No you don't. Any softphone coupled with the built in speakers and mic on your computer, or a tiny little plantronics or similar headset works just fine.
Plus, if you're sitting in an airport or coffee shop and you VPN in, you have your office number with you.
I use Skypeout to call a friend's mobile phone in Spain from here in the US. It works beautifully. I have a headset though, I've noticed that there tends to be some quality probs if you use the built in speaks and mic on your laptop.
The only reason she knew I was using something different was because my caller ID didn't pop up like it normally does.
SIP does not always work well through NAT, even though there are some implementations that are NAT friendly. Also, some ISP's that offer their own VOIP service will block your access to competitors. ATTBI did it to me, I was even on the phone with the tech when he found the access list in a router that was blocking my access to Vonage.
I just purchased a Swissgear laptop backpack from Best But for $70. I can't seem to find it on Wenger's site so I can't link to it.
It's the BEST laptop bag I've ever seen. Tons of pockets and holders for different things. The straps are comfortable and have elastic on them for shock absorbsion while walking/running. Plenty of padding. I can actually fit 2 laptops in it comfortably, tons of cables, 2 phones, an ipod, a bunch of protein/energy bars, and whatever else I can fit in it.
It's built like a tank and seems to just expand more and more no matter how much crap I stuff into it. It's not huge, but I just weighed it and I have 38 pounds of crap in it.
I heard that OfficeMax has them also. There were only 3 left when I went to pick one up. I'm going to buy another just in case I need it and they stop producing them.
Everytime I see a photo of one of those, I somehow expect it to turn into a movie where a huge semi come barrelling in from the right side of the pic and just wipes that little thing out.
Of course, I sometimes just imagine that same scene when looking at people that annoy me, or camaros.
You can get a greyscale laser printer for around $100. My Samsung was around $179, and it rules. I got it about 2.5 years ago, I've put a ton of paper through it, and I'm still on the same toner.
Color laser printers can be had for $400 or less now.
The margins are certainly good enough. Look at some of the PocketPC PDA's out there, they cost $800. And that new zaurus is like $700 something.
Give me a sweet clamshell pda with bluetooth and GSM/GPRS, and I'll gladly fork over the money for it. Make it possible to insert 2 SIM cards so it's two lines, and I'll fork over even more. Companies don't want to pay for personal calls, so most people end up with two phones. This would alleviate that problem, and be a great selling point just by itself.
I just picked up a Sidekick II the other day. It's a damn sweet device. A little bigger than I would like, but it still fits in my pocket. However, it doesn't have bluetooth, and t-mobile crippled it to force users to buy apps/ringtones/etc from them. I grabbed the SDK for it and a USB cable, and now I can upload that stuff on my own, but I still cannot tether it to my laptop and use it to dial up. I can SSH from it though, which is a lifesaver.
In any case, if Apple brought out a phone with 2 SIM's (wishful thinking), clamshell design, GUI with the usual apple intuitiveness, maybe allow you to categorize everything so you could split data out into "work" and "personal", and apps that just plain worked, you bet your ass I'd pay almost whatever they were asking for it.
$1000? If it makes my life easier by allowing me to organize myself more effectively, communicate more effectively, and lets me carry less crap around with me, it's worth it. The way I look at it, I'm not just buying a device, I'm buying convenience. You can't tell me there's no margins on something like that. People will pay for it. People will ditch their blackberries for it and expense them to their companies. Apple could charge almost whatever they wanted for a phone/pda device, and they would get it. Look at the ipod when it came out. What was it? Like 10GB for $499? People payed that, they *flew* off the shelves.
Note that they do make 2 SIM adapters for phones, but they make you choose one on powerup. You can't have both available when the phone is on.
Coach makes (or used to make) one that is a 3 pocket pouch which holds cards, with a money clip on the other side. It's very thin, but I still have about 6 or 7 cards in it.
It's not a bifold either. When travelling, you should never carry your wallet in your back pocket because it is very easy for someone to steal. The reason I like this wallet, is that I can put it in my front pocket and it doesn't look funny.
Other people make wallets like this, but if you get a coach one, it has a lifetime warranty. I usually go through one every 2-3 years from wear. Although my current one is still good after about 4 years.
I'm curious as to how you figured it out? Was your roomie a weirdo and gave you the heebie-jeebies? Have you seen those clocks before and the thought crossed your mind that you might have one in your house?
I always wonder how many of the hotels I've stayed in have had hidden cams. In the high school I went to for about 3 years, we noticed that one of the mirrors in the boys bathroom across from the library looked a bit different than the rest. It didn't reflect as much light. Behind that wall was the teachers lounge. One day after school when most people were gone, we went into the lounge. Along that wall was a series of closets. We opened one of the closets, pushed some stuff to the side, and in the back, someone had chipped out part of a cement block to be able see through the two way mirror they had installed in the bathroom. We never brought it up to anyone, and I'm sure it's probably still there today (11 years later).
Why don't people just start using the nyud cache in the articles for sites that will probably get slashdotted? As everyone knows, NASA servers always get pounded into the ground when they get posted here.
Anyway, click on the link above. I have gone into the screenshots page, so those are probably the only two that are cached right now. Click around and get the rest in there for me.:)
This is false. While ATMs are required to have this functionality, it's not required to be enabled until 2006. Almost no one has turned it on, even though the functionality is there. The security of ATM machines is poor, I should know, I worked with them for about a year doing network stuff on the backend, which required in depth knowledge of how the machine worked and how to admin it.
A little more security could be added by forcing a user type his PIN *and* his SecurID/SafeWord/CryptoCard code, but that doesn't stop a motivated attacker with knowledge of how the machines communicate with the banks auth server. In several scenarios, the PIN is irrelevant, in fact, having a valid card is irrelevant also.
I do security for a living, and I've been doing it for a long time. Obviously, I don't know everything, but some of the scenarios I mentioned I brought up with Deibold, and they agreed that they do pose a threat.
Anyone who thinks an ATM is secure is just plain wrong.
You're still limited by the speed at which flash memory can be read and written, which is sufficiently less than the speed of a firewire or USB 2.0 port. What's the point?
Nearly every machine has a USB port, but many do not have a firewire port, and of the pc laptops that do, it's usually the little 4 pin ports, which you would need a dongle or adapter for. Why not buy a USB 2.0 drive? It's probably less money, you'll get the same transfer speeds on a box with 2.0 ports, and it will work on nearly every machine on the market.
The thing that I find sorely missing from every "business-class" phone is the ability to use 2 SIM's in it at once. Nearly everyone has a personal phone, and nearly every company provides a phone for their employees. Who wants to carry around 2 phones? Not me. I find myself forwarding the company phone to my personal one and eating the cost of the minutes.
If it won't fit in my pocket, it's not going with me. I don't want a bat belt full of crap.
I've seen SIM adapters that allow you to put 2 SIM's in the phone, but it asks you on power-up which one you want to use. I want to be able to use both of them at once. A 2-line GSM phone. That would be killer.
Not true, look at woz.com. They are using RFID to pinpoint the location of things in an office or home setting with one or two centrally located transmitter/receiver units.
Both my last job and my current job allow me to work from home. I come into the office when I have a meeting, or go to a client's office when needed. Otherwise, I sit at home. I don't even have my own desk at work.
I get more work done not having to stare at a gray or beige cubicle all day, I can crank up the tunes, and if I get sick of sitting at home, I can go to a cool coffee shop and get things done.
A couple of my friends do the work from home thing also for two different, but very large american corporations. They both love it. They get their work done more quickly, and they don't have to deal with traffic.
Probably one of the greatest things about being able to work from home is that you can also get things done that are not work related, like wait around for a repair person, let the cleaning in, pay your bills, etc. I know this would sound to an employer like you were goofing off, but there is some downtime when you are waiting for a phone call or email so you can continue what you are working on, or when you've finished your work for the day and are waiting for something else to come up.
I no longer spend every waking minute of my day "getting stuff done." I spend my 8-10 hour day doing work for my employer and getting menial tasks done, and when I'm done at 5 or 6, I relax. My stress level has dropped like a rock, I no longer feel like I don't have enough time to live my life, and consequently, I'm likely more productive since I've just stopped worrying about things that I don't have time to do. The article a couple of days ago about stress causing $300 billion to employers every year is spot on, and a good way to solve this problem is to allow employees to work from home.
If an employer finds that people aren't doing their job when working from home, either make them come into the office, or fire them and hire someone more responsible.
Slashdot Mirror
No you don't. Any softphone coupled with the built in speakers and mic on your computer, or a tiny little plantronics or similar headset works just fine.
Plus, if you're sitting in an airport or coffee shop and you VPN in, you have your office number with you.
I use Skypeout to call a friend's mobile phone in Spain from here in the US. It works beautifully. I have a headset though, I've noticed that there tends to be some quality probs if you use the built in speaks and mic on your laptop.
The only reason she knew I was using something different was because my caller ID didn't pop up like it normally does.
SIP does not always work well through NAT, even though there are some implementations that are NAT friendly. Also, some ISP's that offer their own VOIP service will block your access to competitors. ATTBI did it to me, I was even on the phone with the tech when he found the access list in a router that was blocking my access to Vonage.
I just purchased a Swissgear laptop backpack from Best But for $70. I can't seem to find it on Wenger's site so I can't link to it.
It's the BEST laptop bag I've ever seen. Tons of pockets and holders for different things. The straps are comfortable and have elastic on them for shock absorbsion while walking/running. Plenty of padding. I can actually fit 2 laptops in it comfortably, tons of cables, 2 phones, an ipod, a bunch of protein/energy bars, and whatever else I can fit in it.
It's built like a tank and seems to just expand more and more no matter how much crap I stuff into it. It's not huge, but I just weighed it and I have 38 pounds of crap in it.
I heard that OfficeMax has them also. There were only 3 left when I went to pick one up. I'm going to buy another just in case I need it and they stop producing them.
It is very important that you follow the lead of this fine young gentleman:
http://www.bash.org/?993
Everytime I see a photo of one of those, I somehow expect it to turn into a movie where a huge semi come barrelling in from the right side of the pic and just wipes that little thing out.
Of course, I sometimes just imagine that same scene when looking at people that annoy me, or camaros.
Att Worldnet has this also. It's under $20 a month.
You're right. IT"S A BRA!
You can get a greyscale laser printer for around $100. My Samsung was around $179, and it rules. I got it about 2.5 years ago, I've put a ton of paper through it, and I'm still on the same toner.
Color laser printers can be had for $400 or less now.
The margins are certainly good enough. Look at some of the PocketPC PDA's out there, they cost $800. And that new zaurus is like $700 something.
Give me a sweet clamshell pda with bluetooth and GSM/GPRS, and I'll gladly fork over the money for it. Make it possible to insert 2 SIM cards so it's two lines, and I'll fork over even more. Companies don't want to pay for personal calls, so most people end up with two phones. This would alleviate that problem, and be a great selling point just by itself.
I just picked up a Sidekick II the other day. It's a damn sweet device. A little bigger than I would like, but it still fits in my pocket. However, it doesn't have bluetooth, and t-mobile crippled it to force users to buy apps/ringtones/etc from them. I grabbed the SDK for it and a USB cable, and now I can upload that stuff on my own, but I still cannot tether it to my laptop and use it to dial up. I can SSH from it though, which is a lifesaver.
In any case, if Apple brought out a phone with 2 SIM's (wishful thinking), clamshell design, GUI with the usual apple intuitiveness, maybe allow you to categorize everything so you could split data out into "work" and "personal", and apps that just plain worked, you bet your ass I'd pay almost whatever they were asking for it.
$1000? If it makes my life easier by allowing me to organize myself more effectively, communicate more effectively, and lets me carry less crap around with me, it's worth it. The way I look at it, I'm not just buying a device, I'm buying convenience. You can't tell me there's no margins on something like that. People will pay for it. People will ditch their blackberries for it and expense them to their companies. Apple could charge almost whatever they wanted for a phone/pda device, and they would get it. Look at the ipod when it came out. What was it? Like 10GB for $499? People payed that, they *flew* off the shelves.
Note that they do make 2 SIM adapters for phones, but they make you choose one on powerup. You can't have both available when the phone is on.
Someone think of the out-of-work gerbils!
Coach makes (or used to make) one that is a 3 pocket pouch which holds cards, with a money clip on the other side. It's very thin, but I still have about 6 or 7 cards in it.
It's not a bifold either. When travelling, you should never carry your wallet in your back pocket because it is very easy for someone to steal. The reason I like this wallet, is that I can put it in my front pocket and it doesn't look funny.
Other people make wallets like this, but if you get a coach one, it has a lifetime warranty. I usually go through one every 2-3 years from wear. Although my current one is still good after about 4 years.
I'm curious as to how you figured it out? Was your roomie a weirdo and gave you the heebie-jeebies? Have you seen those clocks before and the thought crossed your mind that you might have one in your house?
I always wonder how many of the hotels I've stayed in have had hidden cams. In the high school I went to for about 3 years, we noticed that one of the mirrors in the boys bathroom across from the library looked a bit different than the rest. It didn't reflect as much light. Behind that wall was the teachers lounge. One day after school when most people were gone, we went into the lounge. Along that wall was a series of closets. We opened one of the closets, pushed some stuff to the side, and in the back, someone had chipped out part of a cement block to be able see through the two way mirror they had installed in the bathroom. We never brought it up to anyone, and I'm sure it's probably still there today (11 years later).
They better have a ton of HD cameras set up on this thing... maybe an Imax camera or 3 that are on duty 24/7.
:)
What's a good disaster if you can't watch it over an over?
Warswimming turtles.
Hopefully they will fight with sharks with friggin' lasers on their heads.
Site is slow, as you've noticed. Try this:
:)
NYUD.net caching mirror thingy
Why don't people just start using the nyud cache in the articles for sites that will probably get slashdotted? As everyone knows, NASA servers always get pounded into the ground when they get posted here.
Anyway, click on the link above. I have gone into the screenshots page, so those are probably the only two that are cached right now. Click around and get the rest in there for me.
A doctor goes to court for a malpractice suit. Now he's screwed because dragon dictate didn't understand him:
He said, "I'm skilled at angioplasty"
But dragon dictate displayed:
"I KILLED THE FUCKING BASTARD"
This is false. While ATMs are required to have this functionality, it's not required to be enabled until 2006. Almost no one has turned it on, even though the functionality is there. The security of ATM machines is poor, I should know, I worked with them for about a year doing network stuff on the backend, which required in depth knowledge of how the machine worked and how to admin it.
A little more security could be added by forcing a user type his PIN *and* his SecurID/SafeWord/CryptoCard code, but that doesn't stop a motivated attacker with knowledge of how the machines communicate with the banks auth server. In several scenarios, the PIN is irrelevant, in fact, having a valid card is irrelevant also.
I do security for a living, and I've been doing it for a long time. Obviously, I don't know everything, but some of the scenarios I mentioned I brought up with Deibold, and they agreed that they do pose a threat.
Anyone who thinks an ATM is secure is just plain wrong.
You're still limited by the speed at which flash memory can be read and written, which is sufficiently less than the speed of a firewire or USB 2.0 port. What's the point?
Nearly every machine has a USB port, but many do not have a firewire port, and of the pc laptops that do, it's usually the little 4 pin ports, which you would need a dongle or adapter for. Why not buy a USB 2.0 drive? It's probably less money, you'll get the same transfer speeds on a box with 2.0 ports, and it will work on nearly every machine on the market.
I will give you $1000. But you'll have to endure my uncontrollable maniacal laughing and my freaky cat with no fur.
The thing that I find sorely missing from every "business-class" phone is the ability to use 2 SIM's in it at once. Nearly everyone has a personal phone, and nearly every company provides a phone for their employees. Who wants to carry around 2 phones? Not me. I find myself forwarding the company phone to my personal one and eating the cost of the minutes.
If it won't fit in my pocket, it's not going with me. I don't want a bat belt full of crap.
I've seen SIM adapters that allow you to put 2 SIM's in the phone, but it asks you on power-up which one you want to use. I want to be able to use both of them at once. A 2-line GSM phone. That would be killer.
That's BS. Most midlets developed for the Nokia phones will not run on Sony-ericsson phones, and vice versa. I've tried it.
The IT industry is small, and as much as I've wanted to do that in the past, I'm glad I didn't. That being said, I give you this:
. html
http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/wdc/33123421
I hope that any ideas it gives you are deserved of the people on the receiving end.
Not true, look at woz.com. They are using RFID to pinpoint the location of things in an office or home setting with one or two centrally located transmitter/receiver units.
Both my last job and my current job allow me to work from home. I come into the office when I have a meeting, or go to a client's office when needed. Otherwise, I sit at home. I don't even have my own desk at work.
I get more work done not having to stare at a gray or beige cubicle all day, I can crank up the tunes, and if I get sick of sitting at home, I can go to a cool coffee shop and get things done.
A couple of my friends do the work from home thing also for two different, but very large american corporations. They both love it. They get their work done more quickly, and they don't have to deal with traffic.
Probably one of the greatest things about being able to work from home is that you can also get things done that are not work related, like wait around for a repair person, let the cleaning in, pay your bills, etc. I know this would sound to an employer like you were goofing off, but there is some downtime when you are waiting for a phone call or email so you can continue what you are working on, or when you've finished your work for the day and are waiting for something else to come up.
I no longer spend every waking minute of my day "getting stuff done." I spend my 8-10 hour day doing work for my employer and getting menial tasks done, and when I'm done at 5 or 6, I relax. My stress level has dropped like a rock, I no longer feel like I don't have enough time to live my life, and consequently, I'm likely more productive since I've just stopped worrying about things that I don't have time to do. The article a couple of days ago about stress causing $300 billion to employers every year is spot on, and a good way to solve this problem is to allow employees to work from home.
If an employer finds that people aren't doing their job when working from home, either make them come into the office, or fire them and hire someone more responsible.