DVDs are popular because consumers can easily back up their discs. Tell me, when are the movie studios going to replace for free HD/BR discs that get damaged? No?
DVDs are not popular because consumers can easily back up their discs. Not even remotely. DVDs overtook VHS sales well before it was even possible to back up DRMed DVDs, and even now, it is not "easy" to back them up. It requires a computer with a DVD burner, and software that costs extra. Even then, the backed up discs don't always work right. (My dad backs up every DVD he buys, and only watches the backups. There are quite a few that he has had to throw away, because multiple pieces of DVD backup software won't back it up properly.) The average geek may be able to back up DVDs easily, but my mom can barely work the DVD player, much less back one up.
Are the studios going to replace discs once they get damaged? Some of them, yes. Walt Disney Pictures offers a program where you can register your disc, and it is then eligible for disc replacement. Including Blu-ray discs. It's not even particularly onerous. You sign up for a disney.com account, and you tell them what disc you have. No serial number, no goofy menus, just type in the name. I haven't had to take advantage of it yet, but it is as simple as mailing in your broken disc, and $6.95 and they send you a new one. (Not necessarily worth it for cheap movies, but for Blu-ray, it is.)
I work as an on-site computer technician. I only see computers that are broken. P2P software tends to cause broken computers, so I have to assume that I see P2P software on a higher percentage of computers I see than the general public.
Yet I know that less than 36% of the computers I see have P2P software on them. (Let's see, not counting my own computers, I saw 8 customer computers today. Only one had P2P software.)
My own household contains 12 internet connected computers. NONE have P2P software. (Please note that by "P2P software", I mean software for which the primary purpose on a computer is to download software that is shared by others, such as LimeWire. it does *NOT* include BitTorrent, because at least in my case, BT is used solely for legitimate, non-copyright-infringing uses.)
In addition, I have a full 30 GB iPod (3G, audio-only; so no video or pictures taking up space,) for which, every single song was either purchased from the iTunes Store (a significant minority,) purchased from other online "legitimate" DRM-free music stores (aka either approved by the RIAA like Amazon, or completely RIAA-free labels,) or, for the vast majority of it, ripped from CDs (as 256 Kbps AAC files,) with a small minority (growing when I have time, though,) of recorded-from-vinyl.
Of course, we know that the RIAA now considers my ripped-from-CD songs to be infringing, too, so I guess, in their view, I *AM* infringing.
Yup. When I was in a similar situation, I actually insisted on *NOT* being stuck in the server room. I had a small desk in the server room, which I would retreat to when needed (the server room had a lock,) but I wanted a cubicle like everyone else. (In our company, even the CEO only had a cubicle.) My first cubicle in the new space was the most 'scenic' view we had, a 'double cube' shared with the other IT guy, only side walls, no 'entry-side' wall. Later, when the company expanded, us two IT guys moved to the far side of the building, with our own fire escape out the window (which we, against fire code, put plants on.) In the new location, we had more room, and were more 'out of the way', but didn't have a good view out the window.
Although I often 'worked' from the Starbucks in the public square in front of the building, with my extension forwarded to my cell phone, and a Wi-Fi antenna pointed out our office window down at the public square. This was back in 2000, before there was much Wi-Fi at all, much less "public" Wi-Fi. I'd get a call asking for help, and VNC to the person's computer to fix it, and would sometimes get a "Hey, where are you, anyway? I don't see you in your cube..."
I can't find the reference at the moment, but I believe all cars sold in the U.S. that were 1995 or later model year cars have to be safe to run on E15 (85% gasoline, 15% ethanol.) Higher concentrations can be safe, depending on the exact engine involved. And "flex fuel" vehicles are, by design, completely safe on at least E85.
My problem with using Wikipedia in a grade-to-middle school setting is that there are plenty of article for which there is gratuitously inappropriate content for the article. I was trying to help my 6th grader learn about a topic, and went to an article about Stereoscopy, and one of the example images was a turn-of-the-last-century stereoscopic picture of a nude woman. Now while I'm not a prude, and have no problem with him seeing it (it was very tame,) it means that he would be in deep trouble if he opened that article at school. There were plenty of other examples that didn't require nudity.
I can fully understand the use of "questionable" content in articles ABOUT the "questionable" thing. (For example, the use of the f-word in articles about rappers as direct quotations from the rapper, or the use of a photo of a topless woman in the article on "breasts"; although there do seem to be so many in that article as to be gratuitous.) But in an article on stereoscopy? The picture belonged in an article on "turn of the 19-20-th century erotica", and if it was a prevalent use of stereoscopy, then maybe a MENTION in the stereoscopy article, but not an example. For example, the article on the VHS/Beta video format war mentions porn, but it doesn't have any screenshots of said porn.
What's bad is that it wasn't "the Hispanic community" that tried to have Interstate renamed, it was mostly our illustrious mayor. (Ironically, our current mayor's governing style reminds me of another man with the last name Chavez.) Yes, I'm sure there was at least one person of Hisapnic descent involved, but this wasn't a citizen-started renaming the way MLK, Rosa Parks Way, or Douglas Adams Boulevard are.
As for "42nd Street Station"? Why would they have to change their name? It's already inaccurate as it is. (It's "42nd Avenue", not "42nd Street".)
My thought was that one of the small one-or-two block long streets in the Hollywood district right next to 42nd Ave (like, say, the small alley that is 41st Place,) should be renamed "The Universe", that way someone can start a small deli in the old Fred Meyer building, and name it "The Restaurant at the end of The Universe".:-p
I personally have one "mobile account," and I am "responsible" for three (mine, my wife's, and a company account that one of my employee's uses.)
But in my house, right now, there are nine cell/mobile phones. I've got my iPhone, my wife has her Motorola SLVR, I have my previous cell phone, a Nokia N-Gage, which I still use to play games on (ironic, since when I got it, I got it specifically because it was a free S60 smartphone, with no intention of playing games on it at all,) as well as my wife's previous phone, a Motorola V330. Then there is the "company cellphone" a Samsung that my employee doesn't use (he just put the SIM in an old Sony-Ericsson he had.) Then there are my truly obsolete phones, two Sanyos from Sprint and two Motorolas from Qwest.
And if you count phones I no longer even have physical possession of, you'd have to add six more. (A mid-90s Motorola 'flip' phone that was so common back then, a 'flip-less' version of the same thing, a newer StarTAC phone, two Samsungs, and a Nokia.)
So the four people in my household (this includes the two kids that have never owned a single phone, other than my old ones with their batteries removed to use as toys,) have owned a grand total of 15 mobile phones. But at present, we only have three mobile accounts.
Not only that, but some of the notebook slot-load drives have no physical eject manual override AT ALL. You would have to not only dismantle the computer case, but the optical drive, as well.
The city of Portland hasn't paid one cent for the building of MetroFi network.
The agreement was that MetroFi could use city property (light poles) to locate their antennas, and in exchange, they had to offer a free Wi-Fi service. When the network is finished, the city of Portland will run tests to see if it meets their standards for use by the city, and if so, the city will purchase the paid access for city use. The company was perfectly free, right from the start, to offer the paid service, and to make the free service ad-supported. The limitation on the paid service is that the free service has to offer the same SIGNAL, but can be artificially speed-limited. (I believe the city set the minimum speed at 128 kbps, and I know I have benchmarked faster than that on the free network.)
I believe one city agency has already subscribed to the paid service, but it is the same as any other customer, it's not paying any extra for being the city, and doesn't get any special treatment because it's a city agency. It would be the same as any private company becoming a MetroFi-Premium customer.
There are two things "MetroFi-Premium" gets you over "MetroFi-Free": theoretically faster connection, and ad-free service. That's it.
Close calls only count in horseshoes and hand grenades.
If there was no collision or accident, then it doesn't really matter as far as the statistics go, does it?
I drive 50-100 miles a day in city traffic for my job. At least 2-3 times a day, I have what I could consider a "close call". Yet I haven't gotten into ANY accident at all in 4 years (and that one was a stupid 'backing into a parking lot post',) and no moving accidents in over 9 years (the one in 1998 wasn't my fault, even.)
So does that mean driving is so inherently unsafe that because of 2-3 "close calls" per day, I should stop driving? No. As long as I am reasonably cautious, I should be able to go another 10 years without a major accident.
Interesting that you work for Seagate, but don't know that the ES.2 achieves over 100 MB/s on the outer edge, and over 50 MB/s on the inner. (According to StorageReview, anyway.)
Which, again, is so common and generic it shouldn't be trademarkable.
Like "Windows", "Word", "Excel", "Works", "Money"....
Oh, wait...
Microsoft already owns the trademark for "Money". Microsoft should sue every bank, mint, and government in the world!
And, a quick check at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) shows no registration for "One Cent", although the Bank of Canada even has a trademark on the image of a $100 note! (Although it is listed as "Prohibited Mark: Official Mark", meaning it is a "badge, crest, emblem or mark adopted and used by any public authority, in Canada as an official mark for wares or services. "
Quick, some Canuck register "One Cent", and send a threatening letter to the.ca mint!
It could also be possible that "Legacy USB" is on, in which case they just have their Linux kernel NOT load ANY USB drivers, so the USB mouse and keyboard are treated as PS/2 by the BIOS. That's why you can use your USB keyboard before the OS had fully loaded its USB drivers.
...you can use your USB mouse; it's not keyboard-dependent which was another surprise.
Uh... Has this guy been living under a rock? I'm not even assuming he thinks Linux doesn't have USB mouse support, which would be just plain ridiculous. There have been graphical BIOSes for years! I know I had a computer back in the mid 90s that let me use the mouse to change BIOS settings. So why would it be a surprise that a full-blown Linux system, even if it is embedded in the BIOS, would have mouse support?
My hacked and unlocked iPhone went through the update just fine. It did re-lock it, but since I was on AT&T anyway, it wasn't that big a deal. I unlocked it more "just because" than for any actual useful purpose.
I have a friend who also unlocked his "just because", and his is now an iBrick. In a bit of self-referential humor, his first IM to me after he got his replacement was "Haha, sucka. You paid $599 for your iPhone. I got mine a few months later for $399. Ooh, burn!" Yes, he was a little annoyed at Apple, but he knew full well (as did I,) before applying the update that it might kill his iPhone. He knew that he had technically violated the terms of the iPhone software license agreement, and he had seen all the doom and gloom warnings from Apple that this update might brick unlocked iPhones. But he did it anyway.
Nobody forced him to update. His iPhone would have continued to work just fine with software 1.0.2 indefinitely. HE made the choice to apply a software update with full warning (in bold capital letters, no less,) that it might kill his iPhone. He isn't a "rich bastard", He said that he had to get an advance on his paycheck to afford the replacement iPhone, so it's not like losing a $399 (or $499, or $599, depending on your point of view, since he bought it on release day,) was something that didn't mean anything. (Of course, if the iPhoneDevTeam figures out how to de-brick these phones, he could turn around and sell it for probably $299, at least making back SOME of his money.)
I'm sorry, but if you do something that you have been warned repeatedly *NOT* to do, where not doing it doesn't bring any penalty (sorry, but "not getting the iTunes WiFi Store" is NOT a penalty,) then it's your own damn fault when it breaks. As much as I dislike seeing companies take actions against their customers, I dislike frivolous lawsuits even more. And this is the height of frivolity.
Portland, Oregon, has had very much a success story. Portland, the ultra-liberal-pinko-commie city, already HAD a (very good,) grass roots public Wi-Fi project. But it was stalling. Pretty much what it amounted to was that coffee shops that were already going to provide free Wi-Fi just 'joined' this project. Plus a couple dozen true 'public' hot spots in a few high-profile places such as Pioneer Courthouse Square, aka "Portland's Living Room", and PGE Park (Portland's minor league ballpark, for which there was a bit of a tiff as the park management argued that ANY Internet access in the ballpark was the province of their data sponsor, Comcast. I'm glad Personal Telco won that fight.)
The city of Portland asked for proposals for a municipally-backed Wi-Fi network that would cover the whole city. The winning bid was an outfit out of California called MetroFi. The city of Portland paid ZERO money up front. They simply offered up city property (light poles, mostly,) to mount the access points, and said that they would run some coverage tests as the project proceeded. If the project met their standards, then the city government would purchase 'preferred' access on the network, while the company offers free access to anyone.
The service isn't perfect, but they do have decent coverage in the neighborhoods it is installed in so far. The big problem with the grass roots effort is lack of coverage in residential areas. Yeah, you have the occasional maverick (like myself,) who has a home router set up as a true open/public AP, but other than that, it's usually piggybacking off people who unknowingly have open APs. This "private/public" network is at least KNOWN free access. My only two complaints are that as part of their contract with the city, they are allowed to show ads (a top-frame above all pages you view, plus an occasional interstitial, although both are possible to block without much difficulty,) and that the APs are just slightly too far apart for notebook use in a car. With a decent external antenna, it's easy to get a good signal anywhere within the 'coverage cloud', but a stock notebook has problems connecting at the lull areas between APs. (Even more annoying are times when my notebook sees 4 APs, but won't connect to any of them because they are all too weak.)
But, sadly, Office 2007 will not run on an FDIV Pentium. The fastest Pentium that had the FDIV bug was 100 MHz, which is far too slow to even attempt to install Windows XP on, which is a requirement for Office 2007. Way back when XP first came out, I got it to install on a Pentium MMX 233 MHz notebook with 64 MB of RAM, but Service Pack 2 made that computer impossibly slow. And it refused to install at all on an old Pentium 166 MHz computer I had lying around. (And it even had more memory.)
There is "NBC Universal", which is 80% owned by GE (which, in turn, also owns NBC,) and 20% owned by Vivendi, who, in turn, also owns Universal Music Group.
So, no. Vivendi kept complete control of everything EXCEPT the TV and movie arm, of which they still even own 20% of.
the equivalent of 30,000 songs, 250,000 pictures or 13 million emails in a month
Let's see. I rip my songs in reasonably high quality, so 30,000 songs for me would be 300 Gigs. I take high quality uncompressed photos, so 250,000 pictures would be 2.5 Terabytes. But I apparently get really small emails, so 13 million emails would only be 200 Gigs.
I'll take the 2.5 Terabyte number, thank you very much.
I don't know about you, but I'd much rather have a low-power 'sleep' state on my cell phone that is the default "off-like" state. After all, normally I would still want to be able to receive phone calls. If pressing the "sleep/wake" button (that's Apple's name for it in every manual and video,) would turn the phone completely off, I would be annoyed.
As mentioned, this is a problem that users didn't read the manual. "I'm going to travel overseas, so I think I'll just put my phone in 'sleep' mode because I didn't read the manual to find out that it isn't 'off'." Not to mention the fact that you can put it in "airplane" mode that turns off the radios, and still use it as a camera and iPod.
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DVDs are not popular because consumers can easily back up their discs. Not even remotely. DVDs overtook VHS sales well before it was even possible to back up DRMed DVDs, and even now, it is not "easy" to back them up. It requires a computer with a DVD burner, and software that costs extra. Even then, the backed up discs don't always work right. (My dad backs up every DVD he buys, and only watches the backups. There are quite a few that he has had to throw away, because multiple pieces of DVD backup software won't back it up properly.) The average geek may be able to back up DVDs easily, but my mom can barely work the DVD player, much less back one up.
Are the studios going to replace discs once they get damaged? Some of them, yes. Walt Disney Pictures offers a program where you can register your disc, and it is then eligible for disc replacement. Including Blu-ray discs. It's not even particularly onerous. You sign up for a disney.com account, and you tell them what disc you have. No serial number, no goofy menus, just type in the name. I haven't had to take advantage of it yet, but it is as simple as mailing in your broken disc, and $6.95 and they send you a new one. (Not necessarily worth it for cheap movies, but for Blu-ray, it is.)
I work as an on-site computer technician. I only see computers that are broken. P2P software tends to cause broken computers, so I have to assume that I see P2P software on a higher percentage of computers I see than the general public.
Yet I know that less than 36% of the computers I see have P2P software on them. (Let's see, not counting my own computers, I saw 8 customer computers today. Only one had P2P software.)
My own household contains 12 internet connected computers. NONE have P2P software. (Please note that by "P2P software", I mean software for which the primary purpose on a computer is to download software that is shared by others, such as LimeWire. it does *NOT* include BitTorrent, because at least in my case, BT is used solely for legitimate, non-copyright-infringing uses.)
In addition, I have a full 30 GB iPod (3G, audio-only; so no video or pictures taking up space,) for which, every single song was either purchased from the iTunes Store (a significant minority,) purchased from other online "legitimate" DRM-free music stores (aka either approved by the RIAA like Amazon, or completely RIAA-free labels,) or, for the vast majority of it, ripped from CDs (as 256 Kbps AAC files,) with a small minority (growing when I have time, though,) of recorded-from-vinyl.
Of course, we know that the RIAA now considers my ripped-from-CD songs to be infringing, too, so I guess, in their view, I *AM* infringing.
Yup. When I was in a similar situation, I actually insisted on *NOT* being stuck in the server room. I had a small desk in the server room, which I would retreat to when needed (the server room had a lock,) but I wanted a cubicle like everyone else. (In our company, even the CEO only had a cubicle.) My first cubicle in the new space was the most 'scenic' view we had, a 'double cube' shared with the other IT guy, only side walls, no 'entry-side' wall. Later, when the company expanded, us two IT guys moved to the far side of the building, with our own fire escape out the window (which we, against fire code, put plants on.) In the new location, we had more room, and were more 'out of the way', but didn't have a good view out the window.
Although I often 'worked' from the Starbucks in the public square in front of the building, with my extension forwarded to my cell phone, and a Wi-Fi antenna pointed out our office window down at the public square. This was back in 2000, before there was much Wi-Fi at all, much less "public" Wi-Fi. I'd get a call asking for help, and VNC to the person's computer to fix it, and would sometimes get a "Hey, where are you, anyway? I don't see you in your cube..."
I can't find the reference at the moment, but I believe all cars sold in the U.S. that were 1995 or later model year cars have to be safe to run on E15 (85% gasoline, 15% ethanol.) Higher concentrations can be safe, depending on the exact engine involved. And "flex fuel" vehicles are, by design, completely safe on at least E85.
My problem with using Wikipedia in a grade-to-middle school setting is that there are plenty of article for which there is gratuitously inappropriate content for the article. I was trying to help my 6th grader learn about a topic, and went to an article about Stereoscopy, and one of the example images was a turn-of-the-last-century stereoscopic picture of a nude woman. Now while I'm not a prude, and have no problem with him seeing it (it was very tame,) it means that he would be in deep trouble if he opened that article at school. There were plenty of other examples that didn't require nudity.
I can fully understand the use of "questionable" content in articles ABOUT the "questionable" thing. (For example, the use of the f-word in articles about rappers as direct quotations from the rapper, or the use of a photo of a topless woman in the article on "breasts"; although there do seem to be so many in that article as to be gratuitous.) But in an article on stereoscopy? The picture belonged in an article on "turn of the 19-20-th century erotica", and if it was a prevalent use of stereoscopy, then maybe a MENTION in the stereoscopy article, but not an example. For example, the article on the VHS/Beta video format war mentions porn, but it doesn't have any screenshots of said porn.
What's bad is that it wasn't "the Hispanic community" that tried to have Interstate renamed, it was mostly our illustrious mayor. (Ironically, our current mayor's governing style reminds me of another man with the last name Chavez.) Yes, I'm sure there was at least one person of Hisapnic descent involved, but this wasn't a citizen-started renaming the way MLK, Rosa Parks Way, or Douglas Adams Boulevard are.
:-p
As for "42nd Street Station"? Why would they have to change their name? It's already inaccurate as it is. (It's "42nd Avenue", not "42nd Street".)
My thought was that one of the small one-or-two block long streets in the Hollywood district right next to 42nd Ave (like, say, the small alley that is 41st Place,) should be renamed "The Universe", that way someone can start a small deli in the old Fred Meyer building, and name it "The Restaurant at the end of The Universe".
But in my house, right now, there are nine cell/mobile phones. I've got my iPhone, my wife has her Motorola SLVR, I have my previous cell phone, a Nokia N-Gage, which I still use to play games on (ironic, since when I got it, I got it specifically because it was a free S60 smartphone, with no intention of playing games on it at all,) as well as my wife's previous phone, a Motorola V330. Then there is the "company cellphone" a Samsung that my employee doesn't use (he just put the SIM in an old Sony-Ericsson he had.) Then there are my truly obsolete phones, two Sanyos from Sprint and two Motorolas from Qwest.
And if you count phones I no longer even have physical possession of, you'd have to add six more. (A mid-90s Motorola 'flip' phone that was so common back then, a 'flip-less' version of the same thing, a newer StarTAC phone, two Samsungs, and a Nokia.)
So the four people in my household (this includes the two kids that have never owned a single phone, other than my old ones with their batteries removed to use as toys,) have owned a grand total of 15 mobile phones. But at present, we only have three mobile accounts.
Not only that, but some of the notebook slot-load drives have no physical eject manual override AT ALL. You would have to not only dismantle the computer case, but the optical drive, as well.
The city of Portland hasn't paid one cent for the building of MetroFi network.
The agreement was that MetroFi could use city property (light poles) to locate their antennas, and in exchange, they had to offer a free Wi-Fi service. When the network is finished, the city of Portland will run tests to see if it meets their standards for use by the city, and if so, the city will purchase the paid access for city use. The company was perfectly free, right from the start, to offer the paid service, and to make the free service ad-supported. The limitation on the paid service is that the free service has to offer the same SIGNAL, but can be artificially speed-limited. (I believe the city set the minimum speed at 128 kbps, and I know I have benchmarked faster than that on the free network.)
I believe one city agency has already subscribed to the paid service, but it is the same as any other customer, it's not paying any extra for being the city, and doesn't get any special treatment because it's a city agency. It would be the same as any private company becoming a MetroFi-Premium customer.
There are two things "MetroFi-Premium" gets you over "MetroFi-Free": theoretically faster connection, and ad-free service. That's it.
I have two Gmail accounts, both have IMAP.
I also have two Google-hosted domains, and neither domain has it. (Darn! I use the domain email addresses more than the gmail.com addresses!)
Close calls only count in horseshoes and hand grenades.
If there was no collision or accident, then it doesn't really matter as far as the statistics go, does it?
I drive 50-100 miles a day in city traffic for my job. At least 2-3 times a day, I have what I could consider a "close call". Yet I haven't gotten into ANY accident at all in 4 years (and that one was a stupid 'backing into a parking lot post',) and no moving accidents in over 9 years (the one in 1998 wasn't my fault, even.)
So does that mean driving is so inherently unsafe that because of 2-3 "close calls" per day, I should stop driving? No. As long as I am reasonably cautious, I should be able to go another 10 years without a major accident.
Interesting that you work for Seagate, but don't know that the ES.2 achieves over 100 MB/s on the outer edge, and over 50 MB/s on the inner. (According to StorageReview, anyway.)
Which, again, is so common and generic it shouldn't be trademarkable.
Like "Windows", "Word", "Excel", "Works", "Money"....
Oh, wait...
Microsoft already owns the trademark for "Money". Microsoft should sue every bank, mint, and government in the world!
And, a quick check at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) shows no registration for "One Cent", although the Bank of Canada even has a trademark on the image of a $100 note! (Although it is listed as "Prohibited Mark: Official Mark", meaning it is a "badge, crest, emblem or mark adopted and used by any public authority, in Canada as an official mark for wares or services. "
Quick, some Canuck register "One Cent", and send a threatening letter to the .ca mint!
It could also be possible that "Legacy USB" is on, in which case they just have their Linux kernel NOT load ANY USB drivers, so the USB mouse and keyboard are treated as PS/2 by the BIOS. That's why you can use your USB keyboard before the OS had fully loaded its USB drivers.
Uh... Has this guy been living under a rock? I'm not even assuming he thinks Linux doesn't have USB mouse support, which would be just plain ridiculous. There have been graphical BIOSes for years! I know I had a computer back in the mid 90s that let me use the mouse to change BIOS settings. So why would it be a surprise that a full-blown Linux system, even if it is embedded in the BIOS, would have mouse support?
Halo wasn't to be a Mac exclusive, it was just coming to Mac first.
I was really annoyed, too. I hope this returns their creativity, and they come out with a truly *GOOD* game for the mac, like they originally planned.
...give you the right to sue.
My hacked and unlocked iPhone went through the update just fine. It did re-lock it, but since I was on AT&T anyway, it wasn't that big a deal. I unlocked it more "just because" than for any actual useful purpose.
I have a friend who also unlocked his "just because", and his is now an iBrick. In a bit of self-referential humor, his first IM to me after he got his replacement was "Haha, sucka. You paid $599 for your iPhone. I got mine a few months later for $399. Ooh, burn!" Yes, he was a little annoyed at Apple, but he knew full well (as did I,) before applying the update that it might kill his iPhone. He knew that he had technically violated the terms of the iPhone software license agreement, and he had seen all the doom and gloom warnings from Apple that this update might brick unlocked iPhones. But he did it anyway.
Nobody forced him to update. His iPhone would have continued to work just fine with software 1.0.2 indefinitely. HE made the choice to apply a software update with full warning (in bold capital letters, no less,) that it might kill his iPhone. He isn't a "rich bastard", He said that he had to get an advance on his paycheck to afford the replacement iPhone, so it's not like losing a $399 (or $499, or $599, depending on your point of view, since he bought it on release day,) was something that didn't mean anything. (Of course, if the iPhoneDevTeam figures out how to de-brick these phones, he could turn around and sell it for probably $299, at least making back SOME of his money.)
I'm sorry, but if you do something that you have been warned repeatedly *NOT* to do, where not doing it doesn't bring any penalty (sorry, but "not getting the iTunes WiFi Store" is NOT a penalty,) then it's your own damn fault when it breaks. As much as I dislike seeing companies take actions against their customers, I dislike frivolous lawsuits even more. And this is the height of frivolity.
This is not only old news, but it came direct from a quoted, named, Intel representative! C|Net story from July 20th
The city of Portland asked for proposals for a municipally-backed Wi-Fi network that would cover the whole city. The winning bid was an outfit out of California called MetroFi. The city of Portland paid ZERO money up front. They simply offered up city property (light poles, mostly,) to mount the access points, and said that they would run some coverage tests as the project proceeded. If the project met their standards, then the city government would purchase 'preferred' access on the network, while the company offers free access to anyone.
The service isn't perfect, but they do have decent coverage in the neighborhoods it is installed in so far. The big problem with the grass roots effort is lack of coverage in residential areas. Yeah, you have the occasional maverick (like myself,) who has a home router set up as a true open/public AP, but other than that, it's usually piggybacking off people who unknowingly have open APs. This "private/public" network is at least KNOWN free access. My only two complaints are that as part of their contract with the city, they are allowed to show ads (a top-frame above all pages you view, plus an occasional interstitial, although both are possible to block without much difficulty,) and that the APs are just slightly too far apart for notebook use in a car. With a decent external antenna, it's easy to get a good signal anywhere within the 'coverage cloud', but a stock notebook has problems connecting at the lull areas between APs. (Even more annoying are times when my notebook sees 4 APs, but won't connect to any of them because they are all too weak.)
Wow. Just. Wow.
:-p
And I thought getting Windows 2000 (Advanced Server, even) to run on a 486/66 was bad back in the day.
Hrm... I have a 486, and a "Pentium OverDrive" chip, I may just have to try this.
But, sadly, Office 2007 will not run on an FDIV Pentium. The fastest Pentium that had the FDIV bug was 100 MHz, which is far too slow to even attempt to install Windows XP on, which is a requirement for Office 2007. Way back when XP first came out, I got it to install on a Pentium MMX 233 MHz notebook with 64 MB of RAM, but Service Pack 2 made that computer impossibly slow. And it refused to install at all on an old Pentium 166 MHz computer I had lying around. (And it even had more memory.)
There is "NBC Universal", which is 80% owned by GE (which, in turn, also owns NBC,) and 20% owned by Vivendi, who, in turn, also owns Universal Music Group.
So, no. Vivendi kept complete control of everything EXCEPT the TV and movie arm, of which they still even own 20% of.
Let's see. I rip my songs in reasonably high quality, so 30,000 songs for me would be 300 Gigs. I take high quality uncompressed photos, so 250,000 pictures would be 2.5 Terabytes. But I apparently get really small emails, so 13 million emails would only be 200 Gigs.
I'll take the 2.5 Terabyte number, thank you very much.
As mentioned, this is a problem that users didn't read the manual. "I'm going to travel overseas, so I think I'll just put my phone in 'sleep' mode because I didn't read the manual to find out that it isn't 'off'." Not to mention the fact that you can put it in "airplane" mode that turns off the radios, and still use it as a camera and iPod.
Isn't that backwards? Wouldn't that be like AOL buying Time Warner, or K-Mart buying Sears, or Mercedes buying Chrysler?
Oh, wait.....