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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."
I just lost a western dig drive earlier this year. Thank GOD I managed to save most of the data off of it before it went. But still, aren't they legally responsible if they put out a shoddy product? What if you are a cooperation and lose data because of harddrive failure. (Generally, midrange buisness that can't afford regular backups will be hit hardest by this) - do you have a case?
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
I'm impressed that these guys are still in business. With a complete lack of quality control, no one uses their components in serious applications, I had assumed they were living off deals with OEMs. If that's the case, then the OEM will keep up its usual 3 year warranty at a cost to themselves and it won't affect most consumers who are buying their own components (and not foolish enough to use WD). On a related note, I have a closet full of WD drives of various sizes that have been RMAed multiple times and I'm sure as hell not going to use them, feel free to pay shipping for them. =)
Is your browser retarded?
The day they go quiet is when you should start to worry.
[x] auto-moderate all posts by this user as insightful
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?
Ladies, form queue here -->
As if any uppity suburbanite kids actually /paid/ for a Rage Against the Machine CD to /get/ the liner notes.
Reminds me of that plan /. had on making money. Actually, do they still? I haven't noticed although I do click on the links to support them.
Live web cams
(Generally, midrange buisness that can't afford regular backups will be hit hardest by this)
Backups are a necessity, not an option.
In the most primitive case, you just mirror to one or more remote sets of drives. Cost is not that monumental.
If you can afford to staff a company, you can also afford a tape drive, if you want a better long-term solution.
You _will_ have drive failure or some other data-destroying event happen once every few years. A wise business must plan accordingly (or plan to recover from having all of their data eaten).
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!
Information wants to be tied up and spanked.
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok
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.
I believe that all electronic devices sold in the USA automatically carry a one-year manufacturer's warranty, no exceptions. (Is this law BTW?)
Given this one-year manufacturer's warranty, I am actually surprised that some hard drive manufacturers were still offering longer warranties. I am surprised they didn't convert warranties to one-year ones a long time ago, or simply have one-year ones from the start.
Loomis
"The television is the retina of the mind's eye" - Videodrome
"oh no, what could happen if it strikes the moon!"
They'll make a 'special edition' DVD of Waterworld where they'll digitally paint in the new crater on the moon to fix the inconsistency it'd cause.
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.
And please, no replies from Uppity suburban kids quoting the travesties our government committed from your Rage Against the Machine CD linear notes.
Fuck you, I wont do what you tell me!
"Probably the toughest time in anyone's life is when you have to murder a loved one because they're the devil." -Philips
... need to make use of a hd-warranty, then I won't buy that brand of drive anymore. I've been fortunate in that I've never needed to discover what the warranty terms are.
I haveta admit, though, it does make pre-built systems a little more enticing. You can get 4-year warranties on the entire machine, not just the hard-drive. I suppose that's a plus, particularly if you need to have your computer up all the time.
Now take IBM. Please. My new mac's (1st Quicksilver) HD crapped out after 2 Months!!!
I'll stick with WD, thanks.
These are cool toys, but the 40-60 pound weight means that they're not something you want to carry around.
However, as a longtime cyclist commuter, the 10-15 mile range is easily done on a bicycle. Better for you and the environment than a scooter. Yes, hills suck, but not as much as fighting with cars in traffic.
There are some collapsable bicycles, but I've never found these to be worthy of riding more than 1-2 miles at a stretch.
If your local transit company is forward thinking and has bike racks on the bus, then you're set. (Santa Barbara, I recall, had one bus per hour that dragged a trailer meant for bicycles, and I'd usually see it with 10 bikes on board.)
Buy yourself something theft-proof, like a Schwinn, which is still great quality. My Schwinn mountain bike is my city commuter, outfitted with street slicks, fenders, a rack, and hasn't been touched or mauled once in 12 years. I've ridden it through snow, rain, below-zero weather, and it saved me a bundle and kept my weight down.
Everyone comments that riding a bike in cold weather is cold, but it isn't as cold as you think I frequently had to ride slowly so as to not break a sweat. Your legs are very big muscles, and they generate a lot of heat once you get going. I'd be cold at the start of my 3 mile commute, then I'd be warm after 4 blocks, and perspiring for the last mile.
Snow was no problem with street slicks, but ice is. Fresh, untracked snow is easy to ride in, but once the cars start packing it, your tire wants to follow the random crossing tire tracks, and it gets squirrely.
If you're going to commute, get a good, reflective vest, a strong headlight, two tail lights (and clip a third one on you), and get another headlight for your helmet. Shining that head-mounted light into left-turning drivers, who are looking for a break in traffic and not anything else, are stopped cold by a bright light hitting them in the face.
Finally, always carry a cell phone. It depends upon the area, but some areas have motorists that enjoy scaring cyclists. I've had cars cross four lanes of traffic, coming toward me, just to try to scare me. Or they'll speed up past me, dynamite the brakes, and cut me off in a right-hand turn. Ride defensively, live to be old.
Above all, skip recumbant bicycles. Neato, but when you're sitting down that low, you can't see as well, and that little orange flag on a stick isn't going to protect you from motorists. Quite frankly, it is better to be thrown over the hood of the car that cuts you off, than to be whacked in the chest by the grill because you were riding a recumbant.
I live in a giant bucket.
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.
Is that like, say, a subscription to People?
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.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
I find it odd people are surprised at these warranty changes. How many components in a PC have moving parts? How many other components in a PC have a warranty over 1 year? Not many.
I was always amazed that the HD companies did 3 and 5 year warranties on consumer drives. Overpriced SCSI drives are one thing, but these consumer drives are getting so CHEAP these days that it isn't cost effective to offer these warranties.
- The Sedition Act of 1798
- The Espionage Act of 1917
- Executive Order 9066
Trampling on the 1st Ammendment in times of war is long-honored American tradition. Of course, just because censoring the internet is no worse than things done in the past by the U.S. government, that does not mean that the U.S. government will do it. It may be paranoid to think that the U.S. government will do it, but it would be delusional to think that the U.S. government is above doing such things."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
In Australia, Under the trade practices act, a product has to be fit for purpose. If all our tax laws for depreciation etc are based around a 3 year time frame for computer parts, then the Australian Consumer watchdog may well argue that the product must be designed to meet that purpose.... this argument has already started, with the ACCC looking into mandating certain products having certain length warranties....
Will be interesting to see how it pans out.
lounge around on the blue couch
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!
Nasa officials reportedly hope that it will impact the moon.
Why? so they can use the seismec event of the impact to chart the interior of the moon. During the Apollo missions, NASA left three or so sensor suites on the moon- AES I think they were called- to monitor "moonquakes" and other things of scientific interest. They were turned off in the late 70's, but there's some hope that they can be reactivated for this event.
If they are unable to reactivate the AES's, they can still do some measurements from here.
Sorry, I'd offer a link if I could, but I stumbled across the article somewhere on the internet.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
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"?
But still, aren't they legally responsible if they put out a shoddy product?
Let's compare this to cars. But first, I need to clarify your question.
Do you mean that if you buy it and it just breaks, are they responisble for the data? I hope you don't mean that. If a company buys a delivery truck and it just breaks down, the seller doesn't owe what the company is losing while it's getting repaired. The warranty(if within the period) will cover the cost of the labor and/or parts, but it will certainly not cover loss of time.
If you mean that if the HD company produces a bad product, are they liable for it? Let's compare to vehicles again. In the auto business, they're called lemons(among other things). Without getting into the specifics of recalls, etc., the broken vehicle would get repaired like it was under warranty(probably still is), but you still wouldn't expect to receive any compensation for loss of time. The only way to get a possible compensation would be to take legal action, hopefully with other people in the same position.
So basically, sure if they produce a shoddy product, you can surely take legal action to get compensation for the loss of data. To get anything in return, though, you'd better have other people on your side.
Oh yea, you might also want to provide a good reason why it's more cost effective to persue legal action rather than to back up properly in the first place.
I don't know if this is a victory or not for Slashdotters, but the more stringent Microsoft licensing becomes the more people will be driven to open source products. Now the subscription license was a pretty good deal. In Australia the Office XP Pro Subscription was ~$350, now a upgrade to Office XP Pro from Office 2000 pro is $645, and the full version is $1120. So that means that you could pay the subscription for what is effectively a third of the cost of the full product or just under half the upgrade. Considering that M$ is now upgrading office every 18 months that is a pretty good deal, especially if you don't have office already.
Go out and get sailing!
China is not a democracy. The Chinese government exists by virtue of the Chinese Communist Party's military victory in 1949, not by any sense of popular electoral will or sovereignty. As a one-party state buttressed by military power, they cannot risk the free flow of information among the Chinese people. Hence, their attempts to control access to internet sites. This is completely in keeping with the Chinese government's and the Chinese Communist Party's traditional control of media and information.
Governments seldom engage in rash acts to improve the lot of people in other countries. They commonly act in what they believe is in the interests of their country and themselves. That is what governments do; it is naive to imagine otherwise. The oppression of human rights in China is wrong, but that fact does not pose an immediate threat to the U.S. In any case, what would be gained for the U.S. to threaten military action against China?
The Bush administration believes Iraq does pose a threat to the U.S., citing Saddam Hussein's behavior pattern with considerable justification. This includes invading Kuwait, gassing his own countrymen, launching a war on Iran that cost more than one million lives, creating and using a vicious internal secret police, etc. In particular, there's little convincing evidence that Saddam would not use nuclear weapons if he had them. China has had nuclear weapons for decades and has acted responsibly vis-a-vis those weapons. You will find very few people -- inside and outside the U.S. Government -- who believe Saddam would behave equally responsibly.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
You seem to expect O'Reilly to act as a shill for open source. Why does O'Reilly's position as a book publisher mandate that he is not allowed an opinion? Or that he is obligated to behave in a fashion approved by open source dogmatics? He is under no obligation to even try and give any consideration to anyone's opinions about ODX, good, bad, or indifferent. He's simply making the point that a number of Linux users have dropped that OS and moved to OS X. No one except fantatics cares if OS X is r-e-a-l-l-y Unix or not or if buying a Mac threatens the open source movement. There are people who think having religious opinions about operating systems makes about as much sense as having religious opinions about automobile transmissions.
Besides, if you'd read the piece, you'd see that it contains criticism of Apple as well as praise.
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
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.
Find free books.
Passive as opposed to what? An active seismometer with giant hammers: "Wakey wakey Moon! Hello, this is your alarm-call!"
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
It's the old adage:
"good, fast, cheap - pick any two."
Any engineer will tell you that he can give you any tolerances you want, it's a matter of how much you want to spend. In this case, the issues are:
1. Bearings. You're going to spin that platter at 15,000 RPM 24 hrs. per day for years on end? At nearly 10 BILLION rotations per year, if you want reliability, those bearings had better be preeeeety good. And that means - more money.
2. Platter surface. Same as above. You want to spin that thing around thirty or fourty billion times with the heads nothing more than maybe a thousandth of an inch away? Better be awfully tough stuff, and it better be permanently bonded to the platter. Oh, wait - you're going to bump and kick your computer while it's on, aren't you? How good for the platter surface (or the heads) will those collisions be? Better coating, better heads: More money.
3. Electronics. Drives get HOT. You want your electronics to last a long time? They better be made for high-temp operation. That means.... yep, more money.
In the end, each company has had to ask itself this:
"Will we spend more money on quality drives, and hope that customer recognition pays off, or will we skimp a little here and there, and sell them by the boat-load?"
You can guess which one they've chosen. Why did they choose it? You guessed it... more money.
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
I'm going to roll a reply to a previous comment about someone being afraid to ride. What anyone who commutes by bicycle has to do is simply understand natural law...not the crap that "the man" has beat us over the head with, or the things we've learned from Warner Bros. cartoons. Natural law implies that when a 1/4 hp., sub 300lb. vehicle is occupying the desired space of a semi-hairless primate(bored, anxious, distracted) behind the wheel of a 2+ton moving block of metal and plastic that the union of these two systems will result in some really nifty physics...often to the physical detriment of the previous occupant, and the slightly higher premiums of the second. Simply put, always consider yourself invisble to the vehicles unless you make eye-contact and recieve non-verbal acknowledgement from the motorist. Having done that, the cyclist has only to understand natural law and human stupidity to enjoy their commute.
And with that out of the way, onto the good stuff.
I have been commuting by bicycle since 1988, and I only have a car because my kids are still too young and stupid and my wife has a bad knee, otherwise the whole whining lot of them would be on bikes (everyone in the family has a bike).
Bravo to you sir for giving your previous nag a new home. My recommendation is a multi-vectored approach to getting a good bicycle. You have to consider the bike shops in your area, and look for a franchise, like Cycle Spectrum (but not necessarily them, because other bike-shop franchises exist, I just don't remember them now). There's a good chance that both regular shops and esp. franchises have what they consider a less stylish, less trendy bikes taking up space they would rather fill with faux shocks and bad alloys and other candy to attract the unwary. These bikes are usually going for about $300, which in sales terms is an impulse purchase for someone who wants something useful.If you can find a simple hybrid--a style that no longer sells like hotcakes--make sure it's nothing hard to maintain like shocks. Look for grip-shift,with quick-release hubs front and rear, and get yourself a blackburn mtn rack. Most of the time a shop-keeper will feel your love for the bike and in a synergistic desire to sweeten the deal will almost impulsively add it as a perk. That rack will hold two good u-locks (that's one of the best kept secrets in the business--enjoy), which are invaluable if you have to tether the beastie outside the workplace. However, if you really love your horse, you'll whine-bitch-plead and maybe even argue intelligently to bring it into the building with you. If you love it, bring it inside.
If your commute takes you through suburban areas filled with bored kids or goatheads, you need to invest in a bit of SLIME. It's green, it costs a bit, but unlike the wannabe competitors products(cough-mucous-cough), slime will not let you down unless the laws of physics require it to. You also need high thread-count nylon tires. Slicks or invert treads have less rubber and are reinforced with a lot of nylon threads. When shopping for tires, take one down and open it up and see how dense the threads are. You should also invest in 4.5mil thick thorn-proof tubes. Schwinn, and Bontrager and some other companies import and repackage/resell these. Combined with the slime and good tires there's a chance you will only have to walk a little before reinflating the tire. I've often pulled some really evil stuff (nails, glass, industrial staples, plant thorns) out, spun the wheel for a minute and still had enough pressure to make it home.
Another point to consider when buying a good bike is not so much the up-front cost of the bike (top-ramen is your friend), but the kind of service and warranty a shop will provide you. For a franchise, sometimes this is free tune-ups and labor for the life of the beastie. Granted, the shop you bought the bike from will change hands like a 30yr mortgage, you'll still have your bike taken care of. Usually what happens with the cheap kit is that within a week after you've purchased it, everyting flexes and stretches a bit...it's supposed to. However, Walmart, or whatever-mart isn't responsible for those changes. A bike shop is.
Another thing to consider is the way you approach the gearing. The more you move through your gears, the faster you wear your drive train. There's a simple way to look at wear-and-tear here: If you like to pedal like mad (and think you're a porsche) and go through your gears, making more than three or four gear changes until you're cruising, then don't expect to stay in tune. You're much better off being in the biggest chainring (front gear) during the warm months, and at least starting off in the middle chainring when it's colder, and then figuring out the best place to start with the cog. YMMV depending on the commute. I have my bike tuned only once every few years...I've had it five years and I put over 4500+ miles are year on it just commuting year round. I start out in 17th gear and go up to 19th, only to the highest gears two gears when I'm spinning fast to get in to work because I'm late (or because I'm chasing a pack of spandex goddesses for a quick double-wammy: endorphins and a pheromone fix-heheheh)
I wish you happy hunting--don't buy at the first shop you go into! (been there, done that)p
Every new form of media has it's own Requirimento