The point was that powerpoint is the worst way to present information. It was implicated as the point of failure in NASAs decision to launch. His argument was a straw man attempting to divert attention away from the real issue - that powerpoint is a waste of time and leads to bad decisions.
The case of the secretary who changed that single cell, well, it did not have to do with using Excel or PowerPoint or any other tool.
Then either it was the wrong tool for the job, or it was improperly used by the person who set it up. The cell should have been protected, but more important, instead of using a spreadsheet - spreadsheetitis - the data should have been processed as a batch job, where ONLY the data can be changed, not the formulas.
So there were two points of failure, either of which could have been corrected, but only the second one would have prevented people from "working around" the cell protection.
I wasn't in the market for a smartphone until I saw the specs on the Evo 4g. This is really a game-changer. a 4.3" screen is going to make so many baby boomers go "I don't need bi-fuck-alls to see this!".
For the video crowd, being able to shoot in 720p from a smartphone is going to float their boat. The HDMI out is another "don't need a laptop to transfer the files to watch on the big screen" changer.
People are going to latch on these, shove big micro-sd cards into them, and ditch their net-tops. Why tether your laptop when you can carry everything you need in a pocket or purse?
You know, if you knew half as much about consumer tastes and business as Jobs and the rest of the Mactards, wouldn't you, oh, I dunno, own some property instead of getting into petty spats with the person you rent from?
Ha ha. I sold my house at the peak during a previous bubble. 46% gain in 4 years. That taught me several lessons:
Timing is everything - even more important than "location, location, location"
Property that goes up will go down - and even if it only remains the same price, inflation and the costs of "holding your position" will eat at your imaginary "gains".
I no longer have to worry about the jerk who lived next door and was a real PITA.
Not mowing the lawn every week, and not shoveling the snow in the winter, works for me..
I can't believe how much time some of my relatives put into home maintenance and "improvements". And the arguments that go with it...
Look, I'm single. I've got 3 bedrooms - one for me to sleep in, one for my office, and one for miscellaneous stuff (plus a storage room and indoor garage). If I had kept my original house, I'd have TWO bedrooms for miscellaneous stuff instead of one. What would be the point?
Sure, if I weren't single, it would be nice to own a house again - because I need *my* space, but until then...
You just know someone's out there thinking it. It's easier to sue open-source, since all the stuff is out there, exposed. Too bad closed source won't play by the same rules.
"Old geezers" aren't necessarily "image-impaired" to the extent you think - they just want larger letters and numbers for easier reading as they get older - something that a smartphone does.
I just checked my carrier - they sell a couple dozen smartphones, half-a-dozen "classic phones" - if by "classic" you mean mp3/media/web-browsing, etc. The only phone they have that doesn't do that is a bag phone. You remember those - from the 1980s? Big-assed suckers that needed a bag for the battery.
Pretty much everyone who owns a cell phone has one that is also a music and video player. the ability to send and receive emails and text, and a video camera. They may not use them as often, but they still use them. Car accident? Make a video. Not sure which product to buy? Take a picture and compare at home. Want to say "Happy birthday" but it's too early (or late) to call? Send a text.
Doesn't mean they have to behave like a 15-year-old textaholic.
The problem with the 4th color is that it also takes up screen real estate, reducing the black area, resulting in (as even the article admits) blacks that aren't really black.
Plasma has been heading in the other direction - smaller light-emitting elements firing more rapidly (600hz), allowing for savings rare earths, energy, images that seem rock-solid, and really black blacks, since more of the screen IS black.
Personally, I want some gene therapy that lets me see into the IR and UV ranges.
I already had enough problems when I was a kid with a teacher who insisted that the blackboard at the front of the class was black, instead of green. "It can't be green - it's called a "blackboard" for a reason." A great example of people refusing to believe the evidence of their eyes (btw - the blackboard on the side wall was black).
The jitterbug has got to be one of the stupidest rip-offs going. Overpriced crap phones on overpriced crap calling plans. What older people want is larger easier-to-read displays, not dumbed-down phones. If they've been using email, they don't suddenly change their needs when they hit 55+. They don't suddenly not like the idea of having a road map or gps in their phone. Or a camera. Or a music player. Or a video player. Or a todo list. Or the web.
They're the ones who, when they get old and crotchety, WANT a baby-shaker app. Apple is clearly discriminating against old geezers!
Seriously, they want larger, easier-to-read screens like the Motorola Droid/Milestone or the Evo 4g. And we all know baby boomers will scream and kick and complain until they get what they want.
They don't sell to teenagers. They sell to teenager's parents and let them set up monthly limits on purchases from the iTunes store.
Sure they do. 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds are still teenagers, and can sign contracts without anyone else's permission. They can vote, drink, screw, hold down a job, and do pretty much anything else - they're adults. (Except in some backward parts of the world).
I've noticed that so many people adopt the same posture when using a computer for extended periods - it's like they're store mannequins. No wonder they have neck strain and eye strain and RSI.
BTW - the only people who could theoretically benefit from the 4th pixel would be some women who are tetrachromats. And squids. Hexachromatic squids would still find these TVs to be rather blah.
You are living proof that powerpoint indeed makes people stupid.
Informed decisions can only be made when you have enough info to make an informed decision. Powerpoint works against that. Anyone who bases a decision on some monkey's powerpoint slides deserves what they get.
Fiber would be nice. But most ISPs are too lazy to even bother with their infrastructure, so your FiOS connection will end up having the same lousy 2-3 megabit/sec as your cable or DSL. Oh, and expect to pay per bit because your connection *could* be faster.
I guess I should be happy I live in Canada, and not the USA. Plans from 1mbps to 50mbps to the home (and I know that they can do at least double that with their current setup). Still a lot slower tha 1gbps in parts of Europe and Asia, though.
... and you missed the point, which was that it isn't necessary to have a situation like the original poster wrote, which was that ALL users have to share the bandwidth. Access points are cheap enough that you can pretty much wire up everywhere. There's no reason for a house that has 4 computer users, 2 of whom are using laptops, not to have 2 or more wireless routers. Or for a business that has 10 laptops and 20 desktops in two offices at separate ends of the building not to install 6 wireless access points (3 in each office).
... which is why they don't sell to teenaged kids... oh wait, they do. The iPhone has gone from "Premium Niche Product" to mass-marketed ho-hum under-performing crap quicker than any other product in history. And the iPhone 4g that's coming out is WAY behind the Evo 4g. Within the year, Apple will be seen as behind the times.
Apple sales reps will be boycotting mobile phone shops dressed in grey hoodies advising people "These are not the droids you are looking for."
Funny joke, but I think you mean picketing. To boycott is to personally avoid patronizing the store. To picket is to stand outside the store demonstrating, especially to ask others to boycott the store.
Shoppers: "These are not the droid stores you're looking for".
I believe so, as the alternative, "asshare," is read by my internal monologue as "ass-hare" which, while it sounds like "ass hair," is spelled like a cousin of "ass rabbit" and that just seems to me like a couple steps up from a gerbil, and neither of those is something I want to contemplate in the context of smartphones.
Come on, you mean to say that you've never been tempted to tell someone to shove their iPhone up their iAss?
And for extra goodness, then say "Can you hear me now?"
The two statistics aren't inconsistent - more than 75% of all phones sold now are smartphones - but it's going to take 3-4 years to clear out the installed base of ordinary cell phones. Of course, this presupposes that you'll even be able to buy a non-smartphone a couple of years from now without paying extra for that "feature".
can you not consider that you might have been cleverly tricked into thinking that you're part of an elite, when this is not the case.
... and that's what's going to pull iPhone numbers down going forward - even high school kids can get an iPhone, and compared to the features on the next gen of android smartphones, the next gen iPhone is so "myspace".
They also fail to mention that most of those Android phones were distributed by Verizon for free as an attempt to wrest away some of AT&T's iPhone advantage.
Since when is "buy one, get one free - but you still need to sign them both up to a multi-year contract" free? Just like those $100 iPhones aren't really $100 once you look at the contract.
If Apple ever starts allowing other U.S. carriers to offer the iPhone, I'll bet Android sales number will make a big u-turn in a hurry.
Check out the Evo 4g and try to say that with a straight face - it's kit like that which will kill both the iPhone and iPad. Bigger, easier-to-read display than the upcoming iPhone 4g, much more portable than an iPad... it's the face of the next generation of smartphone computing devices that people will actually be able to type on half-way decently.
My internet connection ( DSL ) can't come anywhere near saturating my 802.11g router's 54Gbps.
You have an 802.11g router that's rated at 54 Gbps?
Unless I have a fiber optic line running to my home,
The cable company ran fibre down the next street last year. They're offering 50mpbs now (+ phone + video on demand, so there's enough headroom that they could easily offer 100mbps), and they'll keep upping it every few years, as demand (marketing) warrants.
how do I benefit from faster wireless
Most homes have more than one computer nowadays. Moving files between them, or to / from your smartphone?
Also, since you finish transmitting the data quicker, you free up the channel for other users that much quicker.
Contention. With a wireless system, you are all using the same bandwidth
So my two wireless routers don't work on different channels? Wireless routers / access points are so cheap there's no reason you can't have more than one. We had 3 at the office (2 authorized and one *cough* for testing *cough*). There were never any issues.
Oh, I don't hate LCDs for the jobs they're good at. I bought dual 26" ones for this machine. However, I didn't buy cheap; the cheap ones will make your eyeballs bleed in an office setting. They DO flicker in sync with the lighting. It might be in the khz range, but that doesn't mean that, sampled over that time, they don't also have a low-frequency "beat" that matches the fluorescents. As someone else pointed out, it depends on the quality of the components, and most people look at the price first, picture last.
How else to explain that others are saying they can't stand them because of the eye strain? Then again cheap is cheap. And people tend to have a reduced blink rate when staring at any type of screen, which also leads to eye strain. That's why it's handy to have a second monitor with slashdot or some other diversion - to let the muscles that control your eyes avoid "eye cramp" the same way any other muscles would cramp up if held in the same position for hours on end (ditto for your neck).
That is a report that will eventually get to decision makers and if decisions have to be made fast they will want the information to be apparent not hidden in text only.
It's stupid thinking like that that led to bad decisions through a badly-done powerpoint presentation that resulted in the shuttle disaster.
If it's an important decision, it shouldn't be made fast, and it should be made by someone who can actually understand the information without it being dumbed down and pre-digested.
Look at the case where financial models were out of whack for a year because a secretary changed one cell - and replaced the formula with a number.
Slashdot Mirror
Then either it was the wrong tool for the job, or it was improperly used by the person who set it up. The cell should have been protected, but more important, instead of using a spreadsheet - spreadsheetitis - the data should have been processed as a batch job, where ONLY the data can be changed, not the formulas.
So there were two points of failure, either of which could have been corrected, but only the second one would have prevented people from "working around" the cell protection.
I wasn't in the market for a smartphone until I saw the specs on the Evo 4g. This is really a game-changer. a 4.3" screen is going to make so many baby boomers go "I don't need bi-fuck-alls to see this!".
For the video crowd, being able to shoot in 720p from a smartphone is going to float their boat. The HDMI out is another "don't need a laptop to transfer the files to watch on the big screen" changer.
People are going to latch on these, shove big micro-sd cards into them, and ditch their net-tops. Why tether your laptop when you can carry everything you need in a pocket or purse?
Ha ha. I sold my house at the peak during a previous bubble. 46% gain in 4 years. That taught me several lessons:
Look, I'm single. I've got 3 bedrooms - one for me to sleep in, one for my office, and one for miscellaneous stuff (plus a storage room and indoor garage). If I had kept my original house, I'd have TWO bedrooms for miscellaneous stuff instead of one. What would be the point?
Sure, if I weren't single, it would be nice to own a house again - because I need *my* space, but until then ...
"which makes it even easier to sell them non-flashy, expensive Apple products."
There, fixed that for you. If you want flash, you need to buy something other than an iPhone or iPad :-)
You just know someone's out there thinking it. It's easier to sue open-source, since all the stuff is out there, exposed. Too bad closed source won't play by the same rules.
"Old geezers" aren't necessarily "image-impaired" to the extent you think - they just want larger letters and numbers for easier reading as they get older - something that a smartphone does.
I just checked my carrier - they sell a couple dozen smartphones, half-a-dozen "classic phones" - if by "classic" you mean mp3/media/web-browsing, etc. The only phone they have that doesn't do that is a bag phone. You remember those - from the 1980s? Big-assed suckers that needed a bag for the battery.
Pretty much everyone who owns a cell phone has one that is also a music and video player. the ability to send and receive emails and text, and a video camera. They may not use them as often, but they still use them. Car accident? Make a video. Not sure which product to buy? Take a picture and compare at home. Want to say "Happy birthday" but it's too early (or late) to call? Send a text.
Doesn't mean they have to behave like a 15-year-old textaholic.
The problem with the 4th color is that it also takes up screen real estate, reducing the black area, resulting in (as even the article admits) blacks that aren't really black.
Plasma has been heading in the other direction - smaller light-emitting elements firing more rapidly (600hz), allowing for savings rare earths, energy, images that seem rock-solid, and really black blacks, since more of the screen IS black.
I already had enough problems when I was a kid with a teacher who insisted that the blackboard at the front of the class was black, instead of green. "It can't be green - it's called a "blackboard" for a reason." A great example of people refusing to believe the evidence of their eyes (btw - the blackboard on the side wall was black).
The jitterbug has got to be one of the stupidest rip-offs going. Overpriced crap phones on overpriced crap calling plans. What older people want is larger easier-to-read displays, not dumbed-down phones. If they've been using email, they don't suddenly change their needs when they hit 55+. They don't suddenly not like the idea of having a road map or gps in their phone. Or a camera. Or a music player. Or a video player. Or a todo list. Or the web.
They're the ones who, when they get old and crotchety, WANT a baby-shaker app. Apple is clearly discriminating against old geezers!
Seriously, they want larger, easier-to-read screens like the Motorola Droid/Milestone or the Evo 4g. And we all know baby boomers will scream and kick and complain until they get what they want.
Sure they do. 18-year-olds and 19-year-olds are still teenagers, and can sign contracts without anyone else's permission. They can vote, drink, screw, hold down a job, and do pretty much anything else - they're adults. (Except in some backward parts of the world).
I've noticed that so many people adopt the same posture when using a computer for extended periods - it's like they're store mannequins. No wonder they have neck strain and eye strain and RSI.
BTW - the only people who could theoretically benefit from the 4th pixel would be some women who are tetrachromats. And squids. Hexachromatic squids would still find these TVs to be rather blah.
You are living proof that powerpoint indeed makes people stupid.
Informed decisions can only be made when you have enough info to make an informed decision. Powerpoint works against that. Anyone who bases a decision on some monkey's powerpoint slides deserves what they get.
I guess I should be happy I live in Canada, and not the USA. Plans from 1mbps to 50mbps to the home (and I know that they can do at least double that with their current setup). Still a lot slower tha 1gbps in parts of Europe and Asia, though.
... and you missed the point, which was that it isn't necessary to have a situation like the original poster wrote, which was that ALL users have to share the bandwidth. Access points are cheap enough that you can pretty much wire up everywhere. There's no reason for a house that has 4 computer users, 2 of whom are using laptops, not to have 2 or more wireless routers. Or for a business that has 10 laptops and 20 desktops in two offices at separate ends of the building not to install 6 wireless access points (3 in each office).
... which is why they don't sell to teenaged kids ... oh wait, they do. The iPhone has gone from "Premium Niche Product" to mass-marketed ho-hum under-performing crap quicker than any other product in history. And the iPhone 4g that's coming out is WAY behind the Evo 4g. Within the year, Apple will be seen as behind the times.
iPhone: "Hi, I'm and iPhone. Who are you?"
Android: "DROID."
iPhone: "What are you doing here?"
Android: "Prepare to die, C3PO clone."
iPhone: "There's no need to be rude, you know."
Android: "All your user base are belong to us."
Android: ZAPP!
Android: "The Jobs Star has been destroyed!"
Shoppers: "These are not the droid stores you're looking for".
Darth Jobs: "I sense a disturbance in the force!"
Apple Users: "Nooooooo!!!!!"
Come on, you mean to say that you've never been tempted to tell someone to shove their iPhone up their iAss?
And for extra goodness, then say "Can you hear me now?"
The two statistics aren't inconsistent - more than 75% of all phones sold now are smartphones - but it's going to take 3-4 years to clear out the installed base of ordinary cell phones. Of course, this presupposes that you'll even be able to buy a non-smartphone a couple of years from now without paying extra for that "feature".
Since when is "buy one, get one free - but you still need to sign them both up to a multi-year contract" free? Just like those $100 iPhones aren't really $100 once you look at the contract.
Check out the Evo 4g and try to say that with a straight face - it's kit like that which will kill both the iPhone and iPad. Bigger, easier-to-read display than the upcoming iPhone 4g, much more portable than an iPad ... it's the face of the next generation of smartphone computing devices that people will actually be able to type on half-way decently.
That's the beauty of open source - you don't need Apple's approval to make your own.
You have an 802.11g router that's rated at 54 Gbps?
The cable company ran fibre down the next street last year. They're offering 50mpbs now (+ phone + video on demand, so there's enough headroom that they could easily offer 100mbps), and they'll keep upping it every few years, as demand (marketing) warrants.
Most homes have more than one computer nowadays. Moving files between them, or to / from your smartphone?
Also, since you finish transmitting the data quicker, you free up the channel for other users that much quicker.
So my two wireless routers don't work on different channels? Wireless routers / access points are so cheap there's no reason you can't have more than one. We had 3 at the office (2 authorized and one *cough* for testing *cough*). There were never any issues.
Oh, I don't hate LCDs for the jobs they're good at. I bought dual 26" ones for this machine. However, I didn't buy cheap; the cheap ones will make your eyeballs bleed in an office setting. They DO flicker in sync with the lighting. It might be in the khz range, but that doesn't mean that, sampled over that time, they don't also have a low-frequency "beat" that matches the fluorescents. As someone else pointed out, it depends on the quality of the components, and most people look at the price first, picture last.
How else to explain that others are saying they can't stand them because of the eye strain? Then again cheap is cheap. And people tend to have a reduced blink rate when staring at any type of screen, which also leads to eye strain. That's why it's handy to have a second monitor with slashdot or some other diversion - to let the muscles that control your eyes avoid "eye cramp" the same way any other muscles would cramp up if held in the same position for hours on end (ditto for your neck).
It's stupid thinking like that that led to bad decisions through a badly-done powerpoint presentation that resulted in the shuttle disaster.
If it's an important decision, it shouldn't be made fast, and it should be made by someone who can actually understand the information without it being dumbed down and pre-digested.
Look at the case where financial models were out of whack for a year because a secretary changed one cell - and replaced the formula with a number.