Duh, bundling software *does* provide a benefit to individual customers, they get more software without buying each piece individually (which would cost more). The harm Microsoft's bundling causes is it discourages the development and sales of competitive software, thus reducing the range of choices and presumably innovation in the software's category. This is a much less direct, but not less real, impact on the customer, who may not care if they even understand it.
But that's beside the point, the kind of bundling the article is really talking about is software from a variety of companies, not just Micrsoft putting IE in Windows. DVD software, CD burning software, photo manipulation software and, yes, Microsoft Office and Works.
Tomorrow I will explain the benefit of doubling manufacturer's coupons.
"That idea doesn't make sense anyway, because the students don't subscribe to the service or submit their papers; the instructors do."
For the one class at RIT where we had to use Turnitin.com (a distance learning class), the student's *did* turn the papers in themselves. I believe we all used a single account to turn in the assignments. It was obvious from the design of the pages that this was how the service was meant to be used, at least for how it was configured for our school.
Not in my department. The classes I've taken have focused on usable design and platform compatibility. I now have a deep hatred for Netscape 4.x, so much DHTML doesn't work right in it. Unfortunately we ran out of time to get into accessibility so all the class heard was early comments to make sure to have ALT tags on your images.
No Mac comes with SCSI standard anymore (unless you count the highest end Power Mac Server which is a "custom build" anyway). The Power Macs can add an Ultra SCSI card as an option, basically to support people's old SCSI peripherals. They can also get an Ultra160 SCSI card (dual channel) but only if they buy an Ultra160 SCSI drive.
I believe Apple has and does use Adaptec SCSI chips and cards. Adaptec does not support those cards, Apple does so when people have had problems with them (like not being bootable), Adaptec just pointed a finger and said, "don't tell us, tell Apple."
This troll has a point, most Universities have a licensing deal with Microsoft that makes licenses much, much cheaper. So the OS cost should be inconsequential, what matter more is how it performs doing the tasks you cluster computers for and how hard it is to write code for that platform vs. Beowulf. I would think the CPU overhead of Windows would make it not fare well when compared with Beowulf Linux. I realize Windows can arguably outperform Linux on web serving but that's much less an issue of maximizing CPU use.
The only reason I can think of to go with the Microsoft clustering is if its the only way you can get some decent hardware. If you have 20 PIIs now, I would think 20 P4s would trump them even running Windows.
It made sense to destroy the Tandy 100s rather than sell them below wholesale. Someone who bought one of those Tandy 100s might have otherwise bought something at a regular price thereby "cheating" the store of the sale of a profitable item.
Even the "electronic junk warehouse" doesn't make a lot of sense for a manager who gets paid the same in any case. Dealing with the warehouse would require all kinds of extra effort to get the stuff packaged, shipped and actually paid for. The company obviously has the necessary paperwork for when inventory is destroyed but they probably don't for when inventory is resold. That's probably not a decision they want to leave in the hands of a mere store manager. "Now that there are P4s out, we'll never sell these PIIIs, I guess I'll make room by unloading them at the junk warehouse for 75% cost."
US$45/month ($5 discount if also paying for $30+ cable TV)
2Mbps download cap
384Kbps upload cap
Noticably slower at peak times but still satisfactory (can listen to 128Kbps audio streams, load web pages and download files many times faster than dialup).
Only noticed one case of downtime (couple of hours) in the past 4 months.
Latency is pretty good, I can always find 100ms Quake3 servers.
Service includes USENET news server (including binary groups), 5 email accounts, 5MB web disk space. No virus filtering on mail.
The only port I know is blocked is 25 (you can't receive mail on your own SMTP server). Running servers is not explicitly supported but they're not shut down either. Ditto for NAT boxes (tho' they will sell you additional IPs for $5/month if you want). Port 80 has never been blocked.
IPs are not static but address seems to change only once a year for the same MAC address (if your MAC address changes, your IP changes).
DSL is available in the area with comparable features & rates. I am pretty happy with my service. I don't think I would seriously consider dropping it unless the rate went over $50/month.
Google and Freshmeat searches can tell you what exists *if* people describe their software with descriptive terms. The search *won't* tell you if its any good.
Ask Slashdot is a chance to ask a relatively informed population for their advice and experience related to a topic. I think that's exactly what Ask Slashdot is for. Sure, they could ask in other forums like a newsgroup but people go with what they know.
I understand the rationale behind charging extra for high bandwidth use but fear poor policies will turn the general market off to broadband service, leaving us with a 20th Century Internet.
If the company wants to meter people's bandwidth, they have to provide a meter for the end user to read. Residential telephones don't have meters but there's not much need because the amount you're charged for one minute of service does not vary by an order of magnitude and the user tends to know what the per minute charge will be (unless you're like me and call a relative in Taiwan. Oops.) Electrical service provides a meter in the house which is good because the amount used can vary quite a bit. Bandwidth usage can vary even more greatly so a user-readable meter is even more important.
Self-metering might work if you have one computer but is greatly complicated by having even one more computer. The meter could be built into the cable modem but then you're limited to what can be squeezed in the firmware and you still might be metering local traffic for which you shouldn't pay. So, the metering should be done centrally and accessed by the user. This puts the metering where it counts, close to the ISP's uplink.
There are still problems such as the example of paying for someone who pingfloods you.
If you're trying to self-meter and you have more than one computer (probaly common amongst disproportionate bandwidth users), you have to make sure you're metering only traffic that goes beyond the cable modem. That means you have to make sure you're only counting packets incoming from or outgoing to IPs outside your home range.
Urban Terror is a "realistic" total conversion of Quake III. I haven't played Counter Strike but my impression is UT (not to be confused with Unreal Tournement) has less deadly weapons and more movement and action. It helps to have a hotshot on your team but if one team works their radios and really plays like a team, they WILL come out on top.
I used to play a ton of Q3 then after I tried UT I totally switched to it completely. UT definitely sets me more on edge than Q3. It's an extremely well done mod and its fans are desperately waiting for 2.4 which is coming Real Soon Now to provide a variety of improvements and enhancements. Don't wait for 2.4 to try it, it's ready to play NOW.
The Cobweb was co-written by Stephenson after Snow Crash, Interface and Diamond Age (see theMacDude's bibliography in message #2945114). The Cobweb is an OK read, but I'd recommend reading any other book first, except The Big U of course. If you read the other books an like them, read The Cobweb.
Heh. I once took out the school's snack shack register when I multicast Ghost disk images to machines connected to the same hub as the register (well, its controller box). Good thing it was in the evening when they do little business. If was fine once the session was over.
If you want to make a device work on Windows and Mac, just format the drive FAT32. Macs can read FAT16 & FAT32 drives, have for years. The Mac OS, since v8.5 I think (1998), has built in generic drivers for mounting USB and FireWire drives so as long as the manufacturer sticks to some common steps, there's no driver to write.
The only cost for two platforms is you have to write software which interfaces with MP3 software on both. But playlist formats are standard cross-platform and while iTunes is cool, the could opt to work with a cross-platform program like MusicMatch.
Finally a useful post! That Rio Riot is pretty small, I was envisioning something about the size of a paperback book. Unfortunately it's still on the wrong side of the "shirt pocket" threshhold which is the clincher for a lot of iPod buyers.
There are a lot of different MP3 devices out there and variations and improvements come around all the time. The most interesting devices (and this is not just about MP3 players) are the ones which let you do something you couldn't do before. The iPod is such a device, it combines the portability of a solid state player with the capacity of a hard drive player so you can listen to music all day, never hear a repeat, and do it with your hands free and without belt-strapped equipment pulling your pants down.
Apple doesn't have a monopoly on those tiny Toshiba drives. Someone else will use them and make a device that competes with the iPod on its own terms. Until that time, Apple is going to charge a premium. I don't have the kind of money I feel is necessary to spend it on an iPod but more power to those who do.
The pre-installed RAM comes in a standard, 168pint DIMM slot which apparently is a bitch to get at. The "user-upgradable" slot is an SO-DIMM accessed by unscrewing the bottom plate. I haven't read how you're supposed to tilt it to avoid damage to the LCD while installing the RAM or AirPort card.
I think the original iMacs used SO-DIMMs, until they came out with the Indigo, which had 168pin DIMMs.
They generally want someone they hope to retain for a long time, and dont have to start paying retirement benefits within a small number of years.
I think "a long time" to keep an IT person is maybe five years. And if they really would like to hire someone who's more likely to stay longer, they'd be smart to hire the older guy. I guy in his early to mid-twenties is less likely to stick around. I doubt this uncle is in his late fifties or sixties so he's still got a ways to go before retirement. He's more likely to have a mortage and dependent children so stability and security will be more important to him.
As for a company paying "retirement benefits," it sounds like you're talking about a pension. I think 401k programs are more the norm for this kind of work in which the company's contribution (if there is any) ends with the employee's employment with them.
Reasons companies want to hire young people:
They're more trainable, both in terms of actual tasks and fitting into a company's culture
They work harder for less money
They grew up with the technology so they have more inate talent for the work
Managers don't want to hire people older than they are
These are just my guesses and these just stereotypes of the young and old.
It's also defeated easily by wrapping other foil around the primary strip/coil/etc. - as silly as it sounds, if you wrapped your wallet with aluminum foil, it'd be as good as scrambled.
Aluminum foil you say? Excellent! I'll just keep my money in my hat!
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Duh, bundling software *does* provide a benefit to individual customers, they get more software without buying each piece individually (which would cost more). The harm Microsoft's bundling causes is it discourages the development and sales of competitive software, thus reducing the range of choices and presumably innovation in the software's category. This is a much less direct, but not less real, impact on the customer, who may not care if they even understand it.
But that's beside the point, the kind of bundling the article is really talking about is software from a variety of companies, not just Micrsoft putting IE in Windows. DVD software, CD burning software, photo manipulation software and, yes, Microsoft Office and Works.
Tomorrow I will explain the benefit of doubling manufacturer's coupons.
versiontracker, learn it, love it.
Not in my department. The classes I've taken have focused on usable design and platform compatibility. I now have a deep hatred for Netscape 4.x, so much DHTML doesn't work right in it. Unfortunately we ran out of time to get into accessibility so all the class heard was early comments to make sure to have ALT tags on your images.
No Mac comes with SCSI standard anymore (unless you count the highest end Power Mac Server which is a "custom build" anyway). The Power Macs can add an Ultra SCSI card as an option, basically to support people's old SCSI peripherals. They can also get an Ultra160 SCSI card (dual channel) but only if they buy an Ultra160 SCSI drive.
I believe Apple has and does use Adaptec SCSI chips and cards. Adaptec does not support those cards, Apple does so when people have had problems with them (like not being bootable), Adaptec just pointed a finger and said, "don't tell us, tell Apple."
This troll has a point, most Universities have a licensing deal with Microsoft that makes licenses much, much cheaper. So the OS cost should be inconsequential, what matter more is how it performs doing the tasks you cluster computers for and how hard it is to write code for that platform vs. Beowulf. I would think the CPU overhead of Windows would make it not fare well when compared with Beowulf Linux. I realize Windows can arguably outperform Linux on web serving but that's much less an issue of maximizing CPU use.
The only reason I can think of to go with the Microsoft clustering is if its the only way you can get some decent hardware. If you have 20 PIIs now, I would think 20 P4s would trump them even running Windows.
It made sense to destroy the Tandy 100s rather than sell them below wholesale. Someone who bought one of those Tandy 100s might have otherwise bought something at a regular price thereby "cheating" the store of the sale of a profitable item.
Even the "electronic junk warehouse" doesn't make a lot of sense for a manager who gets paid the same in any case. Dealing with the warehouse would require all kinds of extra effort to get the stuff packaged, shipped and actually paid for. The company obviously has the necessary paperwork for when inventory is destroyed but they probably don't for when inventory is resold. That's probably not a decision they want to leave in the hands of a mere store manager. "Now that there are P4s out, we'll never sell these PIIIs, I guess I'll make room by unloading them at the junk warehouse for 75% cost."
FYI, bonsaicuecat.com is still up for grabs.
US$45/month ($5 discount if also paying for $30+ cable TV)
2Mbps download cap
384Kbps upload cap
Noticably slower at peak times but still satisfactory (can listen to 128Kbps audio streams, load web pages and download files many times faster than dialup).
Only noticed one case of downtime (couple of hours) in the past 4 months.
Latency is pretty good, I can always find 100ms Quake3 servers.
Service includes USENET news server (including binary groups), 5 email accounts, 5MB web disk space. No virus filtering on mail.
The only port I know is blocked is 25 (you can't receive mail on your own SMTP server). Running servers is not explicitly supported but they're not shut down either. Ditto for NAT boxes (tho' they will sell you additional IPs for $5/month if you want). Port 80 has never been blocked.
IPs are not static but address seems to change only once a year for the same MAC address (if your MAC address changes, your IP changes).
DSL is available in the area with comparable features & rates. I am pretty happy with my service. I don't think I would seriously consider dropping it unless the rate went over $50/month.
Google and Freshmeat searches can tell you what exists *if* people describe their software with descriptive terms. The search *won't* tell you if its any good.
Ask Slashdot is a chance to ask a relatively informed population for their advice and experience related to a topic. I think that's exactly what Ask Slashdot is for. Sure, they could ask in other forums like a newsgroup but people go with what they know.
I understand the rationale behind charging extra for high bandwidth use but fear poor policies will turn the general market off to broadband service, leaving us with a 20th Century Internet.
If the company wants to meter people's bandwidth, they have to provide a meter for the end user to read. Residential telephones don't have meters but there's not much need because the amount you're charged for one minute of service does not vary by an order of magnitude and the user tends to know what the per minute charge will be (unless you're like me and call a relative in Taiwan. Oops.) Electrical service provides a meter in the house which is good because the amount used can vary quite a bit. Bandwidth usage can vary even more greatly so a user-readable meter is even more important.
Self-metering might work if you have one computer but is greatly complicated by having even one more computer. The meter could be built into the cable modem but then you're limited to what can be squeezed in the firmware and you still might be metering local traffic for which you shouldn't pay. So, the metering should be done centrally and accessed by the user. This puts the metering where it counts, close to the ISP's uplink.
There are still problems such as the example of paying for someone who pingfloods you.
If you're trying to self-meter and you have more than one computer (probaly common amongst disproportionate bandwidth users), you have to make sure you're metering only traffic that goes beyond the cable modem. That means you have to make sure you're only counting packets incoming from or outgoing to IPs outside your home range.
I used to play a ton of Q3 then after I tried UT I totally switched to it completely. UT definitely sets me more on edge than Q3. It's an extremely well done mod and its fans are desperately waiting for 2.4 which is coming Real Soon Now to provide a variety of improvements and enhancements. Don't wait for 2.4 to try it, it's ready to play NOW.
The Cobweb was co-written by Stephenson after Snow Crash, Interface and Diamond Age (see theMacDude's bibliography in message #2945114). The Cobweb is an OK read, but I'd recommend reading any other book first, except The Big U of course. If you read the other books an like them, read The Cobweb.
Dammit, you just made me have a nasty flashback. I'm gonna go spend a few hours in my special place.
;)
BTW, that's a 168pin slot. A 168 pint slot would be pretty damn big
Heh. I once took out the school's snack shack register when I multicast Ghost disk images to machines connected to the same hub as the register (well, its controller box). Good thing it was in the evening when they do little business. If was fine once the session was over.
If you want to make a device work on Windows and Mac, just format the drive FAT32. Macs can read FAT16 & FAT32 drives, have for years. The Mac OS, since v8.5 I think (1998), has built in generic drivers for mounting USB and FireWire drives so as long as the manufacturer sticks to some common steps, there's no driver to write.
The only cost for two platforms is you have to write software which interfaces with MP3 software on both. But playlist formats are standard cross-platform and while iTunes is cool, the could opt to work with a cross-platform program like MusicMatch.
Finally a useful post! That Rio Riot is pretty small, I was envisioning something about the size of a paperback book. Unfortunately it's still on the wrong side of the "shirt pocket" threshhold which is the clincher for a lot of iPod buyers.
There are a lot of different MP3 devices out there and variations and improvements come around all the time. The most interesting devices (and this is not just about MP3 players) are the ones which let you do something you couldn't do before. The iPod is such a device, it combines the portability of a solid state player with the capacity of a hard drive player so you can listen to music all day, never hear a repeat, and do it with your hands free and without belt-strapped equipment pulling your pants down.
Apple doesn't have a monopoly on those tiny Toshiba drives. Someone else will use them and make a device that competes with the iPod on its own terms. Until that time, Apple is going to charge a premium. I don't have the kind of money I feel is necessary to spend it on an iPod but more power to those who do.
Windows 2000 Pro can mount WebDAV shares as well, I use it to mount my Apple iDisk at work.
Cool. What's the URI format for WebDAV? What do I type to mount a WebDAV share?
The pre-installed RAM comes in a standard, 168pint DIMM slot which apparently is a bitch to get at. The "user-upgradable" slot is an SO-DIMM accessed by unscrewing the bottom plate. I haven't read how you're supposed to tilt it to avoid damage to the LCD while installing the RAM or AirPort card.
I think the original iMacs used SO-DIMMs, until they came out with the Indigo, which had 168pin DIMMs.
"I just do eyes, just eyes."
I think "a long time" to keep an IT person is maybe five years. And if they really would like to hire someone who's more likely to stay longer, they'd be smart to hire the older guy. I guy in his early to mid-twenties is less likely to stick around. I doubt this uncle is in his late fifties or sixties so he's still got a ways to go before retirement. He's more likely to have a mortage and dependent children so stability and security will be more important to him.
As for a company paying "retirement benefits," it sounds like you're talking about a pension. I think 401k programs are more the norm for this kind of work in which the company's contribution (if there is any) ends with the employee's employment with them.
Reasons companies want to hire young people:
These are just my guesses and these just stereotypes of the young and old.
Check your Comments preferences, you can set a plus or minus amount for all AC posts.
Aluminum foil you say? Excellent! I'll just keep my money in my hat!