Inadequate charging current seems to be all the rage for portable devices these days. My last two smartphones have been unable to charge while in hotspot mode with the screen on. "Why would you have the screen on?", people ask. Because, "Screw you. I want it on.", I reply. With the screen off, my last phone would take 8+ hours to top off from around 40% while in hotspot mode. For about a year, I was using a Clear Spot (4G hotspot with a battery) and it would regularly run the battery completely dead while plugged into the wall. I used it for a month in Vegas as my primary connection and I had to turn it off for about 4 hours every few days so the battery could recharge.
I think it's crazy that these portable devices are delivered with power systems that can't keep up with the drain of heavy use even when they're connected to what is, for all practical purposes, an unlimited source of power. If the device uses 10 watts running full-tilt, give us a power supply that puts out 20 watts so the battery can be charged at a decent clip while the device is being used. If that means a bulky charger, so be it. Offer a "slim" charger for people who need something smaller and don't mind waiting a year and a day for a charge. Even packaging the slow charger and selling the fast charger as a premium item would be a step up from what's happening now. It's been a long time since an 8+ hour recharge time was acceptable.
And a more powerful charger doesn't need to be a "brick". The 19 volt 40 watt charger for my laptop is about the size of a big pack of gum, weights a few ounces, and can plug in either vertically or horizontally.
19+40*24=$979 for two years of unlimited talk/text/web using my randomly selected carrier. Add another year of service to your plan and you're at $999. Looks like you got "scammed" out of $20.
I've flown once since 9/11. Helped a friend move across the country then flew home. While I didn't exactly jet all over the world before the TSA was created, I've gone from flying every couple of years to flying once per decade and the main reason for that decline in flying has been the bullshit security theater of the TSA. Take my shoes off and put them in a tray? What the hell for? You can't run a sniffer over them while they're on my feet? When presented with absurdity, I'm wired to decline to participate and the TSA has provided plenty of absurdity. Doesn't mean I'll never fly again but I'll need a good reason.
Who the heck buys a used cell phone? I admit I bought one back around 2006 but that was a different time, you see. These days, you can walk into any MetroPCS store (just to pick a random budget carrier) and buy an Android smartphone for $19. Okay, it's actually $49 with a $30 mail-in rebate but it's still a very small amount of money. How much of a discount could there possibly be on a used phone that would make it worth the risk of buying something that's been used and abused for months or years? If putting up $50 is out of a person's budget, they've got some serious problems and there's no way they'll be able to make the $40/month payment for unlimited text/talk/web.
Why should an employee be required to purchase their own equipment? This is about equipment purchased with expense allocations so it's reasonable to assume that the purchases are work related, not personal.
To put it bluntly, Microsoft's tools haven't kept up with the competition in the mobile arena. Now, because their employer has inferior tools, the employees have to either work with crap or spend their personal money to be competitive in the workplace. I know Microsoft has big plans for Windows 8 and WinMo 8 but those things don't exist now and, no matter how good they may be when they arrive, it'll still take 6-12 months from launch for industry apps and connectivity to hit the platform.
Of course, my rant only applies to the phone/tablet aspect of the situation.
Well, not really the same thing. Ford makes a bunch of different vehicles that will fit the needs of any driver. Microsoft has shit for smartphones and almost no vendor support. You can get just about any piece of productivity software and platform tie-in you'll ever need on iOS, Blackberry, and Android platforms but WinMo has been a desert for years. I know. I've seen me use it. And iOS is the first to get support in most cases. Then Blackberry. Then Android. Then, if the intern is still around, WinMo.
Shouldn't have let them get a monopoly on something that's so important. This is just one of many ways China has the rest of the world under their thumb and we're going to see a lot more of this in the coming years. From where I'm sitting at my desk, I'd be hard-pressed to lay my eyes on more than 10 things that weren't made in China. My watch (though it was assembled in China so I guess that doesn't count). An old radio scanner (which doesn't work). Metal shears (used to open blister packs). CR2016 batteries made in Japan. Multimeter's made in Korea. A really old power strip from Mexico. And that's about it.
For 3 weeks, just learn to look for free WiFi hotspots.
Seriously.
It's 3 weeks. You'll survive if you can't tweet every 5 minutes. If you were talking about 3 months, I could see why it would be worth the trouble and expense to set this up but 3 weeks? No.
If you're set on it, go for pre-paid. You'll have to spend $50-100 on the device, possibly a setup fee of $35-50, and a month's service at $35-80 depending on the carrier. Last time I checked, Millenicom was offering 50 gig plans on Verizon's network (the best, most consistent data network IMHO) for $70 or so. It's far more data than you'll be able to push over Verizon's network for that price on any of Verizon's plans.
Seriously, tho, it's 3 weeks. Every hotel you stay in will have WiFi available for $0-10/night. Many businesses (especially restaurants) offer free WiFi.
A couple months ago, I stayed in a hotel with satellite internet. I assume it was some sort of deal the chain had with DirecWay that required using the service at every location because nobody in their right mind would be using satellite internet as the primary entartube in an urban setting. It was ridiculously slow and my 4G hotspot tore it to shreds. Heck, 3G would have been faster with lower latency.
Pretty much. I'm shocked to see a new municipal wifi plan being rolled out after what happened to the earlier attempts. Maybe San Jose snuck a clause into their latest franchise contracts that allow them to provide this service without objections.
I was trying to remember how I emailed binaries back in the day then I remembered piping uuencode into mail and addresses with bangs and hoping some grouchy admin along the UUCP trail didn't bitch about the traffic. Get off my lawn!
Cute names are so old and busted. "Okay, Kenny is the one with the accounting software that crashes constantly. Cartman is the old file server, because it's huge. Kyle is for the legal department."
Name your shit for what it does and, if you have multiple data centers, where it's located.
500Mhz? My first DVD player was that Creative Labs DXR2 kit which included a decoder card that did an analog overlay of the image on top of your VGA signal. It could also do composite and s-video output. Ran just fine on the equivalent of a 75Mhz Pentium that I was running. Since the decoder card did all the work, it didn't bog down the CPU at all. You could still dig up a copy of NT4 and run one of those kits on a mid-90s computer, no problem. Even has 5.1 DD output.
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How long until we're taking tours of Japan's exclusion zone? Chernobyl's getting old and busted.
Plenty of historical precedent. They got Al Capone for cheating on taxes...
Inadequate charging current seems to be all the rage for portable devices these days. My last two smartphones have been unable to charge while in hotspot mode with the screen on. "Why would you have the screen on?", people ask. Because, "Screw you. I want it on.", I reply. With the screen off, my last phone would take 8+ hours to top off from around 40% while in hotspot mode. For about a year, I was using a Clear Spot (4G hotspot with a battery) and it would regularly run the battery completely dead while plugged into the wall. I used it for a month in Vegas as my primary connection and I had to turn it off for about 4 hours every few days so the battery could recharge.
I think it's crazy that these portable devices are delivered with power systems that can't keep up with the drain of heavy use even when they're connected to what is, for all practical purposes, an unlimited source of power. If the device uses 10 watts running full-tilt, give us a power supply that puts out 20 watts so the battery can be charged at a decent clip while the device is being used. If that means a bulky charger, so be it. Offer a "slim" charger for people who need something smaller and don't mind waiting a year and a day for a charge. Even packaging the slow charger and selling the fast charger as a premium item would be a step up from what's happening now. It's been a long time since an 8+ hour recharge time was acceptable.
And a more powerful charger doesn't need to be a "brick". The 19 volt 40 watt charger for my laptop is about the size of a big pack of gum, weights a few ounces, and can plug in either vertically or horizontally.
My mistake. I thought you'd listed one year for some reason.
19+40*24=$979 for two years of unlimited talk/text/web using my randomly selected carrier. Add another year of service to your plan and you're at $999. Looks like you got "scammed" out of $20.
I've flown once since 9/11. Helped a friend move across the country then flew home. While I didn't exactly jet all over the world before the TSA was created, I've gone from flying every couple of years to flying once per decade and the main reason for that decline in flying has been the bullshit security theater of the TSA. Take my shoes off and put them in a tray? What the hell for? You can't run a sniffer over them while they're on my feet? When presented with absurdity, I'm wired to decline to participate and the TSA has provided plenty of absurdity. Doesn't mean I'll never fly again but I'll need a good reason.
Who the heck buys a used cell phone? I admit I bought one back around 2006 but that was a different time, you see. These days, you can walk into any MetroPCS store (just to pick a random budget carrier) and buy an Android smartphone for $19. Okay, it's actually $49 with a $30 mail-in rebate but it's still a very small amount of money. How much of a discount could there possibly be on a used phone that would make it worth the risk of buying something that's been used and abused for months or years? If putting up $50 is out of a person's budget, they've got some serious problems and there's no way they'll be able to make the $40/month payment for unlimited text/talk/web.
Why should an employee be required to purchase their own equipment? This is about equipment purchased with expense allocations so it's reasonable to assume that the purchases are work related, not personal.
To put it bluntly, Microsoft's tools haven't kept up with the competition in the mobile arena. Now, because their employer has inferior tools, the employees have to either work with crap or spend their personal money to be competitive in the workplace. I know Microsoft has big plans for Windows 8 and WinMo 8 but those things don't exist now and, no matter how good they may be when they arrive, it'll still take 6-12 months from launch for industry apps and connectivity to hit the platform.
Of course, my rant only applies to the phone/tablet aspect of the situation.
Well, not really the same thing. Ford makes a bunch of different vehicles that will fit the needs of any driver. Microsoft has shit for smartphones and almost no vendor support. You can get just about any piece of productivity software and platform tie-in you'll ever need on iOS, Blackberry, and Android platforms but WinMo has been a desert for years. I know. I've seen me use it. And iOS is the first to get support in most cases. Then Blackberry. Then Android. Then, if the intern is still around, WinMo.
As far as I know, most "EU law" is actually EU guidelines that are put into national laws by the member states.
Was I correct to read that in a pirate voice?
They'll eGiggle at each other over their psychic neural network.
Yeah. I should have to provide a fresh DNA sample to unlock my phone. Giggity.
Most people are knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing idiots. More on this shocking story at 11.
...a little bit bigger than yesterday?
Shouldn't have let them get a monopoly on something that's so important. This is just one of many ways China has the rest of the world under their thumb and we're going to see a lot more of this in the coming years. From where I'm sitting at my desk, I'd be hard-pressed to lay my eyes on more than 10 things that weren't made in China. My watch (though it was assembled in China so I guess that doesn't count). An old radio scanner (which doesn't work). Metal shears (used to open blister packs). CR2016 batteries made in Japan. Multimeter's made in Korea. A really old power strip from Mexico. And that's about it.
For 3 weeks, just learn to look for free WiFi hotspots.
Seriously.
It's 3 weeks. You'll survive if you can't tweet every 5 minutes. If you were talking about 3 months, I could see why it would be worth the trouble and expense to set this up but 3 weeks? No.
If you're set on it, go for pre-paid. You'll have to spend $50-100 on the device, possibly a setup fee of $35-50, and a month's service at $35-80 depending on the carrier. Last time I checked, Millenicom was offering 50 gig plans on Verizon's network (the best, most consistent data network IMHO) for $70 or so. It's far more data than you'll be able to push over Verizon's network for that price on any of Verizon's plans.
Seriously, tho, it's 3 weeks. Every hotel you stay in will have WiFi available for $0-10/night. Many businesses (especially restaurants) offer free WiFi.
A couple months ago, I stayed in a hotel with satellite internet. I assume it was some sort of deal the chain had with DirecWay that required using the service at every location because nobody in their right mind would be using satellite internet as the primary entartube in an urban setting. It was ridiculously slow and my 4G hotspot tore it to shreds. Heck, 3G would have been faster with lower latency.
Pretty much. I'm shocked to see a new municipal wifi plan being rolled out after what happened to the earlier attempts. Maybe San Jose snuck a clause into their latest franchise contracts that allow them to provide this service without objections.
I guess Thor caught his flight to Oslo.
I was trying to remember how I emailed binaries back in the day then I remembered piping uuencode into mail and addresses with bangs and hoping some grouchy admin along the UUCP trail didn't bitch about the traffic. Get off my lawn!
I'm a big proponent of self-driving cars but this example of a computer-controlled intersection makes my sphincter pucker.
I name mine after girls that I actually laid. And I'm running a data center for Google.
So....
Christy_from_Canada_1, Christy_from_Canada_2, Christy_from_Canada_3, ...Christy_from_Canada_99999
Cute names are so old and busted. "Okay, Kenny is the one with the accounting software that crashes constantly. Cartman is the old file server, because it's huge. Kyle is for the legal department."
Name your shit for what it does and, if you have multiple data centers, where it's located.
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want it back after it's spent 8 hours soaking up your brother in law's flap-sweat.
500Mhz? My first DVD player was that Creative Labs DXR2 kit which included a decoder card that did an analog overlay of the image on top of your VGA signal. It could also do composite and s-video output. Ran just fine on the equivalent of a 75Mhz Pentium that I was running. Since the decoder card did all the work, it didn't bog down the CPU at all. You could still dig up a copy of NT4 and run one of those kits on a mid-90s computer, no problem. Even has 5.1 DD output.