I did the same thing, and as a bonus I can easily remote desktop in (with audio) and show them how to do something. In addition to the super easy remote desktop there is easy backup at the system level. So I don't have to keep harping on them to backup what they care about, it just happens automagically. Not as good as offsite, but cheap and easy.
I can't imagine a nicer remote system for the marginally technically inclined.
However, anytime they have had a problem in the last 4 years, it's been cable modem related, so the remote desktop is hopeless.
My poor arthritic dog can be kept track of with a roomba. Actually she never orbits very far away from the treat jar. So I could just keep the unit taped to the lid and always know where she is.
I second this idea. I have an old athlon linux server next to the furnace that runs all sorts of crap. I was thinking of replacing it with an Atom based MOBO and some new drives. But I kept spec'ing a $750 system to replace my Raid5 athlon box. I kept thinking that for most of the year where I live, the server is actually heating my house, and every watt it consumes goes to heat. So it's like running a 150 watt space heater. That's bad in the summer when I'm paying for the heat, then paying to remove it, but this time of year, the heat is welcome.
So I'm waiting for it to die, or for drives to get bigger so I can use fewer of them and simplify the system.
I emailed them years ago asking how to pay for their service. They responded that they have no way to let me pay for the service, or more importantly had no way of providing my content. So I had to go another route. I pay for a UK proxy; specifically the VPN service:
http://www.ukproxyserver.co.uk/
IF the BBC has VOD, that still won't help with ITV, SKY, and Channel 4 etc.
In fact I'm watching to Russell Howard's Good News Episode 1. Review: it's OK, but he's not nearly as funny solo as he is on Mock The Week.
There's little hope that the log books had accurate temperature readings, but the climate change could be inferred from things like snow depths on fiji. In fact I'm pretty sure the average snowfall on fiji has remained pretty constant in the last couple centuries, potentially refuting this whole global warming thing.
I know my dog would like to make a few more bucks to spend on hot dogs and rawhide chews. I can just see it now, my dog wandering around the house with a google camera backpack. I better close the door when I'm showering...
You need to make your hat out of sandpaper, the dark colored kind that is aluminum oxide. I'd recommend a fine grit unless you want the mellow exfoliating effect of 80 grit on your cranium.
Anybody who is using IE6 is either so clueless that they wouldn't know about this plugin, or they are forced to use IE6 because certain websites are coded for it. Either way it seems more like a fun stunt than anything viable.
I do all my work web surfing on firefox, but when I need to do one of my many yearly training courses, I have to fire up IE6 because the courses break in weird ways with firefox. So the only reason I'm in IE is that I'm forced to be, and this plugin would break the very reason I'm in IE in the first place.
This is a nasty problem because computers are not quite a commodity and not quite a geeky lab tool. People think of them as a commodity and companies try to sell them as a commodity but they require more care and feeding than say your toaster, microwave or VCR. Frankly if my VCR was as finicky and required the level of hand-holding (think frequent patching, etc) that my computer does, I'd toss it in the bin and get a new one.
It's a problem from both ends. Simple gadgets like a toaster do one established thing pretty much one way. Everybody has the same expectation of the outcome and anticipates the process pretty much the same. So we are intrinsically "trained" to know what to look for in the purchase of a toaster. Computers don't have such clearcut uses and functional pathways. This means that even tech savvy people are a bit lost in what they want from a computer (I'm agonizing on my next media server: atom or other processor, mirroring or raid 6, which case, hot-swap, etc). Combine this with sales staff whose knowledge matches their pay, and you have a recipe for chaos.
We complain bitch and moan about poorly trained sales staff, but at the same time, we want the widget at a brick and mortar store to be only ten cents more than online. We don't value well trained sales staff and good customer service. Some of us say we do, but "we" as a society feed our money to best-buy and wall-marts while many local higher caliber stores suffer and die because the prices are too high (which they have to be to cover the staff, etc). We are voting for crap employees with our wallets.
This extends to Dell online, they are leading the race to the bottom of computer sales. I suspect if you call up PSSC, you'll get somebody who knows something, but expect to pay more.
"They aren't selling personal supercomputers at Best Buy just yet."
Sure they are, it just depends on what era supercomputer you are comparing that commodity computer to. A modern desktop machine is insanely fast with inconceivable amounts of ram and disk storage if you think back a couple (several) decades. Best-buy will never sell super-anything, it's not their game. But the computers we take for granted are insanely capable machines based on the problems tacked in the past by supercomputers.
Now get off my lawn, Sheldon (who did his master's thesis on a 16MHz machine)
Any P2P offering requires the generosity of people who have already downloaded it to keep sharing it to others. This "good will" is the glue that keeps an offering going. With DRMed content, I predict there will be a LOT less good will amongst people who use P2P, and thus those offerings will be the least reliable and least available. Unless this P2P service is bundled into a larger software package or platform, like the zune phone or xbox720.
I live in a fly-over state in the US, but I spent a couple weeks in Northern England and Scotland. While bicycling in Scotland and hiking the Fells in the lake district, I never had rain for more than an hour or so at a time. I was really lucky in that regard. What a beautiful place, I need to move there ASAP.
I have never listened to music on my iPhone and thought "Boy, I could really be enjoying this if I weren't constantly distracted by the fact that there's a camera ON THE BACK, and a calculator button on the home screen that I CAN NOT SEE RIGHT NOW."
I know what you are saying, but I feel the same way about unneeded features. For example if there were no tuner on the new Nano, that's more material dollars, internal volume, and software guys that can be turned loose on another part of the unit and make that part even better.
I love all the features until they include a feature I don't want, then I bitch and moan that they should have used that volume and money to add more battery.
It's a scalpel vs. swiss army knife argument. Since I only carry one thing, I like the army knife concept, but if I were at home or carried a whole mess of things, I'd want scalpels.
That depends on a couple factors, the first is what you want or need in a portable device, and secondly what is your device capable of.
for me having a phone with GPS and internet capability means that I'm never more than inches away from a map, thus I'm lost a whole lot less than I used to be. Product reviews and internet prices are always in my pocket, so I'm a smarter consumer even for impulse buys. If I get stuck away from home in a rainstorm on my bike, I can check to see if I'm screwed or if the rain will blow over while I sit under a bridge and wait.
So no, apps are not needed, but they sure made my life better without having to carry another item.
Sure a dedicated app store is a great way to funnel your customers to your door. But that's like saying you only have one store available to you, and you have to pay in Stokessd-town dollars. I'm sure you would have less total customers than if the unit was open to applications from anywhere, although you'll most likely collect more stokessd-town dollars.
If my quick read of the article (what there is of it), there "does not have plans for an iPhone-like app platform", but that doesn't meant that apps cannot be run on the device. Much like the jailbroken iPhone app market, there could be a zune app market independent of microsoft's non-existent store. The unit has too much potential not to have apps developed for it. It's just a matter of who and how many.
Microsoft has done a very consistent job of managing the Zune. That management got it where it is today, and I see this revelation as being consistent with all the previous management decisions.
Instead of putting all this effort into anti-phishing technology, we should make people less stupid.
The problem is that the API for "people" is really old, and many of the functions appear to be deprecated (see driving a non-syncromesh manual transmission, hunting, fabricating arrow points, etc). It's much easier to foam rubber coat the world, than to try to make "people" smarter (See modern playgrounds for freshly instantiated "people").
He makes a good point albeit obliquely. One requisite of many employers is proficiency with MICROSOFT office, not open office, not joe's organic office suite, etc. So Not all employers do that mind you, but if you spend some time cruising Monster, you'll see that as an overarching theme.
Linux is great and I really find it useful in several hobby areas, but at work, it's a windows and MS office world. And more importantly, I don't see that changing anytime soon.
So depending on the career field she wants to go into, only being exposed to Linux isn't preparing her for a career like suffering with MS office will. ('cause it's all suffering in the work world)
Slashdot Mirror
I did the same thing, and as a bonus I can easily remote desktop in (with audio) and show them how to do something. In addition to the super easy remote desktop there is easy backup at the system level. So I don't have to keep harping on them to backup what they care about, it just happens automagically. Not as good as offsite, but cheap and easy.
I can't imagine a nicer remote system for the marginally technically inclined.
However, anytime they have had a problem in the last 4 years, it's been cable modem related, so the remote desktop is hopeless.
Sheldon
My poor arthritic dog can be kept track of with a roomba. Actually she never orbits very far away from the treat jar. So I could just keep the unit taped to the lid and always know where she is.
Sheldon
I second this idea. I have an old athlon linux server next to the furnace that runs all sorts of crap. I was thinking of replacing it with an Atom based MOBO and some new drives. But I kept spec'ing a $750 system to replace my Raid5 athlon box. I kept thinking that for most of the year where I live, the server is actually heating my house, and every watt it consumes goes to heat. So it's like running a 150 watt space heater. That's bad in the summer when I'm paying for the heat, then paying to remove it, but this time of year, the heat is welcome.
So I'm waiting for it to die, or for drives to get bigger so I can use fewer of them and simplify the system.
Sheldon
They often have free trial weekends. Head to the website and check from time to time.
I emailed them years ago asking how to pay for their service. They responded that they have no way to let me pay for the service, or more importantly had no way of providing my content. So I had to go another route. I pay for a UK proxy; specifically the VPN service:
http://www.ukproxyserver.co.uk/
IF the BBC has VOD, that still won't help with ITV, SKY, and Channel 4 etc.
In fact I'm watching to Russell Howard's Good News Episode 1. Review: it's OK, but he's not nearly as funny solo as he is on Mock The Week.
Sheldon
There's little hope that the log books had accurate temperature readings, but the climate change could be inferred from things like snow depths on fiji. In fact I'm pretty sure the average snowfall on fiji has remained pretty constant in the last couple centuries, potentially refuting this whole global warming thing.
Sheldon
I can see my house from there!
Damn, I've got to clean my gutters.
Sheldon
I know my dog would like to make a few more bucks to spend on hot dogs and rawhide chews. I can just see it now, my dog wandering around the house with a google camera backpack. I better close the door when I'm showering...
Sheldon
You need to make your hat out of sandpaper, the dark colored kind that is aluminum oxide. I'd recommend a fine grit unless you want the mellow exfoliating effect of 80 grit on your cranium.
Sheldon
Anybody who is using IE6 is either so clueless that they wouldn't know about this plugin, or they are forced to use IE6 because certain websites are coded for it. Either way it seems more like a fun stunt than anything viable.
I do all my work web surfing on firefox, but when I need to do one of my many yearly training courses, I have to fire up IE6 because the courses break in weird ways with firefox. So the only reason I'm in IE is that I'm forced to be, and this plugin would break the very reason I'm in IE in the first place.
Sheldon
This is a nasty problem because computers are not quite a commodity and not quite a geeky lab tool. People think of them as a commodity and companies try to sell them as a commodity but they require more care and feeding than say your toaster, microwave or VCR. Frankly if my VCR was as finicky and required the level of hand-holding (think frequent patching, etc) that my computer does, I'd toss it in the bin and get a new one.
It's a problem from both ends. Simple gadgets like a toaster do one established thing pretty much one way. Everybody has the same expectation of the outcome and anticipates the process pretty much the same. So we are intrinsically "trained" to know what to look for in the purchase of a toaster. Computers don't have such clearcut uses and functional pathways. This means that even tech savvy people are a bit lost in what they want from a computer (I'm agonizing on my next media server: atom or other processor, mirroring or raid 6, which case, hot-swap, etc). Combine this with sales staff whose knowledge matches their pay, and you have a recipe for chaos.
We complain bitch and moan about poorly trained sales staff, but at the same time, we want the widget at a brick and mortar store to be only ten cents more than online. We don't value well trained sales staff and good customer service. Some of us say we do, but "we" as a society feed our money to best-buy and wall-marts while many local higher caliber stores suffer and die because the prices are too high (which they have to be to cover the staff, etc). We are voting for crap employees with our wallets.
This extends to Dell online, they are leading the race to the bottom of computer sales. I suspect if you call up PSSC, you'll get somebody who knows something, but expect to pay more.
Sheldon
"They aren't selling personal supercomputers at Best Buy just yet."
Sure they are, it just depends on what era supercomputer you are comparing that commodity computer to. A modern desktop machine is insanely fast with inconceivable amounts of ram and disk storage if you think back a couple (several) decades. Best-buy will never sell super-anything, it's not their game. But the computers we take for granted are insanely capable machines based on the problems tacked in the past by supercomputers.
Now get off my lawn,
Sheldon
(who did his master's thesis on a 16MHz machine)
Any P2P offering requires the generosity of people who have already downloaded it to keep sharing it to others. This "good will" is the glue that keeps an offering going. With DRMed content, I predict there will be a LOT less good will amongst people who use P2P, and thus those offerings will be the least reliable and least available. Unless this P2P service is bundled into a larger software package or platform, like the zune phone or xbox720.
Sheldon
A photo diode is just a PN junction too.
What's wrong with masturbation, anyway?
Apparently it disrupts the church service... Who'd have known?
I bow to your 3 digit UID
I live in a fly-over state in the US, but I spent a couple weeks in Northern England and Scotland. While bicycling in Scotland and hiking the Fells in the lake district, I never had rain for more than an hour or so at a time. I was really lucky in that regard. What a beautiful place, I need to move there ASAP.
Sheldon
I have never listened to music on my iPhone and thought "Boy, I could really be enjoying this if I weren't constantly distracted by the fact that there's a camera ON THE BACK, and a calculator button on the home screen that I CAN NOT SEE RIGHT NOW."
I know what you are saying, but I feel the same way about unneeded features. For example if there were no tuner on the new Nano, that's more material dollars, internal volume, and software guys that can be turned loose on another part of the unit and make that part even better.
I love all the features until they include a feature I don't want, then I bitch and moan that they should have used that volume and money to add more battery.
It's a scalpel vs. swiss army knife argument. Since I only carry one thing, I like the army knife concept, but if I were at home or carried a whole mess of things, I'd want scalpels.
Sheldon
Be careful reading Daniel Eran Dilger's writings and assuming that they are accurate and unbiased, that's dangerous.
Sheldon
Do apps matter?
That depends on a couple factors, the first is what you want or need in a portable device, and secondly what is your device capable of.
for me having a phone with GPS and internet capability means that I'm never more than inches away from a map, thus I'm lost a whole lot less than I used to be. Product reviews and internet prices are always in my pocket, so I'm a smarter consumer even for impulse buys. If I get stuck away from home in a rainstorm on my bike, I can check to see if I'm screwed or if the rain will blow over while I sit under a bridge and wait.
So no, apps are not needed, but they sure made my life better without having to carry another item.
Sheldon
Sure a dedicated app store is a great way to funnel your customers to your door. But that's like saying you only have one store available to you, and you have to pay in Stokessd-town dollars. I'm sure you would have less total customers than if the unit was open to applications from anywhere, although you'll most likely collect more stokessd-town dollars.
If my quick read of the article (what there is of it), there "does not have plans for an iPhone-like app platform", but that doesn't meant that apps cannot be run on the device. Much like the jailbroken iPhone app market, there could be a zune app market independent of microsoft's non-existent store. The unit has too much potential not to have apps developed for it. It's just a matter of who and how many.
Microsoft has done a very consistent job of managing the Zune. That management got it where it is today, and I see this revelation as being consistent with all the previous management decisions.
Sheldon
I just went down and told my router, it blinked it's little lights in approval.
Sheldon
It's not frickin' rocket science.
Instead of putting all this effort into anti-phishing technology, we should make people less stupid.
The problem is that the API for "people" is really old, and many of the functions appear to be deprecated (see driving a non-syncromesh manual transmission, hunting, fabricating arrow points, etc). It's much easier to foam rubber coat the world, than to try to make "people" smarter (See modern playgrounds for freshly instantiated "people").
Sheldon
He makes a good point albeit obliquely. One requisite of many employers is proficiency with MICROSOFT office, not open office, not joe's organic office suite, etc. So Not all employers do that mind you, but if you spend some time cruising Monster, you'll see that as an overarching theme.
Linux is great and I really find it useful in several hobby areas, but at work, it's a windows and MS office world. And more importantly, I don't see that changing anytime soon.
So depending on the career field she wants to go into, only being exposed to Linux isn't preparing her for a career like suffering with MS office will. ('cause it's all suffering in the work world)
Sheldon
Any of the new (intel and last few generations of PPC) mac portables, you can easily "right" click by a two finger tap. Easy peasy.
Sheldon