It seems that people are upset with Microsoft because 1) they have software vulnerabilities in their OS and 2) they do too little too late to fix these vulnerabilities before hackers start exploiting them.
You forgot 3) but they don't neglect fixing holes in the activation process, even if they end up creating false alerts and block activation of legitimate IDs.
Have you seen the new Dell E series power supplies? The blue light at the end not only looks nicer but gives clear indication that power is likely working at that end of the wire!)
I am so sick of blue LEDs. The brick for my Precision m6400 has one of those and it drives me nuts at night because it is far too bright. Why is it every time someone puts a blue LED in a power indicator they use super bright LEDs? (I'm referring to you, Dell, and you, HP!) or power switch (the brightly-lit blue button on my printer) It really annoys me so I usually paint over the blue LEDs with blue or purple nail polish to cut the brightness way, way down. I haven't done that to the m6400 yet - I either put a cloth over the table or unplug it, but I really need to. It's really obnoxiously bright. At least if the indicator were on the brick I could just turn the brick over to eliminate the annoyance. But NOOO,
I like blue LEDs. I really do. I just hate that like the blink tag, HDR imagery, and vocoder abuse, they are just way, way overdone. Want to use a blue LED? Great. Make it a sane brightness please. That's all I ask.
There are so many things lighting up my bedroom at night it's sometimes hard to fall asleep. I disconnected my A/V receiver to eliminate that light, have the rarely-used VCRs unplugged, and my DVD recorder's and blu-ray player's display brightness turned down as low as they will go. I have most of the LEDs in my mini-tower PC chassis disconnected, and am thinking of soldering resistors in series with the remaining LEDs. Before I upgraded to a laser optical mouse, I had painted the front of my IntelliMouse with purple nail polish to block the massive amount of light it shines.
As far as "power at the end of the wire" is concerned - you can tell when the laptop is on and charging, or if the laptop won't power up, use a volt meter. It really is that easy! Besides, those power supply connectors have been gaining a reputation for falling apart.
What I would like to see is better placement of power connectors - or if vendors could get Apple to license their mag-safe connector, to use that, and have multiple power ports on the laptop.
If Apple will not license mag-safe
I'm putting an option out for free use. Because it is suggested here out in the open it is prior art so it cannot legally be patented. On the bright side this means that those vendors who adopt it don't have to pay licensing fees.
Anyway, you could have a connector with a pinout similar to Apple's design. However their key innovation is magnetism. How about a couple of very small nubs at either end of the connector, which have a sphere on the end. The receiving jack has e-clips in the holes/slots which will hold the connector snugly enough that it will remain connected when picking up the laptop, but if you trip over the cable, the tension will be low enough that the cable will release. It's a mechanical lock but designed so that the retainer clips have only enough tension to hold the connector in place during normal use - and the reason I suggested slots was it would allow freedom of movement during a violent shock (tripping over the cable), allowing it to release without hanging up on the receiving hole. It would be self-centering by shaping of the rail which comprises the connector itselt; it could be a pyramid or trapezoidal shape with the connectors running down either side. Also, this connector may have a nice blingbling blue LED but it has to be a sane brightness; it should not be a flood light that keeps me awake at night.
I dislike pretty much everything the Obama administration is doing, but I have to say that here the simplest answer is most likely the correct one.
I think the no-fly zone (which applies only to flight levels below 3000') is more likely to prevent mid-air collisions from casual sightseers getting in the way of coast card and BP aircraft, and from every inattentive rubbernecking pilot who just wants to go check it out. It may require a bit more intelligence to get a flight certificate than a driver's license, but common sense and intelligence are all too often independent from one another.
But that is what copyright law has devolved into. You record a song, and nobody can use that 2 second bleep for anything until 75 years after you die. because you "own that bleep!"
THAT is INSANE.
I agree. Copyright is intended to provide protection for a LIMITED DURATION in order to encourage creation of more public domain works. The way copyright works today is totally insane.
However in the case this article points to, the artist is still alive and kicking, and politely asking people to respect his copyright. Right or wrong, copyright law is what it is today. We do need to change it but the only way we are going to do it is a total revolution; either by the vote and stop obsessively reelecting the same fucks we have in office, and replace them with people who realize that the Constitution does mean what it says, and who recognize that the making of a true leader is a willing servant.
Does making sheet music take days of editing to get it to sound just right? No.
Really? Have you ever written staff notation, or plotted it out in cakewalk, rosegarden, etc? Sure you can use a MIDI keyboard for some of the work but you're not going to use the generated MIDI file for the final product; you will be tweaking the notation by hand - quite a bit. It does take days to weeks of editing. Some musical works have taken much longer.
It's not even just the "editing" - it's composing. That's what composers do. Take Beethoven's 9th symphony; that work is the result of six years' worth of "editing" as you put it.
You are a programmer/developer, right? So, can I say all you do is "edit code?" Even better, I could say all you do is "push buttons" in the right order and don't deserve more than minimum wage for your unskilled labor. That of course ignores all of the architecting/engineering you have to put into it, and it belittles your talent, just as you belittle the composers.
Not really. Layer effects, easy to use macro functionality and droplets are huge areas where Photoshop is vastly superior. You can duplicate that in script-fu but undo and tweaking of those effects in photoshop is a few clicks, and usually a single step to back up and proceed forward through to achieve minor tweaks whereas in gimp it might be 30 steps to get back to where you want it to be.
Gimp can do a heck of a lot but it's not a true Photoshop replacement yet.
fwiw, I used to get a consistently great signal until a few weeks ago. AT&T did something to mess up their network because I consistently get -97 to -101 or lower around the Boston area, and it gets better as I get further from the city.
IOS 3./1/3, baseband 5.12.01
My roommate's iPhone 3G is even worse - I don't know the dBm (her phone is vanilla - no jailbreak) and went down the tubes around the same time, so I know it's not my phone.
An "assault weapon" is a legal term invented by gun banners to ban civilian guns. It refers to semi-auto guns with any of several scary-looking but irrelevant accessory features, and is used to whittle away at the right to keep and bear arms
A BB gun I wanted got banned because it was "scary looking" and semi-automatic.:(
A BB gun, Banning a BB gun as an assault rifle. Ridiculous.
The constitution grants US citizens the right to have weapons to protect themselves against forces both foreign and domestic.
Wrong. The Constitution does not grant citizens any rights. ALL rights are assumed to be wholly enjoyed by citizens. What the Constitution does is grant some specific rights to the government, and places hard-line restrictions against any laws which might infringe on certain rights; such as freedom of worship (thus, any law allowing or preventing marriage is unconstitutional), restriction of the freedom of the press (speech), barring the right to assemble (free speech zones, anyone? permits, anyone?), bearing of arms (no assault weapons, anyone? I'd say that is an infringement), no search and siezure without probable cause unless you have a warrant (homeland security theater and patriot act, anyone?)
Don't worry a lot of people get it backwards and don't understand that ALL rights are retained by Citizens except where specifically granted to the government by the Constitution.
Idiot: "Hi, Microsoft? Yes, your mouse says to insert the batteries any way, so I put the ends in first then they just fall over. So, I used a hammer to drive the battery in like a nail, but when I put the mouse on the table, it's standing up on it's legs."
Phone grunt (located in India): "Yes please it is being my pleasure to assist you. Did you say your mouse has legs? Sir, that is a rodent. We do not sell real mice. We are selling computer mice."
Idiot: "No this mouse says Microsoft on it, and I can't get the legs in."
Phone grunt: "Okay I am being pleased to assist you. Could you please be describing the legs?"
Idiot: "they're gold and black and say duracell."
Phone grunt: "Sir, I am not understanding how that can be. Were you properly inserting the batteries?"
Idiot: "Yes, the label said any way but they would not go in the way I tried so I used a bigger hammer."
That is an excellent and probably the very best possible solution.
I hope in the instance of the Apple iPhone4 class action suit, Apple quickly pushes out a redesign of the case (why can't the case be a clear polymer with black and metallic inserts, so the antennae are at least insulated from shorts?) and issues field replacement units to stores, and issues a recall. The cost would be fairly minimal relative to the amount of GOOD PR Apple will gain by providing the sort of customer care they purport to provide. They're known for stellar customer service, but the reality is, as proven by defective Mac Pro power supplies, a 52%+ failure rate of Macbook Pros (a few years back, as you experienced firsthand), crappy iMacs (the old round pieces of turd), and now, an iPhone which doesn't live up to its primary advertised purpose, they give crappy customer service.
Now is the opportunity to live up to their claim and allow iPhone4 exchanges for new iPhone4 units with redesigned cases, or to issue FRU kits to the Apple stores and replace the cases for free. Yes, it will cost labor, but it will strengthen customer loyalty and help to increase market share.
Steve Jobs' response is absurd at best, especially when the ads show the iPhone being held exactly how he says not to. Who DOESN'T hold a phone like that, except for headset users?
Then the whole value (for a lot of Apple fans) is completely lost because the phone won't be so stylish anymore. Even for those who value functionality, a bit of value is lost because a slim phone/pocket-sized unix box is now a bulky POS. Why not buy an Android phone instead?
My iPhone? I like Apple's software but I am no Apple fan (I like to be brand-agnostic - someone else always has a better solution sooner or later). I had a case on my iPhone but now it's bare and has quite a few scratches. I got a scratch on the new scratch-resistant phone four days after buying the phone (scratched on a diamond earring - I babied the phone up to then and didn't give holding it up to my ear a second thought). Since then, I haven't been overly worried about scratching it, since the screen is scratched.
I do have it in a charging sleeve about half the time but unfortunately the sleeve does affect reception so I only put the battery in when it's low.
Why pay for a root-issued certificate when a self-signed one will do perfectly well when it's a known-safe server accessed only by a few authorised users? Just click through the "add exception" or "install certificate" dialog and be done with it.
Uh, No ASCAP, RIAA, MPAAA, and BSA. If you read the Constitution of the United States of America, you will instantly recognize that the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act undermines Copyright.
What is the purpose of copyright? To encourage artists to create more useful arts which after a limited monopoly turn over to the public domain.
By encouraging creative commons and similar licensing schemes, the original intent of Copyright as defined in the Constitution is actually being fulfilled.
Re:Multitasking complaint is kind of bogus
on
iPhone 4 News Roundup
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· Score: 2, Informative
But the tray is just four apps wide - how can you have clutter in only four items?
My iPhone's tray is six icons wide, you insensitive clod!
I'd like to invite you to check out the lynx and links web browsers.
The problem with MSIE6 is that it adds nonstandard extensions to HTML and CSS, does not (natively) support the full PNG spec, it is pathetically insecure, it adds padding to certain HTML elements in a lot of situations where everybody else assumes padding=0 so by making a web page in standard HTML/XHTML that looks gorgeous in every single other web browser will be horribly broken in MSIE6.
MSIE7 and MSIE8 have progressively gotten a TON better but they still don't handle broken pages gracefully (see the acid3 test) and will still degrade to MSIE6 compatibility mode, encouraging corporate web developers to be lazy and keep things as-is.
Now, as far as "fancy effects" go - those "fancy effects" led to the possibility of google docs, web-based photoshop elements replacements, online banking that doesn't take weeks to navigate (do you have an AmEx account? Log into your account on AmEx and you will see online commerce done right), and even legal free and low-cost on-demand video programming, and online classes. It also allowed for the building of "community" web sites that made the whole world a lot smaller, connecting people from nearly every nation.
It also allows us to research products better before we buy, so when companies post their products online they can post a LOT more detail than they ever did in printed brochures, and you can educate yourself so that salespeople who nothing about the product beyond what their commission is won't steer you wrong.
You can stick to the web as it was circa 1997. I'll take today's "web 2.0" (wait, did I just say web 2.0?), thankyouverymuch. And, I'll be very happy using non-Microsoft browsers.
Have you EVER driven or flown cross country (flying will drive the point home better - make sure you get a window seat and look out the window), or at least fired up Google Earth? "overpopulation" is a myth perpetuated by city dwellers who live in the equivalent of ant farms; for some reason people tend to flock together and cram houses and apartments together such that they're living like sardines packed in a can.
The Earth feels overpopulated only because you live in a densely populated area and never leave densely populated areas so that illusion is maintained. The Earth is actually very sparsely populated. If you spend your entire life in, say, between southern New England and Washington DC and never venture more than a few miles from the highways then sure, it might seem overpopulated. But, even over these northeastern states, you will see pockets of populated areas and vast regions between that are completely unpopulated. Some is farm land, some is reserves, but a lot of it is just untouched because land developers haven't decided that it's yet worthwhile to develop.
Heck even fly over just Massachusetts - you will see that once you get a few miles away from routes 93 or 95/128, or a more than a couple miles from the coast on the "south shore," it quickly becomes sparsely populated, rural land.
The Earth is far from overpopulated. Certain regions (cities) become grossly over-developed and are maintained/managed poorly, lending false credence to the idea that the Earth is overpopulated - and then there is poverty, which is not an indicator of overpopulation but of greed which is an inherent aspect of human nature, where pissant tyrants feel the need to exercise their quest for power/control over poor people, and limit their access to food and water. The problem is not overpopulation, but human nature.
Let someone else make the sacrifice Do as I say, not as I do Build it in someone else's back yard Don't build it if it might disturb an ant Go live in tents rather than energy-hungry homes (you say, as you live in your multi-million-square-foot mansion with your fleet of SUVs parked outside - yes I am alluding to both Al Gore and John Kerry- two self-proclaimed environmentalists who want YOU and I to give up everything but will sacrifice nothing themselves)
You didn't read, obviously. Air exchangers will recover about 90% of the heat from the air it exchanges. A window will not do that. Maybe you missed it but the topic here is regarding HVAC efficiency, and opening a window is not a solution, whether your HVAC is moving heat into or out of the structure.
I can't be the only one who is sick and tired of smug-emitting environmentalists.
As a conservationist, I find environmentalism offensive, and here's why: I support wind power. I support nuclear power. I support solar power. I support installation of generators in incinerators, and also would support investigation into building turbines into oil and gas fired central heating furnaces, to recoup as much of the energy as possible from the fossil fuels we do use.
I do not support hybrids for drivers of small econoboxes, because when you are a city dweller driving only 12K miles or fewer per year, you will not offset the additional resources needed to manufacture your hybrid over a conventional econobox - and what's more, you won't be saving any money either. If you drive 30K miles, however, your hybrid will probably offset the additional resources to manufacture in five years, and you will probably reap enough fuel savings to offset the hybrid financial costs in three years. So, for most people, hybrids are not smart money. You're better off getting a small diesel and getting 50+mpg. Besides, you don't save all that much fuel going from 35mpg to 45mpg combined.
I DO support the development of hybrid SUVs and large pickups, because going from 10mpg to 15mpg is a 50% improvement in economy, or going from 10mpg to 20mpg is a 100% improvement in economy. Instead of trying to push personal cars into impossibly-tighter emissions and economy standards, which cannot be attained without significantly lightening the cars by foregoing safety equipment like the European econoboxes do, we should be focused on the vehicles that really guzzle gas; Road tractors (often incorrectly called "semis"), large pickups, large SUVs, etc. - a LOT can be done to improve fuel mileage on all of those, and it doesn't even have to reduce utility or capacity. In fact, if implemented correctly, hybrid technology can actually increase hauling capacity when needed. However, if Congress has any business at all in setting fuel economy standards, it should focus on netting 50% and 100% savings on fuel consumption where it really goes to waste, and not putting the smack down on the little guy to net a 3% savings on a drop in the bucket.
The problem with environmentalists is NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) and BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone): any time a new natural gas or propane depot is proposed (cleaner than oil, coal, gasoline, etc.) the enviro-nazis oppose it. Any time a solar farm is propoosed, enviro-nazis opppose it because it might upset a scorpion or two and a family of rattlesnakes. Any time a wind farm is proposed (such as Cape Wind/Nantucket Sound Wind Farm), enviro-nazis oppose it and block it for years on the ground that someday some stupid seagull might fly into it and die. Any time a clean nuclear plant is proposed, it gets knocked down. At the same time, these self-same environazis want us to stop using oil NOW, and to use alternative energy.
Therein lies the problem: we WANT to use alternative energy, and any time anyone tries to actually provide it on any kind of practical, usable scale that will make a difference, the same idiots who want us off oil NOW oppose the clean energy with NIMBY and BANANA. I'm sorry, but there is no magic pixie dust. Want us off oil? Guess what? Without magic pixie dust, we need to build nukes, wind, and solar power plants in order to get off oil. You cannot have one without the other, and if the only alternative is that we go back to living in tents, I suggest that the Al Gore types and all of his disciples take the lead and live a couple of harsh winters in tents, then if it works out well for you, we'll all follow your example.
Until then, either stuff it, or come to some sort of happy medium and work with conservationists who actually want to limit the use of oil and get us to that point by implementing the technologies that can replace it.
Getting rid of cars isn't going to do it. Mass transit sucks. Cutting fuel consumption in passenger c
In highly sealed buildings they actually need to install air exchangers due to indoor air pollution. Remember: synthetics (carpet, formica, your freezer and rerigerator) outgas, mold grows (I don't care HOW much you clean, if you live in a region where humidity resembles a steam room you WILL get mold), people sneeze, insects and other wild creatures (small rodents, etc.) will find or make a way into your home and they pollute. All mammals, including people, shed. Cooking creates pollutants (oils, soot, etc.) and so forth.
So, in a modern semi-airtight building you need an air exchanger. Check this out:
Slashdot Mirror
You forgot 3) but they don't neglect fixing holes in the activation process, even if they end up creating false alerts and block activation of legitimate IDs.
I am so sick of blue LEDs. The brick for my Precision m6400 has one of those and it drives me nuts at night because it is far too bright. Why is it every time someone puts a blue LED in a power indicator they use super bright LEDs? (I'm referring to you, Dell, and you, HP!) or power switch (the brightly-lit blue button on my printer) It really annoys me so I usually paint over the blue LEDs with blue or purple nail polish to cut the brightness way, way down. I haven't done that to the m6400 yet - I either put a cloth over the table or unplug it, but I really need to. It's really obnoxiously bright. At least if the indicator were on the brick I could just turn the brick over to eliminate the annoyance. But NOOO,
I like blue LEDs. I really do. I just hate that like the blink tag, HDR imagery, and vocoder abuse, they are just way, way overdone. Want to use a blue LED? Great. Make it a sane brightness please. That's all I ask.
There are so many things lighting up my bedroom at night it's sometimes hard to fall asleep. I disconnected my A/V receiver to eliminate that light, have the rarely-used VCRs unplugged, and my DVD recorder's and blu-ray player's display brightness turned down as low as they will go. I have most of the LEDs in my mini-tower PC chassis disconnected, and am thinking of soldering resistors in series with the remaining LEDs. Before I upgraded to a laser optical mouse, I had painted the front of my IntelliMouse with purple nail polish to block the massive amount of light it shines.
As far as "power at the end of the wire" is concerned - you can tell when the laptop is on and charging, or if the laptop won't power up, use a volt meter. It really is that easy! Besides, those power supply connectors have been gaining a reputation for falling apart.
What I would like to see is better placement of power connectors - or if vendors could get Apple to license their mag-safe connector, to use that, and have multiple power ports on the laptop.
If Apple will not license mag-safe
I'm putting an option out for free use. Because it is suggested here out in the open it is prior art so it cannot legally be patented. On the bright side this means that those vendors who adopt it don't have to pay licensing fees.
Anyway, you could have a connector with a pinout similar to Apple's design. However their key innovation is magnetism. How about a couple of very small nubs at either end of the connector, which have a sphere on the end. The receiving jack has e-clips in the holes/slots which will hold the connector snugly enough that it will remain connected when picking up the laptop, but if you trip over the cable, the tension will be low enough that the cable will release. It's a mechanical lock but designed so that the retainer clips have only enough tension to hold the connector in place during normal use - and the reason I suggested slots was it would allow freedom of movement during a violent shock (tripping over the cable), allowing it to release without hanging up on the receiving hole. It would be self-centering by shaping of the rail which comprises the connector itselt; it could be a pyramid or trapezoidal shape with the connectors running down either side. Also, this connector may have a nice blingbling blue LED but it has to be a sane brightness; it should not be a flood light that keeps me awake at night.
I dislike pretty much everything the Obama administration is doing, but I have to say that here the simplest answer is most likely the correct one.
I think the no-fly zone (which applies only to flight levels below 3000') is more likely to prevent mid-air collisions from casual sightseers getting in the way of coast card and BP aircraft, and from every inattentive rubbernecking pilot who just wants to go check it out. It may require a bit more intelligence to get a flight certificate than a driver's license, but common sense and intelligence are all too often independent from one another.
I agree. Copyright is intended to provide protection for a LIMITED DURATION in order to encourage creation of more public domain works. The way copyright works today is totally insane.
However in the case this article points to, the artist is still alive and kicking, and politely asking people to respect his copyright. Right or wrong, copyright law is what it is today. We do need to change it but the only way we are going to do it is a total revolution; either by the vote and stop obsessively reelecting the same fucks we have in office, and replace them with people who realize that the Constitution does mean what it says, and who recognize that the making of a true leader is a willing servant.
Really? Have you ever written staff notation, or plotted it out in cakewalk, rosegarden, etc? Sure you can use a MIDI keyboard for some of the work but you're not going to use the generated MIDI file for the final product; you will be tweaking the notation by hand - quite a bit. It does take days to weeks of editing. Some musical works have taken much longer.
It's not even just the "editing" - it's composing. That's what composers do. Take Beethoven's 9th symphony; that work is the result of six years' worth of "editing" as you put it.
You are a programmer/developer, right? So, can I say all you do is "edit code?" Even better, I could say all you do is "push buttons" in the right order and don't deserve more than minimum wage for your unskilled labor. That of course ignores all of the architecting/engineering you have to put into it, and it belittles your talent, just as you belittle the composers.
Does that put it in perspective?
Not really. Layer effects, easy to use macro functionality and droplets are huge areas where Photoshop is vastly superior. You can duplicate that in script-fu but undo and tweaking of those effects in photoshop is a few clicks, and usually a single step to back up and proceed forward through to achieve minor tweaks whereas in gimp it might be 30 steps to get back to where you want it to be.
Gimp can do a heck of a lot but it's not a true Photoshop replacement yet.
fwiw, I used to get a consistently great signal until a few weeks ago. AT&T did something to mess up their network because I consistently get -97 to -101 or lower around the Boston area, and it gets better as I get further from the city.
IOS 3./1/3, baseband 5.12.01
My roommate's iPhone 3G is even worse - I don't know the dBm (her phone is vanilla - no jailbreak) and went down the tubes around the same time, so I know it's not my phone.
Why not just get a stronger smart phone that goes to 5?
A BB gun I wanted got banned because it was "scary looking" and semi-automatic. :(
A BB gun, Banning a BB gun as an assault rifle. Ridiculous.
Wrong. The Constitution does not grant citizens any rights. ALL rights are assumed to be wholly enjoyed by citizens. What the Constitution does is grant some specific rights to the government, and places hard-line restrictions against any laws which might infringe on certain rights; such as freedom of worship (thus, any law allowing or preventing marriage is unconstitutional), restriction of the freedom of the press (speech), barring the right to assemble (free speech zones, anyone? permits, anyone?), bearing of arms (no assault weapons, anyone? I'd say that is an infringement), no search and siezure without probable cause unless you have a warrant (homeland security theater and patriot act, anyone?)
Don't worry a lot of people get it backwards and don't understand that ALL rights are retained by Citizens except where specifically granted to the government by the Constitution.
Idiot: "Hi, Microsoft? Yes, your mouse says to insert the batteries any way, so I put the ends in first then they just fall over. So, I used a hammer to drive the battery in like a nail, but when I put the mouse on the table, it's standing up on it's legs."
Phone grunt (located in India): "Yes please it is being my pleasure to assist you. Did you say your mouse has legs? Sir, that is a rodent. We do not sell real mice. We are selling computer mice."
Idiot: "No this mouse says Microsoft on it, and I can't get the legs in."
Phone grunt: "Okay I am being pleased to assist you. Could you please be describing the legs?"
Idiot: "they're gold and black and say duracell."
Phone grunt: "Sir, I am not understanding how that can be. Were you properly inserting the batteries?"
Idiot: "Yes, the label said any way but they would not go in the way I tried so I used a bigger hammer."
More like (-1, Offtopic)if you insist on wasting points to mod down but if posted in the iPhone discussion, (5, Insightful)
That is an excellent and probably the very best possible solution.
I hope in the instance of the Apple iPhone4 class action suit, Apple quickly pushes out a redesign of the case (why can't the case be a clear polymer with black and metallic inserts, so the antennae are at least insulated from shorts?) and issues field replacement units to stores, and issues a recall. The cost would be fairly minimal relative to the amount of GOOD PR Apple will gain by providing the sort of customer care they purport to provide. They're known for stellar customer service, but the reality is, as proven by defective Mac Pro power supplies, a 52%+ failure rate of Macbook Pros (a few years back, as you experienced firsthand), crappy iMacs (the old round pieces of turd), and now, an iPhone which doesn't live up to its primary advertised purpose, they give crappy customer service.
Now is the opportunity to live up to their claim and allow iPhone4 exchanges for new iPhone4 units with redesigned cases, or to issue FRU kits to the Apple stores and replace the cases for free. Yes, it will cost labor, but it will strengthen customer loyalty and help to increase market share.
Steve Jobs' response is absurd at best, especially when the ads show the iPhone being held exactly how he says not to. Who DOESN'T hold a phone like that, except for headset users?
In some states you have (n) days to return any purchased item for any reason - even items sold "as-is."
Then the whole value (for a lot of Apple fans) is completely lost because the phone won't be so stylish anymore. Even for those who value functionality, a bit of value is lost because a slim phone/pocket-sized unix box is now a bulky POS. Why not buy an Android phone instead?
My iPhone? I like Apple's software but I am no Apple fan (I like to be brand-agnostic - someone else always has a better solution sooner or later). I had a case on my iPhone but now it's bare and has quite a few scratches. I got a scratch on the new scratch-resistant phone four days after buying the phone (scratched on a diamond earring - I babied the phone up to then and didn't give holding it up to my ear a second thought). Since then, I haven't been overly worried about scratching it, since the screen is scratched.
I do have it in a charging sleeve about half the time but unfortunately the sleeve does affect reception so I only put the battery in when it's low.
Why pay for a root-issued certificate when a self-signed one will do perfectly well when it's a known-safe server accessed only by a few authorised users? Just click through the "add exception" or "install certificate" dialog and be done with it.
Uh, No ASCAP, RIAA, MPAAA, and BSA. If you read the Constitution of the United States of America, you will instantly recognize that the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act undermines Copyright.
What is the purpose of copyright? To encourage artists to create more useful arts which after a limited monopoly turn over to the public domain.
By encouraging creative commons and similar licensing schemes, the original intent of Copyright as defined in the Constitution is actually being fulfilled.
My iPhone's tray is six icons wide, you insensitive clod!
I'd like to invite you to check out the lynx and links web browsers.
The problem with MSIE6 is that it adds nonstandard extensions to HTML and CSS, does not (natively) support the full PNG spec, it is pathetically insecure, it adds padding to certain HTML elements in a lot of situations where everybody else assumes padding=0 so by making a web page in standard HTML/XHTML that looks gorgeous in every single other web browser will be horribly broken in MSIE6.
MSIE7 and MSIE8 have progressively gotten a TON better but they still don't handle broken pages gracefully (see the acid3 test) and will still degrade to MSIE6 compatibility mode, encouraging corporate web developers to be lazy and keep things as-is.
Now, as far as "fancy effects" go - those "fancy effects" led to the possibility of google docs, web-based photoshop elements replacements, online banking that doesn't take weeks to navigate (do you have an AmEx account? Log into your account on AmEx and you will see online commerce done right), and even legal free and low-cost on-demand video programming, and online classes. It also allowed for the building of "community" web sites that made the whole world a lot smaller, connecting people from nearly every nation.
It also allows us to research products better before we buy, so when companies post their products online they can post a LOT more detail than they ever did in printed brochures, and you can educate yourself so that salespeople who nothing about the product beyond what their commission is won't steer you wrong.
You can stick to the web as it was circa 1997. I'll take today's "web 2.0" (wait, did I just say web 2.0?), thankyouverymuch. And, I'll be very happy using non-Microsoft browsers.
Overpopulation? Are you kidding, Phil?
Have you EVER driven or flown cross country (flying will drive the point home better - make sure you get a window seat and look out the window), or at least fired up Google Earth? "overpopulation" is a myth perpetuated by city dwellers who live in the equivalent of ant farms; for some reason people tend to flock together and cram houses and apartments together such that they're living like sardines packed in a can.
The Earth feels overpopulated only because you live in a densely populated area and never leave densely populated areas so that illusion is maintained. The Earth is actually very sparsely populated. If you spend your entire life in, say, between southern New England and Washington DC and never venture more than a few miles from the highways then sure, it might seem overpopulated. But, even over these northeastern states, you will see pockets of populated areas and vast regions between that are completely unpopulated. Some is farm land, some is reserves, but a lot of it is just untouched because land developers haven't decided that it's yet worthwhile to develop.
Heck even fly over just Massachusetts - you will see that once you get a few miles away from routes 93 or 95/128, or a more than a couple miles from the coast on the "south shore," it quickly becomes sparsely populated, rural land.
The Earth is far from overpopulated. Certain regions (cities) become grossly over-developed and are maintained/managed poorly, lending false credence to the idea that the Earth is overpopulated - and then there is poverty, which is not an indicator of overpopulation but of greed which is an inherent aspect of human nature, where pissant tyrants feel the need to exercise their quest for power/control over poor people, and limit their access to food and water. The problem is not overpopulation, but human nature.
Let someone else make the sacrifice
Do as I say, not as I do
Build it in someone else's back yard
Don't build it if it might disturb an ant
Go live in tents rather than energy-hungry homes (you say, as you live in your multi-million-square-foot mansion with your fleet of SUVs parked outside - yes I am alluding to both Al Gore and John Kerry- two self-proclaimed environmentalists who want YOU and I to give up everything but will sacrifice nothing themselves)
etc.
Overpopulation does not exist. Period.
You didn't read, obviously. Air exchangers will recover about 90% of the heat from the air it exchanges. A window will not do that. Maybe you missed it but the topic here is regarding HVAC efficiency, and opening a window is not a solution, whether your HVAC is moving heat into or out of the structure.
I can't be the only one who is sick and tired of smug-emitting environmentalists.
As a conservationist, I find environmentalism offensive, and here's why: I support wind power. I support nuclear power. I support solar power. I support installation of generators in incinerators, and also would support investigation into building turbines into oil and gas fired central heating furnaces, to recoup as much of the energy as possible from the fossil fuels we do use.
I do not support hybrids for drivers of small econoboxes, because when you are a city dweller driving only 12K miles or fewer per year, you will not offset the additional resources needed to manufacture your hybrid over a conventional econobox - and what's more, you won't be saving any money either. If you drive 30K miles, however, your hybrid will probably offset the additional resources to manufacture in five years, and you will probably reap enough fuel savings to offset the hybrid financial costs in three years. So, for most people, hybrids are not smart money. You're better off getting a small diesel and getting 50+mpg. Besides, you don't save all that much fuel going from 35mpg to 45mpg combined.
I DO support the development of hybrid SUVs and large pickups, because going from 10mpg to 15mpg is a 50% improvement in economy, or going from 10mpg to 20mpg is a 100% improvement in economy. Instead of trying to push personal cars into impossibly-tighter emissions and economy standards, which cannot be attained without significantly lightening the cars by foregoing safety equipment like the European econoboxes do, we should be focused on the vehicles that really guzzle gas; Road tractors (often incorrectly called "semis"), large pickups, large SUVs, etc. - a LOT can be done to improve fuel mileage on all of those, and it doesn't even have to reduce utility or capacity. In fact, if implemented correctly, hybrid technology can actually increase hauling capacity when needed. However, if Congress has any business at all in setting fuel economy standards, it should focus on netting 50% and 100% savings on fuel consumption where it really goes to waste, and not putting the smack down on the little guy to net a 3% savings on a drop in the bucket.
The problem with environmentalists is NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) and BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone): any time a new natural gas or propane depot is proposed (cleaner than oil, coal, gasoline, etc.) the enviro-nazis oppose it. Any time a solar farm is propoosed, enviro-nazis opppose it because it might upset a scorpion or two and a family of rattlesnakes. Any time a wind farm is proposed (such as Cape Wind/Nantucket Sound Wind Farm), enviro-nazis oppose it and block it for years on the ground that someday some stupid seagull might fly into it and die. Any time a clean nuclear plant is proposed, it gets knocked down. At the same time, these self-same environazis want us to stop using oil NOW, and to use alternative energy.
Therein lies the problem: we WANT to use alternative energy, and any time anyone tries to actually provide it on any kind of practical, usable scale that will make a difference, the same idiots who want us off oil NOW oppose the clean energy with NIMBY and BANANA. I'm sorry, but there is no magic pixie dust. Want us off oil? Guess what? Without magic pixie dust, we need to build nukes, wind, and solar power plants in order to get off oil. You cannot have one without the other, and if the only alternative is that we go back to living in tents, I suggest that the Al Gore types and all of his disciples take the lead and live a couple of harsh winters in tents, then if it works out well for you, we'll all follow your example.
Until then, either stuff it, or come to some sort of happy medium and work with conservationists who actually want to limit the use of oil and get us to that point by implementing the technologies that can replace it.
Getting rid of cars isn't going to do it. Mass transit sucks. Cutting fuel consumption in passenger c
Shatner will boldly go where no Canuck has gone before?
In highly sealed buildings they actually need to install air exchangers due to indoor air pollution. Remember: synthetics (carpet, formica, your freezer and rerigerator) outgas, mold grows (I don't care HOW much you clean, if you live in a region where humidity resembles a steam room you WILL get mold), people sneeze, insects and other wild creatures (small rodents, etc.) will find or make a way into your home and they pollute. All mammals, including people, shed. Cooking creates pollutants (oils, soot, etc.) and so forth.
So, in a modern semi-airtight building you need an air exchanger. Check this out:
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/ia-intro.html
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/is-imprv.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_exchanger
Decreasing radius ramps and switchbacks in the mountains are always fun! Don't use brakes - heel-toe through those! :)