A 3rd solution for your list is to have VMware player running on Ubuntu linux (almost no effort there), getting "tinyXP" from your favourite Pirate Bay and getting all the useful features of Windows Vista a couple of years in advance. It's beautiful to watch the virtual machine allowing Windows to detect "what's in the USB port" and then the windows drivers doing their thing. Feels good to be in command.
They're really adding useful stuff gradually, getting people used to their way of using the net and google search for every mundane situation...
imagine you already have a bunch of search history and email stored at google DB. You already use google earth or google local, meaning your location is known to them. Now all that is needed is a new button : "Get a life", next to "I'm feeling lucky", so that the empty bits in the calendar will be automatically filled with suggestions from the sponsors.
There still isn't a good Exposé solution for Windows. I've tried the knock-offs and they're all pretty pathetic attempts.
If you could supply some links for the ones you tried, that would be cool.
Right now, I'm kind of happy with a combination of Microsoft's Deskman-Powertoy to supply virtual desktops + the wonderful icon which allows to set keyboard shortcuts for things like:
vertical maximize
horz maximize
tile windows
many other window functions that have been there for 10 years but require mouse&menu actions...
It all works pretty well together, especially after realizing that virtual desktop powertoy requires you to enable its own toolbar (otherwise it's hidden...) and that you need to disable "shared desktops" so that a minimized trillian window started on desktop1 won't popup in desktop3...
Over here in Portugal we have a company called SIBS which is owned by a consortium of banks. They're in charge of managing the network of ATM and the services provided to other companies through those machines.
Possibly the best single feature they rolled out was to make available ATM payments to just about any company wiling to sign up. The first adopters were the utilities companies, that because of this now have less offices and "point of sale" than needed 20 years ago. Today any company can become a client of SIBS and get a 5-number code to be its ID. This ID will be printed on invoices along with another number, which identifies the transaction. Anyone can use an ATM to pay the invoice. Just type in these 2 codes, the amount to be transfered and you're done. The receipt will be printed out and for some services (ie: mobile phone top-ups) you get to see the effect within a couple of seconds.
Building on this basic operation, many companies hired the services of SIBS to add their own menus and sub-menus on the ATMs, so these days there is a quite a lot of stuff you can do:
buy concert tickets
buy train tickets
make bank transfers
allow/change permissions for automatic payments from your account (ie: allow the water bill to be paid without confirmation)
top up mobile phones
pay public transport monthly tickets . this one had some extra work: the public transport tickets have to get in the ATM so their chip gets read/written. They're similar to London's Oyster cards
and so on. overall it's pretty cool and has been working for a while now, that's why I'm surprised that adding bank transfers to ATM operations (in the US?) makes the news on/. in 2006. A few years ago, as banks started to have www-based services, new forms of login information were added to allow people to do at home most of these things, except getting cash out of your printer:)
these new hightech game-boxes sure take their time getting down here to grandma's basement. I got my first game console this week. used Gamecube. Took me more than 30 ebay auctions before finally getting one for less than EUR30.
Also ended up buying some racing game from the supermarket. EUR9.9 and I'll be racing with some green dudes shooting each other while flying around in surfboards or something.
I'll give it a go this weekend and stop by/. every now and then to hear from you guys just how better and innovative the new generation games are.
Instead of "review websites" I'd like to see something like standard advisory labels on software boxes and on their installer routine, something that would include: "installs software components from other suppliers"; "sends activity logs over the internet"; "installs across several system directories"; "includes remotely controlled DRM features" etc., etc.
I like the idea of having a mini portable PC with the OS and most aplications packed up in a flash drive, then running everything from a RAMdrive.
On the rare occasions you'd have to reboot, the flashdrive would be "read" for a big ISO file, and everything could run from, say, 1Gb RAM... that should be enough to hold and run Damnsmalllinux + openoffice.org + firefox, right?
hmmm, could it be because in portuguese "cona" is "cunt" ?
Would be a certain hit here, in Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau,.... that's more than 300M people...
Obviously the laptop manufacturers aren't excited about this, as it may lead people to wonder why all laptops are so feature-rich, and why the "sub-notebook" segment has only the best components, but smaller, instead of having a lower-end variety as well.
That would be something with like a mini laptop (or extra large PDA?)with a 8" screen, 1Gb flash memory as permanent storage, 1 usb port and 1 PCMCIA slot, for people who really want to add ethernet or wi-fi.
I've seen portable DVD players with the right size and screen quality for this, selling with generic brand name for EUR99... If someone could remove the DVD stuff and replace with the right components, voilá, instant "sub-notebook".
I used to wear a suit every day except fridays, when the team would meet at HQ instead of visiting clients. trouble is, you never know if a client decides to visit you to, so it is a good idea to have at least part of the team with the socially acceptable attire... team work - no biggie.
Some people thought I was the least careful about dress code at my team, as I'd ride my motorcycle to work and then put on the suit I had at the office waiting for me... That meant wearing dark grey trousers most days, so they'd look OK with 1 or 2 dark jackets I had at the office, in a rotation scheme:)
One day, some guy was caught off guard, and a client showed up on a friday, when he was in causal clothes and in need for a shave...
After that episode, the team manager was quick to suggest that people should consider having a backup tie and jacket at the office... Besides, you never know when some food accident will happen right in the middle of your shirt, just before the 2pm meeting, right?
I'd more readily believe that Motorola rushed the music-phone gadget to market. Their competitors had already something else announced, even as just a prototype, and Motorola could not afford to miss out on the positive effect of partnering up with Apple by launching their own product too late or even after Nokia and Sony-Ericsson. So, they just picked some recent model and added some nice software from Apple.
Obviously, the ROKR loses in direct comparison with the Nokia N91 and Sony-Ericsson Walkman but at least their product is real and on the shelves...
In the meantime, while people are either enjoying the real phones or waiting for the next big thing, Motorola improves on both designs and announces the SLVR L7...
although I don't have the sales figures for companies like apple, nokia, motorola, SE, samsung and their respective mobile phone divisions, I'd venture saying that Apple can hardly have the leverage to damage the plans of mobile phone manufacturers. I bet Apple will still be in the front line of the high end audio gadget arena with the iPod and whatever they can make of it in the future, but there is much more room for growth in the multi-use-mobile-phone-gadget market.
Bazorg!
Ultimate solution in not in the cities
on
Chinese Eco-Cities
·
· Score: 1
The solution for depletion of natural resources is to manipulate genes and change the human body to become smaller.
Slashdot Mirror
A 3rd solution for your list is to have VMware player running on Ubuntu linux (almost no effort there), getting "tinyXP" from your favourite Pirate Bay and getting all the useful features of Windows Vista a couple of years in advance. It's beautiful to watch the virtual machine allowing Windows to detect "what's in the USB port" and then the windows drivers doing their thing. Feels good to be in command.
Ubuntu Linux 7.20 Boozy Gamer, new release due in 2007.
imagine you already have a bunch of search history and email stored at google DB. You already use google earth or google local, meaning your location is known to them. Now all that is needed is a new button : "Get a life", next to "I'm feeling lucky", so that the empty bits in the calendar will be automatically filled with suggestions from the sponsors.
There still isn't a good Exposé solution for Windows. I've tried the knock-offs and they're all pretty pathetic attempts.
If you could supply some links for the ones you tried, that would be cool.Right now, I'm kind of happy with a combination of Microsoft's Deskman-Powertoy to supply virtual desktops + the wonderful icon which allows to set keyboard shortcuts for things like:
It all works pretty well together, especially after realizing that virtual desktop powertoy requires you to enable its own toolbar (otherwise it's hidden...) and that you need to disable "shared desktops" so that a minimized trillian window started on desktop1 won't popup in desktop3...
for the moment just realize with me that the only company that truly benefits from Boot Camp is Microsoft, because they'll get to sell a retail copy of Windows XP for every copy of Boot Camp now where did I put that link to the pirate WAV files collection?
I can't wait to see that photo featured on one of worth1000.com photoshop contests!
Possibly the best single feature they rolled out was to make available ATM payments to just about any company wiling to sign up. The first adopters were the utilities companies, that because of this now have less offices and "point of sale" than needed 20 years ago. Today any company can become a client of SIBS and get a 5-number code to be its ID. This ID will be printed on invoices along with another number, which identifies the transaction. Anyone can use an ATM to pay the invoice. Just type in these 2 codes, the amount to be transfered and you're done. The receipt will be printed out and for some services (ie: mobile phone top-ups) you get to see the effect within a couple of seconds.
Building on this basic operation, many companies hired the services of SIBS to add their own menus and sub-menus on the ATMs, so these days there is a quite a lot of stuff you can do:
- buy concert tickets
- buy train tickets
- make bank transfers
- allow/change permissions for automatic payments from your account (ie: allow the water bill to be paid without confirmation)
- top up mobile phones
- pay public transport monthly tickets . this one had some extra work: the public transport tickets have to get in the ATM so their chip gets read/written. They're similar to London's Oyster cards
and so on. overall it's pretty cool and has been working for a while now, that's why I'm surprised that adding bank transfers to ATM operations (in the US?) makes the news onAlso ended up buying some racing game from the supermarket. EUR9.9 and I'll be racing with some green dudes shooting each other while flying around in surfboards or something.
I'll give it a go this weekend and stop by /. every now and then to hear from you guys just how better and innovative the new generation games are.
Instead of "review websites" I'd like to see something like standard advisory labels on software boxes and on their installer routine, something that would include: "installs software components from other suppliers"; "sends activity logs over the internet"; "installs across several system directories"; "includes remotely controlled DRM features" etc., etc.
I'm a bit lost in this debate, and I have a question: Are the pixels on these blue disk things better than the ones on hard disk drives?
they turned evil! It had to happen!
Well I'm just surprised that Zonk hasn't posted a dupe of last week's discussion... yet.
On the rare occasions you'd have to reboot, the flashdrive would be "read" for a big ISO file, and everything could run from, say, 1Gb RAM... that should be enough to hold and run Damnsmalllinux + openoffice.org + firefox, right?
I don't think any european country has any reason for shooting radioactive stuff at Australia.
I actually read evilservers.net ...
It doesn't work! they can't see me! they don't know I'm at 127.0.0.1 ! ha-ha!
hmmm, could it be because in portuguese "cona" is "cunt" ? Would be a certain hit here, in Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau,.... that's more than 300M people...
That would be something with like a mini laptop (or extra large PDA?)with a 8" screen, 1Gb flash memory as permanent storage, 1 usb port and 1 PCMCIA slot, for people who really want to add ethernet or wi-fi.
I've seen portable DVD players with the right size and screen quality for this, selling with generic brand name for EUR99... If someone could remove the DVD stuff and replace with the right components, voilá, instant "sub-notebook".
Thanks, o lameness filter, for saying that this is art.
Some people thought I was the least careful about dress code at my team, as I'd ride my motorcycle to work and then put on the suit I had at the office waiting for me... That meant wearing dark grey trousers most days, so they'd look OK with 1 or 2 dark jackets I had at the office, in a rotation scheme :)
One day, some guy was caught off guard, and a client showed up on a friday, when he was in causal clothes and in need for a shave...
After that episode, the team manager was quick to suggest that people should consider having a backup tie and jacket at the office... Besides, you never know when some food accident will happen right in the middle of your shirt, just before the 2pm meeting, right?
Bazorg!
digg slashdots you?
Obviously, the ROKR loses in direct comparison with the Nokia N91 and Sony-Ericsson Walkman but at least their product is real and on the shelves...
In the meantime, while people are either enjoying the real phones or waiting for the next big thing, Motorola improves on both designs and announces the SLVR L7...
although I don't have the sales figures for companies like apple, nokia, motorola, SE, samsung and their respective mobile phone divisions, I'd venture saying that Apple can hardly have the leverage to damage the plans of mobile phone manufacturers. I bet Apple will still be in the front line of the high end audio gadget arena with the iPod and whatever they can make of it in the future, but there is much more room for growth in the multi-use-mobile-phone-gadget market.
Bazorg!
The solution for depletion of natural resources is to manipulate genes and change the human body to become smaller.