I've had 3 replies so far. All of them are from people who didn't read my post or understand what I was saying.
1) Voicemail's not free for everyone. There is no real security in having voicemail (or any private data) on your service provider's equipment, either, as the recent Google vs. DOJ should show. Why shouldn't my phone do it, regardless of what the providers offer?
2) These are obvious features; once you go beyond a simple phone that just does DTMF based on a keypad, you would think this would become a standard functionality. 9$ shareware applications are not standard functionality. 9$ shareware applications do not move with me when I replace my Symbian phone with one running Motorola's OS or a PalmOS-based phone! 9$ shareware applications do not integrate with each other. These should be in the phone software itself. A secondary download means the phone is not a smart phone so much as a colour phone with a camera and fancy ringtones.
3) Synchronization is a big problem! Symbian phones don't synchronize in any documented way; no means exists on MacOS to correctly sync (iSync will ignore the phone's groups, randomly delete contacts, etc), and no means exists to sync it with Linux. PalmOS does not sync to MacOS (iSync destroyed or duplicated a lot of my memodb and contacts, and destroyed my calendar, when I tried syncing my T once). WinCE by design does not sync with MacOS or Linux. None of these devices will sync with each other in any standard way. Yay, I get to enter duplicate data!
4) Selective ringtones are a hack as a means of selective ignoring calls; setting someone's custom ring tone to a blank recording is not as effective as just saying, "Never accept calls from this person" in a check box somewhere.
If you're going to reply to me, give me real solutions, don't just prove you didn't read my post.
Here is a list of things that any phone more advanced than a Nokia 5160 could concievably do (especially with Symbian or other smart phone OSes), but which don't ship from the manufucturer, and are thus relegated to half-written, poorly integrated shareware apps that don't work on different smart phones running the same OS:
* Answering machine. Who needs voice mail on the provider side? Your phone probably has memory onboard + expansion slot memory. It has enough brains to record voice memos, do voice dialing, and play MP3s as ringtones. How hard is this to implement? Plus there's no monthly fee!
* Time-of-day call ignore. Are you in a meeting for a certain time? Have lectures or classes? Doctors appointment? Your phone should automatically go into a silent mode (and kick over to the answering machine). Why let yourself be the point of failure?
* Selective disturb. Studying, working on a project, or otherwise engaged, but don't want to drop off the face of the earth? Make it so that only certain call groups can contact you, just in case.
* Privacy mode. Automatically reject calls from caller-id blocked numbers or long-distance (based on an area code list) numbers, or from people in certain groups.
* Smart synchronization with Palm or WinCE PDAs. Most smart phones have bluetooth, but so far I have yet to find a way to sychronize the smartphone with the PDA in any useful way. Don't we have vcards and other standards for this?
* Smart synchronization with a PC. Even just a stupid Windows client + some documentation would be fine. I can write something that'll let my Linux desktop sync if it's documented! This could be as simple as dumping the data from the internal memory to the expansion memory in a parsable format, and then restoring it the same way -- the PC could have a program to read the memory card and deal with the data.
* Some kind of automation system. I have run across lots of little situations where I need to do something to a lot of contacts (move them into a group, delete duplicates, etc), and have found there's no batch interface. You have to deal with everything one click at a time.
All of this stuff is pretty simple to do, and would elevate a smartphone from a fancy phone with a colour display and better ringtones. No Symbian OS phone I know supports time-based silencing, call ignore lists, answering machine, selective disturb, or sychronizes well. You can fake some of that with custom ring tones, but that's a hack.
The most disapointing feature of mobile phones are the SDKs; you can't write this stuff if you want to, in many cases (and the Java support is terrible). Why make something programable if the only thing it'll do is load the code that shipped with it?
"[WARNING: The following content summary is explicit and will be EXTREMELY offensive to many. ]"
From the video, while the girl relating the anecdote to the other girls who looked to be in dress suites did seem distraught, I didn't see anything that would be offensive, like say burning a black man on a cross, racism, homophobia, or anything equivalent. It was just a group of people having consesual fun in the privacy of someone's house.
How am I to be offended by someone else's lifestyle choice? That's the kind of thought pattern that leads to saying black people are of a lesser species, or that homosexuals are inhuman. That's the justification used to fly planes into buildings.
The only thing offensive here is that a small minory feels the need to censor the speech of the many, because they don't have the ability to live in a society of tolerance.
Every single workstation in the comp sci lab at the University has the monitor on top of the actual computer case. A 1m radius sphere around it would intersect with anyone's head.
When I sit at a desktop at home, my head is between 70 and 90cm from 2 computer towers, both of which are on my desk next to my monitor.
Do you know that a metre is 100cm, or 3 and 1/3rd feet?
I don't know of any people who have their PC cases far away from their monitors, and I don't know of any people who sit more than 1 metre from their monitor (it makes it hard to read the contents!).
"On KDE, Windows and many other Desktops, a "most important first" scheme is used."
This is also the scheme that 96% of the world's GUI users have learned. Maybe I looked to the bottom-right first before I used computers for any appreciable length, but through Win3.1, OS/2 3.x, OS/2 4.x, Win95, Win98, Win2k, WinXP, Gnome 1.x, XFCE 3 and 4, IceWM, KDE 1.x, KDE 2.x, KDE 3.x, only MacOS X is the ugly duckling that acts totally differently -- oh, and Gnome 2.x.
Using a Gnome-friendly application like The Gimp on my KDE desktop is an exercise in frustration as my muscle memory is countered by every dialog. Firefox chooses to follow this now, which is why I still use the old Mozilla suite for my day-to-day webwork.
MacOS is tollerable because they have consistent keyboard shortcuts (*-w, *-s, *-q, *-h, *-tab, etc) which I use instead of the usual dialogs. When I do use dialogs, they don't have redundant buttons like cancel apparent (just save once I've picked a name) since I can just hit escape to clear the dialog if invoked by mistake. Gnome is both keyboard unfriendly and user experience unfriendly. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who has switched away, never to return, because of how things started to go after Gnome 1.2.
How the reason that in the EU POTS was per-minute billing was because it was harder to wire, and that the US enjoyed flat-rate because it was somehow better?
Then, when digital packet switched connections started taking over (and surplanting old circuit-switched POTS and analog multicast), the US went to the equivalent of pay-by-the-minute (50$ USD/month) for slow speeds, while Japan, Sweden, and other parts of the world all had 100Mbps to your door for the same or less?
Even Canada has better rates and speeds in its major urban centres (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, etc, etc) than the equivalent US cities (Portland, San Francisco, New York City, Washington DC). What's going on?
in the real world, people make mistakes. People don't get fired for making a single mistake. Instead, people try to co-operate in helping them realize the mistake and address the source issue so it doesn't happen again.
When I read messages like these, where people are ready to draw and quarter people the moment they make a tiny error, it makes me wonder about the motivations. Who are you to judge someone else? When exactly did it become that everyone is perfect, and that we are incapable of error unless being malicious?
One would think that as a Slashdot reader, there would be a chance of you understanding that people make mistakes (how else could you live with the dupes!). It doesn't mean they're evil or out to get you, they just didn't realize something (or don't read their own website as religiously as you or I).
A debit card will only work if you enter a PIN. It works the same at an ATM as it does an a merchant. A credit card is what it sounds like you had, since those will take either cash-advance via PIN in an ATM, or signature verification at point of sale (with no PIN required).
The US banking system continues to be its own worst enemy.
Sequel Round 3,Sequel Advanced Warfighter, Sequel: Oblivion, Sequel, Sequel 2k6 for 360, etc.
I don't care about that shit. You don't care about it. No one does.
There are some games I want to buy, but haven't because I'm shit outta money. None of them are in the list you mentioned. Those games are Animal Crossing and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. One has the unique feature of WiFi play (and also a nice touch-screen interface to a game that sorely needs it), and the other is the only law simulation I know of.
I'm also looking forward to Brain Training, and I'd probably get Elektroplanton if I didn't have Garageband on my laptop right now.
All those other games? Yea, I've got some form of them in my collection already, and those are free.
The correct answer is that the kernel needs to do this, not userland (per suspend1), because of all the layers that need their information preserved. Having any kind of userland help doesn't work, because suddenly you've broken the "every process is equal" approach to the scheduler. But it's also not correct to throw in a huge, complicated interface (suspend2).
The correct answer is something like outlined here: " If you want my cheerfully uninformed opinion, we should toss both of them out and implement suspend3, which is based on the exec/kdump infrastructure. There's so much duplication of intent here that it's not funny."
You just have to reserve memory for a dump kernel. It's a much better trade off than making the scheduler stupid (suspend1), and keeps your kernel conceptually much simpler than a fancy kernel internal API (suspend2).
You can get a Celeron D 3.0Ghz CPU + 512mb RAM + board for 99$ CDN after rebate, or 180$ w/o. The 600$ difference is more than enough to throw in a small hd, case, GigE, and power supply.
The Apple computer offers design and software, not raw power.
Standard features: Tiger + iLife '06, Apple Remote + Front Row, Airport Extreme + Bluetooth, DVI Video Out, USB, FireWire, Gigabit Ethernet. This is nice because you don't have to get an upgrade to get Airport Extreme and bluetooth.
"All Mac mini models also include an integrated Intel GMA950 graphics processor with 64MB of shared DDR2 SDRAM(1), 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet, four external USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 400 port, optical digital and analog audio in/out, and built-in mono speaker."
Optical out is a nice thing to have standard now, although I'm not sure about the video processor. The GMA950 is not capable of running games (see this Extremetech review). It uses a minimum of 80mb of the memory in the Mac Mini, further reducing what you can use for applications. In short, it's a major step down from the old Mac Minis, and not useful for those who liked running WoW on their Minis.
High-end model with Core Duo - 1.67Ghz, 80GB drive + SuperDrive 8x (dual-layer capable) - $799 US, 949$ CDN reg.
They've also updated the iTunes and Frontrow capabilities; now you can stream any movies or music from any computer running iTunes, and it interfaces with the Frontrow software that is included (with a nice little remote).
A bettel looking option is the new universal dock + remote (about 100$) that lets you use a video iPod like a little media device attached to speakers or a TV. Very portable!
"Legitimate mailing-lists, on the other hand, only have addresses of people who have specifically requested to be included in **YOUR** (and YOURS alone - there is no such thing as a "legitimate" purchased list, because the people there HAVE NOT requested to be on it) mailing list."
Even used MSDN-AA? It and many other services want an email address to sign up, and then will start with the box "Send me a buncha stuff in email" checked, which is pretty abhorrent.
Often times if you accidently didn't decheck a box, you're on top of a torrent of crap that can't be stopped because they require you to take addititional (convoluted) steps to get off of it. MS requires you to create an MSN Passport account to turn off emails from its various things, even if signing up requires no such account.
An ex-prof of mine who went back to industry while finishing up his PhD gave this speech. I personally consider him one of the best people to go to about practical life skills; he has extensive experience in industry. These notes are just some of the jot notes I wrote, and apply directly to getting noticed and in the door:
Think about what you offer to an employer.
Where in the market sector do you want a job?
What makes you useful? You have to be a net contributor. Technology skills are a given; you need to be a nice person, someone who can work together. Someone who does not break up what's already working. Sometimes an employer will hire someone like that deliberately as an agent of change. Do your hobbies or interactions with community groups enable you to get a job? Do you know people (social networking)?
Think about employee costs: simple model -- salary = benefits + taxes + overhead. You cost a minimum of 2x your salary, but may be as high as 12x if you have an IC fab in a place. If you want 50k a year, you must contribute more than 100k to a company's bottom-line at the low-end. More R&D based places have to have higher margins. Tightly run services companies can run as low as 1.65, but that's pushing it.
Be professional. There can be no mistakes on your resume or cover letter. Be concise -- time is money; a site manager can bill time is thousands of dollars/hour. Be relevant -- don't reuse too much material. Of course, when working towards a higher level (VP, etc), you need a full-colour spread -- sell yourself.
Be prepared to be googled; a personal, professional web presence can't hurt. Expect your references to be contacted -- warn your references! Be prepared to give your opinion on issues (Microsoft, Open-source, DMCA, etc) -- this can be a minefield; they may disqualify you, or mark you on your ability to speak on sensitive topics. Keyword search terms -- electronic prescreening is used on resumes now, be aware of it.
Convincing the interviewer(s). This is about you as a person. Display honesty and integrity. Show (quiet) self-confidence (except for sales positions). Be positive, but realistic, and mature. Show how you can be a part of the team. You want to be the kind of person you'd invite over for a saturday night, or let watch your kids. By maturity, do you beat your dog when your design is changed?
" As far as I'm concerned, the 360 wasn't launched before it was ready, but before the manufacturing process was ready - not really a point for failure. Software always comes later.... Sony launched the PSP here over a year behind its Japanese launch, and we still seem to have a certain lack of decent games for it - month in month out I go to the shops and it's the same damn games!
Have you not looked at the 360 lineup? EA n+1 ware, Gun, and PGR3. It's the same stuff you could get on the Xbox, but it a different coloured wrapper.
This has to be the most confusing paragraph. If the PSP has had forever to get games, why does it suck so much?
Maybe you'll tell us why the 360 won't be a PSP.
" but I did pick one up in early January and so far I'm pleased with what it does. Ok, so there's no 'killer' game, but I wouldn't consider myself a hardcore gamer, but the few games I do have I find entertaining and great fun with friends."
Your sentence structure is a little hard to read here, but it sounds like you said that despite there being no real reason to own a 360 game-wise, you still bought one despite not being a hardcore gamer (who would buy it if it had nothing for it). Like most people, you find the games fun (if you're not hardcore, you'll have a smaller pool of experience, and probably won't know bad games as quickly -- the first ones always seem better).
This means Microsoft won; you had other options available, but you went with their product, even though you haven't given a clear reason to.
"I'm not realy 100% sure what people mean by a 'next generation game', I bought the console specifically for its online capabilities and its ability to be a media extender.
And for your money, you could've also got a Mac Mini, USB controller adapter (allowing you to use Xbox or PS2 controllers on your Mac Mini), and used its built-in NIC to play Mame (and NES, SNES, N64, PSX) games online, or played DVD movies on your TV via its DVI connector.
In that respect, the Mac Mini (which costs the same as a 360 + games) seems a better deal.
"In those respects it's very, very good, and Nintendo and Sony have a long way to go to catch up with the likes of Xbox Live."
This point is rather moot. Given the incredibly small # of Xbox Live subscribers, it's no surprise that Nintendo beat the Microsoft records with the number of people online playing Mario Kart DS last month.
So, there again, no real reason to choose the 360.
"I'd be interested as to what people exactly thought the 360, PS3 and Revolution were going to do for gaming really. Every time a console is released a wave of hype about its features appears. We never really found out what an Emotion Engine enabled the PS2 to do differently,"
The EE was both a GPU and a T&L engine. If you were an insane assembler master, you could make something like MGS3: Snake Eater. If you weren't so hot, you got the plasticy crap-ware that most titles seemed to be. Another person argued that this is a good idea because it means that people will learn and gain "full power" over the console later.
People, programming is not an MMO grind. You do not "get better" over time regardless of starting skill level. Most of the developers on these games don't know how to wring out the last bits of performance. That's why the Itanium did so poorly -- you have to have a good development environment if you want good software.
"... I'm a bit too old school to like the Revolution controller"
Even though you're not a hardcore gamer. At least they're doing something different.
"All I bought my 360 for was to play HD games against other people in my lounge and the rest of the world, and in those respects it's been a success for me, and evidently for all the other people I'm playing against..."
"All that really matters is wether the launch titles will be 'good' enough. Then the full power of the system can be unleashed over its lifespan."
Yea, but what's the full power of a system? Prettier graphics?
The "full power" of the PS1 seemed to be that its games became marginally less ugly as time went on, although FF7 was very well done since it didn't use textured polygons for most of it (the shading methods were much sexier). When I think about FF9, I don't like it more because it uses the PS1 at a fuller power level than FF7, I like it better because the story is cuter.
I like PGR2 better than PGR3 because PGR2 has cars I know and love from Initial D and my own experience, whereas PGR3 has super cars I've never driven or seen before.
I don't think Rez taxes the PS2 more than Wild Arms 3, but I like it better than Wild Arms 3. I also like most of the iterations of DDR, and they're not taxing in the slightest.
The full power of a system is not its graphics capability or how easy it is to control or its controller or its games -- it's the entire package. Does the PS3 have a good package? The Xbox 360 sure doesn't -- the controller power-up button is nice, but there is nothing new or interesting; it's a rehash. The PS3 is a rehash too.
The Sega Saturn was a rehash of the 8-bit and 16-bit 2D eras. It died. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are rehashes of the 64-bit and 128-bit 3D gaming eras.
I live on roughly 8-11k a year. I'm attending University. My tuition is taken care of by student loans. All the rest (books, rent, food, car plates, any cars, fuel, etc) are paid out of that 8-11k a year. If I get extra money (last year I had 3k extra), I do things like upgrade my desktop computer.
I live a comfortable life. I have enough books and video games, eat a balanced diet, pay my credit cards, etc. I don't have a fancy new car, or own my house, but I'm not doing poorly.
In my experience in visiting the states, I could live comfortably there on the same amount of money, excepting any possible medical care.
"You can be virtually guaranteed a decent (50-80k) paying job"
Woah up there, buddy. When you say stuff like a decent (decent) income is 50k to 80k, you are doing a great disservice and illustrating the terrible gap in the US.
A decent paying income is one that gets you 30k a year. On 30k a year, you can live like any other person easily. If you're a one-person household, you can probably like on 22k and still be pretty fine -- you'll always have food; shelter; clothes; and, with the way credit is available, you can buy a car or a house.
About 50% of the US population makes less than 30k a year. If you want a lot of money, form an economic alliance (family). Most 4-person US families make about 70k a year (see these US Government statistics).
In Canada, at least, I have to pay 15 cents per sent message, and pay the same per received message over the first 1,000 a month.
If I wanted an "all I could eat" unlimited package, I'd have to add 10$ onto my bill -- the equivalent of sending roughly 2 messages per day on the old bill.
Given that the basic "no text, unlimited evenings/weekends" plan is 25$ + tax, why would I want to add over a third to my cost in order to allow myself to relay information I can easily now?
I bet providers in the UK charge a fee closer in line with what it costs to provide a few bytes of data in a packet to your cell phone, vs. what the US and Canadian providers do.
A lot of easier (on the service provider) services are held back because they're also more convientent, which causes the service providers to try and charge a premium for them -- a premium few are willing to pay.
Slashdot Mirror
I've had 3 replies so far. All of them are from people who didn't read my post or understand what I was saying.
1) Voicemail's not free for everyone. There is no real security in having voicemail (or any private data) on your service provider's equipment, either, as the recent Google vs. DOJ should show. Why shouldn't my phone do it, regardless of what the providers offer?
2) These are obvious features; once you go beyond a simple phone that just does DTMF based on a keypad, you would think this would become a standard functionality. 9$ shareware applications are not standard functionality. 9$ shareware applications do not move with me when I replace my Symbian phone with one running Motorola's OS or a PalmOS-based phone! 9$ shareware applications do not integrate with each other. These should be in the phone software itself. A secondary download means the phone is not a smart phone so much as a colour phone with a camera and fancy ringtones.
3) Synchronization is a big problem! Symbian phones don't synchronize in any documented way; no means exists on MacOS to correctly sync (iSync will ignore the phone's groups, randomly delete contacts, etc), and no means exists to sync it with Linux. PalmOS does not sync to MacOS (iSync destroyed or duplicated a lot of my memodb and contacts, and destroyed my calendar, when I tried syncing my T once). WinCE by design does not sync with MacOS or Linux. None of these devices will sync with each other in any standard way. Yay, I get to enter duplicate data!
4) Selective ringtones are a hack as a means of selective ignoring calls; setting someone's custom ring tone to a blank recording is not as effective as just saying, "Never accept calls from this person" in a check box somewhere.
If you're going to reply to me, give me real solutions, don't just prove you didn't read my post.
Here is a list of things that any phone more advanced than a Nokia 5160 could concievably do (especially with Symbian or other smart phone OSes), but which don't ship from the manufucturer, and are thus relegated to half-written, poorly integrated shareware apps that don't work on different smart phones running the same OS:
* Answering machine. Who needs voice mail on the provider side? Your phone probably has memory onboard + expansion slot memory. It has enough brains to record voice memos, do voice dialing, and play MP3s as ringtones. How hard is this to implement? Plus there's no monthly fee!
* Time-of-day call ignore. Are you in a meeting for a certain time? Have lectures or classes? Doctors appointment? Your phone should automatically go into a silent mode (and kick over to the answering machine). Why let yourself be the point of failure?
* Selective disturb. Studying, working on a project, or otherwise engaged, but don't want to drop off the face of the earth? Make it so that only certain call groups can contact you, just in case.
* Privacy mode. Automatically reject calls from caller-id blocked numbers or long-distance (based on an area code list) numbers, or from people in certain groups.
* Smart synchronization with Palm or WinCE PDAs. Most smart phones have bluetooth, but so far I have yet to find a way to sychronize the smartphone with the PDA in any useful way. Don't we have vcards and other standards for this?
* Smart synchronization with a PC. Even just a stupid Windows client + some documentation would be fine. I can write something that'll let my Linux desktop sync if it's documented! This could be as simple as dumping the data from the internal memory to the expansion memory in a parsable format, and then restoring it the same way -- the PC could have a program to read the memory card and deal with the data.
* Some kind of automation system. I have run across lots of little situations where I need to do something to a lot of contacts (move them into a group, delete duplicates, etc), and have found there's no batch interface. You have to deal with everything one click at a time.
All of this stuff is pretty simple to do, and would elevate a smartphone from a fancy phone with a colour display and better ringtones. No Symbian OS phone I know supports time-based silencing, call ignore lists, answering machine, selective disturb, or sychronizes well. You can fake some of that with custom ring tones, but that's a hack.
The most disapointing feature of mobile phones are the SDKs; you can't write this stuff if you want to, in many cases (and the Java support is terrible). Why make something programable if the only thing it'll do is load the code that shipped with it?
The 128kbit AAC file is still noticably more lossy than a 256k VBR MP3 file.
I tried having iTunes resample my MP3s to give fairness to my Shuffle, and it was not worth the quality loss.
"[WARNING: The following content summary is explicit and will be EXTREMELY offensive to many. ]"
From the video, while the girl relating the anecdote to the other girls who looked to be in dress suites did seem distraught, I didn't see anything that would be offensive, like say burning a black man on a cross, racism, homophobia, or anything equivalent. It was just a group of people having consesual fun in the privacy of someone's house.
How am I to be offended by someone else's lifestyle choice? That's the kind of thought pattern that leads to saying black people are of a lesser species, or that homosexuals are inhuman. That's the justification used to fly planes into buildings.
The only thing offensive here is that a small minory feels the need to censor the speech of the many, because they don't have the ability to live in a society of tolerance.
Every single workstation in the comp sci lab at the University has the monitor on top of the actual computer case. A 1m radius sphere around it would intersect with anyone's head.
When I sit at a desktop at home, my head is between 70 and 90cm from 2 computer towers, both of which are on my desk next to my monitor.
Do you know that a metre is 100cm, or 3 and 1/3rd feet?
I don't know of any people who have their PC cases far away from their monitors, and I don't know of any people who sit more than 1 metre from their monitor (it makes it hard to read the contents!).
"On KDE, Windows and many other Desktops, a "most important first" scheme is used."
This is also the scheme that 96% of the world's GUI users have learned. Maybe I looked to the bottom-right first before I used computers for any appreciable length, but through Win3.1, OS/2 3.x, OS/2 4.x, Win95, Win98, Win2k, WinXP, Gnome 1.x, XFCE 3 and 4, IceWM, KDE 1.x, KDE 2.x, KDE 3.x, only MacOS X is the ugly duckling that acts totally differently -- oh, and Gnome 2.x.
Using a Gnome-friendly application like The Gimp on my KDE desktop is an exercise in frustration as my muscle memory is countered by every dialog. Firefox chooses to follow this now, which is why I still use the old Mozilla suite for my day-to-day webwork.
MacOS is tollerable because they have consistent keyboard shortcuts (*-w, *-s, *-q, *-h, *-tab, etc) which I use instead of the usual dialogs. When I do use dialogs, they don't have redundant buttons like cancel apparent (just save once I've picked a name) since I can just hit escape to clear the dialog if invoked by mistake. Gnome is both keyboard unfriendly and user experience unfriendly. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only person who has switched away, never to return, because of how things started to go after Gnome 1.2.
How the reason that in the EU POTS was per-minute billing was because it was harder to wire, and that the US enjoyed flat-rate because it was somehow better?
Then, when digital packet switched connections started taking over (and surplanting old circuit-switched POTS and analog multicast), the US went to the equivalent of pay-by-the-minute (50$ USD/month) for slow speeds, while Japan, Sweden, and other parts of the world all had 100Mbps to your door for the same or less?
Even Canada has better rates and speeds in its major urban centres (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, etc, etc) than the equivalent US cities (Portland, San Francisco, New York City, Washington DC). What's going on?
in the real world, people make mistakes. People don't get fired for making a single mistake. Instead, people try to co-operate in helping them realize the mistake and address the source issue so it doesn't happen again.
When I read messages like these, where people are ready to draw and quarter people the moment they make a tiny error, it makes me wonder about the motivations. Who are you to judge someone else? When exactly did it become that everyone is perfect, and that we are incapable of error unless being malicious?
One would think that as a Slashdot reader, there would be a chance of you understanding that people make mistakes (how else could you live with the dupes!). It doesn't mean they're evil or out to get you, they just didn't realize something (or don't read their own website as religiously as you or I).
"Simpsons actors .... Factor in top-shelf writers, producers and directors and you're talking a lot of money."
Well, given the recent 5-6 seasons of The Simpsons, I think we can rule out top-shelf writers as being the reason the show costs so much to produce.
A debit card will only work if you enter a PIN. It works the same at an ATM as it does an a merchant. A credit card is what it sounds like you had, since those will take either cash-advance via PIN in an ATM, or signature verification at point of sale (with no PIN required).
The US banking system continues to be its own worst enemy.
Check out this one: "View, Listen, Pay".
It's also a pretty good example of a boring and ugly interface. I hope Apple makes something like this soon.
Sequel Round 3,Sequel Advanced Warfighter, Sequel: Oblivion, Sequel, Sequel 2k6 for 360, etc.
I don't care about that shit. You don't care about it. No one does.
There are some games I want to buy, but haven't because I'm shit outta money. None of them are in the list you mentioned. Those games are Animal Crossing and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. One has the unique feature of WiFi play (and also a nice touch-screen interface to a game that sorely needs it), and the other is the only law simulation I know of.
I'm also looking forward to Brain Training, and I'd probably get Elektroplanton if I didn't have Garageband on my laptop right now.
All those other games? Yea, I've got some form of them in my collection already, and those are free.
The correct answer is that the kernel needs to do this, not userland (per suspend1), because of all the layers that need their information preserved. Having any kind of userland help doesn't work, because suddenly you've broken the "every process is equal" approach to the scheduler. But it's also not correct to throw in a huge, complicated interface (suspend2).
The correct answer is something like outlined here: " If you want my cheerfully uninformed opinion, we should toss both of them out and implement suspend3, which is based on the exec/kdump infrastructure. There's so much duplication of intent here that it's not funny."
You just have to reserve memory for a dump kernel. It's a much better trade off than making the scheduler stupid (suspend1), and keeps your kernel conceptually much simpler than a fancy kernel internal API (suspend2).
we should breed cats who can DDR.
You can get a Celeron D 3.0Ghz CPU + 512mb RAM + board for 99$ CDN after rebate, or 180$ w/o. The 600$ difference is more than enough to throw in a small hd, case, GigE, and power supply.
The Apple computer offers design and software, not raw power.
Not three.
Standard features: Tiger + iLife '06, Apple Remote + Front Row, Airport Extreme + Bluetooth, DVI Video Out, USB, FireWire, Gigabit Ethernet. This is nice because you don't have to get an upgrade to get Airport Extreme and bluetooth.
"All Mac mini models also include an integrated Intel GMA950 graphics processor with 64MB of shared DDR2 SDRAM(1), 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet, four external USB 2.0 ports, FireWire 400 port, optical digital and analog audio in/out, and built-in mono speaker."
Optical out is a nice thing to have standard now, although I'm not sure about the video processor. The GMA950 is not capable of running games (see this Extremetech review). It uses a minimum of 80mb of the memory in the Mac Mini, further reducing what you can use for applications. In short, it's a major step down from the old Mac Minis, and not useful for those who liked running WoW on their Minis.
Low-end model: 1.5Ghz Core Solo 667 mhz fsb, 512mb memory, integrated graphics, 60GB drive, combo drive - $599 US, 699$ CDN reg.
High-end model with Core Duo - 1.67Ghz, 80GB drive + SuperDrive 8x (dual-layer capable) - $799 US, 949$ CDN reg.
They've also updated the iTunes and Frontrow capabilities; now you can stream any movies or music from any computer running iTunes, and it interfaces with the Frontrow software that is included (with a nice little remote).
A bettel looking option is the new universal dock + remote (about 100$) that lets you use a video iPod like a little media device attached to speakers or a TV. Very portable!
"Legitimate mailing-lists, on the other hand, only have addresses of people who have specifically requested to be included in **YOUR** (and YOURS alone - there is no such thing as a "legitimate" purchased list, because the people there HAVE NOT requested to be on it) mailing list."
Even used MSDN-AA? It and many other services want an email address to sign up, and then will start with the box "Send me a buncha stuff in email" checked, which is pretty abhorrent.
Often times if you accidently didn't decheck a box, you're on top of a torrent of crap that can't be stopped because they require you to take addititional (convoluted) steps to get off of it. MS requires you to create an MSN Passport account to turn off emails from its various things, even if signing up requires no such account.
An ex-prof of mine who went back to industry while finishing up his PhD gave this speech. I personally consider him one of the best people to go to about practical life skills; he has extensive experience in industry. These notes are just some of the jot notes I wrote, and apply directly to getting noticed and in the door:
Think about what you offer to an employer.
Where in the market sector do you want a job?
What makes you useful? You have to be a net contributor. Technology skills are a given; you need to be a nice person, someone who can work together. Someone who does not break up what's already working. Sometimes an employer will hire someone like that deliberately as an agent of change. Do your hobbies or interactions with community groups enable you to get a job? Do you know people (social networking)?
Think about employee costs: simple model -- salary = benefits + taxes + overhead. You cost a minimum of 2x your salary, but may be as high as 12x if you have an IC fab in a place. If you want 50k a year, you must contribute more than 100k to a company's bottom-line at the low-end. More R&D based places have to have higher margins. Tightly run services companies can run as low as 1.65, but that's pushing it.
Be professional. There can be no mistakes on your resume or cover letter. Be concise -- time is money; a site manager can bill time is thousands of dollars/hour. Be relevant -- don't reuse too much material. Of course, when working towards a higher level (VP, etc), you need a full-colour spread -- sell yourself.
Be prepared to be googled; a personal, professional web presence can't hurt. Expect your references to be contacted -- warn your references! Be prepared to give your opinion on issues (Microsoft, Open-source, DMCA, etc) -- this can be a minefield; they may disqualify you, or mark you on your ability to speak on sensitive topics. Keyword search terms -- electronic prescreening is used on resumes now, be aware of it.
Convincing the interviewer(s). This is about you as a person. Display honesty and integrity. Show (quiet) self-confidence (except for sales positions). Be positive, but realistic, and mature. Show how you can be a part of the team. You want to be the kind of person you'd invite over for a saturday night, or let watch your kids. By maturity, do you beat your dog when your design is changed?
Go find your MP:
http://canada.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html
Bitch them out.
In my 1986, the 80386 processor was available for use in PCs.
" As far as I'm concerned, the 360 wasn't launched before it was ready, but before the manufacturing process was ready - not really a point for failure. Software always comes later.... Sony launched the PSP here over a year behind its Japanese launch, and we still seem to have a certain lack of decent games for it - month in month out I go to the shops and it's the same damn games!
Have you not looked at the 360 lineup? EA n+1 ware, Gun, and PGR3. It's the same stuff you could get on the Xbox, but it a different coloured wrapper.
This has to be the most confusing paragraph. If the PSP has had forever to get games, why does it suck so much?
Maybe you'll tell us why the 360 won't be a PSP.
" but I did pick one up in early January and so far I'm pleased with what it does. Ok, so there's no 'killer' game, but I wouldn't consider myself a hardcore gamer, but the few games I do have I find entertaining and great fun with friends."
Your sentence structure is a little hard to read here, but it sounds like you said that despite there being no real reason to own a 360 game-wise, you still bought one despite not being a hardcore gamer (who would buy it if it had nothing for it). Like most people, you find the games fun (if you're not hardcore, you'll have a smaller pool of experience, and probably won't know bad games as quickly -- the first ones always seem better).
This means Microsoft won; you had other options available, but you went with their product, even though you haven't given a clear reason to.
"I'm not realy 100% sure what people mean by a 'next generation game', I bought the console specifically for its online capabilities and its ability to be a media extender.
And for your money, you could've also got a Mac Mini, USB controller adapter (allowing you to use Xbox or PS2 controllers on your Mac Mini), and used its built-in NIC to play Mame (and NES, SNES, N64, PSX) games online, or played DVD movies on your TV via its DVI connector.
In that respect, the Mac Mini (which costs the same as a 360 + games) seems a better deal.
"In those respects it's very, very good, and Nintendo and Sony have a long way to go to catch up with the likes of Xbox Live."
This point is rather moot. Given the incredibly small # of Xbox Live subscribers, it's no surprise that Nintendo beat the Microsoft records with the number of people online playing Mario Kart DS last month.
So, there again, no real reason to choose the 360.
"I'd be interested as to what people exactly thought the 360, PS3 and Revolution were going to do for gaming really. Every time a console is released a wave of hype about its features appears. We never really found out what an Emotion Engine enabled the PS2 to do differently,"
The EE was both a GPU and a T&L engine. If you were an insane assembler master, you could make something like MGS3: Snake Eater. If you weren't so hot, you got the plasticy crap-ware that most titles seemed to be. Another person argued that this is a good idea because it means that people will learn and gain "full power" over the console later.
People, programming is not an MMO grind. You do not "get better" over time regardless of starting skill level. Most of the developers on these games don't know how to wring out the last bits of performance. That's why the Itanium did so poorly -- you have to have a good development environment if you want good software.
"... I'm a bit too old school to like the Revolution controller"
Even though you're not a hardcore gamer. At least they're doing something different.
"All I bought my 360 for was to play HD games against other people in my lounge and the rest of the world, and in those respects it's been a success for me, and evidently for all the other people I'm playing against..."
and Microsoft.
Why buy the 360?
"All that really matters is wether the launch titles will be 'good' enough. Then the full power of the system can be unleashed over its lifespan."
Yea, but what's the full power of a system? Prettier graphics?
The "full power" of the PS1 seemed to be that its games became marginally less ugly as time went on, although FF7 was very well done since it didn't use textured polygons for most of it (the shading methods were much sexier). When I think about FF9, I don't like it more because it uses the PS1 at a fuller power level than FF7, I like it better because the story is cuter.
I like PGR2 better than PGR3 because PGR2 has cars I know and love from Initial D and my own experience, whereas PGR3 has super cars I've never driven or seen before.
I don't think Rez taxes the PS2 more than Wild Arms 3, but I like it better than Wild Arms 3. I also like most of the iterations of DDR, and they're not taxing in the slightest.
The full power of a system is not its graphics capability or how easy it is to control or its controller or its games -- it's the entire package. Does the PS3 have a good package? The Xbox 360 sure doesn't -- the controller power-up button is nice, but there is nothing new or interesting; it's a rehash. The PS3 is a rehash too.
The Sega Saturn was a rehash of the 8-bit and 16-bit 2D eras. It died. The PS3 and Xbox 360 are rehashes of the 64-bit and 128-bit 3D gaming eras.
I live on roughly 8-11k a year. I'm attending University. My tuition is taken care of by student loans. All the rest (books, rent, food, car plates, any cars, fuel, etc) are paid out of that 8-11k a year. If I get extra money (last year I had 3k extra), I do things like upgrade my desktop computer.
I live a comfortable life. I have enough books and video games, eat a balanced diet, pay my credit cards, etc. I don't have a fancy new car, or own my house, but I'm not doing poorly.
In my experience in visiting the states, I could live comfortably there on the same amount of money, excepting any possible medical care.
"You can be virtually guaranteed a decent (50-80k) paying job"
Woah up there, buddy. When you say stuff like a decent (decent) income is 50k to 80k, you are doing a great disservice and illustrating the terrible gap in the US.
A decent paying income is one that gets you 30k a year. On 30k a year, you can live like any other person easily. If you're a one-person household, you can probably like on 22k and still be pretty fine -- you'll always have food; shelter; clothes; and, with the way credit is available, you can buy a car or a house.
About 50% of the US population makes less than 30k a year. If you want a lot of money, form an economic alliance (family). Most 4-person US families make about 70k a year (see these US Government statistics).
50-80k is great. You're upper-middle class the moment you make that. If you hit above 90, you're into upper-class. Of course, 1 high-end family makes 20 times what a low-end family makes, so there's still plenty more for you to strive for.
OTOH, I'd look at what exactly causes crime in the US and other social problems, and see if there was a relationship to income level.
In Canada, at least, I have to pay 15 cents per sent message, and pay the same per received message over the first 1,000 a month.
If I wanted an "all I could eat" unlimited package, I'd have to add 10$ onto my bill -- the equivalent of sending roughly 2 messages per day on the old bill.
Given that the basic "no text, unlimited evenings/weekends" plan is 25$ + tax, why would I want to add over a third to my cost in order to allow myself to relay information I can easily now?
I bet providers in the UK charge a fee closer in line with what it costs to provide a few bytes of data in a packet to your cell phone, vs. what the US and Canadian providers do.
A lot of easier (on the service provider) services are held back because they're also more convientent, which causes the service providers to try and charge a premium for them -- a premium few are willing to pay.