This says alot more about how useless most of school is. Typing is important, but what are children doing for 99.99% of the time that learning touch typing can be considered such an important cornerstone.
This is true.
In the US anyway, schools continue to NOT advance with using computers in the classroom--mainly becuase textbook publishers steadfastly refuse to make fully-electronic versions of their materials available.
Additionally--a lot of people won't need typing much, and those that will use it a lot (for business or pleasure) will get gooder at it anyway.
Besides, in about the same time that it would take for US schools to institute a country-wide standard for just one typing course, there will be drastic improvements in voice recognition software and keyboards themselves will disappear from use anyway.
~
I got a WTF T-mobile story...... I'm using an unlocked third-party phone, and was paying $40/mo for voice, and $20/month for generic data (which was 400 texts and 100mb of data per month). That was fine by me, it was more than I needed. I only browsed with the phone and use Google Maps occasionally. I never tethered or watched much videos online, and a BIG part of that was that I was reluctant to go over the 100-meg limit and get charged another fee.
A few days ago, data stops working. So,,,, I call up and it seems that Tmobile cut off the data, because they are forcing everyone (or lots of people anyway) into either of the two "generic" data plans they have (except for the Sidekicks and Blackberries, that have their own plans)... I was less than a year into a 2-year contract, and I knew I could argue the early termination fee but didn't know that AT&T would be any better (most people I know with iPhones love the phone, hate AT&T). So I just stuck with Tmobile, and agreed to switch to the new higher-rate data/messaging plan.
So then--they say that for the WinMo phone I have, I have to pay $25 now for internet, and $10 for messaging.... But the thing now is, that $35 is for unlimited internet use (no tethering) and unlimited messaging.
?
Excuse please, but what in the fuck???
If they couldn't afford to let me have 100 megs and 400 messages per month for $20, then how is it going to help to charge me $35 for as much megs and messages as I can possibly use???
~
The concept of renting textbooks will fail, as far as my limited (USA) college experience goes.
Too many book companies bundle a book with some bullshit CD content (no returns after the software is opened, of course) and an online service for providing automatically-graded quizzes. The teacher uses the online quiz thing because that's easier than doing it themselves--but the quiz server is controlled not by the teacher or the college, but by the book publisher.
Every new book comes with a password (usually inside the software package) and that password is only good for one length of that course. After that, the publisher cancels the used passwords, and the result of this practice is that everybody has to buy a new book every year. Any "books" that had the password used have basically no value at all, because their passwords won't work for the online quiz system anymore.
This is why computers in the [general] classroom has failed in the USA--and why it will continue to fail into the foreseeable future.
Textbook publishers only see e-books as an easy means to pirate their products, and so they have no interest in supplying electronic versions. What use of computers they do engage in, they have only used it as a means to render used books practically worthless.
~
I heard on the radio (AM broadcast) that the main reason was to avert anti-trade sanctions that would have been likely, had only US companies been given these handouts.
(and yes, it is a handout. It's called "gambling with someone else's money". If you go broke anyway, you don't pay it back, because you can't-)
As to why ANY of them are getting any government money,,,,, that would have to do with a certain musty piece of paper, and of a number of politicians who have no use for it.
~
should have been a 25K car cost cap.
That way most people could only barely not afford it.
Well that's silly.
This is what Warren Buffet really meant when he said that there was going to be huge profits to be made in "green technology". Not that said green technology would be any more efficient than what we've already got, but that certain interests will pay more for it, for whatever reason.
~
Microsoft has issued a press release that Bing has now easily surpassed Windows95 in popularity, and is approaching Windows98 in total daily users.
Steve Ballmer has even gone so far as to say that it may even overtake WindowsME, if it builds up enough momentum to break through that group's technological elitism.
~
Most people's blogs suck for the simple reason that they have no content.
A blog is only interesting if you can post info that others would not have been able to find on their own, and that they would want to find. Most blogs fail on both counts, so they only post short commentaries and links--links that often only lead to posts in other people's blogs, instead of straight to the content that is the subject of the discussion.
{-blogs do work well for posting personal information and stories for family and friends to read; that is a realistic use--but then, the target audience is only a few closely-related people-}
Now if Google would just introduce an "ignore blog results" option, the dreck of this part of the internet would finally get the attention it truly deserves.
~
In the demonstration video, the examples they show of kids crying while getting wounds treated are awake--but the kids are only awake because they were given local anesthesia, and not a general to put them under.
With the Pedisedate helmet, the kids just "fall asleep and wake up with no memory of the ordeal",,,,, but if the whole point of using only a local anesthetic was to avoid using a general anesthetic (which is a factor particularly in certain types of head injuries) then the Pedisedate helmet is no help at all.
Additionally, the video does not demonstrate that the Pedisedate has any advantage over just applying general anesthesia the normal way (which in itself involves painlessly breathing through a normal respirator, and that only takes maybe all of 30 seconds to take effect)
~
I've looked for head-mounted units in the past and what's out there is fairly unexciting, compared to monitor resolution. I considered what units I found online that cost up to $1200 USD or so. If there's anything really great, it costs more than that.
Why bother with a head-mount display? Because it is the next progression in portable ubiquitous computing. Just as we are seeing smaller and smaller netbooks and smartphones with not-full but ever-expanding internet capabilities.
The biggest draw of power on a laptop is the screen. The limitation to the laptop's size and portability is also the screen. Time to get rid of it.
~
They might as well buy out and raze some existing city and build it on the oceanfront--because if they charge property taxes that actually cover the construction costs, only multi-millionaires will be able to afford to live there anyway.
...
"Modern living with clean efficient power! Act now, for a limited time, get a free Tesla roadster with purchase of any home..."
~
I would think that Apple would be perfectly capable of selling GSM phones on their own. They don't have a problem selling computers without bundling them with internet service.
As far as "what GSM phones work on what networks", in the USA it's easy: does the phone support the GSM band that the carrier uses? And does the phone support the data service that the carrier uses? If both of those answers are yes, then the phone will work (and if you don't care about data service, then you can even ignore that part of it).
Places in the US that sell unlocked phones tell you how to figure out if the phone will work on your chosen carrier or not. The carrier might make you pay for their junky low-end "free" phone when you set up service, but they don't say that you have to use it. The same SIM card in that cheap phone fits into any other GSM phone.
... The fact of the matter is that none of the major wireless operators are offering a dumb pipe with unrestricted service. Until they do, anyone hoping to sell a wireless device pretty much has to play by the carrier's rules.
I'm not certain what you mean here.
If you mean unlimited bandwidth, well no, no carrier offers that. But if you think there's no carrier that will let you use whatever phone you want, well,,,, no. The only issue might be if you're attempting to use a data-capable phone without having paid for a data plan, or that requires some other network service that your carrier simply doesn't support.
I am on T-mobile also, by the by. I chose a GSM company specifically because I presumed I'd be allowed to use any unlocked GSM phone I wished. They may have been more restrictive in the past, but that does not appear to be the case now.
I took the cheap "free" phone when I set up the account, then first bought an unlocked Blackberry (that t-mobile doesn't sell) from someplace else, used that for a month or so and didn't like it, then bought an unlocked HTC (that t-mobile also doesn't sell) from yet another place and am using that now. Some of the Blackberry features didn't work, but that was because they were tied into Blackberry-specific data services that I didn't feel like paying extra for--that was not anything that T-mobile did. All of the HTC features work as intended. {I am quite certain that T-mobile knows I'm using the HTC because I called customer service up to ask about data connectivity charges with a particular feature it has}
Some companies do have "proprietary" data services of sorts; T-mobile has their "T-Zones" plan that you need a T-mobile-supplied phone to get--but as far as standard phone calling and internet access, there is nothing proprietary at all.
~
Maybe I need to turn in my geek card, but all I expect from a phone is the ability to communicate by voice and very occasional text messages. I'll stick with an el-cheapo cell.
I used to think that too, and just had a super-cheap $30 Virgin prepay phone for the last few years. The lousy voice call quality (of all their phones, even newer ones) and their refusal to allow laptop tethering (even to access a dialup ISP account) got me looking elsewhere.
Upon the advice of a co-worker phone junkie, I spent for an unlocked upper-end "do-everything" phone (HTC tytn-2).... The best way I can say it is that you can end up using more of the features than you expected, if they're present. The appointment scheduler was the first thing to be helpful. GPS/Google Maps, internet access/POP email access, the camera and tethering a laptop has been handy a few times also--and that's just in the couple months I've had it.
I never made many phone calls before, and that much hasn't changed. It's all the other features the new phone has that has gotten more use.
~
"... I doubt they really wanted to be tied to a single carrier in the first place, but they had to make some deal with someone to get their foot in the door of a pretty closed-off industry...."
That's bullshit.
What would have been wrong with Apple just selling an unbranded, quad-band unlocked GSM phone? The only mobile providers that really give you the choice of phone are GSM carriers anyway (of which AT&T is one of the two in the US).
The problem I see is that Apple wanted to bundle it with a company, because Apple thought they'd get more sales if the cost of the phone was spread over the length of a contract--instead of people needing to cough up ~$700 for the phone all at once.
...so basically...
Apple could have done it right the first time, but instead they went for the money grab and hitched their wagon to AT&T's horse.
~
This long-term durability is the main problem with trying to build your own solar panels from cells. The cost is not the problem: at one point I considered doing a small solar power setup (partly just for the geek fun involved) I found 200W of panels going on eBay for $300, when a 200W commercially-manufactured panel cost up around $800.
The problem is that humidity gets in and corrosion attacks the runs and strings of the panels, so that's why commercial panels are tightly vacuum sealed between a sheet of glass and plastic. This method is not one I have seen any DIY-er bother with so far.
Also a lot of people build a "box" and put the solar cells inside and then try to seal the box--but expansion of the air ensures that the seals they work so hard on will not last.
Also we note: most solar panels have a 25-year warranty, but that is usually not for the entire solar panel. In many cases it is only for the guaranteed electrical output of the cells. The sealing of the panel is a much shorter guarantee--often only two or three years.
Bottom line: humidity kills solar panels, even commercially-made ones. And if you live anywhere it rains much, then you probably get a lot of cloudy weather too (when solar panels will not generate any useful electricity at all).
~
I don't know a whole lot about fighting aircraft (never having been in military service) but as I have read it..... most air-to-air combat now is already fought with air-to-air missiles, which themselves are UAV's....
I had read some years ago that to people "in the know" it was not surprising that the CIA was the first US government agency to use an unmanned aircraft in combat. When the concept of an unmanned combat aircraft was first elaborated to be technically possible, the political structure of the Air Force was highly resistant to it, as the political prestige of the image of the "highly-trained combat pilot" was something that the Air Force relied on to define their skills (and petition for funding) as a branch of the general military. The question at the time was "if UAV's greatly decrease the necessary training, then anybody can fly a remote-control attack jet--and then what do you need a separate air force for?".
To this end I am quite surprised that the USAF is moving to UAV's so fast--but I suspect that they see the economic writing on the wall (with the current US/world situation) and feel that they don't have a choice, they must go to whatever is cheapest and effective.
~
An important thing for US readers to keep in mind is that the US mainstream press very rarely ever reports anything bad about Israel (I remember the US bulldozer girl, what others can you recall?). To a great extent, British press is much the same way.
Anytime you have armed conflict, bad things happen because that's the way humans are--but in the US media, most of those "bad things" are consistently not done by Jews, even though the Jews there have superior weapons and numbers.
,,,I suppose you could say that I am anti-Israel, but only to the degree that I feel that too many US leaders have thought that whatever happens to Israel would have some immense impact on the future of the US. I generally hope people "over there" don't resort to killing each other, but if they do it's really not the US's problem.
-------
I myself suspect that eventually the tide of world opinion will turn against Israel, for the same reasons it turned against South Africa's apartheid regime. People (in both these examples of countries) who wish to exclude "the undesireables" have to be mean to do it, forever... and others (worldwide) who do not live in a similar situation, come to understand the opinions of the besieged less and less as time goes on.
~
You people suggesting off-grid solar panel setups??? Get a clue. He's in the US north-east. Solar setups are most-popular in the sunniest parts of the US, which is the desert-southwest--I.E., the opposite end of the country. How's about he just throw bundles of $20 bills into the fireplace to keep warm? It's more convenient than off-grid solar, and probably about the same price.
,,,,,,,,,
The stand-by generator units are by far the best, though they cost the most. You run them off propane or natural gas, and then you convert your furnace & stove to the same fuel, and you can run them off the same big tank too. Spending $10K+ on a setup (installed) isn't unusual.
I live further south (mid-US lattitudes) and just make do with a $800 5500W Sears portable and extension cords. Being portable is nice because there may be reasons other than "no power" that you can't stay at your home, and a portable generator can go wherever you go.
I have gas service, but haven't altered the furnace wiring. I maintain a portable propane heater with a few 20-lb tanks as well. The portable generators tend to be noisy, where the propane heater is basically silent (that is--you can sleep with it left on).
{Now that I think of it, it would be really nice to have a portable heater that I could hook into the furnace gas line when needed...?}
I would advise the OP to have another source of heat than the natural gas utility or the generator. You can just run a space heater off the generator (as long as the space heater's wattage is safely inside the generator's capacity) but that's not going to be as efficient as a propane or kerosene heater because the generator is outside, and some of the heat produced by the generator fuel will be immediately lost outdoors from the generator's engine itself.
You can get portable indoor-rated heaters fueled by propane or kerosene; both have advantages over the other.
Propane doesn't smell, and doesn't require a wick. Use 20-lb or larger refillable tanks, forget the disposables. They are uneconomical to throw away and even if you refill them yourself from a larger tank, they tend to suffer evaporative cooling/frosting issues during use. Kerosene's advantages are that a portable kerosene heater can put out greater amounts of total heat than a comparably-sized propane heater can, and the kerosene fuel is often cheaper per-unit-of-heat than propane--but then, kerosene heaters need wicks and tend to smell during the first few minutes of startup and after shut-down (a lot of people move them outside to start them up and shut them down).
~
Important Friendly Warning:
If you want to install a hydro generator, you first need to know if it's legal. In many US states you need a permit from your Dept of Natural Resources to construct any kind of dam on a natural waterway.
~
Not too surprising really.
It's very difficult for anyone to be a very good generalist in terms of original research work. Individuals end up specializing, and the grants awarded for any tiny specialty generally aren't real big.
So then, is it that big grants are paying for things (great breakthroughs) that can't be done in groups?
Or are individual researchers doing things that won't pay?
How about having it printed on acid-free paper?
Seriously, if you want something that can interface with a common personal computer, then what matters is not the storage medium so much as the device interface. Once upon a time everything had 5.25" floppies, printer ports and serial ports.
Just get a couple external USB2 hard drives, (two for redundancy) copy everything onto both of them, and there you go--ten years of good storage.
(unplug them from the computer and the wall power when you're not actually reading and wrriting on them)
If you happen to notice that USB ports are disappearing from new PC's before then, then you know it's time to convert to the next interface.
It ain't that hard.
At a job I had for a while, I would occasionally have to read stuff off drives that were 10+ years old. And I had that job back around the year 2000, so these drives were from the mid-to-late 1980's.
~
Early in Ron Paul's campaign, the participant activity was very large, yet he often got simply left out of mainstream media reporting. He was constantly described to have "a large internet following, but,,,,". It was a sudden strike of the obvious, where lots of ordinary people suddenly stopped swallowing the approved drivel that was being fed to them by the mainstream media--and this most likely HORRIFIED the media. It was a testament to their irrelevance, because the internet was a venue they had no control over.
He rallied far more people (and money) than all of the other third party candidates did, and more than some other candidates did early on. How popular could he have been with the media coverage that the "chosen" party candidates received?
Go to http://www.ronpaultimeline.com/
and click on "blackout" to see the list.
Many times Ron Paul got left out of news reports, even when other candidates who had already officially dropped out were still included. This time around at least, "the power of the internet" was no match for the "ministry of truth".
Also We Note: Ron Paul was commonly called a "kook" by news media--he was the ONLY candidate who had a derogatory name attached to him. What were the other candidates' nicknames then?....
I didn't vote this time around, and this is the reason why--the one candidate who advocated doing things most productive to the US got shut out early on, and most voters never even noticed.
~
I saw this too--online, and heard it in people talking in real life, the general thought that all their problems would be solved "real soon now".
I didn't vote this time (the first time in 20+ years) as I didn't like either the Facist (McCain) or the Socialist, and there were no other important elections locally. So who won is really no disappointment to me--at least, not more than I was expecting anyway. McCain would have engaged in blatant idiocy as well, it only would have been different idiocy.
One thing's for sure: there's not going to be the money for all the big, glamorous nanny-state programs that Obama has spoken so fondly of in the past. The markets are currently giving Bush Jr a supreme jackhammering, and they'll deal one to Obama's fairly-tale economics as well in due time. So when it comes to what Obama can really do, that leaves the free stuff (gun prohibition) and stuff that actually saves money.
"... Thursday, June 5, 2008
A mere 12 hours after claiming the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama appeared before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee yesterday -- and changed himself into an Israel hard-liner...."
When Obama promised "change", somehow I didn't think reversing his campaign promises was what they had in mind.
Oh well,,, how's that old saying go?
"People know what kind of government they want, and they deserve to get it good and hard"
~
Someone else way down in the comments mentioned using foam pipe insulation to fit a 3.5 drive into a 5.25 bay. That's quick, cheap and easy to do, but doesn't really work nearly as well as it could. Most types of flexible plastic and rubber do very little to dampen vibration.
The better material to use here is Sorbothane. In the US, McMaster-Carr is one place that sells small pieces online/mail order. (also be warned--Sorbothane is tacky and tends to stick to any surface it's clamped against for a long time. Use pieces of paper on any side of it you don't want to stick....)
Slashdot Mirror
This is true.
In the US anyway, schools continue to NOT advance with using computers in the classroom--mainly becuase textbook publishers steadfastly refuse to make fully-electronic versions of their materials available.
Additionally--a lot of people won't need typing much, and those that will use it a lot (for business or pleasure) will get gooder at it anyway.
Besides, in about the same time that it would take for US schools to institute a country-wide standard for just one typing course, there will be drastic improvements in voice recognition software and keyboards themselves will disappear from use anyway.
~
I got a WTF T-mobile story...... I'm using an unlocked third-party phone, and was paying $40/mo for voice, and $20/month for generic data (which was 400 texts and 100mb of data per month). That was fine by me, it was more than I needed. I only browsed with the phone and use Google Maps occasionally. I never tethered or watched much videos online, and a BIG part of that was that I was reluctant to go over the 100-meg limit and get charged another fee.
A few days ago, data stops working. So,,,, I call up and it seems that Tmobile cut off the data, because they are forcing everyone (or lots of people anyway) into either of the two "generic" data plans they have (except for the Sidekicks and Blackberries, that have their own plans)... I was less than a year into a 2-year contract, and I knew I could argue the early termination fee but didn't know that AT&T would be any better (most people I know with iPhones love the phone, hate AT&T). So I just stuck with Tmobile, and agreed to switch to the new higher-rate data/messaging plan.
So then--they say that for the WinMo phone I have, I have to pay $25 now for internet, and $10 for messaging.... But the thing now is, that $35 is for unlimited internet use (no tethering) and unlimited messaging.
?
Excuse please, but what in the fuck???
If they couldn't afford to let me have 100 megs and 400 messages per month for $20, then how is it going to help to charge me $35 for as much megs and messages as I can possibly use???
~
The concept of renting textbooks will fail, as far as my limited (USA) college experience goes.
Too many book companies bundle a book with some bullshit CD content (no returns after the software is opened, of course) and an online service for providing automatically-graded quizzes. The teacher uses the online quiz thing because that's easier than doing it themselves--but the quiz server is controlled not by the teacher or the college, but by the book publisher.
Every new book comes with a password (usually inside the software package) and that password is only good for one length of that course. After that, the publisher cancels the used passwords, and the result of this practice is that everybody has to buy a new book every year. Any "books" that had the password used have basically no value at all, because their passwords won't work for the online quiz system anymore.
This is why computers in the [general] classroom has failed in the USA--and why it will continue to fail into the foreseeable future.
Textbook publishers only see e-books as an easy means to pirate their products, and so they have no interest in supplying electronic versions. What use of computers they do engage in, they have only used it as a means to render used books practically worthless.
~
I heard on the radio (AM broadcast) that the main reason was to avert anti-trade sanctions that would have been likely, had only US companies been given these handouts.
(and yes, it is a handout. It's called "gambling with someone else's money". If you go broke anyway, you don't pay it back, because you can't-)
As to why ANY of them are getting any government money,,,,, that would have to do with a certain musty piece of paper, and of a number of politicians who have no use for it.
~
should have been a 25K car cost cap. That way most people could only barely not afford it.
Well that's silly.
This is what Warren Buffet really meant when he said that there was going to be huge profits to be made in "green technology". Not that said green technology would be any more efficient than what we've already got, but that certain interests will pay more for it, for whatever reason.
~
Put down 4chan.org, and tell them your username is "anonymous". ;)
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Microsoft has issued a press release that Bing has now easily surpassed Windows95 in popularity, and is approaching Windows98 in total daily users.
Steve Ballmer has even gone so far as to say that it may even overtake WindowsME, if it builds up enough momentum to break through that group's technological elitism.
~
Most people's blogs suck for the simple reason that they have no content.
A blog is only interesting if you can post info that others would not have been able to find on their own, and that they would want to find. Most blogs fail on both counts, so they only post short commentaries and links--links that often only lead to posts in other people's blogs, instead of straight to the content that is the subject of the discussion.
{-blogs do work well for posting personal information and stories for family and friends to read; that is a realistic use--but then, the target audience is only a few closely-related people-}
Now if Google would just introduce an "ignore blog results" option, the dreck of this part of the internet would finally get the attention it truly deserves.
~
In the demonstration video, the examples they show of kids crying while getting wounds treated are awake--but the kids are only awake because they were given local anesthesia, and not a general to put them under.
With the Pedisedate helmet, the kids just "fall asleep and wake up with no memory of the ordeal",,,,, but if the whole point of using only a local anesthetic was to avoid using a general anesthetic (which is a factor particularly in certain types of head injuries) then the Pedisedate helmet is no help at all.
Additionally, the video does not demonstrate that the Pedisedate has any advantage over just applying general anesthesia the normal way (which in itself involves painlessly breathing through a normal respirator, and that only takes maybe all of 30 seconds to take effect)
~
I've looked for head-mounted units in the past and what's out there is fairly unexciting, compared to monitor resolution. I considered what units I found online that cost up to $1200 USD or so. If there's anything really great, it costs more than that.
Why bother with a head-mount display? Because it is the next progression in portable ubiquitous computing. Just as we are seeing smaller and smaller netbooks and smartphones with not-full but ever-expanding internet capabilities.
The biggest draw of power on a laptop is the screen. The limitation to the laptop's size and portability is also the screen. Time to get rid of it.
~
They might as well buy out and raze some existing city and build it on the oceanfront--because if they charge property taxes that actually cover the construction costs, only multi-millionaires will be able to afford to live there anyway.
...
"Modern living with clean efficient power! Act now, for a limited time, get a free Tesla roadster with purchase of any home..."
~
As far as "what GSM phones work on what networks", in the USA it's easy: does the phone support the GSM band that the carrier uses? And does the phone support the data service that the carrier uses? If both of those answers are yes, then the phone will work (and if you don't care about data service, then you can even ignore that part of it).
Places in the US that sell unlocked phones tell you how to figure out if the phone will work on your chosen carrier or not. The carrier might make you pay for their junky low-end "free" phone when you set up service, but they don't say that you have to use it. The same SIM card in that cheap phone fits into any other GSM phone.
... The fact of the matter is that none of the major wireless operators are offering a dumb pipe with unrestricted service. Until they do, anyone hoping to sell a wireless device pretty much has to play by the carrier's rules.
I'm not certain what you mean here.
If you mean unlimited bandwidth, well no, no carrier offers that. But if you think there's no carrier that will let you use whatever phone you want, well,,,, no. The only issue might be if you're attempting to use a data-capable phone without having paid for a data plan, or that requires some other network service that your carrier simply doesn't support.
I am on T-mobile also, by the by.
I chose a GSM company specifically because I presumed I'd be allowed to use any unlocked GSM phone I wished. They may have been more restrictive in the past, but that does not appear to be the case now.
I took the cheap "free" phone when I set up the account, then first bought an unlocked Blackberry (that t-mobile doesn't sell) from someplace else, used that for a month or so and didn't like it, then bought an unlocked HTC (that t-mobile also doesn't sell) from yet another place and am using that now. Some of the Blackberry features didn't work, but that was because they were tied into Blackberry-specific data services that I didn't feel like paying extra for--that was not anything that T-mobile did. All of the HTC features work as intended. {I am quite certain that T-mobile knows I'm using the HTC because I called customer service up to ask about data connectivity charges with a particular feature it has}
Some companies do have "proprietary" data services of sorts; T-mobile has their "T-Zones" plan that you need a T-mobile-supplied phone to get--but as far as standard phone calling and internet access, there is nothing proprietary at all.
~
Maybe I need to turn in my geek card, but all I expect from a phone is the ability to communicate by voice and very occasional text messages. I'll stick with an el-cheapo cell.
I used to think that too, and just had a super-cheap $30 Virgin prepay phone for the last few years. The lousy voice call quality (of all their phones, even newer ones) and their refusal to allow laptop tethering (even to access a dialup ISP account) got me looking elsewhere.
Upon the advice of a co-worker phone junkie, I spent for an unlocked upper-end "do-everything" phone (HTC tytn-2).... The best way I can say it is that you can end up using more of the features than you expected, if they're present. The appointment scheduler was the first thing to be helpful. GPS/Google Maps, internet access/POP email access, the camera and tethering a laptop has been handy a few times also--and that's just in the couple months I've had it.
I never made many phone calls before, and that much hasn't changed. It's all the other features the new phone has that has gotten more use.
~
That's bullshit.
...so basically...
What would have been wrong with Apple just selling an unbranded, quad-band unlocked GSM phone? The only mobile providers that really give you the choice of phone are GSM carriers anyway (of which AT&T is one of the two in the US).
The problem I see is that Apple wanted to bundle it with a company, because Apple thought they'd get more sales if the cost of the phone was spread over the length of a contract--instead of people needing to cough up ~$700 for the phone all at once.
Apple could have done it right the first time, but instead they went for the money grab and hitched their wagon to AT&T's horse.
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This long-term durability is the main problem with trying to build your own solar panels from cells. The cost is not the problem: at one point I considered doing a small solar power setup (partly just for the geek fun involved) I found 200W of panels going on eBay for $300, when a 200W commercially-manufactured panel cost up around $800.
The problem is that humidity gets in and corrosion attacks the runs and strings of the panels, so that's why commercial panels are tightly vacuum sealed between a sheet of glass and plastic. This method is not one I have seen any DIY-er bother with so far.
Also a lot of people build a "box" and put the solar cells inside and then try to seal the box--but expansion of the air ensures that the seals they work so hard on will not last.
Also we note: most solar panels have a 25-year warranty, but that is usually not for the entire solar panel. In many cases it is only for the guaranteed electrical output of the cells. The sealing of the panel is a much shorter guarantee--often only two or three years.
Bottom line: humidity kills solar panels, even commercially-made ones. And if you live anywhere it rains much, then you probably get a lot of cloudy weather too (when solar panels will not generate any useful electricity at all).
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I don't know a whole lot about fighting aircraft (never having been in military service) but as I have read it..... most air-to-air combat now is already fought with air-to-air missiles, which themselves are UAV's....
I had read some years ago that to people "in the know" it was not surprising that the CIA was the first US government agency to use an unmanned aircraft in combat. When the concept of an unmanned combat aircraft was first elaborated to be technically possible, the political structure of the Air Force was highly resistant to it, as the political prestige of the image of the "highly-trained combat pilot" was something that the Air Force relied on to define their skills (and petition for funding) as a branch of the general military. The question at the time was "if UAV's greatly decrease the necessary training, then anybody can fly a remote-control attack jet--and then what do you need a separate air force for?".
To this end I am quite surprised that the USAF is moving to UAV's so fast--but I suspect that they see the economic writing on the wall (with the current US/world situation) and feel that they don't have a choice, they must go to whatever is cheapest and effective.
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An important thing for US readers to keep in mind is that the US mainstream press very rarely ever reports anything bad about Israel (I remember the US bulldozer girl, what others can you recall?). To a great extent, British press is much the same way.
,,,I suppose you could say that I am anti-Israel, but only to the degree that I feel that too many US leaders have thought that whatever happens to Israel would have some immense impact on the future of the US. I generally hope people "over there" don't resort to killing each other, but if they do it's really not the US's problem.
Anytime you have armed conflict, bad things happen because that's the way humans are--but in the US media, most of those "bad things" are consistently not done by Jews, even though the Jews there have superior weapons and numbers.
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I myself suspect that eventually the tide of world opinion will turn against Israel, for the same reasons it turned against South Africa's apartheid regime. People (in both these examples of countries) who wish to exclude "the undesireables" have to be mean to do it, forever... and others (worldwide) who do not live in a similar situation, come to understand the opinions of the besieged less and less as time goes on.
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You people suggesting off-grid solar panel setups??? Get a clue. He's in the US north-east . Solar setups are most-popular in the sunniest parts of the US, which is the desert-southwest--I.E., the opposite end of the country. How's about he just throw bundles of $20 bills into the fireplace to keep warm? It's more convenient than off-grid solar, and probably about the same price.
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The stand-by generator units are by far the best, though they cost the most. You run them off propane or natural gas, and then you convert your furnace & stove to the same fuel, and you can run them off the same big tank too. Spending $10K+ on a setup (installed) isn't unusual.
I live further south (mid-US lattitudes) and just make do with a $800 5500W Sears portable and extension cords. Being portable is nice because there may be reasons other than "no power" that you can't stay at your home, and a portable generator can go wherever you go.
I have gas service, but haven't altered the furnace wiring. I maintain a portable propane heater with a few 20-lb tanks as well. The portable generators tend to be noisy, where the propane heater is basically silent (that is--you can sleep with it left on).
{Now that I think of it, it would be really nice to have a portable heater that I could hook into the furnace gas line when needed...?}
I would advise the OP to have another source of heat than the natural gas utility or the generator. You can just run a space heater off the generator (as long as the space heater's wattage is safely inside the generator's capacity) but that's not going to be as efficient as a propane or kerosene heater because the generator is outside, and some of the heat produced by the generator fuel will be immediately lost outdoors from the generator's engine itself.
You can get portable indoor-rated heaters fueled by propane or kerosene; both have advantages over the other.
Propane doesn't smell, and doesn't require a wick. Use 20-lb or larger refillable tanks, forget the disposables. They are uneconomical to throw away and even if you refill them yourself from a larger tank, they tend to suffer evaporative cooling/frosting issues during use.
Kerosene's advantages are that a portable kerosene heater can put out greater amounts of total heat than a comparably-sized propane heater can, and the kerosene fuel is often cheaper per-unit-of-heat than propane--but then, kerosene heaters need wicks and tend to smell during the first few minutes of startup and after shut-down (a lot of people move them outside to start them up and shut them down).
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Important Friendly Warning:
If you want to install a hydro generator, you first need to know if it's legal. In many US states you need a permit from your Dept of Natural Resources to construct any kind of dam on a natural waterway.
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, , ,-research grants get you.
Not too surprising really.
It's very difficult for anyone to be a very good generalist in terms of original research work.
Individuals end up specializing, and the grants awarded for any tiny specialty generally aren't real big.
So then, is it that big grants are paying for things (great breakthroughs) that can't be done in groups?
Or are individual researchers doing things that won't pay?
More research is obviously needed.
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How about having it printed on acid-free paper?
Seriously, if you want something that can interface with a common personal computer, then what matters is not the storage medium so much as the device interface. Once upon a time everything had 5.25" floppies, printer ports and serial ports.
Just get a couple external USB2 hard drives, (two for redundancy) copy everything onto both of them, and there you go--ten years of good storage.
(unplug them from the computer and the wall power when you're not actually reading and wrriting on them)
If you happen to notice that USB ports are disappearing from new PC's before then, then you know it's time to convert to the next interface.
It ain't that hard.
At a job I had for a while, I would occasionally have to read stuff off drives that were 10+ years old. And I had that job back around the year 2000, so these drives were from the mid-to-late 1980's.
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...just by who they show and who they don't.
Early in Ron Paul's campaign, the participant activity was very large, yet he often got simply left out of mainstream media reporting. He was constantly described to have "a large internet following, but,,,,". It was a sudden strike of the obvious, where lots of ordinary people suddenly stopped swallowing the approved drivel that was being fed to them by the mainstream media--and this most likely HORRIFIED the media. It was a testament to their irrelevance, because the internet was a venue they had no control over.
He rallied far more people (and money) than all of the other third party candidates did, and more than some other candidates did early on. How popular could he have been with the media coverage that the "chosen" party candidates received?
Go to
http://www.ronpaultimeline.com/
and click on "blackout" to see the list.
Many times Ron Paul got left out of news reports, even when other candidates who had already officially dropped out were still included.
This time around at least, "the power of the internet" was no match for the "ministry of truth".
Also We Note: Ron Paul was commonly called a "kook" by news media--he was the ONLY candidate who had a derogatory name attached to him.
What were the other candidates' nicknames then?....
I didn't vote this time around, and this is the reason why--the one candidate who advocated doing things most productive to the US got shut out early on, and most voters never even noticed.
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I didn't vote this time (the first time in 20+ years) as I didn't like either the Facist (McCain) or the Socialist, and there were no other important elections locally. So who won is really no disappointment to me--at least, not more than I was expecting anyway. McCain would have engaged in blatant idiocy as well, it only would have been different idiocy.
One thing's for sure: there's not going to be the money for all the big, glamorous nanny-state programs that Obama has spoken so fondly of in the past. The markets are currently giving Bush Jr a supreme jackhammering, and they'll deal one to Obama's fairly-tale economics as well in due time. So when it comes to what Obama can really do, that leaves the free stuff (gun prohibition) and stuff that actually saves money.
The BIGGEST thing Obama could do to save money would be to bring troops back home, but it doesn't seem we'll be seeing that--as Obama looks to be a pawn of Israel just like Bush was, and many US presidents before them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/04/AR2008060403508.html
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When Obama promised "change", somehow I didn't think reversing his campaign promises was what they had in mind.
Oh well,,, how's that old saying go?
"People know what kind of government they want, and they deserve to get it good and hard"
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Yea but what happens when the rubber-bands break?
Someone else way down in the comments mentioned using foam pipe insulation to fit a 3.5 drive into a 5.25 bay. That's quick, cheap and easy to do, but doesn't really work nearly as well as it could. Most types of flexible plastic and rubber do very little to dampen vibration.
The better material to use here is Sorbothane. In the US, McMaster-Carr is one place that sells small pieces online/mail order. (also be warned--Sorbothane is tacky and tends to stick to any surface it's clamped against for a long time. Use pieces of paper on any side of it you don't want to stick....)