Author Topic: Microsoft thread  (Read 61171 times)

0 Members and 3 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline The Chief

  • Posts: 31799
    • http://www.wnff.net
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #150: November 11, 2010, 07:21:11 PM »
25 bucks on your phone, 40 on your laptop.

Oh okay.  Back to my earlier question - is this available to US customers?  Whose network does VM use?  Can you put a VM SIM into an AT&T or T-Mobile phone and use this plan?

Offline Nathan

  • Posts: 10726
  • Wow. Such warnings. Very baseball. Moderator Doge.
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #151: November 11, 2010, 07:23:52 PM »
Oh okay.  Back to my earlier question - is this available to US customers?  Whose network does VM use?  Can you put a VM SIM into an AT&T or T-Mobile phone and use this plan?
VM uses Sprint.

Offline Nathan

  • Posts: 10726
  • Wow. Such warnings. Very baseball. Moderator Doge.
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #152: November 11, 2010, 07:25:56 PM »
Right but you pay on top of that for data.  I would love to have an iphone or win7 phone but i do so little actual talking that paying the bill for one just isn't worth it to me.
You could get the peel from Sprint for an iPod touch.  It's a 3G hotspot that acts as a case for the iPod touch.  So basically, you get a fully connected iPhone minus the phone.  But you can always use Skype or Google Voice, etc.

Offline Nathan

  • Posts: 10726
  • Wow. Such warnings. Very baseball. Moderator Doge.
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #153: November 11, 2010, 07:27:33 PM »
Triple post!
This is the wrong thread, but PA, I just looked on VM's website.  It's $25/mo. for unlimited text and data AND 300 minutes of talk!  That's a crazy deal!

Offline PANatsFan

  • Posts: 37398
  • dogs in uncensored, nudes in gameday
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #154: November 11, 2010, 07:32:19 PM »
Triple post!
This is the wrong thread, but PA, I just looked on VM's website.  It's $25/mo. for unlimited text and data AND 300 minutes of talk!  That's a crazy deal!

Yeah, that's what I mean, unlimited everything and limited voice. The network for my 3G USB on Virgin Mobile works very well.

Offline The Chief

  • Posts: 31799
    • http://www.wnff.net
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #155: November 11, 2010, 07:33:46 PM »
You could get the peel from Sprint for an iPod touch.  It's a 3G hotspot that acts as a case for the iPod touch.  So basically, you get a fully connected iPhone minus the phone.  But you can always use Skype or Google Voice, etc.

I saw that, looks cool but they aren't available yet, and last I heard there's no guarantee they ever will be, at least stateside.

Or am I behind on the news?

Offline Nathan

  • Posts: 10726
  • Wow. Such warnings. Very baseball. Moderator Doge.
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #156: November 11, 2010, 07:34:57 PM »
Yeah, that's what I mean, unlimited everything and limited voice. The network for my 3G USB on Virgin Mobile works very well.
I thought you meant $25 for the unlimited text and data, then you had to also add a talk plan.  Too bad all of the phones look like garbage.  The intercept looks OK.  I wonder if you could buy a phone from somewhere else if they would activate it for you.

Offline PANatsFan

  • Posts: 37398
  • dogs in uncensored, nudes in gameday
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #157: November 11, 2010, 07:35:38 PM »
I thought you meant $25 for the unlimited text and data, then you had to also add a talk plan.  Too bad all of the phones look like garbage.  The intercept looks OK.  I wonder if you could buy a phone from somewhere else if they would activate it for you.

Any sprint phone should work. Sprint owns them. You could get a decent one on ebay, and I think JMad has 75643 of them.

Offline Nathan

  • Posts: 10726
  • Wow. Such warnings. Very baseball. Moderator Doge.
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #158: November 11, 2010, 07:37:23 PM »
I saw that, looks cool but they aren't available yet, and last I heard there's no guarantee they ever will be, at least stateside.

Or am I behind on the news?
Comes out Sunday.  $79.99
http://sprint.tekgroupweb.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1714#__highlight&id16=peel

Offline Nathan

  • Posts: 10726
  • Wow. Such warnings. Very baseball. Moderator Doge.
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #159: November 11, 2010, 07:41:31 PM »
Any sprint phone should work. Sprint owns them. You could get a decent one on ebay, and I think JMad has 75643 of them.
Sprint's phones are lackluster too.  Low end androids or the Evo, which is on the large size, and the Epic 4G, which is nice, but Sprint requires an extra $10 a month for 4G.  I wonder if it would work on Virgin.

I could probably ebay my iPhone for a decent amount to cover the cost of the new phone, and I'd love to go from $80+ a month to $25.

Offline The Chief

  • Posts: 31799
    • http://www.wnff.net
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #160: November 11, 2010, 07:48:58 PM »
Comes out Sunday.  $79.99
http://sprint.tekgroupweb.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1714#__highlight&id16=peel

I've been looking for a new toy, this may be it.  Dammit, why'd you have to tell me that! :lol:

edit - blah, 3 hour battery life for the peel, that pretty much kills it for me.

Offline PC

  • Posts: 47236
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #161: December 17, 2010, 05:16:35 PM »
I had to travel back in time today. I needed to install XP Professional with SP1 (SP1a, actually).  I didn't have an XP CD with SP1a included (didn't want to slipstream one either) so I went even further back in time and installed XP RTM and just installed the service pack afterwards.

Doing this will immediately make you realize how old XP is.  We forget all of the things that have comes since XP was released.  For example, XP RTM predates SATA, which was an immediate roadblock for installing it in 2010.  Also, remember the 48-bit thing with the hard drives. XP couldn't recognize hard drives bigger than 120GB (137GB, actually).  XP came with WMP 8, which was only included in XP if you remember.  And Like Humans Do!  I had completely forgotten that that was included! :lol:

What I ended up having to do was install in virtually, in 7, the thoroughly 2010 way of installing an OS from 2001.   :)

Offline The Chief

  • Posts: 31799
    • http://www.wnff.net
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #162: December 17, 2010, 06:07:05 PM »
Funny you mention it, hi just updated an SP1a machine the other day.  Drivers and updates alone took almost two hours :shock:

Offline The Chief

  • Posts: 31799
    • http://www.wnff.net
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #163: December 17, 2010, 06:51:05 PM »

Offline The Chief

  • Posts: 31799
    • http://www.wnff.net
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #164: December 19, 2010, 01:51:49 PM »
Fantastic news for Firefox users:

"Windows 7 Users Get H.264 Video Plug-In for Firefox"

http://tech2.in.com/india/news/internet/windows-7-users-get-h.264-video-plugin-for-firefox/180672/0

I can respect Mozilla for sticking to their guns on the open-source side of things, but let's face it, h.264 is far superior to ogv, and more importantly, is already the de facto standard in most parts of the web.

(though if you use VLC, you probably already have this functionality via VLC's Mozilla plugin)

Offline JMW IV

  • Posts: 11345
  • Name on the Front > Name on The Back
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #165: January 12, 2011, 01:17:36 AM »
yo chief school me on Windows Live as a complete service.

need to change my email address and phone number and such, and i am looking at other options beyond google, just for considerations sake.

some freaking scammer got a hold of my email, google voice number and cell phone number somehow, and they are no doubt passing them around to other scammers.

Offline PANatsFan

  • Posts: 37398
  • dogs in uncensored, nudes in gameday
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #166: January 12, 2011, 01:20:31 AM »
Google voice is now charging to change your number, but why can't you just start a new account?

Offline JMW IV

  • Posts: 11345
  • Name on the Front > Name on The Back
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #167: January 12, 2011, 01:36:41 AM »
i am going to. figured it cant hurt to explore the other options first though, rather than just being a mindless google fanboy, you know?

Offline PANatsFan

  • Posts: 37398
  • dogs in uncensored, nudes in gameday
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #168: January 12, 2011, 01:41:13 AM »
i am going to. figured it cant hurt to explore the other options first though, rather than just being a mindless google fanboy, you know?

Good call, also Google gets hacked by Chinese hackers, could be the source of your headaches. Sorry to hear it, that stuff sucks.

The question was rhetorical by the way. So you can just start a new account?

Offline JMW IV

  • Posts: 11345
  • Name on the Front > Name on The Back
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #169: January 12, 2011, 09:11:02 AM »
yeah you can.

so how bout it, how does Windows Live compare in terms of email and web 2.0 apps?

Offline The Chief

  • Posts: 31799
    • http://www.wnff.net
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #170: January 12, 2011, 09:51:31 AM »
I'll be honest I've barely looked at the cloud side of Windows Live.  I use several Windows Live apps for local stuff, but I never use the related online services.  From what little I've seen, the interface and navigation doesn't seem quite as intuitive or elegant as Google's solutions.  I know I give you a lot of crap about Google (in good fun of course :mg:) but gmail is one product that you couldn't pay me to give up.

Offline PC

  • Posts: 47236
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #171: January 15, 2011, 11:27:34 PM »
I'll be honest I've barely looked at the cloud side of Windows Live.  I use several Windows Live apps for local stuff, but I never use the related online services.  From what little I've seen, the interface and navigation doesn't seem quite as intuitive or elegant as Google's solutions.  I know I give you a lot of crap about Google (in good fun of course :mg:) but gmail is one product that you couldn't pay me to give up.

I LOVE Office Web Apps.  I love the look and feel of Office and the Web Apps look like Office.  Google Docs are ok but they look dated.  I also love the 25GB of storage, which can be used for anything, you get with SkyDrive, as opposed to Google Docs, where you get 1GB for docs.  You get the 7GB+ for gmail but you they don't let you use it for document storage.  I think SkyDrive is the best cloud deal around.  Twenty-five free gigs is tough to beat.

But what I brought this back up was for Open Office (which also looks dated). I was just surfing around and went to openoffice.org and discovered the latest (non-stable) version of OO was 3.3, release candidate 9.  RELEASE CANDIDATE NINE!!!  There is no such thing as nine release candidates! It's not a release candidate if you have nine of them.  It's a beta.  Call it a beta!  Do they even understand the meaning of "release candidate"?

Piggybacking on this, it's the problem I have with OO, specifically (Firefox too) and open source software, generally.  In open source software projects there's frequently a lack of top-down control, which it would seem, if you have NINE release candidates for any software release.  Firefox 4 is supposed to have, at least, 11 betas (8 so far) and one or two release candidates.  Originally, there were supposed to be 7 betas for FF4.  Seven is still too many but 11 is inexcusable.  I remember FF4b6 was out for at least two months and it was DREADFUL.  I wondered how could you get to the sixth beta release and the program still be this terrible!  What were betas 1 through 5 for?

Microsoft's closed source software management is much more ordered and I love order.  You get TONS of top-down control at Microsoft.   :D

Offline PANatsFan

  • Posts: 37398
  • dogs in uncensored, nudes in gameday
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #172: January 15, 2011, 11:31:29 PM »
1) One Note online is pretty sick actually. Very nice app.

2) OpenOffice just boned me - you can delete the comments in OpenOffice but it seems they are still there in the DOC file.

Offline Nathan

  • Posts: 10726
  • Wow. Such warnings. Very baseball. Moderator Doge.
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #173: January 16, 2011, 12:56:17 AM »
FF b9 is out.  I've sort of migrated to Chrome anyway, it seems much faster, especially when I keep it running forever with 10 plus tabs open.  FF loses responsiveness in that case, Chrome doesn't.

Offline The Chief

  • Posts: 31799
    • http://www.wnff.net
Re: Microsoft thread
« Reply #174: January 16, 2011, 01:32:14 AM »
FF b9 is out.  I've sort of migrated to Chrome anyway, it seems much faster, especially when I keep it running forever with 10 plus tabs open.  FF loses responsiveness in that case, Chrome doesn't.

PEBKAC :mg:

seriously though, I must be the only person on earth who's never had problems with firefox.  I still think Chrome's UI is something of a travesty, but since it seems firefox 4 is determined to emulate it - and poorly at that - I guess I'll be sticking with 3.6 or migrating to Chrome eventually :?

@PC, sure skydrive sounds nice but when I tried it the interface was awful.  haven't tried office web apps but I agree that google docs is meh.