I thought we already knew this. I recall watching a documentary maybe 10 years ago that said this is the most likely explanation for these disappearances.
Also, the fact that it's over open water explains a number of small airplanes going down in the area.
A lot of blackberry users rely on their email to run multi million dollar corporations. These companies would never rely on a rebranded free solution like G-Mail for important emails. And, if they do, they deserve to go without services when an outage like this hits.
And, it's not just email that is effected. As it sits, there is no conceivable way for a global outage of Android services, but from what I'm told, this included contacts and events as well.
Their customers will do it for them. Netflix doesn't need to "fight" the cable companies. Once they have enough that their customers want to watch their content, their customers will demand fair treatment.
Even if the guy only gets ~12 pounds out of the deal, as the article suggests, he can easily make that up by buying materials in bulk and following the letter of the deal. 12 pounds equates to ~$20 usd.
1) You can bet the framed photo in the deal is for a cardboard photo frame...a box of 350 of these cardboard frames can be bought for $250, or the equivalent of $0.71 per frame. These are 8x10 (I couldn't find 12x10 frames), so lets add some more to that and make it $1 each for the cardboard frames.
2) Even the 8x10 photo paper can be bought for $0.20 per sheet. Assuming that all of the paper stock can be bought for about the same price (the larger sizes might cost more, but the smaller ones will definitely be less), He's at ~$3 for the paper stock.
3) Add another $2 or $3 for the cost of printing...which is probably a huge overestimate for bulk ink/toner/etc for only 11 prints.
4) The DVD+Rs can be bought in bulk for about $0.50 each (the guy never said he would include a case, so I would assume he will simply put it in a paper or cardboard sleeve, which will cost less than $0.50.
I'll even throw in $2.00 for extras. That still leaves us at $10 for the work put into the photo shoot and photoshop. The guy is keeping the copyright to the photos, and even if he has to drive to the site and setup lighting, there's the whole "subject to availability" thing. Which means this guy isn't going out of his way for someone that's only paying $50 for his services.
Other things to think about. He doesn't mention what resolution he is using in his coupon, only "high resolution". He could provide the photos on the disk at 2MP under the deal. A quick photoshop job on 20 photos shouldn't take an hour to do...if you have to remove someone's hairy mole from 20 photos, that's 20 "air-brushed" photos. If he's smart, he can offer to do a better job on 1 or 2 photos instead of the quick job he would do for the full 20 photos. He also doesn't mention that the 20 "air-brushed" photos will be included on the CD/DVD which could mean that he will offer to sell these along with an extra photo-retouching service.
I can only conclude that this guy is not losing money (if he's smart) or at the very least is building his portfolio and making a little money to boot...even $10 for 2 hours of work and a potential referral is better than $0 for no work when you are self-employed.
Actually, the correct answer is that Windows Phone 7 is the Zune HD OS (which was not Windows Mobile) reworked to act as a smart phone OS. This is the biggest problem that Microsoft has with Windows Phone 7. They gave up all of apps made for Windows Mobile phones and worst of all they seem to have forgotten some of the lessons they learned with the Windows Mobile line.
Umh, actually if Dalvik is derivative of anything then it would be be j2se, since both Dalvik and j2se have functionality that j2me lacks...what this is really like is if Microsoft claimed that noone else could write a BASIC interpreter...which actually happened to some extent in the 1980s.
What I remember reading is that Dalvik was actually heavily based on GCJ which is open source.
They have done "tiered pricing" in the past, and it never sticks. The reason being that not everyone will switch to tiered pricing and when everyone finds a company that has "unlimited" access, people will switch overnight. I'm not saying they won't try it, but the outcome is already determined.
One reason the 75Gb per month for "business" won't work is because businesses can still buy a T1 or higher that is unlimited for just about the same price as they are paying for cable or DSL.
Hulu uses Flash and does not apply DRM to any of their streams. Netflix had to add DRM to stream to the desktop, so they had to go with Silverlight...so, it's the MPAA that you have to thank for that. On the other hand, embeded systems like Roku, XBox, and most likely PS3 and Wii are able to receive the stream without the DRM, so there might be hope yet.
The reason this application has not been circumvented yet is because there has been no public release as of yet. Once the "bad guys" have the application to test against, they will find a way around it.
RIM is struggling because it filled a niche created by the failings of Windows Mobile (poor battery life and a bad user interface).
RIM fixed this by creating phones with acceptable battery life, a decent email app, and a streamlined OS.
This no longer sets the company apart from their current competitors (Android and iOS). Both Android and iOS devices have good battery life, decent email, and well thought out UIs.
If I were RIM, I would begin work on a line of Android phones. But, they have proven that they are going to do what so many once great companies have done (clutch to a failing OS until their last breath). (see Palm)
I hate to say it, because it's also a scam, but this won't matter if you buy an ADP plan that includes spills/immersion (SquareTrade sells them for all kinds of phones).
It doesn't matter who you buy it from though, if they know all you have to do to force them to fix it is to pay a $50 deductible, they are less likely to claim mishandling.
It's not fair, but they know if you don't have that insurance, you have no choice but to buy a new phone.
First, I'm not streaming *FROM* my phone. I'm streaming *TO* my phone and it only takes about 128k to stream good quality audio to a mobile device.
It may be a few more years before everyone is doing it, but it makes more sense to stream the data to mobile devices rather than having to carry around gigabytes of data.
I no longer *need* my iPod or any MP3 player. I use an application called Orb that streams all of the media on my Windows desktop to my Cell Phone or any web browser. I don't have to worry about syncing my iPod to download media or running out of space on my iPod. As long as it's on my PC, I can stream it to my phone. Orb is free, but it uses the bandwidth of your home PC to stream out the media...which is fine for music and live TV or video on the cell phone. But the lower video quality is noticeable when you stream it to a desktop. I expect this to change as residential upload speeds will eventually go up.
I'm not exactly a fan of AT&T/Cingular. I actually have service with Alltel (soon to be Verizon), but this is the same standard "deal" that everyone gives for buying a phone with a contract.
Looking at the new iPhone, the $200 price is actually cheaper than the 2 year contract price for the HTC Touch from Alltel/Verizon, which seems fair.
If you knew you would want a new phone in a year, then you should have paid the "1 year contract" price (or at least they used to offer that option).
At any rate, the price you paid for the phone was subsidized by your signing of the 2 year contract and you shouldn't expect another subsidized phone until your current contract runs out.
All the companies that I know of offer an "evaluation" option even if they don't outright say that they do on their website. Most of them can even generate full license keys that are valid for something like 30 days. You just have to ask.
Actually, it's a known fact that Microsoft will commonly put up a BSD server and tweak Apache's response headers to report it as IIS. They have actually been caught doing it a few times. It would look kind of bad if Microsoft doesn't use their own product.
I don't know about NewEgg either. Their prices are not generally the best. Plus, I've received poor customer service from them recently. I'm guessing that they are simply beginning to enjoy their popularity and are starting to rely more on their reputation. My bad experience coupled with other stories has tarnished their image enough for me that I try to go elsewhere online if I can.
Read your contract. For the most part, the company that provides your service does so of their own will. The only thing is, you have money and normally they want to take it from you. If your cable company suddenly decided that they didn't want to offer cable tv to you, there's not much that you can do as long as they refund any service you have paid for that you won't be receiving.
All they will do is send you a letter saying that they are no longer offering the service to you...you will likely see one of two approaches:
- A full refund for your "last month of service" - A pro-rated refund for the remainder of your paid service (monthly in most cases)
It is entirely up to the company to decide who they want to do business with.
The problem is going to come if a company offers more than one service to a customer. In the case of a cable company, how likely is a customer that has had their internet access cut off going to be to keep their cable tv service?
I personally pay ~$40 for cable internet service, but my monthly cable bill is ~$120. I can guarantee you that if the cable company cuts off my cable internet, they will lose the whole $120 from me.
I had to make the same decision about a year ago and I hate saying it, but Windows Mobile is the best smartphone OS right now. The iPhone and BlackBerry both suffer from lack of good, affordable applications. PalmOS is defiantly dated, and any other OS out there seems to be an ill is, but that has helped it as the technology has advanced. There are plenty of Java emulators out there and ZATelnet http://www.zatelnet.com/ is a great Telnet/SSH app.
The Q has a full qwerty keyboard which makes it extremely useful for text entry. Add to that applications like Opera, SkyFire, Flash video support, multiple VNC clients, all of the console emulators (SmartGear, MameCE, etc), even games like Call of Duty 2 and Duke Nukem 3D, and alternative applications for almost every function and it makes the Q a no brainer for Linux/Unix administration.
The entry of FOSS into any market encourages innovation on the commercial products. Innovation doesn't necessarily have to come in the way of new features, but the commercial software needs to do something that the FOSS alternatives don't.
In this case, the FOSS games are better and more innovative than the commercial game (see Hextris). The reason this happened is the same reason that you could never make money on the original Battlezone anymore. Because BZFlag is so much better.
Do the authors of BZFlag deserve to be blamed for this? Probably not. Is it Atari's fault for not constantly updating their game? Maybe. Should the author be making money off of an idea he had 20 years ago? Probably not. It's like Pong or Breakout. Both were firsts, both started a genre that continues today, but they have seen their day.
Wouldn't it make more sense for this guy to start a company that makes puzzle games?
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I thought we already knew this. I recall watching a documentary maybe 10 years ago that said this is the most likely explanation for these disappearances.
Also, the fact that it's over open water explains a number of small airplanes going down in the area.
A lot of blackberry users rely on their email to run multi million dollar corporations. These companies would never rely on a rebranded free solution like G-Mail for important emails. And, if they do, they deserve to go without services when an outage like this hits.
And, it's not just email that is effected. As it sits, there is no conceivable way for a global outage of Android services, but from what I'm told, this included contacts and events as well.
Their customers will do it for them. Netflix doesn't need to "fight" the cable companies. Once they have enough that their customers want to watch their content, their customers will demand fair treatment.
Even if the guy only gets ~12 pounds out of the deal, as the article suggests, he can easily make that up by buying materials in bulk and following the letter of the deal. 12 pounds equates to ~$20 usd.
1) You can bet the framed photo in the deal is for a cardboard photo frame...a box of 350 of these cardboard frames can be bought for $250, or the equivalent of $0.71 per frame. These are 8x10 (I couldn't find 12x10 frames), so lets add some more to that and make it $1 each for the cardboard frames.
2) Even the 8x10 photo paper can be bought for $0.20 per sheet. Assuming that all of the paper stock can be bought for about the same price (the larger sizes might cost more, but the smaller ones will definitely be less), He's at ~$3 for the paper stock.
3) Add another $2 or $3 for the cost of printing...which is probably a huge overestimate for bulk ink/toner/etc for only 11 prints.
4) The DVD+Rs can be bought in bulk for about $0.50 each (the guy never said he would include a case, so I would assume he will simply put it in a paper or cardboard sleeve, which will cost less than $0.50.
I'll even throw in $2.00 for extras. That still leaves us at $10 for the work put into the photo shoot and photoshop. The guy is keeping the copyright to the photos, and even if he has to drive to the site and setup lighting, there's the whole "subject to availability" thing. Which means this guy isn't going out of his way for someone that's only paying $50 for his services.
Other things to think about. He doesn't mention what resolution he is using in his coupon, only "high resolution". He could provide the photos on the disk at 2MP under the deal. A quick photoshop job on 20 photos shouldn't take an hour to do...if you have to remove someone's hairy mole from 20 photos, that's 20 "air-brushed" photos. If he's smart, he can offer to do a better job on 1 or 2 photos instead of the quick job he would do for the full 20 photos. He also doesn't mention that the 20 "air-brushed" photos will be included on the CD/DVD which could mean that he will offer to sell these along with an extra photo-retouching service.
I can only conclude that this guy is not losing money (if he's smart) or at the very least is building his portfolio and making a little money to boot...even $10 for 2 hours of work and a potential referral is better than $0 for no work when you are self-employed.
Actually, the correct answer is that Windows Phone 7 is the Zune HD OS (which was not Windows Mobile) reworked to act as a smart phone OS. This is the biggest problem that Microsoft has with Windows Phone 7. They gave up all of apps made for Windows Mobile phones and worst of all they seem to have forgotten some of the lessons they learned with the Windows Mobile line.
Actually, Windows Phone 7 has nothing to do with Windows Mobile 6.x.
The Windows Mobile OS line ended with WM6.5.
Windows Phone 7 is pretty much the Zune HD OS with the ability to make calls.
Umh, actually if Dalvik is derivative of anything then it would be be j2se, since both Dalvik and j2se have functionality that j2me lacks...what this is really like is if Microsoft claimed that noone else could write a BASIC interpreter...which actually happened to some extent in the 1980s.
What I remember reading is that Dalvik was actually heavily based on GCJ which is open source.
They have done "tiered pricing" in the past, and it never sticks. The reason being that not everyone will switch to tiered pricing and when everyone finds a company that has "unlimited" access, people will switch overnight. I'm not saying they won't try it, but the outcome is already determined.
One reason the 75Gb per month for "business" won't work is because businesses can still buy a T1 or higher that is unlimited for just about the same price as they are paying for cable or DSL.
Hulu uses Flash and does not apply DRM to any of their streams. Netflix had to add DRM to stream to the desktop, so they had to go with Silverlight...so, it's the MPAA that you have to thank for that. On the other hand, embeded systems like Roku, XBox, and most likely PS3 and Wii are able to receive the stream without the DRM, so there might be hope yet.
The reason this application has not been circumvented yet is because there has been no public release as of yet. Once the "bad guys" have the application to test against, they will find a way around it.
RIM is struggling because it filled a niche created by the failings of Windows Mobile (poor battery life and a bad user interface).
RIM fixed this by creating phones with acceptable battery life, a decent email app, and a streamlined OS.
This no longer sets the company apart from their current competitors (Android and iOS). Both Android and iOS devices have good battery life, decent email, and well thought out UIs.
If I were RIM, I would begin work on a line of Android phones. But, they have proven that they are going to do what so many once great companies have done (clutch to a failing OS until their last breath). (see Palm)
I hate to say it, because it's also a scam, but this won't matter if you buy an ADP plan that includes spills/immersion (SquareTrade sells them for all kinds of phones).
It doesn't matter who you buy it from though, if they know all you have to do to force them to fix it is to pay a $50 deductible, they are less likely to claim mishandling.
It's not fair, but they know if you don't have that insurance, you have no choice but to buy a new phone.
First, I'm not streaming *FROM* my phone. I'm streaming *TO* my phone and it only takes about 128k to stream good quality audio to a mobile device.
It may be a few more years before everyone is doing it, but it makes more sense to stream the data to mobile devices rather than having to carry around gigabytes of data.
I no longer *need* my iPod or any MP3 player. I use an application called Orb that streams all of the media on my Windows desktop to my Cell Phone or any web browser. I don't have to worry about syncing my iPod to download media or running out of space on my iPod. As long as it's on my PC, I can stream it to my phone. Orb is free, but it uses the bandwidth of your home PC to stream out the media...which is fine for music and live TV or video on the cell phone. But the lower video quality is noticeable when you stream it to a desktop. I expect this to change as residential upload speeds will eventually go up.
I'm not exactly a fan of AT&T/Cingular. I actually have service with Alltel (soon to be Verizon), but this is the same standard "deal" that everyone gives for buying a phone with a contract.
Looking at the new iPhone, the $200 price is actually cheaper than the 2 year contract price for the HTC Touch from Alltel/Verizon, which seems fair.
If you knew you would want a new phone in a year, then you should have paid the "1 year contract" price (or at least they used to offer that option).
At any rate, the price you paid for the phone was subsidized by your signing of the 2 year contract and you shouldn't expect another subsidized phone until your current contract runs out.
My guess would be that this would be an option that would default to "on", but could be turned off by the user.
All the companies that I know of offer an "evaluation" option even if they don't outright say that they do on their website. Most of them can even generate full license keys that are valid for something like 30 days. You just have to ask.
Actually, it's a known fact that Microsoft will commonly put up a BSD server and tweak Apache's response headers to report it as IIS. They have actually been caught doing it a few times. It would look kind of bad if Microsoft doesn't use their own product.
I don't know about NewEgg either. Their prices are not generally the best. Plus, I've received poor customer service from them recently. I'm guessing that they are simply beginning to enjoy their popularity and are starting to rely more on their reputation. My bad experience coupled with other stories has tarnished their image enough for me that I try to go elsewhere online if I can.
Read your contract. For the most part, the company that provides your service does so of their own will. The only thing is, you have money and normally they want to take it from you. If your cable company suddenly decided that they didn't want to offer cable tv to you, there's not much that you can do as long as they refund any service you have paid for that you won't be receiving.
All they will do is send you a letter saying that they are no longer offering the service to you...you will likely see one of two approaches:
- A full refund for your "last month of service"
- A pro-rated refund for the remainder of your paid service (monthly in most cases)
It is entirely up to the company to decide who they want to do business with.
The problem is going to come if a company offers more than one service to a customer. In the case of a cable company, how likely is a customer that has had their internet access cut off going to be to keep their cable tv service?
I personally pay ~$40 for cable internet service, but my monthly cable bill is ~$120. I can guarantee you that if the cable company cuts off my cable internet, they will lose the whole $120 from me.
I am pretty sure you're joking, but you know the shuttle has the flight characteristics of a "flying brick", right?
The wings on the thing are just on there to help control the descent and serve as fuel storage.
I hesitate to call the shuttle a "glider", but that's pretty much what it is.
So, what about all of the schools that migrated to Google Apps and don't pay anything? What do they get?
I had to make the same decision about a year ago and I hate saying it, but Windows Mobile is the best smartphone OS right now. The iPhone and BlackBerry both suffer from lack of good, affordable applications. PalmOS is defiantly dated, and any other OS out there seems to be an ill is, but that has helped it as the technology has advanced. There are plenty of Java emulators out there and ZATelnet http://www.zatelnet.com/ is a great Telnet/SSH app.
The Q has a full qwerty keyboard which makes it extremely useful for text entry. Add to that applications like Opera, SkyFire, Flash video support, multiple VNC clients, all of the console emulators (SmartGear, MameCE, etc), even games like Call of Duty 2 and Duke Nukem 3D, and alternative applications for almost every function and it makes the Q a no brainer for Linux/Unix administration.
The entry of FOSS into any market encourages innovation on the commercial products. Innovation doesn't necessarily have to come in the way of new features, but the commercial software needs to do something that the FOSS alternatives don't.
In this case, the FOSS games are better and more innovative than the commercial game (see Hextris). The reason this happened is the same reason that you could never make money on the original Battlezone anymore. Because BZFlag is so much better.
Do the authors of BZFlag deserve to be blamed for this? Probably not. Is it Atari's fault for not constantly updating their game? Maybe. Should the author be making money off of an idea he had 20 years ago? Probably not. It's like Pong or Breakout. Both were firsts, both started a genre that continues today, but they have seen their day.
Wouldn't it make more sense for this guy to start a company that makes puzzle games?