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478 (0.2 per day)
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Technical Discussion (161 posts)
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12-January 09
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User is offline Mar 14 2015 07:19 AM
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Member Title:
「真実はいつも一つ！」工藤新一
Age:
24 years old
Birthday:
June 5, 1991
Gender:
Male Male
Interests:
Linux, FOSS, anime, Sonic, computers

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Private
Website:
Website  http://pharaohtechblog.blogspot.com

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Posts I've Made

  1. In Topic: USA Mobile Phone Advice

    02 February 2013 - 12:18 PM

    View PostOverlord, on 28 January 2013 - 02:56 PM, said:

    Now. Bearing in mind we're talking about a country whose mobile networks are so customer-unfriendly that they recently made unlocking your contract phone illegal, I have a couple of questions for locals who might know the answers of these - and if they vary state-by-state, the relevant ones will be MO (most important), FL, NV (both somewhat important), and TX (least important, any phones in it will be there a matter of hours at most):

    * Is it even possible to buy pre-paid SIM cards that you slap into a phone and then just work, with a US phone number, as a UK national? (I assume the foreigner bit isn't the block as I did exactly this in South Africa, but with the sillyness of the above regulation you never know)
    * Assuming that it is, what sort of prices will I be looking at for buying a bog-standard calls-and-texts-only SIM card, to slap straight into my own phone, with maybe $10 or $20 of credit? (I do not care for data necessarily, my phone can't do it anyway. However that might be important for someone else I know who's going)
    * How much is a typical phone call from a mobile to a land-line in the US from AT&T & T-Mobile? How much are domestic texts - and arguably more importantly, international ones? How about mobile-to-mobile - on the same network and to other networks?
    * Who has better coverage, AT&T or T-Mobile?
    * Are there any other pitfalls of US mobile phone networks I should be aware of?

    Thanks in advance!


    Answering in order:
    • Yes, you can buy prepaid SIM cards and use them as you please. T-Mobile offers them for $1 online and $5-10 in-store. There are no special requirements, provided you visit a T-Mobile store to purchase them. Purchasing online requires a US address and a valid credit card. AT&T GoPhone SIM cards cost anywhere from $10 to $25 depending on which AT&T store you've visited.
    • T-Mobile has three options for prepaid: Pay Monthly, Pay Each Day Used, and Pay As You Go. Of the Pay Monthly rates, I recommend the $30/mo plan for those who don't talk much (100 min included with $0.10/per additional minute, and unlimited SMS/MMS and data) or the $60/mo plan for those who plan on using lots of minutes along with texts and data (unlimited talk, text, web plan). Of the Pay Daily rates, the $2/day rate works well for dumbphones, while the $3/day rate works well for smartphones. Of the PayGo rates, it's $0.10/min incoming and outgoing, and $0.25/message for SMS/MMS. On the prepaid side, mobile-to-mobile and mobile-to-wireline are treated the same rate. Check the website for rates on using refill cards, but usually $30 gives you about 160 minutes. UK calls are $2/min unless you are on Pay Monthly ($50/mo or higher) and have the $10/mo addon for International Talk and Text. In which case, UK calls to mobiles are $0.34/min, UK calls to landlines are free, and UK texts are free. AT&T GoPhone prepaid rates are roughly the same, with the notable exception of Pay Monthly and Pay Daily. AT&T does not offer Pay Daily rates, and Pay Monthly rates are roughly the same. However, AT&T GoPhone does not allow bringing your own phone for Pay Monthly, only PayGo. AT&T also dislikes smartphones on GoPhone brand.
    • Coverage wise, Missouri, Florida, and Texas are well covered by both. Nevada is weird on both. T-Mobile has better coverage on the western side, while AT&T has it better on the eastern side.
    • T-Mobile is pretty much the only carrier that really gives a damn about prepaid GSM. Verizon owns a GSM network, but refuses to use it for its own services. Sprint got out of the GSM business almost 20 years ago (its GSM network is now T-Mobile's). AT&T just doesn't give a damn about prepaid, though it has it to take advantage of international events hosted in the US like the Olympics. 2G coverage between AT&T and T-Mobile is near equal, but AT&T's HSPA coverage is larger than T-Mobile's HSPA+ coverage. T-Mobile's LTE network is lighting up this year, but that's a non-issue for you, just as AT&T's LTE network is essentially ignorable for you, too. Avoid Verizon and Sprint as much as possible. Sprint's coverage is tiny, and any domestic roaming can incur massive charges. T-Mobile doesn't charge for domestic roaming. AT&T doesn't either. Verizon doesn't roam much at all. Sprint/Verizon are CDMA networks, so you can't bring your own phones to them.

    That's about it.

    Oh yes, if you're wondering why we charge incoming and outgoing for texts, it's because the North American Numbering Plan doesn't allow distinguishing between wireline and wireless phone numbers. Thus, it's impossible to differentiate for cost. As a result, the total cost of the call is split between both users. It works out to be cheaper that way.

    And as for phone unlocking, T-Mobile still will unlock your phones on request. If it's a prepaid phone, I think it's after 180 days of service. On postpaid, it's after 40 days of service. After that, you just call them and you can get the code right away. If you purchase a postpaid phone at MSRP in a store, you can call in and get it unlocked right away, as well.

    Oh and if you purchased that phone of yours outside of the U.S. or Canada, then it won't support US networks. It supports GSM 850/1900 only in the American model (T-Mobile sells it as the T-Mobile Sparq). You'll need a cheap quad-band GSM phone.

  2. In Topic: Windows 8 RTM :V

    05 August 2012 - 03:59 PM

    View PostOverlord, on 05 August 2012 - 02:51 PM, said:

    View PostOerg866, on 04 August 2012 - 06:21 PM, said:

    The tablet interface *is* *not* *forced*. I've been on the desktop environment for 3 days. YOU HAVE A BIG BUTTON THAT TAKES YOU TO IT, YOU KNOW.

    Windows 7 can not natively (without VPC Installed I think) mount VHDs, nor can it mount ISOs. Windows 8 includes a mounting system for most disc image formats.

    Posted Image

    Windows 7, Home Premium, no Virtual PC installed. Professional can do it as well.


    There's only one thing that Windows 7 Enterprise/Ultimate could do with VHDs that lower editions cannot and that is booting from VHDs. The same is true for Windows 8. You need Windows 8 Enterprise to boot from a VHD.

  3. In Topic: In Plain English - The Java JRE and Programs

    11 June 2012 - 04:32 AM

    View PostTravelsonic, on 06 June 2012 - 02:30 PM, said:

    Thanks for your help guys.



    Ugh, because of issues with the PDFs on Mac OS X systems, he decided to limit support to Windows PCs now - actually, I shouldn't preface that with an "ugh" - now I can redo the program in C#, and just have an autorun.inf on the CD, not having to worry about comparability with modern Windows PCs.


    You could actually compile it down to native with IKVM and Mono, but if you rewrite it to C#, make sure it is Mono compatible. That way, you can use it on Windows, Mac OS X, and even Linux! However, only Windows and Linux support autoruns. Linux desktop environments will run "autorun.sh" and Windows reads "autorun.inf". Mac OS X dropped the feature without telling anyone, not that it was very useful as it only worked to load QuickTime presentations or movies.

  4. In Topic: Graphics borked, but only on some games?

    05 June 2012 - 04:36 AM

    Your IGP may have partially started failing, which is why certain modes are producing malformed output. Can you get a new motherboard for it, or buy a PCI-Express AMD Radeon HD graphics card to fix it?

  5. In Topic: Recommend a Video Card?

    30 May 2012 - 12:59 PM

    I use a Radeon HD 6000 series card right now, but I've heard excellent things about the Radeon HD 7000 series.

    I've got a few recommendations within the $100-$200 budget range:



    If the Radeon HD 7000 series isn't what you want, then I recommend the following Radeon HD 6000 series cards:

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