The most elaborate tech in the world won't beat a good ol' cat at eradicating vermin with precision. The AI, software, sensors and mechanical parts just aren't up to snuff. Cats are pretty self-reliant, sure you've got to take some care of them but in the end you'll spend alot less with the cat and have a cute work companion.
If the author is curious about the authenticity of a musician's talent, attend a live concert. Ok there's the issue of lip-syncing, but it's not that difficult to tell a pre-recorded track from a truly live performance.
A couple times every decade, some group or company makes a big push for thin clients. Those movements have failed every time against the relentless pressure of cheap fat clients. The main reasons for thin clients' failures, as I see it:
Network bandwidth is relatively slow and unreliable. That is, the gap between network performance and CPU & HD performance is too large.
Because of the above, users do not trust thin clients that can fail at any time, at the mercy of network connectivity.
This situation is unlikely to change in the near future, maybe for decades.
"seagull populations decrease..." Let's consider the alternative of not building wind farms. Global climate change left unchecked would result in massive population declines far greater than a minority of seagulls & sharks killed. Everything's a tradeoff, and windfarms are well worthwhile.
And yes, the term "wind farms" make sense, they're harvesting the wind. Just as cow farms "grow & harvest" cows.
What if someone copies your music without your permission, then those files get onto the net. Let's not get into a tangent on how likely that is, just accept that it can and will happen (friends (or non-friends) borrow songs, hackers get into your computer, etc). Having seen RIAA's questionable legal practices, this could cause alot of grief for the person who legally purchased the songs.
I agree, I've run Win7 on a 1GB portable and it is MUCH more efficient than Vista. Vista w/ 1GB is almost unusable with all the thrashing. This isn't a "feeling", it's a very quantifiable metric. Vista thrashes the HD crazily, Win7 doesn't.
"If Vista's hardware demands were too steep, Windows 7 will likely cause you the same grief, as its hardware demands match"
What a clod of BS. They failed their homework coming to that conclusion. Win7's memory footprint is much better than Vista's. It's at least as efficient as XP in that respect.
Ballmer is stuck in the 90's and hasn't a clue where or how to lead Micro$oft to success. He's basically running the company on auto-pilot while the rest of the market forges ahead with new and better business models.
M$ will be around for a good while, but their influence is already waning. It will be good for consumers, and the industry as a whole, when competitors are more on par in market share/influence. Ballmer will get ousted when he can't talk his way out of the hole he's been digging for M$.
Microsoft & Yahoo would be as bad or worse than AOL - Time Warner. The culture clash would destroy Yahoo (and, optimistically, parts of M$ along with it). So in the long run, the buyout would have been a disaster. It's a no-win situation, the market can't or won't support them.
CDs incorporate multiple levels of encoding help with data integrity. Reed-Solomon Codes are used at the bit-level on the disc. The data on top is arranged in chunks with two parity levels: PI and PO (Parity Inner and Parity Outer). K-Probe (free) is able to scan discs and report PI/PO results, but it requires drives that allow for access to that data (Lite-On being one line, though they're not the best quality drives). Nero CD/DVD Speed also has the ability to scan PI/PO and supports a wider variety of drives.
Ideally PI and PO should be 0, but it's never 0 in the real world. Single-digit PI/PO is terrific, 20-50 is quite good. Anything above 100 starts to become difficult to recover data from.
Looks like the last barrier against BR adoption has been bypassed. Cue the cheap players and burners and BR might actually rise from its coma and take the market from DVD.
I'm hoping that won't happen because a world ruled by Sorny is surely worse off. But don't fret, Sorny will do everything in its power to prevent mainstream adoption.
You could get a digital OTA tuner and watch the local broadcast channels in HD. They should all be covering the election thru the night. As a bonus, you'll be all set for the digital broadcast switchover in Feb '09
Agreed with the approach. I would recommend looking for USB peripherals first. There are USB versions of floppy drives (3.5", and I'm sure I've seen 5.25"), Zip, Jazz, CD-ROM and DVD-ROM of course, and probably many others. The local computer surplus store sells USB versions of many of those older storage devices. You could kill N birds with one stone with an IDE/SATA to USB adapter, then stock up on the devices which use IDE/SATA interfaces. USB is ubiquitous and will be around for a long, long time. The advantage here is that you don't need a particular PC to read media. Plug the device(s) into a computer running a decent OS (XP, Linux, maybe OSX) and you should be able to read from the mass storage devices.
If you wanted to make it look nice, get something like a vertical shoe rack, place the drives into the shelves and all the USB cables to a big USB hub. Plug the USB hub into a computer and all the devices are available at once:)
It won't take long for some whipper-snapper hackers to break Ford's key restriction system, which is probably a joke. A cottage industry will sprout up, with kids huddled around a key-cracking pusher selling override keys for outrageous profit.
There are interviews where I've been passed up and I've left still having respect for the company. While your comment may be witty (or so you think), whether or not I "got the job" or interviewed is irrelevant. I've been in the industry long enough to know that a company's hiring practices reflect alot about its values. One day you might learn from experience too.
Employers show this type of bias in all disciplines. Most companies are lazy, prefer zero training, and don't make any real attempt to ascertain how fast the hiree can learn/adapt. It really helps to get your feet wet. Pick up a project on your own, even if it's not what your current employer lists on your objectives. That shows initiative and will add the experience necessary on your resume.
Anyone familiar with Nvidia's hiring practices could've predicted a disaster of this magnitude. They have absolutely moronic screening quizzes (yes, quizzes)... canned technical questions with only one "right" answer. Throw original thinking out the window, they just want to hire drones to do their dirty work. You know what Nvidia, you get what you deserve. Maybe they had a majority of good employees at one time, but the way they treat their people, I imagine there's been alot of brain drain.
It's a clear sign of a failing company when they rely on marketing & sales to hide shoddy engineering. You had agood run Nvidia, but the last stop is coming up. Get off while you can, the train derails up ahead.
I'm no crApple fan, but the "Microsoft tax" does exist. It depends on how the OEM negotiates the volume license deal, which often includes every single system regardless of whether Windows is actually installed on it. M$ gets their $$$ regardless of whether the system is shipped with Windows, Linux or whatever. The vast majority of OEMs have to negotiate this way for pricing reasons. Maybe a handful of the really really big OEMs can get concessions from M$. Most probably just eat the cost for the tiny percentage of systems that don't ship M$.
Anyway, learn yourself on the convolutionisms of M$ volume licensing before flaming the Macboys. Yeah they suck, but sometimes they're right.
.. that has been ported to x86. No surprise to see it running on netbooks. With enough coaxing it could run on a tiny little Samsung or Sony UMPC which weigh under 1 lb and fit into a shirt pocket.
You're missing the point of the post you replied to. Based on the theory that planets and stars are formed from clouds of gases, every naturally occurring element on a planet is "stardust". The earth is a planet, the sun is a star, and we're all made of matter from this planet. Gold and carbon are no less stardust than iridium, just not as common on this planet.
If you include a laptop, be sure to remove the main battery. The battery self-discharges in a matter of years (if not months). Since all laptops nowadays use "smart" batteries, when the voltage drops too low, the internal controller will refuse to charge the cells again. Save a little space/weight and use the battery in a device now instead of putting something in the safe that will be completely unusable in 25 years. Be sure to include the AC adapter though!:)
The HDTV tuner can make a huge difference in reception quality. I had one of those US Digital cheapy tuners and it had weak signal on a few stations. When it died I got a Samsung which has far more consistent signal strength and video quality, all using the exact same antenna and configuration.
Your antenna is more than adequate. I have a similar 4-bay antenna that's about half the size of yours. I mount it in the attic and point it towards the antenna towers which are ~20 miles away. Signal strength is excellent, no amplifier needed with the Samsung tuner.
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The most elaborate tech in the world won't beat a good ol' cat at eradicating vermin with precision. The AI, software, sensors and mechanical parts just aren't up to snuff. Cats are pretty self-reliant, sure you've got to take some care of them but in the end you'll spend alot less with the cat and have a cute work companion.
Old geek + dancing = Fa1L
If the author is curious about the authenticity of a musician's talent, attend a live concert. Ok there's the issue of lip-syncing, but it's not that difficult to tell a pre-recorded track from a truly live performance.
A couple times every decade, some group or company makes a big push for thin clients. Those movements have failed every time against the relentless pressure of cheap fat clients. The main reasons for thin clients' failures, as I see it:
Network bandwidth is relatively slow and unreliable. That is, the gap between network performance and CPU & HD performance is too large.
Because of the above, users do not trust thin clients that can fail at any time, at the mercy of network connectivity.
This situation is unlikely to change in the near future, maybe for decades.
glossy is cheaper to manufacture. matte requires an extra step to add the final coating
"seagull populations decrease..." Let's consider the alternative of not building wind farms. Global climate change left unchecked would result in massive population declines far greater than a minority of seagulls & sharks killed. Everything's a tradeoff, and windfarms are well worthwhile.
And yes, the term "wind farms" make sense, they're harvesting the wind. Just as cow farms "grow & harvest" cows.
What if someone copies your music without your permission, then those files get onto the net. Let's not get into a tangent on how likely that is, just accept that it can and will happen (friends (or non-friends) borrow songs, hackers get into your computer, etc). Having seen RIAA's questionable legal practices, this could cause alot of grief for the person who legally purchased the songs.
I agree, I've run Win7 on a 1GB portable and it is MUCH more efficient than Vista. Vista w/ 1GB is almost unusable with all the thrashing. This isn't a "feeling", it's a very quantifiable metric. Vista thrashes the HD crazily, Win7 doesn't.
"If Vista's hardware demands were too steep, Windows 7 will likely cause you the same grief, as its hardware demands match"
What a clod of BS. They failed their homework coming to that conclusion. Win7's memory footprint is much better than Vista's. It's at least as efficient as XP in that respect.
Some colleges have sister schools or branches abroad. I know Georgia Tech has a GT Lorraine campus in France.
Ballmer is stuck in the 90's and hasn't a clue where or how to lead Micro$oft to success. He's basically running the company on auto-pilot while the rest of the market forges ahead with new and better business models.
M$ will be around for a good while, but their influence is already waning. It will be good for consumers, and the industry as a whole, when competitors are more on par in market share/influence. Ballmer will get ousted when he can't talk his way out of the hole he's been digging for M$.
Microsoft & Yahoo would be as bad or worse than AOL - Time Warner. The culture clash would destroy Yahoo (and, optimistically, parts of M$ along with it). So in the long run, the buyout would have been a disaster. It's a no-win situation, the market can't or won't support them.
thought it was a topless preg lady :O
CDs incorporate multiple levels of encoding help with data integrity. Reed-Solomon Codes are used at the bit-level on the disc. The data on top is arranged in chunks with two parity levels: PI and PO (Parity Inner and Parity Outer). K-Probe (free) is able to scan discs and report PI/PO results, but it requires drives that allow for access to that data (Lite-On being one line, though they're not the best quality drives). Nero CD/DVD Speed also has the ability to scan PI/PO and supports a wider variety of drives.
Ideally PI and PO should be 0, but it's never 0 in the real world. Single-digit PI/PO is terrific, 20-50 is quite good. Anything above 100 starts to become difficult to recover data from.
Looks like the last barrier against BR adoption has been bypassed. Cue the cheap players and burners and BR might actually rise from its coma and take the market from DVD.
I'm hoping that won't happen because a world ruled by Sorny is surely worse off. But don't fret, Sorny will do everything in its power to prevent mainstream adoption.
You could get a digital OTA tuner and watch the local broadcast channels in HD. They should all be covering the election thru the night. As a bonus, you'll be all set for the digital broadcast switchover in Feb '09
Agreed with the approach. I would recommend looking for USB peripherals first. There are USB versions of floppy drives (3.5", and I'm sure I've seen 5.25"), Zip, Jazz, CD-ROM and DVD-ROM of course, and probably many others. The local computer surplus store sells USB versions of many of those older storage devices. You could kill N birds with one stone with an IDE/SATA to USB adapter, then stock up on the devices which use IDE/SATA interfaces. USB is ubiquitous and will be around for a long, long time. The advantage here is that you don't need a particular PC to read media. Plug the device(s) into a computer running a decent OS (XP, Linux, maybe OSX) and you should be able to read from the mass storage devices.
:)
If you wanted to make it look nice, get something like a vertical shoe rack, place the drives into the shelves and all the USB cables to a big USB hub. Plug the USB hub into a computer and all the devices are available at once
It won't take long for some whipper-snapper hackers to break Ford's key restriction system, which is probably a joke. A cottage industry will sprout up, with kids huddled around a key-cracking pusher selling override keys for outrageous profit.
"So you didn't get the job then?"
There are interviews where I've been passed up and I've left still having respect for the company. While your comment may be witty (or so you think), whether or not I "got the job" or interviewed is irrelevant. I've been in the industry long enough to know that a company's hiring practices reflect alot about its values. One day you might learn from experience too.
Employers show this type of bias in all disciplines. Most companies are lazy, prefer zero training, and don't make any real attempt to ascertain how fast the hiree can learn/adapt. It really helps to get your feet wet. Pick up a project on your own, even if it's not what your current employer lists on your objectives. That shows initiative and will add the experience necessary on your resume.
Anyone familiar with Nvidia's hiring practices could've predicted a disaster of this magnitude. They have absolutely moronic screening quizzes (yes, quizzes)... canned technical questions with only one "right" answer. Throw original thinking out the window, they just want to hire drones to do their dirty work. You know what Nvidia, you get what you deserve. Maybe they had a majority of good employees at one time, but the way they treat their people, I imagine there's been alot of brain drain. It's a clear sign of a failing company when they rely on marketing & sales to hide shoddy engineering. You had agood run Nvidia, but the last stop is coming up. Get off while you can, the train derails up ahead.
I'm no crApple fan, but the "Microsoft tax" does exist. It depends on how the OEM negotiates the volume license deal, which often includes every single system regardless of whether Windows is actually installed on it. M$ gets their $$$ regardless of whether the system is shipped with Windows, Linux or whatever. The vast majority of OEMs have to negotiate this way for pricing reasons. Maybe a handful of the really really big OEMs can get concessions from M$. Most probably just eat the cost for the tiny percentage of systems that don't ship M$. Anyway, learn yourself on the convolutionisms of M$ volume licensing before flaming the Macboys. Yeah they suck, but sometimes they're right.
.. that has been ported to x86. No surprise to see it running on netbooks. With enough coaxing it could run on a tiny little Samsung or Sony UMPC which weigh under 1 lb and fit into a shirt pocket.
You're missing the point of the post you replied to. Based on the theory that planets and stars are formed from clouds of gases, every naturally occurring element on a planet is "stardust". The earth is a planet, the sun is a star, and we're all made of matter from this planet. Gold and carbon are no less stardust than iridium, just not as common on this planet.
If you include a laptop, be sure to remove the main battery. The battery self-discharges in a matter of years (if not months). Since all laptops nowadays use "smart" batteries, when the voltage drops too low, the internal controller will refuse to charge the cells again. Save a little space/weight and use the battery in a device now instead of putting something in the safe that will be completely unusable in 25 years. Be sure to include the AC adapter though! :)
The HDTV tuner can make a huge difference in reception quality. I had one of those US Digital cheapy tuners and it had weak signal on a few stations. When it died I got a Samsung which has far more consistent signal strength and video quality, all using the exact same antenna and configuration.
Your antenna is more than adequate. I have a similar 4-bay antenna that's about half the size of yours. I mount it in the attic and point it towards the antenna towers which are ~20 miles away. Signal strength is excellent, no amplifier needed with the Samsung tuner.