This is the mother of all failed analogies. All of the devices you mentioned are interoperable and standardized in very important ways.
This is the mother of all Whooooooshes.
That's the point of Android. Providing a standardised way to have many different product options. Honda provides many different cars, but I can use the same petrol in all of them, NGK produces spark plugs that fit several models. Same with headlight and indicator bulbs et al.
Standardisation not about making identical products, it's about making different products interchangeable.
As a consumer I have confidence that when I buy a new iPhone in 2 years, all the apps I pay for today will work in the future.
LoL,
As a consumer, I have no confidence that in 2 years, every IOS developer will still be paying the $99 per year fee just to keep their applications listed.
Only on price though. Android runs terribly on low end smartphones
I don't know about that. I have a Samsung Dart, which is pretty low-end, and it works fine with Android 2.3. I like it because it is small, thin, and inexpensive ($130 with no contract). It does not run everything. Flash player, for example, is not available from the Android market for this phone, presumably because it is not powerful enough to run it. I don't mind, I have other toys for watching video.
My brother-in-law has a much more sophisticated Android phone that "does everything" including 3D video and 4G. It also has an enormous form-factor and price, both similar to the iPhone.
Basically, you bought a low end phone and it met expectations.:)
I'm one of those people who has an Android phone with everything including the kitchen sink, it's a bit bigger then an Iphone (due to a physical KB) but it was half the price. Android phones at the high end are almost always cheaper then Iphones when you buy them outright. I know quite a few people with low end Android phones and they're quite happy with them as they dont want everything including the kitchen sink in a phone, but they like the features that a smartphone provides as standard and dont want to pay the earth for them. Absolutely nothing wrong with that IMHO.
I guess you could say that this is fragmentation, but to me it feels like consumer choice.
The thing is, most people misuse the word "fragmentation" but here you've used it correctly. Fragmentation to an Android dev is the hardware differences that cant be avoided. Screen size is one of them as there is no resolution independent API.
And you're right, it's about choice, being able to pick the product that's right for you.
That's a dangerous assertion to make, and smacks of putting your fingers in your ears and saying "la la not listening".
Actually he's right.
When an Apple zealot speaks of fragmentation, he means things that "look" different, where as you pointed out it's hardware differences or things that behave different. Screen sizes are the most common complaint because Android does not have a resolution independent API. Of course no Apple zealot mentions this, they just rabbit on about Touchwiz or something completely unrelated and call it fragmentation.
Don't get me wrong, I think Android is in the ascendency and everyone is the better for it (including iOS users), but ignoring constructive criticism is not a sensible way to go about things.
Androids harshest critics are also it's biggest fans.
Your wife is also going to be disappointed with whatever tablet she gets if she wants to watch flash content, since Adobe pulled the plug on it.
I have an ICS tablet (Acer Iconia with custom ROM) and it has Flash on it.
Adobe hasn't killed flash, that is another delusion of Apple zealots, it has just stopped futther development. You can still install flash on Android 2.2, 2.3, 3.x and 4.0. I'll wait and see what happens with versions above 4.0.
But then I though 'Frist World Problems'. If you smuggling sensitive data chances are that
that its into or out of somewhere repressive where the internet is slow, locked down or even non existent...
Satellite internet is an option but a bit on the slow side and worse but you have smuggle the modem into the country.
I think you were right the first time, RAID6 on microSD (though I'd also encrypt the files:-)
I dont think you've been through a really thorough customs operation. The TSA are a bunch of amateurs on power trip, this does not make them competent.
If a government is oppressive about internet access, it is then reasonable to assume that said oppression will be just as great, if not greater at border entries. This still makes it easier to smuggle data through the internet. This way you dont have to put yourself in immediate danger of discovery nor do you have to face the person who is attempting to stop you. Also, VPN's, TOR and other methods of hiding data have been far more effective then attempting to hide objects. An X-Ray will reveal any hidden compartments in luggage so the items will have to be stored on your person who only has to travel through a metal detector for the most part.
Smuggling in person is actually a very hard thing to do.
They're anything but batshit crazy. They're simply not bound by the most common moral standards. With lacking moral compass, lots of money and simple goals you can do anything you want that, even remotely, can be justified within current laws.
It's just a business model.
Morals dont factor into it...
The Irish Government has no money to extort. That's the insane bit.
Apple recently patented "methods of extracting monetary compensation by engaging in litigation over patent rights."
Not true.
Apple just purchased the company who patented "methods of extracting monetary compensation by engaging in litigation of frivolous, over-broad and ill defined patents".
They got "methods of halting competition by engaging in litigation over frivolous, over-broad and ill defined patents" in the same acquisition.
I know I might be asking a stupid question, but what pocket device on the market has a 1920x1080 display?
Some have been coming out with MiniHDMI ports for almost a year now.
!080 recording is a marketing gimmick. But besides this, taking 1920x1080 video is usually done with the idea it will be viewed on a device that can display that resolution such as a computer of HDTV. In reality no-one wants to watch a shaky, out of focus video with poor audio taken from completely the wrong angle someone's phone.
There is only one way to stop the MAFIAA. Cut copyright to 50 years, and tell them if they don't back the fuck off, you're going to cut it to 20 years.
That wont stop them, at best that will only slow them down. They'll happily keep suing even if copyright is cut to 3 months. Long copyrights aren't to protect older works, they are designed to protect newer works from having to compete with older works.
The best solution is to change copyright so that the cartels cant own copyrights rather they can be contracted for distribution by the actual content creators, ergo, cant sue over something they cant own. Then jailing any media exec who even thinks of getting out of line for life + 70 years.
I think the issue is how does this water creature develop fire and metal smelting in the first place (you know bronze and iron age level) - once they have technology working around it is easy, the tricky bit would be developing that technology in the first place.
You can create fire underwater, it's a different chemical process to on land.
Besides, you dont need fire for smelting, you simply need heat and there are plenty of active underwater volcano's on earth as well as other heat sources.
Needless to say, an aquatic civilisation would develop things in radically different ways to the way we have.
Everyone need this kind of storage. A small external HDD is readily identifiable as such, so will be subject to arbitrary search and confiscation at the whim of the border guards. Better to store your data within ordinary items such as a hairbrush, keyfob or the flight-safe Swiss Army Knife. Preferably encrypted and redundantly distributed among as many innocuous items as you can stand to carry. When you have reached your destination, use your most secure device to update and change your security codes so the folks who confiscated your external HDD can't easily get to your personal information.
Well the first thing I thought of is set up a RAID 5 or 6 of micro SD cards ensuring that no complete file is no any single SD card. Micro SD cards are small enough that they can be hidden inside a lot of innocuous items including inside the body itself.
Then I thought, why bother, If the data is that sensitive or incriminating, I'll just store it on a server and access it over the internet. Even Dropbox holds a few GB for free, if it's sensitive data why not pay them or hire a server and some storage and DIY.
Smuggling data is not like smuggling drugs, why endanger your person going through customs when you can bypass the entire thing.
If you want to make sure the TSA leaves your digital goodies alone, label it 'Viruses for AV Testing". Bonus: Carry a disclaimer form releasing you of damages if they do plug it in.
You mean a shrink wrap license?
If the US court system worked, it would be enough to cover your arse for any damage they TSA did by ignoring the license. That would be _if_ the US courts worked the way they're meant to.
I'm not an American and have nothing to do with the idiodic organisation known as the TSA, but surely if you want the TSA to leave your data alone you would just send it through the internet rather then carrying it on your person. Seems pretty stupid to have sensitive data on you when you know what the TSA is like.
Alpha Centauri is the closest, but we need to trade the locations of at least three rainbow worlds to afford the lander upgrades before I'll even consider landing on those worlds.
Ships full of water - multiply the difficulties to escape the gravity well by about 1000.
Imagine developing metallurgy and special ceramics (I reckon these would be needed for at least propulsion) in/under water...
Who said the ship needs to be full of water. given many of the oceanic creatures on earth only the breathing apparatus needs to meet the creatures environmental requirements. Isn't it entirely possible to create a space suite for an aquatic organism in the same way we have pressure suits for humans?
Your second point is much more interesting. I the best guesses I can come up with are either do it on land using machines (in the same way we use submersibles to work under the sea) or have an entirely different method of smelting and fabrication that we've never considered.
The biggest gripe most programmers have with sales people is when they sell a feature that doesn't exist yet for a price that doesn't cover the cost to implement it. And somehow the sales person gets a bonus and the programmer has to work long hours and ends up with a bad performance review.
As a network engineer, when a salesman sells something that we cant deliver, I have the balls to go to the salesman and tell him that he needs to tell to the client he sold something that cant be delivered. If he doesn't I will point out to the client that the salesman lied. The salesmans rep gets damaged more then mine or the companies, reasonable clients will talk to me about the solution and in this case the salesman gets shut out, unreasonable clients will just dump us.
Given this, salesmen quickly learn not to fuck with IT, when we tell them X isn't going to happen, it isn't going to happen and they will look bad for it.
Now salesmen are nowhere near the kind of fuck ups that project managers are. A good project manager who works with the team, eliminates problems and blockages is worth their weight in gold and are considerably less abundant. Most project managers are shit, they spend most of their time arging amongst themselves over resources (I.E. People) dont bother having relevant information about the projects they are meant to manage and simply delegate without knowing what staff are doing. A PM does not need to have an in depth understanding but they need a basic understanding to know what a job entails and how this will affect the end result.
I've been sent to install servers into rooms that didn't have power by shitty project managers. I called the PM and he said the electricians were coming next Tuesday and just to do the job. I did everything I could do without power, which was nothing. I couldn't even physically install the rack because it would block access for the electricians. A lot of PM's fail to understand the sequence in which things must be done, power must be installed before servers, this manager also had the gall to complain that I messed up his nice gantt chart because he fucked up the planning, he just stood there with a blank stare when I asked him "how do I even turn on servers without electricity". The depth of the problem was completely lost on him.
I simply find both sales and marketing immoral (at least in the forms they commonly have in our society).
Sales and marketing is mostly finding out what a person needs, why he needs that and how they can help the person with it. It's also making it easier for customers to buy your services or products, and letting them know such product exists (to fix a need, again). What is so immoral about that?
LoL,
You've never worked with sales have you.
Sales is about ignoring what a perspective client needs and convincing them to buy the product or solution that generates the most commission for the salesman.
Marketing is about convincing people they have a need for your product or solution, a need that does not exist.
People who've invested their own time, money and effort into providing (and charging for) Wifi must be just thrilled that the council have given a private operator rights to erect equipment in public spaces right next to their premises that effectively kicks their product out of the market. Is the need for public Wifi that pressing that the council are being diverted from their normal duties like, you know, sweeping the streets?
You mean you know someone who wasted money providing a paid for WiFi service that no-one wants.
Should the local Council shut down the nearest Macca's because their free WiFi interferes with his flawed business model?
Bollocks.
I see Azure and Tomizone networks occasionally here in Oz, these ones are captive portals that ask for CC details, I have never used them, it's easier and faster to head down the street and find a Macca's, Subway or cafe with open wifi.
In Westminster alone, it could be providing internet access to half a million tourists each day, 250,000 residents and 500,000 workers.
Half a million of tourists - would they plan to ask for a "tourist id" for granting access?
They should just ask Singapore how Singapore handles it.
Wireless@SG works in most places I've tried it (Changi Airport, Orchid road). I get the code from the info booth at the airport, valid for 4 hours and wander around Singapore for a bit before my next flight. Handy for long stopovers. A beer in SG is expensive enough, doubly so in an airport (S$13 last time I was there).
The simple way would be registration via an email address, get a code for Wireless@LON for 14 days. Beyond this, SMS codes. seeing as these are captive portals, you regester to have an access code SMS'ed to any UK phone (probably work for any EU phone).
The responses to these stories are always interesting. Because it's Google, there will be criticisms of the South Korean commission and questioning of their claims. If this was Microsoft, however, the accusations would be taken at face value as more proof of Microsoft's anti-competitive behavior.
Here's the problem with that assertion.
Microsoft have a history of anti-competitive behaviour and interfering with federal investigations in multiple jurisdictions (EU, US, even South Korea). Google has no such history.
But nice try to start some baseless Google bashing.
But I think they're really good at appealing to tech communities,
This is because they've been very good to tech communities. High performance databases would be years behind if it weren't for contributions from Google. Not to mention coding competitions like Summer of Code and providing some of the best products available. But I like Google best because they challenged the idea that someone else had to own my phone.
Point in short, Google earned their reputation through action, much like how Microsoft earned theirs
That works up to a point but what about when your sea walls get to be 50 feet high?
We adapt a new relgion based around the ocean and we regularly sacrifice non believers to our sea gods. As long as the rate of sacrifice outpaced the rate of birth, the population density of remaining land above sea level will lower to a sustainable point.
This has to a better solution then waterworld, we never want to see Kevin Costner again.
Dells primary audience is business, tablets are consumer items and rarely used in businesses.
Yeah, I remember when people around here used to say that about iPhones.
And it's still true.
I have yet to see a job where an Iphone is an advantage, let alone a necessity.
If a business mandates a phone, it's likely to be a Blackberry (I.E. the business is running BES). Otherwise an Iphone is no different to a WinMo, WP7 or Android device and run from the same POP or ActiveSync service.
If you were home, which device would be the first to pick?
Desktop PC. Nothing beats the full sized KB, laser mouse and 24" IPS monitor (a Dell, ironically enough). Plus the power of a desktop for games. I know a lot of people dont want to beleive this, but a lot of people still use desktops because they dont need portability and desktops are a lot more comfortable to use. Businesses tend to be the big driver for the conversion to laptops.
I also have a laptop I use infrequently at home due to the fact that the desktop is better despite the laptop being newer.
If you were at the beach, which device would you pick?
WTF would I bring something like that to the beach?
If you were on a train which device would you pick?
Depends on what I need to do, as you said, PC for work, Tablet for media consumption. I normally use an MP3 player only whilst commuting.
When I travel, I take a 14" laptop and 10" tablet. The tablet gets the most use on the plane for two reasons, 1) using a 14" laptop is not comfortable, 2) for the most part it's being used for media consumption. However when I want to do work, email or even browse the internet I prefer the laptop. Typing a long post on a regular forum is difficult enough even with 10 point mulitouch (/.'s HTML makes it worse).
Personal histories, mine and thousands of other geeks I've talked to over the decades. Thousands of articles and editorials over the same span, etc.
Seriously, this is not a [citation needed] occasion. If you've been in the biz long enough, this is basic stuff.
No it isn't a [citation needed] moment, Dell and HP are the worlds biggest PC manufacturers because they are big in the business world. The consumer world is tiny compared to that.
The consumer is the poor cousin to business, businesses drive sales.
I've been in the Biz long enough to know that, it's basic stuff.
Michael Dell is usually right about that kind of thing. That's not because I'm any kind of fangirl, or because I used to work for him, just that he's historically been pretty good at predicting market trends. You said it yourself... it's a good replacement to a *second* computer, but you still need a real computer to type documents and actually create content for. Especially at a school.
This,
Ask yourself,
1) Who is Dell's primary audience?
2) Who is the tablets primary audience?
3) Which one of these has more money to spend?
Dells primary audience is business, tablets are consumer items and rarely used in businesses. Business budgets tend to be much higher then consumer budgets, they also turn over computers much faster. Michael Dell knows his audience, as much as the Apple fanboys hate to admit it and he's been quite successful because of that. Dell is still the number 2 PC maker in the world, second only to HP and both HP and Dell can attribute this success to corporate customers.
He's right, tablets are not a threat to traditional PC's.
What I'd like is a modern version of the "tablet" computers that Lenovo was selling 8 years ago.
Toshiba make these, I think the Satellite U series. I no longer work in GIS so I've lost track of specific models. The current wave of consumer tablets have done nothing to damage the tablet market that has existed for years with mining and emergency services. Tablet PC's are common in these vehicles.
Slashdot Mirror
This is the mother of all Whooooooshes.
That's the point of Android. Providing a standardised way to have many different product options. Honda provides many different cars, but I can use the same petrol in all of them, NGK produces spark plugs that fit several models. Same with headlight and indicator bulbs et al.
Standardisation not about making identical products, it's about making different products interchangeable.
LoL, As a consumer, I have no confidence that in 2 years, every IOS developer will still be paying the $99 per year fee just to keep their applications listed.
Only on price though. Android runs terribly on low end smartphones
I don't know about that. I have a Samsung Dart, which is pretty low-end, and it works fine with Android 2.3. I like it because it is small, thin, and inexpensive ($130 with no contract). It does not run everything. Flash player, for example, is not available from the Android market for this phone, presumably because it is not powerful enough to run it. I don't mind, I have other toys for watching video.
My brother-in-law has a much more sophisticated Android phone that "does everything" including 3D video and 4G. It also has an enormous form-factor and price, both similar to the iPhone.
Basically, you bought a low end phone and it met expectations. :)
I'm one of those people who has an Android phone with everything including the kitchen sink, it's a bit bigger then an Iphone (due to a physical KB) but it was half the price. Android phones at the high end are almost always cheaper then Iphones when you buy them outright. I know quite a few people with low end Android phones and they're quite happy with them as they dont want everything including the kitchen sink in a phone, but they like the features that a smartphone provides as standard and dont want to pay the earth for them. Absolutely nothing wrong with that IMHO.
I guess you could say that this is fragmentation, but to me it feels like consumer choice.
The thing is, most people misuse the word "fragmentation" but here you've used it correctly. Fragmentation to an Android dev is the hardware differences that cant be avoided. Screen size is one of them as there is no resolution independent API.
And you're right, it's about choice, being able to pick the product that's right for you.
Actually he's right.
When an Apple zealot speaks of fragmentation, he means things that "look" different, where as you pointed out it's hardware differences or things that behave different. Screen sizes are the most common complaint because Android does not have a resolution independent API. Of course no Apple zealot mentions this, they just rabbit on about Touchwiz or something completely unrelated and call it fragmentation.
Androids harshest critics are also it's biggest fans.
I have an ICS tablet (Acer Iconia with custom ROM) and it has Flash on it. Adobe hasn't killed flash, that is another delusion of Apple zealots, it has just stopped futther development. You can still install flash on Android 2.2, 2.3, 3.x and 4.0. I'll wait and see what happens with versions above 4.0.
I was just about to agree with you and quote http://xkcd.com/538/....
But then I though 'Frist World Problems'. If you smuggling sensitive data chances are that that its into or out of somewhere repressive where the internet is slow, locked down or even non existent ...
Satellite internet is an option but a bit on the slow side and worse but you have smuggle the modem into the country.
I think you were right the first time, RAID6 on microSD (though I'd also encrypt the files:-)
I dont think you've been through a really thorough customs operation. The TSA are a bunch of amateurs on power trip, this does not make them competent.
If a government is oppressive about internet access, it is then reasonable to assume that said oppression will be just as great, if not greater at border entries. This still makes it easier to smuggle data through the internet. This way you dont have to put yourself in immediate danger of discovery nor do you have to face the person who is attempting to stop you. Also, VPN's, TOR and other methods of hiding data have been far more effective then attempting to hide objects. An X-Ray will reveal any hidden compartments in luggage so the items will have to be stored on your person who only has to travel through a metal detector for the most part.
Smuggling in person is actually a very hard thing to do.
They're anything but batshit crazy. They're simply not bound by the most common moral standards. With lacking moral compass, lots of money and simple goals you can do anything you want that, even remotely, can be justified within current laws.
It's just a business model.
Morals dont factor into it...
The Irish Government has no money to extort. That's the insane bit.
Apple recently patented "methods of extracting monetary compensation by engaging in litigation over patent rights."
Not true.
Apple just purchased the company who patented "methods of extracting monetary compensation by engaging in litigation of frivolous, over-broad and ill defined patents".
They got "methods of halting competition by engaging in litigation over frivolous, over-broad and ill defined patents" in the same acquisition.
I know I might be asking a stupid question, but what pocket device on the market has a 1920x1080 display?
Some have been coming out with MiniHDMI ports for almost a year now.
!080 recording is a marketing gimmick. But besides this, taking 1920x1080 video is usually done with the idea it will be viewed on a device that can display that resolution such as a computer of HDTV. In reality no-one wants to watch a shaky, out of focus video with poor audio taken from completely the wrong angle someone's phone.
There is only one way to stop the MAFIAA. Cut copyright to 50 years, and tell them if they don't back the fuck off, you're going to cut it to 20 years.
That wont stop them, at best that will only slow them down. They'll happily keep suing even if copyright is cut to 3 months. Long copyrights aren't to protect older works, they are designed to protect newer works from having to compete with older works.
The best solution is to change copyright so that the cartels cant own copyrights rather they can be contracted for distribution by the actual content creators, ergo, cant sue over something they cant own. Then jailing any media exec who even thinks of getting out of line for life + 70 years.
ARE THESE GUYS CRAZY?
If there was any doubt before now, it has been removed.
If they weren't completely batshit insane they would have sued a government with some money.
I think the issue is how does this water creature develop fire and metal smelting in the first place (you know bronze and iron age level) - once they have technology working around it is easy, the tricky bit would be developing that technology in the first place.
You can create fire underwater, it's a different chemical process to on land.
Besides, you dont need fire for smelting, you simply need heat and there are plenty of active underwater volcano's on earth as well as other heat sources.
Needless to say, an aquatic civilisation would develop things in radically different ways to the way we have.
Everyone need this kind of storage. A small external HDD is readily identifiable as such, so will be subject to arbitrary search and confiscation at the whim of the border guards. Better to store your data within ordinary items such as a hairbrush, keyfob or the flight-safe Swiss Army Knife. Preferably encrypted and redundantly distributed among as many innocuous items as you can stand to carry. When you have reached your destination, use your most secure device to update and change your security codes so the folks who confiscated your external HDD can't easily get to your personal information.
Well the first thing I thought of is set up a RAID 5 or 6 of micro SD cards ensuring that no complete file is no any single SD card. Micro SD cards are small enough that they can be hidden inside a lot of innocuous items including inside the body itself.
Then I thought, why bother, If the data is that sensitive or incriminating, I'll just store it on a server and access it over the internet. Even Dropbox holds a few GB for free, if it's sensitive data why not pay them or hire a server and some storage and DIY.
Smuggling data is not like smuggling drugs, why endanger your person going through customs when you can bypass the entire thing.
If you want to make sure the TSA leaves your digital goodies alone, label it 'Viruses for AV Testing". Bonus: Carry a disclaimer form releasing you of damages if they do plug it in.
You mean a shrink wrap license?
If the US court system worked, it would be enough to cover your arse for any damage they TSA did by ignoring the license. That would be _if_ the US courts worked the way they're meant to.
I'm not an American and have nothing to do with the idiodic organisation known as the TSA, but surely if you want the TSA to leave your data alone you would just send it through the internet rather then carrying it on your person. Seems pretty stupid to have sensitive data on you when you know what the TSA is like.
Now where are the ruby worlds?
Alpha Centauri is the closest, but we need to trade the locations of at least three rainbow worlds to afford the lander upgrades before I'll even consider landing on those worlds.
Ships full of water - multiply the difficulties to escape the gravity well by about 1000.
Imagine developing metallurgy and special ceramics (I reckon these would be needed for at least propulsion) in/under water...
Who said the ship needs to be full of water. given many of the oceanic creatures on earth only the breathing apparatus needs to meet the creatures environmental requirements. Isn't it entirely possible to create a space suite for an aquatic organism in the same way we have pressure suits for humans?
Your second point is much more interesting. I the best guesses I can come up with are either do it on land using machines (in the same way we use submersibles to work under the sea) or have an entirely different method of smelting and fabrication that we've never considered.
The biggest gripe most programmers have with sales people is when they sell a feature that doesn't exist yet for a price that doesn't cover the cost to implement it. And somehow the sales person gets a bonus and the programmer has to work long hours and ends up with a bad performance review.
As a network engineer, when a salesman sells something that we cant deliver, I have the balls to go to the salesman and tell him that he needs to tell to the client he sold something that cant be delivered. If he doesn't I will point out to the client that the salesman lied. The salesmans rep gets damaged more then mine or the companies, reasonable clients will talk to me about the solution and in this case the salesman gets shut out, unreasonable clients will just dump us.
Given this, salesmen quickly learn not to fuck with IT, when we tell them X isn't going to happen, it isn't going to happen and they will look bad for it.
Now salesmen are nowhere near the kind of fuck ups that project managers are. A good project manager who works with the team, eliminates problems and blockages is worth their weight in gold and are considerably less abundant. Most project managers are shit, they spend most of their time arging amongst themselves over resources (I.E. People) dont bother having relevant information about the projects they are meant to manage and simply delegate without knowing what staff are doing. A PM does not need to have an in depth understanding but they need a basic understanding to know what a job entails and how this will affect the end result.
I've been sent to install servers into rooms that didn't have power by shitty project managers. I called the PM and he said the electricians were coming next Tuesday and just to do the job. I did everything I could do without power, which was nothing. I couldn't even physically install the rack because it would block access for the electricians. A lot of PM's fail to understand the sequence in which things must be done, power must be installed before servers, this manager also had the gall to complain that I messed up his nice gantt chart because he fucked up the planning, he just stood there with a blank stare when I asked him "how do I even turn on servers without electricity". The depth of the problem was completely lost on him.
I simply find both sales and marketing immoral (at least in the forms they commonly have in our society).
Sales and marketing is mostly finding out what a person needs, why he needs that and how they can help the person with it. It's also making it easier for customers to buy your services or products, and letting them know such product exists (to fix a need, again). What is so immoral about that?
LoL,
You've never worked with sales have you.
Sales is about ignoring what a perspective client needs and convincing them to buy the product or solution that generates the most commission for the salesman.
Marketing is about convincing people they have a need for your product or solution, a need that does not exist.
People who've invested their own time, money and effort into providing (and charging for) Wifi must be just thrilled that the council have given a private operator rights to erect equipment in public spaces right next to their premises that effectively kicks their product out of the market. Is the need for public Wifi that pressing that the council are being diverted from their normal duties like, you know, sweeping the streets?
You mean you know someone who wasted money providing a paid for WiFi service that no-one wants.
Should the local Council shut down the nearest Macca's because their free WiFi interferes with his flawed business model?
Bollocks.
I see Azure and Tomizone networks occasionally here in Oz, these ones are captive portals that ask for CC details, I have never used them, it's easier and faster to head down the street and find a Macca's, Subway or cafe with open wifi.
In Westminster alone, it could be providing internet access to half a million tourists each day, 250,000 residents and 500,000 workers.
Half a million of tourists - would they plan to ask for a "tourist id" for granting access?
They should just ask Singapore how Singapore handles it.
Wireless@SG works in most places I've tried it (Changi Airport, Orchid road). I get the code from the info booth at the airport, valid for 4 hours and wander around Singapore for a bit before my next flight. Handy for long stopovers. A beer in SG is expensive enough, doubly so in an airport (S$13 last time I was there).
The simple way would be registration via an email address, get a code for Wireless@LON for 14 days. Beyond this, SMS codes. seeing as these are captive portals, you regester to have an access code SMS'ed to any UK phone (probably work for any EU phone).
Here's the problem with that assertion.
Microsoft have a history of anti-competitive behaviour and interfering with federal investigations in multiple jurisdictions (EU, US, even South Korea). Google has no such history.
But nice try to start some baseless Google bashing.
This is because they've been very good to tech communities. High performance databases would be years behind if it weren't for contributions from Google. Not to mention coding competitions like Summer of Code and providing some of the best products available. But I like Google best because they challenged the idea that someone else had to own my phone.
Point in short, Google earned their reputation through action, much like how Microsoft earned theirs
Since we know about CO2 being a greenhouse gas since the 19th century, industrialization was just planned to prevent the ice age.
Pah, planned climate. Is this some kind of environmental communism. I demand Laissez Faire ecologies damn it. Let the whales decide.
That works up to a point but what about when your sea walls get to be 50 feet high?
We adapt a new relgion based around the ocean and we regularly sacrifice non believers to our sea gods. As long as the rate of sacrifice outpaced the rate of birth, the population density of remaining land above sea level will lower to a sustainable point.
This has to a better solution then waterworld, we never want to see Kevin Costner again.
Dells primary audience is business, tablets are consumer items and rarely used in businesses.
Yeah, I remember when people around here used to say that about iPhones.
And it's still true. I have yet to see a job where an Iphone is an advantage, let alone a necessity.
If a business mandates a phone, it's likely to be a Blackberry (I.E. the business is running BES). Otherwise an Iphone is no different to a WinMo, WP7 or Android device and run from the same POP or ActiveSync service.
If you were home, which device would be the first to pick?
Desktop PC. Nothing beats the full sized KB, laser mouse and 24" IPS monitor (a Dell, ironically enough). Plus the power of a desktop for games. I know a lot of people dont want to beleive this, but a lot of people still use desktops because they dont need portability and desktops are a lot more comfortable to use. Businesses tend to be the big driver for the conversion to laptops.
I also have a laptop I use infrequently at home due to the fact that the desktop is better despite the laptop being newer.
If you were at the beach, which device would you pick?
WTF would I bring something like that to the beach?
If you were on a train which device would you pick?
Depends on what I need to do, as you said, PC for work, Tablet for media consumption. I normally use an MP3 player only whilst commuting.
When I travel, I take a 14" laptop and 10" tablet. The tablet gets the most use on the plane for two reasons, 1) using a 14" laptop is not comfortable, 2) for the most part it's being used for media consumption. However when I want to do work, email or even browse the internet I prefer the laptop. Typing a long post on a regular forum is difficult enough even with 10 point mulitouch (/.'s HTML makes it worse).
And this information comes from...?
Personal histories, mine and thousands of other geeks I've talked to over the decades. Thousands of articles and editorials over the same span, etc.
Seriously, this is not a [citation needed] occasion. If you've been in the biz long enough, this is basic stuff.
No it isn't a [citation needed] moment, Dell and HP are the worlds biggest PC manufacturers because they are big in the business world. The consumer world is tiny compared to that.
The consumer is the poor cousin to business, businesses drive sales.
I've been in the Biz long enough to know that, it's basic stuff.
Michael Dell is usually right about that kind of thing. That's not because I'm any kind of fangirl, or because I used to work for him, just that he's historically been pretty good at predicting market trends. You said it yourself... it's a good replacement to a *second* computer, but you still need a real computer to type documents and actually create content for. Especially at a school.
This,
Ask yourself,
1) Who is Dell's primary audience?
2) Who is the tablets primary audience?
3) Which one of these has more money to spend?
Dells primary audience is business, tablets are consumer items and rarely used in businesses. Business budgets tend to be much higher then consumer budgets, they also turn over computers much faster. Michael Dell knows his audience, as much as the Apple fanboys hate to admit it and he's been quite successful because of that. Dell is still the number 2 PC maker in the world, second only to HP and both HP and Dell can attribute this success to corporate customers.
He's right, tablets are not a threat to traditional PC's.
What I'd like is a modern version of the "tablet" computers that Lenovo was selling 8 years ago.
Toshiba make these, I think the Satellite U series. I no longer work in GIS so I've lost track of specific models. The current wave of consumer tablets have done nothing to damage the tablet market that has existed for years with mining and emergency services. Tablet PC's are common in these vehicles.