An actual touchpad that was separate from the screen?
Not quite. A section of the screen was set aside for it. Not tried any of the ports recently, might give it another blast, I think it was an alpha/beta copy I tried. Took up a lot of storage space, so it got ditched after the initial "neat" factor had worn off.;-)
So the iPod alternative that you use, how much capacity does it have?
No HD unfortunately, so it's SD-RAM cards, got several. It does have WiFi and works with network shares, plus it can do just about anything you'd need, ssh, email, decent web browser. While I'm on the road, it will save carrying a laptop, which is something I don't want to be lugging around. I'd rather leave mine at home. With a SD-RAM digicam, I could upload photos/videos to my home box from anywhere. There are some neat tiny wifi access points that you can slot a laptop HD drive in, and have a portable network, but that just seems extreme, plus it's a battery hog on both devices. Hey, I love my gadgets!:-) I'd converted my CD-library to mp3 before Napster existed, for a PC jukebox. At 128kbits. That stung, took a while to redo!! My current jukebox at home is web controlled, by the pda or whatever PC I'm at. Couldn't do that with iTunes, unless they've added it since I last looked into it. With my media in network shares, I just change the music on the cards without needing to hook up to a PC, or even stream it directly over the web from anywhere on the planet with an above-modem speed connection.
Carrying several gadgets when you don't have to doesn't appeal to me. The reason I'm not so fond of the iPod is because it doesn't meet my needs and I guess I'm probably a little tainted by that. If it worked seemlessly over USB I'd be sold, but you have to install drivers, and getting the music back off is a bit of a hack. With my SD-RAM cards, at least I can pop them into my usb stick and directly access the files on any recent PC/mac. I like giving friends samples of new music when I'm out and about (+receiving!), and I have friends in far off places with iPods that have had the same music for a year that are itching for new stuff. It even worked out-the-box on all of my linux boxes, much to my surprise, no need for any installs. When you are at untrusted internet cafes, something simple is neccessary as you generally shouldn't be installing software, nor can you really trust them either. I'm not sure if iTunes has a kiosk function, but I doubt it. You'd need to associate the PC with the player, right? If it can interface a player directly with my PDA, even better, as I then get SSH with trusted host keys and encryption, never need to touch a dodgy PC, I'd imagine at the very least the majority are spyware laiden. Booking flights with a credit card? Yikes!
Carrying an iPod (for me) would mean having two completely separate devices that could never talk to each other. That just seems wrong. Plus, I've had an mp3 phone for a long time, and just having it there all the time is very convient. With another device, you have to remember to bring it. If you are going out clubbing, you don't want to be leaving it in the cloakroom. I live in Glasgow, which like any large city can be a little scary at times especially as the clubs all have to close at a mandated time and the steets are full of drunk people. Popping earphones in actually helps, as you don't get the random chat that most conflicts develop from. Just set your eyes on the horizon and march. Unless they want to steal your player that is! Just having it there all the time is great, I find I walk places a lot more rather than drive/buses/cabs etc in general life.
Finally, I'm not a fan of DRM. People who have bought music from iTunes are restricted to only playing that music on Apple approved devices. Complete vendor lock-in. That's just wrong, and I personally hope that ultimately laws will be passed to force compatibility. The issue has already been getting minor rumbles in the media, but nothing big.
Sorry for the long post, but I thought you'd deserved me justifying why I'm not an iPod fan. For many, they are their first intro into portable media and I'm sure they rock. But really, there is nothing really new that they do, nor do they do anything in a more consumer-rights friendly way.
in the Bosnian conflict when the European nations were all to chicken-shit to clean up their own backyards. Yeah, everybody liked America then. But fast-forward a few years.
Where you brought up to believe that performing one good deed absolves you from a bad deed later down the line?
Attacking Iraq was completely out of order. It was entirely unjustified, based on lies that were called out and changed time and time again. The country is in chaos, 26,000 civilians are dead and a civil war is looking to be an almost definate.
Backed by a UN resolution, we attack a country that has continually supported terrorist and constantly beat the war drum.
The UN resolution did not advocate outright invasion. Besides, there are other countries with far more resolutions against them, for far greater crimes. You aren't attacking them, as you supply their millitary. Saddam has not "constantly supported terrorism", that is an outright lie. There are zero Al Qaida links to Iraq and Saddam, except for a few camps in the north that were enemies of his. He did send some money to the family of a suicide bomber in Palestine. As for war drum, bullshit. He was completely contained with zero war capability, with his country surrounded by some of the best trained solders on the planet. He was only war-like when he was an ally of yours. You encouraged him to attack Iran, and he asked for and got your permission to invade Kuwait.
Well, apparently in the latter situation the EU leaders were getting sizable kickbacks from the oil-for-food program, and didn't like the faucet being turned off on them.
That is such an unbelivable attitude to have. It's also indicative of the fact you know little about this. There were many American companies involved in the oil-for-food scandal, some with close political links to your leaders.
I'll conceed there are perhaps a handful of people on the planet who opposed the Iraq invasion because of personal gain from the status quo. Who they are, no one knows because they certainally weren't in positions of power. I, like most of the others, opposed it because:
There were no WMD, and everyone knew this, including the experts. Bush supposedly had secret intel, which has never been released
They have no Al Qaida connections, nor did they have any connections to any other groups. Saddam made a couple of donations to the families palestinion suicide bombers, but what world leader hasn't dropped some friendly terrorist some cash? (Northern Alliance?)
The war would only incide further terrorism and anti-western feeling. The london bombers specifically mentioned Iraq, but this did not get reported in our media much.
The people of Iraq would not accept a foreign "liberator" from their own entrenched government. History has countless examples of this.
Now, here's the clincher. We were right on every single one of these. But no, it's because someone who I don't even know the first thing about, is making some cash on the side.
But, "who am I to get in the way of your facism?"
You have little understanding of the word it seems. Otherwise, you'd be questioning your own current society. Facism is a state where what the goverment says, goes. People who disagree are called unpatriotic and other similar slurs. Sometimes they are encouraged to leave their country, in extreme cases they are forced to. The state is seen as more important than the individual. And finally, the ecconomy between the government and civilian industries is finely interwoven.
Sounds like the present US of A. Europe dropped facism after WW2, with your help. It's a shame to see it rise up again.
Yeah our citizens, as well as those of Spain, Indonesia, various African countries, Kosovo, Kuwait, Britain and many others around the world.
Which moron planted the seed in your mind that all terrorism is linked? In fact, don't answer that, because we know who it was and we know that it was intentional.;-) The events you speak of in those countries have very little to do with each other. 9-11 was due to your support of the Saudi government and the US troops on the ground there at the time (they'd been there since the first Gulf war). Britain got bombed because of our involvement in the Iraq war. Not all terrorism is Islamic, and even with those that are, they fight for different causes. The UK has just about ended the IRA terrorist conflict, and that has little to do with the Omaha events in the USA. They were all Christians though, correct?
It is a great honor and shows that we are doing the right thing when we are despised by the many evil doers around the world. The more that evil people hate you, the more it shows that you are good.
Sigh. You are doing nothing honorable around the world. Almost everything you do is 100% self interest, e.g. Iraq. Surely you don't buy the "fighting for democracy" thing? What about all of the dictatorships you are allied with, for example the aforementioned Saudis? What about the billions upon billions already doled out to friendly corporations, and the wealth that access to the worlds second largest oil fields will bring over the next few decades? Google "peak oil" and learn how being in control of oil will become a strategic neccessity in the coming 50 years. Basically, the "easy to get at" (i.e. cheap) oil is running out, and costs of extraction and refinement is going to rise as the harder stuff starts to get used. This will impact the American ecconomy probably more than any other in the world.
Besides, Iraq was on the drawing board prior to 9-11 and this is beyond debate. It is also widely believed that without 9-11, public support for the war would never have been strong enough to begin it in the first place. That's probably the bigger tradegdy about that event; it's reprcussions have already claimed the lives of eight times as many innocents as died on that one day. To me, the loss of an Iraqi civilan is just as tragic as the loss of an American one.
America has always looked out for itself, just like any other nation. Historically this has been very discrete, with many CIA operations that are well known and well out of tinfoil hat territory. Recently, you've been doing it on a larger scale, with far bloodier and further reaching concequences. Anti-US terrorism has only been boosted by this war and Iraq had zero involvement with anti-US terrorism previously. There's a whole nation of potential hijackers now, baying for your blood. And mine now as well. Thanks Tony!
Kudos for the rapid response this week in Pakistan however. Though I did note that the PR machine was in full flow, with extended footage of the "US Army" stamp whereever it was seen. America invented the art of PR, and it shows!;-) It explains many of your citizens unfailing belief that anything your government does is rightous. Given the outright corruption in both our countries politics (contributions, no-bid contracts etc), how can you so blindly trust them?
Most reviews of "mp3 phones" complain about a total lack of synergy - it is _exactly_ the sum of it's parts.
I completely agree. I've used many different devices like that over the years. My present one is pretty good, though there is always room for improvement. For example, on my last phone you could read a text message, hit reply and get a choice of e-mail, fax, land-line call, mobile call and of course text to communicate back. It brought all the functions of phone/text and email together in a seemless interface. My present one does not work like that; it's obvious that the text messaging was added into an existing software package as an after-thought. It lacks this linking, e.g. text is on a different, extended menu. I do forgive it however, because auto-pausing music for a call is brilliant, the headset (wired) has a single button to answer so you don't even need to take it out your pocket. It does however increase the accusing glances implying some sort of schizophrenia disorder.
If you are claiming that you need to carry around more than 7 weeks continuous playing time on your portable music player, then I'm sorry but I don't believe you.
Perhaps if you are planning to go abroad for several years and are really really fanatical about music? I am. And as I said, it would be nice to have backup that was out of the house when I wasn't there while I'm living here. Fire etc. My music library is that important to me, but so is a lot of other data on that HD. Definately on my "get it out the house" list in event of disaster.
We're going to have to disagree on the reason behind it's success. iPod was cool, having white earbuds was a fashion accessory (and a fantastic idea on behalf of the designers). It was wall-to-wall advertising in the lead up to the release. There were numerous adverts, with music that later went on to chart. Word of mouth helped, but iPod was the word on everyones lips at the time and it wasn't due to technical merit or UI design.
You don't suppose the reason why you had trouble with a big library was because you didn't have a scroll wheel do you?
No, it had that. It was running on a touch-screen device, so you could even click on the entries in the list over and above the base functionality. It was an almost-complete implementation of a particular revision of the firmware. That's why they got cease-and-desisted into oblivion. The only thing missing from the scroll-wheel was the tactile "roundness" of it, but drawing my thumb in circles on the screen wasn't an issue. I rarely use the stylus anyways.
Buy yes, you and the others are right, I can't judge the iPod on just this. I have actually used one you know, the UI is good (an Apple trademark feature), but it's nothing to get a hard-on over. Really. My point was that given the choice of the Apple interface, I'm not using it.
Big libraries are no problem at all on a real iPod.
Really? The only reason I have never bought one is because they don't make one big enough for my music library. Perhaps we differ on the definition of a "big library"?;-) If they brought one out that was big enough, I'd likely buy it just to create a third copy of my collection to keep in the car (i.e. not at home where the primary and backup are).
Sure, the aestheric designs and the marketing have been unsurpassed, but if they were based on a empty promise, on a player that isn't such a delight to use as the iPod, the marketing wouldn't have worked.
Nonsense. The people who tended to buy iPods (and those who it was marketed to) were not the "try before you buy" type, nor were they the kind who researched other brands. They call any mp3 player "an iPod". Sure, many IT literate people bought one, but they are the minority.
and no one else before or since has done such a seamless integration of music store, computer and music player.
Yes, that's defo a good plus point, however no one has marketed any mp3 device until the iPod. It's success is down to it's marketing, nothing more. It doesn't matter how good it is; if folk don't know it exists, they won't want it. The iPod was selling out as it hit the stores. That doesn't come from word-of-mouth or hands-on experience as you suggest.
Mine is a touchpad actually, and the FPS's do use it for control. I'm not really a fan of that approach, perhaps practice is key? Doom, I dunno if it was out on Java, the one I had on my phone was a native binary. Cough cough Windows Mobile, yah, it's MS, but they make the best phone OS unfortunately. It's essentially a pocket computer, not much you can't do on it.
I don't rate the navigation system on the iPod. I have an iPod UI clone "pPod" (no longer legally obtainable) on my phone. It's nice and all, but it's a bit kludgy, especially if you have a large library. I much prefer the other media players that are available.
Plus, gotta love the Apple-modding-zealotry!!;-) "He said bad things about Apple, mod him down!!!"...
Or, you could try Quake III, which is pretty new. Only 5fps at the moment, but they are starting to add support for GFX chips, that ought to bring it up to spec.
Not a fan of FPS on the mobile to be honest, mouse beats joypad, and joypad beats phone keypad. Gimmie Tetris on the gameboy emulator, or perhaps Age Of Empires for most of my mobile gaming.
Personally, I'd rather have phone that actually makes good phone calls and an mp3 player that plays mp3s instead of depending on one device to do both, but that's just me.
Why? There is no reason why a combined device cannot be just as good as the separate ones. Plus, combining saves carrying around data-leads, power cables, two headsets and all of the other stuff. Also, by doubling as my phone, it's insured. If it breaks, gets stolen or whatever, I can have a courier drop off a replacement within 24 hours, then after a 5 min backup-restore, my device is exactly as it used to be.
Besides, the media players automatically pauses the song when you get a call, then starts it again when you hang up. All using the same headset. You just don't get little usability tweaks like that on separate devices.
Which part of the iPod did Apple "innovate", in comparison to the "non-innovative" companies you mention? The companies that were selling portible media devices before Apple had though of adding "Pod" to it's i-naming scheme? The ones that offer cheaper, bigger, more functional, faster and smaller? Without DRM and obscuration restricting access to your own media on the device? Ones without needs for drivers?
All that Apple have done is mount an incredibly successful marketing campaign, that hit at just the right time. Technically, the iPod isn't all that. Looks pretty though.
If someone has money, then that money can be turned into political clout. Period. As long as people can write newspaper columns or own and edit newspapers, they can be paid to support one candidate or another, directly or indirectly. To prevent this from happening would require enormous restrictions on individual liberty.
That may be, but giving money to a political party is different. Newspapers influnce opinion, which may influence policy. A direct contribution directly influences policy, and that is fundamentally undemocratic.
Campaign contributions are double-speak for political bribes. It constantly amazes me that the idea of bribing a politian is wrong, but financing his "campaign" is OK. Of course, those who should report on these bribes (the media) are just as guilty of giving them. So, the common man has absolutely no idea what's going on.
I have a simple solution. Follow the Formula 1 model. If a party accepts money from a company, they should be forced to wear the companies logo on their shirt/jacket. The bigger the donation, the bigger the logo. Then everyone will know where they are coming from. For example, Dick Cheeney should be wearing a Harliburton uniform.
Fat chance of it ever happening. Those who abuse the system are those who control it.
Most of the US bashing is just plain envy and jealously over money. Money buys oil and a arms and a lot of other things.
26,000 dead civilians amist billions in profit, support of Saddam and evil countries like Saudi and Israel (who you illegally gave nukes, BTW), largest funder of global terrorism (until 2001), continual meddling in other countries democratic elections, and the routine toppling of governments. All while presenting an image of the worlds righteous saviour.
Yeah, it's jealosy alright. Those who don't like the US's actions just have a better knowledge of history. Hollywood history not withstanding of course, but that's the image you have of your country and who am I to get in the way of your facism?
Sure, some don't like you because they are small-minded and have been brought up do to so, in the same way that you hate at least six nations due to your educational programming. However, some, like me, used to like the USA. Then 9/11 happened, we started asking questions, reading history books. And you know what? Half the world has a perfectly valid reason to dispise you. And that my friend is your biggest problem. If you fuel the hate with more profitable wars, more of your citizens will suffer from terrorism. But it's not going to affect anyone in DC, anyone that matters, so who cares, right?
but not when it lets brutal dictators continue to terrorize there country
What about the brutal dictators you do support? Of which Saddam used to be one, during the phase when most of his crimes were commited. I think you miss the point of this thread fork; we don't trust a word your leaders say nowadays, and with good reason. Iraq was about oil, plain and simple. Follow the money. The justification switched several times between numerous bogus claims, each proven to be false. Not getting involved in Iraq wasn't spineless, it was common sense. It's been a disaster, and will continue to get worse as the country decends into civil war. Which is what the sensible people predicted. 26,000 civilians dead and rising steadily. Unfortunately, my "leaders" sat shotgun with you on this one...
Won't happen. Switching where.com resolves to a country-specific (e.g.).com.de would break a large portion of the links on the web. The links make it what it is, and rendering a whole bunch of them dead would result in uproar.
I apologise. I assumed you were just another mindless person who moans about China without any sense of perspective. The topic is full of them, but you got the "reply to this" vent of rage. Many people live in a delusion that because their society is "more free" than, say China, that anything they do is justified. Meanwhile, their own country is restrictive (or outright corrupt) in it's own under-the-carpet way, with the public more focused on the evils of a far off land. Besides, "anti-commie", that's so old fashioned!;-)
However, I really don't agree with your suggestion that the creation of an addiction clinic in China is in some way related to the great firewall. Internet addition isn't new to us, and I've read of numerous problems folk they have had, and there are numerous clinic/specialists in the west claiming to deal with it. It's this automatic "oppression!!" reaction that winds me up, as many people are blind to it in their own country.
Has China got a reputation for ECT? I've never heard of it being practiced over there. Here in the west...well, that's an entirely different story. But hey, don't let reality get in the way of your baseless racism!;-)
The problem is with the length of time spent online, not the content moran. But for all of China's propaganda, it's nice to see you are repeating your own countries propaganda verbatim. Hint: your own government is just as secretive, and your own media ain't much better. And yes, I don't know where you are from, this applies everywhere. The purpose of propaganda is to make you feel your system is right while the other guy's is wrong.
Why do you hate China? Is it because you have researched the issues and came to the conclusion yourself? Or is it because you were brought up to? No different from religion; "my system, the one I was born into, is the only true system". Yawn.
If the manufacturer of the goods provides a free guarantee with the goods, this creates a contractual obligation by the guarantor. If the manufacturer fails to honour the guarantee, you could sue the manufacturer for the promises he makes. A guarantee is extra to your rights under the Sale of Goods Act. In some circumstances, you may have a claim under the guarantee, but find that a claim under the Sale of Goods Act would be difficult to prove, or vice versa. You may also in some circumstances have a claim against both, and therefore have a choice of who to claim against. If you are unsure seek advice from your local Trading Standards Service.
A trader or manufacturer is under no obligation to provide a guarantee, and if they do, they can specify any time span, for example six months, twelve months or three years. They can also specify what is to be covered by the guarantee, and exclude certain parts, or wear and tear. They cannot, however, take away any rights you would have under the Sale of Goods Act
The above is UK law, and there are several other laws covering this area. See here. Trading Standards are a good bunch of people, I've had some great advice from them over the years, very helpful. They will take up the case for you and contact the shop/manufacturer on behalf of you (no charge). This is really useful as they have way more clout than any consumer would have. However, saying terms like "Sale of Goods Act" or "Fit for Purpose" will normally make the sales droid stop trying to fob you off.
Nah, he'd just enact Web-Regime Change, by aquiring the company in a hostile takeover and getting rid of those that disagree with his ideas for their future...;-)
Not so. These defects are such as to make the products unmerchantable*, which gives the buyer (in this case the manufacturers) a bunch of rights that would cost Sony a lot more if they were exercised.
Which was my exact first thought. Here under UK law, they would still have to fix them for you even if the camera was up to 5 or 6 years old. It's all about how long you would "reasonably" expect something to last. The whole "manufacturers one year warranty" thing exists to confuse consumers as to how much of a legal warranty they already get for free. Many a time have they tried to hit me with the "out of warranty" excuse on expensive items that have died after just over a year.
* the equivalent magic phrase here in the UK is "fit for purpose".
Damn thing is he probably IS reading a sample of letters/faxes/emails but not a RANDOM sample.
This is a common problem when you have peons filtering for you, in fact it happens whenever you let anyone filter your information, be it commercial television, unethical staff, or simply those who spend way too much time watching their own asses!
The problem is worse when you select people based on their filters. Environmental policy for one; the guy at the head of the US office used to work for asbestos and power industry! That's like hiring Dogbert to action the employee morale suggestion box...
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Not quite. A section of the screen was set aside for it. Not tried any of the ports recently, might give it another blast, I think it was an alpha/beta copy I tried. Took up a lot of storage space, so it got ditched after the initial "neat" factor had worn off. ;-)
No HD unfortunately, so it's SD-RAM cards, got several. It does have WiFi and works with network shares, plus it can do just about anything you'd need, ssh, email, decent web browser. While I'm on the road, it will save carrying a laptop, which is something I don't want to be lugging around. I'd rather leave mine at home. With a SD-RAM digicam, I could upload photos/videos to my home box from anywhere. There are some neat tiny wifi access points that you can slot a laptop HD drive in, and have a portable network, but that just seems extreme, plus it's a battery hog on both devices. Hey, I love my gadgets! :-) I'd converted my CD-library to mp3 before Napster existed, for a PC jukebox. At 128kbits. That stung, took a while to redo!! My current jukebox at home is web controlled, by the pda or whatever PC I'm at. Couldn't do that with iTunes, unless they've added it since I last looked into it. With my media in network shares, I just change the music on the cards without needing to hook up to a PC, or even stream it directly over the web from anywhere on the planet with an above-modem speed connection.
Carrying several gadgets when you don't have to doesn't appeal to me. The reason I'm not so fond of the iPod is because it doesn't meet my needs and I guess I'm probably a little tainted by that. If it worked seemlessly over USB I'd be sold, but you have to install drivers, and getting the music back off is a bit of a hack. With my SD-RAM cards, at least I can pop them into my usb stick and directly access the files on any recent PC/mac. I like giving friends samples of new music when I'm out and about (+receiving!), and I have friends in far off places with iPods that have had the same music for a year that are itching for new stuff. It even worked out-the-box on all of my linux boxes, much to my surprise, no need for any installs. When you are at untrusted internet cafes, something simple is neccessary as you generally shouldn't be installing software, nor can you really trust them either. I'm not sure if iTunes has a kiosk function, but I doubt it. You'd need to associate the PC with the player, right? If it can interface a player directly with my PDA, even better, as I then get SSH with trusted host keys and encryption, never need to touch a dodgy PC, I'd imagine at the very least the majority are spyware laiden. Booking flights with a credit card? Yikes!
Carrying an iPod (for me) would mean having two completely separate devices that could never talk to each other. That just seems wrong. Plus, I've had an mp3 phone for a long time, and just having it there all the time is very convient. With another device, you have to remember to bring it. If you are going out clubbing, you don't want to be leaving it in the cloakroom. I live in Glasgow, which like any large city can be a little scary at times especially as the clubs all have to close at a mandated time and the steets are full of drunk people. Popping earphones in actually helps, as you don't get the random chat that most conflicts develop from. Just set your eyes on the horizon and march. Unless they want to steal your player that is! Just having it there all the time is great, I find I walk places a lot more rather than drive/buses/cabs etc in general life.
Finally, I'm not a fan of DRM. People who have bought music from iTunes are restricted to only playing that music on Apple approved devices. Complete vendor lock-in. That's just wrong, and I personally hope that ultimately laws will be passed to force compatibility. The issue has already been getting minor rumbles in the media, but nothing big.
Sorry for the long post, but I thought you'd deserved me justifying why I'm not an iPod fan. For many, they are their first intro into portable media and I'm sure they rock. But really, there is nothing really new that they do, nor do they do anything in a more consumer-rights friendly way.
Where you brought up to believe that performing one good deed absolves you from a bad deed later down the line?
Attacking Iraq was completely out of order. It was entirely unjustified, based on lies that were called out and changed time and time again. The country is in chaos, 26,000 civilians are dead and a civil war is looking to be an almost definate.
Backed by a UN resolution, we attack a country that has continually supported terrorist and constantly beat the war drum.
The UN resolution did not advocate outright invasion. Besides, there are other countries with far more resolutions against them, for far greater crimes. You aren't attacking them, as you supply their millitary. Saddam has not "constantly supported terrorism", that is an outright lie. There are zero Al Qaida links to Iraq and Saddam, except for a few camps in the north that were enemies of his. He did send some money to the family of a suicide bomber in Palestine. As for war drum, bullshit. He was completely contained with zero war capability, with his country surrounded by some of the best trained solders on the planet. He was only war-like when he was an ally of yours. You encouraged him to attack Iran, and he asked for and got your permission to invade Kuwait.
Well, apparently in the latter situation the EU leaders were getting sizable kickbacks from the oil-for-food program, and didn't like the faucet being turned off on them.
That is such an unbelivable attitude to have. It's also indicative of the fact you know little about this. There were many American companies involved in the oil-for-food scandal, some with close political links to your leaders.
I'll conceed there are perhaps a handful of people on the planet who opposed the Iraq invasion because of personal gain from the status quo. Who they are, no one knows because they certainally weren't in positions of power. I, like most of the others, opposed it because:
Now, here's the clincher. We were right on every single one of these. But no, it's because someone who I don't even know the first thing about, is making some cash on the side.
But, "who am I to get in the way of your facism?"
You have little understanding of the word it seems. Otherwise, you'd be questioning your own current society. Facism is a state where what the goverment says, goes. People who disagree are called unpatriotic and other similar slurs. Sometimes they are encouraged to leave their country, in extreme cases they are forced to. The state is seen as more important than the individual. And finally, the ecconomy between the government and civilian industries is finely interwoven.
Sounds like the present US of A. Europe dropped facism after WW2, with your help. It's a shame to see it rise up again.
Which moron planted the seed in your mind that all terrorism is linked? In fact, don't answer that, because we know who it was and we know that it was intentional. ;-) The events you speak of in those countries have very little to do with each other. 9-11 was due to your support of the Saudi government and the US troops on the ground there at the time (they'd been there since the first Gulf war). Britain got bombed because of our involvement in the Iraq war. Not all terrorism is Islamic, and even with those that are, they fight for different causes. The UK has just about ended the IRA terrorist conflict, and that has little to do with the Omaha events in the USA. They were all Christians though, correct?
It is a great honor and shows that we are doing the right thing when we are despised by the many evil doers around the world. The more that evil people hate you, the more it shows that you are good.
Sigh. You are doing nothing honorable around the world. Almost everything you do is 100% self interest, e.g. Iraq. Surely you don't buy the "fighting for democracy" thing? What about all of the dictatorships you are allied with, for example the aforementioned Saudis? What about the billions upon billions already doled out to friendly corporations, and the wealth that access to the worlds second largest oil fields will bring over the next few decades? Google "peak oil" and learn how being in control of oil will become a strategic neccessity in the coming 50 years. Basically, the "easy to get at" (i.e. cheap) oil is running out, and costs of extraction and refinement is going to rise as the harder stuff starts to get used. This will impact the American ecconomy probably more than any other in the world.
Besides, Iraq was on the drawing board prior to 9-11 and this is beyond debate. It is also widely believed that without 9-11, public support for the war would never have been strong enough to begin it in the first place. That's probably the bigger tradegdy about that event; it's reprcussions have already claimed the lives of eight times as many innocents as died on that one day. To me, the loss of an Iraqi civilan is just as tragic as the loss of an American one.
America has always looked out for itself, just like any other nation. Historically this has been very discrete, with many CIA operations that are well known and well out of tinfoil hat territory. Recently, you've been doing it on a larger scale, with far bloodier and further reaching concequences. Anti-US terrorism has only been boosted by this war and Iraq had zero involvement with anti-US terrorism previously. There's a whole nation of potential hijackers now, baying for your blood. And mine now as well. Thanks Tony!
Kudos for the rapid response this week in Pakistan however. Though I did note that the PR machine was in full flow, with extended footage of the "US Army" stamp whereever it was seen. America invented the art of PR, and it shows! ;-) It explains many of your citizens unfailing belief that anything your government does is rightous. Given the outright corruption in both our countries politics (contributions, no-bid contracts etc), how can you so blindly trust them?
I completely agree. I've used many different devices like that over the years. My present one is pretty good, though there is always room for improvement. For example, on my last phone you could read a text message, hit reply and get a choice of e-mail, fax, land-line call, mobile call and of course text to communicate back. It brought all the functions of phone/text and email together in a seemless interface. My present one does not work like that; it's obvious that the text messaging was added into an existing software package as an after-thought. It lacks this linking, e.g. text is on a different, extended menu. I do forgive it however, because auto-pausing music for a call is brilliant, the headset (wired) has a single button to answer so you don't even need to take it out your pocket. It does however increase the accusing glances implying some sort of schizophrenia disorder.
Perhaps if you are planning to go abroad for several years and are really really fanatical about music? I am. And as I said, it would be nice to have backup that was out of the house when I wasn't there while I'm living here. Fire etc. My music library is that important to me, but so is a lot of other data on that HD. Definately on my "get it out the house" list in event of disaster.
We're going to have to disagree on the reason behind it's success. iPod was cool, having white earbuds was a fashion accessory (and a fantastic idea on behalf of the designers). It was wall-to-wall advertising in the lead up to the release. There were numerous adverts, with music that later went on to chart. Word of mouth helped, but iPod was the word on everyones lips at the time and it wasn't due to technical merit or UI design.
No, it had that. It was running on a touch-screen device, so you could even click on the entries in the list over and above the base functionality. It was an almost-complete implementation of a particular revision of the firmware. That's why they got cease-and-desisted into oblivion. The only thing missing from the scroll-wheel was the tactile "roundness" of it, but drawing my thumb in circles on the screen wasn't an issue. I rarely use the stylus anyways.
Buy yes, you and the others are right, I can't judge the iPod on just this. I have actually used one you know, the UI is good (an Apple trademark feature), but it's nothing to get a hard-on over. Really. My point was that given the choice of the Apple interface, I'm not using it.
Big libraries are no problem at all on a real iPod.
Really? The only reason I have never bought one is because they don't make one big enough for my music library. Perhaps we differ on the definition of a "big library"? ;-) If they brought one out that was big enough, I'd likely buy it just to create a third copy of my collection to keep in the car (i.e. not at home where the primary and backup are).
Nonsense. The people who tended to buy iPods (and those who it was marketed to) were not the "try before you buy" type, nor were they the kind who researched other brands. They call any mp3 player "an iPod". Sure, many IT literate people bought one, but they are the minority.
and no one else before or since has done such a seamless integration of music store, computer and music player.
Yes, that's defo a good plus point, however no one has marketed any mp3 device until the iPod. It's success is down to it's marketing, nothing more. It doesn't matter how good it is; if folk don't know it exists, they won't want it. The iPod was selling out as it hit the stores. That doesn't come from word-of-mouth or hands-on experience as you suggest.
Mine is a touchpad actually, and the FPS's do use it for control. I'm not really a fan of that approach, perhaps practice is key? Doom, I dunno if it was out on Java, the one I had on my phone was a native binary. Cough cough Windows Mobile, yah, it's MS, but they make the best phone OS unfortunately. It's essentially a pocket computer, not much you can't do on it.
Plus, gotta love the Apple-modding-zealotry!! ;-) "He said bad things about Apple, mod him down!!!"...
Pocket Quake
Or, you could try Quake III, which is pretty new. Only 5fps at the moment, but they are starting to add support for GFX chips, that ought to bring it up to spec.
Not a fan of FPS on the mobile to be honest, mouse beats joypad, and joypad beats phone keypad. Gimmie Tetris on the gameboy emulator, or perhaps Age Of Empires for most of my mobile gaming.
Why? There is no reason why a combined device cannot be just as good as the separate ones. Plus, combining saves carrying around data-leads, power cables, two headsets and all of the other stuff. Also, by doubling as my phone, it's insured. If it breaks, gets stolen or whatever, I can have a courier drop off a replacement within 24 hours, then after a 5 min backup-restore, my device is exactly as it used to be.
Besides, the media players automatically pauses the song when you get a call, then starts it again when you hang up. All using the same headset. You just don't get little usability tweaks like that on separate devices.
All that Apple have done is mount an incredibly successful marketing campaign, that hit at just the right time. Technically, the iPod isn't all that. Looks pretty though.
That may be, but giving money to a political party is different. Newspapers influnce opinion, which may influence policy. A direct contribution directly influences policy, and that is fundamentally undemocratic.
Campaign contributions are double-speak for political bribes. It constantly amazes me that the idea of bribing a politian is wrong, but financing his "campaign" is OK. Of course, those who should report on these bribes (the media) are just as guilty of giving them. So, the common man has absolutely no idea what's going on.
I have a simple solution. Follow the Formula 1 model. If a party accepts money from a company, they should be forced to wear the companies logo on their shirt/jacket. The bigger the donation, the bigger the logo. Then everyone will know where they are coming from. For example, Dick Cheeney should be wearing a Harliburton uniform.
Fat chance of it ever happening. Those who abuse the system are those who control it.
26,000 dead civilians amist billions in profit, support of Saddam and evil countries like Saudi and Israel (who you illegally gave nukes, BTW), largest funder of global terrorism (until 2001), continual meddling in other countries democratic elections, and the routine toppling of governments. All while presenting an image of the worlds righteous saviour.
Yeah, it's jealosy alright. Those who don't like the US's actions just have a better knowledge of history. Hollywood history not withstanding of course, but that's the image you have of your country and who am I to get in the way of your facism?
Sure, some don't like you because they are small-minded and have been brought up do to so, in the same way that you hate at least six nations due to your educational programming. However, some, like me, used to like the USA. Then 9/11 happened, we started asking questions, reading history books. And you know what? Half the world has a perfectly valid reason to dispise you. And that my friend is your biggest problem. If you fuel the hate with more profitable wars, more of your citizens will suffer from terrorism. But it's not going to affect anyone in DC, anyone that matters, so who cares, right?
What about the brutal dictators you do support? Of which Saddam used to be one, during the phase when most of his crimes were commited. I think you miss the point of this thread fork; we don't trust a word your leaders say nowadays, and with good reason. Iraq was about oil, plain and simple. Follow the money. The justification switched several times between numerous bogus claims, each proven to be false. Not getting involved in Iraq wasn't spineless, it was common sense. It's been a disaster, and will continue to get worse as the country decends into civil war. Which is what the sensible people predicted. 26,000 civilians dead and rising steadily. Unfortunately, my "leaders" sat shotgun with you on this one...
Won't happen. Switching where .com resolves to a country-specific (e.g.) .com.de would break a large portion of the links on the web. The links make it what it is, and rendering a whole bunch of them dead would result in uproar.
However, I really don't agree with your suggestion that the creation of an addiction clinic in China is in some way related to the great firewall. Internet addition isn't new to us, and I've read of numerous problems folk they have had, and there are numerous clinic/specialists in the west claiming to deal with it. It's this automatic "oppression!!" reaction that winds me up, as many people are blind to it in their own country.
Thanks for clarifying. Are you like a crack UK/Austrailian trade dispute warrior or something? ;-)
Has China got a reputation for ECT? I've never heard of it being practiced over there. Here in the west...well, that's an entirely different story. But hey, don't let reality get in the way of your baseless racism! ;-)
Why do you hate China? Is it because you have researched the issues and came to the conclusion yourself? Or is it because you were brought up to? No different from religion; "my system, the one I was born into, is the only true system". Yawn.
From UK Trading Standards
The above is UK law, and there are several other laws covering this area. See here. Trading Standards are a good bunch of people, I've had some great advice from them over the years, very helpful. They will take up the case for you and contact the shop/manufacturer on behalf of you (no charge). This is really useful as they have way more clout than any consumer would have. However, saying terms like "Sale of Goods Act" or "Fit for Purpose" will normally make the sales droid stop trying to fob you off.
Nah, he'd just enact Web-Regime Change, by aquiring the company in a hostile takeover and getting rid of those that disagree with his ideas for their future... ;-)
Not so. These defects are such as to make the products unmerchantable*, which gives the buyer (in this case the manufacturers) a bunch of rights that would cost Sony a lot more if they were exercised.
Which was my exact first thought. Here under UK law, they would still have to fix them for you even if the camera was up to 5 or 6 years old. It's all about how long you would "reasonably" expect something to last. The whole "manufacturers one year warranty" thing exists to confuse consumers as to how much of a legal warranty they already get for free. Many a time have they tried to hit me with the "out of warranty" excuse on expensive items that have died after just over a year.
* the equivalent magic phrase here in the UK is "fit for purpose".
This is a common problem when you have peons filtering for you, in fact it happens whenever you let anyone filter your information, be it commercial television, unethical staff, or simply those who spend way too much time watching their own asses!
The problem is worse when you select people based on their filters. Environmental policy for one; the guy at the head of the US office used to work for asbestos and power industry! That's like hiring Dogbert to action the employee morale suggestion box...