Ah, so you can get that particular point in the geek phone pissing content with Apple as well, as long as you jailbreak (And what geek in such a contest wouldn't?) Good to know...I guess.;)
If your work gave you an XP laptop frankly you are working at a shitty place and I'd tell them to take it back, especially after that guy spent nearly 3 years trying to clear his name thanks to a badly configured XP laptop handed him at work that turned out to have a backdoor that some scumbags were using to run CP through the thing.
Well, I'm a consultant so I'm not supposed to mention this company's name (these laptops were provided by the client) but it's in the top 20 on the Fortune 500 listing. Granted, that doesn't mean it isn't a shit company, but that is evidence that XP is clearly still very much alive in the corporate world. For what it's worth, the consulting company I work for (Tata Consultancy Services; international consulting firm in 42 countries, 240,000 employees, over $10 billion revenue) also still uses Windows XP.
But again you wanna compare to a 12 year old OS then dig out a 12 year old Linux distro, because otherwise you are purposely trying to rig any comparison. You are talking about an OS that has been legacy for over 5 years, that no longer gets ANY updates but security, and which hasn't been sold for half a decade so fair is fair, compare it to a 7 year old Linux.
There's this thing called 'math' that you may want to learn. Windows XP is not 12 years old; it's 10 -- it was released in October 2002. I compared it to a 9 year old Linux (It's not 2010 anymore; 2003 is not 7 years ago). One year difference, not five.
At the end of the day that doesn't change the fact that Linux internals are deep fried ass and I'd be happy to take the pepsi challenge to prove it. funny that I have yet to see a single person try to take up the challenge either, probably because they know Linux will die hard.
"Deep fried ass"...is that some technical term I'm not familiar with? Because otherwise I'm not sure what the hell you're trying to say here. As I said, Windows 7 looks alright I guess, but if it ain't broke...why the hell would I switch back? Just to wait for Microsoft to fuck it all up again? To lose the ability to customize my computer? To get more system crashes? (Don't give me any bullshit about how that doesn't happen anymore -- as rarely as I boot into Windows 7 I still fucking get 'em)
The challenge is incredibly simple, we will take ANY distro that was released the same quarter as Vista, and I will give Linux the advantage by taking not only one of the most hated OSes but by giving them only HALF the amount of updates XP has had, we'll install it on two identical systems, make sure all the drivers are working, and update BOTH systems to current.
And I can tell you because I have done it that the Linux unit will be totally fucked by the end of the updates. The sound won't work, the DE is more than likely to be glitching if the graphics drivers are even functional, and the WiFi won't have a snowball's chance in hell, I don't care which chip you choose. that is just FIVE years mind you, barely half the time you get with Windows.
LOL, yea, you just keep telling yourself that. Not sure where you get those ideas, I've done it without problems. Although I have some rather nasty memories of having to reinstall XP every two years just to keep the goddamn thing functional. Yes, Windows Vista or 7 may be better. I wouldn't know.
I'm sorry but as a wise man said "Linux is free..if your time is worthless" and no truer words have been spoken. Take a modern version of Windows like 7 and you can slap it on ANY laptop made in the last half a decade and upgrade from RTM to the last patches from patch Tuesday and it will ALL work, every. single. driver. will be functional, including wireless and printers. Try that with Linux? You get a broken mess, why? because Torvalds and the other devs frankly don't give a damned if YOU have problems, all they care about is scratching THEIR itches.
Yea, I mean all I have to go off of so far is their online coverage map, and like I said I see no need for anything better than 3G (If I need to download something big, I'll hop on wifi), so it works for me. Can't be worse than the Verizon coverage I'm currently dealing with; having trouble even getting voice calls at home. But yea, if you want 4G, it doesn't look like they're really rolling anything out there yet. From their coverage map it looks like they have _maybe_ four towers that support that. (Actually, I have no clue because I don't know what kind of area a tower would cover, but you get the idea)
First of all, Windows XP is still very much in use. Shit, I just got a laptop for work, and guess what it's running? XP. I haven't heard of anyone using a 12 year old Linux distro. The reasons for that are quite numerous, but that's a different topic.
I started using Linux with Mandrake 9.2. That was in 2003. Back then...yeah, some wifi drivers wouldn't work out of the box. Never had an _ethernet card_ or a _dial-up modem_ require drivers like I have with XP. There you go, apples to apples.
Never had a significant upgrade problem, since Mandrake 9.2. There were two bad releases -- Mandrake 10 and Mandriva 2010 -- but you know, a bad release here and there isn't so bad when they release every six months. If there's a bad Windows release it may be years before people upgrade -- look at Vista. There's a reason why, 12 years later with support discontinued, XP is still around 25% market share. Find me ANY Linux distro with even a 5 year old version holding a quarter of that distro's market share and then we can talk about how comparing Linux to a two release old version of Windows is so wrong.
Twelve years ago Windows cause enough problems for to learn a completely new OS. Linux hasn't made me even entertain a fleeting thought of switching back since. I do have a dual-boot machine (why not, hard drives are cheap and it came with Windows anyway) and I have booted to Windows once or twice -- needed a mix of Linux and Windows tools to maintain pixel-perfect images, one of the downsides of freelancing for a design company -- and it was always a headache and a half...although I blame Adobe for that more than Windows. Photoshop and especially Illustrator are just terrible experiences.
I will give you this: Windows 7 looks pretty good. I haven't seen a problem with it, though I haven't personally used it enough to say much of anything. But...I have over a decade of experience with Linux being far easier than the most modern Windows OS...and am looking at Windows 7 as something that what _might_, from a few _brief experiences_ be just as good. Maybe. For now. The news of Windows 8 makes me glad I'm on Linux though, as does the fact that I can start stripping down the OS when I need to run it on older hardware and keep things running fine. So yes, I will admit, both may now be capable of doing everything I need. Only one is capable of the customization I _want_ and may need in the future. Easy choice.
Hah, I didn't even think about that -- my trip there was long before the Olympics. Of course, being a tourist and being there with my rather wealthy (now ex-)girlfriend we _were_ in areas you would probably expect to have a heavier police presence. Lots of very obnoxious people selling very expensive trash to people with far too much money to burn. Gotta protect the wealth!
I'm just about to switch to Credo mobile. No cap, no throttling, real unlimited data for $30/month. No significant 4G coverage yet, but my current phone is only capable of calls and texts, so I think I can survive _only_ 3G for a little while;)
They rent space off of Sprint -- who I believe offers the same unlimited deal. Hoping they have good coverage, but my Verizon coverage up in Rhode Island is goddamn ATROCIOUS anyway, and if you visit Credo's site you'll probably figure out pretty quick what my other motivations for switching are... (they donate to orgs like the ACLU instead of the GOP)
I have an old LG VX9800. The one thing it's good for is the phone durability pissing contest. I've dropped it down three flights of stairs (down the empty center of the stairwell, not the stairs themselves, that's for sissys!). I've whipped it at a wall, just to prove it'd survive. Battery always goes flying across the room on impact, but the phone still works just fine. And it'll last a week on a single charge -- I go out of town for the weekend and don't even bother to bring a charger.
Of course, I do plan to upgrade to an Galaxy S3 pretty soon...this thing's a goddamn dinosaur.
Never had an iPhone, but I did have an iPod touch a while back and my biggest complaint was always that the damn thing was too small! I mean had it been a resistive touch screen it would be alright, but for a capacitive screen I had a hell of a time using the damn thing. Try to type in portrait mode and you can only type one word per minute because that's how slow you have to type to actually hit the right keys; try to type in landscape mode and you can no longer see the text you're typing because the keyboard occupies most of the screen.
I think the Archos 5 IMT ( http://www.amazon.com/Archos-32-Internet-Tablet-Android/dp/B002OL2PLU ) was the PERFECT size. I mean I don't _mind_ if they want to remove the bezel and make it a bit thinner; might be nice if it's going to be a phone...but I've never understood why you'd want smaller than a 5" screen. If I could get that device with an updated version of android and modern hardware (keep the screen resistive though please) I'd buy it in a second.
The entire point of buying these things is that they're _not just phones_ anymore -- you might as well get one with a large enough screen to actually do something useful with it! Unless it's too big to fit comfortably in my pocket, it's not too big.
In my personal experience -- Apple users will agree 100% that we're in a post-PC world. In fact, you could say those exact words to them _while they're purchasing a new Apple PC_ and they would nod enthusiastically and say "I know, isn't it great?!?"
At least the Apple users who care what's said at these events. Those who just buy them because they feel it's better hardware or a better OS won't give a damn anyway.
I had it in my Canon Powershot SX100IS....six years ago? Something like that...
Putting a camera in a phone? Yea, I'd call that innovative or breakthrough. Adding features to that camera which dedicated cameras have probably had for over a decade (pretty sure my Canon wasn't the first, _they_ never claimed it was "breakthrough" -- hell it was right up there with 'red-eye reduction' on their features list) isn't. That's so obscenely obvious you probably couldn't even patent it in the US;)
Interestingly, you _can_ do that on Android -- I had a friend write a basic 'hello world' app on his Galaxy SIII within a couple days of buying it, just because he could.
Now, why you would actually WANT to....hell if I know. Maybe if the app you wrote has a bug that you happen to discover while using it in a plane mid-flight while your laptop isn't in your carry-on and you absolutely must fix it right now?
Have you not seen the pictures? I think part of it may have been psychological -- I was aware of this long before going, so of course I noticed the cameras...and I admit that at times I was actively looking for them. But yea, if you're curious, just Google 'London CCTV'
The police were usually pretty friendly, moreso than US cops, but in my mind they were just one more piece of the surveillance..I also believe there were a number of 'report suspicious activity' signs around there as well, though I could be mistaken. It was around four years ago now.
Short of creating a system to write in HTML5 then compile that down into native code -- not really.
HTML is, by nature, portable and unpredictable. You don't know the user's screen resolution, for example. You don't know the browser size or version. You don't know what fonts they'll have installed. You don't know a lot of things.
On a native app, especially for a mobile device -- you generally know most of that. Especially for something like iOS, you can pretty much assume everyone will have the same screen size, the same browser, the same fonts, the same UI, the same system libraries...and all that knowledge gives you a LOT of areas where you can optimize that just can't exist for pure HTML.
As an American -- I think it's partly a mindset thing, but mostly a government imposed fear thing. Conformity through fear. Makes the catt--err, people a lot easier to manage.
Of course, I also had to chuckle a bit while reading your post...because that's basically what I thought when I traveled to London a couple years back. Maybe not _paranoia_, but the surveillance was extremely unnerving for me. Always a couple cops in sight, coupled with clusters of security cameras on every street corner, and blanketing the tube stations, coupled with a constant blaring of muffled loudspeakers...felt like I'd stepped into 1984. I mean I dislike NYC because of the traffic and a rather heavy and brutal police presence, but I'd still pick that over London any day. NYC is just difficult; London was downright _creepy_. Of course, I'd rather just not be in a city...or maybe Pittsburgh or Providence....
There's plenty of things in Christian bibles as well about women being good little slaves for their husbands and killing all the non-believers...
The problem isn't any specific religion; the problem is people who place religion above morality. And you'll find plenty of those in any religion. The world's certainly seen its share of Christian terrorists, for example...
(And before you say it -- no, I'm not assuming you're Christian, that's just what I'm most familiar with. Of course, Christian/Muslim/Jewish are all sects of the same religion anyway IIRC so it makes sense they'd all encourage the same terrorist ideals. But I suspect other religions would as well. Though maybe not something like Buddhism...)
Yea, that was somewhat incorrect on my part -- we were certainly allowed calculators in class -- hell we could bring a computer if we wanted (which usually ended up being used for Facebook or Warcraft anyway....) it was just the exams and quizzes -- tests of any sort -- along with some homework assignments where they weren't permitted. You weren't allowed a calculator for anything that was a significant part of your grade usually. If you wanted to sit there playing with one during lecture...well, half the class already had their phones out, a calculator wasn't going to be a big deal.
Calculus I & II typically requires a graphing calculator. That said, there are times when they may forbid their use as they want to make sure you can actually do the work; and they may provide calculators for tests too. Physics is another. Now, not every major requires those classes. As a CS student, I had to have Calculus I & II, and we were required to have one.
That said, policy changes from school to school, and some schools may try to teach without them while others will try to make sure you can do the work without them but allow them for convenience, and others may rely solely on them.
I was a CS student as well. I was required to take Calculus I, II, and III (as well as plenty of other math classes; also took a couple non-required 400 levels) as well as two physics courses (Mechanics and Electricity & Magnetism) and while we were permitted a graphing calculator in class and for homework (or a computer, or phone, or anything else...), I don't recall seeing many students using one. As I said, I never had one (though I did occasionally use Maxima for homework; great software) But they were NEVER permitted on exams. Physics classes would usually let you use a TI-34 or something for exams if you REALLY felt better having it (they made a point of stressing no calculators should be needed; I never used one) but math exams were usually nothing but paper and pencil. And maybe notes for some profs.
OK, well good for you I guess if you find it works...my experience has been the exact opposite.
Windows updates have a history of breaking things. This may be a bit out of date -- I haven't used Windows much since XP -- but remember XP SP2? I can't count the number of systems I had to reverse that update on after it broken damn near everything. I recall at least one or two needing a full system reinstall. I know systems that are still running XP SP1 because of how much of a disaster that was. As for drivers -- I can remember installing XP on the family desktop and then having to go find drivers for the printer, drivers for the wifi...shit I remember my dad driving me to his office in a goddamn blizzard so I could download network drivers onto a USB drive to get the internet working again.
Meanwhile, on Linux...I currently run Arch. The only driver I can remember installing was for my printer (which doesn't work on Windows either without downloading extra drivers -- VERY cheap Brother laser printer.) I've NEVER had a system update break anything, and I run those on a monthly basis at least. And yes, that includes the system kernel and drivers. Granted, the average user couldn't figure out installing Arch; it's not the most user-friendly process if you don't know Linux -- but my experience with Mandriva a few years ago was pretty much the same, and I bet even my mother could make it through that installer. Install it off the CD; it comes with everything you need pre-installed (unlike Windows where the very first thing you do is spend a couple days downloading and installing all the crap you need and removing all the crap you don't) and it was able to pick up all my hardware right "out of the box".
Of course, I also did attempt Ubuntu once and spend days trying to get the damn thing to work before finally deciding that it probably wasn't the distro for me...so yea, I admit you have to find the right distro and that's not always the easiest thing to figure out, but that's hardly a problem with Linux itself. If you ask me it's more a problem with everyone for some inexplicable reason deciding Ubuntu is the best distro for new users. Never heard a single complaint from a Mandriva user (well, except maybe 2010 and 10.0 being crap releases, but Windows does the same thing...)
What? I run a full system update on a monthly basis (I run Arch), and have been for years, and have NEVER had an update break anything. Let me guess -- your experience is with Ubuntu? Don't blame Linux; blame the crap distro.
Of course, I can't count the number of times I've had crap break because of Windows updates. Remember XP SP2?
As for whether or not her system is actually updating -- well, I hope so, there _is_ an automatic updater on the it, but having never had to touch the thing I can't say for certain that she hasn't somehow disabled it. I _can_ tell you that her previous XP desktop never got a single update in its life -- she doesn't know how to do it, and I had to turn them off after they kept breaking shit. And I'd trust an unpatched old Linux system over an unpatched Windows XP ANY day...
Yea, that's the way our highschool was, but we still had students who couldn't afford them -- they were going to college on scholarships and financial aid. One of my best friends in highschool was among them -- single parent who I believe was living entirely off disability with three kids.
As for using them in college -- I graduated from Penn State a couple months ago, and I don't recall having a single math class that would have even _permitted_ a graphing calculator, let alone require one. I certainly never purchased one -- and never felt I needed to. And I took a couple of extra 400-level math courses that weren't required for my major. Hell, I don't think we were even permitted something as simple as a TI-34 in the exams. The classes were designed to teach you math, and evaluate how well you were able to do that math -- not teach and evaluate how well you could use a calculator.
Unlike Windows, when I install a fresh copy of Linux on my laptop, all the hardware works out of the box. Shit, I can't even get internet out of the box on Windows without using an OEM-supplied disk that already has drivers pre-loaded...
Windows isn't more usable than Linux -- OEMs MAKE Windows more usable than Linux. Would you expect Windows to be easy if you bought a computer from Apple and a regular Windows install disk from, say, Amazon.com? And even with these massive advantages, I've still always found Linux to be easier to get working from a fresh install than Windows...
My mother has a Linux netbook. Other than getting her email set up with Thunderbird when she got it (she couldn't do that herself in Outlook Express either,) I haven't ever touched the thing. It's just never had an issue.
Her Windows desktop, on the other hand, seems to need some kind of repair every time I visit.....
Uh, I've found micro USB chargers at _gas stations_. Dunno about Nokia, but I've never seen a RIM or Samsung device that used anything different. Haven't yet seen an Apple charger at a 7/11, though I'm sure some stock those as well...
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Ah, so you can get that particular point in the geek phone pissing content with Apple as well, as long as you jailbreak (And what geek in such a contest wouldn't?) Good to know...I guess. ;)
If your work gave you an XP laptop frankly you are working at a shitty place and I'd tell them to take it back, especially after that guy spent nearly 3 years trying to clear his name thanks to a badly configured XP laptop handed him at work that turned out to have a backdoor that some scumbags were using to run CP through the thing.
Well, I'm a consultant so I'm not supposed to mention this company's name (these laptops were provided by the client) but it's in the top 20 on the Fortune 500 listing. Granted, that doesn't mean it isn't a shit company, but that is evidence that XP is clearly still very much alive in the corporate world. For what it's worth, the consulting company I work for (Tata Consultancy Services; international consulting firm in 42 countries, 240,000 employees, over $10 billion revenue) also still uses Windows XP.
But again you wanna compare to a 12 year old OS then dig out a 12 year old Linux distro, because otherwise you are purposely trying to rig any comparison. You are talking about an OS that has been legacy for over 5 years, that no longer gets ANY updates but security, and which hasn't been sold for half a decade so fair is fair, compare it to a 7 year old Linux.
There's this thing called 'math' that you may want to learn. Windows XP is not 12 years old; it's 10 -- it was released in October 2002. I compared it to a 9 year old Linux (It's not 2010 anymore; 2003 is not 7 years ago). One year difference, not five.
At the end of the day that doesn't change the fact that Linux internals are deep fried ass and I'd be happy to take the pepsi challenge to prove it. funny that I have yet to see a single person try to take up the challenge either, probably because they know Linux will die hard.
"Deep fried ass"...is that some technical term I'm not familiar with? Because otherwise I'm not sure what the hell you're trying to say here. As I said, Windows 7 looks alright I guess, but if it ain't broke...why the hell would I switch back? Just to wait for Microsoft to fuck it all up again? To lose the ability to customize my computer? To get more system crashes? (Don't give me any bullshit about how that doesn't happen anymore -- as rarely as I boot into Windows 7 I still fucking get 'em)
The challenge is incredibly simple, we will take ANY distro that was released the same quarter as Vista, and I will give Linux the advantage by taking not only one of the most hated OSes but by giving them only HALF the amount of updates XP has had, we'll install it on two identical systems, make sure all the drivers are working, and update BOTH systems to current.
And I can tell you because I have done it that the Linux unit will be totally fucked by the end of the updates. The sound won't work, the DE is more than likely to be glitching if the graphics drivers are even functional, and the WiFi won't have a snowball's chance in hell, I don't care which chip you choose. that is just FIVE years mind you, barely half the time you get with Windows.
LOL, yea, you just keep telling yourself that. Not sure where you get those ideas, I've done it without problems. Although I have some rather nasty memories of having to reinstall XP every two years just to keep the goddamn thing functional. Yes, Windows Vista or 7 may be better. I wouldn't know.
I'm sorry but as a wise man said "Linux is free..if your time is worthless" and no truer words have been spoken. Take a modern version of Windows like 7 and you can slap it on ANY laptop made in the last half a decade and upgrade from RTM to the last patches from patch Tuesday and it will ALL work, every. single. driver. will be functional, including wireless and printers. Try that with Linux? You get a broken mess, why? because Torvalds and the other devs frankly don't give a damned if YOU have problems, all they care about is scratching THEIR itches.
Brand new HP dv6t laptop. Slapped an A
Yea, that was kind of my point. I figured the insanity of the rest of that sentence would have been enough of a hint ;)
Yea, I mean all I have to go off of so far is their online coverage map, and like I said I see no need for anything better than 3G (If I need to download something big, I'll hop on wifi), so it works for me. Can't be worse than the Verizon coverage I'm currently dealing with; having trouble even getting voice calls at home. But yea, if you want 4G, it doesn't look like they're really rolling anything out there yet. From their coverage map it looks like they have _maybe_ four towers that support that. (Actually, I have no clue because I don't know what kind of area a tower would cover, but you get the idea)
First of all, Windows XP is still very much in use. Shit, I just got a laptop for work, and guess what it's running? XP. I haven't heard of anyone using a 12 year old Linux distro. The reasons for that are quite numerous, but that's a different topic.
I started using Linux with Mandrake 9.2. That was in 2003. Back then...yeah, some wifi drivers wouldn't work out of the box. Never had an _ethernet card_ or a _dial-up modem_ require drivers like I have with XP. There you go, apples to apples.
Never had a significant upgrade problem, since Mandrake 9.2. There were two bad releases -- Mandrake 10 and Mandriva 2010 -- but you know, a bad release here and there isn't so bad when they release every six months. If there's a bad Windows release it may be years before people upgrade -- look at Vista. There's a reason why, 12 years later with support discontinued, XP is still around 25% market share. Find me ANY Linux distro with even a 5 year old version holding a quarter of that distro's market share and then we can talk about how comparing Linux to a two release old version of Windows is so wrong.
Twelve years ago Windows cause enough problems for to learn a completely new OS. Linux hasn't made me even entertain a fleeting thought of switching back since. I do have a dual-boot machine (why not, hard drives are cheap and it came with Windows anyway) and I have booted to Windows once or twice -- needed a mix of Linux and Windows tools to maintain pixel-perfect images, one of the downsides of freelancing for a design company -- and it was always a headache and a half...although I blame Adobe for that more than Windows. Photoshop and especially Illustrator are just terrible experiences.
I will give you this: Windows 7 looks pretty good. I haven't seen a problem with it, though I haven't personally used it enough to say much of anything. But...I have over a decade of experience with Linux being far easier than the most modern Windows OS...and am looking at Windows 7 as something that what _might_, from a few _brief experiences_ be just as good. Maybe. For now. The news of Windows 8 makes me glad I'm on Linux though, as does the fact that I can start stripping down the OS when I need to run it on older hardware and keep things running fine. So yes, I will admit, both may now be capable of doing everything I need. Only one is capable of the customization I _want_ and may need in the future. Easy choice.
Hah, I didn't even think about that -- my trip there was long before the Olympics. Of course, being a tourist and being there with my rather wealthy (now ex-)girlfriend we _were_ in areas you would probably expect to have a heavier police presence. Lots of very obnoxious people selling very expensive trash to people with far too much money to burn. Gotta protect the wealth!
I'm just about to switch to Credo mobile. No cap, no throttling, real unlimited data for $30/month. No significant 4G coverage yet, but my current phone is only capable of calls and texts, so I think I can survive _only_ 3G for a little while ;)
They rent space off of Sprint -- who I believe offers the same unlimited deal. Hoping they have good coverage, but my Verizon coverage up in Rhode Island is goddamn ATROCIOUS anyway, and if you visit Credo's site you'll probably figure out pretty quick what my other motivations for switching are... (they donate to orgs like the ACLU instead of the GOP)
I have an old LG VX9800. The one thing it's good for is the phone durability pissing contest. I've dropped it down three flights of stairs (down the empty center of the stairwell, not the stairs themselves, that's for sissys!). I've whipped it at a wall, just to prove it'd survive. Battery always goes flying across the room on impact, but the phone still works just fine. And it'll last a week on a single charge -- I go out of town for the weekend and don't even bother to bring a charger.
Of course, I do plan to upgrade to an Galaxy S3 pretty soon...this thing's a goddamn dinosaur.
Never had an iPhone, but I did have an iPod touch a while back and my biggest complaint was always that the damn thing was too small! I mean had it been a resistive touch screen it would be alright, but for a capacitive screen I had a hell of a time using the damn thing. Try to type in portrait mode and you can only type one word per minute because that's how slow you have to type to actually hit the right keys; try to type in landscape mode and you can no longer see the text you're typing because the keyboard occupies most of the screen.
I think the Archos 5 IMT ( http://www.amazon.com/Archos-32-Internet-Tablet-Android/dp/B002OL2PLU ) was the PERFECT size. I mean I don't _mind_ if they want to remove the bezel and make it a bit thinner; might be nice if it's going to be a phone...but I've never understood why you'd want smaller than a 5" screen. If I could get that device with an updated version of android and modern hardware (keep the screen resistive though please) I'd buy it in a second.
The entire point of buying these things is that they're _not just phones_ anymore -- you might as well get one with a large enough screen to actually do something useful with it! Unless it's too big to fit comfortably in my pocket, it's not too big.
In my personal experience -- Apple users will agree 100% that we're in a post-PC world. In fact, you could say those exact words to them _while they're purchasing a new Apple PC_ and they would nod enthusiastically and say "I know, isn't it great?!?"
At least the Apple users who care what's said at these events. Those who just buy them because they feel it's better hardware or a better OS won't give a damn anyway.
I had it in my Canon Powershot SX100IS....six years ago? Something like that...
Putting a camera in a phone? Yea, I'd call that innovative or breakthrough. Adding features to that camera which dedicated cameras have probably had for over a decade (pretty sure my Canon wasn't the first, _they_ never claimed it was "breakthrough" -- hell it was right up there with 'red-eye reduction' on their features list) isn't. That's so obscenely obvious you probably couldn't even patent it in the US ;)
Interestingly, you _can_ do that on Android -- I had a friend write a basic 'hello world' app on his Galaxy SIII within a couple days of buying it, just because he could.
Now, why you would actually WANT to....hell if I know. Maybe if the app you wrote has a bug that you happen to discover while using it in a plane mid-flight while your laptop isn't in your carry-on and you absolutely must fix it right now?
Yes. You're comparing market share of an OS vs. market share of a phone. The iPhone probably has the largest market share of any specific phone.
Have you not seen the pictures? I think part of it may have been psychological -- I was aware of this long before going, so of course I noticed the cameras...and I admit that at times I was actively looking for them. But yea, if you're curious, just Google 'London CCTV'
The police were usually pretty friendly, moreso than US cops, but in my mind they were just one more piece of the surveillance..I also believe there were a number of 'report suspicious activity' signs around there as well, though I could be mistaken. It was around four years ago now.
Short of creating a system to write in HTML5 then compile that down into native code -- not really.
HTML is, by nature, portable and unpredictable. You don't know the user's screen resolution, for example. You don't know the browser size or version. You don't know what fonts they'll have installed. You don't know a lot of things.
On a native app, especially for a mobile device -- you generally know most of that. Especially for something like iOS, you can pretty much assume everyone will have the same screen size, the same browser, the same fonts, the same UI, the same system libraries...and all that knowledge gives you a LOT of areas where you can optimize that just can't exist for pure HTML.
As an American -- I think it's partly a mindset thing, but mostly a government imposed fear thing. Conformity through fear. Makes the catt--err, people a lot easier to manage.
Of course, I also had to chuckle a bit while reading your post...because that's basically what I thought when I traveled to London a couple years back. Maybe not _paranoia_, but the surveillance was extremely unnerving for me. Always a couple cops in sight, coupled with clusters of security cameras on every street corner, and blanketing the tube stations, coupled with a constant blaring of muffled loudspeakers...felt like I'd stepped into 1984. I mean I dislike NYC because of the traffic and a rather heavy and brutal police presence, but I'd still pick that over London any day. NYC is just difficult; London was downright _creepy_. Of course, I'd rather just not be in a city...or maybe Pittsburgh or Providence....
There's plenty of things in Christian bibles as well about women being good little slaves for their husbands and killing all the non-believers...
The problem isn't any specific religion; the problem is people who place religion above morality. And you'll find plenty of those in any religion. The world's certainly seen its share of Christian terrorists, for example...
(And before you say it -- no, I'm not assuming you're Christian, that's just what I'm most familiar with. Of course, Christian/Muslim/Jewish are all sects of the same religion anyway IIRC so it makes sense they'd all encourage the same terrorist ideals. But I suspect other religions would as well. Though maybe not something like Buddhism...)
Yea, that was somewhat incorrect on my part -- we were certainly allowed calculators in class -- hell we could bring a computer if we wanted (which usually ended up being used for Facebook or Warcraft anyway....) it was just the exams and quizzes -- tests of any sort -- along with some homework assignments where they weren't permitted. You weren't allowed a calculator for anything that was a significant part of your grade usually. If you wanted to sit there playing with one during lecture...well, half the class already had their phones out, a calculator wasn't going to be a big deal.
Calculus I & II typically requires a graphing calculator. That said, there are times when they may forbid their use as they want to make sure you can actually do the work; and they may provide calculators for tests too. Physics is another. Now, not every major requires those classes. As a CS student, I had to have Calculus I & II, and we were required to have one.
That said, policy changes from school to school, and some schools may try to teach without them while others will try to make sure you can do the work without them but allow them for convenience, and others may rely solely on them.
I was a CS student as well. I was required to take Calculus I, II, and III (as well as plenty of other math classes; also took a couple non-required 400 levels) as well as two physics courses (Mechanics and Electricity & Magnetism) and while we were permitted a graphing calculator in class and for homework (or a computer, or phone, or anything else...), I don't recall seeing many students using one. As I said, I never had one (though I did occasionally use Maxima for homework; great software) But they were NEVER permitted on exams. Physics classes would usually let you use a TI-34 or something for exams if you REALLY felt better having it (they made a point of stressing no calculators should be needed; I never used one) but math exams were usually nothing but paper and pencil. And maybe notes for some profs.
OK, well good for you I guess if you find it works...my experience has been the exact opposite.
Windows updates have a history of breaking things. This may be a bit out of date -- I haven't used Windows much since XP -- but remember XP SP2? I can't count the number of systems I had to reverse that update on after it broken damn near everything. I recall at least one or two needing a full system reinstall. I know systems that are still running XP SP1 because of how much of a disaster that was. As for drivers -- I can remember installing XP on the family desktop and then having to go find drivers for the printer, drivers for the wifi...shit I remember my dad driving me to his office in a goddamn blizzard so I could download network drivers onto a USB drive to get the internet working again.
Meanwhile, on Linux...I currently run Arch. The only driver I can remember installing was for my printer (which doesn't work on Windows either without downloading extra drivers -- VERY cheap Brother laser printer.) I've NEVER had a system update break anything, and I run those on a monthly basis at least. And yes, that includes the system kernel and drivers. Granted, the average user couldn't figure out installing Arch; it's not the most user-friendly process if you don't know Linux -- but my experience with Mandriva a few years ago was pretty much the same, and I bet even my mother could make it through that installer. Install it off the CD; it comes with everything you need pre-installed (unlike Windows where the very first thing you do is spend a couple days downloading and installing all the crap you need and removing all the crap you don't) and it was able to pick up all my hardware right "out of the box".
Of course, I also did attempt Ubuntu once and spend days trying to get the damn thing to work before finally deciding that it probably wasn't the distro for me...so yea, I admit you have to find the right distro and that's not always the easiest thing to figure out, but that's hardly a problem with Linux itself. If you ask me it's more a problem with everyone for some inexplicable reason deciding Ubuntu is the best distro for new users. Never heard a single complaint from a Mandriva user (well, except maybe 2010 and 10.0 being crap releases, but Windows does the same thing...)
What? I run a full system update on a monthly basis (I run Arch), and have been for years, and have NEVER had an update break anything. Let me guess -- your experience is with Ubuntu? Don't blame Linux; blame the crap distro.
Of course, I can't count the number of times I've had crap break because of Windows updates. Remember XP SP2?
As for whether or not her system is actually updating -- well, I hope so, there _is_ an automatic updater on the it, but having never had to touch the thing I can't say for certain that she hasn't somehow disabled it. I _can_ tell you that her previous XP desktop never got a single update in its life -- she doesn't know how to do it, and I had to turn them off after they kept breaking shit. And I'd trust an unpatched old Linux system over an unpatched Windows XP ANY day...
Yea, that's the way our highschool was, but we still had students who couldn't afford them -- they were going to college on scholarships and financial aid. One of my best friends in highschool was among them -- single parent who I believe was living entirely off disability with three kids.
As for using them in college -- I graduated from Penn State a couple months ago, and I don't recall having a single math class that would have even _permitted_ a graphing calculator, let alone require one. I certainly never purchased one -- and never felt I needed to. And I took a couple of extra 400-level math courses that weren't required for my major. Hell, I don't think we were even permitted something as simple as a TI-34 in the exams. The classes were designed to teach you math, and evaluate how well you were able to do that math -- not teach and evaluate how well you could use a calculator.
Unlike Windows, when I install a fresh copy of Linux on my laptop, all the hardware works out of the box. Shit, I can't even get internet out of the box on Windows without using an OEM-supplied disk that already has drivers pre-loaded...
Windows isn't more usable than Linux -- OEMs MAKE Windows more usable than Linux. Would you expect Windows to be easy if you bought a computer from Apple and a regular Windows install disk from, say, Amazon.com? And even with these massive advantages, I've still always found Linux to be easier to get working from a fresh install than Windows...
On the other hand...
My mother has a Linux netbook. Other than getting her email set up with Thunderbird when she got it (she couldn't do that herself in Outlook Express either,) I haven't ever touched the thing. It's just never had an issue.
Her Windows desktop, on the other hand, seems to need some kind of repair every time I visit.....
Uh, I've found micro USB chargers at _gas stations_. Dunno about Nokia, but I've never seen a RIM or Samsung device that used anything different. Haven't yet seen an Apple charger at a 7/11, though I'm sure some stock those as well...