The very reason that there is such a shortage of food in many developing countries is because of people donating food, and making it uneconomical to farm. Of course this isn't the case everywhere, but particularly in developing Africa it's a major issue. The best way to keep those countries in bad shape is by preventing them from being able to create their own economy.
I don't think there's that big of a laptop industry being suppressed in Gabon, so I have no issue with sending them laptops.
I agree with your point, but I think this is a lot more serious, and bad news for us consumers. I feel like AMD/ATI haven't been giving Intel/nVidia the trouble that they did just a couple years ago, and the performance race that I so enjoyed is over. This just makes things worse.
Oh well. At least I can buy a computer now and it won't be outdated for a bit longer.
The telescope could then continue doing science well into the next decade.
Doing science. Now that's what I'm talking about. You give them space robots some more tools, keep em up there with them gadgets, lookin at the moon and whatnot. That's how progress gets done.
Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin, etc... they all do have a purpose, but the people who post their lives up there, and spend an hour every day making their page look...trashy... that's the norm, unfortunately.
Despite my above post, I DO actually recommend having a facebook, and myspace account (haven't used linkedin), created with a junk email address. I check the sites about once a month, and every so often I actually am contacted by a friend from the past, or someone from school wanting to get in touch with me.
As long as you distance yourself from them, they're handy. It's the people who try to pass them off as legitimate mainstream communication who are either hindering themselves, or as another poster said, 14 years old and were just allowed on the net.
The only time I ever do this is when I don't actually want someone to get ahold of me. Facebook makes a nice intermediary, especially if they're just going to send me messages or write on my wall where I can easily ignore them.
At my university, this doesn't fly for legitimate communications. Facebook is quickly gaining on myspace for the electronic embodiment of tackiness. A phone call is best, an instant message has the benefit of being...well...instant. Even email works. A message on Facebook is like a Fisher Price email.
I don't buy the social networking argument either. Facebook is great if you want a huge number of 'friends' to show off, or really want to give someone a 'pet duck' or 'sixpack of beer'. It's not bad to get a glimpse at what someone might be like based on a profile, but the usefulness pretty much ends there. I've never had a physical relationship that involved sending a 'super poke' (at least not on facebook), or formed a business connection by sending someone a virtual 'small box with a hole in it'.
Of course your mileage may differ, and I'm getting ready to graduate, so the freshman crowd may see things differently, but particularly with the direction that facebook is heading, anyone who uses it as a serious means of communication is just hindering themselves.
The whole thing is a big disappointment really. First Earth was going to be done in one day. Then 2. After numerous delays, they finally released Earth after 7 days. And all that waiting for what? It's slow, the interface is horrible, and don't even get me started on security. This is supposed to be a 'next-gen existence', and after all that waiting, we get this? I bet for Heaven all they do is switch the colors and make 3rd party addons like clothes harder to use. You guys are free to do what you want, but I'm switching to Buddhism.
I don't think Geek Squad has such a shining reputation that this is a good defense for the Net Neutrality Squad's choice of name. From what I've heard from personal word of mouth, even 'normal people' don't have the best successes with Geek Squad. And then we all know the exceptional stories, like the guy who was collecting porn off of each client he visited.
I'd let 'Squad' rest a few more years. In the mean time, there are lots of other options.
I don't understand how this answers GP's question. If Paco Akbar is issued a drivers license and gets insurance, how is that a problem? He still doesn't have a social security number, so he's still not a citizen, and if he runs into me, I get my bills taken care of just like if he was anybody else.
What is a driver's license used for that this is going to be a problem with? They're allowed to buy liquor, right?
I can totally relate. I'd been doing pretty well working as a consultant for the last 10 years, and I'd saved up a lot of money under my mattress, then one day, my house burned down, and all the money was gone, and I mean GONE, nothing even a bit was there. After that horrible accident I walked into the woods, and just sawed down every tree I could find, and squirrels too. Never, never I would even consider a house made of wood again.
But seriously. That does suck about the videos. Even though you should have backed them up, and not just blame Apple, I feel your pain.
IANAL, obviously, but now that this case has been presented, and a decision made, doesn't that open the door for other people getting their money back without going to court, or trial, whatever? So thanks to this one person paying the legal fees, other people can just do a 'same thing, gimme the cash' type deal?
Gimme the cash... I think my ignorance might be showing.
It is like offering customers a chance to save money by not even using checked luggage...
Ah, just like how prices went down when the airlines stopped serving meals onboard;) If they were offering a discount for not using checked luggage, I might buy your argument, and it's possible they will do so, but I highly doubt it. It could also be argued that by only raising prices for people who want to get their luggage in a timely manner, they are actually giving a discount to the other customers by not increasing their prices to adjust for inflation, but if any business I used tried to pull that, I'd drop them like a baby.
And why can't I sacrifice decent service for cheaper prices?
I find this argument a little hard to believe. Do you really do this? Service is about the only thing I'll pay extra for. I shop at Kroger, and pay a little more, because the employees are nicer, and the checkout is generally faster. On the airlines I feel like that's a rather extreme argument. The only service they have is poor, and you're willing to pay less to get an even lower level of service? Like, "Fly anywhere for $100, but your luggage will be lost, you'll have to wait all night in the airport to actually get on a plane, after that you'll have to wait on the runway for 7 hours, and the flight attendants all have gas."
I'm lucky enough to have been able to stop giving my business to the airlines years ago, so either way...
I've been using Gmail since the early days, but I've only used ~300MB. If someone sends me a photo I want to keep, I put it in my photo library. If someone sends a video, it goes into the video library. Documents go into one of a number of document folders. If I didn't do this, I think I'd probably be near, if not over, the limit.
Just keep things neat and organized, and use email to store email, and the current limits shouldn't be a real problem. At least that's my experience. People who reach their limit store ungodly amounts of junk they'll never need again. Or are way more extreme than me. Like Parent.
I'm actually quite the apple fan, which is exactly why I hope they get trounced in court over this. I feel that all these comments lately about Apple becoming the next Microsoft are a little exaggerated, but if Apple gets smacked and put back in their place by a judgment like this, it will stop the problem before it becomes too serious.
Send Apple a message: 'No, this isn't going to work.' and let them rethink their strategy.
Of course, it's too late for me. I already went with another option instead of the iPhone. Maybe next version.
When will they focus on usability and speed rather than adding features
I have to agree with you there. While I think 2.3 is actually an improvement in look and usability over recent previous versions, it doesn't seem to be a real change in focus.
After recently fooling around with both OpenOffice 2.3 and Microsoft Office 2007, I ditched both in favor of Pages on Mac, and Google Docs on everything else. I'm sure there are a whole lot of people who need more features than either of these provide (particularly google docs), but for me, the less bloat I have to look at and wait for, the better.
I think there's still some work to be done in the OOo community before usability is properly addressed. No rush here though.
Great article. Way to make a big deal out of nothing. I used to work for a university's IT department, and we'd accidentally block and delete stuff all the time. This entire thing is blown way out of proportion.
220,000,000 pixels, 55 tiles, puts the pixels per tile at about 4,000,000, so possibly 2560x1600 resolution on each tile. Looking at the image it appears they just stuck 55 LCD monitors together, so it's probably really not that big of a deal to replace a single tile. It doesn't look like they even bothered to remove or replace the monitor casing, since there are thick black borders in between each 'tile'.
While the processing and real-time displaying of images on these giant screens is pretty sweet, and a cool achievement, the display hardware itself should be a weekend diy for anyone who can foot the bill for 55 HD flat panels.
So yeah. 4 pixels per display. And I need to see the original receipt. This is a copy. No, I understand that this is a copy, but the policy says I need to see the original. Look, I don't make the rules. I would get my manager, but she's going to tell you the same thing. Well she's on lunch, so you can't talk to her right now.
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This is not a hard point to argue.
The very reason that there is such a shortage of food in many developing countries is because of people donating food, and making it uneconomical to farm. Of course this isn't the case everywhere, but particularly in developing Africa it's a major issue. The best way to keep those countries in bad shape is by preventing them from being able to create their own economy.
I don't think there's that big of a laptop industry being suppressed in Gabon, so I have no issue with sending them laptops.
I agree with your point, but I think this is a lot more serious, and bad news for us consumers. I feel like AMD/ATI haven't been giving Intel/nVidia the trouble that they did just a couple years ago, and the performance race that I so enjoyed is over. This just makes things worse.
Oh well. At least I can buy a computer now and it won't be outdated for a bit longer.
Despite my above post, I DO actually recommend having a facebook, and myspace account (haven't used linkedin), created with a junk email address. I check the sites about once a month, and every so often I actually am contacted by a friend from the past, or someone from school wanting to get in touch with me.
As long as you distance yourself from them, they're handy. It's the people who try to pass them off as legitimate mainstream communication who are either hindering themselves, or as another poster said, 14 years old and were just allowed on the net.
At my university, this doesn't fly for legitimate communications. Facebook is quickly gaining on myspace for the electronic embodiment of tackiness. A phone call is best, an instant message has the benefit of being...well...instant. Even email works. A message on Facebook is like a Fisher Price email.
I don't buy the social networking argument either. Facebook is great if you want a huge number of 'friends' to show off, or really want to give someone a 'pet duck' or 'sixpack of beer'. It's not bad to get a glimpse at what someone might be like based on a profile, but the usefulness pretty much ends there. I've never had a physical relationship that involved sending a 'super poke' (at least not on facebook), or formed a business connection by sending someone a virtual 'small box with a hole in it'.
Of course your mileage may differ, and I'm getting ready to graduate, so the freshman crowd may see things differently, but particularly with the direction that facebook is heading, anyone who uses it as a serious means of communication is just hindering themselves.
GP is right.
The whole thing is a big disappointment really. First Earth was going to be done in one day. Then 2. After numerous delays, they finally released Earth after 7 days. And all that waiting for what? It's slow, the interface is horrible, and don't even get me started on security. This is supposed to be a 'next-gen existence', and after all that waiting, we get this? I bet for Heaven all they do is switch the colors and make 3rd party addons like clothes harder to use. You guys are free to do what you want, but I'm switching to Buddhism.
I'm really surprised that there are so many joke comments to this, and not more posts where people are upset that this is passing for news at /.
Thank you. That was the first thing I thought after reading this as well. I base very few of my decisions in life on monkey-m&m choices.
I'd let 'Squad' rest a few more years. In the mean time, there are lots of other options.
I don't understand how this answers GP's question. If Paco Akbar is issued a drivers license and gets insurance, how is that a problem? He still doesn't have a social security number, so he's still not a citizen, and if he runs into me, I get my bills taken care of just like if he was anybody else.
What is a driver's license used for that this is going to be a problem with? They're allowed to buy liquor, right?
I can totally relate. I'd been doing pretty well working as a consultant for the last 10 years, and I'd saved up a lot of money under my mattress, then one day, my house burned down, and all the money was gone, and I mean GONE, nothing even a bit was there. After that horrible accident I walked into the woods, and just sawed down every tree I could find, and squirrels too. Never, never I would even consider a house made of wood again.
But seriously. That does suck about the videos. Even though you should have backed them up, and not just blame Apple, I feel your pain.
IANAL, obviously, but now that this case has been presented, and a decision made, doesn't that open the door for other people getting their money back without going to court, or trial, whatever? So thanks to this one person paying the legal fees, other people can just do a 'same thing, gimme the cash' type deal?
Gimme the cash... I think my ignorance might be showing.
If they were offering a discount for not using checked luggage, I might buy your argument, and it's possible they will do so, but I highly doubt it. It could also be argued that by only raising prices for people who want to get their luggage in a timely manner, they are actually giving a discount to the other customers by not increasing their prices to adjust for inflation, but if any business I used tried to pull that, I'd drop them like a baby.
I find this argument a little hard to believe. Do you really do this? Service is about the only thing I'll pay extra for. I shop at Kroger, and pay a little more, because the employees are nicer, and the checkout is generally faster. On the airlines I feel like that's a rather extreme argument. The only service they have is poor, and you're willing to pay less to get an even lower level of service? Like, "Fly anywhere for $100, but your luggage will be lost, you'll have to wait all night in the airport to actually get on a plane, after that you'll have to wait on the runway for 7 hours, and the flight attendants all have gas."
I'm lucky enough to have been able to stop giving my business to the airlines years ago, so either way...
You, sir, are totally awesome.
I've been using Gmail since the early days, but I've only used ~300MB. If someone sends me a photo I want to keep, I put it in my photo library. If someone sends a video, it goes into the video library. Documents go into one of a number of document folders. If I didn't do this, I think I'd probably be near, if not over, the limit.
Just keep things neat and organized, and use email to store email, and the current limits shouldn't be a real problem. At least that's my experience. People who reach their limit store ungodly amounts of junk they'll never need again. Or are way more extreme than me. Like Parent.
I'm actually quite the apple fan, which is exactly why I hope they get trounced in court over this. I feel that all these comments lately about Apple becoming the next Microsoft are a little exaggerated, but if Apple gets smacked and put back in their place by a judgment like this, it will stop the problem before it becomes too serious.
Send Apple a message: 'No, this isn't going to work.' and let them rethink their strategy.
Of course, it's too late for me. I already went with another option instead of the iPhone. Maybe next version.
[bun] [meat] [cheese] [lettuce] [tomato] [pickle] [bun]
After recently fooling around with both OpenOffice 2.3 and Microsoft Office 2007, I ditched both in favor of Pages on Mac, and Google Docs on everything else. I'm sure there are a whole lot of people who need more features than either of these provide (particularly google docs), but for me, the less bloat I have to look at and wait for, the better.
I think there's still some work to be done in the OOo community before usability is properly addressed. No rush here though.
You can't blame people for being excited about new ways to kill each other.
Great article. Way to make a big deal out of nothing. I used to work for a university's IT department, and we'd accidentally block and delete stuff all the time. This entire thing is blown way out of proportion.
220,000,000 pixels, 55 tiles, puts the pixels per tile at about 4,000,000, so possibly 2560x1600 resolution on each tile. Looking at the image it appears they just stuck 55 LCD monitors together, so it's probably really not that big of a deal to replace a single tile. It doesn't look like they even bothered to remove or replace the monitor casing, since there are thick black borders in between each 'tile'.
While the processing and real-time displaying of images on these giant screens is pretty sweet, and a cool achievement, the display hardware itself should be a weekend diy for anyone who can foot the bill for 55 HD flat panels.
So yeah. 4 pixels per display. And I need to see the original receipt. This is a copy. No, I understand that this is a copy, but the policy says I need to see the original. Look, I don't make the rules. I would get my manager, but she's going to tell you the same thing. Well she's on lunch, so you can't talk to her right now.