Berkeley CSUA MOTD:Entry 54057
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2025/06/30 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
6/30    

2011/3/12-4/20 [Consumer/CellPhone, Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:54057 Activity:nil
3/12    I am curious what others think of tablets like iPad. They don't seem
        useful to me, but I use my computer for more than web browsing,
        Facebook, and Twitter. Why would I buy one instead of a laptop?
        They seem like a disabled laptop to me, but at a higher price.
        \_ You are most likely a coder.  iPad is not for coders.  They are
           what you get your non-technical friends.  Or musicians.  Look at
           the amplitude app.  Saves a tonne of gear shlepping.  Wolfram Alpha,
           etc: http://csua.org/u/sr0 and http://csua.org/u/sr1
           And i'm not even going into how i used mine to replace a shelf of
           technical books that I realized were kinda annoying without an
           automated grep mechanism.  But to write code on?  never.
        \_ http://csua.org/u/sr2 - this is a replacement newspaper for upper
           management.  The guys with the families, with the mistresses the
           100k/yr golf memberships etc.  EG. not you.  They would like to
           replace their daily printed reports with the latest in male jewelry
           and hey if they can get interactive graphs showing your coding
           teams' productivity whilst on the golf course in real time
           so much the better.
           \_ Lol i remember reading these 70s fiction books about "electronic
              clipboards".
              \_ Upper mgmt read those too, as twenny somethings.  Natch, they
                 want ipads now.
        \_ I am curious what other think of cookers like the microwave. They
           don't seem useful to me, but I use my oven for more than heating up
           leftovers, boiling water, and making brownies. Why would I buy one
           instead of an oven? They seem like a disabled oven to me, but at a
           higher price.
           \_ microwave owners would trade good tasting food for a quick meal.
              if you're making fun of the poster not understanding that
              different users have different computing needs I'm right with you
           \_ Interestingly, I don't own a microwave either for exactly those
              reasons. I don't find it useful for cooking anything I would
              want to eat. It's an unnecessary expense and takes up
              counter space. Mine (received as a gift) broke a few years back
              and I have no desire to replace it. I would buy an iPad if
              it cost a lot less than a laptop, but it costs the same.
              Would you buy a microwave if it cost the same as a range?
              \_ define what you want the ipad for? and what you want the laptop
                 for?
        \_ Here, these popular programs might show you who wants to use iPads:
           http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/12/ipad_for_work
           http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/07/apple_ipad_as_business_device
           http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/09/top_ten_free_ipad_apps
2025/06/30 [General] UID:1000 Activity:popular
6/30    

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2012/12/11-30 [Consumer/CellPhone] UID:54555 Activity:nil
12/11   What are some cheap wireless plans you can buy where you can
        get the sim-card and stick it into any device of your choice?
        \_ Any plan which uses a SIM. I have used my AT&T SIM in a
           Blackberry, two different iPhones, and even an old Razr. I
           assume you mean domestic use only.
        \_ I don't use my phone very much, so I've been contemplating on
	...
2012/9/14-11/7 [Consumer/Camera, Consumer/CellPhone] UID:54477 Activity:nil 53%like:54476
9/12    iPhone 4S has new features like 8MP rear camera and Siri, and iPhone 5
        has 1.2MP front camera, 4" display, and 4G LTE.  My 17-month-old
        Android phone has 8MP rear camera, 1.3MP front camera, 4.2" display,
        voice search, voice-to-text that supports English, Cantonese,
        Mandarin, Japanese plus other languages/dialects that I don't speak,
        4G LTE, and voice-guided navigation, all built-in.  I don't get what
	...
2012/9/12-14 [Consumer/Camera, Consumer/CellPhone] UID:54476 Activity:nil 53%like:54477
9/12    iPhone 4S has new features like 8MP camera and Siri, and iPhone 5 has
        4" display and 4G LTE.  My 17-month old Android phone has 8MP camera,
        4.2" display, built-in voice search and voice typing, and 4G LTE.  I
        don't get it.
	...
2012/3/7-26 [Consumer/Camera] UID:54328 Activity:nil
3/7     Does anyone else think the iPad3 isn't really that much better
        than the iPad2?  I don't really understand the hype.
        \_ 5MP camera?  My 1-yr-old Android phone has a 8MP auto-focus camera
           (plus a 1MP focus-free one on the front.)
              \_ The iPad camera seems like a joke to me.  The iPad is just
                 to big to be useful for taking pictures.  Maybe it makes
	...
2011/9/19-10/18 [Consumer/CellPhone] UID:54176 Activity:nil
9/19    Why are most latest smartphones called "<model> by <manuf>" rather than
        "<manuf> <model>" like in the older models?  E.g. "Droid X2 by
        Motorola", "ThunderBolt by HTC" and "Revolution by LG", vs. "Motorola
        Citrus", "HTC Trophy", "LG Cosmos Touch".  Is is just a matter of
        being fashionable?
        \_ I have an iPhone 4
	...
2011/4/22-7/13 [Consumer/CellPhone, Health/Disease/AIDS] UID:54093 Activity:nil
4/22    Costco is selling "Bluetooth Capable Premium Digital Hearing Aids" for
        $1999.99 a pair.  My Bluetooth cell phone headset is maybe $30 for one
        ear.  Why does hearing aid cost so much?
        \_ Medical insurance?
        \_ Does $2000-your medical deductible = $30?
           \_ How come insurance companies allow such rip-offs?
	...
2013/8/16-10/28 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:54728 Activity:nil
8/16    I just left my employer. They didn't ask to get their HW back.
        Is is common for employers to contact me a few months/years later
        and ask for their HW back?
        \_ Is it an iPhone 9 prototype? :-)
           \_ as a matter of fact, it is just a 2 year old laptop
              and they don't seem to keep track of inventor
	...
2013/7/8-8/23 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:54706 Activity:nil
7/8     Suppose I just stopped going to work and stopped communicating
        with them. How many days will it take before they stop sending me
        paycheck (and maybe even try to get back the laptop they gave me)?
        \_ They'll probably try to call your emergency contact first to see if
           you're hit a tree or something.
           you've hit a tree or something.
	...
2011/12/21-2012/2/6 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/SW/Editors/Emacs] UID:54269 Activity:nil
12/21   In Emacs, how do I make it so that it will resize its screen
        when the maximum resolution of my monitor changes? When I
        use my laptop, my emacs is too big (and I can't resize it
        because the bottom-right corner is not accessible).
        \_ Which OS?  Can't you drag the top border (not a corner) to resize
           the height to be smaller?
	...
2011/5/9-7/13 [Computer/Companies/Apple, Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:54106 Activity:nil
5/4     Any thoughts about apple switching to ARM for all machines?
        \_ Could only have happened if the Mac App Store had been a wild, wild
           success, and they were willing to give up Steam. Games/dual-booting
           is strategically valuable to not driving people away from macs.
           A new ARM iOS based device, or opening the Apple TV to iOS apps
           (same thing, really) would be much more likely than sabotaging their
	...
2010/8/23-9/7 [Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:53932 Activity:low
9/21    are you guys really all using win7 in some way now?
        \_ Yes.  In my company, we have upgraded all our machines for
           development, QA and other office use (HR, Finance, Receptions, etc.)
           from WinXP to Win7 a few months ago.  Our products now primarily
           support Win7/Win2008 and secondarily support WinXP/Win2003.
           \_ Any weird gotchas support-wise?
	...
2010/5/17-26 [Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:53835 Activity:nil
5/13    I am getting a new Macbook Pro. Should I get a glossy or matte screen?
        I always had matte in the past. I use my laptop just about everywhere
        and glare is a concern. Should I stick with matte? I noticed
        glossy is the default now.
        \_ It is weird, but I have the glossy screen that goes to the edge of
           the monitor for my 13" PB and it somehow seems bigger than the one
	...
2010/4/5-15 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:53770 Activity:nil
4/4     My macbook is dying. After three and a half years, I want to retire it,
        and get a new one, but I live in constant fear* that Apple will pull a fast
        one on me and update them as soon as I do. Anyone know anything about an
        impending Apple laptop refresh?
        * = hyperbole
        \_ http://buyersguide.macrumors.com
	...
2010/1/22-30 [Computer/HW/Laptop, Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:53655 Activity:high
1/22    looking to buy a new development laptop
        needs ssdrive, >6 hr possible batt life, and runs linux reasonably
        Anyone have a recommendation? Thx.
        \_ thinkpad t23 w ssdrive and battery inplace of drive bay
        \_ Ever wondered what RICHARD STALLMAN uses for a laptop?  Well,
           wonder no more!
	...
2009/10/24-11/3 [Computer/HW/Laptop] UID:53466 Activity:kinda low
10/24   How well do you see color? I got 8, how about you?
        http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?PageID=77
        \_ 7
           \_ what monitor did you use?
              \_ LCD on thinkpad x32, under not so great lighting conditions.
        \_ I scored 101, which seems impossible. Then again, I didn't
	...
2009/8/23-9/1 [Computer/SW/OS/OsX] UID:53299 Activity:low
8/20    http://www.dynamism.com/#Product=xslim_x340
        \_ bad ass, screw the mac air,
           \_ BLASPHEMY!  The Mac is thine computer, thou shalt have no other
              computers before Steve.  --Macolyte
         \_ Yeah, that 2 year old computer is nothing compared to one
            today.  (Also, check out that blazing fast core 2 solo 1.4!)
	...
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csua.org/u/sr0 -> www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/19/10_smartest_and_10_stupidest_ipad_apps/page9.html
Not everyone loves WolframAlpha, but anything that can provide this breadth of info is high on my list They say: "Get answers. Whoever you are and whatever you do, WolframAlpha delivers insight and understanding into any facet of your life." The Reg says: WolframAlpha is an iPad-using info-junkie's best friend. This app gives you quick access to facts and figures on everything from math to stat to culture to astonomy to music to finance. WolframAlpha provides a rich set of examples on how to access a boatload of information drawn from a wide variety of sources -- and, yeah, Wikipedia is one of its many sources, but not for all categories, not by a long shot. After using a canned example, you can substitute your own terms -- for example, under Satellites, you can change the default example of Echostar 1 and Echostar 2 to Sputnik and Telstar, and see all the stats you might care to know about those two classic satellites, including a chart of their routes. Portable Tanning Machine Portable Tanning Machine All hail the utter pointlessness and stunning stupidity of Portable Tanning Machine They say: "Portable Tanning Machine is the 100-percent safe and non-effective way to get a deep, glistening tan, right on your iPad and iPhone/iPod Touch!" The Reg says: This app simulates, as you can see from the screenshot above, the enhanced-UVB lamps used in tanning beds. After a brief start-up -- complete with sparking sounds -- the Portable Tanning Machine simply glows and hums until you turn it off. And, no, an iPad's LED-backlit in-plane-switching display will not give you a tan. Props to PTM's developers for calling it "non-effective," at least. Tanning Pad (99), which doesn't even provide the start-up animation nor the sound effects -- its tanning lights simply blink. It's a toss-up as to which is more stupid, an app that goes to the trouble of allowing you to fire up your ersatz tanning bed and then hums eternally, or one that simply sits there and blinks. I'm voting for the one whose developers put time and trouble into polishing it. Deciding to waste precious brain cells on Portable Tanning Machine was stupid.
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csua.org/u/sr1 -> www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/09/top_ten_free_ipad_apps/
Free whitepaper - The Register Guide to Enterprise Virtualization Either you just bought an iPad and you wallet is now depleted, you're thinking of buying one and you'd like to know how you can stuff it with apps for zero dollars, or you're simply curious about how free iPad apps compare with free iPhone apps. Or you're merely intrigued by the whole media-fed iPad hysteria. We installed and tested dozens of the most attractive - and free - iPad apps available on the iTunes App Store, and chose the ten that best show off the iPad's advantages over its smaller-screened sibling. Some - most, actually - are apps that already exist in iPhone form, but which have done a fine job of exploiting the iPad's expanded acreage. In addition to our top ten, we also picked a dozen runners-up. You may - you will, if you're a true Reg reader - disagree with our top ten, but you may find something of interest among the also-rans that you can promote into your own personal top-ten list. Distimo claim that Games is the largest iPad-app category. The reason for this omission is simple: we're not gamers, and for us to rate games would be as silly as, say, for someone who has never used an iPad to have strong opinions about it. Bloomberg Bloomberg iPad app Apple must be doing something right Bloomberg's iPhone app is among our daily go-to sources of info, and its iPad app is a notable step-up in presentation quality. In it you'll find continually updating news, equity indices, bond and commodity info, current rates for 25 top currencies, and audio podcasts that you can listen to while navigating around the rest of the app. A My Stocks feature lets you set up your personal portfolio and track its health, or simply keep an eye on companies you're interested in. For example, as we're writing this on Friday morning, Apple's stock is up 077 per cent and Google's is down 027 per cent. Business PCs powered by the 2nd generation Intel Core(TM) vPro(TM) processor family deliver performance you can see-in maximized hardware-assisted security, easier remote PC ...
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csua.org/u/sr2 -> www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/07/apple_ipad_as_business_device/
" Mellmo founder and president Quinton Alsbury tells The Reg. On April 3, when the tablet finally hit stores, Roambi was the first app that appeared when you visited the "business" section of the iPad App Store - appearing smack dab in the middle of the "spotlighted" tools - and it was joined by 65 other business apps, including IPadian clients for use with WebEx, GoToMeeting, and Rackspace Cloud Servers. sole purpose of putting business apps on the Apple iPhone. This was before Steve Jobs deigned to offer a SDK for the handheld - and well before the world realized that the Jobsian handheld was a viable business device. Roambi debuted on the Jesus Phone in May of last year, and naturally, now that the app is on the iPad, the company is equally confident that the Jobsian tablet will prove to be viable business device as well - and even a replacement for the laptop. But Alsbury - the man who designed the Romabi iPad app - argues that at the least at the top end of a company, keyboards aren't that important. Upper-management types, he says, don't need a full laptop. There are a huge number of business users who don't need a whole laptop." Peter Jackson, CEO of the San Francisco-based GroundWork, an outfit that offers tools for managing IT infrastructure, concurs. And when it is time for creation, the iPad's software keyboard - at least in landscape mode - lets you type at a halfway decent clip. And the Roambi client is designed specifically for these sorts of non-creator execs. It's a new window into data sitting housed by back-end tools such as SAP and Salesforce, turning them into the kind of interactive Jobsian graphics an executive can surely relate to. It might grab SAP data and, say, turn into interactive bar graph. Roambi for iPad Roambi on Jobsian talent The question is whether other business types will carry the iPad. Mike Mayo, who designed the Rackspace Cloud Pro app, a means of managing server instances on the company's so-called infrastructure cloud, argues that the device at least makes sense for IT professionals, pointing out that the company already has a large number of admins using its iPhone app. The Rackspace client lets you backup server instances, create new servers from backups, reboot instances, rename them, resize them, and delete them. And Mayo acknowledges it can't replace the admin's laptop. But IT types have been known to carry, shall we say, multiple devices. With the free Roambi Lite web service, you can publish reports pulled from Excel and the like. With the for-pay Roambi Pro, another web service, you can grab data from Excel, Google spreadsheets, or Salesforce CRM. And with Romabi Enterprise Server (ES), an app you install on your own servers, you can tap SAP Crystal Reports as well. Next Monday, April 12, the company will introduce a new version of its Enterprise Server - ES3. This will play with IBM Cognos, Microsoft Reporting Services, and Microsoft SharePoint. It wil also tap Google Apps - which, though supported in Roambi Pro, isn't currently an option with ES. ES3 pricing will start at $795 per user, with a minimum of 50 users. This white paper looks at Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), which is the Microsoft implementation of Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM), an initiative to establish standards for accessing and sharing management information in an enterprise network. Business PCs powered by the 2nd generation Intel Core(TM) vPro(TM) processor family deliver performance you can see-in maximized hardware-assisted security, easier remote PC ...
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www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/12/ipad_for_work -> www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/12/ipad_for_work/
On Demand Webcast : The realities of SaaS and security Comment It hasn't taken long for the iPad to be seen as a bit more than a pointless and expensive luxury lifestyle accessory. Just nine weeks - and in that time the hardware spec hasn't changed at all. But last week's iPhone 40 preview, which isn't due on the iPad until autumn, already makes it look much more attractive as a netbook or laptop replacement than it did on Wednesday. When the first models emerged at least they had their size going for them. Now they're bigger and more expensive, but mostly dog slow. Size and weight matters to me, and the iPad has had these advantages from the start. The disadvantages of an iPad over a laptop were many, but the lack of multitasking was the biggest. That's been fixed now - at least well enough so most people don't notice. Lack of a physical keyboard is another problem, but iPhone 40 gets proper third-party Bluetooth keyboard support. Apple's official keyboard accessory, the 'iPad Keyboard Dock', is very unlike-Apple. It can only be used on a flat surface, and doesn't look toddler proof: it places a lot of strain on a fragile connection. The Apple Wireless Keyboard will work, but it's a generic device. It doesn't make typing on your lap practical, as a custom-designed keyboard might*. Apple_own_ipad_case Even with the sleeve, it's less obtrusive than most laptops But the iPad has gained VPN support and crypto, two strong candidates for grown-up computing. ssh clients can now sprout standard features such as port forwarding remains to be seen. I have no fear of jailbreaking to get at such raw features, but plenty of people quite understandably do. Apple's version of multitasking may almost be good enough. I liked the observation that "if you see a stylus, they blew it. True, but Apple's method gets weary and RSI-inducing very quickly. Remember that most of us, most of the time, switch between just two tasks. Dragon Dictation iPad app Our Rik tries out Dragon Dictation But I think with the OS update, the iPad will be finding its way into potential buying decisions in a way it didn't at launch. Give me real USB In January I had three good reasons to dismiss it as a laptop alternative: price, multitasking and the lack of a USB port. I consider the latter an essential gateway to a wider world of hardware such as cameras, card readers, controllers and things we haven't thought of yet. Well, USB obviously isn't going to be fixed in this year's model, and may never be. It clashes with the purity, or puritanism, of the Steve approach. The price for UK users still hasn't been revealed - so that's a variable. Obviously I'm not going to be writing a book on an iPad. But quite unexpectedly, it's looking like a useful bit of daily computing kit. Each time, against my better judgement, I thought it might work. This white paper explains why such protection is necessary for corporate networks and provides a technological overview of the detection methodologies used by BitDefender solutions. This white paper looks at Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), which is the Microsoft implementation of Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM), an initiative to establish standards for accessing and sharing management information in an enterprise network.
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www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/07/apple_ipad_as_business_device -> www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/07/apple_ipad_as_business_device/
" Mellmo founder and president Quinton Alsbury tells The Reg. On April 3, when the tablet finally hit stores, Roambi was the first app that appeared when you visited the "business" section of the iPad App Store - appearing smack dab in the middle of the "spotlighted" tools - and it was joined by 65 other business apps, including IPadian clients for use with WebEx, GoToMeeting, and Rackspace Cloud Servers. sole purpose of putting business apps on the Apple iPhone. This was before Steve Jobs deigned to offer a SDK for the handheld - and well before the world realized that the Jobsian handheld was a viable business device. Roambi debuted on the Jesus Phone in May of last year, and naturally, now that the app is on the iPad, the company is equally confident that the Jobsian tablet will prove to be viable business device as well - and even a replacement for the laptop. But Alsbury - the man who designed the Romabi iPad app - argues that at the least at the top end of a company, keyboards aren't that important. Upper-management types, he says, don't need a full laptop. There are a huge number of business users who don't need a whole laptop." Peter Jackson, CEO of the San Francisco-based GroundWork, an outfit that offers tools for managing IT infrastructure, concurs. And when it is time for creation, the iPad's software keyboard - at least in landscape mode - lets you type at a halfway decent clip. And the Roambi client is designed specifically for these sorts of non-creator execs. It's a new window into data sitting housed by back-end tools such as SAP and Salesforce, turning them into the kind of interactive Jobsian graphics an executive can surely relate to. It might grab SAP data and, say, turn into interactive bar graph. Roambi for iPad Roambi on Jobsian talent The question is whether other business types will carry the iPad. Mike Mayo, who designed the Rackspace Cloud Pro app, a means of managing server instances on the company's so-called infrastructure cloud, argues that the device at least makes sense for IT professionals, pointing out that the company already has a large number of admins using its iPhone app. The Rackspace client lets you backup server instances, create new servers from backups, reboot instances, rename them, resize them, and delete them. And Mayo acknowledges it can't replace the admin's laptop. But IT types have been known to carry, shall we say, multiple devices. With the free Roambi Lite web service, you can publish reports pulled from Excel and the like. With the for-pay Roambi Pro, another web service, you can grab data from Excel, Google spreadsheets, or Salesforce CRM. And with Romabi Enterprise Server (ES), an app you install on your own servers, you can tap SAP Crystal Reports as well. Next Monday, April 12, the company will introduce a new version of its Enterprise Server - ES3. This will play with IBM Cognos, Microsoft Reporting Services, and Microsoft SharePoint. It wil also tap Google Apps - which, though supported in Roambi Pro, isn't currently an option with ES. ES3 pricing will start at $795 per user, with a minimum of 50 users. This white paper looks at Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), which is the Microsoft implementation of Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM), an initiative to establish standards for accessing and sharing management information in an enterprise network. Business PCs powered by the 2nd generation Intel Core(TM) vPro(TM) processor family deliver performance you can see-in maximized hardware-assisted security, easier remote PC ...