I've tried the new version several times, and kept reverting to the old one for this feature alone. Drag to zoom allowed me to get from "whole planet" to "small city block" in about three steps - and under my control, and with very minimal bandwidth use. Search was only faster if you already knew either the name of your destination or the name of a nearby location. Drag-to-zoom is your special friend when you know where you want to go, but don't already have the labels for it.
Oh, and no carrier, despite having the "no contract price" on the phone will ever sell you a handset for that price unless you actually were in a contract and wanted an out-of-sync upgrade
As long as 'carrier' is 'major carrier' that is likely true. I know that many MVNOs don't limit themselves. PCMobile( http://www.pcmobile.ca/ ) is a small brand, with the large backing of Loblaws (a Canadian grocery empire). They have only a small selection of phones, and they are all locked. Their prepaid rides on the Bell network, and their postpaid is on the Telus network. But at least their rates are clear, and any time I have to phone support, it really appears that they have not offshored their call centre. They do have data rates for prepaid, up to $30 for 1GB (I know, I know), but at least it's there. Two potential concerns -- the phones are all carrier-locked - which is common across most carriers anyway (unlock on prepaid is available, should be on postpaid), and the prepaid cards are somewhat harder to find - unless you go to Loblaws or a related grocery store.
It's possible to roam with various options available, but watch out for the data charges -- looks like about $5/MB minimum (!!!).
As to the point of sales? For prepaid phones, you go to the store, check the display phones, pull the card for the phone of choice, and checkout which is where they actually get your phone and give it to you. That's it. The whole setup thing happens later, typically over the phone. I've seem similar results for a straight over the counter purchase from Virgin Mobile as well. Note that stores will try and get you to move to postpaid, because that way you pay more. Be polite, but firm, and if you aren't getting what your research said you should be able to get, leave.
Since it rides on Bell or Telus, coverage does not seem to be a problem. Base rates appear to all include number ID on calls, and voice mail. Watch the voicemail one carefully - some brands appear to have a good rate, until you discover that they *NEVER* include voicemail, and you're on the hook for an extra $10 a month.
In general, I would say that you want to leverage WiFi wherever you can -- it's getting to be quite common, and apps like the Android "WiFi Web Login" will often let your phone automatically reconnect to many WiFi locations in stores and restaurants. Lock down your apps so that you know for certain what is using mobile data. It's still going to be a bit of time sink to manage it -- but that's pretty much what the carriers want. Either you use the time to manage the pain yourself, or you pay them to make the pain go away.
But the standards around this aren't exactly models of clarity.
In general, *hostnames* must be characters. And DNS entries that point to websites should also conform to hostnames. But DNS strings can be *anything*. Yes, they can be arbitrary strings of bytes, as long as the top-level domain is valid. The null is legal. Keep in mind that the CA is signing a DNS entry, which may be used for something different than web security.
The problem, as actually stated in the summary, is in the clients. They think they have a character string - they don't. They have a byte buffer of a certain length, and the clients should not be using null-termination based software to process the buffer.
I think running Win98 has become the equivalent of owning a car so old it's now an antique.
There are certainly some ancient rustbuckets out there, shedding parts and stalling at every opportunity. But there are some that are kept clean and well maintained - which is, at this point, actually *more* work than running a newer system.
These aren't blindingly fast, they don't have modern styling, and certain newer addons will never work with them. But they'll still keep up in day-to-day use, and with a little extra smart maintenance, they're pretty reliable.
And - if well kept up, they will be hard to break into while parked.
Sorry - but this is Canada, and the Canadian Oxford Dictionary doesn't support the use of "hung" as a past tense of "hang". Up here, she would be hanged, and that's her only choice.
(Of course, since we have abolished the death penalty, this is all moot.)
People are finally able to buy singles again. How much of this drop is due simply to people only buying the two good tracks from an album and leaving the other eight behind?
"it would make it close to impossible to figure out which device on your LAN the traffic is coming from"
I want a stronger condition than that. I want it to be impossible to count the devices on my LAN. Random bits might make it impossible to count, but they also appear to reveal a lower limit on the number. In other words - by monitoring the IPv6 address stream, I can't tell if you have 5 devices or 500 devices - but I know you have at least 5. I don't want my devices to appear to be *more* devices - I want them to appear to be one.
To send anything, I need at least one device. I will admit to having one device. But sending information that implies something about the number of devices I have connected is needlessly leaking information about my network topology. I want all my devices to emulate being "one device", so that nothing about my network topology is revealed.
Not to mention your average consumer ISP, which, like a cable company, would love to start charging "per outlet".
Much as a NAT-less world might be easier to build and debug, I think I'm happier if my network connection is like my electric connection.
One connection delivers: all electric energy / all bits I can go up to a max of: 200 amps / 5 Mbps I might still be billed: by energy used / by gigabytes sent But I don't pay extra: for more outlets / for more devices I cover all the costs: of the electric panel / of the router
Handing someone else the information to break the above model is not something I want to do.
I'm hoping that the "no going back" was in part a victory for their security approach.
Simpler design, simpler solution, concentrate on "one good way" - less code per function, and less cross-hooks means less ways to screw it up internally and create new vulnerabilities. This is especially important since they appear to have completely re-written everything, meaning this is mostly fresh code.
Much bigger, I think, I the dropping of Outlook from the "home" version. Charging people $109 may make some of them take a second look at the wide range of freely available alternatives -- and if a number of them go that way, we all benefit from the improved security posture that comes with software diversity.
"Copying that mp3 is just like walking into a record shop, opening up a product, burning a copy of that product and putting it back on the shelf re-shrink wrapped."
In Canada, -- as long as the retailer doesn't object -- this is legal. There is NO copyright case. The retailer isn't going to like you mucking about with his stock, and taking advantage of his time and effort in making it available, so he's going to say "nope, you can't do that". Interestingly, some retailers do provide listening stations, so they will open a CD to let you hear it. If you were to copy the 'headphone output' onto another CD... well, it would make an interesting case.
But Canadian legislation is quite clear on this point. I don't need to own a CD to make a legal copy of that CD onto a blank CD. The reason is, of course, that the artist DOES get paid -- just not directly, and not because of my copy, but because of other measures in the marketplace.
And before you think there's a massive market opportunity waiting in Canada -- I have to make my own copy. Nobody is allowed to make it for me. And -- at the same time the blank CD levy was introduced, it became illegal to rent CDs.
Similarly, in Canada I can fill a CD with music copied from other CDs because the levy (C$0.21 per CD, built in to the price) goes to a copyright collective. More to the point -- if it's music on a CD, the owner CAN'T legally prevent me from making that copy. This is true even if I don't own the CD; I can borrow the original from a friend, make my copy, and return it.
There are many places under copyright strictures where the copyright holder doesn't get all the say they want or think they have.
Step 1) borrow from the library a CD - any artist Step 2) make a copy of that CD onto levied media for personal use Step 3) return the CD to the library
This is legal.
Note optional step 1: buy a CD from a store, and then return for a refund in step 3. This is still legal - for obvious reasons, many stores will not give refunds on CDs, only replacement on defective CDs.
The $0.21 levy from a blank CD goes to a copyright collective, which distributes the money to Canadian artists. The similarity to allofmp3 is that there they pay a Russian copyright collective (ROMS) not a Canadian one.
In neither case, if I copy or download an American artist, does the artist get any money. The artists/labels know where the money is going - its up to them to make a deal under the national laws that apply.
My understanding is that the U.S. labels asked the Canadian copyright collective for their cut. They were told that a reciprocal arrangement was a great idea, so as soon the labels could arrange for levies on U.S. blank CDs, the Canadians would be happy to do a deal. It wouldn't surprise me to find that ROMS has a similar arrangement - should the labels actually want to bring income for their artists, rather than just grab all the control they can.
> who the fuck cares if the web server goes down for the duration?
Your shareholders. You have a duty to care about their investment, not to ask them who the fuck cares.
This doesn't mean that safety doesn't come first. There are lots of dangerous jobs out there - manage the risk, and get the job done.
Furthermore, there are many businesses - things like banks, some public services - which people expect to be running no matter what. Telling a customer he can't get his money has the potential to make a pandemic situation even more severe.
Things we never saw the computer say to Data: "Commander Riker is in the shower." "Commander Riker is not to be disturbed tonight." "Commander Riker is asleep."
Things we never saw the computer say to the Captain: "Counsellor Troi asked that Commander Riker not be disturbed tonight."
The demands of a script to move the action forward mean that asynchronous conversations never happen, while in the real world, there is lots of reason for them. In addition, parts of Star Trek are a hold over from a time before ephemeral text on screens was widely understood. You always have to produce something understandable to most of your audience. I'd be really curious to know what people *thought* Spock saw inside that viewer.
Of course, if we can master good voice-to-text, then you can speak and I can read, or, with a good personalized voice encoder, you can type and I can listen. Then we'll move up to problems like they encountered in "Fire Upon The Deep".
Finally... somebody starting the right thread to figure this out.
On top of what you have done, there are two other things to consider...
1) On-demand vs. supply tank
On-demand heaters transfer more of the heated water out as heated water. Supply tank heaters have losses due to the heated water cooling down (and needing re-heating) before it is actually used. And, of course, usage patterns matter greatly - if you have a short spike demand for a volume larger than the tank, you have a problem. If you only use lots of heated water once per week, you have gross inefficiencies.
3) Peak-shifting electricity models
You show static prices for both gas and electric. I assume you know that these prices do flucuate over time, but that isn't usually a relevant factor for a homeowner. However, smart electric meters give the homeowner the option to peak-shift and move electric loads out of high-cost times of day to low-cost times of day, allowing for significant cost savings - depending on how much you change your behaviour, of course.
This influences the calculations in two ways...
First, the supply tank heater may be consuming much of its power at off-peak times. You might take a shower at 8AM, but that is "overnight electricity" that was mostly used to heat the water. A "set back thermostat" on the electric tank water heater could improve the efficiency even more, scaling back electricity consumption during the day when many people aren't home and the chance of suddenly needing hot water is quite low.
Second, if you move your hot water consumption activities into low-cost times of the day, there is the opportunity to shift even more water heating electric consumption along with it. This might generate even greater savings, while still allowing fully heated water at any time -- because sometimes, you do need a shower/bath during the day.
Noting that the company is a Canadian company, and that at least one province (Ontario) is planning for wide use of smart meters, this should be worked into the analysis.
3) Cost of changeover
Many people have pointed out that on-demand electric and gas heaters have been in use for a long time. However, it appears that they have two key features: (1) they are point of use, and/or (2) they require high power electric systems.
Either of these factors would make converting from an existing house-level heater to current on-demand a costly endeavour. In my house, there are 8 service points that require hot water. (Count your own; it's likely higher than you think.) That makes point-of-use conversion really expensive. And although many new homes in North America have 200 amp service (48kW), this is by no means common. Older non-updated homes might have 65amp (15kW), while even an updated house may only have 100 amp (24 kW). That means that an on-demand heater capable of supplying the house would likely be too large a demand for the usual electrical supply. If you need to include the cost of updating the electrical supply to the house, then you have a very expensive conversion.
We're missing a bunch of info here on the new unit -- but I doubt that they would have brought the unit to market if it was simply a more expensive variation on an equally capable resistance heating unit. If they've done their homework properly, all of the above factors (which provide an opportunity for an on-demand conversion) come together with a price point competitive with alternative solutions. If they *haven't* done their homework, then they are going to lose out in the market.
...and then the authors can claim the CRIA is trying to suppress the book every time the use phrases like "illegal P2P".
Re:If it ain't broke, wait, it's broke
on
Palm's Mistakes
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
While you might think the Palm devices weren't really powerful, compared to the vast majority of "organizers" that sold at low prices (that is - everything else besides the Newton) they were quite powerful and highly flexible. You could write software for them!
One thing not mentioned in the article is that cell carriers may not have liked the Palm precisely because it offered that flexibility, limited as it may have been. Carriers want to be solution providers, not platform supporters. If you need software on your mobile device, they want to be in the loop. The Palm devices work against that idea, making them a tougher sell to carrier buyers. Remember the first Windows phones from Orange - and the first thing the users did was hack them to allow users to install their own software?
The one item that truly irks me is the poor support for WiFi. The WiFi SD card was announced in early 2003. The Tungsten E came out in late 2003 - but it has never supported the WiFi cards. Palm in general seems to have given only a passing thought to wireless LAN support. That just won't fly anymore - heck, the NINTENDO has WiFi!!
Slashdot Mirror
Looks like a strong overlap with RFC 2801 - http://www.rfc-editor.org/info...
That would be "Internet Open Trading Protocol - IOTP Version 1.0, April 2000"
+1 to this!
I've tried the new version several times, and kept reverting to the old one for this feature alone. Drag to zoom allowed me to get from "whole planet" to "small city block" in about three steps - and under my control, and with very minimal bandwidth use. Search was only faster if you already knew either the name of your destination or the name of a nearby location. Drag-to-zoom is your special friend when you know where you want to go, but don't already have the labels for it.
Oh, and no carrier, despite having the "no contract price" on the phone will ever sell you a handset for that price unless you actually were in a contract and wanted an out-of-sync upgrade
As long as 'carrier' is 'major carrier' that is likely true. I know that many MVNOs don't limit themselves. PCMobile( http://www.pcmobile.ca/ ) is a small brand, with the large backing of Loblaws (a Canadian grocery empire). They have only a small selection of phones, and they are all locked. Their prepaid rides on the Bell network, and their postpaid is on the Telus network. But at least their rates are clear, and any time I have to phone support, it really appears that they have not offshored their call centre. They do have data rates for prepaid, up to $30 for 1GB (I know, I know), but at least it's there. Two potential concerns -- the phones are all carrier-locked - which is common across most carriers anyway (unlock on prepaid is available, should be on postpaid), and the prepaid cards are somewhat harder to find - unless you go to Loblaws or a related grocery store.
It's possible to roam with various options available, but watch out for the data charges -- looks like about $5/MB minimum (!!!).
As to the point of sales? For prepaid phones, you go to the store, check the display phones, pull the card for the phone of choice, and checkout which is where they actually get your phone and give it to you. That's it. The whole setup thing happens later, typically over the phone. I've seem similar results for a straight over the counter purchase from Virgin Mobile as well. Note that stores will try and get you to move to postpaid, because that way you pay more. Be polite, but firm, and if you aren't getting what your research said you should be able to get, leave.
Since it rides on Bell or Telus, coverage does not seem to be a problem. Base rates appear to all include number ID on calls, and voice mail. Watch the voicemail one carefully - some brands appear to have a good rate, until you discover that they *NEVER* include voicemail, and you're on the hook for an extra $10 a month.
In general, I would say that you want to leverage WiFi wherever you can -- it's getting to be quite common, and apps like the Android "WiFi Web Login" will often let your phone automatically reconnect to many WiFi locations in stores and restaurants. Lock down your apps so that you know for certain what is using mobile data. It's still going to be a bit of time sink to manage it -- but that's pretty much what the carriers want. Either you use the time to manage the pain yourself, or you pay them to make the pain go away.
... like arcade Gravitar. Where you can get wiped out on the menu screen.
No, they're not that stupid.
But the standards around this aren't exactly models of clarity.
In general, *hostnames* must be characters. And DNS entries that point to websites should also conform to hostnames. But DNS strings can be *anything*. Yes, they can be arbitrary strings of bytes, as long as the top-level domain is valid. The null is legal. Keep in mind that the CA is signing a DNS entry, which may be used for something different than web security.
The problem, as actually stated in the summary, is in the clients. They think they have a character string - they don't. They have a byte buffer of a certain length, and the clients should not be using null-termination based software to process the buffer.
I think running Win98 has become the equivalent of owning a car so old it's now an antique.
There are certainly some ancient rustbuckets out there, shedding parts and stalling at every opportunity. But there are some that are kept clean and well maintained - which is, at this point, actually *more* work than running a newer system.
These aren't blindingly fast, they don't have modern styling, and certain newer addons will never work with them. But they'll still keep up in day-to-day use, and with a little extra smart maintenance, they're pretty reliable.
And - if well kept up, they will be hard to break into while parked.
Telnet.
I'm upgrading to wget.
Is there such a thing out-out-Naziing?
Sorry - but this is Canada, and the Canadian Oxford Dictionary doesn't support the use of "hung" as a past tense of "hang". Up here, she would be hanged, and that's her only choice.
(Of course, since we have abolished the death penalty, this is all moot.)
gaah! Can't edit to save my life...
"broken/in crisis" and 'the best in the world' might actually BOTH be true!
Of course 'not broken'/'not in crisis' and 'the best in the world' might actually BOTH be true!
...but away from albums, too.
People are finally able to buy singles again. How much of this drop is due simply to people only buying the two good tracks from an album and leaving the other eight behind?
"it would make it close to impossible to figure out which device on your LAN the traffic is coming from"
I want a stronger condition than that. I want it to be impossible to count the devices on my LAN. Random bits might make it impossible to count, but they also appear to reveal a lower limit on the number. In other words - by monitoring the IPv6 address stream, I can't tell if you have 5 devices or 500 devices - but I know you have at least 5. I don't want my devices to appear to be *more* devices - I want them to appear to be one.
To send anything, I need at least one device. I will admit to having one device. But sending information that implies something about the number of devices I have connected is needlessly leaking information about my network topology. I want all my devices to emulate being "one device", so that nothing about my network topology is revealed.
Not to mention your average consumer ISP, which, like a cable company, would love to start charging "per outlet".
Much as a NAT-less world might be easier to build and debug, I think I'm happier if my network connection is like my electric connection.
One connection delivers: all electric energy / all bits
I can go up to a max of: 200 amps / 5 Mbps
I might still be billed: by energy used / by gigabytes sent
But I don't pay extra: for more outlets / for more devices
I cover all the costs: of the electric panel / of the router
Handing someone else the information to break the above model is not something I want to do.
I'm hoping that the "no going back" was in part a victory for their security approach.
Simpler design, simpler solution, concentrate on "one good way" - less code per function, and less cross-hooks means less ways to screw it up internally and create new vulnerabilities. This is especially important since they appear to have completely re-written everything, meaning this is mostly fresh code.
Much bigger, I think, I the dropping of Outlook from the "home" version. Charging people $109 may make some of them take a second look at the wide range of freely available alternatives -- and if a number of them go that way, we all benefit from the improved security posture that comes with software diversity.
(yeah, old thread, what the heck....)
... well, it would make an interesting case.
"Copying that mp3 is just like walking into a record shop, opening up a product, burning a copy of that product and putting it back on the shelf re-shrink wrapped."
In Canada, -- as long as the retailer doesn't object -- this is legal. There is NO copyright case. The retailer isn't going to like you mucking about with his stock, and taking advantage of his time and effort in making it available, so he's going to say "nope, you can't do that". Interestingly, some retailers do provide listening stations, so they will open a CD to let you hear it. If you were to copy the 'headphone output' onto another CD
But Canadian legislation is quite clear on this point. I don't need to own a CD to make a legal copy of that CD onto a blank CD. The reason is, of course, that the artist DOES get paid -- just not directly, and not because of my copy, but because of other measures in the marketplace.
And before you think there's a massive market opportunity waiting in Canada -- I have to make my own copy. Nobody is allowed to make it for me. And -- at the same time the blank CD levy was introduced, it became illegal to rent CDs.
"... THEY get to decide how much they want to sell their product for..."
Not always, and not always even in the U.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statutory_license
Similarly, in Canada I can fill a CD with music copied from other CDs because the levy (C$0.21 per CD, built in to the price) goes to a copyright collective. More to the point -- if it's music on a CD, the owner CAN'T legally prevent me from making that copy. This is true even if I don't own the CD; I can borrow the original from a friend, make my copy, and return it.
There are many places under copyright strictures where the copyright holder doesn't get all the say they want or think they have.
In Canada, I can ...
Step 1) borrow from the library a CD - any artist
Step 2) make a copy of that CD onto levied media for personal use
Step 3) return the CD to the library
This is legal.
Note optional step 1: buy a CD from a store, and then return for a refund in step 3. This is still legal - for obvious reasons, many stores will not give refunds on CDs, only replacement on defective CDs.
The $0.21 levy from a blank CD goes to a copyright collective, which distributes the money to Canadian artists. The similarity to allofmp3 is that there they pay a Russian copyright collective (ROMS) not a Canadian one.
In neither case, if I copy or download an American artist, does the artist get any money. The artists/labels know where the money is going - its up to them to make a deal under the national laws that apply.
My understanding is that the U.S. labels asked the Canadian copyright collective for their cut. They were told that a reciprocal arrangement was a great idea, so as soon the labels could arrange for levies on U.S. blank CDs, the Canadians would be happy to do a deal. It wouldn't surprise me to find that ROMS has a similar arrangement - should the labels actually want to bring income for their artists, rather than just grab all the control they can.
...maybe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quiet_Earth is more informative.
... hmm)
(not in the habit of checking Wikipedia for movie details
Haven't I heard that one before?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089869/
> who the fuck cares if the web server goes down for the duration?
Your shareholders. You have a duty to care about their investment, not to ask them who the fuck cares.
This doesn't mean that safety doesn't come first. There are lots of dangerous jobs out there - manage the risk, and get the job done.
Furthermore, there are many businesses - things like banks, some public services - which people expect to be running no matter what. Telling a customer he can't get his money has the potential to make a pandemic situation even more severe.
Re: Star Trek Communicator
Things we never saw the computer say to Data:
"Commander Riker is in the shower."
"Commander Riker is not to be disturbed tonight."
"Commander Riker is asleep."
Things we never saw the computer say to the Captain:
"Counsellor Troi asked that Commander Riker not be disturbed tonight."
The demands of a script to move the action forward mean that asynchronous conversations never happen, while in the real world, there is lots of reason for them. In addition, parts of Star Trek are a hold over from a time before ephemeral text on screens was widely understood. You always have to produce something understandable to most of your audience. I'd be really curious to know what people *thought* Spock saw inside that viewer.
Of course, if we can master good voice-to-text, then you can speak and I can read, or, with a good personalized voice encoder, you can type and I can listen. Then we'll move up to problems like they encountered in "Fire Upon The Deep".
I suggest the "Artist" field. "Album" might make more sense semantically, but "Artist" is far more likely to be displayed by software or devices.
Finally ... somebody starting the right thread to figure this out.
On top of what you have done, there are two other things to consider...
1) On-demand vs. supply tank
On-demand heaters transfer more of the heated water out as heated water. Supply tank heaters have losses due to the heated water cooling down (and needing re-heating) before it is actually used. And, of course, usage patterns matter greatly - if you have a short spike demand for a volume larger than the tank, you have a problem. If you only use lots of heated water once per week, you have gross inefficiencies.
3) Peak-shifting electricity models
You show static prices for both gas and electric. I assume you know that these prices do flucuate over time, but that isn't usually a relevant factor for a homeowner. However, smart electric meters give the homeowner the option to peak-shift and move electric loads out of high-cost times of day to low-cost times of day, allowing for significant cost savings - depending on how much you change your behaviour, of course.
This influences the calculations in two ways...
First, the supply tank heater may be consuming much of its power at off-peak times. You might take a shower at 8AM, but that is "overnight electricity" that was mostly used to heat the water. A "set back thermostat" on the electric tank water heater could improve the efficiency even more, scaling back electricity consumption during the day when many people aren't home and the chance of suddenly needing hot water is quite low.
Second, if you move your hot water consumption activities into low-cost times of the day, there is the opportunity to shift even more water heating electric consumption along with it. This might generate even greater savings, while still allowing fully heated water at any time -- because sometimes, you do need a shower/bath during the day.
Noting that the company is a Canadian company, and that at least one province (Ontario) is planning for wide use of smart meters, this should be worked into the analysis.
3) Cost of changeover
Many people have pointed out that on-demand electric and gas heaters have been in use for a long time. However, it appears that they have two key features: (1) they are point of use, and/or (2) they require high power electric systems.
Either of these factors would make converting from an existing house-level heater to current on-demand a costly endeavour. In my house, there are 8 service points that require hot water. (Count your own; it's likely higher than you think.) That makes point-of-use conversion really expensive. And although many new homes in North America have 200 amp service (48kW), this is by no means common. Older non-updated homes might have 65amp (15kW), while even an updated house may only have 100 amp (24 kW). That means that an on-demand heater capable of supplying the house would likely be too large a demand for the usual electrical supply. If you need to include the cost of updating the electrical supply to the house, then you have a very expensive conversion.
We're missing a bunch of info here on the new unit -- but I doubt that they would have brought the unit to market if it was simply a more expensive variation on an equally capable resistance heating unit. If they've done their homework properly, all of the above factors (which provide an opportunity for an on-demand conversion) come together with a price point competitive with alternative solutions. If they *haven't* done their homework, then they are going to lose out in the market.
...and then the authors can claim the CRIA is trying to suppress the book every time the use phrases like "illegal P2P".
While you might think the Palm devices weren't really powerful, compared to the vast majority of "organizers" that sold at low prices (that is - everything else besides the Newton) they were quite powerful and highly flexible. You could write software for them!
One thing not mentioned in the article is that cell carriers may not have liked the Palm precisely because it offered that flexibility, limited as it may have been. Carriers want to be solution providers, not platform supporters. If you need software on your mobile device, they want to be in the loop. The Palm devices work against that idea, making them a tougher sell to carrier buyers. Remember the first Windows phones from Orange - and the first thing the users did was hack them to allow users to install their own software?
The one item that truly irks me is the poor support for WiFi. The WiFi SD card was announced in early 2003. The Tungsten E came out in late 2003 - but it has never supported the WiFi cards. Palm in general seems to have given only a passing thought to wireless LAN support. That just won't fly anymore - heck, the NINTENDO has WiFi!!