i have to say i am 100% happy with earthlinkDSL (haveing also had DirecTV(RIP) and Verizon DSL)..... offhand the only cap i remember reading on their site was on newsgroups. if you download more than a certain amount of stuff from newsgroups in a week or month they switch you to a slower download rate for a month or something. i don't remember the details and am not finding it right now on their site, but when i was trying to figure out what that meant it seemed to me that it would require a MASSIVE download campaign from usenet. something along the lines of a lot of warez and/or movies i guess. i kind of remember thinking there would be no way to hit the cap downloading text posts or even still pictures at any normal resolutions. anyway, it was a huge limit and seemed to be only for the news servers, but it does exist. i guess it was nice they let you know if advance... assuming you bother to read the user agreements.
the article is from 1997, or so it says right on top.... almost 7 years ago... also, i would assume some of M$'s motivation was to battle the AOL/TimeWarner beast.....
these days i would think you would be more upset at the ties between Verizon and Microsoft... Verizon DSL comes with MSN "for free". I guess this jumps MSN user numbers a lot higher than they were last year. Verizon cell phones are tied into Microsoft now too, for example to use wireless web it seems you now have to have a.Net account.
honestly.... MiniDiscs.... i have a G4 400 AGP and at the time the SoundBlaster card was the easiest (cheapest i knew of) way to get a digital out from my Mac to make minidiscs. it seems like overkill to buy a $129 card (yeah THE Mac one was that expensive) to make minidiscs, but i knew using a digital output was a better way to get tracks to split up. i hate having MDs that are 70 minutes of punk songs (about 2 minutes each) and show up as 4 tracks.
this was MacWorld... hrmm... it was the MacWorld they were showing off 10.1 and the sales guy at the show told me that by the time 10.1 shipped they would have OS X drivers. since 10.0 was sketchy i was booting into OS 9 for some stuff as is and i didn't mind that much at the time. I knew a lot of M$ windows people used their cards, as well as *NIX people and they seemed adequate.
when i said "ideal" i meant in Apple's mind..... in post MacWorld interviews Steve Jobs has talked about the mini as a complement to an existing iPod and the iTunes app. i am sure some people will only buy a mini if it's all they need. 4 gigs is a LOT of music. it might not be a majority of your MP3 files, but it is still a lot. i don't own any iPod right now, so either is a major upgrade to the minidisc player i use (it's not MDLP).
as for the cube, that's a whole different cult. the cube's made sense to me, just they cost too much, and really had to be paired with an LCD display to shine. people said the lack of upgradability killed the cube, but in the age of USB and Firewire, how many average users really upgrade their machines (Mac or Windows)? there are video card and CPU upgrades for the cube. if that was what REALLY killed the cube then how come the CRT and LCD iMac did so well? i know quite a few people with G4 towers that never added more than RAM. they could have bought cubes. i suppose i could have too since that soundblaster card i have won't really work till they make those OS X drivers the Creative salesjerk promised me. grrr i'm all over the place today.
anyway the article compares the price if the mini to flash based and other small HD music players and compared to them (in the same price range) it has many times the storage.
the mini is not really intended for people with mini collections of songs.... the IDEAL purchaser of the mini is someone who already loves their iPod and wants a smaller one for the gym or some use that doesnt require a month straight of music without repeating it. Apple has said that. they are going after the flash players with the mini. most flash players are used by people who only need their device for short times or don't carry much music. the same people that carry 10 CDs in their car. with USB2/Firewire you can swap songs/playlists REALLY fast. you can make your gym/running mix for the day/week/month and swap it fast.
when you read the article they explain all that.... and they show that the price is on target with flash players. when you see it as having 8x the capacity for an equally priced mini player from someone else, as opposed to "$50 for 11 more gigs" then it makes sense.
i visualize it as a bunch of kids that were bullied by the RIAA. i hope the look like nice good all american kids that were beaten up by the big evil corporation. "We'll sue these 13 year old kids and Enron execs will get to go to a country club prison if anything". ugh
yeah they were downloading and whatever, but they are not bootleggers out there selling copies. they are just kids. the article said a few of the kids said they will use some of the money they get to pay their $3000 settlement.
my subject may be confusing... i meant: Apple is manufacturing the devices, not twisting arms
actually Apple is MAKING them
on
No WMA for HP iPod
·
· Score: 2, Informative
according to some of the articles it says that Apple will be making the HP iPods with the blue/grey case, not licensing the technology out. It will effectively be the Apple iPod with a HP wrap. It's the same guts as the Apple model (even the Apple symbol on startup), and will work with the same accessories as the Apple one because it's the same form factor. Points to HP for bucking the trend and using standards instead of the Microsoft assigned format.
just say "sign this and i will not arrest you or hassle your grandmother".... then get them to sign something that says: "i understand that this guy taking my stuff is nobody important and i will not try to get it back, or beat him or sue"
can they really go on the street and actually touch you? can they do anything more than maybe take pictures of you and call the police? NO! in the article the RIAA says they make it clear they are not police and have no power, but they dress up like SWAT... it seems they at least give the impression of having legal authority.
"They said they were police from the recording industry or something, and next time they'd take me away in handcuffs,"
obviously trying to scare and confuse people into signing over their goods. who knows what else they got them to sign. ugh! It's clear they don't give a crap how the public views them, most companies would not treat their customers like this.
i realize it might be fun to try, and this is slashdot, but consider how much effort it would be to get Xgrid on a slew of old old old macs (that now live in a garage). i wonder how many of them would it take to equal one LCD iMac G4 (including the loss to cables and whatnot that must exist?)? then consider the electricity used? even an older CRT iMac. would be better i would think, let the screen shut down and the lack of fan makes it happy. yes you may have those machines (i have my mac collection too) but there is a cost to actually running them all at the same time and that kills baby seals and gets you bad karma.
now if you take a university computer cluster that's closed for 6+ hours a day, or something like that...... i could see some interesting uses of current technology being used on downtime. almost like the idea behind SETE@home or folding but for your specific needs. i'm sure this won't be like rackmounting and fibre linking the beasties in one windy room, but if the machines are already there.......... it's kind of free? i wonder if you could take, say, all the secretaries iMacs and use them in the 17:01-08:59 time period to run this, let alone weekends and holidays!
i have not tried riding a bike with music for years..... i would mostly want it for running and that's a lot of sweat and jostling and possibly dropping (i'm clumsey).
i admit that has made me ponder solid state MP3 players... my run is never more than an hour (sometimes half that) so a 20 gig iPod seemed like overkill. i would like one for other reasons (portable drive etc) but for some uses the iPod mini seems perfect.
actually there are also probably a lot of people that don't ever listen to more music than that? i know people that NEVER own more than 30 - 50 CDs if even that. weird to me but they sell off their stuff after a while or when they move on (and no they don't copy/rip it).
the #1 best thing about the mini iPod is for portability while exercising. honestly i have debated what to replace my battered minidisc with, and it might be this. i want the good things of the iPod (works with a Mac, bla bla bla) but feared the size/cost considering while running it's going to get sweaty at best, dropped and smashed at worst.
the price is still a lot to potentially have lost or destroyed, but it's small enough to use one of those goofy arm things or something.
i knew a few people that go to the gym and ride exercise bikes for a little while.. at least to warm up for their workouts. plenty of people still buy those flash MP3 players for jogging, or at the gym. they don't need a month of straight music on their hip, they need something like an hour. with firewire you could transfer playlists for that day in no time. yes, a full iPod can carry more songs, but my tower can carry even more than that.
i agree..... i don't see how this is anything like an iPod..... i could take an iPod on a run or keep it in my bag when riding the subway or hook it up in the car. if i was looking at one of these i would consider a cheap laptop instead. yes, this is not exactley the same, but it lacks the portability. i guess there are some people that just do not see the iPod's small size as a major bonus and see the things it lacks (uber huge drives, other inputs/outputs) and they buy nomads. my housemate bought one of those "ipod killers" and loves it. honestly unless i was wearing BDUs or carrying a bag i would have no way to carry the thing around. possibly the hip-pack will be in style again so you can carry 1,000,000 photos of your kids with you everywhere you go, all their birthday movies, holidays, school plays, first steps, first time riding a bike bla bla bla.... ok, it might be kinda neat, but i would never buy one and it's nothing like an iPod. it's basically like saying TV is the radio killer. yes, TV killed radio's monoply on entertaining people, but there are times and places for each. this being posted today is interesting considerg some iPod update will be happening in 2 hours from now (noon eastern time). the photos fromt he Expo show partially rolled up iPod banners implying *something* is getting changed in that product line. be it hardware or software or both..... who knows.
Super keen idea we'll probably never see:
Use the printing technology used on the blue dalmation and flower power iMacs, and tie in with iPhoto to let buyers have their photos molded into the case of their mini-ipod, rather than just simple laser engraving.
yes, this would be great because people would get iPods with a photo of their significant other... or the two of them and when they break up the "emotionally disturbing" iPod will end up on ebay where i can buy it cheap! i wonder if there are engraved ones on there now?
off to ebay!
i thought it was pretty understood (not just rumor) that the Superbowl (american football thing) was the kickoff for the Pepsi / iTunes promotion. Not being a fan, i am unsure, but i think the superbowl is in January sometime. I would assume, if that is the kickoff, that they won't say "start buying Pepsi in a few weeks to maybe win free songs!". Apple can unveil something that doesn't ship for a while, but that's not a TV ad..... by the time the product ships it has gotten decent press coverage on apple's site and Mac/computer sites. somehting like Pepsi contests would probably start when the commercials run.
in some areas you can put it on the curb and it will be picked up overnight. a lot of cities/towns seem to have collection days for TVs and computers. I know Philadelphia PA (where i live) has collection days that bounce to another location every month or two. The have ones for old TVs, Computers and computer parts. They have a schedule for days like this for a lot of things, even "anmesty days" for things like old motor oil, oil based paints, and all kinds of chemicals you are not supposed to put in the trash or down the drain. check with your local town and see if they have something too. granted i think some cities are more advanced about this than some of the surrounding suburbs, and i am assuming it's to prevent the junk from ending up in an empty lot. when local suburbs have tight restrictions on trash volume and charge for trips to the dump, i can drag out a couch or air conditioner or refrigerator or whatever. granted the appliances have their own roving vehicles that pick them up, but i just push em to the curb. the city "large appliance vehicles" usually don't beat the scavengers to them anyway. i don't suggest driving into the local townsville and dropping everything on a curb (that's not legal), but if it's at all usable i have found putting it out with the trash means it will be scavenged 99% of the time. i generally don't feel bad throwing out old junk that may be useful to someone else (but not worth the Ebay hassle) because i know it'll be picked up. i guess that's more a trait of my neighborhood than a universal fact though. no, you can't send me your junk... sorry.
and it's still around.... every few years i power it up to play some games with the Mach2 joystick.... . Beachhead, spy vs spy etc... AH the memories! too bad the internal modem burned up many years ago (literally... smokey and melty).
any cell phone i have had has a battery costing a lot more than $10... generally more like $60. if i remember right my brother's cell phone battery was more than his phone (some non-sexy sub $100 phone verizon had).
are Apple's overpriced? maybe, but you are also paying for someone to do the work, right? the 3rd party replacement is always going to be cheaper (otherwise it would have to be a hell of a lot better to exist at all). i guess Apple will do ok with this service when people think of 3rd party batteries and those exploding Nokia phones. you get what you pay for?
if this turns out to be a major issue and not just a story picked up and overblown i would think Apple will do something about that. a revision or two of iPods will have a removable battery if that's really tha case. i guess it depends on how long it takes their engineers to do figure it out.
George W. said something in the last week or two about wanting the USA to get back on the moon. I don't remember why, and if he meant building a base or what. I assumed it had something to do with reminding China that we were there first?
google is not helping me, i'm just finding articles wondering is geroge w is a moonie.
good point... most people probably feel they really should "use em or lose em" with the mod points and worry more about using them then modding where needed. i guess reading somehting with 300+ comments flat is too much work. i have a feeling they add to the top posts already modded up.
of course that being said i can no longer mod anything in this thread.... and i got 3 more points burning a hole in my pocket.
when i too the motorcycle safety class (it's free in PA to state residents) the statistics they gave us basically said a huge majority of the accidents involved alcohol, and a large number were riders that never took a safety course and learned on their own.
i had ridden minibikes as a kid, but took the course before buying my first streetbike (you also get your liscense at the end of the class) and i really think it saved me from a wreck a few times. i live in Philadelphia, and drivers in any city a much more of a hazzard to motorcycles (bicycles too) then they might be out in the country. i would think if i rode with a few drinks in me i would not have the reaction times needed to evade a potential wreck. motorcycles in general can outrun, outbrake and outsteer most any car. the massive increase in control kind of helps balance out the fact that cars never notice you.
those statistics mostly apply for 16-40 year olds i guess... i know older riders are the ones making motorcycles accidents on the rise, older guys with a decent amount of money to drop on a bigger bike and they just are not as young as they used to be. younger people generally start on smaller bikes and upgrade when/if they can afford it.
BACK ON THE MAIN TOPIC, the HUD sounds great.... i am sure i could not justify the expense for a while.
the iPod came out 2 years ago, when are these clones coming? i would say there are a few clones (Dell DJ) and none of them really match the iPod..... yes, there are cheaper ones or ones that have a built in compass or something. if you want an iPod because of what it is and has (as opposed to status symbol), there is nothing to really replace it.
maybe you didn't follow.... the thing with number portability is the ability to switch from, say, Verizon to maybe Sprint and not change your cell phone numbers. In theory this will increase people's ability to hop for the best deal. also if a provider runs great deals and hooks people for a year, then cranks up their rates, the consumer can fight back. yes you always can vote by not renewing a contract, but some people don't want to change numbers a lot. esp in this day and age when some people kill off their land lines, or maybe an independent contractor that uses their cell phone number on their business cards and whatnot. to somebody like that, they are kind of risking losing business if they switch cell phone companies. also, as far as i know i have never called a disconnected cell phone and got forwarding number information. i also don't see one company offering to forward your calls to another, or provide that information. anyway, it might not be the biggest deal in the world, but in a year or two when most all people/companies have cycled through their contracts it will be valid to look and see what happens. i guess technically a company could switch all their employees from one provider to another and keep the individual numbers. the change in rate might not be as much to you, but when you look at what a fleet of cell phones costs, it would add up. i can't see how it's a bad thing for consumers to have more choices.
in the last few weeks security fixes for 10.2.x and 10.3.x have shown up.... Apple is still supporting users not running 10.3, but who knows for how long that will continue?
as far as people running 10.1.x and not upgrading to at least 10.2, i don't know.
if you are waiting for a 9.x update.... um.... yeah..... bye!
Slashdot Mirror
i have to say i am 100% happy with earthlinkDSL (haveing also had DirecTV(RIP) and Verizon DSL)..... offhand the only cap i remember reading on their site was on newsgroups. if you download more than a certain amount of stuff from newsgroups in a week or month they switch you to a slower download rate for a month or something. i don't remember the details and am not finding it right now on their site, but when i was trying to figure out what that meant it seemed to me that it would require a MASSIVE download campaign from usenet. something along the lines of a lot of warez and/or movies i guess. i kind of remember thinking there would be no way to hit the cap downloading text posts or even still pictures at any normal resolutions.
anyway, it was a huge limit and seemed to be only for the news servers, but it does exist. i guess it was nice they let you know if advance... assuming you bother to read the user agreements.
the article is from 1997, or so it says right on top.... almost 7 years ago...
.Net account.
also, i would assume some of M$'s motivation was to battle the AOL/TimeWarner beast.....
these days i would think you would be more upset at the ties between Verizon and Microsoft... Verizon DSL comes with MSN "for free". I guess this jumps MSN user numbers a lot higher than they were last year. Verizon cell phones are tied into Microsoft now too, for example to use wireless web it seems you now have to have a
honestly.... MiniDiscs....
i have a G4 400 AGP and at the time the SoundBlaster card was the easiest (cheapest i knew of) way to get a digital out from my Mac to make minidiscs. it seems like overkill to buy a $129 card (yeah THE Mac one was that expensive) to make minidiscs, but i knew using a digital output was a better way to get tracks to split up. i hate having MDs that are 70 minutes of punk songs (about 2 minutes each) and show up as 4 tracks.
this was MacWorld... hrmm... it was the MacWorld they were showing off 10.1 and the sales guy at the show told me that by the time 10.1 shipped they would have OS X drivers. since 10.0 was sketchy i was booting into OS 9 for some stuff as is and i didn't mind that much at the time. I knew a lot of M$ windows people used their cards, as well as *NIX people and they seemed adequate.
when i said "ideal" i meant in Apple's mind..... in post MacWorld interviews Steve Jobs has talked about the mini as a complement to an existing iPod and the iTunes app. i am sure some people will only buy a mini if it's all they need. 4 gigs is a LOT of music. it might not be a majority of your MP3 files, but it is still a lot. i don't own any iPod right now, so either is a major upgrade to the minidisc player i use (it's not MDLP).
as for the cube, that's a whole different cult. the cube's made sense to me, just they cost too much, and really had to be paired with an LCD display to shine. people said the lack of upgradability killed the cube, but in the age of USB and Firewire, how many average users really upgrade their machines (Mac or Windows)? there are video card and CPU upgrades for the cube.
if that was what REALLY killed the cube then how come the CRT and LCD iMac did so well? i know quite a few people with G4 towers that never added more than RAM. they could have bought cubes. i suppose i could have too since that soundblaster card i have won't really work till they make those OS X drivers the Creative salesjerk promised me.
grrr i'm all over the place today.
anyway the article compares the price if the mini to flash based and other small HD music players and compared to them (in the same price range) it has many times the storage.
the mini is not really intended for people with mini collections of songs.... the IDEAL purchaser of the mini is someone who already loves their iPod and wants a smaller one for the gym or some use that doesnt require a month straight of music without repeating it. Apple has said that. they are going after the flash players with the mini. most flash players are used by people who only need their device for short times or don't carry much music. the same people that carry 10 CDs in their car. with USB2/Firewire you can swap songs/playlists REALLY fast. you can make your gym /running mix for the day/week/month and swap it fast.
when you read the article they explain all that.... and they show that the price is on target with flash players. when you see it as having 8x the capacity for an equally priced mini player from someone else, as opposed to "$50 for 11 more gigs" then it makes sense.
yeah they were downloading and whatever, but they are not bootleggers out there selling copies. they are just kids. the article said a few of the kids said they will use some of the money they get to pay their $3000 settlement.
my subject may be confusing... i meant:
Apple is manufacturing the devices, not twisting arms
according to some of the articles it says that Apple will be making the HP iPods with the blue/grey case, not licensing the technology out. It will effectively be the Apple iPod with a HP wrap. It's the same guts as the Apple model (even the Apple symbol on startup), and will work with the same accessories as the Apple one because it's the same form factor.
Points to HP for bucking the trend and using standards instead of the Microsoft assigned format.
just say "sign this and i will not arrest you or hassle your grandmother".... then get them to sign something that says:
"i understand that this guy taking my stuff is nobody important and i will not try to get it back, or beat him or sue"
if they refuse, move on
obviously trying to scare and confuse people into signing over their goods. who knows what else they got them to sign. ugh! It's clear they don't give a crap how the public views them, most companies would not treat their customers like this.
i realize it might be fun to try, and this is slashdot, but consider how much effort it would be to get Xgrid on a slew of old old old macs (that now live in a garage). i wonder how many of them would it take to equal one LCD iMac G4 (including the loss to cables and whatnot that must exist?)? then consider the electricity used? even an older CRT iMac. would be better i would think, let the screen shut down and the lack of fan makes it happy. yes you may have those machines (i have my mac collection too) but there is a cost to actually running them all at the same time and that kills baby seals and gets you bad karma.
now if you take a university computer cluster that's closed for 6+ hours a day, or something like that...... i could see some interesting uses of current technology being used on downtime. almost like the idea behind SETE@home or folding but for your specific needs. i'm sure this won't be like rackmounting and fibre linking the beasties in one windy room, but if the machines are already there.......... it's kind of free? i wonder if you could take, say, all the secretaries iMacs and use them in the 17:01-08:59 time period to run this, let alone weekends and holidays!
i have not tried riding a bike with music for years..... i would mostly want it for running and that's a lot of sweat and jostling and possibly dropping (i'm clumsey).
i admit that has made me ponder solid state MP3 players... my run is never more than an hour (sometimes half that) so a 20 gig iPod seemed like overkill. i would like one for other reasons (portable drive etc) but for some uses the iPod mini seems perfect.
actually there are also probably a lot of people that don't ever listen to more music than that? i know people that NEVER own more than 30 - 50 CDs if even that. weird to me but they sell off their stuff after a while or when they move on (and no they don't copy/rip it).
the #1 best thing about the mini iPod is for portability while exercising. honestly i have debated what to replace my battered minidisc with, and it might be this. i want the good things of the iPod (works with a Mac, bla bla bla) but feared the size/cost considering while running it's going to get sweaty at best, dropped and smashed at worst.
the price is still a lot to potentially have lost or destroyed, but it's small enough to use one of those goofy arm things or something.
i knew a few people that go to the gym and ride exercise bikes for a little while.. at least to warm up for their workouts. plenty of people still buy those flash MP3 players for jogging, or at the gym. they don't need a month of straight music on their hip, they need something like an hour. with firewire you could transfer playlists for that day in no time. yes, a full iPod can carry more songs, but my tower can carry even more than that.
i agree..... i don't see how this is anything like an iPod..... i could take an iPod on a run or keep it in my bag when riding the subway or hook it up in the car.
if i was looking at one of these i would consider a cheap laptop instead. yes, this is not exactley the same, but it lacks the portability. i guess there are some people that just do not see the iPod's small size as a major bonus and see the things it lacks (uber huge drives, other inputs/outputs) and they buy nomads. my housemate bought one of those "ipod killers" and loves it. honestly unless i was wearing BDUs or carrying a bag i would have no way to carry the thing around. possibly the hip-pack will be in style again so you can carry 1,000,000 photos of your kids with you everywhere you go, all their birthday movies, holidays, school plays, first steps, first time riding a bike bla bla bla....
ok, it might be kinda neat, but i would never buy one and it's nothing like an iPod. it's basically like saying TV is the radio killer. yes, TV killed radio's monoply on entertaining people, but there are times and places for each.
this being posted today is interesting considerg some iPod update will be happening in 2 hours from now (noon eastern time). the photos fromt he Expo show partially rolled up iPod banners implying *something* is getting changed in that product line. be it hardware or software or both..... who knows.
yes, this would be great because people would get iPods with a photo of their significant other... or the two of them and when they break up the "emotionally disturbing" iPod will end up on ebay where i can buy it cheap! i wonder if there are engraved ones on there now?
off to ebay!
i thought it was pretty understood (not just rumor) that the Superbowl (american football thing) was the kickoff for the Pepsi / iTunes promotion. Not being a fan, i am unsure, but i think the superbowl is in January sometime. I would assume, if that is the kickoff, that they won't say "start buying Pepsi in a few weeks to maybe win free songs!". Apple can unveil something that doesn't ship for a while, but that's not a TV ad..... by the time the product ships it has gotten decent press coverage on apple's site and Mac/computer sites. somehting like Pepsi contests would probably start when the commercials run.
in some areas you can put it on the curb and it will be picked up overnight. a lot of cities/towns seem to have collection days for TVs and computers. I know Philadelphia PA (where i live) has collection days that bounce to another location every month or two. The have ones for old TVs, Computers and computer parts. They have a schedule for days like this for a lot of things, even "anmesty days" for things like old motor oil, oil based paints, and all kinds of chemicals you are not supposed to put in the trash or down the drain. check with your local town and see if they have something too. granted i think some cities are more advanced about this than some of the surrounding suburbs, and i am assuming it's to prevent the junk from ending up in an empty lot. when local suburbs have tight restrictions on trash volume and charge for trips to the dump, i can drag out a couch or air conditioner or refrigerator or whatever. granted the appliances have their own roving vehicles that pick them up, but i just push em to the curb. the city "large appliance vehicles" usually don't beat the scavengers to them anyway. i don't suggest driving into the local townsville and dropping everything on a curb (that's not legal), but if it's at all usable i have found putting it out with the trash means it will be scavenged 99% of the time. i generally don't feel bad throwing out old junk that may be useful to someone else (but not worth the Ebay hassle) because i know it'll be picked up. i guess that's more a trait of my neighborhood than a universal fact though. no, you can't send me your junk... sorry.
and it's still around.... every few years i power it up to play some games with the Mach2 joystick.... . Beachhead, spy vs spy etc... AH the memories! too bad the internal modem burned up many years ago (literally... smokey and melty).
are Apple's overpriced? maybe, but you are also paying for someone to do the work, right? the 3rd party replacement is always going to be cheaper (otherwise it would have to be a hell of a lot better to exist at all). i guess Apple will do ok with this service when people think of 3rd party batteries and those exploding Nokia phones. you get what you pay for?
if this turns out to be a major issue and not just a story picked up and overblown i would think Apple will do something about that. a revision or two of iPods will have a removable battery if that's really tha case. i guess it depends on how long it takes their engineers to do figure it out.
George W. said something in the last week or two about wanting the USA to get back on the moon. I don't remember why, and if he meant building a base or what. I assumed it had something to do with reminding China that we were there first?
google is not helping me, i'm just finding articles wondering is geroge w is a moonie.
i did find this slashdot story from 2 weeks ago where they though he would call for moon mission in some speech scheduled today..... hrmmm
good point... most people probably feel they really should "use em or lose em" with the mod points and worry more about using them then modding where needed. i guess reading somehting with 300+ comments flat is too much work. i have a feeling they add to the top posts already modded up.
of course that being said i can no longer mod anything in this thread.... and i got 3 more points burning a hole in my pocket.
no threading here,
johnpaul
when i too the motorcycle safety class (it's free in PA to state residents) the statistics they gave us basically said a huge majority of the accidents involved alcohol, and a large number were riders that never took a safety course and learned on their own.
i had ridden minibikes as a kid, but took the course before buying my first streetbike (you also get your liscense at the end of the class) and i really think it saved me from a wreck a few times. i live in Philadelphia, and drivers in any city a much more of a hazzard to motorcycles (bicycles too) then they might be out in the country. i would think if i rode with a few drinks in me i would not have the reaction times needed to evade a potential wreck. motorcycles in general can outrun, outbrake and outsteer most any car. the massive increase in control kind of helps balance out the fact that cars never notice you.
those statistics mostly apply for 16-40 year olds i guess...
i know older riders are the ones making motorcycles accidents on the rise, older guys with a decent amount of money to drop on a bigger bike and they just are not as young as they used to be. younger people generally start on smaller bikes and upgrade when/if they can afford it.
BACK ON THE MAIN TOPIC, the HUD sounds great.... i am sure i could not justify the expense for a while.
the iPod came out 2 years ago, when are these clones coming? i would say there are a few clones (Dell DJ) and none of them really match the iPod..... yes, there are cheaper ones or ones that have a built in compass or something. if you want an iPod because of what it is and has (as opposed to status symbol), there is nothing to really replace it.
maybe you didn't follow.... the thing with number portability is the ability to switch from, say, Verizon to maybe Sprint and not change your cell phone numbers. In theory this will increase people's ability to hop for the best deal. also if a provider runs great deals and hooks people for a year, then cranks up their rates, the consumer can fight back. yes you always can vote by not renewing a contract, but some people don't want to change numbers a lot. esp in this day and age when some people kill off their land lines, or maybe an independent contractor that uses their cell phone number on their business cards and whatnot. to somebody like that, they are kind of risking losing business if they switch cell phone companies. also, as far as i know i have never called a disconnected cell phone and got forwarding number information. i also don't see one company offering to forward your calls to another, or provide that information. anyway, it might not be the biggest deal in the world, but in a year or two when most all people/companies have cycled through their contracts it will be valid to look and see what happens.
i guess technically a company could switch all their employees from one provider to another and keep the individual numbers. the change in rate might not be as much to you, but when you look at what a fleet of cell phones costs, it would add up.
i can't see how it's a bad thing for consumers to have more choices.
in the last few weeks security fixes for 10.2.x and 10.3.x have shown up.... Apple is still supporting users not running 10.3, but who knows for how long that will continue?
as far as people running 10.1.x and not upgrading to at least 10.2, i don't know.
if you are waiting for a 9.x update.... um.... yeah..... bye!