I believe, and please correct me if I'm wrong, that you don't have to go through the Apple Store to have an app placed on the iPhone. This is obviously the case if you Pwn the phone, but I'm not sure if non-store apps lack a signature which keeps them from being installed on a non-pwnd phone.
In that case, just find the app you want and go to it. No need to wait for Apple's approval unless you want to use their store...which they keep an eye on, understandably.
I don't personally have an iPhone but from what I have seen it seems like most iPhone apps are half-baked juvenile distractions, rather than anything seriously useful.
I have the same problem with using NetJets, that personal jet service Roger Federer uses. I'm sure it's just fraught with late departures and stuck up pilots. One is likely always arriving at their destination late or worse, early, and having to stand around with the populous waiting for the limousine.
How many iPhone app reviewers are there? How long does it take to fully test an application so you don't get sued for allowing something that:
1) Bricks the phone 2) Has child porn shoved inside it 3) Is free, barely does what the description says it will do, and yet you need to waste your time deciding if it's just not broken enough to put up there
If there are one hundred app reviewers, there are too few.
Your average slashdotter WILL get a cheapy $550 computer if it suits the needs and place it in his media closet away from his $1200 gaming PC. Doing disk to disk backups is probably the best solution right now if you have terabytes of data. Just keep adding disk and as the price goes down and it's time to renew your hardware, get another $550 computer that has twice the storage.
Power corrupts. We have a problem dealing with cultural differences. Both true.
Cops have sucky jobs. Every thing they deal with is a confrontation. A device driver isn't going to surprise you with a gun and shoot you in the face. It's a concern that the person they are currently talking with is going to pull a gun.
They are here to help. Not always here to help you. Sometimes they are here to help others because of you. If a cop seems antagonizing or belligerent it's likely not because of something you did but to prevent something he thinks you might do. Cops don't give the benefit of the doubt at the beginning of a situation.
Obey the laws you feel you should. Take your lumps for those you want to make a statement about. But please don't generalize about a job you don't seem to understand.
Upon your payment of the applicable fees set by Amazon, Amazon grants you the non-exclusive right to keep a permanent copy of the applicable Digital Content and to view, use, and display such Digital Content an unlimited number of times, solely on the Device or as authorized by Amazon as part of the Service and solely for your personal, non-commercial use. Digital Content will be deemed licensed to you by Amazon under this Agreement unless otherwise expressly provided by Amazon.
They contradict themselves with the use of "permanent copy" and "will be deemed licensed to you". If you read that last line, it doesn't even make sense. "It will be deemed licensed to you unless otherwise provided by Amazon"? That's poor grammar at best. I think what they mean to say is, "You get the license unless we take it back," but that's not what they've written.
Regardless, whether to force someone to sell you something is legal under their "terms of service", it's bad business. As this story grows, I can see e-bay piling up with Kindles.
Just to clarify, I said the hero and heroine "make out" not "make it out". I'm well aware that her face gets grabbed from between the planks of the raft and the guy makes a swim for it.
I sort of had the impression the person was talking about the exact same picture, saved from the original to two different qualities of JPEG. If he were trying to tell the difference between the amount of JPEG artifacts in two different pictures, I imagine he would get inconsistent results, given many trials, for the reasons you say.
I suppose he could have meant something different than what he said, but there aren't too many politicians trolling slashdot, I'd guess.
I know you're being funny but it's true. Defense attorney's one job is to get their client off using the techniques available in a courtroom and that isn't necessarily just the letter of the law. Prosecution has a different goal, same means. Many times defenders aren't there to show jurors the law, but to convince them to let their client go free. Plead to their emotions, defame the prosecution...whatever it takes within or at least near the boundary of the law to win.
If they aren't going all out, they aren't doing their job right.
Short story/short film in Stephen King's Creepshow 2. These campers swim out to a fixed raft in the middle of a lake and some goop, not unlike the goop in the article, follows them. One person touches it, and it leeches up her arm and pulls her in. This sort of continues for the next 10 minutes or so until there hero and heroine make out. It's Stephen King so it doesn't end well.
My point? Don't touch it. And don't let it touch you.
I used the USPS online system for creating my own package postage. I overestimated everything and the person who received the package still owed postage. If Linux can't do simple addition, I don't want my tax dollars paying for it. I'll just FedEx everything from now on...at least then I'm not wondering if I'm getting screwed or not. It's a given.
[CLICK] That was the sarcasm filter turning off for those of you who didn't notice.
First thing's first. $599 for anything from Apple is a virtual impossibility. You can't buff that shine into something for less than $599, never mind add a bunch of electronics and usability into it.
Second thing, why not just make an iPhone with an enlargeable screen? Wouldn't that be the killer product? LCDs can be practically paper-thin...allow the iPhone's screen to expand to laptop-size. Or better, allow a laptop screen to expand to monitor size so you can actually sit around one with your friends/colleagues at a patio/conference table.
Depending on what you choose to tweet about (notice I used that verb without quotes...not sure why), writing down your daily thoughts is hardly pointless. I realize many people think Twitter is about putting yourself in front of other people but it doesn't have to be. Consider it a diary that you don't mind people reading.
As demonstrated by one Gordon Freeman as he fled City 21 during the unrest in the early 2000s, these surveillance drones are particularly susceptible to blunt force attacks. Alternatively, subway tunnels and fast waterborne craft also make it difficult for the drones to follow and/or record.
If people stopped acting all crazy, this sort of thing wouldn't be suggested in the first place. As usual, it's the group of kids in the corner of the playground who ruin it for the rest of us.
Well, just like being engrossed in a good movie or book, a video game can do the same thing with a story. FEAR is just another FPS, but the story really took me. The graphics were great, sure, but finding out what made Alma kept me focused. The basic gameplay is the same as Counterstrike (point, shoot) but the story is what caused the immersion.
"20 meters!" "Get set, folks." "15 meters!" "Short, controlled bursts." "10 meters! 5 meters!" "That's impossible! That's inside the room!" "It's readin' right, man!" "Well, you're not readin' it right." Hicks takes the Phone and look at the screen. "He's right, 3 meters...oh, wait. Hold on, call for you." Hands the phone back to Hudson. "Thanks....Yallo. Going okay. Yessir. Yessir. No sir, not a bug hunt. Pretty much everyone. It wasn't me, man! Yah I remember last time. Who? Sorry, he's dead. He's dead too. Hicks? Yeah, sec." Hands the phone to Hicks who is listening to what can only be described as impatient tapping on the ceiling. "Yah. No, he's right, only a few of us are left. Acid for blood. Hardly believe it myself, sir. Trying sir, but we need to get to orbit first. Oh. Really? That's new. Lemme look. Wow. There really is an app for everything. Ok. Well, five and a half to beam up. No, Paul Reiser isn't dead. Yet." Hicks fires a grenade into the ceiling. "Energize."
That's kind of funny as time is subjective in D&D.
DM: The last kobold dies on your blade. The tunnel to the dragon's lair lays before you.
Group: We all take a five minute break to heal. Then we head down the tunnel, rogue first checking for traps, etc etc.
Five minutes in an MMORPG is like watching an infomercial. But it's a good idea in general -- very movie heroish. Even Rambo, with his arm slashed open, once stitched, wasn't bothered for the rest of the film.
Straight up healers are a lame idea anyway, always have been. Darned health bar voyeurs. I mean, did Aragorn bring along a surgeon in his quest to destroy the ring? Leave the healing-only clerics in the bloody church in the center of town...tithe them when you limp back in after battle and they'll patch you up and send you on your way.
But if you're out adventuring with me, you better know how to kill something. The D&D cleric, at least the way we played him, didn't just hang out in the back -- he went in with his mace, knocked a few helmets off, then healed people up as he could afterwards.
To implement this, change the damage system. Aragorn got thrown across a cave into a stone wall by a troll...he got knocked out, but wasn't even badly bruised. Make our characters heroes, not spreadsheets. If we die, make it an epic death -- we're too cool to be chased down and mauled by a rodent. If it doesn't kill us, let us carry on with our quest -- let us be heroes. Dent our armor, even weaken our sword arm, but don't put us on the edge of a virtual cardiac arrest until we get magically healed or wait an hour.
In D&D, your character's progression was level-based. Your character performed the actions, while you did the thinking, the plotting, the decision-making, the talking. But sometimes even your decisions depended on a dice-roll, depending on how you explained yourself:
"I try to convince the blacksmith to sell me the sword." "That's a charisma roll," says the DM. "Hmm, this sword has a notch near the hilt...how about I take it off your hands for 2 silver?" "Thou art frugal!" and here's your sword.
With MMORPGs, the concept is the same -- but you're even more limited to dice rolls. You can harangue the blacksmith all you like, he's still going to charge you 10 silver. Crack all the jokes you want, the NPC baker won't sleep with you and won't drop the price on her cherry pie.
With a skill-based system, the results are the same though people will argue they aren't. Skill-based is essentially a custom template rather than a pre-defined one. But the results are the same, even if the method of arriving is varied. Both disallow the n00b halfling from backstabbing the sitting ancient warrior for 1000 points of damage. But that makes sense -- an ancient warrior is always aware, and wouldn't let someone sneak up behind him. Irritating for the halfling as this creates that gap between friends who don't keep up.
I used to have all these great* ideas for MMORPGs but I realize they all require that players put in a lot of time. I choose not to anymore, so it's tough to get behind those ideas. Getting rid of hit points in place of genuine damage, relating the environment, levels matter less, etc etc.
Not lies. Your body gets used to it, so does your mind. Jack LaLanne, I imagine, is trying to commiserate with the masses. Exercise should always be an effort; wanting to exercise doesn't have to be.
See subject. Everyone spells it out in different ways, but basically, exercising is a way of life, like making your bed, or flossing at night. You do it or you don't, but the more you do it, the easier it gets and the more a natural part of your life it becomes. No longer feels like effort. You say you have no time, but that's never true -- you have 10 free hours a day. Use 45 minutes of one of those to run, do some situps, pushups, and some curls or shoulder exercises with one of those rubber band things. Even at work, instead of playing cards with your buddies during those 3 AM breaks, tell 'em you're going for a run, or just to exercise.
I had the first iPhone and it would overheat on occasion, but I couldn't make it do it consistently. I could be on the phone walking the dog for 15 minutes and it would be fine. But then I could be on the phone with a friend for 5 minutes and it would be too hot to hold against my ear. Data never seemed to make it heat up much, though playing music in my car would warm it up, but only sometimes.
The new 3G S hasn't had any heating issues, but I'm not sure I've spent enough time talking on it to say mine doesn't have a problem.
Slashdot Mirror
I believe, and please correct me if I'm wrong, that you don't have to go through the Apple Store to have an app placed on the iPhone. This is obviously the case if you Pwn the phone, but I'm not sure if non-store apps lack a signature which keeps them from being installed on a non-pwnd phone.
In that case, just find the app you want and go to it. No need to wait for Apple's approval unless you want to use their store...which they keep an eye on, understandably.
Business. It's how it works.
China. Pssht. They probably couldn't get more than 1% of the population to play and at $15/month...that's only...um...$150,000,000. A month.
Allrighty let's get China on board here! Start bringing in those tax dollars! (Blizzard does pay income tax for something like this?)
I don't personally have an iPhone but from what I have seen it seems like most iPhone apps are half-baked juvenile distractions, rather than anything seriously useful.
I have the same problem with using NetJets, that personal jet service Roger Federer uses. I'm sure it's just fraught with late departures and stuck up pilots. One is likely always arriving at their destination late or worse, early, and having to stand around with the populous waiting for the limousine.
How many iPhone app reviewers are there? How long does it take to fully test an application so you don't get sued for allowing something that:
1) Bricks the phone
2) Has child porn shoved inside it
3) Is free, barely does what the description says it will do, and yet you need to waste your time deciding if it's just not broken enough to put up there
If there are one hundred app reviewers, there are too few.
Your average slashdotter WILL get a cheapy $550 computer if it suits the needs and place it in his media closet away from his $1200 gaming PC. Doing disk to disk backups is probably the best solution right now if you have terabytes of data. Just keep adding disk and as the price goes down and it's time to renew your hardware, get another $550 computer that has twice the storage.
Power corrupts. We have a problem dealing with cultural differences. Both true.
Cops have sucky jobs. Every thing they deal with is a confrontation. A device
driver isn't going to surprise you with a gun and shoot you in the face. It's a concern that the person they are currently talking with is going to pull a gun.
They are here to help. Not always here to help you. Sometimes they are here to help others because of you. If a cop seems antagonizing or belligerent it's likely not because of something you did but to prevent something he thinks you might do. Cops don't give the benefit of the doubt at the beginning of a situation.
Obey the laws you feel you should. Take your lumps for those you want to make a statement about. But please don't generalize about a job you don't seem to understand.
The relevant part:
Upon your payment of the applicable fees set by Amazon, Amazon grants you the non-exclusive right to keep a permanent copy of the applicable Digital Content and to view, use, and display such Digital Content an unlimited number of times, solely on the Device or as authorized by Amazon as part of the Service and solely for your personal, non-commercial use. Digital Content will be deemed licensed to you by Amazon under this Agreement unless otherwise expressly provided by Amazon.
They contradict themselves with the use of "permanent copy" and "will be deemed licensed to you". If you read that last line, it doesn't even make sense. "It will be deemed licensed to you unless otherwise provided by Amazon"? That's poor grammar at best. I think what they mean to say is, "You get the license unless we take it back," but that's not what they've written.
Regardless, whether to force someone to sell you something is legal under their "terms of service", it's bad business. As this story grows, I can see e-bay piling up with Kindles.
I'm going to guess "hoover".
Just to clarify, I said the hero and heroine "make out" not "make it out". I'm well aware that her face gets grabbed from between the planks of the raft and the guy makes a swim for it.
I sort of had the impression the person was talking about the exact same picture, saved from the original to two different qualities of JPEG. If he were trying to tell the difference between the amount of JPEG artifacts in two different pictures, I imagine he would get inconsistent results, given many trials, for the reasons you say.
I suppose he could have meant something different than what he said, but there aren't too many politicians trolling slashdot, I'd guess.
I know you're being funny but it's true. Defense attorney's one job is to get their client off using the techniques available in a courtroom and that isn't necessarily just the letter of the law. Prosecution has a different goal, same means. Many times defenders aren't there to show jurors the law, but to convince them to let their client go free. Plead to their emotions, defame the prosecution...whatever it takes within or at least near the boundary of the law to win.
If they aren't going all out, they aren't doing their job right.
Short story/short film in Stephen King's Creepshow 2. These campers swim out to a fixed raft in the middle of a lake and some goop, not unlike the goop in the article, follows them. One person touches it, and it leeches up her arm and pulls her in. This sort of continues for the next 10 minutes or so until there hero and heroine make out. It's Stephen King so it doesn't end well.
My point? Don't touch it. And don't let it touch you.
I used the USPS online system for creating my own package postage. I overestimated everything and the person who received the package still owed postage. If Linux can't do simple addition, I don't want my tax dollars paying for it. I'll just FedEx everything from now on...at least then I'm not wondering if I'm getting screwed or not. It's a given.
[CLICK] That was the sarcasm filter turning off for those of you who didn't notice.
How to secure WebDav
http://www.howtoforge.com/webdav_with_ssl_and_two_factor_authentication
First thing's first. $599 for anything from Apple is a virtual impossibility. You can't buff that shine into something for less than $599, never mind add a bunch of electronics and usability into it.
Second thing, why not just make an iPhone with an enlargeable screen? Wouldn't that be the killer product? LCDs can be practically paper-thin...allow the iPhone's screen to expand to laptop-size. Or better, allow a laptop screen to expand to monitor size so you can actually sit around one with your friends/colleagues at a patio/conference table.
Do I have to do all the thinking here, people!
Depending on what you choose to tweet about (notice I used that verb without quotes...not sure why), writing down your daily thoughts is hardly pointless. I realize many people think Twitter is about putting yourself in front of other people but it doesn't have to be. Consider it a diary that you don't mind people reading.
Excuse me while I tweet about by /. post.
Dear god, is that crossing the streams?
As demonstrated by one Gordon Freeman as he fled City 21 during the unrest in the early 2000s, these surveillance drones are particularly susceptible to blunt force attacks. Alternatively, subway tunnels and fast waterborne craft also make it difficult for the drones to follow and/or record.
If people stopped acting all crazy, this sort of thing wouldn't be suggested in the first place. As usual, it's the group of kids in the corner of the playground who ruin it for the rest of us.
Well, just like being engrossed in a good movie or book, a video game can do the same thing with a story. FEAR is just another FPS, but the story really took me. The graphics were great, sure, but finding out what made Alma kept me focused. The basic gameplay is the same as Counterstrike (point, shoot) but the story is what caused the immersion.
Seems the obvious application:
"20 meters!"
"Get set, folks."
"15 meters!"
"Short, controlled bursts."
"10 meters! 5 meters!"
"That's impossible! That's inside the room!"
"It's readin' right, man!"
"Well, you're not readin' it right." Hicks takes the Phone and look at the screen. "He's right, 3 meters...oh, wait. Hold on, call for you." Hands the phone back to Hudson.
"Thanks....Yallo. Going okay. Yessir. Yessir. No sir, not a bug hunt. Pretty much everyone. It wasn't me, man! Yah I remember last time. Who? Sorry, he's dead. He's dead too. Hicks? Yeah, sec." Hands the phone to Hicks who is listening to what can only be described as impatient tapping on the ceiling.
"Yah. No, he's right, only a few of us are left. Acid for blood. Hardly believe it myself, sir. Trying sir, but we need to get to orbit first. Oh. Really? That's new. Lemme look. Wow. There really is an app for everything. Ok. Well, five and a half to beam up. No, Paul Reiser isn't dead. Yet." Hicks fires a grenade into the ceiling. "Energize."
That's kind of funny as time is subjective in D&D.
DM: The last kobold dies on your blade. The tunnel to the dragon's lair lays before you.
Group: We all take a five minute break to heal. Then we head down the tunnel, rogue first checking for traps, etc etc.
Five minutes in an MMORPG is like watching an infomercial. But it's a good idea in general -- very movie heroish. Even Rambo, with his arm slashed open, once stitched, wasn't bothered for the rest of the film.
Straight up healers are a lame idea anyway, always have been. Darned health bar voyeurs. I mean, did Aragorn bring along a surgeon in his quest to destroy the ring? Leave the healing-only clerics in the bloody church in the center of town...tithe them when you limp back in after battle and they'll patch you up and send you on your way.
But if you're out adventuring with me, you better know how to kill something. The D&D cleric, at least the way we played him, didn't just hang out in the back -- he went in with his mace, knocked a few helmets off, then healed people up as he could afterwards.
To implement this, change the damage system. Aragorn got thrown across a cave into a stone wall by a troll...he got knocked out, but wasn't even badly bruised. Make our characters heroes, not spreadsheets. If we die, make it an epic death -- we're too cool to be chased down and mauled by a rodent. If it doesn't kill us, let us carry on with our quest -- let us be heroes. Dent our armor, even weaken our sword arm, but don't put us on the edge of a virtual cardiac arrest until we get magically healed or wait an hour.
In D&D, your character's progression was level-based. Your character performed the actions, while you did the thinking, the plotting, the decision-making, the talking. But sometimes even your decisions depended on a dice-roll, depending on how you explained yourself:
"I try to convince the blacksmith to sell me the sword." "That's a charisma roll," says the DM.
"Hmm, this sword has a notch near the hilt...how about I take it off your hands for 2 silver?" "Thou art frugal!" and here's your sword.
With MMORPGs, the concept is the same -- but you're even more limited to dice rolls. You can harangue the blacksmith all you like, he's still going to charge you 10 silver. Crack all the jokes you want, the NPC baker won't sleep with you and won't drop the price on her cherry pie.
With a skill-based system, the results are the same though people will argue they aren't. Skill-based is essentially a custom template rather than a pre-defined one. But the results are the same, even if the method of arriving is varied. Both disallow the n00b halfling from backstabbing the sitting ancient warrior for 1000 points of damage. But that makes sense -- an ancient warrior is always aware, and wouldn't let someone sneak up behind him. Irritating for the halfling as this creates that gap between friends who don't keep up.
I used to have all these great* ideas for MMORPGs but I realize they all require that players put in a lot of time. I choose not to anymore, so it's tough to get behind those ideas. Getting rid of hit points in place of genuine damage, relating the environment, levels matter less, etc etc.
Not lies. Your body gets used to it, so does your mind. Jack LaLanne, I imagine, is trying to commiserate with the masses. Exercise should always be an effort; wanting to exercise doesn't have to be.
Why would anyone buy a device where someone *else* decides what apps you can run and what you cannot run?
Like a Playstation 3?
See subject. Everyone spells it out in different ways, but basically, exercising is a way of life, like making your bed, or flossing at night. You do it or you don't, but the more you do it, the easier it gets and the more a natural part of your life it becomes. No longer feels like effort. You say you have no time, but that's never true -- you have 10 free hours a day. Use 45 minutes of one of those to run, do some situps, pushups, and some curls or shoulder exercises with one of those rubber band things. Even at work, instead of playing cards with your buddies during those 3 AM breaks, tell 'em you're going for a run, or just to exercise.
Nike was right. Just do it. Gets easier.
I had the first iPhone and it would overheat on occasion, but I couldn't make it do it consistently. I could be on the phone walking the dog for 15 minutes and it would be fine. But then I could be on the phone with a friend for 5 minutes and it would be too hot to hold against my ear. Data never seemed to make it heat up much, though playing music in my car would warm it up, but only sometimes.
The new 3G S hasn't had any heating issues, but I'm not sure I've spent enough time talking on it to say mine doesn't have a problem.