hmm. hadn't realised you meant that by multi-touch - my laptop has standard synaptics touchpad.
it's nice, but the multi-touch features would annoy the hell out of me - too many inadvertent touches. I disable the non-directional capabilities of the synaptics device for that very reason. Shame, it's able to scroll up/down/left/right, minimise/maximise windows, single/double-click, etc.
being able to use two fingers not one still doesn't make it a good alternative to a separate mouse for me.
As I said, I'm getting far better service than most UK broadband customers. DSL via BT Wholesale is fundamentally broken.
Plus, I'm paying enough that iPlayer wont get me capped even if I watch it through the whole of the peak period. Anybody on the lower packages from Virgin is probably buggered.
My point wasn't so much that there isn't a problem, it was that the usage caps by Virgin aren't actually all that draconian if you're on their XL package and relatively sensible.
Could be worse, I remember when SuperJanet was a major upgrade..
I use a laptop no longer sold, that I bought from Rock Direct (rockdirect.co.uk). It's quite nice:)
I have used it (and others) without a mouse. It's very usable. I still prefer to have a mouse.
When I'm actually mobile (the current beast is a portable desktop replacement, useful for me living between two locations at the moment) the mouse is an annoyance as there's no surface for it. That's a tiny proportion of my overall laptop usage, and the rest of the time I genuinely love my mouse.
the XL limit (which sadly applies to me) is rather better. It's very difficult to download 3gb of data by accident, so when I am downloading an ISO or a new game (Metaboli rocks) I just need to avoid downloading more than a couple of gig of it during peak hours and let the rest download after 9pm.
If I really needed guaranteed 20 down and 1 up, and intended to saturate it, I'd expect to pay business rates and I'd demand serious uptime in return. I'm paying consumer rates and I'm getting a far better service than many people in return; it's hard to complain.
hmm. I'm using a laptop with a multi-touch track pad. I also just took my hand from the keyboard to use a physical mouse to click on the 'reply' button.
Track pads are good, but I'm afraid mice are still a teensy bit better.
- Laptop base with fans (ok, that's so I can use it on a soft fluffy bed that would otherwise block the cooling vents - I don't take that with me when I'm out and about) - mouse. Bluetooth just doesn't cut it, especially in a busy environment - USB key. Not ever-present, but I don't want to be unplugging other things for it - headphones. Sure, the laptop has a microphone and speakers built in. It would be obnoxious of me to force everyone else to listen to what I'm doing though, and it would be equally obnoxious to force people I'm chatting to through the laptop to listen to all the crap the built-in microphone picks up - kensington usb powered fan. I rarely use this. A friend that went to Africa and South America rated the one I bought him as one of his top travel accessories.
Do I really need 5 USB ports? No. Even with an external DVD I wouldn't. Do I need 2 or more? Absolutely definitely.
factor in the extra time you need to baby a Windows system to keep it running OK none - Windows kind of just works for me. Install it when I buy the machine, touch it again when there's a new graphics card driver out or the hardware dies. And the new graphics drivers are only because games get upset if you don't. These would be games that don't even run on Macs.
going in circles trying to find and download the patches and driver updates that might hopefully fix the problem you're having What problem? You're inventing things here!
(although it does sound like my Ubuntu partition. One day I'll get the optical drive on this laptop to be recognised by Linux)
trying to get basic things to work, from USB flash drives / USB mice to digital cameras to phones to bluetooth to wireless to graphics (OpenGL) etc. etc Flash drive : Works instantly, no problems. USB mouse : Works instantly, no problems. Digital Camera : Works instantly, no problems. Phone : Comes with software that I install, then it works. No such software available for the Mac Bluetooth : Working when I bought the machine (built in) Wireless : Working when I bought the machine (built in) Graphics : Everything I've installed/used that needs graphics has worked instantly, no problems.
factor in the extra time and money spent on antivirus software I don't use any. So I can compare GHz for GHz.
My time does have value. Learning how to use OSX, finding alternates to the software I used daily on Windows, probably writing new software to replace that which is not available (e.g. phone synchronisation).. I have better things to do with my time.
Throw in the fact that when I bought the laptop I'm replying to you from it was a higher spec than any mac available on the market at the time, for less money, and I'm really struggling to understand why people are so confused that someone might actually purchase a non-Apple PC.
Macs aren't necessarily bad. Neither are Windows PCs.
You think he should buy a second laptop to take away with him just so the kids can watch DVDs without using the laptop he'll be taking anyway?
(lets ignore the discussion on whether the children should be able to survive sans DVD for another day. After all, nobody's suggesting he might not need the laptop either..)
she/he btw, I haven't a clue and it's not particularly relevant
While developing software I find that a minimum of a dual cores at 2 GHz and a minimum of 4GB of RAM are barely acceptable. How did you survive the first ten years of your career?
Hmm. My current laptop is too heavy to pick up off the desk while running and carry in one hand with the screen in a readable position. I have strong fingers and wrists (I pull a 55lb longbow for fun), but it's a 17" screen and a darn heavy piece of kit.
My (2002 model) Sony Vaio can be tossed gently from hand to hand while remaining readable.
Your arms may not drop off, but when you're travelling with a bag full of other stuff, the difference in laptop weight is noticeable and significant. Which is why I've kept the Sony. It's slow, and I can only run at 1024x800, but it's light, portable and has good battery life (even now). Which is what I bought it for.
I'd still be sceptical about a Macbook Air though. I suspect an Asus EEE would be a better choice right now for me.
Surely the benefits around size and weight disappear when you stop carrying it around? If someone never leaves the house then there must surely be cheaper better alternatives out there.
If the 'something dodgy' is a hijack attempt, yes, they can react swiftly enough even if they were asleep when it started. If the 'something dodgy' is triggering a bomb, they're dead before anybody realises 'something dodgy' is going on, or it's taking the dodgy person so darn long to do anything that the rest of the passengers will have given him a serious beating already anyway.
Btw, have you been in the cockpit of a passenger jet during a flight? There's pretty much no downtime throughout the flight on the occasions I've been there.
Fortunately software patents have no validity in Europe. I can also just imagine the response by the EU to an attempt to force patent licencing of these protocols.
documentation of internal APIs, memory structures and file formats that were never intended to be used by any third party. You keep mentioning this as though it means you're being treated unfairly.
We know they were never intended to be used by any third party. That's the fucking point. It would give a third party the ability to compete fairly with you.
You could argue that a company ought to be able to retain competitive advantage through trade secrets (such as internal APIs, etc). Had Microsoft not undertaken so many anti-competitive and illegal practices to prevent even disadvantaged (in API terms) competitors from participating in related markets the EU may even have allowed that argument.
Using an OS monopoly to help enforce a desktop software monopoly and using that to enforce vendor lock-in through file format obsfuscation is however what got you where you are. You built the monopoly using illegal means and seek to retain it through information hiding. Removing the competitive advantage derived from enhanced internal API knowledge is a valid and appropriate response by the EU.
Hell, your customers may benefit too. Now you're being forced to actually document your software perhaps you'll also engineer it to retain backwards compatibility with previous versions of your own software. It's well into the 21st century, this really shouldn't be so alien a concept.
Hmm. I recently joined a new company. They're also still hiring.
They're also reknowned across the country for their ethical business practices. The company owners insisted that this be the case. There are external ethics audits, educational papers and case studies, and consumer/customer surveys that consistently applaud the ethical stance of my new employer.
Not that I joined them for this reason - they offered me the right job for my circumstances so I took it. But it is nice (and admittedly very unusual) to be doing things because they're the right thing to do, not because they're the most profitable thing to do.
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hmm. hadn't realised you meant that by multi-touch - my laptop has standard synaptics touchpad.
it's nice, but the multi-touch features would annoy the hell out of me - too many inadvertent touches. I disable the non-directional capabilities of the synaptics device for that very reason. Shame, it's able to scroll up/down/left/right, minimise/maximise windows, single/double-click, etc.
being able to use two fingers not one still doesn't make it a good alternative to a separate mouse for me.
As I said, I'm getting far better service than most UK broadband customers. DSL via BT Wholesale is fundamentally broken.
Plus, I'm paying enough that iPlayer wont get me capped even if I watch it through the whole of the peak period. Anybody on the lower packages from Virgin is probably buggered.
My point wasn't so much that there isn't a problem, it was that the usage caps by Virgin aren't actually all that draconian if you're on their XL package and relatively sensible.
Could be worse, I remember when SuperJanet was a major upgrade..
nah, the limit only applies during peak hours. Just download most things after 9pm, you're fine.
I use a laptop no longer sold, that I bought from Rock Direct (rockdirect.co.uk). It's quite nice
I have used it (and others) without a mouse. It's very usable. I still prefer to have a mouse.
When I'm actually mobile (the current beast is a portable desktop replacement, useful for me living between two locations at the moment) the mouse is an annoyance as there's no surface for it. That's a tiny proportion of my overall laptop usage, and the rest of the time I genuinely love my mouse.
(anyway, you haven't seen my mouse. It's sexy in ways that oughtn't be possible for something that doesn't vibrate. and it doesn't actually need a surface to use it while mobile! http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/mice_pointers/mice/devices/3443&cl=gb,en )
the XL limit (which sadly applies to me) is rather better. It's very difficult to download 3gb of data by accident, so when I am downloading an ISO or a new game (Metaboli rocks) I just need to avoid downloading more than a couple of gig of it during peak hours and let the rest download after 9pm.
If I really needed guaranteed 20 down and 1 up, and intended to saturate it, I'd expect to pay business rates and I'd demand serious uptime in return. I'm paying consumer rates and I'm getting a far better service than many people in return; it's hard to complain.
hmm. I'm paying for the 20 meg service at the moment. If they upgrade the 4mb to 10 then it's tempting as hell to save 12 quid a month.
Of course, depends what they upgrade the 20mb service to (and whether peak usage caps make it irrelevant what the max is anyway)
Hence my comment that I'm contemplating getting some mobile broadband too.
Nonetheless, mobile broadband is not capable of replacing the connection I use the most (out of the office).
Still rather less than the 20Mbit connection I'm getting from Virgin right now though, for a similar price.
That said, I'm tempted to get a mobile broadband package too, because I'm not at home as often as I'd like..
I need to buy a USB hub with ethernet dongle for each of the offices I use?
Some of us don't have one desk in one building in one city. That's why we have laptops in the first place.
hmm. I'm using a laptop with a multi-touch track pad. I also just took my hand from the keyboard to use a physical mouse to click on the 'reply' button.
Track pads are good, but I'm afraid mice are still a teensy bit better.
erm. My company has several buildings with no wireless. If you want your laptop connected to the network, it must be through a wire.
No, external people can't connect to the network. This is good.
Internal people can't use a macbook air. No loss.
hmm. USB devices commonly in my laptop:
- Laptop base with fans (ok, that's so I can use it on a soft fluffy bed that would otherwise block the cooling vents - I don't take that with me when I'm out and about)
- mouse. Bluetooth just doesn't cut it, especially in a busy environment
- USB key. Not ever-present, but I don't want to be unplugging other things for it
- headphones. Sure, the laptop has a microphone and speakers built in. It would be obnoxious of me to force everyone else to listen to what I'm doing though, and it would be equally obnoxious to force people I'm chatting to through the laptop to listen to all the crap the built-in microphone picks up
- kensington usb powered fan. I rarely use this. A friend that went to Africa and South America rated the one I bought him as one of his top travel accessories.
Do I really need 5 USB ports? No. Even with an external DVD I wouldn't. Do I need 2 or more? Absolutely definitely.
Ah, ok. I take everything in my other post back. I'm using XP still.
I'd rather learn OSX than learn Vista.
(although it does sound like my Ubuntu partition. One day I'll get the optical drive on this laptop to be recognised by Linux) trying to get basic things to work, from USB flash drives / USB mice to digital cameras to phones to bluetooth to wireless to graphics (OpenGL) etc. etc Flash drive : Works instantly, no problems.
USB mouse : Works instantly, no problems.
Digital Camera : Works instantly, no problems.
Phone : Comes with software that I install, then it works. No such software available for the Mac
Bluetooth : Working when I bought the machine (built in)
Wireless : Working when I bought the machine (built in)
Graphics : Everything I've installed/used that needs graphics has worked instantly, no problems. factor in the extra time and money spent on antivirus software I don't use any. So I can compare GHz for GHz.
My time does have value. Learning how to use OSX, finding alternates to the software I used daily on Windows, probably writing new software to replace that which is not available (e.g. phone synchronisation).. I have better things to do with my time.
Throw in the fact that when I bought the laptop I'm replying to you from it was a higher spec than any mac available on the market at the time, for less money, and I'm really struggling to understand why people are so confused that someone might actually purchase a non-Apple PC.
Macs aren't necessarily bad. Neither are Windows PCs.
hey. it might be heavy, it might be clunky, but the stuff Brunel built is still working just fine.
THAT's excellence in engineering.
(I do fall in love with sexy electronic devices too)
So when you're away with the kids do you take your small cute Linux machine and your multi-terabyte home storage with you?
Because if you don't, you've completely failed to address the particular need of the person you're calling dumb.
(and if you do, you're still suggesting a multi-machine solution to someone seeking a single machine answer)
You think he should buy a second laptop to take away with him just so the kids can watch DVDs without using the laptop he'll be taking anyway?
(lets ignore the discussion on whether the children should be able to survive sans DVD for another day. After all, nobody's suggesting he might not need the laptop either..)
she/he btw, I haven't a clue and it's not particularly relevant
Hmm. My current laptop is too heavy to pick up off the desk while running and carry in one hand with the screen in a readable position. I have strong fingers and wrists (I pull a 55lb longbow for fun), but it's a 17" screen and a darn heavy piece of kit.
My (2002 model) Sony Vaio can be tossed gently from hand to hand while remaining readable.
Your arms may not drop off, but when you're travelling with a bag full of other stuff, the difference in laptop weight is noticeable and significant. Which is why I've kept the Sony. It's slow, and I can only run at 1024x800, but it's light, portable and has good battery life (even now). Which is what I bought it for.
I'd still be sceptical about a Macbook Air though. I suspect an Asus EEE would be a better choice right now for me.
Surely the benefits around size and weight disappear when you stop carrying it around? If someone never leaves the house then there must surely be cheaper better alternatives out there.
Including the ibook.
If the 'something dodgy' is a hijack attempt, yes, they can react swiftly enough even if they were asleep when it started.
If the 'something dodgy' is triggering a bomb, they're dead before anybody realises 'something dodgy' is going on, or it's taking the dodgy person so darn long to do anything that the rest of the passengers will have given him a serious beating already anyway.
Btw, have you been in the cockpit of a passenger jet during a flight? There's pretty much no downtime throughout the flight on the occasions I've been there.
Or a UK based financial company that qualifies for a
(Which I now have as my work email address. Which is nice
Fortunately software patents have no validity in Europe. I can also just imagine the response by the EU to an attempt to force patent licencing of these protocols.
Makes me chuckle anyway.
We know they were never intended to be used by any third party. That's the fucking point. It would give a third party the ability to compete fairly with you.
You could argue that a company ought to be able to retain competitive advantage through trade secrets (such as internal APIs, etc). Had Microsoft not undertaken so many anti-competitive and illegal practices to prevent even disadvantaged (in API terms) competitors from participating in related markets the EU may even have allowed that argument.
Using an OS monopoly to help enforce a desktop software monopoly and using that to enforce vendor lock-in through file format obsfuscation is however what got you where you are. You built the monopoly using illegal means and seek to retain it through information hiding. Removing the competitive advantage derived from enhanced internal API knowledge is a valid and appropriate response by the EU.
Hell, your customers may benefit too. Now you're being forced to actually document your software perhaps you'll also engineer it to retain backwards compatibility with previous versions of your own software. It's well into the 21st century, this really shouldn't be so alien a concept.
Hmm. I recently joined a new company. They're also still hiring.
They're also reknowned across the country for their ethical business practices. The company owners insisted that this be the case. There are external ethics audits, educational papers and case studies, and consumer/customer surveys that consistently applaud the ethical stance of my new employer.
Not that I joined them for this reason - they offered me the right job for my circumstances so I took it. But it is nice (and admittedly very unusual) to be doing things because they're the right thing to do, not because they're the most profitable thing to do.
(Yes, we do make money. Which is also nice.)
No, I don't work for Google.