A person blowing their nose, texting, chewing gum with ones mouth open, ect. Anybody can be distracted by something if they put their minds to it. I, personally, found having a computer with me at school a problem on a few different sides of the spectrum. Laptops 3 years ago definitely weren't of the size to take to class. Though much smaller than ever before at that point, they were still a bit heavy and clunky to take around. Technology still haven't come up with a way of easily and quickly making notations (or quickly enough for keeping pace with a speaking professor) on Powerpoint slides - especially if the PPT's are handed to you (some classes *do* pay for the paper to do so). Finally, AIM / Facebook in times of bored desperation were much bigger distractions than other peoples computers.
Suggestions for the student: 1- Ask the screensaver be disabled and instead put its screen to blank (turn it off) instead. It'll save more battery that way, anyways. 2- Sit further up in class. It might take a bit of practice if the person bringing their laptop gets there early and/or is in the front row, but typically they're not in the exact front, so maybe that's where you need to be. If it's that much of a distraction, you'll be happy you did it.
I'm typically not one of those that say, "ZOMG SUE THE CRAP OUT OF THAT PERSON", but that's GOT to be a significant cost to Google to have to repair that every time some idiot with a gun and a significant amount of boredom shoots the thing down.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say they'd probably be better suited to place cameras there first and if that didn't work THEN go the route they're going. People need to realize that shooting things indiscriminantly is not only stupid, but it's dangerous. What would happen if they were shooting at electric poles and accidentally severed a power line? I'm sure Oregon is a bit more humid and has a bit more rainfall than other places, but that downed power line has now created a wild fire and destroyed many acres of land (and possibly homes).
I'm all for carrying guns, having weapons at hand, and even having a conceal and carry license (in my state it's allowed, and I've many times considered getting one myself). That being said, having a gun and USING a gun are two separate things. People need to learn how to be responsible with things that are exceptionally dangerous (or at least dangerous in their hands)!
You have Adobe making a language that all phones can run, and it is being reported on its first iteration. NOTHING works perfectly. I've only viewed one video on my First Gen Moto Droid, and it was abysmal, HOWEVER, I didn't expect it to be fantastic. Some day these sites will employ some kind of standards and start optimizing them for mobile devices. Why? Because it's what WE want. If Apple were to go in the same direction and offer Flash as well, we'd see things change quite quickly. Alas they're unfortunately content in making enemies of their users. At least the network isn't Apples fault, right? My prophecy is that in the second and third editions it will improve markedly... I mean, really, it can't get much worse than it is right now lol
It's amazing. I'm 26yo and started tinkering w/ Win95 when I was ?8?. The speeds are taking such huge leaps that I now have to think to myself, "OK so 100GBps is something special??" I have a 100mbps / 1Gbps router, and am so used to the 100meg cables being the "norm" that the gbps is lost on me for a while. I actually have to think of what I HAVE vs. what they're proposing!
To that I say, bring it on, bring it cheap, I'm ready for integration into my next round of systems/router *huge smile*
I can see how this is a GOOD thing to some people, though. Thinking of the privacy concerns, obviously. If you were at fault in an accident and you had a ford/gm/etc the insurance companies would own you in a day of reviews. Now if you had a Toyota / Honda, have fun... delaying the game for as loooong as possible. Nice for the criminals, not for the general public in cases such as this, though.
That is actually part of the beauty of having VZW vs. ATT at least in my coverage area. There are places where there's just honestly crap conditions that are not at all conducive to cellular service. That being said, while ATT feels that coverage in only major metro areas and LARGE major highways (read: most turnpike areas and SOME 4 lane highways) is acceptable, VZW has made it so nearly our entire area has a nice covering of cellular goodness... and it's all 3G... and it has been for YEARS. Now going back to ATT, those same areas that are covered are NOT necessarily 3G nor EDGE, so you get to sit for an hour waiting. Oh and don't try driving while on their network... it's not pretty. When I saw the ads of VZW's "we have a map for that" I said, "Yeah that's pretty much right." Anybody who has had or has ATT and/or formerly Cingular knows that at least where I am (NW OH), this is not only the case, but it's downright fact. If ATT got their collective heads out of their butts, they'd not be suing VZW, they'd be improving their network. Final note: From what I hear this isn't the (obviously) only area that this happens - I have a friend that resides in downtown Manhattan. While walking down streets INSIDE NYC - One of the if not THE most populated areas in the US - their coverage is not only spotty, but downright horrible. Come'on ATT. Seriously.
I unfortunately have to disagree. While they see it as "unsustainable", I see nothing but profit for them. Granted you will have a lot of people that will go way above and beyond what others use in bandwith, HOWEVER, many people will have a data package and hardly use ANY. Take, for instance, my parents and txt messaging. They just signed up for unlimited. They DEFINITELY don't use $15/month in text messages, however they like to have the ability to send as many as they want and not be nickle and dime 'ed because of it. I can see this happening with data, as well. They won't use it for much, but when they do they're glad they have spent $150 this year so far for a data package they have used twice.
I think it's a horrible idea, and would be surprised if it did. With Sprint offering unlimited EVERYTHING for $69/month, something has GOT to give, and I hope it is the wireless providers' cheap a$$es... They make WAY too much money off of what they don't provide, and even more off of what they do!
Although, if you really think about how things work with this, when solar power customers are generating more energy than they are receiving, they're putting net energy ONTO the grid, thus keeping the costs of GENERATING power down for the power company.
Once upon a time the energy company used to pay the solar energy customers that put more energy back into the network than they generated. These days most or all energy companies have stopped this practice. If that is the way they wanted, people need to start installing higher power solar panels and start sending the energy company bills for the energy THEY produced with the same BS fees and other such items that the energy company has been bilking ALL of us for such a long time now.
In short, I hope the government intervenes with this idiocy, and tells that energy company to suck it.
Hmm... Sounds like SOMEBODY needs a cigarette!
All kidding aside, there are many ways to stop smoking, and since this is a frivolous thing in many politicians eyes (as well as a burden to the tax payers that have to pay for uninsured people's health care when they get end stage emphasema from smoking their whole lives), you've got a better chance of having those taxes revoked as you are of getting uncensored internet in China. Translation: Ain't gonna happen.
Chantix
Nicotine patch
Nicotine gum (they've improved the flavors a ton)
Nicotine lozenges
Others exist as well.
As far as the Video game tax, it's not going to stop anybody from buying them, including parents that buy them for their 5yo children. What would make more sense is an all-inclusive video game tax, or better yet an "entertainment" tax so that you can get DVD's, CD's, BluRay, etc.
Not saying I WANT this kind of tax since I just purchased a 360 not too long ago, BUT it makes more sense to be all inclusive and not blaming one genre of video games over the other. Makes just about as much sense as taxing Rock or Hip Hop / Rap for the same lame reason.
Video games don't kill people, people kill people. Parents and schools need to take note that it's not necessarily all the kids faults... they are partially to blame as well for some of the things coming down the pike. If the parents of the kids at Columbine took an interest in their kids, they would have noticed the explosives and explosive devices in the areas most often frequented by these kids. Unfortunately that didn't happen, and to make matters worse, they knew where the keys to the gun cabinets were (second extremely fatal mistake)
I've been waiting for a long time coming for IE to support some kind of USEFUL addons. If they get Foxmarks to flawlessly integrate into IE, I'm there. I love Firefox for filling the void that existed b/c of Microsoft, HOWEVER, I do NOT enjoy its (IMHO) lackluster performance vs the newer IE's... Not to mention it always seems my computers run a bit more on high power with Firefox than with IE...
Wireless would be a great option, however if they're relying on Fiber connections, wireless is probably not nearly speedy enough for what they're trying to do.
There's also still security issues with wireless. While not as bad as before, and not as easily hacked, it is still possible. Wired connections would have to be directly plugged into, and thus nearly impervious to attack (unless they knew external IP's, then all bets are off)
I honestly think it's a brilliant idea... until it comes time to upgrade to a new version of Linux...
Still don't understand why you have to have a new download of 4+gb to upgrade from something like openSUSE 11.0 to 11.1... to me it doesn't make sense the upgrade can't be rolled into a concise package
The idiotic part of this mindset is that in hospitals they have to have 24/7 power for things like ventilators, etc.
Ditto for 911/emergency services.
Why doesn't the government say these 'important' places must employ emergency backups that will last indefinitely while fuel is supplied. There are now backup generators that run on natural gas that will last indefinitely while the natural gas is flowing. If there's an insane amount of energy required for cell towers in large areas, they could restrict its use for 911 calls only.
It's scary that after ~24hrs you're hosed.
Cost blah blah blah.
Bullshit, I say. In an emergency during a poweroutage, this would be greatly appreciated.
Actually IMHO I think restaurants are THE perfect place to block cell phones.
I worked at a national "fine dining" restaurant and there was a CONSTANT asshole that would make his Sprint/Nextel connection beep. It got to the point where the others around these tables would complain, but the managers could / would not do anything about it "We can't make them not talk on it b/c then they'll complain to corporate!" was their attitude.
IMHO it should be LAW to set your phone not only on vibrate, but also law to make you go outside to talk on it. There's nothing like having an idiot that can't hear SCREAM into his cell phone when the restaurant is slightly quieter than usual.
As far as the jail/prison cell blocks, I say go for it. Though I personally don't think they should get fed, housed, etc better than homeless people... I think they need a little more isolation and a little less primping and pampering on my dime. That's my 2 cents...
Yeah the only problem is that it's cost him billions of dollars to do the same thing.
With the LHC we're at least getting more bang for the buck!... or more suck for the buck
Although Bush sucks pretty hardcore himself.
I wish my university had considered google as their e-mail provider. Not only is it more full featured, the spam filtering is out of this world better than anything I've seen from any MS Exchange system, and it's just easy to use!
The only downfall is google's "conversation" view b/c people aren't used to it, but once you get used to it, you'll wonder how you ever lived without? Plus Archive? GENIUS.
Then you have the wonderful ability to update/upload your calendar straight from MS Office via Google Calendar Sync, and you can edit and save doc / xls / etc files natively IN google.
The only problem with the doc/xls/etc is that the formatting, though it's come a long way, still has some work that needs to be done on it. Other than that the idea is brilliant.
It'd be kind of nice to gchat with your profs if needed. Or TA's etc.
If you don't have a FB or Myspace acct then you don't have to worry about it being "tagged" with your name on it.
I've never heard of these places going THAT in depth - it's the "here's the pictures of me drinking on the 4th"... "bar hopping July 5th"... "Weekend debauchery July 6 - 8" they're looking at.
Really, unless you're in a super exclusive major, you can EASILY find other colleges that you don't have to spend $40,000/year to have the "honor" of attending.
I can say one thing, I personally dropped out of Pre-Med and switched to Nursing just b/c of the OChem classes.
I took OChem 1 and lab. The lab wasn't easy, but I got through it w/out much problem. The class was taught by the head of the Chem department. He would give every easy example, and then on exams give us the problems that were the "exceptions". I got a 50%, 55%, 74% (in that order... it's getting better!). My final I walked out literally laughing b/c I knew I had failed miserably..... I got a B- in the class.
I didn't drop out b/c I did "poorly" (at least w/ his standards I did fairly well), but the stress of the entire ordeal was too much to handle. It wasn't worth my mental health to put up with that bullsh**.
I switched to Nursing, I got through with flying colors, and haven't looked back. I've been doing it for over a year and a half and am going strong. I went to school full time, including summers for over two years, all while working 25+ hrs a week until I graduated, and still got A - high C's.
The (sad) fact of the matter is, if I really want to, I can go on to get my PA or NP and do EXACTLY what an MD does, just under their license. That being said, since I took "the easy way out", I wouldn't get paid what the MD would/does, but there's definite benefits to not being the sole person taking care of a person's life... You always have someone else to check in on a patient if you think it warrants it.
Cept Apple just recently ceded to accidentally deleting a whole bunch of people's e-mail addresses accidentally.
I've used the imap/smtp for gmail, but it takes forever b/c there's a hard limit to the amount you can dl at once. It takes all night for me to do, and then you have to find a GOOD way to back that up on your local machine.
I also use Google Calendar Sync. Currently I have it sync from my computer to google and not vice versa just because their GCal service kind of blows at times w/ regards to functionality so I use my smart phone/palm/computer to back that up effectively:)
(gcal sync) --> http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=89955
As far as the others, though, good luck. I think there's the gmail drive if the notes and what-not are stored in the same place as mail, but I don't think it is...
Integrated all into one? Not yet from what I've seen so far.
Show me a touch screen Zune, and I'll agree.
In other (and actually on-topic:P) news, I wonder what the implications would be for a person that has a debilitating disease such as MS and the what-not. Guess I should just RTFA. Meh.
Oh shoot that was totally off topic!
To be 100% honest I've wanted to get solar power for a really really really long time. I think probably what one of my main goals after owning a house will definitely to be installing these. Stories like this make me all warm and fuzzy again. I do have to admit he either has to do a TON of arc welding, charges his electric car, or something b/c his family, even IF they're doing laundry like crazy, uses A TON of energy!
Slashdot Mirror
A person blowing their nose, texting, chewing gum with ones mouth open, ect. Anybody can be distracted by something if they put their minds to it. I, personally, found having a computer with me at school a problem on a few different sides of the spectrum. Laptops 3 years ago definitely weren't of the size to take to class. Though much smaller than ever before at that point, they were still a bit heavy and clunky to take around. Technology still haven't come up with a way of easily and quickly making notations (or quickly enough for keeping pace with a speaking professor) on Powerpoint slides - especially if the PPT's are handed to you (some classes *do* pay for the paper to do so). Finally, AIM / Facebook in times of bored desperation were much bigger distractions than other peoples computers.
Suggestions for the student: 1- Ask the screensaver be disabled and instead put its screen to blank (turn it off) instead. It'll save more battery that way, anyways. 2- Sit further up in class. It might take a bit of practice if the person bringing their laptop gets there early and/or is in the front row, but typically they're not in the exact front, so maybe that's where you need to be. If it's that much of a distraction, you'll be happy you did it.
I'm typically not one of those that say, "ZOMG SUE THE CRAP OUT OF THAT PERSON", but that's GOT to be a significant cost to Google to have to repair that every time some idiot with a gun and a significant amount of boredom shoots the thing down.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say they'd probably be better suited to place cameras there first and if that didn't work THEN go the route they're going. People need to realize that shooting things indiscriminantly is not only stupid, but it's dangerous. What would happen if they were shooting at electric poles and accidentally severed a power line? I'm sure Oregon is a bit more humid and has a bit more rainfall than other places, but that downed power line has now created a wild fire and destroyed many acres of land (and possibly homes).
I'm all for carrying guns, having weapons at hand, and even having a conceal and carry license (in my state it's allowed, and I've many times considered getting one myself). That being said, having a gun and USING a gun are two separate things. People need to learn how to be responsible with things that are exceptionally dangerous (or at least dangerous in their hands)!
You have Adobe making a language that all phones can run, and it is being reported on its first iteration. NOTHING works perfectly. I've only viewed one video on my First Gen Moto Droid, and it was abysmal, HOWEVER, I didn't expect it to be fantastic. Some day these sites will employ some kind of standards and start optimizing them for mobile devices. Why? Because it's what WE want. If Apple were to go in the same direction and offer Flash as well, we'd see things change quite quickly. Alas they're unfortunately content in making enemies of their users. At least the network isn't Apples fault, right? My prophecy is that in the second and third editions it will improve markedly... I mean, really, it can't get much worse than it is right now lol
It's amazing. I'm 26yo and started tinkering w/ Win95 when I was ?8?. The speeds are taking such huge leaps that I now have to think to myself, "OK so 100GBps is something special??" I have a 100mbps / 1Gbps router, and am so used to the 100meg cables being the "norm" that the gbps is lost on me for a while. I actually have to think of what I HAVE vs. what they're proposing! To that I say, bring it on, bring it cheap, I'm ready for integration into my next round of systems/router *huge smile*
I can see how this is a GOOD thing to some people, though. Thinking of the privacy concerns, obviously. If you were at fault in an accident and you had a ford/gm/etc the insurance companies would own you in a day of reviews. Now if you had a Toyota / Honda, have fun ... delaying the game for as loooong as possible. Nice for the criminals, not for the general public in cases such as this, though.
That is actually part of the beauty of having VZW vs. ATT at least in my coverage area. There are places where there's just honestly crap conditions that are not at all conducive to cellular service. That being said, while ATT feels that coverage in only major metro areas and LARGE major highways (read: most turnpike areas and SOME 4 lane highways) is acceptable, VZW has made it so nearly our entire area has a nice covering of cellular goodness ... and it's all 3G ... and it has been for YEARS. Now going back to ATT, those same areas that are covered are NOT necessarily 3G nor EDGE, so you get to sit for an hour waiting. Oh and don't try driving while on their network ... it's not pretty. When I saw the ads of VZW's "we have a map for that" I said, "Yeah that's pretty much right." Anybody who has had or has ATT and/or formerly Cingular knows that at least where I am (NW OH), this is not only the case, but it's downright fact. If ATT got their collective heads out of their butts, they'd not be suing VZW, they'd be improving their network. Final note: From what I hear this isn't the (obviously) only area that this happens - I have a friend that resides in downtown Manhattan. While walking down streets INSIDE NYC - One of the if not THE most populated areas in the US - their coverage is not only spotty, but downright horrible. Come'on ATT. Seriously.
I unfortunately have to disagree. While they see it as "unsustainable", I see nothing but profit for them. Granted you will have a lot of people that will go way above and beyond what others use in bandwith, HOWEVER, many people will have a data package and hardly use ANY. Take, for instance, my parents and txt messaging. They just signed up for unlimited. They DEFINITELY don't use $15/month in text messages, however they like to have the ability to send as many as they want and not be nickle and dime 'ed because of it. I can see this happening with data, as well. They won't use it for much, but when they do they're glad they have spent $150 this year so far for a data package they have used twice. I think it's a horrible idea, and would be surprised if it did. With Sprint offering unlimited EVERYTHING for $69/month, something has GOT to give, and I hope it is the wireless providers' cheap a$$es... They make WAY too much money off of what they don't provide, and even more off of what they do!
Although, if you really think about how things work with this, when solar power customers are generating more energy than they are receiving, they're putting net energy ONTO the grid, thus keeping the costs of GENERATING power down for the power company. Once upon a time the energy company used to pay the solar energy customers that put more energy back into the network than they generated. These days most or all energy companies have stopped this practice. If that is the way they wanted, people need to start installing higher power solar panels and start sending the energy company bills for the energy THEY produced with the same BS fees and other such items that the energy company has been bilking ALL of us for such a long time now. In short, I hope the government intervenes with this idiocy, and tells that energy company to suck it.
Hmm... Sounds like SOMEBODY needs a cigarette! All kidding aside, there are many ways to stop smoking, and since this is a frivolous thing in many politicians eyes (as well as a burden to the tax payers that have to pay for uninsured people's health care when they get end stage emphasema from smoking their whole lives), you've got a better chance of having those taxes revoked as you are of getting uncensored internet in China. Translation: Ain't gonna happen. Chantix Nicotine patch Nicotine gum (they've improved the flavors a ton) Nicotine lozenges Others exist as well. As far as the Video game tax, it's not going to stop anybody from buying them, including parents that buy them for their 5yo children. What would make more sense is an all-inclusive video game tax, or better yet an "entertainment" tax so that you can get DVD's, CD's, BluRay, etc. Not saying I WANT this kind of tax since I just purchased a 360 not too long ago, BUT it makes more sense to be all inclusive and not blaming one genre of video games over the other. Makes just about as much sense as taxing Rock or Hip Hop / Rap for the same lame reason. Video games don't kill people, people kill people. Parents and schools need to take note that it's not necessarily all the kids faults ... they are partially to blame as well for some of the things coming down the pike. If the parents of the kids at Columbine took an interest in their kids, they would have noticed the explosives and explosive devices in the areas most often frequented by these kids. Unfortunately that didn't happen, and to make matters worse, they knew where the keys to the gun cabinets were (second extremely fatal mistake)
I've been waiting for a long time coming for IE to support some kind of USEFUL addons. If they get Foxmarks to flawlessly integrate into IE, I'm there. I love Firefox for filling the void that existed b/c of Microsoft, HOWEVER, I do NOT enjoy its (IMHO) lackluster performance vs the newer IE's... Not to mention it always seems my computers run a bit more on high power with Firefox than with IE...
What's even better yet is if it happens during the winter months, you'll have free heating for a few hours! *and* have that fresh campfire smell!
... I hope there's no Wraith :-(
Wireless would be a great option, however if they're relying on Fiber connections, wireless is probably not nearly speedy enough for what they're trying to do. There's also still security issues with wireless. While not as bad as before, and not as easily hacked, it is still possible. Wired connections would have to be directly plugged into, and thus nearly impervious to attack (unless they knew external IP's, then all bets are off)
I honestly think it's a brilliant idea ... until it comes time to upgrade to a new version of Linux...
Still don't understand why you have to have a new download of 4+gb to upgrade from something like openSUSE 11.0 to 11.1 ... to me it doesn't make sense the upgrade can't be rolled into a concise package
The idiotic part of this mindset is that in hospitals they have to have 24/7 power for things like ventilators, etc. Ditto for 911/emergency services. Why doesn't the government say these 'important' places must employ emergency backups that will last indefinitely while fuel is supplied. There are now backup generators that run on natural gas that will last indefinitely while the natural gas is flowing. If there's an insane amount of energy required for cell towers in large areas, they could restrict its use for 911 calls only. It's scary that after ~24hrs you're hosed. Cost blah blah blah. Bullshit, I say. In an emergency during a poweroutage, this would be greatly appreciated.
Actually IMHO I think restaurants are THE perfect place to block cell phones. I worked at a national "fine dining" restaurant and there was a CONSTANT asshole that would make his Sprint/Nextel connection beep. It got to the point where the others around these tables would complain, but the managers could / would not do anything about it "We can't make them not talk on it b/c then they'll complain to corporate!" was their attitude. IMHO it should be LAW to set your phone not only on vibrate, but also law to make you go outside to talk on it. There's nothing like having an idiot that can't hear SCREAM into his cell phone when the restaurant is slightly quieter than usual. As far as the jail/prison cell blocks, I say go for it. Though I personally don't think they should get fed, housed, etc better than homeless people ... I think they need a little more isolation and a little less primping and pampering on my dime. That's my 2 cents...
Yeah the only problem is that it's cost him billions of dollars to do the same thing. With the LHC we're at least getting more bang for the buck! ... or more suck for the buck
Although Bush sucks pretty hardcore himself.
I wish my university had considered google as their e-mail provider. Not only is it more full featured, the spam filtering is out of this world better than anything I've seen from any MS Exchange system, and it's just easy to use! The only downfall is google's "conversation" view b/c people aren't used to it, but once you get used to it, you'll wonder how you ever lived without? Plus Archive? GENIUS. Then you have the wonderful ability to update/upload your calendar straight from MS Office via Google Calendar Sync, and you can edit and save doc / xls / etc files natively IN google. The only problem with the doc/xls/etc is that the formatting, though it's come a long way, still has some work that needs to be done on it. Other than that the idea is brilliant. It'd be kind of nice to gchat with your profs if needed. Or TA's etc.
If you don't have a FB or Myspace acct then you don't have to worry about it being "tagged" with your name on it. I've never heard of these places going THAT in depth - it's the "here's the pictures of me drinking on the 4th" ... "bar hopping July 5th" ... "Weekend debauchery July 6 - 8" they're looking at.
Really, unless you're in a super exclusive major, you can EASILY find other colleges that you don't have to spend $40,000/year to have the "honor" of attending.
I can say one thing, I personally dropped out of Pre-Med and switched to Nursing just b/c of the OChem classes. I took OChem 1 and lab. The lab wasn't easy, but I got through it w/out much problem. The class was taught by the head of the Chem department. He would give every easy example, and then on exams give us the problems that were the "exceptions". I got a 50%, 55%, 74% (in that order... it's getting better!). My final I walked out literally laughing b/c I knew I had failed miserably. .... I got a B- in the class.
I didn't drop out b/c I did "poorly" (at least w/ his standards I did fairly well), but the stress of the entire ordeal was too much to handle. It wasn't worth my mental health to put up with that bullsh**.
I switched to Nursing, I got through with flying colors, and haven't looked back. I've been doing it for over a year and a half and am going strong. I went to school full time, including summers for over two years, all while working 25+ hrs a week until I graduated, and still got A - high C's.
The (sad) fact of the matter is, if I really want to, I can go on to get my PA or NP and do EXACTLY what an MD does, just under their license. That being said, since I took "the easy way out", I wouldn't get paid what the MD would/does, but there's definite benefits to not being the sole person taking care of a person's life... You always have someone else to check in on a patient if you think it warrants it.
Cept Apple just recently ceded to accidentally deleting a whole bunch of people's e-mail addresses accidentally. I've used the imap/smtp for gmail, but it takes forever b/c there's a hard limit to the amount you can dl at once. It takes all night for me to do, and then you have to find a GOOD way to back that up on your local machine. I also use Google Calendar Sync. Currently I have it sync from my computer to google and not vice versa just because their GCal service kind of blows at times w/ regards to functionality so I use my smart phone/palm/computer to back that up effectively :)
(gcal sync) --> http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=89955
As far as the others, though, good luck. I think there's the gmail drive if the notes and what-not are stored in the same place as mail, but I don't think it is...
Integrated all into one? Not yet from what I've seen so far.
Oh I say it with sincerity. We had DC++ in the dorms. Need I say more?
"So Fred what are you doing today?" "Oh nothing just downloading movies at 40Gb/s from Timmy next door on our local fiber P2P network"
Show me a touch screen Zune, and I'll agree. In other (and actually on-topic :P) news, I wonder what the implications would be for a person that has a debilitating disease such as MS and the what-not. Guess I should just RTFA. Meh.
Oh shoot that was totally off topic! To be 100% honest I've wanted to get solar power for a really really really long time. I think probably what one of my main goals after owning a house will definitely to be installing these. Stories like this make me all warm and fuzzy again. I do have to admit he either has to do a TON of arc welding, charges his electric car, or something b/c his family, even IF they're doing laundry like crazy, uses A TON of energy!