The Nano looks great: - Flash memory (won't break like a HDD) - Great UI - Small and light
My only gripe with the Nano would be that I can't replace the battery. Apple's replacement programs don't count. My Creative MuVo is probably the same size or smaller, and I can replace its battery.
Less clutter - compliance with W3C standards, and a site that looks more like Google than Yahoo.
Organised job descriptions - rather than just a big gob of text for each job, I want to see separate fields filled in. Some fields that come to mind are: name of employer, country, city, town/suburb, phone number, email address, position name, job description, required attributes for candidates, desirable attributes for candidates, level of experience required, expected salary as a range. There are probably others, too.
No company logos or other images.
A good search tool that allows users to search based on pretty much all of the fields that employers are required to fill.
There is no doubt this podcast became so popular because it was provided at no cost to the listeners. Throwing advertising in is probably not going to lose them any listeners, but charging for the podcast is obviously going to cost them a lot of listeners. Maybe they'll have enough for it to still be worthwhile for them, but they could probably be making more money.
People are more generous when they are voluntarily donating money, and if you provide something that is so good that it makes people fall in love with it, they will donate regularly. This can probably work best with music. I know good music would compel me to donate.
Read my post. I acknowledged that it has the ability to play songs in sequential order, but THAT IS NOT ENOUGH! It needs to have multiple playlists.
I couldn't get through more than (roughly) one song per second, because the damn thing thought I was trying to skip ahead in the same song if I pressed the button too quickly.... and yes, I've touched one. I owned one for a few months (the Apple website made it sound like it could have multiple playlists) before selling it on eBay to get a (smaller, but with a screen!) Creative MuVo. The MuVo doesn't have as good sound quality, but I found the iPod Shuffle almost useless.
It can store about 200 - 300 songs, but there is no way to read the name of the current song or skip ahead more than one song at a time! (unless you want to randomly skip through them and hope you get close, but even then, you need to memorise your playlist...)
I reckon the iPod Shuffle is pretty damn strange. Listen to up to 1 GB of songs, but never know what you're listening to!... and never be able to skip through songs at a rate of more than 1 per second!... and skip through them only randomly, or in sequential order, no playlists!... I've since sold my iPod Shuffle on eBay. (incidentally, for the same price I bought it, with my student discount)
In my books, when anyone does it, it's bloody crazy.
Most people don't care about individual freedom, though. The government only ever fails individuals, not any sizable portion of the population. Unfortunately, most people don't really give a shit about something that they perceive can't happen to them.
Email them to ask. We all know the answer will probably be 'no', but by asking you are showing them that they have just lost a customer because they do not support any operating system other than Windows.
If enough people email them to ask, they will start supporting Linux.
I don't see why they should bother spacing out the scolding from the unreasonable invasion into their citizens' privacy, though. They spy on their own citizens, just the same as the Chinese do, and that's been in and out of the news within a couple of weeks. They got away with it so easily that it seems they can get away with anything.
After all, who is going to stop them? No one can, until election time.
Furthermore, on most issues, Google's interests are the same as the public's interests. This is a good thing. For once, little people have a big giant ally.
I'm not suggesting Google wouldn't turn against our interests if it suited them, just that there is currently a nice coincidence where the interests match up. They even pay people $1 for each person they refer to Firefox! (and they get to include their Google Toolbar with it)
There are certain areas where this doesn't apply, though. Google in China is something that people are not too sure about. Google Video DRM is evil.
The Dreamcast was Sega. They screwed up all of their consoles after Genesis/MegaDrive. That said, I think Sega deserved better. Their consoles did have some pretty fun games on them. Still, some sort of Sega curse prevented them from being successful anytime after 1996.:)
Why must they call them "hacks" when it is really just a collection of "how-to"s. I suppose some people would be more likely to buy the book if they do that, but surely there must be people like me who see it as a gimmick?
The only way I see this being useful is if it searches comments/code descriptions.
Imagine searching for "if( x == 5 )". It would be useless to search code. Searching comments and returning code as a results would probably be better, since something like "bubble sort" would then have a chance of bringing up what you want.
Also seems like it's a program, not a website. Not sure whether that's good or bad. I could go either way, I suppose.
I don't want wireless devices, I want wireless plugs!
I want a USB plug that will transmit wirelessly to another USB plug. I want audio plugs that connect without wires to other audio plugs. In this way, all of my devices that were previously "wired" devices can become wireless devices.
I realise that timing of data might be an issue for USB. There are still lots of types of plugs that this could be done for, though. (TV analog plugs also come to mind)
You're right. Whenever I (and I imagine everyone else) go to Google, it's because I want to find something. I don't want to screw around trying to win a prize, but really want to find what I need immediately.
Whenever I want a prize, though, I'll keep in mind that I could go to MSN and try out some fake searches. (cheaper than a lottery ticket)
Spyware and spam are VERY tough markets. I don't understand see why any company would pick these as methods of marketing. Doing so is effectively making your target market people who are pissed off at you to begin with.
I realise it's cheaper than something like highly targetted Google ads, but targetted marketing attracts people who are actually HAPPY they found your product, and INTERESTED in it. It's an easier and more effective method of marketing. It costs more, but the visitor-to-customer conversion rate is probably so much higher that it's worth ditching spam.
I can't imagine the conversion rate for spam being more than 1 in 10,000 on average. First the piece of spam has to get past (for the vast majority of addresses) GMail/Hotmail's spam filters (seems about a 1 in 50 chance for my GMail account), or some other spam filter that is in place. Supposing it does get into the view of someone's inbox, most can be recognised as spam before they're opened, so maybe a 1-in-10 chance of being opened. If it gets opened, for every person that's actually interested, there must be at least others 1000 who wish they never received it.
(1/50)*(1/10)*(1/1,000) = 1/500,000
One customer for every half a million pieces of spam really isn't that great. I wonder if the companies that use spam as a marketing tool are also being scammed by spam-sending companies. It's possible that spam having any sort of good return on investment is a myth.
I was in London recently, and couldn't get my mind off the poor bugger they shot in the head nine times on the subway, just for running to catch his train. (and then they lied and said he jumped the turnstiles, etc, etc...)
I'm half Indian, but more or less look middle-eastern, so I felt pretty uncomfortable around the subway and stuff. As you pointed out, I wasn't the least bit worried about being blown up by a terrorist (there's a far greater chance of being in a fatal car accident), but I was pretty worried about being assaulted by police.
This has nothing to do with terrorism. "Terrorism" is just the excuse that they are using to implement these laws, in the same way that "piracy and viruses" are the excuses that Microsoft are using to take control of peoples' computers away from them.
The US, Britain and Australia are basically just locking down the world as quickly as they can. I don't think anyone really knows why they are doing this, but the "to stop terrorism" excuse is obviously bullshit. It's unlikely these governments are naive enough to think that these measures will really stop terrorist attacks.
I know these things make it easier for the governments to monitor/control their people, but I don't think that is the full story. There's no reason why a government would really want this much control.
Slashdot Mirror
The Nano looks great:
- Flash memory (won't break like a HDD)
- Great UI
- Small and light
My only gripe with the Nano would be that I can't replace the battery. Apple's replacement programs don't count. My Creative MuVo is probably the same size or smaller, and I can replace its battery.
Sorry, but I believe people will donate you money if you show them good will.
Less clutter - compliance with W3C standards, and a site that looks more like Google than Yahoo.
Organised job descriptions - rather than just a big gob of text for each job, I want to see separate fields filled in. Some fields that come to mind are: name of employer, country, city, town/suburb, phone number, email address, position name, job description, required attributes for candidates, desirable attributes for candidates, level of experience required, expected salary as a range. There are probably others, too.
No company logos or other images.
A good search tool that allows users to search based on pretty much all of the fields that employers are required to fill.
No duplicate listings.
I'd go for advertising and donations.
There is no doubt this podcast became so popular because it was provided at no cost to the listeners. Throwing advertising in is probably not going to lose them any listeners, but charging for the podcast is obviously going to cost them a lot of listeners. Maybe they'll have enough for it to still be worthwhile for them, but they could probably be making more money.
People are more generous when they are voluntarily donating money, and if you provide something that is so good that it makes people fall in love with it, they will donate regularly. This can probably work best with music. I know good music would compel me to donate.
Read my post. I acknowledged that it has the ability to play songs in sequential order, but THAT IS NOT ENOUGH! It needs to have multiple playlists.
... and yes, I've touched one. I owned one for a few months (the Apple website made it sound like it could have multiple playlists) before selling it on eBay to get a (smaller, but with a screen!) Creative MuVo. The MuVo doesn't have as good sound quality, but I found the iPod Shuffle almost useless.
I couldn't get through more than (roughly) one song per second, because the damn thing thought I was trying to skip ahead in the same song if I pressed the button too quickly.
It can store about 200 - 300 songs, but there is no way to read the name of the current song or skip ahead more than one song at a time! (unless you want to randomly skip through them and hope you get close, but even then, you need to memorise your playlist...)
I reckon the iPod Shuffle is pretty damn strange. Listen to up to 1 GB of songs, but never know what you're listening to! ... and never be able to skip through songs at a rate of more than 1 per second! ... and skip through them only randomly, or in sequential order, no playlists! ... I've since sold my iPod Shuffle on eBay. (incidentally, for the same price I bought it, with my student discount)
In my books, when anyone does it, it's bloody crazy.
Most people don't care about individual freedom, though. The government only ever fails individuals, not any sizable portion of the population. Unfortunately, most people don't really give a shit about something that they perceive can't happen to them.
Email them to ask. We all know the answer will probably be 'no', but by asking you are showing them that they have just lost a customer because they do not support any operating system other than Windows.
If enough people email them to ask, they will start supporting Linux.
Why not just get them to give all the money they would have lost on the PS3, to Microsoft?
Good point about the hypocrisy of all this.
I don't see why they should bother spacing out the scolding from the unreasonable invasion into their citizens' privacy, though. They spy on their own citizens, just the same as the Chinese do, and that's been in and out of the news within a couple of weeks. They got away with it so easily that it seems they can get away with anything.
After all, who is going to stop them? No one can, until election time.
Furthermore, on most issues, Google's interests are the same as the public's interests. This is a good thing. For once, little people have a big giant ally.
I'm not suggesting Google wouldn't turn against our interests if it suited them, just that there is currently a nice coincidence where the interests match up. They even pay people $1 for each person they refer to Firefox! (and they get to include their Google Toolbar with it)
There are certain areas where this doesn't apply, though. Google in China is something that people are not too sure about. Google Video DRM is evil.
The Dreamcast was Sega. They screwed up all of their consoles after Genesis/MegaDrive. That said, I think Sega deserved better. Their consoles did have some pretty fun games on them. Still, some sort of Sega curse prevented them from being successful anytime after 1996. :)
Why must they call them "hacks" when it is really just a collection of "how-to"s. I suppose some people would be more likely to buy the book if they do that, but surely there must be people like me who see it as a gimmick?
Of course it's going to compete significantly better! It has no competitors now, and won't have any for months yet. The 360 has a huge head-start.
The only way I see this being useful is if it searches comments/code descriptions.
Imagine searching for "if( x == 5 )". It would be useless to search code. Searching comments and returning code as a results would probably be better, since something like "bubble sort" would then have a chance of bringing up what you want.
Also seems like it's a program, not a website. Not sure whether that's good or bad. I could go either way, I suppose.
Yeah, but Krugle RHYMES with Google!
How many Krugles would a Google Krugle if a Google could Google Krugle?
Repeats of this joke, and more spastic jokes can be expected if Krugle becomes a hit like Google.
I don't want wireless devices, I want wireless plugs!
I want a USB plug that will transmit wirelessly to another USB plug. I want audio plugs that connect without wires to other audio plugs. In this way, all of my devices that were previously "wired" devices can become wireless devices.
I realise that timing of data might be an issue for USB. There are still lots of types of plugs that this could be done for, though. (TV analog plugs also come to mind)
You're right. Whenever I (and I imagine everyone else) go to Google, it's because I want to find something. I don't want to screw around trying to win a prize, but really want to find what I need immediately.
Whenever I want a prize, though, I'll keep in mind that I could go to MSN and try out some fake searches. (cheaper than a lottery ticket)
Green on black looks cooler.
Spyware and spam are VERY tough markets. I don't understand see why any company would pick these as methods of marketing. Doing so is effectively making your target market people who are pissed off at you to begin with.
I realise it's cheaper than something like highly targetted Google ads, but targetted marketing attracts people who are actually HAPPY they found your product, and INTERESTED in it. It's an easier and more effective method of marketing. It costs more, but the visitor-to-customer conversion rate is probably so much higher that it's worth ditching spam.
I can't imagine the conversion rate for spam being more than 1 in 10,000 on average. First the piece of spam has to get past (for the vast majority of addresses) GMail/Hotmail's spam filters (seems about a 1 in 50 chance for my GMail account), or some other spam filter that is in place. Supposing it does get into the view of someone's inbox, most can be recognised as spam before they're opened, so maybe a 1-in-10 chance of being opened. If it gets opened, for every person that's actually interested, there must be at least others 1000 who wish they never received it.
(1/50)*(1/10)*(1/1,000) = 1/500,000
One customer for every half a million pieces of spam really isn't that great. I wonder if the companies that use spam as a marketing tool are also being scammed by spam-sending companies. It's possible that spam having any sort of good return on investment is a myth.
Sounds like a book you have to keep on paying for after having bought it. ;)
If only there was a computer nerd version of Jerry Springer, you'd be on it. :)
I can. Bob Brown of the Greens in Australia.
I was in London recently, and couldn't get my mind off the poor bugger they shot in the head nine times on the subway, just for running to catch his train. (and then they lied and said he jumped the turnstiles, etc, etc...)
I'm half Indian, but more or less look middle-eastern, so I felt pretty uncomfortable around the subway and stuff. As you pointed out, I wasn't the least bit worried about being blown up by a terrorist (there's a far greater chance of being in a fatal car accident), but I was pretty worried about being assaulted by police.
This has nothing to do with terrorism. "Terrorism" is just the excuse that they are using to implement these laws, in the same way that "piracy and viruses" are the excuses that Microsoft are using to take control of peoples' computers away from them.
The US, Britain and Australia are basically just locking down the world as quickly as they can. I don't think anyone really knows why they are doing this, but the "to stop terrorism" excuse is obviously bullshit. It's unlikely these governments are naive enough to think that these measures will really stop terrorist attacks.
I know these things make it easier for the governments to monitor/control their people, but I don't think that is the full story. There's no reason why a government would really want this much control.