Additionally that link didn't make it clear whether those statistics were based on sales, or on what is actually being used out there.
In the UK (and I believe in much of Europe), mobiles have been popular for a long time to a wide selectino of the public, especially Pay-as-you-go, and consequently out there in the real world there are huge numbers of individuals using older non-smart phones.
Not everyone is hoping up the rungs on the phone-upgrade-ladder.
Er, no! Symbian only has a 2% market share and falling. Personally, I don't even know anyone with a Symbian phone anymore - they've moved to Blackberrys or iPhones.
People with money have moved, the rest of us are still using older phones or none at all. (Being a geek doesn't always mean being rich.)
Government made apps for specific platforms are just an unfair waste of money - IF any were to be made, they should have been made in J2ME.
Although not everyone has personal access to the internet (I know many in such a position), everyone has access to libraries, and libraries provide access to computers and the internet, so information being supplied by websites would be FAR more appropriate.
If mobile access is required, why not make the websites standards compliant and terse and to the point enough such that they are accessible on mobiles; all modern mobiles can access the internet if need be.
I'm annoyed as heck that apps are being provided by the government exclusively to the elite and their Jesus phones. Totally inappropriate, especially during a recession. However, it seems to be an internal trend in the BBC too unfortunately, prioritising iPhone and iPad access over more open platforms; they seem to think everyone and their kitteh has one or the other.:(
In either case, however, I have to say that the line "maybe even forcing the Queen to dismiss the current Government" is something I hope never has an analog in the United States. The idea that an unelected figurehead can simply sweep away the electorate when it's convenient is terrifying.
Personally I find it quite comforting. We do have a constitution, she can't just "do it" 'cos she's bored, at least not without HUGE implications for the state of royalty here.
I'm not a royalist, but the alternative makes me shudder. We still have someone who's role is to remain unbaised except in the most ridiculously extreme of circumstances, and then kick the governments' arse if absolutely necessary. And really, it's never going to happen except in the most extreme circumstance - she's on a gravy train, living in the absolute lap of luxury, if any sovereign here abused their power these days, we'd soon make sure we cease to be a sovereign state.
She's the (almost) never used emergency back up plan should we, the stupid plebs of the country and our associated elected-by-the-idiots politicians, seriously make a balls up of it all.
Nick Clegg is in a dilemma as he has no idea what the 2nd choices of his own voters are (and hence whether they would rather Tory or Labour) - all he can go on is that Tory have most votes, but that could be very misleading if most Lib Dem voters might prefer Labour to Tory.
And I think his guess is going be wrong, and he'll learn a very hard lesson that may cost the LibDems most of their votes for many decades to come.
However, he's in an awkward fix - he's probably going to have to do something that the Conservatives certainly will not do - put party politics aside for the sake of country, and run with this, with or without a promise of AV or AV+ (a researched for Parliament suggested better voting system for the UK that all parties ought to be capable of agreeing to, but won't - LibDems prefer STV, personally, although a LibDem supporter, I'd be happy with AV or AV+ as the Jenkins Commission suggested.)
If Clegg does what he needs to for the country, his supporters will not thank him with future votes though. Very very awkward position for him. If the Conservatives give a promise of voting reform, then it'd be worth it, but the Conservative Turkey's will definitely not vote for Christmas, so it won't happen.:(
It would be more accurate [to call?] the Lib Dems
socialists but that's not entirely true either
because they are a mix of social liberals and
economic liberals.
And it's worth noting that in British politics, Liberal does not have quite the same meaning as it would in US politics. (Anyone got a link to a good explanation of the difference?)
One of most eloquent and informative posts I've seen on this subject - says everything I wanted to, but far better than I could!
It's *really* important to be aware of the controlling roots of our two opposing class-based self-serving extremist parties - it has such a profound effect on the behaviour of these two parties.
Quite; I used to use Kermit to shift data between all sorts of odd systems via dialup and serial port in the old days. It was the one program that was pretty much guaranteed to be available for everything, really ubiquitous. Definitely the best solution assuming you can get a binary on to it that'll work with it!
There's a lot of people with severe fatigue problems (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lupus, **Crohn's disease**, etc.), that regular doctors can't help, and usually can't even diagnose.
Without the diagnosis and subsequently treatment for my Crohn's Disease by **regular doctors** I'd be dead... as of 25 years ago.
There's a lot of people who have problems with wheat gluten, for instance, which exhibits itself with symptoms like migraines and fatigue, but regular doctors are of no use here as they don't even consider diet as a factor in treating patients, and think that someone eating healthy foods is just the same as someone eating junk food loaded with HFCS.
I've regularly been tested for gluten/wheat intollerances, and lactose intollerance, and have been referred to a dietician, by **regular doctors**, to help treat my Crohns, and YES, it was THEIR recommendation! And such atittudes aren't a rarity either, they're the norm in my experience here.
What works, through the processes of science, becomes medicine, and what doesn't work, becomes alternative medicine. That's how we separate the two - it's that simple.
And yes, from regular doctors, I've regularly been prescribed and received recommendations regarding many medicines of a herbal-like nature (even snippets of advice like trying dreadlock waxes with tea-tree oil to help fight the psoriasis, etc, along with... leave it, it'll get better in time of its own accord) - 'cos if it works best, they'll recommend it!
Perhaps "regular doctors" in the UK have subtly important differences in attitude perhaps? Focussed towards treating the individual with the best care and advice they have at their hands, rather than a focus on assisting pharmacuticals and their associates make more money?
Probably just a misunderstanding of the location. Certainly here in the UK it is illegal to use an open WiFi hotspot without permission, and people have already been convicted of such offenses.
Ithink Ericcson's suggestion is similarly dependant upon location - I'd have to agree with them in respect to the UK. WiFi hasn't really taken off, and free hotspots are non-existant, whereas mobile broadband packages using the 3G/HSDPA (up to about 2Mb at the moment) are available that pretty much match what you can get with ADSL now. For financial reasons Ino-longer have ADSL, and use my mobile for internet access exclusively now - it is actually cheaper than the cheapest ADSL offering, and is only a flat rate fee of £10 (US$10) a month on top of my normal mobile contract, and Ican drop it at any time should finances become any tighter. Ibelieve this pattern is similar over many other places in Europe - free WiFi never took off, but fast flat-rate affordable mobile-broadband is.
BTW I've actually got to the point where Idon't even bother to turn the computer on much anymore, do most 'net access via Opera Mini on a Nokia N70 and a fold-up bluetooth keyboard. Even got a MSN & Yahoo IM, that pop up an alert on the mobile when I've got a new message. Similar polling/alerts for e-mail. Why wait for the computer to boot up, when Ican quickly grab the mobile and do what Iwant there and then (being short-sighted probably helps here.)
It's exactly that sort of 'take up arms' attitude that makes me glad i'm in the UK. Engaging the paranoia that the other party may have a big weapon, so i gotta have myself a bigger one, is one blatantly obvious cycle with no obvious end, and a lot of blood inbetween. I'm not totally distant from all this, recently had the fun of witnessing, a handful of yards away from my flat, an all night siege with a sword wielding fruitcake. For the record... an old man who'd been threatening youths who'd done no wrong.
Evolution - coding by starting with a previous template version then mindless slow moronic keyboard bashing.
What would worry me more are the brilliant ingeniously tightly coded genomes created by geniuses, with the tiny all important fundamental flaw. (Cue Eighth Day by Hazel O'Connor, for atmos and exageration.)
-Cough- I think you mean "weirdo with cerebral palsy", no?:-p
In seriousness though, that's a grim insult to be using if you don't want it to be considered potential flamebait. It's like using "homo perve" or "black bitch." It's just not on. (Cluebat: i'm biased, my ex is severly "spastic", and a far better professional coder than i'll ever be, has a higher degree, perfect typed english, is far more intelligent, and polite enough that he'd never respond to a comment like yours if he saw it - although i'm quite sure he wouldn't appreciate you using comparisons to him as an insult.)
P.S. Please forgive poor punctuation etc, insomniac posting from opera mini on a dire ancient non-smartphone via numeric keypad, ack!
I got six out of eight, does that mean I get to be the legal advisor to slashdotters, or am I over qualified?
Given that I don't work, haven't programmed for years, and the number of lines of code I've contributed to GPLd code can be counted on a single average human's available digits, I'm a bit upset that I'm sad enough to know the GPL that well. Anyone got a life going spare, real cheap?
Slashdot Mirror
Good point, so we should berate them for setting up all the Gov websites too, as not everyone has access to the internet,
Which is exactly why libraries here provide access to computers and the internet. (And yes, they're normally well used!)
and obviously any new road building must be shelved until we can ensure everyone has a car!
Excluding motorways (for which I might agree with you) public highways are for bikes and pedestrians and buses and other transport, not just cars.
Next year, the BBC will air programs that you can only view on a Sony TV set.
Aching for mod points to mod this person up. Right on the ball! This appears to be the problem within the BBC at the moment. :(
Additionally that link didn't make it clear whether those statistics were based on sales, or on what is actually being used out there.
In the UK (and I believe in much of Europe), mobiles have been popular for a long time to a wide selectino of the public, especially Pay-as-you-go, and consequently out there in the real world there are huge numbers of individuals using older non-smart phones.
Not everyone is hoping up the rungs on the phone-upgrade-ladder.
Er, no! Symbian only has a 2% market share and falling. Personally, I don't even know anyone with a Symbian phone anymore - they've moved to Blackberrys or iPhones.
People with money have moved, the rest of us are still using older phones or none at all. (Being a geek doesn't always mean being rich.)
Government made apps for specific platforms are just an unfair waste of money - IF any were to be made, they should have been made in J2ME.
Although not everyone has personal access to the internet (I know many in such a position), everyone has access to libraries, and libraries provide access to computers and the internet, so information being supplied by websites would be FAR more appropriate.
If mobile access is required, why not make the websites standards compliant and terse and to the point enough such that they are accessible on mobiles; all modern mobiles can access the internet if need be.
I'm annoyed as heck that apps are being provided by the government exclusively to the elite and their Jesus phones. Totally inappropriate, especially during a recession. However, it seems to be an internal trend in the BBC too unfortunately, prioritising iPhone and iPad access over more open platforms; they seem to think everyone and their kitteh has one or the other. :(
Personally I find it quite comforting. We do have a constitution, she can't just "do it" 'cos she's bored, at least not without HUGE implications for the state of royalty here.
I'm not a royalist, but the alternative makes me shudder. We still have someone who's role is to remain unbaised except in the most ridiculously extreme of circumstances, and then kick the governments' arse if absolutely necessary. And really, it's never going to happen except in the most extreme circumstance - she's on a gravy train, living in the absolute lap of luxury, if any sovereign here abused their power these days, we'd soon make sure we cease to be a sovereign state.
She's the (almost) never used emergency back up plan should we, the stupid plebs of the country and our associated elected-by-the-idiots politicians, seriously make a balls up of it all.
And I think his guess is going be wrong, and he'll learn a very hard lesson that may cost the LibDems most of their votes for many decades to come.
However, he's in an awkward fix - he's probably going to have to do something that the Conservatives certainly will not do - put party politics aside for the sake of country, and run with this, with or without a promise of AV or AV+ (a researched for Parliament suggested better voting system for the UK that all parties ought to be capable of agreeing to, but won't - LibDems prefer STV, personally, although a LibDem supporter, I'd be happy with AV or AV+ as the Jenkins Commission suggested.)
If Clegg does what he needs to for the country, his supporters will not thank him with future votes though. Very very awkward position for him. If the Conservatives give a promise of voting reform, then it'd be worth it, but the Conservative Turkey's will definitely not vote for Christmas, so it won't happen. :(
And it's worth noting that in British politics, Liberal does not have quite the same meaning as it would in US politics. (Anyone got a link to a good explanation of the difference?)
Mod this person up!
One of most eloquent and informative posts I've seen on this subject - says everything I wanted to, but far better than I could!
It's *really* important to be aware of the controlling roots of our two opposing class-based self-serving extremist parties - it has such a profound effect on the behaviour of these two parties.
Quite; I used to use Kermit to shift data between all sorts of odd systems via dialup and serial port in the old days. It was the one program that was pretty much guaranteed to be available for everything, really ubiquitous. Definitely the best solution assuming you can get a binary on to it that'll work with it!
There's a lot of people with severe fatigue problems (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Lupus, **Crohn's disease**, etc.), that regular doctors can't help, and usually can't even diagnose.
Without the diagnosis and subsequently treatment for my Crohn's Disease by **regular doctors** I'd be dead... as of 25 years ago.
There's a lot of people who have problems with wheat gluten, for instance, which exhibits itself with symptoms like migraines and fatigue, but regular doctors are of no use here as they don't even consider diet as a factor in treating patients, and think that someone eating healthy foods is just the same as someone eating junk food loaded with HFCS.
I've regularly been tested for gluten/wheat intollerances, and lactose intollerance, and have been referred to a dietician, by **regular doctors**, to help treat my Crohns, and YES, it was THEIR recommendation! And such atittudes aren't a rarity either, they're the norm in my experience here.
What works, through the processes of science, becomes medicine, and what doesn't work, becomes alternative medicine. That's how we separate the two - it's that simple.
And yes, from regular doctors, I've regularly been prescribed and received recommendations regarding many medicines of a herbal-like nature (even snippets of advice like trying dreadlock waxes with tea-tree oil to help fight the psoriasis, etc, along with... leave it, it'll get better in time of its own accord) - 'cos if it works best, they'll recommend it!
Perhaps "regular doctors" in the UK have subtly important differences in attitude perhaps? Focussed towards treating the individual with the best care and advice they have at their hands, rather than a focus on assisting pharmacuticals and their associates make more money?
His noodliness would win... cos the other two aren't real, and obviously real God's beat fictional one's every time.
Probably just a misunderstanding of the location. Certainly here in the UK it is illegal to use an open WiFi hotspot without permission, and people have already been convicted of such offenses.
Ithink Ericcson's suggestion is similarly dependant upon location - I'd have to agree with them in respect to the UK. WiFi hasn't really taken off, and free hotspots are non-existant, whereas mobile broadband packages using the 3G/HSDPA (up to about 2Mb at the moment) are available that pretty much match what you can get with ADSL now. For financial reasons Ino-longer have ADSL, and use my mobile for internet access exclusively now - it is actually cheaper than the cheapest ADSL offering, and is only a flat rate fee of £10 (US$10) a month on top of my normal mobile contract, and Ican drop it at any time should finances become any tighter. Ibelieve this pattern is similar over many other places in Europe - free WiFi never took off, but fast flat-rate affordable mobile-broadband is.
BTW I've actually got to the point where Idon't even bother to turn the computer on much anymore, do most 'net access via Opera Mini on a Nokia N70 and a fold-up bluetooth keyboard. Even got a MSN & Yahoo IM, that pop up an alert on the mobile when I've got a new message. Similar polling/alerts for e-mail. Why wait for the computer to boot up, when Ican quickly grab the mobile and do what Iwant there and then (being short-sighted probably helps here.)
It's exactly that sort of 'take up arms' attitude that makes me glad i'm in the UK. Engaging the paranoia that the other party may have a big weapon, so i gotta have myself a bigger one, is one blatantly obvious cycle with no obvious end, and a lot of blood inbetween.
I'm not totally distant from all this, recently had the fun of witnessing, a handful of yards away from my flat, an all night siege with a sword wielding fruitcake. For the record... an old man who'd been threatening youths who'd done no wrong.
But... haven't you just described evolution?
Evolution - coding by starting with a previous template version then mindless slow moronic keyboard bashing.
What would worry me more are the brilliant ingeniously tightly coded genomes created by geniuses, with the tiny all important fundamental flaw. (Cue Eighth Day by Hazel O'Connor, for atmos and exageration.)
-Cough- I think you mean "weirdo with cerebral palsy", no? :-p
In seriousness though, that's a grim insult to be using if you don't want it to be considered potential flamebait. It's like using "homo perve" or "black bitch." It's just not on. (Cluebat: i'm biased, my ex is severly "spastic", and a far better professional coder than i'll ever be, has a higher degree, perfect typed english, is far more intelligent, and polite enough that he'd never respond to a comment like yours if he saw it - although i'm quite sure he wouldn't appreciate you using comparisons to him as an insult.)
P.S. Please forgive poor punctuation etc, insomniac posting from opera mini on a dire ancient non-smartphone via numeric keypad, ack!
I got six out of eight, does that mean I get to be the legal advisor to slashdotters, or am I over qualified? Given that I don't work, haven't programmed for years, and the number of lines of code I've contributed to GPLd code can be counted on a single average human's available digits, I'm a bit upset that I'm sad enough to know the GPL that well. Anyone got a life going spare, real cheap?