I think "blue screams of death" is my new favorite phrase. This is the reason I'm hanging onto my older Ford; it was manufactured just before the motor company started using Winders.
Yet again, big manufacturers make years-old trends look like some new thing. The console in my F-150 gets upgraded about once every two years, and has gone through two upgrades since I bought it. But the console is aftermarket.
It occurs to me that you could get a really cheap ("free") smartphone with GPS (not a Samsung, their GPS is crap), hide it somewhere on the vehicle (where it can still get signal) and track it with Latitude. Dunno what to do about notification. There's probably an app for that.
No of course not. There's too much money at stake. Never mind it involves charging big bucks to exploit otherwise unused bandwidth.
I remember reading somewhere that texting was by far the most expensive consumer medium (per character) for transmitting a message. I think it's remarkable that our "family unlimited texting plan" which essentially only my daughter uses, cost the same per month as the internet connection to my home.
Right. And by charging extortionate prices for what is essentially a free service, the carriers have made it financially viable for competitors to flourish, even if they are ostensibly more expensive to run. Which is fine, that's how capitalism is supposed to work. The carriers could shut down these other services by significantly lowering the price of SMS services, but it's such a cash cow I think they'll try something else... maybe legislation?
The only thing that worked for us is for me to sleep in the guest room for the weeks that I'm on call. The guest room is near my office, in an area separate from the other bedrooms, so I can easily log on when I need to, and I don't disturb wife or child.
If you mean, work in a particular industry without belonging to a union, I would stay that anyone should be able to do that, just because they wanted to.
The Doonesbury strip, not exactly a hotbed of conservative thinking, made fun of that. Mark interviews a leader in the movement, who wears a grocery sack over his head. Written on the side is "We're the 99%". Upside down. Because figuring out that a sack worn over the head would be inverted was apparently too much logical thinking. At least he got the apostrophe right.
Right, I understand. And I buy compact fluorescents because it saves on my electricity bill and it's not my country that's being poisoned by their manufacture.
It's all about me, and it sucks being everyone else.
I can understand why you personally would not wanted to be associated with the uglier side of American consumerism. I also concede that although it has its quirks, and isn't exactly cutting edge anymore, the iphone -- any of them -- does useful things. The problem with "it simply isn't" and "because there was a great product being released" is that no part of the product was exactly ground breaking, and I know personally of so many counter-examples. They're not hard to find.. The guy who "accidentally" dropped his original into dishwater so he had to get a 3G. The guy who camped all night on the sidewalk to replace his 3Gs with a 4. (And then fondled it in meetings -- creepy. [1]) and then camped again to get an ipad. The guy who traded in his free corporate 3G with a free unlimited data plan so he could buy his own 4 and pay for his own data plan. The guy who was unemployed for 2 years, finally got a job, and instead of using his first paycheck on things important to his survival, instead bought a mini even though he had a perfectly working tower at home. Because he didn't have a mini yet. And the 4 with its silver bezel is easy to spot in a crowd of people waiting for AT&T to open so they can upgrade to a 4s. And on and on. I *observe* people who just can't wait to get the next device (whatever it is) and will suffer significant inconvenience -- and cost -- to get it the first day. And really -- you can't fill up a parking lot with first time users when yet another iphone comes out. It's not black friday, it's just the release of a single device, at full price, that's only a marginal improvement over the previous device available the day before. It was obvious from watching people while away the time (while I was trying to get coffee) that a large number -- the great majority in my estimation -- were repeat customers. All you had to do is see what they were fondling while they waited for the shop to open.
So no, I don't buy that a flash mob of first time users just showed up when the 4S came out, just so they could ask Siri to marry them and chuckle at the response. To most people, it's just not that important.
It's like... there will always be people who, say, wear bell-bottoms because they don't chafe their calves, and not because everyone else in their age group is wearing them. But they are the exception, not the rule. The Apple fanboi is a cultural phenomenon that ingeniously feeds into the American desire to stretch to reach that tantalizing next best thing. This does not preclude the existence of iphone owners who are not fanbois. But just between you and me, it must be a difficult, somewhat embarrassing life.
Full disclosure -- I own two mac towers, mostly because the mac used to be the best platform for Photoshop (which isn't as true anymore) [2] but my company gave me an ipad, I played with it for a week, and then gave it back. I really didn't have a use for anything it could do. (See [2]) And I have to tell you, even though I could have been issued an iphone, I chose Blackberry instead because I didn't want to be associated with those people. (And also because Blackberry was the most reliable, best texting keyboard, most solid platform available at the time.) When the BB enterprise server wouldn't stay up, (not the platform's fault, but collateral damage from outsourcing) I switched to Android, because it did a lot of the same things and would reliably communicate with Exchange. [3] That's all, really. It's just a phone. It's not a lifestyle.
Parenthetically, I carry a Droid X, and I'm well aware that it's a butt-ugly thing with sharp edges, not trendy at all. But it does what I need to do.
[1] Fast way to tell a fanboi -- is he doing something with the device, or just fondling it? Is he actually looking at an app on the screen, or is he admiring the trendy bezel?
[2] Again, and I tell Winders fanbois the same thing, it's not what it is, it's what it can do, that's important. Macs run Photoshop better than Windows, hands down, no que
Ok, good point. I have an Android phone. I think the difference is that I'm not standing in line outside the AT&T store for new hardware whenever the manufacturer makes a carefully timed, incremental improvement. It's not the hardware itself (I need a cell phone for my job) but the wasteful culture of dumping your product every few months for a slightly better one, that's the real problem. And the worst offenders are Apple fanbois. Tell me this isn't true.
I tend to keep a phone until it stops working and can't be fixed. I'm sure there are Apple users who operate the same way, but you couldn't tell it by the crowd blocking the Starbucks drive-thru when the 4s was released.
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I'm turning GPS off right now!
Well, thank YOU mister frowny-face!
I would guess, wired makes it more hack proof?
Bingo.
> Why not use micro-USB instead of the audio connector?
Because it's an ipod.
I think "blue screams of death" is my new favorite phrase. This is the reason I'm hanging onto my older Ford; it was manufactured just before the motor company started using Winders.
Yet again, big manufacturers make years-old trends look like some new thing. The console in my F-150 gets upgraded about once every two years, and has gone through two upgrades since I bought it. But the console is aftermarket.
It occurs to me that you could get a really cheap ("free") smartphone with GPS (not a Samsung, their GPS is crap), hide it somewhere on the vehicle (where it can still get signal) and track it with Latitude. Dunno what to do about notification. There's probably an app for that.
What carrier? I've had AT&T and Verizon and they both want to charge per message or charge you $20 -- $40 for unlimited texting.
No of course not. There's too much money at stake. Never mind it involves charging big bucks to exploit otherwise unused bandwidth.
I remember reading somewhere that texting was by far the most expensive consumer medium (per character) for transmitting a message. I think it's remarkable that our "family unlimited texting plan" which essentially only my daughter uses, cost the same per month as the internet connection to my home.
Right. And by charging extortionate prices for what is essentially a free service, the carriers have made it financially viable for competitors to flourish, even if they are ostensibly more expensive to run. Which is fine, that's how capitalism is supposed to work. The carriers could shut down these other services by significantly lowering the price of SMS services, but it's such a cash cow I think they'll try something else... maybe legislation?
You sir are my hero.
The only thing that worked for us is for me to sleep in the guest room for the weeks that I'm on call. The guest room is near my office, in an area separate from the other bedrooms, so I can easily log on when I need to, and I don't disturb wife or child.
You do understand the difference, right? Or are you just playing with words?
If you mean, work in a particular industry without belonging to a union, I would stay that anyone should be able to do that, just because they wanted to.
I was thinking more of an individual, someone with no muscle enforcing his decisions.
Also a good point.
The Doonesbury strip, not exactly a hotbed of conservative thinking, made fun of that. Mark interviews a leader in the movement, who wears a grocery sack over his head. Written on the side is "We're the 99%". Upside down. Because figuring out that a sack worn over the head would be inverted was apparently too much logical thinking. At least he got the apostrophe right.
Right, I understand. And I buy compact fluorescents because it saves on my electricity bill and it's not my country that's being poisoned by their manufacture.
It's all about me, and it sucks being everyone else.
> I never claimed it was a "flash mob"
I can understand why you personally would not wanted to be associated with the uglier side of American consumerism. I also concede that although it has its quirks, and isn't exactly cutting edge anymore, the iphone -- any of them -- does useful things. The problem with "it simply isn't" and "because there was a great product being released" is that no part of the product was exactly ground breaking, and I know personally of so many counter-examples. They're not hard to find.. The guy who "accidentally" dropped his original into dishwater so he had to get a 3G. The guy who camped all night on the sidewalk to replace his 3Gs with a 4. (And then fondled it in meetings -- creepy. [1]) and then camped again to get an ipad. The guy who traded in his free corporate 3G with a free unlimited data plan so he could buy his own 4 and pay for his own data plan. The guy who was unemployed for 2 years, finally got a job, and instead of using his first paycheck on things important to his survival, instead bought a mini even though he had a perfectly working tower at home. Because he didn't have a mini yet. And the 4 with its silver bezel is easy to spot in a crowd of people waiting for AT&T to open so they can upgrade to a 4s. And on and on. I *observe* people who just can't wait to get the next device (whatever it is) and will suffer significant inconvenience -- and cost -- to get it the first day. And really -- you can't fill up a parking lot with first time users when yet another iphone comes out. It's not black friday, it's just the release of a single device, at full price, that's only a marginal improvement over the previous device available the day before. It was obvious from watching people while away the time (while I was trying to get coffee) that a large number -- the great majority in my estimation -- were repeat customers. All you had to do is see what they were fondling while they waited for the shop to open.
So no, I don't buy that a flash mob of first time users just showed up when the 4S came out, just so they could ask Siri to marry them and chuckle at the response. To most people, it's just not that important.
It's like... there will always be people who, say, wear bell-bottoms because they don't chafe their calves, and not because everyone else in their age group is wearing them. But they are the exception, not the rule. The Apple fanboi is a cultural phenomenon that ingeniously feeds into the American desire to stretch to reach that tantalizing next best thing. This does not preclude the existence of iphone owners who are not fanbois. But just between you and me, it must be a difficult, somewhat embarrassing life.
Full disclosure -- I own two mac towers, mostly because the mac used to be the best platform for Photoshop (which isn't as true anymore) [2] but my company gave me an ipad, I played with it for a week, and then gave it back. I really didn't have a use for anything it could do. (See [2]) And I have to tell you, even though I could have been issued an iphone, I chose Blackberry instead because I didn't want to be associated with those people. (And also because Blackberry was the most reliable, best texting keyboard, most solid platform available at the time.) When the BB enterprise server wouldn't stay up, (not the platform's fault, but collateral damage from outsourcing) I switched to Android, because it did a lot of the same things and would reliably communicate with Exchange. [3] That's all, really. It's just a phone. It's not a lifestyle.
Parenthetically, I carry a Droid X, and I'm well aware that it's a butt-ugly thing with sharp edges, not trendy at all. But it does what I need to do.
[1] Fast way to tell a fanboi -- is he doing something with the device, or just fondling it? Is he actually looking at an app on the screen, or is he admiring the trendy bezel?
[2] Again, and I tell Winders fanbois the same thing, it's not what it is, it's what it can do, that's important. Macs run Photoshop better than Windows, hands down, no que
Were I AMD, I'd reconsider that now, I think.
I saw that. It was a bad remake of The Andromeda Strain.
Ok, good point. I have an Android phone. I think the difference is that I'm not standing in line outside the AT&T store for new hardware whenever the manufacturer makes a carefully timed, incremental improvement. It's not the hardware itself (I need a cell phone for my job) but the wasteful culture of dumping your product every few months for a slightly better one, that's the real problem. And the worst offenders are Apple fanbois. Tell me this isn't true.
I tend to keep a phone until it stops working and can't be fixed. I'm sure there are Apple users who operate the same way, but you couldn't tell it by the crowd blocking the Starbucks drive-thru when the 4s was released.