Internet access is becoming a tremendous issue for (American) cellular providers (I can't speak for the rest of the world's markets). The technology is there to allow them to effectively be wireless ISPs with extremely wide coverage, but the infrastructure most likely isn't up to snuff for that, and there's potentially more money to be made by nickel-and-diming for everything through a closed and restrictive service rather than act as a dumb pipe to the internet. There's some pretty strong demand though for just that, though, a widespread wireless dumb pipe to the internet.
I suspect that there's gonna be some pretty interesting changes to the industry over the next few years. Will we perhaps transition away from cellular phone service providers to something else?
Palm did acquire Be Inc in 2001. After this, it get's really fucking goofy and confusing, so I'll just quote Wikipeida (article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm,_Inc.)
In January 2002, Palm set up a wholly owned subsidiary to develop and license Palm OS[4], which was named PalmSource in February[5]. PalmSource was then spun off from Palm as an independent company. In August 2003, the hardware division of the company merged with Handspring, was renamed to palmOne, Inc. and traded under the ticker symbol PLMO. The Palm trademark was held by a jointly owned holding company.
In April 2005, palmOne purchased PalmSource's share in the 'Palm' trademark for US$30 million.[6] In July 2005, palmOne launched its new name and brand reverting back to Palm, Inc. and trading under the ticker symbol PALM once again.
In late 2005 ACCESS, which specializes in mobile and embedded web browser technologies, acquired PalmSource for US$324 million.
Who knows where Be's intellectual property ended up. Nothing ever came of the Be acquisition, and most likely nothing ever will. Palm's WebOS is entirely new, developed in-house, and has nothing to do with PalmSource/ACCESS.
Analog(Astounding) has also deteriorated. Significantly. Very significantly. So much so that a subscription is practically a waste of money.
Ugh, agreeing with this. I ended my subscribtion to Analog around a year and a half ago, when I realized that the story quality had really gone down the shitter. I found myself starting to read a story, but then quitting 1-2 pages in because they were just so terrible. When I would get an issue and go through every story like this, I gave up. Stories with neat concepts completely ruined by confusing writing and indecipherable plots, lame tales where it was screamingly obvious the main character was an author's self-insert, and vomit-inducing non-stories that served only to let the author express their political views (normally this is ok, except when the author's soap-boxing completely drowns out and overwhelms the story).
After working for a university help desk, I can tell you with a great deal of certainty that this is quite false.
And I still think of a directory as a "folder" because pretty much all of my software refers to it as that. All the icons are of little folders, my file manager has a "make new folder" command, lots of programs I use have a command along the lines of "open folder". You know, maybe this is just proving that I'm some sort of "child clinging to my woobie," but I'm honestly not sure what the hell any of your points are.
So uh, what's special about "tabs above the address bar (not below)"? I happen prefer my tabs on the bottom, and Opera provides an option for that. Come to think of it, I believe the default in Opera is for the tab bar to be placed above the address bar. I'm certain Firefox's tab bar placement can be changed, as well (through plugins or not).
It seems like a very odd feature to point out...javascript VM, open source, and TABS ON TOP!! Huh?
That site is a slow as shit...here's a summary: Under $1000AU CPU: Intel E8500 - $200 RAM: DDR2 4GB 800MHz RAM - $100v Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 - $130 GPU: ATI 4870 - $300 PSU: Silverstone Strider ST50F 500W - $80 Case: Antec NSK4000 - $65 Optical: Pioneer 215BK SATA - $30 HDD: Western Digital 640GB - $93 Total Price: $998
High end (aka completely retarded) CPU: Intel QX9770 - $1,600 (eXXXXXXtreeeeeeeeme!!!!) RAM: 2 x 2GB Mushkin DDR3 XP3-14400 - $550 (A +$10,000 system with only 4GB of RAM, hah) Motherboard: Foxconn Blackops X48 - $450 (what) GPU: 2 x 4870x2 - $1320 PSU: Corsair HX1000 - $320 Case: Lian-Li PC-X2000 - $580 Optical Drive: Pioneer BDR-202BK - $390 Storage: 2 x 300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor - $700 (no, just no) Cooling: Frozen SS Vapour Phase Change - $1,100 (hahahaha) OS: Vista Home Premium 64bit OEM - $130 Monitor: Dell UltraSharp 3008WFP 30" - $2,000 Mouse: Razer Lachesis - $63 Keyboard: Razer Tarantula Gaming Keyboard or Optimus Maximus - $95 or $1,900 (also hahahahaha) Sound Card : Auzentech X-Fi Prelude - $230 Speakers: Logitech Z-5500 - $320 Total: $9,848 or $11,653 (with Optimus Maximus)
Only the high-end configuration includes the operating system! Kind of a stupid article, their budget system should be capable of just about any game you throw at it, unless you want to play shit at native resolution on a 30" LCD. When it comes to picking out hardware for a custom build, I've always preferred The Tech Report's system guide. Very detailed, and they have alternate setups for various budgets. http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/15009
In the meantime, we've got areas with Fios, and 50/50Mbit symmetrical fiber connections to the 'net. So instead of moving to Japan, you can move to Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, or Texas
Specifically, move to a limited amount of affluent, white suburbs in those states. Don't bother with big cities, either. Yes, there are areas with crazy-fast FiOS service, but Verizon is really only rolling it out in the areas that require less work: rich suburbs. More folks that are willing to pay for the service (and higher-level service), and stringing up fiber to individual homes is a bit simpler than dealing with apartments. Everywhere else they're seriously dragging their feet.
Lots of nerds praise FiOS and recommend it all the goddamn time, but it really isn't as available as it is often made out to be.
It's sad that SimCity for the Wii looks much better and more complex than SimCity Societies (the latest PC game in the SimCity series, notable for 1. Being a complete abortion of a game and 2. NOT being developed by Maxis).
I've always thought that the Wiimote would be natural for a SimCity game. I do wonder how it will handle really large cities, though. Lots of buildings to render and things like traffic routing to calculate.
Oops...WHY does cellular internet access cost so much...WHY not WHO. I preview the reply, double-check everything, and still screw up. I'm blaming it on my ISP!
Who does cellular internet access cost so much? Because people will pay that much!
And what the hell does Google getting into the cell phone industry have to do with access fees? Google is getting into the cell phone software business, not the carrier business.
At least the article didn't link to a blog which linked to a news aggregator that linked to another blog that linked to youtube. This trend of just reposting crap without ANYTHING going back to the source if fucking terrible. But hey, I guess bullshit like this is what's keeping all these web two point oh sites afloat.
Video was absolutely amazing...I'm not sure if "amateur" is the right word for this guy! Thanks for posting the source!
Another option for the trashed MBR: if you have a Windows CD lying around, boot into recovery console (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058), and run fixboot, then fixmbr.
The love bed (a big tacky vibrating bed) was introduced in Livin' Large, the first expansion pack for The Sims 1.
And yeah, anything pertaining to sex in The Sims was rather tounge-in-cheek and cartoonish. I can't say I know anyone who ever bought the game for its hot, erotic possibilities...yech!
Yep, charging money to prevent minors from downloading "adult themed add-ons" is essentially bullshit. Hell, there are loads of pay sites for The Sims that have no adult content! I remember when pay sites started appearing (way back around when Hot Date was released)...back then it was all about covering hosting fees. Understandable for some particularly large sites, but then brand new pay sites started popping up without ever offering any content for free (aside from occasional samples)! It probably all started because these middle aged crazy cat-ladies and soccer moms (which make up the bulk of the Sims communnity) couldn't figure out how to find cheaper hosting or reduce bandwidth usage, so selling their crummy add-ons or abandoning the community in a fit of drama were the only solutions. At some point I guess the notion that creating add-ons for the game and putting them online was an expensive venture had penetrated the community, and pay sites became an accepted thing.
There is also the argument that the authors of these add-ons have done a lot of work to make their creations, and would like some compensation for it. Nothing wrong with that. But look at the pricing for some of these Sims websites, and it all becomes quite laughable. Even taking into account bandwidth usage and the hard work put into making stuff for the game, it is obvious that many of these authors just want to make a buck.
Really, when it comes to user-created content, The Sims has a very strange community compared to other games.
Urg...I know people will hate me for posting this...but look at Opera. Without Java, the install file is about 4MB. This includes a mail reader, IRC client, newsgroup reader, mouse gestures, and highly configurable tabbed browsing. I see no reason for Firefox to toss in a few basic features. While I think Firefox is great, and I love the "feel" to it, I dislike downloading plugins for mouse gestures, tabbed browsing configuration, etc. Hell, basic plugins like this aren't large at all, it wouldn't hurt Firefox to put that in. Most people here aren't asking for hundreds of pre-installed plugins and a ton of themes, just some of the simpler things.
I like the ideas posted by others, have a shopping cart or checkbox system, allowing you to sort of preinstall various plugins. Maybe create some standardized basic functionality plugins that one may choose to download, and have an option for popular, more advanced plugins as well. You'll still have a small initial download, and will still have the option to have a very small browser.
The education system (or at least my school district) needs more people like you. Math education here is pretty damn terrible. None of the teachers really attempt to get students engaged in mathematics. Our science department would be good if it wasn't for shitty supplies (or sometimes lack of them) and a few terrible teachers.
Semi-related...my current physics teacher is awful. The man simply cannot teach. He was a former mechanical engineer, and is completely washed up. We suspect he got fired from his previous job (probably due to his hideous personality traits), was desperate for work, so somehow got into teaching. For whatever reason, he also teaches chemistry, and students who have him for that say that it is just as bad. It's a real shame, the guy seems to be somewhat knowledgeable, but just does not know what the fuck is going on around him. My freshman-year physics teacher was pretty cool, though. A little creepy (horrible comb over, very short, and nasty body odor), but he could get us interested in the subject. Best thing he did was walk on broken glass and lie on a bed of nails.
As posted by others, the gimmicky crap mentioned in this article isn't what's needed. Hell, I'll go out and say the article is garbage. Physics isn't the only problem subject, math and science as a whole could go for some improvement. Also, even if the teacher can sing a silly song and maybe pull off a dumb stunt, it ends up being worthless if they can't actually teach. Qualified teachers are needed, people who are skilled and interested in the subject they teach. Far too many teachers show no enthusiasm in their subject...understandable considering the working conditions. Gah, I'm rambling now. Let's just sum things up: There are bigger problems in education and they can't be solved by goofy gimmicks.
Re:Is that really of significance?
on
Inside TechTV/G4
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Bingo. It seems very few people acknowledge this. Leo was one of the few people on TechTV who appeared to actually have some training and experience in live television. Jittery nerds do not make good TV...case in point is Chris Pirillo. I don't why people thought he was good, that man just wasn't made for live TV.
I haven't watched TechTV since it became G4TechTV (god damn what a terrible name). It is a shame Comcast has essentially dissolved TechTV, the end result of this merger was G4 getting a few new people and some new shows (many of which are now gone!).
"But for the life of me I couldnt get past all the freakiness"
Thank God, I'm not the only one. I could never quite make sense out of Farscape. I must say, though, it had terrific special effects. The puppets and makeup was fantastic. But the plot was too oddball for me.
Lian Li makes some aluminum stick-on things for various brands of drives (optical and floppy). Fairly cheap, around 5-7 dollars each. I've seen them at many places online, and at CompUSA. You could also probably make your own out of a piece of aluminum, or thin steel even.
You could also try painting your drives, but that involves a lot more effort.
From what I've read in the article, it appears that this is more filtered, somehow. Do a search on Google and there is a good chance you will end up with several crap sites with no information. This digital library is (suposedly) pure information, no fluff.
It looks really promising to me. Hopefully this will be implemented well in schools.
Oh yeah, and in Soviet Russia, LIBRARIES DIGITALIZE YOU! (couldn't help myself)
Slashdot Mirror
With how crappy Google's search results have been getting, some may argue it already is dead.
Internet access is becoming a tremendous issue for (American) cellular providers (I can't speak for the rest of the world's markets). The technology is there to allow them to effectively be wireless ISPs with extremely wide coverage, but the infrastructure most likely isn't up to snuff for that, and there's potentially more money to be made by nickel-and-diming for everything through a closed and restrictive service rather than act as a dumb pipe to the internet. There's some pretty strong demand though for just that, though, a widespread wireless dumb pipe to the internet.
I suspect that there's gonna be some pretty interesting changes to the industry over the next few years. Will we perhaps transition away from cellular phone service providers to something else?
Palm did acquire Be Inc in 2001. After this, it get's really fucking goofy and confusing, so I'll just quote Wikipeida (article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm,_Inc.)
In January 2002, Palm set up a wholly owned subsidiary to develop and license Palm OS[4], which was named PalmSource in February[5]. PalmSource was then spun off from Palm as an independent company. In August 2003, the hardware division of the company merged with Handspring, was renamed to palmOne, Inc. and traded under the ticker symbol PLMO. The Palm trademark was held by a jointly owned holding company.
In April 2005, palmOne purchased PalmSource's share in the 'Palm' trademark for US$30 million.[6] In July 2005, palmOne launched its new name and brand reverting back to Palm, Inc. and trading under the ticker symbol PALM once again.
In late 2005 ACCESS, which specializes in mobile and embedded web browser technologies, acquired PalmSource for US$324 million.
Who knows where Be's intellectual property ended up. Nothing ever came of the Be acquisition, and most likely nothing ever will. Palm's WebOS is entirely new, developed in-house, and has nothing to do with PalmSource/ACCESS.
Ugh, agreeing with this. I ended my subscribtion to Analog around a year and a half ago, when I realized that the story quality had really gone down the shitter. I found myself starting to read a story, but then quitting 1-2 pages in because they were just so terrible. When I would get an issue and go through every story like this, I gave up. Stories with neat concepts completely ruined by confusing writing and indecipherable plots, lame tales where it was screamingly obvious the main character was an author's self-insert, and vomit-inducing non-stories that served only to let the author express their political views (normally this is ok, except when the author's soap-boxing completely drowns out and overwhelms the story).
story at 11.
and people know how to use them.
After working for a university help desk, I can tell you with a great deal of certainty that this is quite false.
And I still think of a directory as a "folder" because pretty much all of my software refers to it as that. All the icons are of little folders, my file manager has a "make new folder" command, lots of programs I use have a command along the lines of "open folder". You know, maybe this is just proving that I'm some sort of "child clinging to my woobie," but I'm honestly not sure what the hell any of your points are.
Except that this story's issue pertains to Sprint's ISP operations, you're talking about their wireless offerings. Same company, different divisions.
So uh, what's special about "tabs above the address bar (not below)"? I happen prefer my tabs on the bottom, and Opera provides an option for that. Come to think of it, I believe the default in Opera is for the tab bar to be placed above the address bar. I'm certain Firefox's tab bar placement can be changed, as well (through plugins or not).
It seems like a very odd feature to point out...javascript VM, open source, and TABS ON TOP!! Huh?
That site is a slow as shit...here's a summary:
Under $1000AU
CPU: Intel E8500 - $200
RAM: DDR2 4GB 800MHz RAM - $100v
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3 - $130
GPU: ATI 4870 - $300
PSU: Silverstone Strider ST50F 500W - $80
Case: Antec NSK4000 - $65
Optical: Pioneer 215BK SATA - $30
HDD: Western Digital 640GB - $93
Total Price: $998
Midrange
CPU: Intel E8600 - $300
RAM: DDR2 4GB 1066MHz - $150
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 - $240
GPU: ATI 4870x2 - $655
PSU: Corsair HX620 - $160
Case: Cooler Master Cosmos S RC-1100 - $285
Optical Drive: Pioneer DVR-215D SATA 20x - $30
Storage: Western Digital 640GB - $93
Cooling: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme & Scythe Slipstream - $85
Total: $1,998
High end (aka completely retarded)
CPU: Intel QX9770 - $1,600 (eXXXXXXtreeeeeeeeme!!!!)
RAM: 2 x 2GB Mushkin DDR3 XP3-14400 - $550 (A +$10,000 system with only 4GB of RAM, hah)
Motherboard: Foxconn Blackops X48 - $450 (what)
GPU: 2 x 4870x2 - $1320
PSU: Corsair HX1000 - $320
Case: Lian-Li PC-X2000 - $580
Optical Drive: Pioneer BDR-202BK - $390
Storage: 2 x 300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor - $700 (no, just no)
Cooling: Frozen SS Vapour Phase Change - $1,100 (hahahaha)
OS: Vista Home Premium 64bit OEM - $130
Monitor: Dell UltraSharp 3008WFP 30" - $2,000
Mouse: Razer Lachesis - $63
Keyboard: Razer Tarantula Gaming Keyboard or Optimus Maximus - $95 or $1,900 (also hahahahaha)
Sound Card : Auzentech X-Fi Prelude - $230
Speakers: Logitech Z-5500 - $320
Total: $9,848 or $11,653 (with Optimus Maximus)
Only the high-end configuration includes the operating system! Kind of a stupid article, their budget system should be capable of just about any game you throw at it, unless you want to play shit at native resolution on a 30" LCD. When it comes to picking out hardware for a custom build, I've always preferred The Tech Report's system guide. Very detailed, and they have alternate setups for various budgets. http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/15009
In the meantime, we've got areas with Fios, and 50/50Mbit symmetrical fiber connections to the 'net. So instead of moving to Japan, you can move to Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, or Texas
Specifically, move to a limited amount of affluent, white suburbs in those states. Don't bother with big cities, either. Yes, there are areas with crazy-fast FiOS service, but Verizon is really only rolling it out in the areas that require less work: rich suburbs. More folks that are willing to pay for the service (and higher-level service), and stringing up fiber to individual homes is a bit simpler than dealing with apartments. Everywhere else they're seriously dragging their feet.
Lots of nerds praise FiOS and recommend it all the goddamn time, but it really isn't as available as it is often made out to be.
It's sad that SimCity for the Wii looks much better and more complex than SimCity Societies (the latest PC game in the SimCity series, notable for 1. Being a complete abortion of a game and 2. NOT being developed by Maxis).
I've always thought that the Wiimote would be natural for a SimCity game. I do wonder how it will handle really large cities, though. Lots of buildings to render and things like traffic routing to calculate.
Because "Photoshop" has greater brand recognition.
Oops...WHY does cellular internet access cost so much...WHY not WHO. I preview the reply, double-check everything, and still screw up. I'm blaming it on my ISP!
Who does cellular internet access cost so much? Because people will pay that much!
And what the hell does Google getting into the cell phone industry have to do with access fees? Google is getting into the cell phone software business, not the carrier business.
At least the article didn't link to a blog which linked to a news aggregator that linked to another blog that linked to youtube. This trend of just reposting crap without ANYTHING going back to the source if fucking terrible. But hey, I guess bullshit like this is what's keeping all these web two point oh sites afloat.
Video was absolutely amazing...I'm not sure if "amateur" is the right word for this guy! Thanks for posting the source!
Another option for the trashed MBR: if you have a Windows CD lying around, boot into recovery console (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058), and run fixboot, then fixmbr.
Warning: incoming pedantic nerd!
The love bed (a big tacky vibrating bed) was introduced in Livin' Large, the first expansion pack for The Sims 1.
And yeah, anything pertaining to sex in The Sims was rather tounge-in-cheek and cartoonish. I can't say I know anyone who ever bought the game for its hot, erotic possibilities...yech!
Yep, charging money to prevent minors from downloading "adult themed add-ons" is essentially bullshit. Hell, there are loads of pay sites for The Sims that have no adult content! I remember when pay sites started appearing (way back around when Hot Date was released)...back then it was all about covering hosting fees. Understandable for some particularly large sites, but then brand new pay sites started popping up without ever offering any content for free (aside from occasional samples)! It probably all started because these middle aged crazy cat-ladies and soccer moms (which make up the bulk of the Sims communnity) couldn't figure out how to find cheaper hosting or reduce bandwidth usage, so selling their crummy add-ons or abandoning the community in a fit of drama were the only solutions. At some point I guess the notion that creating add-ons for the game and putting them online was an expensive venture had penetrated the community, and pay sites became an accepted thing.
There is also the argument that the authors of these add-ons have done a lot of work to make their creations, and would like some compensation for it. Nothing wrong with that. But look at the pricing for some of these Sims websites, and it all becomes quite laughable. Even taking into account bandwidth usage and the hard work put into making stuff for the game, it is obvious that many of these authors just want to make a buck.
Really, when it comes to user-created content, The Sims has a very strange community compared to other games.
Urg...I know people will hate me for posting this...but look at Opera. Without Java, the install file is about 4MB. This includes a mail reader, IRC client, newsgroup reader, mouse gestures, and highly configurable tabbed browsing. I see no reason for Firefox to toss in a few basic features. While I think Firefox is great, and I love the "feel" to it, I dislike downloading plugins for mouse gestures, tabbed browsing configuration, etc. Hell, basic plugins like this aren't large at all, it wouldn't hurt Firefox to put that in. Most people here aren't asking for hundreds of pre-installed plugins and a ton of themes, just some of the simpler things.
I like the ideas posted by others, have a shopping cart or checkbox system, allowing you to sort of preinstall various plugins. Maybe create some standardized basic functionality plugins that one may choose to download, and have an option for popular, more advanced plugins as well. You'll still have a small initial download, and will still have the option to have a very small browser.
The education system (or at least my school district) needs more people like you. Math education here is pretty damn terrible. None of the teachers really attempt to get students engaged in mathematics. Our science department would be good if it wasn't for shitty supplies (or sometimes lack of them) and a few terrible teachers.
Semi-related...my current physics teacher is awful. The man simply cannot teach. He was a former mechanical engineer, and is completely washed up. We suspect he got fired from his previous job (probably due to his hideous personality traits), was desperate for work, so somehow got into teaching. For whatever reason, he also teaches chemistry, and students who have him for that say that it is just as bad. It's a real shame, the guy seems to be somewhat knowledgeable, but just does not know what the fuck is going on around him. My freshman-year physics teacher was pretty cool, though. A little creepy (horrible comb over, very short, and nasty body odor), but he could get us interested in the subject. Best thing he did was walk on broken glass and lie on a bed of nails.
As posted by others, the gimmicky crap mentioned in this article isn't what's needed. Hell, I'll go out and say the article is garbage. Physics isn't the only problem subject, math and science as a whole could go for some improvement. Also, even if the teacher can sing a silly song and maybe pull off a dumb stunt, it ends up being worthless if they can't actually teach. Qualified teachers are needed, people who are skilled and interested in the subject they teach. Far too many teachers show no enthusiasm in their subject...understandable considering the working conditions. Gah, I'm rambling now. Let's just sum things up: There are bigger problems in education and they can't be solved by goofy gimmicks.
Bingo. It seems very few people acknowledge this. Leo was one of the few people on TechTV who appeared to actually have some training and experience in live television. Jittery nerds do not make good TV...case in point is Chris Pirillo. I don't why people thought he was good, that man just wasn't made for live TV.
I haven't watched TechTV since it became G4TechTV (god damn what a terrible name). It is a shame Comcast has essentially dissolved TechTV, the end result of this merger was G4 getting a few new people and some new shows (many of which are now gone!).
"But for the life of me I couldnt get past all the freakiness"
Thank God, I'm not the only one. I could never quite make sense out of Farscape. I must say, though, it had terrific special effects. The puppets and makeup was fantastic. But the plot was too oddball for me.
Lian Li makes some aluminum stick-on things for various brands of drives (optical and floppy). Fairly cheap, around 5-7 dollars each. I've seen them at many places online, and at CompUSA. You could also probably make your own out of a piece of aluminum, or thin steel even.
You could also try painting your drives, but that involves a lot more effort.
From what I've read in the article, it appears that this is more filtered, somehow. Do a search on Google and there is a good chance you will end up with several crap sites with no information. This digital library is (suposedly) pure information, no fluff.
It looks really promising to me. Hopefully this will be implemented well in schools.
Oh yeah, and in Soviet Russia, LIBRARIES DIGITALIZE YOU! (couldn't help myself)