I never said that, I said they're way behind. Do you disagree? Do you think Iran already has the weapons the US just put into the field last year? Did I say this will never find its way to another part of the world?
I am explaining that it would prevent navies from "projecting power" against other coastlines, IE, certain Middle Eastern gulfs, East Asian nations, and so forth. I know there would still be a use for navies, but these guns would start to herald the end of the "titanic gunship", which could now be holed from quite a considerable distance.
Have you noticed those countries developing advanced weapons a lot? Me neither. From what I can tell, they're all lagging way (like 15+ years) behind the US military, and since our Navy is saying this won't be ready for 13 more years, I'd say our boat drivers have a long while before they have to worry about railguns defending enemy shores.
They already have laser guided munitions that an aircraft (or unpiloted drone) can spot for, so adding GPS to get within a mile of the target then using laser guidance the rest of the way seems prefectly doable.
They're already testing GPS-guided artillery rounds that can hit a target within a few (something like 3) meters at artillery-type range (20 km?) even when not quite fired in the right direction. Futureweapons, anybody?:-) Auxiliary guidance shouldn't be necessary, GPS can do the job - if they can make it so it can survive the firing.
It was my understanding that one could not uninstall IE6 from an XP machine.
I know someone who tried that once. Keep in mind that there is no uninstaller for it, so you're left with just deleting executables. Bad things ensued.
When you understand why we can't perfectly predict the weather, you will understand why we will never be able to replicate brain function.
You're implying the human brain is a chaotic system. Is that true? I've never heard it described that way before. Secondly, you're saying that since we cannot predict the outcome of a chaotic process, that means we cannot produce a system that works in the same way as an example chaotic system? How do you figure?
The story that was cited neither states nor implies that 3rd party applications will not be permitted on the iPhone.
To me, it really doesn't matter. There are two possibilites: 1) I can put whatever apps I want on it, or 2) something else. Whether something else is "never any apps no matter what", or "apps developed by Apple" or "3rd-party apps that Apple decides to allow me to have" makes no difference to me at $500. Everything I've read about it so far points to some form of number 2, which could attract me at $200, but certainly not $500. If it turns out to be number 1 at some point, count me in.
You guys all seem to be forgetting the browser on the iPhone... Couldn't you use and / or write a 3rd party AJAX application? What about JAVA? Yeah, I know you wouldn't get direct access to the hardware, but there's still a ton of stuff you can do.
Sure, but what about when I'm in the mountains and don't have coverage? How about on an airplane where you're supposed to turn off the transceiver functions? Some things it wouldn't really matter, but for others it would be a pain not to be able to run your apps any time you want. AFAIK most people aren't in cell phone coverage 100% of the time.
I'll get an iPhone, and I'll love the fact that it won't have any third party apps to "entice me" and then crash on me constantly. My PC I can reboot and not worry, but my phone can't go_boom on me -- it is my lifeline when I am on the road.
If you absolutely cannot have your phone go boom, and sometimes some applications (but you never know which ones) inexplicably make it go boom, why do you install anything on it? I'm seriously stumped, unless your story means you used to install apps on it, but you never will again now that you know what they do. Regarding the iPhone, are you hoping that since it won't allow 3rd-party apps, that they'll make a special effort to give it everything you might want, so therefore you won't need them?
On a tangent, I was surprised to hear someone corroborating Steve's excuse. I've had my Windows phone for about a year and a half, and the worst thing it's done related to phone calls is freeze up requiring a battery pull, and that kind of thing has been very rare. No dropping calls, no inability to dial, no battery problems. I installed and use various 3rd-party apps. Did I just get some good hardware? Is it that I have a "smartphone" and not a "Pocket PC phone"? Do others experience problems on the phone side caused by applications? I was ready to dismiss Job's explanation as pure BS hiding the real reason, but maybe I was wrong. I still don't believe a bad app could cause problems on Cingular's network.
And oh yeah - today it can browse the net, play music and call people. Ever thought of the possibility that cars would have GPS recievers and plug into the iPhone for display and input from the users ? Ever thought of storing movies on the iPhone to stream it to your ITV (or anybody else's itv) to watch ? the possibilities are endless.
No, they're endful. Apple decides where the possibilites end, because you're not allowed to install anything on it. The stupidity of this decision has been covered elsewhere, and I hope those predicting that Apple will be forced to open it up are correct. This is the reason I will not pay 500 bucks for the thing.
Anyone else who considered buying a iPhone having second thoughts upon hearing there will be no 3rd party apps?
You're not the only one that thinks Apple went straight for the head shot. In a bad way. I was just about spitting out my drink over how cool this thing is, until I read it's closed. So now I'm going back to my previous plan to get the HTC thing with the landscape-mode slide-out keyboard (eg Cingular 8125) when contract renewal time comes up, unless it turns out there's some simple hack that allows installing apps on the iPhone. Sure, the Windows phone is mostly pretty pathetic next to the Apple, but I get to choose what it can do, plus it will cost less and have a memory card slot. I haven't seen anything about the iPhone taking a card, presumably so you'll pony up the extra $100 for the big one.
I can see it now: HEY CHRIS, APPLY HEAD-ON TO YOUR FOREHEAD...
Did you RTFS? The car owner decides what the billboard says (though I would guess that particular message would be too long). PS I had to truncate your message because the caps triggered the lameness filter!
This means that the billboards will display their messages whenever the MAIL DELIVERY TRUCK drives by. Nice.
Sounds like it's an active tag, so perhaps it has an off switch and/or requires a battery.
And I'm betting a number of tags will mysteriously get lost in the mail and end up on eBay.
Why are you betting that? You think postal theft is commonplace? Why do you think so?
* If it's a keyfob, then it will also trigger the signs when someone is driving their OTHER non-Mini vehicle. Many families have two cars, and people drive other cars.
1) So what? 2) They could leave the transmitter in the glovebox. It's not clear to me, though, if this is THE key fob that you use to remotely unlock the car, or if it's just A key fob that serves no other purpose besides triggering billboards. Since the FAQ asks about getting another key fob for another driver, maybe it's the former.
* The article says "When the boards detect that you are about the drive by, they deliver a personal message based on the information you originally gave." In other words, when you're driving 70mph down the road, make sure you look up for your important message from your car manufacturer -- and then miss your turn.
You generally miss turns because of reading a billboard?
* Opposite extreme: you're stuck in traffic for 50 minutes underneath the sign.
LOL! Love this one. Again, you may be able to turn the thing off. But what if there are TWO people in the traffic jam next to the billboard with fobs? Does the closest one win (lose?)?
And there are too many ideas for mischievous messages... "Mini announces recall of your vehicle's braking system" for example.
But the car owner controls the message. Unless you're talking about someone hacking the database or the billboard. In which case your tin foil is looking a little wrinkled, maybe time for a fresh hat.
I'm confused. You just gave some reason why you wouldn't purchase the iPhone but then say if it had carrier XYZ, you're sold?
No, he gave some reasons why various people won't buy it. There were many comments in the thread yesterday to the effect that someone was ready to put down their money until they saw it was Cingular only. Others don't mind Cingular but have other reasons not to get it.
5 hours talk, video, or web browsing. 16 hours audio playback. No mention of standby time anywhere I've seen, which will be an important factor. IMO it has to go a full day with "average" use to be a success.
The iPhone's problem is that it's attempting to redefine a market that's already been defined through market forces; it's not like we've never had candy bar style phones here before, and it's not like we haven't had touch screens. They just don't sell as well as clamshells, and phones with buttons.
If you read through the keynote, you can see that their goal is to take 1% of the phone market (USA, IIRC). Clearly they have no designs on this thing selling as well as clamshells, and it can be a big success without doing so or ever becoming any kind of market leader. You would be missing the forest for the trees anyway if you didn't notice that a $500 phone isn't going to be mainstream no matter what it looks like, what features it has, or who makes it. What happens if/when 1) it's shown to be everything the demo promised 2) it proves durable 3) the price comes down and 4) it's available from other providers will be very, very interesting, though.
it sucks even more that they're doing so to push a new product with (I'd imagine) fatter margins.
You'd rather they did it to push a product with lower margins? I know that you would rather they came out with the product YOU want, but given that they haven't, don't you want them to make a lot of money on what they are selling, and maybe it will trickle over into the iPod line too?
I think folks who take the 8 gig max as too small for storage are unclear on the concept entirely. Is there a phone this small out there that has anything like that?
I agree. They're thinking, "It's an 8GB iPod for $600! WTF!" Oh by the way, it's a phone and a Mac, too. Huh, $600 sounds pretty cheap. Although if it has an SD slot, I'm not sure why you'd get the 8GB model. What will a 4GB SD card be in June, $30? I took a quick look around and found some listed as low as $42 already. And in a year presumably there will be 8GB or 16GB cards, and so on. I'm just hoping I can find $500 when my contract is up.
C) There are people in Australia working on a huge energy tower, several miles high
These people? "The tower will be over there," Davey says, pointing to a spot a mile distant where a 1,600-foot structure will rise from the ocher-colored earth. "Several miles high", even if "several" means three, would be over 15,500 feet. According to Wikipedia, "Currently, the tallest standing structure is the KVLY-TV mast near Fargo, North Dakota, at 629 m (2,063 ft)." I don't think anyone is planning anything seven or more times taller than the current tallest structure in the world.
From this, it follows that you can keep testing forever and at best only asymptotically approach bug-free code. Sounds hyperbolic, but I've observed it to be true in my experience.
I think this would be true only if the expected number of new bugs resulting from each bug fix is at least one. That is to say, when making any change to the code, there's a possibility of introducing an abitrary number of bugs, including zero. If over time you introduce fewer than one new bug for each edit, then eventually there will be zero bugs - assuming you do nothing but fix bugs. So practically speaking (and why would you want to do THAT??) obviously you're very unlikely to get zero bugs, but over an infinite time frame, you might. Unless somebody who remembers probability better than I do can correct me.
Interesting, thanks for the info. Glad they actually changed the law rather than deciding to enforce it selectively. Here in icy Colorado we're having 90mph wind gusts, with our fourth snowstorm in four weeks expected on Thursday. Maybe we could trade for a few days.
The parent was referring to weight limits on roads not being enforced, not CDL regulations not being enforced. Duh.
He said "This is the reason why we have laws that say that vehicles over certain weights may not travel through certain neighborhoods except to make a delivery, and why you are supposed to need a commercial license to drive a vehicle over a certain weight. Of course, we don't actually enforce these laws..." If "these laws" was meant to refer only to the street weight limit laws, and not the CDL laws, it was a very poorly constructed paragraph, and I congratulate you on your mind reading ability.
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I would mod you funny, but I've already posted to the discussion. :-)
I never said that, I said they're way behind. Do you disagree? Do you think Iran already has the weapons the US just put into the field last year? Did I say this will never find its way to another part of the world?
Old Limit: 1
New Limit: ?
Did they fix that one? I always found that to be pretty stupid.
On a tangent, I was surprised to hear someone corroborating Steve's excuse. I've had my Windows phone for about a year and a half, and the worst thing it's done related to phone calls is freeze up requiring a battery pull, and that kind of thing has been very rare. No dropping calls, no inability to dial, no battery problems. I installed and use various 3rd-party apps. Did I just get some good hardware? Is it that I have a "smartphone" and not a "Pocket PC phone"? Do others experience problems on the phone side caused by applications? I was ready to dismiss Job's explanation as pure BS hiding the real reason, but maybe I was wrong. I still don't believe a bad app could cause problems on Cingular's network.
Why are you betting that? You think postal theft is commonplace? Why do you think so?
1) So what? 2) They could leave the transmitter in the glovebox. It's not clear to me, though, if this is THE key fob that you use to remotely unlock the car, or if it's just A key fob that serves no other purpose besides triggering billboards. Since the FAQ asks about getting another key fob for another driver, maybe it's the former.
You generally miss turns because of reading a billboard?
LOL! Love this one. Again, you may be able to turn the thing off. But what if there are TWO people in the traffic jam next to the billboard with fobs? Does the closest one win (lose?)? But the car owner controls the message. Unless you're talking about someone hacking the database or the billboard. In which case your tin foil is looking a little wrinkled, maybe time for a fresh hat.
Specs
And you're right, Google is my friend.
Interesting, thanks for the info. Glad they actually changed the law rather than deciding to enforce it selectively. Here in icy Colorado we're having 90mph wind gusts, with our fourth snowstorm in four weeks expected on Thursday. Maybe we could trade for a few days.