I was surprised to learn a few weeks ago that while you can still melt down silver coins, it is no longer legal to melt pennies or nickels as of 2006. Not only is the copper in a (pre-82) penny worth more than $0.01, zinc has gone up as well.
For those who don't know: Before 1982, pennies were 95% copper, 5% zinc. In 1982 they switched to 97% zinc, 3% copper. Some 1982 pennies are mostly copper, some are mostly zinc. Silver coins (the U.S. quit making them in 1964) are quite rare but old pennies are still very common. The last time I rolled a hundred pennies, I wasn't even looking at the years, but I found 8 wheat pennies (pre-1958) just because they're easy to spot.
Can you PLEASE start updating the summaries when it turns out they're just flat-out WRONG? This is happening more and more lately. It's not even a case of bias or interepretation--sometimes stories are just factually incorrect (and easily proven as such) yet they sit on the front page looking as true as can be, and you've got to wade through a bunch of comments to find out that the source, the submitter, or the editor were just fucking retarded.
> So, you are either a Sony shill, trying to astroturf some damage control > here on slashdot, or you are incredibly out of touch with reality, factually > wrong on multiple accounts and simply an idiot.
iMessage is the wrong thing at the wrong time. I already have an unlimited texting plan (and there's pretty much no other choice anymore ) and I have a limited data plan to save money... and guess what? When I'm out and about, iMessage wants to send "texts" over my data connection. That's exactly the OPPOSITE of what I want. Pretty fantastic, eh?
(And before anyone says "but texts are tiny!", my unlimited texting plan included pictures too. And yes, I know I can disable it, and I do sometimes, but I like the '...' chat-like interface of iMessage at times.)
Easy solution: turn on file sharing on the PC, connect to it from a Mac, find the ISO, double-click on it to mount it, set up the Mac's "Windows File Sharing" to share out the virtual volume (might have to edit smb.conf for that), then connect to that share from the PC. See? Simple! That's why MS doesn't bother to enable ISO mounting out of the box.
So the best way to get any value at all is to play the game. I upgrade as often as they let me. I've owned every model of iPhone and as a bonus (ON TOP OF getting faster and better each time) I'm almost never not within the 12-month manufacturer warranty. And, incidentally, each old phone has sold for enough to pay for its replacement. (Sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less.) I have an iPhone 4S and I haven't had to put out any cash (net) since paying $249 (4 GB, refurb, after the price drop) in 2007.
> Try it on family and friends. See if you can get > them off the phone with that response.
Depends on your family and friends, I guess. I've worked with computers for over 15 years and done TONS of free and cheap support over the years and I haven't had a single experience I would characterize as actively "bad." The worst I've had was early on when I would fix something by recommending a change (like IE -> FF) and then they complain that some things weren't as good. That's usually easily fixable by properly settings expectations: tell them that the way to fix it is to make it different, and it will be better in many ways but possibly worse in a couple. Hell, my iPhone is ridiculously awesome at a million things, but there are a few things that my relatively-simple Nokia had over a dozen years ago that the iPhone--even after 4 revisions--doesn't. (Profiles and ascending ringtones, to name just two.)
> And just try charging them...see where that gets you...
Again, depends on the kinds of people you know. Most of the times they at least offer to trade a favor or meal. Family and close friends get free help; so-so friends, friends of friends, and people I know from work all pay. I've never had anyone actively mad at me for anything I did, and if they don't want to pay, they don't use me--they get along without or bug someone else.
My "friend" rate is about $50/hr. Professionally I start at around $100. Why should I charge any less than a plumber? I don't care if I'm doing something a ten-year-old could do, like formatting and installing Windows or updating drivers--the point is, I'm doing something they can't or don't want to do, and if they don't want to pay, they can figure it out themselves or find someone else. Unclogging a toilet might be icky work too, but you either man up and do it, or you pay Roto-Rooter $106.50 to come out for five minutes.
You realize that only the first half of your post was about CPUs, right?
Also, for future reference, a much shorter answer to "Well, can you still install it for me? After I get the discs?" is "It's easy: put the disc in the machine and then follow the instructions that automatically appear."
> I know it may sound crazy, but it really pisses me off > when I see a $20+ Bluray title, with super high resolution > compared to the LD, and yet still have bullshit encoding > artifacts in high speed motion scenes. LD did not have that.
Agree 100%. On the other hand you're getting better random access, better picture for the most part, greater portability, easier storage, don't have to flip discs,* etc. I wish the new formats were better than the old in all respects, but I'm happy enough with "mostly better."
* even with a machine that flipped for you--my friend had one--there's still an annoying break that totally wrecked the mood of being really "into" the movie. And some discs held only 30 minuets per side. Star Wars (Ep. IV) spanned five sides! And a player could flip sides but not swap discs.:-)
Every time an article related to real-life security (i.e., fighting terrorists) appears, Slashdotters come out of the woodwork to say that there have been an average of 300 US deaths in the past 10 years from terrorism, more people die from car wrecks and smoking, etc.
Same thing here: out of all the evil that MIGHT come from sharing on FB, how many people actually lose jobs, have government agents show up at their door, etc?* For 99.9999% of people sharing on Facebook, there might be a few somewhat-bad things that happen (most likely someone finding out more than you would have liked) but probably not too much more common than what spreads through traditional gossip anyway. I imagine very few bad-with-a-capital-B things happen. Most people will die without having experienced first-hand (or even second-hand) any disasters from sharing on Facebook, belonging to supermarket loyalty clubs, etc.
I'm not saying there's nothing wrong or potentially bad, but like most other things in life it just won't matter to most people.
* And in cases where it DOES happen, I'm sure most belong in the category of "you shouldn't have been doing that (or at least not talking about it)"--crimes, affairs, etc.
> Windows Phone, will soon be considered the best mobile > platform, due to it's unification with the desktop, and XBOX. > Unfortunately, it won't mean much because people will still > want shiny iPhones and will clamor to the numerous free > Android phones that they can get.
Or maybe the reason it won't mean much because most people do not give a shit about integrating with their desktop and/or their XBox? What I want out of a mobile device is a really great experience when I'm out and about.* You might as well say "Windows Phone will soon be considered the best mobile platform because it makes the best waffles." "Best at X" means NOTHING if no one cares about X.
* which Windows Phone may well offer, but it's probably a case of "too little, too late." MS has a DECADE headstart with Windows CE and Apple ate their lunch in about a year.
Funny--several comments deep and it's "copyrights are good/bad; would help/wouldn't help."
Copyrights, as described in the U. S. Constitution, are indeed good. They should a) exist and b) be reasonable. It's "B" that's gotten fucked up in recent times. "B" is where the problem is. Not "A". It's not an all-or-nothing scenario. There are not only two choices. ("Abolish them" or "keep them as they are.") Go back to a reasonable time--14 years is as good as any--and a lot of things would be better. Oh yeah, and get rid of "ninety bajillion dollars per infringement" as well.
Patents need to be reformed as well but of the two I think copyright is a lot simpler.
>... the only way to kill malware would also kill FOSS deader than > Dixie because you'd have to switch all the users to locked down > iShiny or Wintabs where they have ZERO rights to do anything > but what the corps tell them to, and to turn the net into an oversized > home shopping network. Personally i like having control over my > machines...
It's not an either/or situation. Apple just had their biggest quarter ever, selling tens of millions of iDevices.... did your personal computers disappear? Did Sourceforge or Freshmeat close up when Apple's App Store opened? Has the Internet changed in any meaningful way since the introduction of these things? (OK, maybe "yes" to that last one, but the **AA are a bigger threat to the 'Net than Apple, Google, or Microsoft.)
Random fun fact: Yahoo uses something domain keys to authenticate their email. I can send myself a short message (like, just a URL) and it winds up in my spam folder.
> As soon as people start acting like there's a sure thing you > can be pretty sure that the price is already way too high.
Some people look at a slot machine that hasn't paid off in a long time and say "it's due!" and play it.
Some people look at a slot machine that just paid out and say "it's hot!" and play it.
Years ago people were saying that AAPL at $100 was way to high and no way could it maintain that level. Have you seen what's happened since then? That's the funny thing about growth--there's always the possibility for more of it. Sometimes it's more likely than others, but it's always possible.
Have you been paying attention to how Apple has been doing for the last decade? Do you fail to grasp that they just had a quarter that was 50% higher than their highest quarter ever? That only one company has EVER had a more profitable quarter in U.S. history? You really think you can get that high on a combination of marketing, dumb luck, and Christmas? And that it's gonna wear off in a hurry?
> Will this lead to AAPL taking a bit of a dive, I don't know
Look at the size of the smartphone market compared to the size of the entire cell phone market; the growth of the smartphone market, and Apple's position in that market. Then do the same for iPads versus PCs. Apple is doing just fine without Steve Jobs and they will continue to do so. With the potential growth in those two markets we may well be talking about a $100B quarter for them in a few years. You might think you're pretty bright but I guarantee you there are some really smart people inside Apple right now, and they have a lot more experience than you and access to infinitely better information than you.
You obviously don't like Apple and that's fine--I'm not happy with how sue-happy they've become lately either--but to look at the numbers that came out of today's call and say "It's all downhill from here!" is nothing short of insanity.
Agreed. Just plain stupid. And the new plans DO have some value. I use very little data and I'm happily saving $180/year by going with a $15/mo, 200 MB plan instead of the old $30/mo, unlimited plan.
That said, their prices could still be better. As of this weekend, that plan is gone, replaced by $20/mo for 300 MB at the low end. And their overage charges are stupid, and I think it's downright evil to charge extra for tethering on a plan that's already metered. Still, it's not ALL bad.
Depends on who you are. I'm not even 4 minutes in and I've laughed out loud repeatedly, most recently at a perfectly serious-looking Rebel soldier wearing a newspaper hat. Obviously, anyone looking for Oscar-winning cinematography throughout will be disappointed, but it's thoroughly entertaining.
Slashdot Mirror
I was surprised to learn a few weeks ago that while you can still melt down silver coins, it is no longer legal to melt pennies or nickels as of 2006. Not only is the copper in a (pre-82) penny worth more than $0.01, zinc has gone up as well.
For those who don't know: Before 1982, pennies were 95% copper, 5% zinc. In 1982 they switched to 97% zinc, 3% copper. Some 1982 pennies are mostly copper, some are mostly zinc. Silver coins (the U.S. quit making them in 1964) are quite rare but old pennies are still very common. The last time I rolled a hundred pennies, I wasn't even looking at the years, but I found 8 wheat pennies (pre-1958) just because they're easy to spot.
Can you PLEASE start updating the summaries when it turns out they're just flat-out WRONG? This is happening more and more lately. It's not even a case of bias or interepretation--sometimes stories are just factually incorrect (and easily proven as such) yet they sit on the front page looking as true as can be, and you've got to wade through a bunch of comments to find out that the source, the submitter, or the editor were just fucking retarded.
> So, you are either a Sony shill, trying to astroturf some damage control
> here on slashdot, or you are incredibly out of touch with reality, factually
> wrong on multiple accounts and simply an idiot.
Or both. :-)
iMessage is the wrong thing at the wrong time. I already have an unlimited texting plan (and there's pretty much no other choice anymore ) and I have a limited data plan to save money... and guess what? When I'm out and about, iMessage wants to send "texts" over my data connection. That's exactly the OPPOSITE of what I want. Pretty fantastic, eh?
(And before anyone says "but texts are tiny!", my unlimited texting plan included pictures too. And yes, I know I can disable it, and I do sometimes, but I like the '...' chat-like interface of iMessage at times.)
The best one of all: "Santorum is synonymous with coming in #2"
(from memory, don't know the original source)
Wow. That's like... four illegal downloads!
Easy solution: turn on file sharing on the PC, connect to it from a Mac, find the ISO, double-click on it to mount it, set up the Mac's "Windows File Sharing" to share out the virtual volume (might have to edit smb.conf for that), then connect to that share from the PC. See? Simple! That's why MS doesn't bother to enable ISO mounting out of the box.
Or is that just marketing-speak?
"Online Privacy Worth More Than Marshmallow Fluff Five Pack"
See? It's a glass half full/half-empty kinda thing.
So the best way to get any value at all is to play the game. I upgrade as often as they let me. I've owned every model of iPhone and as a bonus (ON TOP OF getting faster and better each time) I'm almost never not within the 12-month manufacturer warranty. And, incidentally, each old phone has sold for enough to pay for its replacement. (Sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less.) I have an iPhone 4S and I haven't had to put out any cash (net) since paying $249 (4 GB, refurb, after the price drop) in 2007.
> Try it on family and friends. See if you can get
> them off the phone with that response.
Depends on your family and friends, I guess. I've worked with computers for over 15 years and done TONS of free and cheap support over the years and I haven't had a single experience I would characterize as actively "bad." The worst I've had was early on when I would fix something by recommending a change (like IE -> FF) and then they complain that some things weren't as good. That's usually easily fixable by properly settings expectations: tell them that the way to fix it is to make it different, and it will be better in many ways but possibly worse in a couple. Hell, my iPhone is ridiculously awesome at a million things, but there are a few things that my relatively-simple Nokia had over a dozen years ago that the iPhone--even after 4 revisions--doesn't. (Profiles and ascending ringtones, to name just two.)
> And just try charging them...see where that gets you...
Again, depends on the kinds of people you know. Most of the times they at least offer to trade a favor or meal. Family and close friends get free help; so-so friends, friends of friends, and people I know from work all pay. I've never had anyone actively mad at me for anything I did, and if they don't want to pay, they don't use me--they get along without or bug someone else.
My "friend" rate is about $50/hr. Professionally I start at around $100. Why should I charge any less than a plumber? I don't care if I'm doing something a ten-year-old could do, like formatting and installing Windows or updating drivers--the point is, I'm doing something they can't or don't want to do, and if they don't want to pay, they can figure it out themselves or find someone else. Unclogging a toilet might be icky work too, but you either man up and do it, or you pay Roto-Rooter $106.50 to come out for five minutes.
You realize that only the first half of your post was about CPUs, right?
Also, for future reference, a much shorter answer to "Well, can you still install it for me? After I get the discs?" is "It's easy: put the disc in the machine and then follow the instructions that automatically appear."
> I know it may sound crazy, but it really pisses me off
> when I see a $20+ Bluray title, with super high resolution
> compared to the LD, and yet still have bullshit encoding
> artifacts in high speed motion scenes. LD did not have that.
Agree 100%. On the other hand you're getting better random access, better picture for the most part, greater portability, easier storage, don't have to flip discs,* etc. I wish the new formats were better than the old in all respects, but I'm happy enough with "mostly better."
* even with a machine that flipped for you--my friend had one--there's still an annoying break that totally wrecked the mood of being really "into" the movie. And some discs held only 30 minuets per side. Star Wars (Ep. IV) spanned five sides! And a player could flip sides but not swap discs. :-)
Every time an article related to real-life security (i.e., fighting terrorists) appears, Slashdotters come out of the woodwork to say that there have been an average of 300 US deaths in the past 10 years from terrorism, more people die from car wrecks and smoking, etc.
Same thing here: out of all the evil that MIGHT come from sharing on FB, how many people actually lose jobs, have government agents show up at their door, etc?* For 99.9999% of people sharing on Facebook, there might be a few somewhat-bad things that happen (most likely someone finding out more than you would have liked) but probably not too much more common than what spreads through traditional gossip anyway. I imagine very few bad-with-a-capital-B things happen. Most people will die without having experienced first-hand (or even second-hand) any disasters from sharing on Facebook, belonging to supermarket loyalty clubs, etc.
I'm not saying there's nothing wrong or potentially bad, but like most other things in life it just won't matter to most people.
* And in cases where it DOES happen, I'm sure most belong in the category of "you shouldn't have been doing that (or at least not talking about it)"--crimes, affairs, etc.
> Windows Phone, will soon be considered the best mobile
> platform, due to it's unification with the desktop, and XBOX.
> Unfortunately, it won't mean much because people will still
> want shiny iPhones and will clamor to the numerous free
> Android phones that they can get.
Or maybe the reason it won't mean much because most people do not give a shit about integrating with their desktop and/or their XBox? What I want out of a mobile device is a really great experience when I'm out and about.* You might as well say "Windows Phone will soon be considered the best mobile platform because it makes the best waffles." "Best at X" means NOTHING if no one cares about X.
* which Windows Phone may well offer, but it's probably a case of "too little, too late." MS has a DECADE headstart with Windows CE and Apple ate their lunch in about a year.
... I'm suddenly very much for it.
Funny--several comments deep and it's "copyrights are good/bad; would help/wouldn't help."
Copyrights, as described in the U. S. Constitution, are indeed good. They should a) exist and b) be reasonable. It's "B" that's gotten fucked up in recent times. "B" is where the problem is. Not "A". It's not an all-or-nothing scenario. There are not only two choices. ("Abolish them" or "keep them as they are.") Go back to a reasonable time--14 years is as good as any--and a lot of things would be better. Oh yeah, and get rid of "ninety bajillion dollars per infringement" as well.
Patents need to be reformed as well but of the two I think copyright is a lot simpler.
> ... the only way to kill malware would also kill FOSS deader than
> Dixie because you'd have to switch all the users to locked down
> iShiny or Wintabs where they have ZERO rights to do anything
> but what the corps tell them to, and to turn the net into an oversized
> home shopping network. Personally i like having control over my
> machines...
It's not an either/or situation. Apple just had their biggest quarter ever, selling tens of millions of iDevices.... did your personal computers disappear? Did Sourceforge or Freshmeat close up when Apple's App Store opened? Has the Internet changed in any meaningful way since the introduction of these things? (OK, maybe "yes" to that last one, but the **AA are a bigger threat to the 'Net than Apple, Google, or Microsoft.)
If Apple's great marketing is the only reason for the iPhone's success, surely bad salesmanship is the sole reason for WP7's failure.
Random fun fact: Yahoo uses something domain keys to authenticate their email. I can send myself a short message (like, just a URL) and it winds up in my spam folder.
That, or the GP actually has no information and I was dividing by zero. ;-)
> As soon as people start acting like there's a sure thing you
> can be pretty sure that the price is already way too high.
Some people look at a slot machine that hasn't paid off in a long time and say "it's due!" and play it.
Some people look at a slot machine that just paid out and say "it's hot!" and play it.
Years ago people were saying that AAPL at $100 was way to high and no way could it maintain that level. Have you seen what's happened since then? That's the funny thing about growth--there's always the possibility for more of it. Sometimes it's more likely than others, but it's always possible.
Have you been paying attention to how Apple has been doing for the last decade? Do you fail to grasp that they just had a quarter that was 50% higher than their highest quarter ever? That only one company has EVER had a more profitable quarter in U.S. history? You really think you can get that high on a combination of marketing, dumb luck, and Christmas? And that it's gonna wear off in a hurry?
> Will this lead to AAPL taking a bit of a dive, I don't know
Look at the size of the smartphone market compared to the size of the entire cell phone market; the growth of the smartphone market, and Apple's position in that market. Then do the same for iPads versus PCs. Apple is doing just fine without Steve Jobs and they will continue to do so. With the potential growth in those two markets we may well be talking about a $100B quarter for them in a few years. You might think you're pretty bright but I guarantee you there are some really smart people inside Apple right now, and they have a lot more experience than you and access to infinitely better information than you.
You obviously don't like Apple and that's fine--I'm not happy with how sue-happy they've become lately either--but to look at the numbers that came out of today's call and say "It's all downhill from here!" is nothing short of insanity.
> 3D printers 8==D sex toys industry
Fixed your subject for you.
Agreed. Just plain stupid. And the new plans DO have some value. I use very little data and I'm happily saving $180/year by going with a $15/mo, 200 MB plan instead of the old $30/mo, unlimited plan.
That said, their prices could still be better. As of this weekend, that plan is gone, replaced by $20/mo for 300 MB at the low end. And their overage charges are stupid, and I think it's downright evil to charge extra for tethering on a plan that's already metered. Still, it's not ALL bad.
Depends on who you are. I'm not even 4 minutes in and I've laughed out loud repeatedly, most recently at a perfectly serious-looking Rebel soldier wearing a newspaper hat. Obviously, anyone looking for Oscar-winning cinematography throughout will be disappointed, but it's thoroughly entertaining.