You mean Assange just leaked both sex tapes on Wikileaks. And the Pentagon just issued a press release stating that they were going to release their own versions of the same sex tapes, but that they were still working on blurring out the naughty bits.
Except it isn't. You should read the article, it's good.
You mean. Except, it isn't yet. The Wimax Forum has applied for the 4G label from the International Telecommunications Union - Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R). That application/proposal hasn't been accepted yet, but there is really no reason it shouldn't. 4G may be a so-called standard, but the International Telecommunication Union and its working group does treat it more like it's a brand than a real standard.
No, it's more like some assholes asked for a public space to be privatized for their own benefit, but they didn't have the decent courtesy to ask everyone who owned that space, they only asked one person/one corporation -- the one who was taking the pictures.
When I was crossing the Chunnel, the loading and unloading only seemed to last two or three minutes. I would have taken pictures, but I wasn't allowed to. It was incredibly fast. Part of the reason is that those trains are not anything like your typical boxcars. They were custom-made for the Chunnel, they were made idiot-proof for the drivers (they're even equipped with their own restrooms, double sidewalks, and their own life-support system in case the Chunnel gets flooded), and the boxcars themselves are huge! Also, you don't enter sideways or lengthwise, you enter obliquely, so this allows to have multiple lines of cars/trucks entering at the same time instead of having just one long line entering serially. And of course, at the end of the journey, you don't need to back out, you can just drive forward and leave the huge boxcars obliquely.
$70-125 to install and another $70-110 per month isn't cheap, especially on top of the major bump in car insurance that they already ate
In New York, that's actually super cheap! Normally, $70-125 might get you a full 25 minutes at a street parking meter, that's assuming you were lucky enough to find a parking space that is, and the $70-110 per month might be able to get you some regular protection for your car by the local homeless dude who implied that your car might get keyed or broken into otherwise.
I'm trying to explain that this is a rather extreme punishment that severely affects the remainder of their lives.
No, it's actually a moderate measure. By forcing this device on them for the next six months to five years (as the article points out the time duration actually is), it will actually take away the need to remove their driver's license, to fine them additionally, or even throw them in jail. And in addition to that, with such a large homogenized data set, it should give the insurance companies some peace of mind about keeping the offenders in question still insured (and hopefully, also still working, since a person can easily lose their job if they have to stop driving for six months).
Always remember that blood justice is not justice. The system should correct problems, not simply punish them.
Punishment is about deterrence, prevention, rehabilitation, and (possibly) vindication. Please read the article and tell me how this time-limited probationary period is trying to be vindictive. From my standpoint, it's not.
Now if you want to talk about 'Driving School', now that's a waste of time and a completely vindictive penalty in my opinion!! Send those that are confused about the rules of the road to 'Driving School', sure, but do not send the drunk drivers to it (unless they say they were confused or something). Breaking the rules of the road is rarely a knowledge problem (and even if/when it is, it should be easy for a judge to find out)
Don't worry. I can personally attest to the fact that kids, with radical overprotective mothers, have extreme difficulties procreating (getting laid) later on in life.
The poster may just be the follower/believer of a Quack Doctor, not a Quack Doctor himself. After all, for Quack Doctors to make money scamming people, they'd need a number of believers already.
Not the Nokia E71, the other newer Nokia models should work well off-line, but the Nokia E71 has problems (even with the now free Ovi vectorized maps). See the other threads I've replied to regarding the E71.
Thanks for your feedback. I'm now assuming it's limited to the E71 at least, since one can also confirm the same issue on his E71, but everyone else has confirmed the opposite on their other Nokia Smartphones.
Thanks for the two additional data points on Android.
Fixes take a little longer, of course, but nothing unbearable,
That would be good to measure, both measuring the initial fix (which is always the longest) and the subsequent fixes (which should be much shorter). For walking or bicycling, having slow GPS may be ok assuming it's not too slow, but for driving, having slow GPS could potentially mean that you'd miss your turns.
On my E71, even for walking slowly it wasn't good (but apparently, aside from one guy who confirms a similar problem on his E71, all the other Nokia users of other Nokia models seem to have it working correctly and fast enough).
I'm also assuming that your Android phones had their own magnetic compass and accelerators, which should help as well (in addition to the PRL data, the locations of the towers, that most phones have access too offline or OTA if needed).
The remaining issue on Android would be to have good free offline navigation software (I'm sure the Market has some good paid versions, but I don't know of any free/lite versions that would be usable, open street maps is currently working on one that's capable of doing navigation, but I don't know when that one will be ready, and currently their app can only show your current location on an offline map. The offline open streets map app on Android is not indexed/searchable yet, it can't do routes/turn-by-turn directions yet either, it may be able to serve you in case you're really lost in an emergency use, but I personally don't see oneself being able to use it regularly until they do their new version)
you didn't mention if you'd changed the default from Assisted GPS. If you're still using that setting, the phone will look for cell towers first, and only use the internal GPS when all the cell connections fail. That might explain some of the problems you're reporting.
I totally agree. I've changed all those settings, trying each possible permutation, even rebooting my phone each time after each change. And the results were the same (not that I expect you to believe me fully, I'm also a developer, and myself I don't believe what I can't verify -- especially where it comes to user-error and the inability for human beings to admit that they might have made a mistake and/or might have misconfigured something).
With the feedback I've gotten thus far, one confirming a similar problem on his E71, and a number contradicting my experience on other Nokia smartphone models. I'm beginning to think that this problem is only limited to the E71, and not other Nokia models. I'm glad this is the case. Nokia is a good company. Free offline navigation is one of its key differentiators (since Nokia owns its own vector maps, and Google doesn't). And the competition between the two different styles of GPS Navigation, between those two giants, is leading to some very interesting innovations on both sides.
Yes, it looks like I have. I shouldn't have generalized it to all Nokia phones, but I seem to be at least partly right in my assumption that it's not just my phone, it's all the Nokia E71 phones at least (since someone else with the same E71 model on slashdot just confirmed the same problem with theirs too, and no one else with a E71 has contradicted my offline gps experience yet, even thought several Nokia phone users with other different Nokia models have).
I've tried it in the US, France, and the UK (within the space of two months). I'm currently living in the US. You're not saying which Nokia model you're using. And you're posting this anonymously, which makes follow-ups really difficult. Like I've said in the other thread I was mentioning, I have a Nokia E71 (E71-2 to be precise). Plus, it seems someone else with an E71 has had the same experience I did. Which one do you have by any chance? I'm willing to bet it's not the E71, but some other Nokia model. It seems other people are having much better offline results with other Nokia smartphones.
Believe me, I've tried with four different sim cards (all active and even paid for) in the three different countries: the US, France, and the UK (with a sim from UK Vodaphone).
Thanks, you've just confirmed that I'm not crazy. From the experience of others, it seems like this is something that's limited solely to the E71, and not to the other newer Nokia phones. Plus, this would also explain why Nokia was having such a hard time getting us that totally free version of Ovi maps (while it seemed, it had provided that specific update at least six months earlier to almost every other model except ours).
If someone knows what to look for in the specs that might designate the difference in off-line GPS capabilities between the E71 and other Nokia smartphones, please let me know (assuming the problem is hardware-related). The marketing terms used to describe the E71 certainly don't help. The Nokia E71 has always featured its offline maps/navigation as one of its key features (even when they were still making you pay for that service). And by the way, I have an unlocked American Nokia E71-2, it should match the European E71-1 in terms of specs, but it's heavier, more expensive, and has more/better hardware than the AT&T E71x.
Thanks, this is useful to know. I'll need to investigate this further.
One thing that I didn't mention is that my phone, the E-71, was one of the last models to get the new totally free Ovi maps updated version, so may be, there was something different about the model itself, since Nokia was having such a hard time getting the new version of the maps updated on that specific model in the first place.
In case anyone else is interested, I have an unlocked E-71-2 (it's an E-71 made for the GSM American market, but it's heavier, more expensive, and has superior hardware than the normal subsidized E-71x phone offered by AT&T which also get advertised as the E-71). And of course, I made sure I had the latest firmware update when I was trying this offline functionaliy exactly one month and a half ago.
And in a way, what you're saying makes total sense. Offline, Nokia should be the hands-down winner for navigation since they own the rights to their own offline navigation maps in vector format (since they took over the company/conglomerate that made them), while my understanding is that Google still doesn't have the full rights to use their own maps off-line yet (unless it's the specific data they get from open street maps, or the specific data that they've been able to compile themselves).
Like I've explained in a previous post in much greater detail, the GPS of a Nokia phone (even with its free off-line Ovi vector maps) is almost completely useless without a data connection.
On my (unlocked uncrippled) Nokia E71 (even thought, all the navigation maps are now free, and can be pre-downloaded as vector graphics through wifi), getting a GPS lock now on my E71 with cell phone service (but without any data connection) takes me anywhere from 20 minutes to infinity (and that's with a perfect blue sky, no buildings in the way, and many satellites showing). And don't get me started on getting turn-by-turn directions, that part takes it anywhere from 2 minutes to 5 minutes (and by 2 minutes, I mean 2 minutes after I've already **walked** passed the turn I was supposed to make). Yes, the Nokia Ovi maps have both driving and walking directions (in case you were wondering).
Previously, when I was paying for a data connection, that same phone, with the same maps, same software, totally outperformed my standalone Magellan gps unit. It was very quick to get an initial gps lock, and the turn by turn directions came up on point and super accurately (like I said, in terms of timeliness and accuracy, it totally outperformed my low-end Magellan standalone unit).
This is just to reiterate, you can not depend on a cell phone without a data connection for GPS navigation. I could see myself using if I was really lost, and needed a one-time direction may be (but even then, without a data connection, my E71 will often freeze trying to get the gps lock without it, and that's even after I've tried all the configurations imaginable).
Also, on that same topic I think this is why the (already expensive) TomTom iPhone app makes you buy an additional (expensive) TomTom cradle with an extra GPS sensor embedded within it. The TomTom cradle can be used with an old iTouch (with no gps), but I bet it can be just as useful to an iPhone that doesn't have a data connection (or that has an unreliable AT&T data connection).
And I wonder if there are any special (more expensive) gps sensors that could be hooked up to an Android device, just like what TomTom has done with the iPhone/iTouch. After all, my Garmin 405 watch has very good gps reception and gps tracking, and comparatively speaking the device is tiny compared to other standalone units, so I bet all it takes is additional money -- for adding more expensive hardware. So in particular if I were you, I'd buy a standalone unit for him, that's probably the easiest and the cheapest, or I'd take a look a those push-to-talk android phones (the ones that double as radios as well). Those will probably be more expensive, and they're usually purchased by large Enterprises, but I wouldn't be surprised if their GPS capability was just as good without a data connection as standalone GPS units (although, I haven't checked, I just know that push-to-talk android phones do exist at the moment, I've seen them advertised).
Of course, he was proud of the fact that as CEO he made less than five times the starting salary of an engineer, because he felt it was his duty to the company that employed him to put money back into the company rather than into his pocket.
Not to disagree with the rest of your post, but there is a reason very large shareholders (like founders, or family members of founders) pay themselves up to as little as $1 in salary. It's called tax-avoidance.
If you take Ross Perot for instance, I recall he was paying himself almost nothing in salary, but that's because he would have paid a much higher tax bill otherwise. Overall, I think the book "Millionaire Next Door" said that Ross Perot succeeded in paying only 6% of taxes from the money he was making himself each year. And I'm not just speaking of capital gains/dividend taxes, if I remember correctly Ross Perot was able to funnel a lot of his money out of EDS untaxed through: trust funds, selling equity, tax-deferred municipal bonds, and various other means.
This one is no biggie for me. I've been participating in so many contests, I'm sort of judgement-proof by this point.;)
On a more serious note, Neil McAllister seems to only see the computer programming field as a zero-sum game. The computer programming that someone does for free (for whatever reason: learning, camaraderie, ego, prizes, resume-padding, or whatever) is not necessarily just lost revenue/income for the labor market of programmers.
For instance once upon a time, before the advent of Microsoft Word (and even before Wordperfect), there were many Word Processing packages available. Those initial Word Processing packages were very difficult to set up, difficult to use, and there were so many to choose from, companies needed to hire expensive Word Processing specialized consultants just to try to figure it all out.
Obviously with the advent of Wordperfect (and later Word), all those consulting gigs simply disappeared, but it doesn't mean that with the consolidation of that niche industry and the loss of those particular gigs -- that the IT consulting job market disappeared too (on the contrary). This consolidation did raise the bar for consultants (who did have to retrain themselves into learning other newer technologies), but it also raised the standard of living for the rest of us.
And if Neil McCallister wants to fight that, that's fine with me, just don't expect me to play along. I'll still keep on participating in programming contests/hackathons if I want to (the good ones anyway, I'm not saying that all programming contests are good, because you do have to read all the fine prints, speak to your friends about all the catches/if any, and ask plenty of questions, before you even begin to invest any of your time and energy).
To me, the term 'game' implies both an artificial scoring system and a potential emotional pay off that a straight simulation wouldn't necessarily provide. The person who sponsored/did the survey in the first place probably has an agenda as it relates to games, otherwise he/she would just have chosen a more neutral word like 'simulation' to begin with.
Of course, the medical students would say that, I bet that business students would say the same thing about computer games for their field as well. Who doesn't like games? In any case, we know this method is attractive, now the real question is, can we make games that are good enough for those students to learn anything? And to some extent, I think that we will be able to, but only partly I believe. Making a good game is still mostly more an art than a science, and making a good game that will actually teach something will be doubly difficult.
But are there actually any phones that accept standard batteries?
They all do. As long as you're willing to blow the original pre-designed form factor to hell, and as long as you're willing to allow Steve Jobs to go completely insane with rage, you could hook up any battery to a cell phone MacGyver-style. As long as you can match approximately the right voltage and the right intensity, you could use triple-As, double-As, real lemons, whatever...
This would be useful for instance if you only needed a cell phone in a tank, a stationary place, or as a last resort in an emergency battlefield situation (where nothing else was working).
Despite the hype, BlackBerry still has a bigger market share than Android and iPhone.[1]
Not for long, according to your own citation. Just looking at the graph you referenced, it seems Android is poised to overtake RIM in the US by next quarter.
Slashdot Mirror
You mean Assange just leaked both sex tapes on Wikileaks. And the Pentagon just issued a press release stating that they were going to release their own versions of the same sex tapes, but that they were still working on blurring out the naughty bits.
Except it isn't. You should read the article, it's good.
You mean. Except, it isn't yet. The Wimax Forum has applied for the 4G label from the International Telecommunications Union - Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R). That application/proposal hasn't been accepted yet, but there is really no reason it shouldn't. 4G may be a so-called standard, but the International Telecommunication Union and its working group does treat it more like it's a brand than a real standard.
No, it's more like some assholes asked for a public space to be privatized for their own benefit, but they didn't have the decent courtesy to ask everyone who owned that space, they only asked one person/one corporation -- the one who was taking the pictures.
When I was crossing the Chunnel, the loading and unloading only seemed to last two or three minutes. I would have taken pictures, but I wasn't allowed to. It was incredibly fast. Part of the reason is that those trains are not anything like your typical boxcars. They were custom-made for the Chunnel, they were made idiot-proof for the drivers (they're even equipped with their own restrooms, double sidewalks, and their own life-support system in case the Chunnel gets flooded), and the boxcars themselves are huge! Also, you don't enter sideways or lengthwise, you enter obliquely, so this allows to have multiple lines of cars/trucks entering at the same time instead of having just one long line entering serially. And of course, at the end of the journey, you don't need to back out, you can just drive forward and leave the huge boxcars obliquely.
$70-125 to install and another $70-110 per month isn't cheap, especially on top of the major bump in car insurance that they already ate
In New York, that's actually super cheap! Normally, $70-125 might get you a full 25 minutes at a street parking meter, that's assuming you were lucky enough to find a parking space that is, and the $70-110 per month might be able to get you some regular protection for your car by the local homeless dude who implied that your car might get keyed or broken into otherwise.
I'm trying to explain that this is a rather extreme punishment that severely affects the remainder of their lives.
No, it's actually a moderate measure. By forcing this device on them for the next six months to five years (as the article points out the time duration actually is), it will actually take away the need to remove their driver's license, to fine them additionally, or even throw them in jail. And in addition to that, with such a large homogenized data set, it should give the insurance companies some peace of mind about keeping the offenders in question still insured (and hopefully, also still working, since a person can easily lose their job if they have to stop driving for six months).
Always remember that blood justice is not justice. The system should correct problems, not simply punish them.
Punishment is about deterrence, prevention, rehabilitation, and (possibly) vindication. Please read the article and tell me how this time-limited probationary period is trying to be vindictive. From my standpoint, it's not.
Now if you want to talk about 'Driving School', now that's a waste of time and a completely vindictive penalty in my opinion!! Send those that are confused about the rules of the road to 'Driving School', sure, but do not send the drunk drivers to it (unless they say they were confused or something). Breaking the rules of the road is rarely a knowledge problem (and even if/when it is, it should be easy for a judge to find out)
Don't worry. I can personally attest to the fact that kids, with radical overprotective mothers, have extreme difficulties procreating (getting laid) later on in life.
The poster may just be the follower/believer of a Quack Doctor, not a Quack Doctor himself. After all, for Quack Doctors to make money scamming people, they'd need a number of believers already.
Not the Nokia E71, the other newer Nokia models should work well off-line, but the Nokia E71 has problems (even with the now free Ovi vectorized maps). See the other threads I've replied to regarding the E71.
Thanks for your feedback. I'm now assuming it's limited to the E71 at least, since one can also confirm the same issue on his E71, but everyone else has confirmed the opposite on their other Nokia Smartphones.
Thanks for the two additional data points on Android.
Fixes take a little longer, of course, but nothing unbearable,
That would be good to measure, both measuring the initial fix (which is always the longest) and the subsequent fixes (which should be much shorter). For walking or bicycling, having slow GPS may be ok assuming it's not too slow, but for driving, having slow GPS could potentially mean that you'd miss your turns. On my E71, even for walking slowly it wasn't good (but apparently, aside from one guy who confirms a similar problem on his E71, all the other Nokia users of other Nokia models seem to have it working correctly and fast enough).
I'm also assuming that your Android phones had their own magnetic compass and accelerators, which should help as well (in addition to the PRL data, the locations of the towers, that most phones have access too offline or OTA if needed).
The remaining issue on Android would be to have good free offline navigation software (I'm sure the Market has some good paid versions, but I don't know of any free/lite versions that would be usable, open street maps is currently working on one that's capable of doing navigation, but I don't know when that one will be ready, and currently their app can only show your current location on an offline map. The offline open streets map app on Android is not indexed/searchable yet, it can't do routes/turn-by-turn directions yet either, it may be able to serve you in case you're really lost in an emergency use, but I personally don't see oneself being able to use it regularly until they do their new version)
you didn't mention if you'd changed the default from Assisted GPS. If you're still using that setting, the phone will look for cell towers first, and only use the internal GPS when all the cell connections fail. That might explain some of the problems you're reporting.
I totally agree. I've changed all those settings, trying each possible permutation, even rebooting my phone each time after each change. And the results were the same (not that I expect you to believe me fully, I'm also a developer, and myself I don't believe what I can't verify -- especially where it comes to user-error and the inability for human beings to admit that they might have made a mistake and/or might have misconfigured something).
With the feedback I've gotten thus far, one confirming a similar problem on his E71, and a number contradicting my experience on other Nokia smartphone models. I'm beginning to think that this problem is only limited to the E71, and not other Nokia models. I'm glad this is the case. Nokia is a good company. Free offline navigation is one of its key differentiators (since Nokia owns its own vector maps, and Google doesn't). And the competition between the two different styles of GPS Navigation, between those two giants, is leading to some very interesting innovations on both sides.
Then you have been misleading people.
Yes, it looks like I have. I shouldn't have generalized it to all Nokia phones, but I seem to be at least partly right in my assumption that it's not just my phone, it's all the Nokia E71 phones at least (since someone else with the same E71 model on slashdot just confirmed the same problem with theirs too, and no one else with a E71 has contradicted my offline gps experience yet, even thought several Nokia phone users with other different Nokia models have).
I've tried it in the US, France, and the UK (within the space of two months). I'm currently living in the US. You're not saying which Nokia model you're using. And you're posting this anonymously, which makes follow-ups really difficult. Like I've said in the other thread I was mentioning, I have a Nokia E71 (E71-2 to be precise). Plus, it seems someone else with an E71 has had the same experience I did. Which one do you have by any chance? I'm willing to bet it's not the E71, but some other Nokia model. It seems other people are having much better offline results with other Nokia smartphones.
Believe me, I've tried with four different sim cards (all active and even paid for) in the three different countries: the US, France, and the UK (with a sim from UK Vodaphone).
Thanks, you've just confirmed that I'm not crazy. From the experience of others, it seems like this is something that's limited solely to the E71, and not to the other newer Nokia phones. Plus, this would also explain why Nokia was having such a hard time getting us that totally free version of Ovi maps (while it seemed, it had provided that specific update at least six months earlier to almost every other model except ours).
If someone knows what to look for in the specs that might designate the difference in off-line GPS capabilities between the E71 and other Nokia smartphones, please let me know (assuming the problem is hardware-related). The marketing terms used to describe the E71 certainly don't help. The Nokia E71 has always featured its offline maps/navigation as one of its key features (even when they were still making you pay for that service). And by the way, I have an unlocked American Nokia E71-2, it should match the European E71-1 in terms of specs, but it's heavier, more expensive, and has more/better hardware than the AT&T E71x.
Thanks, this is useful to know. I'll need to investigate this further. One thing that I didn't mention is that my phone, the E-71, was one of the last models to get the new totally free Ovi maps updated version, so may be, there was something different about the model itself, since Nokia was having such a hard time getting the new version of the maps updated on that specific model in the first place.
In case anyone else is interested, I have an unlocked E-71-2 (it's an E-71 made for the GSM American market, but it's heavier, more expensive, and has superior hardware than the normal subsidized E-71x phone offered by AT&T which also get advertised as the E-71). And of course, I made sure I had the latest firmware update when I was trying this offline functionaliy exactly one month and a half ago.
And in a way, what you're saying makes total sense. Offline, Nokia should be the hands-down winner for navigation since they own the rights to their own offline navigation maps in vector format (since they took over the company/conglomerate that made them), while my understanding is that Google still doesn't have the full rights to use their own maps off-line yet (unless it's the specific data they get from open street maps, or the specific data that they've been able to compile themselves).
Like I've explained in a previous post in much greater detail, the GPS of a Nokia phone (even with its free off-line Ovi vector maps) is almost completely useless without a data connection.
Just to confirm what the poster has said already.
On my (unlocked uncrippled) Nokia E71 (even thought, all the navigation maps are now free, and can be pre-downloaded as vector graphics through wifi), getting a GPS lock now on my E71 with cell phone service (but without any data connection) takes me anywhere from 20 minutes to infinity (and that's with a perfect blue sky, no buildings in the way, and many satellites showing). And don't get me started on getting turn-by-turn directions, that part takes it anywhere from 2 minutes to 5 minutes (and by 2 minutes, I mean 2 minutes after I've already **walked** passed the turn I was supposed to make). Yes, the Nokia Ovi maps have both driving and walking directions (in case you were wondering).
Previously, when I was paying for a data connection, that same phone, with the same maps, same software, totally outperformed my standalone Magellan gps unit. It was very quick to get an initial gps lock, and the turn by turn directions came up on point and super accurately (like I said, in terms of timeliness and accuracy, it totally outperformed my low-end Magellan standalone unit).
This is just to reiterate, you can not depend on a cell phone without a data connection for GPS navigation. I could see myself using if I was really lost, and needed a one-time direction may be (but even then, without a data connection, my E71 will often freeze trying to get the gps lock without it, and that's even after I've tried all the configurations imaginable).
Also, on that same topic I think this is why the (already expensive) TomTom iPhone app makes you buy an additional (expensive) TomTom cradle with an extra GPS sensor embedded within it. The TomTom cradle can be used with an old iTouch (with no gps), but I bet it can be just as useful to an iPhone that doesn't have a data connection (or that has an unreliable AT&T data connection).
And I wonder if there are any special (more expensive) gps sensors that could be hooked up to an Android device, just like what TomTom has done with the iPhone/iTouch. After all, my Garmin 405 watch has very good gps reception and gps tracking, and comparatively speaking the device is tiny compared to other standalone units, so I bet all it takes is additional money -- for adding more expensive hardware. So in particular if I were you, I'd buy a standalone unit for him, that's probably the easiest and the cheapest, or I'd take a look a those push-to-talk android phones (the ones that double as radios as well). Those will probably be more expensive, and they're usually purchased by large Enterprises, but I wouldn't be surprised if their GPS capability was just as good without a data connection as standalone GPS units (although, I haven't checked, I just know that push-to-talk android phones do exist at the moment, I've seen them advertised).
Of course, he was proud of the fact that as CEO he made less than five times the starting salary of an engineer, because he felt it was his duty to the company that employed him to put money back into the company rather than into his pocket.
Not to disagree with the rest of your post, but there is a reason very large shareholders (like founders, or family members of founders) pay themselves up to as little as $1 in salary. It's called tax-avoidance.
If you take Ross Perot for instance, I recall he was paying himself almost nothing in salary, but that's because he would have paid a much higher tax bill otherwise. Overall, I think the book "Millionaire Next Door" said that Ross Perot succeeded in paying only 6% of taxes from the money he was making himself each year. And I'm not just speaking of capital gains/dividend taxes, if I remember correctly Ross Perot was able to funnel a lot of his money out of EDS untaxed through: trust funds, selling equity, tax-deferred municipal bonds, and various other means.
This one is no biggie for me. I've been participating in so many contests, I'm sort of judgement-proof by this point. ;)
On a more serious note, Neil McAllister seems to only see the computer programming field as a zero-sum game. The computer programming that someone does for free (for whatever reason: learning, camaraderie, ego, prizes, resume-padding, or whatever) is not necessarily just lost revenue/income for the labor market of programmers.
For instance once upon a time, before the advent of Microsoft Word (and even before Wordperfect), there were many Word Processing packages available. Those initial Word Processing packages were very difficult to set up, difficult to use, and there were so many to choose from, companies needed to hire expensive Word Processing specialized consultants just to try to figure it all out.
Obviously with the advent of Wordperfect (and later Word), all those consulting gigs simply disappeared, but it doesn't mean that with the consolidation of that niche industry and the loss of those particular gigs -- that the IT consulting job market disappeared too (on the contrary). This consolidation did raise the bar for consultants (who did have to retrain themselves into learning other newer technologies), but it also raised the standard of living for the rest of us.
And if Neil McCallister wants to fight that, that's fine with me, just don't expect me to play along. I'll still keep on participating in programming contests/hackathons if I want to (the good ones anyway, I'm not saying that all programming contests are good, because you do have to read all the fine prints, speak to your friends about all the catches/if any, and ask plenty of questions, before you even begin to invest any of your time and energy).
To me, the term 'game' implies both an artificial scoring system and a potential emotional pay off that a straight simulation wouldn't necessarily provide. The person who sponsored/did the survey in the first place probably has an agenda as it relates to games, otherwise he/she would just have chosen a more neutral word like 'simulation' to begin with.
Of course, the medical students would say that, I bet that business students would say the same thing about computer games for their field as well. Who doesn't like games? In any case, we know this method is attractive, now the real question is, can we make games that are good enough for those students to learn anything? And to some extent, I think that we will be able to, but only partly I believe. Making a good game is still mostly more an art than a science, and making a good game that will actually teach something will be doubly difficult.
But are there actually any phones that accept standard batteries?
They all do. As long as you're willing to blow the original pre-designed form factor to hell, and as long as you're willing to allow Steve Jobs to go completely insane with rage, you could hook up any battery to a cell phone MacGyver-style. As long as you can match approximately the right voltage and the right intensity, you could use triple-As, double-As, real lemons, whatever...
This would be useful for instance if you only needed a cell phone in a tank, a stationary place, or as a last resort in an emergency battlefield situation (where nothing else was working).
Despite the hype, BlackBerry still has a bigger market share than Android and iPhone.[1]
Not for long, according to your own citation. Just looking at the graph you referenced, it seems Android is poised to overtake RIM in the US by next quarter.