No, the whole point is that some people don't want to give their SSN and details to AT&T which you have to do if you activate it normally, even if you intend to cancel. They will keep those details forever once they have them.
Also, the credit check can be a problem for some and, even though your activation fee is refunded, you still have to cough it up in the first place and, then, wait for the refund check or whatever.
Screw all that, just buy an unactivated phone and spend 5 minutes activated it yourself at home for free.
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop" You, sir, clearly have not visited a publicly-funded library in recent times.
It's also worth noting that the spectacular growth of Wikipedia was largely fueled by the decades of built up frustration caused by the glaring and persistent inaccuracies that riddle "proper" encyclopedias. The primary function of encyclopedias was not to be well-written but to look good on the shelves of families who never opened them.
The article is wrong on many levels but the main point is that T-Mobile are not banning VOIP, they are merely charging £14 more for plan that allows it, presumably to offset the loss of business they will suffer by not having calls routed for them.
By comparison, Vodaphone's cheapest unlimited 3G data plan costs £62 inc VAT.
O2 also charge £62 inc VAT.
Due to laughably poor website design, I am unable to quickly retrieve Orange's charge but I recall them, too, being considerably more than T-Mobile.
This suggests to me that T-Mobile's £30 "unlimited" plan has been set at a very competitive level on the presumption that they will also make a certain amount of money on calls being routed through them. I would also suggest that a VOIP user will burn through considerably more bandwidth than the average 3G data user, allowing them to charge less to people they know won't be VOIPing.
It's worth noting that the comments below the linked-to article reveal that Truphone also has problems running on Vodafone and Orange networks.
Anyway, at this point, I want 3G access to my laptop and £30 is about right, if I was a heavy user of VOIP I might consider the extra £14
Okay, so, I read all the comments, I've tried to remain open-minded and have found many of the opposing views interesting...
But, even after all of that, I know that my next laptop will be a Mac...
Because the one thing Dell cannot give me is... OS X.
Those who have the time and patience for Windows, good luck to you. As a longtime Windows user, I no longer have the stomach for it - I don't even want to thing of all the time I've already wasted on Windows annoyances. At the end of the day, the better usability and aesthetic Apple offers is of considerable value to me. Again, it may not be of value to you, and that's fine.
Apple has now developed their Mac hardware and OS X to the point at which, for me at least, Windows no longer makes any sense.
... and no option for 7200 RPM hard drives. I can't understand why Apple wouldn't give that option to a high-end laptop consumer. All the Macbook Pros have a 7200 option - there seems to be a lot of FUD about what Apple actually offers.
Except of course Apple. They only sell ATI crapware.
Where are you getting this crap from? All the Macbook Pros come with the top-of-the-line Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT. It helps to know what you're talking about.
First lets be blunt a bout what it means when a friend/family asks me to recommend a machine. What they are really asking me to to is become their support person for life.
So very, very true.
Most techies, being naturally helpful and, generally, straight-forward types, aren't too smart when it comes to understanding the ways in which non-techies operate. Microsoft have built much of their success on the ability to offload the support burden, created by poorly written code, onto the world's "guys who know about computers". I'm sure we've all experiences the joys of wasting hours of precious free time fixing someone else's horrifically messed-up Windows system and, worse, felt the resentment when we couldn't fix something, even though it wasn't our bloody fault in the first place.
I checked out of that no-win deal a long time ago.
...So they will bug someone else when they buy the piece of crap Dell and want someone to disinfect it every month or so.
My deal, now, when approached for advice is to sit them down and explain that they should expect to get at least 3 years out of a computer. When discussing the overall price of various options I, therefore, divide the cost of each into 36 months. I price up the Mac options, always, to include the 3yrs of Applecare. I am then blunt in explaining why it's important to have a warranty that covers both hardware and software, so that you've got one number to call and no-one passing the buck. As the cherry on top, I explain that, with Macs, you don't have to worry as much about the nasties, even when running Windows apps.
When, inevitably, they tell me that they were hoping to pay a great deal less and that they don't have that kind of money to spend, I tell them to take out a 3yr loan because, in the long-run, even with the interest factored in, a Mac will save them time, money and aggravation throughout those 3 fully-supported years.
People will spend all sorts of money on all sorts of trivialites; it astonishes me that they are so unwilling to invest in their computers. When you consider how much computer you get for your money these days and when you realize how central the Web has become to most people's social and professional lives, how can $1500 - 2000 over 3yrs be considered a serious problem?
So, when someone approaches me with a Windows problem, I simply say "I don't do Windows" and suggest a professional service.
... It just hasn't been the same. All I can tell her at this point is to get another GB of RAM as I'm now 1,000 miles away. Not that I would be particularly keen on troubleshooting Windows crap even if I were there, but that is something else...
Honestly, I this is why I now recommend Macs to anyone who won't actually enjoy solving the interesting problems Windows throws up, on their own, without endless hours of unpaid tech support from me. I finally sat down, totted up the shocking amount of time I was wasting on other people Microsoft problem and decided that if people aren't willing to spend a few extra bucks for a higher quality machine with better integrated software and a decent service plan, I certainly wasn't going to suffer the consequences.
but I was wondering if the Slashdot community has any ideas for more creative solutions to make this stop, either through technology, US law, trickery, etc
Have all calls answered by an Indian call center, with the legitimate ones rerouted to your real office in milliseconds and the recruiters placed on hold with Beach Boys tunes and the repeated reassurance that their call is important to you.
Seriously, why should the sleaze-balls be the only ones to take advantage of modern telecommunications and international outsourcing options?
I could just about understand why Slashdot gave his drivel exposure ten years ago because, frankly, there wasn't all that much tech news about and we were glad for what we could get.
Now, however, his well-worn trick of shoddily stringing-together whatever buzzwords and companies are in vogue at a given moment is just patronising, manipulative and insulting to our collective intelligence. Others have been doing it so less clumsily for years now.
Seriously, if he had all the contacts he claimed to have had, and this is going way back, do you think he'd still be living in his hut in the Appalachians, grinding out this bullshit for a living?
What really gets to me is that way he lets on that he is part of an elite inner-circle when the truth is that he doesn't really have that much of a clue about the Internet; it was only a couple of months ago that he updated his shitty website so that it wasn't a complete joke. He couldn't even figure out how to keep his old commenting system from regularly collapsing.
So, let's stop wasting our time with this has-been: could someone please code a Cringely Simulator, it wouldn't have to be complicated, just randomly throw together the names of whatever companies seem to be getting coverage, stir in a few buzzwords and even it all out with some ridiculous assertions no-one with a mental age above five will take seriously. Then we can all read that instead and stop giving this tardfuck the oxygen of publicity.
I suspect that by 2008, we will see a free Google OS. It will be Linux.
Not going to happen.
This is like those "Google browser based on FireFox" rumors - fun to talk about but just not going to happen.
A Google-branded desktop OS based on Linux would hurt Apple a lot more than Microsoft. Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Google, is also on Apple's board. And, no, that doesn't mean there's going to be a Google-branded OS based on OS X!
At this time, I do not fear Google or the ppl that currently run it. Problem is that they will not be in charge all the time. In addition, as they say, power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. If nothing else, look at MS. 25 years ago, BG was a good guy.
Er... no, again. 25 years ago, Bill Gates was the same vicious and scheming asshole he is today - it was just that the realization took about 20 years to filter through to the mainstream media. Microsoft started out rotten and stayed rotten. Google started out clean, have managed to remain reasonably clean so far, who knows what will happen in the future but a good start certainly helps.
I have lived and worked in Thailand. Figures stating high levels of literacy in Thailand hide one of the worst education systems in the world - literacy is of little use if the vast majority of Thais are not thought how to think rationally or given the foundation to acquire skills in later life. There is a thriving private education industry but, more so than in any other country, this is based on "saving face", meaning that students must be passed or the teacher gets fired. The students know this and are lazy as Hell.
We in the West sometimes give ourselves a hard time, forever fearing that we are about to be overtaken by "workaholic" Asians. Well, that may or may not happen but, if it does, those workaholic Asians won't be Thais.
Before any country starts handing out laptops, they should ensure that their populace has a good command of English, Mandarin, Japanese and other important trading languages. India made a similar mistake by ramping up their internationally-facing call center industry without realizing how limited their supply of understandable English-speakers was.
I don't know anything about the principles of Vastu Shastra but the lady has a point. Slashdot's laziness in revamping their site design and usability is what enabled Digg to completely trump Slashdot's massive head-start and leave it curled up in a ditch, coughing blood.
I do occasionally come back here, mainly because I get pulled in by the RSS feed but, sweet Jesus, the slightly flashier new design still doesn't make up for the random, inadequate nature of the ratings system - if I don't have mod points, I could see the most interesting post but have no way to vote it up. What a ridiculous waste of their readership.
This is a particularly dumb example of classic "slap-2-big-names-together" rumor production. All Apple really has going for it in it's negotiations with the studios is that they, Apple, are the experts when it comes to online distribution. Why in the name of God would they blow that by being seen to defer to Google?
I'm no raving hippy environmentalist but, all the same, there are some wasteful things I don't do, even though they would make my day easier. Probably the best example of this is that printing out much of the content I currently read on a screen would save me time every day, be less tiring and healthier for my eyes BUT I can't bring myself to do this because I feel it would be wasteful. With no environmental or cost concerns, I would print out at least 200 A4 pages daily.
An even bigger consideration is the current massive increase in the amount of previously print only material being made available online (i.e. Google's scanning projects, Amazon promotion of PDF sales, publishers such as Pragmatic Programmers selling online versions prior to print publication etc). Converging with this 16hr technology, you could rotate the same 100 pages on a daily basis, printing out a few chapters at a time. This convergence could really boost online publishing.
An interesting side effect of the 16hr deadline is that, for the first time, printed material would gain the same immediacy as television, meaning that you'll be less inclined to print out reams of material and stashing it away to read "later".
It's a damn shame that Google didn't take the opportunity to throw their weight and research dollars behind a Ruby-based framework, rather than Java. I realise that there is a far larger existing base of Java devs out there but the general consensus among Java devs curious enough to check out another language is that Ruby is far better.
In fact, rather than create their own framework, some sort of Google tie-in with Ruby On Rails would have been truly explosive.
In fact the only downside I can envisage is that it will put publishers out of business because it will become trivial to self publish.
Downside?
As far as I'm concerned as an author, I don't mind shelling out for a good editor, a few proof-readers and, possibly, a publicist who specialises in spreading the word online, if it means that I can retain the full rights to my work, massively reduce the price and keep the lion's share of my profits. The sooner publishers are taken out of the equation, the better it will be for everyone.
Slashdot Mirror
Also, the credit check can be a problem for some and, even though your activation fee is refunded, you still have to cough it up in the first place and, then, wait for the refund check or whatever.
Screw all that, just buy an unactivated phone and spend 5 minutes activated it yourself at home for free.
... I knew this would happen if I went ahead and ordered my Macbook Pro!
It's also worth noting that the spectacular growth of Wikipedia was largely fueled by the decades of built up frustration caused by the glaring and persistent inaccuracies that riddle "proper" encyclopedias. The primary function of encyclopedias was not to be well-written but to look good on the shelves of families who never opened them.
T-Mobile offer 2 different UNLIMITED 3G data plans (http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/int
£29.99 inc VAT = without VOIP
£44.00 inc VAT = with VOIP
By comparison, Vodaphone's cheapest unlimited 3G data plan costs £62 inc VAT.
O2 also charge £62 inc VAT.
Due to laughably poor website design, I am unable to quickly retrieve Orange's charge but I recall them, too, being considerably more than T-Mobile.
This suggests to me that T-Mobile's £30 "unlimited" plan has been set at a very competitive level on the presumption that they will also make a certain amount of money on calls being routed through them. I would also suggest that a VOIP user will burn through considerably more bandwidth than the average 3G data user, allowing them to charge less to people they know won't be VOIPing.
It's worth noting that the comments below the linked-to article reveal that Truphone also has problems running on Vodafone and Orange networks.
Anyway, at this point, I want 3G access to my laptop and £30 is about right, if I was a heavy user of VOIP I might consider the extra £14
But, even after all of that, I know that my next laptop will be a Mac ...
Because the one thing Dell cannot give me is ... OS X.
Those who have the time and patience for Windows, good luck to you. As a longtime Windows user, I no longer have the stomach for it - I don't even want to thing of all the time I've already wasted on Windows annoyances. At the end of the day, the better usability and aesthetic Apple offers is of considerable value to me. Again, it may not be of value to you, and that's fine.
Apple has now developed their Mac hardware and OS X to the point at which, for me at least, Windows no longer makes any sense.
... and no option for 7200 RPM hard drives. I can't understand why Apple wouldn't give that option to a high-end laptop consumer. All the Macbook Pros have a 7200 option - there seems to be a lot of FUD about what Apple actually offers.Where are you getting this crap from? All the Macbook Pros come with the top-of-the-line Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT. It helps to know what you're talking about.
So very, very true.
Most techies, being naturally helpful and, generally, straight-forward types, aren't too smart when it comes to understanding the ways in which non-techies operate. Microsoft have built much of their success on the ability to offload the support burden, created by poorly written code, onto the world's "guys who know about computers". I'm sure we've all experiences the joys of wasting hours of precious free time fixing someone else's horrifically messed-up Windows system and, worse, felt the resentment when we couldn't fix something, even though it wasn't our bloody fault in the first place.
I checked out of that no-win deal a long time ago.
...So they will bug someone else when they buy the piece of crap Dell and want someone to disinfect it every month or so.
My deal, now, when approached for advice is to sit them down and explain that they should expect to get at least 3 years out of a computer. When discussing the overall price of various options I, therefore, divide the cost of each into 36 months. I price up the Mac options, always, to include the 3yrs of Applecare. I am then blunt in explaining why it's important to have a warranty that covers both hardware and software, so that you've got one number to call and no-one passing the buck. As the cherry on top, I explain that, with Macs, you don't have to worry as much about the nasties, even when running Windows apps.
When, inevitably, they tell me that they were hoping to pay a great deal less and that they don't have that kind of money to spend, I tell them to take out a 3yr loan because, in the long-run, even with the interest factored in, a Mac will save them time, money and aggravation throughout those 3 fully-supported years.
People will spend all sorts of money on all sorts of trivialites; it astonishes me that they are so unwilling to invest in their computers. When you consider how much computer you get for your money these days and when you realize how central the Web has become to most people's social and professional lives, how can $1500 - 2000 over 3yrs be considered a serious problem?
So, when someone approaches me with a Windows problem, I simply say "I don't do Windows" and suggest a professional service.
Honestly, I this is why I now recommend Macs to anyone who won't actually enjoy solving the interesting problems Windows throws up, on their own, without endless hours of unpaid tech support from me. I finally sat down, totted up the shocking amount of time I was wasting on other people Microsoft problem and decided that if people aren't willing to spend a few extra bucks for a higher quality machine with better integrated software and a decent service plan, I certainly wasn't going to suffer the consequences.
Have all calls answered by an Indian call center, with the legitimate ones rerouted to your real office in milliseconds and the recruiters placed on hold with Beach Boys tunes and the repeated reassurance that their call is important to you.
Seriously, why should the sleaze-balls be the only ones to take advantage of modern telecommunications and international outsourcing options?
C'mon folks, this is CRINGELY, for God's sake.
I could just about understand why Slashdot gave his drivel exposure ten years ago because, frankly, there wasn't all that much tech news about and we were glad for what we could get.
Now, however, his well-worn trick of shoddily stringing-together whatever buzzwords and companies are in vogue at a given moment is just patronising, manipulative and insulting to our collective intelligence. Others have been doing it so less clumsily for years now.
Seriously, if he had all the contacts he claimed to have had, and this is going way back, do you think he'd still be living in his hut in the Appalachians, grinding out this bullshit for a living?
What really gets to me is that way he lets on that he is part of an elite inner-circle when the truth is that he doesn't really have that much of a clue about the Internet; it was only a couple of months ago that he updated his shitty website so that it wasn't a complete joke. He couldn't even figure out how to keep his old commenting system from regularly collapsing.
So, let's stop wasting our time with this has-been: could someone please code a Cringely Simulator, it wouldn't have to be complicated, just randomly throw together the names of whatever companies seem to be getting coverage, stir in a few buzzwords and even it all out with some ridiculous assertions no-one with a mental age above five will take seriously. Then we can all read that instead and stop giving this tardfuck the oxygen of publicity.
Bill Gates has been virtually raping me for years.
Actually, I really appreciated the fact that someone explained what the abbreviation HO/PO meant.
Hey, Shawn, I thought trolls like you usually remained anonymous?
Not going to happen.
This is like those "Google browser based on FireFox" rumors - fun to talk about but just not going to happen.
A Google-branded desktop OS based on Linux would hurt Apple a lot more than Microsoft. Eric Schmidt, chairman and CEO of Google, is also on Apple's board. And, no, that doesn't mean there's going to be a Google-branded OS based on OS X!
Er... no, again. 25 years ago, Bill Gates was the same vicious and scheming asshole he is today - it was just that the realization took about 20 years to filter through to the mainstream media. Microsoft started out rotten and stayed rotten. Google started out clean, have managed to remain reasonably clean so far, who knows what will happen in the future but a good start certainly helps.
We in the West sometimes give ourselves a hard time, forever fearing that we are about to be overtaken by "workaholic" Asians. Well, that may or may not happen but, if it does, those workaholic Asians won't be Thais.
Before any country starts handing out laptops, they should ensure that their populace has a good command of English, Mandarin, Japanese and other important trading languages. India made a similar mistake by ramping up their internationally-facing call center industry without realizing how limited their supply of understandable English-speakers was.
I don't know anything about the principles of Vastu Shastra but the lady has a point. Slashdot's laziness in revamping their site design and usability is what enabled Digg to completely trump Slashdot's massive head-start and leave it curled up in a ditch, coughing blood.
I do occasionally come back here, mainly because I get pulled in by the RSS feed but, sweet Jesus, the slightly flashier new design still doesn't make up for the random, inadequate nature of the ratings system - if I don't have mod points, I could see the most interesting post but have no way to vote it up. What a ridiculous waste of their readership.
I found my favorite comment in the source for ReiserFS:
"I'm going to kill that BITCH!!
This is a particularly dumb example of classic "slap-2-big-names-together" rumor production. All Apple really has going for it in it's negotiations with the studios is that they, Apple, are the experts when it comes to online distribution. Why in the name of God would they blow that by being seen to defer to Google?
An even bigger consideration is the current massive increase in the amount of previously print only material being made available online (i.e. Google's scanning projects, Amazon promotion of PDF sales, publishers such as Pragmatic Programmers selling online versions prior to print publication etc). Converging with this 16hr technology, you could rotate the same 100 pages on a daily basis, printing out a few chapters at a time. This convergence could really boost online publishing.
An interesting side effect of the 16hr deadline is that, for the first time, printed material would gain the same immediacy as television, meaning that you'll be less inclined to print out reams of material and stashing it away to read "later".
He was joking .
In fact, rather than create their own framework, some sort of Google tie-in with Ruby On Rails would have been truly explosive.
Downside?
As far as I'm concerned as an author, I don't mind shelling out for a good editor, a few proof-readers and, possibly, a publicist who specialises in spreading the word online, if it means that I can retain the full rights to my work, massively reduce the price and keep the lion's share of my profits. The sooner publishers are taken out of the equation, the better it will be for everyone.
Thank God we have President Bartlett to watch out for our rights as citizens.
Thanks, installed :)
Vitalyb, I searched for Foxilicious on the Extentions page but couldn't find it, no sign of it via Google either, do you have a URL?