Re:Why some of us are excited about iPhone
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All Things iPhone
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I don't understand the iphone hype, other than the pretty screen and possibly sexy interface.
I have had my treo 650P for a while, and it does what I need. Phone, PDA, MP3, Internet, Word, Excel, PDF, Camera. And I just found a program that allows for stereo bluetooth. The rocker works for navigation and I can thumb type pretty darn well.
You are excited that phones can sync music? Dump MP3s on a SD card and you are ready to go on a Treo. No DRMd itunes requred, and you can pack a few different SD cards.
Want video? You can rip a DVD and play it too. Crappy resolution, but not much worse than the iphone.
They are touting a real browser on the iphone. Do you really want to surf on a 480x320 screen? I don't really like using a 1024x768 screen.
And my new 755p on Verizon is coming out next week. Better camera and mini SD card, no antenna.
I refused the data plan for my Treo with Verizon. It took a while to explain that I wanted the same plan I already had, no data, but eventually it took. I am not sure if they still have that option.
I live online at home and work, I don't need to be online everywhere else.
Class action for millions, I am in. We should make billions and billions.
Problem with me, I skim digg for stories, since they have tons of crap over there. I now can't tell a dupe from a story I saw on digg. I just assume I saw it over there, not over here. dejanews.
How difficult is it to get two editors to sign off on a story that is going on the front page?
Why don't the subscribers notify the poster so they can trash dupes before they go to the general public?
Why have we been asking the same questions for nearly a decade? Tards. (us or the editors?)
Our kitchen is right next to our master in a ranch layout, but we have basically a closet.
I agree, Ideally you have a "clothing room" with space for hanging clothes, two washers, two dryers, folding area, ironing board, and other stuff attached to your bedroom. Put a desk and shelves in it to catch bills, an a door you can close to the rest of the world...
Seriously, laundry is a pain. Next house, we are having a separate room with dual washer/dryer system to double the laundry rate, plus space for ironing board and a desk. Put it close to the kitchen, so you can throw crap in there (letters, bills, etc) and close the door to hide the fact that you live in your house. Why do they give you a 20 sq ft laundry room when so much needs to be done in there?
Backup HVAC is nice, our upstairs is on a totally separate system so we should usually have one working. Like a zoned system without the zone...
We have high ceilings, so we did not ceiling mount the speakers. The orb speakers sell a 45 degree down mount, works great on the walls. They really are nice, like 4 inch diameter spheres, two in parallel for front channel. We upgraded the sub, we probably should have just used the one they offer.
It is hard to know exactly where you want your stuff until you move in. We thought all our TV and equipment would fit in the hole over the fireplace and the construction ran all the speaker wires there. Later, we realized there was not enough room there and we were not going to use floor jacks for speakers.
And you are totally right about lighting. It is easy to do during construction but can be terrible later. Again, you never know where you need a little extra light. We have an alcove that needs an extra spot, but access is difficult.
We just put in a HDTV and stereo system. This was a real problem in our existing construction, since we had to run about 25 cables of various sorts.
Instead of putting components in a closet, we used a TV shelf in an unused corner. Helps keep kids out of it, uses the space, and swivels for access.
We wired for 7.1 sound, so that is 8 new wires. We used orb speakers, they are small and nice. We also ran wires to the kitchen and deck. I have heard some amps support dual subs, but we only ran one RCA.
I ran a 35 ft HDMI and component and some composite just to be sure, since the TV is difficult to mount / dismount. HDMI / HDCP stinks, we have to power cycle the amp/box occasionally when it gets screwed up. Grrr.
Order your cables online, there are many cheap places with nice cables. Maybe I should have run two HDMI, but I assumed I could always get a switching amp.
Having the wires hidden is really nice and clean, not a jumble of HT mess. The Wiimotes hang around and a couple of DVD cases usually, but that is not too much clutter.
Cable, new power, Ethernet. Nice wall outlets where needed.
And we left pull ropes in case we need to run more cable in the future.
Whatever they pay guys to run cable in existing construction, it is not enough.
And we used a shelf in an existing closet to hide the cable modem, VOIP, and router. Just cut a hole for the wired ETH and run some power into the closet.
We put in "PowerRise" shades by Hunter Douglas. Motorized shades controlled by simple IR, about $200 for a normal window. Pretty slick when our four big den windows open or close. "Lower the blast shields..."
They run on a bunch of AAs, but last a good long time usually. To do over, I would have run some sort of electrical and control wire so that I could run them off a transformer and a wall switch, but it is ok like this.
Orb is awesome, but the quality is very low. It works great if you want to stream to your cell, but not to your HDTV. I think it compresses down to Q VGA or something.
Even with a "modern" 1080P HDMI amp (onkyo) I still have troubles. Thanks to DRM between my cable box, amp, and TV, I occasionally get a nice black screen during a show or while changing channels. The only fix is to turn everything off and on again.
Thanks HDCP! You would think by version 1.2, they would all work... POS.
Right, it depends on the team. But in my experience, it seems like the electronics side of things is MOSTLY done by adults and the kids are just there to build mechanical things and run the remote during competition. In regionals, a lot of robots don't attempt anything during the autonomous period (in my experience).
At the same time, HS kids should know something about mechanical things with some intuition as to how to put gears and levers together. They may not know a lot about programming and the probably know nothing about sensing and automation. So it makes sense that the mentors have to be a lot more involved in that side of things.
As a faculty member in engineering, I totally support FIRST robotics and FIRST lego league.
At the same time, it seems that the results skew toward pushing students into ME, not EE or CS (or my favorite, CHE).
Although the robotics could involve neat sensing and computing (EE) and algorithm development (CS) the students take home message is that all engineering is levers, gears, etc (ME). The high schoolers don't do much with the automation side of things (their adult mentors sort most of that out usually) and the middle school FIRST lego kids only do very simple programs (move forward 5 seconds, turn left, move forward again...).
At least it gives them some motivation to check out STEM careers.
Sharp has a new 120 Hz LCD that will handle 24 and 30 fps nicely since it won't need to do any pulldown. I could not justify the extra $2k, so I am stuck with some judder using pulldown on my new Sharp.
I have other issues to worry with, since I am still on an old-school DVD player, but it really looks great in most cases upconverted to 1080p.
I intend to eventually get a PC hooked in, and I want the best resolution possible for text applications, so 1080p is needed. Plus, I would rather upconvert than downconvert in general.
so they can play army in the woods with fake guns like we used to do... Run around in real reality and try to shoot each other. I personally can't wait for my son to be big enough to go play paintball with me in the woods.
True, we did not have blood or GTA hookers to kill in the woods when playing army, but the goal was the same, kill your enemy or take over their base.
But you never hear a serial killer say "Combat" on the atari 2600 "made me do it".
In SC, we have the highest percentage of electricity supplied from nuclear (nucular?) power, so I have heard.
This may help protect us from a rise in oil prices, I hope.
And we are building more reactors at existing sites. Not only are we a dumping ground for nuclear waste, we also have tons of power available, and our beaches are nice too...
I would much rather publish in online journals, but dead tree is better respected generally.
At the same time, students don't go get hard copies. If it isn't online it does not exist.
A buddy brought up the EMP problem: in WW III, a nuke over the US will break a lot of computers. Maybe the online journals go away, but maybe the dead tree survive the apocalypse. Think Planet of the Apes.
Yes it can be produced by electrolysis from wind or solar but it won't be. Right, this is a stupid way to go since electrolysis is very inefficient, on the order of 10-15%.
We can generate clean H2 using chemical high temp nuclear cycles (not electrolysis) and keep a high efficiency, but nuclear scares people.
Plus H2 storage densities are low and the infrastructure is not there.
Old-school electrochemical batteries are probably the best way IMHO. Plug-in hybrids and full electric with drag-along IC trailers for long distance.
Right about the people. I went to Europe in HS and took tons of photos. The only ones I care about now are the people.
For electronic tech, I suggest a palm treo with wifi sled, or similar. Lets you cover the basics of connectivity (email and phone) but also does mp3s, crappy photos, and text if you want to keep some journal. Small and good battery life.
For wilderness backpacking, I suggest very flexible clothes. REI makes some nice pants that convert to shorts, I suggest you find some that fully zip on the bottom part so you can convert them without taking off your boots. Low gaiters came in handy on the AT to keep low grass from dropping crap in your boots when wearing shorts. I made my own polar fleece sweats with a zipper along each leg so you can take them off without removing boots or sitting down. A rain suit, waterproof breathable and light if possible. And a bandanna or a hat to give you a clean look even though you have not showered in days.
I assume this is about putting back in the broadcast flag, right?
After all the equipment that has been sold without the broadcast flag, I assume they can't start encrypting broadcast signals, right?
This is just their attempt to have all hardware/software respect the broadcast flag.
I bought a HDTV compatible PC card (http://www.pchdtv.com/) years ago when the broadcast flag was supposed to hit. It got repealed and my wife yelled at me. Now, maybe I should get a spare?
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I don't understand the iphone hype, other than the pretty screen and possibly sexy interface.
I have had my treo 650P for a while, and it does what I need. Phone, PDA, MP3, Internet, Word, Excel, PDF, Camera. And I just found a program that allows for stereo bluetooth. The rocker works for navigation and I can thumb type pretty darn well.
You are excited that phones can sync music? Dump MP3s on a SD card and you are ready to go on a Treo. No DRMd itunes requred, and you can pack a few different SD cards.
Want video? You can rip a DVD and play it too. Crappy resolution, but not much worse than the iphone.
They are touting a real browser on the iphone. Do you really want to surf on a 480x320 screen? I don't really like using a 1024x768 screen.
And my new 755p on Verizon is coming out next week. Better camera and mini SD card, no antenna.
I refused the data plan for my Treo with Verizon. It took a while to explain that I wanted the same plan I already had, no data, but eventually it took. I am not sure if they still have that option.
I live online at home and work, I don't need to be online everywhere else.
Class action for millions, I am in. We should make billions and billions.
Problem with me, I skim digg for stories, since they have tons of crap over there. I now can't tell a dupe from a story I saw on digg. I just assume I saw it over there, not over here. dejanews.
How difficult is it to get two editors to sign off on a story that is going on the front page?
Why don't the subscribers notify the poster so they can trash dupes before they go to the general public?
Why have we been asking the same questions for nearly a decade? Tards. (us or the editors?)
Our kitchen is right next to our master in a ranch layout, but we have basically a closet.
I agree, Ideally you have a "clothing room" with space for hanging clothes, two washers, two dryers, folding area, ironing board, and other stuff attached to your bedroom. Put a desk and shelves in it to catch bills, an a door you can close to the rest of the world...
Seriously, laundry is a pain. Next house, we are having a separate room with dual washer/dryer system to double the laundry rate, plus space for ironing board and a desk. Put it close to the kitchen, so you can throw crap in there (letters, bills, etc) and close the door to hide the fact that you live in your house. Why do they give you a 20 sq ft laundry room when so much needs to be done in there?
Backup HVAC is nice, our upstairs is on a totally separate system so we should usually have one working. Like a zoned system without the zone...
We have high ceilings, so we did not ceiling mount the speakers. The orb speakers sell a 45 degree down mount, works great on the walls. They really are nice, like 4 inch diameter spheres, two in parallel for front channel. We upgraded the sub, we probably should have just used the one they offer.
It is hard to know exactly where you want your stuff until you move in. We thought all our TV and equipment would fit in the hole over the fireplace and the construction ran all the speaker wires there. Later, we realized there was not enough room there and we were not going to use floor jacks for speakers.
And you are totally right about lighting. It is easy to do during construction but can be terrible later. Again, you never know where you need a little extra light. We have an alcove that needs an extra spot, but access is difficult.
We just put in a HDTV and stereo system. This was a real problem in our existing construction, since we had to run about 25 cables of various sorts.
Instead of putting components in a closet, we used a TV shelf in an unused corner. Helps keep kids out of it, uses the space, and swivels for access.
We wired for 7.1 sound, so that is 8 new wires. We used orb speakers, they are small and nice. We also ran wires to the kitchen and deck. I have heard some amps support dual subs, but we only ran one RCA.
I ran a 35 ft HDMI and component and some composite just to be sure, since the TV is difficult to mount / dismount. HDMI / HDCP stinks, we have to power cycle the amp/box occasionally when it gets screwed up. Grrr.
Order your cables online, there are many cheap places with nice cables. Maybe I should have run two HDMI, but I assumed I could always get a switching amp.
Having the wires hidden is really nice and clean, not a jumble of HT mess. The Wiimotes hang around and a couple of DVD cases usually, but that is not too much clutter.
Cable, new power, Ethernet. Nice wall outlets where needed.
And we left pull ropes in case we need to run more cable in the future.
Whatever they pay guys to run cable in existing construction, it is not enough.
And we used a shelf in an existing closet to hide the cable modem, VOIP, and router. Just cut a hole for the wired ETH and run some power into the closet.
I think it is available, but expensive.
We put in "PowerRise" shades by Hunter Douglas. Motorized shades controlled by simple IR, about $200 for a normal window. Pretty slick when our four big den windows open or close. "Lower the blast shields..."
They run on a bunch of AAs, but last a good long time usually. To do over, I would have run some sort of electrical and control wire so that I could run them off a transformer and a wall switch, but it is ok like this.
Orb is awesome, but the quality is very low. It works great if you want to stream to your cell, but not to your HDTV. I think it compresses down to Q VGA or something.
Works ok on the Wii!!
What a slippery slope.
No prostitution, but what about "legit" escort services and massage parlors?
Maybe "singles only" or "informal hookup" sites?
No term papers, what about Cliff's notes? Homework help?
"Guns are bad" so no more ads or links to gun sites?
Smoking is bad for you and those around you, why not ban smoking sites and ads?
SUVs use gas, gas makes CO2, CO2 is killing us, so no more car ads.
Hamburgers come from cows, cow ranching causes deforestation, no more meat related anything in the search engine?
Walmart and Microsoft are "anti-competitive" or "too capitalistic" so they should be out.
Universities and colleges are elite since only the rich can easily attend, no more ads or links to them? Education is dangerous.
This is silly, I want my search engine to deliver everything (and advertise everything), including the bad stuff.
I have waited years for stereo Bluetooth. My Treo 650 does not have it, the 700p does not have it, and now the 755p does not have it...
The one thing I was looking for, and they fail to ship it after years!!
Even with a "modern" 1080P HDMI amp (onkyo) I still have troubles. Thanks to DRM between my cable box, amp, and TV, I occasionally get a nice black screen during a show or while changing channels. The only fix is to turn everything off and on again.
Thanks HDCP! You would think by version 1.2, they would all work... POS.
It is not open-source and the graphics look like they were done in MS Paint.
2D? Crazy retro idea. I pull out the Super Mario on the Wii occasionally, but for like five minutes at a time if that.
And they are not even considering linux or mac support (from the FAQ).
How did this make it on
Doesn't LaTeX do kerning? Couldn't it make big signs as well?
Right, it depends on the team. But in my experience, it seems like the electronics side of things is MOSTLY done by adults and the kids are just there to build mechanical things and run the remote during competition. In regionals, a lot of robots don't attempt anything during the autonomous period (in my experience).
At the same time, HS kids should know something about mechanical things with some intuition as to how to put gears and levers together. They may not know a lot about programming and the probably know nothing about sensing and automation. So it makes sense that the mentors have to be a lot more involved in that side of things.
As a faculty member in engineering, I totally support FIRST robotics and FIRST lego league.
At the same time, it seems that the results skew toward pushing students into ME, not EE or CS (or my favorite, CHE).
Although the robotics could involve neat sensing and computing (EE) and algorithm development (CS) the students take home message is that all engineering is levers, gears, etc (ME). The high schoolers don't do much with the automation side of things (their adult mentors sort most of that out usually) and the middle school FIRST lego kids only do very simple programs (move forward 5 seconds, turn left, move forward again...).
At least it gives them some motivation to check out STEM careers.
Sharp has a new 120 Hz LCD that will handle 24 and 30 fps nicely since it won't need to do any pulldown. I could not justify the extra $2k, so I am stuck with some judder using pulldown on my new Sharp.
I have other issues to worry with, since I am still on an old-school DVD player, but it really looks great in most cases upconverted to 1080p.
I intend to eventually get a PC hooked in, and I want the best resolution possible for text applications, so 1080p is needed. Plus, I would rather upconvert than downconvert in general.
so they can play army in the woods with fake guns like we used to do... Run around in real reality and try to shoot each other. I personally can't wait for my son to be big enough to go play paintball with me in the woods.
True, we did not have blood or GTA hookers to kill in the woods when playing army, but the goal was the same, kill your enemy or take over their base.
But you never hear a serial killer say "Combat" on the atari 2600 "made me do it".
In SC, we have the highest percentage of electricity supplied from nuclear (nucular?) power, so I have heard.
This may help protect us from a rise in oil prices, I hope.
And we are building more reactors at existing sites. Not only are we a dumping ground for nuclear waste, we also have tons of power available, and our beaches are nice too...
I would much rather publish in online journals, but dead tree is better respected generally.
At the same time, students don't go get hard copies. If it isn't online it does not exist.
A buddy brought up the EMP problem: in WW III, a nuke over the US will break a lot of computers. Maybe the online journals go away, but maybe the dead tree survive the apocalypse. Think Planet of the Apes.
Good thing we don't use petrol in the states, just plain old gas-
We can generate clean H2 using chemical high temp nuclear cycles (not electrolysis) and keep a high efficiency, but nuclear scares people.
Plus H2 storage densities are low and the infrastructure is not there.
Old-school electrochemical batteries are probably the best way IMHO. Plug-in hybrids and full electric with drag-along IC trailers for long distance.
Batteries, the technology of yesterday, today!
Right about the people. I went to Europe in HS and took tons of photos. The only ones I care about now are the people.
e chnology_iduo_ipod_dock_and_card_reader
For electronic tech, I suggest a palm treo with wifi sled, or similar. Lets you cover the basics of connectivity (email and phone) but also does mp3s, crappy photos, and text if you want to keep some journal. Small and good battery life.
SD cards are getting so cheap, maybe you just get a few of them? Maybe an iPod plus a SD card reader thing? http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/atech_flash_t
For wilderness backpacking, I suggest very flexible clothes. REI makes some nice pants that convert to shorts, I suggest you find some that fully zip on the bottom part so you can convert them without taking off your boots. Low gaiters came in handy on the AT to keep low grass from dropping crap in your boots when wearing shorts. I made my own polar fleece sweats with a zipper along each leg so you can take them off without removing boots or sitting down. A rain suit, waterproof breathable and light if possible. And a bandanna or a hat to give you a clean look even though you have not showered in days.
Weight % is the main focus in hydrogen storage. Most techs are 5 years and I would buy in.
I assume this is about putting back in the broadcast flag, right?
After all the equipment that has been sold without the broadcast flag, I assume they can't start encrypting broadcast signals, right?
This is just their attempt to have all hardware/software respect the broadcast flag.
I bought a HDTV compatible PC card (http://www.pchdtv.com/) years ago when the broadcast flag was supposed to hit. It got repealed and my wife yelled at me. Now, maybe I should get a spare?
What do we do? Write our congressman?