It's just a shame that in the US, like here in the UK, they don't have laws banning irresponsible people from having kids - this all comes down to lack of parental supervision, nothing more.
So is GPS signal reception also affected by higher temperatures?
I noticed when driving across Spain in the middle of August that my in-car TomTom lost GPS for some quite long periods of time (20 minutes plus) especially near Madrid where I think the temperature was highest.
I've since done the same trip with the same TomTom in the same car in October and April but did not experience any reception outages. Obviously, the temperature was much lower in Spain in October and April than in was in August.
When the iPad originally came out, we netbook owners were comparing the iPad features to netbooks (which were and still are very limited in comparison) and the Apple crowd on here kept responding with "But the iPad isn't a netbook or portable computer".
However, now you are saying it IS a games console - so I'm not sure I understand where this ever-increasingly complex set of comparitive rules for the iPad actually starts or ends.
Just do like I do and don't use or buy their stuff.
I don't "hate" either company because what they do or make is pretty much irrelevant to me, but if other people like and pay for their products then that's their choice and good luck to them.
They're just ***COMPANIES*** making stuff, not ***RELIGIOUS ORDERS***.
I didn't move from Windows 2000 until XP had reached SP1, I think that was around 2003 but don't quote me on the actual year.
I also hated (and still do) the default XP interface and it wasn't until I discovered that there was a Windows Classic theme that I even contemplated upgrading from Windows 2000 to it. After I did, I never really looked back - because Windows 2000 was the direct descendent of NT4, the whole issue of buggy drivers hadn't been sorted out by then and although Microsoft created real problems for hardware compatibility with XP, the fact that they took greater control of hardware drivers in it turned out to be the right move in the long term because that helped XP's stability overall.
I can only speak from experience and from what I have seen of friends and colleagues who also use(d) XP - yes, it has design issues when it comes to OS security but as long as you are aware of those and know how to deal with them, you can work around them. But it has been a stable and well-liked OS for some years now and deservedly so - high praise indeed from someone who proclaims himself a mostly Linux user!:-)
Why do you think that no iPod, iPad or iPhone has a port for a memory card?
Because a 16GB MicroSD card probably costs around $20/£20/20€ but Apple can charge $80/£80/80€ for the difference in price between a 16GB device and its 32GB counterpart.
Couldn't it be argued that if since there have been (and still are) a helluva lot of XP users, then doesn't that tell you as the OS creator that a lot of people are very comfortable with the current interface - and that if you want those same people to pay out more money for your new OS, then one of the worse things you can do is change what they are comfortable with to something different?
Again, I like XP a lot, even as a mostly Linux person these days, but Windows 7 strikes me as just changing stuff around a bit to make it "feel" like something new without taking into consideration what people are already comfortable with?
I've no reason to upgrade to Windows 7 at the moment but I've set up a few new PCs for friends and family and I *HATE* the new interface - and I've therefore been put off from even wanting to evaluate its good points for that reason alone.
So if he's running Windows 7 Home (Something), how much would he need to pay to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate just so he can see how big his folders are?
I've found XP to be pretty rock solid - having used it since 2003-odd, I can probably count on one hand the amount of times it's bluescreened on me, and it's about the same amount that Windows 7 has bluescreened for my missus on her new HP home PC that she bought just before Christmas.
Sure, it takes a couple of service packs for an MS OS to become rock solid, I'm not criticising Windows 7 for that. However, I'm mostly a Gnome user on Linux but I use XP in Windows Classic mode (I have done since 2003) and I really don't mind using it for gaming and for a few killer apps I cannot get on Linux. But I have always hated the default XP theme with a passion, it's truly awful and unusable.
My experience of Windows 7 so far is fairly minimal, I've set up a handful of new PCs for friends and family and that's my extent of using it. I won't deny it's stable or that it will be as stable as XP when it gets to SP3 like XP did - but I think the Aero interface is awful, quite frankly. As far as I'm concerned, it's nothing more than "change for change's sake", stuff has been renamed just to make it look different without thinking of the consequences to users who have migrated to XP, and the default desktop looks cluttered and unprofessional. There is TOO MUCH going on all of the time and I don't see the point of wasting CPU cycles for eye candy that adds absolutely nothing to speed or productivity. (That's something you expect of OS X.)
XP is now 10 years old and whilst it has some issues with supporting the very latest hardware properly, the fact that it's 32-bit and old is countered by the speed of modern PCs which means it runs pretty fast, as long as you spend time administering it and keeping it clean. For most home user tasks. 64 bit means very little anyway and there is little visible speed difference between running in 32-bit and 64-bit mode.
I didn't use Vista at all but I can understand why a lot of Vista users welcomed Windows 7 when it came along - but I see absolutely no reason whatsoever to move my last couple of Windows XP machines too it, and when Microsoft stop supporting XP to the point where it's no longer updated and full of security holes, then I see myself moving fully to Linux as Windows 7 does nothing for me.
I'm not a "Linux v Windows" zealot by any means, I really don't care whether it's Windows or Linux that runs on most desktops, I'd rather people sat down carefully and thought about what OS they want to use before finally choosing it. But if Windows 7 is a success then it's mainly because Microsoft has foist it on people by making it the default OS on many new machines and ensuring XP's retirement by not porting DirectX 10 or Internet Explorer 9 to it. People are not migrating from XP to Windows 7 in their droves, over 50% of the world's desktop PCs still run XP - that's because for most people it's good enough.
So, yes, I accept Windows 7 is better and liked more than Vista and that it will be as stable as XP ever has been. It may also be a better OS for newbies because they don't care to carry out proper administration on XP PCs like I do to ensure that it stays malware free (and it does, if you spend time with it and take a little care). But to say it's "more so" makes no sense.
I'm a Linux user, I have been for 15 or so years, UNIX about another 10 years before that. I use Linux almost exclusively at home and work with it every day. In my view, it's a great operating system platform that I am still learning more and more about.
If someone wants to come ask me about Linux, I will tell them about it.
If they want help learning it, I will help them.
If they run Windows, that's their choice and if they need help with it, then I'll help them also because I know a lot about computers & a bit about Windows also.
There is *no* Linux vs. Windows war and there never has been. Linux exists *despite* Windows, not because of it and if you knew anything about UNIX history, you'd understand that for a very long time programmers were giving UNIX and UNIX tools away freely long before Microsoft realised they could make money from operating systems.
But I'm no zealot. An OS is a tool to get stuff done in and what I consider to be a good tool may be different from what someone else considers to be a good tool.
And we don't need more zealots.
So please kindly climb up your own anus until you disappear with a pop.
I guess it's not too bad an idea as long as you are careful to keep the lid of the Macbook towards the door of the coffee shop, thus maintaining the impression to other customers that you are an ultra-cool Apple-using dude or dudette rather than revealing your dirty little secret of running Windows like the rest of the plebians.
Why not try reflecting the light from the ceiling onto your little silver Apple logo and directly into the eyes of customers, thus blinding them temporarily but ensuring even further that they can never see for themselves the hideous truth behind what OS you are tap-tap-tapping on the keyboard into.
People were saying that about iPhones and Android-based phones are already far outselling iPhones.
When it comes down to it, there are people like me who will neither pay a premium price for something that looks pretty nor pay a premium price for something that is so locked down to be useless for the tasks they need to do with it.
If you're talking World of Warcraft, that's a different model because Blizzard need to keep releasing updates so that players are still interested in subscribing.
I only tried WoW for a month myself after my buddies kept badgering me to give it a go but it wasn't for me anyway, though my buddies have been playing regularly for a few years now.
Otherwise I'm a big Fallout 3 and Fallout NV fan (I prefer solo play RPGs where I can progress in my own time, not when I need to keep up with friends - but that's just me) and those games have a huge modding community.
You can buy them on the Interweb or in shops, there's lots of different types depending on what sort of music you like, and they come in a nice hard plastic case that, if you store in reasonably dry conditions out of direct sunlight, automatically act as a backup of your music collection.
I use a piece of software called a "CD Ripper" that allows me to encode the CD to tracks that I can then download to a music player and/or carry about with me much easier.
I also came across a truly amazing device called a "USB Hard Disk" that I can use to backup those encoded tracks onto a second hard disk - but even if both hard disks fail, I can just re-rip my CDs.
The issue of DRM would be solved overnight if a lot more people grew backbones - sorry, just just how badly does a company have to treat a customer before they just turn around, walk away & take their money elsewhere?
There is not one thing that I can think of that I would consider to be something I must pay to possess no matter what - if something is priced at a price I'm not prepared to pay or if that something is crippled in such a way that my enjoyment is crippled in some way, then I just don't buy it.
Nobody forces anyone to buy a DRM-crippled game, that's entirely a decision made by the customer. And if enough people didn't buy enough games because of DRM crippling, then DRM would disappear overnight as a commercial failure and none of us would ever hear of it again.
The fact of the matter is that in the 21st century, media & games companies have set goals of ensuring that customers don't hang to things for too long & are always clamouring for the next upgrade with wads of money in their hands - we've already seen the results of this with the movie & music industries.
In the movie industry, it's about rechurning concepts that bring in vast profits quickly - a constant barrage of 3D movies, CGI animations with cute animal characters & endless sequels.
In the music industry, it's about elevating unknowns to pop star fame in very short periods of time, then dropping them after a year or two when they probably start getting too belligerent & demanding too much money.
The games industry is no different, games companies do not want their customers hanging on to games for too long - because they want customers demanding the next release as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the difference here is that the average new game costs at leasts 3 times as much as a new music CD, a new movie DVD or a cinema ticket.
Games hackers are therefore seen as enemies of games companies because the "nice" hackers create (at least for PC versions of games) mods that can prolong the life of a game many times over, resulting in customers being entertained for a lot longer before buying the next game, whilst the "naughty" hackers break games open so that others can copy & play them.
This is precisely why games companies (for the most part) have worked hard to convert PC gamers to console gamers because a console gamer can be restricted in what he/she does with the game a lot more than a PC gamer can be - consequently, this is why the number of PC games titles have tailed off dramatically over the past few years, despite there probably being more people than ever who own PCs and who play games. In other words, it's an artificially induced extinction of PC gaming to suit games company coffers.
As a PC gamer in my 40s, I wouldn't for one minute want to compare myself to teenage or younger gamers. But I still play a lot of PC games today despite buying very few (in all honesty, the only PC games titles I sit in anticipation of are the Fallout series ones) but I don't copy or pirate any either. All I do is enjoy playing and replaying old titles with community mods & levels, I also do a lot of retrogaming.
If the youngsters of today need better & better graphics in a game for better immersion then good luck to them & I'm not one to argue with them - if anything, graphics were something that appealed very much to me when I started computer gaming on the ZX Spectrum & the Commodore Amiga.
But ultimately, it all comes down to the hackers who write mods & emulators that allow me to satisfy my gaming needs without my having to buy any new games - not to mention, as a mostly Linux user anyway, the large number of Open Source games like Alien Arena and World Of Padman where, if I feel like a little multiplayer gaming, I can dive online for a half hour or so without having to spend weeks in an MMORPG or the like.
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It's just a shame that in the US, like here in the UK, they don't have laws banning irresponsible people from having kids - this all comes down to lack of parental supervision, nothing more.
So is GPS signal reception also affected by higher temperatures?
I noticed when driving across Spain in the middle of August that my in-car TomTom lost GPS for some quite long periods of time (20 minutes plus) especially near Madrid where I think the temperature was highest.
I've since done the same trip with the same TomTom in the same car in October and April but did not experience any reception outages. Obviously, the temperature was much lower in Spain in October and April than in was in August.
When the iPad originally came out, we netbook owners were comparing the iPad features to netbooks (which were and still are very limited in comparison) and the Apple crowd on here kept responding with "But the iPad isn't a netbook or portable computer".
However, now you are saying it IS a games console - so I'm not sure I understand where this ever-increasingly complex set of comparitive rules for the iPad actually starts or ends.
Why?
Just do like I do and don't use or buy their stuff.
I don't "hate" either company because what they do or make is pretty much irrelevant to me, but if other people like and pay for their products then that's their choice and good luck to them.
They're just ***COMPANIES*** making stuff, not ***RELIGIOUS ORDERS***.
I didn't move from Windows 2000 until XP had reached SP1, I think that was around 2003 but don't quote me on the actual year.
I also hated (and still do) the default XP interface and it wasn't until I discovered that there was a Windows Classic theme that I even contemplated upgrading from Windows 2000 to it. After I did, I never really looked back - because Windows 2000 was the direct descendent of NT4, the whole issue of buggy drivers hadn't been sorted out by then and although Microsoft created real problems for hardware compatibility with XP, the fact that they took greater control of hardware drivers in it turned out to be the right move in the long term because that helped XP's stability overall.
I can only speak from experience and from what I have seen of friends and colleagues who also use(d) XP - yes, it has design issues when it comes to OS security but as long as you are aware of those and know how to deal with them, you can work around them. But it has been a stable and well-liked OS for some years now and deservedly so - high praise indeed from someone who proclaims himself a mostly Linux user! :-)
Why do you think that no iPod, iPad or iPhone has a port for a memory card?
Because a 16GB MicroSD card probably costs around $20/£20/20€ but Apple can charge $80/£80/80€ for the difference in price between a 16GB device and its 32GB counterpart.
He said the word "Please" when he was begging for a new liver.
Couldn't it be argued that if since there have been (and still are) a helluva lot of XP users, then doesn't that tell you as the OS creator that a lot of people are very comfortable with the current interface - and that if you want those same people to pay out more money for your new OS, then one of the worse things you can do is change what they are comfortable with to something different?
Again, I like XP a lot, even as a mostly Linux person these days, but Windows 7 strikes me as just changing stuff around a bit to make it "feel" like something new without taking into consideration what people are already comfortable with?
I've no reason to upgrade to Windows 7 at the moment but I've set up a few new PCs for friends and family and I *HATE* the new interface - and I've therefore been put off from even wanting to evaluate its good points for that reason alone.
So if he's running Windows 7 Home (Something), how much would he need to pay to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate just so he can see how big his folders are?
I've found XP to be pretty rock solid - having used it since 2003-odd, I can probably count on one hand the amount of times it's bluescreened on me, and it's about the same amount that Windows 7 has bluescreened for my missus on her new HP home PC that she bought just before Christmas.
Sure, it takes a couple of service packs for an MS OS to become rock solid, I'm not criticising Windows 7 for that. However, I'm mostly a Gnome user on Linux but I use XP in Windows Classic mode (I have done since 2003) and I really don't mind using it for gaming and for a few killer apps I cannot get on Linux. But I have always hated the default XP theme with a passion, it's truly awful and unusable.
My experience of Windows 7 so far is fairly minimal, I've set up a handful of new PCs for friends and family and that's my extent of using it. I won't deny it's stable or that it will be as stable as XP when it gets to SP3 like XP did - but I think the Aero interface is awful, quite frankly. As far as I'm concerned, it's nothing more than "change for change's sake", stuff has been renamed just to make it look different without thinking of the consequences to users who have migrated to XP, and the default desktop looks cluttered and unprofessional. There is TOO MUCH going on all of the time and I don't see the point of wasting CPU cycles for eye candy that adds absolutely nothing to speed or productivity. (That's something you expect of OS X.)
XP is now 10 years old and whilst it has some issues with supporting the very latest hardware properly, the fact that it's 32-bit and old is countered by the speed of modern PCs which means it runs pretty fast, as long as you spend time administering it and keeping it clean. For most home user tasks. 64 bit means very little anyway and there is little visible speed difference between running in 32-bit and 64-bit mode.
I didn't use Vista at all but I can understand why a lot of Vista users welcomed Windows 7 when it came along - but I see absolutely no reason whatsoever to move my last couple of Windows XP machines too it, and when Microsoft stop supporting XP to the point where it's no longer updated and full of security holes, then I see myself moving fully to Linux as Windows 7 does nothing for me.
I'm not a "Linux v Windows" zealot by any means, I really don't care whether it's Windows or Linux that runs on most desktops, I'd rather people sat down carefully and thought about what OS they want to use before finally choosing it. But if Windows 7 is a success then it's mainly because Microsoft has foist it on people by making it the default OS on many new machines and ensuring XP's retirement by not porting DirectX 10 or Internet Explorer 9 to it. People are not migrating from XP to Windows 7 in their droves, over 50% of the world's desktop PCs still run XP - that's because for most people it's good enough.
So, yes, I accept Windows 7 is better and liked more than Vista and that it will be as stable as XP ever has been. It may also be a better OS for newbies because they don't care to carry out proper administration on XP PCs like I do to ensure that it stays malware free (and it does, if you spend time with it and take a little care). But to say it's "more so" makes no sense.
I don't think Steve Jobs cares anything more about me beyond wondering whether or not I have a healthy & compatible liver he can buy from me.
Go fuck yourself.
I'm a Linux user, I have been for 15 or so years, UNIX about another 10 years before that. I use Linux almost exclusively at home and work with it every day. In my view, it's a great operating system platform that I am still learning more and more about.
If someone wants to come ask me about Linux, I will tell them about it.
If they want help learning it, I will help them.
If they run Windows, that's their choice and if they need help with it, then I'll help them also because I know a lot about computers & a bit about Windows also.
There is *no* Linux vs. Windows war and there never has been. Linux exists *despite* Windows, not because of it and if you knew anything about UNIX history, you'd understand that for a very long time programmers were giving UNIX and UNIX tools away freely long before Microsoft realised they could make money from operating systems.
But I'm no zealot. An OS is a tool to get stuff done in and what I consider to be a good tool may be different from what someone else considers to be a good tool.
And we don't need more zealots.
So please kindly climb up your own anus until you disappear with a pop.
How does that help me?
I despise Apple.
I guess it's not too bad an idea as long as you are careful to keep the lid of the Macbook towards the door of the coffee shop, thus maintaining the impression to other customers that you are an ultra-cool Apple-using dude or dudette rather than revealing your dirty little secret of running Windows like the rest of the plebians.
Why not try reflecting the light from the ceiling onto your little silver Apple logo and directly into the eyes of customers, thus blinding them temporarily but ensuring even further that they can never see for themselves the hideous truth behind what OS you are tap-tap-tapping on the keyboard into.
People were saying that about iPhones and Android-based phones are already far outselling iPhones.
When it comes down to it, there are people like me who will neither pay a premium price for something that looks pretty nor pay a premium price for something that is so locked down to be useless for the tasks they need to do with it.
If you're talking World of Warcraft, that's a different model because Blizzard need to keep releasing updates so that players are still interested in subscribing.
I only tried WoW for a month myself after my buddies kept badgering me to give it a go but it wasn't for me anyway, though my buddies have been playing regularly for a few years now.
Otherwise I'm a big Fallout 3 and Fallout NV fan (I prefer solo play RPGs where I can progress in my own time, not when I need to keep up with friends - but that's just me) and those games have a huge modding community.
I could be wrong here, but wasn't original GTA just released as a freebie but not open sourced?
Good link! Thanks for that.
Why not just do "which bash"?
Being possessed of an enormously large penis, I am unable to use Kinect as it keeps detecting it as a third leg!
...it's called the "CD" or "Compact Disc".
You can buy them on the Interweb or in shops, there's lots of different types depending on what sort of music you like, and they come in a nice hard plastic case that, if you store in reasonably dry conditions out of direct sunlight, automatically act as a backup of your music collection.
I use a piece of software called a "CD Ripper" that allows me to encode the CD to tracks that I can then download to a music player and/or carry about with me much easier.
I also came across a truly amazing device called a "USB Hard Disk" that I can use to backup those encoded tracks onto a second hard disk - but even if both hard disks fail, I can just re-rip my CDs.
Yes, those CDs are amazing things indeed!
The issue of DRM would be solved overnight if a lot more people grew backbones - sorry, just just how badly does a company have to treat a customer before they just turn around, walk away & take their money elsewhere?
There is not one thing that I can think of that I would consider to be something I must pay to possess no matter what - if something is priced at a price I'm not prepared to pay or if that something is crippled in such a way that my enjoyment is crippled in some way, then I just don't buy it.
Nobody forces anyone to buy a DRM-crippled game, that's entirely a decision made by the customer. And if enough people didn't buy enough games because of DRM crippling, then DRM would disappear overnight as a commercial failure and none of us would ever hear of it again.
It's that simple.
The fact of the matter is that in the 21st century, media & games companies have set goals of ensuring that customers don't hang to things for too long & are always clamouring for the next upgrade with wads of money in their hands - we've already seen the results of this with the movie & music industries.
In the movie industry, it's about rechurning concepts that bring in vast profits quickly - a constant barrage of 3D movies, CGI animations with cute animal characters & endless sequels.
In the music industry, it's about elevating unknowns to pop star fame in very short periods of time, then dropping them after a year or two when they probably start getting too belligerent & demanding too much money.
The games industry is no different, games companies do not want their customers hanging on to games for too long - because they want customers demanding the next release as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the difference here is that the average new game costs at leasts 3 times as much as a new music CD, a new movie DVD or a cinema ticket.
Games hackers are therefore seen as enemies of games companies because the "nice" hackers create (at least for PC versions of games) mods that can prolong the life of a game many times over, resulting in customers being entertained for a lot longer before buying the next game, whilst the "naughty" hackers break games open so that others can copy & play them.
This is precisely why games companies (for the most part) have worked hard to convert PC gamers to console gamers because a console gamer can be restricted in what he/she does with the game a lot more than a PC gamer can be - consequently, this is why the number of PC games titles have tailed off dramatically over the past few years, despite there probably being more people than ever who own PCs and who play games. In other words, it's an artificially induced extinction of PC gaming to suit games company coffers.
As a PC gamer in my 40s, I wouldn't for one minute want to compare myself to teenage or younger gamers. But I still play a lot of PC games today despite buying very few (in all honesty, the only PC games titles I sit in anticipation of are the Fallout series ones) but I don't copy or pirate any either. All I do is enjoy playing and replaying old titles with community mods & levels, I also do a lot of retrogaming.
If the youngsters of today need better & better graphics in a game for better immersion then good luck to them & I'm not one to argue with them - if anything, graphics were something that appealed very much to me when I started computer gaming on the ZX Spectrum & the Commodore Amiga.
But ultimately, it all comes down to the hackers who write mods & emulators that allow me to satisfy my gaming needs without my having to buy any new games - not to mention, as a mostly Linux user anyway, the large number of Open Source games like Alien Arena and World Of Padman where, if I feel like a little multiplayer gaming, I can dive online for a half hour or so without having to spend weeks in an MMORPG or the like.
Ha-haa.
SSH? You mean a fanboi stooping so low as to resort to the dirty, filthy command line?
Wonders never cease...