It's Google's fault for allowing such an absurd restriction in the first place. Anything is "mobile" if you plug it into one of these. Fucking stupid Google. It's like having an option to not allow people wearing green to watch your video.
Amazon sells everything from zippo lighters to ass lube - I think they'll be okay. Best Buy sells refurbished, used and returned electronics through their stores and Cowboom site, but I'm pretty sure they don't even sell used games.
GameStop, well, if used games comprise a large portion of their business - sucks to be them. People don't seem to be much interested nowadays in going to a store to buy/rent something that can be delivered electronically. Seems like their fate was sealed sooner or later regardless of their ability to sell used games. I don't have a Blockbuster nearby anymore, either.
I'm sure Apple would've loved to publish that their iPad Mini can run for an entire week with the WiFi off, the CPU throttled all the way down and the brightness at minimum. But they know some people are going to crank the brightness all the way up and try to play Angry Birds until their eyes fall out, so their testing tends to be a bit more representative of how people might actually use the device.
Musk's assumption that his precious baby would be treated exactly as recommended, was his mistake. Hell, if I was testing an electric car, I'd do exactly the same thing. I'd crank up the air conditioning (Central Florida, it's hot here year round!) and blast the radio with extra bass. I'd see how well it handles keeping up with traffic in the fast lane. I'd want to know how much charge it'll manage when I don't have the time to wait for it to fill up completely. I'd probably forget to charge it and end up stuck somewhere, just to see how much wiggle room you've really got when it tells you you're dangerously low on charge.
Why? Because gasoline powered cars are amazingly tolerant of these sort of behaviors. Yeah, you'll reduce your gas mileage lead-footing it around town and having the A/C cranked (heat is basically free, though), but it generally won't make enough of a dent in your vehicle's effective range on a full tank that you'll end up stuck. Most cars also have a pretty decent amount of reserve range even after you hit that dreaded "E".
Presently, Tesla's cars are pretty much playthings for people who'd otherwise have no difficulty affording the gasoline a straight internal combustion or hybrid car would use. I'm sure even the people with that kind of money appreciate "real world" testing, because ultimately, even the rich can't afford to drive a car that's a constant pain in the ass.
If you want to make your lawyer a happy camper and don't need your life savings/kid's college fund/etc. sure, you can do battle with a HOA. A few years ago there was a guy who lived in a neighborhood a few miles from me who ran an adult voyeur "dorm" out of their house and when the neighbors figured it out, the HOA sued him. He ultimately ended up moving to another house in a non-HOA neighborhood.
I've also had my own problems with the HOA in my neighborhood due to differing opinions on lawn care and I can tell you they'll simply keep adding fees on top of fees and then late fees and lawyer letter fees if you don't pay them. If you keep ignoring them, they can even ask the court to foreclose on your house so they can get the money they're owed (including legal costs).
HOAs are certainly not "toothless". Read the agreement you signed with them when you bought your house. They're basically free to make your life miserable if they want to. I'd personally never buy in a neighborhood with an HOA again.
A stolen phone database sounds great, doesn't it? Just like how Trusted Computing saved us from malware and viruses and the big content providers would never dream of using such a system against end-users. Oh, right.
Here's what's wrong with this system, in a nutshell...
It does nothing to prevent theft. Fun fact: two carriers in the US already blacklisted stolen phones prior to this database, Sprint and Verizon. Hear much about thieves asking first if you're a Sprint or Verizon customer before they mug you for your phone? Neither have I. eBay is full of phones that are listed as carrier blocked or bad ESN and people still buy them. Let's not forget Craigslist, where it's pretty easy to scam people into buying useless phones (Oh, you wanted to test your SIM? Sorry, I forgot to charge the battery. Better buy this phone quick, I've had three other people interested in it!) Finally, regardless of whether or not a phone can be easily re-sold, it still has value as parts (especially with today's easily breakable huge screens). This database doesn't make stolen phones worthless, it only makes them slightly less valuable - which may actually lead to increased levels of theft.
Wireless companies will use this system to blacklist phones with unpaid balances. Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile already do this. Now, keep in mind the wireless companies still send you to collections and ruin your credit report, but that's apparently not enough. Naturally, none of the wireless companies in the US make it clear that they have these policies, so plenty of these phones still end up on the used market. You don't have to ask around much to find someone who has a horror story about purchasing an unusable second-hand cell phone, because the previous owner never paid their final bill.
So, now you've got a situation where it's a gamble to buy a used phone. Thankfully, the carriers are your knights in shining armor - they're coming to your rescue with two-year-contract subsidized handsets and full price prepaid handsets. Why would you ever want a used phone anyway, citizen? Don't you know someone had their dirty, disgusting fingers all over it?
Carriers want you to sign a new two-year contract. They also aren't entirely thrilled that you can get an inexpensive second-hand phone and activate it on a prepaid plan. T-Mobile already does block a phone's IMEI if the the original owner abandoned their account with an unpaid balance (a matter that should be left to collection agencies, not handled by blacklisting a phone). Worse, T-Mobile is known to block a phone after it's already been sold and is in use by a new owner who had no way of knowing the previous owner didn't make good on their final bill. There's a whole thread about this on HowardForums.
It'll never happen though, what's to stop all the neighborhood leeches from freeloading off my cable modem and save themselves $50 a month?
Not to mention the ISPs jacking up their rates and/or imposing increasingly restrictive caps if they see any meaningful reduction in subscriber counts.
This idea seems like it was dreamed up by the same type of person who would drive around with a 100' extension cord in his electric car, so he can plug in wherever he happens to be parked.
The lamps and oil pretty much have an indefinite shelf life. They'll be ready to use when you need them. Can't really say the same thing about batteries and flashlights. Secondly, they give off heat which can be useful to warm up foods (some lanterns can have small pots placed on top). Finally, they also run fine on gas station kerosene, which can be burned in heaters and stoves. One fuel and you've got light, heat and the ability to cook - can't really do that with batteries.
Microsoft just can't understand what it's like to be on the opposite side of the marketshare. iOS already is the "Windows of Tablets". People put up with the limitations of iOS because the app selection is outstanding. Android is for the most part open, the hardware costs around half as much (as an iPad) and the selection of apps is decent (but not perfect). Yet, Android still isn't really a serious threat to Apple's tablet business.
The thing is, there's really not many things about the iPad that would send a potential buyer running towards a competitor. If you wanted something less locked down, you'd go Android. If you wanted to spend less, you'd get the iPad Mini, or go Android. If you absolutely hate Apple/iOS, but still have >$500 burning a hole in your pocket, well, maybe you could be a Microsoft surface customer.
Microsoft surface will fit in exactly the same place that Blackberry tablet did: the fire sale bin. Unless you're an absolute Microsoft fanboy or for some reason love their Metro interface, there's simply no reason to buy a tablet that costs as much as an iPad, is just as locked down and has a tiny fraction of the apps. Microsoft might've had a winner on their hands if they could jump in the DeLorean and beat the iPad to market with surface, but today they're like the kid who turns in a pretty decent paper but it's a week late.
It will end with all restaurants as Taco Bell and everything unhealthy outlawed. Personally, I loathe smoking. I was absolutely thrilled when Florida finally banned smoking in most public places. As someone I can't bother to find an attribution for said "Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a pissing section in a pool." Second hand smoke is a directly irritating nuisance. Directly irritating people in public doesn't go over well.
This, however, crosses the line. Smokers have every right to char broil the inside of there lungs in the comfort of their own home, car, or private establishments. Saving money on insurance is a crock of shit, because next thing you know, they will go after everything from unhealthy food eaters to smartphone users (OMG, think of the texting while driving!).
Their cars are so insanely expensive that anyone who has the money to buy one, could easily afford a $30k car and the gas for it. Plus, unless you're generating it yourself or stealing it, electricity isn't free (laws of thermodynamics and all that). This is why comparing some guy's homebrew EV project against a Tesla car makes it seem all the more frugal. The reality is though, there are electric vehicles on the market (Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt) that the upper-middle-class can actually afford. If you figure this guy's labor was equal to what he spent on parts (as in, he could've spent the time working a second job), that's $28k right there he could've used to buy a Leaf. He'd then have something originally designed as an EV and new, with a warranty.
So, basically, he did this because it was a hobby. And by that metric, at least he has something to show for the $14k and the time he spent. I just don't see any practical reason for someone with different interests to follow in his footsteps. If you want an EV, simply go out and buy one. Of course, if you already have a perfectly working IC vehicle and the means to spend $30k, you're probably not hurting too much at the pump in the first place.
Honestly, I'd rather see more development in home fuel ethanol brewing. It appears the outdated anti-moonshining laws have put up a lot of red tape that tends to scare people away. Still, being able to make your own fuel for the IC car you already own is a lot closer to being a solution for rising gas prices than replacing or entirely rebuilding your existing car. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and all that.
Some "Jock" fathers do exactly the same thing, by insisting their kids participate in the same sports they did in their youth. If the kid actually shows genuine interest, then fine, go right ahead - but don't force your kid into some interest just because it was what you were into. As a parent, you have a chance to encourage your child to find out what he's interested in. And guess what, if it turns out he'd rather be outside playing with friends, in the kitchen cooking or building model airplanes, rather than futzing around with an old pile of comp-u-junk, you'd be a great parent to encourage him!
I'm old enough to have fond memories of building my own PCs in my teenage years, but I personally see nothing wrong with giving your kid a modern iOS or Android tablet and letting them just enjoy it without it having to be a learning experience. You only get to be a kid once.
My motorcycle gets 44MPG and will smoke every Prius or other zero emissions vehicle available to the general public (maybe not a Tesla, but I'd still take one on).
I'll bet they're a lot happier than you when the weather is rainy, snowy or hot as hell, though. Most of us have to drive out of necessity every day and only on the iPhone is it always 73 and Sunny.
With a few rare exceptions, most games with in-app purchases are designed so that your progress in the game is directly proportional to how much you're willing to spend. In several games, no amount of patience or skill will allow you to progress. And in some games, progress itself is an illusion, with no obvious indication that your "missions" are being randomly generated and there is no way to ever "beat" the game.
It's extremely shady on Apple's part to allow developers to label apps that require in-app purchases as "free". The way I see it, this is karma.
I'm all for developers getting paid for their work. If they really want to nickel and dime you for every bell and whistle in the app or make you insert a coin each time you lose a life, that's their prerogative - but Apple needs to make it a lot clearer what you're downloading, since in-app-purchases mean "free" no longer means what it used to.
I play video games specifically because I *want* to sit on my lard arse while blowing up aliens, flinging birds or jumping on turtles. Back in my day, you only got up in front of the TV and flailed around madly if you were a sore losing spazz. Yes, I just played the grumpy old gamer card.
Rot in hell Kinect, Dance Dance Revolution, Wii Sports and any other video game concept that dares pollute my holy pastime with elements of "gym class"!
If you're tracking the serial numbers of a bill in a database, skip the quantum brainhurt and just do the same thing video game authors and cell phone companies do: make sure the serial number isn't being used in more than one place at a time. Duh.
Seriously, it's like trying to invent a phaser so you can light a campfire, when the rest of us would just use a match.
It really seems like there's a whole lot of buzz about this phone lately, but something seems fishy. Presently, WolframAlpha (which I've personally never found the need to willingly use) returns the following when queried with "What is the best smartphone ever?":
1. HTC Trophy on Verizon 2. iPhone 4S on Verizon 3. iPhone 4 on Verizon 4. Nokia Lumina 900 on AT&T (Hey, there it is!) 5. HTC Rhyme on Verizon
WolframAlpha uses a questionable method of determining "bestness" by examining Best Buy customer reviews. Problem is, the Windows phones have so few reviews (the #1 ranked phone presently only has 21 reviews!), the averaging is broken. Obligatory XKCD
Did you see that tiny little text at the bottom of the site? It reads:
Site designed and built by frozendesigns.co.uk
Perhaps the pub should be raising some hell with them. Specifically on why they don't seem to understand the concept of building web sites using only original and/or royalty free images.
I'm almost pushing mid 30s and this list is "before my time". Sure, I was around during the 80s, but home computers with any decent amount of processing power (for their time) were horrendously expensive. Today, my outdated (not getting an official update to Ice Cream Sandwich) smartphone runs DOS programs under DOSBox faster than my first PC ran actual DOS.
That really makes me feel old. Though, I suppose for a bit of false nostalgia, I could run some of the games on this list - on my phone.
No one goes around spraying smokers with water because we find their smoke offensive. We've simply established places where it's okay to smoke and politely ask that smokers do their smoking in those designated areas. If it bothers you so much that some people are yelling into their cell phones, find some like-minded individuals who feel the same way and go through the proper channels to have rules established regarding areas where voice calls aren't allowed (except in emergencies).
The fact remains, it's presently perfectly legal to have a shouting match with your cell phone in a public place and if you have a problem with that - you need to bring up the issue the same way you would if you felt the speed limit in your residential neighborhood was too high. If you feel the problem is one of enforcement of existing laws (perhaps you believe it falls under "disturbing the peace"), feel free to pursue a career in law enforcement - chances are you might even learn why vigilante justice is wrong.
I ride a bicycle frequently and if I get run over by a texting driver then I'm dead.
But you'll survive if they've got a mouth full of Big Mac, or they're looking at their GPS, or their electronic toll transponder falls off their windshield and they bend down to pick it up?
Cars and bicycles are a dangerous mix and your luck might run out at any moment. I'd hate to be the person to have to tell your kids that daddy isn't coming home because he cared more about [reason why you ride a bicycle] than minimizing his risks by riding in something safe, so he could've been there to see his kids grow up.
Slashdot Mirror
It's Google's fault for allowing such an absurd restriction in the first place. Anything is "mobile" if you plug it into one of these. Fucking stupid Google. It's like having an option to not allow people wearing green to watch your video.
Amazon sells everything from zippo lighters to ass lube - I think they'll be okay. Best Buy sells refurbished, used and returned electronics through their stores and Cowboom site, but I'm pretty sure they don't even sell used games.
GameStop, well, if used games comprise a large portion of their business - sucks to be them. People don't seem to be much interested nowadays in going to a store to buy/rent something that can be delivered electronically. Seems like their fate was sealed sooner or later regardless of their ability to sell used games. I don't have a Blockbuster nearby anymore, either.
I'm sure Apple would've loved to publish that their iPad Mini can run for an entire week with the WiFi off, the CPU throttled all the way down and the brightness at minimum. But they know some people are going to crank the brightness all the way up and try to play Angry Birds until their eyes fall out, so their testing tends to be a bit more representative of how people might actually use the device.
Musk's assumption that his precious baby would be treated exactly as recommended, was his mistake. Hell, if I was testing an electric car, I'd do exactly the same thing. I'd crank up the air conditioning (Central Florida, it's hot here year round!) and blast the radio with extra bass. I'd see how well it handles keeping up with traffic in the fast lane. I'd want to know how much charge it'll manage when I don't have the time to wait for it to fill up completely. I'd probably forget to charge it and end up stuck somewhere, just to see how much wiggle room you've really got when it tells you you're dangerously low on charge.
Why? Because gasoline powered cars are amazingly tolerant of these sort of behaviors. Yeah, you'll reduce your gas mileage lead-footing it around town and having the A/C cranked (heat is basically free, though), but it generally won't make enough of a dent in your vehicle's effective range on a full tank that you'll end up stuck. Most cars also have a pretty decent amount of reserve range even after you hit that dreaded "E".
Presently, Tesla's cars are pretty much playthings for people who'd otherwise have no difficulty affording the gasoline a straight internal combustion or hybrid car would use. I'm sure even the people with that kind of money appreciate "real world" testing, because ultimately, even the rich can't afford to drive a car that's a constant pain in the ass.
If you want to make your lawyer a happy camper and don't need your life savings/kid's college fund/etc. sure, you can do battle with a HOA. A few years ago there was a guy who lived in a neighborhood a few miles from me who ran an adult voyeur "dorm" out of their house and when the neighbors figured it out, the HOA sued him. He ultimately ended up moving to another house in a non-HOA neighborhood.
I've also had my own problems with the HOA in my neighborhood due to differing opinions on lawn care and I can tell you they'll simply keep adding fees on top of fees and then late fees and lawyer letter fees if you don't pay them. If you keep ignoring them, they can even ask the court to foreclose on your house so they can get the money they're owed (including legal costs).
HOAs are certainly not "toothless". Read the agreement you signed with them when you bought your house. They're basically free to make your life miserable if they want to. I'd personally never buy in a neighborhood with an HOA again.
A stolen phone database sounds great, doesn't it? Just like how Trusted Computing saved us from malware and viruses and the big content providers would never dream of using such a system against end-users. Oh, right.
Here's what's wrong with this system, in a nutshell...
It does nothing to prevent theft. Fun fact: two carriers in the US already blacklisted stolen phones prior to this database, Sprint and Verizon. Hear much about thieves asking first if you're a Sprint or Verizon customer before they mug you for your phone? Neither have I. eBay is full of phones that are listed as carrier blocked or bad ESN and people still buy them. Let's not forget Craigslist, where it's pretty easy to scam people into buying useless phones (Oh, you wanted to test your SIM? Sorry, I forgot to charge the battery. Better buy this phone quick, I've had three other people interested in it!) Finally, regardless of whether or not a phone can be easily re-sold, it still has value as parts (especially with today's easily breakable huge screens). This database doesn't make stolen phones worthless, it only makes them slightly less valuable - which may actually lead to increased levels of theft.
Wireless companies will use this system to blacklist phones with unpaid balances. Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile already do this. Now, keep in mind the wireless companies still send you to collections and ruin your credit report, but that's apparently not enough. Naturally, none of the wireless companies in the US make it clear that they have these policies, so plenty of these phones still end up on the used market. You don't have to ask around much to find someone who has a horror story about purchasing an unusable second-hand cell phone, because the previous owner never paid their final bill.
So, now you've got a situation where it's a gamble to buy a used phone. Thankfully, the carriers are your knights in shining armor - they're coming to your rescue with two-year-contract subsidized handsets and full price prepaid handsets. Why would you ever want a used phone anyway, citizen? Don't you know someone had their dirty, disgusting fingers all over it?
Carriers want you to sign a new two-year contract. They also aren't entirely thrilled that you can get an inexpensive second-hand phone and activate it on a prepaid plan. T-Mobile already does block a phone's IMEI if the the original owner abandoned their account with an unpaid balance (a matter that should be left to collection agencies, not handled by blacklisting a phone). Worse, T-Mobile is known to block a phone after it's already been sold and is in use by a new owner who had no way of knowing the previous owner didn't make good on their final bill. There's a whole thread about this on HowardForums.
There's a guy on YouTube who implemented a much better clone of Tetris, complete with upcoming piece display, on RGB LEDs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugub6d65b2A
But they didn't think to shove it inside a pumpkin, so no one cared. There's an Apple analogy in there, somewhere.
It'll never happen though, what's to stop all the neighborhood leeches from freeloading off my cable modem and save themselves $50 a month?
Not to mention the ISPs jacking up their rates and/or imposing increasingly restrictive caps if they see any meaningful reduction in subscriber counts.
This idea seems like it was dreamed up by the same type of person who would drive around with a 100' extension cord in his electric car, so he can plug in wherever he happens to be parked.
I asked this above, but why use oil lamps?
The lamps and oil pretty much have an indefinite shelf life. They'll be ready to use when you need them. Can't really say the same thing about batteries and flashlights. Secondly, they give off heat which can be useful to warm up foods (some lanterns can have small pots placed on top). Finally, they also run fine on gas station kerosene, which can be burned in heaters and stoves. One fuel and you've got light, heat and the ability to cook - can't really do that with batteries.
Microsoft just can't understand what it's like to be on the opposite side of the marketshare. iOS already is the "Windows of Tablets". People put up with the limitations of iOS because the app selection is outstanding. Android is for the most part open, the hardware costs around half as much (as an iPad) and the selection of apps is decent (but not perfect). Yet, Android still isn't really a serious threat to Apple's tablet business.
The thing is, there's really not many things about the iPad that would send a potential buyer running towards a competitor. If you wanted something less locked down, you'd go Android. If you wanted to spend less, you'd get the iPad Mini, or go Android. If you absolutely hate Apple/iOS, but still have >$500 burning a hole in your pocket, well, maybe you could be a Microsoft surface customer.
Microsoft surface will fit in exactly the same place that Blackberry tablet did: the fire sale bin. Unless you're an absolute Microsoft fanboy or for some reason love their Metro interface, there's simply no reason to buy a tablet that costs as much as an iPad, is just as locked down and has a tiny fraction of the apps. Microsoft might've had a winner on their hands if they could jump in the DeLorean and beat the iPad to market with surface, but today they're like the kid who turns in a pretty decent paper but it's a week late.
It will end with all restaurants as Taco Bell and everything unhealthy outlawed. Personally, I loathe smoking. I was absolutely thrilled when Florida finally banned smoking in most public places. As someone I can't bother to find an attribution for said "Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a pissing section in a pool." Second hand smoke is a directly irritating nuisance. Directly irritating people in public doesn't go over well.
This, however, crosses the line. Smokers have every right to char broil the inside of there lungs in the comfort of their own home, car, or private establishments. Saving money on insurance is a crock of shit, because next thing you know, they will go after everything from unhealthy food eaters to smartphone users (OMG, think of the texting while driving!).
Their cars are so insanely expensive that anyone who has the money to buy one, could easily afford a $30k car and the gas for it. Plus, unless you're generating it yourself or stealing it, electricity isn't free (laws of thermodynamics and all that). This is why comparing some guy's homebrew EV project against a Tesla car makes it seem all the more frugal. The reality is though, there are electric vehicles on the market (Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt) that the upper-middle-class can actually afford. If you figure this guy's labor was equal to what he spent on parts (as in, he could've spent the time working a second job), that's $28k right there he could've used to buy a Leaf. He'd then have something originally designed as an EV and new, with a warranty.
So, basically, he did this because it was a hobby. And by that metric, at least he has something to show for the $14k and the time he spent. I just don't see any practical reason for someone with different interests to follow in his footsteps. If you want an EV, simply go out and buy one. Of course, if you already have a perfectly working IC vehicle and the means to spend $30k, you're probably not hurting too much at the pump in the first place.
Honestly, I'd rather see more development in home fuel ethanol brewing. It appears the outdated anti-moonshining laws have put up a lot of red tape that tends to scare people away. Still, being able to make your own fuel for the IC car you already own is a lot closer to being a solution for rising gas prices than replacing or entirely rebuilding your existing car. Throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and all that.
Some "Jock" fathers do exactly the same thing, by insisting their kids participate in the same sports they did in their youth. If the kid actually shows genuine interest, then fine, go right ahead - but don't force your kid into some interest just because it was what you were into. As a parent, you have a chance to encourage your child to find out what he's interested in. And guess what, if it turns out he'd rather be outside playing with friends, in the kitchen cooking or building model airplanes, rather than futzing around with an old pile of comp-u-junk, you'd be a great parent to encourage him!
I'm old enough to have fond memories of building my own PCs in my teenage years, but I personally see nothing wrong with giving your kid a modern iOS or Android tablet and letting them just enjoy it without it having to be a learning experience. You only get to be a kid once.
Shouldn't the creationists be against altering something that was clearly part of God's Great Design(TM)?
Oh right, most of them actually *support* circumcision. Bunch of hypocrites.
My motorcycle gets 44MPG and will smoke every Prius or other zero emissions vehicle available to the general public (maybe not a Tesla, but I'd still take one on).
I'll bet they're a lot happier than you when the weather is rainy, snowy or hot as hell, though. Most of us have to drive out of necessity every day and only on the iPhone is it always 73 and Sunny.
With a few rare exceptions, most games with in-app purchases are designed so that your progress in the game is directly proportional to how much you're willing to spend. In several games, no amount of patience or skill will allow you to progress. And in some games, progress itself is an illusion, with no obvious indication that your "missions" are being randomly generated and there is no way to ever "beat" the game.
It's extremely shady on Apple's part to allow developers to label apps that require in-app purchases as "free". The way I see it, this is karma.
I'm all for developers getting paid for their work. If they really want to nickel and dime you for every bell and whistle in the app or make you insert a coin each time you lose a life, that's their prerogative - but Apple needs to make it a lot clearer what you're downloading, since in-app-purchases mean "free" no longer means what it used to.
I play video games specifically because I *want* to sit on my lard arse while blowing up aliens, flinging birds or jumping on turtles. Back in my day, you only got up in front of the TV and flailed around madly if you were a sore losing spazz. Yes, I just played the grumpy old gamer card.
Rot in hell Kinect, Dance Dance Revolution, Wii Sports and any other video game concept that dares pollute my holy pastime with elements of "gym class"!
If you're tracking the serial numbers of a bill in a database, skip the quantum brainhurt and just do the same thing video game authors and cell phone companies do: make sure the serial number isn't being used in more than one place at a time. Duh.
Seriously, it's like trying to invent a phaser so you can light a campfire, when the rest of us would just use a match.
Pure black and white with perfect contrast? No visible pixel matrix? LCD screens didn't look like that in the 80s. They looked liked this.
Now if you're talking about the 90s, the iPhone probably would've looked something like this.
It makes me wonder if this anachronistic retro hipster who drew this "80s iPhone" art was even alive in the 80s,
It really seems like there's a whole lot of buzz about this phone lately, but something seems fishy. Presently, WolframAlpha (which I've personally never found the need to willingly use) returns the following when queried with "What is the best smartphone ever?":
1. HTC Trophy on Verizon
2. iPhone 4S on Verizon
3. iPhone 4 on Verizon
4. Nokia Lumina 900 on AT&T (Hey, there it is!)
5. HTC Rhyme on Verizon
WolframAlpha uses a questionable method of determining "bestness" by examining Best Buy customer reviews. Problem is, the Windows phones have so few reviews (the #1 ranked phone presently only has 21 reviews!), the averaging is broken. Obligatory XKCD
...and thought exactly the same thing.
"Romulans. They're so predictably treacherous!"
Did you see that tiny little text at the bottom of the site? It reads:
Site designed and built by frozendesigns.co.uk
Perhaps the pub should be raising some hell with them. Specifically on why they don't seem to understand the concept of building web sites using only original and/or royalty free images.
I'm almost pushing mid 30s and this list is "before my time". Sure, I was around during the 80s, but home computers with any decent amount of processing power (for their time) were horrendously expensive. Today, my outdated (not getting an official update to Ice Cream Sandwich) smartphone runs DOS programs under DOSBox faster than my first PC ran actual DOS.
That really makes me feel old. Though, I suppose for a bit of false nostalgia, I could run some of the games on this list - on my phone.
No one goes around spraying smokers with water because we find their smoke offensive. We've simply established places where it's okay to smoke and politely ask that smokers do their smoking in those designated areas. If it bothers you so much that some people are yelling into their cell phones, find some like-minded individuals who feel the same way and go through the proper channels to have rules established regarding areas where voice calls aren't allowed (except in emergencies).
The fact remains, it's presently perfectly legal to have a shouting match with your cell phone in a public place and if you have a problem with that - you need to bring up the issue the same way you would if you felt the speed limit in your residential neighborhood was too high. If you feel the problem is one of enforcement of existing laws (perhaps you believe it falls under "disturbing the peace"), feel free to pursue a career in law enforcement - chances are you might even learn why vigilante justice is wrong.
I ride a bicycle frequently and if I get run over by a texting driver then I'm dead.
But you'll survive if they've got a mouth full of Big Mac, or they're looking at their GPS, or their electronic toll transponder falls off their windshield and they bend down to pick it up?
Cars and bicycles are a dangerous mix and your luck might run out at any moment. I'd hate to be the person to have to tell your kids that daddy isn't coming home because he cared more about [reason why you ride a bicycle] than minimizing his risks by riding in something safe, so he could've been there to see his kids grow up.