If you look at it from the network side CDMA with its ESN (serial number) fixed to the handset has its advantages. The operator can subsidize the handset and be assured that (for the duration of the contract) the minutes used are on their network.
I've heard of downsides to the GSM SIM issue -- there is a sizeable market/burden in stolen GSM phones; steal a phone, toss the SIM and the phone is yours. For CDMA that doesn't happen.
Now locking the features inside of the handset IS Verizon trying to pull a fast one on the users, and that's what this class-action suit is talking about.
There was an article in the IEEE Spectrum magazine this month about how a space elevator was inevitable, and they acted like it was mere weeks away and a completely done deal, all wrapped up and ready to go. At least that was how the title came across.
So by the end of the article (slashvertisement was more what it felt like) they had disclosed all of the tons of technical hurdles to doing the magical space elevator. Its a "Scooby Do" if I ever saw one.
Here's the slashvertisement: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature /aug05/0805spac.html
After a while of trying to like Firefox I just got tired and gave up. It was just too much of a memory hog on an older laptop. It just left me waiting, waiting, waiting for pages to render. And the plugins (Flashblock) were of marginal use and quality. The honeymoon was over, so I uninstalled it and got back my disk space. I don't think that I'll bother trying it again.
Great idea. That is exactly what I had in mind to do but haven't had time to work it out. Can you share your wisdom, is an outline of how to do it posted somewhere?
It is already too late! I already had to move a few of my machines over to Linux b/c they were so old and did not have what it took to run Windoze (RAM mostly). And now that I'm free of that Windows virus I'm not going back!
Think COST REDUCTION! Microsoft probably ran a business case on this and determined that selling it would not win points or make money. So they whip up something and then release it into the wild where a million OSS zealots will maintain it... for FREE! Microsoft can walk away from any further responsibilities to bugfix, update, yet still claim that they're helping the cause.
In my business the cost of development is nothing compared to the costs of ongoing maintenance and support.
There is only one manufacturer producing bad goods: Flextronics. They're the manufacturer! Every company in the world uses them when they need to actually *make* things.
Wired magazine had an article about a year ago that said that Microsoft's huge marketshare in China was due to the fact that almost all of the installs were done from pirated software. So Microsoft walks a thin line between market share and revenue.
As soon as Microsoft went to China to try to collect, China said "screw you Bill" and developed their own Linux distro!
Ummm, I thought it was the other way around. Apple (and everyone trying to sell music online) gets reamed by the music labels. That's why Walmart's version of itunes can't do much to beat their prices. Apple basically set up iTunes as an enabler to selling the iPod. All the profit is in the iPod.
Which then makes it sorta screwy why Apple would care where people get their music!? Since they pretty much pass that buck per song straight thru to the labels, it would be easy to dump that hassle onto Real and just sell hardware (that can't be copied/stolen like software.)
Slashdot Mirror
If you look at it from the network side CDMA with its ESN (serial number) fixed to the handset has its advantages. The operator can subsidize the handset and be assured that (for the duration of the contract) the minutes used are on their network. I've heard of downsides to the GSM SIM issue -- there is a sizeable market/burden in stolen GSM phones; steal a phone, toss the SIM and the phone is yours. For CDMA that doesn't happen. Now locking the features inside of the handset IS Verizon trying to pull a fast one on the users, and that's what this class-action suit is talking about.
There was an article in the IEEE Spectrum magazine this month about how a space elevator was inevitable, and they acted like it was mere weeks away and a completely done deal, all wrapped up and ready to go. At least that was how the title came across. So by the end of the article (slashvertisement was more what it felt like) they had disclosed all of the tons of technical hurdles to doing the magical space elevator. Its a "Scooby Do" if I ever saw one. Here's the slashvertisement: http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature /aug05/0805spac.html
After a while of trying to like Firefox I just got tired and gave up. It was just too much of a memory hog on an older laptop. It just left me waiting, waiting, waiting for pages to render. And the plugins (Flashblock) were of marginal use and quality. The honeymoon was over, so I uninstalled it and got back my disk space. I don't think that I'll bother trying it again.
Great idea. That is exactly what I had in mind to do but haven't had time to work it out. Can you share your wisdom, is an outline of how to do it posted somewhere?
It is already too late! I already had to move a few of my machines over to Linux b/c they were so old and did not have what it took to run Windoze (RAM mostly). And now that I'm free of that Windows virus I'm not going back!
Think COST REDUCTION! Microsoft probably ran a business case on this and determined that selling it would not win points or make money. So they whip up something and then release it into the wild where a million OSS zealots will maintain it... for FREE! Microsoft can walk away from any further responsibilities to bugfix, update, yet still claim that they're helping the cause. In my business the cost of development is nothing compared to the costs of ongoing maintenance and support.
There is only one manufacturer producing bad goods: Flextronics. They're the manufacturer! Every company in the world uses them when they need to actually *make* things.
Wired magazine had an article about a year ago that said that Microsoft's huge marketshare in China was due to the fact that almost all of the installs were done from pirated software. So Microsoft walks a thin line between market share and revenue. As soon as Microsoft went to China to try to collect, China said "screw you Bill" and developed their own Linux distro!
and Wi-Fi is a shared network, so we're going back to the days of being able to see everything on that segment.
Ummm, I thought it was the other way around. Apple (and everyone trying to sell music online) gets reamed by the music labels. That's why Walmart's version of itunes can't do much to beat their prices. Apple basically set up iTunes as an enabler to selling the iPod. All the profit is in the iPod. Which then makes it sorta screwy why Apple would care where people get their music!? Since they pretty much pass that buck per song straight thru to the labels, it would be easy to dump that hassle onto Real and just sell hardware (that can't be copied/stolen like software.)