What if your phone falls off it's holder on the center console and on the floor, registering big G foroces while it's bouncing around in the car, but you aren't driving like a mad man...
Then you're still a dangerous driver because you didn't securely mount your phone. Because in an accident, loose items become projectiles and have the possibility to cause injury.
A phone that's fallen is also a danger like any object that can get wedged between the brake and the floor, and the driver is distracted because they're at speed and most likely going to look for the fallen thing rather than the road.
Hell, if there's any reason to follow the law and turn off your phone...
However, that's not an excuse for them continuing to cost $100+. There should have been an opportunity for some competitor (e.g. Casio or HP) to use 2014 technology to deliver the same capabilities with less manufacturing complexity and thus a cheaper price. Apparently, Casio is trying this, but they're not being aggressive enough: if Casio beat teachers and parents over the head with how cheap calculators should be by selling theirs for $25 or so, then IMO they'd be more successful.
The HP Prime is around $130, and uses modern ARM processors to be much faster, has color, SD and other stuff. And the HP50G is around it as well, offering more traditional RPN (it's a successor to the 49 and 48 series). Both are ARM powered devices and speedy. The 50 emulates the traditional Saturn CPU of the 48/49 series and fixes a few hardware limitations to make the software easier to write for. And I think it's even possible to do chunks in ARM code for even faster performance.
But the real reason people prefer calculators is the hardware buttons - you can enter numbers in far faster and with less errors on a keyboard than with a touchscreen, so you're paying a premium for that.
I thought the whole purpose of 4chan was that "anything goes". If they start censoring it then all the people that are there will just move somewhere else that is not restricted.
it's a formal policy that really means nothing at all because practically speaking, the material disappears very quickly.
It does however confer benefits like legal protection.
And I think 4chan's founder has stated he's received many threats of lawsuits before, but no one ever followed through. But given celebrities tend to have a LOT of money and a LOT of high powered lawyers, a lawsuit threat that turned real could be devastating to the site. (And hell, more publicity, something celebs generally like)
So for probably 99.999% of requests, the offending material has been purged by the time it was received and nothing happens. and probably 99.999999% of it would be purged by time action is taken to process it. But having the policy means legal protection just in case someone actually decides to follow through. This is probably the closest it's come to getting sued.
In general auto-playing video is awful. I particularly hate it on news sites. For me it was the biggest reason for noscript.
Now if only Google offered the option to turn off autoplay videos on YouTube. (Embeds don't auto-play, but direct links to YouTube.com do).. It's fine on Firefox (NoScript/etc) but not on Chrome short of blocking YouTube itself.
Issues like yours mysteriously found their way to the absolute bottom of my list
And then IT wonders why people circumvent their policies. And then semi-tech-savvy people implement workarounds outside of IT and it all goes well until it doesn't.
And when it doesn't, the crap hits the fan quickly because most likely it's some hacked-together system some manager set up years ago that ended up as a production critical system. That no one remembers, or even knows where it's at until some move later or IT comes around and cleans up an odd PC sitting by the wall.
Be difficult, and people will find an easier solution. Now, sometimes emergencies are unavoidable (and using the old "your lack of planning doesn't constitute an emergency on my part" can lead to shadow IT as well when someone needs a server quickly and IT gives them the runaround), so the goal is to find a way to accommodate those requests reasonably.
The other problem with "expect people to learn their tools" is well, there's a gulf between "knows little" and "knows enough to support themselves" which is called "knows enough to be extremely dangerous". You know the kind - need to share a document with a customer? They'll set up a dropbox account or 10.
That, and tools are tools. Unless you want to wait while your mechanic compiles a new kernel while fixing your car, that is.
Computers are wonderful tools because they enable a lot, but they're also quite complex to use because they can do a lot. It's the role of IT to provide the systems necessary so users can use the tools in ways it was designed to, and try to prevent users from doing things they aren't supposed to.
And no, I rarely need support unless it's really a problem outside of my control (our IT guy comes to ME (and several others) for problems!). And I also know how users get creative in order to do their jobs.
Say what you will, but the middle class needs work. We need something for the vast majority of people who aren't scientists, engineers or politicians to do. That used to be traditional assembly-line manufacturing.
You do realize that outside of VERY narrow manufacturing, assembly line jobs suck.
They are NOT middle class jobs. They are unskilled labor jobs that pay basically minimum wage (see unskilled). These are NOT jobs you want because they'[re mind-numbingly boring, dull, and because of that, dangerous.
They automated not just because it saves money and improves quality (read: boring job leads to shit quality), but because workers do not want those jobs. You try putting tab A into slot B for 8 hours a day with 10 seconds to do each part.
To be honest, a housekeeper at a hotel is a more fulfilling job.
Heavy machine assembly - the ones that build trucks and cars - actually is a middle class job that offers variety and an interactive environment.
And there are plenty of jobs for people without university degrees - in fact, trades are very lucrative, and VERY skilled and upper middle class style jobs. They can even pay more than a university graduate because they're hard to outsource, in demand, and in short supply.
Why? Because parents always think "university or bust" and consider the way to success is a white collar job in an office. Blue collar jobs span the spectrum of unskilled labor (basically a monkey) to skilled jobs that range from the usual plumber/electrician/carpenter to coder, web programmer, etc.
The only unskilled jobs that pay well these days are the ones that are highly dangerous - oil rig worker, fisherman, etc.
The difference is that phones are small and you only need to stock a dozen models to serve most clients.
And while there is no obligation to do so, it may bring a lot of good publicity. Especially now that brick and mortar shops have to compete with online resellers. In fact, the ability to walk in and leave with your item is probably the number one reason they still exist.
Psychologically, immediate response is extremely important. If you want a good example of a company fully understanding this principle, just look at Apple stores. You can get your new shiny gadget the day of its announcement, they are always stocked, there is always someone available for you and beside the stupid launch day queues you can walk in and a minute later you leave with an iPhone in one pocket a very light wallet in the other. And of course, they do stockpile replacements.
*snort*. Given the way Samsung and other Android providers release phones, a dozen new phones a day is probably more accurate. (All variations on a theme). Sure, something like the Galaxy S5 changes once a year, but there are hundreds of phones and variations thereof under the Galaxy line for those who don't want to pay $200 for a new phone.
So it becomes a huge inventory problem.
And you're right about Apple. If you have a warranty issue, they'll happily replace it right then and there - they maintain a stock (even when it comes out) of replacement phones in the back. When the hot new iPhone comes out and is sold out, be reassured that if your shiny new one you got has a problem, Apple will pull it from their replacement stock. (If it's just released, that stock will be new - being manufactured purely to serve as replacement swapouts).
But that's Apple, who thrives on providing a "premium" experience for its users. it also doesn't hurt that they don't have to stock many models. But it's also why you generally pay a bit more for Apple.
the vast majority of Netflix's content doesn't have product placement
I doubt that actually - considering movies and TV have steadily increased their product placement ads over the past decade. I'd say Netflix's content has plenty of product placement - it's just not under Netflix's control because it was there before Netflix even got the content.
Netflix however, doesn't add their own ads to content, other than a small pre-roll video in front of their exclusive series.
Anyhow, I'm finding a lot of content is now being available streamed legally for free, with unskippable ads. Seems everyone figured that there's an advantage to new-fangled technology. DVRs may be ruining the ad model, but let's put the show up online as well and now they can't skip it. So either they subscribe to the cable channel and skip ads, or they stream it online for free without unskippable ads. win-win.
It will be nice to see if Google's interests and motivations will yield interesting, more practical results, in this area.
Better advertising, I guess.
Target uses metrics and analytics to guess when a family has a baby on the way, but I'm guessing using this may allow Google to go beyond simple pattern recognition into more complex fields.
OK, you looked at websites A, B, D and F, well, you're likely trying to get into college, but G, and I imply you need help on your essay. Here are ads for essay farms!
After all, we complain targeted ads are bad, so Google's trying to make them better. Oh, you're loking at Z today, I guess I shouldn't show you those support group ads because you have company over.
The problem is, the games become exclusionary - as the general skill levels of those who were there in the beginning goes up, new players are excluded because they simply cannot compete.
A new player with no skills and just learning by playing around has no chance to do so if they keep dying within 5 seconds of spawning. Sure, you can have level-based matching, but if there aren't many newcomers coming in, then it's just a painful wait at the match screen trying to hope the one other guy plays today as well.
Heck, there are some that say if you don't play a multiplayer game since launch day, beyond the first week it's pointless because not only would you never catch up, you can't even start because getting pwned within 5 seconds means you learn nothing and after a few tries, you give up in frustration.
For success, you need a game where newcomers are constantly coming in and providing an environment where they can learn and get the necessary skills.
I don't see how a radio station in the United States can steam over the Internet using exclusively free software. Apple iOS devices play only MPEG codecs subject to royalty-bearing patents, not any free lossy codecs. And HD Radio in the United States uses an iBiquity codec parts of which are patented and parts of which are trade secrets.
There are free software implementations of MPEG4/AAC encoders (faac, for example). It's free software by any means because the user is free to do anything with it. Usage in some jurisdictions may be restricted by local laws, but the software is there and patent licenses can be easily obtained.
And HD radio encoding is typically done inside the exciter (modulator). You feed in the audio into the exciter, it modulates/encodes the audio per the specs, then sends the modulated signal to the power amplifier for transmission. Again, it can be free software in that the controller uses Debian, while the encoding is done typically via a DSP.
There's also a chance on iOS someone wrote an app that uses a free codec as well. There are Vorbis and FLAC apps available, so it's possible the stream is.Vorbis and the app merely plays it back.
Anyhow, reboot Linux after updating is generally good policy - while you can typically get away with it, there are many good reasons to not do so, especially if libraries are replaced and ABIs have changed (which leads to situations where an app compiled to the old ABI tries communicating with an app using the new ABI and library and hilarity ensues. Or even if you run multiple copies since an app running before the update uses the old libraries, while the new instance typically uses the updated library).
And always, there's always the risk that the system won't come up - perhaps some essential boot library got replaced with a non-working copy, something you won't find out until it's way later and the app tries to use the new version and fails.
Did they fix the right-click menus randomly stopping working? Because that's the about only thing I really care about in Firefox as it stands.
That's probably a side effect of the "Javascript always on" thing Mozilla did a few versions ago. When they got rid of the "Enable Javascript" checkbox, they also got rid of the options like "Allow scripts to take right-click" and other options.
What's likely happening is your website is blocking right-clicks on purpose (usually as a "protection" measure so you can't right-click and activate extensions like Nuke Anything or Save As).
Of course, the default setting of the checkbox was to disallow websites from hijacking right-click. But since it's gone, so is the setting, so websites are free to hijack right-click.
You need to either use NoScript to block the offending Javascript, or hold down shift when you right-click, which bypasses the right-click hijack and shows the Firefox right-click menu and all the extensions.
I PC game, and for the first time in decades have zero reasons to upgrade. My rig is now about 2 years old and runs every title at max setting. Unless I upgrade to 4K monitor (and I see no reason to) my PC should last me another 3-4 years before I get bumped to medium settings.
You can thank consoles becoming popular for that. Given how little money AAA titles make on PC (it generally covers the cost of the port), and yes, I mean money made, not copies actually in use (the only number that matters is "how much $$$ will I get on the PC platform"), so pirates, well, you count for zip. (Same goes for TV, movies, etc - the numbers that matter are commercial view, and everything is based off those numbers so even a stupidly popular series can get canned if it's mostly pirated and gets lower ratings than stupid stuff).
So AAA titles generally produce assets against a 1080p monitor that are only slightly better than what the target consoles can produce. Indie games rarely have a graphics budget, so they're not generally pushing polygons to the max (and they generally target the most popular GPU vendor - Intel).
So there are few reasons to upgrade because there are few PC-only games being released. Heck, even the likes of Blizzard have gone to consoles, leaving Valve to be one of the few PC-only companies left (though they have had forays into PS3, but that was awhile ago).
PC may be the most popular platform by far, but the dollars are being stretched thin because there is just so much content available for it, and most don't need kickass PCs anymore because they're designed to target the low end sub-$500 machines that sell by the boatload (much less PCs are sold that cost over $500, and Apple pretty much dominates above $1000).
It's the best hope for SteamPCs right now, though given the piss-poor hardware specs for the $500 models, their longevity is suspect. (And yes, while there are more expensive SteamPCs, as long as they're compared to consoles...)
It's not as stupid as you might think. The cost of transporting it to the place where it's needed could far outweigh (in pure energy costs) the costs of growing it locally.
In general it's true. We grow more than enough food to eradicate starvation through the entire world.
The problem has never been growing "enough". We do that quite easily. The problem has always been distribution - getting the food to where it's needed is costly, and that more than a few governments do things that make it far harder than it needs to be.
Cutting back on fat would probably be the next, big step.
Ironically, it's probably the low-fat craze that got us where we are today to the high carb/high salt intake.
The problem being that people substituted sugar and salt for the missing flavor fat provides. (And honestly, it sucks. Low fat yogurt takes horrendous because they throw so much sugar in there and the texture's all wrong. It's just... gross.).
It's just the way they do business. I think they're about volume rather than margin. They're not even vaguely interested in enthusiasts or small scale jobs.
They are. If you take a look around, you'll find a Broadcom chip in everything. Be it WiFi, Bluetooth, FM radio, NFC, Ethernet (MAC or PHY or both, or switch chips), DOCSIS chipset, DSL chipset, router processors, etc. They make a custom SoC for everything.
Broadcom's business is basically a line item for your specific purpose - you want a DSL modem? Just buy the reference design and rebrand it, because they have it.
And the other reason is Broadcom chips are CHEAP. Stupidly cheap. That's why they're everywhere - take a hit on margin and make it up with volume.
Most silicon vendors are like that - they can only deal with big vendors, so they do. Sometimes you find an enlightened one who actually makes a deal with a company to be a point of contact for smaller orders. E.g., if you want to deal with Qualcomm directly, you have to be a big player. But you can still use Qualcomm's products because Qualcomm has a small set of companies to whom they pass smaller deals off to. These smaller companies deal with Qualcomm directly and get all the technical information from Qualcomm, but they're smaller and can deal with smaller projects far more easily than Qualcomm can.
WPS - the alternative to this for "regular users" is no security. Great for those who need a hotspot in a hurry, not so great in general. Instead, all users need to is hit a button and enter a code.and they have encrypted WiFi working. It's just like TouchID on the iPhone - Apple realized people should use passcodes for security, but many don't because it's )@*#&%*(@ annoying to enter it (especially if you have "complex passcodes" on) 1,000 times a day.
WPA is still good, as long as you're using AES. TKIP is worthless, but that was designed for a time when WiFi chips had WEP accelerators and TKIP took advantage of that. These days everyone has AES accelerators and guess what? There have been no attacks on those running WPA-AES. And there is VERY little difference between WPA and WPA2 running in AES mode.
Guest networks - they're not open hotspots. You can lock them down as much as you want. But they allow you to have guests over and give them WiFi without letting them all over your network. You know, perhaps you have friends over and they want WiFi. You can be the crappy friend who doesn't let anyone on WiFi (use your data plan!) or just give them access to your guest network and know traffic is isolated.
Very useful if you have siblings who are less than technically skilled and come from from college with laptops loaded with spyware, worms, trojans and other nasties designed to infect other PCs. Well, give Sis guest access and keep your network safe. OR use that network while you're cleaning the crap off it.
THere were stable builds for Windows. The problem was people needed plugins which weren't available (because a 64-bit browser can't run 32-bit plugins without a thunk layer). Chrome did it because Chrome ships with the plugins recompiled for 64-bit (because Google has the source code to Flash and all that).
It's the same reason why Microsoft actively discourages use of the 64-bit version of Office.
Though, other than being "64-bit", is there a real reason for having a 64-bit browser?
Amazon didn't get Twitch because they paid more than Google (Google offered more), Google walked away worried. Twitch probably egged Amazon on to get more money from Amazon after Google went away.
Reading about the US I really like consumer protection laws in Germany. Everything is so much more consumer friendly and open. Companies have to identify themselves (i.e. have an imprint), all taxes have to be included in prices and if you buy something you have all kinds of rights (two week period to send stuff back/cancel contracts, two year warranty on physical items and such) that cannot be taken away by ToSs.
It's such a different culture. US companies often struggle because they're used to the whole "corporations first" mindset.
On the flip side, you realize stuff in Europe is way more expensive, right? And why people in Australia complain that stuff is more expensive too.
TINSTAAFL.
If you mandate that everything has a 2 year warranty, then consider the next time anyone asks you in North America, "Do you want to buy an extended warranty?" and being forced to say "yes". Because that 2 years is now built into the price of the unit itself. It doesn't matter if you'd normally say "no" and be done with it, you're forced to say "yes" and pay up.
Likewise, if you're forced to handle returns on digital items, well, don't be surprised when people either a) don't want to do business with you (see music/movies geoblocking), b) charge for the privilege (i.e., it costs more).
Now, Australia is a bit funny in that respect because they want to encourage the practice of buying from other regions to get better pricing to help drive down the local prices. Yet at the same thing, those other retailers don't have to accept returns or deal with Australian law (and the Australian representatives can easily say since you didn't buy it in Australia, the law doesn't apply - if you want a refund, deal with the overseas store you got it from).
In fact, if you compare pricing, you'd find after warranties and embedded taxes, the price gap isn't as big as it once was.
No doubt, history is filled with all kinds of evil misogyny, racism, and homophobia...and large swaths of the planet still have those problems, especially in the islamic world. But we lose sight of the truth, that people are individual *actors*, not *objects*, all too often. Fighting the scourges of discrimination of various sorts doesn't lead to some predetermined statistical balance, it gives individual actors the *freedom* to make the choices they'd like. Sometimes, those free choices are lopsided, and that's *okay*.
The problem is not if a gender imbalance is inappropriate, but the question we should be asking is, is there any systematic problem?
There's a fine line between "they don't want to do it" versus "they're being actively excluded from doing it".
So the question is - in all fields, is there something we're doing that prevents women from entering the tech field, or editing Wikipedia?
It could be something as simple as "women can't stand the immaturity of tech people" (given all the trolls and all that). In which case, the reason we don't have more women is systematic - we're all a bunch of immature idiots who cannot behave. Now, whether or not we think it's a problem is another issue altogether, but knowing that, it's a lot clearer as to why.
If the answer is instead "women just don't like tech" then fine, the imbalance will remain because we can't change personal preferences. We can ask perhaps why they don't like tech and it could be stuff like "don't want to sit in front of a screen all day" which is something we cannot change, and must accept.
That's the real question we should be asking - WHY is there an imbalance, and is it something we can potentially fix. If it isn't, then fine, we shouldn't bother trying - but at least we know. If it can be fixed, then perhaps we should look at ways to fix it.
If it's because of something stupid like "tech people are immature" it's a real problem we need to fix for many reasons, including simple respect - if you don't act like you deserve respect, don't be surprised when people don't. (Why do you think video games get the stereotype of teenage boys, despite the average gamer being over 35? Act like teenagers, and people believe you are).
Have you edited Wikipedia lately? It's a fucking nightmare of committee-watched articles and instantaneous reversions.
There we go, the real reason.
I mean, face it, men are just more willing to be the trolls and make life miserable for each other. Women see that and avoid the whole issue altogether.
We saw it with that article on games vs. women article. They simply see what happens as basically a bunch of horny teenagers with ragers going on, and simply steer clear to avoid the trouble. Wikipedia is the same - it's no better in the end.
Now, whether or not having women think all people who enjoy videogames or use wikipedia are immature teenagers is a good thing or a bad thing, I don't know. It just makes the entire population no better than construction workers who catcall women as they pass on the street. So much for intelligence, I guess?
They should crowdsource this. Simply mark new apps as being in a probationary period and give downloaders the option of tagging the app as misleading, malware, abuse of permissions, etc. It would greatly help their human staff find the bad apples quickly. Of course the same goes for Google and Apple.
The problem comes when the apps are ported.
Say I make ACoolApp on iOS, and it's so good, someone makes an Android version. Call it "AndroidCoolApp". Now much richer from iOS sales, I decide to try my hand at Android development, and port it to Android. Now what?
ACoolApp for Android is technically "duplicate" of AndroidCoolApp, but that was a duplicate of ACoolApp to begin with.
It's happened a few times. And while it's true there are a few intentionally deceptive (search 1Password and find the REAL one), there are also plenty where both apps are legitimately developed - someone sees a cool app on the other platform, the developer is "taking too long" and release their own.
And that's the real problem - how do you properly draw the line between apps that are legitimate but happen to be similar because one inspired the other, and apps that are pure scamware and trying to undermine the original developer?
Hell, what if you make a flappy bird derivative that has some neat twists in it? Does your app no longer exist because of all the others? (And face it, most people would download the app, run it for two seconds and then mark it duplicate without trying to play it).
Indeed. However, the Discovery Institute's chance of success depends entirely on obfuscating that goal. There's a lot more people who would support "intelligent design" as some sort of oppressed underdog "scientific theory" than who would support it as the blatant theocratic idea it really is.
Which is why it's called Intelligent Design. in fact, when they were converting from Creationism to Intelligent Design, they basically did a search and replace. And they left transition fossils to show how "Creationism" evolved into "Intelligent Design" because of a messed up search-and-replace.
(A transition fossil is just that - if you have animal A and animal B, and you know B evolved from A, then there has to exist a creature in-between A and B, called the transition fossil since evolution works on such timescales that many generations of creatures will exist between then and now).
Yes, there was evolution in the DI texts:).
It's too bad that more Americans believe in creationism than the great flood, since the latter is a lot more scientifically plausible than the other two ideas you mentioned. I mean, it's pretty clear that the "entire earth" didn't flood, but it may sure have seemed that way to somebody living in what is now the Black Sea about 7600 years ago.
True, there was evidence of it, however there was unlikely to be an Ark. Maybe 40 days and 40 nights of rain, but that's about it.
Slashdot Mirror
Geez, haven't you heard? Online education and MOOCs are the Next Big Thing! If you aren't first to the market, you're beat!
When time-to-market is the most important factor, expect shortcuts to be taken.
Then you're still a dangerous driver because you didn't securely mount your phone. Because in an accident, loose items become projectiles and have the possibility to cause injury.
A phone that's fallen is also a danger like any object that can get wedged between the brake and the floor, and the driver is distracted because they're at speed and most likely going to look for the fallen thing rather than the road.
Hell, if there's any reason to follow the law and turn off your phone...
The HP Prime is around $130, and uses modern ARM processors to be much faster, has color, SD and other stuff. And the HP50G is around it as well, offering more traditional RPN (it's a successor to the 49 and 48 series). Both are ARM powered devices and speedy. The 50 emulates the traditional Saturn CPU of the 48/49 series and fixes a few hardware limitations to make the software easier to write for. And I think it's even possible to do chunks in ARM code for even faster performance.
But the real reason people prefer calculators is the hardware buttons - you can enter numbers in far faster and with less errors on a keyboard than with a touchscreen, so you're paying a premium for that.
it's a formal policy that really means nothing at all because practically speaking, the material disappears very quickly.
It does however confer benefits like legal protection.
And I think 4chan's founder has stated he's received many threats of lawsuits before, but no one ever followed through. But given celebrities tend to have a LOT of money and a LOT of high powered lawyers, a lawsuit threat that turned real could be devastating to the site. (And hell, more publicity, something celebs generally like)
So for probably 99.999% of requests, the offending material has been purged by the time it was received and nothing happens. and probably 99.999999% of it would be purged by time action is taken to process it. But having the policy means legal protection just in case someone actually decides to follow through. This is probably the closest it's come to getting sued.
Now if only Google offered the option to turn off autoplay videos on YouTube. (Embeds don't auto-play, but direct links to YouTube.com do).. It's fine on Firefox (NoScript/etc) but not on Chrome short of blocking YouTube itself.
And then IT wonders why people circumvent their policies. And then semi-tech-savvy people implement workarounds outside of IT and it all goes well until it doesn't.
And when it doesn't, the crap hits the fan quickly because most likely it's some hacked-together system some manager set up years ago that ended up as a production critical system. That no one remembers, or even knows where it's at until some move later or IT comes around and cleans up an odd PC sitting by the wall.
Be difficult, and people will find an easier solution. Now, sometimes emergencies are unavoidable (and using the old "your lack of planning doesn't constitute an emergency on my part" can lead to shadow IT as well when someone needs a server quickly and IT gives them the runaround), so the goal is to find a way to accommodate those requests reasonably.
The other problem with "expect people to learn their tools" is well, there's a gulf between "knows little" and "knows enough to support themselves" which is called "knows enough to be extremely dangerous". You know the kind - need to share a document with a customer? They'll set up a dropbox account or 10.
That, and tools are tools. Unless you want to wait while your mechanic compiles a new kernel while fixing your car, that is.
Computers are wonderful tools because they enable a lot, but they're also quite complex to use because they can do a lot. It's the role of IT to provide the systems necessary so users can use the tools in ways it was designed to, and try to prevent users from doing things they aren't supposed to.
And no, I rarely need support unless it's really a problem outside of my control (our IT guy comes to ME (and several others) for problems!). And I also know how users get creative in order to do their jobs.
You do realize that outside of VERY narrow manufacturing, assembly line jobs suck.
They are NOT middle class jobs. They are unskilled labor jobs that pay basically minimum wage (see unskilled). These are NOT jobs you want because they'[re mind-numbingly boring, dull, and because of that, dangerous.
They automated not just because it saves money and improves quality (read: boring job leads to shit quality), but because workers do not want those jobs. You try putting tab A into slot B for 8 hours a day with 10 seconds to do each part.
To be honest, a housekeeper at a hotel is a more fulfilling job.
Heavy machine assembly - the ones that build trucks and cars - actually is a middle class job that offers variety and an interactive environment.
And there are plenty of jobs for people without university degrees - in fact, trades are very lucrative, and VERY skilled and upper middle class style jobs. They can even pay more than a university graduate because they're hard to outsource, in demand, and in short supply.
Why? Because parents always think "university or bust" and consider the way to success is a white collar job in an office. Blue collar jobs span the spectrum of unskilled labor (basically a monkey) to skilled jobs that range from the usual plumber/electrician/carpenter to coder, web programmer, etc.
The only unskilled jobs that pay well these days are the ones that are highly dangerous - oil rig worker, fisherman, etc.
*snort*. Given the way Samsung and other Android providers release phones, a dozen new phones a day is probably more accurate. (All variations on a theme). Sure, something like the Galaxy S5 changes once a year, but there are hundreds of phones and variations thereof under the Galaxy line for those who don't want to pay $200 for a new phone.
So it becomes a huge inventory problem.
And you're right about Apple. If you have a warranty issue, they'll happily replace it right then and there - they maintain a stock (even when it comes out) of replacement phones in the back. When the hot new iPhone comes out and is sold out, be reassured that if your shiny new one you got has a problem, Apple will pull it from their replacement stock. (If it's just released, that stock will be new - being manufactured purely to serve as replacement swapouts).
But that's Apple, who thrives on providing a "premium" experience for its users. it also doesn't hurt that they don't have to stock many models. But it's also why you generally pay a bit more for Apple.
Some no name crap-droid phone? Good luck.
the vast majority of Netflix's content doesn't have product placement
I doubt that actually - considering movies and TV have steadily increased their product placement ads over the past decade. I'd say Netflix's content has plenty of product placement - it's just not under Netflix's control because it was there before Netflix even got the content.
Netflix however, doesn't add their own ads to content, other than a small pre-roll video in front of their exclusive series.
Anyhow, I'm finding a lot of content is now being available streamed legally for free, with unskippable ads. Seems everyone figured that there's an advantage to new-fangled technology. DVRs may be ruining the ad model, but let's put the show up online as well and now they can't skip it. So either they subscribe to the cable channel and skip ads, or they stream it online for free without unskippable ads. win-win.
Better advertising, I guess.
Target uses metrics and analytics to guess when a family has a baby on the way, but I'm guessing using this may allow Google to go beyond simple pattern recognition into more complex fields.
OK, you looked at websites A, B, D and F, well, you're likely trying to get into college, but G, and I imply you need help on your essay. Here are ads for essay farms!
After all, we complain targeted ads are bad, so Google's trying to make them better. Oh, you're loking at Z today, I guess I shouldn't show you those support group ads because you have company over.
The problem is, the games become exclusionary - as the general skill levels of those who were there in the beginning goes up, new players are excluded because they simply cannot compete.
A new player with no skills and just learning by playing around has no chance to do so if they keep dying within 5 seconds of spawning. Sure, you can have level-based matching, but if there aren't many newcomers coming in, then it's just a painful wait at the match screen trying to hope the one other guy plays today as well.
Heck, there are some that say if you don't play a multiplayer game since launch day, beyond the first week it's pointless because not only would you never catch up, you can't even start because getting pwned within 5 seconds means you learn nothing and after a few tries, you give up in frustration.
For success, you need a game where newcomers are constantly coming in and providing an environment where they can learn and get the necessary skills.
There are free software implementations of MPEG4/AAC encoders (faac, for example). It's free software by any means because the user is free to do anything with it. Usage in some jurisdictions may be restricted by local laws, but the software is there and patent licenses can be easily obtained.
And HD radio encoding is typically done inside the exciter (modulator). You feed in the audio into the exciter, it modulates/encodes the audio per the specs, then sends the modulated signal to the power amplifier for transmission. Again, it can be free software in that the controller uses Debian, while the encoding is done typically via a DSP.
There's also a chance on iOS someone wrote an app that uses a free codec as well. There are Vorbis and FLAC apps available, so it's possible the stream is .Vorbis and the app merely plays it back.
Anyhow, reboot Linux after updating is generally good policy - while you can typically get away with it, there are many good reasons to not do so, especially if libraries are replaced and ABIs have changed (which leads to situations where an app compiled to the old ABI tries communicating with an app using the new ABI and library and hilarity ensues. Or even if you run multiple copies since an app running before the update uses the old libraries, while the new instance typically uses the updated library).
And always, there's always the risk that the system won't come up - perhaps some essential boot library got replaced with a non-working copy, something you won't find out until it's way later and the app tries to use the new version and fails.
That's probably a side effect of the "Javascript always on" thing Mozilla did a few versions ago. When they got rid of the "Enable Javascript" checkbox, they also got rid of the options like "Allow scripts to take right-click" and other options.
What's likely happening is your website is blocking right-clicks on purpose (usually as a "protection" measure so you can't right-click and activate extensions like Nuke Anything or Save As).
Of course, the default setting of the checkbox was to disallow websites from hijacking right-click. But since it's gone, so is the setting, so websites are free to hijack right-click.
You need to either use NoScript to block the offending Javascript, or hold down shift when you right-click, which bypasses the right-click hijack and shows the Firefox right-click menu and all the extensions.
You can thank consoles becoming popular for that. Given how little money AAA titles make on PC (it generally covers the cost of the port), and yes, I mean money made, not copies actually in use (the only number that matters is "how much $$$ will I get on the PC platform"), so pirates, well, you count for zip. (Same goes for TV, movies, etc - the numbers that matter are commercial view, and everything is based off those numbers so even a stupidly popular series can get canned if it's mostly pirated and gets lower ratings than stupid stuff).
So AAA titles generally produce assets against a 1080p monitor that are only slightly better than what the target consoles can produce. Indie games rarely have a graphics budget, so they're not generally pushing polygons to the max (and they generally target the most popular GPU vendor - Intel).
So there are few reasons to upgrade because there are few PC-only games being released. Heck, even the likes of Blizzard have gone to consoles, leaving Valve to be one of the few PC-only companies left (though they have had forays into PS3, but that was awhile ago).
PC may be the most popular platform by far, but the dollars are being stretched thin because there is just so much content available for it, and most don't need kickass PCs anymore because they're designed to target the low end sub-$500 machines that sell by the boatload (much less PCs are sold that cost over $500, and Apple pretty much dominates above $1000).
It's the best hope for SteamPCs right now, though given the piss-poor hardware specs for the $500 models, their longevity is suspect. (And yes, while there are more expensive SteamPCs, as long as they're compared to consoles...)
In general it's true. We grow more than enough food to eradicate starvation through the entire world.
The problem has never been growing "enough". We do that quite easily. The problem has always been distribution - getting the food to where it's needed is costly, and that more than a few governments do things that make it far harder than it needs to be.
Ironically, it's probably the low-fat craze that got us where we are today to the high carb/high salt intake.
The problem being that people substituted sugar and salt for the missing flavor fat provides. (And honestly, it sucks. Low fat yogurt takes horrendous because they throw so much sugar in there and the texture's all wrong. It's just... gross.).
End result, more calories and more salt taken in.
They are. If you take a look around, you'll find a Broadcom chip in everything. Be it WiFi, Bluetooth, FM radio, NFC, Ethernet (MAC or PHY or both, or switch chips), DOCSIS chipset, DSL chipset, router processors, etc. They make a custom SoC for everything.
Broadcom's business is basically a line item for your specific purpose - you want a DSL modem? Just buy the reference design and rebrand it, because they have it.
And the other reason is Broadcom chips are CHEAP. Stupidly cheap. That's why they're everywhere - take a hit on margin and make it up with volume.
Most silicon vendors are like that - they can only deal with big vendors, so they do. Sometimes you find an enlightened one who actually makes a deal with a company to be a point of contact for smaller orders. E.g., if you want to deal with Qualcomm directly, you have to be a big player. But you can still use Qualcomm's products because Qualcomm has a small set of companies to whom they pass smaller deals off to. These smaller companies deal with Qualcomm directly and get all the technical information from Qualcomm, but they're smaller and can deal with smaller projects far more easily than Qualcomm can.
Well, it's to make life simpler for users.
WPS - the alternative to this for "regular users" is no security. Great for those who need a hotspot in a hurry, not so great in general. Instead, all users need to is hit a button and enter a code.and they have encrypted WiFi working. It's just like TouchID on the iPhone - Apple realized people should use passcodes for security, but many don't because it's )@*#&%*(@ annoying to enter it (especially if you have "complex passcodes" on) 1,000 times a day.
WPA is still good, as long as you're using AES. TKIP is worthless, but that was designed for a time when WiFi chips had WEP accelerators and TKIP took advantage of that. These days everyone has AES accelerators and guess what? There have been no attacks on those running WPA-AES. And there is VERY little difference between WPA and WPA2 running in AES mode.
Guest networks - they're not open hotspots. You can lock them down as much as you want. But they allow you to have guests over and give them WiFi without letting them all over your network. You know, perhaps you have friends over and they want WiFi. You can be the crappy friend who doesn't let anyone on WiFi (use your data plan!) or just give them access to your guest network and know traffic is isolated.
Very useful if you have siblings who are less than technically skilled and come from from college with laptops loaded with spyware, worms, trojans and other nasties designed to infect other PCs. Well, give Sis guest access and keep your network safe. OR use that network while you're cleaning the crap off it.
THere were stable builds for Windows. The problem was people needed plugins which weren't available (because a 64-bit browser can't run 32-bit plugins without a thunk layer). Chrome did it because Chrome ships with the plugins recompiled for 64-bit (because Google has the source code to Flash and all that).
It's the same reason why Microsoft actively discourages use of the 64-bit version of Office.
Though, other than being "64-bit", is there a real reason for having a 64-bit browser?
The real reason Amazon scooped Twitch and not Google was Google was worried about anti-trust issues if it bought Twitch .
Amazon didn't get Twitch because they paid more than Google (Google offered more), Google walked away worried. Twitch probably egged Amazon on to get more money from Amazon after Google went away.
On the flip side, you realize stuff in Europe is way more expensive, right? And why people in Australia complain that stuff is more expensive too.
TINSTAAFL.
If you mandate that everything has a 2 year warranty, then consider the next time anyone asks you in North America, "Do you want to buy an extended warranty?" and being forced to say "yes". Because that 2 years is now built into the price of the unit itself. It doesn't matter if you'd normally say "no" and be done with it, you're forced to say "yes" and pay up.
Likewise, if you're forced to handle returns on digital items, well, don't be surprised when people either a) don't want to do business with you (see music/movies geoblocking), b) charge for the privilege (i.e., it costs more).
Now, Australia is a bit funny in that respect because they want to encourage the practice of buying from other regions to get better pricing to help drive down the local prices. Yet at the same thing, those other retailers don't have to accept returns or deal with Australian law (and the Australian representatives can easily say since you didn't buy it in Australia, the law doesn't apply - if you want a refund, deal with the overseas store you got it from).
In fact, if you compare pricing, you'd find after warranties and embedded taxes, the price gap isn't as big as it once was.
The problem is not if a gender imbalance is inappropriate, but the question we should be asking is, is there any systematic problem?
There's a fine line between "they don't want to do it" versus "they're being actively excluded from doing it".
So the question is - in all fields, is there something we're doing that prevents women from entering the tech field, or editing Wikipedia?
It could be something as simple as "women can't stand the immaturity of tech people" (given all the trolls and all that). In which case, the reason we don't have more women is systematic - we're all a bunch of immature idiots who cannot behave. Now, whether or not we think it's a problem is another issue altogether, but knowing that, it's a lot clearer as to why.
If the answer is instead "women just don't like tech" then fine, the imbalance will remain because we can't change personal preferences. We can ask perhaps why they don't like tech and it could be stuff like "don't want to sit in front of a screen all day" which is something we cannot change, and must accept.
That's the real question we should be asking - WHY is there an imbalance, and is it something we can potentially fix. If it isn't, then fine, we shouldn't bother trying - but at least we know. If it can be fixed, then perhaps we should look at ways to fix it.
If it's because of something stupid like "tech people are immature" it's a real problem we need to fix for many reasons, including simple respect - if you don't act like you deserve respect, don't be surprised when people don't. (Why do you think video games get the stereotype of teenage boys, despite the average gamer being over 35? Act like teenagers, and people believe you are).
There we go, the real reason.
I mean, face it, men are just more willing to be the trolls and make life miserable for each other. Women see that and avoid the whole issue altogether.
We saw it with that article on games vs. women article. They simply see what happens as basically a bunch of horny teenagers with ragers going on, and simply steer clear to avoid the trouble. Wikipedia is the same - it's no better in the end.
Now, whether or not having women think all people who enjoy videogames or use wikipedia are immature teenagers is a good thing or a bad thing, I don't know. It just makes the entire population no better than construction workers who catcall women as they pass on the street. So much for intelligence, I guess?
The problem comes when the apps are ported.
Say I make ACoolApp on iOS, and it's so good, someone makes an Android version. Call it "AndroidCoolApp". Now much richer from iOS sales, I decide to try my hand at Android development, and port it to Android. Now what?
ACoolApp for Android is technically "duplicate" of AndroidCoolApp, but that was a duplicate of ACoolApp to begin with.
It's happened a few times. And while it's true there are a few intentionally deceptive (search 1Password and find the REAL one), there are also plenty where both apps are legitimately developed - someone sees a cool app on the other platform, the developer is "taking too long" and release their own.
And that's the real problem - how do you properly draw the line between apps that are legitimate but happen to be similar because one inspired the other, and apps that are pure scamware and trying to undermine the original developer?
Hell, what if you make a flappy bird derivative that has some neat twists in it? Does your app no longer exist because of all the others? (And face it, most people would download the app, run it for two seconds and then mark it duplicate without trying to play it).
Which is why it's called Intelligent Design. in fact, when they were converting from Creationism to Intelligent Design, they basically did a search and replace. And they left transition fossils to show how "Creationism" evolved into "Intelligent Design" because of a messed up search-and-replace.
(A transition fossil is just that - if you have animal A and animal B, and you know B evolved from A, then there has to exist a creature in-between A and B, called the transition fossil since evolution works on such timescales that many generations of creatures will exist between then and now).
Yes, there was evolution in the DI texts :).