It's actually very handy being able to flag a message in my inbox from my mobile device (as well as complete the flag or clear it), assuming of course that it is sync'd back to the server (which is what happens with Exchange 2010).
So when I see an email come in (on my mobile or my workstation) that is very important, I can flag it.
Then whenever I'm looking at my inbox on my mobile it will stand out, and likely remind me to take care of it. And after I have, I can flag it complete.
I understand that few people would find this useful, but for the small group that use it, we love it.
Perhaps in the near future we'll have translation engines that don't go from language to language, but rather from era to era.
The English that Shakespeare wrote in is quite different from today's English, which will likely be different from English in 2100 CE.
Brick and morter stores are turning to blogs and tweets to get new business, trading schwag for likes and diggs. Even business owners are getting in on the act, by friending their customers and tagging them in pictures.
Just imagine trying to read something like that in another fifty years.
It appears I'm the only one that is kinda excited by this idea.
This is not something for your average business that has a BizHub Mega 5000X or whatever.
If my home laser printer has an email address, then when the random friend/relative visits and wants to print something I don't have to go through hoops to make it happen. I don't have to give them permissions, install drivers, remember IPs, or have them email it to me just for me to open it and print.
Does this have the potential for abuse? If they do an average job with security settings, I don't see this being a huge issue. I'm sure it's something that can be turned off completely, whitelisted, or maybe even password protected (by a word in the subject line).
There might even be some neat programming applications for this, too.
Seriously, the website which calls out companies like Microsoft on a daily basis for questionably honest advertising has a headline called "iPad Bait and Switch" ?
Where is the bait and switch when ALL EXISTING CUSTOMERS can keep the old, unlimited plan?
Not only are they grandfathered in, but now those same customers have a CHOICE to get a cheaper plan, by as much as 50% less.
AND they can opt to add tethering.
AND now they'll get text messages when they approach their data limits, something that people have been asking for since the beginning of time.
This sounds like a TOTAL WIN for existing AT&T smartphone customers, and not a bad idea for potential new customers unless they need >5 GB/mo. (And let's not forget that if you have AT&T, you get free access to all their hotspots like Starbucks and McDonald's.)
Sure, there is some value to consider when switching a mobile device, but that has always been the case and users have always continued to make switches despite. They do a little internal cost analysis, and if it makes sense, they switch.
A few reasons why this isn't a big deal:
1) App makers could easily decide to "port" your registration to the Android or Windows Mobile markets and not make you pay again -- or give you a considerable discount perhaps. This might require approval from the app store, but certainly Google and Microsoft would want elminate this barrier to entry.
2) Every time I've switched phones I've had to consider the accessories. A new memory card, new case, new chargers, new batteries, etc. This can add up, and yet we still switch phones.
3) The perceived value of switching to get the "latest and greatest" might outweight the cost of buying things again. If the new ABC PhonePadPro 2.0 Ultra does more than my iDevice, then it might be advantageous to switch. Apple will have to continue to outpace competitors to provide a reason to stay.
4) I would bet that a growing number of downloadable content was music/books/whatever, and that is increasingly becoming open. That open stuff will likely transfer to the new device without a penny being exchanged.
So no, the only thing sticky about apples is sugar. (Different apple.)
While the law does give the IRS that ability, they haven't finished it yet.
There's a provision that says something to the effect of "paperwork as necessary, deemed by the IRS" and it's entirely likely that the IRS doesn't want small businesses submitting 100 additional 1099s every year.
But on the bright side, most small businesses should be using some kind of software to track their vendors/purchases anyway. This might be Quickbooks or whatever. That software will likely be updated by 2012 to crank out those 1099s in some sort of automated fashion. It might even have a "vendor database" which knows everyone's TIN and be able to submit it all electronically. Who knows.
And just for curiosity, I checked my software (Microsoft Money) to see how many business vendors I had in 2009 that were over $600. There were exactly 13. Granted, I'm a tiny one-employee service-based business, but that's hardly the "average" estimate you quoted above.
And let's not forget that this is *already* a requirement for services provided. It's only now being extended to goods.
Yes, damn him! Damn him for creating a website that allows me to keep in touch with friends and family and promote my business.
Damn him for holding a gun to my head to force me to use his evil, cluttered, distracting, gawd-ugly website.
And damn him for using his monopoly status to shut out the clearly superior MySpace and Friendster and all the instant messaging clients like ICQ and AIM and Yahoo and MSN.
Damn him to hell for integrating with other web apps like Yelp that force me to publish reviews about restaurants, and for creating an open API that gives me no choice but to link my Outlook client to my Facebook account so that it automatically downloads photos into my Outlook contacts, syncing them to my phone, and giving me status updates when I'm emailing someone.
And damn him to eternity and back for giving business owners and non-profit organizations a free way to market themselves, and optionally pay for low-cost, targeted advertising, effectively forcing other saint-like companies to rethink the way they're selling ads.
I have 14 restore points dating back to 3/29/2010 which is about when I installed Windows 7 on this machine.
A quick Bing search brought me to another thread where the guy's problem turned out to be a disk defrag utility that was deleting restore points on reboot. He disabled the utility, and the restores stopped disappearing.
For what it's worth, does a forum post from January with a total of five people reporting a problem really deserve to be on Slashdot? Oh wait, it's anti-MS. Nevermind.
Given the media's propensity to use the word "hack" whenever possible, did the child actually "hack" Blackboard, or was he able to guess someone's password?
Or, as I've seen on rare occasions, did an administrator give the boy administrator access by mistake? (Sometimes, teachers will attemt to make a student a TA and select the wrong option.)
1. Get one of this bank's distribution CDs as if I were a customer.
2. Create an identical copy of it, right down to the packaging, and snail mail it to random old people in Florida. This version, of course, does what I want with their personal data.
I would like to point out that, for about $100, people are buying access to the StarCraft II beta on eBay.
That is, lucky bastards who won a chance to be a part of the beta process have taken to selling their key on eBay. And people are buying them. For upwards of $100.
Yeah, it does suck. It's almost the opposite of your situation. Checks are free, but some electronic payments are not.
Granted, some are. I can pay most of my bills online without an extra cost. Why that is free, and others aren't, is beyond me.
And every now and then I'll run into a government agency who charges EXTRA to process your payment electronically. Granted, it's probably because their provider charges them and they're just passing it on.
The same is true for non-profits. If I use my credit card to donate $50, they only get to keep $46. So sadly, they discourage people from making online donations.
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I agree with 66% of your message.
It's actually very handy being able to flag a message in my inbox from my mobile device (as well as complete the flag or clear it), assuming of course that it is sync'd back to the server (which is what happens with Exchange 2010).
So when I see an email come in (on my mobile or my workstation) that is very important, I can flag it.
Then whenever I'm looking at my inbox on my mobile it will stand out, and likely remind me to take care of it. And after I have, I can flag it complete.
I understand that few people would find this useful, but for the small group that use it, we love it.
No where in TFA is Einstein even mentioned, let alone Gates or any of his partners referring to themselves as Einstein.
So while half of the posts here are discussing the merits of this being an "Einstein Letter", never was the claim even suggested.
It's as if the submitter threw that in for a bit of controversy, for an otherwise interesting story.
Perhaps in the near future we'll have translation engines that don't go from language to language, but rather from era to era.
The English that Shakespeare wrote in is quite different from today's English, which will likely be different from English in 2100 CE.
Brick and morter stores are turning to blogs and tweets to get new business, trading schwag for likes and diggs. Even business owners are getting in on the act, by friending their customers and tagging them in pictures.
Just imagine trying to read something like that in another fifty years.
It appears I'm the only one that is kinda excited by this idea.
This is not something for your average business that has a BizHub Mega 5000X or whatever.
If my home laser printer has an email address, then when the random friend/relative visits and wants to print something I don't have to go through hoops to make it happen. I don't have to give them permissions, install drivers, remember IPs, or have them email it to me just for me to open it and print.
Does this have the potential for abuse? If they do an average job with security settings, I don't see this being a huge issue. I'm sure it's something that can be turned off completely, whitelisted, or maybe even password protected (by a word in the subject line).
There might even be some neat programming applications for this, too.
Seriously, the website which calls out companies like Microsoft on a daily basis for questionably honest advertising has a headline called "iPad Bait and Switch" ?
Where is the bait and switch when ALL EXISTING CUSTOMERS can keep the old, unlimited plan?
Not only are they grandfathered in, but now those same customers have a CHOICE to get a cheaper plan, by as much as 50% less.
AND they can opt to add tethering.
AND now they'll get text messages when they approach their data limits, something that people have been asking for since the beginning of time.
This sounds like a TOTAL WIN for existing AT&T smartphone customers, and not a bad idea for potential new customers unless they need >5 GB /mo. (And let's not forget that if you have AT&T, you get free access to all their hotspots like Starbucks and McDonald's.)
Ford recently announced that its company vehicles will no longer consist of Cadillacs, Civics, and Accords, citing "safety concerns".
And just off the wire, Microsoft has announced they will be dropping all of their Apple servers citing "problems with system reliability".
Sure, there is some value to consider when switching a mobile device, but that has always been the case and users have always continued to make switches despite. They do a little internal cost analysis, and if it makes sense, they switch.
A few reasons why this isn't a big deal:
1) App makers could easily decide to "port" your registration to the Android or Windows Mobile markets and not make you pay again -- or give you a considerable discount perhaps. This might require approval from the app store, but certainly Google and Microsoft would want elminate this barrier to entry.
2) Every time I've switched phones I've had to consider the accessories. A new memory card, new case, new chargers, new batteries, etc. This can add up, and yet we still switch phones.
3) The perceived value of switching to get the "latest and greatest" might outweight the cost of buying things again. If the new ABC PhonePadPro 2.0 Ultra does more than my iDevice, then it might be advantageous to switch. Apple will have to continue to outpace competitors to provide a reason to stay.
4) I would bet that a growing number of downloadable content was music/books/whatever, and that is increasingly becoming open. That open stuff will likely transfer to the new device without a penny being exchanged.
So no, the only thing sticky about apples is sugar. (Different apple.)
While the law does give the IRS that ability, they haven't finished it yet.
There's a provision that says something to the effect of "paperwork as necessary, deemed by the IRS" and it's entirely likely that the IRS doesn't want small businesses submitting 100 additional 1099s every year.
But on the bright side, most small businesses should be using some kind of software to track their vendors/purchases anyway. This might be Quickbooks or whatever. That software will likely be updated by 2012 to crank out those 1099s in some sort of automated fashion. It might even have a "vendor database" which knows everyone's TIN and be able to submit it all electronically. Who knows.
And just for curiosity, I checked my software (Microsoft Money) to see how many business vendors I had in 2009 that were over $600. There were exactly 13. Granted, I'm a tiny one-employee service-based business, but that's hardly the "average" estimate you quoted above.
And let's not forget that this is *already* a requirement for services provided. It's only now being extended to goods.
It doesn't.
Unless you turn on the feature.
End of story.
There were at least two listed in the article that I found -- sadly I don't remember which and I didn't keep the link.
I really don't know why anyone would need to run a third-party tool.
So you're suggesting that Microsoft is to blame for a third-party defrag utility that is deleting these files?
There is a privacy setting to unallow friends from tagging you in their photos.
And, on a per-photo basis you can untag yourself. Once you do this, you can't be tagged in that photo again.
Yes, damn him! Damn him for creating a website that allows me to keep in touch with friends and family and promote my business.
Damn him for holding a gun to my head to force me to use his evil, cluttered, distracting, gawd-ugly website.
And damn him for using his monopoly status to shut out the clearly superior MySpace and Friendster and all the instant messaging clients like ICQ and AIM and Yahoo and MSN.
Damn him to hell for integrating with other web apps like Yelp that force me to publish reviews about restaurants, and for creating an open API that gives me no choice but to link my Outlook client to my Facebook account so that it automatically downloads photos into my Outlook contacts, syncing them to my phone, and giving me status updates when I'm emailing someone.
And damn him to eternity and back for giving business owners and non-profit organizations a free way to market themselves, and optionally pay for low-cost, targeted advertising, effectively forcing other saint-like companies to rethink the way they're selling ads.
Yes, that Mark is quite the devil.
I have 14 restore points dating back to 3/29/2010 which is about when I installed Windows 7 on this machine.
A quick Bing search brought me to another thread where the guy's problem turned out to be a disk defrag utility that was deleting restore points on reboot. He disabled the utility, and the restores stopped disappearing.
For what it's worth, does a forum post from January with a total of five people reporting a problem really deserve to be on Slashdot? Oh wait, it's anti-MS. Nevermind.
You could just rotate your monitor 90.
I prefer the way velvet feels, actually. I know it's not as clingy, but it breathes better.
And we all know the brain needs oxygen.
Given the media's propensity to use the word "hack" whenever possible, did the child actually "hack" Blackboard, or was he able to guess someone's password?
Or, as I've seen on rare occasions, did an administrator give the boy administrator access by mistake? (Sometimes, teachers will attemt to make a student a TA and select the wrong option.)
My (Windows Mobile) phone came with an IM application that does AIM, ICQ, and Yahoo, and with the free Windows Live app it also does MSN.
The last time I logged into either of these was when I got the phone to see if it really worked. And it did. But that was it.
SMS is so far suprior to IM, it's not even funny.
Windows Mobile has already had this since 2002.
AS well as a bunch of features the iPhone and Android are just now getting, and a bunch it doesn't have.
Just to play Devil's Advocate here, was the "Install Other OS" ever a feature that was marketed? Was it on the side of the box, or in the commercial?.
Citation?
1. Get one of this bank's distribution CDs as if I were a customer.
2. Create an identical copy of it, right down to the packaging, and snail mail it to random old people in Florida. This version, of course, does what I want with their personal data.
3. Profit.
The summary doesn't say anything about this being a new species. The word "species" doesn't even appear.
And in the article, the first use of the word "species" says this:
And this:
I'm all for shooting down /. summaries and sensational headlines, but this appears to be right on.
I would like to point out that, for about $100, people are buying access to the StarCraft II beta on eBay.
That is, lucky bastards who won a chance to be a part of the beta process have taken to selling their key on eBay. And people are buying them. For upwards of $100.
Yeah, it does suck. It's almost the opposite of your situation. Checks are free, but some electronic payments are not.
Granted, some are. I can pay most of my bills online without an extra cost. Why that is free, and others aren't, is beyond me.
And every now and then I'll run into a government agency who charges EXTRA to process your payment electronically. Granted, it's probably because their provider charges them and they're just passing it on.
The same is true for non-profits. If I use my credit card to donate $50, they only get to keep $46. So sadly, they discourage people from making online donations.