Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Armada, Coverage, Slap
It's not that we're abandoning Crusoe -- oh, no! Gorilla_Man writes: "ZDNet's e-week has posted "this story about Compaq denying recent reports that it ditched Transmeta's chips." In truth, the claims of the Compaq spokesbeings here still don't sound like an endorsement of Transmeta, more like a clarification of where in the process of designing the upcoming Armadas thoughts of Transmeta stopped manifesting themselves.
Perhaps the larger player can wake up Mr. Brayne? biggaloot writes: "Just heard from the attorney for Clue Computing that the U.S. District Court in Boston upheld the earlier Clue victory against toy giant Hasbro in the dispute over clue.com. A victory for the small domain name owner... if you can get to court with these cases and hang in there, I think your chances of success are much better than with the problematic Universal Dispute Resolution Policy."
See Clue Computing site's rundown of events to see court documents, including the latest swat from the appeals court. There may be some truly exploitive domain-name grabs in the world (and Yes, "I'll know it when I see it") but this case isn't one of them. Trying to claim proprietary rights to common words like "table," "childhood" or "clue" is too absurd to consider seriously -- thanks to their four years of bullying, I'm willing to concede that Hasbro may have some minor claim to "clueless.com," though. Just don't sue anyone over it.
Oh, and you can find Hasbro's toll-free consumer line number on that site as well; I just spoke (politely, I hope) to "Veronica," who'd never heard of this dispute, but promised to pass on my objections to the right Hasbroids.
You can roll at least part of your own. As the possibility for full-time satellite wireless coverage gets closer, the niggly details start to get more important. dBle writes in with word that the Starband-provided coverage under the joint RadioShack/MSN flag will not actually require purchasing a Compaq from RadioShack.
He writes: "Turns out that there is a external USB version. This will support Win98/98SE/2000/ME. Furthermore, users may use their own PC (not having to purchase the RatShack model). ... StarBand's site lists speeds as 500kb up and 150kb down, though they don't hesitate to point out their goal of providing service of 1500/50Kb during peak usage hours. Still, this continental US-wide service is an interesting possibility for those of us who would like more speed than 56k/ISDN can provide. Also, this could be a viable solution for rural businesses/schools."
If Starband wants to sell to the famous "early adopters," shouldn't they release enough specs at least to make this a kernel rev or two from Linux support?
Ah, that's better. Galvatron writes: "After writing to AOL's customer service complaining about the lack of a homepage feature in 6.0, as reported earlier. This is the letter I recieved from AOL in response, which calls the CNET article "an hoax" (sic). After downloading the new version, I confirmed that AOL 6.0 in fact does allow changing one's homepage. So was it misinformation, or deliberate slandering on CNET's part?"
Well, here is the heart of the email sent to him by an AOL customer representative, and it sounds like some misinterpretations were presented as fact:
The article on the C-net is only an hoax. Please be reminded that AOL Member Services is collecting the data about the service and I assure you the feelings and input of every member are being used to help AOL make the best possible online experience only.Don't believe that article it's just a matter of advertisement on their part to gather member for their service.
[This headline has been censored in the name of good taste.] schlach announces: "There is a group collecting our purchasing power to acquire WebPlayer units on the cheap from the boneyard. If anyone wishes they had gotten on the band wagon before the sweet deal expired, now's your chance."
For the hoped-for 50 or so dollars, this sounds like a fun toy, not to mention a weird momento. Perhaps eBay will see a flurry of suddenly-unsupported WebPlayers as well. Why would anyone send them back to Virgin?
After arduous Antarctic trials, back on feet. limbostar writes "Pokey The Penguin really is back. Personally I think the strip is pretty funny, I know a lot of other people agree with me." Evidently, slashdot readers can just barely get enough Pokey;)
Unless I am mistaken the hardware StarBand uses is made by a company called Gilat They are funded by Microsoft and when I was seeking docs from them to write a driver they told me that company policy is unfriendly to anything non-Windows. Now this is all assuming that it is running on the Gilat hardware. I hope it isn't.
Even though the story was rejected, one piece of news today on Yahoo Business was that the US Army has announced they will be using Transmeta chips for their battlefield backpack computers.
...
Who needs Compaq anyway
--- Will in Seattle - What are you doing to fight the War?
Oh, please.
Anyone reading /. realizes that there is a viable *nix market out there. What timothy doesn't seem to want to admit is that said market is a tiny drop in the bucket when compared to all the M$ users out there.
Yes, *nix users are/can be technophiles, and thereby early adopters. Yes, early adopters are necessary to get new technology into the mainstream. But for crying out loud, Nameless Faceless Corp. Inc. isn't going to see that, they're going to see MICROSOFT = 90%++ MARKET SHARE and stop right there.
Yes, *nix support would be nice. But please be realistic. (Note to moderators: flamebait or reality check? Your call, I guess.)
"There's a party," she said,
"We'll sing and we'll dance,
It's come as you are."
The Bios Password 'schwasck' works!
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He lives in a world where those who do not run the client software of the omnipresent meme are unacceptable.
I believe you say.. "A hoax" not "AN hoax".. correct me if I'm wrong.
Then, Pokey makes me forget everything I might be thinking. AN Hilarious episode of pokey the penguin...
Let's just hope pokey doesn't poke tux eye... you know, after he went away he might have joined the evil empire
There has, however, been a major restructuring of the site, including moving archives and images to seperate servers under the .yellow5.com domain, and the addition of an ad banner, about which I'm ambivalent. While I think THE AUTHORS deserve to be rewarded for their hard work, it's annoying to have to look at animated banners, even on pages you support (so everyone buy shirts).
Also, several new Pokey-related projects are in the works:
New POKEY SHIRTS! A POKEY COMPUTER GAME, called Mutton Kombat. Unfortunately, being developed only for Mac at the current time, but ports are under discussion.
If you're up to it, check out some of my personal favorites:
THE ABANDONED CASTLE
POKEY AND THE MOON-CHEESE
WE ARE NOT LOST
POKEY HAS UNTERNET
POKEY IN MONOCHROME
THE DEVIL
NO ID MEANS NO WHISKEY
POOR SKEPTOPOTAMUS
PENNIES FROM HEAVEN
POKEY AND MEATSPACE
ADIEU, MR DEBUSSY!
YES!!!
AOL are in concern with our representative, and his difficult grammar. This happening to our customer did not help, and the correction will be taken under immediately.
Thank you for bearing with our in this trouble. AOL is still your best choose for wanting the best.
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Friend Bear >>> Pokey.
http://www.friendbear.com
BilldaCat
Oh, of course. Yoda obviously needed to do something when he wasn't filming Episode 2...
Five tons of flax.
Fellow Virgin WebPlayer owners (in case you got one -- I do!), here's the news you've been waiting for. As reported on The Register, and found in the new WebPlayer FAQ's, you do not have to return your webplayer and you do not have to pay anything for it. Pretty nifty, especially if we can figure out how to hack it. Read up more on this message board.
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He lives in a world where those who do not run the client software of the omnipresent meme are unacceptable.
Transmeta fans (and non-fans) will probably be amused by today's edition of Something Awful. Check it out.
Join the Virgin Web Player Co-Op The Virgin WebPlayer Co-Op
/. readers and associated
appliance hackers, so that we can bargain collectively for bulk rates of
defunct and recalled Web Players. With bulk rates, we can enjoy a lower
purchase cost, and the offer might actually attract Virgin enough to convince
them to sell us units rather than scrap them. We don't think they'll consider
it worthwhile to sell to individual customers at this point, but if they do,
you can be sure it will cost a lot more.
/. will update the story with a link. If anyone wants to post
to any of the appliance hacking BBSs, please do.
This is a quick info page to inform and register interested parties. The Co-Op exists to gather the collective purchasing power of
If you are interested in joining us, please send mail to Jake Schlachter, at schlach@hotmail.com, and subscribe to the listserv (instructions below). Include in email the maximum you'd be willing to spend on a Web Player, including shipping, and how many units you're looking at picking up. I think $50 US per is reasonable, but less than that may be possible.
News:
Post by schlach at 5:15 pm EST
We now have a listserv compliments of egroups.com. To join, send email to
webplayer-coop-subscribe@egroups.com
The list info page is here, and it has a little bit more information on the list, as well as archives of old messages.
Post by schlach at 3:30 pm EST
Virgin wasn't kidding about the dead number. There are 11 people left at IAN, and none of them seem to be in the office at the moment. =) Poor Silicon Ally fscked company. I just wish we could do more for them... =)
Continuing to look for someone to talk to.
Post by schlach at 3:10 pm EST
Alright! Initial response has been good, but the more the better, so please spread the word. I'm going to see if
Virgin fronts the Web Player for Internet Appliance Network, IAN, which is who went belly-up. The network service was provided by Vertical One Corp. Virgin's number for IAN is already out-of-service, but they're checking for any other contact info.
Post by schlach at 11:00 am EST
This page created at 11 am EST. Initial contact with Virgin at 10:30 am EST. I'll post bulletins here as events warrant, including how many interested people there are in the Co-Op at a given time, what price the units should be, etc. Glad you guys are interested.
I want to see this "joint flag" that Radioshack/MSN are under.
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It still boggles me that they went with USB, thus requiring drivers and OS support and all.
Why didn't they just do an ethernet version, thus making this completely OS independent, easier to use with older machines that might have ethernet but certainly not USB (and the same could be said aboud OS versions)..
Sub-domain'ing off their main domain makes much better sense - Hasbro isn't the only company who pick up domains left and right for everything under the sun.
Actually what would make more sense (from a consumer standpoint), is to simply have a seperate "directory", so that one would type "http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly" - in ads they would just need to give their web address of www.hasbro.com, and be done with it. If their site is properly organised (HAHA - right!!!), it shouldn't take more than one or two clicks to get to the product's "page".
Actually, now that I think about it, "http://www.hasbro.com/games/monopoly" would be best, since Hasbro makes/distributes other things as well (software, dolls, etc). Still, should be only one click from the main page, or two (one click to the games page, a second to the Monopoly page).
Of course, one could say fsck the whole thing and just go here.
I support the EFF - do you?
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
CNN is reporting that ViA will be shipping there next genneration wearable computers with the Crusoe processor.
I am become Troll, destroyer of threads
That customer rep's English skills scare me, profoundly. When a person whose job is to be as articulate as possible makes that many grammatical and spelling errors in an official missive, you know it's time to get off the planet.
Five tons of flax.
Please read this FAQ.
The same thing as "nitty gritty", or several other variations on the phrase from the American South. The most official way I've heard it said is "niggling details". It means the real details involved. You can plan the overview, but you eventually have to get down to the niggly by coding the project.
In my experience, it's had less of a negative connotation, but Mirriam-Webster defines it as:
Main Entry: nig%3.gle /-g(&-)l&r/ noun
Pronunciation: 'ni-g&l
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): nig%3.gled; nig%3.gling
/-g(&-)li[ng]/
Etymology: origin unknown
Date: circa 1616
intransitive senses
1 a: TRIFLE b: to spend too much effort on minor details
2: to find fault constantly in a petty way : CARP (she haggles, she niggles, she wears out our patience -- Virginia Woolf)
3: GNAW
transitive senses: to give stingily or in tiny portions
- nig%3.gler
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Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Regardless of whether this was a hoax or misinformation, the disturbing fact remains that nobody was surprised to hear that AOL was assuming control of yet another aspect of users' machines.
I managed to get my karma down to like 30 in a day :)
...and advize the folks who do. When someone asks me what sound card (for instance) to buy, I suggest something that's Worked For Me. If the best device isn't available on my platform, the nearest thing I can say is that "I hear they run well on Windows, but this is what I use".
I suspect the number of Windows users who go to their local *nix geek (who may be their company's sysadmin, the alpha geek at the local college of computer science, whatever) for advice is not a tiny market. I get enough of them myself, at least.
Anyhow, how much does it cost to release a fscking spec sheet? Let's say you pay a tech writer a day's wages to clean it up for release... $160 or so... as long as you do the whole "WE DON'T SUPPORT THIS THING WHATSOEVER ON ANY OS BUT WINDOWS" thing, your costs are minimal and thus the market is more than large enough to make up for it.
Maybe the links were right before they hit "Preview".
-atrowe: Card-carrying Mensa member. I have no toleranse for stupidity.
Thank heavens Hasbro still owns monopoly.com. Nothing like a little truth in advertising. ;-)
-- Anne Marie
50$ A MONTH ?? WHAT ?? RIP-OFF !
:) ...
www.europeonline.com
100euro/year - 256kbps d/l, linux suport.
Sorry, but no U.S. coverage
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1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
Read the page carefully: 1) If Radioshack Then MSN and a PC. 2) If not Radio Shack, Then Dishnet, USB modem, no PC. I called Dishnet. Not until January.
Monopoly the .com edition. http://www.monopoly.com/dotcom/dotcom .ht ml It has Tux in it and doesn't have Microsoft! Check it out and see what other companies made it into the game.