I thought about this too. They'll probably have them in some kind of docking station where they're always charging. Then, when/if they need them, they can just be pulled out and referenced right away.

A year? It's a one time cost for the iPads. The flight manual would then just need to be updated in a central location and be automatically updated to the iPads. With paper, the entire manual would need to be reprinted.

Oh bullshit. Even a tooltip or hoverbar just gets in the way.

It doesn't matter how friendly you make the interface, users will still be put off by it. You will still get calls like "I got an error doing this" and most users won't even be able to tell you what the error was. They'll say "I just clicked ok and it hasn't happened again".

I have had engineers, you know, people with degrees that should be very intelligent when it comes to computers, deal with bsods for days on end because they didn't want to pick up their phone. They end up telling you when they see you, but even they don't think it's a big deal. Their system has been crashing for days and they don't think it's a problem. A simple driver update fixes the problem. And the ones that do think it's a big deal will call you right away, but then expect a permanent fix for a complex problem right away. Heaven forbid you need to go do some research that might take a day or a week. And then if the fix doesn't fix it, then they bitch because the one fix you tried didn't work. Forget that there might be five different possible fixes for what looks like a simple problem. Since that one fix didn't work, they had to go do a google search themselves to find the "easy fix" that involves a BIOS update that might fix the problem. And they won't actually do that fix, they'll just tell you "I looked around on Google and this is really an easy fix. I can't understand why you guys can't fix it." Then, when you confront the boss about the "easy fix" and tell them that the "easy fix" involves said BIOS update that didn't work (because you've done it already), then the boss backs down and realizes that you really are doing your best to please this one person and it doesn't matter what work arounds you come up with, this one person isn't happy unless the system works exactly the way they want it to work. Heaven forbid a 3 year old laptop have bugs in its BIOS that simply aren't going to be fixed because it's totally outdated!

I recently had an engineer actually tell me "I figured you forgot about it" because I took the laptop he was using to my office to update his MS Office install and fully update his computer. I had it for one day. I took it back the next and he said "I figured you forgot about it".

The more friendly you make the interface the more they either hate it or they get dumber. It's that simple. The more friendly it gets, the more they expect it to do shit on its own without them having to think. I've had people tell me they'd love to have a program sitting there doing their job for them. Then they say they'd find something else to do. Problem is there is nothing else for them to do.

In short, people are idiots and want the computer to think for them.

Marketing and advertising go hand in hand. When you advertise a room for rent, you highlight the positive features of that room to get more potential renters. That's marketing. You would not advertise a room for rent without listing all of the positive features. Otherwise, you'll end up with a lot of calls asking about features that could easily be listed in the advertisement.

If people are so weak as to buy things they don't need because of marketing, they deserve to go into debt. It's the "keeping up with the Jones'" attitude that drives many people into debt. Stop worrying about what your neighbor has and enjoy the things that you have. They may have a boat, big fancy car, and a big house, but they also probably have a lot of debt.

The phrase "all politics is local" originally referred to the fact that as laws and other things got further away from you, they had less impact on you. A federal law cover very specific things so it covered very few people. A local law covered far more people, but as soon as you left that area, you were no longer affected. The is the whole point of a Constitutional Republic in the US. Establish ordinances and laws at the local and state level because those people know what's best for them. Establish a very few laws at the Federal level because they will impact everyone.

Being a large nation doesn't mean we need a big government. It means our citizens need to care about each other in their local communities and not keep depending on the federal government to come to the rescue every time there's a problem. That thinking gives us 2700 page bills. Small government local thinking gives you much smaller bills that are far easier to read and digest.

Yes, and I'm sure the big news agencies, who are doing the witch hunt, will gladly host the document. Of course, they'll put it behind a pay wall so anyone else that wants it will have to pay for it.

Sounds like he's thinking like the CEO of AT&T. "56k should be enough for anybody".

And this is exactly why she resigned. Frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit after frivolous lawsuit that the State had no choice but to follow through on, spend money on, and defend. So the State would likely have to defend lawsuits against making printed copies when there's likely a law that forces the State to make copies upon request and then allows them to charge a per page administrative fee for the copy.

As another commenter said, the State has complied with the law. Most of the commenters here just don't like the way they did it. Tough cookies. What Palin did in Alaska doesn't really affect those of us in the lower 48 and most of us don't give a shit what's in the emails.

Or inviting their readers to help them:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/help-analyze-the-palin-emails/2011/06/08/AGZAaHNH_blog.html

It's a witch hunt, plain and simple. They're looking for any type of dirt they can find. And this is why Palin isn't going to run for President. She's far more powerful as a regular person that gives her opinion about what's going on.

If Palin were the idiot that everyone makes her out to be, then why does everyone get their panties in such a bind every time she says anything about anything? You ignore the morons in Hollywood and at work when they do really stupid things (upskirt photos, getting hauled into court yet again for drunk driving, etc), but you freak out when the former Governor of Alaska says something questionable.

But do you pull the battery out? If you have an iPhone, this isn't even possible. With most modern consumer electronic devices, "off" is simply putting the thing to sleep. It can still send and receive information and the antenna is still active. Unless the battery is completely removed, it isn't "off".

Now who's the idiot? Apparently you missed this part of his post:

and flashing when you are behind someone in the passing lane (in MA, the slow-down-to-5-10mph-under-the-limit-and-read-a-book-or-eat-your-sub-or-watch-a-DVD-lane) means "please move over I'd like to pass."

I have found that taking rights away from people that don't really need it without telling them is the way to go. Just remove local admin from their account and see if they run into problems. They have no idea that they've been setup differently and they don't even know what you're doing if/when you add it back anyway (they don't care).

You simply do it and then watch as your level of support calls from those people drop. If necessary, for some older programs, you give the user rights to that programs folder or a few registry entries. It not only prevents viruses, malware, and other junk, but it also keeps them from installing all kinds of stupid little programs that they don't need.

Also, if you present the argument as "We need to take away this access so they don't try to install pirated software" management tends to agree in a heart beat. It's even better if you have evidence that someone has already installed "unauthorized software".

And, at least where I'm at, it's those same users that demand local admin rights that always screw it up. They don't even get viruses. They just somehow manage to mangle their file systems and registries so bad that shit starts crashing all over the place. Then you end up having to get them a replacement machine because "I can't have any downtime". So they just deal with the problem for months at a time asking you every now and then "Do you by chance have a fix for this yet?" "You mean beyond wiping it out and reinstalling? No".

For the past 10+ years I'd ad. Now that Mac users are getting a taste of it, they're coming up with the same excuses.

The Linux guys will probably never get a taste of it since nobody wants to use a computer where the expert says "No, you idiot! Don't do that!" and "You want that feature? Go write it yourself, the code is all there".

You lost at least half your audience right here (maybe even more of them). You want the average computer user to make a decision? Can't you just tell them what it should do? You're the expert, right? That is what I deal with on a daily basis. I am not even kidding.

Don't give them a choice until they complain about the way it works. Then switch it for them. It's so much easier than explaining the difference between the two choices. "Well, Carol's information always shows up automatically. Can you make mine do that?"