It is the same trick to get a dog or cat to take medicine, you put the medicine in meat or their food, and they eat it.
Do you have a cat? Sticking medicine in their food is the best way to get them to stop eating at your house and to start raiding the neighbour's cat's food. The best way to get a cat to take medicine is to wear the Bear Suit, wrap the cat in a thick towel, scruff it behind the head, prise open the jaws. Then flick the pill down the back of the throat and hold their mouth shut.
Hopefully the Bear Suit will have stood up to this, but there probably won't be all that much left of it afterwards
There's a place just up the road from me that sells plain ole 4-star. Don't know who buys it, but they must be quite rich as it's £2.15/litre (just a smidge under a tenner a UK gallon)
Don't know about the Air Pollution Score, as it doesn't seem to be imported into the US, but my BMW 120d has similar CO2 emissions (128g/km) to the Prius (114g/km), although with only slightly worse mpg figures (I get 51-53 mp(UK)g, vs the Prius 51.2 mp(US)g (61mp(UK)g)).
No amount of googling seems to find the APS for the 120d - it'd be an interesting comparison as it's a helluva engine (just a tad under 180bhp). The 118d version is slightly cleaner, with 119g/km CO2 and a few more mpg (still not quite hitting the Prius values), but it's *only* got 140bhp and I was trading down from an Audi TT @ 225bhp:-)
First we'd need them to invent Federal prisons in a UK context - but I like the way you're thinking. Maybe instead just use Broadmoor, Parkhurst or Strangeways
Well, LTE has been deployed commercially in Sweden (albeit with very few sites) even though mobiles are not really available yet, however a lot of operators are considering not bothering with UMTS in favour of jumping straight from 2G to 4G. UMTS was quite expensive to deploy, so in some cases it makes for more sense to jump in to LTE as it becomes available late this year or early next year. The pricing structure on the hardware is more favourable, and it's more IP-backhaul friendly.
Gadgets are all very well, but the "latest and greatest" is always a high end device with limited uptake
You have to build the network before anyone will consider buying a phone that runs on it, after all...
They didn't have much choice - at the time, backhaul was hugely expensive in most of Europe, and the data rates being promised were incompatible with a viable pricing model. Yes, that's changed now, and folks like 3 are offering quite cheap data packages - and we're seeing a consequent rise in data usage. But still no killer app that the y2k dot com boom was promising.
Video calls on Skype are all very well sitting in front of a computer at a desk, stick it on a handset and it's a whole different thing - the form-factor of holding a phone shaped object up to your ear is hard to beat, and video doesn't sit well with that. In particular, do you really want to be staring at a tiny screen to see the video feed for a call while moving about? Normally folks like to look where they're going, so a video call would interfere with that, hence video calls on a mobile device doesn't fly high as a service.
Yep - there'll be those few that do make video calls, but they are a long way from getting to a significant minority of the subscriber base.
3's forage into "free Skype for life" is interesting - particularly when the license for Skype is revoked - I'm watching that one carefully
Data usage is on the up greatly (so says the Orange Digital Media Index (UK specific), and the Cisco global mobile data forecast: "Visual Networking Index"), but it's still got a long way to go to beat voice as a killer app
Yeah. Try to attack me with the good old "That guy thinks that old is worse than new and is thus an idiot!!" attack as if that would have been what I said. It occasionally works in front of the/. audience. But honestly, how about you stop being so arrogant dick and actually stop to think about it for a moment? Let's try that for a while.
A new and shiny 3G phone? Yeah, my phone is only about a year old as my previous phone got broken after years of use. But honestly... Every phone you can buy these days is a 3G phone. Maybe you can find one or two extremely cheap models that aren't but I feel confident to say that it won't be the case in three years.
Aye - but how many folks are buying new phones? Even then, how many are actively using the 3G side of it? Handset churn is way down on what it was 5-10 years ago, as lots of folks are switching to PAYG-style contracts due to cost. I've got 2 handsets, and they're both 2G only - for example. The UMTS data usage is being driven by dongles and the iPhone - and the iPhone is mainly a contributor because of the high contract cost associated with it encouraging folks to use up their data allowances (in the UK it's £75/mo to get one of these, compared to a more normal contract cost of £15-30/mo).
Apart from video calls and high-speed internet access, GSM does everything that 3G does. For many people, voice calls and text messaging is still what they use a mobile phone for.
Well, same could be said about any new technology. Hell, e-mail is just like regular mail apart from faster speed. But the networks aren't just for phones either. With the coming of netbooks and other cheap laptops, Kindle and such devices, mobile internet access is getting more and more important in addition to video calls and such. It is a great improvement and GSM simply can't give us that.
So we get to the point that operators will have (and in a lot of places, they already do) both GSM and 3G systems in place. It certainly isn't in their interest to support two technologies simultaneously unless they really have to. And at the point where practically all phones in use are 3G compliant anyways (I predicted this to be 5-10 years away), they won't have to. Of course they'll want to drop one of the technologies.
To some extent I agree, but in some places, the frequencies allocated are tied to a technology. There is work ongoing to release that tie, but some of the frequency allocations are rather fragmented, so it involves shuffling around a lot in some places - and operators are loath to do that as it is a very complicated procedure. In general, I agree that the operators want to migrate to a single platform that is configurable to serve the balance of their subscribers technology subscriptions - current tenders are making much of software definable radio, but this is quite a new thing for the vendors to offer. Current best practice is to have different hardware radio modules for each tech, all sitting on the same chassis.
Mobile phone use is taking off in poorer parts of the world because it's cheaper and simpler to set up towers that can serve hundreds (thousands?) of people across a large area than run telephone lines to every single house ("leapfrogging"). This software (OpenBSC) could certainly be of use in these parts of the world.
I completely agree. Wireless is better in such places. The question is simply... What kind of wireless will it be. 3G offers all the same things and much more than 2G so unless 3G is significantly costlier to deploy, it will prevail. And I doubt that after building the towers, etc. necessary, there will be any significant cost difference when choosing between 2G and 3G. Especially some years from now.
A lot depends on frequencies that you are allowed to use - a lot of UMTS out there i
Mildly pedantic here, but GSM started in 1982, even if it took 9 years to actually get to a point where a call was made on a network:-)
But, imroy is reasonably correct. UMTS is ostensibly an "upgrade" of LTE in that the network protocols are augmented to allow UMTS calls over the newer radio layer (which has its own adjusted control protocols). You can even interject GPRS & EDGE as intermediate steps between GSM and UMTS. Similarly, LTE is an "enhancement" of UMTS (HSPA has an even closer relationship with UMTS, too).
Interesting. And here I thought that at least where I live, operators would love nothing more than to get rid of the old GSM networks in favor of newer technologies.
They can't do that quite yet but constantly larger part of data transfers utilize 3rd generation technologies... GSM will probably be around 5 years from now, I doubt it will be 10 years from now.
GSM and future just don't mix. Hackers should have looked at it a decade ago.
Laughable.
So you think that half the population of the planet are going to buy a new phone to get the latest whizzy l33t LTE/HSPA/UMTS gadgets? That idea is part of what provoked the inflation of the 3G auction prices back in 2000 - everybody thought UMTS was the Next Big Thing, but no-one thought to examine the true cost of installing it. Each one of those boxes at the bottom of the masts costs between $5K and $20K (depending on size & time at which you bought it - early kit was knocking on around the $20K/box mark) and a national network has thousands of them (except the one in Andorra, which I think has around 50!). So, mucho dinero to just buy the kit. Then you've got to install it (also lots of $$) and connect it into a decent backbone (UMTS promised data rates of up to 2Mbps (haha - most folks don't see more than 384kbps on vanilla 3G)), so you need a chunk of data bandwidth to the site (which in some countries is either/both of exorbitant and flaky). The upgrade to HSPA and its' enhancements promises 3-14Mbps, so even more bandwidth required. So all these companies who thought they'd make a bundle on a mobile data offering with no killer application lost out.
Now we're starting off the whole shebang again with LTE - marketing promises 100Mbps (reality maxes out at around 70, though, and no individual subscriber is likely to see that). Do we see droves of folks ditching their trusty GSM phone to get the latest mobile data gadget? Nope - not in the slightest. The GSM market is still growing - although the hardware vendors are being encouraged to make their kit as upgrade-to-UMTS/LTE-friendly as possible. There are over 3 billion GSM phones out there - they will still mostly be out there in ten years time. UMTS is only just kicking off due to the recent uptake in data dongles that you can stick into a USB port on your netbook. Nobody (or at least only the iPhone fanbois) is buying 3G phones to make video calls as nobody wants that. A phone call is still just a phone call, and GSM is very good at delivering that so no-one wants to change from GSM.
At best, you're going to see a data-friendly tech (UMTS/HSPA/LTE) overlay on top of GSM for most of the world for a long time.
I suspect the outdoors nekkid orgies might be less well attended at "Freezing Man", although you could populate a park with a load of homebrewed saunas....
Well, then you've got the jurybox and the ammobox if it comes to that.....
Jurybox is out - they write the laws that exempt them from prosecution
ammobox - see other posts on how they deal with that. Folks are even starting to sell non-pointy kitchen knives (that probably wouldn't make all that much of a difference if they're being used as a weapon)
even the ballot box is moderately pointless due to the two-party system we are laden with - for an independent, standing for election is usually a good way to lose £500
I'd probably have more antipathy if I paid full price for the package (yes, I know OOo is free, but the VBA support in it is negligible, and I like (correction - am used to) using this to get stuff done).
How about just make some software that encrypts two parts of your drive "/legal" and "/illegal". Then have two keys - one key opens both, the other key opens "/legal" and then zeros/randomises "/illegal" irretrievably. Should be moderately straightforward to implement (although possibly discoverable if the police ever disassemble the.exe)
If you hunt around you can get a free RibbonCustomizer(TM) from somewhere or other that adds a new ribbon that looks like the old interface - should save you some pain.
Slashdot Mirror
It is the same trick to get a dog or cat to take medicine, you put the medicine in meat or their food, and they eat it.
Do you have a cat? Sticking medicine in their food is the best way to get them to stop eating at your house and to start raiding the neighbour's cat's food. The best way to get a cat to take medicine is to wear the Bear Suit, wrap the cat in a thick towel, scruff it behind the head, prise open the jaws. Then flick the pill down the back of the throat and hold their mouth shut.
Hopefully the Bear Suit will have stood up to this, but there probably won't be all that much left of it afterwards
.
That's what I was saying - there are no published Air Pollution Scores for the diesel 1 series BMWs, but the CO2 score compares favourably
There's a place just up the road from me that sells plain ole 4-star. Don't know who buys it, but they must be quite rich as it's £2.15/litre (just a smidge under a tenner a UK gallon)
No amount of googling seems to find the APS for the 120d - it'd be an interesting comparison as it's a helluva engine (just a tad under 180bhp). The 118d version is slightly cleaner, with 119g/km CO2 and a few more mpg (still not quite hitting the Prius values), but it's *only* got 140bhp and I was trading down from an Audi TT @ 225bhp :-)
First we'd need them to invent Federal prisons in a UK context - but I like the way you're thinking. Maybe instead just use Broadmoor, Parkhurst or Strangeways
Have you ever heard Vanessa Mae play Toccata and Fuge?
I have now, thanks :-)
Gadgets are all very well, but the "latest and greatest" is always a high end device with limited uptake
You have to build the network before anyone will consider buying a phone that runs on it, after all...
They didn't have much choice - at the time, backhaul was hugely expensive in most of Europe, and the data rates being promised were incompatible with a viable pricing model. Yes, that's changed now, and folks like 3 are offering quite cheap data packages - and we're seeing a consequent rise in data usage. But still no killer app that the y2k dot com boom was promising.
Video calls on Skype are all very well sitting in front of a computer at a desk, stick it on a handset and it's a whole different thing - the form-factor of holding a phone shaped object up to your ear is hard to beat, and video doesn't sit well with that. In particular, do you really want to be staring at a tiny screen to see the video feed for a call while moving about? Normally folks like to look where they're going, so a video call would interfere with that, hence video calls on a mobile device doesn't fly high as a service.
Yep - there'll be those few that do make video calls, but they are a long way from getting to a significant minority of the subscriber base.
3's forage into "free Skype for life" is interesting - particularly when the license for Skype is revoked - I'm watching that one carefully
Data usage is on the up greatly (so says the Orange Digital Media Index (UK specific), and the Cisco global mobile data forecast: "Visual Networking Index"), but it's still got a long way to go to beat voice as a killer app
Yeah. Try to attack me with the good old "That guy thinks that old is worse than new and is thus an idiot!!" attack as if that would have been what I said. It occasionally works in front of the /. audience. But honestly, how about you stop being so arrogant dick and actually stop to think about it for a moment? Let's try that for a while.
A new and shiny 3G phone? Yeah, my phone is only about a year old as my previous phone got broken after years of use. But honestly... Every phone you can buy these days is a 3G phone. Maybe you can find one or two extremely cheap models that aren't but I feel confident to say that it won't be the case in three years.
Aye - but how many folks are buying new phones? Even then, how many are actively using the 3G side of it? Handset churn is way down on what it was 5-10 years ago, as lots of folks are switching to PAYG-style contracts due to cost. I've got 2 handsets, and they're both 2G only - for example. The UMTS data usage is being driven by dongles and the iPhone - and the iPhone is mainly a contributor because of the high contract cost associated with it encouraging folks to use up their data allowances (in the UK it's £75/mo to get one of these, compared to a more normal contract cost of £15-30/mo).
Apart from video calls and high-speed internet access, GSM does everything that 3G does. For many people, voice calls and text messaging is still what they use a mobile phone for.
Well, same could be said about any new technology. Hell, e-mail is just like regular mail apart from faster speed. But the networks aren't just for phones either. With the coming of netbooks and other cheap laptops, Kindle and such devices, mobile internet access is getting more and more important in addition to video calls and such. It is a great improvement and GSM simply can't give us that.
So we get to the point that operators will have (and in a lot of places, they already do) both GSM and 3G systems in place. It certainly isn't in their interest to support two technologies simultaneously unless they really have to. And at the point where practically all phones in use are 3G compliant anyways (I predicted this to be 5-10 years away), they won't have to. Of course they'll want to drop one of the technologies.
To some extent I agree, but in some places, the frequencies allocated are tied to a technology. There is work ongoing to release that tie, but some of the frequency allocations are rather fragmented, so it involves shuffling around a lot in some places - and operators are loath to do that as it is a very complicated procedure. In general, I agree that the operators want to migrate to a single platform that is configurable to serve the balance of their subscribers technology subscriptions - current tenders are making much of software definable radio, but this is quite a new thing for the vendors to offer. Current best practice is to have different hardware radio modules for each tech, all sitting on the same chassis.
Mobile phone use is taking off in poorer parts of the world because it's cheaper and simpler to set up towers that can serve hundreds (thousands?) of people across a large area than run telephone lines to every single house ("leapfrogging"). This software (OpenBSC) could certainly be of use in these parts of the world.
I completely agree. Wireless is better in such places. The question is simply... What kind of wireless will it be. 3G offers all the same things and much more than 2G so unless 3G is significantly costlier to deploy, it will prevail. And I doubt that after building the towers, etc. necessary, there will be any significant cost difference when choosing between 2G and 3G. Especially some years from now.
A lot depends on frequencies that you are allowed to use - a lot of UMTS out there i
Mildly pedantic here, but GSM started in 1982, even if it took 9 years to actually get to a point where a call was made on a network :-)
But, imroy is reasonably correct. UMTS is ostensibly an "upgrade" of LTE in that the network protocols are augmented to allow UMTS calls over the newer radio layer (which has its own adjusted control protocols). You can even interject GPRS & EDGE as intermediate steps between GSM and UMTS. Similarly, LTE is an "enhancement" of UMTS (HSPA has an even closer relationship with UMTS, too).
In the UK this is done centrally, not by the operators individually. Consequently, most nicked handsets get shipped abroad...
Interesting. And here I thought that at least where I live, operators would love nothing more than to get rid of the old GSM networks in favor of newer technologies.
They can't do that quite yet but constantly larger part of data transfers utilize 3rd generation technologies... GSM will probably be around 5 years from now, I doubt it will be 10 years from now.
GSM and future just don't mix. Hackers should have looked at it a decade ago.
Laughable.
So you think that half the population of the planet are going to buy a new phone to get the latest whizzy l33t LTE/HSPA/UMTS gadgets? That idea is part of what provoked the inflation of the 3G auction prices back in 2000 - everybody thought UMTS was the Next Big Thing, but no-one thought to examine the true cost of installing it. Each one of those boxes at the bottom of the masts costs between $5K and $20K (depending on size & time at which you bought it - early kit was knocking on around the $20K/box mark) and a national network has thousands of them (except the one in Andorra, which I think has around 50!). So, mucho dinero to just buy the kit. Then you've got to install it (also lots of $$) and connect it into a decent backbone (UMTS promised data rates of up to 2Mbps (haha - most folks don't see more than 384kbps on vanilla 3G)), so you need a chunk of data bandwidth to the site (which in some countries is either/both of exorbitant and flaky). The upgrade to HSPA and its' enhancements promises 3-14Mbps, so even more bandwidth required. So all these companies who thought they'd make a bundle on a mobile data offering with no killer application lost out.
Now we're starting off the whole shebang again with LTE - marketing promises 100Mbps (reality maxes out at around 70, though, and no individual subscriber is likely to see that). Do we see droves of folks ditching their trusty GSM phone to get the latest mobile data gadget? Nope - not in the slightest. The GSM market is still growing - although the hardware vendors are being encouraged to make their kit as upgrade-to-UMTS/LTE-friendly as possible. There are over 3 billion GSM phones out there - they will still mostly be out there in ten years time. UMTS is only just kicking off due to the recent uptake in data dongles that you can stick into a USB port on your netbook. Nobody (or at least only the iPhone fanbois) is buying 3G phones to make video calls as nobody wants that. A phone call is still just a phone call, and GSM is very good at delivering that so no-one wants to change from GSM.
At best, you're going to see a data-friendly tech (UMTS/HSPA/LTE) overlay on top of GSM for most of the world for a long time.
Well, Vodafone do, so I wouldn't be surprised if Verizon do given that Vod own a large chunk of VZW
TINSTAFRL (There is no such thing as free lunch.)
Way to mangle TANSTAAFL :-)
I suspect the outdoors nekkid orgies might be less well attended at "Freezing Man", although you could populate a park with a load of homebrewed saunas....
Well, then you've got the jurybox and the ammobox if it comes to that.....
Jurybox is out - they write the laws that exempt them from prosecution
ammobox - see other posts on how they deal with that. Folks are even starting to sell non-pointy kitchen knives (that probably wouldn't make all that much of a difference if they're being used as a weapon)
even the ballot box is moderately pointless due to the two-party system we are laden with - for an independent, standing for election is usually a good way to lose £500
Intelligence is soluble in alcohol
That signature rocks, btw :)
merci beaucoup :)
Maybe Smouldering Man (TM)??? A bit more evocative, too :)
That shouldn't be a problem - only problem is the bastards that will replace them
I'd probably have more antipathy if I paid full price for the package (yes, I know OOo is free, but the VBA support in it is negligible, and I like (correction - am used to) using this to get stuff done).
bah - this idea is further down. Ho hum, I'll continue the tradition of not reading everything in full before posting.....
Isn't the word count (in Word 2k7, at least) automatically provided in the bottom left of the window?
But I didn't say that really....
Google gives me this.
I'm getting to like the new ribbons, but sometimes the location of a function seems a tad obscure....
True - for humanity as a whole. I suppose those that are to be left behind will be nice and peaceful about it, too...