I drop my TiBook all the time. It still works fine, but the titanium is bent and the plastic is broken around the vicinity of the CD slot. I just looks on pbparts, and to replace the plastic would cost $250.
The other problem with it is that it sheds paint from all the plastic parts. My laptop looks like it has mange.
There are already third party applications that let you take TiVo "streams" and watch them on your PC or burn them to DVD - I'm on the verge of buying a TiVoNet card for this very purpose. Does anybody know if this new service is going to make TiVo lock out those free applications?
Almost impossible. Just about every contract you sign these days has really vaguely worded clauses about them being able to terminate your account for any reason they decide, or allowing them to change the AUP at any time they like. After you strip off the legaleze, the "AUP" is usually "Don't do anything we don't like, or we'll toss you."
I just spend $140 to replace a two year old battery on my TiBook because the battery life had gone from 4 hours to about 45 minutes. I use my iPod for a lot more hours per day than my TiBook, and the battery has lost less than a quarter of its life.
Why is it that having to replace the battery on a laptop is "normal" but having to replace the battery on a iPod is somehow outrageous?
Mine is one of the older ones - a so-called "2nd generation" 20Gb (although there was almost no difference except size between 1st and 2nd gen). And back then, the battery life on any of the competing hard disk MP3 players was way way worse.
My iPod is approaching 1.5 years old, and it still gives me enough battery life to last me for a 9-10 hour work day (if I remember to shut it off at lunch time). When I first got it, it had a bug that if you listened to long pieces (like 20 minute movements in classical music) it would spin the disk continuously and drain the battery, but they fixed that with a firmware upgrade and then I was getting 10-12 hours continuous.
I've got about 60Gb of MP3s on my computer at home, and a 20Gb first generation iPod. Fortunately I've got a script (from "Doug's Applescripts" site) that takes random albums from the iTunes Library and copies them to the iPod, so I can keep cycling through.
My step daughter has a 40Gb 3G iPod and she's used less than 5Gb of it. I keep telling her that if she's only using 5Gb, she'd be just as happy with my 20Gb iPod as her 40Gb, but she doesn't see it that way. Damn kids and their selfish logic!:-)
These things aren't going to be iPod killers. One thing that the iPod has over just about every other hard disk MP3 player out there (besides fabulous design and iTunes music store) is great battery life. A fried of mine has an Archos, and it needs recharging after 4-5 hours, whereas I can listen to my iPod all day at work.
What would kill the iPod for me would be something with the form factor of the iPod that also had PDA and cell phone functionality - especially if it used Bluetooth to connect to a cell phone headset and either Bluetooth or WiFi for internet access.
You don't need WAAS for that sort of accuracy. I have a Garmin GPSMAP195, and after they turned off Selective Availability a few years ago, I can look at my ground track after a flight and tell that I took off from the centerline but landed to the left or right of centerline.
With a good unobstructed view of the sky, tracking 10 sats, I see Estimated Probable Error values approaching 4-5 feet. Tell me you need more accuracy than that in a hiking GPS?
Re:Screw weird, this is the *COOL* present thread!
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Weird Presents Anyone?
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· Score: 1
Me too - my wife told me to give my TiBook to my daughter and get a nice new AlBook.
Trusting Microsoft with your computing is like trusting your dog with a steak.
Major difference: It's usually possible to convince your boss not to trust a dog with a steak. At least until the dog starts a multi-billion dollar advertising campaign.
I used to have a PS/2 model 80 under my desk at work. IBM thoughfully put a large handle on the top so that when the urge to throw it through the window got too great, you could get a good grip on it.
It was unusual to see the spread between buy and sell markets be more than a few cents. And with the software that let you see the position on NASDAQ and all the other order books simultaneously, that spread was getting even smaller.
So I find it puzzling that traders wouldn't realize something was amiss with a $20 spread on a stock. I'm sure they did realize it was amiss, and there was a strong possibility that NASDAQ would break the trade, but they figured they'd go ahead with the trade just in case they could make some money before it was broken. It was, they lost money, and now they're crying.
BTW: Somebody asked what NASDAQ's software runs on. Mostly they use Suns, although there are some Windows systems, and possibly some SGIs.
Why is it that PostNuke, so many web sites, doesn't have any obvious way to find out WHAT THE FUCK THE PROJECT IS? The I can't find anything on that page that says what PostNuke is, or why I should care. If it's there, it's well hidden.
...is that once they realize that people can work from home in the same city, they'll start realizing that people can work from home in some underpaid third world hell hell and they'll save even more money.
I recently went back to a job that I'd had three years ago. Back then I'd made the mistake of posting to Usenet with that address. They reactivated the account, and between the time they reactivated it and the time I typed the userid into Mozilla Mail, I received 7 spams. This is for an account that been bouncing email for 3 years.
I also made up a bogus address and put it in the comment field of a web site, and it gets spam (that just bounces), and the spammers don't seem to care.
I honestly don't know what motivates spammers to send crap or empty messages.
The problem with many of those things is the same: It takes too much energy to move something through the sky. Jetpacks, personal aircars and supersonic travel all have the same problem - it takes so much energy to do it that it would cost too much to do it for more than a stunt.
There's also the other problems: 1) Jetpacks also had the added problem of carrying all that fuel around - it's not much of a "personal jet pack" if you have to carry 500 pounds of fuel along. 2) In spite of what Moller says, you're never going to totally automate flying. Too many decisions to make. It's hard enough to get drivers to stay off the roads during a declared snow emergency, how hard do you think it would be to get a guy who'd just spent a million bucks on a sky car to not fly when the winds are strong, there are thunderstorms anywhere within 50 miles, freezing rain or hail? It's hard enough to keep general aviation pilots out of that sort of stuff, and we spend hours and hours studying weather.
I've got my iPod in a Marware case. The padding stops the irritating fingerprints all over the back of the case, and also I've dropped it dozens of times with no ill effect.
That's my experience as well. My second generation iPod lasts for a full work day, easily. I've had it crap out on the commute home once or twice, but only because I kept it going all day without hitting pause once.
I've worked many places that in the job interview mentioned Christmas bonuses as a possibility. Only one employer ever came through - and it was in the financial industry, so it was $11,000. Yes, really. Paid off the credit cards, bought a Titanium and took the wife to a fancy bed and breakfast for a couple of days.
Too bad the place was otherwise like taking a vacation in hell.
I work for a company that makes cameras and film. In spite of that, there is a HUGE sign when you come in the building reminding you that having unauthorized photographic equipment on site is grounds for firing. It was also in the agreement that I signed when I joined.
Due to corporate espionage, I would be absolutely amazed if Microsoft didn't have a similar clauses in the employment agreement that this loser signed.
And now he talks about legal recourses. Sorry, dude, you violated your employment agreement, you're boned.
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I drop my TiBook all the time. It still works fine, but the titanium is bent and the plastic is broken around the vicinity of the CD slot. I just looks on pbparts, and to replace the plastic would cost $250.
The other problem with it is that it sheds paint from all the plastic parts. My laptop looks like it has mange.
There are already third party applications that let you take TiVo "streams" and watch them on your PC or burn them to DVD - I'm on the verge of buying a TiVoNet card for this very purpose. Does anybody know if this new service is going to make TiVo lock out those free applications?
Challenge them.
Almost impossible. Just about every contract you sign these days has really vaguely worded clauses about them being able to terminate your account for any reason they decide, or allowing them to change the AUP at any time they like. After you strip off the legaleze, the "AUP" is usually "Don't do anything we don't like, or we'll toss you."
I just spend $140 to replace a two year old battery on my TiBook because the battery life had gone from 4 hours to about 45 minutes. I use my iPod for a lot more hours per day than my TiBook, and the battery has lost less than a quarter of its life.
Why is it that having to replace the battery on a laptop is "normal" but having to replace the battery on a iPod is somehow outrageous?
Mine is one of the older ones - a so-called "2nd generation" 20Gb (although there was almost no difference except size between 1st and 2nd gen). And back then, the battery life on any of the competing hard disk MP3 players was way way worse.
My iPod is approaching 1.5 years old, and it still gives me enough battery life to last me for a 9-10 hour work day (if I remember to shut it off at lunch time). When I first got it, it had a bug that if you listened to long pieces (like 20 minute movements in classical music) it would spin the disk continuously and drain the battery, but they fixed that with a firmware upgrade and then I was getting 10-12 hours continuous.
I've got about 60Gb of MP3s on my computer at home, and a 20Gb first generation iPod. Fortunately I've got a script (from "Doug's Applescripts" site) that takes random albums from the iTunes Library and copies them to the iPod, so I can keep cycling through.
:-)
My step daughter has a 40Gb 3G iPod and she's used less than 5Gb of it. I keep telling her that if she's only using 5Gb, she'd be just as happy with my 20Gb iPod as her 40Gb, but she doesn't see it that way. Damn kids and their selfish logic!
These things aren't going to be iPod killers. One thing that the iPod has over just about every other hard disk MP3 player out there (besides fabulous design and iTunes music store) is great battery life. A fried of mine has an Archos, and it needs recharging after 4-5 hours, whereas I can listen to my iPod all day at work.
What would kill the iPod for me would be something with the form factor of the iPod that also had PDA and cell phone functionality - especially if it used Bluetooth to connect to a cell phone headset and either Bluetooth or WiFi for internet access.
You don't need WAAS for that sort of accuracy. I have a Garmin GPSMAP195, and after they turned off Selective Availability a few years ago, I can look at my ground track after a flight and tell that I took off from the centerline but landed to the left or right of centerline.
With a good unobstructed view of the sky, tracking 10 sats, I see Estimated Probable Error values approaching 4-5 feet. Tell me you need more accuracy than that in a hiking GPS?
Me too - my wife told me to give my TiBook to my daughter and get a nice new AlBook.
Trusting Microsoft with your computing is like trusting your dog with a steak.
Major difference: It's usually possible to convince your boss not to trust a dog with a steak. At least until the dog starts a multi-billion dollar advertising campaign.
I forgot all about the warning label.
You've spurred me to look it up - according to this source
it weighed 52 pounds!
I used to have a PS/2 model 80 under my desk at work. IBM thoughfully put a large handle on the top so that when the urge to throw it through the window got too great, you could get a good grip on it.
Damn thing probably weighed 40 pounds.
It was unusual to see the spread between buy and sell markets be more than a few cents. And with the software that let you see the position on NASDAQ and all the other order books simultaneously, that spread was getting even smaller.
So I find it puzzling that traders wouldn't realize something was amiss with a $20 spread on a stock. I'm sure they did realize it was amiss, and there was a strong possibility that NASDAQ would break the trade, but they figured they'd go ahead with the trade just in case they could make some money before it was broken. It was, they lost money, and now they're crying.
BTW: Somebody asked what NASDAQ's software runs on. Mostly they use Suns, although there are some Windows systems, and possibly some SGIs.
And the project manager for Bob was punished in the worst way possible - they made her marry Bill Gates.
I thought the company name was "MobileBum". Damn sans-serif fonts.
And is it linked *anywhere* from the main page? I sure as hell can't find it.
Why is it that PostNuke, so many web sites, doesn't have any obvious way to find out WHAT THE FUCK THE PROJECT IS? The I can't find anything on that page that says what PostNuke is, or why I should care. If it's there, it's well hidden.
...is that once they realize that people can work from home in the same city, they'll start realizing that people can work from home in some underpaid third world hell hell and they'll save even more money.
I recently went back to a job that I'd had three years ago. Back then I'd made the mistake of posting to Usenet with that address. They reactivated the account, and between the time they reactivated it and the time I typed the userid into Mozilla Mail, I received 7 spams. This is for an account that been bouncing email for 3 years.
I also made up a bogus address and put it in the comment field of a web site, and it gets spam (that just bounces), and the spammers don't seem to care.
I honestly don't know what motivates spammers to send crap or empty messages.
The problem with many of those things is the same:
It takes too much energy to move something through the sky. Jetpacks, personal aircars and supersonic travel all have the same problem - it takes so much energy to do it that it would cost too much to do it for more than a stunt.
There's also the other problems:
1) Jetpacks also had the added problem of carrying all that fuel around - it's not much of a "personal jet pack" if you have to carry 500 pounds of fuel along.
2) In spite of what Moller says, you're never going to totally automate flying. Too many decisions to make. It's hard enough to get drivers to stay off the roads during a declared snow emergency, how hard do you think it would be to get a guy who'd just spent a million bucks on a sky car to not fly when the winds are strong, there are thunderstorms anywhere within 50 miles, freezing rain or hail? It's hard enough to keep general aviation pilots out of that sort of stuff, and we spend hours and hours studying weather.
I've got my iPod in a Marware case. The padding stops the irritating fingerprints all over the back of the case, and also I've dropped it dozens of times with no ill effect.
That's my experience as well. My second generation iPod lasts for a full work day, easily. I've had it crap out on the commute home once or twice, but only because I kept it going all day without hitting pause once.
I've worked many places that in the job interview mentioned Christmas bonuses as a possibility. Only one employer ever came through - and it was in the financial industry, so it was $11,000. Yes, really. Paid off the credit cards, bought a Titanium and took the wife to a fancy bed and breakfast for a couple of days.
Too bad the place was otherwise like taking a vacation in hell.
I work for a company that makes cameras and film. In spite of that, there is a HUGE sign when you come in the building reminding you that having unauthorized photographic equipment on site is grounds for firing. It was also in the agreement that I signed when I joined.
Due to corporate espionage, I would be absolutely amazed if Microsoft didn't have a similar clauses in the employment agreement that this loser signed.
And now he talks about legal recourses. Sorry, dude, you violated your employment agreement, you're boned.