I used to use iCab for a long time, but then development (and speed) really fell behind. I started looking around for a replacement, and there was Firebird (or whatever Firefox was called back then), Camino (which I think had a different name, as well), and Safari.
Firefox is obviously not an OS X application. Sure, they have Gecko running really quickly, but non-native widgets? One of the big draws of OS X is the look and feel, and the consistency of the looks. Having what looks to be Windows-themed widgets for all forms drives me crazy.
Safari looks really good, renders most things perfectly, and is rather snappy.
Camino looked nice, but the feature set was just not there at all when I tried it. When I first tried it, the pref-pane was new to that version. Even now, the feature set is just not there to be used as a primary browser, I think.
I frequently get asked why I "throw away" my vote by voting for a third-party candidate for President.
Sometimes people are nice about it, but too often it is an accusation. Apparently *I* am responsible for the fact that Al Gore did not get elected in 2000.
I have written on this subject before, but I wanted to cover some other information today.
One reason I vote for third party candidates is that they bring to the table issues that the major candidates may not normally mention. In order to try to sway third-party candidates, the major candidates will co-op some of the platform of smaller candidates. Had Al Gore paid more attention to *why* people were voting for Nader, he might have pulled in some more votes. Had he pulled in about 600 more votes in Florida, what would have happened?
From Open Debates: "Third-party candidates have introduced popular and groundbreaking issues that were eventually co-opted by the major parties, such as: the abolition of slavery, unemployment insurance, social security, child labor laws, public schools, public power, the direct election of senators, the graduated income tax, paid vacation, the 40-hour work week, the formation of labor unions, and democratic tools like the initiative, the referendum and the recall."
I would definitely suggest checking out the entire Open Debates sites. Pay special attention to the New section that has editorials from tons of newspapers calling for the inclusion of third-party candidates in the debates.
In addition, if you search for job #2164666, you see a slightly different opening paragraph:
The iPod and Special Projects Group (SPG), the team that invented the iPod and iSight, is looking for a Hardware Engineer. This person will be an individual contributor on a top notch team with responsibilities for the design, implementation, and integration of digital and analog electronics.
Yeah, the group that also came up with the iSight has no reason to be looking at "display types".
I would be interested in seeing who, exactly, added the parentheses (among the other changes)
So they want someone with good EE experience and experience in digital and analog audio and visual. Does this not make sense to anyone reading it?
Security requirements issued by the TSA establish a security minimum for adoption by air carriers and airports. Air carriers and airports may exceed those minimum standards by implementing more stringent security requirements. This prevents potential terrorists from "beating the system" by learning how it operates. Leaving out any one group, such as senior citizens or the clergy, undermine security. We simply cannot assume that all future terrorists will fit any particular profile.
On another, related subject...
The worst part of the black-list that Senator Kennedy was complaining about? The committee he was talking to is not thinking about getting rid of the list, but rather moving it from airline control, as it is currently, to government controlled.
While I think that the airlines have bungled things up royally with it, am I really going to trust the *government* to do things better?
Of course Senator Kennedy was not able get anywhere talking to the airline. The airline checks its manifest with the government. The government says "This person cannot fly. It is your responsibility to deal with that." What can the airline do?
Getting a new driver's license takes me an entire afternoon. What makes me think that the government is going to make it easier to get off the black-list?
The problem with these lists (and the reason people are suing so they do not have to show ID at the security checkpoint) is that *we do not have a list of terrorists*.
I mean, Senator Kennedy was kept off the plane, but he was not arrested. The FBI did not come talk to him. Rather, he was put through more rigorous screening.
What does that mean? It means that the government realizes it will get innocent people with similar names, and that it is fine with that. It has no motivation for getting people off that list. Delaying people at the airport does not cost the government one cent. Indeed, they can use it as "proof" that they are doing something about terrorism.
So instead of using "T. Kennedy", Senator Kennedy uses "Edward Kennedy" and gets on the plane without problem. Yeah, the terrorists will NEVER think of that.
It is like the "Free Speech Zones" that Bush erects whenever he speaks somewhere. The reasoning? Protesters can cause problems, and we want to avoid those security and safety concerns.
Yeah, since people that want to cause trouble (be they protesters or terrorists) are not smart enough to realize they can get a lot closer without an anti-Bush sign.
No, as a frequent airline traveler, I can tell you that most of what the government and airlines have done since Sept. 11th. is "feel good security", designed to make it look safer, but really not improve things too much.
I dislike the idea that mobile phones are becoming the convergence point for mobile devices. The easy examples are cameras and MP3 players being integrated. Treo and others have tried integrating PDA powers into the phone, as well.
I wrote a journal entry about this a while back, asking for a PAN (personal area network), based on Bluetooth something else, that would allow me to have dedicated devices that all work together seamlessly (and wirelessly).
But I think the phone as the convergence point is wrong. I would rather see the PDA be that point. Why are cell phone manufacturers going out of their way to come up with proprietary OS's for their cell phones (or, even worse, some rebranded Windows version for mobile phones)? It is reinventing the wheel that was created with PalmOS and other PDA OS's.
Of course, then we get back to the argument against most PDA cell phones - size. The screen would have to be big enough to do most normal PDA functions, which immediately becomes a minimum size for the device. That is where the PAN comes in - just have the cell phone device be a dumb device controlled by the PDA.
It should have number and dialing buttons, it should have phone configuration features (and an easy-access vibrate mode switch), it should have a small emergency address book, a digital data connection, and a Bluetooth connection.
ObTopic: No, I do not think Apple has anything to really fear from cell phone convergence. In a few years I think you will see wildly different convergence devices that actually take the best from each of their ancestors and not the worst (size of PDA, camera of a cell phone, battery drain of a 802.11 device, etc). Right now the best MP3 player on the market is the iPod (or, at least, the most popular), so I think you will see other manufacturers wanting to jump on the iTunes/AAC bandwagon.
I realize that, as a national/international newspaper, this complaint does not hold for the NYT, but I feel this article is a good place to get this off my chest.
I am very tired of small newspapers starting a web page than then dominating their front page with international and national news ripped from the AP wire and from places like the New York Times.
If I am online, I can go to news.bbc.co.uk or to cnn.com or the New York Times for international news and other big stories. If I go to the Kansas City Star website, for example, I am really going there for news about the Kansas City area, not to get the AP article on the war in Iraq.
Small regional newspapers need to realize they are never going to be able to compare with the competition for international news when online. They need to cater their online presence to something that no one else will be able to match - local coverage of local events.
I have noticed that some local papers are getting better about that, but I think they still have a long way to go.
I worked at a very small specialized retailer (running store) for about three years.
We had our normal "problem customers". People who would buy a pair of shoes and then bring them back after several long runs on the shoes and try to exchange them. People that would complain about our prices, and so on.
The fact that the owner of the store was there most times to make the final decision, what helped more than anything was having firm, clear-cut policies on things.
If you never took back shoes that had obviously been run in, then the person who was always trying to bring them back worn was going to have a problem. And, I admit, sometimes that meant calling the customer a liar, sometimes to their face.
The customer was always free to go elsewhere. There were even times when I would give directions to another store.
We would never refuse to sell someone a pair of shoes, and we would never treat a customer any differently than any other person off the street. If someone came in trying to return his tenth pair of shoes, I could objectively look at him (and the shoes) the same way as someone who was coming back for the first time to return something. Had the shoe been obviously worn outside? Would I feel comfortable selling this shoe *as new* to another customer? Would I feel comfortable buying this shoe myself, as new?
If the shoe passed those tests, I would take the shoes back, tenth pair coming back or first.
And I will add something on about the rebates - others posting are correct. If you have problems with rebates, *get rid of them*. No one likes them except the retailer, and if the retailer is having problems with them, then no one will be stopping them from getting rid of them.
Now, I also see a difference between a retailer rebate and a manufacturer's rebate. I dislike them both, but the retailer rebate is the worst.
SprintPCS, for example, is making a big deal about this new promotion for existing customers. If you have been a customer for over 18 months, you can get a new phone.
Fine print: SprintPCS will send you a rebate check for up to $150 if you buy the phone, even if you buy is straight from Sprint! So I give SprintPCS my money, and then I have to prove to them I gave them my money, and then 6-8 weeks later they will return *my* money to me?
Seems people like Sony and others are following Apple's lead and opening their own retail stores.
I cannot blame them, look at the success of NikeTown and the Apple retail stores. A lot of smaller home theater companies (Cambridge Soundworks, and others) already do that as well.
Of course, one can look at the Gateway retail stores as an example of a failure of this market.
What percentage of sleepy people are there going to be on the road traveling in Texas that have a computer on them with wifi access and really want to stop to use it? Dunno, but probably not many.
Notice that I include a copyright mark on each of my comments, in addition to Slashdot's notice.
I have nothing to really gain/lose by a Slashdot comment, but it definitely bothers me that people will take obviously copyrighted work and claim it as their own.
If you had ever actually tried to use Horde/IMP, you would know what a pain it is to use. The feature set is horribly incomplete, and it is extremely slow.
I have tried both SquirrelMail and Horde/IMP, and while SquirrellMail wins hands-down every time, it does not even come close to giving the power and flexibility of a dedicated email client.
Email should be left a.txt system. Adding on the weight (and bloat) of an HTML overlay to a.txt message is just unreasonable.
What is more difficult for a client computer - to open a text-only email message (basically just a glorified text window), or render an HTML page generated by SquirrellMail that has the exact same information?
Webmail clients have their place, and I use them on occasion while traveling, but I cannot imagine using it as my day-to-day client of choice.
I also wish the reviewer had looked at Eudora for Mac or Windows. I have been using Eudora since 1993 and keep returning to it. The interface is a little dated now, especially under OS X, but it does what I want it to do.
(b) LIMITATION- Subsection (a) may not be construed to authorize the Commission to establish a requirement pursuant to section 5(a)(5)(A) to include any specific words, characters, marks, or labels in a commercial electronic mail message, or to include the identification required by section 5(a)(5)(A) in any particular part of such a mail message (such as the subject line or body).
Now, the FTC is required to report back in less than 18 months about the feasibility of requiring ADV: or other indicators, but does not authorize them to require it in the meantime.
Want to try again?
They are basically passing the buck off to whomever has to vote on it in 18 months. [You were right about one thing - it is the FTC, not my idiotic FCC]
What might make a real difference, according to US Senator Conrad Burns, co-author of the bill, is international standards and enforcement.
I thought one of the big problems with CAN-SPAM act was that it said that no one could set "standards" for what UCE was required to contain.
No [ADV] or anything at the beginning of the subject line. Spammers know that requiring them to do that would make it significantly easier to trash Spam at the ISP level. They must have lobbied hard to make sure that the bill says that the FCC is *not* able to set "standards" for that identifying marks Spam must have.
If you are going to write a law that tries to fight Spam (questionable intentions in the first place), at least give it some power to set "Standards".
The iPod suits that were recently filed fit the bill - millions of members of a potential class, obvious remedy (provide a battery that has the advertised life), and obvious return - millions of users X the cost of the hypothetical battery.
What the hell are you smoking? iPod's "advertised battery life"? The iPod's battery lasted as long as Apple said it would, "8 hours, depending on use".
Oh, you mean how long the LiIon battery lasts before it will no longer hold a charge. I am sorry, can you see anything that Apple advertised about this?
In fact, would Apple ever write anything down about how long a LiIon battery (which is well known for not lasting forever) would last?
Oh, are you saying your have a problem with the fact that Apple advertised the removable battery? Oh, wait, they did not do that, either.
And how would Apple "provide a battery that has the advertised life"? LiIon is going to be about the best technology for something like the iPod. A "replacement battery" is going to have the same overall lifespan as the original.
You do realize all of this, do you not?
So in other words, the iPod class action lawsuit is not a good example. Apple made no claims about the lifespan of the battery, and used the best battery technology for their product. They replaced the battery when it was under warranty.
So you want a class action lawsuit to keep Apple from doing the same thing in the future? What should Apple not do? They never said the battery would last forever. They never said the battery was replaceable. If you do not agree with that business decision, then it is your obligation as the consumer to go elsewhere for your portable MP3 player.
I am tired of hearing people complain about this subject. It is like it is a cool thing to complain about when, in fact, the details are a lot less clear-cut than people would like to make it out.
During the Christmas season, I ended up with about $110 worth of Best Buy gift cards, and I have been struggling ever since with what to do with them.
I thought about setting up a wireless access point for my new PowerBook, but I have a 10m Cat5 cable and do not mind dragging that around the few times I want to move around my apartment and be connected.
I thought about a Game Cube or other gaming system, but I do not game that much. In addition, the thought of having to put out more money for games and controllers was not appealing at all.
I need a security cable for my PowerBook, but they do not seem to have a good selection (if they have any at all), so that is out.
I could blow it on movies and CDs, but that seems to be a waste. I can get cheaper music and moves other places. That would also seem like a waste in my head because I feel like $110 is a substantial bit of money and getting six or seven DVDs out of it does not seem the same to me as a Game Boy Advance.
I thought about using the gift cards towards something bigger that I want (home theater receiver, etc.) but decided that the gift card would be wasted on that, since I would end up paying sales tax and the higher price at Best Buy (as opposed to getting the same equipment from Crutchfield or Amazon).
I thought about a keychain USB drive, since that would be cool, but not very useful. Every machine I use is networked pretty well, so moving stuff between computers is pretty easy.
I also already have a digital camera, an iPod, a Clie....
Computers *are* moody. Four days in a row, you start up your computer, click on your email client, and it gets your mail. The fifth day? You do the same thing and the computer locks up.
You still have not figured out why an error box keeps popping up every time you try to open your word processor. But you know if you hit "Cancel", it goes away and you can work normally.
Your DSL line goes down every now and then. You reset the modem and usually things come back up. Sometimes you have to restart the computer, though.
You cannot figure out any rhyme or reason to when things work and when they do not. As far as you can tell, there is no rhyme or reason - the computer just does not work on occasion. You have to jump through some hoops to get some things done.
If this is not the definition of "moody", I do not know what is.
I think we are still about 10-15 years off from a major UI revolution on computers. I think in that time period you will see a major shift into getting the OS and programs out of the way of the user. It will be such a fundamental difference from what we have now that it will make the command line -> GUI jump look like a baby step.
The OS and programs will be written realizing most people do not know what to do when something goes wrong and, therefore, the OS and application need to deal with it on their own.
I cannot imagine what the UI will be, but I foresee a time when users no longer have to worry about an OS or applications. The computer will just "do".
I look at your comments the same way I would someone telling people they need to know how an internal combustion engine works because they are having problems working the hand crank to get it started.
The thought that one day the hand crank will be gone is never obvious.
[ObBias: I am a big fan/critic of UI in applications I use. I am also an OS X user, and have used Macintoshes for over ten years now.]
If you have problems getting things done in your work, or feel that something would better enable you to do your job, your manager(s) should have heard it by now.
Now your manager may have passed along problems and suggestions already. If so, then you will just be repeating what the manager said. This is not a bad thing at all. This will not get you into trouble, and will help emphasize the suggestions.
If your manager has not passed along problems and suggestions well, he or she may have their own reasons for this, since other things need to be taken into consideration. Hopefully your manager has explained to you the reason why some problems went unaddressed. If your manager is not doing a good job of communicating the company's decisions, that is a problem between you and your manager. This can get you into trouble.
If your manager has taken your suggestions and been unable to get them implemented due to other parts of the company saying no, then this is your chance to use your own arguments for "the cause".
If you see that there are major problems that are going unaddressed, then you might be blunt at the beginning of the conversation about possible repercussions to you speaking up. Be honest - if the executives truly want to hear what is wrong and what can be improved, they want the employees they are meeting with to speak openly, and without fear of being retaliated against.
Ask what sort of reassurances the executives can make in case you find yourself in that situation. Also ask if you would be able to meet with them if that situation arises.
Of course, if problems run that deeply in your company (especially in your department), it might be time to start looking for another job anyway.
One big bit of advice is to stick to your department and job. If you are in IT, do not talk about problems you see in the accounting department, unless it is directly related to your job in IT.
One program that I use daily that does not get a lot of mention is Adium, a GPLed AIM client on the Mac.
The older version, v1.6.x series, has a few cosmetic problems under Panther (works perfectly under Jaguar), but in general is outstanding. Why anyone would use the AOL client under OS X with Adium and iChat available is beyond me. The only thing that iChat has going for it over Adium is the video conferencing feature.
Highly configurable, easy to use, and has a great feature set.
v2.0, now in late-alpha, looks to be even better, going to a modular protocol backend, meaning it can do AIM/MSN/etc.
I have used VideoLan Client on OS X and really like that, as well. It opens about 98% of the files that MPlayer can handle, and has an interface that is leaps and bounds beyond MPlayer (for a good example of how *not* to write an OS X interface, check out MPlayer for OS X).
1) Artists only get a few cents per album. 2) You think artists deserve more. 3) You therefore think it is right to not give them anything.
Am I the only one who sees a problem with this?
OK, so you are saying that the record labels get the majority of each CD sale and you do not like that fact. But you do realize you are punishing the already punished artist even more?
Of course, then there are people who look at recording artists driving expensive cars, living in huge mansions, and think that the people therefore have a right to take back and copy their albums (a Robin Hood type thing).
The only problem is that the people in Robin Hood were actively stealing from the poor. People *willingly* give money to artists for their music. This is capitalism, and there is nothing wrong with it. [1]
CDs Cost too much? Do not buy them. Enough people do that and CD prices will drop. It is simple supply and demand.
One thing I have discovered about Slashdot readers (and most people in the world): They are cheapskates. They say they would buy CDs if they were only $10. They say they would buy an iPod if they were only $100. They say they would buy a Macintosh if they were only $500.
My thoughts? Yeah, right...
As soon as CDs are $10, most Slashdot readers would be saying "Well, I would buy them when they are $3. It only costs a nickel to make! In the meantime, I am going to continue to download free MP3s. Compete with that!" [2]
As prices get lower, more and more people would purchase the item in question, but there would still be a vocal group on Slashdot that would continue to call for prices to go down even more.
[1] Oh, I forgot, most of us are in the U.S., and we default back to our Puritan beliefs that "rich" = "evil". We have a love/hate relationship with rich people. We would love to be rich, but we hate people who are rich.
I am in an environment that could be considered "wireless hostile". I live with high school students gifted in math and science (and therefore usually computers, as well). They have ethernet in their rooms, but this gets shut off between 1am and 6am.
I bought a PowerBook not too long ago and would like to set up wireless access for my apartment. Knowing that I have to keep others from accessing the WAP, I have been researching possibilities.
So my big dilemma is not making sure crackers do not access the traffic (I would prefer they not be able to sit and watch what web sites I go to, but...), but rather making sure they cannot access the WAP.
Locking down the WAP to my MAC address would be a start. However, hacking a wireless client to use my MAC address is not too difficult. I thought about figuring out some way of shutting down the device between the hours of 1am and 5am (when they would be most motivated to access it, and when I am less likely to want access through it).
I had looked at more advanced authentication devices, but between lack of ease-of use (I would like to open the PowerBook and have networking work) and speed issues (VPN over 802.11x seems to suck a good chunk of bandwidth), I wanted to stay away from them.
WPA seems to solve a lot of problems for me. It is still open to dictionary attacks, but I am more than willing to come up with a 31 key passphrase. Between that and locking the WAP to only one MAC address, I would think it would be pretty secure.
It looks like more and more products are starting to support WPA (LinkSys, Apple, and DLink all do, it seems).
A couple of questions: 1) Will this solve my access requirements within reason? 2) Anyone have experience using Apple's Airport Extreme Card with WPA on a third-party WAP?
[Yes, I realize that a determined student could start a dictionary attack even on a 31 key passphrase, but I think that is reasonable closure if that is the only way of accessing the WAP]
Slashdot Mirror
Several times I have emailed a Mysterious Future story being a duplication and then gone on to see it *not* go live.
1 1/1951238 is the same as2 6 which ran yesterday.
So it does work, at least on occasion.
I always make sure to email the URLs to the old and new stories. I also keep it very short and to the point.
An example email:
Duplicate story.
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/09/10/04532
I *think* everytime I have emailed daddypants the story has not run, but I cannot remember, exactly. I have probably emailed about 4-5 times.
(Wow, now that I look at it, the story I mention above *did* go live, but only for a minute or two).
I used to use iCab for a long time, but then development (and speed) really fell behind. I started looking around for a replacement, and there was Firebird (or whatever Firefox was called back then), Camino (which I think had a different name, as well), and Safari.
Firefox is obviously not an OS X application. Sure, they have Gecko running really quickly, but non-native widgets? One of the big draws of OS X is the look and feel, and the consistency of the looks. Having what looks to be Windows-themed widgets for all forms drives me crazy.
Safari looks really good, renders most things perfectly, and is rather snappy.
Camino looked nice, but the feature set was just not there at all when I tried it. When I first tried it, the pref-pane was new to that version. Even now, the feature set is just not there to be used as a primary browser, I think.
I would really like to see Camino developed more.
I frequently get asked why I "throw away" my vote by voting for a third-party candidate for President.
Sometimes people are nice about it, but too often it is an accusation. Apparently *I* am responsible for the fact that Al Gore did not get elected in 2000.
I have written on this subject before, but I wanted to cover some other information today.
One reason I vote for third party candidates is that they bring to the table issues that the major candidates may not normally mention. In order to try to sway third-party candidates, the major candidates will co-op some of the platform of smaller candidates. Had Al Gore paid more attention to *why* people were voting for Nader, he might have pulled in some more votes. Had he pulled in about 600 more votes in Florida, what would have happened?
From Open Debates: "Third-party candidates have introduced popular and groundbreaking issues that were eventually co-opted by the major parties, such as: the abolition of slavery, unemployment insurance, social security, child labor laws, public schools, public power, the direct election of senators, the graduated income tax, paid vacation, the 40-hour work week, the formation of labor unions, and democratic tools like the initiative, the referendum and the recall."
In related news - "The Commission on Presidential Debates may have violated federal election laws when it refused to allow any third-party presidential candidates into the debate halls to watch the 2000 presidential debates, a federal judge has ruled."
I would definitely suggest checking out the entire Open Debates sites. Pay special attention to the New section that has editorials from tons of newspapers calling for the inclusion of third-party candidates in the debates.
Yeah, the group that also came up with the iSight has no reason to be looking at "display types".
I would be interested in seeing who, exactly, added the parentheses (among the other changes)
So they want someone with good EE experience and experience in digital and analog audio and visual. Does this not make sense to anyone reading it?
On another, related subject...
The worst part of the black-list that Senator Kennedy was complaining about? The committee he was talking to is not thinking about getting rid of the list, but rather moving it from airline control, as it is currently, to government controlled.
While I think that the airlines have bungled things up royally with it, am I really going to trust the *government* to do things better?
Of course Senator Kennedy was not able get anywhere talking to the airline. The airline checks its manifest with the government. The government says "This person cannot fly. It is your responsibility to deal with that." What can the airline do?
Getting a new driver's license takes me an entire afternoon. What makes me think that the government is going to make it easier to get off the black-list?
The problem with these lists (and the reason people are suing so they do not have to show ID at the security checkpoint) is that *we do not have a list of terrorists*.
I mean, Senator Kennedy was kept off the plane, but he was not arrested. The FBI did not come talk to him. Rather, he was put through more rigorous screening.
What does that mean? It means that the government realizes it will get innocent people with similar names, and that it is fine with that. It has no motivation for getting people off that list. Delaying people at the airport does not cost the government one cent. Indeed, they can use it as "proof" that they are doing something about terrorism.
So instead of using "T. Kennedy", Senator Kennedy uses "Edward Kennedy" and gets on the plane without problem. Yeah, the terrorists will NEVER think of that.
It is like the "Free Speech Zones" that Bush erects whenever he speaks somewhere. The reasoning? Protesters can cause problems, and we want to avoid those security and safety concerns.
Yeah, since people that want to cause trouble (be they protesters or terrorists) are not smart enough to realize they can get a lot closer without an anti-Bush sign.
No, as a frequent airline traveler, I can tell you that most of what the government and airlines have done since Sept. 11th. is "feel good security", designed to make it look safer, but really not improve things too much.
I have argued with a TSA employee at a security checkpoint when he overstepped his bounds. Have you?
We need to start speaking up, even if we worry we might not make our planes.
Check out Vindigo.
An entire Palm application, for $25/year, that does everything you want it to do.
The best $25 I ever spent on my Clie.
It can also do wireless sync'ing, so you can update the information from your Treo easily.
Apple also released a Security Update fixing the libpng problem.
So far I have not found anything about it on Apple's site, but chances are you will see that as well when you run Software Update.
Running 10.3.5 now, and no problems so far.
I dislike the idea that mobile phones are becoming the convergence point for mobile devices. The easy examples are cameras and MP3 players being integrated. Treo and others have tried integrating PDA powers into the phone, as well.
I wrote a journal entry about this a while back, asking for a PAN (personal area network), based on Bluetooth something else, that would allow me to have dedicated devices that all work together seamlessly (and wirelessly).
But I think the phone as the convergence point is wrong. I would rather see the PDA be that point. Why are cell phone manufacturers going out of their way to come up with proprietary OS's for their cell phones (or, even worse, some rebranded Windows version for mobile phones)? It is reinventing the wheel that was created with PalmOS and other PDA OS's.
Of course, then we get back to the argument against most PDA cell phones - size. The screen would have to be big enough to do most normal PDA functions, which immediately becomes a minimum size for the device. That is where the PAN comes in - just have the cell phone device be a dumb device controlled by the PDA.
An article on infoSync described the phone well:
It should have number and dialing buttons, it should have phone configuration features (and an easy-access vibrate mode switch), it should have a small emergency address book, a digital data connection, and a Bluetooth connection.
ObTopic: No, I do not think Apple has anything to really fear from cell phone convergence. In a few years I think you will see wildly different convergence devices that actually take the best from each of their ancestors and not the worst (size of PDA, camera of a cell phone, battery drain of a 802.11 device, etc). Right now the best MP3 player on the market is the iPod (or, at least, the most popular), so I think you will see other manufacturers wanting to jump on the iTunes/AAC bandwagon.
I realize that, as a national/international newspaper, this complaint does not hold for the NYT, but I feel this article is a good place to get this off my chest.
I am very tired of small newspapers starting a web page than then dominating their front page with international and national news ripped from the AP wire and from places like the New York Times.
If I am online, I can go to news.bbc.co.uk or to cnn.com or the New York Times for international news and other big stories. If I go to the Kansas City Star website, for example, I am really going there for news about the Kansas City area, not to get the AP article on the war in Iraq.
Small regional newspapers need to realize they are never going to be able to compare with the competition for international news when online. They need to cater their online presence to something that no one else will be able to match - local coverage of local events.
I have noticed that some local papers are getting better about that, but I think they still have a long way to go.
I worked at a very small specialized retailer (running store) for about three years.
We had our normal "problem customers". People who would buy a pair of shoes and then bring them back after several long runs on the shoes and try to exchange them. People that would complain about our prices, and so on.
The fact that the owner of the store was there most times to make the final decision, what helped more than anything was having firm, clear-cut policies on things.
If you never took back shoes that had obviously been run in, then the person who was always trying to bring them back worn was going to have a problem. And, I admit, sometimes that meant calling the customer a liar, sometimes to their face.
The customer was always free to go elsewhere. There were even times when I would give directions to another store.
We would never refuse to sell someone a pair of shoes, and we would never treat a customer any differently than any other person off the street. If someone came in trying to return his tenth pair of shoes, I could objectively look at him (and the shoes) the same way as someone who was coming back for the first time to return something. Had the shoe been obviously worn outside? Would I feel comfortable selling this shoe *as new* to another customer? Would I feel comfortable buying this shoe myself, as new?
If the shoe passed those tests, I would take the shoes back, tenth pair coming back or first.
And I will add something on about the rebates - others posting are correct. If you have problems with rebates, *get rid of them*. No one likes them except the retailer, and if the retailer is having problems with them, then no one will be stopping them from getting rid of them.
Now, I also see a difference between a retailer rebate and a manufacturer's rebate. I dislike them both, but the retailer rebate is the worst.
SprintPCS, for example, is making a big deal about this new promotion for existing customers. If you have been a customer for over 18 months, you can get a new phone.
Fine print: SprintPCS will send you a rebate check for up to $150 if you buy the phone, even if you buy is straight from Sprint! So I give SprintPCS my money, and then I have to prove to them I gave them my money, and then 6-8 weeks later they will return *my* money to me?
Insane! Just give me the stupid phone up front!
Sony open for retail business
Seems people like Sony and others are following Apple's lead and opening their own retail stores.
I cannot blame them, look at the success of NikeTown and the Apple retail stores. A lot of smaller home theater companies (Cambridge Soundworks, and others) already do that as well.
Of course, one can look at the Gateway retail stores as an example of a failure of this market.
What percentage of sleepy people are there going to be on the road traveling in Texas that have a computer on them with wifi access and really want to stop to use it? Dunno, but probably not many.
You know nothing about truck drivers, do you?
Reverse SSH tunnelling is your friend.
I have not had problems checking mail from anywhere.
Copyrighted work on Slashdot (comments) even get copied.
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest (C) 1997-2004 OSDN.
Compare my comment with this comment.
Notice that I include a copyright mark on each of my comments, in addition to Slashdot's notice.
I have nothing to really gain/lose by a Slashdot comment, but it definitely bothers me that people will take obviously copyrighted work and claim it as their own.
You are right - be flattered, or be angry?
If you had ever actually tried to use Horde/IMP, you would know what a pain it is to use. The feature set is horribly incomplete, and it is extremely slow.
.txt system. Adding on the weight (and bloat) of an HTML overlay to a .txt message is just unreasonable.
I have tried both SquirrelMail and Horde/IMP, and while SquirrellMail wins hands-down every time, it does not even come close to giving the power and flexibility of a dedicated email client.
Email should be left a
What is more difficult for a client computer - to open a text-only email message (basically just a glorified text window), or render an HTML page generated by SquirrellMail that has the exact same information?
Webmail clients have their place, and I use them on occasion while traveling, but I cannot imagine using it as my day-to-day client of choice.
I also wish the reviewer had looked at Eudora for Mac or Windows. I have been using Eudora since 1993 and keep returning to it. The interface is a little dated now, especially under OS X, but it does what I want it to do.
Mail.app would be another good suggestion.
Wrong, although you fell for that the Bush administration wanted you to fall for, so it is easy to see how that happened.
The actual law says:
(b) LIMITATION- Subsection (a) may not be construed to authorize the Commission to establish a requirement pursuant to section 5(a)(5)(A) to include any specific words, characters, marks, or labels in a commercial electronic mail message, or to include the identification required by section 5(a)(5)(A) in any particular part of such a mail message (such as the subject line or body).
Now, the FTC is required to report back in less than 18 months about the feasibility of requiring ADV: or other indicators, but does not authorize them to require it in the meantime.
Want to try again?
They are basically passing the buck off to whomever has to vote on it in 18 months. [You were right about one thing - it is the FTC, not my idiotic FCC]
What might make a real difference, according to US Senator Conrad Burns, co-author of the bill, is international standards and enforcement.
I thought one of the big problems with CAN-SPAM act was that it said that no one could set "standards" for what UCE was required to contain.
No [ADV] or anything at the beginning of the subject line. Spammers know that requiring them to do that would make it significantly easier to trash Spam at the ISP level. They must have lobbied hard to make sure that the bill says that the FCC is *not* able to set "standards" for that identifying marks Spam must have.
If you are going to write a law that tries to fight Spam (questionable intentions in the first place), at least give it some power to set "Standards".
The iPod suits that were recently filed fit the bill - millions of members of a potential class, obvious remedy (provide a battery that has the advertised life), and obvious return - millions of users X the cost of the hypothetical battery.
What the hell are you smoking? iPod's "advertised battery life"? The iPod's battery lasted as long as Apple said it would, "8 hours, depending on use".
Oh, you mean how long the LiIon battery lasts before it will no longer hold a charge. I am sorry, can you see anything that Apple advertised about this?
In fact, would Apple ever write anything down about how long a LiIon battery (which is well known for not lasting forever) would last?
Oh, are you saying your have a problem with the fact that Apple advertised the removable battery? Oh, wait, they did not do that, either.
And how would Apple "provide a battery that has the advertised life"? LiIon is going to be about the best technology for something like the iPod. A "replacement battery" is going to have the same overall lifespan as the original.
You do realize all of this, do you not?
So in other words, the iPod class action lawsuit is not a good example. Apple made no claims about the lifespan of the battery, and used the best battery technology for their product. They replaced the battery when it was under warranty.
So you want a class action lawsuit to keep Apple from doing the same thing in the future? What should Apple not do? They never said the battery would last forever. They never said the battery was replaceable. If you do not agree with that business decision, then it is your obligation as the consumer to go elsewhere for your portable MP3 player.
I am tired of hearing people complain about this subject. It is like it is a cool thing to complain about when, in fact, the details are a lot less clear-cut than people would like to make it out.
During the Christmas season, I ended up with about $110 worth of Best Buy gift cards, and I have been struggling ever since with what to do with them.
I thought about setting up a wireless access point for my new PowerBook, but I have a 10m Cat5 cable and do not mind dragging that around the few times I want to move around my apartment and be connected.
I thought about a Game Cube or other gaming system, but I do not game that much. In addition, the thought of having to put out more money for games and controllers was not appealing at all.
I need a security cable for my PowerBook, but they do not seem to have a good selection (if they have any at all), so that is out.
I could blow it on movies and CDs, but that seems to be a waste. I can get cheaper music and moves other places. That would also seem like a waste in my head because I feel like $110 is a substantial bit of money and getting six or seven DVDs out of it does not seem the same to me as a Game Boy Advance.
I thought about using the gift cards towards something bigger that I want (home theater receiver, etc.) but decided that the gift card would be wasted on that, since I would end up paying sales tax and the higher price at Best Buy (as opposed to getting the same equipment from Crutchfield or Amazon).
I thought about a keychain USB drive, since that would be cool, but not very useful. Every machine I use is networked pretty well, so moving stuff between computers is pretty easy.
I also already have a digital camera, an iPod, a Clie....
So any suggestions?
Are you even in touch with the common man?
Computers *are* moody. Four days in a row, you start up your computer, click on your email client, and it gets your mail. The fifth day? You do the same thing and the computer locks up.
You still have not figured out why an error box keeps popping up every time you try to open your word processor. But you know if you hit "Cancel", it goes away and you can work normally.
Your DSL line goes down every now and then. You reset the modem and usually things come back up. Sometimes you have to restart the computer, though.
You cannot figure out any rhyme or reason to when things work and when they do not. As far as you can tell, there is no rhyme or reason - the computer just does not work on occasion. You have to jump through some hoops to get some things done.
If this is not the definition of "moody", I do not know what is.
I think we are still about 10-15 years off from a major UI revolution on computers. I think in that time period you will see a major shift into getting the OS and programs out of the way of the user. It will be such a fundamental difference from what we have now that it will make the command line -> GUI jump look like a baby step.
The OS and programs will be written realizing most people do not know what to do when something goes wrong and, therefore, the OS and application need to deal with it on their own.
I cannot imagine what the UI will be, but I foresee a time when users no longer have to worry about an OS or applications. The computer will just "do".
I look at your comments the same way I would someone telling people they need to know how an internal combustion engine works because they are having problems working the hand crank to get it started.
The thought that one day the hand crank will be gone is never obvious.
[ObBias: I am a big fan/critic of UI in applications I use. I am also an OS X user, and have used Macintoshes for over ten years now.]
If you have problems getting things done in your work, or feel that something would better enable you to do your job, your manager(s) should have heard it by now.
Now your manager may have passed along problems and suggestions already. If so, then you will just be repeating what the manager said. This is not a bad thing at all. This will not get you into trouble, and will help emphasize the suggestions.
If your manager has not passed along problems and suggestions well, he or she may have their own reasons for this, since other things need to be taken into consideration. Hopefully your manager has explained to you the reason why some problems went unaddressed. If your manager is not doing a good job of communicating the company's decisions, that is a problem between you and your manager. This can get you into trouble.
If your manager has taken your suggestions and been unable to get them implemented due to other parts of the company saying no, then this is your chance to use your own arguments for "the cause".
If you see that there are major problems that are going unaddressed, then you might be blunt at the beginning of the conversation about possible repercussions to you speaking up. Be honest - if the executives truly want to hear what is wrong and what can be improved, they want the employees they are meeting with to speak openly, and without fear of being retaliated against.
Ask what sort of reassurances the executives can make in case you find yourself in that situation. Also ask if you would be able to meet with them if that situation arises.
Of course, if problems run that deeply in your company (especially in your department), it might be time to start looking for another job anyway.
One big bit of advice is to stick to your department and job. If you are in IT, do not talk about problems you see in the accounting department, unless it is directly related to your job in IT.
One program that I use daily that does not get a lot of mention is Adium, a GPLed AIM client on the Mac.
The older version, v1.6.x series, has a few cosmetic problems under Panther (works perfectly under Jaguar), but in general is outstanding. Why anyone would use the AOL client under OS X with Adium and iChat available is beyond me. The only thing that iChat has going for it over Adium is the video conferencing feature.
Highly configurable, easy to use, and has a great feature set.
v2.0, now in late-alpha, looks to be even better, going to a modular protocol backend, meaning it can do AIM/MSN/etc.
I have used VideoLan Client on OS X and really like that, as well. It opens about 98% of the files that MPlayer can handle, and has an interface that is leaps and bounds beyond MPlayer (for a good example of how *not* to write an OS X interface, check out MPlayer for OS X).
Damn, I feel like a newbie in this conversation.
Let me see if I get what you are saying:
1) Artists only get a few cents per album.
2) You think artists deserve more.
3) You therefore think it is right to not give them anything.
Am I the only one who sees a problem with this?
OK, so you are saying that the record labels get the majority of each CD sale and you do not like that fact. But you do realize you are punishing the already punished artist even more?
Of course, then there are people who look at recording artists driving expensive cars, living in huge mansions, and think that the people therefore have a right to take back and copy their albums (a Robin Hood type thing).
The only problem is that the people in Robin Hood were actively stealing from the poor. People *willingly* give money to artists for their music. This is capitalism, and there is nothing wrong with it. [1]
CDs Cost too much? Do not buy them. Enough people do that and CD prices will drop. It is simple supply and demand.
One thing I have discovered about Slashdot readers (and most people in the world): They are cheapskates. They say they would buy CDs if they were only $10. They say they would buy an iPod if they were only $100. They say they would buy a Macintosh if they were only $500.
My thoughts? Yeah, right...
As soon as CDs are $10, most Slashdot readers would be saying "Well, I would buy them when they are $3. It only costs a nickel to make! In the meantime, I am going to continue to download free MP3s. Compete with that!" [2]
As prices get lower, more and more people would purchase the item in question, but there would still be a vocal group on Slashdot that would continue to call for prices to go down even more.
[1] Oh, I forgot, most of us are in the U.S., and we default back to our Puritan beliefs that "rich" = "evil". We have a love/hate relationship with rich people. We would love to be rich, but we hate people who are rich.
[2] This process continues as prices get lower.
I am in an environment that could be considered "wireless hostile". I live with high school students gifted in math and science (and therefore usually computers, as well). They have ethernet in their rooms, but this gets shut off between 1am and 6am.
I bought a PowerBook not too long ago and would like to set up wireless access for my apartment. Knowing that I have to keep others from accessing the WAP, I have been researching possibilities.
So my big dilemma is not making sure crackers do not access the traffic (I would prefer they not be able to sit and watch what web sites I go to, but...), but rather making sure they cannot access the WAP.
Locking down the WAP to my MAC address would be a start. However, hacking a wireless client to use my MAC address is not too difficult. I thought about figuring out some way of shutting down the device between the hours of 1am and 5am (when they would be most motivated to access it, and when I am less likely to want access through it).
I had looked at more advanced authentication devices, but between lack of ease-of use (I would like to open the PowerBook and have networking work) and speed issues (VPN over 802.11x seems to suck a good chunk of bandwidth), I wanted to stay away from them.
WPA seems to solve a lot of problems for me. It is still open to dictionary attacks, but I am more than willing to come up with a 31 key passphrase. Between that and locking the WAP to only one MAC address, I would think it would be pretty secure.
It looks like more and more products are starting to support WPA (LinkSys, Apple, and DLink all do, it seems).
A couple of questions:
1) Will this solve my access requirements within reason?
2) Anyone have experience using Apple's Airport Extreme Card with WPA on a third-party WAP?
[Yes, I realize that a determined student could start a dictionary attack even on a 31 key passphrase, but I think that is reasonable closure if that is the only way of accessing the WAP]