Open source really isn't a solution. (Not that I don't want a fully open source cell-phone.) So long as the shut down procedure is implemented in software, someone at the FBI can find a way around it.
What we need to do is go back to the days when the off switch was a switch that broke the circuit connecting the power supply to the devices. That way, you shut it off, and it is off.
An even better solution (since I don't really trust it to be off unless I can see the circuits are inoperable) is a phone with two interlocking pieces, one of which contains the CPU, one of which contains the battery. It would need a simple mechanism to invert one of the pieces, a foolproof way of ensuring the machine cannot activate.
I'd have figured that they were just leaving Google so they'd actually have something interesting to do. At Microsoft, there's still loads of core functionality missing from their software.
The myriad possibilities for improvement simply boggle the mind.
New features are not what make people move, excepting those that come from plugins. People don't use ie6 because they like using an unsafe, uncompliant program. They're using it because MS stripped the menu bar out of the default configuration, and crippled it when you tried to re-enable it.
All we want is those things. Also, new, better standards. SVG does come to mind, though if it was fully implemented I'd probably be blocking it like flash.
Best just to leave it at CSS3 and XHTML that eliminate the use of Javascript as much as possible.
I had a nice example of the complete inadequacy of google's thought-agnostic approach to links browsing around looking for information on samba and fuse under linux.
Google's ad bars, completely misinterpreting the context, offered links to fuse boxes, as in wiring, and Samba lessons, as in dancing.
But then, maybe I'm not giving Google enough credit. It might have actually recognized the pointlessness of trying to market software to a Linux user, and took the obvious step of throwing in some complete non sequiturs in the hopes of catching something of value.
This definitely jives with using FF3 at work vs. IE7. I remember the first time I used IE7 I opened 7 tabs, browsed a bit, and it crashed. Now I only use it to test my site.
On Linux however, FF3 is a slow pain in the ass. It seems like Mozilla isn't even bothering to test it on Linux...
And by Linux I mean Ubuntu, which I'd almost expect to be their target.
I have to admit, I've always wanted a city in the clouds, it would probably even be doable. Of course, some jackass will shoot it out of the sky before you can blink. I think that may be the problem with a lot of his ideas - they assume people have good will at heart.
If you're going that route, you might as well go with a knoppix-based distro like damnsmalllinux. Of course, that would require a memory upgrade, but you'd retain most of the space on your flash drive. Against the the 3 gigs of space an XP install takes the last time I checked, damnsmall's 50 mb would be worth living with.
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Open source really isn't a solution. (Not that I don't want a fully open source cell-phone.) So long as the shut down procedure is implemented in software, someone at the FBI can find a way around it.
What we need to do is go back to the days when the off switch was a switch that broke the circuit connecting the power supply to the devices. That way, you shut it off, and it is off.
An even better solution (since I don't really trust it to be off unless I can see the circuits are inoperable) is a phone with two interlocking pieces, one of which contains the CPU, one of which contains the battery. It would need a simple mechanism to invert one of the pieces, a foolproof way of ensuring the machine cannot activate.
I'd have figured that they were just leaving Google so they'd actually have something interesting to do. At Microsoft, there's still loads of core functionality missing from their software.
The myriad possibilities for improvement simply boggle the mind.
New features are not what make people move, excepting those that come from plugins. People don't use ie6 because they like using an unsafe, uncompliant program. They're using it because MS stripped the menu bar out of the default configuration, and crippled it when you tried to re-enable it.
All we want is those things. Also, new, better standards. SVG does come to mind, though if it was fully implemented I'd probably be blocking it like flash.
Best just to leave it at CSS3 and XHTML that eliminate the use of Javascript as much as possible.
We find MS guilty of antitrust violations, and then fund programs developed exclusively for their platforms.
My government needs to get it's act together.
I'm getting 3mb/sec, and all I've got is this dinky old fiber optic line.
Seriously though, I think whatever server's hosting this thing could slashdot Slashdot if it wanted to.
I had a nice example of the complete inadequacy of google's thought-agnostic approach to links browsing around looking for information on samba and fuse under linux. Google's ad bars, completely misinterpreting the context, offered links to fuse boxes, as in wiring, and Samba lessons, as in dancing. But then, maybe I'm not giving Google enough credit. It might have actually recognized the pointlessness of trying to market software to a Linux user, and took the obvious step of throwing in some complete non sequiturs in the hopes of catching something of value.
This definitely jives with using FF3 at work vs. IE7. I remember the first time I used IE7 I opened 7 tabs, browsed a bit, and it crashed. Now I only use it to test my site. On Linux however, FF3 is a slow pain in the ass. It seems like Mozilla isn't even bothering to test it on Linux... And by Linux I mean Ubuntu, which I'd almost expect to be their target.
I have to admit, I've always wanted a city in the clouds, it would probably even be doable. Of course, some jackass will shoot it out of the sky before you can blink. I think that may be the problem with a lot of his ideas - they assume people have good will at heart.
If you're going that route, you might as well go with a knoppix-based distro like damnsmalllinux. Of course, that would require a memory upgrade, but you'd retain most of the space on your flash drive. Against the the 3 gigs of space an XP install takes the last time I checked, damnsmall's 50 mb would be worth living with.