a frequent trick that should have been abandoned in the playground
Why would debaters abandon it? It works.
It isn't exactly a sign of civilisation guys - it's just barbarians shouting at the moon to see who is loudest.
I think the problem isn't that people are using it - it's that it works.
We need to encourage logical and critical thinking, both of which are sorely lacking in most of population. When name-calling stops being effective, it will stop being used.
Good luck with that, most humans aren't terribly smart.
It seems to me that many Americans have become so self-centered with the constitutional rights we do have that we have started to claim rights we do not.
The Constitution is not a list of every right that ever existed or ever will. It's a document detailing what limited rights the people/states have given to the federal government; then to be extra clear, specifically mentions that the feds are not allowed to do certain things (Bill of Rights).
Let me repeat that: It's a list of rights that we give to the federal government, plus some specific restrictions on the feds. Not a list of *our* rights.
There is no constitutional right to privacy.
The Constitution doesn't give us a right to privacy or anything else - it doesn't grant rights, only recognizes some of them and specifically tells the federal government not to infringe those rights. It also says that not all rights are listed, but they still exist.
We have our rights by being born, both those specifically recognized in the Constitution and those not (like privacy). When people talk about constitutional rights, they would be more correct to say "constitutionally-recognized rights".
There is no constitutional right to having healthcare. There is no constitutional right to having a job. There is no constitutional right to an education. You want those things? You earn them. The "pursuit" has been dropped from "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
You have the right to pursue these things, yes. They are not provided by the government, nor does current law say it should, so.. we don't.
Whether or not they should be provided by the federal government is debated. If the people want these things, the laws can be changed to support it (including a Constitutional amendment if required).
Unfortunately, people are idiots, ad hominem attacks do work, and "Think of the children! Why do you hate children? Are you a pedophile?" frequently does more to discount your argument to a crowd than any logical, well debated argument.
"Ethos is an appeal to the authority or honesty of the speaker. It is how well the speaker convinces the audience that he or she is qualified to speak on the particular subject."
Obviously the reverse is true - convince the audience that the speaker is unauthoritative and/or untrustworthy, and they probably won't listen.
If Charles Manson solved cold fusion tomorrow, nobody would listen to him, regardless of whether it works or not.
Unfortunately many people today (as always) gauge speakers in terms of how their favorite speaker gauges the other speaker. "My favorite pastor/politician/stockbroker/rapper said $otherguy is good/bad, therefore I will/won't listen to him". To do otherwise would be to disagree with someone you've been agreeing with - and if you question their latest decision, it opens the door to questioning their previous decisions (and your decision to follow those decisions). Most people don't like questioning; they just want to do the right/best/awesome thing. To do that, they first need someone to tell them what's right.
Just the ability to communicate ideas is massive... and a skill that just doesn't seem to be taught any more.
It also... seems... to be frequently... forgotten... considering that unless you're... William Shatner.. you... have too many... ellipses in your... post.:)
The OP didn't mention programming. Of course people get a programming job because they enjoy it, but if you're still doing it for a living after 15 to 20 years, it's probably not because it's what you enjoy doing most.
Do you have any kind of logic or experience to support that statement?
"Hey, I really love programming, and I've been doing it for a few years now.. guess it's time to switch to something I don't enjoy, like project management!"
However, I'm reluctant to start restricting our ability to share possibly life-saving data, in an efficient fashion, out of fear of our broken health insurance system.
Anyone with relevant life-saving data to provide to a doctor usually already has it hanging on their wrist or neck.
These work even when the victim's wallet is stolen (no ID). A centralized database does not, unless you plan to also have a fingerprint/DNA identification database.
So: $5 solution, works for people that need it, no privacy implications vs huge government database costing billions that is a huge target for misuse (insurance companies denying you benefits, employers not hiring you based on medical history, private information on people leaked to the press, witch hunts of HIV positive people, etc).
For those that dislike SIP please note that without NAT SIP works very well
The majority of users today are behind NAT (or in private address space with application proxies to talk to the world), so this isn't a terribly compelling argument.
and NAT == Evil things should get better in IPv6 since NAT should never be needed again.
IPv6 is awesome, but it isn't eliminating IPv4 any time soon (read: next 10 years). So dealing with NAT will remain a problem.
That said, since this is a business product meant to integrate with PBXes, the PBX maintainer should be able to deal with obtaining a separate IP or doing port forwarding.
And whats in it for skype? Lots of talk about "billions of dollars" in the article, which at 2 cents billable per minute, would only take something like 95000 call-years to gross a single billion.
Assuming all calls are to the US or a landline. Have you tried calling an EU mobile phone? A quarter a minute.
If 1% of those active people are talking to an EU mobile phone, that's 14 million x $0.25 x 1440 minutes/day x 1% = $50.4 million per day. So in other words, $1.5 billion a month.
Alternatively, if 10% are talking to a US phone (at $0.02/minute), that's 14 million x $0.02 x 1440 minutes/day x 10% = $40.3 million per day, or $1.2 billion a month.
Go ahead and divide my estimates by 10 (so 0.1% calling an EU mobile phone, OR 1% calling a US phone) and that's still $1.2 - $1.5 billion every 10 months. Alternatively - 0.05% calling an EU mobile phone AND 0.5% calling a US phone phone also gives you $1.2 - $1.5 billion every 10 months.
This doesn't count calls to weird expensive places (Solomon Islands $ 1.153), SkypeIn ($60/year plus per-minute fees from the calling telco), SMSes, or any other wacky stuff they can dream up.
So yeah, billions. Ebay bought Skype for $2.6 billion or so FYI. They're not stupid.
Interestingly, one of the rumours for the summer is a new hardware version - with video. They released summer 07 and summer 08; I'd be surprised if they didn't put out a new hardware version this summer.
New device strings have been found in the firmware (which isn't that reliable) but more telling, retailers have been unloading their existing stock and not getting more.
What I mean, is that to pay with credit cards, from what I know, you only need the data that is written right on the card. And maybe sign the payment, like you sign any contract... Is that really how it works? Because if yes, then why in the word does anyone even consider using something like that?
That's really how it works.
From the consumer perspective: If my card is stolen, my maximum liability is $50 or less. It's usually $0. It's annoying to have your card stolen and put a stop on everything, but it's also very rare. It's very, very convenient to pay by credit card.
From the bank perspective: Paying out the fraud is cheaper than paying for anti-fraud infrastructure (chip and PIN for example).
How do I do a conference call on my blackberry (ie add a second party into a call)? That's a pretty useful business function and I don't think it exists on a blackberry
Most phones and carriers support 3 way calling, even if it's not obvious how to do it. The carriers like it because it lets them bill you for double airtime.
Googling "blackberry 3 way calling" gave these. Obviously the specifics depend on your exact device; you should check your phone's manual and/or the carrier's instructions.
1. Dial your first call using the address book or dial it with the keypad, or await someone else calling.
2. When the two lines are connected, press the Talk button, or the green call button.
3. On this screen, type the name or number you want to call. Then press the Talk button again.
4. Once you are connected with the third line, press the Menu button.
5. Once the window is opened, press the option that says, Join.
6. The two calls are now connected.
7. To disconnect from one caller but not the other, press the Menu button again.
8. Go to the End Call option.
9. A new screen will pop up asking you who you want to disconnect.
10. Chose the caller you would like to disconnect.
11. You have disconnected them.
To initiate a three-way call from your BlackBerry:
1. On the home screen, click phone.
2. Click the trackwheel, and select new call.
3. Highlight a contact, click the trackwheel and select call.
4. While the first contact is highlighted, click the trackwheel and select hold.
5. Click the trackwheel and select new call.
6. Select the second recipient, click the trackwheel, and select call.
7. After you're connected to the second call, click the trackwheel and select join.
8. To add more callers to the conference, repeat Steps 4 through 7.
9. Terminate the conference call as you would a phone call.
We have plenty of nuclear fuel: There won't ever be a nuclear fuel crisis because before we've used the enrichable uranium ore, and then reprocessed and reused all of the nuclear waste in our breeder reactors, the sun will be dead.
Reprocessing has nuclear proliferation treaty problems. Technically it's sound.
(I don't own an iPhone, but would if it weren't for the restrictions)
I've jailbroken my phone and tried out just about everything out there. At some point I went back to stock firmware, because I wasn't using any of the third party apps. Woohoo, I can SSH to my phone.. so what? I can install 60 gabillion different Springboard replacements that crash my phone.. no thanks. Anything I'd actually want to use has moved to the App Store.
a third party does make an app which works reasonably well for video recording. It'll record up to 45 frames per second (based in ambient light so they say), and encode to mpeg4 with in real time, and allow you to upload to Youtube from the phone once you're done recording. It costs $25, but Apple won't allow them to sell on their app server, because of various lame reasons.
Really? If you're talking about http://www.iphonevideorecorder.com/ it boasts a frame rate of "up to" 15 fps. It supports realtime compression OR mpeg4, not both. It does upload to Youtube. The iPhone's processor isn't powerful enough to do realtime mpeg4 compression.
There's also another free project which records to mjpeg at up to 15 frames/sec (which is actually reasonably smooth for most things), but to use any of these third party apps you have to jailbreak your phone...
I believe you're talking about Cycorder here. Again "up to" 15 fps. I've tried Cycorder. The video quality is horrendous. The worst part is that the frame rate isn't constant. Constant 8 fps would be better than it jumping around between 8 and 15 fps. It's a neat hack, and I'm sure it was fun for the developers, but it's not something I'd use day to day.
You know why they both say "up to" 15 fps? It's a hardware limitation, not bad programming or restrictions from Apple. The camera was not designed to take video.
However, that you have to do anything at all to achieve what should have been basic functionality (it must have not been that difficult afterall) out of a luxury item like this... It's discouraging to say the least.
It's not difficult to get crappy 8 fps video from a still camera. It is hard to get: 1. a consistent frame rate 2. realtime decent compression 3. video that doesn't look like dog turds
The physical camera itself is just not designed for video. Every frame take a variable length of time so you can't get a constant frame rate, and it doesn't take frames fast enough for video.
To do video right, Apple would need to add physical hardware to the phone: 1. An actual video camera, not a still camera 2. A hardware compression chip
Feel free to argue that this hardware should have been in there in the first place, but then that would have driven up the cost and delayed availability.
If/when they add an actual video camera and compression hardware, I personally would rather they added a front-facing video camera for videoconferencing.
It's not that there's some perfect solution out there that Apple's not allowing. There's junk out there that would frustrate and annoy people more than make them happy. The solutions available through jailbreak suck, and the availability of a crappy solution would mean people would try to make it work instead of dealing with the limitations of no video (by taking still pictures, or bringing a separate video camera).
The user should be in control of their phone and who is allowed to get through to them. As it is now tele marketers can ruin you life:D.
You can add telemarketer numbers to one contact (call it "telemarketers" even), then set that contact to have a custom ringtone of silence. Then your phone won't ring when they call (it will vibrate if you have that set).
Also, telemarketers are not supposed to call cell phones. Answer once and tell them its a cell phone; they should take you off their list. I'm surprised you get any calls at all unless you transferred the number from a land line.
I wholeheartedly disagree with this. It can be really frustrating to try to work with something that almost meets your needs, but you spend more time trying to get the tool to do what you want than actually using the tool to do anything productive.
Given the existence of the crappy tool, you'll spend untold time trying to use it, instead of spending that time with alternatives that would actually meet your needs. You're constantly disappointed with the tool, the toolmaker is frustrated with the complaints, and everyone is all around pissed off.
Going without a tool and dealing its lack can be a better experience than constantly struggling with a crappy tool.
Offtopic: Replace "tool" with "partner" in the above for a sad commentary on human relationships.
Still, there are managers that absolutely need an iphone -- if company infrastructure is in the way then company infrastructure must be changed.
I can't think of any reason someone would need an iPhone specifically instead of a smartphone in general. Blackberries do everything an iPhone does (including playing music). The iPhone does many things *better* in my opinion, but there is no lack of functionality in using another smartphone.
According to the few people I know who have an ipod touch, it's not so much the paying for new functionality, it's the paying for new functionality that other people get for free on their iphone.
So basically, they resent being second-class citizens.
It's not so much the paying for the drink, it's the paying for the drink that other people get for free in First Class.
So basically, they resent being second-class passengers.
Never mind that both "second-class" consumers would scream bloody murder if the price was increased $10 to cover their "free" thing.
If you don't like American taxes, and you don't live or work in the United States of America...then become a citizen of where you live and work. It's called immigration and it's generally not that hard to do if you already live and work in another country.
Ex-Americans are taxed by the US for something like 5 years after they give up their citizenship. The idea is to prevent people changing their citizenship just to avoid taxes.
One previously common method of authentication was call-back. You give the site your phone number, then then site calls you (and you press a digit, or answer with your modem).
Nowadays the equivilent is SMS. When they sign up, have them put in their cell number to receive an SMS, then require them to enter that code to continue. You can send SMSes via email for most carriers, so no equipment on your end. Only allow SMSes to your area code and local carriers. For people without cell phones, have them enter their landline phone number and then have a human call them.
with more and more graphics tasks being completely offloaded to the GPU, you often benefit from a new GPU even when the CPU isn't upgraded.
some benefit != full effects. You will indeed benefit; you just may not be able to use the full capacity of the GPU/CPU since the other is holding it back.
an Apple authorized reseller
Were they an authorized service shop too?
I have very little respect for repair shops these days
"12 years ago I had a bad experience with one shop, so I have no respect for repair shops. I take care of my own equipment now." "12 years ago I had a bad experience with one member of the opposite sex, so I have no respect for members of the opposite sex. I take care of my own equipment now."
Sounds silly to me.
I diagnosed that their diagnosis was wrong (they said it was most likely the motherboard, but the PSU may also be bad and a couple of minutes with a multimeter showed that the PSU was unquestionably having issues)
"most likely"/"may" != "definitely"/"not"
So, they identified the most likely issues, and wanted to swap out components to test their theory. Repair shops will often give you the worst case scenario - it's a lot easier to present a $300 bill when the estimate was $750, instead of a $750 bill on a $300 estimate.
These numbers do sound crazy, but then again in 1997 how many shops in your area were servicing Apple computers? Did they charge a premium because, good or bad, they were the only game in town?
There definitely are bad shops that rip people off, and your experience may have been one of them. There are also a lot of good shops, but you don't hear about them because they're nothing special. "Hai guys I went to a repair shop and they installed a new hard drive for me for a reasonable price. It worked and I was happy, the end." isn't interesting, and doesn't motivate people to write about it. Only the outliers (exceptionally good service, or bad service) get talked about.
2. Too dangerous to work on inside. The iMac is technically user-servicable but there's no way I'd risk doing it myself. PC innards are built like tanks and the iMac looks like it's built out of aluminum foil, tissue paper and dreams. I'd rather let the Mac store people risk breaking it and buy me a new one than do anything myself. I'd be much happier with a more robust design but understand that twinky-dink laptop parts is how they make it fit in such a small package.
Look at a Mac Pro some time. It's a tank++ and upgrading memory/hard drive/GPU is a snap - literally. Okay, more of a noiseless slide, but you get the idea.:)
The idea with the iMac and mini is that you don't need/want to open it up. Disk/network/sound/etc can all be upgraded through USB/Firewire if need be. The only thing upgradable that requires opening the shell is memory, which is indeed time consuming and intricate to get at (I've done it). Still, the target consumers of iMacs/minis are non-techies, who don't want to do it themselves in the first place.
I stopped really upgrading my machines a few years ago (around the AGP->PCI-E transition), because every upgrade would require an upgrade of every other component. This CPU needs a certain type of motherboard, which needs a certain type of RAM - they all have to go together. A GPU upgrade without a CPU upgrade doesn't get the full effect, and vice versa. Since upgrading for speed stopped being worthwhile, the only upgrades are for capacity. With that model, I buy my machines with full memory at the beginning, and then eventually add disk if needed. Every few years I sell the old machine and buy a new one, and the price of the new machine minus the sell price of the old machine is about the same as upgrading would have been.
Computers are becoming consumer items. You don't build a desktop, you buy model A B or C. You don't build servers, you buy a DL385 or a PowerEdge 2980 and slap it in the rack. This is a good thing IMHO.
Dillon v. Champion Jogbra is one of the many cases where courts have said that companies cannot imply you have some form of job security and then ignore that./blockquote Interesting.
All the information I can Google about that case says that the court reversed a summary judgement, not that she won. In other words, whether or not she was at-will (page 1 of their employee handbook) or the employer had some procedures to follow before firing her (the rest of the handbook) was left up to the jury (and still undecided). The company could still win.
If their handbook had been more consistent - for example, "the punishment for x is y, OR IMMEDIATE DISMISSAL" on every clause, they probably would have been ok.
So if he employee handbook lists reasons for firing, they would have to find a way to make "refusing to take a pay cut" something you can be fired for; probably just call it insubordination.
I haven't seen an employee handbook yet that didn't contain a clause stating that you can be fired at any time for any reason, or for no reason. (I've only worked in at-will states)
What's annoying is when corporations Don't let you improve process. "You must do it this way, even though it takes 6 hours, and you found a way to do it in 1." It's stifling.
That's when you secretly automate it and use the extra 5 hours to troll Slashdot, all while claiming it still takes 6.
Slashdot Mirror
Why would debaters abandon it? It works.
I think the problem isn't that people are using it - it's that it works.
We need to encourage logical and critical thinking, both of which are sorely lacking in most of population. When name-calling stops being effective, it will stop being used.
Good luck with that, most humans aren't terribly smart.
The Constitution is not a list of every right that ever existed or ever will. It's a document detailing what limited rights the people/states have given to the federal government; then to be extra clear, specifically mentions that the feds are not allowed to do certain things (Bill of Rights).
Let me repeat that: It's a list of rights that we give to the federal government, plus some specific restrictions on the feds. Not a list of *our* rights.
The Constitution doesn't give us a right to privacy or anything else - it doesn't grant rights, only recognizes some of them and specifically tells the federal government not to infringe those rights. It also says that not all rights are listed, but they still exist.
We have our rights by being born, both those specifically recognized in the Constitution and those not (like privacy).
When people talk about constitutional rights, they would be more correct to say "constitutionally-recognized rights".
You have the right to pursue these things, yes. They are not provided by the government, nor does current law say it should, so.. we don't.
Whether or not they should be provided by the federal government is debated. If the people want these things, the laws can be changed to support it (including a Constitutional amendment if required).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modes_of_persuasion
"Ethos is an appeal to the authority or honesty of the speaker. It is how well the speaker convinces the audience that he or she is qualified to speak on the particular subject."
Obviously the reverse is true - convince the audience that the speaker is unauthoritative and/or untrustworthy, and they probably won't listen.
If Charles Manson solved cold fusion tomorrow, nobody would listen to him, regardless of whether it works or not.
Unfortunately many people today (as always) gauge speakers in terms of how their favorite speaker gauges the other speaker. "My favorite pastor/politician/stockbroker/rapper said $otherguy is good/bad, therefore I will/won't listen to him". To do otherwise would be to disagree with someone you've been agreeing with - and if you question their latest decision, it opens the door to questioning their previous decisions (and your decision to follow those decisions). Most people don't like questioning; they just want to do the right/best/awesome thing. To do that, they first need someone to tell them what's right.
It also... seems... to be frequently... forgotten... considering that unless you're... William Shatner.. you... have too many... ellipses in your... post. :)
Do you have any kind of logic or experience to support that statement?
"Hey, I really love programming, and I've been doing it for a few years now.. guess it's time to switch to something I don't enjoy, like project management!"
Or Snow Crash.
Anyone with relevant life-saving data to provide to a doctor usually already has it hanging on their wrist or neck.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medic_alert_bracelet
These work even when the victim's wallet is stolen (no ID). A centralized database does not, unless you plan to also have a fingerprint/DNA identification database.
So:
$5 solution, works for people that need it, no privacy implications
vs
huge government database costing billions that is a huge target for misuse (insurance companies denying you benefits, employers not hiring you based on medical history, private information on people leaked to the press, witch hunts of HIV positive people, etc).
The majority of users today are behind NAT (or in private address space with application proxies to talk to the world), so this isn't a terribly compelling argument.
IPv6 is awesome, but it isn't eliminating IPv4 any time soon (read: next 10 years). So dealing with NAT will remain a problem.
That said, since this is a business product meant to integrate with PBXes, the PBX maintainer should be able to deal with obtaining a separate IP or doing port forwarding.
Assuming all calls are to the US or a landline. Have you tried calling an EU mobile phone? A quarter a minute.
http://www.skype.com/prices/callrates/#allRatesTab
United Kingdom - Mobile - Vodafone $ 0.253
Germany - Mobile Tmobil $ 0.246
Let's do some math!
Estimate of about 14 million concurrent users on Skype: http://glimfeather.com/borderless/OnlineNow.htm
If 1% of those active people are talking to an EU mobile phone, that's 14 million x $0.25 x 1440 minutes/day x 1% = $50.4 million per day. So in other words, $1.5 billion a month.
Alternatively, if 10% are talking to a US phone (at $0.02/minute), that's 14 million x $0.02 x 1440 minutes/day x 10% = $40.3 million per day, or $1.2 billion a month.
Go ahead and divide my estimates by 10 (so 0.1% calling an EU mobile phone, OR 1% calling a US phone) and that's still $1.2 - $1.5 billion every 10 months. Alternatively - 0.05% calling an EU mobile phone AND 0.5% calling a US phone phone also gives you $1.2 - $1.5 billion every 10 months.
This doesn't count calls to weird expensive places (Solomon Islands $ 1.153), SkypeIn ($60/year plus per-minute fees from the calling telco), SMSes, or any other wacky stuff they can dream up.
So yeah, billions. Ebay bought Skype for $2.6 billion or so FYI. They're not stupid.
Interestingly, one of the rumours for the summer is a new hardware version - with video. They released summer 07 and summer 08; I'd be surprised if they didn't put out a new hardware version this summer.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/03/20/source_apples_next_gen_iphone_has_video_camera.html
New device strings have been found in the firmware (which isn't that reliable) but more telling, retailers have been unloading their existing stock and not getting more.
That's really how it works.
From the consumer perspective:
If my card is stolen, my maximum liability is $50 or less. It's usually $0. It's annoying to have your card stolen and put a stop on everything, but it's also very rare.
It's very, very convenient to pay by credit card.
From the bank perspective:
Paying out the fraud is cheaper than paying for anti-fraud infrastructure (chip and PIN for example).
Most phones and carriers support 3 way calling, even if it's not obvious how to do it. The carriers like it because it lets them bill you for double airtime.
Googling "blackberry 3 way calling" gave these. Obviously the specifics depend on your exact device; you should check your phone's manual and/or the carrier's instructions.
http://www.wikihow.com/Three-Way-Call-With-Your-Blackberry
1. Dial your first call using the address book or dial it with the keypad, or await someone else calling.
2. When the two lines are connected, press the Talk button, or the green call button.
3. On this screen, type the name or number you want to call. Then press the Talk button again.
4. Once you are connected with the third line, press the Menu button.
5. Once the window is opened, press the option that says, Join.
6. The two calls are now connected.
7. To disconnect from one caller but not the other, press the Menu button again.
8. Go to the End Call option.
9. A new screen will pop up asking you who you want to disconnect.
10. Chose the caller you would like to disconnect.
11. You have disconnected them.
http://communication.howstuffworks.com/host-conference-call-using-your-mobile-device1.htm
To initiate a three-way call from your BlackBerry:
1. On the home screen, click phone.
2. Click the trackwheel, and select new call.
3. Highlight a contact, click the trackwheel and select call.
4. While the first contact is highlighted, click the trackwheel and select hold.
5. Click the trackwheel and select new call.
6. Select the second recipient, click the trackwheel, and select call.
7. After you're connected to the second call, click the trackwheel and select join.
8. To add more callers to the conference, repeat Steps 4 through 7.
9. Terminate the conference call as you would a phone call.
Reprocessing has nuclear proliferation treaty problems. Technically it's sound.
We could also switch to thorium: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium#Thorium_as_a_nuclear_fuel
We have about 4x as much thorium as uranium.
I've jailbroken my phone and tried out just about everything out there. At some point I went back to stock firmware, because I wasn't using any of the third party apps. Woohoo, I can SSH to my phone.. so what? I can install 60 gabillion different Springboard replacements that crash my phone.. no thanks. Anything I'd actually want to use has moved to the App Store.
Really? If you're talking about http://www.iphonevideorecorder.com/ it boasts a frame rate of "up to" 15 fps. It supports realtime compression OR mpeg4, not both. It does upload to Youtube. The iPhone's processor isn't powerful enough to do realtime mpeg4 compression.
I believe you're talking about Cycorder here.
Again "up to" 15 fps. I've tried Cycorder. The video quality is horrendous. The worst part is that the frame rate isn't constant. Constant 8 fps would be better than it jumping around between 8 and 15 fps. It's a neat hack, and I'm sure it was fun for the developers, but it's not something I'd use day to day.
You know why they both say "up to" 15 fps? It's a hardware limitation, not bad programming or restrictions from Apple. The camera was not designed to take video.
It's not difficult to get crappy 8 fps video from a still camera. It is hard to get:
1. a consistent frame rate
2. realtime decent compression
3. video that doesn't look like dog turds
The physical camera itself is just not designed for video. Every frame take a variable length of time so you can't get a constant frame rate, and it doesn't take frames fast enough for video.
To do video right, Apple would need to add physical hardware to the phone:
1. An actual video camera, not a still camera
2. A hardware compression chip
Feel free to argue that this hardware should have been in there in the first place, but then that would have driven up the cost and delayed availability.
If/when they add an actual video camera and compression hardware, I personally would rather they added a front-facing video camera for videoconferencing.
It's not that there's some perfect solution out there that Apple's not allowing. There's junk out there that would frustrate and annoy people more than make them happy. The solutions available through jailbreak suck, and the availability of a crappy solution would mean people would try to make it work instead of dealing with the limitations of no video (by taking still pictures, or bringing a separate video camera).
You can add telemarketer numbers to one contact (call it "telemarketers" even), then set that contact to have a custom ringtone of silence. Then your phone won't ring when they call (it will vibrate if you have that set).
Also, telemarketers are not supposed to call cell phones. Answer once and tell them its a cell phone; they should take you off their list. I'm surprised you get any calls at all unless you transferred the number from a land line.
I wholeheartedly disagree with this. It can be really frustrating to try to work with something that almost meets your needs, but you spend more time trying to get the tool to do what you want than actually using the tool to do anything productive.
Given the existence of the crappy tool, you'll spend untold time trying to use it, instead of spending that time with alternatives that would actually meet your needs. You're constantly disappointed with the tool, the toolmaker is frustrated with the complaints, and everyone is all around pissed off.
Going without a tool and dealing its lack can be a better experience than constantly struggling with a crappy tool.
Offtopic: Replace "tool" with "partner" in the above for a sad commentary on human relationships.
I can't think of any reason someone would need an iPhone specifically instead of a smartphone in general. Blackberries do everything an iPhone does (including playing music). The iPhone does many things *better* in my opinion, but there is no lack of functionality in using another smartphone.
It's not so much the paying for the drink, it's the paying for the drink that other people get for free in First Class.
So basically, they resent being second-class passengers.
Never mind that both "second-class" consumers would scream bloody murder if the price was increased $10 to cover their "free" thing.
Ex-Americans are taxed by the US for something like 5 years after they give up their citizenship. The idea is to prevent people changing their citizenship just to avoid taxes.
One previously common method of authentication was call-back. You give the site your phone number, then then site calls you (and you press a digit, or answer with your modem).
Nowadays the equivilent is SMS. When they sign up, have them put in their cell number to receive an SMS, then require them to enter that code to continue. You can send SMSes via email for most carriers, so no equipment on your end. Only allow SMSes to your area code and local carriers. For people without cell phones, have them enter their landline phone number and then have a human call them.
some benefit != full effects. You will indeed benefit; you just may not be able to use the full capacity of the GPU/CPU since the other is holding it back.
Were they an authorized service shop too?
"12 years ago I had a bad experience with one shop, so I have no respect for repair shops. I take care of my own equipment now."
"12 years ago I had a bad experience with one member of the opposite sex, so I have no respect for members of the opposite sex. I take care of my own equipment now."
Sounds silly to me.
"most likely"/"may" != "definitely"/"not"
So, they identified the most likely issues, and wanted to swap out components to test their theory. Repair shops will often give you the worst case scenario - it's a lot easier to present a $300 bill when the estimate was $750, instead of a $750 bill on a $300 estimate.
These numbers do sound crazy, but then again in 1997 how many shops in your area were servicing Apple computers? Did they charge a premium because, good or bad, they were the only game in town?
There definitely are bad shops that rip people off, and your experience may have been one of them. There are also a lot of good shops, but you don't hear about them because they're nothing special. "Hai guys I went to a repair shop and they installed a new hard drive for me for a reasonable price. It worked and I was happy, the end." isn't interesting, and doesn't motivate people to write about it. Only the outliers (exceptionally good service, or bad service) get talked about.
Look at a Mac Pro some time. It's a tank++ and upgrading memory/hard drive/GPU is a snap - literally. Okay, more of a noiseless slide, but you get the idea. :)
The idea with the iMac and mini is that you don't need/want to open it up. Disk/network/sound/etc can all be upgraded through USB/Firewire if need be. The only thing upgradable that requires opening the shell is memory, which is indeed time consuming and intricate to get at (I've done it). Still, the target consumers of iMacs/minis are non-techies, who don't want to do it themselves in the first place.
I stopped really upgrading my machines a few years ago (around the AGP->PCI-E transition), because every upgrade would require an upgrade of every other component. This CPU needs a certain type of motherboard, which needs a certain type of RAM - they all have to go together. A GPU upgrade without a CPU upgrade doesn't get the full effect, and vice versa. Since upgrading for speed stopped being worthwhile, the only upgrades are for capacity. With that model, I buy my machines with full memory at the beginning, and then eventually add disk if needed. Every few years I sell the old machine and buy a new one, and the price of the new machine minus the sell price of the old machine is about the same as upgrading would have been.
Computers are becoming consumer items. You don't build a desktop, you buy model A B or C. You don't build servers, you buy a DL385 or a PowerEdge 2980 and slap it in the rack. This is a good thing IMHO.
I haven't seen an employee handbook yet that didn't contain a clause stating that you can be fired at any time for any reason, or for no reason. (I've only worked in at-will states)
That's when you secretly automate it and use the extra 5 hours to troll Slashdot, all while claiming it still takes 6.