I still don't understand why you're willing to pay $120-$150 per year for a JavaScriptOffice.org lease, plus ($30/month for T-Mobile Hotspot access, $3/hour for Internet cafe access, etc.), but you can't be bothered to tote a cheap laptop around. You don't have to "look at a laptop" while sitting in business class; put your $500 Dell laptop in a case and throw it under the seat in front of you.
I agree that having business documents everywhere is attractive, but computers are just too cheap to make the economics work. I started playing with Backpack the other day for web-based note management, and it may yet prove to be the first of this huge "JavaScript Office" trend, but right now I don't see any reason to use Word and Excel rewritten in JavaScript for a significant charge.
And if JavaScriptOffice.org gets hacked, or an overzealous sysadmin blocks access to the site, or your DSL goes down, you can't access any of your documents. I trust my laptop, with its back-up data, far more than I'd trust an Internet-based service.
So instead of having a piece of (admittedly-brittle) hardware with your own documents and licensed software on it, you'd rather spend $X/month to lease a platform that is even less upgradable than a laptop and that is completely inaccessible without an Internet connection.
To me, using a word processor written in JavaScript is like buying an MP3 player made out of folded paper. Then again, I don't write word processors.
Why not just buy a laptop? That way you can access gigabytes of documents at home, at work, and even in places that don't have Internet access. You could even load NeoOpenFreeGnulixOffice.net on it if you don't want to pay for Microsoft software.
OpenOffice.org is a passable imitation of Microsoft Office, but I think it would be really great if someone rewrote everything in JavaScript and let me run it inside a web browser instead of a mature desktop operating system.
You're right... Suica isn't in all-caps though it is a clever name to ignorant foreigners like me. I actually learned "Suica" was a payment method before I knew what it was as a fruit. Made for some interesting moments in stores.
So what? HTTP is a protocol meant to toss hypertext around, and look at all the people carelessly using it to upload files, do their e-mail, and even use so-called "web applications." For shame. I even hear that some people are transmitting XML by HTTP -- the horror!
Japanese companies have a habit of naming things with names they claim are English acronyms. VAIO is "Video Audio Integrated Operations" to Americans, but to Japanese consumers it's just short for vaioletto (baioretto) or "violet." DoCoMo is "Do Communications over the Mobile Network" according to NTT DoCoMo's English literature, but in Japanese it's just dokomo or "everywhere."
Of course, there are just as many examples of Japanese things with English names, such as LDP (Liberal Democratic Party), LDK (Living room, Dining room, Kitchen), and SUICa (Super Urban Intelligent Card).
You could read their privacy policy, or just trust that they're not evil. All they want to do is serve you ads while you use their free wi-fi hotspots.
You forget the memory card: $20 for eight megabytes of memory to save your game. $100 for a used PS2, $30 for We Love Katamari, $20 for a memory card, plus tax, turns out to be quite a big expense for one game. Tack on another $20 for a second controller to play co-op mode, and you're getting pretty close to $200 already.
Didn't you get that memo? The web is more professional in 7-point Verdana.
Replace "Verdana" with "Bitstream Vera Sans" for open source geeks.
sigh...
Re:Doing their wants against customer wants
on
Palm's Mistakes
·
· Score: 1
Sync their calendars/todos/contacts with what their secretary put in for them.
My dad bought a Palm III years ago to my surprise (he's not a techie at all and he didn't buy it as a status symbol). He bought an extra cradle for his secretary and installed Palm Desktop on it. After returning from a meeting, he handed it to his secretary who HotSynced her schedule changes; he then HotSynced to his own computer which replicated all the changes. As long as the clocks stayed reasonably close to each other, the changes stuck.
Microsoft has always been better at synchronizing your Outlook, but synchronizing your data with Palms has been generally good with the admittedly low-end PIM they bundle.
Look, Gmail is a beta service. It's not supposed to be good yet, even though a lot of people like it. I'm sure that if you report the problem to the appropriate Google Group, Google will improve the service before it goes live for real.
Windows Vista lets you apply labels to files on your hard drive. You can even create a Virtual Folder containing all the files with a particular label! By the time it's out, you'll even be able to dual boot it with Mac OS X on the same inexpensive piece of x86 hardware.
My mom worked in COBOL for decades and told me, with no slight amount of bitterness, that even offshoring firms' workers can do COBOL and mainframes work more cheaply than experienced American laborers could. In fact, as a potential outsourcee, you might make more money simply by distinguishing yourselves from the Java/C++/web-app programming masses.
I don't have a problem beta testing new technology; I do have a problem spending over $500 ($250 lease fee, $200 early termination fee, $120 satellite dish uninstallation fee) to beta test. Live and learn.:(
I actually got the 942 on the recommendation of a co-worker who had been with Dish for years prior; he hasn't had nearly as many gripes about his DVR as I have about mine.
The impression that I have is that the Mac mini, despite its built-in DVI video output, it can't reliably show HDTV content in 720p (1280x720 at ~60 fps) or 1080i (1920x1080 at ~30 fps). Add on the fact that HDTV tuner cards can only receive over-the-air content, so you'd have to wire up some kind of IR blaster to control an external cable box or count on CableCARD support. With the extra hardware and legwork needed to get all that running, the price difference just gets higher and higher.
I own a small house in a neighborhood with lots of trees and large (3+ story) houses. Dish Network reception was fine on my 2 (!) dishes, but I cancelled early due chiefly to the lack of HDTV for networks (NBC, Fox, etc). To get over-the-air signals reliably I would have had to purchase a very large antenna and mount it at least 20 feet above my roof. It actually turned out to be cheaper to switch to Comcast than to install an antenna.
Comcast's dual-tuner DVR interface is crap compared to TiVo and lacks the "record all shows matching a keyword" search found in the Dish 942, TiVo, and my old ReplayTV 5040. It can record two shows at once in HDTV, but that really eats up the 120 GB hard drive fast.
I had a lot of problems with my 942 rebooting, not recording shows as promised, etc., only to be told that these were known issues and that I should await new software updates. I quickly grew impatient with their lousy service and switched to Comcast in time for football season.
Slashdot Mirror
I still don't understand why you're willing to pay $120-$150 per year for a JavaScriptOffice.org lease, plus ($30/month for T-Mobile Hotspot access, $3/hour for Internet cafe access, etc.), but you can't be bothered to tote a cheap laptop around. You don't have to "look at a laptop" while sitting in business class; put your $500 Dell laptop in a case and throw it under the seat in front of you.
I agree that having business documents everywhere is attractive, but computers are just too cheap to make the economics work. I started playing with Backpack the other day for web-based note management, and it may yet prove to be the first of this huge "JavaScript Office" trend, but right now I don't see any reason to use Word and Excel rewritten in JavaScript for a significant charge.
And if JavaScriptOffice.org gets hacked, or an overzealous sysadmin blocks access to the site, or your DSL goes down, you can't access any of your documents. I trust my laptop, with its back-up data, far more than I'd trust an Internet-based service.
So instead of having a piece of (admittedly-brittle) hardware with your own documents and licensed software on it, you'd rather spend $X/month to lease a platform that is even less upgradable than a laptop and that is completely inaccessible without an Internet connection.
To me, using a word processor written in JavaScript is like buying an MP3 player made out of folded paper. Then again, I don't write word processors.
Why not just buy a laptop? That way you can access gigabytes of documents at home, at work, and even in places that don't have Internet access. You could even load NeoOpenFreeGnulixOffice.net on it if you don't want to pay for Microsoft software.
OpenOffice.org is a passable imitation of Microsoft Office, but I think it would be really great if someone rewrote everything in JavaScript and let me run it inside a web browser instead of a mature desktop operating system.
Hey, Jim. :)
You're right... Suica isn't in all-caps though it is a clever name to ignorant foreigners like me. I actually learned "Suica" was a payment method before I knew what it was as a fruit. Made for some interesting moments in stores.
So what? HTTP is a protocol meant to toss hypertext around, and look at all the people carelessly using it to upload files, do their e-mail, and even use so-called "web applications." For shame. I even hear that some people are transmitting XML by HTTP -- the horror!
Japanese companies have a habit of naming things with names they claim are English acronyms. VAIO is "Video Audio Integrated Operations" to Americans, but to Japanese consumers it's just short for vaioletto (baioretto) or "violet." DoCoMo is "Do Communications over the Mobile Network" according to NTT DoCoMo's English literature, but in Japanese it's just dokomo or "everywhere."
Of course, there are just as many examples of Japanese things with English names, such as LDP (Liberal Democratic Party), LDK (Living room, Dining room, Kitchen), and SUICa (Super Urban Intelligent Card).
Windows users aspire to rid the world of land mines, while OSX users are obsessed with regicide.
(TWAJS)
Tragically, Mac OS X actually has a chess program: Chess.app, which comes bundled with the OS.
(You even get "that puzzle game with the Apple logo" as a Dashboard widget in 10.4, the first time it's been bundled with Mac OS since OS X came out.)
You could read their privacy policy, or just trust that they're not evil. All they want to do is serve you ads while you use their free wi-fi hotspots.
That's probably because Playboy is an official mirror of, among other things, Mozilla Thunderbird. Nifty, isn't it?
Mozilla Suite. Enjoy.
You forget the memory card: $20 for eight megabytes of memory to save your game. $100 for a used PS2, $30 for We Love Katamari, $20 for a memory card, plus tax, turns out to be quite a big expense for one game. Tack on another $20 for a second controller to play co-op mode, and you're getting pretty close to $200 already.
I saw a spectacularly-detailed Katamari cake, complete with sculpted Prince recently on the LiveJournal Katamari Damacy group. The amount of fan art/cosplay/crafts for Katamari Damacy is amazing.
Didn't you get that memo? The web is more professional in 7-point Verdana.
Replace "Verdana" with "Bitstream Vera Sans" for open source geeks.
sigh...
Sync their calendars/todos/contacts with what their secretary put in for them.
My dad bought a Palm III years ago to my surprise (he's not a techie at all and he didn't buy it as a status symbol). He bought an extra cradle for his secretary and installed Palm Desktop on it. After returning from a meeting, he handed it to his secretary who HotSynced her schedule changes; he then HotSynced to his own computer which replicated all the changes. As long as the clocks stayed reasonably close to each other, the changes stuck.
Microsoft has always been better at synchronizing your Outlook, but synchronizing your data with Palms has been generally good with the admittedly low-end PIM they bundle.
That's good stuff. I think it needs to be blogged. (Or is that "blogued" in the Queen's English? TrackBack: No, it is not.)
Look, Gmail is a beta service. It's not supposed to be good yet, even though a lot of people like it. I'm sure that if you report the problem to the appropriate Google Group, Google will improve the service before it goes live for real.
Windows Vista lets you apply labels to files on your hard drive. You can even create a Virtual Folder containing all the files with a particular label! By the time it's out, you'll even be able to dual boot it with Mac OS X on the same inexpensive piece of x86 hardware.
Outsourced people would learn these skills.
My mom worked in COBOL for decades and told me, with no slight amount of bitterness, that even offshoring firms' workers can do COBOL and mainframes work more cheaply than experienced American laborers could. In fact, as a potential outsourcee, you might make more money simply by distinguishing yourselves from the Java/C++/web-app programming masses.
They were given cushy jobs.
I don't have a problem beta testing new technology; I do have a problem spending over $500 ($250 lease fee, $200 early termination fee, $120 satellite dish uninstallation fee) to beta test. Live and learn. :(
I actually got the 942 on the recommendation of a co-worker who had been with Dish for years prior; he hasn't had nearly as many gripes about his DVR as I have about mine.
The impression that I have is that the Mac mini, despite its built-in DVI video output, it can't reliably show HDTV content in 720p (1280x720 at ~60 fps) or 1080i (1920x1080 at ~30 fps). Add on the fact that HDTV tuner cards can only receive over-the-air content, so you'd have to wire up some kind of IR blaster to control an external cable box or count on CableCARD support. With the extra hardware and legwork needed to get all that running, the price difference just gets higher and higher.
I own a small house in a neighborhood with lots of trees and large (3+ story) houses. Dish Network reception was fine on my 2 (!) dishes, but I cancelled early due chiefly to the lack of HDTV for networks (NBC, Fox, etc). To get over-the-air signals reliably I would have had to purchase a very large antenna and mount it at least 20 feet above my roof. It actually turned out to be cheaper to switch to Comcast than to install an antenna.
Comcast's dual-tuner DVR interface is crap compared to TiVo and lacks the "record all shows matching a keyword" search found in the Dish 942, TiVo, and my old ReplayTV 5040. It can record two shows at once in HDTV, but that really eats up the 120 GB hard drive fast.
I had a lot of problems with my 942 rebooting, not recording shows as promised, etc., only to be told that these were known issues and that I should await new software updates. I quickly grew impatient with their lousy service and switched to Comcast in time for football season.