This was done of course to make cities difficult to spot from the air, aiding enemy bombers navigate to (or identify) their target. When you think about how hard it is to get 30,000 people to cooperate on anything, it's a wonder that was even worth the effort of trying.
but what if all our leads dry up? So far we don't have a drop of evidence he's still alive. (unless any of the search team want to leak us some details?)
Re:The winds were NOT very high this morning....
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Steve Fossett Missing
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Aren't most of those emergency beacons set to go off automatically by default design? Read the reports the coast guard files for tracking down boat beacons where the owner of the boat merely took the beacon off its hanger to paint the wall or something, and found it in dock. (if they are tipped they trip, and they bottom end of them is what floats) I assume the aircraft beacons are the same way, triggering when upset?
Been awhile and memory's fuzzy but I seem to recall being quoted that only 35% of all available rebates are applied for. What they do is they companies "buy the debt" from a manufacturer, say at 40 cents on the dollar. They agree to send the prescribed amount to anyone that properly fills out the forms, in exchange for money. Naturally these sharks take any advantage they can to deny your rebate since every rebate they respond to cuts into their margin. Also rebates always have a long delay before fulfillment, usually around 8-10 weeks, during which time they can play the stock market or whatnot investments etc and make money on your rebate before they have to surrender it to you. They play the odds and hope that not too much more than 35% of the customers submit a proper rebate on that contract. If the margin starts to get much above 35%, I bet those boxes of envelopes DO start finding their way into dumpsters.
I'd also be interested in the statistics of how many rebates are rejected or lost on the first submission and require a second, and how many people bother to resubmit them. Or CAN resubmit them. I got into an argument once over a $50 rebate where they wanted the original UPC symbol cut out of the packaging. And in this case the UPC symbol was printed onto the hard drive's top label. Or, ever try to REsubmit your "original upc symbol"? Yes they really ask for you to do it again. duh? Anyway this is why it's important to scan your submission form with UPC taped to it before you send it in. My experience is odds of a rebate being rejected is about 25%.
Makes me wonder if some of them are like telemarketers that are trained to require three "no"'s before letting you off... it would not surprise me if some of the sharks require one "incomplete/failed/lost" submission before fulfilling it. Technically there's nothing saying they CAN'T do that to every one, as long as they have a functional resubmission policy. Think about it... if only 35% of the people send in the rebate in the first place, what percentage of THOSE people are able and willing to REsubmit it, even once? I'd bet 40%. That doubles your proffit if you play that game.
Buy them an imac. No box just a flat screen on their desk. Leave the keyboard in the box, just give them the mouse for starters. Set to use simple finder (so everything disappears off their desktop) Pull everything out of their dock except their web browser. (FF, safari, whatever) Open their browser and add a bookmark group and put a bunch of news sites like cnn and slashdot and soforth into one of the bookmark folders. Set their home page to the one they are most likely to prefer, one that has lots of new content every day. (CNN would be better for this than say slashdot) Enable the "home" button in the browser. (I know it's not on by default in Safari) Turn on popup blocking. Get info on (home)/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist and set it to owner no write access so they can't permanently remove it from their dock. (resets on reboot). Advise them to restart their computer if anything goes wrong. Yes they'll be rebooting it more than they should but it will zero your support calls)
No viruses, no spyware, no popups, no questions, no problem.
You might also put ichat in their dock and set them up a free aim account and put yourself in their buddy list and show them how to click on the icon and click your camera to chat with you if they DO have a question. I suppose you may want to leave them with the keyboard but that's up to you.
You can demonstrate perfect pitch to a bystander that's butchering something if you can whistle a good solid tone and so can they.
Not sure if it's uncommon or not, but I can match another person's whistle to the cycle, and it has an interesting effect. Ask them to whistle a good pure solid tone and not waver or drift. Be sure to tell them to NOT STOP whistling, even if they feel they're not whistling anymore.
If you can lock onto their whistle quickly, (before you run outa breath!) you can beat them cycle for cycle, and it has the effect of zeroing out the tone. When you are near perfect, the sound where the whistle originates will change. Instead of hearing it from yourself and your friend, it will appear to be coming from somewhere between where the two of you stand. (be sure you're a good 5 ft apart) This is very unsettling because for a time during the duration you can't hear yourself or the other person whistling and it tends to influence one or both of you "move" a little bit up or down just so you can hear yourself again.
People standing off to the side will get the weirdest look on their face as they can hear the whistle slowly drifting back and forth between the two of you, as your pitch is 1/8 cycle or so off from each other, causing it to nearly zero beat. You can of course perfectly match them but that's no fun as the perceived origin of the sound does not drift between the two of you, it merely stops somewhere in between.
The theory behind that statement is sound. If your employer insisted you must now wear a chicken suit to work since you work at KFC, and you decide you don't want that, then yes you do need to go find another job.
It would be nice if we could just leave it at that because it's nice and cut and dry, but then you get into civil and consitutional rights that are necessary because employers will take things waaay to the extreme. Employers always will do this. An employer's goal is to take maximum advantage of their employees in addition to their customers, in the name of proffit, so efforts on the control front are never going to stop. Anything motivated by money will continue for so long as it's sufficiently proffitable.
This is just a bit larger step than people are used to. I heard a story awhile back not sure if it's true, but the story said you can dump a frog into a vat of hot water and he jumps out, but put him in a pot of warm water and he stays there - gradually raise the temperature and he stays there, and eventally you have cooked frog. This theory may not be true for the frog, but it works great on people and their "civil liberties". This is just a case of the jump in temperature being a little too steep for some people to buy into. Give it a few years and this will not be an issue to anyone. People get used to losing their rights, so long as it's a little bit at a time. This is just too big of a jump for right now, too much all at once.
"loss of fredom" is a relative term, and the bar moves every year. Look at the scare we had when the us govt started issuing social security numbers. Oh the horror! They're MARKING me! It's EVIL! Who cares now? What's YOUR number? Talk to anyone in their 70's about what has happened to "fredom" and "liberties". Is this really any different?
This is no different really. There are many advantages and disadvantages to any system that tries to provide verification of identity. My grandmother flipped out when a department store aked her for her social security number to apply for a credit card. That's someone that grew up in the day when the tolerance was lower. Now people give out that number like candy.
In some respects this may make my life easier. I would love to not have to remember my keys when getting into my truck, or even when walking to my front door. I'd love for the doors to unlock and the truck to respond to the press of a button to start. I could get used to not having to whip out my wallet and have the clerk fidget with my fussy ATM card for 2 minutes to get it to swipe every time I get gas. No need to carry keys or even a key card at work, I could just hear the door unlocking as I got within arm's reach of the handle. But anything you do with this will always bring problems and privacy concerns.
Maybe we just need to wait for the water to warm up a little more and everything'll be fine? Bottom line: to increase your safety you must surrender some of your fredom. (and after awhile you'll get used to it)
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin
we really need a "shameless" tag, but with microsoft I think that already goes without saying. They're not hiding in the shadows on this, they're grinning like a skunk eating manure.
Until someone gets their hands on some actual hard numbers, (it WILL happen, but it could be awhile) we won't know for sure. The market is a lot more complex than a single yes/no greaterthan/lessthan decision. It may be that Apple intended all along for it to get unlocked. Iif they succumbed to common sense this would have happened anyway, but we all know how the drm-ish makers always seem to think they are inbeatable for ever, a reality that is usually shattered in weeks or months. Consider then the possibility that this was (1) a play on AT&T not having been hit with that reality brick yet, times (2) Apple sucking up even more market hype and publicity as a result. It's very possible that internally the people running the numbers and calling the shots planned for exactly this to happen. Now that the phones are unlockable, they have gotten their foot (ok BOTH feet) in the door on the market, gotten a good startup coin from AT&T, and now look at how many MORE people are considering getting a phone now that it's unlockable?
There are basically three groups of people out there... (I am going to get picked on for this simplification but this is my take) One, the people that have to have an iPhone. We know they are going to buy one. Then there's the people that don't want an iPhone, and right now there's really nothing you can do about them except let your marketing machine wear them down. Then there's the third group, that can't stand AT&T and are boycottting the iphone because of it. Of the many dozens of people I've talked with about the iphone, almost all of them fall into one of those three categories, roughtly evenly split. Apple started out with a third of those people and used the hype it generated to supercharge the third group. And now group 3 has the excuse they need to buy an iPhone too.
Apple may have taken a planned route to this very situation, and in doing so increased their market share by 30-60%. At AT&T's expense.
I personally know four people that specifically did not buy an iPhone because the mere mention of "AT&T" in their earshot brought forth a torrent of cuss words. I would not be surprised if they all have an iPhone by Christmas.
One thing I am keeping an eye on is how long the unlock works. With iTunes everytime there's a DRM break or bypass it's disabled in what, 2-3 days via an iTunes update. (I've seen three updates in two weeks once, two of them 4 days apart) They are quick on this stuff. I can't believe if they honestly thought this was bad for business that they would have allowed it to continue. Action speaks louder than words.
The final angle I would like to address is the cost of the iphone. Come on people. This is Apple. Of course it's expensive. It's like shopping at Tiffany's for dinnerware. Of course it costs more. Doesn't mean it costs them more to make it, doesn't mean it has to be more expensive It just IS. Apple is the same way. Yes, they do have a higher quality product overall, but not so much as to justify the much higher price. I'm sure the actual bottom-line cost of the iPhone is a very closely guarded secret and we may never actually find out what the number is, but one thing's for sure, it's a good deal lower than most public guesses you see tossed around. It would not shock me to find out they can make an iPhone for $150. Apple probably spends close to that much on marketing per iPhone sold, which is just insane, but it does the job; Apple is well-known for dumping insane amounts of money into R&D and marketing, and they are experienced enough with it to come out ahead more often than not. Apple has plenty of room to take a hit on their subsidies from AT&T. Considering the way they stormed into the market they could have lost money on the venture and still come out well in the black a year from how.
Full disclosure: I have been labeled "apple fanboy", and I probably am one, but I'm not fanatical about it. I'm as much an apple fanboy as you are
too bad it's not possible to file a class action suit against all the retarts that keep getting their machines infected ("but I just, well you know, HAD to click it to see what it was..") making the other 30% of the internet suffer.
We see quite a few customers bring in their computers with crashed hard drives. They did not receive recovery disks. Instead, the vendor has a "recovery partition" aka "hidden partition" on the hard drive that you can do something special (like hold down certain keys at boot) to boot from and recover (reformat and reinstall) your hard drive.
That's lovely and convenient, no disks to lose, fast, etc. But what happens when your HD crashes? you're outa luck. Some of those recovery partitions come with windows pre-activated, and there is no license key included with the computer. So if you don't have the recovery partition, you're screwed.
For those customers I would say it's a very wise idea to have a tech make a set of recovery disks from the recovery partition, in case of HD failure.
social engineering attack involving YouTube. The emails, which may be targeted at people who use private domain registrations, warn the recipient that their "face is all over 'net" on a YouTube video.
I don't normally get much spam - maybe one every other week, but I've gotten two of those lately
By far the most intersting part of the youtube video was the removal of the two out of five runners on the beach. I realize the removal would probably be a lot more noticeable if the image was higher detail, (what we get to look at on youtube is very low res compared to many practical applications) but it's still pretty stunning how easily and quickly the images could be altered. Very little post-removal editing would be required to selectively and convincingly remove content.
There's no reason why they could not use this same method to insert content. I'd like to see them add a few people on that beach for example. Simply stretching an area by cloning the region could do so much more if you could define what to put into the region besides similar content.
I was just thinking the same thing, "so why are we doubling back on our path for the third time now?"
But then the cabbies would hate it any way you slice it. I imagine they get enough "back seat driving" now as it is. Can you just imagine how annoying it would have to be to argue with every third tourist why you are taking what appears to be an out-of-the-way route, when the cabbie knows traffic patterns and is avoiding a 45 minute rush-hour delay by dodging the turnpike?
In big cities, shortest != fastest, sometimes by a huge margin.
OTOH, properly implemented, this could be good for both. I for one would like a cabbie to explain to me the route he is taking, and why, so that next time I'm there and want to rent a car, I have a chance. Having something like google maps up on a panel in the back showing our position, start and end points, and the proposed google route would be really nice and would in itself be a reason to pick (particular cab company) when hailing. I would suggest they put this in maybe 1/3 of the cabs in a company, and plaster their cab with notices that they have this tech onboard. Some will avoid it, and some will use it exclusively. "Keep an eye on your ride with TechnoCAB!" You could have fun with it even, have those cabbies dress up like a guy from the Geek Squad. That would also attract a certain market, not everyone likes to ride in a "memories of India" cab with all sorts of bizarre stuff swinging from the rear view mirror and a cabbie that looks like the bum you just drove by.
But isn't that like saying if you don't look at the bilboard as you drive down the highway, or at the ad poster on the subway, or walk into the kitchen for a snack during the commercial break, that you're a theif? The television example is probably the best and easiest to associate with.
Advertisements are an opportunity to make an impression on a customer. While there will always be technologies that make it difficult to ignore the ad, in most cases you are not obligated to be impressioned. Just because the advertisers get upset that you are stealing the cheese from their trap, it's your prerogative.
I'm a little surprised that we don't see more "banner" ads on TV. Imagine all these people with the widescreen sets that are viewing content with black sides because it's 4x3 formatted instead of widescreen. Imagine banners on both of those dead zones on the sides, that change every 20-30 seconds and adjust their product to something related to the main feature. Y know I think I would prefer that to the "four miniutes of commercials every 10 minutes" we get now. Also, even though a lot of shows are timed for like 49 minutes for the hour to accomodate commercials, a lot of stations trim out scenes or cut them short to insert more ads, so we would be getting more content. I wouldn't mind them doing this so long as they were not animated. Sort of like how I can't stand the animated shockwave banners here and at other sites. I don't understand why no one is doing this already. Though I have seen a few isolated examples of banner ads being shot across the bottom of the screen briefly during some shows - those are overlays though and degrade the content so maybe that's why those have been unsuccessful.
I have had a USB drive of some sort or another for quite a few years. I had the first 512mb drive available, first 1gb, first 4gb, owned and threw away a defective 16, and now use an 8gb Sandisk FireFlash. (SanDisk is probably the best brand going for small, fast, and reliable)
When I first was noticed to have a 1gb flash drive, my manager flipped out. We were not in a hugely secured environment, but he was formerly a branch manager of a bank so he saw this as a huge problem. We did deal with a large amount of customer information, but this never needed to be on my flash drive. I used the drive to assist in maintaining about 110 PCs, mostly loaded it with software tools, text files describing walk throughs to fix common issues, etc. We went round and round a bit and finally just dropped the issue and I was not bothered anymore.
Now I work in an IT department elsewhere, and I do have to carry sensitive materials. With all the switches, routers, server, etc, I have to keep passwords for them all. Having these items available on hand at any time in addition to a large number of software tools to suport > 500 machines of various types necessitates a flash drive - you just can't carry your laptop everywhere nor rely on the availablility of a network connection.
My solution now is to use OS X's "filevault" technology. Among the items I am not worried about, there is a small (10mb) encrypted disk image. Because the data on the image is frequently being changed and updated, I keep the main copy on the flash drive, and periodically (weekly or so) sync it with my laptop. The copy on the laptop is write protected to prevent temptation of editing it instead of the copy on the flash drive. The password to the vault is in the keychain on my laptop, which is encrypted with my login password. So if I plug in the flash drive to my laptop, I just double click to open the vault without any password to type. I can also open the read-only copy of the vault that is synced on my laptop if that's handier.
If I am in the field and either don't have my laptop with me, or it's inconvenient to haul it out, I just get out the flash drive and plug it into the machine and double click the vault. I have to enter the password since it's not on my laptop with its keychain, but that's not a big deal. The filevault is not supported on anything besides OS X, but it's supported directly by the OS and does not require any additional software or setup, it' just works when plugged in.
For the PCs I have a second 4gb flash drive that I use mainly for shuttling information between PCs, and it does not contain any sensitive information.
The biggest problem I have now with the flash drive is the very high risk of forgetting it somewhere. It's really easy to plug it into a machine, start working on something, get distracted by several other issues all at once, and hurredly rush to the next fire, only to leave the flash drive parked in the machine I was working on first. By the time I realize I don't have my flash drive, it can be up to a day later, and it's really hard to figure out where it was left behind. I've put a lot of thought into this problem, including various "phone phone" ideas, use of a lanyard, etc, and the solution I have come up with is working well. I have a small camera bag that I used to keep my powershot camera in. I now have a larger camera, so the bag has been repurposed. It's a LowePro, built well with a belt loop. It nicely holds my palm pilot, iPod, earbuds, an iTrip transmitter, AND a flash drive. How does this help you wonder? The fireflash has a removable clear acrylic cap that securely attaches to the flash drive, and the lanyard loop is on the cap, not on the drive. The drive came with a 5" lanyard, so I attached that to the loop on my Lowepro, and stuff the flash drive in the front pocket of the bag. When I am using the flash drive, I have to remove it from the cap to plug it in (or reach the computer for that matter) This leaves a clear acrylic cap dangling 5" dow
Fuses should blow long before voltages get to the levels needed to make even a bang audible outside the cabinet.
Rising voltage does not blow fuses. Rising current does. Rising voltage actually makes fuses blow at higher current levels than they should, which is why you have to use special fuses in high voltage circuits.
Just because a battery has Li in it does not mean it's dangerous to handle. (at least, not if it's designed sensibly) Most laptop computer batteries nowadays are LiIo which is not too different.
Yes the primary fuses on the poles can be spectacular when they go. Again you've got a conductor (fusable link) inside the cartridge and when the power co cuts in the mains and there's still a short (which can be hard to tell in advance) the link basically vaporizes instantly and superheats the inside of the cartridge, causing it to explode. (this is actually a good thing, the alternative is the transmission lines or transformers melting) Sends bits of the cartridge in every direction at high velocity, that's why they stand back when they are cutting power back on.;) Although I realize this is technically an explosion, I don't usually think of it that way - I usually consider things like TNT, gunpowder etc to be explosives. Maybe there's another more specific name for explosion due to sudden thermal expansion due to current inrush? I have a video of a primary fuse going at a substation during a fire, all you get is a blinding white flash and what sounds like a cherry bomb. The sound wave hits you a second after the flash like someone just gave you a really good whollup in the chest with a large pillow.
If you have a strong attention span you can observe other things in the area when this happens. The feed lines actually twitch. It's really freaky. (I've been told if they're laying on the ground they can actually jump an inch or so off the ground in places, haven't had that pleasure myself) Having all that movement around you at the same time as the flash and the explosion would have to really rattle you.
Slashdot Mirror
PUT THAT LIGHT OUT! (ww2)
This was done of course to make cities difficult to spot from the air, aiding enemy bombers navigate to (or identify) their target. When you think about how hard it is to get 30,000 people to cooperate on anything, it's a wonder that was even worth the effort of trying.
but what if all our leads dry up? So far we don't have a drop of evidence he's still alive. (unless any of the search team want to leak us some details?)
Aren't most of those emergency beacons set to go off automatically by default design? Read the reports the coast guard files for tracking down boat beacons where the owner of the boat merely took the beacon off its hanger to paint the wall or something, and found it in dock. (if they are tipped they trip, and they bottom end of them is what floats) I assume the aircraft beacons are the same way, triggering when upset?
Been awhile and memory's fuzzy but I seem to recall being quoted that only 35% of all available rebates are applied for. What they do is they companies "buy the debt" from a manufacturer, say at 40 cents on the dollar. They agree to send the prescribed amount to anyone that properly fills out the forms, in exchange for money. Naturally these sharks take any advantage they can to deny your rebate since every rebate they respond to cuts into their margin. Also rebates always have a long delay before fulfillment, usually around 8-10 weeks, during which time they can play the stock market or whatnot investments etc and make money on your rebate before they have to surrender it to you. They play the odds and hope that not too much more than 35% of the customers submit a proper rebate on that contract. If the margin starts to get much above 35%, I bet those boxes of envelopes DO start finding their way into dumpsters.
I'd also be interested in the statistics of how many rebates are rejected or lost on the first submission and require a second, and how many people bother to resubmit them. Or CAN resubmit them. I got into an argument once over a $50 rebate where they wanted the original UPC symbol cut out of the packaging. And in this case the UPC symbol was printed onto the hard drive's top label. Or, ever try to REsubmit your "original upc symbol"? Yes they really ask for you to do it again. duh? Anyway this is why it's important to scan your submission form with UPC taped to it before you send it in. My experience is odds of a rebate being rejected is about 25%.
Makes me wonder if some of them are like telemarketers that are trained to require three "no"'s before letting you off... it would not surprise me if some of the sharks require one "incomplete/failed/lost" submission before fulfilling it. Technically there's nothing saying they CAN'T do that to every one, as long as they have a functional resubmission policy. Think about it... if only 35% of the people send in the rebate in the first place, what percentage of THOSE people are able and willing to REsubmit it, even once? I'd bet 40%. That doubles your proffit if you play that game.
Buy them an imac. No box just a flat screen on their desk. Leave the keyboard in the box, just give them the mouse for starters. Set to use simple finder (so everything disappears off their desktop) Pull everything out of their dock except their web browser. (FF, safari, whatever) Open their browser and add a bookmark group and put a bunch of news sites like cnn and slashdot and soforth into one of the bookmark folders. Set their home page to the one they are most likely to prefer, one that has lots of new content every day. (CNN would be better for this than say slashdot) Enable the "home" button in the browser. (I know it's not on by default in Safari) Turn on popup blocking. Get info on (home)/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist and set it to owner no write access so they can't permanently remove it from their dock. (resets on reboot). Advise them to restart their computer if anything goes wrong. Yes they'll be rebooting it more than they should but it will zero your support calls)
No viruses, no spyware, no popups, no questions, no problem.
You might also put ichat in their dock and set them up a free aim account and put yourself in their buddy list and show them how to click on the icon and click your camera to chat with you if they DO have a question. I suppose you may want to leave them with the keyboard but that's up to you.
You can demonstrate perfect pitch to a bystander that's butchering something if you can whistle a good solid tone and so can they.
Not sure if it's uncommon or not, but I can match another person's whistle to the cycle, and it has an interesting effect. Ask them to whistle a good pure solid tone and not waver or drift. Be sure to tell them to NOT STOP whistling, even if they feel they're not whistling anymore.
If you can lock onto their whistle quickly, (before you run outa breath!) you can beat them cycle for cycle, and it has the effect of zeroing out the tone. When you are near perfect, the sound where the whistle originates will change. Instead of hearing it from yourself and your friend, it will appear to be coming from somewhere between where the two of you stand. (be sure you're a good 5 ft apart) This is very unsettling because for a time during the duration you can't hear yourself or the other person whistling and it tends to influence one or both of you "move" a little bit up or down just so you can hear yourself again.
People standing off to the side will get the weirdest look on their face as they can hear the whistle slowly drifting back and forth between the two of you, as your pitch is 1/8 cycle or so off from each other, causing it to nearly zero beat. You can of course perfectly match them but that's no fun as the perceived origin of the sound does not drift between the two of you, it merely stops somewhere in between.
The theory behind that statement is sound. If your employer insisted you must now wear a chicken suit to work since you work at KFC, and you decide you don't want that, then yes you do need to go find another job.
It would be nice if we could just leave it at that because it's nice and cut and dry, but then you get into civil and consitutional rights that are necessary because employers will take things waaay to the extreme. Employers always will do this. An employer's goal is to take maximum advantage of their employees in addition to their customers, in the name of proffit, so efforts on the control front are never going to stop. Anything motivated by money will continue for so long as it's sufficiently proffitable.
This is just a bit larger step than people are used to. I heard a story awhile back not sure if it's true, but the story said you can dump a frog into a vat of hot water and he jumps out, but put him in a pot of warm water and he stays there - gradually raise the temperature and he stays there, and eventally you have cooked frog. This theory may not be true for the frog, but it works great on people and their "civil liberties". This is just a case of the jump in temperature being a little too steep for some people to buy into. Give it a few years and this will not be an issue to anyone. People get used to losing their rights, so long as it's a little bit at a time. This is just too big of a jump for right now, too much all at once.
"loss of fredom" is a relative term, and the bar moves every year. Look at the scare we had when the us govt started issuing social security numbers. Oh the horror! They're MARKING me! It's EVIL! Who cares now? What's YOUR number? Talk to anyone in their 70's about what has happened to "fredom" and "liberties". Is this really any different?
This is no different really. There are many advantages and disadvantages to any system that tries to provide verification of identity. My grandmother flipped out when a department store aked her for her social security number to apply for a credit card. That's someone that grew up in the day when the tolerance was lower. Now people give out that number like candy.
In some respects this may make my life easier. I would love to not have to remember my keys when getting into my truck, or even when walking to my front door. I'd love for the doors to unlock and the truck to respond to the press of a button to start. I could get used to not having to whip out my wallet and have the clerk fidget with my fussy ATM card for 2 minutes to get it to swipe every time I get gas. No need to carry keys or even a key card at work, I could just hear the door unlocking as I got within arm's reach of the handle. But anything you do with this will always bring problems and privacy concerns.
Maybe we just need to wait for the water to warm up a little more and everything'll be fine? Bottom line: to increase your safety you must surrender some of your fredom. (and after awhile you'll get used to it)
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin
we really need a "shameless" tag, but with microsoft I think that already goes without saying. They're not hiding in the shadows on this, they're grinning like a skunk eating manure.
Until someone gets their hands on some actual hard numbers, (it WILL happen, but it could be awhile) we won't know for sure. The market is a lot more complex than a single yes/no greaterthan/lessthan decision. It may be that Apple intended all along for it to get unlocked. Iif they succumbed to common sense this would have happened anyway, but we all know how the drm-ish makers always seem to think they are inbeatable for ever, a reality that is usually shattered in weeks or months. Consider then the possibility that this was (1) a play on AT&T not having been hit with that reality brick yet, times (2) Apple sucking up even more market hype and publicity as a result. It's very possible that internally the people running the numbers and calling the shots planned for exactly this to happen. Now that the phones are unlockable, they have gotten their foot (ok BOTH feet) in the door on the market, gotten a good startup coin from AT&T, and now look at how many MORE people are considering getting a phone now that it's unlockable?
There are basically three groups of people out there... (I am going to get picked on for this simplification but this is my take) One, the people that have to have an iPhone. We know they are going to buy one. Then there's the people that don't want an iPhone, and right now there's really nothing you can do about them except let your marketing machine wear them down. Then there's the third group, that can't stand AT&T and are boycottting the iphone because of it. Of the many dozens of people I've talked with about the iphone, almost all of them fall into one of those three categories, roughtly evenly split. Apple started out with a third of those people and used the hype it generated to supercharge the third group. And now group 3 has the excuse they need to buy an iPhone too.
Apple may have taken a planned route to this very situation, and in doing so increased their market share by 30-60%. At AT&T's expense.
I personally know four people that specifically did not buy an iPhone because the mere mention of "AT&T" in their earshot brought forth a torrent of cuss words. I would not be surprised if they all have an iPhone by Christmas.
One thing I am keeping an eye on is how long the unlock works. With iTunes everytime there's a DRM break or bypass it's disabled in what, 2-3 days via an iTunes update. (I've seen three updates in two weeks once, two of them 4 days apart) They are quick on this stuff. I can't believe if they honestly thought this was bad for business that they would have allowed it to continue. Action speaks louder than words.
The final angle I would like to address is the cost of the iphone. Come on people. This is Apple. Of course it's expensive. It's like shopping at Tiffany's for dinnerware. Of course it costs more. Doesn't mean it costs them more to make it, doesn't mean it has to be more expensive It just IS. Apple is the same way. Yes, they do have a higher quality product overall, but not so much as to justify the much higher price. I'm sure the actual bottom-line cost of the iPhone is a very closely guarded secret and we may never actually find out what the number is, but one thing's for sure, it's a good deal lower than most public guesses you see tossed around. It would not shock me to find out they can make an iPhone for $150. Apple probably spends close to that much on marketing per iPhone sold, which is just insane, but it does the job; Apple is well-known for dumping insane amounts of money into R&D and marketing, and they are experienced enough with it to come out ahead more often than not. Apple has plenty of room to take a hit on their subsidies from AT&T. Considering the way they stormed into the market they could have lost money on the venture and still come out well in the black a year from how.
Full disclosure: I have been labeled "apple fanboy", and I probably am one, but I'm not fanatical about it. I'm as much an apple fanboy as you are
too bad it's not possible to file a class action suit against all the retarts that keep getting their machines infected ("but I just, well you know, HAD to click it to see what it was..") making the other 30% of the internet suffer.
We see quite a few customers bring in their computers with crashed hard drives. They did not receive recovery disks. Instead, the vendor has a "recovery partition" aka "hidden partition" on the hard drive that you can do something special (like hold down certain keys at boot) to boot from and recover (reformat and reinstall) your hard drive.
That's lovely and convenient, no disks to lose, fast, etc. But what happens when your HD crashes? you're outa luck. Some of those recovery partitions come with windows pre-activated, and there is no license key included with the computer. So if you don't have the recovery partition, you're screwed.
For those customers I would say it's a very wise idea to have a tech make a set of recovery disks from the recovery partition, in case of HD failure.
at 22mb, I am getting a whopping 12k/sec on that zip file they offer. Torrent would sure be nice. Though really I'm surprised they aren't slashdotted.
racist: no. Stereotypical: probably. learn the difference.
social engineering attack involving YouTube. The emails, which may be targeted at people who use private domain registrations, warn the recipient that their "face is all over 'net" on a YouTube video.
I don't normally get much spam - maybe one every other week, but I've gotten two of those lately
OMG, what are you doing man. This video of you is all over the net. go look at it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAC5mj7oew5 (link goes to http://90.31.69.105/)
and
LMAO, I cant believe you put this video online. Everyone can see your face there. LOL check it out yourself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKil6gyJXhQ (link goes to http://79.178.78.71/ )
Look at all the retards with their owned boxes lowering our quality of life...
They just said a 90% performance hit to an unrelated system is normal? So where's the "defective by design" tag?
not recently
By far the most intersting part of the youtube video was the removal of the two out of five runners on the beach. I realize the removal would probably be a lot more noticeable if the image was higher detail, (what we get to look at on youtube is very low res compared to many practical applications) but it's still pretty stunning how easily and quickly the images could be altered. Very little post-removal editing would be required to selectively and convincingly remove content.
There's no reason why they could not use this same method to insert content. I'd like to see them add a few people on that beach for example. Simply stretching an area by cloning the region could do so much more if you could define what to put into the region besides similar content.
I was just thinking the same thing, "so why are we doubling back on our path for the third time now?"
But then the cabbies would hate it any way you slice it. I imagine they get enough "back seat driving" now as it is. Can you just imagine how annoying it would have to be to argue with every third tourist why you are taking what appears to be an out-of-the-way route, when the cabbie knows traffic patterns and is avoiding a 45 minute rush-hour delay by dodging the turnpike?
In big cities, shortest != fastest, sometimes by a huge margin.
OTOH, properly implemented, this could be good for both. I for one would like a cabbie to explain to me the route he is taking, and why, so that next time I'm there and want to rent a car, I have a chance. Having something like google maps up on a panel in the back showing our position, start and end points, and the proposed google route would be really nice and would in itself be a reason to pick (particular cab company) when hailing. I would suggest they put this in maybe 1/3 of the cabs in a company, and plaster their cab with notices that they have this tech onboard. Some will avoid it, and some will use it exclusively. "Keep an eye on your ride with TechnoCAB!" You could have fun with it even, have those cabbies dress up like a guy from the Geek Squad. That would also attract a certain market, not everyone likes to ride in a "memories of India" cab with all sorts of bizarre stuff swinging from the rear view mirror and a cabbie that looks like the bum you just drove by.
But isn't that like saying if you don't look at the bilboard as you drive down the highway, or at the ad poster on the subway, or walk into the kitchen for a snack during the commercial break, that you're a theif? The television example is probably the best and easiest to associate with.
Advertisements are an opportunity to make an impression on a customer. While there will always be technologies that make it difficult to ignore the ad, in most cases you are not obligated to be impressioned. Just because the advertisers get upset that you are stealing the cheese from their trap, it's your prerogative.
I'm a little surprised that we don't see more "banner" ads on TV. Imagine all these people with the widescreen sets that are viewing content with black sides because it's 4x3 formatted instead of widescreen. Imagine banners on both of those dead zones on the sides, that change every 20-30 seconds and adjust their product to something related to the main feature. Y know I think I would prefer that to the "four miniutes of commercials every 10 minutes" we get now. Also, even though a lot of shows are timed for like 49 minutes for the hour to accomodate commercials, a lot of stations trim out scenes or cut them short to insert more ads, so we would be getting more content. I wouldn't mind them doing this so long as they were not animated. Sort of like how I can't stand the animated shockwave banners here and at other sites. I don't understand why no one is doing this already. Though I have seen a few isolated examples of banner ads being shot across the bottom of the screen briefly during some shows - those are overlays though and degrade the content so maybe that's why those have been unsuccessful.
I have had a USB drive of some sort or another for quite a few years. I had the first 512mb drive available, first 1gb, first 4gb, owned and threw away a defective 16, and now use an 8gb Sandisk FireFlash. (SanDisk is probably the best brand going for small, fast, and reliable)
When I first was noticed to have a 1gb flash drive, my manager flipped out. We were not in a hugely secured environment, but he was formerly a branch manager of a bank so he saw this as a huge problem. We did deal with a large amount of customer information, but this never needed to be on my flash drive. I used the drive to assist in maintaining about 110 PCs, mostly loaded it with software tools, text files describing walk throughs to fix common issues, etc. We went round and round a bit and finally just dropped the issue and I was not bothered anymore.
Now I work in an IT department elsewhere, and I do have to carry sensitive materials. With all the switches, routers, server, etc, I have to keep passwords for them all. Having these items available on hand at any time in addition to a large number of software tools to suport > 500 machines of various types necessitates a flash drive - you just can't carry your laptop everywhere nor rely on the availablility of a network connection.
My solution now is to use OS X's "filevault" technology. Among the items I am not worried about, there is a small (10mb) encrypted disk image. Because the data on the image is frequently being changed and updated, I keep the main copy on the flash drive, and periodically (weekly or so) sync it with my laptop. The copy on the laptop is write protected to prevent temptation of editing it instead of the copy on the flash drive. The password to the vault is in the keychain on my laptop, which is encrypted with my login password. So if I plug in the flash drive to my laptop, I just double click to open the vault without any password to type. I can also open the read-only copy of the vault that is synced on my laptop if that's handier.
If I am in the field and either don't have my laptop with me, or it's inconvenient to haul it out, I just get out the flash drive and plug it into the machine and double click the vault. I have to enter the password since it's not on my laptop with its keychain, but that's not a big deal. The filevault is not supported on anything besides OS X, but it's supported directly by the OS and does not require any additional software or setup, it' just works when plugged in.
For the PCs I have a second 4gb flash drive that I use mainly for shuttling information between PCs, and it does not contain any sensitive information.
The biggest problem I have now with the flash drive is the very high risk of forgetting it somewhere. It's really easy to plug it into a machine, start working on something, get distracted by several other issues all at once, and hurredly rush to the next fire, only to leave the flash drive parked in the machine I was working on first. By the time I realize I don't have my flash drive, it can be up to a day later, and it's really hard to figure out where it was left behind. I've put a lot of thought into this problem, including various "phone phone" ideas, use of a lanyard, etc, and the solution I have come up with is working well. I have a small camera bag that I used to keep my powershot camera in. I now have a larger camera, so the bag has been repurposed. It's a LowePro, built well with a belt loop. It nicely holds my palm pilot, iPod, earbuds, an iTrip transmitter, AND a flash drive. How does this help you wonder? The fireflash has a removable clear acrylic cap that securely attaches to the flash drive, and the lanyard loop is on the cap, not on the drive. The drive came with a 5" lanyard, so I attached that to the loop on my Lowepro, and stuff the flash drive in the front pocket of the bag. When I am using the flash drive, I have to remove it from the cap to plug it in (or reach the computer for that matter) This leaves a clear acrylic cap dangling 5" dow
SCO owns the core UNIX operating system, originally developed by AT&T/Bell Labs and is the exclusive licensor to Unix-based system software providers.
Too bad that's too long for a sig, that's absolutely hilarious
I'm just looking at this as a stock trading opportunity. Anything dropping like this just has to bounce!
yeah, like a watermelon off a bridge.
Oh, you meant UP?
Fuses should blow long before voltages get to the levels needed to make even a bang audible outside the cabinet.
Rising voltage does not blow fuses. Rising current does. Rising voltage actually makes fuses blow at higher current levels than they should, which is why you have to use special fuses in high voltage circuits.
what IS the msrp of the iphone if you buy it sans contract? $900-1400 I am guessing?
Just because a battery has Li in it does not mean it's dangerous to handle. (at least, not if it's designed sensibly) Most laptop computer batteries nowadays are LiIo which is not too different.
;) Although I realize this is technically an explosion, I don't usually think of it that way - I usually consider things like TNT, gunpowder etc to be explosives. Maybe there's another more specific name for explosion due to sudden thermal expansion due to current inrush? I have a video of a primary fuse going at a substation during a fire, all you get is a blinding white flash and what sounds like a cherry bomb. The sound wave hits you a second after the flash like someone just gave you a really good whollup in the chest with a large pillow.
Yes the primary fuses on the poles can be spectacular when they go. Again you've got a conductor (fusable link) inside the cartridge and when the power co cuts in the mains and there's still a short (which can be hard to tell in advance) the link basically vaporizes instantly and superheats the inside of the cartridge, causing it to explode. (this is actually a good thing, the alternative is the transmission lines or transformers melting) Sends bits of the cartridge in every direction at high velocity, that's why they stand back when they are cutting power back on.
If you have a strong attention span you can observe other things in the area when this happens. The feed lines actually twitch. It's really freaky. (I've been told if they're laying on the ground they can actually jump an inch or so off the ground in places, haven't had that pleasure myself) Having all that movement around you at the same time as the flash and the explosion would have to really rattle you.