Mod parent up. Installing DX9 is required to make Civilization 4 (and several other games) work on Windows 7. This is apparently due to missing DLLs which are not included with DX11 but are included with DX9. The whole concept of backward compatibility is a joke with DX.
I should point out that most GSM phone manufacturers now make it very difficult to enable Field Test mode -- to the point of even removing the functionality from phones. Nokia is one example of a GSM phone manufacturer that has done so. So your claim that field test is "enabled on virtually any GSM phone" is false. I should know as I used to be a field testing geek until I could not longer purchase a suitable GSM/UMTS phone to do field testing with.
Obvious solution: Virtual box under linux will let you run whatever windows you want. Its graphic drivers are not good enough for most new 3D games (yet), but it certainly will let you do online banking...
Or switch to a bank that allows you to use open-source software. If my bank told me that I could only do my banking with a certain browser I would be moving my business elsewhere.
I find it interesting that all the banks in New Zealand, where I live, supports (even if only unofficially) Firefox, Chrome, et al for their internet banking. Why do banks in other countries not do the same?
I'm not sure how debit cards work outside of New Zealand, however here in New Zealand it is impossible to use a debit card without entering in a PIN code to authenticate yourself to the terminal. In other words signing off a debit card transaction isn't possible. So if a bank were to post a pre-activated card out to a customer, there's no security risk since the customer would have picked a PIN code when they originally signed up for the card in the branch.
I'm with the ANZ Bank here in New Zealand and they post out replacement debit cards with the PIN already assigned to the card. As far as I know the PIN isn't loaded on the card itself. The bank just adds a record on their side saying this new card has the same PIN as the previous card. No security risk since only me and the bank's debit card system knows my PIN number. Someone stealing my card would have to guess my PIN.
Perhaps this is not the case outside of NZ. However I personally think the 'signature required' type of transaction should be withdrawn, leaving PIN as the only authentication method. We in New Zealand have managed to do without signature transactions for debit card transactions since EFTPOS was introduced in the 1980's.
Signature authentication is only allowed for Visa/MC/Amex credit transactions since NZ based merchants have to accept foreign cards which allow signature required transactions. So basically we only allow signature required transactions due to having to keep that security loophole open to allow foreigners to pay for goods and services in NZ.
From some people's point of view, filing a bug report for a feature like using the built in spell check is like filing a bug report with Ford suggesting they add a glove box to the front of the vehicle. It's a feature that Mac users expect from a native Mac application -- if it's not there then many Mac users will just drag the app to the bin.
I do agree that people should file reports for bugs, but there are some types of bugs which shouldn't happen at all in a production release. The fact Chrome does pretty well (despite only launching recently) suggest that there needs to be some changes in the direction of Mac development at Opera. For example, actually employing Mac OS X usability experts to polish up the GUI would be a good first step.
I think you're missing the big picture. The Mac port of Opera is very poorly designed -- with lots of really minor issues which, all added up, make the experience of using Opera on the mac worse than even Firefox. Look at Chrome for a better port -- they made a lot of effort to ensure that Chrome blended in well with the Mac environment. The result is very good -- to the point that Chrome looks and feels like a native browser.
Opera has had a Mac port for a long time now, so filing a bug report about a minor issue like not using the built-in spellcheck seems pointless to me -- Opera seems to not care about the little issues which stands out like a sore thumb to people who have actually sat down and tried using Opera on the Mac.
It's interesting to note that out of the three cellular networks here in New Zealand, the one with Huawei equipment (i.e. 2degrees) operates the most reliable network. Vodafone with their Nokia GSM/UMTS network has issues a few times a year and Telecom with their Alactel-Lucent UMTS network suffered multiple massive days-long outages during the end of last year and early tis year. 2degrees has operated flawlessly since they launched.
3G coverage is spotty and often completely unusable.
Outside the US in countries that actually built out decent 3G networks, coverage is pretty good and usable. Here in New Zealand we have two networks providing 3G coverage to 97% of the population. All the cities have near-complete 3G coverage. I understand the situation is similar in many other Western countries (especially in Europe and Australia) with the obvious exception of the US. In some areas 3G wireless is actually faster than ADSL wired.
Routing calls without a SIM card is not the case in some countries. In New Zealand, for example, all carriers have disabled non-SIM emergency calls at the request of the emergency services. However any phones with a valid SIM in it will be able to make emergency calls.
However your joke pointed out that some people might now know what WAP stands for in this context, so I thought I would just put out the definition for those that might not know.
I used to work for a place that sold them. Had a long run of batches with 60-80% failure rate within a year. Maybe they just couldn't take the Australian conditions but I certainly steered clear of them personally.
A bad batch perhaps? I had a series of Seagate drives fail so have sworn off them. However I know people who use Seagate drives with no issues. YMMV...
By buying a Samsung drive you have already resigned yourself to a drive failure. Might as well weed out the shite first. I don't disagree with mixing and matching, but at least make sure the drives you are buying aren't brands that tend to fail within the first year.
I've had good experiences with Samsung hard drives. They seem quite reliable enough.
What if the tech support can't access the log file? Say, for example, the user forgot to connect his machine to the network. In that case the tech support would be unable to access the user's machine to read the log! At the end of the day the user (like it or not) has to take responsibility for doing their bit.
Even MSN is more reliable. At least it doesn't lose random messages, drop connections every 5 mins, go offline randomly, etc like Facebook chat does on a very regular basis (read every time I try and talk with someone on it). MSN does that every once in a while (read: once a month or so).
IMHO, New Zealand is pretty good with broadband coverage. NZ currently have ADSL coverage to over 70% of the population and UMTS (3G broadband) coverage to 97% of the population with two different carriers providing that service. We might not have the best speeds et al but a much higher proportion of the population can actually get broadband compared to the US.
The US current approach is odd -- they're rolling out fibre to the home in some areas, despite the fact a large proportion of the US population is still stuck on dial-up and 2G mobile coverage. If they had followed the NZ approach they would have invested the money allocated to FTTH to expanding baseline broadband and/or 3G coverage instead.
I think for rural areas there needs to be a shift away from ADSL/Cable style services to 3G broadband services. They are more cheaper to operate and provide better service.
I do agree the US should also look to Asia/Europe for inspiration -- however their population distribution doesn't really make Asia/Europe a viable model for the US to follow. Australia (and to a lesser extent, New Zealand) would probably give the US a better idea of how to develop their broadband networks.
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2100MHz is not available in either the US or Canada.
Mod parent up.
Mod parent up. Installing DX9 is required to make Civilization 4 (and several other games) work on Windows 7. This is apparently due to missing DLLs which are not included with DX11 but are included with DX9. The whole concept of backward compatibility is a joke with DX.
I should point out that most GSM phone manufacturers now make it very difficult to enable Field Test mode -- to the point of even removing the functionality from phones. Nokia is one example of a GSM phone manufacturer that has done so. So your claim that field test is "enabled on virtually any GSM phone" is false. I should know as I used to be a field testing geek until I could not longer purchase a suitable GSM/UMTS phone to do field testing with.
Or switch to a bank that allows you to use open-source software. If my bank told me that I could only do my banking with a certain browser I would be moving my business elsewhere.
I find it interesting that all the banks in New Zealand, where I live, supports (even if only unofficially) Firefox, Chrome, et al for their internet banking. Why do banks in other countries not do the same?
I'm not sure how debit cards work outside of New Zealand, however here in New Zealand it is impossible to use a debit card without entering in a PIN code to authenticate yourself to the terminal. In other words signing off a debit card transaction isn't possible. So if a bank were to post a pre-activated card out to a customer, there's no security risk since the customer would have picked a PIN code when they originally signed up for the card in the branch.
I'm with the ANZ Bank here in New Zealand and they post out replacement debit cards with the PIN already assigned to the card. As far as I know the PIN isn't loaded on the card itself. The bank just adds a record on their side saying this new card has the same PIN as the previous card. No security risk since only me and the bank's debit card system knows my PIN number. Someone stealing my card would have to guess my PIN.
Perhaps this is not the case outside of NZ. However I personally think the 'signature required' type of transaction should be withdrawn, leaving PIN as the only authentication method. We in New Zealand have managed to do without signature transactions for debit card transactions since EFTPOS was introduced in the 1980's.
Signature authentication is only allowed for Visa/MC/Amex credit transactions since NZ based merchants have to accept foreign cards which allow signature required transactions. So basically we only allow signature required transactions due to having to keep that security loophole open to allow foreigners to pay for goods and services in NZ.
From some people's point of view, filing a bug report for a feature like using the built in spell check is like filing a bug report with Ford suggesting they add a glove box to the front of the vehicle. It's a feature that Mac users expect from a native Mac application -- if it's not there then many Mac users will just drag the app to the bin.
I do agree that people should file reports for bugs, but there are some types of bugs which shouldn't happen at all in a production release. The fact Chrome does pretty well (despite only launching recently) suggest that there needs to be some changes in the direction of Mac development at Opera. For example, actually employing Mac OS X usability experts to polish up the GUI would be a good first step.
I think you're missing the big picture. The Mac port of Opera is very poorly designed -- with lots of really minor issues which, all added up, make the experience of using Opera on the mac worse than even Firefox. Look at Chrome for a better port -- they made a lot of effort to ensure that Chrome blended in well with the Mac environment. The result is very good -- to the point that Chrome looks and feels like a native browser.
Opera has had a Mac port for a long time now, so filing a bug report about a minor issue like not using the built-in spellcheck seems pointless to me -- Opera seems to not care about the little issues which stands out like a sore thumb to people who have actually sat down and tried using Opera on the Mac.
Have you looked at using FreeBSD's Linux Binary Emulation feature?
It's interesting to note that out of the three cellular networks here in New Zealand, the one with Huawei equipment (i.e. 2degrees) operates the most reliable network. Vodafone with their Nokia GSM/UMTS network has issues a few times a year and Telecom with their Alactel-Lucent UMTS network suffered multiple massive days-long outages during the end of last year and early tis year. 2degrees has operated flawlessly since they launched.
Outside the US in countries that actually built out decent 3G networks, coverage is pretty good and usable. Here in New Zealand we have two networks providing 3G coverage to 97% of the population. All the cities have near-complete 3G coverage. I understand the situation is similar in many other Western countries (especially in Europe and Australia) with the obvious exception of the US. In some areas 3G wireless is actually faster than ADSL wired.
Mod parent up. Insightful post.
Routing calls without a SIM card is not the case in some countries. In New Zealand, for example, all carriers have disabled non-SIM emergency calls at the request of the emergency services. However any phones with a valid SIM in it will be able to make emergency calls.
I agree on all counts, would have preferred IBM over Oracle.
Mod parent up.
I knew it was a joke! :)
However your joke pointed out that some people might now know what WAP stands for in this context, so I thought I would just put out the definition for those that might not know.
- James
WAP = Wireless Access Point.
A bad batch perhaps? I had a series of Seagate drives fail so have sworn off them. However I know people who use Seagate drives with no issues. YMMV...
I've had good experiences with Samsung hard drives. They seem quite reliable enough.
What if the tech support can't access the log file? Say, for example, the user forgot to connect his machine to the network. In that case the tech support would be unable to access the user's machine to read the log! At the end of the day the user (like it or not) has to take responsibility for doing their bit.
It's not. Works perfectly fine without Java, so Java can't be the problem.
Even MSN is more reliable. At least it doesn't lose random messages, drop connections every 5 mins, go offline randomly, etc like Facebook chat does on a very regular basis (read every time I try and talk with someone on it). MSN does that every once in a while (read: once a month or so).
Mod parent up. Facebook chat is probably one of the most unreliable IM systems I've used to date.
IMHO, New Zealand is pretty good with broadband coverage. NZ currently have ADSL coverage to over 70% of the population and UMTS (3G broadband) coverage to 97% of the population with two different carriers providing that service. We might not have the best speeds et al but a much higher proportion of the population can actually get broadband compared to the US.
The US current approach is odd -- they're rolling out fibre to the home in some areas, despite the fact a large proportion of the US population is still stuck on dial-up and 2G mobile coverage. If they had followed the NZ approach they would have invested the money allocated to FTTH to expanding baseline broadband and/or 3G coverage instead.
I think for rural areas there needs to be a shift away from ADSL/Cable style services to 3G broadband services. They are more cheaper to operate and provide better service.
I do agree the US should also look to Asia/Europe for inspiration -- however their population distribution doesn't really make Asia/Europe a viable model for the US to follow. Australia (and to a lesser extent, New Zealand) would probably give the US a better idea of how to develop their broadband networks.
What does Milton Friedman have to do with this?