I pay $40 for 200 whenever, 1000 weekend minutes. I get unlimited SMS and unlimited GPRS data, no roaming charges...
I have been shopping for a plan and I have not seen one that good. DETAILS, please. Are you sure that isn't an introductory rate?!
Just a couple of weeks ago it was Big News on the cell phone forums when T-Mobile added an unlimited GPRS data plan for $20/mo. You had to be on a voice plan of at least $30/mo before they would give it to you, though. So who's your provider? DON'T HOLD OUT ON US!
I have an iPAQ and I love it, but let's not sugar-coat things. PocketPCs have real issues. Cruise Brighthand and you'll see a lot of people who can't get their alarms to fire reliably without buying 3rd party utilities, for example. And there are lots of other classic Microsoft oversights, like how task alarms are FIXED at 8AM, and the travesty that is Pocket Word/Excel.
The PocketPC named perfectly, for it is a Microsoft PC that fits in your pocket. We all know what that means. Some good stuff, some not so good stuff...
When I counsel people on buying PDAs, my advice is simple... If you just want a reliable organizer, get a Palm. If you want a tiny computer that can be very powerful (but you are prepared for it to also be very aggravating at times), you should get a PocketPC.
I have a PPC and I will never go back to Palm, but I can sure see why people buy them.
...This article probably explains to me why the Segway hasn't been a great success...
I haven't read the article yet but I have a couple of thoughts on why the Segway isn't a great success.
1. It costs $5000 2. It is only available from one retailer
Oh, a new one comes to mind after looking at Amazon's catalog page:
3. Orientation required before delivery.
Expensive, hard to find one for a test drive, and hard enough to use that you need to take a class before they let you buy one... no wonder it's nothing more than a curiosity (and that is being charitable).
When they are $500 and available to any moron who can find a Wal-Mart they might sell better.
Supposedly Jobs parks his Jag diagonally across multiple spaces when he drives to Apple. (In some tellings of the story, he regularly blocks handicap spots.)
As the story goes, one day he returns to his car to find a note on it: Park Different
This story may not be true, but if it isn't, it SHOULD be.
...they would be well within their rights to say, "Don't like ads? Don't watch TV."
I don't believe they ARE within their rights to say that; a court will have to decide if that is the case. I never signed an agreement when I bought my TV. "They" beam data at me, I buffer the data and watch parts of it as I wish. If "they" don't like what I am doing, they have a few choices:
1. Make me pay for the data so they can force me to agree to use conditions. (why don't pay TV services do this already, I wonder? Surely someone like HBO has investigated the notion.)
2. Figure out some other way to make money.
3. Stop the service
of course the problem is option #4...
4. sue me or whoever enables me to "cheat" them.
If we ever do get to the point where behavior is controlled in this fashion, it will seriously be a nail in the coffin of free society.
First, Commercial Advance becomes illegal... OK, not there yet, it is just "impractical" because you get your ass sued for adding CA to a digital recorder.
Next thing you know, all tuners will by law prevent you from changing channels while an ad is on, and it will be a felony to bypass such a feature.
10 years after that we'll have a new Federal agency, the Advertising Revenue Bureau, and each citizen will need to file a quarterly report of "free" media consumed, a log of ads viewed, and a payment to make up for mandatory ads missed when you go to the bathroom. Oh, and there will be a small additional federal and state tax, paid directly to the RIAA/MPAA, to make up for the unavoidable accounting errors in your quarterly filings.
That's where we'll be when "don't like ads? don't watch" becomes enforceable by law.
In a year or two, possibly sooner, one could expect a CDROM-based distribution of Linux that makes a dedicated MythTV box out of any PC with capture and video-out.
Right now the weak link in a free PVR is the guide data. Via XMLtv you can get the data for free from zap2it.com, but what if they stop making it available?
...When bored, search for other phones in public places. When you finde a phone, transmit the picture and it will pop up like a message on the other phone.
I do something similar with my iPAQ PDA. I made a contact named "Bluetooth Drive-By" and I upload it to other folks' PDAs when they come within range.
Of course, there are never other Bluetooth PDAs in range. Anywhere. But I remain hopeful!
Yep, The Proxomitron is the bee's knees. I only wish there was a similar app that would run as a Unix service, so I could install it on my NAT box.
All you Windows users out there -- yeah, YOU too buddy -- download the Proxomitron and try it out. It makes the web suck a whole lot less. Free-ish, too! It's one of the first things I install when I set up a new system.
In our lawsuit-happy culture I think the notion of a "public defender" for civil suits is something we should explore. A civil trial can wreck you as bad as a criminal trial -- why shouldn't we have some sort of representation guaranteed by law?
Of course, the more sensible approach is tort reform... the fact that I can even propose a public defender for civil suits with a straight face is a sign of how messed up things are!
d) What is a "sales engineer"? Is your job primarily public relations, or primarily engineering, or primarily product sales?
I can actually answer that because I used to be one. A SE is a guy in the sales dept. who knows enough of the technical details to answer the customer's detailed, pointed questions, questions that the actual account executive (lead sales dude who isn't technical) can't handle. In many cases the SE will work with the client to develop a Solution as a hook to get them to Close the Deal. The SE is a sales team resource though, not the deal closer. In my experience anyway.
Ideally the SE IS an engineer by training, but sometimes they are clueful non-engineers. (that was me.) Sales Engineers are sometimes called Systems Engineers too, though that term has other meanings as well.
Whatever it stands for, SE is a difficult job that requires a certain "moral flexibility" unless you truly belive in your product, like any other sales, I guess. And since I was selling Vignette, I didn't believe in the product.;)
...you could just buy 3-4 cheap VCRs and set the time to record your shows. That would get you 18-20 hours of record time.
On a related note, I am going to get rid of my computer and replace it with an infinitely long strip of paper. My frame rates will suffer, but I will save a lot of electricity.
My local police department will also be replacing their firearms with rocks.
Amen. And since it is so easy to replace the hard drive on one, I will probably have a no-monthly-fee PVR as long as ReplayTV stays in business.
Side note: I see no point to getting a new PVR until one exists that can handle HDTV. My PVR defines my viewing habits now... I am certainly not going to get HDTV gear just so I can drive home on NBC's schedule to watch some TV in HD.
Slashdot Mirror
If he publicly admitted misleading investors, then he would be instantly convicted of fraud...
IANAL, so I ask: is it fraud if you are genuinely deluded? Always been curious about that.
If the invention is not snake oil...
An electric car that doesn't need to be recharged... if it ISN'T snake oil, I will eat my dinosaur burner.
Then I will drive my new Tilley DeLorean to the Fry's by the spaceport, to pick up a new replicator for my kitchen.
I WANT TO SEE MY PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION!
Didn't anyone tell you? If you want to see it, you are crazy.
Please lie down on the floor. The van will arrive shortly. Don't argue with the officers -- they are just doing their job.
Thank you.
Thanks for the info!
I pay $40 for 200 whenever, 1000 weekend minutes. I get unlimited SMS and unlimited GPRS data, no roaming charges...
I have been shopping for a plan and I have not seen one that good. DETAILS, please. Are you sure that isn't an introductory rate?!
Just a couple of weeks ago it was Big News on the cell phone forums when T-Mobile added an unlimited GPRS data plan for $20/mo. You had to be on a voice plan of at least $30/mo before they would give it to you, though. So who's your provider? DON'T HOLD OUT ON US!
I have an iPAQ and I love it, but let's not sugar-coat things. PocketPCs have real issues. Cruise Brighthand and you'll see a lot of people who can't get their alarms to fire reliably without buying 3rd party utilities, for example. And there are lots of other classic Microsoft oversights, like how task alarms are FIXED at 8AM, and the travesty that is Pocket Word/Excel.
The PocketPC named perfectly, for it is a Microsoft PC that fits in your pocket. We all know what that means. Some good stuff, some not so good stuff...
When I counsel people on buying PDAs, my advice is simple... If you just want a reliable organizer, get a Palm. If you want a tiny computer that can be very powerful (but you are prepared for it to also be very aggravating at times), you should get a PocketPC.
I have a PPC and I will never go back to Palm, but I can sure see why people buy them.
Hrm, my A7N8X-Deluxe shows 2 "Standard OpenHCD Host Controllers" in the Device Mangler. I see nothing "enhanced" anywhere.
hardwave v1.04.
wonder what I really have?
Let's go ride bikes!
Trenchcoats that burst into flame when used to conceal theft of 3 pens from the office.
That is just a crazy analogy. Now, if the trenchcoat was concealing a perfect digital copy of the pen's copyrighted shape then you'd have something!
Or would that be a trademarked shape?
Ah, the hell with it all.
...This article probably explains to me why the Segway hasn't been a great success...
I haven't read the article yet but I have a couple of thoughts on why the Segway isn't a great success.
1. It costs $5000
2. It is only available from one retailer
Oh, a new one comes to mind after looking at Amazon's catalog page:
3. Orientation required before delivery.
Expensive, hard to find one for a test drive, and hard enough to use that you need to take a class before they let you buy one... no wonder it's nothing more than a curiosity (and that is being charitable).
When they are $500 and available to any moron who can find a Wal-Mart they might sell better.
Supposedly Jobs parks his Jag diagonally across multiple spaces when he drives to Apple. (In some tellings of the story, he regularly blocks handicap spots.)
As the story goes, one day he returns to his car to find a note on it: Park Different
This story may not be true, but if it isn't, it SHOULD be.
It does, however, provide a familar GUI for embedded devices...
I think it is reaching to call WinCE's interface familiar. My first reaction upon using a PocketPC was, "wtf is going on?!"
I guess it is more familiar than, I dunno, cattle prod torture, but that isn't saying much.
I love my iPAQ anyway though.
Zzzzot!
why was this moderated as Funny? Oh, because we don't have a Grimly Serious category.
I'm there with you, brother... we Replay and Tivo users will be united in GLORIOUS BATTLE when the end times come.
...they would be well within their rights to say, "Don't like ads? Don't watch TV."
I don't believe they ARE within their rights to say that; a court will have to decide if that is the case. I never signed an agreement when I bought my TV. "They" beam data at me, I buffer the data and watch parts of it as I wish. If "they" don't like what I am doing, they have a few choices:
1. Make me pay for the data so they can force me to agree to use conditions. (why don't pay TV services do this already, I wonder? Surely someone like HBO has investigated the notion.)
2. Figure out some other way to make money.
3. Stop the service
of course the problem is option #4...
4. sue me or whoever enables me to "cheat" them.
If we ever do get to the point where behavior is controlled in this fashion, it will seriously be a nail in the coffin of free society.
First, Commercial Advance becomes illegal... OK, not there yet, it is just "impractical" because you get your ass sued for adding CA to a digital recorder.
Next thing you know, all tuners will by law prevent you from changing channels while an ad is on, and it will be a felony to bypass such a feature.
10 years after that we'll have a new Federal agency, the Advertising Revenue Bureau, and each citizen will need to file a quarterly report of "free" media consumed, a log of ads viewed, and a payment to make up for mandatory ads missed when you go to the bathroom. Oh, and there will be a small additional federal and state tax, paid directly to the RIAA/MPAA, to make up for the unavoidable accounting errors in your quarterly filings.
That's where we'll be when "don't like ads? don't watch" becomes enforceable by law.
In a year or two, possibly sooner, one could expect a CDROM-based distribution of Linux that makes a dedicated MythTV box out of any PC with capture and video-out.
Right now the weak link in a free PVR is the guide data. Via XMLtv you can get the data for free from zap2it.com, but what if they stop making it available?
Nonetheless, if it weren't for people infringing their coprights, they wouldn't be wasting their time and money in these pursuits.
Skipping commercials in an automated fashion has NOTHING to do with copyrights. It's about control, and they'll take all they can get, needed or not.
...When bored, search for other phones in public places. When you finde a phone, transmit the picture and it will pop up like a message on the other phone.
I do something similar with my iPAQ PDA. I made a contact named "Bluetooth Drive-By" and I upload it to other folks' PDAs when they come within range.
Of course, there are never other Bluetooth PDAs in range. Anywhere. But I remain hopeful!
Yep, The Proxomitron is the bee's knees. I only wish there was a similar app that would run as a Unix service, so I could install it on my NAT box.
All you Windows users out there -- yeah, YOU too buddy -- download the Proxomitron and try it out. It makes the web suck a whole lot less. Free-ish, too! It's one of the first things I install when I set up a new system.
In our lawsuit-happy culture I think the notion of a "public defender" for civil suits is something we should explore. A civil trial can wreck you as bad as a criminal trial -- why shouldn't we have some sort of representation guaranteed by law?
Of course, the more sensible approach is tort reform... the fact that I can even propose a public defender for civil suits with a straight face is a sign of how messed up things are!
At long last, we can fill in the missing step in this old Idealab! business plan.
1) Gut turkeys
2) ???
3) Profit!
Yeah, how many free books can there be? 5 or 6?
Of course, we'll see this number explode in the centuries to come.
but if the master copies of films acidify, there is nothing left to protect.
Well, I think all copyright-fearing Americans will agree that it's better to let the material rot away than to let it be enjoyed improperly.
d) What is a "sales engineer"? Is your job primarily public relations, or primarily engineering, or primarily product sales?
;)
I can actually answer that because I used to be one. A SE is a guy in the sales dept. who knows enough of the technical details to answer the customer's detailed, pointed questions, questions that the actual account executive (lead sales dude who isn't technical) can't handle. In many cases the SE will work with the client to develop a Solution as a hook to get them to Close the Deal. The SE is a sales team resource though, not the deal closer. In my experience anyway.
Ideally the SE IS an engineer by training, but sometimes they are clueful non-engineers. (that was me.) Sales Engineers are sometimes called Systems Engineers too, though that term has other meanings as well.
Whatever it stands for, SE is a difficult job that requires a certain "moral flexibility" unless you truly belive in your product, like any other sales, I guess. And since I was selling Vignette, I didn't believe in the product.
...you could just buy 3-4 cheap VCRs and set the time to record your shows. That would get you 18-20 hours of record time.
On a related note, I am going to get rid of my computer and replace it with an infinitely long strip of paper. My frame rates will suffer, but I will save a lot of electricity.
My local police department will also be replacing their firearms with rocks.
Amen. And since it is so easy to replace the hard drive on one, I will probably have a no-monthly-fee PVR as long as ReplayTV stays in business.
Side note: I see no point to getting a new PVR until one exists that can handle HDTV. My PVR defines my viewing habits now... I am certainly not going to get HDTV gear just so I can drive home on NBC's schedule to watch some TV in HD.