Yep. That'd be me. I think last month i hit somewhere between 4k and 5k. Keeping in mind most chat clients also eat your SMS cap. Unlimited SMS...still stupidly overpriced but I don't pay it anyhow.
Interesting to check and see if that's in their service agreement. If most of your calls are roaming they can 'fire' you as a customer *AND* then charge you an ETF.
Somehow I doubt they'd get away with terminating the contract on you and then charging you for doing so.
I love how companies advertize one thing and then do another - al la 'free roaming'
Yep. It varies hugely. In the NYC area verizon is good, TMO is good, ATT is good, Sprint i hate (well nextel) for various reasons. Each has their own minor dead zones. I'd give verizon a small edge over TMO and ATT i don't use often.
Out in wisconson visiting some friends however...i had 4-5 bars with TMO no matter where i went. Verizon wireless card? Lucky to get 2 bars, 1 was usually all I got if i had service at all. Ugh...1xRTT = death!
As someone else mentioned, TMO is generally cheaper than their competetion. I'd love to see where the 'exorbitant fees' are.
Ignoring that, the cost to run a public WiFi service isn't all that low if you want the ability to actively montior, track, and maintain the network. Yes, there's open source software available. How much of it is designed for centralized management of a 10,000 node public wifi network?
Even more than that, you've got the cost of the internet service (e.g. T1 lines to each hotspot). Even if you went DSL, the cost for DSL/Cable to a *business* is far higher than the $20/month promo-deal you found on fatwallet.
Could i run a single hotspot in a local coffee shop for low enough cost to give it away? Sure. Can you run one in every starbucks with 24/7 monitoring, status, and low down time for free? No. There's cost in there somewhere that has to be made up.
In case you haven't noticed, ATT is throwing money at ever opportunity they can to build customer base. The iPhone and Blackberry Bold are good examples. I doubt they'll ever disclose how much they paid for those contracts, but it's huge. How long this game will last is anyone's guess.
Ahh, but there's bad as in abusing children and acting in an utterly unprofessional and acceptible mantter (and not having tenure) and then there's bad as in reading verbatim from the textbook and calling it teaching.
I've seen a few teachers fired - none had tenure except one that was caught doing illegal things with minors. I've seen MANY very very poor teachers that would have long ago been removed from their job if there was any kind of performance review. The problem is the teachers union (USA - NY) does a great job fighting to ensure that 'years on job' and 'education credits' count much more than anyone's ability to teach, motivate students, or even understand the subject they are teaching.
I've seen young teachers come in movitated, involved and truly providing a wonderful enviornment for kids to learn in. Even "problem children" would sit down and pay attention...and learn. It's amazing what happens when you treat a student like a human being after all (seriously, besides school and *JAIL* where else is one forced to go where you need permission to go to the bathroom?) The problem is that after a few years of political BS and all the other nonsense like having to spend their own money for supplies to teach their students they realize they get paid for showing up, their education credits, and years on the job.
Yes there are some small, limited programs that offer performance-based pay or rewards to teachers. Their very own unions tend to fight them...because the unions have lots of older teachers with 20 or 30+ years on-job that don't want to mess with their status quo.
Hell, I'd love a job where i work 8AM-2PM and roughly 180 days a year. 10 weeks off for summer and extra pay if you chose to work.
So you're complaing that BES sucks but most of the problems are exchange and it's really exchange that sucks and you want to get rid of?
Yes, so we have a separate server for our BES...and? The cost of a server vs. the value of instant and secure email delivery globally to all our users - big deal. If you're having such severe performance issues perhaps you should call T-support and get their reccomendations to fix the problem:)
You can move your users to WM devices but your desktop support team will probably lynch the project manager after a few months of 'reset, wipe, reload, retry'.
I don't know for sure if banks distribute physical checks for clearning (someone else said they, in fact, do not and can not post-9/11) but that does not change the rest of my statement. You're arguing one point based on the validity of a different, independant point.
If you don't believe a statement is true do your own homework.
Many companies prefer (or require) original documents in certain situations. They may or may not be wrong to do so... but your photocopy, fax, or scan of that document is still 100% legally valid. They may decline to recognize it as policy but if you wound up in court a judge would (assuming no evidence of tampering existed) accept that copy as having the same status as the original copy.
Since virtually all copies these days are digitized and then printed; a fax, photocopy, scan+print, etc. are all essentially the same if you've got the technical aptitude to understand how they work.
Actually you're not correct there. Digitally scanned documents are legal substitutes for the original.
Don't believe me? Check with your bank. Checks are not physically distributed to other banks for payment/clearing (I believe) and virtually all banks use digital images for "returning" your check (I know for a fact). Print out that digital image and it's perfectly valid in court.
The law this is based off is the one that says 'a copy of a document is legally equivilant to the original'. Heck, you realize most modern photocopy machines are actually a fancy scanner and laser printer with a computer inbetween right?
Part of the problem is the 'rushed ripening' they do with ethlyne gas (sp?) which winds up making them over-ripe before the flavor has had a chance to fully mature. You can eat a natually matured banana when it's brown speckled without it being mushy.
Simply put. If this happens they it'll be justification for the same on other spectrums...then anything the FCC has jurisdiction over...then anything that touches anything the FCC has jurisdiction over.
Someone, somewhere needs to tell the FCC where it can stuff it's rulebook.
Not so sure - it's fairly simple to extend the keyspace of a "proper" encryption method to the point where even something several orders of magnitude beyond the immaginary cutting edge technology would not be able to brute-force a key within 20 years (or 20,000,000 years, just add a few more bits).
I think it was more along the lines of US companies getting really angry that their own contry was preventing them from competing in the global marketplace. After all, the bar for entry into designing encrption products is ubsurdly low. First or second year CS students can write an 'unbreakable' encryption program.
However, the mathematics for strong encryption had been known for years, and free available around the world, so the US wasn't accomplishing anything by blocking the export of PGP.
Not that it stopped them anyhow...heck, every time I buy a Dell PC i still have to promise not to export it. I think this one is due to the limited expore of "supercomputers" as defined by some stupid era-1990 level of computing.
All the US is doing is limiting our ability to compete in the global marketplace.
Google could simply stop doing business in China. The US could enact a law requiring XYZ and if RIM delined to abide by it they could be preveted from doing business in the US.
Oh wait, that was about 15 seconds from happening already, remember? Then suddenly their patent troubles magically went away because someone with a brain realize there was NO WAY they could turn off all the blackberries in the USA without enormous impact to the ecconomy.
But if I'm not going to intentionally or maliciously kill someone with my gun, why shouldn't I have it? Better, why should it be illegal to have it if I want to - it's not like the law forces a gun into every child's hands and requires they carry it.
Ban guns - then criminals will be the ONLY ones with guns.
Welcome to free society. Please take a number and someone will be with you shortly to handle your complaint./sarcasm
Besides, you can use almost anything for a bad purpose of you try. We should also monitor sunlight...because it could be reflected in a pattern such that it communicates naughty words or terrorist threats.
Agreed. Furthermore, does anyone thing that there won't be (or isn't already) a secondary encrption program for blackberries? Stupid terrorists and criminals generally make themselves know without invasive spying on everyone for no reason. Smart ones easily circumvent said spying.
C'mon, if all this spying really did some good don't you think someone, somewhere along the way would stand up, show proof, and say "here people look! See? It's serious". Politicians LIVE for that one nugget of actual evidence in a world of wishy-washy interpreted opinions and comments taken out of context.
I won't spend mod points, but I'll reply. Yes, a BB is far cheaper than an iPhone or smartphone. Heck, TMO gives us the curve for 50 bucks on a 1-year contract. The back end server is handy, encryption isn't good - it's 100% mandatory for most companies that want to use mobile email.
As for the GUI - I'd like to know what's better. It's straight-forward, easy to navigate, incredibly stable. The iPhone is slick but not business-centric. If you like WM well i suppose there's one in every crowd.
There's nothing wrong with the communication methods - in fact they're not a huge mystery. It's tied to a central server for many reasons including management tools and the encryption you spoke of. It's not like RIM charges a per-email fee or anything. The central RIM servers have gone done on extremely rare occasions. I have more issues with my bank website, cell tower, and ebay.com.
For a kid emailing his buddies, get an iPhone or WM device if you must. For anyone in the corporate world, blackberry is where it's at. They're totally unmatched.
Except there is a lot you can do on BES that a plain 'ol BB can't do by itself. THB, BES licensing isn't that expensive - especially compared to MS licensing. Heck, T-Mobile gave me 500 free BES CALS as part of a promotion with RIM just for buying blackberries (which we got at a steep, steep discount as well).
In a small cost-centric shop you don't need a BES. In a medium size enterprise where security, accountability, monitoring, and support are more of a focus the BES is extremely handy if used vaugely correctly.
Now, this may be pesudo-troll...but i find it funny (and that's how it's meant to be)
I thought Linux was free. What do you mean there are support costs?:)
Seriously though, comparing your 13 years experience to a phone support team isn't fair. I'd assume any of my seasoned desktop guys would run rings around tier-2 phone support as well.
As an IT manager I'm very comfortable with the 2000+ (business line) dells we have. Support overall is excellent, my account reps are generally very responsive. Pricing is good. I've little to complain about.
IBM made better laptops (dunno about current lenovo) but their PCs were built to stop bullets. Seriously can't understand why a *compact* desktop computer needs to weigh 40+ pounds. They lose out on cost though.
Actually as has been stated before - dell business provides exceptionally good support.
Cisco also offers good support but they're pretty blatant with the 'you get what you pay for' routine. On the high-side, I had a router that wasn't even listed on our contract at the time replaced in ~3 hours on a holiday friday night.
Yep...not to mention the 6 ugly lattitudes i've got on my desk.
God i wish they'd put a latttude sticker on a 1530 already. I don't understand why every corporate laptop except apple has to be friggin ugly. An no, i'm certianly NOT an apple fan.
That's why I have a BB Curve with TMO. 4-8GB transflash is dirt cheap and plugs right in...oh, and it's got a friggin keyboard :)
Sorry but the ability to type >>>>>>> fancy interface and an extra 8GB of MP3s for $100
Yep. That'd be me. I think last month i hit somewhere between 4k and 5k. Keeping in mind most chat clients also eat your SMS cap. Unlimited SMS...still stupidly overpriced but I don't pay it anyhow.
Interesting to check and see if that's in their service agreement. If most of your calls are roaming they can 'fire' you as a customer *AND* then charge you an ETF.
Somehow I doubt they'd get away with terminating the contract on you and then charging you for doing so.
I love how companies advertize one thing and then do another - al la 'free roaming'
Yep. It varies hugely. In the NYC area verizon is good, TMO is good, ATT is good, Sprint i hate (well nextel) for various reasons. Each has their own minor dead zones. I'd give verizon a small edge over TMO and ATT i don't use often.
Out in wisconson visiting some friends however...i had 4-5 bars with TMO no matter where i went. Verizon wireless card? Lucky to get 2 bars, 1 was usually all I got if i had service at all. Ugh...1xRTT = death!
As someone else mentioned, TMO is generally cheaper than their competetion. I'd love to see where the 'exorbitant fees' are.
Ignoring that, the cost to run a public WiFi service isn't all that low if you want the ability to actively montior, track, and maintain the network. Yes, there's open source software available. How much of it is designed for centralized management of a 10,000 node public wifi network?
Even more than that, you've got the cost of the internet service (e.g. T1 lines to each hotspot). Even if you went DSL, the cost for DSL/Cable to a *business* is far higher than the $20/month promo-deal you found on fatwallet.
Could i run a single hotspot in a local coffee shop for low enough cost to give it away? Sure. Can you run one in every starbucks with 24/7 monitoring, status, and low down time for free? No. There's cost in there somewhere that has to be made up.
In case you haven't noticed, ATT is throwing money at ever opportunity they can to build customer base. The iPhone and Blackberry Bold are good examples. I doubt they'll ever disclose how much they paid for those contracts, but it's huge. How long this game will last is anyone's guess.
Ahh, but there's bad as in abusing children and acting in an utterly unprofessional and acceptible mantter (and not having tenure) and then there's bad as in reading verbatim from the textbook and calling it teaching.
I've seen a few teachers fired - none had tenure except one that was caught doing illegal things with minors. I've seen MANY very very poor teachers that would have long ago been removed from their job if there was any kind of performance review. The problem is the teachers union (USA - NY) does a great job fighting to ensure that 'years on job' and 'education credits' count much more than anyone's ability to teach, motivate students, or even understand the subject they are teaching.
I've seen young teachers come in movitated, involved and truly providing a wonderful enviornment for kids to learn in. Even "problem children" would sit down and pay attention...and learn. It's amazing what happens when you treat a student like a human being after all (seriously, besides school and *JAIL* where else is one forced to go where you need permission to go to the bathroom?) The problem is that after a few years of political BS and all the other nonsense like having to spend their own money for supplies to teach their students they realize they get paid for showing up, their education credits, and years on the job.
Yes there are some small, limited programs that offer performance-based pay or rewards to teachers. Their very own unions tend to fight them...because the unions have lots of older teachers with 20 or 30+ years on-job that don't want to mess with their status quo.
Hell, I'd love a job where i work 8AM-2PM and roughly 180 days a year. 10 weeks off for summer and extra pay if you chose to work.
So you're complaing that BES sucks but most of the problems are exchange and it's really exchange that sucks and you want to get rid of?
:)
Yes, so we have a separate server for our BES...and? The cost of a server vs. the value of instant and secure email delivery globally to all our users - big deal. If you're having such severe performance issues perhaps you should call T-support and get their reccomendations to fix the problem
You can move your users to WM devices but your desktop support team will probably lynch the project manager after a few months of 'reset, wipe, reload, retry'.
I don't know for sure if banks distribute physical checks for clearning (someone else said they, in fact, do not and can not post-9/11) but that does not change the rest of my statement. You're arguing one point based on the validity of a different, independant point.
... but your photocopy, fax, or scan of that document is still 100% legally valid. They may decline to recognize it as policy but if you wound up in court a judge would (assuming no evidence of tampering existed) accept that copy as having the same status as the original copy.
If you don't believe a statement is true do your own homework.
Many companies prefer (or require) original documents in certain situations. They may or may not be wrong to do so
Since virtually all copies these days are digitized and then printed; a fax, photocopy, scan+print, etc. are all essentially the same if you've got the technical aptitude to understand how they work.
Actually you're not correct there. Digitally scanned documents are legal substitutes for the original.
Don't believe me? Check with your bank. Checks are not physically distributed to other banks for payment/clearing (I believe) and virtually all banks use digital images for "returning" your check (I know for a fact). Print out that digital image and it's perfectly valid in court.
The law this is based off is the one that says 'a copy of a document is legally equivilant to the original'. Heck, you realize most modern photocopy machines are actually a fancy scanner and laser printer with a computer inbetween right?
slashdot - international cuisine for nerds
Part of the problem is the 'rushed ripening' they do with ethlyne gas (sp?) which winds up making them over-ripe before the flavor has had a chance to fully mature. You can eat a natually matured banana when it's brown speckled without it being mushy.
Simply put. If this happens they it'll be justification for the same on other spectrums...then anything the FCC has jurisdiction over...then anything that touches anything the FCC has jurisdiction over.
Someone, somewhere needs to tell the FCC where it can stuff it's rulebook.
Not so sure - it's fairly simple to extend the keyspace of a "proper" encryption method to the point where even something several orders of magnitude beyond the immaginary cutting edge technology would not be able to brute-force a key within 20 years (or 20,000,000 years, just add a few more bits).
I think it was more along the lines of US companies getting really angry that their own contry was preventing them from competing in the global marketplace. After all, the bar for entry into designing encrption products is ubsurdly low. First or second year CS students can write an 'unbreakable' encryption program.
Not that it stopped them anyhow...heck, every time I buy a Dell PC i still have to promise not to export it. I think this one is due to the limited expore of "supercomputers" as defined by some stupid era-1990 level of computing.
All the US is doing is limiting our ability to compete in the global marketplace.
I was referring to those who are crying because the encryption works, is secure, and has no back door (aka gov't).
Google could simply stop doing business in China. The US could enact a law requiring XYZ and if RIM delined to abide by it they could be preveted from doing business in the US.
Oh wait, that was about 15 seconds from happening already, remember? Then suddenly their patent troubles magically went away because someone with a brain realize there was NO WAY they could turn off all the blackberries in the USA without enormous impact to the ecconomy.
But if I'm not going to intentionally or maliciously kill someone with my gun, why shouldn't I have it? Better, why should it be illegal to have it if I want to - it's not like the law forces a gun into every child's hands and requires they carry it.
Ban guns - then criminals will be the ONLY ones with guns.
Welcome to free society. Please take a number and someone will be with you shortly to handle your complaint. /sarcasm
Besides, you can use almost anything for a bad purpose of you try. We should also monitor sunlight...because it could be reflected in a pattern such that it communicates naughty words or terrorist threats.
Agreed. Furthermore, does anyone thing that there won't be (or isn't already) a secondary encrption program for blackberries? Stupid terrorists and criminals generally make themselves know without invasive spying on everyone for no reason. Smart ones easily circumvent said spying.
C'mon, if all this spying really did some good don't you think someone, somewhere along the way would stand up, show proof, and say "here people look! See? It's serious". Politicians LIVE for that one nugget of actual evidence in a world of wishy-washy interpreted opinions and comments taken out of context.
I won't spend mod points, but I'll reply. Yes, a BB is far cheaper than an iPhone or smartphone. Heck, TMO gives us the curve for 50 bucks on a 1-year contract. The back end server is handy, encryption isn't good - it's 100% mandatory for most companies that want to use mobile email.
As for the GUI - I'd like to know what's better. It's straight-forward, easy to navigate, incredibly stable. The iPhone is slick but not business-centric. If you like WM well i suppose there's one in every crowd.
There's nothing wrong with the communication methods - in fact they're not a huge mystery. It's tied to a central server for many reasons including management tools and the encryption you spoke of. It's not like RIM charges a per-email fee or anything. The central RIM servers have gone done on extremely rare occasions. I have more issues with my bank website, cell tower, and ebay.com.
For a kid emailing his buddies, get an iPhone or WM device if you must. For anyone in the corporate world, blackberry is where it's at. They're totally unmatched.
Except there is a lot you can do on BES that a plain 'ol BB can't do by itself. THB, BES licensing isn't that expensive - especially compared to MS licensing. Heck, T-Mobile gave me 500 free BES CALS as part of a promotion with RIM just for buying blackberries (which we got at a steep, steep discount as well).
In a small cost-centric shop you don't need a BES. In a medium size enterprise where security, accountability, monitoring, and support are more of a focus the BES is extremely handy if used vaugely correctly.
Now, this may be pesudo-troll...but i find it funny (and that's how it's meant to be)
:)
I thought Linux was free. What do you mean there are support costs?
Seriously though, comparing your 13 years experience to a phone support team isn't fair. I'd assume any of my seasoned desktop guys would run rings around tier-2 phone support as well.
Dell business = very good
Dell home = not so good
As an IT manager I'm very comfortable with the 2000+ (business line) dells we have. Support overall is excellent, my account reps are generally very responsive. Pricing is good. I've little to complain about.
IBM made better laptops (dunno about current lenovo) but their PCs were built to stop bullets. Seriously can't understand why a *compact* desktop computer needs to weigh 40+ pounds. They lose out on cost though.
Actually as has been stated before - dell business provides exceptionally good support.
Cisco also offers good support but they're pretty blatant with the 'you get what you pay for' routine. On the high-side, I had a router that wasn't even listed on our contract at the time replaced in ~3 hours on a holiday friday night.
Yep...not to mention the 6 ugly lattitudes i've got on my desk.
God i wish they'd put a latttude sticker on a 1530 already. I don't understand why every corporate laptop except apple has to be friggin ugly. An no, i'm certianly NOT an apple fan.