1. All 3G phones use SIM cards; it is so mandated in the 3GPP spec.
I don't know what your point in saying that was, but the OP stated a fact. Not all phones have SIM cards; what does 3G have to do with anything? Not all phones are 3G.
Ask anyone with service through Sprint - our fancy CDMA phones don't have a SIM card.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. There's no reason to upgrade beyond Windows 2000. Once it's required (as in certain things won't run unless I have Vista or my hardware dies and the only new hardware needs Vista) then it'll be a full transition to Linux.
My wife is already sold on a MacBook (she's waiting for the design to mature a little, we've been burned before buying the first generation of a product). I'm happily running Windows 2000 and Ubuntu and they suit my needs just fine. In fact Windows 2000 suits all my needs right now, however I am trying to get used to Ubuntu just for fun.
Unfortunately my workplace requires IE - several company sites that I need to regularly access don't work in anything but IE. I installed Firefox and in addition to not being able to view those few sites, the IT department hunted me down and made me get rid of it because it's "unauthorized software" (it's funny when the unauthorized browser is more secure than the authorized browser, eh?).
Simply false. In every state in the country, most people can afford a home, and do.
In many places homes are affordable, but in desirable places like NY, LA, San Francisco, Miami, and several other cities, things are out of reach for most people. The average salary in the city where I live is $130,000 and the average home price is $700,000. I've crunched some numbers and I don't see how that's possible.
I know several people who make around $75K a year and bought $500,000 homes within the past three years. I simply don't understand how they do it. At this point, I wouldn't mind even buying a small house that needs some work, but even those are out of reach for me now. I earn a decent living, but the only thing I can afford are homes in very dangerous areas (with drug deals going on in the streets and regular drive-by shootings; no I'm not exaggerating or basing these statements on the news I watch or read - these areas really are bad)
I fully believe that our economy is worse today than it was in the 80s, we just haven't realized it yet. I blog about this daily, and I've modified my life to live entirely off the dollar standard and I now live on a hard currency standard.
Can you elaborate on this more? What exactly do you do? (I can't open the blog now because I believe blogspot is blacklisted at work)
I share the same beliefs with you regarding our economy. I have zero economics background, but there are some things that just seem obvious. My opinion is that nearly everyone is living off of assumed wealth right now. Homes in most places are unaffordable for most people considering local salaries, and those who bought homes at realistic prices have tapped into their equity (based on their inflated home value) to live like millionaires. How do we trust so-called experts who say that our economy is doing great and that home prices aren't going to fall, rather they'll level off?
Aside from all the obvious things that resulted after Chernobyl, the one thing that disturbs me most is that many of the first-responding firefighters weren't told anything about radiation. They believed they were being called in to fight just a regular fire.
If my Nintendo DS had some internal memory, a general OS, and bigger screens it would be a perfect PDA/tablet PC. I'm looking forward to Opera browser that's coming out, however I don't like the face that it's cartridge-based (you can't just load it on internal memory and then open it whenever you want - it has to be run from the cartridge just like the games).
802.11G, WPA support, and more internet gameplay would be nice also.
How do you like sunrocket over comcast's connection? I have the 6/384 as well and was thinking about signing up for SunRocket, though I read a few negative reviews that had me wondering. I have a POTS line with Verizon that's $18 a month for just a basic line (no long distance, no special features) and I think it's time to go.
I've heard the biggest worry about VoIP is that your power will go out or your internet connection will be down. I've been at my current residence for a month and I've never seen my internet connection go down. The power went out once for a few hours, but that could have been backed up with a UPS.
Do you also complain that your tax dollars are helping to maintain roads you never use?
After recently moving to New Jersey, I was discussing all the toll roads with a coworker. I asked him why the overall gas tax couldn't be increased and the toll booths be removed. His response was "Why should I have to pay for a road I never use?"
I still don't like the concept of toll roads. The cost of living prevents me from living closer to my workplace, and the only free roads are littered with traffic lights and would take hours. I'm stuck paying $75+ a month just to drive to work and back. The only benefit I can see with the Garden State Parkway is that there are no trucks allowed (then again, the lanes are to damn narrow in North Jersey fo a truck to fit)
If you look at it overall, eBay has a good system. Considering the amount of money they make, however, you would think that they can improve their customer service, specifically in the area of fraud prevention.
I won't even bother with PayPal. If you're defrauded by a bad buyer, PayPal treats you like you're the criminal. Are there any reasonable alternatives? I'm in the process of starting business that needs to collect small payments (around $1) over the web, and I don't know the most cost effective way of collecting such small payments.
In 2002 when I was in my last year at college and shortly after I graduated, most of my friends used friendster. Now I don't know anyone who regularly uses it. I believe most of my friends who used it are trying to be adults now, working real jobs and doing better things with their time rather than wasting it online.
I decided to open facebook and create a profile and it's definitely a lot cleaner than myspace. It's much more professional looking and easier on the eyes. I haven't seen any friends have hundreds of friends on their list who are all aspiring models posting half-nude pictures of themselves - like many people do on myspace.
One funny thing is that I cleaned up my sister-in-law's computer by removing a ton of pop-up inducing spyware and installing firefox as the default browser. Her sister used the computer the next day and complained "Hey, I thought you fixed the computer? My myspace profile is all messed up now!"
Myspace shows ads? Hmm... guess I never noticed with noscript, adblock, and flashblock installed.
Seriously, I have seen their ads before I installed adblock but like any other internet ad, I mentally blocked all of them out. I often wonder why internet advertising brings in so much money. How much are internet ads worth? Back when I saw ads, I can safely say I never clicked on one. I still don't understand Google's principles - I understand they mostly make money based on their ads that appear to the right of their search results. I find it hard to trust those ads especially when everything I search for shows up in the ads as "Buy X on eBay!".
That reminds me of a whole different issue with Google. I'm currently looking for several motorcycle parts (new, not used) and all the google search results for the parts I'm looking for are indirect links to ebay auctions. Even when I try to search for a list of online motorcycle parts retailers, only a handful of actual stores show up (and they're not even on one page; I have to dig through 10 pages of results just to get a few store names)
I got an off-brand CD burner at Circuit City for $30. When I got home, I noticed the sticker on top wasn't the original one so I peeled it off and lo and behold there was the original lite-on sticker! When I installed the drive, it even showed up as Lite-On (don't they usually use a different firmware on these rebranded drives to show the manufacturer on the label?). At the time, the Lite-On drive was around $100 so I think I made out well getting a rebranded one for $30. It was a great drive and worked well until I upgraded to a DVD burner.
If you read the reviews that are our there, you'll see that Lite-On DVD burners aren't nearly as good as their CD burners. I can't speak from experience, but most reviews say they're not as good as NEC or Plextor.
Back in the day when Oakley sunglasses were popular there were imitations being sold on the streets of NY with the name "OARLEY" on it. The logo appeared identical, but with a closer look you could see an "R" instead of a "K"
There's a big problem with motorcycle clones in China and other parts of Asia (my favorite is the Hongda). In some cases the engines are exact replicas, or may even be manufactured in the same plant that makes the real thing. Despite most of these bikes being exact clones of good designs, they're made with horrible steel that's extremely brittle. The few people I know who bought chinese imitation bikes all had their frames crack within a year.
It's bullshit that you got an F, especially since there were no specific rules prohibiting what you did.
I lost an egg-drop competition at my work because the vague rules didn't specify a bullseye hit (not only did the egg have to survive but it had to hit a bullseye on the ground when dropped from 50 feet). The winning team had a giant sheet of plastic that basically covered the bullseye, which was considered a hit, despite the egg being 10' from the actual target. My team's egg was an inch away from the bullseye, but because we didn't have any part actually touching the bullseye, we lost.
We didn't take it too personally though. The following year they were more detailed specifying the rules and we ended up winning (a team of systems and software engineers beat 20 or 30 other teams of aerospace/mechanincal/materials engineers from one of the top defense contractors)
It's not just the number of versions that's mind boggling, but also the 'features' that are built in to supposedly make your life simpler and safer. I read a list of supposed features in Vista and basically all I could ask myself afterwards is, "What does Vista do that 2000 doesn't?"
I'm a relatively happy Windows 2000 user. Since I have been using it, it has given me no problems (aside from the msblast worm that hit me). I still see no valid reason for me to upgrade to XP - the only thing remotely useful is the built in firewall, however I have always used an aftermarket one which in my opinion is better than Microsoft's. As for Vista, I really don't see any reason for me to switch.
I think I can safely say that I will never be purchasing a computer with Windows again. I'm looking to buy a intel-powered Mac laptop (MacBook) once they have some time to work out any bugs or issues.
The way that post was written seems to imply that the author believes the '.1' refers to the subwoofer. The way you write yours implies that the '.1' refers to the center channel. Which is it? I always thought the.1 was the subwoofer, but I could be wrong.
Also, I've seen systems with a center rear channel. Is that really useful?
I have a tiny (by most people's standards, but not mine) 20" LCD television. When I position myself so my ears are level with the speakers, I hear all sorts of strange things on regular stereo broadcases. I first noticed this when my TV was new; I was watching something and there was running water in the jungle which sounded like it was coming behind me.
Did you have to position your speakers correctly for that effect, and can you only get that when you're sitting in one particular position? I'm interested in your setup as I'd like to do something similar.
It looks like yet another off-brand MP3 player that's extremely late to the table. The way I look at it is that if you want to compete with the iPod, you're going to have to sell something significantly cheaper and offer the same features. I'd guess the majority of iPod consumers would choose the iPod even if it costs more, or if it had less memory and cost the same as the imitator. Just think about all the little kids and teenagers asking their parents for gifts. None of them are going to ask for a "Samsung Z5" - they all want their white iPods or nanos with pink and green silicone sleeves.
Back in the day, I only used Yahoo. Lycos and Excite were OK, but Yahoo was a lot better and returned more relevant results. Then Google came along and changed everything. Not only do they provide the best search results, the only ads are minor text-based ads that are easy to block mentally.
I've tried using the other search engines a few times since Google became so good, but I've given up completely. I don't care if MSN and Yahoo both have banner-ad-free Google clones, the few times I've tried them were bad enough to make me never try them again.
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I don't know what your point in saying that was, but the OP stated a fact. Not all phones have SIM cards; what does 3G have to do with anything? Not all phones are 3G.
Ask anyone with service through Sprint - our fancy CDMA phones don't have a SIM card.
If that's the case, then won't they be bound by banking laws that they're basically immune from right now?
My wife is already sold on a MacBook (she's waiting for the design to mature a little, we've been burned before buying the first generation of a product). I'm happily running Windows 2000 and Ubuntu and they suit my needs just fine. In fact Windows 2000 suits all my needs right now, however I am trying to get used to Ubuntu just for fun.
Unfortunately my workplace requires IE - several company sites that I need to regularly access don't work in anything but IE. I installed Firefox and in addition to not being able to view those few sites, the IT department hunted me down and made me get rid of it because it's "unauthorized software" (it's funny when the unauthorized browser is more secure than the authorized browser, eh?).
In many places homes are affordable, but in desirable places like NY, LA, San Francisco, Miami, and several other cities, things are out of reach for most people. The average salary in the city where I live is $130,000 and the average home price is $700,000. I've crunched some numbers and I don't see how that's possible.
I know several people who make around $75K a year and bought $500,000 homes within the past three years. I simply don't understand how they do it. At this point, I wouldn't mind even buying a small house that needs some work, but even those are out of reach for me now. I earn a decent living, but the only thing I can afford are homes in very dangerous areas (with drug deals going on in the streets and regular drive-by shootings; no I'm not exaggerating or basing these statements on the news I watch or read - these areas really are bad)
Can you elaborate on this more? What exactly do you do? (I can't open the blog now because I believe blogspot is blacklisted at work)
I share the same beliefs with you regarding our economy. I have zero economics background, but there are some things that just seem obvious. My opinion is that nearly everyone is living off of assumed wealth right now. Homes in most places are unaffordable for most people considering local salaries, and those who bought homes at realistic prices have tapped into their equity (based on their inflated home value) to live like millionaires. How do we trust so-called experts who say that our economy is doing great and that home prices aren't going to fall, rather they'll level off?
One, One, Two, Three, Five, Eight, Thirteen, Twenty-One... Mathematics is the language of nature
I think in Soviet Russia (actually Ukraine) firefighters or not, I don't think anyone would refuse to do their job.
I'm sure just about everyone has seen this by now, but just in case you haven't, here's a nice site about a lady who rode her motorcycle around the disaster zone and took a bunch of pictures.
802.11G, WPA support, and more internet gameplay would be nice also.
I've heard the biggest worry about VoIP is that your power will go out or your internet connection will be down. I've been at my current residence for a month and I've never seen my internet connection go down. The power went out once for a few hours, but that could have been backed up with a UPS.
After recently moving to New Jersey, I was discussing all the toll roads with a coworker. I asked him why the overall gas tax couldn't be increased and the toll booths be removed. His response was "Why should I have to pay for a road I never use?"
I still don't like the concept of toll roads. The cost of living prevents me from living closer to my workplace, and the only free roads are littered with traffic lights and would take hours. I'm stuck paying $75+ a month just to drive to work and back. The only benefit I can see with the Garden State Parkway is that there are no trucks allowed (then again, the lanes are to damn narrow in North Jersey fo a truck to fit)
I won't even bother with PayPal. If you're defrauded by a bad buyer, PayPal treats you like you're the criminal. Are there any reasonable alternatives? I'm in the process of starting business that needs to collect small payments (around $1) over the web, and I don't know the most cost effective way of collecting such small payments.
I decided to open facebook and create a profile and it's definitely a lot cleaner than myspace. It's much more professional looking and easier on the eyes. I haven't seen any friends have hundreds of friends on their list who are all aspiring models posting half-nude pictures of themselves - like many people do on myspace.
One funny thing is that I cleaned up my sister-in-law's computer by removing a ton of pop-up inducing spyware and installing firefox as the default browser. Her sister used the computer the next day and complained "Hey, I thought you fixed the computer? My myspace profile is all messed up now!"
Seriously, I have seen their ads before I installed adblock but like any other internet ad, I mentally blocked all of them out. I often wonder why internet advertising brings in so much money. How much are internet ads worth? Back when I saw ads, I can safely say I never clicked on one. I still don't understand Google's principles - I understand they mostly make money based on their ads that appear to the right of their search results. I find it hard to trust those ads especially when everything I search for shows up in the ads as "Buy X on eBay!".
That reminds me of a whole different issue with Google. I'm currently looking for several motorcycle parts (new, not used) and all the google search results for the parts I'm looking for are indirect links to ebay auctions. Even when I try to search for a list of online motorcycle parts retailers, only a handful of actual stores show up (and they're not even on one page; I have to dig through 10 pages of results just to get a few store names)
If you read the reviews that are our there, you'll see that Lite-On DVD burners aren't nearly as good as their CD burners. I can't speak from experience, but most reviews say they're not as good as NEC or Plextor.
There's a big problem with motorcycle clones in China and other parts of Asia (my favorite is the Hongda). In some cases the engines are exact replicas, or may even be manufactured in the same plant that makes the real thing. Despite most of these bikes being exact clones of good designs, they're made with horrible steel that's extremely brittle. The few people I know who bought chinese imitation bikes all had their frames crack within a year.
I lost an egg-drop competition at my work because the vague rules didn't specify a bullseye hit (not only did the egg have to survive but it had to hit a bullseye on the ground when dropped from 50 feet). The winning team had a giant sheet of plastic that basically covered the bullseye, which was considered a hit, despite the egg being 10' from the actual target. My team's egg was an inch away from the bullseye, but because we didn't have any part actually touching the bullseye, we lost.
We didn't take it too personally though. The following year they were more detailed specifying the rules and we ended up winning (a team of systems and software engineers beat 20 or 30 other teams of aerospace/mechanincal/materials engineers from one of the top defense contractors)
I'm a relatively happy Windows 2000 user. Since I have been using it, it has given me no problems (aside from the msblast worm that hit me). I still see no valid reason for me to upgrade to XP - the only thing remotely useful is the built in firewall, however I have always used an aftermarket one which in my opinion is better than Microsoft's. As for Vista, I really don't see any reason for me to switch.
I think I can safely say that I will never be purchasing a computer with Windows again. I'm looking to buy a intel-powered Mac laptop (MacBook) once they have some time to work out any bugs or issues.
Also, I've seen systems with a center rear channel. Is that really useful?
Did you have to position your speakers correctly for that effect, and can you only get that when you're sitting in one particular position? I'm interested in your setup as I'd like to do something similar.
It looks like yet another off-brand MP3 player that's extremely late to the table. The way I look at it is that if you want to compete with the iPod, you're going to have to sell something significantly cheaper and offer the same features. I'd guess the majority of iPod consumers would choose the iPod even if it costs more, or if it had less memory and cost the same as the imitator. Just think about all the little kids and teenagers asking their parents for gifts. None of them are going to ask for a "Samsung Z5" - they all want their white iPods or nanos with pink and green silicone sleeves.
In the past hundred years, has the Electoral college voted against the popular vote for any state?
Ant-virus? Let's hope this isn't as bad as the bird flu...
I've tried using the other search engines a few times since Google became so good, but I've given up completely. I don't care if MSN and Yahoo both have banner-ad-free Google clones, the few times I've tried them were bad enough to make me never try them again.