We are also, sadly, used to phones with horrible UIs
I strongly disagree. One of the features that actually sold me on cell phones was the Nokia user interface and menu structure and that was on the 6150, which is now older then a bottle of well aged Armagnac.
I'm still using Nokia (9300 & E65) and 95% of the time of making a phone call (after all still the major concept of a cell phone) consists of pressing a digit and the green phone key. This interface may be far less cool then the iPhones, but it's hard to beat in terms of usability.
When it comes to type text the full QWERTZ keyboard of the 9300 beats the crap out of an iPhone.
On another note no one can say that the iPhone did not change the face of the cell phone market.
Maybe in the US it did (where Windows Mobile also has some market share, while it's all but irrelevant in Europe). I wouldn't quite call it a flop herearound, but it's certainly far from the iconic item it seems to be in the US.
Part of that is most certainly lack of 3G support. Other factors include the choice of handsets from other brands, which may lack the coolness factors, but are better cell phones in a lot of respects.
The specs as a phone are just not that impressive for the iPhone, comparatively.
Now, I'd like to see the EU start to use the same stick on large companies that also feel that they are above the law
They do again and again. It's mostly, but not always price fixing. Other examples include Volkswagen that threatened their Italian dealers to pull the dealership when they sold to customers not living in Italy.
Fines are usually very hefty and companies usually comply. Micropsoft risks to fall really flat on their face if they try their usual stints here.
I don't see why any church for that matter should be tax exempt. If a church provides charitable -, or community services they should get tax credits for that (and no: informing the public about the evils of Xenu doesn't count as community service...)
charging people for their literature (LARGE amounts of money... thousands and thousands of dollars before you can learn much about it at all)
Then again, if somebody wants to pay 500k for some really bad science fiction, who am I to say he's wrong?
Sure some of their tactics are deplorable. Then again, Scientology is far less of a threat to society then fundamental Christians. Just look what those "inteligent design" idiots do to the science curriculums in a lot of schools.
If you're bothered by their pushiness in shoving their "personality test" down your throat, here's a free tip:
Just mention to your friendly Scientologist that he's probably not allowed to talk to you, since you get Ritalin prescribed by your psych (scieno speek for psychologists/psychiatrists) and see what happens.
Yes, but now that the US government has paved the way, the European governments are coming to realize that they actually like the idea of tighter border controls
You are aware that there are no border controls between the countries of the Schengen Agreement?
This includes 25 EU countries, Switzerland, Icaland and Norway (partially being introduced this year). While there are provisions in place to make up for that you don't need a passport, let alone a fingerprint to move between those countries.
and they find ready support in the population
And where exactly is the evidence to support this assertion?
In other words: You are sputtering uininformed rubbish.
Ray, even though I'm not an American and not directly affected by those thugs I want to thank you for your efforts. Tables seem to turn into a direction that makes them worth it.
abuse the American judicial system, distort copyright law, and frighten ordinary working people and their children
But please, stop abusing the American judicial system, please refrain from distorting copyright law and may I kindly mention that it's not nice to frighten ordinary people.
I don't envy you. CDG is my least favorite airport in Europe (terminal B fwiw) and that includes that Hell that is Heathrow.
The main problem, imo, is not the size or the layout, but the attitude of some of the staffers and officials.
Case in point (and I really hope that this changed by now): If you have an e-ticket and hadn't the foresight to ask for a specific printout from your airline you will have to stand in line at the ticket counter. You needed to pick up a paper that allowed you to go through passport control in order to get to the check-in counters (the most innane layout I've ever seen).
And no! Monsieur Le General didn't accept your reservation confirmation that you print out at home.
It was also there where this marvelous, service oriented bitch from Air France denied me boarding despite the fact that I was flying on a 1000 Euro ticket (economy to Zurich, 3 minutes too late, she claimed). She also refused to endorse it or call her manager.
I hate this airport and its general attitude with a passion.
Unfortunately this practice of having all the electronics out has now spread to the rest of the world
No it didn't. Except for the laptop, which you had to take out of its bag and put into the xray tunnel in a separate tray for years now I never had to take out any electronics out of my bag, or coat (iPod, 2 cell phones, power adapter, cables, whathaveyou...). I also never had to take off my shoes or other such shit.
This involved a minimum of 80 inter-European flight segments in the last couple of years, involving the airports of Düsseldorf, Prague, Zurich, Amsterdam and Vienna. All pretty sophisticated, modern airports.
I can imagine though that different rules are applied on flights from Europe to the US.
I don't agree that this is the "simple solution", it's a horrible hack on the part of the database engine (I don't actually know if anyone apart from Oracle does this) with unpredictable performance results - looks more like the "lazy solution".
You can do it with Sybase and it's a terrible idea. It gets even worse when you have constraints on tables betwwen databases. Good luck when you have to restore the databases and good luck to dump them in a way so that their integrity is preserved. Especially on a busy db.
Could they still retain some good and try to buck the system, sure. In their own way, I'm sure they feel like they are, but all you have to do is look at google and see that after a certain point, it doesn't matter what your original intentions were, it's impossible to "do no evil" in all aspects of business. So Apple, like all other companies, make sacrifices. Usually those sacrifices come at our (the consumers) expense.
Not that I disagree, but in my opinion there are treating rightful gripes of their customer with an arrogance, currently unmatched by any tech company.
It's that which makes the Fanboidom about Apple so mystifying to me.
Just assum that they indeed can figure out the super-duper-ultra-secure path
Let's also assume that they hand the secret crypto keys to Carol (the attacker) in an utterly unbreakable meanner
It's still totally futile. Let's take music as an example:
There comes that point, no matter how secure the path, they keys, the algoritm, etc where a digital signal must be transformed into an analog, human "readable" signal. That signal can be re-captured and re-digitalized (and with the right equipment in good quality too)
Thaat's also referred to as the analog hole and no amount of DRM will ever get around that.
This weeks Economist has a really great story about the music industries future. Hint: It's glum.
Quote:
IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. "That was the moment we realised the game was completely up," says a person who was there.
Re:06-12-17 status of mobile os market share
on
Origin of the iPhone
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· Score: 3, Insightful
* Symbian is huge everywhere besides North America, but obviously has the most to lose with the iPhone being released around the world next year. Don't expect Symbian to post these numbers on their website as they have in the past.
The reception of the IPhone in the European key markets (UK, Germany, France) has been lukewarm at best. I'm not saying that Apple may not be a threat to Symbian in Europe in the future, but for the time being they're far from it.
* Apple is poised to be the number one US Smartphone vendor next year if trends keep up.
I'd wager that this is due to a fact of the abyssimal state of the US handset market. It isn't helped by the carriers who bolt down and cripple the handsets to borderline useless.
Apple will have a much more difficult time in Europe (let alone Japan) with the iPhone for a variety of reasons.
I got one recently as my second phone (my first being a 9300, which I very much like).
Apart from the features you mention. It's comparatively tiny, while built very robust and the battery life kicks the pulp out of just any other phone I have ever used.
Just to be clear. I totally agree with you that interviews by competent professionals are a good thing. As long you have to deal with brain dead - bad temepered idiots they don't do anything for security.
Although I think if we're allowed to target real threats rather than searching randomly, and if we are allowed to pay for good personnel, I think we could decimate the number of staff needed and ultimately save money.
Apart from the fact that I believe that a certain measure of randomness is still necessary, I totally agree. This could even be combined with a certain measure of common sense. It's really, really unlikely that this nice, 85 year old granny in a wheelchair, sucking on an oxygen bottle is an evil terrorist.
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Frankly, it bothers me much more how the US government is so deeply involved in trampling on the rights of individuals.
I strongly disagree. One of the features that actually sold me on cell phones was the Nokia user interface and menu structure and that was on the 6150, which is now older then a bottle of well aged Armagnac.
I'm still using Nokia (9300 & E65) and 95% of the time of making a phone call (after all still the major concept of a cell phone) consists of pressing a digit and the green phone key. This interface may be far less cool then the iPhones, but it's hard to beat in terms of usability.
When it comes to type text the full QWERTZ keyboard of the 9300 beats the crap out of an iPhone.
Of course YMMV.
Maybe in the US it did (where Windows Mobile also has some market share, while it's all but irrelevant in Europe). I wouldn't quite call it a flop herearound, but it's certainly far from the iconic item it seems to be in the US.
Part of that is most certainly lack of 3G support. Other factors include the choice of handsets from other brands, which may lack the coolness factors, but are better cell phones in a lot of respects.
The specs as a phone are just not that impressive for the iPhone, comparatively.
It was a joke, pure and simple. My brother in law is Viennese and my sister lives there. I work with Austrians who think it's rather funny.
No intention whatsoever to offend (which I don't really have the impression that I did :) ).
... certainly was that way in my home country, AustriaWas to make the world believe that Adolf Hitler was German, while Ludwig Van Beethoven was Austrian...
They do again and again. It's mostly, but not always price fixing. Other examples include Volkswagen that threatened their Italian dealers to pull the dealership when they sold to customers not living in Italy.
Fines are usually very hefty and companies usually comply. Micropsoft risks to fall really flat on their face if they try their usual stints here.
er! fuck; where's my asbestos suit...
I RETRACT! I RETRACT..
I don't see why any church for that matter should be tax exempt. If a church provides charitable -, or community services they should get tax credits for that (and no: informing the public about the evils of Xenu doesn't count as community service...)
Then again, if somebody wants to pay 500k for some really bad science fiction, who am I to say he's wrong?
Sure some of their tactics are deplorable. Then again, Scientology is far less of a threat to society then fundamental Christians. Just look what those "inteligent design" idiots do to the science curriculums in a lot of schools.
If you're bothered by their pushiness in shoving their "personality test" down your throat, here's a free tip:
Just mention to your friendly Scientologist that he's probably not allowed to talk to you, since you get Ritalin prescribed by your psych (scieno speek for psychologists/psychiatrists) and see what happens.
You are aware that there are no border controls between the countries of the Schengen Agreement?
This includes 25 EU countries, Switzerland, Icaland and Norway (partially being introduced this year). While there are provisions in place to make up for that you don't need a passport, let alone a fingerprint to move between those countries.
and they find ready support in the populationAnd where exactly is the evidence to support this assertion?
In other words: You are sputtering uininformed rubbish.
But please, stop abusing the American judicial system, please refrain from distorting copyright law and may I kindly mention that it's not nice to frighten ordinary people.
Don't you think of their children?
I don't envy you. CDG is my least favorite airport in Europe (terminal B fwiw) and that includes that Hell that is Heathrow.
The main problem, imo, is not the size or the layout, but the attitude of some of the staffers and officials.
Case in point (and I really hope that this changed by now): If you have an e-ticket and hadn't the foresight to ask for a specific printout from your airline you will have to stand in line at the ticket counter. You needed to pick up a paper that allowed you to go through passport control in order to get to the check-in counters (the most innane layout I've ever seen).
And no! Monsieur Le General didn't accept your reservation confirmation that you print out at home.
It was also there where this marvelous, service oriented bitch from Air France denied me boarding despite the fact that I was flying on a 1000 Euro ticket (economy to Zurich, 3 minutes too late, she claimed). She also refused to endorse it or call her manager.
I hate this airport and its general attitude with a passion.
No it didn't. Except for the laptop, which you had to take out of its bag and put into the xray tunnel in a separate tray for years now I never had to take out any electronics out of my bag, or coat (iPod, 2 cell phones, power adapter, cables, whathaveyou...). I also never had to take off my shoes or other such shit.
This involved a minimum of 80 inter-European flight segments in the last couple of years, involving the airports of Düsseldorf, Prague, Zurich, Amsterdam and Vienna. All pretty sophisticated, modern airports.
I can imagine though that different rules are applied on flights from Europe to the US.
They have a bridge for sale, which you may want to buy...
You can do it with Sybase and it's a terrible idea. It gets even worse when you have constraints on tables betwwen databases. Good luck when you have to restore the databases and good luck to dump them in a way so that their integrity is preserved. Especially on a busy db.
While everybody can check a directory such directories don't exist for IP numbers. Respectively the information needs to be obtained from the ISP.
I never heard of the requirement of a court order before checking a phone directory.
Not that I disagree, but in my opinion there are treating rightful gripes of their customer with an arrogance, currently unmatched by any tech company.
It's that which makes the Fanboidom about Apple so mystifying to me.
Dude, you should stop watching Fox News. I dare say that you're living proof that it fries the brain.
Let's also assume that they hand the secret crypto keys to Carol (the attacker) in an utterly unbreakable meanner
It's still totally futile. Let's take music as an example:
There comes that point, no matter how secure the path, they keys, the algoritm, etc where a digital signal must be transformed into an analog, human "readable" signal. That signal can be re-captured and re-digitalized (and with the right equipment in good quality too)
Thaat's also referred to as the analog hole and no amount of DRM will ever get around that.
Trademarks must not only be protected, but they also need extension on a regular basis.
If you're trademark is not worth the extension fee chances are that it isn't worth anything.
Quote:
IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. "That was the moment we realised the game was completely up," says a person who was there.
The reception of the IPhone in the European key markets (UK, Germany, France) has been lukewarm at best. I'm not saying that Apple may not be a threat to Symbian in Europe in the future, but for the time being they're far from it.
* Apple is poised to be the number one US Smartphone vendor next year if trends keep up.I'd wager that this is due to a fact of the abyssimal state of the US handset market. It isn't helped by the carriers who bolt down and cripple the handsets to borderline useless.
Apple will have a much more difficult time in Europe (let alone Japan) with the iPhone for a variety of reasons.
I got one recently as my second phone (my first being a 9300, which I very much like).
Apart from the features you mention. It's comparatively tiny, while built very robust and the battery life kicks the pulp out of just any other phone I have ever used.
Apart from the fact that I believe that a certain measure of randomness is still necessary, I totally agree. This could even be combined with a certain measure of common sense. It's really, really unlikely that this nice, 85 year old granny in a wheelchair, sucking on an oxygen bottle is an evil terrorist.
Hell! I'm sure they must be fair and balanced...