Disqus - Latest Comments for doog

Re: Apple, If This Is a Test of Our humanity, You have Failed Miserably

Doug Miller — Sat, 21 Mar 2020 12:16:46 -0000

My daughter works for Whole Foods and when I sent her that story about donation of sick time, she told me that was inaccurate from employee's point of view. Whole Foods management has told all employees that they should/must take sick time if they are ill and that they will receive two weeks time off if they do become ill. The have always had the option for employees to donate unused sick time, and my daughter has done this in the past, but this is to support employees who have to take extended sick time off (cancer diagnosis, house fires, natural disasters) - it is nothing new with COVID-19, and their paid time off doesn't accrue much, which is why they are encouraged to donate when they reach full levels. (They are also getting paid $2/hour more, plus more overtime pay.)

As for Apple and the new release of the iPad, there is another side to that coin. It must take months to get the supply chain ready to support a new release, and part of that includes stopping making the old product. If Apple already has stockpiles of the new iPad Pro ready to ship, and hardly any of the old model, shouldn't they release it? Why make people who truly need one wait weeks for the old model if they had to retool factories if they have enough of the new to ship now? You didn't mention the new MacBook Air, but why shouldn't they update it now? Why make people who need a new one pay for a butterfly switch MBA when they have made a replacement with a far more reliable scissor switch mechanism, and at a lower price, and with better hardware?

And as for evaluating what companies are doing to help out, maybe we should give them a little time to work out what their best contributions could be and analyze their responses after a little more time has passed? Less than four weeks ago there were only 25 known cases in the US - this has moved so fast, so it may be that Apple and Amazon have big announcements to come about how they are making donations and other charitable efforts available in the best way.

Re: The Supreme Arrogance of Apple’s Publishing Subscription Plans

Doug Miller — Sun, 17 Feb 2019 21:21:44 -0000

I think I'm going to withhold judgement until we know for sure that this story is true. It's very possible that the WSJ is getting some details wrong.

Re: Android Flagships Need to Be Cheaper

Doug Miller — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 15:19:26 -0000

While it is true that the Droid brand phones are typically overpriced, I have never understood why Verizon will not give special upgrade pricing for their proprietary brand phone. I suppose that their position is that the price must have been ok with you, since you paid it, I still find it consumer unfriendly.

Re: Star Wars Episode VII Cast Revealed

Doug Miller — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 15:35:25 -0000

Hmmm, excited is a big word, but I think I like most about the part that says "screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan". It'll be great to have a great writer on Star Wars again.

Re: The Pernicious Nature of Homemade Baby Food Revealed

Doug Miller — Mon, 28 Apr 2014 12:26:34 -0000

I have a feeling that he just doesn't know what the word "pernicious" means.

Re: Google Wallet – Could It Be About the Paperless Receipt?

Doug Miller — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 16:40:16 -0000

This seems to be a solution to a problem I don't have (both the physical card and tap to pay.) Credit cards work fine for me, and my bank's debit card does as well. Credit cards also give me purchasing protection that debit cards lack.

My phone on Verizon supports tap to pay with Google wallet. I still don't need it.

Re: Heartbleed Security Issue Prompts Password Change Notices

Doug Miller — Sat, 12 Apr 2014 11:26:19 -0000

I'm not panicking, but it's always annoying when you need to go through and change passwords for services, particularly when they are not all that critical and their use doesn't really expose personal info. The read later service Pocket sent an email suggesting an email change. I did it, but now that means that a bunch of apps on my iPad need to be reconfigured. It's more annoying than anything, and, what's the worst that can happen? Other people can access or read material I've saved for myself to read later?

Still, I change the PW and go through the annoyance. Perhaps more annoying than Pocket are the services that I know were susceptible to compromise but that have not sent any notification to their users - Yahoo mail, I believe Google as well. At the very least we users deserve notification, right? At least Pocket, ITTT.com, Lastpass, and 1Password have let me know where their services stand.

Re: First Impressions of the HTC One M8

Doug Miller — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 12:10:12 -0000

It really looks like a great phone. I decided against considering the HTC One last year because the battery was too small. I'm glad to see that they both increased the size of the battery and tuned the OS to use less battery.

My only demerit is the dumb name. To all phone OEMs: the car companies solved the problem of naming annual releases of the same model. The 2014 HTC One would have been a much better name than the HTC One (M8). The same thing goes for Apple iPhones, Samsung Galaxy and Note phones, and Google Nexus phones and tablets. They are releasing them once a year anyway.

Re: How do You Solve a Problem Like In-App Purchases?

Doug Miller — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 14:58:50 -0000

It seems that this problem really already has a solution.

Perhaps another thing needed is the ability to do a hierarchy of accounts. Apple and Google (and Amazon and Microsoft) could allow accounts with limits that require a parent account to approve all pending purchases. It's a way to let the parent know right away that a purchase request has happened (for in app purchases, books, newsstand items, media, etc.) while still allowing the supervised account to queue up purchase requests.

Re: Storage Wars: Google Slashes Storage Prices to 50% of OneDrive and 75% of DropBox Costs

Doug Miller — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 14:53:34 -0000

I am thinking about switching from Dropbox if this pricing differential sticks - my Dropbox renewal date is in December. I don't necessarily have a problem paying Dropbox $99 a year, but I don't have a problem paying less, and I can't think of much that Dropbox does that I can't do instead with Google Drive. I have one app that syncs using Dropbox only, but that's easy enough with a free 5 GB account.

Right now I have an extra 50 GB in Google Drive from my Motorola phone I bought last year, at least until October, so I should be able to test this out.

Re: Amazon Prime Goes to $99

Doug Miller — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 16:27:47 -0000

My renewal date is later this month, and my note said that I would renew this year for $79; the change doesn't go into effect for me until 2015. So, I have another year to decide that, yes, of course I'm going to keep paying for Prime.

Re: DRM or Cream in your Coffee? Soon you Could have Both with Keurig 2.0

Doug Miller — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 14:55:59 -0000

Are we 100% sure that people are just not misinterpreting things? Maybe they're just saying that the enhanced features will not work without licensed kcups, but that current key rig functionality will still work as it does now.

Maybe let's not get all worked up over something until it actually happens?

Re: Would You Buy Bitcoins?

Doug Miller — Fri, 28 Feb 2014 23:19:22 -0000

One thing that I want from currency is stability rather than volatility. I want to know when I am exchanging something for currency (whether selling or purchasing) that the currency will retain it's relative value in both the short term and long term. I don't want to sell my car for bitcoin today to find that the value has dropped suddenly tomorrow, nor do I want to buy a car with bitcoin today to find out that the currency is worth far more tomorrow and the automobile is suddenly undervalued compared with the bitcoin I spent today.

That's the problem. If the currency stabilizes compared with other sovereign currencies, that's great. Until it does, I have no interest in speculating.

Re: The Moshi VersaCover Mini Origami Case for iPad Mini Retina Review

Doug Miller — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 22:45:27 -0000

Thanks. I've removed it several times. Unfortunately, two of the corner tabs have broken off a little (top right and top left). It does make it very easy to remove, and it does stay on, but I am a little worried that the tabs will break more.

Re: The Moshi VersaCover Mini Origami Case for iPad Mini Retina Review

Doug Miller — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 13:22:51 -0000

I've had this case for my full sized iPad for a while now. The only issue with it for me is that it's difficult to remove from the hard shell back. Also, the iPad is just a little unstable when you try to type in certain folded positions. However, it's such a versatile case - you can set it up for viewing in portrait or landscape, and typing in landscape, very quickly. It's pricey, but I really like this case.

Re: Vladimir Putin Sports Yota Advertising for Russian Mobile Provider

Doug Miller — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 22:40:03 -0000

It's just not that important to me. As long as I have been alive, every President has basically had about even popularity ratings, so for every person who would buy what the president wears there would another who would switch away to a competitor. Sony and Samsung don't count in your example - you talked about the President wearing logos for companies in their countries.

I don't care about it, but, of course, enough do that it just never happens much here. Russia is not here, though. It's a completely different culture and the President rules.

Re: Vladimir Putin Sports Yota Advertising for Russian Mobile Provider

Doug Miller — Tue, 11 Feb 2014 18:29:31 -0000

Boy, I just don't think it matters. Then again, I think the Olympic branding rules are brain dead anyway. I guess it goes back to when the us basketball team with contracts with competing apparel makers covered up the official logos on the medal stand. I simply don't care about advertising and logos, so it just doesn't matter to me.

If President Obama wants to wear a fleece jacket with a Nike logo, or New Balance athletic shoes - it's fine with me.

Re: Lenovo Buys Motorola from Google for $2.91 Billion, Your Thoughts?

Doug Miller — Fri, 31 Jan 2014 14:55:09 -0000

I've read those analyses, too. You left out that Motorola also had tax credits of $1B at the time of the Google purchase, so that brings the net loss to $3.2B. However, in the 20 months since the purchase, Motorola lost over $2B, so we are back up to about a $5.5B loss.

The patents may not be worth $5.5B - maybe more like $1B - but there is nothing like shedding a business that is costing you $1B on the bottom line every year.

Many people who have Motorola phones (I do myself) are lamenting this sale. I am not - at least, not yet. First of all, my phone didn't suddenly change overnight. Second, it appears that Google will continue to run Motorola as they have been - they are still on schedule to announce the Moto G at a big even in India next week. Third, Lenovo used to make pretty mediocre Windows computers (Legend was the old brand name), just as they now make pretty mediocre Android devices right now. However. they then bought the personal computer business from IBM and have continued the excellence of the Thinkpad notebook line in particular. I am taking the view, until proven wrong, that Lenovo will bring more attention to the Motorola brand as they did with the IBM brands in PCs. And, of course, knowing that it takes a long time to develop new mobile devices, clearly the next versions that will update the Moto X, Moto G, and the Verizon Droid line are well into development, and Motorola was probably already getting started on next year's phones.

Re: Google’s Achilles Heel: It’s All About the (Multiple) Accounts

Doug Miller — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 15:12:18 -0000

Sure, that was the intention. But when two-factor first started, when you logged in to an Android phone it wouldn't even let you use your "real" password with an authenticator second factor - it told you to generate an app-specific password. This may have been an Android 2.x problem; I have been doing it that way ever since that I didn't even know that you could use your real password and an authenticator token.

As I am sure you know, the app-specific passphrases are a necessary evil for things like computer mail clients, where an IMAP and SMTP server has no way in the protocol to prompt for a second factor of authentication (that I know of.) While it does seem less secure, it does give you the ability to deauthorize that particular passphrase if you are having a problem, lost the phone, suspect that the passphrase was captured, etc.

I did try putting in an app account on my phone (running KitKat) and was able to use an app-specific passphrase, so that method is still supported.

Re: Google’s Achilles Heel: It’s All About the (Multiple) Accounts

Doug Miller — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 10:42:36 -0000

This is not true for me. I can create an application-specific password and enter that and it will not use the second factor on the phone. This is true for my domain account as well.

Re: Google’s Achilles Heel: It’s All About the (Multiple) Accounts

Doug Miller — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 16:29:31 -0000

For the two factor authentication problem you mention, I just have a site-specific passphrase set up so I don't have to enter the second factor on the phone. In fact, I seem to recall when I tried to enter my "real" password in for my google account on my phone, google error end and told me specifically to create a site specific passphrase.

For the other problem - using multiple google accounts on a desktop browser - I just create multiple users in the chrome browser, one for each google account. I have only one account used in each chrome browser account. (I'm not talking about Chrome OS - it's a pain in the neck on chrome OS because they don't have the ability to quickly switch to another user account, unlike the Mac and windows versions of chrome. In those versions, tap the smiley face in the top right corner and set up a new user. Or create it in settings.

Re: The Eternal Optimism of Bing Weather

Doug Miller — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 11:05:09 -0000

I've been looking at nearly every weather app with widgets for Android in the last few weeks, and I've noticed weirdness like this as well - a widget telling me that it's sunny when it's clearly 100% overcast. That said, the info I really want from the widget is the current temp and wind, and, of course, a warning that bad weather is coming. So long as I get that, I'll be ok with occasional missed forecast text info.

Re: Android 4.4 for Verizon Moto X Is Now Official

Doug Miller — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 20:35:50 -0000

I have a droid Maxx and I'm hoping that the update comes pretty soon.

Both Verizon and Motorola said that updates would start coming faster. For obvious reasons, nobody believed them. I guess we should have. Awesome work by Motorola.

Re: Google Voice Cuts Off Third Party Apps

Doug Miller — Tue, 05 Nov 2013 20:42:03 -0000

I only use it for two things: to forward calls from my home line to GV, which will ring my cell phone and summer house, when I'm away from home in the summer; and as the voicemail for my cell phone.

I have this strange feeling that they will be folding GV functionality into Google Hangouts, which seems to be Google's messaging platform these days.

Re: Integrated 4G or Hotspot? How Do You Choose Your Tablet Connectivity?

Doug Miller — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 22:48:42 -0000

You can do that in the US as well. The Verizon iPad comes with a SIM and you can get a 1GB prepaid plan for $20 a month, which you can turn on or off anytime. (2GB for $30). But you can also add it to an existing shared postpaid mobile plan for smartphones for $10 a month and use the same pool of data as the phones and othe tablets on the plan use, and you can add or remove the iPad anytime - it's not under a contract but month to month, even if your phones are under contract.

But, yeah, the phone plans are ridiculous.