Even better if you are a little technical, set up a "frugal" boot partition. This will unpack and boot a CD image much faster than booting from CD and when you power down it doesn't keep any state. No viruses survive the reboot.
I go the netbook route - they're cheap and disposable. I have one running Linux, and the ONLY thing it does is banking. When I've finished paying my bills, it gets shut down and put back on the shelf.
Seriously, it's one of the great uses of a netbook - dispoable appliance computing. They're so cheap these days and perfect for the task.
Are they any new ones even being produced anymore? I live in the UK and while fruit machines are thriving , old style video games have all but vanished apart from in a few central london arcades. You no longer find them in motorway service stations or small take away shops like you used to.
Even the ones you do see tend to be quite old and have PS2 level graphics. In fact I know of one arcade thats still running Daytona Racing from 1994.
I get the feeling that the arcade specific part of the videogame industry is pretty much on its last legs. In the west anyway, don't know about the far east.
I think arcades are suffering for the same reason theatres are suffering - it's hard to compete with home entertainment. That's why the movie industry is catering to the lowest common denominator in their bid to get asses in seats (the only metric that counts).
It's hard to compete with home - do you go out for a movie, paying $$$, or stay at home with netflix and a dvd? Ditto arcades - do you go out to play games or sit in front of your TV with your Xbox360 or PS3? Given most people are lazy, the answer's pretty obvious.
The only real reason to go out is for experiences you can't get at home - pinball machines, for example, can be duplicated in a computer easily enough, but lack the feel a real ball bouncing off real objects. Or ditto social competition games like DDR and the like where online gaming is lacking somewhat - sure you can chat but it lacks the certain something of physically gathering as a group.
And arcade machines are expensive - when a new machine is anywhere from $5-10K each, it takes a lot of quarters to make that up so the machines have to last, leading to dated machines running dated software.
As far as I'm concerned, the life of one of the workers in his sickening factories, is worth ten times more than his pathetic evil ass.
You do realize that Foxconn probably makes the Xoom as well, right? And everything else?
Hon Hai Precision Electronics (Foxconn) is a huge company - and it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to buy any electronics that haven't passed through their hands.
So if you want to boycott Apple over the worker treatment at Foxconn, you will have to boycott Dell, HP, Sony, Microsoft, Samsung, Acer, Asus, Motorola,...
Hell, do any of those companies actually try to audit their factories? Or have any of them done anything to help improve conditions?
They used different hardware for Windows and OS X. It looks like the Mac is actually more powerful though, so the OSX browsers should score higher if they were equally efficient.
* For OS X: a MacBook Pro laptop, currently OS X 10.6.6, 4GB of RAM, 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, and NVIDIA GT 330M with 512MB of RAM. * For Windows: a Lenovo T410s laptop, currently Windows 7 Enterprise, 4GB of RAM, 2.53 GHz Intel Core i5, and NVIDIA NVS 3100M with 512MB of RAM.
That makes no sense, really. Why use two different machines? Last I checked Boot Camp was perfectly well supported, and running them on the same machine would give far better results (and nice cross-OS comparisons, too).
Hell, you can run Windows 7 on a Macbook Air these days (slightly tricky, but doable).
If I write a small app with a subscrption and generate 2,000,000 in sales, and have 1,600,000 in expenses, I'm making a modest but respectable 400k; enough to live comfortably, and even have an employee or two.
Things are sailing just fine. Apple now decides they want 30% of subscription revenue... that's 600k for processing processing a VISA card through their app store. Directly through VISA I was paying 2.5% or $50,000 annually. So I'm now operating at a 150k annual loss from a 400k annual profit.
That's only if all your subscribers are through the iOS app. If you have subscribers through your website, and they download your iOS app so they can access your service on their iDevice, Apple gets $0.
The people who are using last.fm probably subscribe through last.fm's website, and paying last.fm that way, in which case the iOS app is a mere convenience.
Apple's demands of 30% only take effect if the iOS user subscribes through the app. If the user is an existing subscriber, nothing changes.
What I want to know is - there's a TON of apps in the app store that require subscriptions, but they require previous subscriptions (i.e., "to use this app, you must already be a memory of blah"). Does this affect them? If not, there's the solution - don't allow users to subscribe through the app - they must have an existing account.
Actually, considering the agreement mentions only GPLv3 and related licenses explicitly, it's not source code. After all, if Best Buy sells Linux (and they do - routers, TiVos, and maybe the odd netbook or even CD est), yet they're not obligated to provide source.
It's probably more about the anti-TiVoization clause - because of the DRM that both Apple and Microsoft put into their app stores. (Android apps have no DRM, which is why pirated marketplaces are rampant and full of malware).
If you read the agreement, the GPLv3 and assiciated licenses are mentioned explicitly and licenses similar to those. No comment about GPLv2 stuff...
For example, much has been made of Watson's "Toronto" answer to the US Cities question in Game 1. However, it wasn't a terrible answer because one of Toronto's airports is named after a war hero (Billy Bishop, the WWI fighter ace who shot down the Red Baron), and the main airport (Pearson) was named after a politician who was also a WWI veteran.
Watson should have information in its database that WWI is NOT WWII. WWII was mentioned twice in the clue. A dumb substring search for "WWI" as a string will bring up "WWII" (the first three characters are identical, after all), but Watson isn't a scaled up version of strcmp().
OTOH, maybe us Canadians should thank the US for annexing Toronto...
And I have to admit, I found Watson's voice uncannily creepy, especially since someone programmed in all those Jeopardy phrasings that other players over the years have done.
And IBM actually used a voice actor to serve as the base for Watson's voice synthesizer.
I would've preferred a more robotic voice - despite having a lot of mechanical generation (odd intonation), it was still very unsettling.
Only rare Tivo models with Tivo Basic features, and original Series 1 Tivos, are capable of recording without guide data. If you have the most common type of Series 2 or 3 Tivo, and there is no guide data, you cannot manually record anything. The device is effectively useless, and "bricked" is quite appropriate to describe the resulting worthless box.
As for using alternate sources of data, that exact subject--running a Tivo without service--has always been the line the Tivo hacking community didn't publicly cross. I've hacked in as root on my older Tivo and installed a web server and other goodies on it. That was easy; swapping the guide data out, that's really hard.
Not really.
First of all, TiVo pulled out of the UK in 2003, so the UK TiVos were all series 1 boxes - there were no series 2 TiVos sold in the UK.
A 7-year run even on Lifetime is well worth it (at the cheapest rates, Lifetime pays off around 4-5 years).
And people have put in alternate guide data for years - when TiVo wasn't available in Canada, for example. (Now that it is, the group shut down, but in the meantime they had a stunningly simple alternate guide data set. They promised TiVo that as long as Canada wasn't supported, they'd have their app around).
That app is still around - after all, until very recently Australia didn't have TiVo either.
You will probably need ot google for "simplicity.exe".
shrunk Facebook down so that it fits onto a standard SIM card
What? What does that even mean?
It's called SIM toolkit, and it's effectiviely a SIM-phone API set that the SIM can use to display a UI. The SIM isn't just a memory card, but a full-functioning SoC (there's 6 lines - power, ground, serial rx/tx and a couple of control ones, and it has built in RAM and flash).
A GSM phone has to implement the SIM Toolkit spec, and while not used much in North America, common uses have carriers putting in SIM apps to do things like query account balances and voicemail handling and the like.
The user-side of the toolkit is mostly UI work - if the SIM needs access to the radio, it can do it directly.
However, at its heart, this is simply an exercise in in data storage, lookup, and statistical probabilities in determining a likely answer. It does not involve any artificial intelligence or machine intelligence at all. From a purely technological standpoint, it's quite impressive what IBM has been able to do. It'll be even more impressive in 10 years when the same type of power is in my phone.
True, but it's also an understanding of human language. If you watch the PBS NOVA episode on it, it can be quite hard. Like the category called "Days in months", where you're given two days of a month and have to answer in the month. How does a computer figure that out? (In Watson's case, it didn't until it saw the correct answers and figured out that it needed to be months).
Or a category like "before and after"?
Pure trivia questions - yes it's a simple database lookup (and Watson basically kills at it). But Jeopardy isn't just a nerd trivia game, it's all about subtleties of language - double meanings, puns, wordplay and other elements that make it extremely hard.
It's basically a step towards understanding natural language, with all the issues and subtleties that we put in - emotions, sarcasm, etc.
Or, in Feb 14-16, 2011, Skynet will show off its ability to understand human language.
Some people use the threat of embarrassment in order to pressure the girl into accepting.
it does backfire though. I think there was one guy who tried to propose during a basketball game... and his girlfriend said no right there in the middle of the court.
In fact, I think it can easily be more embarassing to the proposer than the proposee.
I guess it takes longer to fix your whole API than just throw a VM in.
Actually, I think it's a matter of setting the right class library used.
In the really old days, a Blackberry was an embedded 386 processor that used a special SDK that let you use Visual Studio to generate a bunch of DLL's (yes, the same DLL's that Windows uses) that were the apps. Since then, RIM went Java and Blackberry apps really are just Java apps.
Thus, running Android apps isn't much more work than implementing the Android classes and switching between the Blackberry classes and the Android classes.
Of course, non-market Android app selections are really thin - without the Google Marketplace (which requires licensing from Google), there aren't that many apps out there for easy download. Try it - try finding apps without using the Google Marketplace and it's not easy. There are other stores (SlideMe, APKTor, etc), but they don't have the coverage of the Marketplace. The only way around this on Android devices without Google is to pirate the marketplace app...
Again, yes it is! Why was it possible to run the CPU faster than it could handle? If it can only operate up to a certain speed, why can the clock be set faster? Why will the regulator even allow software to command the voltage above the maximum acceptable value?
Because they're binned? If I buy a 1.2GHz CPU that's also available in 1.0 and 1.5GHz flavors, there's a good chance I could run it at 1.5GHz and be successful. Hell, I think there's a term for this, called overclocking.
And in the embedded world, setting clocks can be very complex - some of these SoCs have very complicated clocking trees that can involve easily 10 or more clock divisors that have to be set between boundaries - the chip manufacturer has no way of knowing how to limit the values (some clocks depend on external buses - like memory clocks may be set to 133MHz, 166MHz, 100MHz, and so on), so actually designing a real clock lookup table is complex.
And some chips require you specify the PLL clock multipliers and dividers, of which there are many valid settings. The only real way to lock it out properly would involve lots of transistors dedicated to determining if the clock settings are valid for the particular operating mode, which just end up consuming power to gain very little.
And let's not forget things like software defined radios in things like bluetooth, 3G and wifi modules. Program them the wrong way and you could expose the final stages to powers and currents they were never designed for and burn out the finals. It's all software controlled in the end.
Software is driving a lot of hardware - the hardware's smart, but to be flexible a lot of functions that requires dedicated hardware have been put into software. A bug in the software can brick hardware really easily - an accidental write to one-time-programmable memory can erase vital settings (serial numbers, keys, RF calibration, etc).
Yes, you could build hardware that's immune to software bugs, but then when some dandy new feature comes out, you end up having to replace the hardware because it's locking out the software from doing those things.
Ultimately this plays into the greater debate about sales tax being a regressive tax, which then plays into an even greater debate over the fact that government is just a collection agency for the obscenely wealthy.
Actually, sales taxes are one of the most efficient taxes around - they encourage people to save (to avoid sales taxes) and invest that money for other purpoess, growing businesses and the economy.
Income taxes, though, are regressive - they take money away from you directly, and once that money's gone, it can't be saved nor invested.
There are many studies showing every dollar taken as income tax costs the economy more than a dollar in lost economic benefits. For sales taxes, it's well under a dollar. Those who buy more, pay more. An exception can be made for necessitites like basic groceries (one has to survive, after all).
The ideal situation is of course no taxes, but that's no realistic short of reverting back to anarchy and the stone ages in technology.
Not only was Halo supposed to be a Windows game too, but it was released as a Windows game. It was nice to play it with keyboard and mouse. I only wish the subsequent games were also released for Windows, but I assume they weren't to drive more customers to Xbox Live Gold.
Uh, Halo 2 was released for PC (but not Mac), while Halo was PC then a Mac company ported it to Mac.
Halo 2 for PC was properly known in the community as "Halo 2 Vista" because it required... Windows Vista! (I think it required DirectX 10, which only was on Vista at the time).
Now, Halo 3 and Halo Reach are not on PC (yet), but given Halo 2 Vista come out a good 3+ years after Halo 2, there's a chance a PC port of Halo 3 could come out within the next year or so.
Anyhow, as a console, Apple's AppleTV would probably be the least-restrictive console on the market these days. Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo have heavy requirements for devs to sell games on their console. You can complain all you want about Apple's approval process, but it's certainly less restrictive and heavy handed (the only console with a less heavy handed official area would be the Xbox360's Indie game area).
The only problem is the controller - I can't remember if there's Bluetooth and/or USB host - using a PS3 or (my personal preference) an Xbox360 controller would certainly be great. Points to Apple if they let you use the USB PC receiver so the Xbox controller can be wireless (drivers exist).
I've been cutting my own hair for years now. After a little practice (like the first time, basically - the stakes are pretty high), you get decent at it. And my wife touches up the back of my head. It's quick, cheap, and easy. The secretary at my last job was a hairdresser and was impressed with the job I did, so it can't be too bad looking.
You mean the stakes are pretty low? Hair-cutting is one of the most forgiving things you can do to yourself. Oh, you made a mistake? Gone in a couple of weeks.
After all, the number one rule of haircutting is, "it grows back". Make any error and it'll just disappear naturally in a couple of weeks where you can go an fix it.
Works just as well if you're trimming the fur of your dog. A small goof of the shaver and there's now a divot in the fur. They don't care, and the lumpiness caused by the mishap's gone in a month.
Without the internet (or atleast the near-instant exchange of information over long distances) would joe sixpack even know of unrest in Egypt?
Actually, I would say yes. In fact, I would say the internet makes it worse. It's one thing that newspapers do right that the internet does wrong - it attempts to be broad-spectrum. I read more about Egypt through my daily newspapers than I do online, and I know lots of people who gave up newspapers for their RSS readers and the like.
Given that in a broadsheet, it doesn't take much extra time to gloss over an article as your eye scans a page, you're more likely to see headlines and interesting pictures. On Google News, you'll see headlines, and if they're not interesting, you probably won't click it. So at best you might hear something, but that's it.
Internet news is great - it's timely and informative, but it's pretty much a pull information medium. If it doesn't interest me directly, I don't read it.
So I also read newspapers, watch the news on TV, and listen to news on the radio to hear about stuff I missed because it doesn't seem interesting.
In our quest to replace "traditional media" with the internet, it turns out that there's still a role for traditional media - it provides a means to become more worldly by presenting topics that one would not normally read about or take the effort. But scanning the newspaper page, watching the news and listening help inform on other topics because so little effort is required (i.e., traditional media is "push" - the information right there and all you have to do is process it or glance over or something).
I suppose it's sad that some people are glad to be rid of traditional media and only hear the news they are interested in (e.g., technology) and live inside that little bubble of knowledge. I personally wouldn't read about Egypt online, or sports, but I hear news about it through traditional sources to make me at least know what's going on.
History repeats itself, and there's a large group of people who seem content in missing out repetitions because their narrow views meant they missed news of the event the first time around.
In short, this article is not providing an accurate portrayal of "current/latest" devices. Though I am not sure how many people: Have the newer hardware, have iOS 4 AND have reformatted their filesystem to accomodate the required metadata.
Going by sales of the iPhone 4, a lot. And the number of people who update to the latest is huge as well.
And the way iPhone updates are handled, it's effectively a reformat of the filesystem - iTunes backs up your data and apps, then proceeds to wipe the filesystem partitions and formats them. It then sends the new filesystem image over (the ipsw is just a DMG file), waits for the iPhone to reboot and then iTunes restores the apps and backup.
If you watch your iPhone carefully, it reboots several times during the process, including after the restoration sync.
Apple does this to avoid issues related to updating - as a backup is obtained by iTunes (apps are reinstalled, data is backed up and restored), it's far easier to do a clean install than an incremental update. It's also why the IPSW updates are so freaking huge - it's a reinstall of the whole OS (FYI - it's bigger than Windows XP's install media these days).
It avoids issues of old files confusing the new OS (always a problem with incremental updates), missed files, the effort creating a delta, etc. It also lets the user start from scratch again - a lot of issues that get reported turn out to be fixed if you don't restore the backup (like the proximity sensor). And it means a tool can wipe the entire media when you sell it, and iTunes can put in a fresh OS for the new owner.
Man, this is just like Sony removing the "Other OS" feature from the PS3. I PAID for Windows XP because of the Auto-Run feature, as I'm sure many others have as well. This is a clear case of bait-and-switch deceptive marketing practicing. I wonder if a legal case could be made...
You jest, but it's likely the change diables Autorun by default rather than actually removes it. Removing (or adding) features is a difficult task, especially in Windows. Things can break in the oddest places when you remove the code. Heck, it's so bad that Microsoft will often do binary-patches rather than re-link executables (apparently they've been burned by relinking and processor errata).
Plus, who knows how many companies require Autorun to actually work for some of their processes. Scary, but true.
Heck, we're bound to see people complain about the new default off setting.
Don't think some regimes give a damn about the welfare and prosperity of their nations, because often they don't.
Especially outgoing leaders. The economy of Egypt has stalled, badly now because of all the protests, and many industries will take awhile to recover (tourism, especially, and the looting of artifacts isn't helping), plus a few well-placed bombs on oil equipment and whoever's the next leader will have to contend with a country with zero economic output ability, no money (the government will continue to pay everyone still working until the treasury's depleted, including the military - once all the money's gone/embezzeled/ztolen, the government will collapse), and a hungry populace.
Basically, a scorched earth policy. The only upside is if you're rich and wanted some Egyptian artifacts for your private collection.
Depends on how you "burn" them. You might just have ionized gas particles (plasma) bearing a suggestively flyish spectral emission spectra. Or if you really "burn" them you could be left with a few subatomic particles and interesting curvy trails on the back side of your couch from anti-matter decay.
I think around the furniture folks, that could be what's considered "artistic" and "designer", thus raising the price of your sofa by 10x!
10 years ago, a good chunk of gaming was done on PCs because consoles were crap - standard def, too-small TVs, and the like, so people bought nice high-end PCs and invested in them. Dropping $2000+ on a PC wasn't unheard of nor unusual.
These days, spending more than $500 on a PC is very unusual - only Apple and PC gamers do that stuff, and really, it's no surprise why. And that $500 gets you a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers and other accessories.
Who's the #1 graphics chip maker in the world? It's not nVidia or AMD, it's Intel. (Sure, nVidia and AMD have the discrete graphics market, but that's a really tiny chunk of the whole PC market). When PC prices plummeted below $1000 and then below $500 (and laptops became "netbooks" below $500) manufacturers know that the average PC buyer cares about Gigs (hard drive space), Gigs (RAM) and Gigs (CPU GHz). Nowhere do they really care about graphics - after all, Windows does just fine on Intel graphics, and that's all the user sees.
The higher end PCs with discrete graphics sell far less, even one with a low-end graphics may be considered a gaming PC (and little Jonny's mom and pop aren't buy a PC for games, oh no, they want so Jonny can work).
PC gaming is huge - after all, FarmVille and the like don't require super high end ultimate graphics chips and many popular indie tities have lightweight requirements that even the cheapest of netbooks can play them.
The problem is, as we all know, Intel graphics are crap (though they're supposed to get better now with nVidia), and can barely do 1080p video decoding and high-def gaming.
So people buy a console as well - and with HDTV, they get high-def and on the big ol' 52" HDTV versus their 17"/20" PC monitor (or whatever is free these days). They could buy it on a PC as well (it's easy enough to do), but that requires spending money buying more PC - they could build/configure a great PC for $600, but that's over the "cap" of PC prices of $500. (Everyone gasps at the price of a $1000 MacBook Air, comparing it to a $300 netbook (despite better graphics (Intel vs nVidia) and CPU (Core2Duo is old, but runs rings around Atom), SSD, RAM, etc.).
Hell, I tried to convince someone to spend $1000 to buy a decent laptop and they balked.
No, it's not consoles limiting graphics of games - it's PCs themselves. The number of people with high end $600+ video cards (or probably any nVidia or AMD graphics cards of the past say 4 years) is very small compared to the total PC market. And we know PC gaming is larger than console gaming, but they're all for games that can play on the #1 video card on the market.
And developers go for the money - there are more console gamers out there than hardcore PC gamers with power graphics cards (and the willingness to upgrade yearly or so) - even though there are more PC gamers in general. Other than that, consoles and PCs are pretty much plug-and-play (and Sony's making the PS3 a PC experience with installers, EULAs, serial keys, online DRM, oh my).
So how do they know if you're on Android listing through your browser? Change the ID string to Internet Explorer (or Firefox if you can't stomach Microsoft anything) and keep on listening.
I'm guessing if you're doing it that way it's fine, but if you're using the Last.FM app itself, then you'll have to pay. If you leave it at default it'll just take you to the appropriate place to download the app. If you fake the browser ID you get the desktop page which can take forever to render and the flash thing can be as slow as anything (and thusly drain your battery faster).
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I go the netbook route - they're cheap and disposable. I have one running Linux, and the ONLY thing it does is banking. When I've finished paying my bills, it gets shut down and put back on the shelf.
Seriously, it's one of the great uses of a netbook - dispoable appliance computing. They're so cheap these days and perfect for the task.
I think arcades are suffering for the same reason theatres are suffering - it's hard to compete with home entertainment. That's why the movie industry is catering to the lowest common denominator in their bid to get asses in seats (the only metric that counts).
It's hard to compete with home - do you go out for a movie, paying $$$, or stay at home with netflix and a dvd? Ditto arcades - do you go out to play games or sit in front of your TV with your Xbox360 or PS3? Given most people are lazy, the answer's pretty obvious.
The only real reason to go out is for experiences you can't get at home - pinball machines, for example, can be duplicated in a computer easily enough, but lack the feel a real ball bouncing off real objects. Or ditto social competition games like DDR and the like where online gaming is lacking somewhat - sure you can chat but it lacks the certain something of physically gathering as a group.
And arcade machines are expensive - when a new machine is anywhere from $5-10K each, it takes a lot of quarters to make that up so the machines have to last, leading to dated machines running dated software.
You do realize that Foxconn probably makes the Xoom as well, right? And everything else?
Hon Hai Precision Electronics (Foxconn) is a huge company - and it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to buy any electronics that haven't passed through their hands.
So if you want to boycott Apple over the worker treatment at Foxconn, you will have to boycott Dell, HP, Sony, Microsoft, Samsung, Acer, Asus, Motorola, ...
Hell, do any of those companies actually try to audit their factories? Or have any of them done anything to help improve conditions?
That makes no sense, really. Why use two different machines? Last I checked Boot Camp was perfectly well supported, and running them on the same machine would give far better results (and nice cross-OS comparisons, too).
Hell, you can run Windows 7 on a Macbook Air these days (slightly tricky, but doable).
That's only if all your subscribers are through the iOS app. If you have subscribers through your website, and they download your iOS app so they can access your service on their iDevice, Apple gets $0.
The people who are using last.fm probably subscribe through last.fm's website, and paying last.fm that way, in which case the iOS app is a mere convenience.
Apple's demands of 30% only take effect if the iOS user subscribes through the app. If the user is an existing subscriber, nothing changes.
What I want to know is - there's a TON of apps in the app store that require subscriptions, but they require previous subscriptions (i.e., "to use this app, you must already be a memory of blah"). Does this affect them? If not, there's the solution - don't allow users to subscribe through the app - they must have an existing account.
Actually, considering the agreement mentions only GPLv3 and related licenses explicitly, it's not source code. After all, if Best Buy sells Linux (and they do - routers, TiVos, and maybe the odd netbook or even CD est), yet they're not obligated to provide source.
It's probably more about the anti-TiVoization clause - because of the DRM that both Apple and Microsoft put into their app stores. (Android apps have no DRM, which is why pirated marketplaces are rampant and full of malware).
If you read the agreement, the GPLv3 and assiciated licenses are mentioned explicitly and licenses similar to those. No comment about GPLv2 stuff...
Watson should have information in its database that WWI is NOT WWII. WWII was mentioned twice in the clue. A dumb substring search for "WWI" as a string will bring up "WWII" (the first three characters are identical, after all), but Watson isn't a scaled up version of strcmp().
OTOH, maybe us Canadians should thank the US for annexing Toronto...
It's not really a theory - it's an observation.
And I have to admit, I found Watson's voice uncannily creepy, especially since someone programmed in all those Jeopardy phrasings that other players over the years have done.
And IBM actually used a voice actor to serve as the base for Watson's voice synthesizer.
I would've preferred a more robotic voice - despite having a lot of mechanical generation (odd intonation), it was still very unsettling.
Not really.
First of all, TiVo pulled out of the UK in 2003, so the UK TiVos were all series 1 boxes - there were no series 2 TiVos sold in the UK.
A 7-year run even on Lifetime is well worth it (at the cheapest rates, Lifetime pays off around 4-5 years).
And people have put in alternate guide data for years - when TiVo wasn't available in Canada, for example. (Now that it is, the group shut down, but in the meantime they had a stunningly simple alternate guide data set. They promised TiVo that as long as Canada wasn't supported, they'd have their app around).
That app is still around - after all, until very recently Australia didn't have TiVo either.
You will probably need ot google for "simplicity.exe".
Not that it would've helped. Egypt not only disconnected from the Internet, they also shut down SMS (a popular way of quickly organizing a crowd).
It's called SIM toolkit, and it's effectiviely a SIM-phone API set that the SIM can use to display a UI. The SIM isn't just a memory card, but a full-functioning SoC (there's 6 lines - power, ground, serial rx/tx and a couple of control ones, and it has built in RAM and flash).
A GSM phone has to implement the SIM Toolkit spec, and while not used much in North America, common uses have carriers putting in SIM apps to do things like query account balances and voicemail handling and the like.
The user-side of the toolkit is mostly UI work - if the SIM needs access to the radio, it can do it directly.
True, but it's also an understanding of human language. If you watch the PBS NOVA episode on it, it can be quite hard. Like the category called "Days in months", where you're given two days of a month and have to answer in the month. How does a computer figure that out? (In Watson's case, it didn't until it saw the correct answers and figured out that it needed to be months).
Or a category like "before and after"?
Pure trivia questions - yes it's a simple database lookup (and Watson basically kills at it). But Jeopardy isn't just a nerd trivia game, it's all about subtleties of language - double meanings, puns, wordplay and other elements that make it extremely hard.
It's basically a step towards understanding natural language, with all the issues and subtleties that we put in - emotions, sarcasm, etc.
Or, in Feb 14-16, 2011, Skynet will show off its ability to understand human language.
it does backfire though. I think there was one guy who tried to propose during a basketball game... and his girlfriend said no right there in the middle of the court.
In fact, I think it can easily be more embarassing to the proposer than the proposee.
Actually, I think it's a matter of setting the right class library used.
In the really old days, a Blackberry was an embedded 386 processor that used a special SDK that let you use Visual Studio to generate a bunch of DLL's (yes, the same DLL's that Windows uses) that were the apps. Since then, RIM went Java and Blackberry apps really are just Java apps.
Thus, running Android apps isn't much more work than implementing the Android classes and switching between the Blackberry classes and the Android classes.
Of course, non-market Android app selections are really thin - without the Google Marketplace (which requires licensing from Google), there aren't that many apps out there for easy download. Try it - try finding apps without using the Google Marketplace and it's not easy. There are other stores (SlideMe, APKTor, etc), but they don't have the coverage of the Marketplace. The only way around this on Android devices without Google is to pirate the marketplace app...
Because they're binned? If I buy a 1.2GHz CPU that's also available in 1.0 and 1.5GHz flavors, there's a good chance I could run it at 1.5GHz and be successful. Hell, I think there's a term for this, called overclocking.
And in the embedded world, setting clocks can be very complex - some of these SoCs have very complicated clocking trees that can involve easily 10 or more clock divisors that have to be set between boundaries - the chip manufacturer has no way of knowing how to limit the values (some clocks depend on external buses - like memory clocks may be set to 133MHz, 166MHz, 100MHz, and so on), so actually designing a real clock lookup table is complex.
And some chips require you specify the PLL clock multipliers and dividers, of which there are many valid settings. The only real way to lock it out properly would involve lots of transistors dedicated to determining if the clock settings are valid for the particular operating mode, which just end up consuming power to gain very little.
And let's not forget things like software defined radios in things like bluetooth, 3G and wifi modules. Program them the wrong way and you could expose the final stages to powers and currents they were never designed for and burn out the finals. It's all software controlled in the end.
Software is driving a lot of hardware - the hardware's smart, but to be flexible a lot of functions that requires dedicated hardware have been put into software. A bug in the software can brick hardware really easily - an accidental write to one-time-programmable memory can erase vital settings (serial numbers, keys, RF calibration, etc).
Yes, you could build hardware that's immune to software bugs, but then when some dandy new feature comes out, you end up having to replace the hardware because it's locking out the software from doing those things.
Actually, sales taxes are one of the most efficient taxes around - they encourage people to save (to avoid sales taxes) and invest that money for other purpoess, growing businesses and the economy.
Income taxes, though, are regressive - they take money away from you directly, and once that money's gone, it can't be saved nor invested.
There are many studies showing every dollar taken as income tax costs the economy more than a dollar in lost economic benefits. For sales taxes, it's well under a dollar. Those who buy more, pay more. An exception can be made for necessitites like basic groceries (one has to survive, after all).
The ideal situation is of course no taxes, but that's no realistic short of reverting back to anarchy and the stone ages in technology.
Uh, Halo 2 was released for PC (but not Mac), while Halo was PC then a Mac company ported it to Mac.
Halo 2 for PC was properly known in the community as "Halo 2 Vista" because it required ... Windows Vista! (I think it required DirectX 10, which only was on Vista at the time).
Now, Halo 3 and Halo Reach are not on PC (yet), but given Halo 2 Vista come out a good 3+ years after Halo 2, there's a chance a PC port of Halo 3 could come out within the next year or so.
Anyhow, as a console, Apple's AppleTV would probably be the least-restrictive console on the market these days. Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo have heavy requirements for devs to sell games on their console. You can complain all you want about Apple's approval process, but it's certainly less restrictive and heavy handed (the only console with a less heavy handed official area would be the Xbox360's Indie game area).
The only problem is the controller - I can't remember if there's Bluetooth and/or USB host - using a PS3 or (my personal preference) an Xbox360 controller would certainly be great. Points to Apple if they let you use the USB PC receiver so the Xbox controller can be wireless (drivers exist).
You mean the stakes are pretty low? Hair-cutting is one of the most forgiving things you can do to yourself. Oh, you made a mistake? Gone in a couple of weeks.
After all, the number one rule of haircutting is, "it grows back". Make any error and it'll just disappear naturally in a couple of weeks where you can go an fix it.
Works just as well if you're trimming the fur of your dog. A small goof of the shaver and there's now a divot in the fur. They don't care, and the lumpiness caused by the mishap's gone in a month.
Actually, I would say yes. In fact, I would say the internet makes it worse. It's one thing that newspapers do right that the internet does wrong - it attempts to be broad-spectrum. I read more about Egypt through my daily newspapers than I do online, and I know lots of people who gave up newspapers for their RSS readers and the like.
Given that in a broadsheet, it doesn't take much extra time to gloss over an article as your eye scans a page, you're more likely to see headlines and interesting pictures. On Google News, you'll see headlines, and if they're not interesting, you probably won't click it. So at best you might hear something, but that's it.
Internet news is great - it's timely and informative, but it's pretty much a pull information medium. If it doesn't interest me directly, I don't read it.
So I also read newspapers, watch the news on TV, and listen to news on the radio to hear about stuff I missed because it doesn't seem interesting.
In our quest to replace "traditional media" with the internet, it turns out that there's still a role for traditional media - it provides a means to become more worldly by presenting topics that one would not normally read about or take the effort. But scanning the newspaper page, watching the news and listening help inform on other topics because so little effort is required (i.e., traditional media is "push" - the information right there and all you have to do is process it or glance over or something).
I suppose it's sad that some people are glad to be rid of traditional media and only hear the news they are interested in (e.g., technology) and live inside that little bubble of knowledge. I personally wouldn't read about Egypt online, or sports, but I hear news about it through traditional sources to make me at least know what's going on.
History repeats itself, and there's a large group of people who seem content in missing out repetitions because their narrow views meant they missed news of the event the first time around.
Going by sales of the iPhone 4, a lot. And the number of people who update to the latest is huge as well.
And the way iPhone updates are handled, it's effectively a reformat of the filesystem - iTunes backs up your data and apps, then proceeds to wipe the filesystem partitions and formats them. It then sends the new filesystem image over (the ipsw is just a DMG file), waits for the iPhone to reboot and then iTunes restores the apps and backup.
If you watch your iPhone carefully, it reboots several times during the process, including after the restoration sync.
Apple does this to avoid issues related to updating - as a backup is obtained by iTunes (apps are reinstalled, data is backed up and restored), it's far easier to do a clean install than an incremental update. It's also why the IPSW updates are so freaking huge - it's a reinstall of the whole OS (FYI - it's bigger than Windows XP's install media these days).
It avoids issues of old files confusing the new OS (always a problem with incremental updates), missed files, the effort creating a delta, etc. It also lets the user start from scratch again - a lot of issues that get reported turn out to be fixed if you don't restore the backup (like the proximity sensor). And it means a tool can wipe the entire media when you sell it, and iTunes can put in a fresh OS for the new owner.
You jest, but it's likely the change diables Autorun by default rather than actually removes it. Removing (or adding) features is a difficult task, especially in Windows. Things can break in the oddest places when you remove the code. Heck, it's so bad that Microsoft will often do binary-patches rather than re-link executables (apparently they've been burned by relinking and processor errata).
Plus, who knows how many companies require Autorun to actually work for some of their processes. Scary, but true.
Heck, we're bound to see people complain about the new default off setting.
Especially outgoing leaders. The economy of Egypt has stalled, badly now because of all the protests, and many industries will take awhile to recover (tourism, especially, and the looting of artifacts isn't helping), plus a few well-placed bombs on oil equipment and whoever's the next leader will have to contend with a country with zero economic output ability, no money (the government will continue to pay everyone still working until the treasury's depleted, including the military - once all the money's gone/embezzeled/ztolen, the government will collapse), and a hungry populace.
Basically, a scorched earth policy. The only upside is if you're rich and wanted some Egyptian artifacts for your private collection.
I think around the furniture folks, that could be what's considered "artistic" and "designer", thus raising the price of your sofa by 10x!
10 years ago, a good chunk of gaming was done on PCs because consoles were crap - standard def, too-small TVs, and the like, so people bought nice high-end PCs and invested in them. Dropping $2000+ on a PC wasn't unheard of nor unusual.
These days, spending more than $500 on a PC is very unusual - only Apple and PC gamers do that stuff, and really, it's no surprise why. And that $500 gets you a monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers and other accessories.
Who's the #1 graphics chip maker in the world? It's not nVidia or AMD, it's Intel. (Sure, nVidia and AMD have the discrete graphics market, but that's a really tiny chunk of the whole PC market). When PC prices plummeted below $1000 and then below $500 (and laptops became "netbooks" below $500) manufacturers know that the average PC buyer cares about Gigs (hard drive space), Gigs (RAM) and Gigs (CPU GHz). Nowhere do they really care about graphics - after all, Windows does just fine on Intel graphics, and that's all the user sees.
The higher end PCs with discrete graphics sell far less, even one with a low-end graphics may be considered a gaming PC (and little Jonny's mom and pop aren't buy a PC for games, oh no, they want so Jonny can work).
PC gaming is huge - after all, FarmVille and the like don't require super high end ultimate graphics chips and many popular indie tities have lightweight requirements that even the cheapest of netbooks can play them.
The problem is, as we all know, Intel graphics are crap (though they're supposed to get better now with nVidia), and can barely do 1080p video decoding and high-def gaming.
So people buy a console as well - and with HDTV, they get high-def and on the big ol' 52" HDTV versus their 17"/20" PC monitor (or whatever is free these days). They could buy it on a PC as well (it's easy enough to do), but that requires spending money buying more PC - they could build/configure a great PC for $600, but that's over the "cap" of PC prices of $500. (Everyone gasps at the price of a $1000 MacBook Air, comparing it to a $300 netbook (despite better graphics (Intel vs nVidia) and CPU (Core2Duo is old, but runs rings around Atom), SSD, RAM, etc.).
Hell, I tried to convince someone to spend $1000 to buy a decent laptop and they balked.
No, it's not consoles limiting graphics of games - it's PCs themselves. The number of people with high end $600+ video cards (or probably any nVidia or AMD graphics cards of the past say 4 years) is very small compared to the total PC market. And we know PC gaming is larger than console gaming, but they're all for games that can play on the #1 video card on the market.
And developers go for the money - there are more console gamers out there than hardcore PC gamers with power graphics cards (and the willingness to upgrade yearly or so) - even though there are more PC gamers in general. Other than that, consoles and PCs are pretty much plug-and-play (and Sony's making the PS3 a PC experience with installers, EULAs, serial keys, online DRM, oh my).
I'm guessing if you're doing it that way it's fine, but if you're using the Last.FM app itself, then you'll have to pay. If you leave it at default it'll just take you to the appropriate place to download the app. If you fake the browser ID you get the desktop page which can take forever to render and the flash thing can be as slow as anything (and thusly drain your battery faster).