Which is worth it, if you actually use it. $20 is very little money (granted, Gmail has it for free, but $20 is negligible). I have accounts on both, I've been paying Yahoo the POP $20 for 6 years (before gmail came out), and Gmail is not quite good enough for me to take the trouble of switching to it for my default mail account.
Plus, Yahoo's spam filter very good, both at flagging spam and at NOT flagging non-spam;-). I don't know about Google's, I assume it's as good, but yahoo's more than good enough so that it's not a reason to switch away. I'm not even using Yahoo's "alternate addresses" feature that much, because the spam filter is so good.
I still haven't had access to the new yahoo beta, so I don't know how good or bad the new interface is. Right now, I quickly preview/answer (and delete) most mails via the Web interface daily, and then use an IMAP client to sort the remaining (worthy;-) ) mails, once a week or so.
Maybe it's because I'm used to them being so-so anyway, but I don't care a lot about fancy Web interfaces, since they are always quite less convenient then a fat local mail client anyway. What WOULD convince me to switch to google is IMAP access, so that I could have leave an exact, auto-synchronized backup of my local mailstores on the server. Right now luckily my ISP gives me 2gigs + IMAP access, and I use that account ONLY for backups, since I don't want to have to change my mail adress eveytime I change ISPs. The 3-ring circus (Yahoo -> Local -> ISP) is a bit cumbersome, though.
I don't use any advanced features, only the reply button, sometimes file attachment... and I try to memorize the most important email adresses (and phone numbers), because anytime you need them BADLY+URGENTLY, Murphy's law ensures that you DON'T have access to any kind of phone book/diary, just your memory;-), so autocomplete and adress books are not important to me.
Anyway, both are quite good services. IMAP anyone ?
I bought Opera a few years back, and it's till my main browser because
- no virus / exploits, prolly not because it's better code, but because it's so little used that hackers don't bother - native tabbed browsing (years ago, Ffox didn't have THAT, and Opera's is still good now) - native mouse gestures, I can lay back and browse without the keyboard, and without endlessly monving the pointer back to the tool bar (I actually switch those off, and use it full-screen most of the time: F11) - it just works, very few sites have problems with it - it's easy to switch plugins on/off (flash...)
-> I still haven't found a compelling reason to switch to FFox (which I also installed). But then again I doubt there IS a reason to switch from Ffox to Opera nowadays, except maybe security IF all those alerts about FFox result in a major problem sometime.
The mail client sucks, they should just give up on it. It doesn't support ActiveX, which is a blessing and a curse. And of course, it's closed source. But at least it's NOT M$.
I have an old Epia-m @933MHz that I tried to revive just yesterday. This is an old version of the Epia, I do think (and hope) the newer ones are better.
It took my 3 tries to get Windows up and running (correct steps are 1- update BIOS, 2- Install Windows, 3-Install drivers, 4- Windows Update a few times), while keeping your fingers crossed.
It hangs while lauching powerDVD and WinDVD, and VLC is too jerky to use (at 640x480x32@75)
I checked, it still costs 2 to 3 times more than a regular MATX board+proc, for about 1/2 to 1/4 the power. Plus, cases are VERY expensive if you want something that look nice, plus a low profile DVD reader/writer (check www.mini-itx.com).
It's kind of cool to have, and makes a nice conversation piece for all my nerd friends, but usage value is very low. I don't think I could make any kind of server of it. Maybe a router, a basic Windows Office PC, or a linux experimentation platform (but drivers are an issue).
It IS incredibly small, very silent, and does work.
that doesn't really work either, not as soon as someone has 2 PCs, which we all do, right ?
that's why the core, data-exchange protocol only believes what it sees (sorry, receives), and the stats on the tracker are just not reliable, who cares, they're only used by some site admins who just always wanted to be gradeschool teachers.
It is recommended that you cap your max "torrent" upload at 80% of your max real upload bandwidth. A test is available at broadband.com to determine that (attention, bits bytes). You need the other 20% to send back acknowledegements about your downloads.
Putting aside the moral / community considerations, you will experience faster downloads the more you upload, unless of course you're leeching like mad and saturating your bandwidth all the time.
I used to work at a software shop that did business apps on the one hand, and games on the other hand. Guess what ? Both are essentially the same job, with the same processes and quite a bit of skills in common, even if games are usually in C/C++, and Biz apps in another language. When you get down to it, it's setting specs and developping to them. The Artists are more of an issue than a fun factor, with their inate tendency to disregard technical constraints. But then again, you get that also with ergonomics / looks in biz apps, especially if they are web-based.
I found the level of maturity quite a bit higher with the biz apps developement people. Superficially, that does seem to mean less fun, but in the long run, that means fewer conflicts, more learning (vs grandstanding)... You even get to interact more with your users, and evolve your projects over time (vs "just" having magazine reviews and pewing out rushed patches).
I am not a developper, but if I were, I'd definitely go for the Biz Apps market.
I tried knoppix about 2 years ago, there were graphical bugs on my very vanilla i815-based PC. Maybe it's better now, I'll try again.
I last tried Debian about 6 months ago, and could not get it to recognise my Wifi card.
Does any Linux natively (or at least easily) support nForce 1, 2 or 4 , and Linksys Wifi ?
OK. Who makes anything better ?
on
Flash, Meet Sparkle
·
· Score: 0, Flamebait
Apple, on proprietary and expensive and underpowered hardware with few peripherals and software ?
Linux, which I have failed for 2 years to get running on any of my PCs ( 6 tries total, giving up after 10 hours max)
MS deserves some of the blame, especially on security, but ease of use and features are quite a step ahead on MS vs everything else. Well, except IE;-)
400 + posts, and I haven't seen yet anything about bakcups. RAID is cool but doesn"t count;-)
Sooo... DVD burner and external Firewire HD THAT YOU DON'T KEEP ALWAYS PLUGGED IN, but just connect 1 or 2 times a day to run your "backup all" script, you might even be able to keep several backups on it.
Also, lots of posts about mice. I much prefer a trackball (less wrist pain), or even something integrated in the keyboard (trackpoint...) so my hands don't have to move from the keyboard.
Noise is an important "comfort" factor. Silencing a PC costs around $300 ( $150 case, huge CPU sink, 12cm fans everywhere,including the power supply and CPU, fanless 6600 graphics card and MB).
If your PC is powerful enough, I'd try to avoid the KVM switch thingy, I used to have one of those that degraded the video signal (text get a bit blurry), and just generally messed with the workflow. I'd avoid that unless you need to run several OSes. Putting all your money into one super-rig allows you to get a very responsive one;-)
I never really could use more than 2 screens, but that may depend on what you're doing. One for your main app, the other one for everything else (compiles, IM, music...). I still prefer CRTs for the ability to switch resolutions and still get nice looking text, but they take up a huge amount of space.
I personnally am tired of carrying around, as soon as I don't sleep at home: - a PDA - a phone - an MP3+radio player - a camera - a pda charger - a phone charger - a camera charger - a bunch of batteries - a PDA synch cable - a camera synch cable - phone earbuds - MP3 player earbuds
Anything that lessens the clutter sounds good to me, and phone + MP3 player seems the easiest thing to do, since a phone already has EVERYTHING that is needed to play MP3s.
The bad thing is that I purchased the ROKR ancestor (e398), and it sucks: - unreliable power connector, - unreliable earphones connector, - uncustomizable and very noisy interface, - weak sound, - no 512 megs card available yet, - never could synch it with my PCs, - boots slower than winXP (and more moisily)) - slowest UI I ever saw on a phone (misses keystrokes)
I am guessing Apple is out to prove that THEY need to design a phone from the ground up, and handle the 'relationship' side of things directly, not through carriers.
I've struggled so much with several flavours of proprietary software over the years (even recent stuff from Sony, Creative...) that I certainly won't buy anything that doesn't do simple drag and drop.
PS: this is an honest question, not a troll, I've read a few articles about the nano, none answered that question.
Well, I never could get Linux to install et run the way i want it, ie:
- with all my data files, and ONLY my data files, in one place for easy backups
- with some kind of remote desktop access
- with my wifi cards
- on my AMD boards (nforce, Sis...), with sound, network, graphics;-)
Something always goes wrong. I've read HOWTOs, asked for explanations... i don't want someone to do it for me, I want to know how to do it like I do in Windows. I can't. I don't think i'm especially dumb.
I can install a pretty clean, secure, optimized Windows PC in 3 hours (w/ office, updates..). I've tried FIVE times installing Linux, giving it 6-10 hours each time... no dice. Initial install goes VERY quickly, compared with Windows's multiple procedures + patches, but then something fails (LAN, Wifi, VGA, Sound, VNC...) and it's Linux Hell again...
Well, if reviewers focused a little less on easily quanitified measurements (monotask speed in general, FPS in particular), and a little bit more on real-life stuff, I might no before hand if my new motherboard will: - slow down to a crawl when using USB - have a very crappy video signal that won't run my high-end 19" CRT at 1600x1200 (IGP chipsets) - have very bad sound quality (not performance) - be noisy - be incompatible with cheap RAM (nForce 3/4) - have very unstable USB2
That, TO ME, is what is really important, I have run into some or all of these problems with my 5 latest MBs, the situation seems to be getting worse, especially the video signal quality. And NO, USB on non-intel chipset does NOT work well.
Have I ever seen a review catering to those concerns ? NO
In my experience, Asus, Asrock and ECS are the ones with the fewer issues, esp. Asrock, but buying a board still smacks a lot of russian roulette, even with around 10 websites publishing a review for each and every new board.
I eat raw meat or fish once or twice a week (Carpaccio, Steack Tartare, Sushi). The meat dishes are beef, and prepared at the last minute (under my watchful gaze, in medium- to up-scale restaurants). I have never heard of dishes with raw pork or chicken.
I have NEVER caught anything from that. I DO get those only from places that I know or that are reputable.
On the other hand, I DID get food poisoning several times from uother foodstuffs, meats and presumbaly non-meat, at evil restaurants.
You can get food poisoning from any kind of foodstuff. I don't see cooked vs raw or meat vs vegan as a big parameter. The quality and care with which the packing / storing / cooking is done is much more important.
I fully understand why some people refuse to eat meats and such due to philosophical reasons, but I don't see any point for health reasons.
By the way, the BSE-causing prion is insensitive to heat. I did hold off from eating bone marrow for a while, and gladly went back to it a couple of years ago.
I've tried Pegasus, the Mozilla mail client, Opera, and a few others... None are as stable, easy to use and configurable as Outlook and especially outlook express. For an example, try 1- Moving your local messages to a specific directory 2- Drag and dropping an incoming email to another account (I do that to archive important maisl to an IMAP server)
I listen to my music both on the move and **at home** (surprise). I've tried several (legal) download services, and on my $2k stereo the downloaded songs always sound bad compared to a CD. Since I don't want to pay twice for the same song, I'm back to ripping my CDs to FLAC, and then WMA-ing them for the road (to my ears, 96kbps WMA = 128kbps MP3, and is good enough for my not-high-end MP3 player).
I fail to understand why everyone isn't complaining about the not-so-good sound quality on the legal download services. To me, that's much more important than Linux/Mac support, or even DRM;-)
Slashdot Mirror
Which is worth it, if you actually use it. $20 is very little money (granted, Gmail has it for free, but $20 is negligible). I have accounts on both, I've been paying Yahoo the POP $20 for 6 years (before gmail came out), and Gmail is not quite good enough for me to take the trouble of switching to it for my default mail account.
;-). I don't know about Google's, I assume it's as good, but yahoo's more than good enough so that it's not a reason to switch away. I'm not even using Yahoo's "alternate addresses" feature that much, because the spam filter is so good.
;-) ) mails, once a week or so.
;-), so autocomplete and adress books are not important to me.
Plus, Yahoo's spam filter very good, both at flagging spam and at NOT flagging non-spam
I still haven't had access to the new yahoo beta, so I don't know how good or bad the new interface is. Right now, I quickly preview/answer (and delete) most mails via the Web interface daily, and then use an IMAP client to sort the remaining (worthy
Maybe it's because I'm used to them being so-so anyway, but I don't care a lot about fancy Web interfaces, since they are always quite less convenient then a fat local mail client anyway. What WOULD convince me to switch to google is IMAP access, so that I could have leave an exact, auto-synchronized backup of my local mailstores on the server. Right now luckily my ISP gives me 2gigs + IMAP access, and I use that account ONLY for backups, since I don't want to have to change my mail adress eveytime I change ISPs. The 3-ring circus (Yahoo -> Local -> ISP) is a bit cumbersome, though.
I don't use any advanced features, only the reply button, sometimes file attachment... and I try to memorize the most important email adresses (and phone numbers), because anytime you need them BADLY+URGENTLY, Murphy's law ensures that you DON'T have access to any kind of phone book/diary, just your memory
Anyway, both are quite good services. IMAP anyone ?
I bought Opera a few years back, and it's till my main browser because
- no virus / exploits, prolly not because it's better code, but because it's so little used that hackers don't bother
- native tabbed browsing (years ago, Ffox didn't have THAT, and Opera's is still good now)
- native mouse gestures, I can lay back and browse without the keyboard, and without endlessly monving the pointer back to the tool bar (I actually switch those off, and use it full-screen most of the time: F11)
- it just works, very few sites have problems with it
- it's easy to switch plugins on/off (flash...)
-> I still haven't found a compelling reason to switch to FFox (which I also installed). But then again I doubt there IS a reason to switch from Ffox to Opera nowadays, except maybe security IF all those alerts about FFox result in a major problem sometime.
The mail client sucks, they should just give up on it. It doesn't support ActiveX, which is a blessing and a curse. And of course, it's closed source. But at least it's NOT M$.
I have an old Epia-m @933MHz that I tried to revive just yesterday. This is an old version of the Epia, I do think (and hope) the newer ones are better.
It took my 3 tries to get Windows up and running (correct steps are 1- update BIOS, 2- Install Windows, 3-Install drivers, 4- Windows Update a few times), while keeping your fingers crossed.
It hangs while lauching powerDVD and WinDVD, and VLC is too jerky to use (at 640x480x32@75)
I checked, it still costs 2 to 3 times more than a regular MATX board+proc, for about 1/2 to 1/4 the power. Plus, cases are VERY expensive if you want something that look nice, plus a low profile DVD reader/writer (check www.mini-itx.com).
It's kind of cool to have, and makes a nice conversation piece for all my nerd friends, but usage value is very low. I don't think I could make any kind of server of it. Maybe a router, a basic Windows Office PC, or a linux experimentation platform (but drivers are an issue).
It IS incredibly small, very silent, and does work.
I don't know much about LUA, but their website is one of the simplest, nicest I have seen in a while.
A few very easily accessible code samples would be nice, though.
that doesn't really work either, not as soon as someone has 2 PCs, which we all do, right ?
that's why the core, data-exchange protocol only believes what it sees (sorry, receives), and the stats on the tracker are just not reliable, who cares, they're only used by some site admins who just always wanted to be gradeschool teachers.
It is recommended that you cap your max "torrent" upload at 80% of your max real upload bandwidth. A test is available at broadband.com to determine that (attention, bits bytes). You need the other 20% to send back acknowledegements about your downloads.
Putting aside the moral / community considerations, you will experience faster downloads the more you upload, unless of course you're leeching like mad and saturating your bandwidth all the time.
I beg to disagree.
I used to work at a software shop that did business apps on the one hand, and games on the other hand. Guess what ? Both are essentially the same job, with the same processes and quite a bit of skills in common, even if games are usually in C/C++, and Biz apps in another language. When you get down to it, it's setting specs and developping to them. The Artists are more of an issue than a fun factor, with their inate tendency to disregard technical constraints. But then again, you get that also with ergonomics / looks in biz apps, especially if they are web-based.
I found the level of maturity quite a bit higher with the biz apps developement people. Superficially, that does seem to mean less fun, but in the long run, that means fewer conflicts, more learning (vs grandstanding)... You even get to interact more with your users, and evolve your projects over time (vs "just" having magazine reviews and pewing out rushed patches).
I am not a developper, but if I were, I'd definitely go for the Biz Apps market.
I tried knoppix about 2 years ago, there were graphical bugs on my very vanilla i815-based PC. Maybe it's better now, I'll try again.
I last tried Debian about 6 months ago, and could not get it to recognise my Wifi card.
Does any Linux natively (or at least easily) support nForce 1, 2 or 4 , and Linksys Wifi ?
Apple, on proprietary and expensive and underpowered hardware with few peripherals and software ?
;-)
Linux, which I have failed for 2 years to get running on any of my PCs ( 6 tries total, giving up after 10 hours max)
MS deserves some of the blame, especially on security, but ease of use and features are quite a step ahead on MS vs everything else. Well, except IE
400 + posts, and I haven't seen yet anything about bakcups. RAID is cool but doesn"t count ;-)
;-)
Sooo... DVD burner and external Firewire HD THAT YOU DON'T KEEP ALWAYS PLUGGED IN, but just connect 1 or 2 times a day to run your "backup all" script, you might even be able to keep several backups on it.
Also, lots of posts about mice. I much prefer a trackball (less wrist pain), or even something integrated in the keyboard (trackpoint...) so my hands don't have to move from the keyboard.
Noise is an important "comfort" factor. Silencing a PC costs around $300 ( $150 case, huge CPU sink, 12cm fans everywhere,including the power supply and CPU, fanless 6600 graphics card and MB).
If your PC is powerful enough, I'd try to avoid the KVM switch thingy, I used to have one of those that degraded the video signal (text get a bit blurry), and just generally messed with the workflow. I'd avoid that unless you need to run several OSes. Putting all your money into one super-rig allows you to get a very responsive one
I never really could use more than 2 screens, but that may depend on what you're doing. One for your main app, the other one for everything else (compiles, IM, music...). I still prefer CRTs for the ability to switch resolutions and still get nice looking text, but they take up a huge amount of space.
zooms everything (pictures...) and doesn't screw up the laytout.
That's ctrl + mousewheel
I personnally am tired of carrying around, as soon as I don't sleep at home:
- a PDA
- a phone
- an MP3+radio player
- a camera
- a pda charger
- a phone charger
- a camera charger
- a bunch of batteries
- a PDA synch cable
- a camera synch cable
- phone earbuds
- MP3 player earbuds
Anything that lessens the clutter sounds good to me, and phone + MP3 player seems the easiest thing to do, since a phone already has EVERYTHING that is needed to play MP3s.
The bad thing is that I purchased the ROKR ancestor (e398), and it sucks:
- unreliable power connector,
- unreliable earphones connector,
- uncustomizable and very noisy interface,
- weak sound,
- no 512 megs card available yet,
- never could synch it with my PCs,
- boots slower than winXP (and more moisily))
- slowest UI I ever saw on a phone (misses keystrokes)
I am guessing Apple is out to prove that THEY need to design a phone from the ground up, and handle the 'relationship' side of things directly, not through carriers.
or does drag and drop in XP's Explorer work ?
...) that I certainly won't buy anything that doesn't do simple drag and drop.
I've struggled so much with several flavours of proprietary software over the years (even recent stuff from Sony, Creative
PS: this is an honest question, not a troll, I've read a few articles about the nano, none answered that question.
Well, I never could get Linux to install et run the way i want it, ie:
;-)
- with all my data files, and ONLY my data files, in one place for easy backups
- with some kind of remote desktop access
- with my wifi cards
- on my AMD boards (nforce, Sis...), with sound, network, graphics
Something always goes wrong. I've read HOWTOs, asked for explanations... i don't want someone to do it for me, I want to know how to do it like I do in Windows. I can't. I don't think i'm especially dumb.
I can install a pretty clean, secure, optimized Windows PC in 3 hours (w/ office, updates..). I've tried FIVE times installing Linux, giving it 6-10 hours each time... no dice. Initial install goes VERY quickly, compared with Windows's multiple procedures + patches, but then something fails (LAN, Wifi, VGA, Sound, VNC...) and it's Linux Hell again...
MMMmmmm, on the other hand, it has NOT been a while since I last saw yet another opinion whining about bias without marshalling a single fact ;-)
Well, if reviewers focused a little less on easily quanitified measurements (monotask speed in general, FPS in particular), and a little bit more on real-life stuff, I might no before hand if my new motherboard will:
- slow down to a crawl when using USB
- have a very crappy video signal that won't run my high-end 19" CRT at 1600x1200 (IGP chipsets)
- have very bad sound quality (not performance)
- be noisy
- be incompatible with cheap RAM (nForce 3/4)
- have very unstable USB2
That, TO ME, is what is really important, I have run into some or all of these problems with my 5 latest MBs, the situation seems to be getting worse, especially the video signal quality. And NO, USB on non-intel chipset does NOT work well.
Have I ever seen a review catering to those concerns ? NO
In my experience, Asus, Asrock and ECS are the ones with the fewer issues, esp. Asrock, but buying a board still smacks a lot of russian roulette, even with around 10 websites publishing a review for each and every new board.
mmmmm... I do find the idea appealing. A few disco balls, a bit a of sweat... I'll provide the RnR...
I eat raw meat or fish once or twice a week (Carpaccio, Steack Tartare, Sushi). The meat dishes are beef, and prepared at the last minute (under my watchful gaze, in medium- to up-scale restaurants). I have never heard of dishes with raw pork or chicken.
I have NEVER caught anything from that. I DO get those only from places that I know or that are reputable.
On the other hand, I DID get food poisoning several times from uother foodstuffs, meats and presumbaly non-meat, at evil restaurants.
You can get food poisoning from any kind of foodstuff. I don't see cooked vs raw or meat vs vegan as a big parameter. The quality and care with which the packing / storing / cooking is done is much more important.
I fully understand why some people refuse to eat meats and such due to philosophical reasons, but I don't see any point for health reasons.
By the way, the BSE-causing prion is insensitive to heat. I did hold off from eating bone marrow for a while, and gladly went back to it a couple of years ago.
I've tried Pegasus, the Mozilla mail client, Opera, and a few others... None are as stable, easy to use and configurable as Outlook and especially outlook express. For an example, try
1- Moving your local messages to a specific directory
2- Drag and dropping an incoming email to another account (I do that to archive important maisl to an IMAP server)
Shouldn't we boycott sites that have those "false windows error message"-type ads ?
I pronounce both the same, monseigneur.
i'd love to see that oh-so-not-essential info mentionned in at least SOME MP players reviews ;-)
I'd like to see a test. Maximum bandwiths are quite irrelevant in real-life situations, where you actually have to spin the disk, seek the data ;-)
I listen to my music both on the move and **at home** (surprise). I've tried several (legal) download services, and on my $2k stereo the downloaded songs always sound bad compared to a CD. Since I don't want to pay twice for the same song, I'm back to ripping my CDs to FLAC, and then WMA-ing them for the road (to my ears, 96kbps WMA = 128kbps MP3, and is good enough for my not-high-end MP3 player).
;-)
I fail to understand why everyone isn't complaining about the not-so-good sound quality on the legal download services. To me, that's much more important than Linux/Mac support, or even DRM
http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2005 /6/3/447
that looks quite good to me