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Speeds should be measured by overall system performance, not the speed of the CPU.

Too wonderfully right. Nothing expressed this more to me than seeing the difference between a 1992 spec machine (33Mhz bus, 33Mhz ram, 33Mhz cpu, 33Mhz cache...etc) and a current spec machine, where every one of those (add in the drive speed and a few others here and there) are all operating at wildly different speeds. In one 2Ghz machine, how many different hertzes(!) do you have?

dana (having a horrific grammar day - but you get the idea :)
a grrl & her server

looking at:

He also found that the Fourth Amendment did not apply to the computers, "because they are the property of a non-resident and located outside the United States," or to the data -- at least until it was transmitted to the United States.

and

Finally, Coughenour rejected defense arguments that the FBI's actions "were unreasonable and illegal because they failed to comply with Russian law," saying that Russian law does not apply to the agents' actions.

That sounds scarily close to saying "US Law doesn't apply to our actions" and "Russian Law doesn't apply to our actions" so we'll do whatever we damned like...

a grrl & her server

Having worked tech support for 2 years, for phone-based support of pretty much anything computing-related in state schools, I have to say it gave me the usual "oh god you won't believe what people do" stories, but I always make sure I mention that I've seen some of the most incredible moments of inspiration from non-technical types. It's like you're there when someone first figures out something that you KNOW they'll use time and time again in the future - they just needed a little reassurance. It's nice.

Most people were normal, about 5% were complete and utter morons who shouldn't be allowed near computing equipment as part of their job.

Obsessed with a Quadra

To me, it's one of those biggish 'doorway' discoveries. If we find life on mars, and it's a bit different to life on earth, then we have a "whoa... life's a bit more than we thought it was". Right now we have one and only one way of looking at life - how it appears to us terrestrially... Find something that's substantially different (in function, structure, or location) and there's possible proof that things do work a certain way

Other than that, science/technology/etc is all just "hey, that's cool", until a use is found for it.

a grrl & her server

The 5mb 7.0 download and the (ugh) 19 disk 7.5.3 download are both ones I've used on some of my macs - there are upgrades also - 7.1 to 7.1.1, 7.5.3 to 7.5.5, 8.0 to 8.1 etc, and newer.

And then there's the 2-floppy 6.0.8 full install:D

a grrl & her server

I don't want to sound like a bearer of bad news - and I'm not, just noting an issue that could prevent some projects (given an ideal world where the opensource community can run around buying old software) from being fully usable as open source. One of these affects what would otherwise be a free download from Apple - Mac OS 7.1, and Apple QuickTake driver software.

6.0.8, 7.0 and 7.5.3 are free downloads, but apparently 7.1 isn't, as Apple only licensed, but doesn't -own- the patents to some technologies included, but which were later not used. Similarly, it's apparently Fuji who own the patents to parts of the QuickTake software - meaning ftp.apple.com has an excellent library of older downloadable software, with a few notable exceptions.

Of course - if ten thousand people buy the source to something really fantastic that does contain a few patented bits, it's still a good thing... there's the ability to write-out what can't be freely distributed, and re-write parts that can.

(take all of this post with a grain of salt - I could be full of it)
a grrl & her server

wow.

All of a sudden this picture I did months ago seems all the more relevant...

a grrl & her server

wow.

All of a sudden this picture I did months ago seems all the more relevant...

a grrl & her server

OK so there's a bunch of sites with no access to press passes as they may have had previously. Just what -does- a press pass give the holder?

I'm pretty neutral on the whole thing - except for daft huge bold text on some rumour sites saying they've been blacklisted from macworld. Makes it sound like there's no way to even get a look at the floor. I might get a bit more upset if I knew what benefit a press pass gave :)

a grrl & her server

That being said, if you sign a contract, and agree to limit your use to specific terms and conditions, expect it to be enforced.

I would still be *SO* tempted to rent a car, pull the satellite tracking 'bits' out, UPS them around the country for a few days, and pop them back in.

Then deal with the 'fine' for doing air transport plane speeds across 8 states :D. "Yes Ma'am, you appear to have broken a few laws by exceeding the speed limit by five hundred and... oh. Hang on a sec..."

a grrl & her server

I fell in love with the tactile clickety-click keyboards while at Uni in the early 1990s - and put up with quite a few people telling me to shut the hell up when I -really- got going on them. Pity. Not that anyone was particularly quiet on the things

Now having a mac with only a USB Pro Keyboard to keep me happy (and with its big fat keys it has its own kind of appeal) I don't have access to anything clickety - anyone know of USB keyboards with 'kick'?

a grrl & her server

There are no Quadras... where are all the Quadras?

Seriously - nice to see an online museum that ISN'T merely a collection of 80s personal computers. The more information about the common machines from the 50s and 60s the better - 70s boxies are well known relatively...

a grrl & her server

There are no Quadras... where are all the Quadras?

Seriously - nice to see an online museum that ISN'T merely a collection of 80s personal computers. The more information about the common machines from the 50s and 60s the better - 70s boxies are well known relatively...

a grrl & her server

I doubt software vendors could continue to exist, if there were a level of performance required where NO bugs/faults were required. What may work though, especially when it comes to software like IIS and all of its fun vulnerabilities, is lemon laws similar to for cars.

A model of car needing a recall is no big deal - it's a bummer and an inconvenience most of the time, much as most software has the odd patch/upgrade for reasons of bugs appearing publicly. Continual faults/bugs/etc are a different matter entirely.

The notion also, of Unstable, Stable, Testing versions of software seems pretty sensible when it comes to the liability in open source software. Letting a user know what they're in for when using an Unstable product limits liability by saying "OK, this really could be crap" - miles more than IIS, to use one example.

a grrl & her server

Every so often I'll have a little laugh at people who're unnaturally fearful of new tech of some form - but I try not to poke too much fun. Sometimes though, articles like this one come along and scare me by going waaaay over my head. I want to crawl away somewhere and hide now.

a grrl & her server

Not being from the US where this is all happening, the prices are just numbers that don't mean too much - compared to similar systems, do walmart look to be passing on the savings over providing windows?.

Looks a good idea so far, on two fronts - giving people an alternative to windows, and letting anyone who's a little more cluey to run an alternative system without having wasted cash on an OS they're not going to use. Thats the theory, nice if the practice holds up with lower prices.

a grrl & her server

live.save-ebone.com

that has a counter that indicates how long is left until all's closed...

a grrl & her server

I'll admit I simplified it a lot, but I don't see how this stands to change the definition of live.

I don't think it does either - you have a "live" performance that you can go see, and a "televised live performance" (or recorded live performance) which is the same effort/accomplishment without editing.

I don't think a virtual performance is near the same thing as seeing someone up on stage with all their human movements shared with us, or perhaps even reacting to an audience as some performances have (take Victor Borge for example) but it's an extension. A bit better than having a dodgy VHS copy of a performance, y'can have machinery in your own home play it all back for you... and for the truly obsessed, with far better quality in one sense than any traditional audio recording :)

a grrl & her server

Although the small increase in processing power may be far outweighed by the ease of use and stability of the Apple platform.

That "may be" is the big thing Apple are addressing. While there's no doubt there ARE things about macs that grab people (and being a fanatical user with 36 of the things myself I've been firmly grabbed!), there are also turnoffs. For people to be able to make decisions on what suits them best, whether it be linux/bsd/solaris/windows/macos/amiga/a tin can with a string/etc, they need to have the information. Just getting over the hurdle of "But it's a mac!" is the big thing. I find the best thing I can tell potential converts is "It's just a bloody computer!"... it has a cpu, ram, gui, I/O stuff... And let people see for themselves what they want. Taking a unbiased-seeming view kinda rubs off on people and opens their mind :).

After getting over silly little hatreds of what's just an inanimate electronic machine - some choose macs, some don't - and we're all happy :D

a grrl & her server

Some more microscopy pics of chips, concentrating on some of the funny things designers put on their layouts is at Silicon Zoo. Cartoon characters, signs, messages and a marriage dedication... :)

a grrl & her server

... sooner or later something completely amazing and worthwhile will come up that runs across multiple machines... and the client will only end up installed on 2 PC's, one of which is a broken 386 that's turned on twice a week :)

a grrl & her server

Apart from all the jokes, in such an isolated environment it sounds pretty natural. Humans aren't completely isolated creatures from other humans, and for most of the population the company of someone of the opposite sex - just hanging around the place - is a wonderful comfort regardless of being supermodels. Keeping each other mentally stable in such a long term trip sounds as important as having leet space skillz :)

So where do I apply?

a grrl & her server

It's an individual thing - I know many friends who're absolute mac/osx nuts, and they loathe anti-aliasing on text in any shape or form.

For me, I really don't like web browsing without it!. Going to Mozilla before Silk used to feel harsh on my eyes, while returning to omniweb would suddenly make me feel all relaxed :). Use what works!

a grrl & her server

It's a little cynical, but perhaps part of the reason eBay works isn't trust so much as everyone believes they can spot the ripoffs, cons and shady dealers...

a grrl & her server

But beyond the congratulatory e-mail and the negotiation of mailing addresses and payment methods is there more to the e-bay community

It's also a type of obsession - one that's not necessarily unhealthy. I think people will flock wherever there are like-minded others, and those who like trading what they're interested in are a big enough group to sustain things. Everyone has a little hobby hidden away they'd love to pursue, but can't because of the lack of 'stuff' in their part of the world. I see eBay as helping that along wonderously.

Incidentally I'm only a part-time ebayer myself, around +22, but occasionally I just have to buy something cos it's there, it's cheap, and a parcel in the mail is still something to be excited over :D.

a grrl & her server

I remember sending real cash through the mail to someone in the states and they sent me a tape in return. Never even crossed my mind that anyone on usenet could be dishonest, as I read so many of their postings that I just trusted them.

It's such a never-done-before-thing, that the whole going-to-be-ripped-off thing wasn't at the forefront of peoples minds. My experience started with a few ancient computers, barely worth $10-$20. They weren't available around here and if I lost that amount I could live with it - and with the amazing range of a worldwide second hand market... all those things-you-can't-get-anywhere-else just drag us in, we trust, they trust us, and it builds on from there.

Sure there are ripoffs around, but the general want of people to trade what they have is big enough that in general - it all comes out positive.

a grrl & her server

Is that a Quadra 950?!? I always wanted one of those (well, after the 840AV of course ;-)

Whoops - I lied! it's a 33Mhz 040 - in an Overclocked Quadra 605 - just for the fun of it - as with the iPaq. It's not like it'll REALLY kill the lil handheld - just keep it a bit occupied for a while!

a grrl & her server

Is that a Quadra 950?!? I always wanted one of those (well, after the 840AV of course ;-)

Whoops - I lied! it's a 33Mhz 040 - in an Overclocked Quadra 605 - just for the fun of it - as with the iPaq. It's not like it'll REALLY kill the lil handheld - just keep it a bit occupied for a while!

a grrl & her server

will he run out of bandwidth, or processing power? it's 206mhz, but also, he's probably got a cable connection or some sorts

Even at the relatively low amount of hits my server gets from posting here - and a few extra when I post the odd +5 modded post, it's bandwidth that's sucked up far before the machine itself crawls to a halt - and thats on a 40Mhz 68040!. Serving to my internal network keep shuffling along happily :)

Getting it to the outside world isn't like pumping water through a small pipe... it's kinda more like trying to pee cold tar.

a grrl & her server

...is that it's still not running on my Quadras.

(back to recompiling darwin on 68k for me... 3 months & seventeen days and gcc's STILL going...)

a grrl & her server

David has denied the rumors repeatedly, and I doubt that Apple will take Chimera and rename it iBrowser or (even better) iBrowse.

Just for the curious, iBrowse is one of the earlier Amiga browsers. I have no idea if it's still being produced, last I saw it was being written by omnipresence. www.omnipresence.com seems to not be there anymore, however...

a grrl & her server

The breakthrough here is that PCR confirmed that there was very little damage to the ethanol preserved specimen.

One thing I can see happening from a full blown attempt to recreate an animal from its' DNA like this, is a vast amount of knowledge gained into the workings & preservation of dna in general - knowledge which can be put to use preserving genetic info from any species. Humans are a bit like that, we seem to work best when there's a goal, and one encompassing a wide amount of technologies like this is just the thing

If nothing is eventually created, or a creature which became extinct 'for a reason' lives again in some form, the ability to preserve genetic information in a form that's usable in the future could be a bonus - it doesn't really seem to me like tasmania is going to be overrun by tigers in a hundred years

a grrl & her server

Is that your naked body on the entrance to your site?

No, it's not.

But with that comment you've quadrupled the normal daily visits I have to my site... all in the last 20 minutes. I think that's a pretty good effort!

a grrl & her server

It's such a variable thing, that there can be no blanket statement such as "ergonomic keyboards ARE better", or the converse. Personally, I've been typing since I was 9 in 1980 - perhaps before, and I've spend a LOT of that in constant writing. Having discovered Deluxe Paint and Photoshop later, I've also been mousing intensely over that time - and in 20 years there've been no problems I've noticed. I have a nerve injury that causes numbness on the outer two fingers of my left hand which means I type quite offset - yet there are no effects showing up in how I feel using my wrist/elbow/arm

A friend of mine however, can't type pain-free without a microsoft ergo keyboard. That works for him and is another choice that I'm thankful he has.

The most annoying thing when typing so far has been having something in the road of my elbows. That gets to me!

a grrl & her server

Back in the days were men were men and hackers were coders,

What a pity this term has been lost to us - and all we seem to have lest is a picking up of 'geek' - something I occasionally call myself when I have to, but I'd rather 'hacker'.

I shall have to make do with just enjoying what I do.

a grrl & her server

There's bandwidth and then there's latency. In the case of RAMBUS, there's more latency involved with the access of the memory than with DDR SDRAM- latency that may eat some or all the bandwidth gains you see there when you start doing something other than benchmarks.

Aye, I can see where that would certainly limit things for general-purpose computing, where one device is needed to do a bit of everything - but perhaps some situations, where constant linear access of RAM is needed may benefit from DDR. Today anyway...

I don't know - I'm not quite that into the tech, more throwing around ideas. I do tend to go with the idea that everything is somewhat useful in its' own way, and has the possibility to lead to the incredible. It's a bit pollyanna, but this is slashdot and there's enough negative to balance out *grin*

a grrl & her server

fine, this is all well and good, but how fast does it actually need to be before the gains are no longer better than the costs?

I'd presume when it all as a whole stops memory technology as a whole from progressing. At the moment a 'considerably more expensive' RDRAM setup may only give slight performance gains (which is a pity for people who buy it expecting more) but the less we rely on one single standard that becomes stretched as far as it can, the better. Future proofing in a way, perhaps. Suddenly next year we could be facing an incredible advance in cpu speed which absolutely requires speed at costs that are now prohibitive to work at its best.

Just who's going to need terahertz cpu's with terabyte/sec bandwidth... is another question :D. (yes thats an exaggeration - y'get the idea!)

a grrl & her server

Curiously - apart from mass data storage repositories for corporations, does anyone think we'll reach a limit to the amount of data we'll need as individuals?. While we're creeping towards (and will pass) terabyte sized drives and the ability to store every piece of documentation about ourselves, it seems to me (and this may be shortsighted) that all we have left to use is high quality media files relating to our own lives.

How much would you record of yourself, your actions - in sound, video, feelings if you could... and would you edit it down, or keep everything you could.

(pondering, more than posting)

a grrl & her server

I can see a lot of posts here wondering just why a car needs network access - and I can understand that. In say, 30 years, there is very little that's changed in their basic design/use. stop/go/gearchange pedals, the same basic controls - and some obvious well-needed features, that have refined themselves over decades, such as aircon, power assist, belts and the like

Starting simple, with the network side of things, is what's happening. Already these information systems are in cars for one important purpose - maintenance, and feedback on just what's happening within the machine. The difference between the speed of auto and computer development doesn't stop their use together, it just takes it down to the slower of the two.

The computing/auto crossover will keep happening, but always as an extension of what's already there instead of as great leaps, as is always promoted.

Along with a car on a long trip go maps - it would be nice to see mapping systems done and refined as well as possible before also adding in every possible gadget on top.

a grrl & her server

...would it be cheating to take them into a paintball game?

a grrl & her server

I hope by "insane" you mean cheap! :)

I say 'insane' from a non-overclockers point of view... Probably in the same way as I'd be called insane when y'see what I paid for some absolutely archaic piece of hardware. Opposites in practice, but it's all the same fun :D

if not THE fastest, desktop machine in the world. THAT is the appeal of overclocking.

That was my point :). If you enjoy it - all the more excellence in your life!

a grrl & her server

Yes... it takes a special kind of user, and someone who's particularly obsessed with overclocking is that type - perhaps they have multiple machines they just want to run for a while to 'see how it all goes'. There's also the use in overclocking the fastest chips at any time, as opposed to the article's testing of a more mainstream one. As a potentially revolutionary product in the field it's in, a cooler of this type is going to be expensive - and if a success will drop in price

Personally, anything that promotes this kind of obsessive behaviour I find quite reassuring. It means it's all the more likely that my OWN little obsessions will be catered for :P

Having said that - omg $500US is insane!!

a grrl & her server

...and the bandwidth creeps up a little more. Soon soon soon I'll have wireless everything. Keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, sub, and network access.

As a bonus... I can reheat my lunch by propping it up in the middle of all this :D

a grrl & her server

My immediate thoughts when it came to notebooks, was cooling. Liquid cooling is fine for a big box when it needs half-inch-thick hoses and massive blocks. If small channels around a cpu/heatsink... or even further such as the chassis of the notebook were available to pump fluids, even in small amounts if it were pushed fast enough, a decent cooling effect could occur

Obviously there's some level of heat generated by these turbines, but they may not have to be located anywhere near existing heat sources

a grrl & her server

I like that idea.

There needs to be a place for people who're doing graphical, musical, or any creative work to publish & share it just for that sake. Any of my own graphic work is out there now for people to do whatever the hell they like with it. The more I create, the more I realise the fun for me was in creating it. Sharing it around to perhaps sometime inspire someone else comes secondary, and the idea of just gaining cash from it - I'm not too fussed about.

Now to get my butt into gear and remove all the old (c) symbols from my work... the stuff I put in just cos it looked cool at the time :)

a grrl & her server

CNet is running a story about reconstructing the display of a computer by using special hardware and the reflected glow of the monitor."

...like a mirror!

a grrl & her server

It may be a waste of Karma by duplicating what you've said, but I have to agree and double your comments. Kids are inexperienced by definition... Supervise them. They can't always tell good from bad... Supervise them. Kids do impulsive things... Supervise them. As a parent you're responsible for your kids... Supervise them. Kids can be incredibly easily conned... Supervise them. Kids take in -everything- they see... Supervise them.

Give them the ability to learn how to use a chatroom in a safe manner, by learning from your own judgments while they're there in front of you. My niece started chatting online when she was 9, and until she was 13 it was only ever while I was there with her. She's 17 now and the only person she met online before face-to-face was a guy from a different year in her school.

...and she avoided turning into a scriptkiddie :)

a grrl & her server

Of course, such "circumvention" will have to be made illegal.

If only to protect those likely to nuke their new manuals... demo CD and all.

a grrl & her server

Buy a book legitimately

walk out of the shop

take it home
microwave it on high for 15 seconds

enjoy :)

a grrl & her server

My original post was little more than a prod for curiosity - I'm on an archaic hardware kick at the moment, however another thought struck me which may have relevance. Legislated & enforced copy protection on this level isn't going to happen in a worldwide sense - at least not immediately - the countries who escape the effects are not only going to run on computer systems unburdened by anti-copy-everything protection, but may even end up with hardware manufacturers relocating, if the US goes the wrong way.

My predictions however, can be usually counted on to mean bugger all - but it's a thought.

a grrl & her server