...you should see what miracles occur when you're not oppressed by an onerous "single-payer" socialist-welfare-state "health" care system like the NHS.
Yeah, like enormous savings on overall national spending on healthcare, and protection of our strategic interests in healthy individuals who can keep our economy sustainable and reliable,
I'm not ready to say that the NHS model would cure all of our ills, but a desire to revamp and improve our healthcare system is hardly socialist (unless one calls Warren Buffett a socialist).
So let me get this straight: Individual citizens armed with handguns and rifles and shotguns are going to go up against government forces, who have artillery, cruise missiles, and attack helicopters?
Well, interestingly enough, this is what insurgents in Iraq employ, along with munitions made from household goods (and some fancier stuff, I admit).
I am a pacifist, but also a student of history. If we want to blame the need for a counterbalance such as the Second Amendment on something, we need not look much further than human nature.
This is far from the first time I've had an ignorant American attempt to "correct" my proper English into your regional dialect. It's pretty annoying and reinforces negative aspects of your national stereotype.
I found great amusement in your haughty, pedantic response: I posit that it's impossible to maintain "ownership" over a language when it's spoken by over 285 million people in a little country called the US.
In the grand scheme of things, what makes you think that "misspelt" won't be a colloquialism relatively soon?
To call your English more "proper" is a shallow-minded view of the world. Language changes over time: it is this reality that drove the development of the OED in the first place. American English, with both literary successes and embarrassing travails, is just as authoritative as your "dialect" is.
The US hasn't been a British colony for well over 200 years. Your imperialistic attitude about language has apparently not had enough time to catch up.
Losing bluetooth is OK perhaps, but losing Wireless is far too big of a price to pay. Even the best connection via Verizon is slow, relative to wireless. Too bad
As someone who owns a EVDO Sprint card, I could see why someone would want to use this: 1) The nature of my work and hobbies requires frequent, flexible access to reliable network connectivity. The whole reason why I pay a premium for Sprint EVDO service (and the hardware) is to virtually guarantee that I can be anywhere in my city and have access. There are times when slow(er) and reliable are preferable to
2) Anything that sticks out of a laptop is a liability: I have almost snapped the antenna portion of my EVDO PCMCIA card off, and it's something that can snag on things (possibly knocking the laptop off). The USB version of this card is nearly worse: it sticks out several inches. Add to that the fact that either solution can act as a lever to put strain on the PC slot, USB port, etc., and now you've got something that increases potential for breakage of some sort.
One aside: the one thing that sometimes irritates me about Slashdot comments is "tunnel vision," e.g., "wow, XYZ sucks for my purposes, THEREFORE it's totally sh-t." Most things are just tools: good for some things, bad for others.
If you removed control gun laws (and did provide gun education) would crime go up or down?
Well, that's the million dollar question. Interestingly enough, Michael Moore (in "Bowling for Columbine") actually questioned the correlation between restrictions on gun ownership rates and decreased violent crime. He compared rates of crime between the US and Canada and noted that the latter had a far lower crime rate (and a substantial gun ownership rate).
I think Michael Moore actually did a superb job illustrating a notion that crime may be more of a function of culture (and, if I recall right, socioeconomic status) than just plain old gun ownership.
Also, in regards to gun access and violent crime: Switzerland for many years had (compulsory?) requirements for soldiers to keep their personal weapon at their residence, albeit with a sealed can of ammo. (If the Wikipedia link below is accurate, the latter item is no longer doled out.) AFAIK, Switzerland has an extremely low crime rate (and, overall, is an affluent country).
The assumption that "gun control = lower crime" is a climb up the ladder of inference for those that fail to see that socioeconomic status (SES) is a greater predictor of crime than most anything else (e.g., race).
I, for one, strongly assert this: if you want to lower crime, focus on improving access to adequate healthcare, education, and nutrition for those of lower SES. I've got statistics, naturalistic research and a wealth of behavioral sciences on my side.
Get a dog. The TCO may be higher than the camera, but the deterrence factor is way higher (and it's better to not be broken into at all, than have footage of your breakins afterwards).
Well, I used to think that as well, but the folks on the Discovery Channel (?) show called "It Takes A Thief" have shown in numerous episodes that a dog can actually be a very weak deterrent. They frequently have a habit of including the dog in their loot.
Naturally, you could get a dog trained for security, but I doubt this is a good idea for many.
The only black mark on my recent review was that I am "telling them what to do"...which I understand causes friction and I am trying to learn the politics while still pushing the envelope.
Now, I don't know the circumstances at your organization, but I'll bite:
1) I'm Generation X now, but remember when I was a young Jedi, roughly the age of Gen Y'ers now. I had started my own small IT consulting practice at 19, and had the good fortune of great help from folks at SCORE/SBA, especially one (old) retired consultant (an ex-Intel marketing executive) who provided great advice to me. Much like Mark Twain's adage about youth, I thought I knew everything.
That died quickly: my mentors (all at least 20 years my senior) were a good patient bunch who laid down the law: either start being more open minded about what we have to say or you're outta here. I chose the latter, and they were quick to clarify that they felt I would be a great asset to the company--I just needed to learn some social polish and take advantage of the fact that they really didn't want to see me make avoidable mistakes.
Thanks to the wisdom of many great OLDER mentors, I've successfully lead sizeable groups of business systems analysts and QA engineers, and do senior-level BSA consulting work.
My point for #1: listen first, long and carefully to those who have been in the business for a while. I hate to say it, but even with all the innovation that technology has brought us, there are still some things that need to be done in tried-and-true ways (e.g., good documentation, quality implementation/deployment plans, etc.). At a certain level, there are many aspects of IT that can be best described as more "replacement of widgets"--and not revolutionary work.
2) Some companies simply suck, and have power-bases of individuals who really cannot stand being told they're wrong in any way, shape or form. These people are narcissistic sociopaths who either need to be dealt with successfully 1) by you or 2) be your cue to start shopping that resume around proactively. Perhaps all the haste that Gen Y folks have with wanting to change the world is justified, but this bit of wisdom always stands true: pick your battles carefully.
The summary misses the vastly more reasonable figure of 20 euros per month, already available and expected to come down.
I live in the US and pay Sprint about $60/month for unlimited, nationwide access to their EVDO network. I use a Novatel Wireless S720 PC Card (EVDO Rev. A) card and reliably get about 750-1250 kbit connections (sometimes, it's as good as 2-3 mbit/sec). Except for the monthly price, Sprint's abysmal customer service, and my questions about mechanical reliability of both the PC Card connector (lots of insertion/removal) and my specific card's design, I wouldn't want to give it up. Overall, the service is useful.
However, I still look for Wi-Fi spots for two main reasons: 1) If I don't have my power adapter with me, my laptop's runtime on batteries is shortened around 30-50% with the use of the EVDO card. If I suddenly get a ton of last minute work to do, I won't even bother firing up the Sprint card without the power adapter.
2) Sometimes, it's hard to beat a fast WiFi connection. I generally don't need more bandwidth than the Sprint card provides on average, but several hotspots I go to have ponied up the extra money to support a solid Internet connection (4-7 mbit down).
Until these are addressed, I think talk about WiFi's death is a bit premature...
What is an option for computers without the pcmcia slots as far as mobile broadband. I have an iBook....it has no slot.
I believe Sprint offers a Novatel Wireless U720 EVDO Rev. A modem which connects via USB. Visit the Sprint website for more details.
I use a Sprint S720 PCMCIA card in Portland, Oregon. In close-in NE Portland, my speeds whilst sitting in an apartment are around 800 kbit/sec down, 120 up. The best I've seen is 2 mbit/down while sitting in downtown.
Even though it's not as fast as Comcast, the price is roughly the same ($60), and allows me to be most anywhere. I love the flexibility of not having to worry about whether I'm able to find Wi-Fi. Also, I've traveled between Portland-Seattle on the Amtrak Cascades train, where 50% of the time, I had EVDO, and 1xRTT the remainder.
I have an HTC Mogul (I believe a 6800 model) through Sprint. In my experience, the hardware is OK, but WM6 is a piece of sh*t.
Even with a full-hardware-reset (restores factory ROM), over two weeks of average phone, data, and standard applications usage, it becomes slow and bloaty--the only fix for which is a full-reboot.
Add to this a completely uninspired interface (does EVERYTHING need to use a stylus?) and I'm hard pressed to say that this phone lacks the design innovation of something like the iPhone.
I won't even go into the nightmare of ActiveSync not working ("corrupted notes", reinstall ActiveSync, which contact has gone "bad", etc.) which took me, an experienced IT professional of 13 years, a week to resolve.
Personally, I believe the whole warming thing is a bunch of total bullshit based on an incomplete and possibly inaccurate data set, since temps haven't risen in over a decade.
Yes, I will believe you over the thousands of scientists who have stated that global warming is not total bullshit, including a few folks who work for Federal agencies under the Bush administration.
I look forward to driving my Hummer around full of idling two-cycle lawnmowers with impunity. Thank you come again.
Uh, it's been a few years since I took Human A&P, but last time I checked, if you were injecting something into the spine (i.e., in a manner similar to doing an lumbar puncture), you WERE crossing the blood-brain barrier.
The article does not say what emissions control systems, if any, are present. Catalytic converter? Crankcase ventilation? Fuel vapor recycling?
This was my question exactly. Just because it gets great gas mileage doesn't mean it isn't an environmental pox. I have a feeling that this thing puts out a TON of particulate and NOx.
Nope, just right: it let us know that you're a raving, foaming-at-the-mouth troll. You may have some basis for what you're saying, but have decided not to explain it further.
From the article: Some carriers have privately expressed skepticism about Google's ambitions, saying it is vastly underestimating the challenges of operating a network, providing customer service and gaining traction as a new entrant in a crowded wireless market.
Forget Google! The existing carriers continue to underestimate the challenges of operating a network. I have friends spread out across many carriers where I live (Sprint, Verizon, Deathstar), and I've gotta say, the customer service still sucks mightily.
The way text messaging is priced is nearly tantamount to highway robbery: it requires very little bandwidth, and I suspect that most people purchase plans with more than enough minutes to avoid overages. One would think that text messaging would be cheaper (easier on bandwidth), but the way "unlimited" messages are priced, along with outrageous charges for overseas texting, is ludicrous.
Data plans are only now approaching levels of pricing sanity--and I'm grateful for that.
The position this article takes is akin to "well jet flight is nice and all because of the speed, but all these little constraints and extra controls make it complicated and hard, waahhh!"
I agree there is some level of whining going on here: for my work as a Business Systems Analyst, a laptop is MANDATORY. It's impossible to keep up with meeting notes, on-the-fly changes to app requirements, and quickly implement complex documentation changes without one. At one contract, I was initially given a very speedy and powerful workstation (great if I was a developer), but turned it down and took a slow, two year old laptop instead.
Anyone who is trying to rush changes to documentation out can attest to the heinous pain of having to print many copies of the same document multiple times a week in organizations where laptops aren't widely deployed to those who need them.
Yes, laptops _are_ harder to support--and some of the stories in the article are just appalling (e.g., leaving their laptop in checked luggage). I'm a very strong proponent of usability and customer-centric technology design, but for the love of FSM, there are times when I really do believe the users feel they're free of all accountability, such as when they install any old app (read: spyware) off the Internet, or don't exercise reasonable caution with their equipment.
WM6 has this feature, too? Geez. I thought it was just SonyEricsson/Symbian that had the craptastic feature of dropping incoming phone calls if you have too many programs open.
Glad to hear that we all get the share in the pain! I only wish that certain critical features (e.g., Phone app, task manager, etc.) would have much higher "kernel priority".
why are mobile operating systems still being developed that treat their flash devices as if they were just a disk...?
In fairness, it may be because Flash memory has a (relatively) finite number of write cycles. Of course, I might be willing to compromise on this since there have been days I had to reboot my phone 2-3 times.
While the Palm OS certainly had some shortcomings, at least the Treo hw/sw worked pretty well as a phone:-)
Frankly, Windows Mobile 6 is a mess. Common features require an infinitude of taps and clicks, and the ones you need most are buried in menus. Apparently the Windows Mobile 6 team learned absolutely nothing from Windows Mobile 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
I wholeheartedly agree: I received a low-end HP PDA years ago for Christmas. Windows Mobile worked so poorly that I didn't even bother to get the thing replaced on warranty when it broke within two months (battery couldn't hold a charge to save its life).
I already miss the 'antiquated' Palm OS that ran on my Treo. The article was nice enough to bring up a couple of my favorite reasons as to why...
First of all, a cellphone should not display a "wait" cursor. Ever. And definitely not almost every time you change screens, as on the Shadow.
One of my favorites: I run a nearly stock version of WM6 on my HTC Mogul phone, with the only additions being the free version of Epocrates and an SPB Diary application. My phone has a more-than-adequate CPU, yet still lags while switching screens.
Do I need to "wipe and load" my phone to make it run faster? Sheesh.
A cellphone should not have a Task Manager. You should never have to worry about quitting programs because you've used up too much memory.
Amen! I also love how the phone has a knack for running out of memory right when an important call comes in. There's nothing more frustrating than a ringing phone that won't show me the phone screen and where the buttons suddenly don't work.
At some of my consulting client sites, I've been underwhelmed by the quality of their "security analyst" staff. I've found that staff seemed to be more interested in putting their name on boilerplate "best practices" to pass off to others, rather than taking a hands-on, collaborative approach in working with sysadmins to really verify that their systems are secure.
Don't even get me started on social engineering and how circumventable many secured entry systems are. It's a sad thought that someone posing as a lowly janitor could have free rein in most data centers.
P.S. Security policy writers: why not start by giving your employees with access to high-security areas a way to disable their keycards 24 hours a day by phone (including some sort of challenge/response question for them to answer)? Simple, inexpensive and effective compared to a lost or stolen keycard falling into the wrong hands.
Ah... sounds like there might be some PR hype lurking in here somewhere...
Well, I think it's safe to assume there's PR hype because this is a press release. The little blurb at the end is nothing terribly shameful or surprising.
I refused to make the change in protocol, and started looking for anotehr job that day. The boss and I didn't speak after that. People's lives are at stake with medical devices and I couldn't be a party to fraud. This was a big deal.
Good for you! I'm gratified to hear an example of someone stepping up to the ethics plate, even if it means financial inconvenience or harm. If only more would do the same...
Slashdot Mirror
Correction: I meant to say that costs of "socialized healthcare" are, on a national basis, dramatically lower than what they are in the US.
Despite the fear-mongering, the public health outcomes are also quite positive.
...you should see what miracles occur when you're not oppressed by an onerous "single-payer" socialist-welfare-state "health" care system like the NHS.
Yeah, like enormous savings on overall national spending on healthcare, and protection of our strategic interests in healthy individuals who can keep our economy sustainable and reliable,
I'm not ready to say that the NHS model would cure all of our ills, but a desire to revamp and improve our healthcare system is hardly socialist (unless one calls Warren Buffett a socialist).
So let me get this straight: Individual citizens armed with handguns and rifles and shotguns are going to go up against government forces, who have artillery, cruise missiles, and attack helicopters?
Well, interestingly enough, this is what insurgents in Iraq employ, along with munitions made from household goods (and some fancier stuff, I admit).
I am a pacifist, but also a student of history. If we want to blame the need for a counterbalance such as the Second Amendment on something, we need not look much further than human nature.
This is far from the first time I've had an ignorant American attempt to "correct" my proper English into your regional dialect. It's pretty annoying and reinforces negative aspects of your national stereotype.
I found great amusement in your haughty, pedantic response: I posit that it's impossible to maintain "ownership" over a language when it's spoken by over 285 million people in a little country called the US.
In the grand scheme of things, what makes you think that "misspelt" won't be a colloquialism relatively soon?
To call your English more "proper" is a shallow-minded view of the world. Language changes over time: it is this reality that drove the development of the OED in the first place. American English, with both literary successes and embarrassing travails, is just as authoritative as your "dialect" is.
The US hasn't been a British colony for well over 200 years. Your imperialistic attitude about language has apparently not had enough time to catch up.
P.S. How's your Received Pronunciation doing these days?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation
Losing bluetooth is OK perhaps, but losing Wireless is far too big of a price to pay. Even the best connection via Verizon is slow, relative to wireless. Too bad
As someone who owns a EVDO Sprint card, I could see why someone would want to use this:
1) The nature of my work and hobbies requires frequent, flexible access to reliable network connectivity. The whole reason why I pay a premium for Sprint EVDO service (and the hardware) is to virtually guarantee that I can be anywhere in my city and have access. There are times when slow(er) and reliable are preferable to
2) Anything that sticks out of a laptop is a liability: I have almost snapped the antenna portion of my EVDO PCMCIA card off, and it's something that can snag on things (possibly knocking the laptop off). The USB version of this card is nearly worse: it sticks out several inches. Add to that the fact that either solution can act as a lever to put strain on the PC slot, USB port, etc., and now you've got something that increases potential for breakage of some sort.
One aside: the one thing that sometimes irritates me about Slashdot comments is "tunnel vision," e.g., "wow, XYZ sucks for my purposes, THEREFORE it's totally sh-t." Most things are just tools: good for some things, bad for others.
If you removed control gun laws (and did provide gun education) would crime go up or down?
Well, that's the million dollar question. Interestingly enough, Michael Moore (in "Bowling for Columbine") actually questioned the correlation between restrictions on gun ownership rates and decreased violent crime. He compared rates of crime between the US and Canada and noted that the latter had a far lower crime rate (and a substantial gun ownership rate).
I think Michael Moore actually did a superb job illustrating a notion that crime may be more of a function of culture (and, if I recall right, socioeconomic status) than just plain old gun ownership.
Also, in regards to gun access and violent crime: Switzerland for many years had (compulsory?) requirements for soldiers to keep their personal weapon at their residence, albeit with a sealed can of ammo. (If the Wikipedia link below is accurate, the latter item is no longer doled out.) AFAIK, Switzerland has an extremely low crime rate (and, overall, is an affluent country).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_Switzerland#Army_service
The assumption that "gun control = lower crime" is a climb up the ladder of inference for those that fail to see that socioeconomic status (SES) is a greater predictor of crime than most anything else (e.g., race).
I, for one, strongly assert this: if you want to lower crime, focus on improving access to adequate healthcare, education, and nutrition for those of lower SES. I've got statistics, naturalistic research and a wealth of behavioral sciences on my side.
Get a dog. The TCO may be higher than the camera, but the deterrence factor is way higher (and it's better to not be broken into at all, than have footage of your breakins afterwards).
Well, I used to think that as well, but the folks on the Discovery Channel (?) show called "It Takes A Thief" have shown in numerous episodes that a dog can actually be a very weak deterrent. They frequently have a habit of including the dog in their loot.
Naturally, you could get a dog trained for security, but I doubt this is a good idea for many.
The only black mark on my recent review was that I am "telling them what to do"...which I understand causes friction and I am trying to learn the politics while still pushing the envelope.
Now, I don't know the circumstances at your organization, but I'll bite:
1) I'm Generation X now, but remember when I was a young Jedi, roughly the age of Gen Y'ers now. I had started my own small IT consulting practice at 19, and had the good fortune of great help from folks at SCORE/SBA, especially one (old) retired consultant (an ex-Intel marketing executive) who provided great advice to me. Much like Mark Twain's adage about youth, I thought I knew everything.
That died quickly: my mentors (all at least 20 years my senior) were a good patient bunch who laid down the law: either start being more open minded about what we have to say or you're outta here. I chose the latter, and they were quick to clarify that they felt I would be a great asset to the company--I just needed to learn some social polish and take advantage of the fact that they really didn't want to see me make avoidable mistakes.
Thanks to the wisdom of many great OLDER mentors, I've successfully lead sizeable groups of business systems analysts and QA engineers, and do senior-level BSA consulting work.
My point for #1: listen first, long and carefully to those who have been in the business for a while. I hate to say it, but even with all the innovation that technology has brought us, there are still some things that need to be done in tried-and-true ways (e.g., good documentation, quality implementation/deployment plans, etc.). At a certain level, there are many aspects of IT that can be best described as more "replacement of widgets"--and not revolutionary work.
2) Some companies simply suck, and have power-bases of individuals who really cannot stand being told they're wrong in any way, shape or form. These people are narcissistic sociopaths who either need to be dealt with successfully 1) by you or 2) be your cue to start shopping that resume around proactively. Perhaps all the haste that Gen Y folks have with wanting to change the world is justified, but this bit of wisdom always stands true: pick your battles carefully.
The summary misses the vastly more reasonable figure of 20 euros per month, already available and expected to come down.
I live in the US and pay Sprint about $60/month for unlimited, nationwide access to their EVDO network. I use a Novatel Wireless S720 PC Card (EVDO Rev. A) card and reliably get about 750-1250 kbit connections (sometimes, it's as good as 2-3 mbit/sec). Except for the monthly price, Sprint's abysmal customer service, and my questions about mechanical reliability of both the PC Card connector (lots of insertion/removal) and my specific card's design, I wouldn't want to give it up. Overall, the service is useful.
However, I still look for Wi-Fi spots for two main reasons:
1) If I don't have my power adapter with me, my laptop's runtime on batteries is shortened around 30-50% with the use of the EVDO card. If I suddenly get a ton of last minute work to do, I won't even bother firing up the Sprint card without the power adapter.
2) Sometimes, it's hard to beat a fast WiFi connection. I generally don't need more bandwidth than the Sprint card provides on average, but several hotspots I go to have ponied up the extra money to support a solid Internet connection (4-7 mbit down).
Until these are addressed, I think talk about WiFi's death is a bit premature...
What is an option for computers without the pcmcia slots as far as mobile broadband. I have an iBook....it has no slot.
I believe Sprint offers a Novatel Wireless U720 EVDO Rev. A modem which connects via USB. Visit the Sprint website for more details.
I use a Sprint S720 PCMCIA card in Portland, Oregon. In close-in NE Portland, my speeds whilst sitting in an apartment are around 800 kbit/sec down, 120 up. The best I've seen is 2 mbit/down while sitting in downtown.
Even though it's not as fast as Comcast, the price is roughly the same ($60), and allows me to be most anywhere. I love the flexibility of not having to worry about whether I'm able to find Wi-Fi. Also, I've traveled between Portland-Seattle on the Amtrak Cascades train, where 50% of the time, I had EVDO, and 1xRTT the remainder.
I have an HTC Mogul (I believe a 6800 model) through Sprint. In my experience, the hardware is OK, but WM6 is a piece of sh*t.
Even with a full-hardware-reset (restores factory ROM), over two weeks of average phone, data, and standard applications usage, it becomes slow and bloaty--the only fix for which is a full-reboot.
Add to this a completely uninspired interface (does EVERYTHING need to use a stylus?) and I'm hard pressed to say that this phone lacks the design innovation of something like the iPhone.
I won't even go into the nightmare of ActiveSync not working ("corrupted notes", reinstall ActiveSync, which contact has gone "bad", etc.) which took me, an experienced IT professional of 13 years, a week to resolve.
We most certainly need competition in this space.
Personally, I believe the whole warming thing is a bunch of total bullshit based on an incomplete and possibly inaccurate data set, since temps haven't risen in over a decade.
Yes, I will believe you over the thousands of scientists who have stated that global warming is not total bullshit, including a few folks who work for Federal agencies under the Bush administration.
I look forward to driving my Hummer around full of idling two-cycle lawnmowers with impunity. Thank you come again.
Uh, it's been a few years since I took Human A&P, but last time I checked, if you were injecting something into the spine (i.e., in a manner similar to doing an lumbar puncture), you WERE crossing the blood-brain barrier.
As for this drug, hell, who knows.
The article does not say what emissions control systems, if any, are present. Catalytic converter? Crankcase ventilation? Fuel vapor recycling?
This was my question exactly. Just because it gets great gas mileage doesn't mean it isn't an environmental pox. I have a feeling that this thing puts out a TON of particulate and NOx.
Too subtle?
Nope, just right: it let us know that you're a raving, foaming-at-the-mouth troll. You may have some basis for what you're saying, but have decided not to explain it further.
Thank you come again.
The fingerprint stamps used at major banks when you cash a check (but are not a customer of that bank) should also be a good concern.
From the article:
Some carriers have privately expressed skepticism about Google's ambitions, saying it is vastly underestimating the challenges of operating a network, providing customer service and gaining traction as a new entrant in a crowded wireless market.
Forget Google! The existing carriers continue to underestimate the challenges of operating a network. I have friends spread out across many carriers where I live (Sprint, Verizon, Deathstar), and I've gotta say, the customer service still sucks mightily.
The way text messaging is priced is nearly tantamount to highway robbery: it requires very little bandwidth, and I suspect that most people purchase plans with more than enough minutes to avoid overages. One would think that text messaging would be cheaper (easier on bandwidth), but the way "unlimited" messages are priced, along with outrageous charges for overseas texting, is ludicrous.
Data plans are only now approaching levels of pricing sanity--and I'm grateful for that.
The position this article takes is akin to "well jet flight is nice and all because of the speed, but all these little constraints and extra controls make it complicated and hard, waahhh!"
I agree there is some level of whining going on here: for my work as a Business Systems Analyst, a laptop is MANDATORY. It's impossible to keep up with meeting notes, on-the-fly changes to app requirements, and quickly implement complex documentation changes without one. At one contract, I was initially given a very speedy and powerful workstation (great if I was a developer), but turned it down and took a slow, two year old laptop instead.
Anyone who is trying to rush changes to documentation out can attest to the heinous pain of having to print many copies of the same document multiple times a week in organizations where laptops aren't widely deployed to those who need them.
Yes, laptops _are_ harder to support--and some of the stories in the article are just appalling (e.g., leaving their laptop in checked luggage). I'm a very strong proponent of usability and customer-centric technology design, but for the love of FSM, there are times when I really do believe the users feel they're free of all accountability, such as when they install any old app (read: spyware) off the Internet, or don't exercise reasonable caution with their equipment.
There has to be a balance here.
I'm very intrigued by the idea of running that cooked ROM you referred to--is there a link on the xda-dev site to it?
Thanks for the thoughtful advice! I'm using this phone with Sprint, but I think it's a case of same monkeys, different trees.
WM6 has this feature, too? Geez. I thought it was just SonyEricsson/Symbian that had the craptastic feature of dropping incoming phone calls if you have too many programs open.
Glad to hear that we all get the share in the pain! I only wish that certain critical features (e.g., Phone app, task manager, etc.) would have much higher "kernel priority".
why are mobile operating systems still being developed that treat their flash devices as if they were just a disk...?
:-)
In fairness, it may be because Flash memory has a (relatively) finite number of write cycles. Of course, I might be willing to compromise on this since there have been days I had to reboot my phone 2-3 times.
While the Palm OS certainly had some shortcomings, at least the Treo hw/sw worked pretty well as a phone
Frankly, Windows Mobile 6 is a mess. Common features require an infinitude of taps and clicks, and the ones you need most are buried in menus. Apparently the Windows Mobile 6 team learned absolutely nothing from Windows Mobile 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
I wholeheartedly agree: I received a low-end HP PDA years ago for Christmas. Windows Mobile worked so poorly that I didn't even bother to get the thing replaced on warranty when it broke within two months (battery couldn't hold a charge to save its life).
I already miss the 'antiquated' Palm OS that ran on my Treo. The article was nice enough to bring up a couple of my favorite reasons as to why...
First of all, a cellphone should not display a "wait" cursor. Ever. And definitely not almost every time you change screens, as on the Shadow.
One of my favorites: I run a nearly stock version of WM6 on my HTC Mogul phone, with the only additions being the free version of Epocrates and an SPB Diary application. My phone has a more-than-adequate CPU, yet still lags while switching screens.
Do I need to "wipe and load" my phone to make it run faster? Sheesh.
A cellphone should not have a Task Manager. You should never have to worry about quitting programs because you've used up too much memory.
Amen! I also love how the phone has a knack for running out of memory right when an important call comes in. There's nothing more frustrating than a ringing phone that won't show me the phone screen and where the buttons suddenly don't work.
At some of my consulting client sites, I've been underwhelmed by the quality of their "security analyst" staff. I've found that staff seemed to be more interested in putting their name on boilerplate "best practices" to pass off to others, rather than taking a hands-on, collaborative approach in working with sysadmins to really verify that their systems are secure.
Don't even get me started on social engineering and how circumventable many secured entry systems are. It's a sad thought that someone posing as a lowly janitor could have free rein in most data centers.
P.S. Security policy writers: why not start by giving your employees with access to high-security areas a way to disable their keycards 24 hours a day by phone (including some sort of challenge/response question for them to answer)? Simple, inexpensive and effective compared to a lost or stolen keycard falling into the wrong hands.
Ah... sounds like there might be some PR hype lurking in here somewhere...
Well, I think it's safe to assume there's PR hype because this is a press release. The little blurb at the end is nothing terribly shameful or surprising.
I refused to make the change in protocol, and started looking for anotehr job that day. The boss and I didn't speak after that. People's lives are at stake with medical devices and I couldn't be a party to fraud. This was a big deal.
Good for you! I'm gratified to hear an example of someone stepping up to the ethics plate, even if it means financial inconvenience or harm. If only more would do the same...