I addressed some of these comments in a reply to another poster, so I'll save the space and refer you to that post for replies to most of your comments. A few I will address here though.
The keyboard. I must take issue with you on this. If you type a lot on any small device, you're going to use the backspace key a lot. It's position on the Q does not lend itself to being touch-typed like the other keys, and as I mentioned breaks from the convention established by it's predecessors. I'll grant you the position of the Enter key is only problematic for those who expect the backspace key to be there. If they were targeting existing Blackberry or Treo users, they should have adopted the keyboard layout that those users have already accustomed themselves to. A poor reason, maybe, but the same reason they chose QWERTY over Dvorak layout.
I can't explain your stability or our lack of it, but it has been a consistent problem here with every Q we have.
As mentioned in the prior response, push e-mail is a requirement for us, and yes, that probably accounts for a majority of the difference in battery time. Also our users tend to be heavy e-mail users, often reading hundreds of e-mails, and writing 10-20 per day on their mobile device.
Charging off a computer or other charger because the mini-usb plug is ubiquitous and users always forget their chargers (also because of the short battery life we experience).
The issues related to the Smartphone interface I did not enumerate in detail and mostly relate to general usability issues as reported by our users. I have found your suggested method of task switching problematic at best (such as when a error message has popped up on a background app), but perhaps that's due to the apps we run.
Digitac
Re:The main difference between them...
on
Unmaking Motorola's Q
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I'm glad you like your Q, I really am. I'd just like to make a couple of observations about your comments.
You won't get any argument from me that the Q does more, much more, than the Blackberry. Movies and audio playback are missing from the Blackberry; games and web browsing are better on the Q. Our users have reported complaints about most of those though. One user said it would play several MP3s then stop, another said the web browser was "hit or miss" (sorry, no specifics). From your remark about minimo, I'll assume "very capable web browser" means "leaves much to be desired". I find it to be better than the Blackberry's, bigger than other [smart]phones, but much harder to use than it's PocketPC counterpart.
Removable storage is very nice (even necessary) for audio and video files. I don't remember the exact on-board storage, but it's not enough to do anything useful with alone.
Battery life is no doubt affected by usage scenarios. In our environment the primary function of any handheld is push e-mail. This does have a detrimental effect on battery life, but it is still a fair comparison to Blackberries and Treos on which we also run push e-mail.
I am curious as to what you are using to get e-mail pushed from GMail. To my knowledge, GMail does not support, nor does any 3rd party service implement, push e-mail in any form (from GMail). I suspect it is pull e-mail on a regular, even if frequent, schedule. For some that is perfectly acceptable, but our users demand the instant push e-mail (yes, 60 seconds is too long for some of them). Pocket Outlook supports, as you mention, pull e-mail or SMS-notification e-mail from Exchange (a sudo push system). The push feature I was referring to is the recently released AKU2 update for Windows Mobile 5 devices that supports true push e-mail from Microsoft Exchange 2003 servers.
I would honestly like to know how you switch between Pocket IE, Outlook and the Media Player when all are running. I would love to hear that there is a hidden keystroke somewhere that I'm missing, but to my knowledge the only way to get to a running app is to run it again from the Start menu. Not all programs behave well this way.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you are using this in a purely personal environment, not an enterprise environment, right? In this way, I believe it is best compared to the Sidekick, instead of the Blackberry. I cannot comment on it's overall usefulness as a consumer device as we evaluated them for an enterprise environment. As the "Blackberry-killer" that Verizon has been desperately trying to convince us it is, it falls short. Very short.
You obviously haven't used one. I don't care so much about the stylus, but Smartphone is NOT designed for QWERTY keyboards. If you read my other post, you'll see that it's my opinion that the Smartphone interface is one of the major shortcomings of the device.
Digitac
Re:US Phone Market is so irrelevent
on
Unmaking Motorola's Q
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Actually the driving force behind Blackberry features has traditionally been the government's need for security. The government has put strict requirements on the device to be sure it's secure. That's something I can appriciate. There are server-side policies for EVERYTHING. A rep once told a group of us that if we could find any way to get data off a Blackberry that couldn't be stopped/restricted by a policy on the server he'd buy us lunch and get it fixed. In an enterprise environment the admin can restrict everything. We can (and do) set password policies. Length, age, complexity, number of attempts can all be configured. There's even a distress feature so the device notifies an admin if the user is forced to unlock it (you change your password by one character). The admin could then send a wipe command to the device which completely wipes all data. It even has AES encrypted storage. If you turn that on, even if you unsolder the memory chip you can't read the data (though you could theoretically proceed to brute-force it). The lack of cameras on all Blackberries (is a God-send!) is due to the restrictions placed on cameras in senstive areas. If one Blackberry had a camera they may all be banned from those locations (rumor has it there may be one coming though, I hope not). No MP3s because it's a business first device. I personally don't agree with this one. I wish it would play WAV file voicemail (promised, never delivered). It doesn't have removable storage or even enough for more than a couple songs, but this relates back to the security issue. They can't be used to copy documents from a computer and it's near impossible to remove sensitive data from the device. It's not perfect, but at least it has a reason.
Digitac
The main difference between them...
on
Unmaking Motorola's Q
·
· Score: 5, Informative
...is that the Blackberry WORKS! Those Q's are nice to look at but terrible to use. We bought 6 at work when they first came out, 4 have been returned in favor of the Blackberry. The Blackberry does less, but it's reliable. Here's the mini-review I give to everyone at work who asks about them:
The Good: -The screen is nice, bright, easy to read indoors, and a nice size in general. -The general form factor. I like thin devices and the Q is that, it doesn't seem to have unneeded bulk. -The network. Some like it, some hate it, but few will argue that Verizon's EVDO network is fast where you can get it. Allows for streaming a Slingbox nicely.
The Bad: -Most of the problems can in some way be related back to Windows Mobile SMARTPHONE Edition. Had they gone with the full PocketPC software (and required touchscreen) the interface would be less awkward to move around in and you could do simple things like, oh I don't know, switch back to that task in the background? -The keyboard...sucks. Most similar devices (mostly referring to Blackberries, Palm Treo's, and a couple others) have standardized portions of the key layout. For instance the backspace key is next to the L key so it's easy to get to since you typo a lot on small keyboards. On the Q it's a flat button, unlike the letters, up near the D-Pad and easy to miss (actually had someone ask me where it was after they had been using it for a week). The Enter key is where the backspace key should be (you can imagine what problems THAT causes), the only shift key is on the right side of the keyboard near the bottom (unlike the others). And in general the keyboard just doesn't have a good "feel" to it. -The scroll-wheel, they should have left it off completely. The Smartphone interface wasn't designed for it. I believe they only put it on their to lure the Blackberry users, which is fine if it actually behaved like the Blackberry's, but it doesn't. You can't use it as the primary navigation tool like the Blackberry (you can only scroll vertically), and it is slow to respond to any input. Even the little bump they put around it to supposedly protect it from accidental activation hinders its usefulness. -Stability, or lack there-of, may relate back to the Windows Smartphone OS, but we have other Smartphones that are MUCH, MUCH more stable. The Q will get hung up on the simplest tasks. If it's not freezing completely, it has dropped the network and won't reconnect until you reboot. -No push-mail. They didn't ship the Q with the AKU2 service pack so it can't use Exchange Mobility push mail. That would be fine, because we have a Goodlink server, but Goodlink doesn't run well on the device due to the Smartphone interface. For one thing, we require a password, but on Smartphones Goodlink limits passwords to just numbers which require the use of the ALT key on the Q. -It just seems slow. Nothing on the device seems to launch, run or close fast. In fact I often find myself setting it down while waiting for it to do something. -Battery life...painful. My Blackberry will usually last about 4 days if only used for e-mail, 2-3 if using the cell phone. Motorola Q: 13 hours, which is coincidentally the exact amount of time one user's relationship with the device lasted. -Charging. It has a mini-USB plug so you should be able to charge it anywhere, right? Wrong. If you want to charge it from a computer you have to have the POS ActiveSync software installed. If you want to charge it from the wall, you'd better have brought your Motorola USB charger because 70% of the mini-USB chargers I have tried won't work. Some will power the device but not charge the battery and some won't even register. It's not the amount of power either. I have one that provides up to 1100mA while the Motorola one provides 800mA, but it won't work. I haven't figured out why yet. Cheap build quality. While we haven't damaged any, they just don't feel very durable. I've dropped, tossed, kicked and stepped on my Blackberry. I dare not set the Q down on a table hard, it feels l
This is a big step forward for IPv6 adoption, but I think the next major step will be by the cable companies. They want every set-top-box or cable TV to have two way communication and be fully addressable. Where else would they get the address space needed for that? IPv6 solves a lot of the problems they have with addressing that may devices. That will probably be the first way IPv6 gets into most of our homes.
So after RTFA'ing I'm convinced that these stem to stern networks that are heavy on multicast are bound the be the first places to deploy IPv6 networks. In fact, that may be the whole break that IPv6 needs. The Telcos will want to run an IPv6 network end to end so that your set-top box and VOIP router are addressable. I'd imagine they might even decide to encapsulate your IPv4 internet connection in their IPv6 network to take advantage of all of the additional QOS and other features it has to offer. IPv6, meet your killer app. You heard it here first.::Digitac
At E3 a few years ago I went by their booth to see mock-ups of the Phantom Console and they were giving away t-shirts that said "I Believe". It always seemed to me to be a mocking acknowledgement of the general consensus that the product would never hit the market. Even at that E3 everyone knew the product was vaporware. It probably still has a release date between Duke Nukem Forever and Team Fortress 2, both of which are tentatively scheduled to be released shortly after the end of the universe (according to a poster I saw at Milliways). "I Believe" indeed. I believe it's the best promotion of vaporware ever.::Digitac
Tried and failed. RICO requires violence or the threat thereof. See here. Unless someone can catch one of their lawyers threatening physical violence to get someone to settle, RICO is out.::Digitac
I can do you one better. I had a PowerMac 6100/66 DOS. It was one of the last NuBus PowerMacs and came with a 486/66 on a NuBus card. Really nifty stuff. It had a strange monitor cable that plugged into both the 486 card and the Mac's video port and the software switched between them. That was actually a really useful computer since I had both a Mac and a PC in one box and they would run independently and simultaneously. I wonder if it's still in the closet...::Digitac
I've been a Keyhole LT subscriber for a while now so I got to test Google Earth betas for a couple weeks now. It's pretty nice, but they actually removed one of my favorite features. In one of the betas there was the ablility to measure area by just drawing a polygon on the map with the measure tool, then it vanished! I really want that one back, it's great when looking for houses and such. For simple rectangular shapes it's not a big deal because you can still measure in 1 dimension and just do the math, but for complex shapes it's much harder now.::Digitac
Let's see here, we've got ~3TB of data that we back up weekly, and differentials during the week. So that's going to be 654 DVDs to burn and archive each week. At 16x speeds it will take about 71 hours just to burn. And then there are a lot of documents that get created and deleted durring the week so they never make it to our full backups, and even stuff that doesn't make it to backups because the documents don't even last a day! I know, you want us to put key loggers on everyone's computers and archive those forever.
It's nice that all of your e-mail fits on a CDR, but where I work we have mailboxes in excess of 13GB, and that's just the stuff they wanted to keep!
Look, at some point you've just gotta say that stuff doesn't last forever. We shred paper documents that aren't needed any more and we delete electronic data that isn't needed. We keep backup tapes for 28 days before reusing them (currently that takes about 300 LTO2 tapes) so anything that is deleted we can still recover for 28 days. That's our official policy and we stick to it as best as we can, so when someone comes to us and asks for a document that was deleted last June, they're SOL.
They weren't on TOP of the skyscrapers, they were pointing it at them from another building nearby. It isn't easy to get to the roof of the skyscrapers in LA. I work in Library Tower and I've only been up to the roof once, and I had to take the stairs. The elevators require security cards and the stairwells are alarmed. Rumor has it they had to add sensors to the helecopter pad on the roof to stop LA SWAT from landing there while on training missions, but I've never been able to confirm that one.::Digitac
I'd rather have a digital receipt than a paper one. Right now my credit card or atm record just shows a (sometimes ambiguous) merchant name and amount. I'd like to have a full reciept available in the same place. I know some people wouldn't like it; SO's or banks knowing what they buy. But think about it, Quicken or whatever you use could import the full reciept and you could tell exactly how much money you've spent on RedBull for the last year!::Digitac
I've been LANing for years, my first LAN box was an overclocked Celeron 300 (running at 450!) in a full tower. It had 12 fans in it and would stay cool in any environment.
Then I got tired of lugging it around. I bought a Lian-Li mid-tower aluminum case and was in heaven. It ran cool with fewer fans and was light!
Then I got tired of lugging it around. I bought a Shuttle SN41G2, dropped an MSI Geforce 4200 in it. It ran like a dream. I didn't over clock it so I didn't have any heat issues (Athlon 2600+).
Then I got tired of lugging it around. I bought a "gaming" laptop. Nice and portable, built in screen.
Then I got tired of the crappy performance. I'm back to running my SN41G2. I upgraded the power supply to the 250w from Shuttle and dropped in a XFX 6800 GT and a pair of 200GB HDs. This is a great combo. It's fast, light, ane easy to lug around.
All that being said, this is the only SFF I've owned, though my friends have had several. I'm not aware of any over heating problems in environments up to around 85 degrees F. That's about the temp that the Penitum based boxes would start slowing themselves down to prevent heat death. My Athlon based system never complains.
I'm not a fan-boy, these aren't right for everyone, everywhere. But for me, for LAN parties, they work great.::Digitac
I have to take exception to the video chipset. I'm disappointed in the fact that they only put an R230 in it, it won't run some of the more cool Mac apps, like Motion.::Digitac
Slashdot Mirror
I think someone forgot a critical link... try this for the Tech Report article:
http://techreport.com/articles.x/15079
Damn LPBs!
In MY day we had 300ms ping times and LIKED IT!
Yes, but Apple still takes 30% of the sales price.
I addressed some of these comments in a reply to another poster, so I'll save the space and refer you to that post for replies to most of your comments. A few I will address here though.
The keyboard. I must take issue with you on this. If you type a lot on any small device, you're going to use the backspace key a lot. It's position on the Q does not lend itself to being touch-typed like the other keys, and as I mentioned breaks from the convention established by it's predecessors. I'll grant you the position of the Enter key is only problematic for those who expect the backspace key to be there. If they were targeting existing Blackberry or Treo users, they should have adopted the keyboard layout that those users have already accustomed themselves to. A poor reason, maybe, but the same reason they chose QWERTY over Dvorak layout.
I can't explain your stability or our lack of it, but it has been a consistent problem here with every Q we have.
As mentioned in the prior response, push e-mail is a requirement for us, and yes, that probably accounts for a majority of the difference in battery time. Also our users tend to be heavy e-mail users, often reading hundreds of e-mails, and writing 10-20 per day on their mobile device.
Charging off a computer or other charger because the mini-usb plug is ubiquitous and users always forget their chargers (also because of the short battery life we experience).
The issues related to the Smartphone interface I did not enumerate in detail and mostly relate to general usability issues as reported by our users. I have found your suggested method of task switching problematic at best (such as when a error message has popped up on a background app), but perhaps that's due to the apps we run.
Digitac
I'm glad you like your Q, I really am. I'd just like to make a couple of observations about your comments.
You won't get any argument from me that the Q does more, much more, than the Blackberry. Movies and audio playback are missing from the Blackberry; games and web browsing are better on the Q. Our users have reported complaints about most of those though. One user said it would play several MP3s then stop, another said the web browser was "hit or miss" (sorry, no specifics). From your remark about minimo, I'll assume "very capable web browser" means "leaves much to be desired". I find it to be better than the Blackberry's, bigger than other [smart]phones, but much harder to use than it's PocketPC counterpart.
Removable storage is very nice (even necessary) for audio and video files. I don't remember the exact on-board storage, but it's not enough to do anything useful with alone.
Battery life is no doubt affected by usage scenarios. In our environment the primary function of any handheld is push e-mail. This does have a detrimental effect on battery life, but it is still a fair comparison to Blackberries and Treos on which we also run push e-mail.
I am curious as to what you are using to get e-mail pushed from GMail. To my knowledge, GMail does not support, nor does any 3rd party service implement, push e-mail in any form (from GMail). I suspect it is pull e-mail on a regular, even if frequent, schedule. For some that is perfectly acceptable, but our users demand the instant push e-mail (yes, 60 seconds is too long for some of them). Pocket Outlook supports, as you mention, pull e-mail or SMS-notification e-mail from Exchange (a sudo push system). The push feature I was referring to is the recently released AKU2 update for Windows Mobile 5 devices that supports true push e-mail from Microsoft Exchange 2003 servers.
I would honestly like to know how you switch between Pocket IE, Outlook and the Media Player when all are running. I would love to hear that there is a hidden keystroke somewhere that I'm missing, but to my knowledge the only way to get to a running app is to run it again from the Start menu. Not all programs behave well this way.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you are using this in a purely personal environment, not an enterprise environment, right? In this way, I believe it is best compared to the Sidekick, instead of the Blackberry. I cannot comment on it's overall usefulness as a consumer device as we evaluated them for an enterprise environment. As the "Blackberry-killer" that Verizon has been desperately trying to convince us it is, it falls short. Very short.
Digitac
You obviously haven't used one. I don't care so much about the stylus, but Smartphone is NOT designed for QWERTY keyboards. If you read my other post, you'll see that it's my opinion that the Smartphone interface is one of the major shortcomings of the device.
Digitac
Actually the driving force behind Blackberry features has traditionally been the government's need for security. The government has put strict requirements on the device to be sure it's secure. That's something I can appriciate.
There are server-side policies for EVERYTHING. A rep once told a group of us that if we could find any way to get data off a Blackberry that couldn't be stopped/restricted by a policy on the server he'd buy us lunch and get it fixed. In an enterprise environment the admin can restrict everything.
We can (and do) set password policies. Length, age, complexity, number of attempts can all be configured. There's even a distress feature so the device notifies an admin if the user is forced to unlock it (you change your password by one character). The admin could then send a wipe command to the device which completely wipes all data.
It even has AES encrypted storage. If you turn that on, even if you unsolder the memory chip you can't read the data (though you could theoretically proceed to brute-force it).
The lack of cameras on all Blackberries (is a God-send!) is due to the restrictions placed on cameras in senstive areas. If one Blackberry had a camera they may all be banned from those locations (rumor has it there may be one coming though, I hope not).
No MP3s because it's a business first device. I personally don't agree with this one. I wish it would play WAV file voicemail (promised, never delivered). It doesn't have removable storage or even enough for more than a couple songs, but this relates back to the security issue. They can't be used to copy documents from a computer and it's near impossible to remove sensitive data from the device.
It's not perfect, but at least it has a reason.
Digitac
...is that the Blackberry WORKS! Those Q's are nice to look at but terrible to use. We bought 6 at work when they first came out, 4 have been returned in favor of the Blackberry. The Blackberry does less, but it's reliable. Here's the mini-review I give to everyone at work who asks about them:
The Good:
-The screen is nice, bright, easy to read indoors, and a nice size in general.
-The general form factor. I like thin devices and the Q is that, it doesn't seem to have unneeded bulk.
-The network. Some like it, some hate it, but few will argue that Verizon's EVDO network is fast where you can get it. Allows for streaming a Slingbox nicely.
The Bad:
-Most of the problems can in some way be related back to Windows Mobile SMARTPHONE Edition. Had they gone with the full PocketPC software (and required touchscreen) the interface would be less awkward to move around in and you could do simple things like, oh I don't know, switch back to that task in the background?
-The keyboard...sucks. Most similar devices (mostly referring to Blackberries, Palm Treo's, and a couple others) have standardized portions of the key layout. For instance the backspace key is next to the L key so it's easy to get to since you typo a lot on small keyboards. On the Q it's a flat button, unlike the letters, up near the D-Pad and easy to miss (actually had someone ask me where it was after they had been using it for a week). The Enter key is where the backspace key should be (you can imagine what problems THAT causes), the only shift key is on the right side of the keyboard near the bottom (unlike the others). And in general the keyboard just doesn't have a good "feel" to it.
-The scroll-wheel, they should have left it off completely. The Smartphone interface wasn't designed for it. I believe they only put it on their to lure the Blackberry users, which is fine if it actually behaved like the Blackberry's, but it doesn't. You can't use it as the primary navigation tool like the Blackberry (you can only scroll vertically), and it is slow to respond to any input. Even the little bump they put around it to supposedly protect it from accidental activation hinders its usefulness.
-Stability, or lack there-of, may relate back to the Windows Smartphone OS, but we have other Smartphones that are MUCH, MUCH more stable. The Q will get hung up on the simplest tasks. If it's not freezing completely, it has dropped the network and won't reconnect until you reboot.
-No push-mail. They didn't ship the Q with the AKU2 service pack so it can't use Exchange Mobility push mail. That would be fine, because we have a Goodlink server, but Goodlink doesn't run well on the device due to the Smartphone interface. For one thing, we require a password, but on Smartphones Goodlink limits passwords to just numbers which require the use of the ALT key on the Q.
-It just seems slow. Nothing on the device seems to launch, run or close fast. In fact I often find myself setting it down while waiting for it to do something.
-Battery life...painful. My Blackberry will usually last about 4 days if only used for e-mail, 2-3 if using the cell phone. Motorola Q: 13 hours, which is coincidentally the exact amount of time one user's relationship with the device lasted.
-Charging. It has a mini-USB plug so you should be able to charge it anywhere, right? Wrong. If you want to charge it from a computer you have to have the POS ActiveSync software installed. If you want to charge it from the wall, you'd better have brought your Motorola USB charger because 70% of the mini-USB chargers I have tried won't work. Some will power the device but not charge the battery and some won't even register. It's not the amount of power either. I have one that provides up to 1100mA while the Motorola one provides 800mA, but it won't work. I haven't figured out why yet.
Cheap build quality. While we haven't damaged any, they just don't feel very durable. I've dropped, tossed, kicked and stepped on my Blackberry. I dare not set the Q down on a table hard, it feels l
This is a big step forward for IPv6 adoption, but I think the next major step will be by the cable companies. They want every set-top-box or cable TV to have two way communication and be fully addressable. Where else would they get the address space needed for that? IPv6 solves a lot of the problems they have with addressing that may devices. That will probably be the first way IPv6 gets into most of our homes.
Digitac
So after RTFA'ing I'm convinced that these stem to stern networks that are heavy on multicast are bound the be the first places to deploy IPv6 networks. In fact, that may be the whole break that IPv6 needs. The Telcos will want to run an IPv6 network end to end so that your set-top box and VOIP router are addressable. I'd imagine they might even decide to encapsulate your IPv4 internet connection in their IPv6 network to take advantage of all of the additional QOS and other features it has to offer. IPv6, meet your killer app. ::Digitac
You heard it here first.
At E3 a few years ago I went by their booth to see mock-ups of the Phantom Console and they were giving away t-shirts that said "I Believe". It always seemed to me to be a mocking acknowledgement of the general consensus that the product would never hit the market. Even at that E3 everyone knew the product was vaporware. It probably still has a release date between Duke Nukem Forever and Team Fortress 2, both of which are tentatively scheduled to be released shortly after the end of the universe (according to a poster I saw at Milliways). "I Believe" indeed. I believe it's the best promotion of vaporware ever. ::Digitac
Tried and failed. RICO requires violence or the threat thereof. See here. Unless someone can catch one of their lawyers threatening physical violence to get someone to settle, RICO is out. ::Digitac
Ok, but who bought Micropolis? I still have a couple 5.25" full-height (9.1GB SCSI!) drives to send in for warranty. ::Digitac
But the ARE curing cancer! Just look:
http://toolbar.google.com/dc/offerdc.html
Ok, so they don't list cancer specifically, but I'm sure it's helping!
I can do you one better. I had a PowerMac 6100/66 DOS. It was one of the last NuBus PowerMacs and came with a 486/66 on a NuBus card. Really nifty stuff. It had a strange monitor cable that plugged into both the 486 card and the Mac's video port and the software switched between them. That was actually a really useful computer since I had both a Mac and a PC in one box and they would run independently and simultaneously. I wonder if it's still in the closet... ::Digitac
..and yes, you CAN measure in smoots.
I've been a Keyhole LT subscriber for a while now so I got to test Google Earth betas for a couple weeks now. It's pretty nice, but they actually removed one of my favorite features. In one of the betas there was the ablility to measure area by just drawing a polygon on the map with the measure tool, then it vanished! I really want that one back, it's great when looking for houses and such. For simple rectangular shapes it's not a big deal because you can still measure in 1 dimension and just do the math, but for complex shapes it's much harder now. ::Digitac
This means the "I Believe/Phantom" T-shirt I got at E3 last year will be worth more on E-Bay, right? ::Digitac
Let's see here, we've got ~3TB of data that we back up weekly, and differentials during the week. So that's going to be 654 DVDs to burn and archive each week. At 16x speeds it will take about 71 hours just to burn. And then there are a lot of documents that get created and deleted durring the week so they never make it to our full backups, and even stuff that doesn't make it to backups because the documents don't even last a day! I know, you want us to put key loggers on everyone's computers and archive those forever.
It's nice that all of your e-mail fits on a CDR, but where I work we have mailboxes in excess of 13GB, and that's just the stuff they wanted to keep!
Look, at some point you've just gotta say that stuff doesn't last forever. We shred paper documents that aren't needed any more and we delete electronic data that isn't needed. We keep backup tapes for 28 days before reusing them (currently that takes about 300 LTO2 tapes) so anything that is deleted we can still recover for 28 days. That's our official policy and we stick to it as best as we can, so when someone comes to us and asks for a document that was deleted last June, they're SOL.
Hey! I can see my basement from here!
They weren't on TOP of the skyscrapers, they were pointing it at them from another building nearby. It isn't easy to get to the roof of the skyscrapers in LA. I work in Library Tower and I've only been up to the roof once, and I had to take the stairs. The elevators require security cards and the stairwells are alarmed. Rumor has it they had to add sensors to the helecopter pad on the roof to stop LA SWAT from landing there while on training missions, but I've never been able to confirm that one. ::Digitac
Is it just me, or does the GlobalFlyer look a lot like the XF-11?e .jpg
http://www.check-six.com/images/XF-11/xf11-3q-wid
::Digitac
I'd rather have a digital receipt than a paper one. Right now my credit card or atm record just shows a (sometimes ambiguous) merchant name and amount. I'd like to have a full reciept available in the same place. ::Digitac
I know some people wouldn't like it; SO's or banks knowing what they buy. But think about it, Quicken or whatever you use could import the full reciept and you could tell exactly how much money you've spent on RedBull for the last year!
I've been LANing for years, my first LAN box was an overclocked Celeron 300 (running at 450!) in a full tower. It had 12 fans in it and would stay cool in any environment.
::Digitac
Then I got tired of lugging it around. I bought a Lian-Li mid-tower aluminum case and was in heaven. It ran cool with fewer fans and was light!
Then I got tired of lugging it around. I bought a Shuttle SN41G2, dropped an MSI Geforce 4200 in it. It ran like a dream. I didn't over clock it so I didn't have any heat issues (Athlon 2600+).
Then I got tired of lugging it around. I bought a "gaming" laptop. Nice and portable, built in screen.
Then I got tired of the crappy performance. I'm back to running my SN41G2. I upgraded the power supply to the 250w from Shuttle and dropped in a XFX 6800 GT and a pair of 200GB HDs. This is a great combo. It's fast, light, ane easy to lug around.
All that being said, this is the only SFF I've owned, though my friends have had several. I'm not aware of any over heating problems in environments up to around 85 degrees F. That's about the temp that the Penitum based boxes would start slowing themselves down to prevent heat death. My Athlon based system never complains.
I'm not a fan-boy, these aren't right for everyone, everywhere. But for me, for LAN parties, they work great.
I have to take exception to the video chipset. I'm disappointed in the fact that they only put an R230 in it, it won't run some of the more cool Mac apps, like Motion. ::Digitac