TFA heavily implies that the aid knew the codes were lost but covered up the mistake until the mandatory code change rather than cop to it and get the codes replaced. It seems to me this would be a court-martial offense at the very least.
That the people checking on such an important document did not communicate with each other or follow up with the President is also appalling.
> Sadly, you're probably right. And what will replace it will be paid advertisement, government propaganda, and ignorance. Hooray! The free market works again!
So if his laptop joins a network that has wep or wpa encryption, he's in violation? What if he goes to a website that requires https? Or logs into any site that encrypts one's credentials?
I have to wonder if they really thought that through.
> I keep hearing this, but what do you plan on replacing traditional news with?
I don't plan on replacing it with anything. I'm saying that requiring payment for a service that has been ad supported for decades, at a time when distrust of said service has never been higher, is suicide. What replaces it, if anything, the market will decide.
> I figured that buying a first gen iPad will be fine, and i will just wait and let the new Android tablets battle over what will be best hardware for awhile anyway it will take them some time to get good apps and everythnig worked out on the new Android tablets I would assume.
This is a very logical approach. Instead of waiting for the perfect device, use the devices that are available for what they can do until something better comes out.
Not to make light of the battery life -- that the ipad actually meets its spec for battery life under real use conditions is rare and commendable.
Personally, I didn't need a pad bad enough to buy an ipad. I can see where they would be handy, but the cost/benefit analysis came up short. I'm currently carrying a droid x, which has a big enough screen to make remote administration barely practical. By my calculations, a 7 inch screen would be close to the perfect balance between the ability to get work done, and the likelihood that I'd have it on me. Away from home and office, the best computer is the one within arm's reach.
Moreover, I tend to keep devices for a long time, and I suspect the lack of (a) replaceable battery, (b) sd card slot, and (c) flash support would grate on me, as all of these were deal breakers for the iphone. I'd rather just wait for a device to become available that meets my requirements, rather than bend my requirements to whatever Apple is shipping. I know this infuriates fanbois, and I'm sorry I can't do much about that.
I think the real difference is "just work" vs "just work the way I want it to". There is certainly a market for "just work". There are enough people willing to conform their work habits to a device's paradigm to make a device manufacturer a very good living. Apple was successful at this, Microsoft less so, because Apple has an interface that's useful and intuitive and people enjoyed using the device. And Windows Mobile... well, that's a different article.
Jobs seems to have drawn the wrong conclusion from this -- that the primary success of the iphone is because every device works the same. The obvious argument to this is that I don't use every device, I only use the device I own, and it works the same every day. The real success of the iphone is that it provides a better experience. And it truly does. I'm surprised that Jobs appears to have forgotten this.
Android also provides a better experience, with the added wrinkle that you can choose the experience you want by choosing a different device and/or customizing the device you have. To people who want to bend a device to their workflow, instead of bending their workflow to a device, this has considerable appeal.
I think what Apple is missing out on is the customizable aspect of personal devices. And before you say it, this is not a nerd only thing. My 16 year old daughter reports that android is becoming more popular with her circle of friends partly because they *are* different (or can be made different) instead of everything having the exact same device with the exact same interface running the exact same apps. (Daughter turned down the iPhone for a Galaxy S and hasn't touched her iPod Touch since she got it.)
Jobs can continue to rant about conformity, fanbois and people who genuinely want a device that "just works" will continue to buy his devices, and he'll do really well. For the rest of us, there's Android.
But.... Listening to Jobs rave about everyone using exactly the same device, I can't help but flash back to that original Mac commercial in 1984. Walt Kelly was right.
I don't like the big city very much (I came from a small town) and my fantasy for a long time has been... no, the other fantasy.... yeah that one... has long been to move to the hinterlands, get a house on acreage, and work from home. To have a company actually support that decision could be nice, depending on how well the dock in pay matched the local cost of living.
I read not long ago about a company that told outsourced IT pros that they could keep their job if they moved to the outsourcing country and got paid the prevailing wage there. Now, that could really suck.
It was a ridiculous amount of long phone calls. It was rare to see him without his phone stuck to his head. It's been a few years, but as I recall his minutes usage for that month was in the high thousands, over 90 percent "out of plan".
I can't tell you how glad I was that I made him get his own plan when he was living with us, instead of including him on our family plan. He pissed and moaned about that. He moved out shortly after that bill arrived, and in the weeks that followed I would get increasingly desperate phone calls on the land line from AT&T looking for him. To my knowledge he still hasn't paid it.
We had another house guest later who would rack up 2000 to 2400 minutes per month on average, (prayer network) but nothing like my nephew. I've never seen anything like it.
I don't think so. The main issue seems to be that of Android residing on multiple dissimilar handsets, the OS changes this necessitates, and the programming challenges to support same. Of course that's going to be tougher to program for than a closed single hardware platform. The upside is that an application that runs on a majority of Android handsets is more likely to be purchased on a majority of Android handsets.
My Android handset has a larger than average screen resolution, and a few widgets don't play nice with it. I'd rather have the hardware choice and deal with the small incompatibilities than have one company tell me to take their phone and love it.
This is not a "protect people from themselves" issue. Things are purposely set up to maximize the possibility of you unintentionally racking up charges. A "Web" button that can't be disabled right next to the "Call" button. Smartphones that "phone home" over the data line even when data is disabled while traveling internationally. Huge, punishing charges if you go over your limit even by a tiny bit. (I mean seriously, if $40 a month will cover several gigabytes of downloads, why charge over $80 for 2.2 Megabytes of downloads without a data plan? Answer: Because they can.) Phone bills that lag 45 days or more behind your actual usage. "Services" that have a per-usage charge that isn't spelled out when you use them. (Teens typically fall for this.) The carrier not clearly communicating that you can turn a lot (but not all) of these "services" off by a simple request.
It's not just a matter of reading and understanding the TOS. We're all professionals here, we can really dig into a TOS and find the line buried on page 3 in the middle of paragraph six dealing with FCC regulations where they've buried the over usage fees. That doesn't cover everything -- there's ways to overinflate your bill that aren't covered by the TOS.
Mind you, my nephew was a fine counterexample. He was told that local calls on the weekends were free, and he thought he heard that all local calls were free. His first bill was the size of a paperback and well over a grand. To my knowledge the carrier is still looking for him. No matter how foolproof one makes a system, fools will find a way to crash land. But besides that, the system as it currently stands is designed to blow your hand off if you turn the knob to the left instead of the right, and that's the part that really needs to stop.
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TFA heavily implies that the aid knew the codes were lost but covered up the mistake until the mandatory code change rather than cop to it and get the codes replaced. It seems to me this would be a court-martial offense at the very least.
That the people checking on such an important document did not communicate with each other or follow up with the President is also appalling.
> Sadly, you're probably right. And what will replace it will be paid advertisement, government propaganda, and ignorance. Hooray! The free market works again!
And that's different from now in what way?
Just wondering, how does wikileaks and groklaw do it? What's their business model?
So if his laptop joins a network that has wep or wpa encryption, he's in violation? What if he goes to a website that requires https? Or logs into any site that encrypts one's credentials?
I have to wonder if they really thought that through.
> I keep hearing this, but what do you plan on replacing traditional news with?
I don't plan on replacing it with anything. I'm saying that requiring payment for a service that has been ad supported for decades, at a time when distrust of said service has never been higher, is suicide. What replaces it, if anything, the market will decide.
Besides which, wouldn't it be easier to salvage copper wire from the wreckage of civilization rather than pull new wire?
Think of the massive porn connection Australian customs officials must have. I wonder if there's a waiting list for the job.
> I figured that buying a first gen iPad will be fine, and i will just wait and let the new Android tablets battle over what will be best hardware for awhile anyway it will take them some time to get good apps and everythnig worked out on the new Android tablets I would assume.
This is a very logical approach. Instead of waiting for the perfect device, use the devices that are available for what they can do until something better comes out.
Not to make light of the battery life -- that the ipad actually meets its spec for battery life under real use conditions is rare and commendable.
Personally, I didn't need a pad bad enough to buy an ipad. I can see where they would be handy, but the cost/benefit analysis came up short. I'm currently carrying a droid x, which has a big enough screen to make remote administration barely practical. By my calculations, a 7 inch screen would be close to the perfect balance between the ability to get work done, and the likelihood that I'd have it on me. Away from home and office, the best computer is the one within arm's reach.
Moreover, I tend to keep devices for a long time, and I suspect the lack of (a) replaceable battery, (b) sd card slot, and (c) flash support would grate on me, as all of these were deal breakers for the iphone. I'd rather just wait for a device to become available that meets my requirements, rather than bend my requirements to whatever Apple is shipping. I know this infuriates fanbois, and I'm sorry I can't do much about that.
Android tablets already give you something significant that the ipad lacks -- the ability to change batteries in flight.
> Can you brick the Phone if you try to upgrade to 2.2?
Can you? Sure. Will you? Probably not.
> I'm afraid Google would feel that following the FaceTime standard would risk giving away users to Apple.
I think you're right that they would feel like that. I see it as an opportunity to take users from Apple.
I think the real difference is "just work" vs "just work the way I want it to". There is certainly a market for "just work". There are enough people willing to conform their work habits to a device's paradigm to make a device manufacturer a very good living. Apple was successful at this, Microsoft less so, because Apple has an interface that's useful and intuitive and people enjoyed using the device. And Windows Mobile... well, that's a different article.
Jobs seems to have drawn the wrong conclusion from this -- that the primary success of the iphone is because every device works the same. The obvious argument to this is that I don't use every device, I only use the device I own, and it works the same every day. The real success of the iphone is that it provides a better experience. And it truly does. I'm surprised that Jobs appears to have forgotten this.
Android also provides a better experience, with the added wrinkle that you can choose the experience you want by choosing a different device and/or customizing the device you have. To people who want to bend a device to their workflow, instead of bending their workflow to a device, this has considerable appeal.
I think what Apple is missing out on is the customizable aspect of personal devices. And before you say it, this is not a nerd only thing. My 16 year old daughter reports that android is becoming more popular with her circle of friends partly because they *are* different (or can be made different) instead of everything having the exact same device with the exact same interface running the exact same apps. (Daughter turned down the iPhone for a Galaxy S and hasn't touched her iPod Touch since she got it.)
Jobs can continue to rant about conformity, fanbois and people who genuinely want a device that "just works" will continue to buy his devices, and he'll do really well. For the rest of us, there's Android.
But.... Listening to Jobs rave about everyone using exactly the same device, I can't help but flash back to that original Mac commercial in 1984. Walt Kelly was right.
The Mythbusters crew have already done this. Twice, if memory serves. The answer as I recall was: Busted.
Why are we revisiting the failed... oh never mind.
What the hell does AOL need a database for? Users still on hold trying to cancel their accounts?
Yes it was. I haven't seen anything that classy since, oh, the Chicago Stockyards of 1906.
iOS is a locked down OS on locked down hardware. Of course it's not going to have the same issues.
I don't like the big city very much (I came from a small town) and my fantasy for a long time has been... no, the other fantasy.... yeah that one... has long been to move to the hinterlands, get a house on acreage, and work from home. To have a company actually support that decision could be nice, depending on how well the dock in pay matched the local cost of living.
I read not long ago about a company that told outsourced IT pros that they could keep their job if they moved to the outsourcing country and got paid the prevailing wage there. Now, that could really suck.
It was a ridiculous amount of long phone calls. It was rare to see him without his phone stuck to his head. It's been a few years, but as I recall his minutes usage for that month was in the high thousands, over 90 percent "out of plan".
I can't tell you how glad I was that I made him get his own plan when he was living with us, instead of including him on our family plan. He pissed and moaned about that. He moved out shortly after that bill arrived, and in the weeks that followed I would get increasingly desperate phone calls on the land line from AT&T looking for him. To my knowledge he still hasn't paid it.
We had another house guest later who would rack up 2000 to 2400 minutes per month on average, (prayer network) but nothing like my nephew. I've never seen anything like it.
That's why demos and reviews are important. On any platform, even the Jesus phone, it's risky to buy any application without trying it first.
I don't think so. The main issue seems to be that of Android residing on multiple dissimilar handsets, the OS changes this necessitates, and the programming challenges to support same. Of course that's going to be tougher to program for than a closed single hardware platform. The upside is that an application that runs on a majority of Android handsets is more likely to be purchased on a majority of Android handsets.
My Android handset has a larger than average screen resolution, and a few widgets don't play nice with it. I'd rather have the hardware choice and deal with the small incompatibilities than have one company tell me to take their phone and love it.
As Scrameustache said:
> Maybe it's because its an expensive device that delivers a sub-par viewing experience in exchange for a gimmick that people are already fed up with.
To which I would add: Introduced in a down economy.
This is not a "protect people from themselves" issue. Things are purposely set up to maximize the possibility of you unintentionally racking up charges. A "Web" button that can't be disabled right next to the "Call" button. Smartphones that "phone home" over the data line even when data is disabled while traveling internationally. Huge, punishing charges if you go over your limit even by a tiny bit. (I mean seriously, if $40 a month will cover several gigabytes of downloads, why charge over $80 for 2.2 Megabytes of downloads without a data plan? Answer: Because they can.) Phone bills that lag 45 days or more behind your actual usage. "Services" that have a per-usage charge that isn't spelled out when you use them. (Teens typically fall for this.) The carrier not clearly communicating that you can turn a lot (but not all) of these "services" off by a simple request.
It's not just a matter of reading and understanding the TOS. We're all professionals here, we can really dig into a TOS and find the line buried on page 3 in the middle of paragraph six dealing with FCC regulations where they've buried the over usage fees. That doesn't cover everything -- there's ways to overinflate your bill that aren't covered by the TOS.
Mind you, my nephew was a fine counterexample. He was told that local calls on the weekends were free, and he thought he heard that all local calls were free. His first bill was the size of a paperback and well over a grand. To my knowledge the carrier is still looking for him. No matter how foolproof one makes a system, fools will find a way to crash land. But besides that, the system as it currently stands is designed to blow your hand off if you turn the knob to the left instead of the right, and that's the part that really needs to stop.