From a purely functional perspective, any of those devices will satisfy the need - really, anything with a reasonably modern web browser would do. The difference between the iPad, and say, the iPhone, is the iPad has a much bigger screen. Given the option between surfing the web on my iPhone, and surfing the web on the 24" monitor hooked up to my MacBook, which would you choose? Yes, smart phones can browse the web, but even the iPhone only does it passably well (I find browsing the web for anything more intensive than reading email, checking scores or reading text-based news articles to be uncomfortable on such a small screen) - i also suspect that the iPad does a *much* better job of web browsing than the Eee PC (setting the lack of Flash aside) and you can be damn sure that it does it better than the iPhone (same excellent browser + a reasonable screen size makes for what I would guess to be a pretty good browsing experience).
Nevertheless, i'm still not buying an iPad; I haven't even played with one. I can, however, see how a certain segment of the population would; it's a simple device that does the few things that it does very well. When those few things *completely* encompass what a user intends to do with the device, why shouldn't they buy it? When phrases like root access and jailbreaking relate only to gardening and criminal activity (as in actually breaking out of prison) as far as the user is concerned - who the fuck cares? If the lack of (out of the box) root access is an issue for you - don't buy the iPad, or jailbreak it. Just remember that when your mother-in-law doesn't call you up on a Saturday saying "Oops, I accidentally deleted everything, and now all I get is a blank screen when I turn my internet box on" because she bought an iPad instead of an Eee PC, you can thank Apple for recognizing the fact that some people should never, ever be given even the possibility of root access on a machine.
My initial reaction to reading that was: "Is Hideo Kojima releasing a game with that title to get confused parents to buy the wrong game when little Johnny asks for Metal Gear Solid?"
Nonsense. This is more like because this person is British, he has bad teeth. Humor is a cultural thing, much like dental hygiene. Furthermore - I think the statement "Arabs do in fact have a marvelous sense of humor" is counter- or anti-racist in that it subverts the quiet racism against Arabs amongst the current American populace (is he a terrorist/jihadist/fundamentalist/different) by highlighting a characteristic of Arabs that we can relate to, rather than one that highlights a division or disparity. In other words - Arabs are just like us; they have a sense of humor. By extension - politicians are not like us; they don't.
You are absolutely right - the iPad will succeed because it fills a niche that has been sorely underserved. One thing that people who complain about the "locked down" nature of the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad don't seem to realize is that because of those restrictions, because of the lack of root access, the thing basically can't be broken by the actions of the user (unless the user takes action to subvert the lockdown, then they can break it - but that requires forethought and another computer). There's no blue screen of death, no unintelligible (to the masses) error messages. When they get up in the morning, they want their coffee maker to make coffee and their email/web/newsreader to display said media without having to give it even a tiny amount of thought.
Like it or not, people want the computer (at least the one that they use for consuming content on the internet) to be an appliance. Some of us (including most of the slashdot crowd) want to tinker, adjust and alter the way the computer does it's thing, so the iPad isn't really for us. Frankly, the iPad was a big meh for me - so while I wouldn't buy one - I certainly wouldn't turn one down if I were offered it for free; it would look great on my coffee table.
I have no doubt that cabbies flip the switch when travelling from say, Manhattan to Brooklyn or on any long-ish ride where the ride back to the place where cabbies make the vast majority of their money (Manhattan) is unlikely to be paid for by a fare (late at night, e.g.).
This certainly explains some previously inexplicable fairly large ($5-$7) variations in cab fare that I've been surprised by since I moved to Brooklyn.
Agreed - they should certainly be presented with the option. If the board of google decides that they have two options: start a revolution or pull out, they present the option to their employees in China to stay and "fight the power" for the chance to retain their jobs (and change their country), or diplomatically withdraw from the situation. If enough stay to sustain and win the fight - they can fight, if too many leave, then they can pull out of China.
Indeed - I'd imagine that the quarters are, in fact, still legal tender. As long as you have more than half of a dollar bill, it's still worth a dollar (or at least, could be exchanged for a dollar), in the case of a coin - I doubt you'd even need half the coin (by weight) in order for it to still be worth 25 (as long as it still looks like a quarter). I know that a few times I've received as change quarters with a little hole drilled in them (I presume from someone who was trying to scam a vending machine) and had no trouble passing them on.
Re:Slashvertisement
on
Hollow Spy Coins
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Ethics? One needs to consult ethics when deciding whether or not to post something to Slashdot? Now - did you by any chance read enough of the summary to get to the part that says "Slashdot's sister company ThinkGeek" which I, personally, think is an open enough admission of cross-promotion.
Even as a "slashvertisement" - isn't the idea of a hollowed out quarter with enough space for a MicroSD card cool? Are there not interesting consequences for security experts and people concerned about corporate espionage? In other words - won't this "slashvertisement" stimulate some interesting discussion? If you have such a problem with kdawson's "ethics" log the fuck in and take him off your index.
I should mention that I've also gone through metal detectors with change in my pocket and my belt on (but my shoes off...) and not had the machine go off - I don't know that I've ever passed through one with a stick of gum without setting the detector off.
I once went through a metal detector at an airport (after removing all the change from my pockets, and my belt) and the metal detector went off. Turns out I had a single stick of (foil-wrapped) gum in a cargo pocket of my pants - took it out - and the metal detector stopped going off. Perhaps the sensitivity of these things can vary significantly - but I'm fairly certain that there's much less metal in a foil wrapper than in a coin even as small as a penny.
"Committing" simply records the patch that defines the changes since the last commit (from the perspective of your working copy). "Pushing" to some other repository (of which your working copy is a clone) makes those changes available to other users; they can then fetch the changes and merge them with whichever branch they feel like.
Git is awesome - it really is significantly better than both CVS and SVN (the only other VCSs I've used seriously) - the handling of branches and merging is so easy a child could do it (if he at least gave TFM a brief glance).
Tablet PCs are just that, PCs - they still have start menus, and "feel" like a PC, in spite of their slightly different form factor. The iPad, at first blush, bears no resemblance to a PC, and as such is undoubtedly less intimidating to those who fear using someone else's machine. Say what you will about lack of functionality - but a computer designed to operate more like an appliance will, without a shadow of a doubt, be more inviting to an unsophisticated user than one that operates like a "PC". As long as said unsophisticated user believes that they can break it (which they will, when it's a Windows box (or even just windows-like), because they undoubtedly have "broken" other machines running windows before), then they will always approach it with trepidation.
This does not seem rational
It isn't, nor should you expect it to be - the GP mentioned that people had an irrational, emotional reluctance to using someone else's netbook to play with a demo app; the rational answer is to present the demo app to the user on a device that does not engender this response, is it not?
You do need network connectivity to update with other people's changes or check in your own, but I doubt Git works differently there.
Git does work differently - you only need a network connection to distribute changes to other users, there is no network connection needed for committing, tagging, reverting, merging, or doing any other version control stuff. A Git working copy is a repository in it's own right - that's what makes git awesome.
Slashdot Mirror
The browser requirements I've set for my two most recent projects are "any browser less than 2 years old", and the clients seem to be fine with that.
60% is an extraordinarily optimistic estimate...
such as...?
If you're going to call someone out - at least provide a modicum of supporting evidence.
Well neither the !@#$% is Objective-C
What? Last I checked the primary tool for compiling Objective-C is gcc... Cocoa is closed, Objective-C is not.
That is, if I don't just switch the iPhone to Verizon anyway
Good luck with that, buddy. You going to swap the GSM chip out for a CDMA one yourself, or pay someone to do it?
From a purely functional perspective, any of those devices will satisfy the need - really, anything with a reasonably modern web browser would do. The difference between the iPad, and say, the iPhone, is the iPad has a much bigger screen. Given the option between surfing the web on my iPhone, and surfing the web on the 24" monitor hooked up to my MacBook, which would you choose? Yes, smart phones can browse the web, but even the iPhone only does it passably well (I find browsing the web for anything more intensive than reading email, checking scores or reading text-based news articles to be uncomfortable on such a small screen) - i also suspect that the iPad does a *much* better job of web browsing than the Eee PC (setting the lack of Flash aside) and you can be damn sure that it does it better than the iPhone (same excellent browser + a reasonable screen size makes for what I would guess to be a pretty good browsing experience).
Nevertheless, i'm still not buying an iPad; I haven't even played with one. I can, however, see how a certain segment of the population would; it's a simple device that does the few things that it does very well. When those few things *completely* encompass what a user intends to do with the device, why shouldn't they buy it? When phrases like root access and jailbreaking relate only to gardening and criminal activity (as in actually breaking out of prison) as far as the user is concerned - who the fuck cares? If the lack of (out of the box) root access is an issue for you - don't buy the iPad, or jailbreak it. Just remember that when your mother-in-law doesn't call you up on a Saturday saying "Oops, I accidentally deleted everything, and now all I get is a blank screen when I turn my internet box on" because she bought an iPad instead of an Eee PC, you can thank Apple for recognizing the fact that some people should never, ever be given even the possibility of root access on a machine.
My initial reaction to reading that was: "Is Hideo Kojima releasing a game with that title to get confused parents to buy the wrong game when little Johnny asks for Metal Gear Solid?"
Teen Pregnancy
Drug Use
Divorce Rates
For those not inclined to RAnyFA - they all agree with the GP.
Nonsense. This is more like because this person is British, he has bad teeth. Humor is a cultural thing, much like dental hygiene. Furthermore - I think the statement "Arabs do in fact have a marvelous sense of humor" is counter- or anti-racist in that it subverts the quiet racism against Arabs amongst the current American populace (is he a terrorist/jihadist/fundamentalist/different) by highlighting a characteristic of Arabs that we can relate to, rather than one that highlights a division or disparity. In other words - Arabs are just like us; they have a sense of humor. By extension - politicians are not like us; they don't.
You are absolutely right - the iPad will succeed because it fills a niche that has been sorely underserved. One thing that people who complain about the "locked down" nature of the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad don't seem to realize is that because of those restrictions, because of the lack of root access, the thing basically can't be broken by the actions of the user (unless the user takes action to subvert the lockdown, then they can break it - but that requires forethought and another computer). There's no blue screen of death, no unintelligible (to the masses) error messages. When they get up in the morning, they want their coffee maker to make coffee and their email/web/newsreader to display said media without having to give it even a tiny amount of thought.
Like it or not, people want the computer (at least the one that they use for consuming content on the internet) to be an appliance. Some of us (including most of the slashdot crowd) want to tinker, adjust and alter the way the computer does it's thing, so the iPad isn't really for us. Frankly, the iPad was a big meh for me - so while I wouldn't buy one - I certainly wouldn't turn one down if I were offered it for free; it would look great on my coffee table.
That's certainly true of the other 99.9% of rotten.com - but that particular link is perfectly SFW.
You have to "dig around for a calculator" when determining whether two files on your *computer* will fit on a flash drive?
I, for one, sincerely hope they don't.
I have no doubt that cabbies flip the switch when travelling from say, Manhattan to Brooklyn or on any long-ish ride where the ride back to the place where cabbies make the vast majority of their money (Manhattan) is unlikely to be paid for by a fare (late at night, e.g.).
This certainly explains some previously inexplicable fairly large ($5-$7) variations in cab fare that I've been surprised by since I moved to Brooklyn.
Agreed - they should certainly be presented with the option. If the board of google decides that they have two options: start a revolution or pull out, they present the option to their employees in China to stay and "fight the power" for the chance to retain their jobs (and change their country), or diplomatically withdraw from the situation. If enough stay to sustain and win the fight - they can fight, if too many leave, then they can pull out of China.
Indeed - I'd imagine that the quarters are, in fact, still legal tender. As long as you have more than half of a dollar bill, it's still worth a dollar (or at least, could be exchanged for a dollar), in the case of a coin - I doubt you'd even need half the coin (by weight) in order for it to still be worth 25 (as long as it still looks like a quarter). I know that a few times I've received as change quarters with a little hole drilled in them (I presume from someone who was trying to scam a vending machine) and had no trouble passing them on.
Ethics? One needs to consult ethics when deciding whether or not to post something to Slashdot? Now - did you by any chance read enough of the summary to get to the part that says "Slashdot's sister company ThinkGeek" which I, personally, think is an open enough admission of cross-promotion.
Even as a "slashvertisement" - isn't the idea of a hollowed out quarter with enough space for a MicroSD card cool? Are there not interesting consequences for security experts and people concerned about corporate espionage? In other words - won't this "slashvertisement" stimulate some interesting discussion? If you have such a problem with kdawson's "ethics" log the fuck in and take him off your index.
I should mention that I've also gone through metal detectors with change in my pocket and my belt on (but my shoes off...) and not had the machine go off - I don't know that I've ever passed through one with a stick of gum without setting the detector off.
I once went through a metal detector at an airport (after removing all the change from my pockets, and my belt) and the metal detector went off. Turns out I had a single stick of (foil-wrapped) gum in a cargo pocket of my pants - took it out - and the metal detector stopped going off. Perhaps the sensitivity of these things can vary significantly - but I'm fairly certain that there's much less metal in a foil wrapper than in a coin even as small as a penny.
"Committing" simply records the patch that defines the changes since the last commit (from the perspective of your working copy). "Pushing" to some other repository (of which your working copy is a clone) makes those changes available to other users; they can then fetch the changes and merge them with whichever branch they feel like.
Git is awesome - it really is significantly better than both CVS and SVN (the only other VCSs I've used seriously) - the handling of branches and merging is so easy a child could do it (if he at least gave TFM a brief glance).
They've already got impact protection from > 30 ft - a ballistic parachute.
This does not seem rational
It isn't, nor should you expect it to be - the GP mentioned that people had an irrational, emotional reluctance to using someone else's netbook to play with a demo app; the rational answer is to present the demo app to the user on a device that does not engender this response, is it not?
You do need network connectivity to update with other people's changes or check in your own, but I doubt Git works differently there.
Git does work differently - you only need a network connection to distribute changes to other users, there is no network connection needed for committing, tagging, reverting, merging, or doing any other version control stuff. A Git working copy is a repository in it's own right - that's what makes git awesome.
Caffeinated soap.
Indeed - GP might consider investing in one of Frink's sarcasm detectors...