They already admitted that the problem wasn't with the iPhone, but Cisco's routers. I found the whole thing kind of funny.:
Dan: Our network is flaking out then crashing. We need to find the problem before the Spring semester kicks in and we're really in trouble. George: Hmm, the iPhone just came out the other day. I doubt that's a coincidence, it must be a faulty product. Dan: Are you sure? I haven't heard about any of these issues on other campuses or companies. I think we should look into this further. George: Nah, it's not our problem, it's Apple's. Let them figure it out.
Also, if you paused the game to go do whatever, when you'd return to unpause it you'd have to sit through a scene of P&T eating a pizza or something. Meaning you had to wait for them, after they were done waiting for you:-)
The only time my (car) GPS was ever off by any noticeable amount was when I first powered it up. Apparently when it initializes for the first time, it starts the car off at some place in California (I think SF). After a minute or so the screen changed to the correct position and it's been fine ever since.
My "signal strength" (for lack of a better word) varies greatly during my commute. It can "see" 1-2-4 satellites depending where I am at any given moment. I drive through hilly areas (light mountains) where the trees are 2-3 stories tall, so I'm not surprised it fluxuates that much.
But even still, it's rarely off by more than a few feet (if that), and even in low conditions it's good enough to know that I'm at this crossing or what-not.
I used to be deathly afraid of heights, to the point that my old poor-funded elementary school thought there was something wrong with me. I mean, why would a 4 year take the stairs on a 4 story winding staircase one step at a time while gripping the handrail with all his might? And escalators, those haunted me until High School. At that point I decided to man-up and start facing it, or I'd never hear the end of it.
I'm "ok" with heights now. I still refuse to go on my roof, but that's just common sense for me. I'm on the heavy side so I don't want to be the "guy who fell through the 40 year-old roof." So it's more of a "I'm going to fall through" then "I might fall over."
Spiders though, I had a traumatic event with spiders when I was young. As such they freak me out today, but only to the point that if they're crawling on me.
It's kind of like a Catch-22, with Sony stuck in the middle.
Price flamewars aside, the main issue with the PS3 is its library isn't really spectacular. Without a decent library (either general or exclusive titles) it is not going to sell well, even if it was the exact price of an XBox 360.
So, Konami is thinking about not making MGS exclusive to the PS3 because the sales have been poor.
But the sales won't increase without publishers hitching their star to the PS3 as exclusive titles (even if it's just exclusive for a year or so).
Then again, I don't see why 3rd party publishers go exclusive anymore. If you can increase sales by 50% by simply recoding an existing product then go for it. Note: I'm a software developer and I know very well that's not as easy as it sounds. But it's obviously possible asince it's being done now (even across the Wii and the 360, which are as different as you can get).
For example, an old guy (we're talking 70 years old) was arrested under the powers given to the police by the Anti-Terrorism Act because he half-shouted "nonsense" during a speach by some government minister at a Labour Party conference.
Silly Brits, that's why you need Free Speech zones. If you want to protest or speak out during an important rally (in our case, the president's) you go stand in a squared-off area a mile away in a place that has nothing to do with the conference. Then he would never have made a disturbace.
/sarcasm
Back to reality, that does suck. I hope he was at least let go and not formally charged.
The Elite wasn't much of a redesign. It was a different color case, with a hard drive installed, and HDMI. That means the only thing that required any real changes were the HDMI which either had a placeholder prepared since the beginning, or was a minor revision. Everything else looks like it's the same part; ie done to offer out the product with minimal cost and changes to the assembly line.
Going 65nm could mean that they're re-designing more than before (like changing motherboards, etc). Granted, they may cheap out and just swap out the CPUs and (whatever else) with its 65nm analog, but it's possible that this kind of change might do enough under the hood to allow them to fix the Ring-Of-Death bug too.
To use the car analogy (which I hate).
When updating a Cadillac CTS for 2007 they didn't change much, just the interior options, sound system, etc. So the known quirk they have with the rear differential remained because the parts stayed the same.
When releasing the CTS for 2008, they're redesigning a lot of it (new body, new engine, new suspension, etc). Since they're redesigning it anyway, they might as well fix the quirk. So the chance of them finally fixing the underlining problem.
If they redesign to use 65nm, and the end result is a 360 that runs cooler and doesn't need to blast the fan as much, I might consider replacing mine with one. But it would need to have the same hard drive space (preferably more) than the current non-Core system.
Your post reads more sardonic than sarcastic, but I could be wrong.
There's a difference between holding your arm out in front of you and actually doing something with your arms. I've done the whole physical labor thing; working outside, using tools all day, and carrying heavy loads of crap around; it's not bad. But holding your arm straight out (or pivoted) is oddly draining in comparison. Personally I'd rather be a blacksmith than just hold my hand face-level for 8 hours.
As for the paper thing, I wasn't saying it was a bad thing but some people just wouldn't like it. At least w/ a vertical LCD it's easy to stare at it at 90 degrees, which makes the picture look correct. Flat against a desk, you'll be more inclined to look at it at an angle, which some (cheaper) LCDs have a problem with.
I prefer the trackpad. But why don't I have a touchscreen with stability and accuracy already? There's no reason for a "pointer metaphor" device when I can just move the actual pointer.
Touch screens are nice, but they have a major flaw: user fatigue.
Stick out your arm, just do it. Now hold it there for 5 minutes. Do you start to feel a little tired? Now leave it out there for another 10 minutes, see how good you feel.
Now imagine doing that straight through an 8-hour work day.
The only ways around this would be to make all screens flat against the desk (like a piece of paper) or to pivot your arm at the elbow. But even the elbow lever method would wear you out after a while. Sure it would probably be good exercise but I'm sure it would cause more health problems than a mouse in the long term.
If you don't like the mouse, try track pads, roller balls, pens, etc. Personally I use the trackball, with my only complaint being I have to continusouly clean the thing (more than my old ball-type mice).
Toilets flush money down you? I guess NASA learned a lesson after the incident where Russian cosmonauts decided to simply use pencils instead of spending millions developing a zero-g pen
That is a myth. In actuality a company went on their own to develop it and offered it to NASA (who later started buying them).
Reminds me of how boys "like" the taste of beer when their dad gives them that first sip. My ass....
And now today that father could get in deep trouble if it got out, particularly if a loud neighborhood busy-body found out.
Re:I'm buying.. Friday.
on
All Things iPhone
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· Score: 2, Informative
Actually, on the list of specs I've seen, the iPhone has a SIM card tray. So assuming they didn't weld the thing shut you could take the iPhone SIM out.
However it will be SIM locked so you can't use non-Cingular SIMs in it.
Then again, this is what I've been reading. So until tomorrow I guess take it with a grain of salt.
Where , in the USA? I don't think so. You lot have the cheapest petrol on the planet. Besides , theres always public transport. I assume you still have that over there?
Depending on where in the US you live, public transportation varies from "great" to "horrid." And the distance between areas in either extreme is usually pretty small.
Many large cities have decent transportation: subways, buses, electric buses, etc.
Some regions (even suburbs) have decent trains connecting the various towns and cities, as well as the occasional bus.
But in a lot of places (I'd say the majority), public transportation is pretty sub-par. It's a shame really. Case-in-point, I have a colleague that has a particularly hard time getting to work because he doesn't own a car, and both his house and his company reside in towns with little/no public transportation. He may only be 30 miles away, but getting to work is a real chore for him; 2 hours of going in a deranged route.
I was listening to diggnation the other day and Alex was boasting his car did 24mpg which was supposed to excellent and up there with some hybrids - huh?
Huh?!? Indeed.
24 MpG isn't at all impressive. Over here in the states a higher performance V6 usually gets only a little higher than that as a realistic average on the highways (maybe 25-27). This is ignoring small block V6's and efficient V8's (that throttle back to 6 and 4 cylinders when coasting).
However, he might have been comparing to a Hybrid V6. The Honda Accord Hybrid Sedan has an official EPA estimate of 28 city / 35 highway, which means realistic numbers probably put it closer to 24 / 32 which aren't incredibly higher than your friend's V6.
Though I'm personally a fan of diesel, I'd heavily consider a small Hybrid like a Civic in the future. But a V6 Hybrid sedan is really out of the question for me; the price point isn't worth the relatively small increase in efficiency.
I'll be Comcast currently offer many more HD channels then they did in 2005.
Around here, Comcast has only added 3 HD channels since 2005. UPNHD, TNT HD, and I think MoJo (no idea what that is, maybe it's old and I don't remember).
Besides that everything appears to be the same for the last 2 years: network channels and 1 or 2 cable channels. There really aren't that many non-Premium HD channels offered in my area, and the premium channels only have 1 HD channel a piece.
As for Comcast raising the prices, that's the only reliable thing I get out of them. I just expect it to go up every 1-2 years.
1) My first reaction was that this was a good thing. One of the reasons Spider-Man is roundly regarded as the best of these movies is because it stays reasonably close to the source material. I just saw the new Fantastic Four movie and was left with the impression that they didn't grok the fundamentals of the series at all (Most notably in the abso-fuckin-lutely retarded "reimagining" of Dr Doom, one of Marvel's strongest characters ever...anyway).
I'll admit, they did drop the ball on Dr Doom. I don't know what the main culprit was (writing, background, actor, etc) but it just didn't seem like the uber-Doom we're all used to.
However I'd say the first movie's "creation" of Dr Doom wasn't that far fetched if you compare it to Marvel's "Ultimate" Series. His beginnings in Ultimate are quite different to the classic books, and thinly similar to the movie's.
But yeh, I think they could have done a better job. I think the problem was more in the writing, the actor did a good enough job (this time around) with what little he had.
I think there are different levels of "phone calls." I know people that have intense conversations while driving, going on and on. It takes a lot of thought for those kind of conversations, even if the subject matter is stupid, and I have no doubt in my mind that such conversations greatly reduce the driver's ability to poor levels. anything that has a lot of back-and-forth, arguing, memorization (grocery list), etc can probably screw you up. In some of the "tests" I've seen, they've tried to structure the conversation to keep ensuring that the driver is paying attention a lot and engaging in responses, at times "quizzing" them.
But there are also quick/short/to-the-point conversations. "Honey, there's construction on the freeway I'm going to be late tonight." "Son, a package is coming in from UPS. Can you be around today to sign for it?" Etc
Personally, I try to limit any phone calls (through my OnStar system) to short/auto-pilot conversations. They rarely get close to the 1 minute mark and require little thought on my end. Unfortunately there's no way to determine what kind of conversation you're having or how much you're concentrating, short of listening in or perhaps looking at the call time.
It was fun, I won't begrudge them that.
My only real gripe is the time between "episodes." I always thought one of the main goals of episodes was delivering smaller content, but rapidly. The secondary benefit was while concentrating on small chunks, they could make that single chunk fun all the way though instead of artifically dragging it out with poor levels of copy/paste jobs like much of Halo 1.
Instead the lag between Episode 1 and 2 is a bit on the lame side. My friends were hoping 4 episodes per year, I was OK with 2 per year. But now we're looking at 1.25 years between titles.
A month ago Slashdot linked to an article about an effort to reclassify broadband by the speed: anything greater than 2MBps.
If so, depending on who runs the survey we may drop considerably in rank. After all, I'd say a good chunk of our broadband numbers come from basic DSL (not the 3MBps package) and maybe satellite. And from what I hear, many countries' broadband solutions are higher than the proposed 2MBps limit so it wouldn't be a universal drop.
Come on, doesn't the Democrats watch Colbert? If you're going to change the rules, change them in your favor:-)
While I don't look at Apple via Rose colored glasses (and am not getting an iPhone), I feel that more of the blame lies with AT&T for some of these annoyances.
Sure, Apple is out just to make money and the only reason they're viewed as a hero to MS's villain is merely the lesser amount of power they wield, their high(er) quality products, and Mac zealots.
But really, who benefits from these odd changes? Apple gets whatever for selling the phone, but then AT&T is the one locking you into data contracts and such. As part of a give/take Apple might have said "Fine, we'll lock the WiFi unless you unlock it for them." I mean, look at most of the annoyances... with the exception of no true SDK or removable memory most of it is contractual lock-in stuff.
While it looks like a cool gadget, I won't get it. I have enough problems with my photocopier's touch-screen keyboard and not knowing if my sausage fingers hit the right button that I don't need that kind of headache with a phone. It may be tres-cool hardware but I think I'll pass.
What you call "beta" is actually "release candidate"
Yep.
People seem to forget there is a level between beta and gold. However the "release candidate" doesn't get much public attention anymore, lately those releases are internal or obscure enough that Joe Sixpack doesn't hear about them. All Joe hears about is: Google's beta software, public beta tests of games, and Firefox beta.
Personally I blame Google and the game companies for corrupting the lay definition of beta.
Out of all the fanboys that I hate, Apple fanboys are the worst. I never thought I would actually be able to say this, but they are more annoying than Linux-elitests...
I don't know. Two of the most annoying IT snobs I ever met were Linux snobs. They were just SOOO friggin bad I would just have to walk away or tune them out once they got into a roll.
I've yet to meet one Apple snob that was even a fraction as bad as either of those 2 Linux zealots.
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They already admitted that the problem wasn't with the iPhone, but Cisco's routers. I found the whole thing kind of funny.:
Dan: Our network is flaking out then crashing. We need to find the problem before the Spring semester kicks in and we're really in trouble.
George: Hmm, the iPhone just came out the other day. I doubt that's a coincidence, it must be a faulty product.
Dan: Are you sure? I haven't heard about any of these issues on other campuses or companies. I think we should look into this further.
George: Nah, it's not our problem, it's Apple's. Let them figure it out.
Also, if you paused the game to go do whatever, when you'd return to unpause it you'd have to sit through a scene of P&T eating a pizza or something. Meaning you had to wait for them, after they were done waiting for you :-)
Sounds like the guy has a weird receiver.
The only time my (car) GPS was ever off by any noticeable amount was when I first powered it up. Apparently when it initializes for the first time, it starts the car off at some place in California (I think SF). After a minute or so the screen changed to the correct position and it's been fine ever since.
My "signal strength" (for lack of a better word) varies greatly during my commute. It can "see" 1-2-4 satellites depending where I am at any given moment. I drive through hilly areas (light mountains) where the trees are 2-3 stories tall, so I'm not surprised it fluxuates that much.
But even still, it's rarely off by more than a few feet (if that), and even in low conditions it's good enough to know that I'm at this crossing or what-not.
I used to be deathly afraid of heights, to the point that my old poor-funded elementary school thought there was something wrong with me. I mean, why would a 4 year take the stairs on a 4 story winding staircase one step at a time while gripping the handrail with all his might? And escalators, those haunted me until High School. At that point I decided to man-up and start facing it, or I'd never hear the end of it. I'm "ok" with heights now. I still refuse to go on my roof, but that's just common sense for me. I'm on the heavy side so I don't want to be the "guy who fell through the 40 year-old roof." So it's more of a "I'm going to fall through" then "I might fall over." Spiders though, I had a traumatic event with spiders when I was young. As such they freak me out today, but only to the point that if they're crawling on me.
It's kind of like a Catch-22, with Sony stuck in the middle.
Price flamewars aside, the main issue with the PS3 is its library isn't really spectacular. Without a decent library (either general or exclusive titles) it is not going to sell well, even if it was the exact price of an XBox 360.
So, Konami is thinking about not making MGS exclusive to the PS3 because the sales have been poor.
But the sales won't increase without publishers hitching their star to the PS3 as exclusive titles (even if it's just exclusive for a year or so).
Then again, I don't see why 3rd party publishers go exclusive anymore. If you can increase sales by 50% by simply recoding an existing product then go for it. Note: I'm a software developer and I know very well that's not as easy as it sounds. But it's obviously possible asince it's being done now (even across the Wii and the 360, which are as different as you can get).
Back to reality, that does suck. I hope he was at least let go and not formally charged.
If they redesign to use 65nm, and the end result is a 360 that runs cooler and doesn't need to blast the fan as much, I might consider replacing mine with one. But it would need to have the same hard drive space (preferably more) than the current non-Core system.
There's a difference between holding your arm out in front of you and actually doing something with your arms. I've done the whole physical labor thing; working outside, using tools all day, and carrying heavy loads of crap around; it's not bad. But holding your arm straight out (or pivoted) is oddly draining in comparison. Personally I'd rather be a blacksmith than just hold my hand face-level for 8 hours.
As for the paper thing, I wasn't saying it was a bad thing but some people just wouldn't like it. At least w/ a vertical LCD it's easy to stare at it at 90 degrees, which makes the picture look correct. Flat against a desk, you'll be more inclined to look at it at an angle, which some (cheaper) LCDs have a problem with.
Stick out your arm, just do it. Now hold it there for 5 minutes. Do you start to feel a little tired? Now leave it out there for another 10 minutes, see how good you feel.
Now imagine doing that straight through an 8-hour work day.
The only ways around this would be to make all screens flat against the desk (like a piece of paper) or to pivot your arm at the elbow. But even the elbow lever method would wear you out after a while. Sure it would probably be good exercise but I'm sure it would cause more health problems than a mouse in the long term.
If you don't like the mouse, try track pads, roller balls, pens, etc. Personally I use the trackball, with my only complaint being I have to continusouly clean the thing (more than my old ball-type mice).
See here: Space Pen.
Actually, on the list of specs I've seen, the iPhone has a SIM card tray. So assuming they didn't weld the thing shut you could take the iPhone SIM out.
However it will be SIM locked so you can't use non-Cingular SIMs in it.
Then again, this is what I've been reading. So until tomorrow I guess take it with a grain of salt.
- Many large cities have decent transportation: subways, buses, electric buses, etc.
- Some regions (even suburbs) have decent trains connecting the various towns and cities, as well as the occasional bus.
But in a lot of places (I'd say the majority), public transportation is pretty sub-par. It's a shame really. Case-in-point, I have a colleague that has a particularly hard time getting to work because he doesn't own a car, and both his house and his company reside in towns with little/no public transportation. He may only be 30 miles away, but getting to work is a real chore for him; 2 hours of going in a deranged route.24 MpG isn't at all impressive. Over here in the states a higher performance V6 usually gets only a little higher than that as a realistic average on the highways (maybe 25-27). This is ignoring small block V6's and efficient V8's (that throttle back to 6 and 4 cylinders when coasting).
However, he might have been comparing to a Hybrid V6. The Honda Accord Hybrid Sedan has an official EPA estimate of 28 city / 35 highway, which means realistic numbers probably put it closer to 24 / 32 which aren't incredibly higher than your friend's V6.
Though I'm personally a fan of diesel, I'd heavily consider a small Hybrid like a Civic in the future. But a V6 Hybrid sedan is really out of the question for me; the price point isn't worth the relatively small increase in efficiency.
Besides that everything appears to be the same for the last 2 years: network channels and 1 or 2 cable channels. There really aren't that many non-Premium HD channels offered in my area, and the premium channels only have 1 HD channel a piece.
As for Comcast raising the prices, that's the only reliable thing I get out of them. I just expect it to go up every 1-2 years.
However I'd say the first movie's "creation" of Dr Doom wasn't that far fetched if you compare it to Marvel's "Ultimate" Series. His beginnings in Ultimate are quite different to the classic books, and thinly similar to the movie's.
But yeh, I think they could have done a better job. I think the problem was more in the writing, the actor did a good enough job (this time around) with what little he had.
Then we will abandon all "thinking machines" and rely only on spice .
I think there are different levels of "phone calls." I know people that have intense conversations while driving, going on and on. It takes a lot of thought for those kind of conversations, even if the subject matter is stupid, and I have no doubt in my mind that such conversations greatly reduce the driver's ability to poor levels. anything that has a lot of back-and-forth, arguing, memorization (grocery list), etc can probably screw you up. In some of the "tests" I've seen, they've tried to structure the conversation to keep ensuring that the driver is paying attention a lot and engaging in responses, at times "quizzing" them.
But there are also quick/short/to-the-point conversations. "Honey, there's construction on the freeway I'm going to be late tonight." "Son, a package is coming in from UPS. Can you be around today to sign for it?" Etc
Personally, I try to limit any phone calls (through my OnStar system) to short/auto-pilot conversations. They rarely get close to the 1 minute mark and require little thought on my end. Unfortunately there's no way to determine what kind of conversation you're having or how much you're concentrating, short of listening in or perhaps looking at the call time.
It was fun, I won't begrudge them that. My only real gripe is the time between "episodes." I always thought one of the main goals of episodes was delivering smaller content, but rapidly. The secondary benefit was while concentrating on small chunks, they could make that single chunk fun all the way though instead of artifically dragging it out with poor levels of copy/paste jobs like much of Halo 1. Instead the lag between Episode 1 and 2 is a bit on the lame side. My friends were hoping 4 episodes per year, I was OK with 2 per year. But now we're looking at 1.25 years between titles.
A month ago Slashdot linked to an article about an effort to reclassify broadband by the speed: anything greater than 2MBps.
:-)
If so, depending on who runs the survey we may drop considerably in rank. After all, I'd say a good chunk of our broadband numbers come from basic DSL (not the 3MBps package) and maybe satellite. And from what I hear, many countries' broadband solutions are higher than the proposed 2MBps limit so it wouldn't be a universal drop.
Come on, doesn't the Democrats watch Colbert? If you're going to change the rules, change them in your favor
While I don't look at Apple via Rose colored glasses (and am not getting an iPhone), I feel that more of the blame lies with AT&T for some of these annoyances.
Sure, Apple is out just to make money and the only reason they're viewed as a hero to MS's villain is merely the lesser amount of power they wield, their high(er) quality products, and Mac zealots.
But really, who benefits from these odd changes? Apple gets whatever for selling the phone, but then AT&T is the one locking you into data contracts and such. As part of a give/take Apple might have said "Fine, we'll lock the WiFi unless you unlock it for them." I mean, look at most of the annoyances... with the exception of no true SDK or removable memory most of it is contractual lock-in stuff.
While it looks like a cool gadget, I won't get it. I have enough problems with my photocopier's touch-screen keyboard and not knowing if my sausage fingers hit the right button that I don't need that kind of headache with a phone. It may be tres-cool hardware but I think I'll pass.
People seem to forget there is a level between beta and gold. However the "release candidate" doesn't get much public attention anymore, lately those releases are internal or obscure enough that Joe Sixpack doesn't hear about them. All Joe hears about is: Google's beta software, public beta tests of games, and Firefox beta.
Personally I blame Google and the game companies for corrupting the lay definition of beta.
I've yet to meet one Apple snob that was even a fraction as bad as either of those 2 Linux zealots.
Haven't you heard, Daleks can fly now.