The guy in the shop said "There's no way of replacing the battery - when the battery dies you just throw the old player away and buy a new one", and looked mystified when I complained on environmental grounds. I'm not impressed by this - I do not consider such an approach as representing good technology
This is pretty off-topic at this point, but just a head's up that you might want to talk to the "kind gentleman" that sold it to you because you should be getting ~18 hours with the Clip. I've also got the black 8GB (shameless NewEgg plug: go NewEgg!) and it still stays charged for days of my use (which probably amounts to about ~12 hours a day, but it's also pretty old).
Also, if you have a car receiver with a USB input (you can get them at Wal-Mart for $75) then it's charging while plugged in, so you can play it indefinitely (also helpful that it stores files in a simple directory structure--this would never work with an iPod).
Remembering to put the MP3 player in my pocket every time I get out the car just makes me a mugging target. Perhaps you live in a lovely safe country area with no scumbag population ?
No, we get our share of scumbags as well, but the Clip is honestly just not terribly desirable to a mugger. I mean, it's not an iPod (no white ear buds to make you stand out), no video support, it's tiny and feels like a cheap piece of plastic. I'd be more worried about someone mugging me for my bus pass.
Must be nice to have the money and time and modern hardware to get rid of optical media!
Unless you're living under a bridge (yes, pun intended) you should have no problem embracing the future, either.
Why buy a BD-R or flash drive when you only have 1 GB of photos to give to Aunt Mabel, anyway? A blank DVD only costs a few cents.
Yeah? And a 1 gig flash drive is often bundled free these days with purchases because they're so cheap. I mean, really, come on. Ninety-nine cents new on eBay. That's, like, two postage stamps.
Burning CDs to listen in your car is cheaper than buying an mp3 player.
You can get a Sansa Clip for $30.00. That also plays FLAC, OGG, MP3, WAV, has a built-in radio and can record from the radio. Combine that with any run-of-the-mill car stereos that support USB, or just go old-school and use a tape-adapter.
CD/DVD-ROM discs will outlast a frequently-used USB drive.
But you're not using it for archival storage. You throw some files on to copy for a friend. Or listen to some music. Short durations. The longevity of the medium is basically irrelevant since you won't be needing it to store things for longer than a couple of months, max, anyway.
In the business world, $100,000+ software is still distributed on CD and DVD, or an image thereof.
Sure, DVDs are still cheaper to produce when you're a business making a few thousand copies. When you're Joe Consumer, you usually only need one.
So, just because something's obsolete on the cutting edge, doesn't mean hordes of people aren't still using it.
Of course, but there's no reason they couldn't be using something better. Certainly not price.
This fad with inkjet is amazingly short-sided by people who would buy this junk and just print off their digital photos
Well, the truly stupid thing about this is that they can go down to any Sam's Club or CVS Pharmacy or other place that does "instant prints" and hand them a CDR or a USB stick with their high-resolution images on it and get prints from a Fuji Frontier that will simply blow any inkjet or laser out of the water. These are $10,000 printers. No way you and your $389.99 NewEgg special are going to compete with that.
Total price? Twenty cents.
No way you and your $389.99 NewEgg special are going to compete with that, either. Just in consumables you'll pay three times the cost, for an inferior product.
instead of buying digital picture frames to load up their images to have around the house.
Well, that's not entirely fair. If the fuckers made large enough panels that were high-enough resolution I would agree with you. But most of the consumer digital picture frames are complete shit.
The GP isn't describing the perfect situation. The GP is describing the current situation. And that is, anything and everything you put on the internet becomes instantly indexable, instantly accessible knowledge for everyone--friend, foe, employer, future husband/wife, children, etc.
To deny that this is the case is to deny reality.
Funny, you just reminded of the Soviet Union, Cuba, and a few other places
Well, gee, maybe that's because those places aren't nearly so different from us as we'd like to pretend on television. Quit deluding yourself.
I remember sitting by a lake in New Orleans, and having these big, beautiful fucking birds fly down right next to me. You can't clean up those birds when they're covered with oil. Expert Recommends Killing Oil-Soaked Birds.
You think it's bad now, just wait until this hits Florida & the Keys. Which it will undoubtedly do.
Nice theory until you start to think about the practical aspects. All this would accomplish is that there would be a huge run at the beginning of each trading day as one trader tries to get their orders in faster than the other to try and take advantage of the previous day's events.
Kind of like trying to order tickets to a popular concert through TicketMaster. Everyone slams the servers the second the tickets go on sale. The only winners are the ones with the fastest servers with the largest pipes.
The loads it puts on your leg muscles are significantly higher. The loads on your arms, your mid-section, your skeletal structure, muscle stabilizers, etc., are next-to-none.
I've seen plenty of fat bicyclists in my time. You don't see nearly as many fat runners.
It's better exercise, uses at least as many calories (as long as you don't ride lazily), and doesn't cause joint injuries.
It's an easier exercise because you're not subjecting your body to nearly as much stress. If I wanted my exercise to be easy, I'd drive a car everywhere.
What's that supposed to mean? That I must be offended?
No, that's logically incorrect. Given any statement of fact "if A, then B" the only logically correct inference you can make is what's known as the contrapositive.
Original statement: If A, then B. Contrapositive: If NOT B, then NOT A.
To go back to the original statement: "One right you do NOT have is to not be offended."
The contrapositive would be: "The right to be offended is one right you DO have."
Disclaimer: I am also a software developer for a medium-sized financial services company (we have our own in-house transaction processing system, and interface directly with a crap-ton of ERP systems, each of which we had to code interfaces to ourselves).
That's about the only move Adobe has left. If they open-source the Flash client, Apple effectively has no argument. They should do it anyway... it's not like they're making shit-tons of money on the (completely free) Flash Player.
Apple usually comes out on top because at least its horrible, draconian software is stable and usable
LIES.
Photoshop vs. iTunes* on a Windows box.
I rest my case.
--- * All-the-more remarkable since iTunes is nothing but a glorified database frontend, yet still (easily) maintains its hold to the title of the most sucktacular piece of shit software ever devised.
There's a line between cost effective and fucking obsolete crap.
Please define "obsolete." Because I always thought something was obsolete when you couldn't use it any more because current conditions are too different from when it came out. In this case, how is XP obsolete? Everything that runs on Vista and Windows 7 runs on XP.
That's how JavaScript library developers get away with describing something as "ONLY 75K TO DOWNLOAD!" They strip out the whitespace (and occasionally use gzip). Makes debugging a royal PITA, to say nothing of the disingenuousness of the claim.
While I'm glad to see Lenovo get honors for their (IMHO, awesome) keyboard design, I don't understand why the nub/clit/eraser/whatever is ubiquitous among laptop manufacturers. I find trackballs so much easier to use on laptops--particularly since there's no fuzzy-logic-acceleration involved.
Have an opinion and keep it to yourself. Always be ready to defend your opinion if contested. But always be open to the chance that you're wrong. Have a backbone, but don't go looking for a fight. When right, handle yourself with grace. When wrong, own up immediately. Don't gossip, but offer an ear to a co-worker if they open up to you. Do good work (that should be obvious). Don't stop playing, otherwise the job part will dominate and you'll burn out in ten years.
Some of these people could become good friends. Some of these people you'll barely learn their names. Just like the rest of life.
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The guy in the shop said "There's no way of replacing the battery - when the battery dies you just throw the old player away and buy a new one", and looked mystified when I complained on environmental grounds. I'm not impressed by this - I do not consider such an approach as representing good technology
This is pretty off-topic at this point, but just a head's up that you might want to talk to the "kind gentleman" that sold it to you because you should be getting ~18 hours with the Clip. I've also got the black 8GB (shameless NewEgg plug: go NewEgg!) and it still stays charged for days of my use (which probably amounts to about ~12 hours a day, but it's also pretty old).
Also, if you have a car receiver with a USB input (you can get them at Wal-Mart for $75) then it's charging while plugged in, so you can play it indefinitely (also helpful that it stores files in a simple directory structure--this would never work with an iPod).
Remembering to put the MP3 player in my pocket every time I get out the car just makes me a mugging target. Perhaps you live in a lovely safe country area with no scumbag population ?
No, we get our share of scumbags as well, but the Clip is honestly just not terribly desirable to a mugger. I mean, it's not an iPod (no white ear buds to make you stand out), no video support, it's tiny and feels like a cheap piece of plastic. I'd be more worried about someone mugging me for my bus pass.
I'm deluding myself because I'm pointing out that they're not so different? Interesting.
No, you're deluding yourself because you think it's somehow "amusing" as if it was unexpected. To wit:
Not funny. Also, not interesting, amusing, surprising or in any way, shape or form different from the perfectly standard and normal.
Must be nice to have the money and time and modern hardware to get rid of optical media!
Unless you're living under a bridge (yes, pun intended) you should have no problem embracing the future, either.
Why buy a BD-R or flash drive when you only have 1 GB of photos to give to Aunt Mabel, anyway? A blank DVD only costs a few cents.
Yeah? And a 1 gig flash drive is often bundled free these days with purchases because they're so cheap. I mean, really, come on. Ninety-nine cents new on eBay. That's, like, two postage stamps.
Burning CDs to listen in your car is cheaper than buying an mp3 player.
You can get a Sansa Clip for $30.00. That also plays FLAC, OGG, MP3, WAV, has a built-in radio and can record from the radio. Combine that with any run-of-the-mill car stereos that support USB, or just go old-school and use a tape-adapter.
CD/DVD-ROM discs will outlast a frequently-used USB drive.
But you're not using it for archival storage. You throw some files on to copy for a friend. Or listen to some music. Short durations. The longevity of the medium is basically irrelevant since you won't be needing it to store things for longer than a couple of months, max, anyway.
In the business world, $100,000+ software is still distributed on CD and DVD, or an image thereof.
Sure, DVDs are still cheaper to produce when you're a business making a few thousand copies. When you're Joe Consumer, you usually only need one.
So, just because something's obsolete on the cutting edge, doesn't mean hordes of people aren't still using it.
Of course, but there's no reason they couldn't be using something better. Certainly not price.
This fad with inkjet is amazingly short-sided by people who would buy this junk and just print off their digital photos
Well, the truly stupid thing about this is that they can go down to any Sam's Club or CVS Pharmacy or other place that does "instant prints" and hand them a CDR or a USB stick with their high-resolution images on it and get prints from a Fuji Frontier that will simply blow any inkjet or laser out of the water. These are $10,000 printers. No way you and your $389.99 NewEgg special are going to compete with that.
Total price? Twenty cents.
No way you and your $389.99 NewEgg special are going to compete with that, either. Just in consumables you'll pay three times the cost, for an inferior product.
instead of buying digital picture frames to load up their images to have around the house.
Well, that's not entirely fair. If the fuckers made large enough panels that were high-enough resolution I would agree with you. But most of the consumer digital picture frames are complete shit.
The GP isn't describing the perfect situation. The GP is describing the current situation. And that is, anything and everything you put on the internet becomes instantly indexable, instantly accessible knowledge for everyone--friend, foe, employer, future husband/wife, children, etc.
To deny that this is the case is to deny reality.
Funny, you just reminded of the Soviet Union, Cuba, and a few other places
Well, gee, maybe that's because those places aren't nearly so different from us as we'd like to pretend on television. Quit deluding yourself.
Jacob's Ladder did it much better.
I remember sitting by a lake in New Orleans, and having these big, beautiful fucking birds fly down right next to me. You can't clean up those birds when they're covered with oil. Expert Recommends Killing Oil-Soaked Birds.
You think it's bad now, just wait until this hits Florida & the Keys. Which it will undoubtedly do.
The Air Force describes the X-51 as virtually wingless, designed to ride its own shockwave.
Fucking righteous!
A second? How about once a day!
Nice theory until you start to think about the practical aspects. All this would accomplish is that there would be a huge run at the beginning of each trading day as one trader tries to get their orders in faster than the other to try and take advantage of the previous day's events.
Kind of like trying to order tickets to a popular concert through TicketMaster. Everyone slams the servers the second the tickets go on sale. The only winners are the ones with the fastest servers with the largest pipes.
The loads it puts on your leg muscles are significantly higher. The loads on your arms, your mid-section, your skeletal structure, muscle stabilizers, etc., are next-to-none.
I recommend cycling instead.
I've seen plenty of fat bicyclists in my time. You don't see nearly as many fat runners.
It's better exercise, uses at least as many calories (as long as you don't ride lazily), and doesn't cause joint injuries.
It's an easier exercise because you're not subjecting your body to nearly as much stress. If I wanted my exercise to be easy, I'd drive a car everywhere.
What's that supposed to mean? That I must be offended?
No, that's logically incorrect. Given any statement of fact "if A, then B" the only logically correct inference you can make is what's known as the contrapositive.
Original statement: If A, then B.
Contrapositive: If NOT B, then NOT A.
To go back to the original statement:
"One right you do NOT have is to not be offended."
The contrapositive would be:
"The right to be offended is one right you DO have."
that capability, much like RAM greater than 4GB, is arbitrarily restricted by license to XP 64-bit...
Whew!
Disclaimer: I am also a software developer for a medium-sized financial services company (we have our own in-house transaction processing system, and interface directly with a crap-ton of ERP systems, each of which we had to code interfaces to ourselves).
You want it for free? You're fucking clueless.
I completely agree with this statement.
That's about the only move Adobe has left. If they open-source the Flash client, Apple effectively has no argument. They should do it anyway... it's not like they're making shit-tons of money on the (completely free) Flash Player.
Apple usually comes out on top because at least its horrible, draconian software is stable and usable
LIES.
Photoshop vs. iTunes* on a Windows box.
I rest my case.
---
* All-the-more remarkable since iTunes is nothing but a glorified database frontend, yet still (easily) maintains its hold to the title of the most sucktacular piece of shit software ever devised.
There's a line between cost effective and fucking obsolete crap.
Please define "obsolete." Because I always thought something was obsolete when you couldn't use it any more because current conditions are too different from when it came out. In this case, how is XP obsolete? Everything that runs on Vista and Windows 7 runs on XP.
I personally gave up on XP x64 on my home computer when I had trouble finding working video drivers.
What's the video card? I'm honestly curious. As a XP64 user myself, I see this canard repeated all the time but never any real evidence to support it.
That's how JavaScript library developers get away with describing something as "ONLY 75K TO DOWNLOAD!" They strip out the whitespace (and occasionally use gzip). Makes debugging a royal PITA, to say nothing of the disingenuousness of the claim.
Aaah, door games. The MafiaWars/Farmville of the early 90s.
And like black magic, the propensity for having your spell blow up in your face is usually too great to trouble yourself with it in the first place.
I thought everyone had moved to those awful track pads.
Sorry, I apparently had blocked them from my mind, though the point still stands (the dearth trackballs).
Trackballs take more space.
More than a trackpad?
While I'm glad to see Lenovo get honors for their (IMHO, awesome) keyboard design, I don't understand why the nub/clit/eraser/whatever is ubiquitous among laptop manufacturers. I find trackballs so much easier to use on laptops--particularly since there's no fuzzy-logic-acceleration involved.
Have an opinion and keep it to yourself. Always be ready to defend your opinion if contested. But always be open to the chance that you're wrong. Have a backbone, but don't go looking for a fight. When right, handle yourself with grace. When wrong, own up immediately. Don't gossip, but offer an ear to a co-worker if they open up to you. Do good work (that should be obvious). Don't stop playing, otherwise the job part will dominate and you'll burn out in ten years.
Some of these people could become good friends. Some of these people you'll barely learn their names. Just like the rest of life.
Maybe if you'd bought an e-book reader that supported PDF or ODT you wouldn't have had this problem in the first place.