Easy theres a point where you draw the line, CS:Source is less than £20 people have had years to play with it, Counter Strike is now pretty much a money trap adding little. I think the adds are their way of saying "Its been almost a decade get over it already".
oh course predatory lenders have less complex contracts, their simple ones.
"You pay 150% per day or I send the boys round to break both your legs"
I agree with your point tho, I remember when Mobile phones were just arriving in the UK and you would get 9 month contracts, now a phone company wants a year atleast and tries for 18 months if they can get it.
I'm not sure how it works in USA but in the UK I find the magic words "I'm taking you to the small claims court" works wonders, that will generally open doors, doors it fails to open are usually won at the small claims court (since they probably won't turn up) if that doesn't work simply research the laws concerning the issue and just start qouting them in a store at people. Last year I had reason to stop off in Alliance and Leiceister (building society), I don't know if its this branch ot the company, I was disgusted by their tactics every time I entered there would be a person argueing and the building society would be in the wrong. Over time I read every single little leaflet in that place (waiting for these customers) and if I got delayed I started walking up holding the appropriate leaflet and qouting the correct passage at them. You watch a company fold as you loudly say "your breaking the law, according to..." in a busy room, if you push it you can generally get some money off the company.
The file copying issue you mention is no where extreme as you've stated for me.
I'm running two systems a laptop:
Vista Business Edition
1.7Ghz Pentium M
1gb DDR2 ram
Intel GMA 915GM graphics card (which only has XDDM drivers what ever that means)
40GB hard drive
realtek HD sound card
and a destop:
Vista Home Premimum x64
AMD64 3700
2GB DDR ram
Nvidia 7600 GS OC
Creative Audigy SE
300GB hard drive
I was a little worried about putting Vista on my laptop my expearence last year with RC1 on it lead me to think it would run slow. But since the license was free so I've installed it, originally the laptop was running Windows XP MCE 2005 I got at most 2.5 hours of battery life (generally 2 hours) the system was quick to respond and could play most of my games without issue. I've installed Vista business its as quick as XP, I'm getting the same battery life although Its lasting nearer the 2.5 hour mark rather than the 2 hour mark and it plays all my games, the actual kicker for me was Myst Online: Uru Live runs 1FPS slower in Vista (with its weird XDDM driver) than in XP. Its been a hugely positive expearence there is no single feature in vista which stands out but it has many little things which you grow to love like network synching, the explorer navigation upgrade,networking upgrade (not finiky like XP also FTP through explorer now works with large files), visual upgrade (I tried the pack that lets you do it to XP its not close), Start bar alterations and the fact ever single driver installs itself. No one thing made it worth upgrading but the expearence was positive.
I have had Vista home Premimum on my desktop since vista's release, file transfer is slow on it (because of its desire to back every version of a file up, you can turn this off and copy speeds go back to normal) I've lost 10 FPS on some of my games and creatives sound card driver is poor but pretty much every game I've wanted to play has worked, all the drivers have installed themselves and again the expearence is generally a positive one. But heres the kicker my desktop is marginally slower in desktop operations when compared to the laptop (I'm guessing because of Aero.)
I had a irratating issue with the bios and Vista on my desktop (very old bios caused vista installation to die fixed with bios upgrade) Microsoft Visual studio 6 & 2003.net will not function on Vista and most my games pre Quake 3 don't work on Vista, although realMyst (2001) and Tomb Raider 2 (1998 I think) both work. Vista is nice I see it as XP with lots of tiny improvements things you didn't think of like a "games" folder on the start menu which has shortcuts to all your games.
I am just installing Ubuntu's Feisty Fawn and I have to say I'm impressed almost every issue I had with Edgy Eft has been solved but right now I am trying to work out why the sound on my system occasionally drops all sound. Thats the difference between Windows and Linux and if I had a choice between Windows and Linux I would currently choose Windows for that reason, and well with the choice between Xp and 'Improved Xp' (sorry I mean Vista) I'd go with Vista. But to tell you the truth as I've typed this I've reinstalled Ubuntu and the sounds working perfect, beryl's wiki guide is incredibly usefull and I'm wondering if I can get my copy of Doom3 installed somehow, where to find the thunderbird addon's to turn it onto outlook and preying that someone has come up with a way to get Thunderbird and WM5 phones to sync, I'll still be using Vista as my main OS but I'm impressed and honestly think the next Ubuntu release might really force people to ask the question you have just posed.
I think the issue is the maps aren't good enough rather than a persons fault. I borrowed a GPS device and decided to use it to take me to a nearby location, I knew the roads around the area extremely well and so was confident that I could get myself out of any problems.
First off it tried to take me down a road which is almost permenatly flooded (there is a warning sign saying occasional flooding, but many lanes in my area have that and 99% of the time the road is drivable) and impassable. Only local knowledge prevented me from going down that lane and I can see people without that knowledge getting their cars stuck in the peat bog. The route itself hugged the riverside and took me down a variety of small unmarked lanes which were often one way and rarely used. In the journey travelling towards Mount Edgecomb I asked the device for the shortest journey and travelling back to Plymouth I asked for the quickest route. It took me through the same narrow lanes both times, but heres the kicker.
ok I'm about to complete my BEng in Engineering (two more exams to go) I've never covered Group theory (Z Transforms and Laplace is as far as I've gone.) The group theory article you've pointed to seems quite well written, almost every single term has a link to anouther article which exaplains that term. The material is reasonably well written and is what I would expect of a maths article/textbook. There is very little you could do to dumb down that article without first giving a long grounding in further maths and I'd argue that anyone with a Maths A level could understand it.
You do realise that a properly configured setup of IE7 can be more secure than Firefox right?
I don't see the issuse the type of people who get malware/spyware/virus's will get them reguardless of browser, sure a good browser will help stop of it but your forgetting how stupid some people can be. The company sounds like they have a good approach, the VPN probably blocks all but a few ports and hopefully some sort of firewall stops the other attacks sure it doesnt help that externally infected machine but it will help limit (well stop) infection (my university's policy.)
I can think of two retail companies who use IE6 in the POS tills and computer management systems (Waterstones and Woolworths.) The Devonport Royal Dockyard (owned by DML Group) uses IE6 in its infrastructure and Exeter University and Plymouth University (with its six off campus LARGE (100+ computers) sites) both use IE6 as their main browser. Using IE7 is pretty forward thinking.
The article shows why so many dislike the Wii. I'll try to explain why, the Wii is a jumped up Gamecube (or Gamecube 1.5 if you prefer) but it has one key difference is the Wiimote. Its barely a technical upgrade but it has this 'amazing' Wiimote, it advertises the Wiimote first and the games second. I've seen two Wii demo setup's and both spent more time showing people through that remote around then spend times on the game.
The games aren't selling the console, this bugs people alot there are already alternative input controllers for systems like the PS2. When I buy a console its a game/games thats sold the console to me, not controllers, DVD playback, power or speed. With the Wii people are buying it because its cheap and you get to wave your hand around.
Why does the low power and apparent 'fun' factor of the Wii worry me? Half Life was a great game it gained a lot of support, years later Half Life 2 is released with some major enhancements and it really produces a real advancement in gaming. Half Life 2 Episode 1 was just HL2 with some minor enhancements on and a shiny new toy (HDR lighting) its a great deal of fun but not really an advancement if it had been more expensive I might have been upset. HL2 Ep2 has taken almost as long to be released as HL2 but isn't going to offer the mind bending difference's that Hl2 gave us when compared to HL. The Wii is like episodic gaming, sure in some applications its perfect but it would kill off the pace of advancements in gaming (much like Episodic gaming.)
Do you know what I would have been working on ever since the Wii became so popular? If I was Sony I'd make my own Wiimote, package a few first party games (something similar to Wiisports) and kill off the buzz its created. I'd have it run on Bluetooth (with a bluetooth adapater for the PS2) sell it at a dirt cheap rate (say £40 with SonySports.) I'd have flung alot of recources at the issue and had a PS2/Sonymote out before the end of the year and packaged for £140. Then again I'm not a sony executive, at best you've just stillborned the Wii and at worst you've eaten a little into Nintendo's new market.
Hes a complete and utter Apple shill, previous roughlydrafted blogs have shown circular logic, chosen bad postulates, selective use of evidence, misleading use of evidence and a complete lack of touch with reality.If yo udisagree with me look at some of the previous comments on roughly drafter blogs.Why editors let this trash through is beyond me
If we were to believe him, Apple had already or are moments away from complete domination of the computer market and Apples proprietry hardware/software lockin's and increased price are good for us. Just because I say "I Love Microsoft" right now doesn't mean I'm not biased towards microsoft. Look up the meaning of the word.
I remember when I was younger microsoft released an encylopedia for kids, when ever you looked up an animal the noise it made would play (there was a button to make it replay.) It was something that did keep me entertained for hours, just going through all the different entries.
Someone else has mentioned Wikipedia, would this not be a great extension to that? Primary school teachers could access certain pages/places and play appropirate sounds. Since it seems the type of kids encylopedia cdrom that I played with as a child has been replaced by wikipedia, wouldn't it be great if wikipedia took on the two great things about those?
Encarta and "Encylopedia for kids" (by Microsoft) would often have short video sequences or sound clips to go with the articles. It was one of the best ways to gain an understanding of a process at times. Sure some pages might be quite dodgey if it was implimented but the wildlife,manufacturing,car/motorcycle history,science and engineering pages could be significantly enhanced by this sort of feature.
I'm aware of wikimedia, but why hasn't the main wikipedia design be altered to do these things already?
Lots of my idea's are considered "out of the box" thinking and they generally happen where ever I may be. I'll admit that many people dislike low ceiling rooms, I know a converted building has recently been turned back to its original use because it was a horrible place to learn (because of low ceilings and small class room sizes) but I wouldn't say its because of idea's about freedom. When people don't feel enclosed they tend to be happier, happy people tend to be more creative and productive. But theres far more involved in making a happy worker than high ceilings.
GTAIV is the only next gen game that I really want to play, but £425 is to much. It's considerably more than what Americans are paying for. I'll buy a PS3 when it reaches £325, but if GTAIV comes before out and the Xbox doesn't limit the game well Sony you've lost yourself a sale.
Modern computers are analogue, in fact all digital electronics are analogue. We call it digital because threshold voltages are chosen, so if a bit's voltage was 1.2volts it would represent a '0' bit, however if its voltage increased to 1.8volts the computer will see it as a '1' bit.
You can use tri-state in modern computers (and I believe it is used) the problem comes from interference, modern microprocesser's already battle quantum effect and bulk effect, adding anouther layer make things much harder.
Quantum computing is different each bit can be a '1' or a '0' or 'both' (known as a Qubit) an extra layer or two is only going to allow you to deal with a '1' a '0' and a... '2'. A Qubit allows you to simulate all the possible soltuions from a bit, it means more far calculations occur a second.
You've seen the GTA IV trailer right? The size of the map looks much larger than San Andreas, the texturing, AI and everything else has improved (I can see them using a DVD in texturing alone.) It not like they can even use mutliple layers for the DVD because streaming issue would (probably) kick in.
I play Myst Online : Uru Live (yes the name is really long) there is first person and third person views. Human standrads are the same and viewed the same by everyone. Currently avatar collision is turned off (originally as a way to dell with crash issues) its considered the height of bad mannors to run through anouther person, if you do it by accident or are forced to (for example their blocking a path) then its pretty standard that you appologise imediatly.
Just because its virtual doesn't mean any of us breaks the same social rules as those in real life
Useability issues, look at my past comments involving linux I have only once been able to get a linux distrobution working properly (that was in an internet cafe with a friend who loved linux and it took us four days.) I had this same arguement with a Unix guy, who told me he could set up Unix in less time than I would get Vista setup on my laptop. Amusingly since I had nothing better to do three days ago I picked up the MSDN license from him, burnt the disc, installed office, visual studio, downloaded two online games I play and set the laptop for the univeristy's connection. Then I went from the room with the dvd burner next door and then showed him my Vistised laptop. Setting up, installing and configuring windows since XP has become incredibly easy and quick. Its easy to install games and run them.
Millions of people running Linux? Care to show some stats, the suse poll only managed 27,000 people, really I'd be facinated to see some stats proving several million people use Linux at home.
My definition of 'geek' and 'average user' well I didn't define that the culture I grew up in did.
I emulate a 'average user' because I'm incredibly lazy user I can pick up pretty much any application within half an hour of using it but if I can't work the basics out in half an hour then I don't care to use the application. GIMP and Photoshop are a great example I can do basic stuff in photoshop but have no clue when it comes to GIMP, since GIMP's UI is illogical I really can't be bothered to try and use it. While I stop using an application out of lazyness you'll find your average person will stop using because they become too fustrated. Whats an average user? Well I'm just basing this of my Biology,pyschology,law,medicine,socialogy,english and mechanical engineering student friends who come to me for advice on how to use word,photoshop,excel,powerpoint.... (Oh if GIMP's interface is so great would you like to tell me why the majority of artists/web designers still use Photoshop over GIMP?)
Like I said if your going to rebut you don't understand and never will, one of Vista's big selling reasons is that it looks pretty, same with Mac OS X so you think its good that Open Source projects (Open Office) look butt ugly? GUI research has shown most users aren't interested in choice and want things simple, I'll find some surveys if you disblieve that point. A lot of open source software seems to be focusing on increasing choice and not enough of simplifying the interface and improving an applications look. I'm going to trial Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn over the summer because it seems to be a distro which gets this.
Your missing his point, hes talking about the home desktop consumer market, most of the applications your describing are high technology market. They expect very different things and its where Linux fails. Your animator or scientist is going to write a program in a set langauge they don't care how it looks or how it works just that it does work. I remember a statement from a physicist along the lines of "tell me which langauge to learn and I'll program my simulations in it, just stop changing the languages!" These people have motivations for using it.
The home desktop market has some very different expectations which his posts describes quite well. Linux has a lot of work to make a consumer grade product, its not insurmountable but its stuff the community isn't doing. I'll use the example of the Divx converter and Virtual dub, Virtual Dub is a fantastic tool which you can do alot with but while geeks may love it no average user is going to use it. Divx converter looks pretty, is easy to understand and is consistant. Its simple things which Linux and open source needs to correct but the imputitus seems to be on more features and bug fixes rather than actually fixing the end user expearence (things like load times, consistant application behavouir, wizards and the 'pretty' factor.)
If you still don't understand and want to rebut the point you don't get it and probably never will. I'm not saying Open source is a lost cause, because it isn't but there are some major usability issues which wouldn't require a great deal of work that need to be done. Open source needs some artists willing to share their work, it needs people to sit down and write wizards, it needs testing by average people.
No, no, no Come to the UK sure every single moment of your life is probably on a camera but no one is watching, because of that babe on screen three, even if they are nothing will happen as the government spawns anouther think tank to deal with something that wasn't really an issue.
I'd disagree, I've used a PPC, and two laptops during the last five years of education. The first laptop was brilliant and helped me a lot. I was able to take better history, economics and computing A level notes which were a great deal clearer when compared to my class mates. This was helped by the fact there was no wireless network in the school (apart from a single brand new 802.11a transmitter.) My laptop broke so I moved to a PPC device with a Bluetooth keyboard, this was great at taking notes except when math was involved. Unfortunately my degree is math intensive so I ended up taking just as many written notes as electronic. While this sounds unproductive once I got home I took the written notes and typed them up into electronic notes. I effectively went over the class material, it forced me to, so my understanding of the material was better. A PPC is slow enough that surfing the web and typing word documents is difficult.
Lastly I bought a laptop this year, its been a wonderful tool, but the problem of surfing the web during inane and boring lectures became an issue. In fact I stopped going to my business module lectures when the lecturer took to roaming the class and rudely telling people to stop what they were doing if it wasn't his PowerPoint slide on the screen. Believe it or not the third time that I decided to open ISIS and design a circuit board because he was going over the same simple theory (which we had already covered in a previous year) for 25 minutes and he had a go at me I ceased attending and just revised from the notes.
I would encourage the use of PDA's and PPC's (with a wireless keyboard) for none math based modules it certainly helped my grades that year. Laptops are more of a mixed bag, sure like a PPC you can see the lecture notes but laptops can do a lot more.
I'd disagree, I'e used a PPC, and two laptops during the last five years of education. The first laptop was brilliant and helped me alot. I was able to take better history, economics and computing A level notes which were a great deal cleared when compared to my class mates. This was helped by the fact there was no wireless network in the school (apart from a single brand new 802.11a transmitter.) My laptop broke so I moved to a PPC device with bluetooth keyboard this was great at taking notes except when math was involved, unfortunatly my degree is math intensive so I ended up taking just as many written notes as electronic. While this sounds unproductive once I got home I took the written notes and typed them up into electronic notes. I effectivily went over the class material. It forced me to. A PPC is slow enough that surfing the web and typing word documents is difficult. Lastly I bought a laptop this year, its been a wonderfull tool, but the problem of surfing the web during inane and boring lectures became an issue. In fact I stopped going to my business module lectures when the lecturer took to roaming the class and rudely telling people to stop what they were doing if it wasn't his powerpoint slide on the screen. Believe it or not the third time that I decided to open ISIS and design a circuit board because he was going over the same simple theory (which we had already covered in a previous year) for 25 minutes and he had a go at me I ceased attending and just revised from the notes.
I would encourage the use of PDA's and PPC's (with a wireless keyboard) for none math based moldules it certainly helped my grades that year. Laptops are more of a mixed bag, sure like a PPC you can see the lecture notes but laptops can do a lot more.
Sorry, having read all the links, he made a Myspace profile for this presidential candidate because he was moved by the guys speech. It was labelled as unofficial and if you read the campaigns side of the story you'll see they admit to working with him. He made the profile to promote the party, who later used it.
The campaign group suggested a one time payment for the profile, he made a suggestion which he felt fair and detailed it in a profile when they rejected it completely and informed myspace they wanted the domain and took it, it effectivily takes the account because 90% of myspace people are going to have the page bookmarked not the account, he still has his profile.
Happy? Personnally I like actually adding to the discussion myself you should try it
So lets break this down, a guy makes a myspace profile for some american political party. He spends a fair bit of his own money on the project. The campaign team make it known their interested in it but are such complete jerks about the transfer (last minute cancelling phone conferences,etc...) that when someone mentions the idea of a fee he jumps at it. When the refused any idea of financial re-embusement for his work they stole the account. One wonders if there is a data protection act in America since expearence in the UK would lead me to think this would be a violation (you can't access an account unless you are the account holder.)
He's not a money grabber, I can understand his point of view if I worked hard on something finally got some recognition and then got treated in a similar way as he did I'd want a 'symbol' for my efforts.
O2 do a whole range of Xda's I have this ones predessor (XDA Mini S), lets go through the list.
Connects with outloot perfectly
Does do group calender (did this accidently once with the root university calender, that was a mistake)
Connects through the universitys VPN to the wireless network (which is mixed b/g)
Runs Pocket Explorer (not perfect yet I'll admit but pretty good)
Runs the Office Mobile group which is much better than quick office found on other phones
Adobe Photoshop installs on it, runs happily
Can send and recieve Pop/IMAP/etc... email
Does MMS and SMS
Came with MSN mesenger, I've installed Skype
Has a application called notes (very handy in making drinks lists)
Battery will last five days from standard use about 12 hours of music/WLAN will empty the battery, You don't lose any data if the battery does die
Soft and hard resets (choose to save battery life or not)
Your not tied into any network, as I've tried a Orange and vodaphone sim card and both work. This is the kicker on my £35 a month contract it was free, not £250 like the Iphone. Oh did I mention the Nokia N95 (excusing the VPN) matches all those features (plus GPS.)
Iphone is far behind the WM5 devices out there, they will only sell due to Apple 'cool' factor, before you say about 'complete solutions' my XDA Mini S has never crashed, nor has it slowed down since I got it (Decemeber) I can use it without a stylus with one hand and send text messages as well as make calls just with my thumb, the Nokia N95 has been out for less time but so far I know two non techie people who have it and haven't had a single issue.
yeah, same with the PS3 it wasn't obvious or advertised. There were two demo units running through a cycle since i was stuck in town i thought i would try my luck and get a controller since the entertainment desk was directly opposite they let me have a controller. I have no idea if its standard practice
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Easy theres a point where you draw the line, CS:Source is less than £20 people have had years to play with it, Counter Strike is now pretty much a money trap adding little. I think the adds are their way of saying "Its been almost a decade get over it already".
oh course predatory lenders have less complex contracts, their simple ones.
"You pay 150% per day or I send the boys round to break both your legs"
I agree with your point tho, I remember when Mobile phones were just arriving in the UK and you would get 9 month contracts, now a phone company wants a year atleast and tries for 18 months if they can get it.
I'm not sure how it works in USA but in the UK I find the magic words "I'm taking you to the small claims court" works wonders, that will generally open doors, doors it fails to open are usually won at the small claims court (since they probably won't turn up) if that doesn't work simply research the laws concerning the issue and just start qouting them in a store at people. Last year I had reason to stop off in Alliance and Leiceister (building society), I don't know if its this branch ot the company, I was disgusted by their tactics every time I entered there would be a person argueing and the building society would be in the wrong. Over time I read every single little leaflet in that place (waiting for these customers) and if I got delayed I started walking up holding the appropriate leaflet and qouting the correct passage at them. You watch a company fold as you loudly say "your breaking the law, according to..." in a busy room, if you push it you can generally get some money off the company.
The file copying issue you mention is no where extreme as you've stated for me.
I'm running two systems a laptop:
Vista Business Edition
1.7Ghz Pentium M
1gb DDR2 ram
Intel GMA 915GM graphics card (which only has XDDM drivers what ever that means)
40GB hard drive
realtek HD sound card
and a destop:
Vista Home Premimum x64
AMD64 3700
2GB DDR ram
Nvidia 7600 GS OC
Creative Audigy SE
300GB hard drive
I was a little worried about putting Vista on my laptop my expearence last year with RC1 on it lead me to think it would run slow. But since the license was free so I've installed it, originally the laptop was running Windows XP MCE 2005 I got at most 2.5 hours of battery life (generally 2 hours) the system was quick to respond and could play most of my games without issue. I've installed Vista business its as quick as XP, I'm getting the same battery life although Its lasting nearer the 2.5 hour mark rather than the 2 hour mark and it plays all my games, the actual kicker for me was Myst Online: Uru Live runs 1FPS slower in Vista (with its weird XDDM driver) than in XP. Its been a hugely positive expearence there is no single feature in vista which stands out but it has many little things which you grow to love like network synching, the explorer navigation upgrade,networking upgrade (not finiky like XP also FTP through explorer now works with large files), visual upgrade (I tried the pack that lets you do it to XP its not close), Start bar alterations and the fact ever single driver installs itself. No one thing made it worth upgrading but the expearence was positive.
I have had Vista home Premimum on my desktop since vista's release, file transfer is slow on it (because of its desire to back every version of a file up, you can turn this off and copy speeds go back to normal) I've lost 10 FPS on some of my games and creatives sound card driver is poor but pretty much every game I've wanted to play has worked, all the drivers have installed themselves and again the expearence is generally a positive one. But heres the kicker my desktop is marginally slower in desktop operations when compared to the laptop (I'm guessing because of Aero.)
I had a irratating issue with the bios and Vista on my desktop (very old bios caused vista installation to die fixed with bios upgrade) Microsoft Visual studio 6 & 2003.net will not function on Vista and most my games pre Quake 3 don't work on Vista, although realMyst (2001) and Tomb Raider 2 (1998 I think) both work. Vista is nice I see it as XP with lots of tiny improvements things you didn't think of like a "games" folder on the start menu which has shortcuts to all your games.
I am just installing Ubuntu's Feisty Fawn and I have to say I'm impressed almost every issue I had with Edgy Eft has been solved but right now I am trying to work out why the sound on my system occasionally drops all sound. Thats the difference between Windows and Linux and if I had a choice between Windows and Linux I would currently choose Windows for that reason, and well with the choice between Xp and 'Improved Xp' (sorry I mean Vista) I'd go with Vista. But to tell you the truth as I've typed this I've reinstalled Ubuntu and the sounds working perfect, beryl's wiki guide is incredibly usefull and I'm wondering if I can get my copy of Doom3 installed somehow, where to find the thunderbird addon's to turn it onto outlook and preying that someone has come up with a way to get Thunderbird and WM5 phones to sync, I'll still be using Vista as my main OS but I'm impressed and honestly think the next Ubuntu release might really force people to ask the question you have just posed.
I think the issue is the maps aren't good enough rather than a persons fault. I borrowed a GPS device and decided to use it to take me to a nearby location, I knew the roads around the area extremely well and so was confident that I could get myself out of any problems.
b lic&startx=242357&starty=59016&endx=244603&endy=52 718&startrd=&starttown=Saltash&startpc=&startcount ry=GB&endrd=&endtown=Mount%20Edgcumbe&endpc=&endco untry=GB&rn=GB&qs=q&starttime=11:48&input_rt=aprou te_pan&lang= ) are capable of giving good directions and yet most satnav systems fail completly in rural areas.
First off it tried to take me down a road which is almost permenatly flooded (there is a warning sign saying occasional flooding, but many lanes in my area have that and 99% of the time the road is drivable) and impassable. Only local knowledge prevented me from going down that lane and I can see people without that knowledge getting their cars stuck in the peat bog. The route itself hugged the riverside and took me down a variety of small unmarked lanes which were often one way and rarely used. In the journey travelling towards Mount Edgecomb I asked the device for the shortest journey and travelling back to Plymouth I asked for the quickest route. It took me through the same narrow lanes both times, but heres the kicker.
Traveling from Torpoint ferries/Tamar bridge takes you straight onto a A road, this road cxan be followed so far onto a B class road which takes you directly to Mount Edgecomb this route takes around 25 minutes and follows well maintained roads. Taking the suggested route from the satnav took 45 minutes, involved a greater distance and at several points tried to navigate me into dead ends or the bog mentioned above. Places like multimap ( http://www.multimap.com/map/aproute.cgi?client=pu
ok I'm about to complete my BEng in Engineering (two more exams to go) I've never covered Group theory (Z Transforms and Laplace is as far as I've gone.) The group theory article you've pointed to seems quite well written, almost every single term has a link to anouther article which exaplains that term. The material is reasonably well written and is what I would expect of a maths article/textbook. There is very little you could do to dumb down that article without first giving a long grounding in further maths and I'd argue that anyone with a Maths A level could understand it.
You do realise that a properly configured setup of IE7 can be more secure than Firefox right?
I don't see the issuse the type of people who get malware/spyware/virus's will get them reguardless of browser, sure a good browser will help stop of it but your forgetting how stupid some people can be. The company sounds like they have a good approach, the VPN probably blocks all but a few ports and hopefully some sort of firewall stops the other attacks sure it doesnt help that externally infected machine but it will help limit (well stop) infection (my university's policy.)
I can think of two retail companies who use IE6 in the POS tills and computer management systems (Waterstones and Woolworths.) The Devonport Royal Dockyard (owned by DML Group) uses IE6 in its infrastructure and Exeter University and Plymouth University (with its six off campus LARGE (100+ computers) sites) both use IE6 as their main browser. Using IE7 is pretty forward thinking.
The article shows why so many dislike the Wii. I'll try to explain why, the Wii is a jumped up Gamecube (or Gamecube 1.5 if you prefer) but it has one key difference is the Wiimote. Its barely a technical upgrade but it has this 'amazing' Wiimote, it advertises the Wiimote first and the games second. I've seen two Wii demo setup's and both spent more time showing people through that remote around then spend times on the game.
The games aren't selling the console, this bugs people alot there are already alternative input controllers for systems like the PS2. When I buy a console its a game/games thats sold the console to me, not controllers, DVD playback, power or speed. With the Wii people are buying it because its cheap and you get to wave your hand around.
Why does the low power and apparent 'fun' factor of the Wii worry me? Half Life was a great game it gained a lot of support, years later Half Life 2 is released with some major enhancements and it really produces a real advancement in gaming. Half Life 2 Episode 1 was just HL2 with some minor enhancements on and a shiny new toy (HDR lighting) its a great deal of fun but not really an advancement if it had been more expensive I might have been upset. HL2 Ep2 has taken almost as long to be released as HL2 but isn't going to offer the mind bending difference's that Hl2 gave us when compared to HL. The Wii is like episodic gaming, sure in some applications its perfect but it would kill off the pace of advancements in gaming (much like Episodic gaming.)
Do you know what I would have been working on ever since the Wii became so popular? If I was Sony I'd make my own Wiimote, package a few first party games (something similar to Wiisports) and kill off the buzz its created. I'd have it run on Bluetooth (with a bluetooth adapater for the PS2) sell it at a dirt cheap rate (say £40 with SonySports.) I'd have flung alot of recources at the issue and had a PS2/Sonymote out before the end of the year and packaged for £140. Then again I'm not a sony executive, at best you've just stillborned the Wii and at worst you've eaten a little into Nintendo's new market.
Hes a complete and utter Apple shill, previous roughlydrafted blogs have shown circular logic, chosen bad postulates, selective use of evidence, misleading use of evidence and a complete lack of touch with reality.If yo udisagree with me look at some of the previous comments on roughly drafter blogs.Why editors let this trash through is beyond me
If we were to believe him, Apple had already or are moments away from complete domination of the computer market and Apples proprietry hardware/software lockin's and increased price are good for us. Just because I say "I Love Microsoft" right now doesn't mean I'm not biased towards microsoft. Look up the meaning of the word.
I remember when I was younger microsoft released an encylopedia for kids, when ever you looked up an animal the noise it made would play (there was a button to make it replay.) It was something that did keep me entertained for hours, just going through all the different entries.
Someone else has mentioned Wikipedia, would this not be a great extension to that? Primary school teachers could access certain pages/places and play appropirate sounds. Since it seems the type of kids encylopedia cdrom that I played with as a child has been replaced by wikipedia, wouldn't it be great if wikipedia took on the two great things about those?
Encarta and "Encylopedia for kids" (by Microsoft) would often have short video sequences or sound clips to go with the articles. It was one of the best ways to gain an understanding of a process at times. Sure some pages might be quite dodgey if it was implimented but the wildlife,manufacturing,car/motorcycle history,science and engineering pages could be significantly enhanced by this sort of feature.
I'm aware of wikimedia, but why hasn't the main wikipedia design be altered to do these things already?
I dunno it sounds like a really good blurb for a science fiction book, that hubbard guy should have tried his hand at fantasy.
no, the OP must have a really low ceiling, thats a 'closed minded' view not open to the idea of 'freedom'
Lots of my idea's are considered "out of the box" thinking and they generally happen where ever I may be. I'll admit that many people dislike low ceiling rooms, I know a converted building has recently been turned back to its original use because it was a horrible place to learn (because of low ceilings and small class room sizes) but I wouldn't say its because of idea's about freedom. When people don't feel enclosed they tend to be happier, happy people tend to be more creative and productive. But theres far more involved in making a happy worker than high ceilings.
GTAIV is the only next gen game that I really want to play, but £425 is to much. It's considerably more than what Americans are paying for. I'll buy a PS3 when it reaches £325, but if GTAIV comes before out and the Xbox doesn't limit the game well Sony you've lost yourself a sale.
Modern computers are analogue, in fact all digital electronics are analogue. We call it digital because threshold voltages are chosen, so if a bit's voltage was 1.2volts it would represent a '0' bit, however if its voltage increased to 1.8volts the computer will see it as a '1' bit.
... '2'. A Qubit allows you to simulate all the possible soltuions from a bit, it means more far calculations occur a second.
You can use tri-state in modern computers (and I believe it is used) the problem comes from interference, modern microprocesser's already battle quantum effect and bulk effect, adding anouther layer make things much harder.
Quantum computing is different each bit can be a '1' or a '0' or 'both' (known as a Qubit) an extra layer or two is only going to allow you to deal with a '1' a '0' and a
You've seen the GTA IV trailer right? The size of the map looks much larger than San Andreas, the texturing, AI and everything else has improved (I can see them using a DVD in texturing alone.) It not like they can even use mutliple layers for the DVD because streaming issue would (probably) kick in.
I play Myst Online : Uru Live (yes the name is really long) there is first person and third person views. Human standrads are the same and viewed the same by everyone. Currently avatar collision is turned off (originally as a way to dell with crash issues) its considered the height of bad mannors to run through anouther person, if you do it by accident or are forced to (for example their blocking a path) then its pretty standard that you appologise imediatly.
Just because its virtual doesn't mean any of us breaks the same social rules as those in real life
Useability issues, look at my past comments involving linux I have only once been able to get a linux distrobution working properly (that was in an internet cafe with a friend who loved linux and it took us four days.) I had this same arguement with a Unix guy, who told me he could set up Unix in less time than I would get Vista setup on my laptop. Amusingly since I had nothing better to do three days ago I picked up the MSDN license from him, burnt the disc, installed office, visual studio, downloaded two online games I play and set the laptop for the univeristy's connection. Then I went from the room with the dvd burner next door and then showed him my Vistised laptop. Setting up, installing and configuring windows since XP has become incredibly easy and quick. Its easy to install games and run them.
Millions of people running Linux? Care to show some stats, the suse poll only managed 27,000 people, really I'd be facinated to see some stats proving several million people use Linux at home.
My definition of 'geek' and 'average user' well I didn't define that the culture I grew up in did.
I emulate a 'average user' because I'm incredibly lazy user I can pick up pretty much any application within half an hour of using it but if I can't work the basics out in half an hour then I don't care to use the application. GIMP and Photoshop are a great example I can do basic stuff in photoshop but have no clue when it comes to GIMP, since GIMP's UI is illogical I really can't be bothered to try and use it. While I stop using an application out of lazyness you'll find your average person will stop using because they become too fustrated. Whats an average user? Well I'm just basing this of my Biology,pyschology,law,medicine,socialogy,english and mechanical engineering student friends who come to me for advice on how to use word,photoshop,excel,powerpoint.... (Oh if GIMP's interface is so great would you like to tell me why the majority of artists/web designers still use Photoshop over GIMP?)
Like I said if your going to rebut you don't understand and never will, one of Vista's big selling reasons is that it looks pretty, same with Mac OS X so you think its good that Open Source projects (Open Office) look butt ugly? GUI research has shown most users aren't interested in choice and want things simple, I'll find some surveys if you disblieve that point. A lot of open source software seems to be focusing on increasing choice and not enough of simplifying the interface and improving an applications look. I'm going to trial Ubuntu Fiesty Fawn over the summer because it seems to be a distro which gets this.
Your missing his point, hes talking about the home desktop consumer market, most of the applications your describing are high technology market. They expect very different things and its where Linux fails. Your animator or scientist is going to write a program in a set langauge they don't care how it looks or how it works just that it does work. I remember a statement from a physicist along the lines of "tell me which langauge to learn and I'll program my simulations in it, just stop changing the languages!" These people have motivations for using it.
The home desktop market has some very different expectations which his posts describes quite well. Linux has a lot of work to make a consumer grade product, its not insurmountable but its stuff the community isn't doing. I'll use the example of the Divx converter and Virtual dub, Virtual Dub is a fantastic tool which you can do alot with but while geeks may love it no average user is going to use it. Divx converter looks pretty, is easy to understand and is consistant. Its simple things which Linux and open source needs to correct but the imputitus seems to be on more features and bug fixes rather than actually fixing the end user expearence (things like load times, consistant application behavouir, wizards and the 'pretty' factor.)
If you still don't understand and want to rebut the point you don't get it and probably never will. I'm not saying Open source is a lost cause, because it isn't but there are some major usability issues which wouldn't require a great deal of work that need to be done. Open source needs some artists willing to share their work, it needs people to sit down and write wizards, it needs testing by average people.
No, no, no Come to the UK sure every single moment of your life is probably on a camera but no one is watching, because of that babe on screen three, even if they are nothing will happen as the government spawns anouther think tank to deal with something that wasn't really an issue.
Damm word's spell check
I'd disagree, I've used a PPC, and two laptops during the last five years of education. The first laptop was brilliant and helped me a lot. I was able to take better history, economics and computing A level notes which were a great deal clearer when compared to my class mates. This was helped by the fact there was no wireless network in the school (apart from a single brand new 802.11a transmitter.) My laptop broke so I moved to a PPC device with a Bluetooth keyboard, this was great at taking notes except when math was involved. Unfortunately my degree is math intensive so I ended up taking just as many written notes as electronic. While this sounds unproductive once I got home I took the written notes and typed them up into electronic notes. I effectively went over the class material, it forced me to, so my understanding of the material was better. A PPC is slow enough that surfing the web and typing word documents is difficult.
Lastly I bought a laptop this year, its been a wonderful tool, but the problem of surfing the web during inane and boring lectures became an issue. In fact I stopped going to my business module lectures when the lecturer took to roaming the class and rudely telling people to stop what they were doing if it wasn't his PowerPoint slide on the screen. Believe it or not the third time that I decided to open ISIS and design a circuit board because he was going over the same simple theory (which we had already covered in a previous year) for 25 minutes and he had a go at me I ceased attending and just revised from the notes.
I would encourage the use of PDA's and PPC's (with a wireless keyboard) for none math based modules it certainly helped my grades that year. Laptops are more of a mixed bag, sure like a PPC you can see the lecture notes but laptops can do a lot more.
I'd disagree, I'e used a PPC, and two laptops during the last five years of education. The first laptop was brilliant and helped me alot. I was able to take better history, economics and computing A level notes which were a great deal cleared when compared to my class mates. This was helped by the fact there was no wireless network in the school (apart from a single brand new 802.11a transmitter.) My laptop broke so I moved to a PPC device with bluetooth keyboard this was great at taking notes except when math was involved, unfortunatly my degree is math intensive so I ended up taking just as many written notes as electronic. While this sounds unproductive once I got home I took the written notes and typed them up into electronic notes. I effectivily went over the class material. It forced me to. A PPC is slow enough that surfing the web and typing word documents is difficult. Lastly I bought a laptop this year, its been a wonderfull tool, but the problem of surfing the web during inane and boring lectures became an issue. In fact I stopped going to my business module lectures when the lecturer took to roaming the class and rudely telling people to stop what they were doing if it wasn't his powerpoint slide on the screen. Believe it or not the third time that I decided to open ISIS and design a circuit board because he was going over the same simple theory (which we had already covered in a previous year) for 25 minutes and he had a go at me I ceased attending and just revised from the notes.
I would encourage the use of PDA's and PPC's (with a wireless keyboard) for none math based moldules it certainly helped my grades that year. Laptops are more of a mixed bag, sure like a PPC you can see the lecture notes but laptops can do a lot more.
Sorry, having read all the links, he made a Myspace profile for this presidential candidate because he was moved by the guys speech. It was labelled as unofficial and if you read the campaigns side of the story you'll see they admit to working with him. He made the profile to promote the party, who later used it.
The campaign group suggested a one time payment for the profile, he made a suggestion which he felt fair and detailed it in a profile when they rejected it completely and informed myspace they wanted the domain and took it, it effectivily takes the account because 90% of myspace people are going to have the page bookmarked not the account, he still has his profile.
Happy? Personnally I like actually adding to the discussion myself you should try it
So lets break this down, a guy makes a myspace profile for some american political party. He spends a fair bit of his own money on the project. The campaign team make it known their interested in it but are such complete jerks about the transfer (last minute cancelling phone conferences,etc...) that when someone mentions the idea of a fee he jumps at it. When the refused any idea of financial re-embusement for his work they stole the account. One wonders if there is a data protection act in America since expearence in the UK would lead me to think this would be a violation (you can't access an account unless you are the account holder.)
He's not a money grabber, I can understand his point of view if I worked hard on something finally got some recognition and then got treated in a similar way as he did I'd want a 'symbol' for my efforts.
https://shop.o2.co.uk/phone/O2/Xda_Trion
O2 do a whole range of Xda's I have this ones predessor (XDA Mini S), lets go through the list.
Connects with outloot perfectly
Does do group calender (did this accidently once with the root university calender, that was a mistake)
Connects through the universitys VPN to the wireless network (which is mixed b/g)
Runs Pocket Explorer (not perfect yet I'll admit but pretty good)
Runs the Office Mobile group which is much better than quick office found on other phones
Adobe Photoshop installs on it, runs happily
Can send and recieve Pop/IMAP/etc... email
Does MMS and SMS
Came with MSN mesenger, I've installed Skype
Has a application called notes (very handy in making drinks lists)
Battery will last five days from standard use about 12 hours of music/WLAN will empty the battery, You don't lose any data if the battery does die
Soft and hard resets (choose to save battery life or not)
Your not tied into any network, as I've tried a Orange and vodaphone sim card and both work. This is the kicker on my £35 a month contract it was free, not £250 like the Iphone. Oh did I mention the Nokia N95 (excusing the VPN) matches all those features (plus GPS.)
Iphone is far behind the WM5 devices out there, they will only sell due to Apple 'cool' factor, before you say about 'complete solutions' my XDA Mini S has never crashed, nor has it slowed down since I got it (Decemeber) I can use it without a stylus with one hand and send text messages as well as make calls just with my thumb, the Nokia N95 has been out for less time but so far I know two non techie people who have it and haven't had a single issue.
yeah, same with the PS3 it wasn't obvious or advertised. There were two demo units running through a cycle since i was stuck in town i thought i would try my luck and get a controller since the entertainment desk was directly opposite they let me have a controller. I have no idea if its standard practice