Disclaimer: I'm talking about a single customer for a home-based office, not medium-large businesses.
I research every tiny freaking little thing before I buy it. This nit-picking includes cat5 cables and different types of USB cables, and especially includes software. The result? I haven't had to contact customer support for a computer part/peripheral in five or six years.
This probably doesn't help if you're in IT for a huge company where you're pretty much given the hardware and said, "Here, make this work," but it's better than nothing. For what it's worth, if I do have any problems with features, incompatibilities or whatever, I find that the most valuable place to look is in the company's user support forums. There might be a ton of people saying that this particular laptop has dead pixels, or that a certain function in a piece of software doesn't work with a certain sound card, etc. etc. Real people with real problems is better than tech support any day. YMMV.
I've got a Jensen Universal 5 which has been incredibly useful over the past year or so. You can switch between five peripherals, it supports a ton of different devices/manufacturers, and you can auto-scan if your device isn't officially supported... maybe it is! The buttons are nice and firm and the shape is ergonomically pleasing... the only drawback is that the peripheral-switching buttons have a tendency to fade, but after a year of using the remote you've already memorised which button belongs to the TV, the DVD player, etc. To top it off, it was about $20 CAD! Can't go wrong!
"But, it's a harmless stress reliever to shoot at them in a game -- it's a way to take out frustration at a particular group of people [stereotyped in a previous paragraph] without having to resort to dangerous and inappropriate physical violence."
Dude, you've gotta wake up and realise that this is 2004 - you can't say stuff like this any more!
First off, why not have the professor contact Apple and ask for an educational discount?
Second, have the professor post a list of the songs that he will be teaching for the semester. Chances are, some students might already have some of the songs on CD or whatever, esp. if they're taking the class because they like rock and roll!
Third, have each student purchase the necessary songs from iTunes (with educational discount) for their own use.
Seriously, as long as it's under 100 songs, there's no problems here - some textbooks at uni are $200-400, depending on the subject area. Course materials that are around $100 are not unusual in fine arts classes.
I have no idea what you're talking about when you say that playing PC games requires endless tweaking. UT2003 last year was flawless, even without patches. I completed KOTOR without a patch. Just finished Age of Mythology: Titans without a patch.
All this "endless tweaking" is a myth - if you have a properly configured computer (I can go from blank HD to fully up and running incl. office suite and various utils) in about 35 minutes. I haven't had a problem with hardware OR software in years.
And when I said "high priced games," I meant console games that cost 5-10$ CAD more on day of release, and sometimes 10-20$ more after a few months.
Finally, if you can afford a console, chances are you have a PC too. You're paying twice for basically one appliance. Why bother?
I understand what you're saying, but when games like KOTOR and Deus Ex: Invisible War for the XBox ship with show-stopping bugs (bugs that can't be fixed with patches, mind you), then I'd imagine that you'd be much more frustrated than simply paying for the PC version, investing a little bit of time (i.e. waiting for a patch) and having a fully-functional product.
For the record: I have a GBA SP too, and wouldn't replace it for the world.
liberal --> fiberal. It's true, catchy, and close enough. DISCLAIMER: I'm looking for a +1 funny, not a -1 troll. I love liberals. They are really nice guys.
Pro for PC: it's free. Get a game, have the internet connection (and seriously, if you use your computer for games, who doesn't have the net?), and you can play it for free. But hey, if you want to pay for your console, the high priced games and however many dollars per year to play online, be my guest.
I for one welcome the divide between advertising and entertainment. Do you *really* want every show to become like The Truman Show, where "actors" give short spiels about their favourite product to wipe the floors?
...go with software. Get the best base station you can afford, then get either zonealarm or tiny firewall - free solutions, great security. These are your parents, not a huge corporation - you don't need to worry about ubersecurity.
My HP 842C (840 series) printer's black ink replacement cartridge is rated 450-500 pages; cost is $40 CAD. The Samsung ML1710's cartridge (includes drum) is rated for 3000 pages, cost $100 CAD. You do the math.
Speak for yourself. I'm "typing" this via semaphore (you'd be surprised how quick it is once you get used to it, although you need to browse in text-only) in my underground, off-grid palace in the Mojav... ah, dammit!
"Yes, but surely we all know that watching TV without the commercials is theft."
So ka, grasshopper... little did you realise that I had actually purchased the first season of L&O on DVD, and if I purchase the entire season on GBA carts, it would also come without commercials.
45 minutes is exactly the length of a 1-hour TV show, sans commercials. You can also fit two half-hour TV shows on one of these carts. Two carts would give you a whole movie (in most cases).
I can just see it now: "Get the entire season of Law and Order on 25 GBA cartridges! Only $480!"
"...if Apple is barely paying the bills at 99 cents, how can Walmart do better at 11 cents less?"
Because this is how walmart works. They undercut the competition until there *is* no more competition. It remains to be seen, however, what will truly happen when walmart is the world's only megacorp...
I was formatting my HD and reinstalling Dos 6.22 and Win 3.1 when I was twelve. Surely if I could do that (and get everything freaking working!! I hate memmaker), your kids could pop in a disk and reinstall XP.
The CRIA represents Canadian record companies, not artists per se. Sony Canada and EMI might have Canadian artists in their coiffers, but they also represent their global companies with international artists. The CRIA will be representing the companies themselves and not the artists so yes, up/downloading songs from non-Canadian artists will still get you in trouble.
However, that'll be a very interesting statement in court: "Your honour, I'd never pirate Canadian music, just that bloody awful American crap!"
I totally agree; if every music CD was even $10, I'd buy a lot more than I do right now. $15 is too much (new CD in CAD$), $20 is way too freaking much (older CDs).
On their web site here, they mention that they "know of [Canadian] users of file-sharing services who are individually uploading and distributing four and five thousand copyrighted songs to potentially tens of millions of people. This is indisputably an illegal practice." (Dec 5 2003)
Perhaps this indicates a lower limit of who they will be targeting, people who have four thousand songs available to share? Yes? Maybe?
Slashdot Mirror
More specifically, the effects of a lens that is under 50mm that is not being shot parallel to the ground.
I research every tiny freaking little thing before I buy it. This nit-picking includes cat5 cables and different types of USB cables, and especially includes software. The result? I haven't had to contact customer support for a computer part/peripheral in five or six years.
This probably doesn't help if you're in IT for a huge company where you're pretty much given the hardware and said, "Here, make this work," but it's better than nothing. For what it's worth, if I do have any problems with features, incompatibilities or whatever, I find that the most valuable place to look is in the company's user support forums. There might be a ton of people saying that this particular laptop has dead pixels, or that a certain function in a piece of software doesn't work with a certain sound card, etc. etc. Real people with real problems is better than tech support any day. YMMV.
I've got a Jensen Universal 5 which has been incredibly useful over the past year or so. You can switch between five peripherals, it supports a ton of different devices/manufacturers, and you can auto-scan if your device isn't officially supported... maybe it is! The buttons are nice and firm and the shape is ergonomically pleasing... the only drawback is that the peripheral-switching buttons have a tendency to fade, but after a year of using the remote you've already memorised which button belongs to the TV, the DVD player, etc. To top it off, it was about $20 CAD! Can't go wrong!
Dude, you've gotta wake up and realise that this is 2004 - you can't say stuff like this any more!
Well, I'm from Canada, so that's what I'm looking at here.
I completely agree with you! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm heading off to my "Effects of Dharma and Greg on Contemporary Culture" class.
Second, have the professor post a list of the songs that he will be teaching for the semester. Chances are, some students might already have some of the songs on CD or whatever, esp. if they're taking the class because they like rock and roll!
Third, have each student purchase the necessary songs from iTunes (with educational discount) for their own use.
Seriously, as long as it's under 100 songs, there's no problems here - some textbooks at uni are $200-400, depending on the subject area. Course materials that are around $100 are not unusual in fine arts classes.
All this "endless tweaking" is a myth - if you have a properly configured computer (I can go from blank HD to fully up and running incl. office suite and various utils) in about 35 minutes. I haven't had a problem with hardware OR software in years.
And when I said "high priced games," I meant console games that cost 5-10$ CAD more on day of release, and sometimes 10-20$ more after a few months.
Finally, if you can afford a console, chances are you have a PC too. You're paying twice for basically one appliance. Why bother?
I understand what you're saying, but when games like KOTOR and Deus Ex: Invisible War for the XBox ship with show-stopping bugs (bugs that can't be fixed with patches, mind you), then I'd imagine that you'd be much more frustrated than simply paying for the PC version, investing a little bit of time (i.e. waiting for a patch) and having a fully-functional product.
For the record: I have a GBA SP too, and wouldn't replace it for the world.
liberal --> fiberal. It's true, catchy, and close enough. DISCLAIMER: I'm looking for a +1 funny, not a -1 troll. I love liberals. They are really nice guys.
Pro for PC: it's free. Get a game, have the internet connection (and seriously, if you use your computer for games, who doesn't have the net?), and you can play it for free. But hey, if you want to pay for your console, the high priced games and however many dollars per year to play online, be my guest.
No privacy? I'm a cow you insensitive clod!
Has to be Danger Zone, Kenny Loggins. I've gotten more speeding tickets with the Top Gun soundtrack than I'd care to mention...
I for one welcome the divide between advertising and entertainment. Do you *really* want every show to become like The Truman Show, where "actors" give short spiels about their favourite product to wipe the floors?
...go with software. Get the best base station you can afford, then get either zonealarm or tiny firewall - free solutions, great security. These are your parents, not a huge corporation - you don't need to worry about ubersecurity.
My HP 842C (840 series) printer's black ink replacement cartridge is rated 450-500 pages; cost is $40 CAD. The Samsung ML1710's cartridge (includes drum) is rated for 3000 pages, cost $100 CAD. You do the math.
Speak for yourself. I'm "typing" this via semaphore (you'd be surprised how quick it is once you get used to it, although you need to browse in text-only) in my underground, off-grid palace in the Mojav... ah, dammit!
So ka, grasshopper... little did you realise that I had actually purchased the first season of L&O on DVD, and if I purchase the entire season on GBA carts, it would also come without commercials.
I can just see it now: "Get the entire season of Law and Order on 25 GBA cartridges! Only $480!"
So what's stopping you from creating a DOS boot disk on a CD and flashing the BIOS that way?
Because this is how walmart works. They undercut the competition until there *is* no more competition. It remains to be seen, however, what will truly happen when walmart is the world's only megacorp...
I was formatting my HD and reinstalling Dos 6.22 and Win 3.1 when I was twelve. Surely if I could do that (and get everything freaking working!! I hate memmaker), your kids could pop in a disk and reinstall XP.
Give me the money, and I'll spray paint you green if you're good, and red if you're bad.
However, that'll be a very interesting statement in court: "Your honour, I'd never pirate Canadian music, just that bloody awful American crap!"
I totally agree; if every music CD was even $10, I'd buy a lot more than I do right now. $15 is too much (new CD in CAD$), $20 is way too freaking much (older CDs).
Perhaps this indicates a lower limit of who they will be targeting, people who have four thousand songs available to share? Yes? Maybe?