I am months from FRA, if you kids don’t know what that means, you will one day. Been a coder, designer, manager, systems engineer, security researcher, and now again code monkey. Started with Fortran, then assembly, then C, a stint on Ada, back to C and now some C++.
Back in the hard times of 2009 I was laid off for as much age as wage, and being on a project at end of life. Take your pick as the primary cause, I’d weight them about equally.
Working with kids now and out of my league on C++ (did mostly C embedded in my day). But, I get by and would prefer to be back in systems engineering (requirements, not keeping the computers updated).
My little advice here is to consider work in the defense sector, where I’ve spent most of my career. Most of these big companies have long term continuing projects that depend on detailed knowledge of specific technologies and they depend on people with that knowledge staying on board. Some companies suck, but most treat people well to keep them. You’ll need a security clearance, but that has not been a big deal. Over the years I’ve contributed to things under the sea and up to out in space.
Yeah to all above. I've been Macs at home and PCs at work since the Mac came out. Time Capsule too. My first Mac was the MacPlus.
Apple under Tim Cook is not an innovator any more. The new Google Pixel phone looks compelling enough to make me switch after having the original iPhone, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4S, and now the iPhone 6. All were good in their day. I hope the 6 keeps going two more years before I want to replace it.
They've become tied to stock market pricing fears and the iPhone as the main product. I think that the gross margins on products have to be high for Tim to keep them and the Time Capsule and desktops no longer justify any investment in dollars on ROI terms.
My 2009 iMac is still a great computer, I had to suffer through El Capitan problems, but Sierra addressed most problems. The Powerbook Pros used by the rest of family (from 2008 to 2012 models) all have major issues. The 2012 is on its way to the "Genius Bar" today, but appears dead. The 2008 model has issues that will render it dead soon. It's been dying for a while. I hope I can convince them to get Microsoft Surface computers as replacements, but change is hard.
I have the Google Pixel Chromebook (original model) and and still find it a compelling product. Apple products, not so much. There is not one new product that has any appeal. Tim ought to watch videos of Steve Jobs introducing products from the iMac to his last appearance. Steve always worked in reasons why the new product was needed and had value. Now it is just take it how it is. Sad.
You can trash that subject all you want, but Apple products used to offer features with value, once you accounted for all the benefits. Value may not be lowest price. I've owned three Apple routers from the very first flying saucer (with phone modem) to the 3TB Time Capsule. Each has been trouble free and required attention, like never. Earlier Airport software allowed me to look at my logs, I knew problems were in the air when that was taken away for a pretty interface. There have been no updates in a long while.
Steve Jobs used to spend his time at product announcements promoting the benefits the new products brought to users. Now, it is all about profit. Tim Cook ought to sit down and watch Steve's one man shows from the first iMac to his last. The new pro series laptops did the right thing with USB-C, the wrong on so much more. Nothing to see here folks, walk away.
OS X has been nothing but trouble since El Capitan for me and others. USB is not reliable and the SDHC reader is iffy. No wonder it is gone from the new laptops. Photos can't properly sync with my iPhone. iTunes turned into a clumsy mess and gives me alerts about my iPhone software update after I've updated it.
My next computer will likely be a Microsoft Surface and my next phone a Google Pixel. BTW, I use Linux at work, it ain't there yet.
When Apple gave me what I considered good value, I spent my money there. I don't see it any longer. Nothing to do with this announcement, all to do with the lack of vision and value.
I don't recall any manned flight where the assembly exploded during fueling. Not even unmanned spacecraft except maybe in the very early days. Very recently there has been one. SpaceX. I am sure I will hear about it if I am wrong. If I am right, then fueling is safe enough for manned operation. However, that means the crew would have to be strapped in during the entire fueling process. The check list process (other than fuel issues) could be performed while waiting for fueling to complete. I also recall that our Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo crews often waited long times before launch. So, on the whole, the proposed idea makes sense. Except that SpaceX has not demonstrated launch reliability as of yet. I think ULA has made 107 consecutive successful launches. Let SpaceX catch up first. The idea stills seems risky to me and worse when combined with the requirement for cold fuel. What happens if they have to scrub the mission? Does the crew fire off the escape system? Do they wait for the scrub to complete? Or do scrubs never happen in SpaceX land? BTW - I like SpaceX, but lets be real.
Yup. When the Apple watch came out, I took my Rolex purchased in the 70s to a jeweler for cleaning and refurbishment which cost 2x what an Apple watch would have cost. I gave it to my son as a graduation gift. The current value on that watch was 5x what I paid for it. Might be a wash with changes to the value of a dollar, but that item will still have value in 2-3 years when the Apple watch would have been dropped into a bin as junk. The HP-01 watch from the 70's was a better product than the Apple watch, by the way I also had an HP-01 back then. Kind of sorry I didn't keep it. I wonder if an Apple watch buyer will every feel the same way after 40 years?
My install of OS 10.11 in October 2015 seemed to be terrific. Then I found that had trouble with SDHC cards on my 2009 iMac 27". It might read and write cards after a clean cold boot, but it also might self reject them, and it never would even see a SDHC inserted after a sleep cycle. Others reported similar issues, one post on the topic was up to 9 pages a few weeks ago on the Apple Discussion forum. The problem was reported on many different models, not all were old.
10.11.1, 10.11.2, and 10.11.3 brought no relief. Then, 10.11.4 improved its operation substantially. SDHC cards would work for several sleep cycles before being gone to the wind. Sometimes, just to be assertive, OS X 10.11.4 reverts to its old ways. It likes to mess with me.
I have never had El Capitan freeze on me BTW.
10.11 El Capitan brought a whole new USB software support and some people have claimed various fixes for the SDHC issue, use a driver for an external reader, muck with the control files for USB, etc. The reliability and security of these fixes is always dubious.
Other problems also came with El Capitan (for me at least). Calendar spins its color wheel cursor at me as type in new events, it takes 5 or more seconds to respond to a single character. I've played with the various iCloud settings and mitigated the problem, but not by much.
El Capitan came with a number of "improvements". The Notebook application was supposed to have numbering and other new features. I tried them and couldn't believe how poorly the features worked. I looked for an alternative and discovered the best application on the planet, Microsoft OneNote. I now use it on my Mac, my iPhone, my Chromebook, my Windows bootcamp partition, and at work on the PCs. Highly recommended. Best app I've ever used.
The myth of "it just works" is a myth. I curse my Macs oddities way more than I curse at the PCs at work, except for cursing at the work itself.
I toyed with restoring Yosemite from my Time Capsule. I finally did a few weeks ago, but to an external Firewire disk. Then I found that using an external disk for booting OS X doesn't work that well. It won't wake from sleep well, for example. But I tried, I just don't want to blow away the internal disk for it. Any besides, it took 6 hours to build that disk from Time Capsule as it restored 650MB of media besides the OS plus all the old versions of my software. You have no (minimal) control over Time Capsule.
There is nothing Apple sells that I want any part of anymore. The new iMacs look just like the one I've been using. Maybe my problems with El Capitan are due to my computers age, but I buy Apple because they've historically given me good value and lasted with full software updates. Like for seven years now.
I may have to switch to Windows one day. Don't tell me about Linux, I use it all day at work too. Not Ready for Prime Time.
So, I guess I'd rather bitch than switch.
My 2009 iMac 27" is still going strong.
The new iMacs look the same, but "may" have better screens and processors. Mine screen and processor are good enough. I can pass on the new models.
What isn't good is Apple Software. It is seriously behind Windows 10 IMHO.
El Capitan introduced problems with USB and the SDHC card reader, problems only slightly improved with release 10.11.4.
It is not just the El Capitan update, OS X has lost its appeal. The only changes have been slight improvements, improvements that often come with new problems and limitations. iPhoto to Photos is one example.
My iPhone, though I do update about every three years. My 1st generation phone lacked GPS, my previous iPhone lacked LTE. My iPhone 6 should keep me for another 2 or maybe three years.
In my experience with iPhone updates, many of the new features added by iOS updates can be disabled, this enables the new OS to run well on older iPhones. At least my previous iPhone 4S runs fine with OS 9 and makes a good iPod device.
Maybe Satya Nadella will port Office to Linux and make a new market for his products. Then OS X would be superfluous.
All around the country, amateur radio operators hold HAMfests.
http://www.arrl.org/hamfests-a...
These too have been declining in numbers and they have less and less radio gear and more swap meet junk. But, I go to them and you will find old electronics, parts, computers, radios, and if course junk. The bigger events will have commercial booths as well selling electronic parts, radios, and computers. Most of the attendees are ham radio types. The events almost always offer radio license exams for a small fee. The FCC license is for transmission in the amateur frequencies. Modern amateur radios have digital interfaces and operating modes.
There is an admission charge as these events are fund raisers for the radio club sponsors.
OK, this story is disturbing and calls in question our whole criminal justice system.
But, where is the "getting worse" in the headline from?
This is old news.
While this may be one case of many, where are the links to others news items making this a trend?
Maybe this is an isolated incident. Maybe not.
No place on Slashdot as it is.
Same here. We have three iPhones, two 5S and one 6. I have a 4S in the car as an iPod. iOS 8 versions have been solid. I think I may (emphasize may) have have had one lockup on my iPhone 6 since I bought it in November. One 5S was showing problems with some apps which was solved with a restart. The other 5S was experiencing charging issues which I fixed with some compressed air in the Lightning port.
Two of the iPhones are used quite heavily.
The worse part of iOS is in Podcast updates and iTunes is a total mess on OS X.
I only wish Apple would run the OS X side of the fence as well they do iOS.
I went from keeping a simple and cheap paper lab notebook to just using MS-Word. Paper notebooks were fine in the olden days, I could tape in tables or diagrams from books. But paper is hard to search and organize and move from desk to desk and job to job.
I simply keep an MS-Word (or Google Docs) file where the document starts with several tables, such as charge codes, assigned staff contact data, assigned staff current assignment, and a To Do List.
Then I have a current to past date order where each date has a header with the date in Bold (using a style) and is followed by note lines indented to make each entry easy to spot and follow. When I read a document or reference a file, I add a hyperlink to the item in my notes.
With MS-Word i have active hyperlinks, I can paste in tables or diagrams, or Dilbert cartoons. Every three months I close the file, write lock it, and start a new one from the previous one. To shorten the file, I trim old entries from the current one because the original file is intact. Eery month I print the current one to have with me for reference. Each file ends up about 40 pages. I currently have less used tables at the end of the file.
My oldest one still opens and has its original file time stamp. If MS-Word ever announces it will obsolete a format, I could convert them to Google Docs or save in the new format. Lets face it, MS-Word is a defacto standard. It is used everywhere now. I have used these files on both Macs and PCs.
My method has saved my sorry ass many times. When did I talk to such and such about something? I search the files and I have dates because I record a brief summary of every discussion I hold with names. Personnel issues, I have notes. Document lost? I have links and the dates I read it, even if the link is broken, I have a record. Travel, I have a record. Meetings? I have a record with notes.
Do I want to trust a third party like EverNote, No.
Have I ever lost one of these files, No. I have them at work, at home, and on Google Drive.
The records have helped me trace missing circuit boards since recorded to whom and when I sent them.
I started using this when my manager, before I became one, would ask me if I was working on something. If I had no record of when we talked and what he said, I was at fault for not working on something. When I started keeping records, that problem ended.
The government uses key loaders and a unique rugged serial connector in legacy key loaders.
These are used with cryptographic and secure communication equipment.
Look up the KYK-14 and KIK-30.
I've even used paper tape key loaders, a long time ago.
Some more "modern" key loaders are based on legacy PDA hardware.
I haven't worked with these things in years.
These devices use numerous techniques to protect keys, a USB device with good protection would be nice and might be a good kick starter venture.
I've used MS Word since version 1.05 on MacPlus. It was everything that people here complain about.
People misuse MS-Word to create monstrosities of crap that cannot be edited.Companies use its bizaro features to make unalterable files and forms that defy logic.However, it can also be used to create actual documents using styles and formatting that lets people get work done. Google Docs is a poor substitute (I have a Chromebook and tried). None of the office tools I've seen are perfect and none ever will be.
I' like to see tools that use descriptive formatting as SGML intended, but every application of SGML since its introduction has been made by document professionals that are worse than Word. XML sucks.
Back in my college days 1969+, we had Arthur C Clark as a featured speaker one year for the Science Fiction series. Yes it was a long time ago when he did such things.
One of his comments at a time when oil costs were rising, OPEC was rising, and the idea of global warming was just being introduced...
He mentioned that then new research suggested that oil could be used to make proteins and therefore it was a possible food or meat substitute. Hence he suggested we should be eating oil and not burning it. That is all I remember form his talk. So, now we are going to eat bugs. Maybe we fry them in petroleum?
That is all I remember from the speech. Leonard Nimoy also spoke one year and told us how he created the Vulcan greeting hand gesture. Another event featured Gene Roddenberry who told us why he hated Tucson, Az and had bad guys come from it in a Star Trek episode. Good memories all. Fast forward 40+ years and they still make Star Trek movies, Star Trek is on MeTV, and Leonard Nimoy is on Fringe. Some how it all fits together.
I picked up a 32GB HP Touchpad at Walmart first thing Saturday morning. They had two in stock and had not sold a single one since getting them. If they were both the 16GB I was going to buy both and in retrospect, I should have anyway. One was going to be used as a $100 Kindle reader with color and then some. The other for hacking.
The darn thing fits perfectly in my iPad 2 cases. It is bit thicker, but all the controls and even the camera match up to one case. Could it be that HP was also afraid of an Apple lawsuit?
I played with WebOS and found it a decent tablet OS. It does not come with all the capabilities of the iPad, but it did include QuickOffice which I use on the iPad. Startup is slow and the initial setup is restricting, I had to disable my routers MAC address filtering to get it started as there is no way to find the MAC address without setting up WiFi and creating the WebOS account. Still,once going it is pretty nice. If HP wanted to make a go of selling them, the product was good enough, even if not great. There was no marketing and no promotion. I suspect the plan to doom it and the PC division was long in planning.
The biggest shame in the whole HP saga is Agilent should have gotten the HP name and the other company could have been named dumb jerks with no plan.
In the unmentioned decades of my work with computers, most products are "rushed to market by a furiously masterbating manager in the corner of an office".
Bugs, HMI problems, hardware faults, failure to meet requirements, and even being of any use to humanity do not matter once money is committed by a company to build something on which someone's career rests. In my defense and that of SOME companies and SOME managers I have been associated with, I have been a part of teams building useful things or software that were successful. I hope to continue that tradition and given my current situation, I don't have to tolerate the "furiously masterbating" manager anymore nor will I. I have known some doozies!
Many years ago there was a standard in development called Open Document Architecture (ODA - ISO 8613) which defined a compound document standard which never became mainstream. Adobe's PDF was a proprietary product which became a mainstream standard encompassing content and presentation. The features described for a PDF are things some users will find a benefit. Good. What is upsetting is that these features are opaque. I don't know if everything dreamed of for ODA is in PDF, but PDF has solved many exchange problems with documents.
SGML (ISO 8879) offered a transparent document architecture which has been fragmented into HTML, XML, and its derivatives. A good set of SGML like tools should accomplish all of what is buried in a PDF but with transparency. We often confuse products, tools, standards,and technology and use the wrong product's technology as a tool. For example, I been given Microsoft Word DOCX files which would not work properly in Open Office and which could have been delivered as a PDF form or a simple DOC file.
There is nothing wrong with making the PDF file so powerful and providing simple tools (the reader) for people to open them. To me, the argument is over transparency. I may want to know what is inside a document that is being hidden from me. That is a matter of trust. The issue being addressed is trust and can we trust the PDF.
I use Netflix and Comcast.
We use a lot of Netflix and I've never had a problem with viewing movies anytime I want.
We have 2 iPhones, 1 Mac, a Wii, and 1 AppleTV all enabled for Netflix with 2 users and we both watch sometimes.
I measure from 5 Mbs (worse case) to 18 Mbs on DSL Reports at various times.
I also have the option of moving to FIOS and I have not because I never have trouble with Comcast.
Whatever the graphs show for a single congested connection does seem to be causing this user trouble.
These graphs do not measure my ability to download.
Excuse me, my 3GB XCode update just finished, back to work.
I keep my VCR so there is clock in family room.
What else do they do?
I have stayed with Comcast even in face of FIOS availability. Why, because I can use Comcast with no set top box. When I want to record something off the "air/cable", I use EyeTV on the computer. I then convert the large file to more compact AppleTV format, and use Quicktime to remove commercials. The movies I end up with can be played on the computer, an iPod, the iPhone, or any computer with Quicktime. No DVR, no additional monthly fee. Yes, I have fewer channel options. But, no one changes the terms of service on me.
Slashdot Mirror
I am months from FRA, if you kids don’t know what that means, you will one day. Been a coder, designer, manager, systems engineer, security researcher, and now again code monkey. Started with Fortran, then assembly, then C, a stint on Ada, back to C and now some C++.
Back in the hard times of 2009 I was laid off for as much age as wage, and being on a project at end of life. Take your pick as the primary cause, I’d weight them about equally.
Working with kids now and out of my league on C++ (did mostly C embedded in my day). But, I get by and would prefer to be back in systems engineering (requirements, not keeping the computers updated).
My little advice here is to consider work in the defense sector, where I’ve spent most of my career. Most of these big companies have long term continuing projects that depend on detailed knowledge of specific technologies and they depend on people with that knowledge staying on board. Some companies suck, but most treat people well to keep them. You’ll need a security clearance, but that has not been a big deal. Over the years I’ve contributed to things under the sea and up to out in space.
Ready to enjoy life.
Yeah to all above. I've been Macs at home and PCs at work since the Mac came out. Time Capsule too. My first Mac was the MacPlus.
Apple under Tim Cook is not an innovator any more. The new Google Pixel phone looks compelling enough to make me switch after having the original iPhone, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4S, and now the iPhone 6. All were good in their day. I hope the 6 keeps going two more years before I want to replace it.
They've become tied to stock market pricing fears and the iPhone as the main product. I think that the gross margins on products have to be high for Tim to keep them and the Time Capsule and desktops no longer justify any investment in dollars on ROI terms.
My 2009 iMac is still a great computer, I had to suffer through El Capitan problems, but Sierra addressed most problems. The Powerbook Pros used by the rest of family (from 2008 to 2012 models) all have major issues. The 2012 is on its way to the "Genius Bar" today, but appears dead. The 2008 model has issues that will render it dead soon. It's been dying for a while. I hope I can convince them to get Microsoft Surface computers as replacements, but change is hard.
I have the Google Pixel Chromebook (original model) and and still find it a compelling product. Apple products, not so much. There is not one new product that has any appeal. Tim ought to watch videos of Steve Jobs introducing products from the iMac to his last appearance. Steve always worked in reasons why the new product was needed and had value. Now it is just take it how it is. Sad.
I've been using Macs since the MacPlus. Lately, everything Mac related from Apple is "least effort delivery".
You can trash that subject all you want, but Apple products used to offer features with value, once you accounted for all the benefits. Value may not be lowest price. I've owned three Apple routers from the very first flying saucer (with phone modem) to the 3TB Time Capsule. Each has been trouble free and required attention, like never. Earlier Airport software allowed me to look at my logs, I knew problems were in the air when that was taken away for a pretty interface. There have been no updates in a long while. Steve Jobs used to spend his time at product announcements promoting the benefits the new products brought to users. Now, it is all about profit. Tim Cook ought to sit down and watch Steve's one man shows from the first iMac to his last. The new pro series laptops did the right thing with USB-C, the wrong on so much more. Nothing to see here folks, walk away. OS X has been nothing but trouble since El Capitan for me and others. USB is not reliable and the SDHC reader is iffy. No wonder it is gone from the new laptops. Photos can't properly sync with my iPhone. iTunes turned into a clumsy mess and gives me alerts about my iPhone software update after I've updated it. My next computer will likely be a Microsoft Surface and my next phone a Google Pixel. BTW, I use Linux at work, it ain't there yet. When Apple gave me what I considered good value, I spent my money there. I don't see it any longer. Nothing to do with this announcement, all to do with the lack of vision and value.
Napster itself
I don't recall any manned flight where the assembly exploded during fueling. Not even unmanned spacecraft except maybe in the very early days. Very recently there has been one. SpaceX. I am sure I will hear about it if I am wrong. If I am right, then fueling is safe enough for manned operation. However, that means the crew would have to be strapped in during the entire fueling process. The check list process (other than fuel issues) could be performed while waiting for fueling to complete. I also recall that our Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo crews often waited long times before launch. So, on the whole, the proposed idea makes sense. Except that SpaceX has not demonstrated launch reliability as of yet. I think ULA has made 107 consecutive successful launches. Let SpaceX catch up first. The idea stills seems risky to me and worse when combined with the requirement for cold fuel. What happens if they have to scrub the mission? Does the crew fire off the escape system? Do they wait for the scrub to complete? Or do scrubs never happen in SpaceX land? BTW - I like SpaceX, but lets be real.
Yup. When the Apple watch came out, I took my Rolex purchased in the 70s to a jeweler for cleaning and refurbishment which cost 2x what an Apple watch would have cost. I gave it to my son as a graduation gift. The current value on that watch was 5x what I paid for it. Might be a wash with changes to the value of a dollar, but that item will still have value in 2-3 years when the Apple watch would have been dropped into a bin as junk. The HP-01 watch from the 70's was a better product than the Apple watch, by the way I also had an HP-01 back then. Kind of sorry I didn't keep it. I wonder if an Apple watch buyer will every feel the same way after 40 years?
My install of OS 10.11 in October 2015 seemed to be terrific. Then I found that had trouble with SDHC cards on my 2009 iMac 27". It might read and write cards after a clean cold boot, but it also might self reject them, and it never would even see a SDHC inserted after a sleep cycle. Others reported similar issues, one post on the topic was up to 9 pages a few weeks ago on the Apple Discussion forum. The problem was reported on many different models, not all were old.
10.11.1, 10.11.2, and 10.11.3 brought no relief. Then, 10.11.4 improved its operation substantially. SDHC cards would work for several sleep cycles before being gone to the wind. Sometimes, just to be assertive, OS X 10.11.4 reverts to its old ways. It likes to mess with me.
I have never had El Capitan freeze on me BTW.
10.11 El Capitan brought a whole new USB software support and some people have claimed various fixes for the SDHC issue, use a driver for an external reader, muck with the control files for USB, etc. The reliability and security of these fixes is always dubious.
Other problems also came with El Capitan (for me at least). Calendar spins its color wheel cursor at me as type in new events, it takes 5 or more seconds to respond to a single character. I've played with the various iCloud settings and mitigated the problem, but not by much.
El Capitan came with a number of "improvements". The Notebook application was supposed to have numbering and other new features. I tried them and couldn't believe how poorly the features worked. I looked for an alternative and discovered the best application on the planet, Microsoft OneNote. I now use it on my Mac, my iPhone, my Chromebook, my Windows bootcamp partition, and at work on the PCs. Highly recommended. Best app I've ever used.
The myth of "it just works" is a myth. I curse my Macs oddities way more than I curse at the PCs at work, except for cursing at the work itself.
I toyed with restoring Yosemite from my Time Capsule. I finally did a few weeks ago, but to an external Firewire disk. Then I found that using an external disk for booting OS X doesn't work that well. It won't wake from sleep well, for example. But I tried, I just don't want to blow away the internal disk for it. Any besides, it took 6 hours to build that disk from Time Capsule as it restored 650MB of media besides the OS plus all the old versions of my software. You have no (minimal) control over Time Capsule.
There is nothing Apple sells that I want any part of anymore. The new iMacs look just like the one I've been using. Maybe my problems with El Capitan are due to my computers age, but I buy Apple because they've historically given me good value and lasted with full software updates. Like for seven years now.
I may have to switch to Windows one day. Don't tell me about Linux, I use it all day at work too. Not Ready for Prime Time.
So, I guess I'd rather bitch than switch.
We have as female CEO of a California tech company. Fired on performance. Sounds like possible VP pick.
My 2009 iMac 27" is still going strong.
The new iMacs look the same, but "may" have better screens and processors. Mine screen and processor are good enough. I can pass on the new models.
What isn't good is Apple Software. It is seriously behind Windows 10 IMHO.
El Capitan introduced problems with USB and the SDHC card reader, problems only slightly improved with release 10.11.4.
It is not just the El Capitan update, OS X has lost its appeal. The only changes have been slight improvements, improvements that often come with new problems and limitations. iPhoto to Photos is one example.
My iPhone, though I do update about every three years. My 1st generation phone lacked GPS, my previous iPhone lacked LTE. My iPhone 6 should keep me for another 2 or maybe three years.
In my experience with iPhone updates, many of the new features added by iOS updates can be disabled, this enables the new OS to run well on older iPhones. At least my previous iPhone 4S runs fine with OS 9 and makes a good iPod device.
Maybe Satya Nadella will port Office to Linux and make a new market for his products. Then OS X would be superfluous.
All around the country, amateur radio operators hold HAMfests. http://www.arrl.org/hamfests-a... These too have been declining in numbers and they have less and less radio gear and more swap meet junk. But, I go to them and you will find old electronics, parts, computers, radios, and if course junk. The bigger events will have commercial booths as well selling electronic parts, radios, and computers. Most of the attendees are ham radio types. The events almost always offer radio license exams for a small fee. The FCC license is for transmission in the amateur frequencies. Modern amateur radios have digital interfaces and operating modes. There is an admission charge as these events are fund raisers for the radio club sponsors.
OK, this story is disturbing and calls in question our whole criminal justice system. But, where is the "getting worse" in the headline from? This is old news. While this may be one case of many, where are the links to others news items making this a trend? Maybe this is an isolated incident. Maybe not. No place on Slashdot as it is.
Same here. We have three iPhones, two 5S and one 6. I have a 4S in the car as an iPod. iOS 8 versions have been solid. I think I may (emphasize may) have have had one lockup on my iPhone 6 since I bought it in November. One 5S was showing problems with some apps which was solved with a restart. The other 5S was experiencing charging issues which I fixed with some compressed air in the Lightning port. Two of the iPhones are used quite heavily. The worse part of iOS is in Podcast updates and iTunes is a total mess on OS X. I only wish Apple would run the OS X side of the fence as well they do iOS.
Why is the NFL permitted to operate as non-profit when it controls so much of the experience and generates so much revenue?
That alone should get this rule changed.
And as others have pointed out, tax payers build the stadiums for these teams, so we should be able to watch them.
BTW - I am not a sports fan. I watch the super bowl only, and even then, I channel surf.
Who cares about this stuff anyway?
I went from keeping a simple and cheap paper lab notebook to just using MS-Word. Paper notebooks were fine in the olden days, I could tape in tables or diagrams from books. But paper is hard to search and organize and move from desk to desk and job to job.
I simply keep an MS-Word (or Google Docs) file where the document starts with several tables, such as charge codes, assigned staff contact data, assigned staff current assignment, and a To Do List.
Then I have a current to past date order where each date has a header with the date in Bold (using a style) and is followed by note lines indented to make each entry easy to spot and follow. When I read a document or reference a file, I add a hyperlink to the item in my notes.
With MS-Word i have active hyperlinks, I can paste in tables or diagrams, or Dilbert cartoons. Every three months I close the file, write lock it, and start a new one from the previous one. To shorten the file, I trim old entries from the current one because the original file is intact. Eery month I print the current one to have with me for reference. Each file ends up about 40 pages. I currently have less used tables at the end of the file.
My oldest one still opens and has its original file time stamp. If MS-Word ever announces it will obsolete a format, I could convert them to Google Docs or save in the new format. Lets face it, MS-Word is a defacto standard. It is used everywhere now. I have used these files on both Macs and PCs.
My method has saved my sorry ass many times. When did I talk to such and such about something? I search the files and I have dates because I record a brief summary of every discussion I hold with names. Personnel issues, I have notes. Document lost? I have links and the dates I read it, even if the link is broken, I have a record. Travel, I have a record. Meetings? I have a record with notes.
Do I want to trust a third party like EverNote, No.
Have I ever lost one of these files, No. I have them at work, at home, and on Google Drive.
The records have helped me trace missing circuit boards since recorded to whom and when I sent them.
I started using this when my manager, before I became one, would ask me if I was working on something. If I had no record of when we talked and what he said, I was at fault for not working on something. When I started keeping records, that problem ended.
The telcos are shifting from POTS to IP for the same reason you don't use a 56Kb modem anymore.
The government uses key loaders and a unique rugged serial connector in legacy key loaders. These are used with cryptographic and secure communication equipment. Look up the KYK-14 and KIK-30. I've even used paper tape key loaders, a long time ago. Some more "modern" key loaders are based on legacy PDA hardware. I haven't worked with these things in years. These devices use numerous techniques to protect keys, a USB device with good protection would be nice and might be a good kick starter venture.
People misuse MS-Word to create monstrosities of crap that cannot be edited.Companies use its bizaro features to make unalterable files and forms that defy logic.However, it can also be used to create actual documents using styles and formatting that lets people get work done. Google Docs is a poor substitute (I have a Chromebook and tried). None of the office tools I've seen are perfect and none ever will be.
I' like to see tools that use descriptive formatting as SGML intended, but every application of SGML since its introduction has been made by document professionals that are worse than Word. XML sucks.
Maybe this gang is too young to remember Dan Aykroyd and his SNL skits like: http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/irwin-mainway/n8641/
Back in my college days 1969+, we had Arthur C Clark as a featured speaker one year for the Science Fiction series. Yes it was a long time ago when he did such things.
One of his comments at a time when oil costs were rising, OPEC was rising, and the idea of global warming was just being introduced...
He mentioned that then new research suggested that oil could be used to make proteins and therefore it was a possible food or meat substitute. Hence he suggested we should be eating oil and not burning it. That is all I remember form his talk. So, now we are going to eat bugs. Maybe we fry them in petroleum?
That is all I remember from the speech. Leonard Nimoy also spoke one year and told us how he created the Vulcan greeting hand gesture. Another event featured Gene Roddenberry who told us why he hated Tucson, Az and had bad guys come from it in a Star Trek episode. Good memories all. Fast forward 40+ years and they still make Star Trek movies, Star Trek is on MeTV, and Leonard Nimoy is on Fringe. Some how it all fits together.
I picked up a 32GB HP Touchpad at Walmart first thing Saturday morning. They had two in stock and had not sold a single one since getting them. If they were both the 16GB I was going to buy both and in retrospect, I should have anyway. One was going to be used as a $100 Kindle reader with color and then some. The other for hacking. The darn thing fits perfectly in my iPad 2 cases. It is bit thicker, but all the controls and even the camera match up to one case. Could it be that HP was also afraid of an Apple lawsuit? I played with WebOS and found it a decent tablet OS. It does not come with all the capabilities of the iPad, but it did include QuickOffice which I use on the iPad. Startup is slow and the initial setup is restricting, I had to disable my routers MAC address filtering to get it started as there is no way to find the MAC address without setting up WiFi and creating the WebOS account. Still,once going it is pretty nice. If HP wanted to make a go of selling them, the product was good enough, even if not great. There was no marketing and no promotion. I suspect the plan to doom it and the PC division was long in planning. The biggest shame in the whole HP saga is Agilent should have gotten the HP name and the other company could have been named dumb jerks with no plan.
In the unmentioned decades of my work with computers, most products are "rushed to market by a furiously masterbating manager in the corner of an office". Bugs, HMI problems, hardware faults, failure to meet requirements, and even being of any use to humanity do not matter once money is committed by a company to build something on which someone's career rests. In my defense and that of SOME companies and SOME managers I have been associated with, I have been a part of teams building useful things or software that were successful. I hope to continue that tradition and given my current situation, I don't have to tolerate the "furiously masterbating" manager anymore nor will I. I have known some doozies!
Many years ago there was a standard in development called Open Document Architecture (ODA - ISO 8613) which defined a compound document standard which never became mainstream. Adobe's PDF was a proprietary product which became a mainstream standard encompassing content and presentation. The features described for a PDF are things some users will find a benefit. Good. What is upsetting is that these features are opaque. I don't know if everything dreamed of for ODA is in PDF, but PDF has solved many exchange problems with documents.
SGML (ISO 8879) offered a transparent document architecture which has been fragmented into HTML, XML, and its derivatives. A good set of SGML like tools should accomplish all of what is buried in a PDF but with transparency. We often confuse products, tools, standards,and technology and use the wrong product's technology as a tool. For example, I been given Microsoft Word DOCX files which would not work properly in Open Office and which could have been delivered as a PDF form or a simple DOC file.
There is nothing wrong with making the PDF file so powerful and providing simple tools (the reader) for people to open them. To me, the argument is over transparency. I may want to know what is inside a document that is being hidden from me. That is a matter of trust. The issue being addressed is trust and can we trust the PDF.
I use Netflix and Comcast. We use a lot of Netflix and I've never had a problem with viewing movies anytime I want. We have 2 iPhones, 1 Mac, a Wii, and 1 AppleTV all enabled for Netflix with 2 users and we both watch sometimes. I measure from 5 Mbs (worse case) to 18 Mbs on DSL Reports at various times. I also have the option of moving to FIOS and I have not because I never have trouble with Comcast. Whatever the graphs show for a single congested connection does seem to be causing this user trouble. These graphs do not measure my ability to download. Excuse me, my 3GB XCode update just finished, back to work.
I keep my VCR so there is clock in family room. What else do they do? I have stayed with Comcast even in face of FIOS availability. Why, because I can use Comcast with no set top box. When I want to record something off the "air/cable", I use EyeTV on the computer. I then convert the large file to more compact AppleTV format, and use Quicktime to remove commercials. The movies I end up with can be played on the computer, an iPod, the iPhone, or any computer with Quicktime. No DVR, no additional monthly fee. Yes, I have fewer channel options. But, no one changes the terms of service on me.