I wish cute netbooks would have been available back when I was young and hitting on girls. - I had to rely on a puppy. And the puppies grow up to be big and scary dogs...
But as for making the netbook look better? - There's nothing that ugly that a can (or few) of matt black spray paint wouldn't fix...
I consciously don't buy music anymore. I don't pirate it either. I just do without.
I don't do without music. I even buy the music. But ONLY directly from artist at their gig. When they sell their own music on CDs they burned themselves. THAT is supporting the artist!
Oh, and I don't go see Metallica or other boy bands either, as I don't want to support them. There are plenty of bands out there that are playing locally that actually make better music with their hearts in it.
Being a car-nut I always jump on the opportunity to drive a new (to me) car. And as a result I've driven quite a few cars in my life. I also race endurance (track) racing in a team, so I hope that I have some perspective in this. Also as a car-nut I tend to buy older cars that I can work on, and cars that have a good "road feel".
A while ago I had the opportunity to test drive the new LandRover Discovery. I really loved the comfort and relaxed atmosphere of the car. You could jump in, drive for 10 hours straight, and still feel refreshed upon arrival. - As long as the weather is beautifull...
Unfortunately (or fortunately for the sake of experience) it was spring here in Finland, and the winding country roads still had patches of ice where the trees cast shadows all day. Usually I enjoy these kind of roads, and with a appropriate car they can be really ejoyable to drive, even in above conditions.
Driving down the road with this brand new LandRover I quickly became aware that the car has absolutely no road feel. The drive down the road became agony, as I had no way of knowing wheter the car was close to loosing grip or not. To get safely home, I drove overtly cautiously and didn't enjoy the drive a bit.
What I'm trying to say is that the trusting on these wonderfull abbrevations that modern cars have and letting the computers control the car does indeed aliante you from driving. They give you a false sense of security and confidence that you are in control of the car. They give you no feedback to be able to tell that you are approching the limits. And when you get there, all you can do is let go (as the car is spinning out of control) and hope the active safety systems will spare your life.
Even a simple safety system like ABS (anti-locking brakes) can fail on you. I've had ABS failure just when I needed it. The ABS-light just came on when I slammed the brakes and the wheels locked. Luckily none of our race cars have ABS, so I instictively eased on the pedal and was able to steer away from the car in front of me that had turned sideways and surprised me. No, crash of scratches this time.
So, for me at least my cars will continue to be "unsafe" cars without stability management, brake assistants and other computer controlled "safe" gadgets. Also I will make sure that when my kids start driving, they will get plenty of high-speed practice with cars with no computer systems on closed areas. That is how I learned and I believe practice is the only way to learn these things to become nearly instinctive.
Excuse for rambling, but this matter is so close to my heart.
It's interesting to see that Yahoo News says it's quoting AFP on this one. What would be more interesting to hear if this is actually a AFP "news" or not. - And if so, it would be very interesting to hear who on AFP was drunk enough to come up with this... =)
Unfortunately stealing a car for joyriding in Finland is not a very big offence. Actually it's not even called stealing, but "unlawful use of motor vehicle". And I dare say the police would even have time to check a car's interior, let alone hunt for a mosquito. I've had my car stolen once, and luckily recovered. I called up the police after it was recovered, and they didn't have time to come by to have a look at it, let alone dust the car for prints. - So, no cool CSI...
And BTW. It's December here in Finland (like I guess it's in most parts of the world), and the mosquitoes died by September...
I rarely comment on/. any more, but just had to say this.
I for one have four macs at house (and 2 PCs) in use. I have been looking to replace the two old iBook & PowerBook laptops with Intel-based ones. But this hardware-DRM news really puts me down...
I now have two options. Either to buy old stock MacBook (while stocks still last), or look for a good PC-laptop and run Linux on it.
I have to say the option two is looking much more likely option now after this news. And this may not be such a bad thing either. Acer has a nice mini laptop with built in 3G-card and Ubuntu Netbook Remix seems a well thought out OS to install on one......although the other laptop needs to be a large screen one. Any good ideas for a one that doesn't weigh a ton? I WAS thinking about MacBook Pro, but now...
As a user of several Nokia phones and an iPhone let me throw in my Absolute Truth about them.
When comparing iPhone to any of Nokia's N- or E-series I can't help but feeling sorry for the lack of UI in them. The great gadgets in these phones are totally hampered by the worthless UI design and lack of usability. For example the N95 has THREE completely different user interfaces depending which way you open the phone or which menu button you press. (Yes there are actually TWO menu buttons, why?) Only one of these UIs provide some kind of simple usability, but even that is very slow and only stays usable as long as you don't open any application. The applications all have their own distinct UIs. And I still consider N95 owners lucky, over the poor souls tricked into buying a E90 Communicator...
The Nokia Maps application that you praise is another poor attempt from Nokia to make an allrounder. The whole application feels sluggish and again has a totally new UI that at best feels like it was designed by a young engineering student, not a team of UI and usability professionals. When using Nokia phone for navigation I personally prefer to use the TomTom software for the S60-series, although Navicore would seem to be better thought out version for mobile handsets. Neither of them do have the ease of use that the Google maps in iPhone does, but the iPhone doesn't connect to an GPS, so no real navigation there.
The camera is the Achilles heel of the iPhone in my opinion. While you can take photos with it, the quality does not match those of Nokia's N95 or even the old N80. And I'm not just counting the pixels here. Just the plain quality of how the pixels actually turn out. And of course there is no possibility (yet) to take even the crappy video of the Nokias. - Naturally I should not compare to N93i which was designed to be a cameraphone, not just a phone with a camera.
So, with all the phones available to me, which one do I carry in my pocket most of the time? - The iPhone.
Why? Most of all because it just works. It does all the things it can do with ease and responds to my commands faster and more precise than the Nokias. And the UI just feels like it should. I know it doesn't have a lot of features the the Nokias and I do miss the UTMS from time to time. But even with EDGE the web-surfing is so much faster on iPhone than any Nokia with UTMS, just because of the excellent browser. Also I miss the keyboard of old Communicators (before the E90), as for typing they would be much better than anything the iPhone has to offer. But the Communicators were too big to carry around. Every now and then I do take a Nokia with me instead, mostly because of TomTom when I need a navigator when afoot, as in my car I have a in dash unit that doesn't fail even in tunnels unlike GPS-only based ones.
Besides when you say "GSM alone" does it exclude GRPS and UMTS? Cause we have that too. Not sure if we have EDGE tho.
Actually GPRS is part of GSM, as a packet based data transfer for GSM. As opposed to circuit switched data transfer of GSM-data. You can think of them as modem vs. ethernet. With GSM-data you open up the line, and will be billed by the minute. With GPRS you send packets and will be billed by byte.
EDGE is available in some countries, and some operators. It is on extension of GPRS in a way, thus it is also part of the GSM. At least in Finland we've had EDGE for years, but they have been cutting it down for a while to force people to buy new UTMS-phones. Although nowadays most phones used for any kind of data transfer are UTMS-phones anyway. (iPhones is not available in Finland.)
Yes, UMTS is different from GSM, but all UMTS phones can "fall back" on GSM, as the UMTS networks are limited to cities and main roads only. So, data transfer outside UMTS coverage is possible with GPRS/EDGE with the 3G-phones.
The article itself should definitely be modded +5 Funny!
Seriously, I haven't had a laugh like this since don't know when:
they will be able to download one of just 37 albums available through the service, including Britney Spears' "Blackout" and Barry Manilow's "The Greatest Songs of the Seventies."
This looser actually did start shooting people yesterday. And naturally, because being a sad looser, he couldn't take any responsibility for his actions, but shot himself at the end. - But being a total looser, he couldn't even do that properly. - I really hope he doesn't die, but has to face reality and the parents of the kids he killed. - I also hope he will live a long, and in the jail have long nightmares about the kids he killed.
And being a pitiful looser, he also blaimed the society for his actions. "The society" is so bad, he had to kill people. - News flash: The thing wrong with the society is exactly the loosers like this one! - Saddest thing is, they usually fail to notice that.
I have this hardware firewall installed on my ADSL modem. Actually because I use a separate WLAN access point, I have two hardware firewalls! And both of them are cheap (only couple of Euros each, price depends on the length of the firewall) and 100% powerfull. Now, let me demonstrate the power and security of either one of these firewalls! I'll just crawl under the desk and acti
I think Ballmer has couple of very strong arguments for Vista. Here are the top three I found in that article:
Users appreciate the value that we put into Vista.
The most secure release of Windows you can humanly make.
Vista is bigger than XP, and it's not going to get smaller in any significant way in SP1.
Great! All I ever wanted from my operating system: It's got value, is most secure Windows that is bigger than XP, and will get even bigger. - I'm sold! I'll start installing Vista right now...
But seriously. Either the writer of TFA is a complete idiot, or the whole crowd gathered to hear Ballmer the Great talk. I mean, the arguments he gives are all just the worst kind of marketing jargon I've seen in a long time. You'd expect arguments like these from a 13 year old kid playing a salesman in a school play. C'mon Microsoft! You're not getting value from your marketing department...
Or could it be that Vista actually didn't bring anything new?
Wouldn't it be easier to buy an phone/mp3 player that isn't crippled?
I absolutely agree with you!
It would be MUCH easier to BUY for example a Nokia phone that can play MP3s. - The problem is the using part...
I got an iPhone a month ago (just after the price drop), and as I live in Finland, I had to unlock it for it to be usefull at all. I've had several Nokias & some SonyEricssons too. They're all very good mobile phones (some better than others), but as for MP3 players - they all more or less suck. And not forgetting web browsing, or email. Until I got the iPhone I had two Nokias, a 9300i communicator & N80ie.
Both good phones, and I loved the 9300i's keyboard & big screen. Very good for email. Also excellent phone side. (Unlike the new E90...) The problems with 9300i were the total lack of camera. Thus I missed a lot of shots I could have taken. Also the web browser was so hard to use, I never actually used it - unless I really had to. But still it is the best Nokia I've come accross. The N80 on the other hand has lot's of cool features. It also has a camera, that is also waay better than the iPhones. (Not talking about megapixels here, but actual picture quality.) Also I have TomTom for the N80, and that is absolutely great piece of software. Also the reason why I still have the phone, and use it when I need a portable navigator. (Maybe I should buy a separate navigator, but I'm hoping to survive like this until iPhone get's a proper navigator.) As a phone the N80 is ok, but as for MP3 player - useless. And for the web browsing, well only for emergencies. And as for the email - it's not even for emergencies.
So, for even with these basic needs I have, the iPhone has really answered well. The browser is far the best I've seen on any mobile. The email client could improve, but still beats hands down the most. The camera is poor quality, but it does take pictures - and for quality I prefer my Nikon SLR. After all, all mobile phones are crappy cameras compared to even a real 100 euro pocket camera, even the Nokia N93i. - As for usability and stability? Well, they is something unheard of in the mobile phone business.
I do hope the iPhone will kick some Nokia ass, to get them really moving. Actually rethinking about their strategy. They used to have usable and stable phones back in the 90's. Then they got lost somewhere. I hope they will take a lesson from Apple's first go at mobile phones, and start remaking easy to use and rock solid phones. They could do it, if the marketing droids could be silenced for a while...
Where do the extents of a 'public performance' end? Radios on in cabs?
No, in Finland it doesn't. Up here the recording industry actually got through an greedy law that cabs/taxies now have to pay money to them if the taxi has a radio installed. The reasoning goes: It is essential to the business (of the taxi) that radio can be heared in the taxi and creates an advantage over competing taxies if it has a radio. Thus it is public performance, thus the poor record labels should get more money...
As taxies are driven a lot, they change the cars every couple of years. And how many new cars you can actually buy without a radio? I know you can buy a Porsche or another sportscar without radio, but I don't think it's even possible to buy Mercedes or Volvo (the most popular with taxi companies) without one.
<trying hard and failing to be ironic>
Personally, when I want to hear the latest hits on radio, I always take a taxi! I just get in and tell the driver to drive around the block until I've heared the latest hits. - It's not like I would need a taxi to take me somewhere...
</trying hard and failing to be ironic>
Actually, cricket is an excuse to lie in the sun all day drinking beer while watching other people do gentle excerise. The rules are there so that anyone who questions what you're doing will eventually give up and go away by the time you're explaining the rule for Leg Before Wicket - if not sooner. Anyone who has taken the time to learn the rules enjoys lazing in the sunshine, so you're safe from them.
The only flaw in this otherwise superb idea is that Britain doesn't actually get any sunshine.
This is the reason why Aussies find this game so interesting. - Down Under, this idea actually works!
This also further explains why Aussies suck in Cricket. - There's no need to rush the game, as even the ones doing the gentle exercise may actually enjoy it.
This however does not explain why Brits suck in Cricket. - They have all the reason to get the game finished as soon as possible, to head for the warmth of nearist pub.
One can always trust the/. to publish any and all stories, without any check for its validity or actually being true...
So what else is new around here?
I just bought a new Nokia last May that had just come out for 990 euros. And now they are selling it for 700 euros down the street! - I want my money back!
Nokia should have told me that they will drop the price later, and the cost of manufacturing the phone is less than 990 euros! They should have told me that they are making profit on me buying the phone early. It's just wrong! Someone should tell me these things, because I didn't know the price of the phone would drop. I thought a 990 euro phone will always be a 990 euro phone. The price would even rise, because the value of the money always drops. So in two years when I'd sell the phone, I would get over 1000 euros for it...
"Compile everything by hand" ones simply weren't interesting to me,'
I totally understand his point of view......I guess he's getting old too.
It used to be cool to compile everything, there used to be time to compile everything. But then something happened - a decade or something...
We got older and if not wiser, at least found out that there is more to life than compiling kernel. While compiling kernel is still fun, it's just not always convenient. You have other things on your mind now, and you've actually come to realise that the other things are just as fun and important. - I guess that's what they call growing up?
But hey, you younger nerds: Keep on compiling! Keep on hacking those all nighters! We older DO need your enthusiasm. You have all the time in the world to grow old and growly - and you will, like it or not.
It took a while, but I got there. - I'm actually older now!
There's gotta be quite a few books that weigh that 15 ounces! But how accurate the weight has to be? Is 15,1 ounces too much an 14,9 ounces too little?
Now, you might say that you can't get too much of a plot in 15 ounce book, but just look at what they've gottten out recently...
OH! It's not ounce, but Wizard of OZ......never mind...
...internet is killing the music industry (as we know it). And I'll drink to that!
Internet couldn't kill Music, even if we all tried very hard. People are social creatures and will always want to play music too. Add these together with internet and it just gives unknown artists a new route to tell about themselves. It allows bands to distribute themselves without enslaving themselves. It allows fans to find out about these newcomers. Even when allowing people to download your music for free, they still want to see you perform live - if you're good and interesting enough.
--
When will we people understand that music is a service, not a product?
Robots do as they are programmed to do, as any slashdot-reading nerd knows. Also robots are usually programmed by similar nerds......now THIS is the part that worries me, as nerds aren't usually known for their fluent social skills. (Flamewars on slashdot is NOT a social skill that really helps autistics.) I sincerely do hope the nerds did get some professional help for this assignment. (Pun intended.)
Well, I guess it could be worse though. The robots could have been programmed by salesdroids... =)
Well, it's kind of true that one could save energy (thus money) by switching off...
But in my case (as anyone else living up here) it would only make sense for a couple of months a year. Most of the year the average temperature outside is lower than the temperature in my house. All my gadgets that are on standby (rather than switched off) produce pretty much nothing but heat for the electricity they use. This is fine for me (for the 9 moths a year), as all that electricity is out of my heating bill. So if I would save 24euros/year by switching off, I would ramp up my heating bill by 18euros...
I hope this guy gets countersued for stupidity and/or greed! I mean, if I'll sit on a burning camp fire. Can I sue the land owner for not putting warning stickers on all the trees:
"If burned on a camp fire the temperature of such a fire is sufficient to cause permanent damage to human organs."
What about fire place? The sticker should also mention them. And forest fires? You could easily hurt yourself if cought in one. - Definately a clear case of neglect from the land owner...
But seriously, I think this kind of idiocy should not get any publicity. It only breeds more idiocy. - Or maybe these guys should just be thrown out of court when they try to file up the suit? Once upon a time even in America there used to be a thing called common sense...
Slashdot Mirror
Is this guy for real?
I wish cute netbooks would have been available back when I was young and hitting on girls. - I had to rely on a puppy. And the puppies grow up to be big and scary dogs...
But as for making the netbook look better? - There's nothing that ugly that a can (or few) of matt black spray paint wouldn't fix...
I consciously don't buy music anymore. I don't pirate it either. I just do without.
I don't do without music. I even buy the music. But ONLY directly from artist at their gig. When they sell their own music on CDs they burned themselves. THAT is supporting the artist! Oh, and I don't go see Metallica or other boy bands either, as I don't want to support them. There are plenty of bands out there that are playing locally that actually make better music with their hearts in it.
Being a car-nut I always jump on the opportunity to drive a new (to me) car. And as a result I've driven quite a few cars in my life. I also race endurance (track) racing in a team, so I hope that I have some perspective in this. Also as a car-nut I tend to buy older cars that I can work on, and cars that have a good "road feel".
A while ago I had the opportunity to test drive the new LandRover Discovery. I really loved the comfort and relaxed atmosphere of the car. You could jump in, drive for 10 hours straight, and still feel refreshed upon arrival. - As long as the weather is beautifull...
Unfortunately (or fortunately for the sake of experience) it was spring here in Finland, and the winding country roads still had patches of ice where the trees cast shadows all day. Usually I enjoy these kind of roads, and with a appropriate car they can be really ejoyable to drive, even in above conditions.
Driving down the road with this brand new LandRover I quickly became aware that the car has absolutely no road feel. The drive down the road became agony, as I had no way of knowing wheter the car was close to loosing grip or not. To get safely home, I drove overtly cautiously and didn't enjoy the drive a bit.
What I'm trying to say is that the trusting on these wonderfull abbrevations that modern cars have and letting the computers control the car does indeed aliante you from driving. They give you a false sense of security and confidence that you are in control of the car. They give you no feedback to be able to tell that you are approching the limits. And when you get there, all you can do is let go (as the car is spinning out of control) and hope the active safety systems will spare your life.
Even a simple safety system like ABS (anti-locking brakes) can fail on you. I've had ABS failure just when I needed it. The ABS-light just came on when I slammed the brakes and the wheels locked. Luckily none of our race cars have ABS, so I instictively eased on the pedal and was able to steer away from the car in front of me that had turned sideways and surprised me. No, crash of scratches this time.
So, for me at least my cars will continue to be "unsafe" cars without stability management, brake assistants and other computer controlled "safe" gadgets. Also I will make sure that when my kids start driving, they will get plenty of high-speed practice with cars with no computer systems on closed areas. That is how I learned and I believe practice is the only way to learn these things to become nearly instinctive.
Excuse for rambling, but this matter is so close to my heart.
It's interesting to see that Yahoo News says it's quoting AFP on this one. What would be more interesting to hear if this is actually a AFP "news" or not. - And if so, it would be very interesting to hear who on AFP was drunk enough to come up with this... =)
Unfortunately stealing a car for joyriding in Finland is not a very big offence. Actually it's not even called stealing, but "unlawful use of motor vehicle". And I dare say the police would even have time to check a car's interior, let alone hunt for a mosquito. I've had my car stolen once, and luckily recovered. I called up the police after it was recovered, and they didn't have time to come by to have a look at it, let alone dust the car for prints. - So, no cool CSI...
And BTW. It's December here in Finland (like I guess it's in most parts of the world), and the mosquitoes died by September...
I rarely comment on /. any more, but just had to say this.
I for one have four macs at house (and 2 PCs) in use. I have been looking to replace the two old iBook & PowerBook laptops with Intel-based ones. But this hardware-DRM news really puts me down...
I now have two options. Either to buy old stock MacBook (while stocks still last), or look for a good PC-laptop and run Linux on it.
I have to say the option two is looking much more likely option now after this news. And this may not be such a bad thing either. Acer has a nice mini laptop with built in 3G-card and Ubuntu Netbook Remix seems a well thought out OS to install on one... ...although the other laptop needs to be a large screen one. Any good ideas for a one that doesn't weigh a ton? I WAS thinking about MacBook Pro, but now...
As a user of several Nokia phones and an iPhone let me throw in my Absolute Truth about them.
When comparing iPhone to any of Nokia's N- or E-series I can't help but feeling sorry for the lack of UI in them. The great gadgets in these phones are totally hampered by the worthless UI design and lack of usability. For example the N95 has THREE completely different user interfaces depending which way you open the phone or which menu button you press. (Yes there are actually TWO menu buttons, why?) Only one of these UIs provide some kind of simple usability, but even that is very slow and only stays usable as long as you don't open any application. The applications all have their own distinct UIs. And I still consider N95 owners lucky, over the poor souls tricked into buying a E90 Communicator...
The Nokia Maps application that you praise is another poor attempt from Nokia to make an allrounder. The whole application feels sluggish and again has a totally new UI that at best feels like it was designed by a young engineering student, not a team of UI and usability professionals. When using Nokia phone for navigation I personally prefer to use the TomTom software for the S60-series, although Navicore would seem to be better thought out version for mobile handsets. Neither of them do have the ease of use that the Google maps in iPhone does, but the iPhone doesn't connect to an GPS, so no real navigation there.
The camera is the Achilles heel of the iPhone in my opinion. While you can take photos with it, the quality does not match those of Nokia's N95 or even the old N80. And I'm not just counting the pixels here. Just the plain quality of how the pixels actually turn out. And of course there is no possibility (yet) to take even the crappy video of the Nokias. - Naturally I should not compare to N93i which was designed to be a cameraphone, not just a phone with a camera.
So, with all the phones available to me, which one do I carry in my pocket most of the time? - The iPhone.
Why? Most of all because it just works. It does all the things it can do with ease and responds to my commands faster and more precise than the Nokias. And the UI just feels like it should. I know it doesn't have a lot of features the the Nokias and I do miss the UTMS from time to time. But even with EDGE the web-surfing is so much faster on iPhone than any Nokia with UTMS, just because of the excellent browser. Also I miss the keyboard of old Communicators (before the E90), as for typing they would be much better than anything the iPhone has to offer. But the Communicators were too big to carry around. Every now and then I do take a Nokia with me instead, mostly because of TomTom when I need a navigator when afoot, as in my car I have a in dash unit that doesn't fail even in tunnels unlike GPS-only based ones.
Actually GPRS is part of GSM, as a packet based data transfer for GSM. As opposed to circuit switched data transfer of GSM-data. You can think of them as modem vs. ethernet. With GSM-data you open up the line, and will be billed by the minute. With GPRS you send packets and will be billed by byte.
EDGE is available in some countries, and some operators. It is on extension of GPRS in a way, thus it is also part of the GSM. At least in Finland we've had EDGE for years, but they have been cutting it down for a while to force people to buy new UTMS-phones. Although nowadays most phones used for any kind of data transfer are UTMS-phones anyway. (iPhones is not available in Finland.)
Yes, UMTS is different from GSM, but all UMTS phones can "fall back" on GSM, as the UMTS networks are limited to cities and main roads only. So, data transfer outside UMTS coverage is possible with GPRS/EDGE with the 3G-phones.
Seriously, I haven't had a laugh like this since don't know when:
they will be able to download one of just 37 albums available through the service, including Britney Spears' "Blackout" and Barry Manilow's "The Greatest Songs of the Seventies."This looser actually did start shooting people yesterday. And naturally, because being a sad looser, he couldn't take any responsibility for his actions, but shot himself at the end. - But being a total looser, he couldn't even do that properly. - I really hope he doesn't die, but has to face reality and the parents of the kids he killed. - I also hope he will live a long, and in the jail have long nightmares about the kids he killed.
And being a pitiful looser, he also blaimed the society for his actions. "The society" is so bad, he had to kill people. - News flash: The thing wrong with the society is exactly the loosers like this one! - Saddest thing is, they usually fail to notice that.
So untrue!
I have this hardware firewall installed on my ADSL modem. Actually because I use a separate WLAN access point, I have two hardware firewalls! And both of them are cheap (only couple of Euros each, price depends on the length of the firewall) and 100% powerfull. Now, let me demonstrate the power and security of either one of these firewalls! I'll just crawl under the desk and acti
1) He cleaims his mechanically inept wife reads /.
2) He claims to have a WIFE, and is still writing to /.
Users appreciate the value that we put into Vista.
The most secure release of Windows you can humanly make.
Vista is bigger than XP, and it's not going to get smaller in any significant way in SP1.
Great! All I ever wanted from my operating system: It's got value, is most secure Windows that is bigger than XP, and will get even bigger. - I'm sold! I'll start installing Vista right now...
But seriously. Either the writer of TFA is a complete idiot, or the whole crowd gathered to hear Ballmer the Great talk. I mean, the arguments he gives are all just the worst kind of marketing jargon I've seen in a long time. You'd expect arguments like these from a 13 year old kid playing a salesman in a school play. C'mon Microsoft! You're not getting value from your marketing department...
Or could it be that Vista actually didn't bring anything new?
It would be MUCH easier to BUY for example a Nokia phone that can play MP3s. - The problem is the using part...
I got an iPhone a month ago (just after the price drop), and as I live in Finland, I had to unlock it for it to be usefull at all. I've had several Nokias & some SonyEricssons too. They're all very good mobile phones (some better than others), but as for MP3 players - they all more or less suck. And not forgetting web browsing, or email. Until I got the iPhone I had two Nokias, a 9300i communicator & N80ie.
Both good phones, and I loved the 9300i's keyboard & big screen. Very good for email. Also excellent phone side. (Unlike the new E90...) The problems with 9300i were the total lack of camera. Thus I missed a lot of shots I could have taken. Also the web browser was so hard to use, I never actually used it - unless I really had to. But still it is the best Nokia I've come accross. The N80 on the other hand has lot's of cool features. It also has a camera, that is also waay better than the iPhones. (Not talking about megapixels here, but actual picture quality.) Also I have TomTom for the N80, and that is absolutely great piece of software. Also the reason why I still have the phone, and use it when I need a portable navigator. (Maybe I should buy a separate navigator, but I'm hoping to survive like this until iPhone get's a proper navigator.) As a phone the N80 is ok, but as for MP3 player - useless. And for the web browsing, well only for emergencies. And as for the email - it's not even for emergencies.
So, for even with these basic needs I have, the iPhone has really answered well. The browser is far the best I've seen on any mobile. The email client could improve, but still beats hands down the most. The camera is poor quality, but it does take pictures - and for quality I prefer my Nikon SLR. After all, all mobile phones are crappy cameras compared to even a real 100 euro pocket camera, even the Nokia N93i. - As for usability and stability? Well, they is something unheard of in the mobile phone business.
I do hope the iPhone will kick some Nokia ass, to get them really moving. Actually rethinking about their strategy. They used to have usable and stable phones back in the 90's. Then they got lost somewhere. I hope they will take a lesson from Apple's first go at mobile phones, and start remaking easy to use and rock solid phones. They could do it, if the marketing droids could be silenced for a while...
As taxies are driven a lot, they change the cars every couple of years. And how many new cars you can actually buy without a radio? I know you can buy a Porsche or another sportscar without radio, but I don't think it's even possible to buy Mercedes or Volvo (the most popular with taxi companies) without one.
<trying hard and failing to be ironic> Personally, when I want to hear the latest hits on radio, I always take a taxi! I just get in and tell the driver to drive around the block until I've heared the latest hits. - It's not like I would need a taxi to take me somewhere... </trying hard and failing to be ironic>
This is the reason why Aussies find this game so interesting. - Down Under, this idea actually works!
This also further explains why Aussies suck in Cricket. - There's no need to rush the game, as even the ones doing the gentle exercise may actually enjoy it.
This however does not explain why Brits suck in Cricket. - They have all the reason to get the game finished as soon as possible, to head for the warmth of nearist pub.
One can always trust the /. to publish any and all stories, without any check for its validity or actually being true...
So what else is new around here?
I just bought a new Nokia last May that had just come out for 990 euros. And now they are selling it for 700 euros down the street! - I want my money back!
Nokia should have told me that they will drop the price later, and the cost of manufacturing the phone is less than 990 euros! They should have told me that they are making profit on me buying the phone early. It's just wrong! Someone should tell me these things, because I didn't know the price of the phone would drop. I thought a 990 euro phone will always be a 990 euro phone. The price would even rise, because the value of the money always drops. So in two years when I'd sell the phone, I would get over 1000 euros for it...
"Compile everything by hand" ones simply weren't interesting to me,' ...I guess he's getting old too.
I totally understand his point of view...
It used to be cool to compile everything, there used to be time to compile everything. But then something happened - a decade or something...
We got older and if not wiser, at least found out that there is more to life than compiling kernel. While compiling kernel is still fun, it's just not always convenient. You have other things on your mind now, and you've actually come to realise that the other things are just as fun and important. - I guess that's what they call growing up?
But hey, you younger nerds: Keep on compiling! Keep on hacking those all nighters! We older DO need your enthusiasm. You have all the time in the world to grow old and growly - and you will, like it or not.
It took a while, but I got there. - I'm actually older now!
There's gotta be quite a few books that weigh that 15 ounces! But how accurate the weight has to be? Is 15,1 ounces too much an 14,9 ounces too little?
...never mind...
Now, you might say that you can't get too much of a plot in 15 ounce book, but just look at what they've gottten out recently...
OH! It's not ounce, but Wizard of OZ...
Internet couldn't kill Music, even if we all tried very hard. People are social creatures and will always want to play music too. Add these together with internet and it just gives unknown artists a new route to tell about themselves. It allows bands to distribute themselves without enslaving themselves. It allows fans to find out about these newcomers. Even when allowing people to download your music for free, they still want to see you perform live - if you're good and interesting enough.
--When will we people understand that music is a service, not a product?
Ironic, yes, but also quite worrying!
Robots do as they are programmed to do, as any slashdot-reading nerd knows. Also robots are usually programmed by similar nerds... ...now THIS is the part that worries me, as nerds aren't usually known for their fluent social skills. (Flamewars on slashdot is NOT a social skill that really helps autistics.) I sincerely do hope the nerds did get some professional help for this assignment. (Pun intended.)
Well, I guess it could be worse though. The robots could have been programmed by salesdroids... =)
Sorry, but it was only 11.6mm thick...
But the swedes aren't that much of "squat goblin-like creatures" to my eye?
But in my case (as anyone else living up here) it would only make sense for a couple of months a year. Most of the year the average temperature outside is lower than the temperature in my house. All my gadgets that are on standby (rather than switched off) produce pretty much nothing but heat for the electricity they use. This is fine for me (for the 9 moths a year), as all that electricity is out of my heating bill. So if I would save 24euros/year by switching off, I would ramp up my heating bill by 18euros...
I hope this guy gets countersued for stupidity and/or greed! I mean, if I'll sit on a burning camp fire. Can I sue the land owner for not putting warning stickers on all the trees:
What about fire place? The sticker should also mention them. And forest fires? You could easily hurt yourself if cought in one. - Definately a clear case of neglect from the land owner...
But seriously, I think this kind of idiocy should not get any publicity. It only breeds more idiocy. - Or maybe these guys should just be thrown out of court when they try to file up the suit? Once upon a time even in America there used to be a thing called common sense...