For me, it really isn't about the GB of storage, or, for that matter, really the size. It is about the ease of use and the integration.
Apple's iPod (and Apple with all of their products) offers a great experience and great integration between the music player on the machine (iTunes) and purchasing music online (applemusic.com).
Sure the Nomad might be able to do some of those things, but is the experience as good as with the iPod?
Well, I can't believe the number of posts that are badmouthing cable service. I did the DSL thing for a couple years, and the upload speed sucked, and the download speed was almost never above 100kbps. With Comcast cable, I now get at least 2x that speed consistently, and even if uploading sucks (which I haven't tried much of), it isn't any worse than DSL.
Bottom line: I'm paying $22/month for the next year of broadband. Everything else falls away when the alternative is $50/month.
And as far as terms of service go... Who really cares? When was the last time you read the license agreement on a piece of software? And then followed it?
I had a class in college that talked about this exact subject. Our text didn't cover a lot of material, but it focused on one big issue: People tend to define themselves by the work that they do. What happens when we have automated all of the work that needs to be done?
Ahh but humans ARE a commodity. Take a look at the numbers. There are like 6 billion of us on the planet. And if someone will do it cheaper than you, then that is tough luck.
Don't get me wrong though. I'm all against loosing our american jobs to india workers. I've already written my reps, and will do so again. But you have to ask, if the business virtue is the bottom line, how can you possibly argue that a $15/hour india worker is a bad deal compared with the $100/hour american worker?
There is certainly a place for those things, but I am currently working under an IT department that is absoultly paralized due to their security fears.
They won't look into making WiFi a "permitted" standard, but they will buy the equipment to do security sweeps to make sure no one has set up a rogue WiFi access point.
I absolutly love having dual screens at work, and think that having it on a laptop is a Good Thing. But really... wasting an entire (expensive) screen for a "soft" keyboard?
Several points for coolness, but minus a few million for stupidity.
It isn't about being available if *someone else* wants to contact you. It's about being available if *you* want to be available. People really need to get this through their heads.
All of my non-cellphone friends and family keep telling me that they don't want to be so available to everyone, so thus they don't get a cell phone.
My wife calls me on my cell phone several times a day. I love talking to her. But the truth is that I reject 75% of the calls because I am busy with something else.
Just because you *can* be contacted doesn't mean you have to *answer*.
This is a good thing to hear. Email is always on while I am at work, and I often enjoy the distraction, but being reminded that that is what it is is good.
What I'd like people to realize more is that cell-phones follow this same deal. Just because you _can_ contact me any time, doesn't mean I will reply or answer at any time.
Like the parent said, get good teachers! Get them good books, teach them to build things, to take part in science fairs and apply what they learn. On a board or on paper dammit.
Problem solving is good. Good books are good. Good teachers are good. But you know, if I recall correctly, I was allowed a calculator in math for my entire education execpt for say, the first 6 months when we learned the theory. Computers are vital to just about everything now, and I can tell you that by the time my kids hit kindegarten they will already be quite versed with using a laptop.
I have a college buddy that had a Pentium II stop working due to excessive dust/dirt/grime. He removed the motherboard and took it into the dorm shower where he adquately washed the thing off. After waiting for it to dry, he put the battery back and reconected everything. Worked quite well after that.
Here is a company that does this exact thing, sortof. They transmit electrical meter readings down the line to a server where it reported on, stored, etc. The problem, of course, is that it transmits data very slowly to keep the signals clean. This is why they call it the Turtle.
Perhaps brodband can be delivered via the wires, but who really cares? I'm more interested in getting the broadband wirelessly by FM.
You give spamcop a copy of your spam. Spamcop then hunts down the offending server(s). If enough people compain about those particular servers, they (the servers) become black-listed, so that if you filter your email w/ spamcop, email from those machines won't get through.
I have been recently reading The Silent Takeover: Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy by Noreena Hertz, and she has an excellent idea about issues like this, and I think what we really need to do about this Microsoft issue is really quite straight forward.
Governments and politicians have proven to be quite ineffective (what did the "Monopoly" status get us?), so we need to react as consumers, and we need to STOP BUYING MICROSOFT PRODUCTS!.
Microsoft has said that their bread and butter is Windows and Office, so above all else, those two products should be avoided.... now I understand that they are difficult ones to avoid, but lets face it... the government can't do anything, so what are you going to do?
I love to program, so as it was said before, my career is more of a passion than a job, but even so, the writing is on the wall. Factory work has already been moved overseas. IT is doing it too, and I might add that it is likely to have a much higher success rate: Shipping a shirt from costs a bit of cash. Shipping that program you wrote: free thanks to the internet. Language barriers are only going to hold up so long. Working from home is pushing the envelope so that the infrastructure is already in place to work from india.
All that being said, I believe management and the service industry will be the last job holdouts in the US (they are the hardest to ship overseas). Everything else is (eventually) subject to overseas competition. Since McDonalds doesn't pay well, my direction is management.
If the minimum wage had risen at the same rate as executive pay over the last three daces, it would stand at nearly $41 an hour as opposed to $5.15. (Institute for Policy Studies/United for a Fair Economy, April 23, 1998)
The richest 1% in the United States now own 40% of the wealth.
Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances (1997)
"We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." - Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
"Plato told Aristotle no one should make more than five times the pay of the lowest member of society. J.P. Morgan said 20 times. Jesus advocated a negative differential - that's why they killed him." - Graef Crystal (1998)
Being a new State Employee, I have to say this move does not supprise me at all. State employees are super paranoid and "security" is the word of the day... every day. They talk about key-fab's and dual, if not tri, verification of individual's access to our backend "data". The funny thing, is that 99% of it is public data already.
And that's the State government. I can't imagine how much more paranoid the feds are.
I use mine all the time, and I am more apt to leave my wallet behind than my clie pda, but that being said, it really depends on the person. I am naturally a super organized person, which in my world means that I am willing to spend time on it. So, the PDA is great. But I know people with PDA's who won't use them simply because it is more organization than they want (or their life dictates).
Thanks for the postive outlook on this. I couldn't agree more. Sure there are shortfalls in the design/implementation/etc, but hey! they are making a move BEFORE movie p2p swaps are as bad as mp3's were when napster was shut down.
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For me, it really isn't about the GB of storage, or, for that matter, really the size. It is about the ease of use and the integration.
Apple's iPod (and Apple with all of their products) offers a great experience and great integration between the music player on the machine (iTunes) and purchasing music online (applemusic.com).
Sure the Nomad might be able to do some of those things, but is the experience as good as with the iPod?
Well, I can't believe the number of posts that are badmouthing cable service. I did the DSL thing for a couple years, and the upload speed sucked, and the download speed was almost never above 100kbps. With Comcast cable, I now get at least 2x that speed consistently, and even if uploading sucks (which I haven't tried much of), it isn't any worse than DSL.
Bottom line: I'm paying $22/month for the next year of broadband. Everything else falls away when the alternative is $50/month.
And as far as terms of service go... Who really cares? When was the last time you read the license agreement on a piece of software? And then followed it?
I had a class in college that talked about this exact subject. Our text didn't cover a lot of material, but it focused on one big issue: People tend to define themselves by the work that they do. What happens when we have automated all of the work that needs to be done?
Anyone else disturbed by the fact that we are associating neurotic behavior with intelligent behavior?
The link is: http://www.despair.com/demotivation.html
Ahh but humans ARE a commodity. Take a look at the numbers. There are like 6 billion of us on the planet. And if someone will do it cheaper than you, then that is tough luck.
Don't get me wrong though. I'm all against loosing our american jobs to india workers. I've already written my reps, and will do so again. But you have to ask, if the business virtue is the bottom line, how can you possibly argue that a $15/hour india worker is a bad deal compared with the $100/hour american worker?
They won't look into making WiFi a "permitted" standard, but they will buy the equipment to do security sweeps to make sure no one has set up a rogue WiFi access point.
Several points for coolness, but minus a few million for stupidity.
It isn't about being available if *someone else* wants to contact you. It's about being available if *you* want to be available. People really need to get this through their heads.
All of my non-cellphone friends and family keep telling me that they don't want to be so available to everyone, so thus they don't get a cell phone.
My wife calls me on my cell phone several times a day. I love talking to her. But the truth is that I reject 75% of the calls because I am busy with something else.
Just because you *can* be contacted doesn't mean you have to *answer*.
Shirt: Warning! I see you just put on Navy-colored pants. I am black. We do not match. Please take the pants off and try again.
That's all good and fine until the spammer decides to send *me* an advertisement for *your* products. Effectivly screwing you, not the spammer.
What I'd like people to realize more is that cell-phones follow this same deal. Just because you _can_ contact me any time, doesn't mean I will reply or answer at any time.
Problem solving is good. Good books are good. Good teachers are good. But you know, if I recall correctly, I was allowed a calculator in math for my entire education execpt for say, the first 6 months when we learned the theory. Computers are vital to just about everything now, and I can tell you that by the time my kids hit kindegarten they will already be quite versed with using a laptop.
I have a college buddy that had a Pentium II stop working due to excessive dust/dirt/grime. He removed the motherboard and took it into the dorm shower where he adquately washed the thing off. After waiting for it to dry, he put the battery back and reconected everything. Worked quite well after that.
"Hello this is Dave from your local Tribune, and I..."
... Well, do you know Dave?"
"Dave? How have you been! I haven't heard from you in a long time!"
"uhh, I'm not sure..."
"Oh stop kidding around Dave. How are the kids? And your wife?"
"um. I think your thinking of someone else"
"Come on Dave. Don't you remember me? It's me Ken, we've know eachother since school!"
"um. I think your thinking of someone else"
"No, no, no. You're Dave, right? You work at the Tribune, right?"
"Yea, but I don't have any kids. I'm not married."
"Really. Weird.
"No."
"Well, if you ever run into him, tell him Ken says 'Hi'"
My friend did this once. I heard his end, and he had me fooled. I couldn't believe Dave didn't know him!
Perhaps brodband can be delivered via the wires, but who really cares? I'm more interested in getting the broadband wirelessly by FM.
I swear, no industry pats themselves on the back more than hollywood. It doens't matter what the crap is, it'll be nominated for _something_.
You give spamcop a copy of your spam. Spamcop then hunts down the offending server(s). If enough people compain about those particular servers, they (the servers) become black-listed, so that if you filter your email w/ spamcop, email from those machines won't get through.
Governments and politicians have proven to be quite ineffective (what did the "Monopoly" status get us?), so we need to react as consumers, and we need to STOP BUYING MICROSOFT PRODUCTS!.
Microsoft has said that their bread and butter is Windows and Office, so above all else, those two products should be avoided. ... now I understand that they are difficult ones to avoid, but lets face it... the government can't do anything, so what are you going to do?
Wether this particular case is true or not is rather inconsequential. The fact is that someone _will_ clone a person. It is just a matter of when.
All that being said, I believe management and the service industry will be the last job holdouts in the US (they are the hardest to ship overseas). Everything else is (eventually) subject to overseas competition. Since McDonalds doesn't pay well, my direction is management.
United for a Fair Economy
If the minimum wage had risen at the same rate as executive pay over the last three daces, it would stand at nearly $41 an hour as opposed to $5.15. (Institute for Policy Studies/United for a Fair Economy, April 23, 1998)
The richest 1% in the United States now own 40% of the wealth. Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances (1997)
"We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." - Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
"Plato told Aristotle no one should make more than five times the pay of the lowest member of society. J.P. Morgan said 20 times. Jesus advocated a negative differential - that's why they killed him." - Graef Crystal (1998)
And that's the State government. I can't imagine how much more paranoid the feds are.
They are great for some, and not for others.
Thanks for the postive outlook on this. I couldn't agree more. Sure there are shortfalls in the design/implementation/etc, but hey! they are making a move BEFORE movie p2p swaps are as bad as mp3's were when napster was shut down.