"HSM" sounds like a character from a conspiracy-oriented TV show, like a cross between "HRG" and "CSM".
Hardware Security Module - a device whose whole purpose in life is to make EXACTLY what the article describes impossible. YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO GET THE KEYS OUT OF IT.
Just goes to show, no hardware or software security is a match to IBM (Idiot Behind the Machine)
Why is it when I read this I get an image of Kevin Bacon in "Animal House" screaming "All is well!!! All is well!!!"
Having owned both Palm OS (Treo + Palm III/V/Clie/TX) and an iPhone, I can say that while the parent post is well-meaning, it was filled with FUD from someone who clearly has never used an iPhone for any length of time.
And why is it that the fanboys always scream FUD or "you just don't know" when faced with opinion they do not like. There is no Fear, and there is no Uncertainty, just a lot of Disappointment...
And for the record, I owned iPhone for about 9 months now, so perhaps you need to adjust what is "clearly" for you.
* Just picked up my iPhone -- from "locked" to "phone ringing at other end" it took 4 presses (one press to turn on screen, one slide to unlock, one press to launch phone, one press to dial contact) -- I timed it multiple times -- it took approximately 4-5 seconds from picking up to ringing.
I'll admit "5 minutes" was a frustrated exaggeration, but 4-5 seconds is not a norm either. Sure you can get that in ideal conditions, if you done it a few times first, the phone was just charged, you get perfect reception, you are not running any other apps (god forbid something like camera app), your phone app opens to a page you can pick a contact from, you only have a few contacts to choose from, etc. In real life condition, it is more likely to take a minute or so to get to ringing. A minute is a lot of time when you are in a hurry.
It took less than a second to start an app
It depends upon the app -- most built-in apps (SMS, YouTube, Mail) take less than one second to launch. Some of the larger App Store add-ons (Orb, Shoutcast, Stanza) can take upwards of 3-4 seconds to launch.
Takes at least 10-15 seconds to open SMS - and IT IS one of the faster ones out there. Don't be fooled by seeing something on the screen. Apple requires a fake screenshot or splash screen to make you THINK app is loaded faster (I had them reject an app from App store for that reason alone) - but until you can actually USE the app, it is NOT loaded.
Of course, the program sizes for the iPhone are MBs and not KBs...
Thats not really true. Most iPhone apps are in high K ranges (a simple app is about 100KB). Games can be huge, but thats mostly due to assets - which should not be loaded all at once anyway. However they ACT like they are high MBs. There is no good reason the apps should be even THAT large. Treo apps with similar functionality were in 5-30KB range. And fundamentally this is the biggest Achilles' heel of the iPhone platform, for a phone with apps that are 10 to 100x in size compared with Treo and MUCH more bloated OS, the RAM is virtually the same.
Some of the larger ones (10MB+) such as HoldEm do take nearly 9 seconds to load...that's nine seconds of my life I'm never getting back. Of course I'm usually sitting at an airport killing time so that's a few hours of my life I'm never getting back, but let's get back to the GP post...
I really do not care if the games load slow. Its the useful things that get me.
when you switched to another app and came back, it was JUST where you left it - what a concept
Let's see -- halfway through typing SMS, leave application, do something else, come back, SMS is still there half typed.
In the middle of playing Bejeweled, if I leave the application (say, the phone rings) -- the iPhone gracefully hands off the focus to the phone, it rings, I finish my conversation, end call and -- right back to Bejeweled.
If I am browsing the web and an SMS comes it, it pops up on the screen, I can reply right then (going into the SMS program) and return to my web page or simply cancel the notification...
Given that Jailbreaking is essentially an O(1) operation over the life of the device, and day to day use is O(n), I'll take the better UI thanks!!
On Android you also still have to deal with hunting down apps not approved for the store, just like looking at Cydia apps on the iPhone...
Actually jailbreaking is a rather frequent event. Every month or two Apple releases an OS update which promises a few less crashes, and maybe an ability to make phone calls inside a building and every time you are hoping that its true and update and all that was useful in your phone goes away...And you have to start all over again...
Plus, better UI on iPhone is a matter of opinion. iPhone always feels to me like running a 30" monitor with 600x480 resolution. Everything is HUGE and CLUNKY (even if not actually pixelated). Like, who's brilliant idea was it to make selection of a date via those stone age wheels? They may be pretty, but it takes forever to set the date you actually want. Was it that hard to use a standard calendar? And why do we need to switch to a separate screen for editing each field? It just makes things so slooooooooooooooww (as if it was not slow already).....
IMHO the Palm Vx had an elegant and simple user interface for the 90's. It had an appstore (one from Palm, another from Handango and so on), and interestingly enough (although the Vx was not a phone) users did not have to 'jailbreak' the device.
Am I the only one feeling nostalgic ?
Treo's were the same thing married with the phone and had about 10x usefullness of the iPhone. Sure it was not as pretty and web browsing and email looks much nicer on iPhone, but the apps, if uglier, were always much more functional on Treo and you could pick up the phone and call someone in less than the 5 minutes it takes to get iPhone to do ANYTHING. It took less than a second to start an app, and when you switched to another app and came back, it was JUST where you left it - what a concept - it is really THAT hard to swap out RAM to "disk" when exiting an app?
I miss my Treo - it was definately 90's tech - but it worked.... I was looking forward to Android, but don't want to switch to T-Mobile. Here's to hoping Pre is as good functionally as Treos were and Verizon would for once start carrying a phone designed in this century. (As much as I miss my Treo, I miss having coverage more, AT&T coverage SUCKS)
How did the servers keep running without the power cords?
I got 3 words for you - redundant power supplies.
Although I don't think this is the case here. If you RTFA (or is it WTFV?) they do say that "the only failures were associated with power cords coming loose" - so they do consider this aspect to be a failure - but its a very easily fixable one - many servers have ways to fix power cords to the chassis of the server in a way that you cannot yank the power cord out easily.
Voxilla was able to set the caller ID of a PBX extension to a mobile number attached to Google Voice account and call in, using a business VoIP trunk, to gain access.
This has been true since early days of Grand Central. I really hope they would fix this, but I doubt they will. Basically, everyone knows you can't trust Caller ID, , but they chose to do so anyway. I bet this was a business decision to allow easier use of the voicemail in order to compete with cellphone provider voicemail.
Also, I have to disagree that blocking an intersection carries a 'large fine'. Although for the life of me I can't figure out how much it is...I can find the fines for speed, but nothing else.
> the cameras were an invasion of privacy and their constituents thought they had been unfairly ticketed
1/ don't speed and there's no picture taken so no invasion of your privacy 2/ unfairly ticketed ? if there's a picture as proof I'd say it's fair you get a ticket..
Privacy violation is a BS reason to be against these. Truth be told there are cameras at most intersections these days that record continuous feeds that have nothing to do with red light ticketing systems. The real problem is that the red light cameras set up a wrong incentive for the local government. Basically the government that controls the traffic signals now has an incentive to ENCOURAGE you to run a red light as their budget depends on it. That is very messed up. The government should not be in the position to profit from potentially dangerous acts.
Except that they gave you a ticket for running a red light, not blocking traffic, which is an entirely different offense with a different penalty, usually lower.
Actually it is usually the other way around. Blocking the intersection is a moving violation carrying a large fine and points on your license. Running red light is same, however the tickets red light cameras give out are NOT usually a "moving violation" ticket as they cannot put points on your license, just tax you like a parking ticket.
So this is what you'd be advocating; the light is green, but you must stop and wait at the line before the car preceeding you completely clears. Even if you're the 5th car in the line.
Isn't that called a stop sign?
No, the rules clearly state that if you cannot clear the intersection, you should not enter it regardless of the stop sign, traffic light, or anything. It does not say that you MUST stop at the green light, but if you need to stop to assure that you can clear it, then you SHOULD stop at the green light. If you do enter and cannot clear the intersection for ANY reason - it IS YOUR FAULT. Ignorance of the rules or the fact that most don't know them is not an excuse.
I get to say "nope, you can't have that" if someone asks rather than getting a letter saying "Oh by the by, someone came by with a Subpoena and we gave them all your voicemails/text messages for the past 3 years...".
As much as I think you are being overly paranoid (who with the power of subpoena cares about your voice mail - and if they do, they can just as well take your Asterisk box anyway) - but GrandCentral voicemail is extremely easy to hack into by ANYONE. All you need to know is the GC number and the person's actual number and you can listen to their voicemail anytime. I really hope that this is one of the first things they fix as they migrate to "Google Voice".
Then get a treo, they're still on sale. Or a HP hw6915. Or a berry. All good stuff, all still there. Windows Mobile developers even know now to program for square screens as well as rectangular ones.
I might... Got a bit of an ego problem though, hard to justify ~$600 cost of the iPhone experiment just to go back to where I was in the first place - so I was waiting for Kogan Android phone to hit the streets, but that turned out to be vaporware (I know, shocking!) and now I am waiting for the Pre. I mean physical keyboard, AND it is capable of multi-tasking - what a radical concept, Apple should take note!!!
I never got this Cellphone Keyboard obsession thing. Even ones with real keyboards they are just good for typing short messages, really small buttons makes it hard to type.
Which phone has a real keyboard that doesn't suck?
While there are a lot of other things, both good and bad, that can be said about the Treos - the one thing I really miss from switching to iPhone (I mean, besides being able to use my phone without having pen and paper handy) - is the keyboard. Compare to iPhone, it was awesome. I could actually type what I wanted to say and not worry about hitting the right button or if the phone magically decided that its not what I wanted to say anyway. And, having real buttons, I could launch any one of about 30 apps and speed dials in seconds instead of iPhone's minutes... and it did not crash every few minutes... damn it, I miss my Treo....:-(
Note to keygen creators: I do not want to hear your brother's crappy techno remixes when using your app. Is there some way I can pay you to disable this feature?
Erm, you can indeed. You can pay money to buy a legit serial number - voila - no crappy techno music.
I listen this frequently from die-hard leftists/marxists/X-ists. I'm pretty sure that if the URSS would be still alive and strong (despite local deaths/abuses that were always counted as marginal imperfections), that same people would be today saying that the URSS is the single true and mighty communist implementation.
Actually, USSR never was nor even ever claimed to be communist. In fact its in the name: USSR stands for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. They were a Socialist state striving to one day become a communist nation. It is generally poor education that makes people think USSR was Communist, but no one with a clue has ever claimed USSR to be Communist.
Plus, Russia still needs money, I'm sure they'd take some kind of offer. This is more like saying: "this price has gone up... way up"
Yeah, because they could not have just set the price to whatever they wanted...I mean they'd have to be the only ones offering space tourism, like some sort of a monopoly, to do that... Oh wait, they are....
Part of this is politics, of course. The only reason Mission Control was in Houston rather than in the same facility where the rockets are worked on is due to a certain powerful Texas politician, LBJ...
Wow, LBJ had enough clout to move his state to be one of the southern most locations in US... amazing.... I wonder if he pushed the frozen donkey wheel alone or had some help... (Also, does that mean he could never find his way back to Texas and had to live out his life in outside world?)
Shenanigans aside, I don't think it's fair to compare it to the DMCA or Patriot Act where elected officials made the decision.
The people voted for this proposition, which I assume was described in English (and perhaps a multitude of other languages, being California...) on the ballot.
Contrary to popular opinion, elected officials are people, and are just as susceptible to being lied to and scared into doing things as the rest of us.
I agree that it's a good policy to let anyone bring up any objection they want in court. In fact, I'm happy when courts strike down laws.
However, regardless of what actually happened, it's going to look like a corporation is trying to fight the will of the people brought about through a legitimate democratic process.
I am not sure how you reconcile those two statements as they seem contradict each other. Either you are for allowing them to bring up objection in court or you are not. You can't pick and choose who is allowed and who is not.
As some have pointed out, if Google won in this instance, where would we draw the line on such grievances? A corporation could sue about minimum wage or fair labor laws restricting their ability to "recruit and retain employees".
I never really understood the whole "where do you draw the line" FUD. It is about the stupidest argument ever. You draw the line where it makes sense. That's what the court is for. They draw the line and they keep re-drawing this line as things change. That is how we ended up with slaves freed, women being allowed to vote, and interracial couples being allowed to marry among many other things.
Also, I do not see a problem with any of the examples you cited as these things occur on regular basis (how do you think those minimum wage and fair labor laws come about in the first place?)
IMO the whole process would be better taken up with the legislature. Google can certainly afford lobbying and propaganda - where were their buses bringing people to the polling places?
Why should they bully and coerce people when they can go to the court system, which is designed specifically for this sort of thing?
In fact, maybe they don't really care about gays, but want to set a precedent so they can throw out any law which does not suit them.
So? I am not sure what precedent you are talking about - they are not the first corporation to challenge the law that affects them and not going to be the last one. You also seem to be missing the point that they do NOT have the power to throw out any law, they, (along with anyone else), can just bring it up to court and let them decide.
I'm no fan of this proposition 8, nor do I live in California, but it seems like the anti-gay-marriage crowd won fair and square.
Not exactly "fair and square". I do live in CA and saw what happened, which was basically this: church dumped a whole lot of money into busing people from outside and going around and lying to people to scare them into voting for it. Nobody actually thought people would be THIS stupid to believe that if prop 8 did not pass, schools would be "REQUIRED TO TEACH GAY SEX IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS" or any other such nonsense, but hey, we passed DMCA, we passed Patriot Act, and now we passed Prop 8. With proper application of lies, half-truths, and lack of scruples, people can be scared into anything. And now there are many people going around saying they voted for prop 8 but now that they understand what it is, they would not have. Too late, suckers.
A church didn't dictate the law, the people did.
IMO it's not really Google's place to bring forth this lawsuit. It'll be interesting to watch, but I think it's bad policy to start rooting for the corporate overturn of democratic laws.
Several churches and religious organizations were suing CA government over gay marriage in 2008 when the court ruled that gay marriage ban was discrimination. Why should churches get the right to sue and other businesses like Google not get the same rights (what are they, gay?!)
Personally I think it IS a good policy to let ANYONE bring up objection to injustices they see - be they valid or not - and the the proper court of law sort it out - thats why we have courts. Maybe if some people stood up against injustice in Germany in the 30's, world would have been a much different place...
Amen to that. I thought I was the only one that thought the original blue G on white background was great. It was simple, clean and unmistakable. Now it is getting worse and worse with each iteration.
First of all for the purposes mentioned in the original post, a USB HDD is by far the fastest, cheapest and most reliable solution. Transfer rates of 500MB in as long as it takes to walk from one desk to another.
But if you are looking for a network based solution (and have $10k), I am surprised no one has mentioned CoRaid. CoRaid is a AoE SAN hardware company but they offer NAS solutions too (basically a 1u linux box connected to their SAN) - for about $8-9k ($6.6k+15 1TB drives) you can have a 15TB (unraided capacity) NAS with advertised throughput of 100MB/60MB (read/write).
Apparently the old saying is true, "can't tell a whether or not a smartphone is a scam by its webpage".
LOL. After I posted I did some Googling and general findings are:
* You may or may not get anything when you pay
* If you do get something, what you get may or may not have anything to do with what you ordered.
* What's inside the box may be different than what it says on the outside of the box it came in - from little things like megapixel count to bigger things like what OS is used to huge things like frequency compatibility (i.e. does not work in the US)
* The owner of the business is an American living in China who refuses to have his real name associated with the company.
So it is not a direct scam, just a crappy product from a shady company...
I think review demonstrated some of it. My favorite bit of the review is: "well, you have to turn it on and off a few times until it works..."
Slashdot Mirror
"HSM" sounds like a character from a conspiracy-oriented TV show, like a cross between "HRG" and "CSM".
Hardware Security Module - a device whose whole purpose in life is to make EXACTLY what the article describes impossible. YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE ABLE TO GET THE KEYS OUT OF IT.
Just goes to show, no hardware or software security is a match to IBM (Idiot Behind the Machine)
-Em
Well meaning FUD...
Why is it when I read this I get an image of Kevin Bacon in "Animal House" screaming "All is well!!! All is well!!!"
Having owned both Palm OS (Treo + Palm III/V/Clie/TX) and an iPhone, I can say that while the parent post is well-meaning, it was filled with FUD from someone who clearly has never used an iPhone for any length of time.
And why is it that the fanboys always scream FUD or "you just don't know" when faced with opinion they do not like. There is no Fear, and there is no Uncertainty, just a lot of Disappointment...
And for the record, I owned iPhone for about 9 months now, so perhaps you need to adjust what is "clearly" for you.
* Just picked up my iPhone -- from "locked" to "phone ringing at other end" it took 4 presses (one press to turn on screen, one slide to unlock, one press to launch phone, one press to dial contact) -- I timed it multiple times -- it took approximately 4-5 seconds from picking up to ringing.
I'll admit "5 minutes" was a frustrated exaggeration, but 4-5 seconds is not a norm either. Sure you can get that in ideal conditions, if you done it a few times first, the phone was just charged, you get perfect reception, you are not running any other apps (god forbid something like camera app), your phone app opens to a page you can pick a contact from, you only have a few contacts to choose from, etc. In real life condition, it is more likely to take a minute or so to get to ringing. A minute is a lot of time when you are in a hurry.
It took less than a second to start an app
It depends upon the app -- most built-in apps (SMS, YouTube, Mail) take less than one second to launch. Some of the larger App Store add-ons (Orb, Shoutcast, Stanza) can take upwards of 3-4 seconds to launch.
Takes at least 10-15 seconds to open SMS - and IT IS one of the faster ones out there. Don't be fooled by seeing something on the screen. Apple requires a fake screenshot or splash screen to make you THINK app is loaded faster (I had them reject an app from App store for that reason alone) - but until you can actually USE the app, it is NOT loaded.
Of course, the program sizes for the iPhone are MBs and not KBs...
Thats not really true. Most iPhone apps are in high K ranges (a simple app is about 100KB). Games can be huge, but thats mostly due to assets - which should not be loaded all at once anyway. However they ACT like they are high MBs. There is no good reason the apps should be even THAT large. Treo apps with similar functionality were in 5-30KB range. And fundamentally this is the biggest Achilles' heel of the iPhone platform, for a phone with apps that are 10 to 100x in size compared with Treo and MUCH more bloated OS, the RAM is virtually the same.
Some of the larger ones (10MB+) such as HoldEm do take nearly 9 seconds to load...that's nine seconds of my life I'm never getting back. Of course I'm usually sitting at an airport killing time so that's a few hours of my life I'm never getting back, but let's get back to the GP post...
I really do not care if the games load slow. Its the useful things that get me.
when you switched to another app and came back, it was JUST where you left it - what a concept
Let's see -- halfway through typing SMS, leave application, do something else, come back, SMS is still there half typed.
In the middle of playing Bejeweled, if I leave the application (say, the phone rings) -- the iPhone gracefully hands off the focus to the phone, it rings, I finish my conversation, end call and -- right back to Bejeweled.
If I am browsing the web and an SMS comes it, it pops up on the screen, I can reply right then (going into the SMS program) and return to my web page or simply cancel the notification...
You missed the poi
Given that Jailbreaking is essentially an O(1) operation over the life of the device, and day to day use is O(n), I'll take the better UI thanks!!
On Android you also still have to deal with hunting down apps not approved for the store, just like looking at Cydia apps on the iPhone...
Actually jailbreaking is a rather frequent event. Every month or two Apple releases an OS update which promises a few less crashes, and maybe an ability to make phone calls inside a building and every time you are hoping that its true and update and all that was useful in your phone goes away...And you have to start all over again...
Plus, better UI on iPhone is a matter of opinion. iPhone always feels to me like running a 30" monitor with 600x480 resolution. Everything is HUGE and CLUNKY (even if not actually pixelated). Like, who's brilliant idea was it to make selection of a date via those stone age wheels? They may be pretty, but it takes forever to set the date you actually want. Was it that hard to use a standard calendar? And why do we need to switch to a separate screen for editing each field? It just makes things so slooooooooooooooww (as if it was not slow already).....
-Em
IMHO the Palm Vx had an elegant and simple user interface for the 90's. It had an appstore (one from Palm, another from Handango and so on), and interestingly enough (although the Vx was not a phone) users did not have to 'jailbreak' the device.
Am I the only one feeling nostalgic ?
Treo's were the same thing married with the phone and had about 10x usefullness of the iPhone. Sure it was not as pretty and web browsing and email looks much nicer on iPhone, but the apps, if uglier, were always much more functional on Treo and you could pick up the phone and call someone in less than the 5 minutes it takes to get iPhone to do ANYTHING. It took less than a second to start an app, and when you switched to another app and came back, it was JUST where you left it - what a concept - it is really THAT hard to swap out RAM to "disk" when exiting an app?
I miss my Treo - it was definately 90's tech - but it worked.... I was looking forward to Android, but don't want to switch to T-Mobile. Here's to hoping Pre is as good functionally as Treos were and Verizon would for once start carrying a phone designed in this century. (As much as I miss my Treo, I miss having coverage more, AT&T coverage SUCKS)
Man, I am grumpy today....
-Em
How did the servers keep running without the power cords?
I got 3 words for you - redundant power supplies.
Although I don't think this is the case here. If you RTFA (or is it WTFV?) they do say that "the only failures were associated with power cords coming loose" - so they do consider this aspect to be a failure - but its a very easily fixable one - many servers have ways to fix power cords to the chassis of the server in a way that you cannot yank the power cord out easily.
-Em
Voxilla was able to set the caller ID of a PBX extension to a mobile number attached to Google Voice account and call in, using a business VoIP trunk, to gain access.
This has been true since early days of Grand Central. I really hope they would fix this, but I doubt they will. Basically, everyone knows you can't trust Caller ID, , but they chose to do so anyway. I bet this was a business decision to allow easier use of the voicemail in order to compete with cellphone provider voicemail.
-Em
When theres no Apple Store in your country? (that's like 90% of the globe). Not trolling I really would like to know. Proxy? gift cards? some hack?
JailBreak your phone, then either install apps manually or use one of the number of AppStore alternative Installers (Cydia comes to mind)
-Em
Also, I have to disagree that blocking an intersection carries a 'large fine'. Although for the life of me I can't figure out how much it is...I can find the fines for speed, but nothing else.
In NYC, apparently up to $500 + 2 points on your license. I imagine it may not be as steep in the middle of nowhere.
-Em
> the cameras were an invasion of privacy and their constituents thought they had been unfairly ticketed
1/ don't speed and there's no picture taken so no invasion of your privacy
2/ unfairly ticketed ? if there's a picture as proof I'd say it's fair you get a ticket..
Privacy violation is a BS reason to be against these. Truth be told there are cameras at most intersections these days that record continuous feeds that have nothing to do with red light ticketing systems. The real problem is that the red light cameras set up a wrong incentive for the local government. Basically the government that controls the traffic signals now has an incentive to ENCOURAGE you to run a red light as their budget depends on it. That is very messed up. The government should not be in the position to profit from potentially dangerous acts.
-Em
Except that they gave you a ticket for running a red light, not blocking traffic, which is an entirely different offense with a different penalty, usually lower.
Actually it is usually the other way around. Blocking the intersection is a moving violation carrying a large fine and points on your license. Running red light is same, however the tickets red light cameras give out are NOT usually a "moving violation" ticket as they cannot put points on your license, just tax you like a parking ticket.
-Em
So this is what you'd be advocating; the light is green, but you must stop and wait at the line before the car preceeding you completely clears. Even if you're the 5th car in the line.
Isn't that called a stop sign?
No, the rules clearly state that if you cannot clear the intersection, you should not enter it regardless of the stop sign, traffic light, or anything. It does not say that you MUST stop at the green light, but if you need to stop to assure that you can clear it, then you SHOULD stop at the green light. If you do enter and cannot clear the intersection for ANY reason - it IS YOUR FAULT. Ignorance of the rules or the fact that most don't know them is not an excuse.
-Em.
I get to say "nope, you can't have that" if someone asks rather than getting a letter saying "Oh by the by, someone came by with a Subpoena and we gave them all your voicemails/text messages for the past 3 years...".
As much as I think you are being overly paranoid (who with the power of subpoena cares about your voice mail - and if they do, they can just as well take your Asterisk box anyway) - but GrandCentral voicemail is extremely easy to hack into by ANYONE. All you need to know is the GC number and the person's actual number and you can listen to their voicemail anytime. I really hope that this is one of the first things they fix as they migrate to "Google Voice".
-Em
Then get a treo, they're still on sale. Or a HP hw6915. Or a berry. All good stuff, all still there. Windows Mobile developers even know now to program for square screens as well as rectangular ones.
I might... Got a bit of an ego problem though, hard to justify ~$600 cost of the iPhone experiment just to go back to where I was in the first place - so I was waiting for Kogan Android phone to hit the streets, but that turned out to be vaporware (I know, shocking!) and now I am waiting for the Pre. I mean physical keyboard, AND it is capable of multi-tasking - what a radical concept, Apple should take note!!!
-Em
I never got this Cellphone Keyboard obsession thing. Even ones with real keyboards they are just good for typing short messages, really small buttons makes it hard to type.
Which phone has a real keyboard that doesn't suck?
While there are a lot of other things, both good and bad, that can be said about the Treos - the one thing I really miss from switching to iPhone (I mean, besides being able to use my phone without having pen and paper handy) - is the keyboard. Compare to iPhone, it was awesome. I could actually type what I wanted to say and not worry about hitting the right button or if the phone magically decided that its not what I wanted to say anyway. And, having real buttons, I could launch any one of about 30 apps and speed dials in seconds instead of iPhone's minutes... and it did not crash every few minutes... damn it, I miss my Treo....:-(
-Em
Note to keygen creators: I do not want to hear your brother's crappy techno remixes when using your app. Is there some way I can pay you to disable this feature?
Erm, you can indeed. You can pay money to buy a legit serial number - voila - no crappy techno music.
-Em
I listen this frequently from die-hard leftists/marxists/X-ists. I'm pretty sure that if the URSS would be still alive and strong (despite local deaths/abuses that were always counted as marginal imperfections), that same people would be today saying that the URSS is the single true and mighty communist implementation.
Actually, USSR never was nor even ever claimed to be communist. In fact its in the name: USSR stands for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. They were a Socialist state striving to one day become a communist nation. It is generally poor education that makes people think USSR was Communist, but no one with a clue has ever claimed USSR to be Communist.
-Em
Good call... no, great call
Plus, Russia still needs money, I'm sure they'd take some kind of offer. This is more like saying: "this price has gone up... way up"
Yeah, because they could not have just set the price to whatever they wanted...I mean they'd have to be the only ones offering space tourism, like some sort of a monopoly, to do that... Oh wait, they are....
-Em
actually, Florida extends further south than Texas.
Yeah, isn't funny that the OTHER space center is in Florida... almost like they planned it or something...
-Em
Part of this is politics, of course. The only reason Mission Control was in Houston rather than in the same facility where the rockets are worked on is due to a certain powerful Texas politician, LBJ...
Wow, LBJ had enough clout to move his state to be one of the southern most locations in US... amazing.... I wonder if he pushed the frozen donkey wheel alone or had some help... (Also, does that mean he could never find his way back to Texas and had to live out his life in outside world?)
-Em
Shenanigans aside, I don't think it's fair to compare it to the DMCA or Patriot Act where elected officials made the decision.
The people voted for this proposition, which I assume was described in English (and perhaps a multitude of other languages, being California...) on the ballot.
Contrary to popular opinion, elected officials are people, and are just as susceptible to being lied to and scared into doing things as the rest of us.
I agree that it's a good policy to let anyone bring up any objection they want in court. In fact, I'm happy when courts strike down laws.
However, regardless of what actually happened, it's going to look like a corporation is trying to fight the will of the people brought about through a legitimate democratic process.
I am not sure how you reconcile those two statements as they seem contradict each other. Either you are for allowing them to bring up objection in court or you are not. You can't pick and choose who is allowed and who is not.
As some have pointed out, if Google won in this instance, where would we draw the line on such grievances? A corporation could sue about minimum wage or fair labor laws restricting their ability to "recruit and retain employees".
I never really understood the whole "where do you draw the line" FUD. It is about the stupidest argument ever. You draw the line where it makes sense. That's what the court is for. They draw the line and they keep re-drawing this line as things change. That is how we ended up with slaves freed, women being allowed to vote, and interracial couples being allowed to marry among many other things.
Also, I do not see a problem with any of the examples you cited as these things occur on regular basis (how do you think those minimum wage and fair labor laws come about in the first place?)
IMO the whole process would be better taken up with the legislature. Google can certainly afford lobbying and propaganda - where were their buses bringing people to the polling places?
Why should they bully and coerce people when they can go to the court system, which is designed specifically for this sort of thing?
In fact, maybe they don't really care about gays, but want to set a precedent so they can throw out any law which does not suit them.
So? I am not sure what precedent you are talking about - they are not the first corporation to challenge the law that affects them and not going to be the last one. You also seem to be missing the point that they do NOT have the power to throw out any law, they, (along with anyone else), can just bring it up to court and let them decide.
-Em
I'm no fan of this proposition 8, nor do I live in California, but it seems like the anti-gay-marriage crowd won fair and square.
Not exactly "fair and square". I do live in CA and saw what happened, which was basically this: church dumped a whole lot of money into busing people from outside and going around and lying to people to scare them into voting for it. Nobody actually thought people would be THIS stupid to believe that if prop 8 did not pass, schools would be "REQUIRED TO TEACH GAY SEX IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS" or any other such nonsense, but hey, we passed DMCA, we passed Patriot Act, and now we passed Prop 8. With proper application of lies, half-truths, and lack of scruples, people can be scared into anything. And now there are many people going around saying they voted for prop 8 but now that they understand what it is, they would not have. Too late, suckers.
A church didn't dictate the law, the people did.
IMO it's not really Google's place to bring forth this lawsuit. It'll be interesting to watch, but I think it's bad policy to start rooting for the corporate overturn of democratic laws.
Several churches and religious organizations were suing CA government over gay marriage in 2008 when the court ruled that gay marriage ban was discrimination. Why should churches get the right to sue and other businesses like Google not get the same rights (what are they, gay?!)
Personally I think it IS a good policy to let ANYONE bring up objection to injustices they see - be they valid or not - and the the proper court of law sort it out - thats why we have courts. Maybe if some people stood up against injustice in Germany in the 30's, world would have been a much different place...
-Em
Should all companies get to repeal laws that might make their life harder or just the companys you like or laws you hate?
Well, in a country where churches get to make the laws, corporations should get to repeal them. Sounds like its only fair.
"Ahh! Arrogance and stupidity in the same package, how efficient of you!" --Londo Molari
Efficient indeed.
The original (the old old) logo was way better.
Amen to that. I thought I was the only one that thought the original blue G on white background was great. It was simple, clean and unmistakable. Now it is getting worse and worse with each iteration.
-Em
First of all for the purposes mentioned in the original post, a USB HDD is by far the fastest, cheapest and most reliable solution. Transfer rates of 500MB in as long as it takes to walk from one desk to another.
But if you are looking for a network based solution (and have $10k), I am surprised no one has mentioned CoRaid. CoRaid is a AoE SAN hardware company but they offer NAS solutions too (basically a 1u linux box connected to their SAN) - for about $8-9k ($6.6k+15 1TB drives) you can have a 15TB (unraided capacity) NAS with advertised throughput of 100MB/60MB (read/write).
-Em
Apparently the old saying is true, "can't tell a whether or not a smartphone is a scam by its webpage".
LOL. After I posted I did some Googling and general findings are:
* You may or may not get anything when you pay
* If you do get something, what you get may or may not have anything to do with what you ordered.
* What's inside the box may be different than what it says on the outside of the box it came in - from little things like megapixel count to bigger things like what OS is used to huge things like frequency compatibility (i.e. does not work in the US)
* The owner of the business is an American living in China who refuses to have his real name associated with the company.
So it is not a direct scam, just a crappy product from a shady company...
I think review demonstrated some of it. My favorite bit of the review is: "well, you have to turn it on and off a few times until it works..."
-Em