One big problem with in-car GPS systems has always been the satellite reception. If you keep an antenna close enough to a windshield or side window, it works pretty well. But people tend to keep their cellphones anywhere BUT those places in a car. Half the time, the phone is in the driver's pocket, or stashed in a center console or cup holder. GPS reception is going to be poor in those locations. Dedicated GPS units, by contrast, almost always sit on the dashboard or get affixed to the window with a suction-cup bracket of some sort, and many even have capabilities for adding an external antenna on a long wire, so you can fish it out the window and place it on the roof of the vehicle if needed.
As you said yourself, companies like TomTom are selling entire hardware kits just to adapt an iPhone so it can reasonably mimic the standard installation of a dedicated in-car GPS unit! So obviously, it's not "just software" at all!
Personally, I don't like the idea of constantly having to plug my phone into some special cradle assembly, every time I want to use it for GPS In my car, and remember to disconnect it every time I get back out. With decent in-car GPS systems selling for under $100 these days at places like NewEgg, it makes more sense to just buy one to leave in the car - and not worry about giving my iPhone yet ANOTHER thing to do.
As you said, you're probably an "exception to the rule". The typical computer user I run across finds the entire concept of "backups" to be over their head.
Typically? They don't even understand how to burn a CDR with a selection of files and folders of their choice on it. (They probably only use their burner to make music or video slideshow type CDs using software that makes it essentially a "one click" process.)
They need assistance setting up a backup solution, and whenever someone makes that solution an Internet-based backup package like Mozy, it winds up only working well for a limited time. Eventually, the user copies too much data into one of the folders selected for backup, exceeds their storage limit, and successful backups cease. They aren't savvy enough to figure out anything's wrong for days, and usually can't resolve it on their own when they do figure out backups are failing.
And yes, bandwidth limitations are an issue for many people. Some of the people I've helped out with their computer problems in the past are still on 56K dial-up! One of them is a guy who makes a living selling goods on eBay, out of his basement! You'd think *he* would see the value in upgrading to broadband, but alas - no.
I suspect much of it is because of trojan-horse virus/spyware infected Windows machines that are automatically generating the spam emails, or at least assisting in their delivery as part of "bot nets" designed for the task.
On American holidays, more people are likely to power off their infected PCs (at home or the workplace), so it diminishes the effectiveness of these tools.
Personally, I haven't yet encountered anyone who really got benefit from those personal Internet backup services like Mozy. In regular use, it always seems like the person exceeds their storage allotment or Internet connectivity issues prevent them from recovering what they need, when they need it.
I tend to recommend people buy an inexpensive external USB or firewire drive, leave it attached and assigned as a backup device, and have some software package run a daily backup of all the relevant folders and files they might need to save.
It's great that your data is stored offline and off-site... but I'm just not sold on most of the implementations for "home use" being as great a solution as they first appear to be. Many of the providers have come and gone over the years, too. What happens when your offline backup company goes under?
Technically, you might be correct -- but still, a basic RAID 1 mirror *should* work pretty well as the type of "backup" many of us are seeking.
EG. I have a system that holds and serves all of my movies and video content. Anything I place on it, I intend to keep on it, as a rule. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to lose that data due to a broken chipset - since it's a tried and true piece of hardware. My only real concern is that the drive storing all the data will eventually fail on me. So in this case, doing a RAID mirror of just that data drive is a pretty effective backup solution for me. I guess technically, file system corruption could cause the mirror to become corrupt too and I'd be screwed. But these drives are being read FAR more often than written to. Not a whole lot is going to change on them, generally. And minor corruption can usually be repaired just fine with the usual disk utilities provided with the OS. So yeah, I'm back to the main "risk factor" being a drive failure.
If you need a second signature on that letter, count me in!
Symantec products are categorically AWFUL!
My workplace paid a bunch of money for an enterprise license for the Ghost software, which was once a pretty good product. But Symantec has "updated" the thing over the years with nothing but half-baked, flaky "corporate features". About the only things you can count on Ghost doing right are the basic imaging tasks you could do with the product long before Symanec acquired it!
I've *never* gotten the thing to reliably image PCs over a network on a schedule. It inevitably images SOME of the machines, and not others - and occasionally "hiccups", deciding to image some systems at times not even on the schedule, and interrupting people's use of their computer until I shut the thing down and fix it.
One of my clients bought a new Dell Inspiron notebook with an integrated Verizon cellular card. He wound up needing my help getting the Verizon card set up, because every time he ran the Dell utility to manage the card, it just hour-glassed the PC for about 30 seconds, and finally returned an error message about being unable to connect to one of its components.
I fought and fought with it, checking to see if the cellular card might be disabled at the BIOS level, or if a Windows service was incorrectly set to "disabled" or something.... nope.
I finally gave up and called Dell tech support, to see if they knew anything about the issue. The tech had no clue, other than suggesting steps I already tried, and seeing if I could launch the configuration program from the START menu, as opposed to from its system tray icon (same result).
Then, on a "shot in the dark" troubleshooting step, I did a full uninstall of the McAfee Security Suite provided with the machine (with 1 year subscription). That did the trick! McAfee was blocking the cellular card utility from launching, despite its firewall not even listing it as a blocked executable or anything! Nice.....
Interesting how people have different perspectives... I'd say what you're describing makes me want to AVOID Copenhagen!
I pay a big part of my annual salary for the privilege of owning and operating my motor vehicle, and I actually like it. By contrast, I don't even own a bicycle and don't really want to. (At least half the time I take a trip someplace, I have enough items I need to take with me, a bike would be impractical.)
With all the fuel taxes I've paid that go towards road maintenance, I expect to be able to use those roads without some self-righteous city government officials deciding they "like bikes better since they're so environmentally-friendly" or what-not, and trying to ban my car from being driven there!
People are being "short-sighted and selfish" now, because they're shrewd enough to try to find the best deal? Sales tax can make a pretty big difference in the total price of a product, when you're buying something substantial! Take a new Apple notebook computer purchase, for example. Sales tax on your typical Macbook Pro is going to add roughly $200 to its price. That's not just "chump change"....
The Internet has been putting the hurt on brick and mortar retailers for at least a decade now,and sales tax is NOT really a major factor. If you're a retailer, you better have a BUSINESS MODEL that justifies all that overhead! It's not enough to simply sell a line-up of products you think the public wants to buy. You need to offer superior customer service and add value to each purchase. One of the big reasons I still buy items locally is the ability to quickly and easily do an exchange or a return, if needed. (EG. I tried to buy a replacement DVD-RW burner driver for a guy's Dell PC not long ago, to fix one he had where his drive tray was broken. He wasn't too computer savvy and didn't give me enough information to know for sure whether the system used EIDE or SATA for the burner. I took an educated guess it needed EIDE and purchased that type of drive at a local Best Buy. Turned out it needed SATA after all, when I got to his house. So thankfully, it only took another 15 mins. to drive back and exchange it for the right type of drive.)
With many local shops getting stingy on return policies though? They just drive me to the Internet, since that's their only "saving grace" worth paying a premium for, in my book.
Cost is a BIG factor in people's purchasing decisions, but not the ONLY one. They're trying to determine an overall VALUE equation. My experience is, FAR too many brick and mortar stores sit back and complain about online and mail order competition, without really thinking about why they're losing out on sales to them all the time.
For that matter, I wonder how many people really owned metal bias cassettes, even back in the hey-day of the Walkman?
I remember being told by someone "in the know", at some point in my childhood that the "chrome" and "metal" positions on a component stereo tape deck were for "better quality" cassettes with those "bias settings". But I never had reason to USE any setting but "normal" until much later, when I found some "chrome" TDK branded cassettes on sale (at about double the price of the others) and decided to try them out.
Most people listening to their Walkman players were just buying pre-recorded tapes of their favorite music, or listening to a music mix they taped off the radio or something. They weren't typically hunting around and pay a lot more for "metal" tape, concerned about the extra high-end frequency response it gave them. Heck, most people I knew were settling for pretty inferior headphones too....
Fine, but what solution are you proposing? Are you implying that these devices should be banned from the marketplace, because people simply should not have the right to own a product that would let them watch TV while driving? Are you implying that a couple "warning" boxes popping up that someone has to tap "ok" to get past will solve the problem adequately?
I'd say the best we can do is let law enforcement pull over and ticket anyone seen driving while having a TV display on, clearly aimed towards the driver -- and beyond that, just let it be.
By issuing a person a driver's license, we're claiming they're "approved" to safely operate motor vehicles on our roads. Sometimes, they don't take the responsibilities that come with it seriously enough and people get hurt, or even killed. But just like it doesn't make sense to ban all alcohol or medication that "might cause drowsiness" to avoid those items causing a car accident, it doesn't make sense to limit or ban some GPS just because it can double as a TV screen.
My only problem with devices like this is that they harass the user with needless "warning" messages that have to be clicked through.
I'm not stupid enough to actually try to watch TV while I'm driving. (Is there really anything on that's even worth it anyway? Most of the time, I'd say the scenery out my window while driving is probably more interesting... but that's another topic.)
The point is, though - if a device is sold with features X, Y and Z, I should be able to easily use those features whenever I decide to do so. I don't want annoying pop-up screens blocking me first, and I don't want the device trying to second-guess my reasons for choosing a feature and selectively refusing to do what I tell it!
As people pointed out, you'd *probably* want to use the TV or video feature while driving so a PASSENGER can watch it.
That's quite a bit like a monarchy, where a good, just king means the country he rules over generally does well.....
As an American though, I happen to believe that ultimately, a dictatorship is not the best form of government. As you said, the trick is to "avoid the bad dictator", yet there doesn't really seem to be much of a mechanism in place for the populace to DO that in a peaceful manner. A new dictator often takes control by force, or retains power by stripping the people of most of the tools they might use to oust him.
As it relates to your CEO/software company analogy; Imagine you accept a job with a software company you think is going great things. Your pay is good and you like what you do. All of a sudden though, someone else takes control of the company and changes its direction. You're transferred to a new dept. with a big pay cut and forced to work on projects you dislike. Oddly though, there's a catch. You're not ALLOWED to quit and work for someone else. They have the means to hold you prisoner, forcing you to accept their terms of employment. That's the problem with a dictatorship...
I wouldn't quite say "no-one cares". If that were true, you wouldn't see retail stores like Best Buy devoting entire shelving units to Blu-Ray disc releases like they do. *Some* people are buying them.
But by and large, you're correct. These high-def movie formats simply don't make economic sense to most people. When people migrated away from VHS tape to DVD, they felt the value proposition was there. They got a new format that took up less physical space, didn't have problems with the quality degrading over time as it was played repeatedly and "wore out", didn't require lengthy rewinding to the beginning after each viewing, looked noticeably better even on inexpensive 19" TV sets, didn't suffer from random audio or video "drop outs" and tracking issues, and even came with "bonus" material on most discs. And the price? Typically very similar to what the movies used to cost on videotape.
Formats like blu-ray are evolutionary, not revolutionary. Given enough time, prices for both the media and players will surely drop to a point where people figure "why not?" and start moving to it with most or all of their new purchases. But right now, I own a PS3 that can play Blu-Ray discs, and I own a grand total of ONE movie in that format. I can think of a few DVD movies I want to buy, but none are even available in Blu-Ray at this time... so chances are my NEXT few movie purchases won't be high-def ones either.
That's the "rub", really. It was a civil trial, where you just need a "preponderance of evidence" to prove guilt, not the "beyond a reasonable doubt" level of proof. She seemed to be attempting to cast a measure of doubt on the possibility it was really HER that downloaded the content. (She insinuated that maybe her own kids or friends did it. Even so though, a jury might decide that a parent is responsible for their kids' actions, and should at least to SOME lesser extent, be responsible for the actions of friends or neighbors you invite into your home and allow use of your personal computer.)
I don't think this was handled very well on her part at all. The real issue that needed to be addressed was glossed right over. Downloading a copyrighted work is an issue of "illegal duplication", NOT distribution. These types of damages, by any manner of logic, imply attempting to recover losses from multiple distributions, not the fact a single copy of the song was obtained and stored digitally without paying for it first.
So following that logic, it would seem the RIAA really needs to come up with some strong evidence that the works she made available on her computer really WERE downloaded multiple times, and they need strong evidence they have accurate numbers for those downloads. It sounds like they know VERY little about that, other than a claim their "MediaSentry" auto-downloader robot managed to grab some of her material. (So what? That proves it was available, but not that real humans obtained illegal copies from her system.)
I don't even know what to say to that one. I'd like to ask this school if they *really* think this student was wrong in the belief that he deserved his diploma for "working hard and earning it"!? If so, well - maybe that's a sign that it needs to be shut down for failing to graduate their students based on sensible methods!
I agree with Edgewize, and while it's a little less "on topic", I'd also add that this game was one of the best values for the dollar in games for my PS3, to date. Unlike most new release titles, they didn't hit me for upwards of $50 as retail price, for starters. The game turned out to be more fun and playable than some of those $50+ titles, too. And after that, the value kept building because they regularly released updates to the game (such as adding motorcycles to it, a couple months after I owned it).
This is the way a console title SHOULD be, IMHO. The fact it was coded intelligently doesn't surprise me.
I think the average time taken to close a trouble ticket is important, but it's not the only factor you want to look at.
The primary purpose of issuing unique trouble ticket numbers is to provide an easy "one stop" tracking mechanism for the issue. A customer (or employee) should always be able to reference a ticket # to support staff, and in turn, they should be able to pull up a fairly comprehensive history of what's been done so far to resolve the issue.
If you push too hard for closing tickets quickly, you'll see a tendency for new tickets to get issued on things which should REALLY be continuations of an existing ticket, held open longer.
(EG. I call in complaining that my inkjet printer won't print yellow. A ticket is created and they tell me my color cartridge is clogged up, so put a new one in and I should be fine. Ticket is closed. I switch cartridges with a new one, and discover it STILL doesn't print yellow. I call in and a new ticket is made for what's really the same issue. I'm told how to run the printer through cleaning cycles, and instructed that I may have to do it "up to 10 times" to see results. Ticket closed. I get around to trying that the next day when I get time, and even after 10 or 15 attempts, no yellow is coming out. I call back in, only to have ANOTHER new ticket opened, and the tech wastes my time asking me if I "tried a new cartridge yet?" and I have to interrupt him in the middle of re-explaining how to do a cleaning cycle. Problem is eventually determined to require a replacement printer... but should obviously have all been filed under one ticket.)
You're correct, but in a way, wrong at the same time.
I agree there are some great, talented Indie acts out there. The problem is, it takes a lot of *work* to find them. I mean, I used to play in a local band and I think I'm pretty "into" music... more than many people I know. (A lot of my friends keep coming to me to ask me what's out that's good to listen to, for example.) Despite that, I haven't even heard of most of the bands you mentioned. (Yeah, I know about Modest Mouse and have 3 albums they put out, and I've heard of Danger Mouse and Cut Copy. But Elbow? Fleet Foxes? No clue.)
Another Indie band I really like, personally, is Carbon Leaf. But most people I know have never heard of them before either. That's really why so many people claim that "music sucks today". Despite us having so many new ways to obtain and listen to it, and so much more of a variety that's accessible to us (no more having to pay $50+ to get that rare import CD and waiting weeks for it to arrive in the mail, etc.) -- it seems like it's tougher than ever to find the stuff that's not boring and tired!
I think with every genre of music, there's a "sweet spot" in time when it was at its prime, and after that, it doesn't ever really recover. Most "popular" music people are listening to and referring to could very loosely be categorized as "rock" of one type or another. I think that's a genre that was honestly at its peak in the 1960's through the 1980's or early 1990's. (As another example, ask a jazz music fan if he or she can pinpoint a time period where jazz was at its height. I bet they won't tell you there's just as much great jazz out right now as there ever was? How about swing music, or "big band" music? Do you think we have just as many great classical composers putting out material today as in earlier times?)
Music will always be alive, but it evolves... and I think we're kind of in a stagnant period where most new music is just a mish-mash of other recently heard musical ideas. Artists got a little bit of mileage out of such concepts as mixing rap with hard rock or heavy metal, and not that long ago, we had the brief fad of so-called "New Country" music, which was really a country music and rock music fusion. Something else will come along and re-ignite things... but until then? I think people will be right when they say music was "better" in the recent past....
Nah... it's really a matter of which form of media you choose to pay attention to the details on the most.
I'd argue that especially in the case of a feature-length movie on DVD, you're getting a heck of a LOT of value for the price, if you're considering all the time and effort put into all the actors and actresses memorizing all those lines, dressing into appropriate costumes, reciting those lines over and over on camera until they were just right... special f/x people doing all of their work (much of which requires many hours of labor on complex pieces of computer software), sound engineers mixing everything just so, adding background music where appropriate, etc. etc..... not to mention the script-writers who had to put the whole story together in the first place, and the producer and director putting their expertise into the mix.
But even with music compared to games? You're really blowing off the amount of work that goes into any half-way decent album.... You might think it's little more than "hearing someone sing for 3 minutes", but the musician probably spent hundreds of hours rehearsing that song before it was ready to record in the studio for the CD. The recording had to be mixed down and mastered too, by people who again spent FAR more than the 3 minute length of a song to get it ready....
I used to love Usenet as well, but I think it really has gotten to where downloading binaries is the most useful purpose for it. That's the *real* reason the paid "premium Usenet" services make money. People aren't getting so much value from Usenet text postings that they want to pay $10 or more per month for a subscription to a paid service. They want the high bandwidth, high-speed downloads for binaries.
Many years ago, most ISPs started heavily throttling the bandwidth to the Usenet servers they provided (not to mention having horrible retention rates), so they effectively rendered them useless for binaries. It became a "pay for premium services, or forget it" situation.
Ability to search old Usenet message archives is still pretty handy. A lot of great information passed through it over the years. But presently? I think you're going to do far better with web-based forums devoted to whatever topic you're interested in.
The economy being poor is a simple FACT. It's not some relative thing you can choose to accept or deny. Almost everyone I know has already lost their job, is concerned about losing their job, or at least has members of their own family in that situation.
The solution is much bigger than just having everyone who is able "keep spending money". (EG. Check the origin of manufacture on that new iPhone.)
The problem in America is going to keep getting worse and worse as long as the money we spend keeps gong outside the country, and doesn't come back to us in at least equal proportions with items we export. It's going to keep getting worse and worse as long as we keep trying to band-aid and prop back up failed business models that caused our problems in the first place.
I'm not saying "Don't consider buying a full-featured and more expensive cellphone!" I'm simply saying, on the whole, Americans need to face the facts that we're in a big economic mess that doesn't have a quick solution or way out. If you're lucky enough to still have a good paying and stable job? Good for you, but you should think ahead and not make assumptions that your situation isn't subject to change.
I love Apple products, all in all, and I own quite a bit of their stuff. Still, when I read the list you posted, I'm not really all that convinced I "need" to get rid of my 3G iPhone and move up to the latest offering.
First off, sure, the camera is improved. But we're still talking about only a 3 megapixel fixed focus camera here, that doesn't even include a flash. If I need a good photo of something, I'm going to go with something like my pocket-sized Sony camera instead. It has 7.1 megapixels of resolution, a flash, 3x optical zoom and won't use up my limited storage capacity in my iPhone either. (Remember, the iPhone STILL has no SD card slot on it for extra storage!)
Second, the faster 3G support? Nice, in theory, but AT&T seems like they can barely keep up with the promised xfer speeds of the SLOWER 3G tier! They've been doing everything in their power to limit what you actually DO over that network on your iPhone, too. They won't let the Slingbox use it. It'll be MONTHS longer before they so much as let you send MMS video or photos over it. And again, it'll be months before they even start offering tethering on their network. So what's the rush to upgrade?
I'd argue that the rest of your points are relatively minor enhancements. (Really? I need to get rid of my now "craptastic" iPhone because it doesn't have the oil/water resistant finish?!)
The compass MAY turn into a pretty cool feature, but I'd say, only when apps start doing creative things with it. The fact it can currently show me my direction isn't that exciting in and of itself.
There was a time when the idea of calling Internet access a "utility" rubbed me the wrong way. But as times have changed, I'm starting to agree more and more with taking that view of it. After all, electricity wasn't something it was fair to assume was in everyone's home, at one point in time. What about those poor school students back then, who wouldn't have sufficient light to read their textbooks by and do homework by after the sun went down? Was it fair to issue them printed books, forcing them to make do with candle-light or oil lamps?
I know where I live, there are quite a few people living in "ghetto" neighborhoods, who barely have money to keep their roofs over their heads, yet they've got broadband DSL Internet access. That's because they receive it at a subsidized rate. (There's that little regulatory fee you pay each month on your AT&T DSL bill that goes to that sort of thing.)
And sure, they may not be able to afford a *new* computer, but come on! A quick look on Craigslist on any day of the week will net you literally hundreds of "for sale" ads with people trying to unload a perfectly good used Dell, HP or other desktop PC complete with monitor for $50-75. Practically everyone I know into computers as a hobby has at least 1 or 2 extra computers sitting in a closet or garage that they'd happily DONATE for free to someone in need.
Honestly, given the current state of our economy, I'm surprised more people aren't ashamed to post such nonsense.... Even though we don't yet know exactly what will be in the latest revision of the iPhone, all indications point to a few relatively minor tweaks, like a built in compass and ability to use the faster tier of 3G cellular data network. Oh, and likely a faster graphics processor, which is nice -- but did anyone honestly have issues with it updating too slowly before? This will only matter for some games that want to push the envelope a little further with how much you can do on a phone. FAR from a necessity, especially for those of us who'd rather play "real" games on a home computer or console system anyway!
Heck, I bought one of the very early 1st. gen. iPhones, and I didn't WANT to go to the 3G model. The version using the slower EDGE network was about $10 cheaper per month to keep a contract on, and I thought it had a more "solid" feel to it than the plastic-backed, sloped wedge shape of the current model. But finally, when mine started acting up, outside the warranty period, it just made more sense to buy a new phone.
If you can get past the pointless "keeping up with the Jones'" attitude for a minute, I fail to see why a 3G iPhone owner would be that compelled to rush out and upgrade at all? Those that have that irrational need to "show off" by having one first? Well, let them pay full retail price!
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I disagree....
One big problem with in-car GPS systems has always been the satellite reception. If you keep an antenna close enough to a windshield or side window, it works pretty well. But people tend to keep their cellphones anywhere BUT those places in a car. Half the time, the phone is in the driver's pocket, or stashed in a center console or cup holder. GPS reception is going to be poor in those locations. Dedicated GPS units, by contrast, almost always sit on the dashboard or get affixed to the window with a suction-cup bracket of some sort, and many even have capabilities for adding an external antenna on a long wire, so you can fish it out the window and place it on the roof of the vehicle if needed.
As you said yourself, companies like TomTom are selling entire hardware kits just to adapt an iPhone so it can reasonably mimic the standard installation of a dedicated in-car GPS unit! So obviously, it's not "just software" at all!
Personally, I don't like the idea of constantly having to plug my phone into some special cradle assembly, every time I want to use it for GPS In my car, and remember to disconnect it every time I get back out. With decent in-car GPS systems selling for under $100 these days at places like NewEgg, it makes more sense to just buy one to leave in the car - and not worry about giving my iPhone yet ANOTHER thing to do.
As you said, you're probably an "exception to the rule". The typical computer user I run across finds the entire concept of "backups" to be over their head.
Typically? They don't even understand how to burn a CDR with a selection of files and folders of their choice on it. (They probably only use their burner to make music or video slideshow type CDs using software that makes it essentially a "one click" process.)
They need assistance setting up a backup solution, and whenever someone makes that solution an Internet-based backup package like Mozy, it winds up only working well for a limited time. Eventually, the user copies too much data into one of the folders selected for backup, exceeds their storage limit, and successful backups cease. They aren't savvy enough to figure out anything's wrong for days, and usually can't resolve it on their own when they do figure out backups are failing.
And yes, bandwidth limitations are an issue for many people. Some of the people I've helped out with their computer problems in the past are still on 56K dial-up! One of them is a guy who makes a living selling goods on eBay, out of his basement! You'd think *he* would see the value in upgrading to broadband, but alas - no.
I suspect much of it is because of trojan-horse virus/spyware infected Windows machines that are automatically generating the spam emails, or at least assisting in their delivery as part of "bot nets" designed for the task.
On American holidays, more people are likely to power off their infected PCs (at home or the workplace), so it diminishes the effectiveness of these tools.
Personally, I haven't yet encountered anyone who really got benefit from those personal Internet backup services like Mozy. In regular use, it always seems like the person exceeds their storage allotment or Internet connectivity issues prevent them from recovering what they need, when they need it.
I tend to recommend people buy an inexpensive external USB or firewire drive, leave it attached and assigned as a backup device, and have some software package run a daily backup of all the relevant folders and files they might need to save.
It's great that your data is stored offline and off-site ... but I'm just not sold on most of the implementations for "home use" being as great a solution as they first appear to be. Many of the providers have come and gone over the years, too. What happens when your offline backup company goes under?
Technically, you might be correct -- but still, a basic RAID 1 mirror *should* work pretty well as the type of "backup" many of us are seeking.
EG. I have a system that holds and serves all of my movies and video content. Anything I place on it, I intend to keep on it, as a rule. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to lose that data due to a broken chipset - since it's a tried and true piece of hardware. My only real concern is that the drive storing all the data will eventually fail on me. So in this case, doing a RAID mirror of just that data drive is a pretty effective backup solution for me. I guess technically, file system corruption could cause the mirror to become corrupt too and I'd be screwed. But these drives are being read FAR more often than written to. Not a whole lot is going to change on them, generally. And minor corruption can usually be repaired just fine with the usual disk utilities provided with the OS. So yeah, I'm back to the main "risk factor" being a drive failure.
If you need a second signature on that letter, count me in!
Symantec products are categorically AWFUL!
My workplace paid a bunch of money for an enterprise license for the Ghost software, which was once a pretty good product. But Symantec has "updated" the thing over the years with nothing but half-baked, flaky "corporate features". About the only things you can count on Ghost doing right are the basic imaging tasks you could do with the product long before Symanec acquired it!
I've *never* gotten the thing to reliably image PCs over a network on a schedule. It inevitably images SOME of the machines, and not others - and occasionally "hiccups", deciding to image some systems at times not even on the schedule, and interrupting people's use of their computer until I shut the thing down and fix it.
One of my clients bought a new Dell Inspiron notebook with an integrated Verizon cellular card. He wound up needing my help getting the Verizon card set up, because every time he ran the Dell utility to manage the card, it just hour-glassed the PC for about 30 seconds, and finally returned an error message about being unable to connect to one of its components.
I fought and fought with it, checking to see if the cellular card might be disabled at the BIOS level, or if a Windows service was incorrectly set to "disabled" or something.... nope.
I finally gave up and called Dell tech support, to see if they knew anything about the issue. The tech had no clue, other than suggesting steps I already tried, and seeing if I could launch the configuration program from the START menu, as opposed to from its system tray icon (same result).
Then, on a "shot in the dark" troubleshooting step, I did a full uninstall of the McAfee Security Suite provided with the machine (with 1 year subscription). That did the trick! McAfee was blocking the cellular card utility from launching, despite its firewall not even listing it as a blocked executable or anything! Nice.....
Interesting how people have different perspectives... I'd say what you're describing makes me want to AVOID Copenhagen!
I pay a big part of my annual salary for the privilege of owning and operating my motor vehicle, and I actually like it. By contrast, I don't even own a bicycle and don't really want to. (At least half the time I take a trip someplace, I have enough items I need to take with me, a bike would be impractical.)
With all the fuel taxes I've paid that go towards road maintenance, I expect to be able to use those roads without some self-righteous city government officials deciding they "like bikes better since they're so environmentally-friendly" or what-not, and trying to ban my car from being driven there!
People are being "short-sighted and selfish" now, because they're shrewd enough to try to find the best deal? Sales tax can make a pretty big difference in the total price of a product, when you're buying something substantial! Take a new Apple notebook computer purchase, for example. Sales tax on your typical Macbook Pro is going to add roughly $200 to its price. That's not just "chump change"....
The Internet has been putting the hurt on brick and mortar retailers for at least a decade now,and sales tax is NOT really a major factor. If you're a retailer, you better have a BUSINESS MODEL that justifies all that overhead! It's not enough to simply sell a line-up of products you think the public wants to buy. You need to offer superior customer service and add value to each purchase. One of the big reasons I still buy items locally is the ability to quickly and easily do an exchange or a return, if needed. (EG. I tried to buy a replacement DVD-RW burner driver for a guy's Dell PC not long ago, to fix one he had where his drive tray was broken. He wasn't too computer savvy and didn't give me enough information to know for sure whether the system used EIDE or SATA for the burner. I took an educated guess it needed EIDE and purchased that type of drive at a local Best Buy. Turned out it needed SATA after all, when I got to his house. So thankfully, it only took another 15 mins. to drive back and exchange it for the right type of drive.)
With many local shops getting stingy on return policies though? They just drive me to the Internet, since that's their only "saving grace" worth paying a premium for, in my book.
Cost is a BIG factor in people's purchasing decisions, but not the ONLY one. They're trying to determine an overall VALUE equation. My experience is, FAR too many brick and mortar stores sit back and complain about online and mail order competition, without really thinking about why they're losing out on sales to them all the time.
For that matter, I wonder how many people really owned metal bias cassettes, even back in the hey-day of the Walkman?
I remember being told by someone "in the know", at some point in my childhood that the "chrome" and "metal" positions on a component stereo tape deck were for "better quality" cassettes with those "bias settings". But I never had reason to USE any setting but "normal" until much later, when I found some "chrome" TDK branded cassettes on sale (at about double the price of the others) and decided to try them out.
Most people listening to their Walkman players were just buying pre-recorded tapes of their favorite music, or listening to a music mix they taped off the radio or something. They weren't typically hunting around and pay a lot more for "metal" tape, concerned about the extra high-end frequency response it gave them. Heck, most people I knew were settling for pretty inferior headphones too....
Fine, but what solution are you proposing? Are you implying that these devices should be banned from the marketplace, because people simply should not have the right to own a product that would let them watch TV while driving? Are you implying that a couple "warning" boxes popping up that someone has to tap "ok" to get past will solve the problem adequately?
I'd say the best we can do is let law enforcement pull over and ticket anyone seen driving while having a TV display on, clearly aimed towards the driver -- and beyond that, just let it be.
By issuing a person a driver's license, we're claiming they're "approved" to safely operate motor vehicles on our roads. Sometimes, they don't take the responsibilities that come with it seriously enough and people get hurt, or even killed. But just like it doesn't make sense to ban all alcohol or medication that "might cause drowsiness" to avoid those items causing a car accident, it doesn't make sense to limit or ban some GPS just because it can double as a TV screen.
My only problem with devices like this is that they harass the user with needless "warning" messages that have to be clicked through.
I'm not stupid enough to actually try to watch TV while I'm driving. (Is there really anything on that's even worth it anyway? Most of the time, I'd say the scenery out my window while driving is probably more interesting... but that's another topic.)
The point is, though - if a device is sold with features X, Y and Z, I should be able to easily use those features whenever I decide to do so. I don't want annoying pop-up screens blocking me first, and I don't want the device trying to second-guess my reasons for choosing a feature and selectively refusing to do what I tell it!
As people pointed out, you'd *probably* want to use the TV or video feature while driving so a PASSENGER can watch it.
That's quite a bit like a monarchy, where a good, just king means the country he rules over generally does well.....
As an American though, I happen to believe that ultimately, a dictatorship is not the best form of government. As you said, the trick is to "avoid the bad dictator", yet there doesn't really seem to be much of a mechanism in place for the populace to DO that in a peaceful manner. A new dictator often takes control by force, or retains power by stripping the people of most of the tools they might use to oust him.
As it relates to your CEO/software company analogy; Imagine you accept a job with a software company you think is going great things. Your pay is good and you like what you do. All of a sudden though, someone else takes control of the company and changes its direction. You're transferred to a new dept. with a big pay cut and forced to work on projects you dislike. Oddly though, there's a catch. You're not ALLOWED to quit and work for someone else. They have the means to hold you prisoner, forcing you to accept their terms of employment. That's the problem with a dictatorship...
I wouldn't quite say "no-one cares". If that were true, you wouldn't see retail stores like Best Buy devoting entire shelving units to Blu-Ray disc releases like they do. *Some* people are buying them.
But by and large, you're correct. These high-def movie formats simply don't make economic sense to most people. When people migrated away from VHS tape to DVD, they felt the value proposition was there. They got a new format that took up less physical space, didn't have problems with the quality degrading over time as it was played repeatedly and "wore out", didn't require lengthy rewinding to the beginning after each viewing, looked noticeably better even on inexpensive 19" TV sets, didn't suffer from random audio or video "drop outs" and tracking issues, and even came with "bonus" material on most discs. And the price? Typically very similar to what the movies used to cost on videotape.
Formats like blu-ray are evolutionary, not revolutionary. Given enough time, prices for both the media and players will surely drop to a point where people figure "why not?" and start moving to it with most or all of their new purchases. But right now, I own a PS3 that can play Blu-Ray discs, and I own a grand total of ONE movie in that format. I can think of a few DVD movies I want to buy, but none are even available in Blu-Ray at this time ... so chances are my NEXT few movie purchases won't be high-def ones either.
That's the "rub", really. It was a civil trial, where you just need a "preponderance of evidence" to prove guilt, not the "beyond a reasonable doubt" level of proof. She seemed to be attempting to cast a measure of doubt on the possibility it was really HER that downloaded the content. (She insinuated that maybe her own kids or friends did it. Even so though, a jury might decide that a parent is responsible for their kids' actions, and should at least to SOME lesser extent, be responsible for the actions of friends or neighbors you invite into your home and allow use of your personal computer.)
I don't think this was handled very well on her part at all. The real issue that needed to be addressed was glossed right over. Downloading a copyrighted work is an issue of "illegal duplication", NOT distribution. These types of damages, by any manner of logic, imply attempting to recover losses from multiple distributions, not the fact a single copy of the song was obtained and stored digitally without paying for it first.
So following that logic, it would seem the RIAA really needs to come up with some strong evidence that the works she made available on her computer really WERE downloaded multiple times, and they need strong evidence they have accurate numbers for those downloads. It sounds like they know VERY little about that, other than a claim their "MediaSentry" auto-downloader robot managed to grab some of her material. (So what? That proves it was available, but not that real humans obtained illegal copies from her system.)
I don't even know what to say to that one. I'd like to ask this school if they *really* think this student was wrong in the belief that he deserved his diploma for "working hard and earning it"!? If so, well - maybe that's a sign that it needs to be shut down for failing to graduate their students based on sensible methods!
I agree with Edgewize, and while it's a little less "on topic", I'd also add that this game was one of the best values for the dollar in games for my PS3, to date.
Unlike most new release titles, they didn't hit me for upwards of $50 as retail price, for starters. The game turned out to be more fun and playable than some of those $50+ titles, too. And after that, the value kept building because they regularly released updates to the game (such as adding motorcycles to it, a couple months after I owned it).
This is the way a console title SHOULD be, IMHO. The fact it was coded intelligently doesn't surprise me.
I think the average time taken to close a trouble ticket is important, but it's not the only factor you want to look at.
The primary purpose of issuing unique trouble ticket numbers is to provide an easy "one stop" tracking mechanism for the issue. A customer (or employee) should always be able to reference a ticket # to support staff, and in turn, they should be able to pull up a fairly comprehensive history of what's been done so far to resolve the issue.
If you push too hard for closing tickets quickly, you'll see a tendency for new tickets to get issued on things which should REALLY be continuations of an existing ticket, held open longer.
(EG. I call in complaining that my inkjet printer won't print yellow. A ticket is created and they tell me my color cartridge is clogged up, so put a new one in and I should be fine. Ticket is closed. I switch cartridges with a new one, and discover it STILL doesn't print yellow. I call in and a new ticket is made for what's really the same issue. I'm told how to run the printer through cleaning cycles, and instructed that I may have to do it "up to 10 times" to see results. Ticket closed. I get around to trying that the next day when I get time, and even after 10 or 15 attempts, no yellow is coming out. I call back in, only to have ANOTHER new ticket opened, and the tech wastes my time asking me if I "tried a new cartridge yet?" and I have to interrupt him in the middle of re-explaining how to do a cleaning cycle. Problem is eventually determined to require a replacement printer ... but should obviously have all been filed under one ticket.)
You're correct, but in a way, wrong at the same time.
I agree there are some great, talented Indie acts out there. The problem is, it takes a lot of *work* to find them. I mean, I used to play in a local band and I think I'm pretty "into" music ... more than many people I know. (A lot of my friends keep coming to me to ask me what's out that's good to listen to, for example.) Despite that, I haven't even heard of most of the bands you mentioned. (Yeah, I know about Modest Mouse and have 3 albums they put out, and I've heard of Danger Mouse and Cut Copy. But Elbow? Fleet Foxes? No clue.)
Another Indie band I really like, personally, is Carbon Leaf. But most people I know have never heard of them before either. That's really why so many people claim that "music sucks today". Despite us having so many new ways to obtain and listen to it, and so much more of a variety that's accessible to us (no more having to pay $50+ to get that rare import CD and waiting weeks for it to arrive in the mail, etc.) -- it seems like it's tougher than ever to find the stuff that's not boring and tired!
I think with every genre of music, there's a "sweet spot" in time when it was at its prime, and after that, it doesn't ever really recover. Most "popular" music people are listening to and referring to could very loosely be categorized as "rock" of one type or another. I think that's a genre that was honestly at its peak in the 1960's through the 1980's or early 1990's. (As another example, ask a jazz music fan if he or she can pinpoint a time period where jazz was at its height. I bet they won't tell you there's just as much great jazz out right now as there ever was? How about swing music, or "big band" music? Do you think we have just as many great classical composers putting out material today as in earlier times?)
Music will always be alive, but it evolves ... and I think we're kind of in a stagnant period where most new music is just a mish-mash of other recently heard musical ideas. Artists got a little bit of mileage out of such concepts as mixing rap with hard rock or heavy metal, and not that long ago, we had the brief fad of so-called "New Country" music, which was really a country music and rock music fusion. Something else will come along and re-ignite things ... but until then? I think people will be right when they say music was "better" in the recent past....
Nah... it's really a matter of which form of media you choose to pay attention to the details on the most.
I'd argue that especially in the case of a feature-length movie on DVD, you're getting a heck of a LOT of value for the price, if you're considering all the time and effort put into all the actors and actresses memorizing all those lines, dressing into appropriate costumes, reciting those lines over and over on camera until they were just right ... special f/x people doing all of their work (much of which requires many hours of labor on complex pieces of computer software), sound engineers mixing everything just so, adding background music where appropriate, etc. etc. .... not to mention the script-writers who had to put the whole story together in the first place, and the producer and director putting their expertise into the mix.
But even with music compared to games? You're really blowing off the amount of work that goes into any half-way decent album.... You might think it's little more than "hearing someone sing for 3 minutes", but the musician probably spent hundreds of hours rehearsing that song before it was ready to record in the studio for the CD. The recording had to be mixed down and mastered too, by people who again spent FAR more than the 3 minute length of a song to get it ready....
I used to love Usenet as well, but I think it really has gotten to where downloading binaries is the most useful purpose for it. That's the *real* reason the paid "premium Usenet" services make money. People aren't getting so much value from Usenet text postings that they want to pay $10 or more per month for a subscription to a paid service. They want the high bandwidth, high-speed downloads for binaries.
Many years ago, most ISPs started heavily throttling the bandwidth to the Usenet servers they provided (not to mention having horrible retention rates), so they effectively rendered them useless for binaries. It became a "pay for premium services, or forget it" situation.
Ability to search old Usenet message archives is still pretty handy. A lot of great information passed through it over the years. But presently? I think you're going to do far better with web-based forums devoted to whatever topic you're interested in.
I disagree.
The economy being poor is a simple FACT. It's not some relative thing you can choose to accept or deny. Almost everyone I know has already lost their job, is concerned about losing their job, or at least has members of their own family in that situation.
The solution is much bigger than just having everyone who is able "keep spending money". (EG. Check the origin of manufacture on that new iPhone.)
The problem in America is going to keep getting worse and worse as long as the money we spend keeps gong outside the country, and doesn't come back to us in at least equal proportions with items we export. It's going to keep getting worse and worse as long as we keep trying to band-aid and prop back up failed business models that caused our problems in the first place.
I'm not saying "Don't consider buying a full-featured and more expensive cellphone!" I'm simply saying, on the whole, Americans need to face the facts that we're in a big economic mess that doesn't have a quick solution or way out. If you're lucky enough to still have a good paying and stable job? Good for you, but you should think ahead and not make assumptions that your situation isn't subject to change.
I love Apple products, all in all, and I own quite a bit of their stuff. Still, when I read the list you posted, I'm not really all that convinced I "need" to get rid of my 3G iPhone and move up to the latest offering.
First off, sure, the camera is improved. But we're still talking about only a 3 megapixel fixed focus camera here, that doesn't even include a flash. If I need a good photo of something, I'm going to go with something like my pocket-sized Sony camera instead. It has 7.1 megapixels of resolution, a flash, 3x optical zoom and won't use up my limited storage capacity in my iPhone either. (Remember, the iPhone STILL has no SD card slot on it for extra storage!)
Second, the faster 3G support? Nice, in theory, but AT&T seems like they can barely keep up with the promised xfer speeds of the SLOWER 3G tier! They've been doing everything in their power to limit what you actually DO over that network on your iPhone, too. They won't let the Slingbox use it. It'll be MONTHS longer before they so much as let you send MMS video or photos over it. And again, it'll be months before they even start offering tethering on their network. So what's the rush to upgrade?
I'd argue that the rest of your points are relatively minor enhancements. (Really? I need to get rid of my now "craptastic" iPhone because it doesn't have the oil/water resistant finish?!)
The compass MAY turn into a pretty cool feature, but I'd say, only when apps start doing creative things with it. The fact it can currently show me my direction isn't that exciting in and of itself.
There was a time when the idea of calling Internet access a "utility" rubbed me the wrong way. But as times have changed, I'm starting to agree more and more with taking that view of it. After all, electricity wasn't something it was fair to assume was in everyone's home, at one point in time. What about those poor school students back then, who wouldn't have sufficient light to read their textbooks by and do homework by after the sun went down? Was it fair to issue them printed books, forcing them to make do with candle-light or oil lamps?
I know where I live, there are quite a few people living in "ghetto" neighborhoods, who barely have money to keep their roofs over their heads, yet they've got broadband DSL Internet access. That's because they receive it at a subsidized rate. (There's that little regulatory fee you pay each month on your AT&T DSL bill that goes to that sort of thing.)
And sure, they may not be able to afford a *new* computer, but come on! A quick look on Craigslist on any day of the week will net you literally hundreds of "for sale" ads with people trying to unload a perfectly good used Dell, HP or other desktop PC complete with monitor for $50-75. Practically everyone I know into computers as a hobby has at least 1 or 2 extra computers sitting in a closet or garage that they'd happily DONATE for free to someone in need.
Honestly, given the current state of our economy, I'm surprised more people aren't ashamed to post such nonsense.... Even though we don't yet know exactly what will be in the latest revision of the iPhone, all indications point to a few relatively minor tweaks, like a built in compass and ability to use the faster tier of 3G cellular data network. Oh, and likely a faster graphics processor, which is nice -- but did anyone honestly have issues with it updating too slowly before? This will only matter for some games that want to push the envelope a little further with how much you can do on a phone. FAR from a necessity, especially for those of us who'd rather play "real" games on a home computer or console system anyway!
Heck, I bought one of the very early 1st. gen. iPhones, and I didn't WANT to go to the 3G model. The version using the slower EDGE network was about $10 cheaper per month to keep a contract on, and I thought it had a more "solid" feel to it than the plastic-backed, sloped wedge shape of the current model. But finally, when mine started acting up, outside the warranty period, it just made more sense to buy a new phone.
If you can get past the pointless "keeping up with the Jones'" attitude for a minute, I fail to see why a 3G iPhone owner would be that compelled to rush out and upgrade at all? Those that have that irrational need to "show off" by having one first? Well, let them pay full retail price!