>" For the first time, it's easy to sign, fax, and store documents without ever printing a piece of paper. It's finally fast and simple to complete paperwork and expense reports, to manage accounting, pay bills and invoice others."
What a load of crap. Seems more like an advertisement for commercial stuff. Sorry, but I work in the real world. Not everything "paperless" is easy to work with. And worse, the suggested method of "solving" the problem just moves a lot of it to "the cloud", putting confidential (and in our case HIPAA) stuff into the hands of various outside companies. There are concerns with accountability, backup, storage, security, compliance, file formats, and other factors. Then add internet bandwidth, compatibility, training users, signature legalities, encryption, resolution, and interaction with other companies to the mix and this is not an "easy as pie" solution as the slashvertizement would imply. Nor have these proposed "solutions" suddenly just appeared "now".
Look, I agree there is far to much paper flowing around. And I do my part to try and reduce as much of it as possible, when I see waste or inappropriate use. But it is just myopic uptopianism to believe that paper can't also be economical and easy for many situations.... sometimes the best solution is not the newest or most electronic or "cloud" one.
The Netbook category was created by Asus when they made a machine that was smaller than typical, lower priced than typical, had a longer battery life than typical, had solid state storage (which was not typical), and ran Linux. The EEE-1000 (with no letter behind it) was just a fantastic machine for the money and was probably the last true Netbook.
The Netbook died the moment the manufacturers added hard drives and replaced Linux with MS-Windows. Because at that point, they were no longer Netbooks, they were just crippled, slow, MS-Windows notebooks. They lost what made them different. The MS-Windows slowed the machine down to being unusable. It also jacked the price up a bit (and with the low prices, even a bit was significant). The hard drive made it fragile and less battery friendly and even slower still.
I was waiting FOR YEARS for a replacement for the EEE-1000; a true Netbook without the MS-Windows tax, and with a bump of specs to match the year (more RAM, more CPU, larger solid state storage, more res, but similar price and same form-factor and battery life). It never came.
You want pictures? Of the entire interior of my and my friends' and family's houses? I think not. You can choose to believe whatever you like, it makes no difference to me.
>"Good for you, but the majority of people are still using incandescent bulbs."
Not the people that I know. All my friends and family have higher than 50% non-incandescent, making non-incandescent the "norm" or "average". Most are much, much higher uptake than 50%. My last big jump from 60% to 95% happened last year when I was finally able to get LED BR30 tracklight bulbs (Utilitech Pro #0338929) that are:
* Bright (650 Lumens) * True soft white (2700K) * Flood, not spot * Fully dimmable * X10 compatible * Instant 100% full brightness * Affordable
I thought it would be Philips that could do it first, but these no-names (from Lowe's, I think it was) have impressed the hell out of me. Florescent BR30 bulbs were never the right color, noisy as hell, completely X10 incompatible, take a while to brighten, and really never last as long as claimed.
So I guess it depends on your definition. And even if you require it to be glass, contain a gas, and a filament, then a fluorescent lamp is still a bulb. I guess my LED ones don't quite fit that, though.
>" about the same amount of heat given off by the average light bulb"
For the love of god, will people PLEASE come up with a better analogy than that tired, ancient one. I don't know about you, but I don't think I have more than one or two bulbs anywhere in my house that pull more than 20 watts, the average being more like 12.
The "average light bulb" is hardly "average" anymore.
I know it would require more bands... and that is precisely what is needed. What is taking so long? The FCC auctioned off billions of dollars worth of bands to companies for mobile phones/etc, and we citizens are still stuck with these few crappy little crumbs for one of our most important wireless technologies.
Always obsessed with speed. Year after year all most of us want is better range and less interference, not more speed. More channels and frequencies are needed. Do that and it might have a chance at being interesting.
I am still not sure I understand the purpose of the OUYA. If it doesn't run existing Android games, then it is just another locked-down device/market from someone else. What's the big whoop? Just the fact that is runs Android?? Wouldn't a device that runs standard Android and has access to all the existing games in Google Play be far more desirable?
The hardware will be near zero-profit and they will just rake in the money from sales of apps on their proprietary "store". Why would developers want to lock themselves into another, different store with different rules, and target only the Ouya?
Wasn't the excitement to have a cheap set-top box that could play inexpensive Android games? If it is a separate, proprietary marketplace, then the selection will be dismal, the prices much higher, and you won't be able to use those apps on any other non-Ouya device.
Plus, if you already paid for Android games on the Google Play or Amazon App Store, they won't run on the Ouya either. I don't see how this is a good thing. Despite it running an Android fork, it is just another semi-proprietary platform.
I would rather pay more for a really "open" set-top box with decent hardware, joysticks, and have it just use Google Play and link to my existing account. They can make money off the box.
They should be asking for CONCEPTS not particular applications. For example "Spreadsheet proficiency" not "Excel proficiency".
I would MUCH rather have someone that understands the concepts of spreadsheets, word processing, and graphics, than someone who understands just a single program. When I hire, I find that people who have never been exposed to anything but Microsoft Office are rather restricted in flexibility and creativity and less able to handle (or try) anything new/different.
Shame on your, Google, for not handling this better. MS-Office is Microsoft's last remaining major stranglehold. Alternatives such as Open/LibreOffice and Google Docs can't compete effectively when even companies associated with such alternatives can't stand behind their own offerings.
Interesting that they are not comparing to a *modern* ARM chip (Cortex-A15), like the Exynos 5 (5250) or even a Qualcom Krait S4 (perhaps MSM8960).
So the news is that Intel has mostly caught up to an old ARM based chip based on designs/specs years older still and only running under MS-Windows. Yawn....
I personally have been REFUSED SERVICE by healthcare organizations when I refuse to provide my SSN, and treated like CRAP by said organizations, too. I have also been refused service by several other
If you read the laws, only the GOVERNMENT is required to provide you service if you refuse to provide your SSN, unless there are laws specifically requiring it (and there are quite a few). There are absolutely no laws that restrict non-government from using SSN as a required ID number.
Don't believe me? Go ahead and try to get credit from ANYONE and refuse to supply your SSN. You will get NOWHERE. Electric company hookup? REQUIRED. Cable TV? REQUIRED. Non-Prepaid phone? REQUIRED. Every one of them claim it is because they are extending the ability to charge for things in advance (toll calls, pay per view, etc). And/or they report back to the credit reporting agencies- which all REQUIRE use of SSN.
The problem with a single ID number is that it makes it incredibly easy for multiple databases to match records on you, which further erode your privacy and security of your information.
Hulu Plus doesn't count as competition, in my book, at all. PAYING for a streaming service to have programs interrupted by unskippable advertising is just plain crazy. It is bad enough with Cable TV, but at least my TiVo gives me full control.
They could not PAY me to force me to watch stuff I don't want to watch. It is about as hostile of a model I can think of at the moment.
> "At launch, Redbox Instant will be available through traditional web browsers"
What could be more "traditional" than a web browser running on Linux? Linux/Unix has been "browsing" the web for as long as there have been web browsers. And most of the "web" is powered by Linux.
Really, Flash might be a PITA, but if they do go that route for "traditional" web browsers, it could mean instant access on Linux. I like Netflix, but I like discs too, and when they split the two plans apart, DOUBLING the total price from what it was a year prior, I dropped streaming.
Some additional competition in this space would be great (let's not forget Amazon Prime video...)
Why would a non-violent criminal be thrown in solitary immediately and also denied access to all but one visitor? I doubt it was to protect him from other inmates.
"Since then the Pirate Bay founder has been kept in solitary confinement, locked up 23 hours a day for weeks on end."
"Gottfrid wasnâ(TM)t allowed to meet anyone except his mother during his solitary confinement"
I and my 150 users use Claws-mail at work (for years). Before that, we used Sylpheed (for even more years). Before moving from Sylpheed to Claws, we researched all available options carefully. Just from memory- Thunderbird was hard to customize and clumsy. Evolution was even harder to centrally control, was bloated, and performed horribly. Kmail was too complex and tied too much to KDE (which we were/are not using). Thunderbird was our second choice, but Claws seemed like the best option.
Claws is extremely fast, reliable, feature-packed (especially with the plugins), mature, flexible, and performs well on thin clients. On the original poster's list, the only thing it does NOT do is compose HTML Email (at least not that I am aware of) and I consider that inability a feature:) It can, however, display it fine using a plugin. And it will nicely convert them to plain text for normal use. It has a calendar plugin, but we use a web-based calendar instead.
It is not perfect, but nothing I have ever seen or used is. For us, it is the best, overall.
At home, I have used Kmail for many years. At about KDE 4.8 I had lots of issues with them pulling out the communications stuff and setting it up as other "services". It was complex and unreliable. Layered with a bit too much eye candy and frustration and I finally switched home over to Claws too.
And when you use Google Play for Android, essentially 100% of apps, games or otherwise, have a "trial", because you can return ANYTHING in 15 minutes if you don't like it.
The trial period used to be much longer... but you can pretty much tell if you are going to like or hate something in the first several minutes.
Again, it looks like Microsoft is trying to push inferior models on many users that already have used a model that is much better.
>"What, 45 floppies? Software isn't that small since the 90's. That's 10% of a CD-ROM!"
When the drive size is only 115GB, having half of it consumed by the OS install is pretty dramatic, if you ask me (and many others in Twist forums who were shocked when they saw their "free space"). Even if you delete the recovery partition and long-term hibernate, it is still huge... about 700% larger than a Linux installation with the same functionality.
It is a bit strange that Lenovo didn't offer a 256GB SSD option.
Slashdot Mirror
>" For the first time, it's easy to sign, fax, and store documents without ever printing a piece of paper. It's finally fast and simple to complete paperwork and expense reports, to manage accounting, pay bills and invoice others."
What a load of crap. Seems more like an advertisement for commercial stuff. Sorry, but I work in the real world. Not everything "paperless" is easy to work with. And worse, the suggested method of "solving" the problem just moves a lot of it to "the cloud", putting confidential (and in our case HIPAA) stuff into the hands of various outside companies. There are concerns with accountability, backup, storage, security, compliance, file formats, and other factors. Then add internet bandwidth, compatibility, training users, signature legalities, encryption, resolution, and interaction with other companies to the mix and this is not an "easy as pie" solution as the slashvertizement would imply. Nor have these proposed "solutions" suddenly just appeared "now".
Look, I agree there is far to much paper flowing around. And I do my part to try and reduce as much of it as possible, when I see waste or inappropriate use. But it is just myopic uptopianism to believe that paper can't also be economical and easy for many situations.... sometimes the best solution is not the newest or most electronic or "cloud" one.
The Netbook category was created by Asus when they made a machine that was smaller than typical, lower priced than typical, had a longer battery life than typical, had solid state storage (which was not typical), and ran Linux. The EEE-1000 (with no letter behind it) was just a fantastic machine for the money and was probably the last true Netbook.
The Netbook died the moment the manufacturers added hard drives and replaced Linux with MS-Windows. Because at that point, they were no longer Netbooks, they were just crippled, slow, MS-Windows notebooks. They lost what made them different. The MS-Windows slowed the machine down to being unusable. It also jacked the price up a bit (and with the low prices, even a bit was significant). The hard drive made it fragile and less battery friendly and even slower still.
I was waiting FOR YEARS for a replacement for the EEE-1000; a true Netbook without the MS-Windows tax, and with a bump of specs to match the year (more RAM, more CPU, larger solid state storage, more res, but similar price and same form-factor and battery life). It never came.
Oh well.
You want pictures? Of the entire interior of my and my friends' and family's houses? I think not. You can choose to believe whatever you like, it makes no difference to me.
>"Good for you, but the majority of people are still using incandescent bulbs."
Not the people that I know. All my friends and family have higher than 50% non-incandescent, making non-incandescent the "norm" or "average". Most are much, much higher uptake than 50%. My last big jump from 60% to 95% happened last year when I was finally able to get LED BR30 tracklight bulbs (Utilitech Pro #0338929) that are:
* Bright (650 Lumens)
* True soft white (2700K)
* Flood, not spot
* Fully dimmable
* X10 compatible
* Instant 100% full brightness
* Affordable
I thought it would be Philips that could do it first, but these no-names (from Lowe's, I think it was) have impressed the hell out of me. Florescent BR30 bulbs were never the right color, noisy as hell, completely X10 incompatible, take a while to brighten, and really never last as long as claimed.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/light+bulb?s=t
"light bulb, noun: An electric light."
So I guess it depends on your definition. And even if you require it to be glass, contain a gas, and a filament, then a fluorescent lamp is still a bulb. I guess my LED ones don't quite fit that, though.
You are probably not "most of us", then :)
>" about the same amount of heat given off by the average light bulb"
For the love of god, will people PLEASE come up with a better analogy than that tired, ancient one. I don't know about you, but I don't think I have more than one or two bulbs anywhere in my house that pull more than 20 watts, the average being more like 12.
The "average light bulb" is hardly "average" anymore.
I know it would require more bands... and that is precisely what is needed. What is taking so long? The FCC auctioned off billions of dollars worth of bands to companies for mobile phones/etc, and we citizens are still stuck with these few crappy little crumbs for one of our most important wireless technologies.
Always obsessed with speed. Year after year all most of us want is better range and less interference, not more speed. More channels and frequencies are needed. Do that and it might have a chance at being interesting.
+1 Informative
Thanks for the excellent response.
I am still not sure I understand the purpose of the OUYA. If it doesn't run existing Android games, then it is just another locked-down device/market from someone else. What's the big whoop? Just the fact that is runs Android?? Wouldn't a device that runs standard Android and has access to all the existing games in Google Play be far more desirable?
The hardware will be near zero-profit and they will just rake in the money from sales of apps on their proprietary "store". Why would developers want to lock themselves into another, different store with different rules, and target only the Ouya?
Wasn't the excitement to have a cheap set-top box that could play inexpensive Android games? If it is a separate, proprietary marketplace, then the selection will be dismal, the prices much higher, and you won't be able to use those apps on any other non-Ouya device.
Plus, if you already paid for Android games on the Google Play or Amazon App Store, they won't run on the Ouya either. I don't see how this is a good thing. Despite it running an Android fork, it is just another semi-proprietary platform.
I would rather pay more for a really "open" set-top box with decent hardware, joysticks, and have it just use Google Play and link to my existing account. They can make money off the box.
They should be asking for CONCEPTS not particular applications. For example "Spreadsheet proficiency" not "Excel proficiency".
I would MUCH rather have someone that understands the concepts of spreadsheets, word processing, and graphics, than someone who understands just a single program. When I hire, I find that people who have never been exposed to anything but Microsoft Office are rather restricted in flexibility and creativity and less able to handle (or try) anything new/different.
Shame on your, Google, for not handling this better. MS-Office is Microsoft's last remaining major stranglehold. Alternatives such as Open/LibreOffice and Google Docs can't compete effectively when even companies associated with such alternatives can't stand behind their own offerings.
Sorry to break this to you, but both chips I mentioned are shipping hardware.
I have had the Nexus 10 for several weeks and that is running the Exynos 5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_10
And I have had the Evo LTE for what, six months? And that has the Krait S4 (like over a dozen other major device models out there).
Interesting that they are not comparing to a *modern* ARM chip (Cortex-A15), like the Exynos 5 (5250) or even a Qualcom Krait S4 (perhaps MSM8960).
So the news is that Intel has mostly caught up to an old ARM based chip based on designs/specs years older still and only running under MS-Windows. Yawn....
I personally have been REFUSED SERVICE by healthcare organizations when I refuse to provide my SSN, and treated like CRAP by said organizations, too. I have also been refused service by several other
If you read the laws, only the GOVERNMENT is required to provide you service if you refuse to provide your SSN, unless there are laws specifically requiring it (and there are quite a few). There are absolutely no laws that restrict non-government from using SSN as a required ID number.
Don't believe me? Go ahead and try to get credit from ANYONE and refuse to supply your SSN. You will get NOWHERE. Electric company hookup? REQUIRED. Cable TV? REQUIRED. Non-Prepaid phone? REQUIRED. Every one of them claim it is because they are extending the ability to charge for things in advance (toll calls, pay per view, etc). And/or they report back to the credit reporting agencies- which all REQUIRE use of SSN.
The problem with a single ID number is that it makes it incredibly easy for multiple databases to match records on you, which further erode your privacy and security of your information.
Hulu Plus doesn't count as competition, in my book, at all. PAYING for a streaming service to have programs interrupted by unskippable advertising is just plain crazy. It is bad enough with Cable TV, but at least my TiVo gives me full control.
They could not PAY me to force me to watch stuff I don't want to watch. It is about as hostile of a model I can think of at the moment.
> "At launch, Redbox Instant will be available through traditional web browsers"
What could be more "traditional" than a web browser running on Linux? Linux/Unix has been "browsing" the web for as long as there have been web browsers. And most of the "web" is powered by Linux.
Really, Flash might be a PITA, but if they do go that route for "traditional" web browsers, it could mean instant access on Linux. I like Netflix, but I like discs too, and when they split the two plans apart, DOUBLING the total price from what it was a year prior, I dropped streaming.
Some additional competition in this space would be great (let's not forget Amazon Prime video...)
Repeat: Correlation does not imply causation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation
Why would a non-violent criminal be thrown in solitary immediately and also denied access to all but one visitor? I doubt it was to protect him from other inmates.
"Since then the Pirate Bay founder has been kept in solitary confinement, locked up 23 hours a day for weeks on end."
"Gottfrid wasnâ(TM)t allowed to meet anyone except his mother during his solitary confinement"
I and my 150 users use Claws-mail at work (for years). Before that, we used Sylpheed (for even more years). Before moving from Sylpheed to Claws, we researched all available options carefully. Just from memory- Thunderbird was hard to customize and clumsy. Evolution was even harder to centrally control, was bloated, and performed horribly. Kmail was too complex and tied too much to KDE (which we were/are not using). Thunderbird was our second choice, but Claws seemed like the best option.
Claws is extremely fast, reliable, feature-packed (especially with the plugins), mature, flexible, and performs well on thin clients. On the original poster's list, the only thing it does NOT do is compose HTML Email (at least not that I am aware of) and I consider that inability a feature :) It can, however, display it fine using a plugin. And it will nicely convert them to plain text for normal use. It has a calendar plugin, but we use a web-based calendar instead.
It is not perfect, but nothing I have ever seen or used is. For us, it is the best, overall.
At home, I have used Kmail for many years. At about KDE 4.8 I had lots of issues with them pulling out the communications stuff and setting it up as other "services". It was complex and unreliable. Layered with a bit too much eye candy and frustration and I finally switched home over to Claws too.
>" but the agency still refuses to allow passengers to read on Kindles and iPads during takeoff and landing."
Great! Then I can use my Xoom or Nexus 10!
And when you use Google Play for Android, essentially 100% of apps, games or otherwise, have a "trial", because you can return ANYTHING in 15 minutes if you don't like it.
The trial period used to be much longer... but you can pretty much tell if you are going to like or hate something in the first several minutes.
Again, it looks like Microsoft is trying to push inferior models on many users that already have used a model that is much better.
Yep, I completely missed it- both the typo (MB instead of GB) and the meaning of his reply.
THANK YOU! Yes, I completely missed that. Duh!
>"What, 45 floppies? Software isn't that small since the 90's. That's 10% of a CD-ROM!"
When the drive size is only 115GB, having half of it consumed by the OS install is pretty dramatic, if you ask me (and many others in Twist forums who were shocked when they saw their "free space"). Even if you delete the recovery partition and long-term hibernate, it is still huge... about 700% larger than a Linux installation with the same functionality.
It is a bit strange that Lenovo didn't offer a 256GB SSD option.