soyelmango

Fantastic "before" and "after" recordings!

Someone needs to make an iPhone app that takes the mic input, runs it through an equalizer, then feeds it back to some snug headphones. I'd wear that in the pub while watching a match (and look silly).

Thanks for the link! I'm surprised how many of the unusual measurements I take for granted, even though they're imprecise.

Ha... "New York Second

Theoretically the shortest period possible in Quantum Time, this is the time that elapses between a Manhattan traffic light turning green and the taxi behind you honking its horn"

And depending on how it's reported, it might also be possible that instead of reassuring the general public, reporting radioactivity in banana units might decimate sales of bananas.

I think the media's exaggerated response to tiny nuclear leaks is, however, one case where I'd prefer media hype to put the pressure on the industry to over-engineer their containers.

The consequences of breaking open (not just a tiny crack) a crate of bananas and a container of industrial nuclear material are probably many many multitudes apart.

I'll have to see if I can find this page in google's cache - I'd be curious to see how many of those 'ridiculous measurements' were really ridiculous, or whether they served a similar purpose to the BED; to allow the average person to understand unfamiliar things in everyday terms.

A Chinese cleaver replaces a set of knives, garlic choppers, tenderizer...

- use the blade to cut (obv!)

- use the flat to crush garlic/ginger (either by its weight, or safely using your other hand to press)

- use the back edge to tenderize

- or use the butt to tenderize

- use the flat to carry ingredients

- and because it's heavy, you use less strength and have more control

- chop through meat and bones (the weight of the cleaver helps)

- look like a badass

Use a cleaver and you'll never go back to a standard knife.

Just stumbled across this... "Male answer syndrome" - tongue-in-cheek, but certainly has some truth in it... http://www.wordspy.com/words/maleanswersyndrome.asp

Good advice here from philip.

To put it another way, these "accounting" packages are more about book-keeping and report generating - all useful, but no substitute for the advice from a human accountant who can advise about tax-efficient structures for your particular circumstances.

...as well as discovering how/why _not_ to do it, which can be more valuable knowledge.

With a bit of social engineering... aka "asking someone who works in a McD kitchen"... he could have got the oil cooker temperature and timings.

The McD website, or a pamphlet you can get instore, would list the ingredients.

Anyway, kudos to the writer for doing it the hard way.

Finally, telling a McD fry lover (I put my hand up to that!) that the fries are rubbish is like telling a smoker that cigarettes are bad for them. We know.

The words 'monetize content" are on the edge of joining the set of words 'viagra britney cheap mortgage now', so I think people are likely to mentally filter/bias against your emails.

Could you post here an example of your cold email?

If you're in the UK, try http://kashflow.co.uk/ - there's a free 2 month trial to get you hooked!

(I'm not affiliated, just a happy user)

It returns "The connection was reset" (10:30 GMT)

A guess... a site for people with autism?

Neither... please give us more information, or at least develop your ideas more.

Or hmmmm, are you asking HN to do your homework assignment?

There's a restaurant in London that has interactive tables - change your table cloth design, interact with the menu, order your food.

What's the food like? Don't know - the restaurant is more famous for its tables than its food.

To answer your question... yes, to see what interactive menus are like, but not for the food (sorry chef!).

"I have this incredibly strong urge to help people."

Me too. When I hear a problem, I instinctively offer a solution, or at least try to work through the problems to a solution. Apparently, it's a male trait - "Ug! Man solve problem."

Then I was offered advice along the lines of "Don't offer advice until you're asked for it." Oh, meta. When someone's telling you of his problem: he's not necessarily asking for a solution, he's not necessarily looking for tips, he maybe doesn't even want to change... he just wants to rant and whinge a bit - and if you offer a solution, it's usually unwelcome and you're frustrating his venting. Of course, if he's ranting, whinging and venting the SAME problem after a few years... well!

Thanks for posting this - I'd recently forgotten that line of advice and had reverted to being Mr Instant Problem Solver!

Maybe this openness is a trait of HN readers - knowledge accumulators, problem solvers, generous time givers, open-sourcers - that doesn't apply to the wider population!

It would be great if more people did this sort of thing - not because it saves money, but because it saves throwing away electronics that otherwise work fine, and well... because I like pulling things apart!

In the past, I've rescued a cordless telephone and a friend's PC (dead battery on motherboard) from being premature landfill. I plan to do this with my electric toothbrush when the time comes. If it contains a battery, there's a fair bet you can get a straight replacement on the web.

I should also ask... Ben, did you post this link because you agree or disagree with the article?

What phone do you have and what will you get next?

I have a Windows Mobile phone, and after that painful experience, I'll most likely get an iPhone 4g, though I'd consider an Android too...

1) It’s expensive: Agree

2) It’s anti-technology: no surprise there from Apple.

3) No Flash: Putting a proprietary feature onto a proprietary platform - two wrongs don't make a right. Elsewhere, I read that Flash on Android is slow and a battery hog. It feels that this is less about wanting Flash on the iPhone, and more about a backlash against the iPhone's closed platform per se.

4) No multitasking: Tried multitasking on a Windows Mobile? The phone reduces to a crawl. I looked around Android Apps and noticed quite a few memory and task management utilities - I want to use my phone, and not think about killing apps hogging CPU/RAM in the background.

5) Its battery life is terrible: Possibly because people play with their iPhones throughout the day. Possibly because power consumption is tweaked for performance rather than economy. Possibly because users are accustomed eye-candy interfaces that impose much overhead.

6) Developing apps for it is costing you money: At least when I use that app, it has a high probability of working. My WinMob has these browsers: Opera, Opera 10, Skyfire, IE, Opera Mini, Opera Mini 10, Bolt. Why do I have so many? Because none of them are much good at rendering reliably. I'm by no means a fanboy - much the opposite, I'm quite an Apple Disliker - but I want Things That Work!

7) It comes with offensively bad headphones: Most likely true

8) It’s not very well designed: "It’s a computer that happens to have a phone bolted on" - as are most smartphones now.

9) It charges for satnav: I didn't know this. But I thought Google Maps had turn by turn satnav?

10) Those iPod docks are holding back better technologies: Completely agree. Get rid of that silly connector and use the micro USB connector!

Lego camera, lego router, Google's lego RAID, now a lego printer... no wonder that it's the best toy ever invented.

As lame as this concept sounds, I'm sure there are Apple fans out there who are looking to share their lives with someone who won't be sickened by Apple mentionitis.

Take a look at Steven Strogatz's series of articles in the New York Times. He makes learning the foundations of maths FUN and INTERESTING and accessible!

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/steven-strogatz/

I agree on using startssl, and especially because of their ethos of how they charge: you only pay for the verification process, and after that, SSLs are free because they're automatic.

Also, startssl's founder is the best ambassador - send a help request, and he'll answer in no time.

Saying Hi and Bye is a great idea to get you started, because it will do two things for you:

1) They might respond well to you, which can boost your confidence.

2) They look at you like you're a weirdo - this might seem bad, but it's really a good thing because you will teach yourself that sometimes, there's nothing wrong with you, and it's the other person that has an attitude problem!

Good luck, and please report back to let us all know how you get on :)

Oh, the Daily Mail. Just so you know, the DM is known here as a hysterical paper - not hysterical haha, but hysterical panic-mongering arm-flapping. Does it not realise that it's drawn the attention of millions more readers and bloggers/HNers to this? I imagine their journalist went to Hereford and asked the leading question... "How angry and furious are you that Goggle have exposed our hero SAS' secret base so that those evil refugee terrorists can terrorise you, Sir?"

And their readers are no smarter:

"...The little close where I live, has my carport with motorcycle (reg number displayed) and 1000 pounds worth of mountain bikes, illustrated for all to see! Thanks to Google...." - Ian Woolger, Budleigh Salterton

Thanks for the link... I'll take a closer look when I'm in the market for an ebook reader.

Perhaps I should have been more accurate there - I didn't mean envying that specific person's life, but the general lifestyle of a person in that situation. That said, I have often been that "someone nearby" who envies a friend's/acquaintance's life more - but they've most likely worked a lot harder (is that considered difficult?) for it and deserve it.

You've kicked off a good discussion here... what do you make of the responses so far? 68Y, 37N.

Well put!

[Though, at another point in my life, I would have answered 'No' too. For example, after graduating and settling into a job, my life was not difficult at all, and I was enjoying that little break from challenging myself.]

Yes, and I'm glad it is. An easy life would be dull.

Also, it's all relative - the chances are that if you're complaining that your life is oh-so-difficult, there'll be someone nearby who'd envy your life.

And to answer your question with a question... Why are you asking?

From a strictly technical point of view, the title of this article will hold true - many people will lose out and there'll be data that becomes inaccessible on other devices, especially as manufacturers come and go.

However, consumers often bring about unexpected outcomes that have little to do with what's best judged by specification, or which platform follows principles of openess best.

There's much that I don't like about the iPhone, especially Apple's veto on data transfer - "What?! I can't bluetooth data to my phone?! I can't even transfer my own ringtone, I have to buy it?!" - but this hasn't sufficiently bothered millions of consumers.

Instead, I bought a Windows Mobile phone - I can transfer all the data and ringtones I like via USB or bluetooth, I can get all sorts of free/paid software for it too. It's got a high res screen, and a zippy processor. Technically, it's a winner, but the experience downright stinks, needing a reboot every other day.

And of course, there's the old Betamax/VHS, MiniDisc/CD, HD-DVD/Bluray comparisons - usability and marketing prowess often trump rationality.

By the way... which ebook would you buy?