Setup:

• If you bought your laptop from a brick + mortar store, install fresh copy of windows 10 off a pre-burnt USB; windows updates will install all drivers as required automatically after.
• Ninite.com to install the basics: Chrome, 7Zip, VLC, Spotify, Steam, Dropbox (or whatever).
• Panda Antivirus is nice and light, rather similar to Webroot (but free).
• Unpin the crap and pin the common apps to the taskbar (Chrome, Explorer, Steam).

Admin access is necessary for a lot of the more advanced functions on Steam; keep it enabled first time around, if they keep screwing up, wipe and take it away.

Windows 10 is a much better out-of-box setup than windows once was; 75% of the hurdles that will catch you are from shitty manufacturers pre-installing malware, which can effectively be bypassed by wiping and installing with a vanilla copy of Windows 10 from a USB drive (MS has very simple utilities for this, the license is hard-coded in the BIOS so it's automatic). The other 25% are the damage from people who mindlessly click without any awareness of what they're doing, regardless of age.

Buying from reputable manufacturers (HP, Lenovo and Dell's business models, or Microsoft directly) is the safest bet.

Wiping a Windows PC is a rather painless affair nowadays, if shit goes wrong, it doesn't take much as long as you approach things presuming you will wipe the PC in 6-12 months (dropbox/google drive for schoolwork etc.). Windows has changed a lot, it's really a mature and solid OS now (admittedly with an immature layer on top with the app store, but that's easily avoided).

Don't feel bad, I'm 19 an already at that stage. My views are a little different though: I have come to the opinion that it should be illegal to propagate idiocy, as well as undue intolerance, hatred and violence; although "undue" often doesnt exclude a punch in the face for anti-vaccers or homeopaths... and on the rare occasion genocide for those who are incapable of thinking rationally and being reasoned with, people who demonstrate little to no consideration for others and those that seek to gain personally at the expense of others.

But that's just me.

I'm sorry, what? Since when are Apple products cheaper than their competitors? I don't own one Apple device because, funnily enough, they're far too expensive in comparison and don't have the basic feature set that I require.

Lets do a quick comparison of Apple products vs alternatives based on my requirements and costs(AUD):

Desktop:
Apple iMac: "21.5" 3.2GHz" i3, 4GB DDR3, 1TB,ATI HD 5670 512MB = $1,799.00
Home made: 21.5" (same resolution) 3.2GHz Quad i5, 8GB DDR3, 4TB, Nvidia GT9800GT 1GB = ~$1,500.00

Laptop:
Macbook Pro: 13-inch 2.3 GHz i5, 4GB DDR3, 320GB 5400RPM, Intel HD graphics = $1,399.00
HP TM2: 12.1" 2.3GHz i5, 8GB DDR3, 500GB 7200RPM, ATI HD 5450 512MB dedicated, Wacom active digitiser in/on the screen (this component itself is worth at least $600) = $1,200.00

Phone:
iPhone 4: Closed source, relatively bad at basic phone functions, no physical keyboard/pad, proprietary cable, requires iTunes, no memory card expansion, bluetooth and other functions broken by design, no access to file structure or console = $15/m on $65/m 24m contract (Voda).
HTC Desire Z: Open source, puts phone functions first, flip out large qwerty keyboard, MicroUSB cable, standard file transfer, MicroSD card slot, everything works, file browsers and consoles abundant = Free on $65/m 24m contract (Voda). (not to mention I've dropped the phone plenty of times, it's been beaten to all hell, and not a mark on the screen... Yet ~1/3 iPhones I see at uni are shattered.)

PMP:
iPod Touch 32GB: You know the features... Video: M4V MP4 MOV (MPEG4 480p, H.264 720p) AVI (M-JPEG only). Audio: AAC MP3 Apple Lossless AIFF WAV. Subibles: ?. = $378
Cowon D3 32GB+MicroSD: Android, 1080p HDMI output, REAL buttons, MicroUSB Cable, FM radio, Wifi (webkit browser), BBE+ enhancement (Try it!), Video: AVI, WMV, ASF, MP4, MKV, MPG, DAT, TS, TP, TRP, 3GP (DivX*, Xvid*, H.264*, WMV 9/8/7, MPEG1) *1080p Max. Audio: MP3/2/1, WMA, OGG, WAV, ASF, FLAC, APE, M4A (MPEG1 Layer 1/2/3, WMA, OGG Vorbis, PCM, FLAC). Subtitle Formats: SMI, SMIL, SRT, SUB.= $329 (Yay for being able to fling ANY video/audio file on it and have it play NATIVELY, who's more convenient now?)

Apple products are NOT cheaper, and their practical-feature-sets are inferior.

What is stopping you from installing UNIX? PC != Windows. Really... And as demonstrated clearly above, the MacBook Pro's are expensive in comparison.

Strangely enough, everything is themeable and customisable to your heart's content. Plus, I'd rather have a device function than look pretty.

If there's any one company that knows ANYTHING about consumers, it's Google. They have more data on people than ANYONE else (maybe Facebook being the exception). Having something tweakable doesn't mean it has to be complicated or newb unfriendly. Not having that choice is what repels me; and I'ven't had to really tweak anything substantial on any of my devices yet.

Because they're not supposed to be intrusive or distracting.

That has what bearing on the quality of their products? and what do you care? It's mostly sun trying to make a quick buck while they die.

ANY open source is better than no open source.

All your comment has done is shown everybody that your claims are unsubstantiated, unsubstantiatable, and very plainly wrong. Also, please separate different topics into different paragraphs so we can actually read what you say without having to concentrate.

"Daddy... DADDY! I want an owl. I want an owl NOW! Why does Harry get to have an owl and I can't? I WANT AN OWL, NOW! I don't CARE about how many presents I got for my birthday, or the stupid trip to the zoo! I! WANT! AN! OWL!.. NOOOWWWW!" You sure they aren't trying to emulate Dudley Diddums?

Again, musicians with little or no passion, mostly just a competition to see who can do it better. Excellent way to compare orchestras with synths.

The entire point of this project is to provide this service to people who actually enjoy it, so your comment is redundant.

As I pointed out in my other post somewhere down below, make a piano synth do this without at least a digital keyboard and a truly skilled and passionate musician, and there is likely a LOT of money in it for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKKd0PZd8sk

First I would like to set the record straight that I am in no way a spiritual person, nor do I believe in any extra forces or any junk like that. However, I do recognise the incredibly overcoming sensation of sensory overload which only occurs at times of ecstatic passion. A state of mind where nothing else exists except the source of the sense stimulation that overpowers your brain and controls every aspect of you even just for a moment; true passion. Almost everybody can feel this sensation when they "make love", but those who are lucky to feel it when they make music, paint, mould clay or speak charismatically, any form of what one would call "art", can only be called true musicians, artists, sculptors and public speakers respectively. This feeling can also be experienced by people who share that passion, even if they aren't involved in the process themselves, and this is what I am talking about. Just because you can skillfully play an instrument, doesn't mean you're a good musician. If you want good examples of this, watch+compare http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKKd0PZd8sk and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL2kuX4o0UM compare the emotion you feel when listening to the two. Yes, the first is more skilled, but you can clearly hear that he is passionate about how he plays it, he stresses the tense sentences, he fluffs the light soft sentences; his body is propelled almost uncontrollably from side to side... there is more to playing an instrument than just getting it right.

I actually use them quite frequently. Attempts to replicate these qualities have been somewhat formidable, but unless you're using a very high quality digital instrument for each part, you're not going to get anywhere near what an orchestra can do. To get similar qualities from that type of music, one would need someone extremely experienced in the individual intricate qualities of each instrument and knowledgeable with regards to how to replicate such qualities... you'd end up paying more than just getting a few dozen skilled uni/college students to play for you.

Synthesizers are never as good as the real thing, they don't have the ability to add certain qualities to the music like emotion. Any true musician would understand the passion that flows through their instrument as they play; very much like having sex. Yes the synths can sound very convincing, but they're just not the same thing. They don't have the level of human error and randomness built in.

So your completely scientific safe-to-assume's, more-likely's, and other speculative commentary are a more authoritative way to judge the scope of this problem than Apple & ATT's real-world usage data.

Statistics != science. Spisska merely pointed out how the figures could be, and in a lot of cases were, misconstrued to put the company in a more positive light. You can't say they didn't, any company would in their position! It's called marketing.

Point 1, Spisska demonstrates how the comparison between signal attenuation due to hand position and completely shorting the areal due to bad engineering.

Point 2, Spisska was pointing out the use of positive language to soften statistics like "less than 1 in 100", then comparing it to another iPhone, when in other cases it is compared with a wider range of models outside of apple.

Point 3, Spisska made a very important point, that statistics NOT from an independent source are not to be trusted, for (I hope) obvious reasons. If it's not obvious, then, no matter how conspiracy-theory-sounding it is, you need to open your eyes and realise that profit-focused corporations will do anything to make profit.

Point 4, Again, amount of people called != amount of people having the problem. Also, with the promised software fix, this number could be severely affected. People could be influenced by the placebo effect, or they could be patiently waiting for the problem to be really solved. The amount of press the issue has gained would (in this case) falsely assure people Apple are aware of the problem, and having faith in media pressure, expect the issue to be resolved soon.

Point 5 basically says that production numbers does not excuse engineering faults.

tl;dr:
There was no "safe assuming", no "more likely's", nor did Spisska claim to be authoritative. Speculative commentary has always been and always will be a GOOD thing, and again you cannot trust data from any company about itself... independent review (like that of consumer reports) is the closest we'll ever have.

If you want to try and refute something someone has siad, try and actually addressing what they said rather than make baseless assertions. Luckily, not everyone is as blindly dimwitted as you.

Are they serious? Americans wouldn't like more durable plastic money because it's not American paper money? I've never lived in a world with paper money, and whenever I go overseas I always notice that paper money is flimsy and often torn, not to mention in the tropics it's sweaty. Plastic money is the way to go.

Shouldn't one run a survey much like the Australian Broadband survey? I mean, really, your survey is limited and open ended. With the ABs, it's interesting comparing the results from year to year... http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2009/ http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2008/ http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2007/ http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2006/ http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2005/ http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2004/ http://whirlpool.net.au/survey/2003/ This is how a survey should be done! We actually have serious issues with our ISP's here, so this is done to perhaps give them a bit of a kick up the arse.