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Comment Re:But Kansas! (Score 1) 430

Darn, I'm sure Google was excited by the prospect of providing broadband access to the tens of people who live in municipalities in Kansas.

Actually, yes. KCK was the first municipality that Google fiber signed a deal with. Mostly because one entity (the city) owned all the plant and rights of way, so it was a simple arrangement between WyCo/KCK government and Google.

Comment Re:And this is why.. (Score 1) 448

And this is why I avoid Twitter, GoDaddy & PayPal like the plague they are.

That's how to prevent this exact problem from happening to you. But why couldn't something similar happen with other parties involved? Just because we like to pick on GoDaddy here doesn't mean other companies don't have at least one employee answering the phone that can be fooled by some clever con man. The only sure way to prevent something of yours from being stolen or extorted away is not to have anything of any value to anyone else. And that solution has some obvious disadvantages . . .

Comment Re:Presently means 'soon' (Score 3, Interesting) 197

As in it will happen presently.

Grrr.

Merriam-webster.com states this in usage notes:

Both senses ["without undue delay"] and ["at the present time"] are flourishing in current English, but many commentators have objected to sense 2 ["at the present time"]. Since this sense has been in continuous use since the 15th century, it is not clear why it is objectionable. Perhaps a note in the Oxford English Dictionary (1909) that the sense has been obsolete since the 17th century in literary English is to blame, but the note goes on to observe that the sense is in regular use in most English dialects. The last citation in that dictionary is from a 1901 Leeds newspaper, written in Standard English. Sense 2 is most common in contexts relating to business and politics (the fastest-rising welfare cost is Medicaid, presently paid by the states and cities — William Safire)

The American Heritage Dictionary's note:

Usage Note: An original meaning of presently was "at the present time; currently." That sense is said to have disappeared from the literary language in the 17th century, but it has survived in popular usage and is widely found nowadays in literate speech and writing. Still, there is a lingering prejudice against this use. The sentence General Walters is ... presently the United States Ambassador to the United Nations was acceptable to only 48 percent of the Usage Panel in the 1999 survey.

And Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary:

The meaning “now” of presently dates back to the 15th century; it is currently in standard use in all varieties of speech and writing. The sense “soon” arose gradually during the 16th century. Strangely, it is the older sense “now” that usage guides sometimes object to. The two senses are rarely if ever confused. presently meaning “now” is most often used with the present tense (The professor is presently on sabbatical leave) and presently meaning “soon” often with the future tense (The supervisor will be back presently).

In other words, there exists a small cadre of Grammar Nazis that are presently objecting to the original usage of "presently" for the sake of objecting. Because for an "obsolete" word, it's still getting pretty good mileage.

Comment Re:Must use MacOS (Score 1) 299

For serious music production use MacOS, its the right tool for the job. Get Logic Pro or Pro Tools for audio/midi recording, and Sibelius or Finale for score editing. If you want pain & suffering welcome to use open source alternatives.

You say that like pain and suffering in the creation of music is a bad thing.

Comment Re:Audio quality? (Score 1) 303

So, I now wonder if the Neo900 upgrade replaces the audio bits so that the audio improves too. Do you know?

You mean phone audio, right? That wasn't so great, but it was also a little quiet, so the quality problem wasn't that noticeable. The Neo900 specs don't really address audio quality/hardware except to note (a little obtusely, in the "feasibility" document):

The RX51 uses a separate audio codec (tlv320aic34?) maybe because the one in the TWL4030 did not work at market launch.

The TPS65950 is available in the third redesign of the original TWL4030 and works well for all functions in the GTA04. So there does not seem to be any need for a separate solution.

Due to audio management in fremantle is mostly closed blobs we may need the original TLV320AIC34, since reverse-engineering of the complete audio management seems impossible.

Risk to miss mission goal when changing this detail to work different than in RX51: high! TLV320aic34: ~[$]10, available but duplicates the same functions as are already available in TPS65950 ~[$]5.

So it sounds like the original audio chip will be replaced with a newer version of an integrated device . . . or not.

Comment Re:I had a N900 too... (Score 5, Insightful) 303

It was shit. I didn't really realise quite how shit it was until I upgraded to an iPhone. Never looked back since.

It's not a phone for the general population. The N900 was a phone for hackers, developers, etc.: people who needed a pocket computer with phone functionality. Sort of the "anti-iPhone" in its philosophy. You were clearly not in the (tiny) target demographic, and whoever sold you yours was not your friend, didn't know you very well, or didn't as the right questions. (I just described a salesman, didn't I?)

Comment Neo900 (Score 4, Informative) 303

There's a Neo900 project attempting to make a modernized version of the N900, software and hardware. I don't know if they'll succeed and be able to do it at a price one can afford, but you might check it out if interested. If you don't visit maemo.org forums you might wish to.

I like my N9, but not the way I loved my N900. I especially miss the h/w keyboard.

There's also the Jolla phone, but its availability and network compatibility is limited now (e.g. current version might work in the US but as 2G only, the only modem offered in it is designed for European market, or part thereof, no idea what rest of the world situation would be like). And again, no h/w keyboard.

Comment Re:Dont do anyone any favors (Score 1) 644

Yeah, but that would mean that Kansas would have to admit that lesbians are people with equal rights and responsibilities. Not likely.

Kansas and most Kansans don't really have a problem with gays and lesbians. The anti-gay (and anti-poor, anti-education and anti-local control) thing is pretty much all on "governor" Brownback and his attempts to purify the Kansas republican party of moderates for good. He may succeed, but Democrats + Moderate Republicans = more than 50% of the electorate, and he's gonna end up "anti-governor" in November.

Comment Re:That's a laughable risk... (Score 4, Insightful) 351

Considering the population of the USA the percentage of the population killed each year by this is 0.00022300095%. On the other hand deaths for the flu have been as low as 3000 yearly so that's 23.3% of deaths. Still, the number of deaths compared to the population makes it comparable to winning the lottery in any case.

As low as 3000 deaths? If people knew the flu killed 3000 people (in an off year!), we could justify interment camps for infected people and monitor all phone calls to find out who complains of symptoms. We could create a cabinet level government department with a multi-billion-dollar budget just for battling the flu.

Or not. Because the flu generally doesn't also commit spectacular acts of property destruction and it kills its victims quietly in homes and hospital beds with no one to watch or mourn except the victims' actual friends and family.

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