1. You're one of those elitists who think "command line or bust" 2. You have no concept of user friendliness 3. You don't grasp the fact that the computer is just a tool used to solve problems, and not a religion 4. As far as distributions go, SuSE is one of the best for out-of-the-box, install, and get right to work experience (I'd say Ubuntu is neck-to-neck with SuSE on that though)
Oh, and nice use of the AC feature. Trolling is not why the AC feature is kept here, you know that don't you?
- If you want USB host capability, forget about 128MB RAM, VGA, and by the way you'll be getting the slower CPU, too
I don't want my phone and PDA integrated. I want GPS at a reasonable resolution, I need to be able to take notes at a meeting, if I need to get on the web I should be able to use WiFi or Bluetooth and use a browser at a reasonable (VGA) resolution, plus why should I buy a separate MP3 player or portable DVD player when a standalone PocketPC is perfectly capable of both?
The current crop of PocketPCs stink. I'm anxious to upgrade, but here is what I am finding:
- NONE offer PCMCIA support (rendering my 5GB HDD useless)
- If you want 128MB or more of RAM, the highest resolution you will get is quarter-VGA (320x240)
- If you want VGA (640x480) resolution, the most RAM you'll get is 64MB
- Lack of accessories (e.g., high capacity batteries)
Thanks to Carly Fiorina canning the iPaq line (she basically brought back the inferior Journada line) expansion capability of the PocketPC is nil, and the quality has only gone downhill. I'm glad she got fired but she managed to kill the PocketPC platform just as it was gaining steam. I still use my 3670 but I need more RAM, higher resolution, a faster CPU, and expansion capability.:(
Many DoD installations do not let you take camera phones onsite.
That is true but a philips-head screwdriver or a punch and a light tap will fix that. You want to break the lens and the CCD but not hit it so hard that it shorts any other circuits out. Or hell, just crack the thing open and remove the camera board - it's usually a daughtercard connected to the main board using wires (not even a slot or socket).
Unfortunately, optical zoom seems to be going away even in standalone digital cameras. I think the reasoning is this:
<MarketingDroneAtPointAndShootCameraMfr> Why do you need optical zoom? After all, it's old fashioned. The latest thing is 240x digital zoom, and you'll like it! After all, digital is newer tech, and newer tech is always better, right? The Joneses down the street have digital zoom and they're perfectly happy. They're cool - don't you want to be one of the cool kids, too? Besides, optical zoom is more expensive. </MarketingDroneAtPointAndShootCameraMfr>
Entirely marketing, regardless of true value to the customer. After all, boards of directors and executives at large companies only think about quarter-to-quarter results, and who cares if the backlash is a decline in quality of products and eventually losing customers to the competition in five years' time when the competitors wake up? You've already made your money and if you get axed, you'll glide down safely on your golden parachute. Screw quality, it costs too much!
With that said, I couldn't find a good phone with the features I wanted without also taking a camera with it. Now that I have it (whether I wanted it or not) I actually put it to use, far more than I thought I would. I wish it were of better quality, but unfortunately even $200 phones are going to have only $5.00(max) worth of camera circuitry.
FWIW, I'd rather the noise reduction be handled by the headset since then the noise reduction circuitry will be the ideal one for the mic on the headset.
What you do in those cases is team up with someone else and book-end the car in place by parking in adjacent spaces, as close as humanly possible to the inconsiderate asshole's car.
It's the old "Are you still drowning kittens?" question, either 'yes' or 'no' paints you as a monster, when in reality you've never done any such thing.
Speak for yourself. My favorite hobby happens to be drowning kittens, followed closely by kicking puppies and stealing candy from babies!
Seriously though, is it any surprise that a Communist government is going to be effectively enforcing a monopoly? I'm sure that the PC distributors in question are State-owned, and as such by charging more by bundling Windows then the political elite (you know, those who are more equal than everyone else) come out ahead! Everybody wins (well, except for the vast majority).
Unlikely - remember, Microsoft does offer UNIX products (UNIX for Windows, under UNIX licensing). Their transaction was legitimate and while one can speculate that they did this and released UNIX for Windows as a way to fund SCO's efforts to undermine the UNIX/Unix market, it's purely speculation and anything regarding timing of licensing UNIX can only be regarded as circumstantial evidence, at best.
Now, if you could unearth the equivalent of the Halloween Documents, that's a different matter, but you would definitely need more than speculation to make the legal connection.
No; the only reason the whole SCO thing isn't over is that IBM and Novell want to see these cases right to the very end so that a) copyright and b) trademark concerns are resolved, e.g., IBM did in fact have the right to contribute independently-created code to Linux, and Novell indeed does own UNIX and SCO merely had the right to broker licensing, an agreement upon which they (SCO) did not make good on delivering those fees to the owners of the property.
I'm betting SCO is dead (that's a no brainer) and that IBM and Novell will be able to prove criminal intent and pierce the corporate veil. If I were Darl McBride I'd seriously consider leaving the country.
you didn't buy movies and music, you licensed them
Have you seen the television advertisemtns for The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (aka Chronicles of Narnia) DVD? They don't say "license it today" - they say "own it today"
Well, I went and bought it on the day it was released, and wouldn't you know it the DVD has copy protection beyond CSS? Well, three hours later I had bypassed it and had a DVD-R - so now one copy for watching, and one to put away with the rest of my DVDs.
When you buy over-the counter software, media, etc. you OWN a copy of it. Don't give us that license bullshit; check out court precedence and notice right of first sale applies.
Now if it were a work for hire, you might have a point, but these are commodity items. You buy it, you OWN it. Media producers have NO business telling you what you can or cannot do with it, beyond what copyright law dictates.
All it takes is one determined person who succeeds in breaking the encryption to render it useless. Don't you think that a) the exploit would be anonymously posted to usenet within hours of success and b) the content would be shared just as quickly, if not more so?
Even if the DRM were secure enough to not be cracked (unlikely) all speakers are ultimately analog at the voicecoil - it's a simple matter to build a circuit to take speaker-level outputs and convert them to line level. It won't be 100% lossless but the quality will be quite good nonetheless. Wait a second, that circuit already exists; surely you've heard of a "Line out converter?" Sure, there might be some difficulty in dealing with two-way and three-way speaker systems, but it's really only a very minor inconvenience.
DRM is futile. Media companies would be better served to embrace technology (duh!) and quit treating paying customers like criminals.
Novell will have to keep Windows around for as long as they have to:
- produce Windows software
- support existing product
- maintain support contracts with legacy clients (see previous point)
- need to interoperate with Windows (although based on SuSE 9.3 and 10, they did little testing of KDE/Samba integration with Active Directory in recent release, it took a fair bit of tweaking on my part to make it work)
- Need to make Evolution work smoothly with Exchange
- Need to work out migration paths for clients who wish to move away from Windows
In other words, their support reps, development staff, and quality assurance labs will always need to keep Windows kicking around, very likely everything dating back to Windows 98 up through the current Enterprise Server, along with associated peripheral products like SQL Server, Exchange, Sharepoint, and so forth.
Sales folks? Receptionists? Accountants? IT staff? They can very easily get away with running only Linux or UNIX variants.
Changing your focus of business away from an antiquated product like Netware, acquiring the rights to UNIX AND becoming a Linux solution provider takes guts and a lot of pain goes along with it. They're lucky staying with Netware as their primary focus for so long even after Microsoft used their monopoly status to gain entrance into the server environment (and made Netware integration a bit difficult) didn't kill them. Now their main threat is that they're going head-to-head with IBM in the marketplace now in several areas, and personally I hope that Novell wins because Novell has real products to offer, while IBM is surviving primarily on services now.
Aren't they (Dell) more likely to use an HMO? In which case Clippy would say:
"It looks like you have cancer, but sorry, Dell cheaped out on you and all you have is an HMO. Would you like to get on the three-year-until-we-decide-to-help-you-or-not waiting list in the hopes that you die before we have to cover your treatment, saving shareholders precious cents, or would you like to take advantage of our low-cost assisted suicide option?"
Why? Because Gitmo is a nice convenient place to hold "ter'rists" and "enemy combatents" who happen to disagree with Duhbya. It's kind of hard to make a phone call or get ahold of any members of the media where they lock you in a room and then throw away the room. (yes, I ripped off the "throw away the room" bit)
Slashdot Mirror
Uh, let me guess:
1. You're one of those elitists who think "command line or bust"
2. You have no concept of user friendliness
3. You don't grasp the fact that the computer is just a tool used to solve problems, and not a religion
4. As far as distributions go, SuSE is one of the best for out-of-the-box, install, and get right to work experience (I'd say Ubuntu is neck-to-neck with SuSE on that though)
Oh, and nice use of the AC feature. Trolling is not why the AC feature is kept here, you know that don't you?
Oh, and one more thing:
- If you want USB host capability, forget about 128MB RAM, VGA, and by the way you'll be getting the slower CPU, too
I don't want my phone and PDA integrated. I want GPS at a reasonable resolution, I need to be able to take notes at a meeting, if I need to get on the web I should be able to use WiFi or Bluetooth and use a browser at a reasonable (VGA) resolution, plus why should I buy a separate MP3 player or portable DVD player when a standalone PocketPC is perfectly capable of both?
The current crop of PocketPCs stink. I'm anxious to upgrade, but here is what I am finding:
:(
- NONE offer PCMCIA support (rendering my 5GB HDD useless)
- If you want 128MB or more of RAM, the highest resolution you will get is quarter-VGA (320x240)
- If you want VGA (640x480) resolution, the most RAM you'll get is 64MB
- Lack of accessories (e.g., high capacity batteries)
Thanks to Carly Fiorina canning the iPaq line (she basically brought back the inferior Journada line) expansion capability of the PocketPC is nil, and the quality has only gone downhill. I'm glad she got fired but she managed to kill the PocketPC platform just as it was gaining steam. I still use my 3670 but I need more RAM, higher resolution, a faster CPU, and expansion capability.
That is true but a philips-head screwdriver or a punch and a light tap will fix that. You want to break the lens and the CCD but not hit it so hard that it shorts any other circuits out. Or hell, just crack the thing open and remove the camera board - it's usually a daughtercard connected to the main board using wires (not even a slot or socket).
Unfortunately, optical zoom seems to be going away even in standalone digital cameras. I think the reasoning is this:
<MarketingDroneAtPointAndShootCameraMfr> Why do you need optical zoom? After all, it's old fashioned. The latest thing is 240x digital zoom, and you'll like it! After all, digital is newer tech, and newer tech is always better, right? The Joneses down the street have digital zoom and they're perfectly happy. They're cool - don't you want to be one of the cool kids, too? Besides, optical zoom is more expensive. </MarketingDroneAtPointAndShootCameraMfr>
Entirely marketing, regardless of true value to the customer. After all, boards of directors and executives at large companies only think about quarter-to-quarter results, and who cares if the backlash is a decline in quality of products and eventually losing customers to the competition in five years' time when the competitors wake up? You've already made your money and if you get axed, you'll glide down safely on your golden parachute. Screw quality, it costs too much!
With that said, I couldn't find a good phone with the features I wanted without also taking a camera with it. Now that I have it (whether I wanted it or not) I actually put it to use, far more than I thought I would. I wish it were of better quality, but unfortunately even $200 phones are going to have only $5.00(max) worth of camera circuitry.
FWIW, I'd rather the noise reduction be handled by the headset since then the noise reduction circuitry will be the ideal one for the mic on the headset.
What you do in those cases is team up with someone else and book-end the car in place by parking in adjacent spaces, as close as humanly possible to the inconsiderate asshole's car.
Speak for yourself. My favorite hobby happens to be drowning kittens, followed closely by kicking puppies and stealing candy from babies!
Seriously though, is it any surprise that a Communist government is going to be effectively enforcing a monopoly? I'm sure that the PC distributors in question are State-owned, and as such by charging more by bundling Windows then the political elite (you know, those who are more equal than everyone else) come out ahead! Everybody wins (well, except for the vast majority).
By that standard everyone is a *nix newbie.
It is indeed bogus. An official SCO site still offers Linux: http://www.darlmcbride.com/
It is an official SCO site. Check out the whois on the domain, and the legal notice on the site!
Unlikely - remember, Microsoft does offer UNIX products (UNIX for Windows, under UNIX licensing). Their transaction was legitimate and while one can speculate that they did this and released UNIX for Windows as a way to fund SCO's efforts to undermine the UNIX/Unix market, it's purely speculation and anything regarding timing of licensing UNIX can only be regarded as circumstantial evidence, at best.
Now, if you could unearth the equivalent of the Halloween Documents, that's a different matter, but you would definitely need more than speculation to make the legal connection.
Isn't that like saying "It's somewhere between zero and zero?"
(to you Debian fans out there: I'm KIDDING.)
No products? Who are you trying to kid? Linux isn't free and SCO owns it! Darl McBride says so, and he's God (in his own mind).
No; the only reason the whole SCO thing isn't over is that IBM and Novell want to see these cases right to the very end so that a) copyright and b) trademark concerns are resolved, e.g., IBM did in fact have the right to contribute independently-created code to Linux, and Novell indeed does own UNIX and SCO merely had the right to broker licensing, an agreement upon which they (SCO) did not make good on delivering those fees to the owners of the property.
I'm betting SCO is dead (that's a no brainer) and that IBM and Novell will be able to prove criminal intent and pierce the corporate veil. If I were Darl McBride I'd seriously consider leaving the country.
Notice the troll used AC. Figures.
It's not PC enough.
All it takes is one determined person who succeeds in breaking the encryption to render it useless. Don't you think that a) the exploit would be anonymously posted to usenet within hours of success and b) the content would be shared just as quickly, if not more so?
Even if the DRM were secure enough to not be cracked (unlikely) all speakers are ultimately analog at the voicecoil - it's a simple matter to build a circuit to take speaker-level outputs and convert them to line level. It won't be 100% lossless but the quality will be quite good nonetheless. Wait a second, that circuit already exists; surely you've heard of a "Line out converter?" Sure, there might be some difficulty in dealing with two-way and three-way speaker systems, but it's really only a very minor inconvenience.
DRM is futile. Media companies would be better served to embrace technology (duh!) and quit treating paying customers like criminals.
Those are comparable to Quicken or M$ Money, not Quickbooks.
Would you prefer they went the Microsoft route and sold new "full" retail licenses for $200 and upgrades for $149?
Quickbooks Pro.
Novell will have to keep Windows around for as long as they have to:
- produce Windows software
- support existing product
- maintain support contracts with legacy clients (see previous point)
- need to interoperate with Windows (although based on SuSE 9.3 and 10, they did little testing of KDE/Samba integration with Active Directory in recent release, it took a fair bit of tweaking on my part to make it work)
- Need to make Evolution work smoothly with Exchange
- Need to work out migration paths for clients who wish to move away from Windows
In other words, their support reps, development staff, and quality assurance labs will always need to keep Windows kicking around, very likely everything dating back to Windows 98 up through the current Enterprise Server, along with associated peripheral products like SQL Server, Exchange, Sharepoint, and so forth.
Sales folks? Receptionists? Accountants? IT staff? They can very easily get away with running only Linux or UNIX variants.
Changing your focus of business away from an antiquated product like Netware, acquiring the rights to UNIX AND becoming a Linux solution provider takes guts and a lot of pain goes along with it. They're lucky staying with Netware as their primary focus for so long even after Microsoft used their monopoly status to gain entrance into the server environment (and made Netware integration a bit difficult) didn't kill them. Now their main threat is that they're going head-to-head with IBM in the marketplace now in several areas, and personally I hope that Novell wins because Novell has real products to offer, while IBM is surviving primarily on services now.
Aren't they (Dell) more likely to use an HMO? In which case Clippy would say:
"It looks like you have cancer, but sorry, Dell cheaped out on you and all you have is an HMO. Would you like to get on the three-year-until-we-decide-to-help-you-or-not waiting list in the hopes that you die before we have to cover your treatment, saving shareholders precious cents, or would you like to take advantage of our low-cost assisted suicide option?"
"[OK] [CANCEL]"
<**AA, BSA, etc.>Oh that's easy. Buy another "license" to play the game, listen to the music, or watch that video. </**AA, BSA, etc.>
Why? Because Gitmo is a nice convenient place to hold "ter'rists" and "enemy combatents" who happen to disagree with Duhbya. It's kind of hard to make a phone call or get ahold of any members of the media where they lock you in a room and then throw away the room. (yes, I ripped off the "throw away the room" bit)