"HDMI Noise Filter and Signal Booster." You know, for all those people who need gold-plated, name-brand cables for perfectly crisp, clear transmission of digital data. I think "noise filter" would be a perfectly apt description of the secondary function, too!
"Currently, CPU upgrades are available on selected Windows 7 systems."
It installs the application. Does it run every time your computer boots? Does that mean the unlock isn't permanent? If I pay to unlock the chip, and then reboot into Linux, is the CPU still unlocked? If I have to reinstall Windows, do I have to reinstall (or re-purchase) the upgrade?
Content protection ONLY "screws" people who have the content legitimately. A copyright violator isn't "screwed" by not having access to something they haven't got the right to. The only people who can get screwed are the people who parted with money and may be unable to use the product in a legal, desired way.
Once it gets past the paying customers, the content protection has been removed anyway. (By the way, I originally wrote "owners" in the title but corrected myself...)
Ha ha, very funny. Installation issues are not the same thing at all as general, daily use issues. Linux can be a bit harder to set up (though as your younger sibling post points out, often this is just because computers ship with Windows drivers). Once Linux and Windows machines are completely configured, there's very little difference in how difficult they are to use.
You make an excellent point. However, most people don't see this and Windows doesn't offer the "LiveCD" method of booting. A "LiveCD" needs to rise to the challenge of supporting as much hardware as possible from a static disc.
One of the biggest problems I faced was using a LiveCD to show off Linux.
"Here, boot with this and check it out!" "Eh, kinda neat lookin'. How do I get online?" "Well, hook your laptop to the router for a bit, or download some stuff onto a flash drive with another computer. Then you have to figure out exactly what model of wireless card you have and follow these arcane steps. No, it's easy, but you have to download these tools, too, to split the Windows driver files in... Wait, why are you booting back into Windows?"
It's really difficult to convince someone that Linux is as easy to use as Windows (in general, day to day work) when their first experience is struggling to make such basic things work.
Even if it doesn't delay it, they could opt to ship with a "probably works" driver. A driver that might not work for all machines or that might break under certain conditions is far better than the current "no driver" situation. If it worked just well enough to connect and download an update, that would be great!
It's not a complaint, it's a recognition of market conditions here. I'm aware of the T-Mobile plans, and those plans still work out cheaper to buy the phone with the plan. Such plans are also atypical.
What does the price of a netbook have to do with the price of a smartphone? Do a price check on MSRP of any smartphone and any netbook. Come back and report on your sticker-shock...
While this may be theoretically possible, it's not practical. We Americans have come to expect our phones to be free (or very cheap) with a contract. Of course, cell phone service plans cover the cost of the phone. That's all fine and good, but it is terribly difficult (if not impossible) to find a service plan that actually costs less if you already own a phone. If you buy the phone at the street price and then go get a service plan, you end up paying for the phone twice. Rather than pay twice, we tend to get the "free" phones that are locked in to a service provider.
Another consequence is that we suffer terribly from sticker shock if we have to replace a phone ourselves. We think a brand-new, top of the line phone should cost $100-200, not $600+.
The basics of simple, relational databases would be a great thing to introduce. I learned sort and search algorithms when I was going through school, but those wheels have long since been invented and probably ought to just be tools. "SELECT x FROM y WHERE z ORDER BY x.a" is a much better real-world sort and search lesson than implementing a binary tree or a hash table. Databases make you think about types, data structures, and iterating through returns values.
A post below this one mentioned creating a contact list application which I agree is a great idea (but I only wanted to reply to one post...)
The problem with that argument is that having a healthy, young population is how you DEVELOP a society.
The economy isn't a pie that gets divided up among the people, it is a pot-luck in which every person contributes to the larger picture. The more people you have with demands to fulfill, the more people you have fulfilling demands.
Jobs don't just spring up in a void without people to fill them. Jobs come into markets from outside when an untapped labor force exists. Jobs are created within a market when someone has an idea and there are enough people to make it happen.
Since the "Distribution Fee" is greater than the "loss" suffered by Harry Potter, and there is no expense to the company for unlicensed distribution, I think this is a fantastic idea.
The company loses far less money when the consumer helps with distribution!
No, the terms I signed up under are still good. Until I choose to get a different phone or a different plan, there's been no "bait and switch." I may be disappointed that my old plan is no longer around when it is time to renew, but that's hardly unusual...
Verizon caps their "unlimited data" plan at 5GB/month. THAT I have a problem with.
How much do you want to bet? "Some analysts and AT&T argue that nearly all AT&T smartphone users (98%) today use less than 2GB of data a month, and most (65%) use less than 200MB." Apparently most users use less than a tenth of what you guessed was the lower bound.
They offer unlimited talk plans because there is a very strict upper limit on the number of minutes that one CAN talk in a month.
With tethering around the corner, the data consumption has the potential to completely crush a network already criticized as being overloaded.
Sure, it won't change my max speed, but there are many, MANY times that I don't come close to the "max speed" of 3G. All the cell phones using the same tower have to share that tower's bandwidth, both in the radio spectrum and in its connection to the Internet.
When I'm in a sparsely populated area, even with so-so signal, I get fast responses and quick throughput. When I'm in a large crowd (mall, theme park, outdoor event) I get slow responses and sometimes timeouts and page load failures. Events are especially telling, because I can go to the same location and get great speed off of the same tower.
No, it's like saying that "pay for the gas you use" encourages more sensible use of a limited resource than an "unlimited gas" plan.
If you need to watch a video (or just really want to) then alright, you pay for it. People who go to youtube so they can hear a song and ignore the video might think again. Bandwidth off a cell tower IS a limited resource.
I've had an iPhone for a year and a half. I love it, but for the last six months (the months I could review) I never even got up to 100MB per month. I use the phone all the time, but often within WiFi range.
I'd rather pay half as much to get what is still more than double my normal usage. It would also discourage casual youtube streaming and thus probably improve network speed for everyone.
The one thing I'd REALLY want from AT&T (and Apple) is an app that reliably monitors billable bytes in a billing period. ("Gosh, I'm close to my limit this month. Better watch the funny cat video at home.") I know you can dial *DATA# but it should be part of the "Settings" info.
Yeah, it's great, which is why I run Windows in a VM on Linux. I keep a snapshot of a working XP virtual disk handy.
Why? I'm the go-to geek in the family and I've had to call Microsoft registration many times to reactivate XP after an upgrade or salvaging a drive from a dead MB. They're always polite and friendly, and reading the seven sets of six digits over the phone and typing in the response only takes about 10-15 minutes. But... What about when that 800 number goes dead? Or they stop giving out activations for older XP systems? Or they finally say "sir, that's an OEM license and only valid for the broken machine, not the new MB."
Ironically, what I need the Windows VM for the most is iTunes. Thanks, Apple!
Linux issues can be fixed. Windows can be reinstalled. Probably. Or you can buy a new version and migrate your data. Perhaps.
Thanks for making that point. I looked up information on rods and cones. Apparently cones are responsible for high-resolution vision (near the center of your visual field) AND for color vision. The site I found says that for the cones, 64% are red, 32% are green, and 2% are blue. The cones in a color blind person still work, they just aren't divided into red or green cones. You give up color perception in favor of higher visual acuity.
It would be interesting if this was something that was reversible. If someone could "try out" color vision, or color blindness for that matter, and choose to keep it or not. It's much less of a difficult question if you can just go back to the way you were. But I dream...
I think US lawmakers have forgotten the Declaration of Independence: "ALL men are... endowed... with certain unalienable rights..." Infringing on the rights of US citizens just so you can infringe on the rights of non-US citizens even more is tragically misguided.
Slashdot Mirror
"HDMI Noise Filter and Signal Booster."
You know, for all those people who need gold-plated, name-brand cables for perfectly crisp, clear transmission of digital data. I think "noise filter" would be a perfectly apt description of the secondary function, too!
"Currently, CPU upgrades are available on selected Windows 7 systems."
It installs the application. Does it run every time your computer boots? Does that mean the unlock isn't permanent? If I pay to unlock the chip, and then reboot into Linux, is the CPU still unlocked? If I have to reinstall Windows, do I have to reinstall (or re-purchase) the upgrade?
No thanks...
Content protection ONLY "screws" people who have the content legitimately.
A copyright violator isn't "screwed" by not having access to something they haven't got the right to. The only people who can get screwed are the people who parted with money and may be unable to use the product in a legal, desired way.
Once it gets past the paying customers, the content protection has been removed anyway.
(By the way, I originally wrote "owners" in the title but corrected myself...)
Ha ha, very funny. Installation issues are not the same thing at all as general, daily use issues. Linux can be a bit harder to set up (though as your younger sibling post points out, often this is just because computers ship with Windows drivers). Once Linux and Windows machines are completely configured, there's very little difference in how difficult they are to use.
You make an excellent point. However, most people don't see this and Windows doesn't offer the "LiveCD" method of booting. A "LiveCD" needs to rise to the challenge of supporting as much hardware as possible from a static disc.
One of the biggest problems I faced was using a LiveCD to show off Linux.
"Here, boot with this and check it out!"
"Eh, kinda neat lookin'. How do I get online?"
"Well, hook your laptop to the router for a bit, or download some stuff onto a flash drive with another computer. Then you have to figure out exactly what model of wireless card you have and follow these arcane steps. No, it's easy, but you have to download these tools, too, to split the Windows driver files in... Wait, why are you booting back into Windows?"
It's really difficult to convince someone that Linux is as easy to use as Windows (in general, day to day work) when their first experience is struggling to make such basic things work.
Even if it doesn't delay it, they could opt to ship with a "probably works" driver. A driver that might not work for all machines or that might break under certain conditions is far better than the current "no driver" situation. If it worked just well enough to connect and download an update, that would be great!
It's not a complaint, it's a recognition of market conditions here. I'm aware of the T-Mobile plans, and those plans still work out cheaper to buy the phone with the plan. Such plans are also atypical.
What does the price of a netbook have to do with the price of a smartphone? Do a price check on MSRP of any smartphone and any netbook. Come back and report on your sticker-shock...
While this may be theoretically possible, it's not practical. We Americans have come to expect our phones to be free (or very cheap) with a contract. Of course, cell phone service plans cover the cost of the phone. That's all fine and good, but it is terribly difficult (if not impossible) to find a service plan that actually costs less if you already own a phone. If you buy the phone at the street price and then go get a service plan, you end up paying for the phone twice. Rather than pay twice, we tend to get the "free" phones that are locked in to a service provider.
Another consequence is that we suffer terribly from sticker shock if we have to replace a phone ourselves. We think a brand-new, top of the line phone should cost $100-200, not $600+.
Florida swampland is real property. I grow cypress trees and blueberries on mine! (As well as pine, turkey, deer, wild pigs...)
A closer comparison would be "I have a star to sell you," but even that, at some level, involves a real, physical thing.
"I have some beach-front property in Atlantis you might be interested in."
Wish I had the points to mod parent up!
The basics of simple, relational databases would be a great thing to introduce. I learned sort and search algorithms when I was going through school, but those wheels have long since been invented and probably ought to just be tools.
"SELECT x FROM y WHERE z ORDER BY x.a" is a much better real-world sort and search lesson than implementing a binary tree or a hash table. Databases make you think about types, data structures, and iterating through returns values.
A post below this one mentioned creating a contact list application which I agree is a great idea (but I only wanted to reply to one post...)
The problem with that argument is that having a healthy, young population is how you DEVELOP a society.
The economy isn't a pie that gets divided up among the people, it is a pot-luck in which every person contributes to the larger picture. The more people you have with demands to fulfill, the more people you have fulfilling demands.
Jobs don't just spring up in a void without people to fill them. Jobs come into markets from outside when an untapped labor force exists. Jobs are created within a market when someone has an idea and there are enough people to make it happen.
... or an HP ...
(Just kidding HP, my laptop is a still-going-strong, dual-booting HP L2000.)
If GRUB gets corrupted, you can't boot Windows either... However, reinstalling GRUB should work. Keep that LiveCD install disc around!
As for the "most important Linux machine," to me it's the one I'm running with all my personal (and some professional) data.
What about the double-threats of spacebook.com, mybook.com, or facespace.com?
Since the "Distribution Fee" is greater than the "loss" suffered by Harry Potter, and there is no expense to the company for unlicensed distribution, I think this is a fantastic idea.
The company loses far less money when the consumer helps with distribution!
No, the terms I signed up under are still good. Until I choose to get a different phone or a different plan, there's been no "bait and switch." I may be disappointed that my old plan is no longer around when it is time to renew, but that's hardly unusual...
Verizon caps their "unlimited data" plan at 5GB/month. THAT I have a problem with.
How much do you want to bet?
"Some analysts and AT&T argue that nearly all AT&T smartphone users (98%) today use less than 2GB of data a month, and most (65%) use less than 200MB."
Apparently most users use less than a tenth of what you guessed was the lower bound.
They offer unlimited talk plans because there is a very strict upper limit on the number of minutes that one CAN talk in a month.
With tethering around the corner, the data consumption has the potential to completely crush a network already criticized as being overloaded.
Sure, it won't change my max speed, but there are many, MANY times that I don't come close to the "max speed" of 3G. All the cell phones using the same tower have to share that tower's bandwidth, both in the radio spectrum and in its connection to the Internet.
When I'm in a sparsely populated area, even with so-so signal, I get fast responses and quick throughput. When I'm in a large crowd (mall, theme park, outdoor event) I get slow responses and sometimes timeouts and page load failures. Events are especially telling, because I can go to the same location and get great speed off of the same tower.
No, it's like saying that "pay for the gas you use" encourages more sensible use of a limited resource than an "unlimited gas" plan.
If you need to watch a video (or just really want to) then alright, you pay for it. People who go to youtube so they can hear a song and ignore the video might think again. Bandwidth off a cell tower IS a limited resource.
I've had an iPhone for a year and a half. I love it, but for the last six months (the months I could review) I never even got up to 100MB per month. I use the phone all the time, but often within WiFi range.
I'd rather pay half as much to get what is still more than double my normal usage. It would also discourage casual youtube streaming and thus probably improve network speed for everyone.
The one thing I'd REALLY want from AT&T (and Apple) is an app that reliably monitors billable bytes in a billing period. ("Gosh, I'm close to my limit this month. Better watch the funny cat video at home.") I know you can dial *DATA# but it should be part of the "Settings" info.
At least his sig isn't a redundant paradox... Your sig doesn't resolve at all!
Yeah, it's great, which is why I run Windows in a VM on Linux. I keep a snapshot of a working XP virtual disk handy.
Why? I'm the go-to geek in the family and I've had to call Microsoft registration many times to reactivate XP after an upgrade or salvaging a drive from a dead MB. They're always polite and friendly, and reading the seven sets of six digits over the phone and typing in the response only takes about 10-15 minutes. But...
What about when that 800 number goes dead? Or they stop giving out activations for older XP systems? Or they finally say "sir, that's an OEM license and only valid for the broken machine, not the new MB."
Ironically, what I need the Windows VM for the most is iTunes. Thanks, Apple!
Linux issues can be fixed.
Windows can be reinstalled. Probably. Or you can buy a new version and migrate your data. Perhaps.
Thanks for making that point. I looked up information on rods and cones. Apparently cones are responsible for high-resolution vision (near the center of your visual field) AND for color vision. The site I found says that for the cones, 64% are red, 32% are green, and 2% are blue. The cones in a color blind person still work, they just aren't divided into red or green cones. You give up color perception in favor of higher visual acuity.
It would be interesting if this was something that was reversible. If someone could "try out" color vision, or color blindness for that matter, and choose to keep it or not. It's much less of a difficult question if you can just go back to the way you were. But I dream...
Love the link!
I think US lawmakers have forgotten the Declaration of Independence: "ALL men are ... endowed ... with certain unalienable rights..." Infringing on the rights of US citizens just so you can infringe on the rights of non-US citizens even more is tragically misguided.