Blackberry has that capability, which Verizon has used a few times upon my request to reinstall apps following a phone warranty replacement.
Of course, there are risks, but Blackberry obviously has controlled those, since the capability has been there since day one and I have never heard of it being exploited.
Studies have shown that 99.5% of users click on OK boxes without reading the 15 pages of material that clicking OK makes them agree to.
I conducted that study this morning while reading these posts, so it is well researched.
This is clearly a problem, and I have no idea what the solution, in the larger sense, could be.
Apple has the advantage in that their customer base is mostly composed of people who like to do what they are told and are not interested in finding the boundaries of what they can do and extend beyond those (another well researched study field of mine...), therefore Apple has been able to place significant constraints on what their users can do without too much backlash. By purposely limiting their available market to those, they have been very successful and are making a ton of money. That is not a strategy of world domination, in terms of market share, but it is financially rewarding.
Not a bad strategy.
Thank you for the link. That predates me:) I am getting old, but not that old...
This was a 441 line system, not much in common with the 819 line system developed by Barthelemy in 1949. France never had a 441 line system of its own, aside from the one operated by the Germans during the occupation, as indicated in the link.
Actually the 441-line system was a Nazi-developed format, exported to occupied France.
Where did you get that from? I believe you are mistaken. The 819 line standard appeared a full 4 years after the end of the war. Germany never had an 819 line TV system. It was developed in France specifically to be incompatible with other systems used in Europe.
The 819 lines was the standard in France for B&W television, and only gave way when color came about. The standard for color televisions was 625 lines.
I am not that old, but 819 lines is what I watched on television while I was a kid.
If the legislation is too complicated for people to understand (and therefore not worthy of being posted for public scrutiny), what is the probability that the average senator will understand it before he or she votes?
And if so, on what basis will the senator vote? Will he or she vote based on his or her analysis of the content, or based on what he or she has heard from neighbors, party officials, friends, lobbyists, priest or rabbi, or who else?
What is the probability that Sen. Thomas Carper himself has read it and understands it?
Scary thought indeed...
If you look at it closely, I will bet that all top level athletes have a genetic advantage. I am not saying a genetic deficiency, but a genetic makeup that makes them perform at a higher level than other people. If we start screening athletes based on genetic makeup, we will never stop until only the most average people are allowed to compete.
I would like to be a top level athlete too, and if we can find a way to disqualify all the guys who run faster than me, I might make it.
Is that what we want?
The alternative, which allows most everyone to compete in one of two categories, is the current system: genital configuration, assuming it was not obtained via surgery.
It is interesting that just last week I decided to get rid of about 15 hard drives I had piled up. I used an old fashion axe. It is easier than the hammer, a single blow cuts through all layers.
I hit them one by one. It did not require much effort, the axe cut right through the cover and platters. After I was done, I thought it would have been more fun to pile them up and try to whack as many of them as I could in a single blow, but it was too late:(
The purpose of HTML is to display adequately (optimally?) across different display sizes (and resolutions). If you want the opposite (fixed size), there are other formats better suited like Postscript, PDF and Latex, among others. Do not reinvent the wheel.
It turns out I had the same issue with my Sony KDL-46WL140 and the fix worked there too.
In my case, not only was the TV drawing 16W all the time, but the EPG did not even work in my area.
Thanks Slashdot!
If Windows allowed to have multiple users logged in at the same time, I would do as I do under Linux, I would login twice, once as user for routine task and once as administrator for the rest.
The problem with Windows is that each account has only one set of rights and you cannot easily fall back to admin rights when you need to, and you cannot have two users logged at the same time.
I have the same problem. We are a hardware company but our hardware includes more and more embedded software. Very few people in the organization are aware of the particular requirements of software quality.
I am the Director of Engineering of my division, so at least I have some level of control on processes. So, as a fix, I have tried to include software within our normal configuration control systems (we are a defense contractor, so we have pretty good configuration control). Everything is a drawing, so I have tried to modify the existing procedures such that they would cover software as well. On paper, it should work and we have been audited by customers who have found the documented processes adequate. Unfortunately, I have found (duh) that it is very hard to make people apply the rules when they are unfamiliar with the product. They understand hardware, but when it comes to software, they just drop the ball.
I am not sure what else I can do at this point, until software becomes a significantly larger part of what we do.
I thought we WANTED our children to learn how to think on their own, not to be spoon fed theories that are widely accepted (and taught) as fact but still not proven.
As opposed to being spoon-fed theories spread by a bunch of bigots?
There is a difference between the scientific method, which demands that you question everything, even if it appears supported by facts, and the bigot method, which demands that you accept everything, particularly if it is unsupported by facts.
ASUS in France offers to buy back the Windows license, but the user must ship the computer two ways at his own expense, and he gets only 25 Euros back for the Windows license, and ASUS can keep the computer as long as they want to do that.
French law forbids tie-ins, such as forcing someone to buy a computer with an OS already installed. The court felt that the 25 Euros combined with the cost of shipping the computer both ways and the fact that the procedure had undetermined duration was effectively discouraging the user from using that capability.
Therefore ASUS lost.
Slashdot Mirror
Blackberry has that capability, which Verizon has used a few times upon my request to reinstall apps following a phone warranty replacement. Of course, there are risks, but Blackberry obviously has controlled those, since the capability has been there since day one and I have never heard of it being exploited.
Studies have shown that 99.5% of users click on OK boxes without reading the 15 pages of material that clicking OK makes them agree to. I conducted that study this morning while reading these posts, so it is well researched. This is clearly a problem, and I have no idea what the solution, in the larger sense, could be. Apple has the advantage in that their customer base is mostly composed of people who like to do what they are told and are not interested in finding the boundaries of what they can do and extend beyond those (another well researched study field of mine...), therefore Apple has been able to place significant constraints on what their users can do without too much backlash. By purposely limiting their available market to those, they have been very successful and are making a ton of money. That is not a strategy of world domination, in terms of market share, but it is financially rewarding. Not a bad strategy.
The more I read about Android and iApple OS, the more I like my Blackberry :)
This was a 441 line system, not much in common with the 819 line system developed by Barthelemy in 1949. France never had a 441 line system of its own, aside from the one operated by the Germans during the occupation, as indicated in the link.
Actually the 441-line system was a Nazi-developed format, exported to occupied France.
Where did you get that from? I believe you are mistaken. The 819 line standard appeared a full 4 years after the end of the war. Germany never had an 819 line TV system. It was developed in France specifically to be incompatible with other systems used in Europe.
This was B&W only, and used about 10 MHz of spectrum
The 819 lines was the standard in France for B&W television, and only gave way when color came about. The standard for color televisions was 625 lines. I am not that old, but 819 lines is what I watched on television while I was a kid.
If the legislation is too complicated for people to understand (and therefore not worthy of being posted for public scrutiny), what is the probability that the average senator will understand it before he or she votes? And if so, on what basis will the senator vote? Will he or she vote based on his or her analysis of the content, or based on what he or she has heard from neighbors, party officials, friends, lobbyists, priest or rabbi, or who else? What is the probability that Sen. Thomas Carper himself has read it and understands it? Scary thought indeed...
If you look at it closely, I will bet that all top level athletes have a genetic advantage. I am not saying a genetic deficiency, but a genetic makeup that makes them perform at a higher level than other people. If we start screening athletes based on genetic makeup, we will never stop until only the most average people are allowed to compete. I would like to be a top level athlete too, and if we can find a way to disqualify all the guys who run faster than me, I might make it. Is that what we want? The alternative, which allows most everyone to compete in one of two categories, is the current system: genital configuration, assuming it was not obtained via surgery.
It is interesting that just last week I decided to get rid of about 15 hard drives I had piled up. I used an old fashion axe. It is easier than the hammer, a single blow cuts through all layers. I hit them one by one. It did not require much effort, the axe cut right through the cover and platters. After I was done, I thought it would have been more fun to pile them up and try to whack as many of them as I could in a single blow, but it was too late :(
The purpose of HTML is to display adequately (optimally?) across different display sizes (and resolutions). If you want the opposite (fixed size), there are other formats better suited like Postscript, PDF and Latex, among others. Do not reinvent the wheel.
Yes, Sony really is evil :-)
It turns out I had the same issue with my Sony KDL-46WL140 and the fix worked there too. In my case, not only was the TV drawing 16W all the time, but the EPG did not even work in my area. Thanks Slashdot!
If Windows allowed to have multiple users logged in at the same time, I would do as I do under Linux, I would login twice, once as user for routine task and once as administrator for the rest. The problem with Windows is that each account has only one set of rights and you cannot easily fall back to admin rights when you need to, and you cannot have two users logged at the same time.
I have the same problem. We are a hardware company but our hardware includes more and more embedded software. Very few people in the organization are aware of the particular requirements of software quality. I am the Director of Engineering of my division, so at least I have some level of control on processes. So, as a fix, I have tried to include software within our normal configuration control systems (we are a defense contractor, so we have pretty good configuration control). Everything is a drawing, so I have tried to modify the existing procedures such that they would cover software as well. On paper, it should work and we have been audited by customers who have found the documented processes adequate. Unfortunately, I have found (duh) that it is very hard to make people apply the rules when they are unfamiliar with the product. They understand hardware, but when it comes to software, they just drop the ball. I am not sure what else I can do at this point, until software becomes a significantly larger part of what we do.
I thought we WANTED our children to learn how to think on their own, not to be spoon fed theories that are widely accepted (and taught) as fact but still not proven.
As opposed to being spoon-fed theories spread by a bunch of bigots?
There is a difference between the scientific method, which demands that you question everything, even if it appears supported by facts, and the bigot method, which demands that you accept everything, particularly if it is unsupported by facts.
ASUS in France offers to buy back the Windows license, but the user must ship the computer two ways at his own expense, and he gets only 25 Euros back for the Windows license, and ASUS can keep the computer as long as they want to do that. French law forbids tie-ins, such as forcing someone to buy a computer with an OS already installed. The court felt that the 25 Euros combined with the cost of shipping the computer both ways and the fact that the procedure had undetermined duration was effectively discouraging the user from using that capability. Therefore ASUS lost.