Similar to Panopticlick. Even just information that is easily available from your web browser can narrow you down to a specific machine. Who needs to store cookies on machines when you can pretty much identify the machine uniquely anyway.
As an avid cyclist, I'm quite aware that there's almost no end to how much you can spend on cycling. The fact that there exist bikes that cost $15,000 off the shelf speaks volumes about the cycling market.
I also, cycle to work, which helps with the costs. But what also helps with the costs is realizing that you probably don't need most of the stuff they are trying to sell you. I pad $900 for my bike, and I've had it for 4 summers, and it's still in excellent condition. I'll probably ride it for another 4 years before I feel the need to upgrade. I could probably use the bike for 20 years before I would need to replace the frame. All the other parts can be replaced for a decently low cost as none of the parts on my bike are particularly high end, even though they function perfectly fine.
This kind of stuff is the reason I never re-use passwords across services. All my passwords are randomly generated and stored by KeePass. Sure, it's a little less convenient to have to unlock the password safe in order to get into services, rather than just type in something you've already memorized. But, it's the only way to be sure that having your password compromised on one service won't compromise an account on another service. Even if the service isn't externally compromised, there's probably a lot of systems out there where employees (DB administrators, programmers) can gain access to the passwords from various methods such as logs or unaudited code.
What's interesting is that we don't even know all the land mammals yet. I mean, I can understand not cataloging every virus, bacterium, insect, plant, and ocean animal, but the fact that there are so many undocumented land mammals and amphibians kind of blows my mind. There's so much left to discover in this world.
Let's look at it this way. The Windows Phone market share is larger than the Linux Desktop market share, and the games/apps for phones are considerably less complex than those of their desktop counterparts, for the most part. You still don't see app/game developers latching on to Windows Phone. It will take quite a few more people moving over to Linux for it to really gain any traction.
This is especially true since there are so many cheaper ways to get exercise. My local arena charges $2.50 to go skating. You can take a walk or go for a run basically for free, you just need a pair of shoes. Cycling can cost a bit more to get started, but you can get a working bike for not too much money off Craigslist, and it costs nothing for you to ride it.
You can get some decent exercise for just a fraction of what a gym membership costs. If you want to lift, pick up some cheap dumbbells from walmart and get started. Sure it won't be sufficient for the fitness maniacs who like to spend 10+ hours at the gym every week, but they are probably getting their money's worth from the membership. If you just want to get in shape, and do some mild exercise, it costs almost nothing. I never understood why anybody would want to pay for a gym membership and then never use it when there are so many better options.
Personally I'm OK with paying for a music subscription. There's so much music out there, that I couldn't hope to own even a tiny fraction of the good stuff if I was buying everything by the album. Music services cost about $10 a month. For that I'd be lucky if I could buy a single album every month. After 10 years of buying 1 album a month, I would still only have 120 albums. That's a pretty small selection of music as far as I'm concerned. Esepcially when you consider that you wouldn't always select the best option 100% of the time. After 10 years, probably only 80% (96) of the albums would be worth listening to. And that's being generous as far as how good I am at picking up albums. Then there's the problem of multiple good albums coming out in the same month. Do you buy 3 albums one month, and spend a lot of money, leaving you with no new albums for the next 2 months? Or you could just pay $10 and have access to just about everything.
Right now, my only complaint is that they don't have absolutely everything. I think there would be a decent market for a service that cost $20 and had absolutely everything, but the music labels won't let that happen. It would probably even be a good deal at $30. Same goes for Netflix. I would probably pay many more times the current rate if they had everything. $40 or $50. Most people were/are paying more than that for cable already, and they still weren't getting everything.
I think that all media bought on subscription is a pretty good deal, provided it makes it cheaper to access more. Personally I don't ever tend to read a book more than once, because it takes so much more time than any other kind of media, and there's just so much good content out there. I really don't see any value in owning a book.
If you're really that paranoid about the phone spying on you, it's probably better just to leave the phone behind. I mean, what's to stop them from placing a smaller secondary battery that still powers necessary components for snooping when you yank the battery? Are you going to completely disassemble the phone to make sure it's not there? You're better off just leaving it at home for your ultra secret espionage excursions.
Personally I can't believe that smartphone prices are as high as they are. iPhones and high end Samsung devices are going for $700 or more. That a lot of money to spend on a basic computer for your pocket. I get a lot of value out of my phone, but I still am very happy with my $250 phone. I really don't see why some people think they need to spend so much to get a decent phone. There's a lot of cheaper phones on the market, and it doesn't seem to be doing much to stop people from buying iPhones or Samsung phones. I don't think this tablet will change that.
Most people don't have 19 inch TV screens anymore. And even then, I think it would make only a minimal amount of difference, even for my 50 inch TV. It's amazing how much better the stereo effects are when I put on my headphones to watch a movie, as opposed to using my TV speakers.
Racing bikes tend to be more difficult to handle. Doubly so if they are equipped with aero bars. They are meant for highly skilled riders to move at high speeds. Compared to older road bikes, or something like a touring bike which can still go plenty fast but aren't quite as twitchy.
I would just enjoy your life. So he says he found somebody who was afraid of his lifestyle. Find somebody else who isn't. Don't waste your time moping about other people. Find something to do with your life that makes you happy without requiring other people. Somebody like Notch, although rich, isn't a huge face in the media, and can probably stay under the radar in most circumstances. Very few people are actually going to recognize him unless he wants to be recognized.
I'm all for helping little guys get started, but it's amazing how much they miss out on. Even high profile projects (like the Raspberry Pi) seem to miss out on things like FCC/CE/UL certifications.
Another one that I like to point out is the Ouya. They were trying to deliver an Android Box, a controller, and a custom Android build and marketplace for the same price that most other companies were asking for just an Android Box. It was pretty easy to tell from the start that they were going to have to cut a lot of corners on the product to meet the price they advertised.
That's my whole point. I think it would better. I'd much rather have the option of paying $40 for 30 Mbit than pay $70 for 1000 Mbit. Sure I'd be paying only a little less for a lot less speed, but I really don't see much advantage in having a faster connection past a certain point. I'd rather take the $30 a month ($360 a year), and spend it on something else I'd appreciate more.
Also, I misread the pricing on the cheaper option. The $25 a month isn't every month. It's $300 at sign up, or $25 a month for the first year. There is 0 monthly fee. You can choose to pay the $300 all at once, or in 12 monthly payments.
Some utilities really should be metered this way. Our city started a big initiative to cut water usage. We have a huge surplus of fresh water, so there's no reason to limit usage, but it was an effort that made them look good to the uninformed public. Since they bill on usage, when the water usage went down, the amount they collected in usage fees went down. However, the cost of operating water treatment did not go down. Water treatment is mostly fixed costs, with very little of the cost varying with the amount of water you need to process. So the next year they had to double everybody's water rates so that they had enough money to operate the treatment facility.
Yeah, I misread that. It's $300 to start, or you can opt to pay $25 a month for 12 months, totaling $300. Then it's $0 every month thereafter.
Still, my point stands. 5 mbit isn't really fast enough, so your only other option is to pay $70 a month for gigabit speeds. I'd rather pay half that, even if I could only get 100 mbit (one tenth the speed, for half the price).
You're right. Given the choice, I would rather spend $70 and get a gigabit connection than spend the same and get a 75 Mbps line for the same price. However, if the incumbent telco had an option for 30 mbit per second for $50 or less, then I would really hesitate to sign up for Google Fiber, because I'm not convinced it would make that much of a difference in my day to day life. Whereas the $240 saved for choosing the $50 option would make a more reasonable difference in my life. Currently I have internet at 30 Mbps, and I really don't see much of a reason to have faster internet at this point in time for my house. And that's with 3 kids who all like to watch different videos at the same time. 30 Mbps is pretty must fast enough for the content that's currently available.
Why not just have a cell phone app. Open the app, see a list of easy to order items, click on the items you want to order and hit send. That's it. Very simple to use, and the user knows that their order went through. You can also alert them of any number of inventory problems. You can also make it work for any item you sell, not just a very small number of products that you think somebody might want to order frequently. If you figure out the frequency with which they order the item based on their account history, you could automatically send them notifications asking if they would like to order more.
Price is always my main issue with these super fast lines. Google Fiber even has it's problems with pricing. You can either pay $70 a month for Gigabit speeds, or pay $300 to start plus $25 a year for 5 mbit speeds. Why not have an option in the middle somewhere. 1 Gbps is way more than I need, but 5 Mbps is on the cusp of being too slow for my tastes. Why not have a $30-$40 a month option for 100 Mbps? My guess is that nobody would really pay for gigabit if given another cheaper option with reasonable speeds. By making the only options $70 a month or slow internet, you can get a lot more money out of people.
I get a lot of value out of my internet, but it seems that all the providers seem to gouge us by not offering pricing tiers that are beneficial to the end user, but offering the pricing tiers that will yield them the most money. Which is fine, I understand they are a businesses, and that's their duty, but I wish there was more competition, and less collusion among companies.
Yeah, I think that variety is definitely the solution to a lot of RSI problems. Different people have different shaped bodies, and required different keyboards, mice, chairs, and other office equipment.
I personally find old fashioned, non-split keyboards much more comfortable, even though I spend a considerable amount of time typing on a keyboard. I also have my keyboard situated quite far into my desk. My keyboard is situated so that my entire forearm rests on the desk when typing. This changes all the generally understood "rules" for typing.
First rule is that you shouldn't rest your arms, and your hands shouldn't be resting on the table, but elevated. This is a problem for people that keep the keyboard close to them because it usually means their wrists are on the corner of the desk, cutting off circulation. When you rest you entire forearm on the desk, there isn't a whole lot of pressure in one spot, and your wrists actually stay elevated anyway.
The second "rule" is that you should use a split keyboard. With my keyboard so far from the edge of my desk, my arms and wrists are actually in a straight line. If I tried to have the keyboard closer to me, then sure, my wrists would be contorted sideways causing problems.
Yeah. I really hate Android and iOS on larger screens. Samsung has made some modifications to allow multiple apps at the same time, but it doesn't work for all apps. I understand that the next version of iOS is going to allow side by side apps on iPad like MS has with Windows 8. But both are pretty weak when you try to use them on such a large screen. Large touch screens is one place where Windows still has huge advantages.
Yeah. Seems like a much better solution. I've tried the Raspberry Pi solution before, and trying to use the SD card (Class 10) to store the torrent caused the raspberry Pi to crash. I tried a USB flash drive, which made the device not crash, but the downloads still couldn't keep up to my internet connection. I'm not sure how well a synology would work, but it can't be worse than an old Raspberry Pi. I just use an old PC with a couple 1 TB disks stuck in it. There's more power friendly stuff if old PCs are too power hungry. An NUC or simlar box is under $200 without storage, and can run whatever server software you want.
Slashdot Mirror
Similar to Panopticlick. Even just information that is easily available from your web browser can narrow you down to a specific machine. Who needs to store cookies on machines when you can pretty much identify the machine uniquely anyway.
As an avid cyclist, I'm quite aware that there's almost no end to how much you can spend on cycling. The fact that there exist bikes that cost $15,000 off the shelf speaks volumes about the cycling market.
I also, cycle to work, which helps with the costs. But what also helps with the costs is realizing that you probably don't need most of the stuff they are trying to sell you. I pad $900 for my bike, and I've had it for 4 summers, and it's still in excellent condition. I'll probably ride it for another 4 years before I feel the need to upgrade. I could probably use the bike for 20 years before I would need to replace the frame. All the other parts can be replaced for a decently low cost as none of the parts on my bike are particularly high end, even though they function perfectly fine.
This kind of stuff is the reason I never re-use passwords across services. All my passwords are randomly generated and stored by KeePass. Sure, it's a little less convenient to have to unlock the password safe in order to get into services, rather than just type in something you've already memorized. But, it's the only way to be sure that having your password compromised on one service won't compromise an account on another service. Even if the service isn't externally compromised, there's probably a lot of systems out there where employees (DB administrators, programmers) can gain access to the passwords from various methods such as logs or unaudited code.
What's interesting is that we don't even know all the land mammals yet. I mean, I can understand not cataloging every virus, bacterium, insect, plant, and ocean animal, but the fact that there are so many undocumented land mammals and amphibians kind of blows my mind. There's so much left to discover in this world.
Let's look at it this way. The Windows Phone market share is larger than the Linux Desktop market share, and the games/apps for phones are considerably less complex than those of their desktop counterparts, for the most part. You still don't see app/game developers latching on to Windows Phone. It will take quite a few more people moving over to Linux for it to really gain any traction.
This is especially true since there are so many cheaper ways to get exercise. My local arena charges $2.50 to go skating. You can take a walk or go for a run basically for free, you just need a pair of shoes. Cycling can cost a bit more to get started, but you can get a working bike for not too much money off Craigslist, and it costs nothing for you to ride it.
You can get some decent exercise for just a fraction of what a gym membership costs. If you want to lift, pick up some cheap dumbbells from walmart and get started. Sure it won't be sufficient for the fitness maniacs who like to spend 10+ hours at the gym every week, but they are probably getting their money's worth from the membership. If you just want to get in shape, and do some mild exercise, it costs almost nothing. I never understood why anybody would want to pay for a gym membership and then never use it when there are so many better options.
Personally I'm OK with paying for a music subscription. There's so much music out there, that I couldn't hope to own even a tiny fraction of the good stuff if I was buying everything by the album. Music services cost about $10 a month. For that I'd be lucky if I could buy a single album every month. After 10 years of buying 1 album a month, I would still only have 120 albums. That's a pretty small selection of music as far as I'm concerned. Esepcially when you consider that you wouldn't always select the best option 100% of the time. After 10 years, probably only 80% (96) of the albums would be worth listening to. And that's being generous as far as how good I am at picking up albums. Then there's the problem of multiple good albums coming out in the same month. Do you buy 3 albums one month, and spend a lot of money, leaving you with no new albums for the next 2 months? Or you could just pay $10 and have access to just about everything.
Right now, my only complaint is that they don't have absolutely everything. I think there would be a decent market for a service that cost $20 and had absolutely everything, but the music labels won't let that happen. It would probably even be a good deal at $30. Same goes for Netflix. I would probably pay many more times the current rate if they had everything. $40 or $50. Most people were/are paying more than that for cable already, and they still weren't getting everything.
I think that all media bought on subscription is a pretty good deal, provided it makes it cheaper to access more. Personally I don't ever tend to read a book more than once, because it takes so much more time than any other kind of media, and there's just so much good content out there. I really don't see any value in owning a book.
Notch doesn't seem to be doing too well with his fortune.
If you're really that paranoid about the phone spying on you, it's probably better just to leave the phone behind. I mean, what's to stop them from placing a smaller secondary battery that still powers necessary components for snooping when you yank the battery? Are you going to completely disassemble the phone to make sure it's not there? You're better off just leaving it at home for your ultra secret espionage excursions.
Personally I can't believe that smartphone prices are as high as they are. iPhones and high end Samsung devices are going for $700 or more. That a lot of money to spend on a basic computer for your pocket. I get a lot of value out of my phone, but I still am very happy with my $250 phone. I really don't see why some people think they need to spend so much to get a decent phone. There's a lot of cheaper phones on the market, and it doesn't seem to be doing much to stop people from buying iPhones or Samsung phones. I don't think this tablet will change that.
Most people don't have 19 inch TV screens anymore. And even then, I think it would make only a minimal amount of difference, even for my 50 inch TV. It's amazing how much better the stereo effects are when I put on my headphones to watch a movie, as opposed to using my TV speakers.
Racing bikes tend to be more difficult to handle. Doubly so if they are equipped with aero bars. They are meant for highly skilled riders to move at high speeds. Compared to older road bikes, or something like a touring bike which can still go plenty fast but aren't quite as twitchy.
I would just enjoy your life. So he says he found somebody who was afraid of his lifestyle. Find somebody else who isn't. Don't waste your time moping about other people. Find something to do with your life that makes you happy without requiring other people. Somebody like Notch, although rich, isn't a huge face in the media, and can probably stay under the radar in most circumstances. Very few people are actually going to recognize him unless he wants to be recognized.
I'm all for helping little guys get started, but it's amazing how much they miss out on. Even high profile projects (like the Raspberry Pi) seem to miss out on things like FCC/CE/UL certifications.
Another one that I like to point out is the Ouya. They were trying to deliver an Android Box, a controller, and a custom Android build and marketplace for the same price that most other companies were asking for just an Android Box. It was pretty easy to tell from the start that they were going to have to cut a lot of corners on the product to meet the price they advertised.
That's my whole point. I think it would better. I'd much rather have the option of paying $40 for 30 Mbit than pay $70 for 1000 Mbit. Sure I'd be paying only a little less for a lot less speed, but I really don't see much advantage in having a faster connection past a certain point. I'd rather take the $30 a month ($360 a year), and spend it on something else I'd appreciate more.
Also, I misread the pricing on the cheaper option. The $25 a month isn't every month. It's $300 at sign up, or $25 a month for the first year. There is 0 monthly fee. You can choose to pay the $300 all at once, or in 12 monthly payments.
Some utilities really should be metered this way. Our city started a big initiative to cut water usage. We have a huge surplus of fresh water, so there's no reason to limit usage, but it was an effort that made them look good to the uninformed public. Since they bill on usage, when the water usage went down, the amount they collected in usage fees went down. However, the cost of operating water treatment did not go down. Water treatment is mostly fixed costs, with very little of the cost varying with the amount of water you need to process. So the next year they had to double everybody's water rates so that they had enough money to operate the treatment facility.
Yeah, I misread that. It's $300 to start, or you can opt to pay $25 a month for 12 months, totaling $300. Then it's $0 every month thereafter.
Still, my point stands. 5 mbit isn't really fast enough, so your only other option is to pay $70 a month for gigabit speeds. I'd rather pay half that, even if I could only get 100 mbit (one tenth the speed, for half the price).
You're right. Given the choice, I would rather spend $70 and get a gigabit connection than spend the same and get a 75 Mbps line for the same price. However, if the incumbent telco had an option for 30 mbit per second for $50 or less, then I would really hesitate to sign up for Google Fiber, because I'm not convinced it would make that much of a difference in my day to day life. Whereas the $240 saved for choosing the $50 option would make a more reasonable difference in my life. Currently I have internet at 30 Mbps, and I really don't see much of a reason to have faster internet at this point in time for my house. And that's with 3 kids who all like to watch different videos at the same time. 30 Mbps is pretty must fast enough for the content that's currently available.
Why not just have a cell phone app. Open the app, see a list of easy to order items, click on the items you want to order and hit send. That's it. Very simple to use, and the user knows that their order went through. You can also alert them of any number of inventory problems. You can also make it work for any item you sell, not just a very small number of products that you think somebody might want to order frequently. If you figure out the frequency with which they order the item based on their account history, you could automatically send them notifications asking if they would like to order more.
Price is always my main issue with these super fast lines. Google Fiber even has it's problems with pricing. You can either pay $70 a month for Gigabit speeds, or pay $300 to start plus $25 a year for 5 mbit speeds. Why not have an option in the middle somewhere. 1 Gbps is way more than I need, but 5 Mbps is on the cusp of being too slow for my tastes. Why not have a $30-$40 a month option for 100 Mbps? My guess is that nobody would really pay for gigabit if given another cheaper option with reasonable speeds. By making the only options $70 a month or slow internet, you can get a lot more money out of people.
I get a lot of value out of my internet, but it seems that all the providers seem to gouge us by not offering pricing tiers that are beneficial to the end user, but offering the pricing tiers that will yield them the most money. Which is fine, I understand they are a businesses, and that's their duty, but I wish there was more competition, and less collusion among companies.
I shouldn't have to mod the OS to get basic functionality that should be there already.
Yeah, I think that variety is definitely the solution to a lot of RSI problems. Different people have different shaped bodies, and required different keyboards, mice, chairs, and other office equipment.
I personally find old fashioned, non-split keyboards much more comfortable, even though I spend a considerable amount of time typing on a keyboard. I also have my keyboard situated quite far into my desk. My keyboard is situated so that my entire forearm rests on the desk when typing. This changes all the generally understood "rules" for typing.
First rule is that you shouldn't rest your arms, and your hands shouldn't be resting on the table, but elevated. This is a problem for people that keep the keyboard close to them because it usually means their wrists are on the corner of the desk, cutting off circulation. When you rest you entire forearm on the desk, there isn't a whole lot of pressure in one spot, and your wrists actually stay elevated anyway.
The second "rule" is that you should use a split keyboard. With my keyboard so far from the edge of my desk, my arms and wrists are actually in a straight line. If I tried to have the keyboard closer to me, then sure, my wrists would be contorted sideways causing problems.
Yeah. I really hate Android and iOS on larger screens. Samsung has made some modifications to allow multiple apps at the same time, but it doesn't work for all apps. I understand that the next version of iOS is going to allow side by side apps on iPad like MS has with Windows 8. But both are pretty weak when you try to use them on such a large screen. Large touch screens is one place where Windows still has huge advantages.
Yeah. Seems like a much better solution. I've tried the Raspberry Pi solution before, and trying to use the SD card (Class 10) to store the torrent caused the raspberry Pi to crash. I tried a USB flash drive, which made the device not crash, but the downloads still couldn't keep up to my internet connection. I'm not sure how well a synology would work, but it can't be worse than an old Raspberry Pi. I just use an old PC with a couple 1 TB disks stuck in it. There's more power friendly stuff if old PCs are too power hungry. An NUC or simlar box is under $200 without storage, and can run whatever server software you want.
Personally I think split keyboards are extremely uncomfortable. I don't know why people prefer them to the old style.