I totally love your sig! We grammar nerds need to stick together. To that end, I should tell you that you got it wrong: less and fewer both refer to quantity; but "less" is used for quantity of a continuous thing (like water, sand, distance) whereas "fewer" is used for discrete things (like molecules, grains, or inches).
I would certainly say so. I would say that the moral behavior "emerges" from the crowd, the same way your consciousness "emerges" from the neurons in your brain, even though no individual neuron is conscious. Democracy is premised on a similar idea.
Yes, I wanted to make sure somebody said what you said. This actually happened to me, in a less nefarious way: I was given a job structured as an IC instead of a regular employee; but sometime later somehow the powers that be smelled the situation and decided it stunk. The whole issue hinged on "do you offer your services to the public", which I didn't, and that got the employer in trouble. They changed me into a real employee lickity split.
how much hard work did he actually do on this thing? My understanding is that he mostly said, "I want this thing with these specs at this price, make it happen" and his manufacturing partner is the one that actually built it.
Touche. You are totally right. I think my problem is in myself: whenever I try to investigate phones on the internet I get either overwhelmed or I want to touch and try the phone before I buy it. But you're right -- why do I keep repeating the same behavior and expecting a different result?
No no: not always; but in 2009, to deny racism is to deny reality; or to claim that denying racism will help end it, is to deny reality. In the distant future, we can all hope to be socially and legally free of negative racial stereotypes and racism.
Absolutely true. America's "market system" is a gigantic FAILURE in my opinion. I as an American would wholeheartedly welcome some more nanny-state intrusion into the workings of the telecommunications market.
That's a good question: no, I don't. My microwave, washer and television do what I want and expect them to do without shenanigans. My phone, on the other hand, has always come with lots of shenanigans, so experience has taught me that I need to apply a stricter standard for my phone than for other devices. Moreover, I don't think I would ever actually flash my phone's ROM or change the operating system, but if I'm part of a platform for which that is possible, then experience has taught me that I can expect the device to work the way consumers want, instead of the way manufacturers want.
I don't think we agree on what racism is. Here, I'll provide the dictionary definition:
the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, esp. so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.
You attempted to use the common tactic of using an uncommon or flat-out wrong definition of a key term. Sorry, but I called you on it, and it ruins your argument.
I don't know what your job is at the manufacturer, but can you say what might have happened if you'd told the carrier to stick it, and included the cable anyway? Are you able to say which manufacturer?
I understand what you are saying, but remember that several years ago Google bought all that dark fiber? That is a hedge against uncooperative competitors.
Thanks for the explanation. Yes, I know that some of the shenanigans come from the manufacturer, and some some from the provider. I want the market to decouple manufacturers from providers, same as the market has decoupled operating systems from computer hardware.
Also, any standard USB port is fine by me: full-size, mini, micro, whatever. My point is that a 50-cent cable should be fine, but a 50-dollar cable. That's craziness.
And I will check out the phone you suggested -- thank you.
Hmmm, yeah that may or may not be a deal breaker for me. I'm not sure, because I don't have any data at all on my phone. But thank you for the tip, I will look into the N900.
I sincerely appreciate your advice. I'll look into the N900. All I mean about "fully open" is that the hardware should not have any artificial barriers to me altering its software. It might be relatively hard to get serial-level access to the drives or ROMs or whatever, but beyond that, the manufacturer should not have put in extra effort to frustrate efforts to change the software configuration. They don't have to make it easy, but they need to NOT make it hard.
For the first time, a single company will control everything from the software in users’ phones to the services they use to make calls and surf the web.
But wait, every phone I've ever had the hardware, software, and services were controlled 100% by my phone carrier. So in that way, the Google phone would be the same.
To me, the difference is that I trust the hardware, software, and services from Google, but I don't for a second trust AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon. They have proven that they refuse to provide products and services that I want, but Google has proven that they very much understand and want to provide the products and services that I want. I share the privacy concerns about Google, but at this point I'm just being vigilant, watching for Google to violate my trust. So far so good.
Google! Please put the dinosaurs out of business! I want to stop giving them my money! I want to give you my money for better services!
Today I went to an AT&T store (I'm an AT&T customer) trying to buy a phone, as I've been doing for literally years. I'm a computer programmer, a big nerd, and I still have a crappy candybar phone from 2002. I really want some kind of super smart phone, but no company is apparently willing to sell me one! To me, my constraints all seem reasonable:
The phone must charge and sync data over a standard USB or mini-USB cable, with no proprietary chargers or data cables.
The phone's software must be under my control, so I can install a new operating system if I want, or whatever else I want. It must be a fully open hardware platform, the same way I can install new software on my computer.
The phone must use standard SIM cards so I can easily switch telephone providers, or travel internationally with pay-as-you-go SIM cards.
The phone must have Bluetooth which can be used for earbuds and for data syncing.
If it's a smart phone, it must be able to show real full webpages, not just mobile versions of webpages.
Really, are those such unreasonable requests? I'm just not willing to pay money to companies that make me endure shenanigans such as:
Phones that only work on one carrier. (WTF?)
Phones that require a $50 cable to sync data or to charge the battery. (WTF?)
Phones that have Bluetooth but it can't be used to sync data, only to communicate with proprietary peripherals. (WTF?)
Phones that hold information for the people I contact, but provide no way to get that info off the phone. (WTF?)
So the first company that offers me a smart phone with zero shenanigans is going to get my money. I'm desperate for a new phone, and I'm going to buy the first one that is above the threshold of acceptability! My phone is an embarrassment, and I'm a perfect candidate for an expensive new phone, and I'm really surprised that there is no company that wants my money.
Slashdot Mirror
I totally love your sig! We grammar nerds need to stick together. To that end, I should tell you that you got it wrong: less and fewer both refer to quantity; but "less" is used for quantity of a continuous thing (like water, sand, distance) whereas "fewer" is used for discrete things (like molecules, grains, or inches).
I would certainly say so. I would say that the moral behavior "emerges" from the crowd, the same way your consciousness "emerges" from the neurons in your brain, even though no individual neuron is conscious. Democracy is premised on a similar idea.
and your going to take the burn for it
oops! I think you chose the wrong homophone. The word you are looking for is "yore".
give you a million euro's what?
0 * 2.5 = 0
No division required.
Yes, I wanted to make sure somebody said what you said. This actually happened to me, in a less nefarious way: I was given a job structured as an IC instead of a regular employee; but sometime later somehow the powers that be smelled the situation and decided it stunk. The whole issue hinged on "do you offer your services to the public", which I didn't, and that got the employer in trouble. They changed me into a real employee lickity split.
how much hard work did he actually do on this thing? My understanding is that he mostly said, "I want this thing with these specs at this price, make it happen" and his manufacturing partner is the one that actually built it.
That sounds a little like Steve Jobs.
Yep.
Your
You're
Yore
You picked the wrong homophone.
A wag is someone who makes facetious jokes.
nope.
Touche. You are totally right. I think my problem is in myself: whenever I try to investigate phones on the internet I get either overwhelmed or I want to touch and try the phone before I buy it. But you're right -- why do I keep repeating the same behavior and expecting a different result?
do you happen to know whether you can put it on AT&T? another poster told me that was not possible.
No no: not always; but in 2009, to deny racism is to deny reality; or to claim that denying racism will help end it, is to deny reality. In the distant future, we can all hope to be socially and legally free of negative racial stereotypes and racism.
Another poster said that the ADP wouldn't work on AT can you confirm or deny that? Why wouldn't the phone work on any carrier?
Absolutely true. America's "market system" is a gigantic FAILURE in my opinion. I as an American would wholeheartedly welcome some more nanny-state intrusion into the workings of the telecommunications market.
That's a good question: no, I don't. My microwave, washer and television do what I want and expect them to do without shenanigans. My phone, on the other hand, has always come with lots of shenanigans, so experience has taught me that I need to apply a stricter standard for my phone than for other devices. Moreover, I don't think I would ever actually flash my phone's ROM or change the operating system, but if I'm part of a platform for which that is possible, then experience has taught me that I can expect the device to work the way consumers want, instead of the way manufacturers want.
I don't think we agree on what racism is. Here, I'll provide the dictionary definition:
the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, esp. so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.
You attempted to use the common tactic of using an uncommon or flat-out wrong definition of a key term. Sorry, but I called you on it, and it ruins your argument.
I don't know what your job is at the manufacturer, but can you say what might have happened if you'd told the carrier to stick it, and included the cable anyway? Are you able to say which manufacturer?
Thanks for the XDA-dev tip. I'll check that out.
I understand what you are saying, but remember that several years ago Google bought all that dark fiber? That is a hedge against uncooperative competitors.
Thanks for the explanation. Yes, I know that some of the shenanigans come from the manufacturer, and some some from the provider. I want the market to decouple manufacturers from providers, same as the market has decoupled operating systems from computer hardware.
Also, any standard USB port is fine by me: full-size, mini, micro, whatever. My point is that a 50-cent cable should be fine, but a 50-dollar cable. That's craziness.
And I will check out the phone you suggested -- thank you.
Hmmm, yeah that may or may not be a deal breaker for me. I'm not sure, because I don't have any data at all on my phone. But thank you for the tip, I will look into the N900.
I sincerely appreciate your advice. I'll look into the N900. All I mean about "fully open" is that the hardware should not have any artificial barriers to me altering its software. It might be relatively hard to get serial-level access to the drives or ROMs or whatever, but beyond that, the manufacturer should not have put in extra effort to frustrate efforts to change the software configuration. They don't have to make it easy, but they need to NOT make it hard.
The article says
For the first time, a single company will control everything from the software in users’ phones to the services they use to make calls and surf the web.
But wait, every phone I've ever had the hardware, software, and services were controlled 100% by my phone carrier. So in that way, the Google phone would be the same.
To me, the difference is that I trust the hardware, software, and services from Google, but I don't for a second trust AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon. They have proven that they refuse to provide products and services that I want, but Google has proven that they very much understand and want to provide the products and services that I want. I share the privacy concerns about Google, but at this point I'm just being vigilant, watching for Google to violate my trust. So far so good.
Google! Please put the dinosaurs out of business! I want to stop giving them my money! I want to give you my money for better services!
Goodness, I hope Google offers a phone.
Today I went to an AT&T store (I'm an AT&T customer) trying to buy a phone, as I've been doing for literally years. I'm a computer programmer, a big nerd, and I still have a crappy candybar phone from 2002. I really want some kind of super smart phone, but no company is apparently willing to sell me one! To me, my constraints all seem reasonable:
Really, are those such unreasonable requests? I'm just not willing to pay money to companies that make me endure shenanigans such as:
So the first company that offers me a smart phone with zero shenanigans is going to get my money. I'm desperate for a new phone, and I'm going to buy the first one that is above the threshold of acceptability! My phone is an embarrassment, and I'm a perfect candidate for an expensive new phone, and I'm really surprised that there is no company that wants my money.