Is it just me, or would it be somewhat hard to implement a good block-nationwide accidentally on Google?
If you have a regime set up for such censorship even, you'd imagine that there would be enough red-tape to make sure that such things don't accidentally happen. This is one of those things akin to the nuclear weapons being flown over the US that just don't logically seem to be things that within reason can occur by accident. Moreso Google has so many IPs, portals, links into them from Google Search on websites, etc... that it seems that it would be one of the harder ones to accidentally block.
Maybe they pre-set it up to block it, and had a script or whatever to do so... but I'd imagine that type of script would require root access. Who typed the password?
People still operate "Warez sites?" as in, a web server that the software can be downloaded from? I was under the impression that something like this would be posted to Bittorrent sites, not someone's Apache server. Aren't Warez sites like... so 1996? They would disappear instantly either from getting overloaded, or a cease and desist letter.
My cat removes any collar or harness I put on her so far. The only thing she kept on for more than a day or two was a necklace that I gave her, which she liked. Seriously. I got her chipped because I knew that if she were to get outside that she would likely be without tag
Oh I totally agree, it's not a fair comparison but when I say that, but in saying "It's not that speedy" I don't want people to think that I'm comparing it against a BMW M5 or a Aeriel Atom or something else expensive/esoteric. I actually mainly drive a Mini Cooper (not S), via zipcar, which is pretty speedy for a little 4 cyl engine. The speed wasn't the main thing that I noticed in the difference as much as the handling. The Mini can corner like no-one's business (or at least for driving that won't get you arrested). The rear end of the Subaru started sliding on me, which I thought it might hold better due to it being AWD and the Mini being FWD. I'd say it was about as fast feeling as any medium sized 'family car' like your standard Nissan or Mazda.
I rented a Zipcar the other day, which just happened to by a Subaru Outback PZEV. Didn't even notice it until I was loading some stuff in the trunk and thought, "How can it be partially zero? Sounds like a marketing term for low". Anyways, the car was fine, but I didn't know how rare they are. Zipcar is good service, and they always seem to be trying to get greener cars. They've got a few dozen Prius's in Boston and a few Hybrid Escapes too. Only thing I noticed (I haven't driven an outback before this) is that the car had little 'omph'. Not that any car needs it, but when I tried to push it down the Jamaica Way, it didn't kick like a Mini Cooper even would have (nor did it hold the corners) but it's a station wagon so I didn't expect it to.
The Sims is one of the few non-pornographic games that let you have sex and/or relationships of complexity with any other characters. Why? Because it's a life simulation game. If it were missing sex/relationships then it would be missing a huge part of life. That's not to say it's the only 'fun' thing in the game, or that it's even particularly fun in the game. He takes the fact that you can have sex, to mean, "The purpose of this game is to score by, well scoring". It's not the purpose of the game any more than it is in GTA. At the same time, everyone's got to try it at least once in game right? Who hasn't slept with a hooker in GTA, then ran her over and took the cash? I know several people who have played The Sims just as a home decoration program to make fun looking houses, and forget all about the people.
Umm, someone just took a video editing program, and replaced the Apple with Nokia. People on Slashdot AND Digg seem to not be picking up on this yet. It's clearly a poke at Nokia saying, "They are simply going to rip off Apple after the iPhone, and we think they'd go this far". Come on people! Apple DID file a handful of patents on this.
One of the things is that now, most if not all of the major reasons for resistance against using a Mac have all but vanished.
Can it run Windows apps? Yes
Is it easy to use? Yes
Is it affordable? Yes
The only quibble I could see is the claim that "They aren't the best for gaming". Well I just have a MBP, but it runs Halflife 2: Lost Coast, Oblivion, and Bioshock all just fine. Maybe not at full options (it's at about 75% on all options), but it works. The desktops have even better graphics cards (excepting of course the Mini). So asides from not being able to waste a ton of money and drop two 768mb graphics cards in your system so you can play on 3 screens at once at max settings... it's good for that too.
I live in Boston, Mass. and here it seems that most of the computers are Macs (as far as laptops go). Go into any coffeeshop, and well, it's all Macs. We hosted a Plone Sprint and training session here, and it was about 70% Macbook Pros (we converted one guy halfway though, and I bought a new MBP then as well). The office I worked in, which is a co-working suite called the Betahouse in Cambridge (it's all web developers) is 90% Mac.
Maybe it's just the huge number of 'creatives' in the city, but it seems that around NYC and Boston, that Apple's pretty well taken over. Hell, my office has 70% of the people carrying iPhones (and that was true the first week they were out). I have yet to actually see anyone with a Zune. Period.
What's odd is that I lived in North Carolina for about 8 months, and most of the computers there were Windows-based PCs. My 4 macs were seen as oddities down there. Here it's par for the course.
It's often misunderstood, but educational purposes does not release a person from all copyright things.
Moreso, the RIAA more often gets people on sharing of music, and I think any Berklee student could say that their outbound file sharing was for education only.
I hope that the RIAA doesn't read./ and that i'm not shooting several fellow alumni and students in the foot with this, but from what I've seen the RIAA has stayed far away from Berklee College of Music even moreso than Harvard. Juilliard too.
I hear about lawsuits and letters against students at many other area schools (BU, BC, etc), but Berklee has always been kept out of it. My guess? The RIAA doesn't want to cause more "real enemies" from their artists. Each year, Berklee kicks out one or two groups that are signed to a major label, and many more of us are signed to major publishing deals. I don't think the RIAA wants to get the alumni upset that they are attacking fellow alumni and students.
For those that don't know, Berklee alumni are a serious part of the industry. Between the back end business parts, arrangers, composers, engineers and the front artists that are all Berklee alums, I don't think they want to walk on eggshells with Berklee.
And seriously, the average Berklee student has 100x larger music collection than any Harvard student I've met. We also buy more CDs than most people, but many of us download a good bit too.
Yes, Harvard has several big lawyers and leaders as alumni, but pissing on Berklee is pissing on themselves- so they don't do it. Google "Berklee RIAA lawsuit" and try the same with any other school (harvard or BU) and you don't find any suits against Berklee students.
I personally thought and assumed that I would always have a desktop.
However, last week I sold my G4 PowerMac MDD, my Mac Mini Intel and my iBook G4. Took the money and got a brand new Macbook Pro. It's faster than all of the others, and does everything that my desktops did and more. For me, it worked as a desktop replacement. I've probably owned 15+ personal desktops of mine, and 100+ ones that I've bought and rebuilt for others (family and friends) that I used for a week or two while tweaking them.
I suppose I do still have one desktop, my C64, which I use for Music applications.
Not that it was actually developed to be this per se, but it's being tauted here as the "Open Source iPhone Killer". The reason that everyone's looking for something like that is because they think the iPhone is critically flawed, and this phone (because it's open source) is the savior to that.
I'm simply pointing out that we haven't seen a 'perfect' phone yet from any manufactuer.
I'm not trying to bash open source in the above post, just pointing out that I just want a phone that works. Yes, I know how to recompile stuff, etc... But my mother doesn't. She could probably figure out an iPhone. I don't know if she could figure out a developer's kit of this.
Secondly, for all of the nonstop bashing of the iPhone not being 'perfect', has anyone EVER tried to review another cell phone? Has a single one ever came out perfect? No. Not at all. Blackberries have problems. Treos have problems. Razr's have problems. I personally have a Treo. The Treo 650 that I have sucks. The battery is crappy. The audio is too quiet. Palm and Sprint point fingers at each other for support problems so I never actually get any. The bluetooth doesn't work as advertised. There were some major QC issues. The screen scratches 10x easier than the iPhone screen would. It only supports 2gb SD cards. It crashes nonstop. Google Maps sucks on it. The internet access is slow and sucks on it (and 3G was present technology when it was released too). It doesn't support WiFi although Palm said they would support an expansion for it. The screen looks bad in the sunlight compared to the iPhone. Can't play movies on it with default software. You couldn't type on the screen if your life depended on it. No RSS reader. Switching between applications is sometimes slow. It crashes. It has poor reception. It drops calls frequently. 50% of my calls go straight to voicemail, even if the phone has 4 bars and is in my hand. In short. the phone sucks. The email support is horrid and ugly. Webpages don't display properly. The Java VM is stupidly buggy.
And yet, for some reason (I haven't heard that the newer Treos have fixed all of these problems at all), the Treo is a very popular phone. Oh, and it's not open source either. I'm not sure how popular compared to the Blackberry, but its popular, and there's a TON of 650's out there. No one seemed to complain about all of those in every major news media outlet when the Treo was released. David Pope didn't sing about it in a faux-musical. No one said anything. There's more Treos out there than iPhones, and yet... no coverage of problems.
The iPhone has some imperfection? Oh, it's the end of the world! I'm guessing that (from what i've seen in videos) that the Edge network is 10x better than the CDMA network that Sprint has.
If you look at the announcement about the "consumer" version of the phone (as not all of us feel like 'hacking' our phones on a daily basis just to make them work) here, then you'll see in the annoucement that it's not really any cheaper than the iPhone.
From the announcement: We will sell this device through multiple channels. Direct from
openmoko.com, the price will be $450 for the Neo Base and $600 for Neo
Advanced.
Hmm. $450 (likely plus shipping) sounds an aweful lot close to the 4gb iPhone, and $600 sounds about a dollar more than the $599 iPhone.
Maybe it's not really cheaper. Yea, you can get the developer version, without the 3d graphics support for $300 (without the developer tools!) or when you pay for the developer tools it's $450.
If I buy a phone that's $450 (I know this is against the heart of opensource and "DIY" stuff), but I want it to be super tested, and work well. Yea, yea, the iPhone has a few problems. Apple's phone support staff alone for the iPhone is bigger than the R&D for this whole company. I don't want someone to say, "Recompile the kernel on your phone... don't know how? RTFM!" as you often get in some open-source circles. I don't mind paying a little bit to Apple to know that I can get all the support I want just by walking into an Apple store. I don't want to have to log onto a Subversion/CVS server and download code, recompile it, and cross my fingers
It's a cool idea, but it seems to miss some of the 'good things' that Apple's done, like the Multi-touch screen? Also, from everything i've read the iPhone is more durable than almost anyone would have expected. I dunno about this thing. You can open it with a guitar pick? huh
I know all of Slashdot was hoping for Open Source to show us how they "aren't ripping the world off" and aren't "locking you down" and how open source can do it cheaper and better. Well this doesn't look like cheaper. It doesn't look more tested. And it doesn't look better. Sorry.
Also, duh. Half the reason anyone wants an iPhone is the same reason they want a Porsche. Because people recognize it, and they can show off.
Seriously. They are all sales and no support. I have (sadly) had Sprint for over 5 years now. The ONLY reason I was keeping them around was 1) cheap data plans (DUN over Treo 650), and 2)I've negotiated what was until very recently, an unbeatable plan. Less so now
I've had nothing but customer service HELL from Sprint. I've stood in line for an hour, only to be told that their computer systems were down and they couldn't do anything for me, and that I should walk to another store. When I got to the other store, the first guy tells me that he couldn't update my PRL (list of towers from what I understand) without a manager there. Guy #2 tells me that all I have to do is dial #2. Why did the first store need their computer systems to tell me that?
The employees there are some of the most inept people i've ever seen. I've been given bad advice, lied to, made wait forever. What sucks even more, is that with needing to wait excessive times is that in major cities they choose to not have restrooms. Thanks sprint. People in cities dont' need to piss while waiting 2 hours.
I've had billing fiascos. Problems with promises made by store/account managers not coming through. Rebate problems. Service issues (most of my calls in the middle of Boston go straight to voicemail, which I get notification of two days later).
Right now I'm going to have a fun time within the next week trying to get another Treo 650 or similar. I have their "Insurance" program or whatever it is, and my Treo 650 will not work with Bluetooth headsets. It's advertised to. Sprint says it will. I have a Treo headset. My friend's sprint Treo 650 works with my headset. I know they are going to blame it on the headset, but i'm going to take the said friend in to demonstrate. I have to have the phone to my bluetooth earpiece to get it to not crackle or break up. Not that I want to use the headset, but it's just the principal, and maybe they'll give me a brand new "new treo".
What Sprint doesn't know is that as soon as my current contract is up, I'm going to Apple and buying an iPhone (in Feb... bugs should be gone by then too, and maybe a price break).
I'm convinced that most cell providers are really just like the record companies. They just want 14 year olds that will buy ringtones, games, and screensavers. They don't have 'professional' users in mind at all, nor could they care otherwise.
Someone mentioned that people's desks aren't set up right at the moment, and they are right. 95% of situations with current computers aren't set up in a way that a touchscreen would be ergonomically sound.
Reaching out in front of you, reaching across you, etc... I think that making the trackpad to be more useful is probably for the best, but screen would be only for occasional use i think.
To a large degree, this is why I don't read magazines with any objectivity in mind.
This guy just made the mistake of going against the grain. In magazines, you have the advertisers paying the majority of the costs associated with the magazine, and you write articles that glorify the advertisers.
But I'm glad this doesn't happen on the Internet or Slashdot, so I'm going to go over to the Intel Opinion Center now...
Agreed, however I would like to test to see which installs quicker in general... OS X, or Vista? I'm guessing if this Acer took this long just to startup the first time (and subsequent times were painfully slow compared to OS X too), then the initial install might not be so quick. OS X normally is pretty swift about an install.
Of course, either could be installed in some OEM mode with things preconfigured (as is also an option with Linux, and I rather like Ubantu's initial install option to do that without lots of monkeying around)
Today, I had to get a new Mac Mini. Turning it on and getting to the desktop took all of 3 minutes. I had it updated, and configured to my liking in about 45 minutes (most of which was taken up downloading a ton of updates, as his Mini had been on the shelf for a while at CompUSA.
In contrast, a few weeks ago I was working for a company that needed a new laptop. The laptop we got was very similar to the Mini I purchased today. Intel Core 2 Duo, and it actually had much more memory stock in it (still need to crack open the Mini and upgrade to 2GB). It took a full 45 minutes to get Vista to boot for the first time. Between just getting the software updated (which was a super painfully slow process in comparison), it took over 3 hours to get it even usable, let alone the hour it took to install Microsoft Office 2007, and then update it. Then it took another few hours to figure out how to Vista actually, well, less like Vista. This was some Acer laptop BTW.
I liked Windows XP in comparison a lot, and still think that Windows 2000 was super-stable in comparison to XP. I still haven't figured out what Vista does for the end-user that XP doesn't do- asides from being a PITA and making you purchase new hardware. In fact, I'm going to do a Bootcamp install of XP in a few minutes.
I wish this wasn't AC'd so i could MAYBE tell if he was joking.
Anyways. I can always tell if a CRT of any type is on in the room. It works in loud rooms, because even in loud rooms there isn't much other High Frequency information to mask the pitch produced by the TV. I can also tell if there's flourcent bulbs being used in a room, and in a warehouse almost a rough timeframe as to when the lights were turned on (5 minutes, 25 minutes, etc...). These things produce a TON of noise, and anyone should be able to hear them that has any hearing left. I can also hear if a transformer is on (even a small one normally). It's just sound.
Slashdot Mirror
He's only in favor of the 2nd amendment, not the first one. Duh!
Is it just me, or would it be somewhat hard to implement a good block-nationwide accidentally on Google?
If you have a regime set up for such censorship even, you'd imagine that there would be enough red-tape to make sure that such things don't accidentally happen. This is one of those things akin to the nuclear weapons being flown over the US that just don't logically seem to be things that within reason can occur by accident.
Moreso Google has so many IPs, portals, links into them from Google Search on websites, etc... that it seems that it would be one of the harder ones to accidentally block.
Maybe they pre-set it up to block it, and had a script or whatever to do so... but I'd imagine that type of script would require root access. Who typed the password?
People still operate "Warez sites?" as in, a web server that the software can be downloaded from?
I was under the impression that something like this would be posted to Bittorrent sites, not someone's Apache server. Aren't Warez sites like... so 1996? They would disappear instantly either from getting overloaded, or a cease and desist letter.
My cat removes any collar or harness I put on her so far. The only thing she kept on for more than a day or two was a necklace that I gave her, which she liked. Seriously.
I got her chipped because I knew that if she were to get outside that she would likely be without tag
Oh I totally agree, it's not a fair comparison but when I say that, but in saying "It's not that speedy" I don't want people to think that I'm comparing it against a BMW M5 or a Aeriel Atom or something else expensive/esoteric. I actually mainly drive a Mini Cooper (not S), via zipcar, which is pretty speedy for a little 4 cyl engine. The speed wasn't the main thing that I noticed in the difference as much as the handling. The Mini can corner like no-one's business (or at least for driving that won't get you arrested). The rear end of the Subaru started sliding on me, which I thought it might hold better due to it being AWD and the Mini being FWD.
I'd say it was about as fast feeling as any medium sized 'family car' like your standard Nissan or Mazda.
Did he fly over Area 51 or somewhere he shouldn't have?
I rented a Zipcar the other day, which just happened to by a Subaru Outback PZEV. Didn't even notice it until I was loading some stuff in the trunk and thought, "How can it be partially zero? Sounds like a marketing term for low ". Anyways, the car was fine, but I didn't know how rare they are. Zipcar is good service, and they always seem to be trying to get greener cars. They've got a few dozen Prius's in Boston and a few Hybrid Escapes too. Only thing I noticed (I haven't driven an outback before this) is that the car had little 'omph'. Not that any car needs it, but when I tried to push it down the Jamaica Way, it didn't kick like a Mini Cooper even would have (nor did it hold the corners) but it's a station wagon so I didn't expect it to.
The Sims is one of the few non-pornographic games that let you have sex and/or relationships of complexity with any other characters. Why? Because it's a life simulation game. If it were missing sex/relationships then it would be missing a huge part of life. That's not to say it's the only 'fun' thing in the game, or that it's even particularly fun in the game.
He takes the fact that you can have sex, to mean, "The purpose of this game is to score by, well scoring". It's not the purpose of the game any more than it is in GTA. At the same time, everyone's got to try it at least once in game right? Who hasn't slept with a hooker in GTA, then ran her over and took the cash? I know several people who have played The Sims just as a home decoration program to make fun looking houses, and forget all about the people.
Umm, someone just took a video editing program, and replaced the Apple with Nokia. People on Slashdot AND Digg seem to not be picking up on this yet.
It's clearly a poke at Nokia saying, "They are simply going to rip off Apple after the iPhone, and we think they'd go this far". Come on people! Apple DID file a handful of patents on this.
One of the things is that now, most if not all of the major reasons for resistance against using a Mac have all but vanished.
Can it run Windows apps? Yes
Is it easy to use? Yes
Is it affordable? Yes
The only quibble I could see is the claim that "They aren't the best for gaming". Well I just have a MBP, but it runs Halflife 2: Lost Coast, Oblivion, and Bioshock all just fine. Maybe not at full options (it's at about 75% on all options), but it works. The desktops have even better graphics cards (excepting of course the Mini). So asides from not being able to waste a ton of money and drop two 768mb graphics cards in your system so you can play on 3 screens at once at max settings... it's good for that too.
I live in Boston, Mass. and here it seems that most of the computers are Macs (as far as laptops go). Go into any coffeeshop, and well, it's all Macs. We hosted a Plone Sprint and training session here, and it was about 70% Macbook Pros (we converted one guy halfway though, and I bought a new MBP then as well). The office I worked in, which is a co-working suite called the Betahouse in Cambridge (it's all web developers) is 90% Mac.
Maybe it's just the huge number of 'creatives' in the city, but it seems that around NYC and Boston, that Apple's pretty well taken over. Hell, my office has 70% of the people carrying iPhones (and that was true the first week they were out). I have yet to actually see anyone with a Zune. Period.
What's odd is that I lived in North Carolina for about 8 months, and most of the computers there were Windows-based PCs. My 4 macs were seen as oddities down there. Here it's par for the course.
It's often misunderstood, but educational purposes does not release a person from all copyright things.
Moreso, the RIAA more often gets people on sharing of music, and I think any Berklee student could say that their outbound file sharing was for education only.
I hope that the RIAA doesn't read ./ and that i'm not shooting several fellow alumni and students in the foot with this, but from what I've seen the RIAA has stayed far away from Berklee College of Music even moreso than Harvard. Juilliard too.
I hear about lawsuits and letters against students at many other area schools (BU, BC, etc), but Berklee has always been kept out of it. My guess? The RIAA doesn't want to cause more "real enemies" from their artists. Each year, Berklee kicks out one or two groups that are signed to a major label, and many more of us are signed to major publishing deals. I don't think the RIAA wants to get the alumni upset that they are attacking fellow alumni and students.
For those that don't know, Berklee alumni are a serious part of the industry. Between the back end business parts, arrangers, composers, engineers and the front artists that are all Berklee alums, I don't think they want to walk on eggshells with Berklee.
And seriously, the average Berklee student has 100x larger music collection than any Harvard student I've met. We also buy more CDs than most people, but many of us download a good bit too.
If you were the RIAA would you piss off big alumni like John Mayer, Jan Hammer, Susan Tedeschi, Paula Cole, and Quincy Jones?
Yes, Harvard has several big lawyers and leaders as alumni, but pissing on Berklee is pissing on themselves- so they don't do it. Google "Berklee RIAA lawsuit" and try the same with any other school (harvard or BU) and you don't find any suits against Berklee students.
I personally thought and assumed that I would always have a desktop.
However, last week I sold my G4 PowerMac MDD, my Mac Mini Intel and my iBook G4. Took the money and got a brand new Macbook Pro. It's faster than all of the others, and does everything that my desktops did and more. For me, it worked as a desktop replacement. I've probably owned 15+ personal desktops of mine, and 100+ ones that I've bought and rebuilt for others (family and friends) that I used for a week or two while tweaking them.
I suppose I do still have one desktop, my C64, which I use for Music applications.
Not that it was actually developed to be this per se, but it's being tauted here as the "Open Source iPhone Killer". The reason that everyone's looking for something like that is because they think the iPhone is critically flawed, and this phone (because it's open source) is the savior to that.
I'm simply pointing out that we haven't seen a 'perfect' phone yet from any manufactuer.
Two other things
I'm not trying to bash open source in the above post, just pointing out that I just want a phone that works. Yes, I know how to recompile stuff, etc... But my mother doesn't. She could probably figure out an iPhone. I don't know if she could figure out a developer's kit of this.
Secondly, for all of the nonstop bashing of the iPhone not being 'perfect', has anyone EVER tried to review another cell phone? Has a single one ever came out perfect? No. Not at all. Blackberries have problems. Treos have problems. Razr's have problems. I personally have a Treo.
The Treo 650 that I have sucks. The battery is crappy. The audio is too quiet. Palm and Sprint point fingers at each other for support problems so I never actually get any. The bluetooth doesn't work as advertised. There were some major QC issues. The screen scratches 10x easier than the iPhone screen would. It only supports 2gb SD cards. It crashes nonstop. Google Maps sucks on it. The internet access is slow and sucks on it (and 3G was present technology when it was released too). It doesn't support WiFi although Palm said they would support an expansion for it. The screen looks bad in the sunlight compared to the iPhone. Can't play movies on it with default software. You couldn't type on the screen if your life depended on it. No RSS reader. Switching between applications is sometimes slow. It crashes. It has poor reception. It drops calls frequently. 50% of my calls go straight to voicemail, even if the phone has 4 bars and is in my hand. In short. the phone sucks. The email support is horrid and ugly. Webpages don't display properly. The Java VM is stupidly buggy.
And yet, for some reason (I haven't heard that the newer Treos have fixed all of these problems at all), the Treo is a very popular phone. Oh, and it's not open source either. I'm not sure how popular compared to the Blackberry, but its popular, and there's a TON of 650's out there. No one seemed to complain about all of those in every major news media outlet when the Treo was released. David Pope didn't sing about it in a faux-musical. No one said anything. There's more Treos out there than iPhones, and yet... no coverage of problems.
The iPhone has some imperfection? Oh, it's the end of the world! I'm guessing that (from what i've seen in videos) that the Edge network is 10x better than the CDMA network that Sprint has.
If you look at the announcement about the "consumer" version of the phone (as not all of us feel like 'hacking' our phones on a daily basis just to make them work) here, then you'll see in the annoucement that it's not really any cheaper than the iPhone.
From the announcement:
We will sell this device through multiple channels. Direct from openmoko.com, the price will be $450 for the Neo Base and $600 for Neo Advanced.
Hmm. $450 (likely plus shipping) sounds an aweful lot close to the 4gb iPhone, and $600 sounds about a dollar more than the $599 iPhone.
Maybe it's not really cheaper. Yea, you can get the developer version, without the 3d graphics support for $300 (without the developer tools!) or when you pay for the developer tools it's $450.
If I buy a phone that's $450 (I know this is against the heart of opensource and "DIY" stuff), but I want it to be super tested, and work well. Yea, yea, the iPhone has a few problems. Apple's phone support staff alone for the iPhone is bigger than the R&D for this whole company. I don't want someone to say, "Recompile the kernel on your phone... don't know how? RTFM!" as you often get in some open-source circles. I don't mind paying a little bit to Apple to know that I can get all the support I want just by walking into an Apple store. I don't want to have to log onto a Subversion/CVS server and download code, recompile it, and cross my fingers
It's a cool idea, but it seems to miss some of the 'good things' that Apple's done, like the Multi-touch screen? Also, from everything i've read the iPhone is more durable than almost anyone would have expected. I dunno about this thing. You can open it with a guitar pick? huh
I know all of Slashdot was hoping for Open Source to show us how they "aren't ripping the world off" and aren't "locking you down" and how open source can do it cheaper and better. Well this doesn't look like cheaper. It doesn't look more tested. And it doesn't look better. Sorry.
Also, duh. Half the reason anyone wants an iPhone is the same reason they want a Porsche. Because people recognize it, and they can show off.
Seriously. They are all sales and no support.
I have (sadly) had Sprint for over 5 years now. The ONLY reason I was keeping them around was
1) cheap data plans (DUN over Treo 650), and
2)I've negotiated what was until very recently, an unbeatable plan. Less so now
I've had nothing but customer service HELL from Sprint. I've stood in line for an hour, only to be told that their computer systems were down and they couldn't do anything for me, and that I should walk to another store. When I got to the other store, the first guy tells me that he couldn't update my PRL (list of towers from what I understand) without a manager there. Guy #2 tells me that all I have to do is dial #2. Why did the first store need their computer systems to tell me that?
The employees there are some of the most inept people i've ever seen. I've been given bad advice, lied to, made wait forever. What sucks even more, is that with needing to wait excessive times is that in major cities they choose to not have restrooms. Thanks sprint. People in cities dont' need to piss while waiting 2 hours.
I've had billing fiascos. Problems with promises made by store/account managers not coming through. Rebate problems. Service issues (most of my calls in the middle of Boston go straight to voicemail, which I get notification of two days later).
Right now I'm going to have a fun time within the next week trying to get another Treo 650 or similar. I have their "Insurance" program or whatever it is, and my Treo 650 will not work with Bluetooth headsets. It's advertised to. Sprint says it will. I have a Treo headset. My friend's sprint Treo 650 works with my headset. I know they are going to blame it on the headset, but i'm going to take the said friend in to demonstrate. I have to have the phone to my bluetooth earpiece to get it to not crackle or break up. Not that I want to use the headset, but it's just the principal, and maybe they'll give me a brand new "new treo".
What Sprint doesn't know is that as soon as my current contract is up, I'm going to Apple and buying an iPhone (in Feb... bugs should be gone by then too, and maybe a price break).
I'm convinced that most cell providers are really just like the record companies. They just want 14 year olds that will buy ringtones, games, and screensavers. They don't have 'professional' users in mind at all, nor could they care otherwise.
Someone mentioned that people's desks aren't set up right at the moment, and they are right. 95% of situations with current computers aren't set up in a way that a touchscreen would be ergonomically sound. Reaching out in front of you, reaching across you, etc... I think that making the trackpad to be more useful is probably for the best, but screen would be only for occasional use i think.
To a large degree, this is why I don't read magazines with any objectivity in mind.
This guy just made the mistake of going against the grain. In magazines, you have the advertisers paying the majority of the costs associated with the magazine, and you write articles that glorify the advertisers.
But I'm glad this doesn't happen on the Internet or Slashdot, so I'm going to go over to the Intel Opinion Center now...
Men who read slashdot can't reproduce for two reasons:
1) The radiation from their computer screens and blackberries have made them sterile (natural selection at work)
2) Even if #1 was not failed, they would be unable to have a wife/girlfriend/concubine that would willingly breed with them!
Agreed, however I would like to test to see which installs quicker in general... OS X, or Vista? I'm guessing if this Acer took this long just to startup the first time (and subsequent times were painfully slow compared to OS X too), then the initial install might not be so quick. OS X normally is pretty swift about an install.
Of course, either could be installed in some OEM mode with things preconfigured (as is also an option with Linux, and I rather like Ubantu's initial install option to do that without lots of monkeying around)
Today, I had to get a new Mac Mini. Turning it on and getting to the desktop took all of 3 minutes. I had it updated, and configured to my liking in about 45 minutes (most of which was taken up downloading a ton of updates, as his Mini had been on the shelf for a while at CompUSA.
In contrast, a few weeks ago I was working for a company that needed a new laptop. The laptop we got was very similar to the Mini I purchased today. Intel Core 2 Duo, and it actually had much more memory stock in it (still need to crack open the Mini and upgrade to 2GB). It took a full 45 minutes to get Vista to boot for the first time. Between just getting the software updated (which was a super painfully slow process in comparison), it took over 3 hours to get it even usable, let alone the hour it took to install Microsoft Office 2007, and then update it. Then it took another few hours to figure out how to Vista actually, well, less like Vista. This was some Acer laptop BTW.
I liked Windows XP in comparison a lot, and still think that Windows 2000 was super-stable in comparison to XP. I still haven't figured out what Vista does for the end-user that XP doesn't do- asides from being a PITA and making you purchase new hardware. In fact, I'm going to do a Bootcamp install of XP in a few minutes.
Knightmare's "Secrets of the Superhacker"...m are/dp/1559501065
http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Super-Hacker-Knight
Who's afraid of a little social engineering?
I wish this wasn't AC'd so i could MAYBE tell if he was joking.
Anyways. I can always tell if a CRT of any type is on in the room. It works in loud rooms, because even in loud rooms there isn't much other High Frequency information to mask the pitch produced by the TV. I can also tell if there's flourcent bulbs being used in a room, and in a warehouse almost a rough timeframe as to when the lights were turned on (5 minutes, 25 minutes, etc...). These things produce a TON of noise, and anyone should be able to hear them that has any hearing left. I can also hear if a transformer is on (even a small one normally). It's just sound.