The biggest complaints about wind power seems to be the unsightly appearance of the towers dotting the landscape. Well, why are there not more wind farms in remote places? There are certainly many "remote place" around the world. Is the cost of transporting that power to the places it's needed just too great for this, or is the cost of producing power from wind too great in and of itself? It seems solar power might be simpler since there are no moving parts like a wind turbine. I'm pretty uneducated about this type of thing. What's the general concensus?
I haven't looked into how the new crawlers are working. I assume that they still follow links from page to page, but are there new types of crawlers that could be searching the directory sturctures of a site? Not that this excusses the webmasters, but it might explain some of the new search results.
Where are the other 22,000!? That _must_ be where the alien civilizations exist. We must force the government to admit to the existence of life on Mars, and let us in on the communication they have undoubtedly been having with them for the past 50 years!
I agree 100%. If we want this to become "everyman's browser", then you have to improve the install to make it "idiot proof". But, maybe that's what the NS 6.x releases are for.;)
I had the exact same problem and their admin pages were "broken" for at least 3 weeks. I irc'd their support desk and walked through it with them, only to be told that that portion of the web site was not yet functional. I went to registerfly, where I had one domain already, and transfered it off NSI for $8.99, which included the first year. No fees to change information, no hassels. The transfer took about 3 days! NSI still sent me a bill for the next year, but I just pitched it. What a joke.
Isn't it interesting how the Japanese have an apprantly high tolerance for companies expanding into quite a few horizontal areas. Have you ever noticed that there are a lot of cool things that come from Japanese companies that are better known for more common things like cars (Honda's robot, Mitsubishi creating OS's for example) or the Matsushita/Panasonic company which makes all kinds off stuff. Now we have computer company, mostly, making FuelCell batteries.
Why don't we see these types of things from American companies? Is it a lack of R&D? Legal restrictions on how far they can spread horizontally? Or just a lack of interest? Where are the cool ideas from American companies? And don't give me iPod.
I'm sorry, I appreciate the fact that someone has to come up with ideas, and I'm not loaded with alternatives, other than leave it free. But Penny-Per-Page?! It just wouldn't work. For one thing, you might see Slashdot suddenly limit the number of comments per page to 10, or google will only let you see 5 results at a time. "Oh, you want search item #100, that will cost you $.20." For example, the article could have easily been in one page, but HowStuffWorks breaks their stories up to increase banner hits. Don't you think everyone would do that if they got a guaranteed penny per page?
There are just too many ways for this program to be abused. For instance, the author says we could create a cap of $20 a month. Well, guess who's site I'm going to hit 2000 times on the the first day of each month. MINE! This is not to mention the amount of tracking that would have to be implemented to do this. Maybe we could just let the FBI send us a bill since they will soon know where we've been anyway.
The only way to make a micropayment plan work is to make it voluntary and give a reward to those who pay other than just the content. Sure you will have freeloaders, but the people who are your return customers will probably pay to keep you around, and if they don't, let them eat banner ads.
If VA is in such dire straights, what would happen if VA goes under? Would they sell Slashdot to someone? What becomes of all of the personal information I've given here? What becomes of the vast amount of great, and not so great, commentary that has taken place here and is freely searchable? Should we be concerned?
Laserline makes a nice system called Media Zone that stores your CDs in little rigid plastic sleaves that can be inserted into a folder type carrier, a desk top organizer, or just carried around by themselves. I find they're a little more expensive and harder to find that your average folder holder, but you can buy them on the laserline website
By slowing down the reaction time of the brain and adjusting conditions in our virtual reality to convince the brain that time is moving slower or faster, the possibilities would be endless. 2 week vacations in a virtual Bahamas in only 5 minutes?
No. Response time!=response speed. When the response time increases, it takes you longer to respond. Just like you win a race by having the shortest time, whereas you then have the highest (average) speed.
You're right. I should have said improve the brain's response time, meaning make it faster. I'm still wondering if the original poster's comment about slowing the reaction time would work. How does reaction time relate to response time/speed? Are they the same thing? If it takes longer to respond|react|whatever, you can't do as much. Unless you're going to slow the "internal clock" of the brain and not the physical reaction time.
Just thought I'd update this with a letter that I recieved from the North Carolina AG. It's below:
Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2001 15:37:24 -0500
From: "Susan Moore" smmoore@mail.jus.state.nc.us
To: XXXX
Subject: Microsoft
Dear Mr. Baxley:
Thank you for your letter concerning the Microsoft antitrust lawsuit. I appreciate deeply your opinion on this important matter.
I have decided that it is in the best interest of North Carolina consumers to enter into a court-approved settlement which would provide more protections for Microsoft?s competitors and therefore more benefits to consumers.
With this agreement, we have been able to obtain more safeguards to provide more competition with internet service products such as streaming audio and video. In addition, we have provided more protections for non-Windows software manufacturers. Finally, North Carolina and other states have reserved the right to enforce this agreement if Microsoft does not live up to it.
This has been a very difficult and complicated case. Rapid and ever-changing advances in technology make application of our antitrust laws difficult. Nevertheless, I believe this agreement will help promote more competition and help protect the consumers of North Carolina.
Thanks again for your input. I hope you will continue to contact me on other issues which are of interest to you.
Roy Cooper
But if you're goal is to increase the amount of things that you can do in a given timeframe, then slowing down the brain's response time won't allow you to do more, but less in the same time. Am I write? The only way to actually get more done in a shorter period of time would be to increase the brain's response time. That way you are doing things faster, so you can get more things done, so before it took you 8 hours to put in a days work, now takes you 4, or whatever).
What about all of the infrastructure that goes into a shuttle launch. Not only do you have the launch facility itself, but the backup landing site, maintenance hangers, control rooms, etc. Would a private company be "buying" these facilities as well? Would they lease them? What about the NASA transport planes for the shuttle, and the booster retrieval which I believe is done by the Navy. Would we be giving these service to a private company free? Buying a shuttle is one thing, launching it is even feasible, but to put the whole thing together, you need a massive amount of infrastructure.
Many people are saying get away from a computer and try something "real". My advice would be to look for some cool new language or technique to play with. I develop web apps at work, and it can sometimes get broing, but when I go home, I can create whatever I want. It can be totally useless and fun, it can be a totally functioning site. Learn PHP, Java (is that still new), XML, etc. There are tons of technologies and weird projects that can be done with web development. I'm partial to it since most of my career has been on the web, but I get real enjoyment out of doing other things on the computer besides what I'm supposed to be doing. When you're only creating for yourself, you don't have to be so concerned about making it useful.
If computers are what you like, keep playing with them, just do it on your own terms.
I sent an email to each of the State's Attorneys General indicating that I was opposed to the new settelment agreement and that I urged them not to sign. I sent the letter on Thursday, and aside form a couple of automatic replys, Florida was the only state to get back to me with a real answer. While it may have been an MS form letter, it at least addressed the issues, and didn't just tell me that they had recieved my email. I know email doesn't always get read in government, but I was pleased to see that Florida is taking a different approach. I'm including my mail and their response here.
ME:
Greetings,
I am a not resident of Florida, but I wanted to send my
support for your case against Microsoft. I think that
the proposed settlement does not go far enough, and
that harsher restrictions need to be made against
Microsoft, and that particular attention needs to be
brought to bear on the newly released Operating
System, Windows XP. Please accept my support of your
work thusfar on this case, and continue to do the good
work you have been doing. Your work is much
appreciated in the technical community.
Nate Baxley
THEM:
Thank you for taking the time to email the Florida Attorney General's Office regarding our involvement in the case of United States v. Microsoft Corp. As you may be aware, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia recently upheld a federal trial court's finding that Microsoft had illegally maintained its monopoly.
One of the many duties of the Florida Attorney General's Office is to enforce Florida's consumer protection laws, which require us to protect the consuming public and legitimate businesses from those who engage in "unfair methods of competition, or unconscionable, deceptive, or unfair acts or practices" in commerce. (Section 501.202(2), Florida Statutes) The Attorney General is also authorized to bring actions to protect consumers against violations of state and federal antitrust laws.
In accordance with our statutory duties and the recent Court of Appeals decision, we are currently working with the federal government and other states to reach an acceptable settlement to remedy Microsoft's antitrust violations. Our overriding goal in this effort is to restore healthy competition to the marketplace so that Microsoft can no longer use its clout to illegally impose its will on consumers and would-be competitors. The trial court has given all sides until today to reach a resolution with a mediator. If no settlement can be reached at that time, we will prepare for a trial that would start next March. We remain hopeful that a settlement can be reached, and will do everything we can to find a resolution that protects the interests of Florida consumers.
Your input on this matter is greatly appreciated and will be considered as we enter the remedy phase of United States v. Microsoft. Again, thank you for your time and consideration of these issues.
Mnay of the users I support still feel the need to close one program before starting another. The concept of multiple programs running at the same time in different windows just blows their minds.
Bringing up BSD makes my point. BSD seems to fill the security niche out of the box, where as most linux distors, slack excluded, is much looser. Maybe they are the same OS at the root and it's just the packaging that makes them niche.
An interesting question is how the other *nix versions affect Linux. Is it better for "the community" to have several *nix variants out there competing against MS, or better to have just one, be it Linux or some other variant? Put aside your religiousish tendancies for your favorite OS, and lets discuss a wider benefit.
Having more than one version available gives more options to people and allows for several niche distros of *nix. It also presents several targets for MS instead of allowing them to focus their sights on one "problem".
With a single *nix front, we would be able to address concerns across more installs, and consolidate the knowledge from more sources to improve the overall product.
I'm not sure which way is best, and more than likely a hybrid will be the end result, and for the better. What's the feeling here about all of this?
The tentative deal would end Microsoft?s practice of forbidding computer makers from selling PCs preloaded with software from the company?s competitors They already agreed to that with XP. You can include other apps, but you then have to make MS apps more promenint(sp?).
The deal would also reportedly allow Microsoft to add new software to Windows ? as it has with Internet Explorer, MSN Messenger and Windows Media Player ? but would force the company to offer a separate version of Windows without those additions. Will these "limited" versions be sold for a discount? If not, then it is very unlikely that they will sell more than 10 of them.
The settlement would also reportedly force Microsoft to reveal some of its underlying computer code to other companies.(My emphasis)
Who decides which "companies" can see the code? I do business as a company. Can I see the code?
This sounds like a joke settlement and I hope that the states attorneys general don't go along with it. We need a resolution with some real teeth.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't think finding a remote, windy place will be that hard. Ever been to Kansas?
The biggest complaints about wind power seems to be the unsightly appearance of the towers dotting the landscape. Well, why are there not more wind farms in remote places? There are certainly many "remote place" around the world. Is the cost of transporting that power to the places it's needed just too great for this, or is the cost of producing power from wind too great in and of itself? It seems solar power might be simpler since there are no moving parts like a wind turbine. I'm pretty uneducated about this type of thing. What's the general concensus?
I haven't looked into how the new crawlers are working. I assume that they still follow links from page to page, but are there new types of crawlers that could be searching the directory sturctures of a site? Not that this excusses the webmasters, but it might explain some of the new search results.
Where are the other 22,000!? That _must_ be where the alien civilizations exist. We must force the government to admit to the existence of life on Mars, and let us in on the communication they have undoubtedly been having with them for the past 50 years!
This has been satire.
I agree 100%. If we want this to become "everyman's browser", then you have to improve the install to make it "idiot proof". But, maybe that's what the NS 6.x releases are for. ;)
I had the exact same problem and their admin pages were "broken" for at least 3 weeks. I irc'd their support desk and walked through it with them, only to be told that that portion of the web site was not yet functional. I went to registerfly, where I had one domain already, and transfered it off NSI for $8.99, which included the first year. No fees to change information, no hassels. The transfer took about 3 days! NSI still sent me a bill for the next year, but I just pitched it. What a joke.
Isn't it interesting how the Japanese have an apprantly high tolerance for companies expanding into quite a few horizontal areas. Have you ever noticed that there are a lot of cool things that come from Japanese companies that are better known for more common things like cars (Honda's robot, Mitsubishi creating OS's for example) or the Matsushita/Panasonic company which makes all kinds off stuff. Now we have computer company, mostly, making FuelCell batteries.
Why don't we see these types of things from American companies? Is it a lack of R&D? Legal restrictions on how far they can spread horizontally? Or just a lack of interest? Where are the cool ideas from American companies? And don't give me iPod.
I'm sorry, I appreciate the fact that someone has to come up with ideas, and I'm not loaded with alternatives, other than leave it free. But Penny-Per-Page?! It just wouldn't work. For one thing, you might see Slashdot suddenly limit the number of comments per page to 10, or google will only let you see 5 results at a time. "Oh, you want search item #100, that will cost you $.20." For example, the article could have easily been in one page, but HowStuffWorks breaks their stories up to increase banner hits. Don't you think everyone would do that if they got a guaranteed penny per page?
There are just too many ways for this program to be abused. For instance, the author says we could create a cap of $20 a month. Well, guess who's site I'm going to hit 2000 times on the the first day of each month. MINE! This is not to mention the amount of tracking that would have to be implemented to do this. Maybe we could just let the FBI send us a bill since they will soon know where we've been anyway.
The only way to make a micropayment plan work is to make it voluntary and give a reward to those who pay other than just the content. Sure you will have freeloaders, but the people who are your return customers will probably pay to keep you around, and if they don't, let them eat banner ads.
the highest moderated questions get passed on to Bruce, of which he will answer 8 or so?
I just want to be clear.
If VA is in such dire straights, what would happen if VA goes under? Would they sell Slashdot to someone? What becomes of all of the personal information I've given here? What becomes of the vast amount of great, and not so great, commentary that has taken place here and is freely searchable? Should we be concerned?
- "Learn about what they do with those systems, keep that inventory in your back pocket --
- hell -- tattoo it on your butt if you have to -- and go after them. (My emphasis)
I mean come on. Even if he's the VP of salesLaserline makes a nice system called Media Zone that stores your CDs in little rigid plastic sleaves that can be inserted into a folder type carrier, a desk top organizer, or just carried around by themselves. I find they're a little more expensive and harder to find that your average folder holder, but you can buy them on the laserline website
By slowing down the reaction time of the brain and adjusting conditions in our virtual reality to convince the brain that time is moving slower or faster, the possibilities would be endless. 2 week vacations in a virtual Bahamas in only 5 minutes?
No. Response time!=response speed. When the response time increases, it takes you longer to respond. Just like you win a race by having the shortest time, whereas you then have the highest (average) speed.
You're right. I should have said improve the brain's response time, meaning make it faster. I'm still wondering if the original poster's comment about slowing the reaction time would work. How does reaction time relate to response time/speed? Are they the same thing? If it takes longer to respond|react|whatever, you can't do as much. Unless you're going to slow the "internal clock" of the brain and not the physical reaction time.
Just thought I'd update this with a letter that I recieved from the North Carolina AG. It's below:
Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2001 15:37:24 -0500
From: "Susan Moore" smmoore@mail.jus.state.nc.us
To: XXXX
Subject: Microsoft
Dear Mr. Baxley:
Thank you for your letter concerning the Microsoft antitrust lawsuit. I appreciate deeply your opinion on this important matter.
I have decided that it is in the best interest of North Carolina consumers to enter into a court-approved settlement which would provide more protections for Microsoft?s competitors and therefore more benefits to consumers.
With this agreement, we have been able to obtain more safeguards to provide more competition with internet service products such as streaming audio and video. In addition, we have provided more protections for non-Windows software manufacturers. Finally, North Carolina and other states have reserved the right to enforce this agreement if Microsoft does not live up to it.
This has been a very difficult and complicated case. Rapid and ever-changing advances in technology make application of our antitrust laws difficult. Nevertheless, I believe this agreement will help promote more competition and help protect the consumers of North Carolina.
Thanks again for your input. I hope you will continue to contact me on other issues which are of interest to you.
Roy Cooper
But if you're goal is to increase the amount of things that you can do in a given timeframe, then slowing down the brain's response time won't allow you to do more, but less in the same time. Am I write? The only way to actually get more done in a shorter period of time would be to increase the brain's response time. That way you are doing things faster, so you can get more things done, so before it took you 8 hours to put in a days work, now takes you 4, or whatever).
Most people are willing to deprive your great grandchildren to make money today.
Most people are willing to deprive their great grandchildren to make money today.
As well as mine. It affects us all, yet some fail to see that.
What about all of the infrastructure that goes into a shuttle launch. Not only do you have the launch facility itself, but the backup landing site, maintenance hangers, control rooms, etc. Would a private company be "buying" these facilities as well? Would they lease them? What about the NASA transport planes for the shuttle, and the booster retrieval which I believe is done by the Navy. Would we be giving these service to a private company free? Buying a shuttle is one thing, launching it is even feasible, but to put the whole thing together, you need a massive amount of infrastructure.
Many people are saying get away from a computer and try something "real". My advice would be to look for some cool new language or technique to play with. I develop web apps at work, and it can sometimes get broing, but when I go home, I can create whatever I want. It can be totally useless and fun, it can be a totally functioning site. Learn PHP, Java (is that still new), XML, etc. There are tons of technologies and weird projects that can be done with web development. I'm partial to it since most of my career has been on the web, but I get real enjoyment out of doing other things on the computer besides what I'm supposed to be doing. When you're only creating for yourself, you don't have to be so concerned about making it useful.
If computers are what you like, keep playing with them, just do it on your own terms.
I sent an email to each of the State's Attorneys General indicating that I was opposed to the new settelment agreement and that I urged them not to sign. I sent the letter on Thursday, and aside form a couple of automatic replys, Florida was the only state to get back to me with a real answer. While it may have been an MS form letter, it at least addressed the issues, and didn't just tell me that they had recieved my email. I know email doesn't always get read in government, but I was pleased to see that Florida is taking a different approach. I'm including my mail and their response here.
ME:
Greetings,
I am a not resident of Florida, but I wanted to send my
support for your case against Microsoft. I think that
the proposed settlement does not go far enough, and
that harsher restrictions need to be made against
Microsoft, and that particular attention needs to be
brought to bear on the newly released Operating
System, Windows XP. Please accept my support of your
work thusfar on this case, and continue to do the good
work you have been doing. Your work is much
appreciated in the technical community.
Nate Baxley
THEM:
Thank you for taking the time to email the Florida Attorney General's Office regarding our involvement in the case of United States v. Microsoft Corp. As you may be aware, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia recently upheld a federal trial court's finding that Microsoft had illegally maintained its monopoly.
One of the many duties of the Florida Attorney General's Office is to enforce Florida's consumer protection laws, which require us to protect the consuming public and legitimate businesses from those who engage in "unfair methods of competition, or unconscionable, deceptive, or unfair acts or practices" in commerce. (Section 501.202(2), Florida Statutes) The Attorney General is also authorized to bring actions to protect consumers against violations of state and federal antitrust laws.
In accordance with our statutory duties and the recent Court of Appeals decision, we are currently working with the federal government and other states to reach an acceptable settlement to remedy Microsoft's antitrust violations. Our overriding goal in this effort is to restore healthy competition to the marketplace so that Microsoft can no longer use its clout to illegally impose its will on consumers and would-be competitors. The trial court has given all sides until today to reach a resolution with a mediator. If no settlement can be reached at that time, we will prepare for a trial that would start next March. We remain hopeful that a settlement can be reached, and will do everything we can to find a resolution that protects the interests of Florida consumers.
Your input on this matter is greatly appreciated and will be considered as we enter the remedy phase of United States v. Microsoft. Again, thank you for your time and consideration of these issues.
Mnay of the users I support still feel the need to close one program before starting another. The concept of multiple programs running at the same time in different windows just blows their minds.
Bringing up BSD makes my point. BSD seems to fill the security niche out of the box, where as most linux distors, slack excluded, is much looser. Maybe they are the same OS at the root and it's just the packaging that makes them niche.
An interesting question is how the other *nix versions affect Linux. Is it better for "the community" to have several *nix variants out there competing against MS, or better to have just one, be it Linux or some other variant? Put aside your religiousish tendancies for your favorite OS, and lets discuss a wider benefit.
Having more than one version available gives more options to people and allows for several niche distros of *nix. It also presents several targets for MS instead of allowing them to focus their sights on one "problem".
With a single *nix front, we would be able to address concerns across more installs, and consolidate the knowledge from more sources to improve the overall product.
I'm not sure which way is best, and more than likely a hybrid will be the end result, and for the better. What's the feeling here about all of this?
Why is it whe're boycotting Adobe again? I honestly don't know.
From the CNet letter
I [sic] you would like to discuss this further...
What kind of company sends out a letter like this without a legal, at least a grammer, proofread?
The tentative deal would end Microsoft?s practice of forbidding computer makers from selling PCs preloaded with software from the company?s competitors
They already agreed to that with XP. You can include other apps, but you then have to make MS apps more promenint(sp?).
The deal would also reportedly allow Microsoft to add new software to Windows ? as it has with Internet Explorer, MSN Messenger and Windows Media Player ? but would force the company to offer a separate version of Windows without those additions.
Will these "limited" versions be sold for a discount? If not, then it is very unlikely that they will sell more than 10 of them.
The settlement would also reportedly force Microsoft to reveal some of its underlying computer code to other companies.(My emphasis)
Who decides which "companies" can see the code? I do business as a company. Can I see the code?
This sounds like a joke settlement and I hope that the states attorneys general don't go along with it. We need a resolution with some real teeth.