For me the 7 and 9 series netbooks were never an option for me, but the 10" ones are just about perfect - but thats because I'm 6'5 and pretty stocky to boot - using the tiny keyboards on the smaller models is generally punctuated by my slinging the machine at the wall in frustration:)
What I *don't* like is the current trend towards HDD's rather than SSD's. For that reason the Eee 1000 is my netbook of choice - although I want to investigate sticking Ubuntu on the thing as I'm not a fan of the Xandros distro. Thankfully it seems to be a pretty trivial option, even more so with the changes in 8.10.
Based on comments at the start of Salmon of Doubt I always took it more to be they were both obsessed with the new shiny - Psion Series 5 I seem to recall was singled out for much praise. It just so happened that the majority of this stuff was Apple related. It's been a good five years since I read it though so I could be mistaken.
Mind you he *did* have a macbook air sat on the table next to him, but you couldn't see what it was running:)
Filesize I'm not sure, never encoded one for a touch. Res is 480x320 though which I know is considerably smaller that the 800x480 screen size of the n810.
I am indeed talking about output volume and even so with the tray and application volumes set to the max I find it too quiet for use in the office or anywhere else without a low background noise level. Please note however I don't use in-canal headphones though (I find them very uncomfortable) so YMMV
I couldn't get on with UKMP at all just found the interface confusing and annoying, mPlayer worked well enough but the aforementioned hardware issues mean that video generally has to to be reencoded at quarter resolution to achieve a usable frame rate (good for filesize, but not for visual quality). It's also hampered by a truely dreadful GUI. As for Canola, well it shows some potential but still its very awkward and unintuitive to use and again it's too bloody quiet.
I've got an n810 and its a fantastic bit of kit, but it is *very* weak in multimedia - I've not managed to find any really good applications for video or audio - and hardware-wise its not ideal either - the headphone output is very quiet and the video performance is pretty poor too.
However with that singular exception it is an *awesome* bit of kit - the rest of its capabilities are very impressive (although I must admit I've not used the GPS at all).
Personally I'm *very* tempted to supplement it with one of the new iPod touches:)
In some cases, like my dad, it's not so bad, he pays attention to the explanation of whats wrong and is usually pretty good about dealing with problems he's seen before so I rarely have to fix the same problem twice, plus he's as good at fixing cars as I am with computers and I'm *rubbish* with cars so that results in a pretty fair exchange of skills.
Other members of my family are *much* more irritating and would think nothing of calling me up at 3am because they have a paper due in at 9am that they left to the last minute and couldn't figure out why their printer wouldn't work (for reference: because the dizzy bint had unplugged it to charge up her MP3 player).
The really shocking thing is that several of my techie friends seem to have it even worse than me with their family!
In a corporate environment the worst I face on a day to day basis are those I classify as 'know just enough to be dangerous' - its a combination of a modicum of ability with computers combined with just the right level of arrogance that they know more than I do that leads to all sorts of problems.
Day to day though it's pretty easy - the place I work is only 300 or so people, which is small enough to build reasonably personal relationships with the various staff, so I generally know the best approach to deal with whomever is having a problem - up to and including who can I get away with calling a dumbfuck to their face, and which ones I should save to have a laugh about back at the pen;)
I absolutely agree, its quite entertaining that in my department at work the polarizing factor is the lack of onboard GSM/3G - half of us like it precisely because its *not* locked to a contract whereas the other half dismiss it for precisely the same reason:)
Incidentally I had the UK T-Mobile flavour of the 8525 and found it to be horrifically crash-happy - do you see the same on Cingular?
I dunno, the last couple of iterations seem to have been pretty popular...
Personally a big part of the appeal of the device is that it *isn't* a cellphone - PDA type phones are too big to use comfortably as a phone as my old HTC Universal can attest (and I'm not exactly a small guy either)...
Instead its a nice open platform thats small enough to sling in my bag or a jacket pocket and I can pair it up with any phone I like for mobile internet connectivity away from a Wireless AP. Unlike the iPhone I can install the apps I want on a screen wide enough to view most web pages comfortably without needing to horizontally scroll.
Admittedly I'm biased, I was just about to buy an N800 when the rumors of this one broke so am holding out til the N810 is in the wild before I make a decision which one to go for...
Agreed - if I remember correctly the Orange Box works out to £5 more expensive than Ep1 was on release (£26 vs £20ish). Which was the only part of the package I wanted (I think it came with HL2DM as well, but I already had that)
For that I get Ep2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 - all three of them games I've been looking forward to for a long time Its cheapers to buy the Orange box than any *two* of the games seperately so whats the point?.
I don't care that it comes with HL2 and Ep1 (which I already have) - I can give them to a friend of mine that was going to buy them anyway last week, and he buys me a couple of beers in the pub after work on Friday by way of thanks and everyone's happy.
Unsigned apps have an additional screen that you have to OK before it'll install but thats it - no different than trying to use an unsigned driver under Windows.
See I'd really like something midway between the iPhone and the iPod touch - I'm not keen on an epic contract to use the iPhone and the lack of things like 3G is a deal-breaker for me (yes I *know* about the battery life implications and I *know* in the US you don't have much 3G coverage and lots of free wireless but I'm a Brit and we have different needs here:) ) but I really like the interface and software.
The iPod touch on the other hand is pretty cool, but even more cut-down software-wise and with less connectivity options (lack of bluetooth).
Give me an iPod touch that can has wireless and can Bluetooth to a cellphone for connectivity, the Multitouch interface and iPhone OS and I'd be *very* tempted. Especially if the screen was bigger (rumor I read suggested 1.5x the size)and even more especially if this wasn't locked down as tight and allowed 3rd part applications.
Basically an Apple version of the Nokia N800 I guess.
Shame I can't see it ever happening.
I have to agree though - I'm one of those that thinks one of the biggest threats to world peace is the current US administration. Not that I'm a fan of my government either:(
You're quite right, the trigger mechanism is almost certainly not going to trip, but I very much doubt that was his point.
Suppose a plane is carrying a dummy payload and gets into trouble. It jettisons it's cargo to save weight and maybe makes it to safety. Now, if that cargo happened to be a nuclear weapon the authorities would presumably move heaven and earth to retrieve or destroy said weapon.
But suppose its a dummy weapon, my guess is the authorites wouldn't be too bothered about recovery, especially if it was a bit tricky to get at (for whatever reason, cost or geography or whatever else).
But what if that dummy weapon wasn't a dummy weapon but a live one and they didn't know about it? That means theres a live nuclear weapon out there. Ever read Tom Clancy's "Sum of All Fears"? It's farfetched to the point of incredulity but even so - what if?
I've actually just finished building a MythTV box on Ubuntu and for the most part found it *very* simple to install and configure. Except for the TV card, which was a bit of an arse but I knew that going in but deemed it worthwhile (and besides, the proceedure was well documented) (Hauppauge PCI dual DVB-T tuner):)
Thankfully here in the UK we have a few options as far as guide data goes - including EIT (Event Information Table) data embedded in the freeview transport streams themselves gives pretty complete data for 7 days into the future - combine that with Myth's smart scheduling capabilities for series-link and MythWeb for remote access and its pretty much covered
Getting Myth working was a lot more work than getting Windows MCE going was, but the outcome is *infinitely* more satisfying - in terms of capabilits and functionality it's lightyears ahead - as well as TV PVR I use it as a DVD jukebox and playing all manner of downloaded videos - it quite simply rocks.
It's not got anything to do with the movie, bar the central character - Its part of the series 'Chronicles of Riddick' rather than that particular film. It's in fact set before Pitch Black in the Slam prison where he gets his eyes. It's subtitled Escape from Butcher Bay and is *well* worth checking out. (Available on XBox and PC IIRC)
My Ex-housemate had a similar problem - bought a laptop off eBay and got an empty box. Immediately we thought he'd been scammed but as soon as we started checking into it we found that the package had been weighed on the way into the depot and on the way out at there was a roughly 2kg difference - the weight of the laptop and the AC adapter. Just to hammer the point home when the shipping manager went to ask the delivery driver about it, the dumbfuck was using the laptop in his van at work.
Its much the same at the high school I went to in the UK - while bullying went on when I was in school it was almost always emotional rather than physical. There were a few 'arranged' fights but never the 10 on 1 kickabouts that you hear about in the US schools.
The only time I ever had any bullying-related violence was when one of the *other* bullied kids decided to kick the crap out of me in an attempt to raise his station. Turned out to be a dumb move on two counts since 1) he lost and 2) he made an unprovoked attack on me while a teacher could see him (and it really was unprovoked, until that happened I'd have called him a friend).
Funnily enough what actually happened is the people bullying *me* stopped, although this happened at right around the time I stopped growing vertically and started bulking out into the biggest kid in my class too:)
While I can't speak for the US - as has been mentioned above it'll make precisely bugger all difference here in the UK - Theres the XMLTV stuff which give a 14-day EPG and besides that, Freeview (the free digital TV service in the UK) broadcasts an OTA EPG that Myth works quite happily with. I'm currently in the process of building a Myth box at home:)
Here in the UK we don't get Tivo anymore but I can buy a freeview-based PVR (with 7-day EPG and 160gig HDD) for £180. Of course thats bought outright, theres no subsequent subscription costs.
Or I can build a MythTV box with dual tuners and lots of processing power and RAM and a half-terabyte of storage for £300. And thats with sticking it in a non-hideous case (in my case I'm using an Antec NSK1300):)
Actually, for the UK at least, we'd actually be holding games to the *same* standard we hold movies. The BBFC ratings given to films are legally binding and its a crime to let a minor in to see an 18-cert film, or to sell/rent the DVD to them.
For those not familiar with the cinema ratings in the UK:
U - Universal (suitable for all)
PG - Parental Guidance (suitable for all but some scenes may be unsitable for youngsters)
12A - 12 Advisory (noone under that age of 12 without a parent or guardian accompanying them)
15 - 15 and above only
18 - 18 and above only
There are a few others but they only apply to VHS or to sex shops/licensed cinemas.
Personally I think its a good and fair system (although of course its only as good as the people applying it) but most of the time I've found I've agreed with the ratings given and the stuff I'm unsure of theres been leeway for parental decision (such as can I take my eleven year old nephew to see Pirates 3 (12A in this country) - and on discussion with his mum we agreed he'd be fine with it).
Anyway - my point is that I actually agree that we should hold videogames to the same standard we hold movies which is what this legislation appears to do.
As a point of fact several games have been BBFC certified already in the past although I must admit to being unsure what the requirements are for such a certification to be given (whether its a voluntary move or if its like to be adult only or whatever).
I've gotta agree here - on my 2.8GHz PIV, 1gig DDR RAM, SATA HDD and ATi 9800pro the only shortfall in performance I noticed was that games took a little bit longer to load - normal desktop operations I saw little to no difference in performace to XP.
Note - just game *loading* - once actually in the game I was getting more or less the same framerate as under XP (+/- 5% on the stuff I actually checked rather than as an entirely subjective estimate).
Oh I agree that they wouldn't. Doesn't mean they don't want/have the capability to do so if the circumstances demanded it...
Personally I'm not even close to knowlegeable in these fields - literally the only writing on the subject I've ever read was in an old Cold War novel by Tom Clancy called The Cardinal of the Kremlin (which by virtue of very spooky timing I only read about two weeks ago:) )
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For me the 7 and 9 series netbooks were never an option for me, but the 10" ones are just about perfect - but thats because I'm 6'5 and pretty stocky to boot - using the tiny keyboards on the smaller models is generally punctuated by my slinging the machine at the wall in frustration :)
What I *don't* like is the current trend towards HDD's rather than SSD's. For that reason the Eee 1000 is my netbook of choice - although I want to investigate sticking Ubuntu on the thing as I'm not a fan of the Xandros distro. Thankfully it seems to be a pretty trivial option, even more so with the changes in 8.10.
Based on comments at the start of Salmon of Doubt I always took it more to be they were both obsessed with the new shiny - Psion Series 5 I seem to recall was singled out for much praise. It just so happened that the majority of this stuff was Apple related. It's been a good five years since I read it though so I could be mistaken.
Mind you he *did* have a macbook air sat on the table next to him, but you couldn't see what it was running :)
Filesize I'm not sure, never encoded one for a touch. Res is 480x320 though which I know is considerably smaller that the 800x480 screen size of the n810.
I am indeed talking about output volume and even so with the tray and application volumes set to the max I find it too quiet for use in the office or anywhere else without a low background noise level. Please note however I don't use in-canal headphones though (I find them very uncomfortable) so YMMV
I couldn't get on with UKMP at all just found the interface confusing and annoying, mPlayer worked well enough but the aforementioned hardware issues mean that video generally has to to be reencoded at quarter resolution to achieve a usable frame rate (good for filesize, but not for visual quality). It's also hampered by a truely dreadful GUI. As for Canola, well it shows some potential but still its very awkward and unintuitive to use and again it's too bloody quiet.
I've got an n810 and its a fantastic bit of kit, but it is *very* weak in multimedia - I've not managed to find any really good applications for video or audio - and hardware-wise its not ideal either - the headphone output is very quiet and the video performance is pretty poor too.
However with that singular exception it is an *awesome* bit of kit - the rest of its capabilities are very impressive (although I must admit I've not used the GPS at all).
Personally I'm *very* tempted to supplement it with one of the new iPod touches :)
agreed - I've had mine a couple of weeks and it's a *fantastic* bit of kit - especially for ebooks and the web.
...the dreaded 'family member'
In some cases, like my dad, it's not so bad, he pays attention to the explanation of whats wrong and is usually pretty good about dealing with problems he's seen before so I rarely have to fix the same problem twice, plus he's as good at fixing cars as I am with computers and I'm *rubbish* with cars so that results in a pretty fair exchange of skills.
Other members of my family are *much* more irritating and would think nothing of calling me up at 3am because they have a paper due in at 9am that they left to the last minute and couldn't figure out why their printer wouldn't work (for reference: because the dizzy bint had unplugged it to charge up her MP3 player).
The really shocking thing is that several of my techie friends seem to have it even worse than me with their family!
In a corporate environment the worst I face on a day to day basis are those I classify as 'know just enough to be dangerous' - its a combination of a modicum of ability with computers combined with just the right level of arrogance that they know more than I do that leads to all sorts of problems.
Day to day though it's pretty easy - the place I work is only 300 or so people, which is small enough to build reasonably personal relationships with the various staff, so I generally know the best approach to deal with whomever is having a problem - up to and including who can I get away with calling a dumbfuck to their face, and which ones I should save to have a laugh about back at the pen ;)
I absolutely agree, its quite entertaining that in my department at work the polarizing factor is the lack of onboard GSM/3G - half of us like it precisely because its *not* locked to a contract whereas the other half dismiss it for precisely the same reason :)
Incidentally I had the UK T-Mobile flavour of the 8525 and found it to be horrifically crash-happy - do you see the same on Cingular?
I dunno, the last couple of iterations seem to have been pretty popular...
Personally a big part of the appeal of the device is that it *isn't* a cellphone - PDA type phones are too big to use comfortably as a phone as my old HTC Universal can attest (and I'm not exactly a small guy either)...
Instead its a nice open platform thats small enough to sling in my bag or a jacket pocket and I can pair it up with any phone I like for mobile internet connectivity away from a Wireless AP. Unlike the iPhone I can install the apps I want on a screen wide enough to view most web pages comfortably without needing to horizontally scroll.
Admittedly I'm biased, I was just about to buy an N800 when the rumors of this one broke so am holding out til the N810 is in the wild before I make a decision which one to go for...
Agreed - if I remember correctly the Orange Box works out to £5 more expensive than Ep1 was on release (£26 vs £20ish). Which was the only part of the package I wanted (I think it came with HL2DM as well, but I already had that)
For that I get Ep2, Portal and Team Fortress 2 - all three of them games I've been looking forward to for a long time Its cheapers to buy the Orange box than any *two* of the games seperately so whats the point?.
I don't care that it comes with HL2 and Ep1 (which I already have) - I can give them to a friend of mine that was going to buy them anyway last week, and he buys me a couple of beers in the pub after work on Friday by way of thanks and everyone's happy.
bzzzt! Challenge!
Unsigned apps have an additional screen that you have to OK before it'll install but thats it - no different than trying to use an unsigned driver under Windows.
See I'd really like something midway between the iPhone and the iPod touch - I'm not keen on an epic contract to use the iPhone and the lack of things like 3G is a deal-breaker for me (yes I *know* about the battery life implications and I *know* in the US you don't have much 3G coverage and lots of free wireless but I'm a Brit and we have different needs here :) ) but I really like the interface and software.
The iPod touch on the other hand is pretty cool, but even more cut-down software-wise and with less connectivity options (lack of bluetooth).
Give me an iPod touch that can has wireless and can Bluetooth to a cellphone for connectivity, the Multitouch interface and iPhone OS and I'd be *very* tempted. Especially if the screen was bigger (rumor I read suggested 1.5x the size)and even more especially if this wasn't locked down as tight and allowed 3rd part applications.
Basically an Apple version of the Nokia N800 I guess.
Shame I can't see it ever happening.
Less of that "You guys" stuff - I'm a Brit :)
I have to agree though - I'm one of those that thinks one of the biggest threats to world peace is the current US administration. Not that I'm a fan of my government either :(
You're quite right, the trigger mechanism is almost certainly not going to trip, but I very much doubt that was his point.
Suppose a plane is carrying a dummy payload and gets into trouble. It jettisons it's cargo to save weight and maybe makes it to safety. Now, if that cargo happened to be a nuclear weapon the authorities would presumably move heaven and earth to retrieve or destroy said weapon.
But suppose its a dummy weapon, my guess is the authorites wouldn't be too bothered about recovery, especially if it was a bit tricky to get at (for whatever reason, cost or geography or whatever else).
But what if that dummy weapon wasn't a dummy weapon but a live one and they didn't know about it? That means theres a live nuclear weapon out there. Ever read Tom Clancy's "Sum of All Fears"? It's farfetched to the point of incredulity but even so - what if?
I've actually just finished building a MythTV box on Ubuntu and for the most part found it *very* simple to install and configure. Except for the TV card, which was a bit of an arse but I knew that going in but deemed it worthwhile (and besides, the proceedure was well documented) (Hauppauge PCI dual DVB-T tuner) :)
Thankfully here in the UK we have a few options as far as guide data goes - including EIT (Event Information Table) data embedded in the freeview transport streams themselves gives pretty complete data for 7 days into the future - combine that with Myth's smart scheduling capabilities for series-link and MythWeb for remote access and its pretty much covered
Getting Myth working was a lot more work than getting Windows MCE going was, but the outcome is *infinitely* more satisfying - in terms of capabilits and functionality it's lightyears ahead - as well as TV PVR I use it as a DVD jukebox and playing all manner of downloaded videos - it quite simply rocks.
It's not got anything to do with the movie, bar the central character - Its part of the series 'Chronicles of Riddick' rather than that particular film. It's in fact set before Pitch Black in the Slam prison where he gets his eyes. It's subtitled Escape from Butcher Bay and is *well* worth checking out. (Available on XBox and PC IIRC)
My Ex-housemate had a similar problem - bought a laptop off eBay and got an empty box. Immediately we thought he'd been scammed but as soon as we started checking into it we found that the package had been weighed on the way into the depot and on the way out at there was a roughly 2kg difference - the weight of the laptop and the AC adapter. Just to hammer the point home when the shipping manager went to ask the delivery driver about it, the dumbfuck was using the laptop in his van at work.
Its much the same at the high school I went to in the UK - while bullying went on when I was in school it was almost always emotional rather than physical. There were a few 'arranged' fights but never the 10 on 1 kickabouts that you hear about in the US schools.
The only time I ever had any bullying-related violence was when one of the *other* bullied kids decided to kick the crap out of me in an attempt to raise his station. Turned out to be a dumb move on two counts since 1) he lost and 2) he made an unprovoked attack on me while a teacher could see him (and it really was unprovoked, until that happened I'd have called him a friend).
Funnily enough what actually happened is the people bullying *me* stopped, although this happened at right around the time I stopped growing vertically and started bulking out into the biggest kid in my class too :)
While I can't speak for the US - as has been mentioned above it'll make precisely bugger all difference here in the UK - Theres the XMLTV stuff which give a 14-day EPG and besides that, Freeview (the free digital TV service in the UK) broadcasts an OTA EPG that Myth works quite happily with. I'm currently in the process of building a Myth box at home :)
Here in the UK we don't get Tivo anymore but I can buy a freeview-based PVR (with 7-day EPG and 160gig HDD) for £180. Of course thats bought outright, theres no subsequent subscription costs.
Or I can build a MythTV box with dual tuners and lots of processing power and RAM and a half-terabyte of storage for £300. And thats with sticking it in a non-hideous case (in my case I'm using an Antec NSK1300) :)
Actually, for the UK at least, we'd actually be holding games to the *same* standard we hold movies. The BBFC ratings given to films are legally binding and its a crime to let a minor in to see an 18-cert film, or to sell/rent the DVD to them.
For those not familiar with the cinema ratings in the UK:
Oh I don't know - there have been more than a couple of occasions when a game has made me shit myself :)
...Is can we use boot camp on the device to boot Windows Mobile 5? :)
I've gotta agree here - on my 2.8GHz PIV, 1gig DDR RAM, SATA HDD and ATi 9800pro the only shortfall in performance I noticed was that games took a little bit longer to load - normal desktop operations I saw little to no difference in performace to XP.
Note - just game *loading* - once actually in the game I was getting more or less the same framerate as under XP (+/- 5% on the stuff I actually checked rather than as an entirely subjective estimate).
Oh I agree that they wouldn't. Doesn't mean they don't want/have the capability to do so if the circumstances demanded it... Personally I'm not even close to knowlegeable in these fields - literally the only writing on the subject I've ever read was in an old Cold War novel by Tom Clancy called The Cardinal of the Kremlin (which by virtue of very spooky timing I only read about two weeks ago :) )