I concur with the parent post. I have suffered the same setbacks when dealing with AT&T. I have had an AT&T wireless phone for a few years now and decided to switch providers due a significant number of problems with AT&T customer service. To the point that I have become anti AT&T, switchign away everything including internet service (cable modem), long distance, and digital cable tv to other providers. I merely was waiting on the end of my contract to switch the phone number for my business.
I went in last tuesday with the intention of porting my number from AT&T to verizon, and was told to wait 3 to 48 hours, since that time has elapsed I have called every day to determine the problem and resolution and have received the same responses from Verizon: AT&T's system is failing to verify numbers submitted to their system.
I went as far as to contact AT&T's port customer service call back number and talk to someone there who told me matter of factly that their systems are completely fine.
I personally find it interesting that providers such as Verizon and T-Mobile are having such issues transferring numbers FROM AT&T wireless, however anyone transferring TO AT&T wireless has not had a problem at all. It seems to be almost a tactic to hold off transfers for existing customers to see if they can get them to stay while bringing more unsuspecting buyers into their systems.
I have had it in for AT&T for almost a year now, and there is no way I will settle for this insanity a moment more than I have to. I'm tempted to file a formal complaint with the FCC against AT&T if I thought that would do any good.
(And yes, I'm one of those people that ACTUALLY tattles on the damn telemarketers that violate the Do Not Call list, I don't like putting up with bullshit)
I've used an, albeit simpler, approach for many of the distributed web applications i've developed for the last few years, emailing application faults to an account which is used to log and track failures. Does this mean I'm going to have to find/develop a different system for failure reporting or is the patent specific enough to let other similar technolgoies through?
It may not be that he overlooked the possibility. If google does any kind of load balancing (even through round-robin dns) you can often set IP Affinity so that once a client makes a connection, they will almost always get the same connection. IP affinity is often used in web farm environments where you maintain a small amount of reconstructable state on each server and its less expensive to keep having the same client visit the same server while other clients could be directed to (and gain an affinity for) other servers.
The problem with the current Mini-ITX market is that all of the boards are underpowered, even Via's newest board is too weak for more than basic hardware functionality. e.g. You can use it for tv in/out, hardware dvd, but its not powerful enough to be a true gaming platform. The goal of mini itx is to need no additional hardware (including fan/heatsink) so the processors are underpowered. For the extra bang you can switch up to Flex-ATX (only slightly larger) and use PGA cpus with something like the Zalman (sp?) fanless heatsink for near-silent operation (ps fan sound to keep air moving over the heatsink)
Media box is pretty good software, Kon et al have done a wonderful job getting something that works (even if only some of the features). In addition they recently made the whole media box project open source over at sourceforge. Check out http://www.media-box.org to see. I'm also in the process of developing my own media desktop software (XP+.NET+Managed DX9 [no flames please]) as well (still in the planning stage though)
Not to try to place ads (since i don't make any money off of the site) but I've started up a small community forum for owners and interested in home theater pcs. It's still in the works but we're looking for people interested in the system to stop in and share their experiences and ask questions.
The url is http://www.chronicles.org/htpc for anyone interested. We're trying to put a lot of content on the site (including links to hardware and software to help make an HTPC, software projects for HTPC desktops, and reviews on hardware (forthcoming once we get a larger user base)) this is a pet project and is for hobbyists mainly, there's no revenue coming off this site at all so feel free to stop in if you're interested.
As an author I know the problems with distribution. I wrote a few chapters for a book on.Net software development that has made little in the way of revenue. The issue is not with the quality of the book but with the glut in the market of other books out there that have similar, if not the same, target audience. Brick and mortar stores like B&N and Borders can't afford to put more than one copy on the shelf of many of these books and as a result sales are down.
Online subscription services like Safari keep such publications alive, as developers can browse the selection and see if the book that they want is of any use to them, and keep looking for the help they need until they find the right resource.
I am fully in support of subscription services like safari as a better distribution medium, especially in the tech industry, as a means providing the content and help needed to the development community.
(p.s. the book is Inside ASP.Net, if you're curious)
As this is currently marketed towards PDAs the likelyhood is that they're considering some kind of side-lighting similar to the lighting on the Palm m505 (their product mockup does look to be running in a Palm m50x or Palm Vx shell)
Not that i'm saying this isn't likely to be a mock-up of the technology, keep in mind that a standard palm display (pre Tungsten) was 160x160, so 240x160 is not too far from that.
Take a look at http://www.media-box.org and http://mb.digitalpowerhouse.net/box.htm.
Media Box is a Media app that runs on 98SE/XP that does a lot of media serving (TV, PVR, Play DivX stuff, etc) and is skinnable and customizable.
In addition, one of the people there is taking user input for a Media Center PC. He's designing the specs for the Case right now, and has been in contact with a mainboard mfgr to custom make a mainboard for it with an ATI XELLION(sp) GPU/chipset that supports video in/out on the board as well as a great integrated high-end audio system. the whole system is designed around flex-atx though so it's not as small as this one. He's still in the design stages though AFAIK.
I am a member of a university Anime Club, and among the different series we've viewed, the programs the top the list are:
Neon Genesis: Evangelion Deep Psychological show plus Monster-of the week, one of the best series around
Ruroni Kenshin Awesome historical fiction about the best Master Assasin of the Meji era
DNA^2 One of the top anime i've seen all around, DNA alteration in a young kid makes him the Mega-Playboy (not Hentai if that's what you're thinking)
Kimigure Orange Road Great series about boy meets girl, girl likes boy, boy likes other girl, boy cant get away from first girl, did i mention by has mental powers?
Marmalade Boy A weird young romance series with quite a bit of humor
Child's Toy Almost a spoof of Marmalade Boy but about younger kids, one of which is a child star of a japanese TV show, hilarious series, highlighy reccomended
Tenkku no Escaflowne (The Vision of Escaflowne) One of my all-time favorites, about a girl with psychic power who travels to a hidden planet, full of steampunk Mecha and swordfighting
Saber Marionette J ( & J Again, & J2X) Great Series, Its about a planet of all men (clones) who's female counterparts are androids called Marionettes (Again, not Hentai)
Bastard Hilarious Fantasy series about Dark Schneider, the evilest Wizard who ever lived (and died...multiple times...without success)
El Hazard Mix of Fantasy and Sci Fi in a mixed up series about 3 earthlings who travel to the mysterious world of El Hazard
Slayers Lina Inverse is a tiny little wizardress with a lot of power, watch her blow up towns mountains in an attempt to stop evil (oops...)
Magic Knights of Rayearth Shojo Anime about 3 young girls who travel to another world and try to save a captured princess, anime by Clamp so it has to be good
Card Captor Sakura Another Shojo anime about a little girl who tries to stop rampant magical beasts let loose when she lost a deck of magic cards
Sailor Moon Believe it or not this is a great Shojo anime series, i've seen the first 60 episodes so far and wish i could get my hands on more of it
Ghost in the Shell Practically defined anime in america, the movie is a little slow but the visual effects are stunning
Legends of the Galactic Heros Amazing Space drama, 100s of characters and a war of spacefaring alliances 1000s of years old
Gunbuster Great mecha series, with GIANT proportions
Revolutionary Girl Utena Lot's of swordplay although the plot is very twisted
Photon Great and funny little OAV series, not to be passed up
X Great swordplay and dramatic action in this adaptation of a popular Manga series
Thats all i can think of for now, but There are all kinds of great series out there.
Slashdot Mirror
I concur with the parent post. I have suffered the same setbacks when dealing with AT&T. I have had an AT&T wireless phone for a few years now and decided to switch providers due a significant number of problems with AT&T customer service. To the point that I have become anti AT&T, switchign away everything including internet service (cable modem), long distance, and digital cable tv to other providers. I merely was waiting on the end of my contract to switch the phone number for my business.
I went in last tuesday with the intention of porting my number from AT&T to verizon, and was told to wait 3 to 48 hours, since that time has elapsed I have called every day to determine the problem and resolution and have received the same responses from Verizon: AT&T's system is failing to verify numbers submitted to their system.
I went as far as to contact AT&T's port customer service call back number and talk to someone there who told me matter of factly that their systems are completely fine.
I personally find it interesting that providers such as Verizon and T-Mobile are having such issues transferring numbers FROM AT&T wireless, however anyone transferring TO AT&T wireless has not had a problem at all. It seems to be almost a tactic to hold off transfers for existing customers to see if they can get them to stay while bringing more unsuspecting buyers into their systems.
I have had it in for AT&T for almost a year now, and there is no way I will settle for this insanity a moment more than I have to. I'm tempted to file a formal complaint with the FCC against AT&T if I thought that would do any good.
(And yes, I'm one of those people that ACTUALLY tattles on the damn telemarketers that violate the Do Not Call list, I don't like putting up with bullshit)
I've used an, albeit simpler, approach for many of the distributed web applications i've developed for the last few years, emailing application faults to an account which is used to log and track failures. Does this mean I'm going to have to find/develop a different system for failure reporting or is the patent specific enough to let other similar technolgoies through?
It may not be that he overlooked the possibility. If google does any kind of load balancing (even through round-robin dns) you can often set IP Affinity so that once a client makes a connection, they will almost always get the same connection. IP affinity is often used in web farm environments where you maintain a small amount of reconstructable state on each server and its less expensive to keep having the same client visit the same server while other clients could be directed to (and gain an affinity for) other servers.
The problem with the current Mini-ITX market is that all of the boards are underpowered, even Via's newest board is too weak for more than basic hardware functionality. e.g. You can use it for tv in/out, hardware dvd, but its not powerful enough to be a true gaming platform. The goal of mini itx is to need no additional hardware (including fan/heatsink) so the processors are underpowered. For the extra bang you can switch up to Flex-ATX (only slightly larger) and use PGA cpus with something like the Zalman (sp?) fanless heatsink for near-silent operation (ps fan sound to keep air moving over the heatsink)
Media box is pretty good software, Kon et al have done a wonderful job getting something that works (even if only some of the features). In addition they recently made the whole media box project open source over at sourceforge. Check out http://www.media-box.org to see. I'm also in the process of developing my own media desktop software (XP+.NET+Managed DX9 [no flames please]) as well (still in the planning stage though)
Not to try to place ads (since i don't make any money off of the site) but I've started up a small community forum for owners and interested in home theater pcs. It's still in the works but we're looking for people interested in the system to stop in and share their experiences and ask questions.
The url is http://www.chronicles.org/htpc for anyone interested. We're trying to put a lot of content on the site (including links to hardware and software to help make an HTPC, software projects for HTPC desktops, and reviews on hardware (forthcoming once we get a larger user base)) this is a pet project and is for hobbyists mainly, there's no revenue coming off this site at all so feel free to stop in if you're interested.
As an author I know the problems with distribution. I wrote a few chapters for a book on .Net software development that has made little in the way of revenue. The issue is not with the quality of the book but with the glut in the market of other books out there that have similar, if not the same, target audience. Brick and mortar stores like B&N and Borders can't afford to put more than one copy on the shelf of many of these books and as a result sales are down.
Online subscription services like Safari keep such publications alive, as developers can browse the selection and see if the book that they want is of any use to them, and keep looking for the help they need until they find the right resource.
I am fully in support of subscription services like safari as a better distribution medium, especially in the tech industry, as a means providing the content and help needed to the development community.
(p.s. the book is Inside ASP.Net, if you're curious)
As this is currently marketed towards PDAs the likelyhood is that they're considering some kind of side-lighting similar to the lighting on the Palm m505 (their product mockup does look to be running in a Palm m50x or Palm Vx shell)
Not that i'm saying this isn't likely to be a mock-up of the technology, keep in mind that a standard palm display (pre Tungsten) was 160x160, so 240x160 is not too far from that.
Take a look at http://www.media-box.org and http://mb.digitalpowerhouse.net/box.htm.
Media Box is a Media app that runs on 98SE/XP that does a lot of media serving (TV, PVR, Play DivX stuff, etc) and is skinnable and customizable.
In addition, one of the people there is taking user input for a Media Center PC. He's designing the specs for the Case right now, and has been in contact with a mainboard mfgr to custom make a mainboard for it with an ATI XELLION(sp) GPU/chipset that supports video in/out on the board as well as a great integrated high-end audio system. the whole system is designed around flex-atx though so it's not as small as this one. He's still in the design stages though AFAIK.
CNN is showing something in Kabul, Afghanistan, explosions and tracer fire
Thats all i can think of for now, but There are all kinds of great series out there.