits to the jury, in any case?
Thanks in advance for answering (and only if my question makes sense or is worthy).
Ditto for OS X.
"...much responsibility and little true authority..." is a recipe for failure and scapegoating.
It's always bad for the executive monkey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulcers_in_Executive_Monkeys
What's next, the Fuhrer of Healthcare?
Right on.
The Prez called him a cyber-security coordinator - it was the dumb-ass reporter for TFA that introduced the word czar, once again.
fm6 - I was going to thank you for your constructive criticism - but - you've called it like it is, and I own it.
The trouble is - getting to cell phone OSes becomes emotional at a certain point, and rather than exercise discipline, I simply hid behind a wall of text.
I was responding to you hoping that an exchange occurred where I learned something - and that wasn't fair.
Why Android is important - I'm representative of the frustrated buyer. I have no trouble picking out the right OS for the right job with computers. I think that's complex. I think I should be smart enough to pick out a cell phone OS - and even the right phone to go with.
And with my US choices, I feel stupid - not ignorant, curable by education - I feel stupid.
So, my emotional response is to avoid the problem. This means that some magic vendor should give me something that gets rid of my problem.
Apple, as in iPhone - whatever OS that is, it's Apple-y, I can be ok with it (but I'm not OK with the limited hardware choice or AT&T lock-in, so that decision is easy).
Google on a phone - some flavor of Linux at heart. A big company whose other services I use can make the decisions I need and I can be OK with it.
Other cell phone OSes - whatever flavor of whatever (Linux-based or other), the learning curve to couple it with the right handset and the right carrier is daunting.
I'm irrationally afraid that I can't get smart enough to make the right choice.
Android becomes important to my purchase decision in probably the same way religion is an opiate for the masses - I'm given justification free of real thought.
Because for me, every time I look into this whole subject - I end up concluding that the right handset with the right carrier with the right services and features and price simply do not exist - in this day and age - and that's simply unpossible.
It's either that - or I'm stupid. And the cognitive dissonance that creates becomes self-fulfilling and something like Android feels like I can hide behind and others won't call me lunatic fringe or stupid - and I won't call myself that.
Otherwise, I have to justify spending $600 on what looks to me like a $200 iPod touch with an extra phone radio and then picking the right carrier - as if the right carrier can't make that easy for me.
And there is my endless cognitive loop.
Android - Google - probably as easy as a phone and as easy as googling and as easy as gmail and.... no thinking.
So - how did I do at an honest answer that you (representative of the rational out there) can understand?
Of course that would also mean much higher phone prices, how many people would buy the iphone or Droid at $600?
600 hundred smackers gets me a Dell Inspiron notebook or a Mac mini why does a cell phone magically have to cost so much?
An iPod touch - beaucoup computing power, touchscreen, WiFi and Bluetooth is $200.
Tell me why adding a 3G radio to that costs an additional $400?
I keep hearing how stupid we all are not to just lay down and spend 500 to $700 on a phone. Again - on a PHONE.
NO - it's not in my best interests to keep feeding from the trough and buying a phone for cheap with lock in.
NO - it's not in my best interests to encourage an industry without monopolies to sell me hardware at more than twice its value, had it been any other consumer electronics good - just because I can call Aunt Grammy on it.
I don't want to spend more than a couple hundred bucks because when it comes to a phone - I really can make do with less than an iPod Touch - and that's my logical price-equivalent for the tech involved.
Somebody please explain to me why Android matters.
FWIW, I can share why it matters to me and why I'm shopping for it (and I'm an American):
1. Fear factor
2. Price
3. Openmoko
I'll take them in turn. Not being a pro writer, I'll have to babble colloquially.
Fear factor:
I've owned four cell phones in my life. My first, a Qualcomm brick was very cool - it was a phone. I torched it and got a Motorola StarTac and it was very cool - it was a phone and I got occasional SMSes on it that I ignored. It started falling apart after years of abuse and I replaced it with a Motorola RAZR. It was sorta cool. For the first time, buttons were harder to see and get to in a hurry. I got into SMS and had slow but fun access to Opera. Then I got two more for the family (same carrier, same supposed model) and they were three different phones as far as I'm concerned. My wife's phone's interface was so different - as was the construction quality. My fourth and current for 2+ years is a Helio Ocean. I get 3G coverage most everywhere, and get great service from it. Except - as CDMA from a MVNO (Sprint backbone, I believe) - I didn't stand a chance with it in Asia or Europe - or the Upper Peninsula, Michigan for data or GPS (yikes!!!) for that matter. And as a feature phone, it's just a pain to text and talk simultaneously.
And about a year and a half ago, downloading an Opera Mini upgrade totally bricked my phone (good thing I had the extended warranty). I haven't attempted a new app or upgrade since - fear factor.
I was sitting in Germany with a couple of buddies last year, both sporting their new BlackBerries (they're longtime BB users - "experts") but one had a phone that wouldn't work there (had to replace it with a different model when he got back home). Funny keyboard, lousy display compared to my Ocean.
Based on a tip in another thread, I've just learned about the Nokia N900 (very cool sounding!) - and that T-Mobile or ATT would give me 3G with that. No ATT - I will not do business with them again - their pricing is predatory compared to my Helio (now Virgin Mobile) plan and I tried them for a few years - I fear AT&T billing. So, I check out T-Mobile and there's no 3G where I live.
So - I need a feature or smartphone with: a) upgrades I can trust, b) apps I can trust, c) features I can trust, d) billing I can trust, e) user-accessible batteries. I even expect that - in 2010!!!! - I may need to get two phones - one for domestic, one for occasional international work travel. I fear learning curve, interoperability issues and data syncing if I have to get two phones.
I've had to learn way too much just to get a freaking cell phone. I already maintain in my head too much about WinXP, Vista, Tiger, Leopard and I don't know - 5?? - unices for work. I do not need CVS, apt-get or anything else for a phone.
So - debates about evil aside - I'm simply less fearful of Apple and Google. And AT&T and no-battery-swap make Apple a non-starter.
Price:
I do NOT like the idea of paying $600 or more for hardware freedom - but if it would really get me what I want, I'll bite that bullet. Otherwise, given that I cannot believe the US market will make sense in my lifetime and given that I may need TWO phones, then going with a subsidized phone is attractive.
Openmoko:
I thought that that would be my answer. Everything about it said Fuck You to the existing cell phone industry. I was willing to take whatever restrictions applied just to own one and join the chorus. For where I sit, Openmoko became a non-starter. So that's out.
So that's why Android matters to me - I want something with low fear factors, decent prices and I've given up on anyone making a big enough Fuck You to the US cell phone industry that we somehow roll in to the 21st century like the rest of the world.
So, today, I'm waiting to see what Sprint will do with 4G and how the new toy-looking Samsung Android phone they have wil
Kurt - I checked out your website and I'm intrigued. Where did you buy yours? I'm noting the Amazon price (and user comments here) -
http://www.amazon.com/Nokia-N900-Unlocked-Computer-Touchscreen/dp/B002OB49SW
What do you pay for an unlimited voice/unlimited roaming/unlimited data plan (normal business months for me can hit +4k minutes and 256 kB data)?
Descriptions mention a front-facing webcam in addition to the backside camera - have you tried this for (free) skype video (maybe from a WiFi spot)?
TIA -
Eggsactly!
I, on the other hand, am a 6'6" tall, bulging muscles on skeleton type of guy who has any woman I desire at any time, even when fighting off foes, a superb intellect and the sun shines out of my arse (ass for you yanks).
Now where's my avatar?
Your avatar request is fully noted and your order parameters and pre-ship details appear below.
Many good lucks to you in your gaming! /snappy SALUTE!
Sincerely yours,
Orders@Aurora_Avatars.com
Order fulfillment details:
1. You are exceptionally well-built and can get laid all the time by any woman you desire.
2. Avatar Analysis Wizard results indicate that there are not enough women you desire to lay, and would prefer to fill your time role-playing in a game.
3. Your avatar is one with a chiseled face, piercing eyes, skin colored a near-perfect, brushed-metal bronze, a shock of thick, yet somehow simultaneously lithe and responsive, magnificent mane of hair - in short, nearly possessing the good looks of an Auroran (such as the the real-life appearance of the president and founder of Aurora Avatars).
4 The most outstanding feature of your new avatar is the letter on your forehead in hyper-glow, yellow-green-white, that eerily seems to almost float, retaining its holographic-like legibility regardless of how you turn your head.
(** Copyright claimed by me, as creator, for Aurora Avatars and all related trade names, and product descriptions)
You're 100% right - and I even knew that.
So I'm try to post - the peanut gallery walks by, asks what I'm doing, we stop, talk about the same scenario with the moon... exact argument ensues and instead of typing "anticipated mid-point" ....
I just appreciate your not flaming me, because my dumb ass deserved it!
The only SF work dealing with Earth-Moon L1 that I've ever read is Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes Encounter with Tiber. If you've read that, then you have some hope that I'm not a total-face-saving liar.
Otherwise, boy - did I fuck up!!
Thanks for saving other readers from me!!
I read the article - despite many correctly spelled words, it is absolutely devoid of strategic or tactical thought and shows evidence that the author has no combat planning experience - and I'll go out on a limb and say that there are so many artificial constraints that I very sincerely he ever read - or understood if he did - the Art of War.
You're a Mars Colonist. You revolt. OK - you're _expecting_ an attack. You won't wait for anything orbital from Earth - you'll pre-position killer drones - a mine field if you will - beginning at the LaGrange point between Earth and Mars and in layers anticipating the attacking fleet. Somewhere within the field - or to its edges - you'll arrange tracker-transmitters that will generate fake attack messages seemingly from Earth friendlies in an effort to steer the attackers into the mine field.
You're an Earth administrator and you're not idiot - your agents on Mars tells you that not only is the violent revolt coming, deep space assets are being prepared to thwart your approach.
You're a Mars propagandist - you shape public messages in order to inflame Earth, but one of your messages is seeming fuck-up, and you accidentally give away a secret regarding your strategic forces - but it's a plant to entrap Earth forces at a point besides the (kinda) mid-flight-point minefield - you're actually planning to outflank Earth.
You're a Mars agent - you seize an Earth civilian spaceliner and announce terrorist demands. You're not Earth, so you're not evil, it's a complete distraction, so your partner agents already on Earth can try to mess up launch logistics for Earth forces while paying attention to the wrong crisis.
And after a mile of more text like this - you can have all the space opera that the author wanted.
Space is simply not Earth.
TFA reads to me like Mars is supposed be some kind of Fort Apache - and I don't buy it.
If someone has intellectual property rights on irony, one of us in trouble!
I copyrighted punctuation to piss of the grammar Nazis. Unfortunately, the value has been dropping ever since the advent of the internet. :(
If you weren't perfectly aware of it - I happen to hold the software patent whereby you can post comments on the internet using the word "of" in place of "off" and still get mod points for being funny.
Generously, I'm willing to negotiate a settlement.
As anyone here ever subject to a break-up can attest, the ex will always want to kill you, certainly at least for the first week.
(Regardless of cause, or who did or said what, or who initiated it - and regardless that this is /. and I must be new here.)
So, today's lesson is simple - always date girls attending school in Minnesota.
The negative press she'll receive after her tirade will have you mercy-dating as the good guy in no time!
As Homer likes to say - SWISH!
Assuming that you're correct, this is a most revealing insight and explains much.
That said - if that's all that there is to it, then I'm glad I'm not an Intel lawyer having to explain that in lay terms.