The calendar is weak, I want more view options, how many days ahead can I see, setting the start and end time of the day so I can see 8:00am till say 9:00pm in a single window snapshot. Things like that.
I've taken to installing one called "Business Calendar Free" but it's not quite right either. Does google ever update it's apps or do they just assume users will swap to third party applications so they only do a basic one?
P.S I was going to link to the Android marketplace to show the calendar app I'm using but oddly enough it's not in the list of devices on my handset, no idea why - this kind of inconsistency is frustrating with Android, I think I should just switch back to Appbrain and forget Market.Android at this point
I was going to moderate some people but I thought I'd pipe up and say just how incompetent some of our politicians (and general public) are.
There's been a small but consistent amount of talk about the NBN being silly because of the "advances in wireless technology" and people genuinely seem to think it's a viable option for a country the size of Australia, to do all the internet (and phones!) for over 20 million people, wirelessly.
Fuck the PSN hack, who gives a shit about that, 99.9999999% of the time banks will allow me to simlply refute credit card fraudulent purchases. It costs me NOTHING but inconvienience.
I was a loyal foxmarks user, then xmarks, then they told me I had to use lastpass. Well look how this has worked fucking out then, I am PISSED - jesus fuck is there some important passwords in my account.
Having only learnt how BlackBerries work in the past 18 months, as a user of normal 3G internet handset data and phones for about the same amount of time, the whole RIM / BB experience feels clunky from a design standpoint, it feels like something which was designed many years ago, to get around limitations of the internet and 3G networks at the time - possibly the actual case in fact.. Regardless, times have changed
A BB data plan is $50 a month here, before you've made a single phone call. Yes it's 'unlimited data' but considering the handsets suck for youtube and browsing, I'd bet 95% of our users use less than 100mbytes a month.
I'm in a govt office in Australia and we can also pay 22$ for 600mb of "regular normal" 3G data for other phones. I don't see why these robust but limited handsets need this archaic restriction to have a 'special' data plan. As BB's work on a per unique device basis, how hard is it to establish a secure connection with the RIM servers as part of the core operating system? Some kind of automatic VPN client which connects to RIM over TRADITIONAL 3g data traffic securely, as default when the phone boots?
The unique and proprietary data plan, is frankly - fucking expensive. Yes it 'just works' but it's a silly and backwards restriction, we can't swap out to any old 3G SIM when doing phone testing or setting things up, it has to be that proprietary one.
As a PHONE they are great, good sound quality, little to no drop outs, fantastic battery life. They are also great for the calendar and email functionality and security, these aspects are definitely well catered for - but EVERYTHING else the world has moved on to, not so much. You can citrix in to the office now with an Android or iphone / ipad, you've got larger, higher quality screens, better cameras, 'cooler looking' phones, a much better selection of applications on ios and the android marketplace. The BB is not a good 'internet toy', it's a good business device - but in a time when execs and managers are having their phone provided to them by work and no one wants to carry 2 phones, then the BB is that 'dumpy old phone' that people have to carry, there is no prestige. (Yes I realise the majority of this paragraph is superficial but that's what people are)
RIM need to adapt, the 9800 Torch is at least a start in the right direction but so much more is needed.
One last thing, slightly off topic. Back to the draconian requirement for a BB data plan, I have a 9000 as my secondary phone WITHOUT a BB data plan. IT's ridiculous and stupid the quantity of applications coded by RIM or 3'rd party developers following the guidelines where the application simply doesn't WORK on wifi OR 3G data. I'm talking about apps which have NOTHING to do with RIM at all but that restriction to only use TCP traffic over.blackberry data connections (facebook is a good example) how fucking ridiculous! It's not going through RIM, it's just going to a normal, everyday internet site, yet it simply is hard coded not to work. Incredibly short sighted and frustrating. To me, internet / 3g / data / any TCP connection is a TCP connection, restricting that is just 'doing it wrong' (See also the official gmail application, no wifi support? whut!)
You've made an enemy out of a lot of the community. I have 2 PS3's and 25 games on my shelf. LEGITIMATE games.
Do you know why I purchased a PS3? The real reason I orginally purchased it? There was 2 reasons. 1 was God of War 3, which took 2 years after I got the thing and was surprisingly not as good as #2 2 XBMC was rumoured to be coming to PS3, via the loophole to the hypervisor through linux. More beautiful XBMC goodness.
You closed that loophole and I STILL forgave you because I loved the games, I forgave you guys for a lot of shit, a LOT - I even put up with taking linux away - but this Geohot thing was the final straw.
Even if my details are compromised as one of the customers, who cares. GOOD - fuck you assholes for treating the customers with utter contempt.
but we're fucked, South Australia might now be fixed but the Victorian one is now an imbecile.
FWIW I'm a Victorian and I was under the impression this is one of the more progressive states in the country. Can I just be frank and say,.. when will these fucking religious people die out? I'm 33 - 95% of the people I know aren't religious, we don't care about religion. It's dead, it's finished. Go away and stop putting your idiot values on others.
Ribbon is garbage indeed. I damned well hate it and I've been on it for 7 or 8 months now, it's horrible. I will stick with 7 if they screw up Windows explorer that badly.
Moderate or reply,.........mmmm I'll take reply today.
WPA and WPA2 you've broken you say? So I take it they were using a dictionary pass or you're bullshitting, which one is it? I've broken my own WPA but I had to be sure I set a very simple password on it in the first place.
I wish more damned hardware manufacturers would use the chip included on the iphone 4 - it's a quad band chip compatible on any GSM network (if I recall correctly) - and no one besides Apple is using the fucking thing yet.
Can't do much about CDMA of course but at least from a GSM perspective, we have the hardware, it's just manufacturers get exclusive deals and lock that down via firmware too. The US phone market is actually making it shit for everyone else, I wish people would stop making special phones just for special carriers, it's so retarded.
No, what they are doing is achieving long term sales as people will continue playing it for years to come (see SC1) - this formula works well. I play 1 hour of SC2 a month nowadays - but I watch 25 hours a month on justin.tv / gomtv.net or other sites which are showing tournaments. Infact as I type this post right now, I'm watching GSL Code A round of 32.
The sport design is smart, especially as they seperated the SP balance of the units from the MP balance now, the SP game is.. well pretty darn good (not as good as War 3, sorry) but the MP is really great too, they will be seeing slow sales on and on and on with this game.
Incorrect - I've set the setting and it still occurs and confirm the same for friends. Furthermore it's shit policy and practice, I shouldn't need a cookie or login for the site to not behave annoyingly.
I just want to know one thing. Have they stopped the RIDICULOUS policy of when switching a video to full screen, it re-buffers the whole damned thing again? As an Aussie with mid speed internet links, it's just wasteful in both my time and bandwidth. Not all videos stream faster than you can watch:/
Neither the 360 or the PS3 are "stagnating" infact they are now reaching the glorious point in every consoles life where the developers have a firm grasp of how to utilize them, the units have reached high penetration so higher sales are likely and the games are eeking every last ounce of the console out of them.
See : Shadow of the Colossus, God of War 2 for PS2. Nope - the fire is now well and truly burning and if anything, the Wii fad (sorry, my opinion) is now burning out to be "what can we do with this,... well toy?" while the proper consoles are catching up fast (sales figures have finally started swinging away hard from Nintendo)
If anything I suspect many of the "oh, nice toy!" casual gamers won't bother with the second Wii, realising how rarely they use their first and the hardcore gamers are happy with their PS3 and 360s - both being quite cheap and easy to own the two (I do)
I know it's obese and that's the problem, if they make it clear that 40+ "real" obese people need to be taxed. Fine.
There's limits to what a body builder, or naturally stocky person will weigh, regardless of fluctuations. I feel I am currently overweight and likely nearing dangerous levels but I would hate to see people like yourself (or me with a few pounds less) singled out despite our natural build simply being heavy set.
Tax them - as long as it's clearly defined heavily obese, not a problem with me. These people need to learn (as do I) - they should have some self control.
That being said, it needs to be measured properly and the revenue NOT relied on. Victoria Australia introduced more expensive speeding fines and permenant fixed cameras, they generated revenue which the government began to rely on, once relied on, suddenly people were tired of the fines and slowing down, the government were 'losing money' so they changed the definition of speeding (1.864 miles an hour over the limit is fine worthy)
I would hate them to suddenly define anyone with a BMI over 30 for example as obese, - as the BMI system is heavily flawed as is peoples definitions of overweight when you understand what ectomorph, mesomorph and endormorph actually means.
Pretty good, but I only just logged in this morning (Australia) so I saw them in all in a row. Plumber injection attack indeed, which reminds me - on topic http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF213-Mario_Too.jpg
My wording on restart was innaccurate. I mean the driver or an app restarts - the error is normally "Windows has suffered an error" or something. Sometimes explorer dies and then comes back. A true restart (bluescreen / reboot) is also quite bad and indicative generally of failed hardware.
The fact is I don't get hard crash / freeze / blue screen or reboots under Windows 7 except in extremely rare circumstances. I have no problem with the 3 ATI cards I own.
If you're getting blue screens (and not just driver hangs / restarts) then you very likely have a physical hardware problem or a seriously, seriously screwed up machine.
I've had 2 bluescreens in total under Windows 7 and both of them were related to me fiddling with some tricky stuff (hard disk controller drivers)
Ahhh my mod points, do I rate you flamebait or just call you out? I used to be silly enough to believe what you just wrote. Infact! What you just wrote was absoloutely true - about a good TEN years ago,.. not 6, not 8 - 10 goddamn years.
I believed the silly rumours you just posted up until about 4 or 5 years ago and my boss (who is actually a fanboy of ATI) suggested I get one, still I refused - eventually I read some reviews, saw the cost to speed ratio at that time was superior to nvidia and I caved and got an ATI card. Surprise surprise, no driver screwups, no faulty cards and I think I'm on my 3rd card since then. Generally the top end ATI cards are 90% as fast as the top end Nvidia but for 75% of the price. It's a completely logical choice when we're arguing about "do I want 140 fps or 120?"
Also, nvidia just went through a terrible spell about 18 months back where they had nothing to offer and AMD thrashed them soundly, when nvidia did finally release a card which caught up, ATI was so far ahead they just released their next one - they missed an entire generation. I believe it was between the 2xx series and the 4xx series.
Long story short, your post has far too many insightful points and an insufficient amount of overrated or flamebait points.
+5000 to this post. I don't understand why people have this obsession about wasting bandwidth 'because they can' - especially wirelessly - I think even wired it's done unnecessarily.
I am a known luddite at one gaming community and post constantly about changing things back how they belong. Tabs on top? Please- status bar in the url bar? No thanks. Windows Explorer? Classic view only please
However, how people can NOT like the awesome bar is utterly beyond me, it's fascinating. It singlehandedly makes firefox 'know' what I want to do. It really does, I can type the shortest of strings, the most partial of urls and it knows, then hit down arrow enter and done. I genuinely don't see what there isn't to like. I mean, I guess you're welcome to your opinion, of course. I can't exactly criticize someone for disliking new stuff when I do so often but.... but... I only criticize stupid things which are poorly designed, for the laymen and don't make things easier for nerds, quick on the keyboard. How can people not like this bar? I am being serious - it single handedly took Firefox 3 from being a kind of cool browser to being utterly perfect. I can not browse without it, it's genuinely awesome.
Some of you may have noticed me complain about the UI implemented in chrome recently or crop up in many firefox threads over the years.
Essentially, Firefox 3 is all I need in a browser (with about 4 plugins) it does everything I could possibly want. The only thing I want is speed. I don't care how much computing resources it takes, I want the option to turn on as much caching and multi threading as possible and just have ridiculous fast browsing (ludicrous speed infact)
I believe FF4 is actually faster, despite the ghastly copying of Chromes UI, at least you can disable the tabs up top option, although the status bar change requires a plugin to put it back where it belongs IIRC. However when is the multi threaded or process per tab stuff coming? I've been browsing the web since lynx and that was the only time I recall web pages being fast enough. I installed a package called "easy DNS" under XP once which handled DNS caching very well, it definitely improved browsing response times, I'd like to see better caching of entire pages with firefox, regardless of memory use. I have 4 cores, 8 threads, 6gb of ram and an SSD - please make the web absoloutely as fast as possible.
Heres to hoping firefox 5 works on speed and not copying features from the competition.
Slashdot Mirror
The calendar is weak, I want more view options, how many days ahead can I see, setting the start and end time of the day so I can see 8:00am till say 9:00pm in a single window snapshot. Things like that.
I've taken to installing one called "Business Calendar Free" but it's not quite right either.
Does google ever update it's apps or do they just assume users will swap to third party applications so they only do a basic one?
P.S I was going to link to the Android marketplace to show the calendar app I'm using but oddly enough it's not in the list of devices on my handset, no idea why - this kind of inconsistency is frustrating with Android, I think I should just switch back to Appbrain and forget Market.Android at this point
I was going to moderate some people but I thought I'd pipe up and say just how incompetent some of our politicians (and general public) are.
There's been a small but consistent amount of talk about the NBN being silly because of the "advances in wireless technology" and people genuinely seem to think it's a viable option for a country the size of Australia, to do all the internet (and phones!) for over 20 million people, wirelessly.
Sad but true.
Fuck the PSN hack, who gives a shit about that, 99.9999999% of the time banks will allow me to simlply refute credit card fraudulent purchases. It costs me NOTHING but inconvienience.
I was a loyal foxmarks user, then xmarks, then they told me I had to use lastpass.
Well look how this has worked fucking out then, I am PISSED - jesus fuck is there some important passwords in my account.
For fucks sake.
Having only learnt how BlackBerries work in the past 18 months, as a user of normal 3G internet handset data and phones for about the same amount of time, the whole RIM / BB experience feels clunky from a design standpoint, it feels like something which was designed many years ago, to get around limitations of the internet and 3G networks at the time - possibly the actual case in fact.. Regardless, times have changed
A BB data plan is $50 a month here, before you've made a single phone call. Yes it's 'unlimited data' but considering the handsets suck for youtube and browsing, I'd bet 95% of our users use less than 100mbytes a month.
I'm in a govt office in Australia and we can also pay 22$ for 600mb of "regular normal" 3G data for other phones. I don't see why these robust but limited handsets need this archaic restriction to have a 'special' data plan.
As BB's work on a per unique device basis, how hard is it to establish a secure connection with the RIM servers as part of the core operating system? Some kind of automatic VPN client which connects to RIM over TRADITIONAL 3g data traffic securely, as default when the phone boots?
The unique and proprietary data plan, is frankly - fucking expensive. Yes it 'just works' but it's a silly and backwards restriction, we can't swap out to any old 3G SIM when doing phone testing or setting things up, it has to be that proprietary one.
As a PHONE they are great, good sound quality, little to no drop outs, fantastic battery life. They are also great for the calendar and email functionality and security, these aspects are definitely well catered for - but EVERYTHING else the world has moved on to, not so much. You can citrix in to the office now with an Android or iphone / ipad, you've got larger, higher quality screens, better cameras, 'cooler looking' phones, a much better selection of applications on ios and the android marketplace.
The BB is not a good 'internet toy', it's a good business device - but in a time when execs and managers are having their phone provided to them by work and no one wants to carry 2 phones, then the BB is that 'dumpy old phone' that people have to carry, there is no prestige.
(Yes I realise the majority of this paragraph is superficial but that's what people are)
RIM need to adapt, the 9800 Torch is at least a start in the right direction but so much more is needed.
One last thing, slightly off topic. .blackberry data connections (facebook is a good example) how fucking ridiculous! It's not going through RIM, it's just going to a normal, everyday internet site, yet it simply is hard coded not to work. Incredibly short sighted and frustrating. To me, internet / 3g / data / any TCP connection is a TCP connection, restricting that is just 'doing it wrong'
Back to the draconian requirement for a BB data plan, I have a 9000 as my secondary phone WITHOUT a BB data plan. IT's ridiculous and stupid the quantity of applications coded by RIM or 3'rd party developers following the guidelines where the application simply doesn't WORK on wifi OR 3G data.
I'm talking about apps which have NOTHING to do with RIM at all but that restriction to only use TCP traffic over
(See also the official gmail application, no wifi support? whut!)
Handsets cheap?
Handsets cheap?
Wow, well I guess pricing is different in the states then. They sure aren't cheap in Australia.
You've made an enemy out of a lot of the community.
I have 2 PS3's and 25 games on my shelf.
LEGITIMATE games.
Do you know why I purchased a PS3? The real reason I orginally purchased it? There was 2 reasons.
1 was God of War 3, which took 2 years after I got the thing and was surprisingly not as good as #2
2 XBMC was rumoured to be coming to PS3, via the loophole to the hypervisor through linux. More beautiful XBMC goodness.
You closed that loophole and I STILL forgave you because I loved the games, I forgave you guys for a lot of shit, a LOT - I even put up with taking linux away - but this Geohot thing was the final straw.
Even if my details are compromised as one of the customers, who cares. GOOD - fuck you assholes for treating the customers with utter contempt.
but we're fucked, South Australia might now be fixed but the Victorian one is now an imbecile.
FWIW I'm a Victorian and I was under the impression this is one of the more progressive states in the country. Can I just be frank and say,.. when will these fucking religious people die out? I'm 33 - 95% of the people I know aren't religious, we don't care about religion. It's dead, it's finished. Go away and stop putting your idiot values on others.
Sigh.
Ribbon is garbage indeed.
I damned well hate it and I've been on it for 7 or 8 months now, it's horrible. I will stick with 7 if they screw up Windows explorer that badly.
Moderate or reply,.........mmmm I'll take reply today.
WPA and WPA2 you've broken you say? So I take it they were using a dictionary pass or you're bullshitting, which one is it?
I've broken my own WPA but I had to be sure I set a very simple password on it in the first place.
I wish more damned hardware manufacturers would use the chip included on the iphone 4 - it's a quad band chip compatible on any GSM network (if I recall correctly) - and no one besides Apple is using the fucking thing yet.
Can't do much about CDMA of course but at least from a GSM perspective, we have the hardware, it's just manufacturers get exclusive deals and lock that down via firmware too. The US phone market is actually making it shit for everyone else, I wish people would stop making special phones just for special carriers, it's so retarded.
No, what they are doing is achieving long term sales as people will continue playing it for years to come (see SC1) - this formula works well.
I play 1 hour of SC2 a month nowadays - but I watch 25 hours a month on justin.tv / gomtv.net or other sites which are showing tournaments.
Infact as I type this post right now, I'm watching GSL Code A round of 32.
The sport design is smart, especially as they seperated the SP balance of the units from the MP balance now, the SP game is .. well pretty darn good (not as good as War 3, sorry) but the MP is really great too, they will be seeing slow sales on and on and on with this game.
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Incorrect - I've set the setting and it still occurs and confirm the same for friends.
Furthermore it's shit policy and practice, I shouldn't need a cookie or login for the site to not behave annoyingly.
I just want to know one thing. :/
Have they stopped the RIDICULOUS policy of when switching a video to full screen, it re-buffers the whole damned thing again?
As an Aussie with mid speed internet links, it's just wasteful in both my time and bandwidth. Not all videos stream faster than you can watch
Yes, I've posted on their forums no response.
Neither the 360 or the PS3 are "stagnating" infact they are now reaching the glorious point in every consoles life where the developers have a firm grasp of how to utilize them, the units have reached high penetration so higher sales are likely and the games are eeking every last ounce of the console out of them.
See : Shadow of the Colossus, God of War 2 for PS2.
Nope - the fire is now well and truly burning and if anything, the Wii fad (sorry, my opinion) is now burning out to be "what can we do with this,... well toy?" while the proper consoles are catching up fast (sales figures have finally started swinging away hard from Nintendo)
If anything I suspect many of the "oh, nice toy!" casual gamers won't bother with the second Wii, realising how rarely they use their first and the hardcore gamers are happy with their PS3 and 360s - both being quite cheap and easy to own the two (I do)
I know it's obese and that's the problem, if they make it clear that 40+ "real" obese people need to be taxed. Fine.
There's limits to what a body builder, or naturally stocky person will weigh, regardless of fluctuations. I feel I am currently overweight and likely nearing dangerous levels but I would hate to see people like yourself (or me with a few pounds less) singled out despite our natural build simply being heavy set.
Tax them - as long as it's clearly defined heavily obese, not a problem with me. These people need to learn (as do I) - they should have some self control.
That being said, it needs to be measured properly and the revenue NOT relied on.
Victoria Australia introduced more expensive speeding fines and permenant fixed cameras, they generated revenue which the government began to rely on, once relied on, suddenly people were tired of the fines and slowing down, the government were 'losing money' so they changed the definition of speeding (1.864 miles an hour over the limit is fine worthy)
I would hate them to suddenly define anyone with a BMI over 30 for example as obese, - as the BMI system is heavily flawed as is peoples definitions of overweight when you understand what ectomorph, mesomorph and endormorph actually means.
Pretty good, but I only just logged in this morning (Australia) so I saw them in all in a row.
Plumber injection attack indeed, which reminds me - on topic
http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF213-Mario_Too.jpg
http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/03/31/2027254/Its-World-Backup-Day
My wording on restart was innaccurate. I mean the driver or an app restarts - the error is normally "Windows has suffered an error" or something. Sometimes explorer dies and then comes back. A true restart (bluescreen / reboot) is also quite bad and indicative generally of failed hardware.
The fact is I don't get hard crash / freeze / blue screen or reboots under Windows 7 except in extremely rare circumstances. I have no problem with the 3 ATI cards I own.
If you're getting blue screens (and not just driver hangs / restarts) then you very likely have a physical hardware problem or a seriously, seriously screwed up machine.
I've had 2 bluescreens in total under Windows 7 and both of them were related to me fiddling with some tricky stuff (hard disk controller drivers)
Ahhh my mod points, do I rate you flamebait or just call you out?
I used to be silly enough to believe what you just wrote. Infact! What you just wrote was absoloutely true - about a good TEN years ago,.. not 6, not 8 - 10 goddamn years.
I believed the silly rumours you just posted up until about 4 or 5 years ago and my boss (who is actually a fanboy of ATI) suggested I get one, still I refused - eventually I read some reviews, saw the cost to speed ratio at that time was superior to nvidia and I caved and got an ATI card.
Surprise surprise, no driver screwups, no faulty cards and I think I'm on my 3rd card since then. Generally the top end ATI cards are 90% as fast as the top end Nvidia but for 75% of the price. It's a completely logical choice when we're arguing about "do I want 140 fps or 120?"
Also, nvidia just went through a terrible spell about 18 months back where they had nothing to offer and AMD thrashed them soundly, when nvidia did finally release a card which caught up, ATI was so far ahead they just released their next one - they missed an entire generation. I believe it was between the 2xx series and the 4xx series.
Long story short, your post has far too many insightful points and an insufficient amount of overrated or flamebait points.
+5000 to this post.
I don't understand why people have this obsession about wasting bandwidth 'because they can' - especially wirelessly - I think even wired it's done unnecessarily.
I find you people fascinating.
I am a known luddite at one gaming community and post constantly about changing things back how they belong. Tabs on top? Please- status bar in the url bar? No thanks. Windows Explorer? Classic view only please
However, how people can NOT like the awesome bar is utterly beyond me, it's fascinating. It singlehandedly makes firefox 'know' what I want to do. It really does, I can type the shortest of strings, the most partial of urls and it knows, then hit down arrow enter and done. I genuinely don't see what there isn't to like. I mean, I guess you're welcome to your opinion, of course. I can't exactly criticize someone for disliking new stuff when I do so often but.... but... I only criticize stupid things which are poorly designed, for the laymen and don't make things easier for nerds, quick on the keyboard.
How can people not like this bar? I am being serious - it single handedly took Firefox 3 from being a kind of cool browser to being utterly perfect. I can not browse without it, it's genuinely awesome.
Some of you may have noticed me complain about the UI implemented in chrome recently or crop up in many firefox threads over the years.
Essentially, Firefox 3 is all I need in a browser (with about 4 plugins) it does everything I could possibly want. The only thing I want is speed. I don't care how much computing resources it takes, I want the option to turn on as much caching and multi threading as possible and just have ridiculous fast browsing (ludicrous speed infact)
I believe FF4 is actually faster, despite the ghastly copying of Chromes UI, at least you can disable the tabs up top option, although the status bar change requires a plugin to put it back where it belongs IIRC. However when is the multi threaded or process per tab stuff coming? I've been browsing the web since lynx and that was the only time I recall web pages being fast enough.
I installed a package called "easy DNS" under XP once which handled DNS caching very well, it definitely improved browsing response times, I'd like to see better caching of entire pages with firefox, regardless of memory use. I have 4 cores, 8 threads, 6gb of ram and an SSD - please make the web absoloutely as fast as possible.
Heres to hoping firefox 5 works on speed and not copying features from the competition.