Build their own infrastructure - not likely when you look at the basic elements. Most telco service lines share poles with electric lines and in some areas cable. There is minimum spacing required between the various services and the electric company's dictate rules. So you can't just hang another set of wires, not enough ground clearance. I can't even get cable service because the poles on my property are too short. Nothing is simple. In my rural area, ATT says if I'm getting 19.2 (yes, nineteen dot two) dial up service, they are satisfying their service standard. I'd like to know where those billions of dollars are going to provide service to rural areas.
My first cell phone required a 3 watt transmitter in the trunk of
my car - cost me $300. Airtime was $.45 a minute - period. No
plans, no freebies, no data, no messaging. Monthly bill would run
from $150 to $300 a month. That was 1989 - everything now is a whole
lot cheaper and a whole lot more reliable. Wait a few more years,
it'll all get better - long before the courts do anything.
Hmmm - you don't live in TVA's service area do you.
We are in the midst of a very severe drought. Lakes
are way below normal levels. Therefore TVA can't
generate hydro electricity without literally running
out of water. The lakes are used by virtually
every city in the Tennessee Valley for a water supply
and you have to meter water out to the rivers in
order to prevent an ecological disaster - think fish,
trees, acquatic mammals, etc. Proper management
of the water supply dictates that hydro generation has
been very sparingly used all this year.
Used to be you could look at your landline phone bill on-line and be
able to click on a long distance call to see who the call went to.
Now that's an added optional feature available only when you
agree to pay your bill through direct debit from your bank
account. But I still get a printed detailing of all data chgs
which tells me exactly nothing. Go figure.
And then there's Tennessee. I get 26.4 on a good day. I call Bellsouth/ATT and complain. The answer - 19.2 or better meets their standard. A state legislator reads my email of complaint and says that I should know that I now have the option of selecting a different phone company if I'm not happy with ATT. Sigh!
IT administrators can kill a Treo - but it's 3rd party software -
oh wait, that won't work with the IPhone - no 3rd party software.
As to the installation of the Palm desktop requiring administrator
privileges - no need to bother with the Palm desktop software - it
only sorta works on Vista anyway.
Much to my disgust, I had to buy a new desktop and replace my literally broken laptop. Vista was the only option - I don't particularly like anything about Vista but - it NEVER crashes. Complain all you want but Vista really is reliable - after three months I've never had to reboot either system. I've never seen this kind of reliability for an end user in forty years of computing experience. Vista is going to be a huge seller.
And then there's the poor rubes like me out in the country. AT&T is going to provide all these wonderful services to compete with cable - but they tell me that my 26.4 internet connection is better than their standard 19.2. Where they have a total monopoly (no one else can improve the line quality to my home) they have no intention of improving the service. Digital service - not likely in my lifetime!
After a couple of Palm PDA's and now on my second Treo, I have a different
perspective. First - the Palm OS is stable - I took a Treo 600 on vacation
through Turkey, a cruise, Greece, and Italy for a month. Never had a crash
or had to reset once - rock solid using the phone everyday, sending emails,
messaging, reading books, listening to MP3s, completing crosswords. Telephone
worked great everywhere - even 10 miles off a barren Turkish coast. Swapped
to a Treo 680 late last year. It works perfectly - I picked it up, loaded old
familiar applications and started using immediately. Last time I did a reset
was probably six weeks ago. Palm OS at an end - I don't think so - it does
everything an average user wants, has had for years all the functionality
others are just now crowing about. Yup, the camera sucks - that's why I
carry a pocket Canon. Yup, no wireless, but a cheap unlimited data plan
with Cingular sorta makes that a non-issue. So what's not to like about
Palm OS?
Windows Mobile may be great for a developer but it stinks from a user's view.
There's absolutely nothing intuitive about the user interface. Now would anyone
really like to say that it's reliable. Some tell me that it's improved a
lot - they only have to reset once a day now. May be great when crunching code
but what about us poor button pushers. I'll stick with Palm OS.
It wasn't a speaker, it was an electron moving through the tank of
mercury. At the time, core memory was in an oil bath and tape
drives had springs on buffer reels instead of vacuum columns. The
cpu had a sump under it to collect the condesation from the vacuum
tubes - but what does any of this have to do with UI. Interesting
that no one seems to remember XEROX PARC - where Apple liberated
most of their ideas for a GUI.
Slashdot Mirror
Build their own infrastructure - not likely when you look at the basic elements. Most telco service lines share poles with electric lines and in some areas cable. There is minimum spacing required between the various services and the electric company's dictate rules. So you can't just hang another set of wires, not enough ground clearance. I can't even get cable service because the poles on my property are too short. Nothing is simple. In my rural area, ATT says if I'm getting 19.2 (yes, nineteen dot two) dial up service, they are satisfying their service standard. I'd like to know where those billions of dollars are going to provide service to rural areas.
My first cell phone required a 3 watt transmitter in the trunk of my car - cost me $300. Airtime was $.45 a minute - period. No plans, no freebies, no data, no messaging. Monthly bill would run from $150 to $300 a month. That was 1989 - everything now is a whole lot cheaper and a whole lot more reliable. Wait a few more years, it'll all get better - long before the courts do anything.
Hmmm - you don't live in TVA's service area do you. We are in the midst of a very severe drought. Lakes are way below normal levels. Therefore TVA can't generate hydro electricity without literally running out of water. The lakes are used by virtually every city in the Tennessee Valley for a water supply and you have to meter water out to the rivers in order to prevent an ecological disaster - think fish, trees, acquatic mammals, etc. Proper management of the water supply dictates that hydro generation has been very sparingly used all this year.
Used to be you could look at your landline phone bill on-line and be able to click on a long distance call to see who the call went to. Now that's an added optional feature available only when you agree to pay your bill through direct debit from your bank account. But I still get a printed detailing of all data chgs which tells me exactly nothing. Go figure.
And then there's Tennessee. I get 26.4 on a good day. I call Bellsouth/ATT and complain. The answer - 19.2 or better meets their standard. A state legislator reads my email of complaint and says that I should know that I now have the option of selecting a different phone company if I'm not happy with ATT. Sigh!
IT administrators can kill a Treo - but it's 3rd party software - oh wait, that won't work with the IPhone - no 3rd party software. As to the installation of the Palm desktop requiring administrator privileges - no need to bother with the Palm desktop software - it only sorta works on Vista anyway.
Much to my disgust, I had to buy a new desktop and replace my literally broken laptop. Vista was the only option - I don't particularly like anything about Vista but - it NEVER crashes. Complain all you want but Vista really is reliable - after three months I've never had to reboot either system. I've never seen this kind of reliability for an end user in forty years of computing experience. Vista is going to be a huge seller.
And then there's the poor rubes like me out in the country.
AT&T is going to provide all these wonderful services to
compete with cable - but they tell me that my 26.4 internet
connection is better than their standard 19.2. Where they
have a total monopoly (no one else can improve the line
quality to my home) they have no intention of improving the
service. Digital service - not likely in my lifetime!
After a couple of Palm PDA's and now on my second Treo, I have a different perspective. First - the Palm OS is stable - I took a Treo 600 on vacation through Turkey, a cruise, Greece, and Italy for a month. Never had a crash or had to reset once - rock solid using the phone everyday, sending emails, messaging, reading books, listening to MP3s, completing crosswords. Telephone worked great everywhere - even 10 miles off a barren Turkish coast. Swapped to a Treo 680 late last year. It works perfectly - I picked it up, loaded old familiar applications and started using immediately. Last time I did a reset was probably six weeks ago. Palm OS at an end - I don't think so - it does everything an average user wants, has had for years all the functionality others are just now crowing about. Yup, the camera sucks - that's why I carry a pocket Canon. Yup, no wireless, but a cheap unlimited data plan with Cingular sorta makes that a non-issue. So what's not to like about Palm OS? Windows Mobile may be great for a developer but it stinks from a user's view. There's absolutely nothing intuitive about the user interface. Now would anyone really like to say that it's reliable. Some tell me that it's improved a lot - they only have to reset once a day now. May be great when crunching code but what about us poor button pushers. I'll stick with Palm OS.
It wasn't a speaker, it was an electron moving through the tank of mercury. At the time, core memory was in an oil bath and tape drives had springs on buffer reels instead of vacuum columns. The cpu had a sump under it to collect the condesation from the vacuum tubes - but what does any of this have to do with UI. Interesting that no one seems to remember XEROX PARC - where Apple liberated most of their ideas for a GUI.