and all 3 of those gaming companies are still in business... assuming EA is still around in 10 years (i'll bet they are), whats the problem?
anyway in the press release, EA said that if they ever plan to shutdown the server, they will push out a final patch first that removes the need for validation.
I agree... Word 2007 can certainly handle 35mb files. You'll just have to save in.doc or.docx to preserve tracking changing and version control, but you can always do a "Save As..." to text cr/lf when you need to.
I'm at a Starbucks, and I just tried it. I set my user agent to Mobile Safari - iPhone, and all that got me was a iPhone formatted AT&T login page asking for my AT&T login and password. Changing my user agent back to default produced a similar page formatted for a desktop browser.
I live in San Diego, about 10 miles from the Mexico boarder. A lot of San Diegans, including myself, go down there all the time for clubs and cheap shopping. On the way back to the US, I've got about a 5% chance of being stopped and taken to Secondary Inspection-- I've been in Secondary 5 times in the past 5 years. The first agent who you speak to when going through the normal process can flag you to be in Secondary if he thinks something is suspicious or out of order.
Usually Secondary just involves a more detailed search of my car and 30 minutes of sitting in a waiting room with a bunch of Mexicans. One time in Secondary was quite different. In this case, the first guy asked me where I went in Mexico on this trip. I couldn't pronounce the name (Via Bueneventeura in Chapultapec, Tijuana), and I guess he thought I was making it up or telling him a story. He put a note on my windshield and directed me towards Secondary.
For some reason this particular Customs agent in Secondary didn't believe that I am who I said I am. He kept asking me why I would go to a foreign country without my passport (at the time, you only needed to bring a driver's license and that is all I ever brought with me). After asking me questions for over an hour (literally, what hospital was I born in? where did I go to elementary school? etc...) and looking me up in various databases, the guy starts going through my stuff.
The customs agent wanted to search my smartphone (Sony Ericsson P910i at the time), but he didn't know how to use it. I asked him what he thought he could possibly find in there that could be contraband. At any rate, he didn't know how to search my phone, and I wasn't going to help him. There was a big toothmark in my phone from where my dog chewed on it, and I told him that because of the damage to the touch screen, I couldn't actually go through the files on the phone anymore. He wasn't too happy with that answer, but he accepted it anyway.
Another hour later I started complaining to one of the supervisors on the floor-- I had been sitting in this smelly waiting room for 2+ hours with no access to a bathroom, and there was no apparent reason to keep holding me. By now the agent must have confirmed in at least 12 different databases that I am a US citizen, born and raised. I'm also just about the whitest nerdy white guy with a Boston accent that you could ever hope to meet; not exactly the archetype of a foreign agent or drug smuggler. The supervisor finally gave me leave to go.
Of course my car had been turned upside down-- glove compartment and everything else turned out. Rather than complain again, I just wanted to get out of there.
Since then I always bring a passport, and I definitely don't go across the boarder as often as I used to since that experience.
I see a lot of people complaining "I will never purchase a game with advertising", etc.
What if the advertising paid for the game?
For instance, that $37 per person in ad revenue spent on television is a heck of a lot more than a WoW subscription. Its also a lot easier to manage since there are maybe a few hundred large advertisers as opposed to collecting from millions of inidividuals.
Blizzard could earn, say, $20 per household, by having a Night Elf drink coke and a Hood blimp hanging above Thunder Bluff. Then you can play the game with no subscription fee at all... Sounds pretty good to me.
IMAMA (I am a mobility analyst), so here is my 2 cents on AT&T's pokey network:
My theory is that AT&T will take a "wait and see" approach to the iPhone with regards to their data network. If demand is really as strong as everyone seems to think it will be, AT&T can use this as justification to their shareholders to actually build out a modern 3G network for iPhone 2.0.
As it stands right now, AT&T is #3 for enterprise and government "national" accounts. These are the accounts that individually have 20,000+ blackberries and 10,000+ aircards all with unlimited data plans. These are the real heavy data users that make it worthwhile to invest in this network infrastructure. For now, with AT&T's current customer-base of mostly small direct-to-end-user retail accounts shopping for family minute plans and SMS packages, there isn't a push for 3G at all.
So I'm sure someone is thinking, why doesn't AT&T build the network now so people can flock to them? "If you build it, they will come" is a very high risk model. Take a look at the last big network improvement that AT&T (well Cingular at the time...) made; They launched push-to-talk 2 years back. This was a major undertaking with huge capital costs. It seemed like a good idea at the time. After all, there sure are a lot of Nextel users who only use that godforsaken iDEN system because of PTT, right? AT&T's implementation of PTT is much better than the Nextel one too. For instance, you can see if your friends are "online" or not. PTT messages are unlimited and unmetered. Sounds great? Well they built it, and no one came. I can't remember EVER seeing someone use AT&T PTT outside of a AT&T in-store demo.
Now if the iPhone turns out to be a runaway success, and the only detractor a year from now is something like "they sold 10 million iPhones, but that network is soooo slow", then AT&T will finally make the investment. After all, they do have a 5-year exclusive contract with Apple, so Apple isn't going to any other carriers.
I've got one of these too (CompUSA's going out of business sale), and I love it.
I travel for business about 2 weeks per month, and I go mad trying to find something to watch on Hotel television.
The Slingbox lets me see and control everything on my Tivo Series3 and the quality is pretty good even at full screen.
The SlingPlayer client is amazingly well thought out, even though the UI could use some refinement. For instance, during initial setup, the SlingPlayer client asked me for my home router's password and automatically configured the ports it needed.
Also, I don't need to know my IP address at all... Once I've connected to my Slingbox 1 time on my own home network, it remembers that Slingbox's ID on SlingMedia's server. The next time I go online anywhere in the world, the SlingPlayer client looks up the real IP address of my Slingbox on SlingMedia's server and then connects automagically.
My only complaint about the SlingBox (and its really not SlingMedia' fault) is my HDMI troubles with the Tivo Series3. When the Tivo is connected to a TV via HDMI, and that TV is off, it doesn't see the HDMI DRM handshake signal. When that happens, Tivo displays an error message on all video outputs. My SlingBox is connected to my Tivo via Component video. So the first time I went off on a trip, all I could see when I connected to my Slingbox was the menu screen and that stupid HDMI error message. The workaround was to just unplug the HDMI cable when I know I'm going to travel... Or I guess I could leave my TV on 24-7 too.
Sometimes I use SlingPlayer at home when I just want to watch Tivo in a little square while I'm working insted of putting my laptop in front of the TV. On the local LAN, the quality is at least as good as SDTV.
Anyway IMHO the SlingBox is a must-have for any business traveler.
Artbeledev emailed me today letting me know that they had some kind of problem with their servers, and they sent me a link which allowed me to complete my order. So now I will be the proud owner of a $1600 keyboard in a few months. I don't even own a desktop PC, and my workplace does not allow outside peripherals. I'll probably end up using the Optimus as the dedicated keyboard for my PS3:).
Well I'm one of the few people who set his alarm clock for 4am PST (just after 3pm moscow time when the pre-orders start) just so I could order my Optimus. I did the same thing with the Tivo Series3. I was even on the pre-order list for the Roku for those of you who remember what that waste of money is.
The trouble is, Artlebedev's draconian shopping cart software is so bad, that after 20 minutes I just gave up. It takes about 15 pages to place an order, it doesn't know how to ask for a US address-- (city and country, no state?)... and then it doesn't know what my VISA card is. What a piece of shit. If these guys can't even get their shopping cart working properly and have it tested for their target market, how are they going to produce a quality complex physical product like the Optimus keyboard?
I don't know if one of my many order attempts went through.. But after having a few hours to think about it, if it didn't go through, I'll just wait for the first round of reviews to come in.
It costs the carrier to have the phone activated, even if there is no usage. The costs are pretty high for the MVNOs like Virgin who offer prepaid as they are paying something ridiculous to the underlying carrier for the privilege of having your phone number turned on and loaded up in their switches. The wholesale rate for that is something like $5/month. So it completely makes business sense that these carriers expire your service.
Now on the other hand, you can activate your prepaid phone with a new number at pretty much any time after you've bought it. You can do it from the phone itself even.
I recommend that your mother-in-law buy a prepaid phone and a 100-minute card, put them both in her glove box, and then activate the phone when she needs to make her emergency call. At that rate, she can make emergency calls for the next 3 months or so without doing anything special. In that 3 month time, she can buy another prepaid minute card and put it in her glove box. If her account expires, she can reactivate the line again with the new card. The hassle is that it will take her 5-10 minutes of setup and voice menus to make that first call every 3 months.
The CableCARDs are rented from the local cable company at something like $5 - $15/month.
The Tivo is essentially commodity hardware stitched together with solid software and a fantastic UI. As the cost of those commodity parts drop, so will the retail price of the Series3 Tivo.
In the past, Tivo has been willing to sell the hardware at a loss hoping to make up the cost with their $12.95/month service fee. It hasn't really worked out that well for them, so they are not willing to sell the Series3 at a loss like they did with the Series1 and Series2. I suspect this is one of the reasons why Tivo is allowing (for the first time ever) to transfer "lifetime" subscriptions to the Tivo service bought in 1999-2000 to the new Series3 boxes. They actually make money selling a new box now.
The Series3 went for sale a few hours ago on Tivo.com for $799.
According to TivoBlog, some Best Buy stores are taking preorders showing a delivery date of 9/17/06. There have also been rumors over the past few weeks that Best Buy and CircuitCity will have the Series3 Tivo in stock on the 17th or 19th.
Despite the heavy price tag, the need to rent 2 CableCARDs from my local Cable Company, and the expensive $12.95 Tivo monthly fee, I placed my order within a few minutes of Tivo making the change to their website. I bought one of the first 14-hour Tivos when they went on sale in 1999, and in all that time I have not seen another DVR that has a UI as good as the Tivo one. I finally abandoned Tivo in favor of a Cable Company DVR in 2004 when my local Cable Company started to offer HD programming. Finally Tivo is catching up 2 years later.
By the way, you can thank design firm IDEO for many of the UI innovations of the Tivo (and early Macs as well).
I've been using ZeroHalliburton for about 10 years now. They offer a lot of protection, but they are NOT indestuctable. AmericaWest killed my Z-H suitcase last year. The wheels were all broken off and it looked like someone put it in a trash compactor. No idea what they did to it, but I'm sure it took a lot of effort. My Z-H laptop case is still in 1 piece though.
I highly recommend buying your Z-H from a luggage store that carries defect / damaged items at a discount. You can save a couple hundred $ to get a case with a few scratches on it, and trust me a new case is going to be scratched to hell after its first trip through the conveyor belt anyway.
That isn't entirely true. I've worked in intercarrier billing for a little while, and I have seen many cases where ANI (Automatic Number ID) is not sent by the originating carrier.
Now when you make a normal phone call from a normal world zone 1 LEC (local exchange carrier) to another world zone 1 LEC or wireless company, your LEC is almost always going to transmit that data. They don't have to do it, but they usually do it. Generally it makes it much easier for the techs and the billing people when things work this way because it lets you determine if a call is interstate/intrastate (different rate tables) or it can help you track down technical problems of all kinds.
However, not every carrier sends this information. In fact, carriers with older or less complicated equipment (think phonecard companies and small international operators) sometimes can't even send ANI if they wanted to. Maybe they don't use SS7 and are using the ANI field to an identify an internal billing code. Maybe they have incompetant switch techs who don't know how to setup the signaling correctly. There are lots of legitimate reasons why a carrier would not send out ANI.
Now for the criminals--- it is VERY EASY to spoof ANI and CLID. Many telecom scams are perpetrated this way. All it takes is for the criminal to be placing calls through a carrier which allows the customer to transmit digital signaling and then sends out whatever the customer sent to the next carrier rather than building ANI from the carrier's own customer database. Virtually all LECs let you do this if you have a T1 and a PBX. Virtually all small VoIP operators let you do this as well, so long as you have the ability to transmit the signaling to them.
So getting back to the point, your carrier isn't neccesarily lying to you when they say you got a call from 'number unavailable'. Its entirely possible for a carrier NOT to get a call without an ANI. With a little research, they may be able to tell you what carrier the call originated from, but thats about it.
Take a look at the Sony PCS-1 video conferencing settop unit. It is the low-end of the stand alone business class models, and it has multicast and other high-end capabilities. You can get a PCS-1 for about $3500 from a videoconferencing reseller.
I've got this same laptop from WidowPC, and overall I've been quite happy with it. The screen is amazing, and the laptop has more speed than any desktop or laptop I've used before. 2 SATA drives in RAID, 2 DVD-R drives, builtin webcam, more firewire and USB ports than I know what to do with... This laptop has got it all.
WidowPC is also able to deliver these laptops, fully customized, in 2 business days! Compare that to Alienware's several weeks for the same piece of equipment (Clevo D900T).
On the downside:
This is truly a desktop replacement laptop. It weighs in at something like 17lb and the battery only lasts for about 45 minutes if its not plugged in. If, like me, you just lug your laptop to whatever desk you are working at for the day and don't move around with it much, then this laptop is a good choice. I've got enough power to make it from my apartment to the local Starbucks, and thats all I really need it for. I've only run into problems when I fly-- There is no way to plug in a 300W power supply on an airplane (most airlines limit the seat power to 60 or 75W), so I end up switching to my iPod for entertainment on long trips.
Wireless network support is FLAKEY. The internal wireless NIC just can't compete with all of the EM noise generated by this laptop's other components, and I am lucky to get a strong signal anywhere. I often find myself looking for the hottest spot of the hotspot in Starbucks, and I have an external antenna for my wireless gateway at home. This is probably the most dissapointing part of this laptop. WidowPC's support team suggested that I get an external wireless NIC (they even offered to send me one for free), but rather than lug something else around I've decided to just struggle with the internal.
WidowPC support isn't so great. When I do finally get ahold of someone, they are very knowledgable and helpful. On the other hand its rather difficult to get ahold of someone. My guess is that WidowPC is a less-than-10-person company, which gives you the benefit of responsible and personalized service, but you lose some of the stability and 24-7 response that you get working with a megacorp support desk.
This laptop is REALLY ugly. I mean, its a big grey box with WidowPC's logo glued on the back of the screen. If you are going to pay this kind of cash for a laptop, you want it to look good. Or at least I do... and this rebranded Clevo looks like the laptop that design forgot.
This laptop gets very hot very quickly. I haven't had any stability problems due to the heat (as some other posters have mentioned), but I defenitely couldn't leave it sitting on my lap for any length of time.
I recently went through a similar experience. I moved from a 2500sqft apartment to one just under 800sqft a few months ago.
I have 3 recommendations: -think vertical. i know IKEA has been recommended to death, but really, they are a good option there. Cheap stuff, modular, and most of their collections can give you storage units that are 7-8 feet tall. Besides, it all looks fine from 10 feet away. -rent a storage unit. I rented a 10x19 for $75/month and I think of it as a second closet... that I have to drive to. Anything that doesn't get used at least once every 2 weeks ends up in storage. So now, if I want to bake some bread, I just have to remember to go over and pick up the bread machine before the storage place closes. minor inconvenience. -any pets? send them on vacation to mom and dad or a close friend. Pets do really poorly in a small apartment. When you've got only 2 rooms, the cat can't hide from the dog, and the dog will jump on your head every morning. Plus, where on earth do you put that litter box? There's no space for stuff like that.
An additional follow-up story on CNN.com shows that the inventory "never dreamed" of using dead cats in his fuel mixture, though the occasional toad may have jumped in.
It seems that the German newspaper made up the whole cat idea without ever consulting the inventory.
Slashdot Mirror
and all 3 of those gaming companies are still in business... assuming EA is still around in 10 years (i'll bet they are), whats the problem?
anyway in the press release, EA said that if they ever plan to shutdown the server, they will push out a final patch first that removes the need for validation.
I agree... Word 2007 can certainly handle 35mb files. You'll just have to save in .doc or .docx to preserve tracking changing and version control, but you can always do a "Save As..." to text cr/lf when you need to.
I'm at a Starbucks, and I just tried it. I set my user agent to Mobile Safari - iPhone, and all that got me was a iPhone formatted AT&T login page asking for my AT&T login and password. Changing my user agent back to default produced a similar page formatted for a desktop browser.
I've been subjected to this myself.
I live in San Diego, about 10 miles from the Mexico boarder. A lot of San Diegans, including myself, go down there all the time for clubs and cheap shopping. On the way back to the US, I've got about a 5% chance of being stopped and taken to Secondary Inspection-- I've been in Secondary 5 times in the past 5 years. The first agent who you speak to when going through the normal process can flag you to be in Secondary if he thinks something is suspicious or out of order.
Usually Secondary just involves a more detailed search of my car and 30 minutes of sitting in a waiting room with a bunch of Mexicans. One time in Secondary was quite different. In this case, the first guy asked me where I went in Mexico on this trip. I couldn't pronounce the name (Via Bueneventeura in Chapultapec, Tijuana), and I guess he thought I was making it up or telling him a story. He put a note on my windshield and directed me towards Secondary.
For some reason this particular Customs agent in Secondary didn't believe that I am who I said I am. He kept asking me why I would go to a foreign country without my passport (at the time, you only needed to bring a driver's license and that is all I ever brought with me). After asking me questions for over an hour (literally, what hospital was I born in? where did I go to elementary school? etc...) and looking me up in various databases, the guy starts going through my stuff.
The customs agent wanted to search my smartphone (Sony Ericsson P910i at the time), but he didn't know how to use it. I asked him what he thought he could possibly find in there that could be contraband. At any rate, he didn't know how to search my phone, and I wasn't going to help him. There was a big toothmark in my phone from where my dog chewed on it, and I told him that because of the damage to the touch screen, I couldn't actually go through the files on the phone anymore. He wasn't too happy with that answer, but he accepted it anyway.
Another hour later I started complaining to one of the supervisors on the floor-- I had been sitting in this smelly waiting room for 2+ hours with no access to a bathroom, and there was no apparent reason to keep holding me. By now the agent must have confirmed in at least 12 different databases that I am a US citizen, born and raised. I'm also just about the whitest nerdy white guy with a Boston accent that you could ever hope to meet; not exactly the archetype of a foreign agent or drug smuggler. The supervisor finally gave me leave to go.
Of course my car had been turned upside down-- glove compartment and everything else turned out. Rather than complain again, I just wanted to get out of there.
Since then I always bring a passport, and I definitely don't go across the boarder as often as I used to since that experience.
I see a lot of people complaining "I will never purchase a game with advertising", etc.
What if the advertising paid for the game?
For instance, that $37 per person in ad revenue spent on television is a heck of a lot more than a WoW subscription. Its also a lot easier to manage since there are maybe a few hundred large advertisers as opposed to collecting from millions of inidividuals.
Blizzard could earn, say, $20 per household, by having a Night Elf drink coke and a Hood blimp hanging above Thunder Bluff. Then you can play the game with no subscription fee at all... Sounds pretty good to me.
IMAMA (I am a mobility analyst), so here is my 2 cents on AT&T's pokey network:
My theory is that AT&T will take a "wait and see" approach to the iPhone with regards to their data network. If demand is really as strong as everyone seems to think it will be, AT&T can use this as justification to their shareholders to actually build out a modern 3G network for iPhone 2.0.
As it stands right now, AT&T is #3 for enterprise and government "national" accounts. These are the accounts that individually have 20,000+ blackberries and 10,000+ aircards all with unlimited data plans. These are the real heavy data users that make it worthwhile to invest in this network infrastructure. For now, with AT&T's current customer-base of mostly small direct-to-end-user retail accounts shopping for family minute plans and SMS packages, there isn't a push for 3G at all.
So I'm sure someone is thinking, why doesn't AT&T build the network now so people can flock to them? "If you build it, they will come" is a very high risk model. Take a look at the last big network improvement that AT&T (well Cingular at the time...) made; They launched push-to-talk 2 years back. This was a major undertaking with huge capital costs. It seemed like a good idea at the time. After all, there sure are a lot of Nextel users who only use that godforsaken iDEN system because of PTT, right? AT&T's implementation of PTT is much better than the Nextel one too. For instance, you can see if your friends are "online" or not. PTT messages are unlimited and unmetered. Sounds great? Well they built it, and no one came. I can't remember EVER seeing someone use AT&T PTT outside of a AT&T in-store demo.
Now if the iPhone turns out to be a runaway success, and the only detractor a year from now is something like "they sold 10 million iPhones, but that network is soooo slow", then AT&T will finally make the investment. After all, they do have a 5-year exclusive contract with Apple, so Apple isn't going to any other carriers.
I've got one of these too (CompUSA's going out of business sale), and I love it.
I travel for business about 2 weeks per month, and I go mad trying to find something to watch on Hotel television.
The Slingbox lets me see and control everything on my Tivo Series3 and the quality is pretty good even at full screen.
The SlingPlayer client is amazingly well thought out, even though the UI could use some refinement. For instance, during initial setup, the SlingPlayer client asked me for my home router's password and automatically configured the ports it needed.
Also, I don't need to know my IP address at all... Once I've connected to my Slingbox 1 time on my own home network, it remembers that Slingbox's ID on SlingMedia's server. The next time I go online anywhere in the world, the SlingPlayer client looks up the real IP address of my Slingbox on SlingMedia's server and then connects automagically.
My only complaint about the SlingBox (and its really not SlingMedia' fault) is my HDMI troubles with the Tivo Series3. When the Tivo is connected to a TV via HDMI, and that TV is off, it doesn't see the HDMI DRM handshake signal. When that happens, Tivo displays an error message on all video outputs. My SlingBox is connected to my Tivo via Component video. So the first time I went off on a trip, all I could see when I connected to my Slingbox was the menu screen and that stupid HDMI error message. The workaround was to just unplug the HDMI cable when I know I'm going to travel... Or I guess I could leave my TV on 24-7 too.
Sometimes I use SlingPlayer at home when I just want to watch Tivo in a little square while I'm working insted of putting my laptop in front of the TV. On the local LAN, the quality is at least as good as SDTV.
Anyway IMHO the SlingBox is a must-have for any business traveler.
Update...
:).
Artbeledev emailed me today letting me know that they had some kind of problem with their servers, and they sent me a link which allowed me to complete my order. So now I will be the proud owner of a $1600 keyboard in a few months. I don't even own a desktop PC, and my workplace does not allow outside peripherals. I'll probably end up using the Optimus as the dedicated keyboard for my PS3
Well I'm one of the few people who set his alarm clock for 4am PST (just after 3pm moscow time when the pre-orders start) just so I could order my Optimus. I did the same thing with the Tivo Series3. I was even on the pre-order list for the Roku for those of you who remember what that waste of money is.
The trouble is, Artlebedev's draconian shopping cart software is so bad, that after 20 minutes I just gave up. It takes about 15 pages to place an order, it doesn't know how to ask for a US address-- (city and country, no state?)... and then it doesn't know what my VISA card is. What a piece of shit. If these guys can't even get their shopping cart working properly and have it tested for their target market, how are they going to produce a quality complex physical product like the Optimus keyboard?
I don't know if one of my many order attempts went through.. But after having a few hours to think about it, if it didn't go through, I'll just wait for the first round of reviews to come in.
It costs the carrier to have the phone activated, even if there is no usage. The costs are pretty high for the MVNOs like Virgin who offer prepaid as they are paying something ridiculous to the underlying carrier for the privilege of having your phone number turned on and loaded up in their switches. The wholesale rate for that is something like $5/month. So it completely makes business sense that these carriers expire your service.
Now on the other hand, you can activate your prepaid phone with a new number at pretty much any time after you've bought it. You can do it from the phone itself even.
I recommend that your mother-in-law buy a prepaid phone and a 100-minute card, put them both in her glove box, and then activate the phone when she needs to make her emergency call. At that rate, she can make emergency calls for the next 3 months or so without doing anything special. In that 3 month time, she can buy another prepaid minute card and put it in her glove box. If her account expires, she can reactivate the line again with the new card. The hassle is that it will take her 5-10 minutes of setup and voice menus to make that first call every 3 months.
I disagree with your assesment.
The CableCARDs are rented from the local cable company at something like $5 - $15/month.
The Tivo is essentially commodity hardware stitched together with solid software and a fantastic UI. As the cost of those commodity parts drop, so will the retail price of the Series3 Tivo.
In the past, Tivo has been willing to sell the hardware at a loss hoping to make up the cost with their $12.95/month service fee. It hasn't really worked out that well for them, so they are not willing to sell the Series3 at a loss like they did with the Series1 and Series2. I suspect this is one of the reasons why Tivo is allowing (for the first time ever) to transfer "lifetime" subscriptions to the Tivo service bought in 1999-2000 to the new Series3 boxes. They actually make money selling a new box now.
The Series3 went for sale a few hours ago on Tivo.com for $799.
According to TivoBlog, some Best Buy stores are taking preorders showing a delivery date of 9/17/06. There have also been rumors over the past few weeks that Best Buy and CircuitCity will have the Series3 Tivo in stock on the 17th or 19th.
Despite the heavy price tag, the need to rent 2 CableCARDs from my local Cable Company, and the expensive $12.95 Tivo monthly fee, I placed my order within a few minutes of Tivo making the change to their website. I bought one of the first 14-hour Tivos when they went on sale in 1999, and in all that time I have not seen another DVR that has a UI as good as the Tivo one. I finally abandoned Tivo in favor of a Cable Company DVR in 2004 when my local Cable Company started to offer HD programming. Finally Tivo is catching up 2 years later.
By the way, you can thank design firm IDEO for many of the UI innovations of the Tivo (and early Macs as well).
You hate my grandma?
Will it stop the voices as well?
Yes.. it will stop all the voices coming to the cell phones of people inside the building.
Seriously, what kind of crazy idea is this?
Ok maybe this is a stupid question... but what does a depressed mouse look like? How can you tell its not just a tired or lethargic mouse?
I've been using ZeroHalliburton for about 10 years now. They offer a lot of protection, but they are NOT indestuctable. AmericaWest killed my Z-H suitcase last year. The wheels were all broken off and it looked like someone put it in a trash compactor. No idea what they did to it, but I'm sure it took a lot of effort. My Z-H laptop case is still in 1 piece though.
I highly recommend buying your Z-H from a luggage store that carries defect / damaged items at a discount. You can save a couple hundred $ to get a case with a few scratches on it, and trust me a new case is going to be scratched to hell after its first trip through the conveyor belt anyway.
Yogi lived in Jellystone, not Yellowstone....
That isn't entirely true. I've worked in intercarrier billing for a little while, and I have seen many cases where ANI (Automatic Number ID) is not sent by the originating carrier.
Now when you make a normal phone call from a normal world zone 1 LEC (local exchange carrier) to another world zone 1 LEC or wireless company, your LEC is almost always going to transmit that data. They don't have to do it, but they usually do it. Generally it makes it much easier for the techs and the billing people when things work this way because it lets you determine if a call is interstate/intrastate (different rate tables) or it can help you track down technical problems of all kinds.
However, not every carrier sends this information. In fact, carriers with older or less complicated equipment (think phonecard companies and small international operators) sometimes can't even send ANI if they wanted to. Maybe they don't use SS7 and are using the ANI field to an identify an internal billing code. Maybe they have incompetant switch techs who don't know how to setup the signaling correctly. There are lots of legitimate reasons why a carrier would not send out ANI.
Now for the criminals--- it is VERY EASY to spoof ANI and CLID. Many telecom scams are perpetrated this way. All it takes is for the criminal to be placing calls through a carrier which allows the customer to transmit digital signaling and then sends out whatever the customer sent to the next carrier rather than building ANI from the carrier's own customer database. Virtually all LECs let you do this if you have a T1 and a PBX. Virtually all small VoIP operators let you do this as well, so long as you have the ability to transmit the signaling to them.
So getting back to the point, your carrier isn't neccesarily lying to you when they say you got a call from 'number unavailable'. Its entirely possible for a carrier NOT to get a call without an ANI. With a little research, they may be able to tell you what carrier the call originated from, but thats about it.
wow.. if you're going to post a write up of an event, at least get the names and spellings right.
Its Cylon, not Psylon. Its Adama, not Odama... 5 minutes worth of due dilligence and fact checking would have made a big difference here.
Take a look at the Sony PCS-1 video conferencing settop unit. It is the low-end of the stand alone business class models, and it has multicast and other high-end capabilities. You can get a PCS-1 for about $3500 from a videoconferencing reseller.
WidowPC is also able to deliver these laptops, fully customized, in 2 business days! Compare that to Alienware's several weeks for the same piece of equipment (Clevo D900T).
On the downside:
If its not Marathon 4, I don't care.
I recently went through a similar experience. I moved from a 2500sqft apartment to one just under 800sqft a few months ago.
I have 3 recommendations:
-think vertical. i know IKEA has been recommended to death, but really, they are a good option there. Cheap stuff, modular, and most of their collections can give you storage units that are 7-8 feet tall. Besides, it all looks fine from 10 feet away.
-rent a storage unit. I rented a 10x19 for $75/month and I think of it as a second closet... that I have to drive to. Anything that doesn't get used at least once every 2 weeks ends up in storage. So now, if I want to bake some bread, I just have to remember to go over and pick up the bread machine before the storage place closes. minor inconvenience.
-any pets? send them on vacation to mom and dad or a close friend. Pets do really poorly in a small apartment. When you've got only 2 rooms, the cat can't hide from the dog, and the dog will jump on your head every morning. Plus, where on earth do you put that litter box? There's no space for stuff like that.
An additional follow-up story on CNN.com shows that the inventory "never dreamed" of using dead cats in his fuel mixture, though the occasional toad may have jumped in.
It seems that the German newspaper made up the whole cat idea without ever consulting the inventory.