Posts by Olli Männistö

Euro Parliament agrees roaming caps

No data cap

Still no data cap thought. It's always funny to get 15€ bill for some text-only chatting.

At least with a laptop + skype you can chat as much as you bloody well want at fixed rates. Just pick a hotel with data service.

Group Test: Universal Remote Controls

Harmony remotes rock

I have had a Harmony 525 for a couple of years now. It completely blows off the water every other universal remote I've tried (including kameleon, philips, etc), mostly due to the activities.

Setting up the activities can be a bit of a pain but afterwards pretty much anyone can learn to use it easily. I bought one for my retired dad who needed about 2 minute instructions to use it. With my gf it was approximately the same. Again, setting up the remote will take a while.

Some other remotes allow you to set up sequences or macros which could do basically the same thing, but the harmony is built up around the concept and the set-up software does most of the work for you. Plus it has simple monochrome LCD display so you don't have to memorize that "red" button means "watch TV".

Farewell then, Symbian

Symbian, nokia, UIQ, huh?

Wait a second. Because UIQ is cutting staff, Symbian is doomed because Nokia acquired Symbian and gives it away for free but doesn't use UIQ in their phones?

Well. Okay. Right. How many pints did we have while writing this article? And not a single mention of SonyEricsson who actually DOES use UIQ.

The missing five-minute Linux manual for morons

@VI fans

After having read a few comments by VI fans, I have something to add - Yes, I'm sure you can get used to anything and learn to use a syntax however convoluted. However, VI is a TERRIBLE choice for system default editor.

We're not talking about "I've been using VI for 20 years and I called my kids VI and VIM" here. We're talking about someone who has never ever used any kind of unix and logs in to the HP/UX 1st time..

Of course it does weed the wheat from chaff by seeing who does not go right back to using windows exclusively after that experience, but realistically anyone who can use VI (or even knows how to get OUT of the damn thing!) can change the system settings to use it if they prefer.

EMACS isn't better by any means, except that you can actually write email with it with a short cheat sheet without too much pain. And since default HP/UX system had a choice of VI and EMACS.. ..No doubt due to people who think it's reasonable to go around blathering things like "if you don't like vi, program your own editor". Insteadthey could dosome bloody administration they're paid for and install a default system editor that MOST people can use and the rest know how to change.

Joe

Joe is supposed to be hard? Kids these days.

When I was a student mid 90s, we were confronted by HP-UX system that was not set up at ALL with regards to users. So first thing you do when you try to write email is being confronted by the horror that is VI. Which is about as useful as a penguin on a bicycle when you have no instructions whatsoever available.

After you manage to hunt down someone who can explain how I get out of this trap (except by closing session) and also get instructions on how to change the default editor to EMACS. When that LISP toting monstrosity has been configured to do something semi-useful after managing to obtain a booklet of sane settings file, you can actually write email! Hooray!

Coming from there, Joe which actually has an on-screen cheat which tells you how to GET HELP and relatively simple set of keystrokes is about the simplest, userfriendliest piece of software you can imagine.

Granted, they eventually had someone set up the student accounts in a sane way and started using pico or somesuch, that is even more newbie-friendly.