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Slashback: Courseware, Warranties, Subscraption
But will they distribute diploma blanks as PDF files? perlmunger writes "Linux Journal highlighted this in the 'up front' section of the June 2001 issue (I knew I keep these old issues around for a reason). Apparently, MIT will (finally) be opening their Open Course Ware initiative on September 30th to the public. Looks like a great start from many departments."
Answer: it's a strong possibility. skinfitz writes "Following on from Google returning to China, New Scientist is reporting in this article that Chinese surfers searching Google are finding their Internet connection dropped for five minutes if they enter "politically sensitive" keywords, such as the Chinese president's name! Will this new technology find uses elsewhere? Is this the future of the web?"
My human transporter is still a station wagon. An anonymous reader writes with the text which by now many people have seen regarding the status of the world's most famous unavailable scooter; apparently it's not necessarily as far from available as an automated message from Amazon implied.
"Greetings from Amazon.com.You recently received an e-mail from us regarding the Segway Human Transporter (also known as "Ginger" or "IT"). This e-mail was sent accidentally by an automated system and the information in it is incorrect.
In fact, there is no new information on Segway's availability. Consumer versions of Segway Human Transporters are currently being piloted in various communities throughout the U.S. The Segway HT is expected to be released to the general consumer market in 2003.
We apologize for the confusion. We will keep your e-mail address on our list of customers who wish to be notified about this item.
Sincerely,
Amazon.com Customer Service
Strong Opinions softsign writes "Apparently, Tim O'Reilly's recent article addressing the topic of Switchers was so popular and generated so much response that he felt compelled to respond to reader comments in his MacDevCenter column this week. It reads almost like the Apple Switch website, but there are some really insightful emails peppered with Tim's comments. Worth a read."
The moon's been asking for this for years. cscx writes "The mysterious space junk, or apparent "other moon" reported a few weeks ago, now is more likely to be an old Saturn V (from the Apollo program) rocket booster. Bad thing is, there is a 20% chance it could strike the moon sometime next year. More details at MSNBC."
We'll let you you borrow it for a while, sign here. An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has scrapped plans for subscription-based licensing of consumer products following the end of a 12-month trial in several countries including New Zealand. The Story says people were getting confused as to why they had to pay after the 12 months had gone by."
I find your lack of confidence disturbing. Longinus writes "Ars Technica is reporting that Western Digital is going to follow Maxtor's recent decision to cut their warranty of future drives from three years to one, with an extended warranty being offered at an additional price. The article goes on to mention that Seagate is rumored to also be considering such a cut, but nothing official has been confirmed. One can only wonder if this increase in price is to due to corporate cost saving measures or the fact that hard drives are becoming less stable magnetically as they increase in storage space."
The day they go quiet is when you should start to worry.
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One can only wonder if this increase in price is to due to corporate cost saving measures or the fact that hard drives are becoming less stable magnetically as they increase in storage space.
Makes me wonder if the manufacturers are comprimising quality for both the extra space, and the speed at which they're getting churned out. I noticed the same thing with 3.5" floppy drives in their later years, prices went right down, as did the quality. In the end they were treated almost as a "disposable" part. Are hard drives going this way?
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Hard drives are now a comodity part with razor thin margins (that's why IBM bailed from the consumer market, remember), and waranties cost money. It should be no surprise that all the remaining manufacturers are cutting their warranty period. I very much doubt that it is a reflection on actual drive performance, but rather simply a cost cutting measure.
Honestly, when I can buy a 40G Seagate for $64, so what if it only has a one year warranty. You made backups, right? Toss it and get a new one.
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
In a year or so if my hard drive goes up i'd rather get a newer, bigger one.
And this is the exact reason manufacturers are going with shorter warrantees on their low end drives. If you buy one of the low-end Maxtor 20GB drives in a year or so, in three more years, they won't have those in stock, and will be forced to send you a 100GB drive if you RMA it.
Maxtor has already said their high capactiy and high end drives will have a full three year warranty, and the same MTTF rating as SCSI drives. I think you will see price cuts, and intense price competition on the low end, you may not associate it with the shorter warantee, but they will come. Imagine buying a new, in production, not EOLed hard disk for $30... I think that's coming soon.
I think I am safe in saying that never before in history has there been such a gap between low and high end of in-production hard disks. In the next year, Maxtor will have drives from 20GB to 320GB. When 320 megabyte disks came into production, 20 meg drives were distant history, the smallest in production was something like 100 megs.
The nature of the hardware market is changing, I'd say that this is driving these warantee decisions, not some vague threat of magnetic flux unreliability.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Why is this a bad thing? It's not like there's any lunar ecology to disturb, or lunar inhabitants to threaten. And if it hits Luna, that's one less piece of dangerous unguided space debris for future space travellers to keep track of.
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
There are a number of reasons to be worried about HD reliability:
1. As the fly height gets lower (generally a requisite of higher data density), the chances of a head crash increase (or if there is any dust or other particulate matter, the chances of the head turning into a record needle).
2. Higher data density = less area consumed for a bit = easier for data to be lost.
3. Higher track density = more probability that the head can go off track and write too close to (or over) adjacent tracks (yes, this can happen, and I guarantee it does on at least a yearly basis to someone you know).
Combine this with thin margins (and corresponding decreases in funding to QA and good suppliers/mfg), and you have a recipe for disaster.
For the last time: Back up your friggin' data.
"Our country is going to do this" is an example of being paranoid.
"Our country would never do this" is an example of being delusional.
Just for clarity's sake.
The enemies of Democracy are
Generally, you are exposed to far more radiation from "natural" sources than you will ever receive from "man-made" sources. For example, if you were to sit on the fence of Three Mile Island from the minute of its accident for a period of one year you would have gotten less than a typical chest x-ray worth of radiation. However, if you live in a region where natural radon gas seeps into your house then you can get the same dose in a matter of a few weeks. Cinder blocks which make up your house are slightly radioactive, and coal-fired power plants produce many times the radiation per watt as that of a typical nuclear power plant. (Coal typically has a lot of radioactive elements bound up in it, which are released when it burns.)
In short, don't worry so much about radiation. It's a natural part of life, just use sunblock, seal your basement, and get the power companies to replace coal power plants with nuclear ones. The last item will also have the benefit of saving a ton in power costs.
Sapere aude!
Doesn't the Chinese government retain power with popular soverignty? If so, why do they need to censor things
While it's true that governments ultimately derive their just power from the consent of the governed, it can take a bloody long time for the governed to give consent, or for the government to derive just power.
The same thing could be said of America, which had a really tough time with the Brittish prior to 1776, and well past 1812. Many lived their entire lives within the period of conflict between government and governed, with no real justice. Even longer if you were Black or NA Indian.
If we're so damn worried about the Iraqi regime, why aren't we equally worried about China's current regime
We are. It's just that Nixon decided to play China against the Soviet Union. Later, the policy became one of "constructive engagement". The argument goes that by trading and relating with the Chinese, we are more likely to influence their culture and ultimately liberate their people--hence the complaints about American hegemony from some Chinese. For such a large country, there may be no other practical solution. What do you want? A potentially nuclear conflict with China?
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
And assuming it does happen, what's the big deal? It's a system under which MIT profs can voluntarily put their course materials online. Gazillions of schools have servers and let their profs put their course materials online voluntarily. And the word "open" would seem to imply information that's free as in speech, but what they're doing is only free as in beer. There's nothing wrong with making information free as in beer, but there's nothing special about it either --- the whole World-Wide Web is free as in beer.
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