That's the most awful justification and reasoning I've ever heard. So no matter whether I agree with them or not or whether they're useful, I should pay taxes to avoid the potential bad things that may happen if I don't? Are you the mob? Even though I disagree with the use taxes, I'd at least concede that taxes ideally pay for things that are *beneficial*. But I'll be damned if I pay them for the reasons you outline above.
If I buy a smartphone from Verizon and sign a 2-year contract, I'm prepared to keep the phone and service for two years. That's the game and they're setting the rules - if I want to phone and service jump, sure I could prefer not to pay but I can't really find a fault in them wanting me to. Who is this hurting? If you move to a location where you don't get service, they already let you cancel without penalty. How many people actually end up paying the ETF?
Also, I don't know about the data bit either. My old k1m/krzr went to the "mobile web" or get it now if I hit the down arrow. That brought up a launch screen where I could check account settings (for free), purchase a day's worth of mobile browsing, or sign up for mobile web and have it as a recurring payment. I've never been charged for any sort of access for pulling anything down.
Google, are you listening? Where's the gmaps overlay for *that*?
I'll concur, the VZW map shows Michigan blanketed with coverage, but I know for a fact that there is a great big hole North of I94, West of I69, and East of M66, pretty up until I96. There's spotty coverage in places, but for the most part there's nothing there for big chunks. Still, Verizon offers in general much better coverage in my areas that anyone else, and pretty much anywhere I *do* get Verizon coverage, it's 3G.
I've been using the daily Chromium PPA builds for a couple months now (updated weekly usually), and Chromium is by far more responsive than Firefox on my Ubuntu 9.04 laptop. For some reason FF just seems to get laggy in the UI dept, and if I open up a handful of tabs, especially if there is Flash involved, the whole thing chokes and the app turns grey. Chromium seems to perform much better.
That said, it still feels very much incomplete. I don't think printing is working still, although I haven't tried it in awhile. For some reason there are no "arrow button clickers" on scrollbars...not sure why that is the case. I can't open a file download directly or inline - for example to view a PDF I have to save it somewhere first, THEN open it. FF lets me choose what to open it with without having to save first. 99% of my browsing on Chromium is super fast, except for the Gizmodo.com RSS feed through Google Reader. I don't really know why, but it seems like it has something to do with the adds loading or something...does FF pre-fetch or cache things or something?
I've switched back and forth off and on for awhile now. I"ll get tired of the UI laginess in FF, or I'll break it on a nightly update, and then use Chromium for some time. Eventually I'll miss some features or speed in the RSS reading of Firefox (I wonder how much of that is due to Adblock?), and then return. All in all both browsers are good, and I'm looking forward to Chromium becoming a full fledged option on Linux.
I dunno, I buy all of my music from Amazon via MP3 or used CDs. I don't use iTunes, and since I can't even search their store to see what they have without installing the software, I don't mess with it. From what I've heard Amazon seems to usually have better prices anyway - my wife was looking at a song on iTunes for $1.29, whereas I could get it for $.99. We don't have choice?
My wife can take our Garmin in her car if she needs it or I could let a friend borrow it; I'm not going to lend my phone to someone to use as a GPS. Sure, I'll find it useful to have a working GPS on my phone, for like most things (camera, gps) I'm gonna go with the dedicated device for when I really need quality.
The way I see it, EVERYONE ultimately is a selfish bastard at heart. The one true human constant is that a person will work in their own self-interest. Sure, there may be few that appear to be unselfish, but I say they are still ultimately doing what they do for themselves. I don't understand where people get this notion that we have any chance at this utopian society where everyone helps out everyone else. It's not gonna happen. Our best bet is to use that constant (that every individual works in their own best interest) to try and direct it for more positive group benefits than negative.
I don't see what external restrictions force FOSS. If I want to write a piece of software, and give it away for free along with its source, nobody is pressuring me to do that. I'm doing it of my own free will. What exactly do these people oppose about that? That I *can't* do what I want without restriction?
Good point - actually, my current clamshell is a Motorola, and I've never had anything but good luck and great sound quality from them. Maybe it's more an out of site out of mind thing, there just hasn't been anything from Motorola that interested me in a long time.
I'm definitely looking forward to what they're offering for Verizon, I just wish they'd hurry up.
One more thing I forgot to list...how is the battery life with these? I'm under the impression the current crop of Android phones eat through batteries, whereas the BBs have usually been better about that?
Serious question - I'm a dumbphone user finally wanting to move to a smartphone, and in the next couple of months. I have to (read: want to) stay on Verizon, and don't want a Windows Mobile phone. I've decided on either the Storm2 or the upcoming Android phones, but am not sure which to go with.
Essentially what I want is a phone that I can email/message/facebook/twitter/do tasks/organize my life with. I want to be able to browse the web, but I don't see myself spending lots of time doing that; usually I see it just looking up something quick. I also don't see myself as a big apps/games user, but then again having never had that experience I don't know - maybe I would if the opportunity were there.
From what I can tell, my impressions are: BB pros: better build quality good (best?) messaging/email ability (I don't really know, but figured that was their background so it must be very good?) relatively proven track record for phones like this
BB cons: lack of webkit browser (aren't they supposed to be working on this? when? would the S2 get it eventually?) generally "closed" system I have the perception there's less consumer app development for BB than with other platforms
Android pros: webkit browser open system app development seems to have more potential, especially with consumer apps
Android cons: how is the messaging? Does it work well? still young...although that doesn't bother me that much from what I have seen of the VZW leaks, the form factors don't seem as nice as the BB.
Having experience with neither, I don't really know if I have a preference between hard or soft keyboards.
I guess I hadn't looked into it much further, but I thought since it was a protocol spec, too, that you could have a desktop client implementation, too? I thought when I was looking through the sample code docs that it even came with a CLI interface for testing.
Lucky for you, as I understand it, is that you could roll your own and host your own wave server...which would also be able to interact with other wave servers, a la email servers today. Just like how the world's email doesn't stop working when gmail hiccups (although reading the headlines it would seem that way).
If anything, I see this being the closest thing to actually *subvert* Exchange usage in a corporate setting. Granted, all I know is what I've read and seen in the video, but the concept strikes a chord with me. For example:
At work, we use Exchange, and I suffer from information overload. We aren't taking advantage of the calendaring features really, other than to schedule reminders of when we have meetings. The VAST majority of my work processes involve email exchanges between multiple people, emailing copy of spreadsheets and screenshots to all of them, who in turn respond to everyone else with their own docs, etc. I may be working on any number of tasks or projects at a time, and each of those has their own threads, sets of documents, IM exchanges, everything. I try to organize them via folders, categories, posting docs to a share and telling everyone to go there to view them, but it's a mess. Granted, a lot of the problem may be lack of organization all around, but this seems to be the case no matter where I've been. We could try and copy everything to a wiki, or try and force Sharepoint to work for us, but it just doesn't work, at least right now.
From what I understand of Wave, instead we could have a dedicated wave to each task or project. Everybody communicates via that (replacing IM and email), posts documents there (essentially replacing file shares, emailing multiple copies back and forth to everyone...and didn't I see there was some sort of version control built-in?), and everything from start to finish is contained there. It sounds like a wiki, kind of, but in real time and organizing everything communication related that you'd normally use other apps for and have that data stuck elsewhere.
Sure, Exchange interaction should be there. But why keep using Exchange if Wave can manage your data and workflow for you? Maybe I'm off, maybe that's not how it works, and maybe I'll be disappointed. But it sounds really cool at this point:-)
My wife graduated vet school in 2005 with ~100k in student loans that covered 1 year undergrad and 4 years vet school. From the Michigan State veterinary school web page:
For the 2008-2009 academic year, tuition and fees for students in the professional veterinary program were $20,510 per year for Michigan residents and $42,578 for nonresidents. These figures represent costs for the 2008-2009 academic year and are likely to increase for the 2009-2010 year.
$6000/year for everything?! Enjoy that while it lasts!
After we bought our house I planned on replacing the vanity lights in the bathroom with CFLs as the current ones burned out. Part of it was that my wife complained about the bathroom getting too hot; I figured the less heat given off by the CFLs would help out there, too, plus if they lasted longer everybody would win. Well, I replaced two of them and they lasted maybe 6 months max - I'm sure the humidity from the shower wrecked them. Here's an application where they could save energy, and their cool-running would actually be a benefit, and they are completely useless in that environment. I'm back to using the incandescent variety in the bathroom now, and their heat-producing qualities will help in the winter, too.
When did striving to become wealth (i.e., "rich") and considering yourself better than others become *bad*? We have a right to equality in treatment by the government, but there's nothing wrong with trying to be better than everyone else. Is meritocracy dead?
I *thought* Motorola was supposed to also announce the Sholes yesterday for Verizon....where the heck was that? Nobody anywhere seems to be saying anything about it....
And there's still little HD content. Ok, the major networks have *most* programming in HD, but there's still stragglers. A lot of the basic cable channels (Comedy Central? MTV? VH1? off the top of my head) are still lacking HD channels, at least in my area.
IMHO, HD content is still far from being ubiquitous. It seems like it's still treated as a novelty, reserved for sports and higher budget productions. Does anyone have any stats on what percentage of total available common cable/satellite programming is truly available in HD?
I still don't get what say a foreign "commission" has in the dealings of two American companies. Sure, they can weigh in, but as long as the two parties involved are headquartered/owned/operated here, what obligation do they have to anyone outside of the US? Additionally, couldn't they be jerks about it and say 'Eff You, we just won't operate, sell, or support our products on your side of the world' and be done with it? The RIAA does that all the time by restricting how media is available in foreign countries, why not software itself?
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That's the most awful justification and reasoning I've ever heard. So no matter whether I agree with them or not or whether they're useful, I should pay taxes to avoid the potential bad things that may happen if I don't? Are you the mob? Even though I disagree with the use taxes, I'd at least concede that taxes ideally pay for things that are *beneficial*. But I'll be damned if I pay them for the reasons you outline above.
If I buy a smartphone from Verizon and sign a 2-year contract, I'm prepared to keep the phone and service for two years. That's the game and they're setting the rules - if I want to phone and service jump, sure I could prefer not to pay but I can't really find a fault in them wanting me to. Who is this hurting? If you move to a location where you don't get service, they already let you cancel without penalty. How many people actually end up paying the ETF?
Also, I don't know about the data bit either. My old k1m/krzr went to the "mobile web" or get it now if I hit the down arrow. That brought up a launch screen where I could check account settings (for free), purchase a day's worth of mobile browsing, or sign up for mobile web and have it as a recurring payment. I've never been charged for any sort of access for pulling anything down.
Google, are you listening? Where's the gmaps overlay for *that*?
I'll concur, the VZW map shows Michigan blanketed with coverage, but I know for a fact that there is a great big hole North of I94, West of I69, and East of M66, pretty up until I96. There's spotty coverage in places, but for the most part there's nothing there for big chunks. Still, Verizon offers in general much better coverage in my areas that anyone else, and pretty much anywhere I *do* get Verizon coverage, it's 3G.
I've been using the daily Chromium PPA builds for a couple months now (updated weekly usually), and Chromium is by far more responsive than Firefox on my Ubuntu 9.04 laptop. For some reason FF just seems to get laggy in the UI dept, and if I open up a handful of tabs, especially if there is Flash involved, the whole thing chokes and the app turns grey. Chromium seems to perform much better.
That said, it still feels very much incomplete. I don't think printing is working still, although I haven't tried it in awhile. For some reason there are no "arrow button clickers" on scrollbars...not sure why that is the case. I can't open a file download directly or inline - for example to view a PDF I have to save it somewhere first, THEN open it. FF lets me choose what to open it with without having to save first. 99% of my browsing on Chromium is super fast, except for the Gizmodo.com RSS feed through Google Reader. I don't really know why, but it seems like it has something to do with the adds loading or something...does FF pre-fetch or cache things or something?
I've switched back and forth off and on for awhile now. I"ll get tired of the UI laginess in FF, or I'll break it on a nightly update, and then use Chromium for some time. Eventually I'll miss some features or speed in the RSS reading of Firefox (I wonder how much of that is due to Adblock?), and then return. All in all both browsers are good, and I'm looking forward to Chromium becoming a full fledged option on Linux.
I dunno, I buy all of my music from Amazon via MP3 or used CDs. I don't use iTunes, and since I can't even search their store to see what they have without installing the software, I don't mess with it. From what I've heard Amazon seems to usually have better prices anyway - my wife was looking at a song on iTunes for $1.29, whereas I could get it for $.99. We don't have choice?
My wife can take our Garmin in her car if she needs it or I could let a friend borrow it; I'm not going to lend my phone to someone to use as a GPS. Sure, I'll find it useful to have a working GPS on my phone, for like most things (camera, gps) I'm gonna go with the dedicated device for when I really need quality.
Ack! Common sense! Run away! :-P
Nicely said.
The way I see it, EVERYONE ultimately is a selfish bastard at heart. The one true human constant is that a person will work in their own self-interest. Sure, there may be few that appear to be unselfish, but I say they are still ultimately doing what they do for themselves. I don't understand where people get this notion that we have any chance at this utopian society where everyone helps out everyone else. It's not gonna happen. Our best bet is to use that constant (that every individual works in their own best interest) to try and direct it for more positive group benefits than negative.
I don't see what external restrictions force FOSS. If I want to write a piece of software, and give it away for free along with its source, nobody is pressuring me to do that. I'm doing it of my own free will. What exactly do these people oppose about that? That I *can't* do what I want without restriction?
Are those 85000 distinct apps? How many roughly do the same as how many others?
Good point - actually, my current clamshell is a Motorola, and I've never had anything but good luck and great sound quality from them. Maybe it's more an out of site out of mind thing, there just hasn't been anything from Motorola that interested me in a long time.
I'm definitely looking forward to what they're offering for Verizon, I just wish they'd hurry up.
One more thing I forgot to list...how is the battery life with these? I'm under the impression the current crop of Android phones eat through batteries, whereas the BBs have usually been better about that?
Serious question - I'm a dumbphone user finally wanting to move to a smartphone, and in the next couple of months. I have to (read: want to) stay on Verizon, and don't want a Windows Mobile phone. I've decided on either the Storm2 or the upcoming Android phones, but am not sure which to go with.
Essentially what I want is a phone that I can email/message/facebook/twitter/do tasks/organize my life with. I want to be able to browse the web, but I don't see myself spending lots of time doing that; usually I see it just looking up something quick. I also don't see myself as a big apps/games user, but then again having never had that experience I don't know - maybe I would if the opportunity were there.
From what I can tell, my impressions are:
BB pros:
better build quality
good (best?) messaging/email ability (I don't really know, but figured that was their background so it must be very good?)
relatively proven track record for phones like this
BB cons:
lack of webkit browser (aren't they supposed to be working on this? when? would the S2 get it eventually?)
generally "closed" system
I have the perception there's less consumer app development for BB than with other platforms
Android pros:
webkit browser
open system
app development seems to have more potential, especially with consumer apps
Android cons:
how is the messaging? Does it work well?
still young...although that doesn't bother me that much
from what I have seen of the VZW leaks, the form factors don't seem as nice as the BB.
Having experience with neither, I don't really know if I have a preference between hard or soft keyboards.
Thoughts or advice?
I guess I hadn't looked into it much further, but I thought since it was a protocol spec, too, that you could have a desktop client implementation, too? I thought when I was looking through the sample code docs that it even came with a CLI interface for testing.
Lucky for you, as I understand it, is that you could roll your own and host your own wave server...which would also be able to interact with other wave servers, a la email servers today. Just like how the world's email doesn't stop working when gmail hiccups (although reading the headlines it would seem that way).
If anything, I see this being the closest thing to actually *subvert* Exchange usage in a corporate setting. Granted, all I know is what I've read and seen in the video, but the concept strikes a chord with me. For example:
:-)
At work, we use Exchange, and I suffer from information overload. We aren't taking advantage of the calendaring features really, other than to schedule reminders of when we have meetings. The VAST majority of my work processes involve email exchanges between multiple people, emailing copy of spreadsheets and screenshots to all of them, who in turn respond to everyone else with their own docs, etc. I may be working on any number of tasks or projects at a time, and each of those has their own threads, sets of documents, IM exchanges, everything. I try to organize them via folders, categories, posting docs to a share and telling everyone to go there to view them, but it's a mess. Granted, a lot of the problem may be lack of organization all around, but this seems to be the case no matter where I've been. We could try and copy everything to a wiki, or try and force Sharepoint to work for us, but it just doesn't work, at least right now.
From what I understand of Wave, instead we could have a dedicated wave to each task or project. Everybody communicates via that (replacing IM and email), posts documents there (essentially replacing file shares, emailing multiple copies back and forth to everyone...and didn't I see there was some sort of version control built-in?), and everything from start to finish is contained there. It sounds like a wiki, kind of, but in real time and organizing everything communication related that you'd normally use other apps for and have that data stuck elsewhere.
Sure, Exchange interaction should be there. But why keep using Exchange if Wave can manage your data and workflow for you? Maybe I'm off, maybe that's not how it works, and maybe I'll be disappointed. But it sounds really cool at this point
$6000/year for everything?! Enjoy that while it lasts!
After we bought our house I planned on replacing the vanity lights in the bathroom with CFLs as the current ones burned out. Part of it was that my wife complained about the bathroom getting too hot; I figured the less heat given off by the CFLs would help out there, too, plus if they lasted longer everybody would win. Well, I replaced two of them and they lasted maybe 6 months max - I'm sure the humidity from the shower wrecked them. Here's an application where they could save energy, and their cool-running would actually be a benefit, and they are completely useless in that environment. I'm back to using the incandescent variety in the bathroom now, and their heat-producing qualities will help in the winter, too.
Could we not pay another frackin' tax, AND not pay taxes to fund stupid wars?
When did striving to become wealth (i.e., "rich") and considering yourself better than others become *bad*? We have a right to equality in treatment by the government, but there's nothing wrong with trying to be better than everyone else. Is meritocracy dead?
They could always just buy what they want to buy, based on their preference and not your narrow do-as-I-say worldview. Or not.
What, pray tell, *would* be the legitimate reasons to do so? What business is it of any government where I drive my vehicle, and how far?
I *thought* Motorola was supposed to also announce the Sholes yesterday for Verizon....where the heck was that? Nobody anywhere seems to be saying anything about it....
And there's still little HD content. Ok, the major networks have *most* programming in HD, but there's still stragglers. A lot of the basic cable channels (Comedy Central? MTV? VH1? off the top of my head) are still lacking HD channels, at least in my area.
IMHO, HD content is still far from being ubiquitous. It seems like it's still treated as a novelty, reserved for sports and higher budget productions. Does anyone have any stats on what percentage of total available common cable/satellite programming is truly available in HD?
Why bother with creating better content when you can throw in a technology gimmick, right?
I still don't get what say a foreign "commission" has in the dealings of two American companies. Sure, they can weigh in, but as long as the two parties involved are headquartered/owned/operated here, what obligation do they have to anyone outside of the US? Additionally, couldn't they be jerks about it and say 'Eff You, we just won't operate, sell, or support our products on your side of the world' and be done with it? The RIAA does that all the time by restricting how media is available in foreign countries, why not software itself?