Oh, I knew I was feeding a troll there. Yes, writing / prototyping something yourself can give you insight, but as you said that's more from an academic sense, and less from a business viewpoint. And that's great in college, and I expect those students to learn via pain -- it's a wonderful teacher. (Plus I don't have to pay for them to learn those lessons!)
But TFA is all about a business decision, where a developer should be expected to know at least something about the available technologies in the problem domain. (I was kind of surprised he wasn't looking at iBatis, but that wasn't in the question he was asking.) Rather than writing his own data layer as a prototype, he'd be much better off writing little test harnesses to exercise Hibernate to learn how it works and to get some experience with its peculiarities.
It's also difficult to know exactly when to give up on your prototype solution and switch to a supported package. I know I used to find it hard after investing a lot of time in a piece of code to just throw it away and bring in somebody else's library. These days, I look at that and say "well DAMN, there's an old chunk of code I don't have to maintain anymore." I now think of it as a bonus to use someone else's tested and documented code.
For the most part, I find the bugs I encounter when using libraries like this come from my own incomplete understanding of the foreign API. Once I understand the usage patterns, though, things tend to smooth out fast.
I can't wait to have my cordless phone screw up my TV signal! Wee!
Your new phone won't interfere with your TV, as your TV does not use this spectrum. Your new phone will only interfere with other devices currently using this band. It's no different than your 2.4GHz phone interfering with your WiFi today.
The reason this is such a "fun" decision is that a large number of wireless microphones (used by entertainers, churches, actors in theatres, musicians, etc.) have been illegally occupying this spectrum for many years. That's right, they've been squatting spectrum that they should not have been using, and when this announcement came out all these "performers" started whining that they'd have to buy something else.
I think this is the ideal punishment for those lawbreakers: too freakin' bad, you should have been purchasing and licensing COMPLIANT equipment all along, morons! Now you get to pay for it twice! It makes me happy.
Always code from scratch. The time saved from complete understanding of your own code is hard to describe.
Well, that's certainly the least maintainable answer I've ever seen on the subject.
If someone has to come along after you and maintain the system, how do they know what it does? Did you document it perfectly? Of course not -- you wrote it, you know how it works, so you'll invest nothing in educating others.
When you use a library, framework, or a reusable whatever, not only do you get the functionality, but you get the available documentation and a potential pool of developers who are already familiar with that technology.
I've seen an awful lot of NIH (Not Invented Here) syndrome in this business, and I've seen so many "look, I wrote my own string class, isn't it neat?" that I lost count. No, it's not neat. The STL has provided strings in C++ since 1994 -- if you're writing one in 2008, it's because you're so incompetent you don't know the full language. And the same is true for many of the major technologies. I'm not saying Hibernate is or was the best choice for your shop in this exact situation, but it was likely a better choice than writing your own.
There's actually a solution that's kind of like a compromise, but offers some advantages: write a thin wrapper around the technology. You can either write a straight 1:1 wrapper, or create your own API, customized to be something you're comfortable coding against. You can then replace the technology with something better, when that something better comes along, and all you have to do is change the wrapper. The other reason this is a good choice is you can provide a mock object replacement for your API and run unit tests against it without bringing up an entire web environment.
A V5xx would have been a large, clumsy step down from my little Sony Ericsson T637, and software-wise they came with the exact same crappy OS and applications that came in the RAZR anyway. Their Bluetooth stack was equally unstable on both platforms. That's what started this thread: Motorola's OS and applications have basically sucked for many years, and only their MOTOMAGX Linux offering has shown any improvement.
Regarding the simultaneous connectivity issue, I have quite a bit of experience with Bluetooth, and found it entirely depends on the device. Most phones have limited CPUs and power budgets, and
deal with only one device at a time. More capable devices (such as notebook computers) can support multiple devices, such as a simultaneous network tether to a phone and a Bluetooth mouse. Some phones are better at "sharing" a single connection -- Sony Ericsson has a clever mode that tries to find a headset at the start of ringing, and failing that switches to an audible ringer. The advantage is that the phone can be in session with a different device (a tethered network connection, for example) while in range of a handsfree car kit. It gives most of the utility of a multiple connection device without the extra overhead in the phone.
I've found most of the highly portable devices have very poor control interfaces (a pushbutton or two and a blinking light.) This makes it inconvenient to rapidly switch a stereo headset between different hosts, such as a phone and a computer. Pairing is almost universally inconvenient, so re-pairing is an undesirable solution.
Anyway, I've become a total Bluetooth junkie. If there's an option, I won't buy a portable electronic device without it. Since it made its debut, I've had Bluetooth in my last three phones, an earbud, two A2DP stereo headsets, a car kit, a car stereo, at least five PC adapters, a home audio I/O interface, two Palm devices, and a travel mouse. In terms of reliability, I'd rank the old Sony Ericsson phone as the most effective and easy to use of the phones. The Z6 is next, followed by the KRZR and the RAZR at the bottom of the stability curve. The Microsoft mouse is rock solid, and the Motorola stereo headphones are usable, but the S9 fails at reception (the HT-820s sound fine but are so butt-ugly that a troll like me feels like a geek wearing them.) The Kenwood car stereo absolutely sucks in terms of usability (Bluetooth licensed from Parrot,) especially when compared to the Sony Ericsson car kit.
The first PC adapters used to suck mightily, (I had a couple of almost worthless Belkins) but the last few (Motorola, Zoom and Targus) have been relatively stable (all three of those use the latest Widcomm drivers.) XP Service pack 2 finally "mostly" stabilized Bluetooth in the OS. And 64-bit Vista Bluetooth support has been completely bug-free for me. Unsurprisingly every PC adapter I've ever tried has had a near-perfect and seamless implementation on various Apples, including iMacs and a G4. Linux support, while slow to support every device, has been very good.
So yeah, Bluetooth is good, and still has a lot of promise. But it has a long way to go yet.
Oh, yeah, it was indeed a crappy safe. I think he said it was a Home Depot fire safe. They are designed only for fire protection, and not real anti-burglar security. But Joe Homeowner has a hard time telling the difference when everything is named "safe".
Consumer grade fire safes are really just sheet steel covering a concrete or plaster thermal insulation layer. Peel back the skin with a cold chisel or saw, break up the aggregate beneath with a hammer, then pierce the inner layer and you're inside. I assume it takes at least a few minutes, but these guys had all day while the neighbor was at work. And they obviously didn't care how many tools they wrecked in the process.
AFAIK, in most localities an automated system is not permitted to call 911 directly. You're better off having a cheap prepaid cell phone call your cell phone so you can then call the police / fire.
But you'd better have a lot of confidence in your alarm system. Most municipalities will charge you for the first few false alarms, and will then either force you to remove the system or charge you with a public nuisance misdemeanor.
While he was at work, a neighbor's house was broken into this spring. The burglars entered through his attached garage, and used the victim's own power tools to then open his safe right in his bedroom.
I'd say those burglars are keeping a lid on their costs.
( If they entered my house, with any luck they'd fix my circular saw for me before discovering I have no safe. )
ADT sent me a great* scare ad a few years back. It read something like "SUMMER IS BURGLAR SEASON! DID YOU KNOW THAT 28% OF ALL BURGLARIES OCCUR BETWEEN MEMORIAL DAY AND LABOR DAY?"
Well, I know that on average about 28% of all days in a year occur between Memorial Day and Labor Day. That either means the burglary rate is essentially flat year-round, or that any rise in the rate at some other time of year is offset by a corresponding decline in the rate at another point in the year. But in no case does any of the math yield the insight that makes summer "burglar season."
* by great I mean so stupid that it stood head and shoulders above the rest of their stupid ads.
The broadcast flag was defeated (which isn't to say that it won't be resurrected in the future, but there's way too much silicon out there which ignores it for that to be a practical matter for a long time).
Are you sure about that? My understanding was most recorders were set up to respect the flag and based those on the pending standard for the flag. There were only a few cards (Hauppauge made one) that were released that explicitly didn't include support for the flag.
At least that was true in the days prior to the defeat of the broadcast flag. I don't know about cards or recording equipment manufactured since that time.
You bought the wrong phone. The RAZR was intended as a fashion phone, which is one obvious argument; but another is that it was intended to be used with a headset (bluetooth or no) in the closed position..
I didn't buy the wrong phone, I bought the first RAZR when they came out because Bluetooth was a requirement for me even back then. And I've used a lot of cell phones with a variety of headsets and handsfree car kits. Absolutely none of them require me to interact with the phones, closed or open, in any way. All controlling of the phone is handled through the headset controls. There has never been a need to access the phone's buttons.
I'm still waiting for someone to offer me a cellphone as a constellation of bluetooth devices; one keypad/display/phone, one camera, one headset, one speaker-only for the other ear. I'm pissed at my RAZR V3i (whose hinge has just inexplicably begun to flop about, without receiving any recent trauma) for the general poor quality of the software, but I'm not really sure what I should get that's anywhere near as small and that would suck less.
I'm not sure what you're asking about with the "constellation" of devices. All those devices are independently available today (apart from the two-separate-device headphone thing.) The LG Decoy even incorporates a Bluetooth headset into the phone body, which detaches for use. Or Bug Labs offers a truly modular phone, into which you can plug four additional peripherals: GPS, camera, motion sensor, and touch screen are all available now. And I'd really like the OpenMoko Neo Freerunner, but it doesn't have EDGE.
And my Z6 is still tiny. It's about 8mm narrower than my RAZR, but is 2mm thicker and 7mm taller. Plus, I bought it direct from Motorola so it's not locked to any carrier, and is fully international. So there should be plenty of choices out there for you.
For the most part, their hardware usability has been improving. I intensely disliked the stainless steel cut-out buttons on the RAZR V1 (my fingernail would slip along the digit edges and scrape, giving me that fingernails-on-chalkboard feeling) but their later models have silicone filled them from behind, leaving smooth buttons with raised divider lines, and they raised the digit 5. The keypad is now very usable.
I fully blame the RAZR's "phone edge" buttons annoying behavior on the software, not the hardware. When you shut the phone because you don't want it to work any more, how freaking hard is it for them to disable ALL the buttons? Like you, that was my biggest peeve about the whole RAZR. They disabled the buttons that were protected beneath the now-closed phone (brilliant!), but left the buttons along the edge active (morons!) More than once I had my seat belt buckle switch the phone from "ring" to "silent" only to then miss an important call. I downloaded OS patches and hacked the seems and eventually found a way to "kind of" disable those edge buttons so I could live with the phone, but that further demonstrated the worst of their stupidity. The Z6 also does not have that problem, by the way.
They've learned. They've improved the usability of the hardware with every release. MOTOMAGX has been far more stable than the previous Motorola operating systems, but nothing to write home about. It has a much prettier interface. The address book is sane. The music player is far better and faster than the KRZR's music player (but corrupts its database with annoying frequency.) And Opera is a very nice little browser. Now, if they could just get the memory leaks in their JRE fixed and their stupid Bluetooth stack to work 100% of the time instead of 90% of the time, (plus allow me the choice to remain discoverable full-time) I'd be thrilled.
I just don't know if this will be my last Motorola phone. Android's not there yet, so I'm not ready to switch that way. I intensely dislike Apple for their complete and total proprietary *everything*. iTunes and my iPod Touch have been nightmares of lockdowns and non-portability, so I'll never buy another one of those. Maybe the new Motorola Android will be the magic device.
Maybe this means they'll finally deliver a non-buggy app suite. I think Motorola has been suffering because of the quality of their software. I have had very few problems with the hardware I've owned that weren't software based. (I don't blame Motorola for the broken hinge on my son's RAZR.) I like that they have adopted many standards, such as mini-USB connectors on every device that are used for both data and charging, they've been a big supporter of the Bluetooth SIG, and their attempt to go with Linux (even though they kind of went off on their own with MotoMAGX.) I even bought a Z6 from them earlier this year for geeky reasons: the Linux OS and the fact that they sell them unlocked directly to consumers.
I hope that they do survive their current turmoil, and an Android stack is pretty exciting (even though it's a year late) because that promises a large suite of apps.
Not at all pointless. It just depends on the circumstances. I remember taking a picture in a hotel back in the 1980s, catching a photo of the Hollerith punched card key the maids used to open every door on the floor, and thinking "if I were a thief, this would be too easy."
A professional thief could hang around resort hotels with a camera and completely blend in. A surreptitious photo of the maid's key, a few minutes of filing, test it out in the privacy of your own room's door lock, and let the looting begin. Lather, rinse, head to the next hotel down the strip, and repeat.
Like I keep saying about every security hole, just because YOU can't think of a malicious use or a way to abuse a security hole doesn't mean someone else can't.
I think this was a part of the legal strategy to go early. Regardless of verdict, it worked to his advantage to have a decision before the elections. If he was found innocent, he'd have no problem with the election. If found guilty, he has the conviction done before George Bush leaves office, so he will be pardoned before having to serve time. The Republican loyalty code ensures it.
Justice would have been served ONLY IF the jury had hung, dragging the trial out beyond Obama's inauguration. And that didn't happen.
In those experiments did the opiate blocker truly block only the opiates, or does it work on the dopamine level? A study has shown that a dopamine receptor antagonist can interfere with the function of the opiates, so unless the opiate blocker was known to only match the opiates being given, it's possible the blockage agent also blocked the dopamines generated by the placebo effect.
What's funnier is the Faux News spin on the dispensing of placebos. "About half of American doctors in a new study regularly give their patients placebo pills without telling them."
Wow. You've sure demonstrated a firm grasp of the 'placebo effect', Faux news! What's next, "Half of all bank robbers aren't told the police will respond when the alarms are tripped?" Freakin' geniuses over there.
Change your NoScript settings to always temporarily allow Full Domains (or even Base 2nd Level domains if you're ok with that) and you'll find very few sites give you reason to whitelist or blacklist anything else (apart from the embedded links to Youtube videos that seem to litter the web.)
In addition to NoScript I run Flashblock and Adblock Plus, too. I find pages load far faster for me in Firefox than they do in IE.
I'm curious, why does the lack of H20 affect the alcohol's ability to kill the mold? Does it not absorb it without the water content? My understanding is that pure alcohol is a very effective sterilizing agent.
If that's the case, perhaps this guy should use the 66% isopropyl alcohol first to clean and sterilize the board, and then follow it with a 99% isopropyl alcohol rinse to absorb and remove any remaining water?
Either way, I still think he's screwed because of the electrolytic capacitors. Somebody further down in the comments suggested he not spend a lot of time on this because it's likely that none of it's salvageable. Depending on the replacement cost of the electronics that were immersed, that's looking like really good advice. (Although of all the parts on a modern board that I could personally replace, electrolytic caps are certainly among the easiest.)
No! Bleach BAD. Bleach will oxidize all the metals, including the ones you thought couldn't rust!
I have washed boards in the dishwasher before (no soap!) but that was for spilled liquids. With the presence of mold, you have a different problem.
First, remove any batteries on the board (coin batteries are common,) as they create a sparking hazard. Use pure isopropyl alcohol (not the 66% stuff) which will mix with remaining water and should help you both clean up and kill the mold. I'd start working over an empty pan, and pour alcohol over it as I cleaned it. Brush everything possible with a natural fiber brush (not a plastic bristled brush that may dissolve.) Get under components with a pipe cleaner. And no smoking around the alcohol, of course! When it's done, drain it. If you have access to it, thoroughly blow it dry with dried compressed air (air from an ordinary shop compressor will contain water and/or oil.)
Once the visible alcohol is gone, you'll still need to dry the board. It will take time, warmth, and air movement. An oven at the "keep warm" setting (no more than 170 degrees) shouldn't damage the plastics, but not while it's still evaporating alcohol fumes. A fan and some incandescent light bulbs (desk lamps up close) would probably do just as good. Warm sunshine is very good, too (and helps kill mold) but the humidity outside is usually pretty variable, so you wouldn't want it to remain outside in the evening to collect dew.
However, be prepared for disappointment. If there are electrolytic capacitors on your board, there's a good chance they were already destroyed by the water. They are not typically sealed to ward off immersion in liquids.
Dead fan -- I'm sure that's a problem with an OIL-COOLED box. I suppose the extreme PC users you know would also complain that they wouldn't be able to vacuum the dust from their heat sinks, too.
Now, a dead oil circulation impeller, that's a completely different animal.
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Oh, I knew I was feeding a troll there. Yes, writing / prototyping something yourself can give you insight, but as you said that's more from an academic sense, and less from a business viewpoint. And that's great in college, and I expect those students to learn via pain -- it's a wonderful teacher. (Plus I don't have to pay for them to learn those lessons!)
But TFA is all about a business decision, where a developer should be expected to know at least something about the available technologies in the problem domain. (I was kind of surprised he wasn't looking at iBatis, but that wasn't in the question he was asking.) Rather than writing his own data layer as a prototype, he'd be much better off writing little test harnesses to exercise Hibernate to learn how it works and to get some experience with its peculiarities.
It's also difficult to know exactly when to give up on your prototype solution and switch to a supported package. I know I used to find it hard after investing a lot of time in a piece of code to just throw it away and bring in somebody else's library. These days, I look at that and say "well DAMN, there's an old chunk of code I don't have to maintain anymore." I now think of it as a bonus to use someone else's tested and documented code.
For the most part, I find the bugs I encounter when using libraries like this come from my own incomplete understanding of the foreign API. Once I understand the usage patterns, though, things tend to smooth out fast.
I can't wait to have my cordless phone screw up my TV signal! Wee!
Your new phone won't interfere with your TV, as your TV does not use this spectrum. Your new phone will only interfere with other devices currently using this band. It's no different than your 2.4GHz phone interfering with your WiFi today.
The reason this is such a "fun" decision is that a large number of wireless microphones (used by entertainers, churches, actors in theatres, musicians, etc.) have been illegally occupying this spectrum for many years. That's right, they've been squatting spectrum that they should not have been using, and when this announcement came out all these "performers" started whining that they'd have to buy something else.
I think this is the ideal punishment for those lawbreakers: too freakin' bad, you should have been purchasing and licensing COMPLIANT equipment all along, morons! Now you get to pay for it twice! It makes me happy.
Always code from scratch. The time saved from complete understanding of your own code is hard to describe.
Well, that's certainly the least maintainable answer I've ever seen on the subject.
If someone has to come along after you and maintain the system, how do they know what it does? Did you document it perfectly? Of course not -- you wrote it, you know how it works, so you'll invest nothing in educating others.
When you use a library, framework, or a reusable whatever, not only do you get the functionality, but you get the available documentation and a potential pool of developers who are already familiar with that technology.
I've seen an awful lot of NIH (Not Invented Here) syndrome in this business, and I've seen so many "look, I wrote my own string class, isn't it neat?" that I lost count. No, it's not neat. The STL has provided strings in C++ since 1994 -- if you're writing one in 2008, it's because you're so incompetent you don't know the full language. And the same is true for many of the major technologies. I'm not saying Hibernate is or was the best choice for your shop in this exact situation, but it was likely a better choice than writing your own.
There's actually a solution that's kind of like a compromise, but offers some advantages: write a thin wrapper around the technology. You can either write a straight 1:1 wrapper, or create your own API, customized to be something you're comfortable coding against. You can then replace the technology with something better, when that something better comes along, and all you have to do is change the wrapper. The other reason this is a good choice is you can provide a mock object replacement for your API and run unit tests against it without bringing up an entire web environment.
Too bad it chose today to bloom, what with the election and all. Next year probably would have been better.
Are you kidding? I cannot think of a more perfect day to celebrate by the blossoming of a flower known for its corrupt stench.
A V5xx would have been a large, clumsy step down from my little Sony Ericsson T637, and software-wise they came with the exact same crappy OS and applications that came in the RAZR anyway. Their Bluetooth stack was equally unstable on both platforms. That's what started this thread: Motorola's OS and applications have basically sucked for many years, and only their MOTOMAGX Linux offering has shown any improvement.
Regarding the simultaneous connectivity issue, I have quite a bit of experience with Bluetooth, and found it entirely depends on the device. Most phones have limited CPUs and power budgets, and deal with only one device at a time. More capable devices (such as notebook computers) can support multiple devices, such as a simultaneous network tether to a phone and a Bluetooth mouse. Some phones are better at "sharing" a single connection -- Sony Ericsson has a clever mode that tries to find a headset at the start of ringing, and failing that switches to an audible ringer. The advantage is that the phone can be in session with a different device (a tethered network connection, for example) while in range of a handsfree car kit. It gives most of the utility of a multiple connection device without the extra overhead in the phone.
I've found most of the highly portable devices have very poor control interfaces (a pushbutton or two and a blinking light.) This makes it inconvenient to rapidly switch a stereo headset between different hosts, such as a phone and a computer. Pairing is almost universally inconvenient, so re-pairing is an undesirable solution.
Anyway, I've become a total Bluetooth junkie. If there's an option, I won't buy a portable electronic device without it. Since it made its debut, I've had Bluetooth in my last three phones, an earbud, two A2DP stereo headsets, a car kit, a car stereo, at least five PC adapters, a home audio I/O interface, two Palm devices, and a travel mouse. In terms of reliability, I'd rank the old Sony Ericsson phone as the most effective and easy to use of the phones. The Z6 is next, followed by the KRZR and the RAZR at the bottom of the stability curve. The Microsoft mouse is rock solid, and the Motorola stereo headphones are usable, but the S9 fails at reception (the HT-820s sound fine but are so butt-ugly that a troll like me feels like a geek wearing them.) The Kenwood car stereo absolutely sucks in terms of usability (Bluetooth licensed from Parrot,) especially when compared to the Sony Ericsson car kit.
The first PC adapters used to suck mightily, (I had a couple of almost worthless Belkins) but the last few (Motorola, Zoom and Targus) have been relatively stable (all three of those use the latest Widcomm drivers.) XP Service pack 2 finally "mostly" stabilized Bluetooth in the OS. And 64-bit Vista Bluetooth support has been completely bug-free for me. Unsurprisingly every PC adapter I've ever tried has had a near-perfect and seamless implementation on various Apples, including iMacs and a G4. Linux support, while slow to support every device, has been very good.
So yeah, Bluetooth is good, and still has a lot of promise. But it has a long way to go yet.
Oh, yeah, it was indeed a crappy safe. I think he said it was a Home Depot fire safe. They are designed only for fire protection, and not real anti-burglar security. But Joe Homeowner has a hard time telling the difference when everything is named "safe".
Consumer grade fire safes are really just sheet steel covering a concrete or plaster thermal insulation layer. Peel back the skin with a cold chisel or saw, break up the aggregate beneath with a hammer, then pierce the inner layer and you're inside. I assume it takes at least a few minutes, but these guys had all day while the neighbor was at work. And they obviously didn't care how many tools they wrecked in the process.
I told them to stay off my damn lawn!
AFAIK, in most localities an automated system is not permitted to call 911 directly. You're better off having a cheap prepaid cell phone call your cell phone so you can then call the police / fire.
But you'd better have a lot of confidence in your alarm system. Most municipalities will charge you for the first few false alarms, and will then either force you to remove the system or charge you with a public nuisance misdemeanor.
While he was at work, a neighbor's house was broken into this spring. The burglars entered through his attached garage, and used the victim's own power tools to then open his safe right in his bedroom.
I'd say those burglars are keeping a lid on their costs.
( If they entered my house, with any luck they'd fix my circular saw for me before discovering I have no safe. )
ADT sent me a great* scare ad a few years back. It read something like "SUMMER IS BURGLAR SEASON! DID YOU KNOW THAT 28% OF ALL BURGLARIES OCCUR BETWEEN MEMORIAL DAY AND LABOR DAY?"
Well, I know that on average about 28% of all days in a year occur between Memorial Day and Labor Day. That either means the burglary rate is essentially flat year-round, or that any rise in the rate at some other time of year is offset by a corresponding decline in the rate at another point in the year. But in no case does any of the math yield the insight that makes summer "burglar season."
* by great I mean so stupid that it stood head and shoulders above the rest of their stupid ads.
The broadcast flag was defeated (which isn't to say that it won't be resurrected in the future, but there's way too much silicon out there which ignores it for that to be a practical matter for a long time).
Are you sure about that? My understanding was most recorders were set up to respect the flag and based those on the pending standard for the flag. There were only a few cards (Hauppauge made one) that were released that explicitly didn't include support for the flag.
At least that was true in the days prior to the defeat of the broadcast flag. I don't know about cards or recording equipment manufactured since that time.
You bought the wrong phone. The RAZR was intended as a fashion phone, which is one obvious argument; but another is that it was intended to be used with a headset (bluetooth or no) in the closed position..
I didn't buy the wrong phone, I bought the first RAZR when they came out because Bluetooth was a requirement for me even back then. And I've used a lot of cell phones with a variety of headsets and handsfree car kits. Absolutely none of them require me to interact with the phones, closed or open, in any way. All controlling of the phone is handled through the headset controls. There has never been a need to access the phone's buttons.
I'm still waiting for someone to offer me a cellphone as a constellation of bluetooth devices; one keypad/display/phone, one camera, one headset, one speaker-only for the other ear. I'm pissed at my RAZR V3i (whose hinge has just inexplicably begun to flop about, without receiving any recent trauma) for the general poor quality of the software, but I'm not really sure what I should get that's anywhere near as small and that would suck less.
I'm not sure what you're asking about with the "constellation" of devices. All those devices are independently available today (apart from the two-separate-device headphone thing.) The LG Decoy even incorporates a Bluetooth headset into the phone body, which detaches for use. Or Bug Labs offers a truly modular phone, into which you can plug four additional peripherals: GPS, camera, motion sensor, and touch screen are all available now. And I'd really like the OpenMoko Neo Freerunner, but it doesn't have EDGE.
And my Z6 is still tiny. It's about 8mm narrower than my RAZR, but is 2mm thicker and 7mm taller. Plus, I bought it direct from Motorola so it's not locked to any carrier, and is fully international. So there should be plenty of choices out there for you.
For the most part, their hardware usability has been improving. I intensely disliked the stainless steel cut-out buttons on the RAZR V1 (my fingernail would slip along the digit edges and scrape, giving me that fingernails-on-chalkboard feeling) but their later models have silicone filled them from behind, leaving smooth buttons with raised divider lines, and they raised the digit 5. The keypad is now very usable.
I fully blame the RAZR's "phone edge" buttons annoying behavior on the software, not the hardware. When you shut the phone because you don't want it to work any more, how freaking hard is it for them to disable ALL the buttons? Like you, that was my biggest peeve about the whole RAZR. They disabled the buttons that were protected beneath the now-closed phone (brilliant!), but left the buttons along the edge active (morons!) More than once I had my seat belt buckle switch the phone from "ring" to "silent" only to then miss an important call. I downloaded OS patches and hacked the seems and eventually found a way to "kind of" disable those edge buttons so I could live with the phone, but that further demonstrated the worst of their stupidity. The Z6 also does not have that problem, by the way.
They've learned. They've improved the usability of the hardware with every release. MOTOMAGX has been far more stable than the previous Motorola operating systems, but nothing to write home about. It has a much prettier interface. The address book is sane. The music player is far better and faster than the KRZR's music player (but corrupts its database with annoying frequency.) And Opera is a very nice little browser. Now, if they could just get the memory leaks in their JRE fixed and their stupid Bluetooth stack to work 100% of the time instead of 90% of the time, (plus allow me the choice to remain discoverable full-time) I'd be thrilled.
I just don't know if this will be my last Motorola phone. Android's not there yet, so I'm not ready to switch that way. I intensely dislike Apple for their complete and total proprietary *everything*. iTunes and my iPod Touch have been nightmares of lockdowns and non-portability, so I'll never buy another one of those. Maybe the new Motorola Android will be the magic device.
Maybe this means they'll finally deliver a non-buggy app suite. I think Motorola has been suffering because of the quality of their software. I have had very few problems with the hardware I've owned that weren't software based. (I don't blame Motorola for the broken hinge on my son's RAZR.) I like that they have adopted many standards, such as mini-USB connectors on every device that are used for both data and charging, they've been a big supporter of the Bluetooth SIG, and their attempt to go with Linux (even though they kind of went off on their own with MotoMAGX.) I even bought a Z6 from them earlier this year for geeky reasons: the Linux OS and the fact that they sell them unlocked directly to consumers.
I hope that they do survive their current turmoil, and an Android stack is pretty exciting (even though it's a year late) because that promises a large suite of apps.
Not at all pointless. It just depends on the circumstances. I remember taking a picture in a hotel back in the 1980s, catching a photo of the Hollerith punched card key the maids used to open every door on the floor, and thinking "if I were a thief, this would be too easy."
A professional thief could hang around resort hotels with a camera and completely blend in. A surreptitious photo of the maid's key, a few minutes of filing, test it out in the privacy of your own room's door lock, and let the looting begin. Lather, rinse, head to the next hotel down the strip, and repeat.
Like I keep saying about every security hole, just because YOU can't think of a malicious use or a way to abuse a security hole doesn't mean someone else can't.
"Think of the children, especially after they have grown up to be adults who have to live with this insane idea."
I think this was a part of the legal strategy to go early. Regardless of verdict, it worked to his advantage to have a decision before the elections. If he was found innocent, he'd have no problem with the election. If found guilty, he has the conviction done before George Bush leaves office, so he will be pardoned before having to serve time. The Republican loyalty code ensures it.
Justice would have been served ONLY IF the jury had hung, dragging the trial out beyond Obama's inauguration. And that didn't happen.
They bring new meaning to the term "Communications Tool".
I thought the official Communications Tool was Dana Perino.
In those experiments did the opiate blocker truly block only the opiates, or does it work on the dopamine level? A study has shown that a dopamine receptor antagonist can interfere with the function of the opiates, so unless the opiate blocker was known to only match the opiates being given, it's possible the blockage agent also blocked the dopamines generated by the placebo effect.
What's funnier is the Faux News spin on the dispensing of placebos. "About half of American doctors in a new study regularly give their patients placebo pills without telling them."
Wow. You've sure demonstrated a firm grasp of the 'placebo effect', Faux news! What's next, "Half of all bank robbers aren't told the police will respond when the alarms are tripped?" Freakin' geniuses over there.
Change your NoScript settings to always temporarily allow Full Domains (or even Base 2nd Level domains if you're ok with that) and you'll find very few sites give you reason to whitelist or blacklist anything else (apart from the embedded links to Youtube videos that seem to litter the web.)
In addition to NoScript I run Flashblock and Adblock Plus, too. I find pages load far faster for me in Firefox than they do in IE.
I'm curious, why does the lack of H20 affect the alcohol's ability to kill the mold? Does it not absorb it without the water content? My understanding is that pure alcohol is a very effective sterilizing agent.
If that's the case, perhaps this guy should use the 66% isopropyl alcohol first to clean and sterilize the board, and then follow it with a 99% isopropyl alcohol rinse to absorb and remove any remaining water?
Either way, I still think he's screwed because of the electrolytic capacitors. Somebody further down in the comments suggested he not spend a lot of time on this because it's likely that none of it's salvageable. Depending on the replacement cost of the electronics that were immersed, that's looking like really good advice. (Although of all the parts on a modern board that I could personally replace, electrolytic caps are certainly among the easiest.)
No! Bleach BAD. Bleach will oxidize all the metals, including the ones you thought couldn't rust!
I have washed boards in the dishwasher before (no soap!) but that was for spilled liquids. With the presence of mold, you have a different problem.
First, remove any batteries on the board (coin batteries are common,) as they create a sparking hazard. Use pure isopropyl alcohol (not the 66% stuff) which will mix with remaining water and should help you both clean up and kill the mold. I'd start working over an empty pan, and pour alcohol over it as I cleaned it. Brush everything possible with a natural fiber brush (not a plastic bristled brush that may dissolve.) Get under components with a pipe cleaner. And no smoking around the alcohol, of course! When it's done, drain it. If you have access to it, thoroughly blow it dry with dried compressed air (air from an ordinary shop compressor will contain water and/or oil.)
Once the visible alcohol is gone, you'll still need to dry the board. It will take time, warmth, and air movement. An oven at the "keep warm" setting (no more than 170 degrees) shouldn't damage the plastics, but not while it's still evaporating alcohol fumes. A fan and some incandescent light bulbs (desk lamps up close) would probably do just as good. Warm sunshine is very good, too (and helps kill mold) but the humidity outside is usually pretty variable, so you wouldn't want it to remain outside in the evening to collect dew.
However, be prepared for disappointment. If there are electrolytic capacitors on your board, there's a good chance they were already destroyed by the water. They are not typically sealed to ward off immersion in liquids.
Dead fan -- I'm sure that's a problem with an OIL-COOLED box. I suppose the extreme PC users you know would also complain that they wouldn't be able to vacuum the dust from their heat sinks, too.
Now, a dead oil circulation impeller, that's a completely different animal.
All I can think of is "This sounds slick!"
Thanks, I'll be here all the week. Try the veal.