It was Creative who did that, yes. That's why I'm so confused they've turned around and released the Linux drivers under the GPL.
I wonder - how difficult is it to take a driver written for Linux and write one for Windows using the information it provides? Is there some enterprising X-Fi owner out there willing to do it so the rest of us can have a non-sucky X-Fi driver for Windows?
Disclaimer: I don't own an X-Fi (after the incident mentioned above, I pledged never to buy one).
If you assume kcdoodle had the first available CD-R drive on the market, and if you assume the average age on slashdot is less than that, then the average age would have to be less than 20 (the CD-R spec was published in 1988 according to Wikipedia)...
I ran DD-WRT for a year or so on my WRT54Gv2, and had all sorts of stability problems (silly neighbors running BitTorrent), requiring router reboots every week or so. I switched to Tomato and went half a year without a reboot...
I bought a 5-port Netgear switch (the white one) like four years ago; it works very well. We recently bought four more of them at work (same version number, v3 I think), and none of them have problems. In fact I consider the Netgear switches I have to be of high quality.
I guess that's why they say anecdotal evidence isn't worth much, eh?
I was going to paste my WRT54G (v2, not the newer crippled one) w/Tomato uptime, but then I remembered that I reset it two weeks ago on the off chance it was causing choke in CS:S...
But as I recall, the uptime was something like 170 days.
Not that I know of (and I live in Utah). Like I said, this type of system represents a large short-term investment, and politicians don't like to put those on the budget;)
There's one other thing the President can do that can have far-reaching effects - the President gets to appoint replacements for the Supreme Court. (For example, if McCain were to somehow win, he could appoint more conservative judges, and they could then invalidate Roe v. Wade.)
the rest of the planet can set about building a future that works.
... because the U.N. has done a whole lot on its own? The U.S. went to Iraq in part because the U.N. sat on its thumbs and did not carry out the consequences of ignoring the rules they had placed on Saddam's government. Had the U.N. been doing its job, the U.S. would have only been a part of the military force that moved in.
Pointing out the current President's mistakes is not negative campaigning, but calling your opponent names is negative campaigning. (That is, referring to McCain as "Bush Jr." while portraying Bush's policies negatively is negative campaigning, just not quite so direct as calling him a moron.)
The US welfare system is broken, IMHO. The problem is, the welfare system doesn't encourage people to find jobs (and worse, it doesn't provide assistance for doing so).
By contrast, the LDS Church has an extremely efficient welfare system; those who receive welfare through the church are required to show exactly what they've been doing to obtain work, and only then do they receive help in the form of rent money or food stamps. Various training courses are provided at no cost, and temporary minimum-wage jobs are available until a permanent job can be located. Assistance is also provided for locating jobs.
The primary difference is this - the goal of the US welfare system is to give people the bare minimum so they can eat, but the goal of the LDS Church's welfare system is to make people self-sufficient.
I believe if the US welfare system were redesigned to work like the LDS welfare system, there would eventually be far fewer people on welfare... and although it would cost more in the short run (the biggest reason this will never happen), it would cost a lot less in the long run.
If you believe Alan Cooper (see especially his book The Inmates are Running the Asylum), the problem is that programmers are in charge of actual UI development, and artists are in charge of how it looks, but rather than have interaction designers design the UI, companies make the programmers do that too - and Microsoft is the worst offender.
So you get UIs that look shiny, and UIs that programmers find easy to use but that normal users find difficult and/or impossible to understand.
Last time I tried Ubuntu on a machine with wireless, the wireless worked with no additional configuration (other than typing in the SSID and the key)...
This story you linked to directly contradicts what the original articles say, which is odd, because The Register claims to quote from The Times Union. From timesunion.com:
The student charged has a history of computer mischief but likely was not interested in stealing personal information, DeFeciani said, citing what investigators told her.
But from theregister.co.uk:
"The kid committed an intentional criminal act," state trooper Maureen Tuffey told The Times Union. "He deceitfully used someone else's name and password so he would not get caught and was looking to profit from his criminal act."
So, was he interested in stealing the information, or not? Based on these two quotes, it looks like the investigators themselves don't even know what's going on.
The whole "No Child Left Behind" initiative really hurts the smarter children, since classes must cater to the least intelligent child, rather than (at the very least) the children of average intelligence, and decent "accelerated learning" programs are few and far between...
Slashdot Mirror
It was Creative who did that, yes. That's why I'm so confused they've turned around and released the Linux drivers under the GPL.
I wonder - how difficult is it to take a driver written for Linux and write one for Windows using the information it provides? Is there some enterprising X-Fi owner out there willing to do it so the rest of us can have a non-sucky X-Fi driver for Windows?
Disclaimer: I don't own an X-Fi (after the incident mentioned above, I pledged never to buy one).
Using wine is just *asking* for console hacks ;)
If you assume kcdoodle had the first available CD-R drive on the market, and if you assume the average age on slashdot is less than that, then the average age would have to be less than 20 (the CD-R spec was published in 1988 according to Wikipedia)...
I've seen CD-RWs with a black writable layer. What were those made of?
Off topic, but I want to make sure I have my acronyms straight...
YMMV = your measurements may vary?
I used "YRMV" to mean "your results may vary".
Am I mistaken about something?
I ran DD-WRT for a year or so on my WRT54Gv2, and had all sorts of stability problems (silly neighbors running BitTorrent), requiring router reboots every week or so. I switched to Tomato and went half a year without a reboot...
As always, my usage is not your usage, so YRMV.
I bought a 5-port Netgear switch (the white one) like four years ago; it works very well. We recently bought four more of them at work (same version number, v3 I think), and none of them have problems. In fact I consider the Netgear switches I have to be of high quality.
I guess that's why they say anecdotal evidence isn't worth much, eh?
I was going to paste my WRT54G (v2, not the newer crippled one) w/Tomato uptime, but then I remembered that I reset it two weeks ago on the off chance it was causing choke in CS:S...
But as I recall, the uptime was something like 170 days.
Not that I know of (and I live in Utah). Like I said, this type of system represents a large short-term investment, and politicians don't like to put those on the budget ;)
There's one other thing the President can do that can have far-reaching effects - the President gets to appoint replacements for the Supreme Court. (For example, if McCain were to somehow win, he could appoint more conservative judges, and they could then invalidate Roe v. Wade.)
I don't necessarily disagree with you, but...
the rest of the planet can set about building a future that works.
... because the U.N. has done a whole lot on its own? The U.S. went to Iraq in part because the U.N. sat on its thumbs and did not carry out the consequences of ignoring the rules they had placed on Saddam's government. Had the U.N. been doing its job, the U.S. would have only been a part of the military force that moved in.
Just saying.
From what I've read of Obama's views on the Constitution, I remain quite skeptical that he actually intends to move closer to it...
Dave Barry has always unofficially run as a write-in candidate. You can write in any eligible candidate you wish.
Somewhat off-topic, but the polling person told me she didn't need to see my ID. Did she simply recognize me somehow?
I'm glad someone out there actually understand the concept you point out here. I give you +1 Insightful in spirit.
Far too often, people act like this instead...
I wish more people understood that concept as you do; I give you +1 Insightful in spirit.
Far too often, people act like this instead:
http://xkcd.com/386/
I'm as guilty of acting like that comic as anyone sometimes, but at least I recognize it ;)
Pointing out the current President's mistakes is not negative campaigning, but calling your opponent names is negative campaigning. (That is, referring to McCain as "Bush Jr." while portraying Bush's policies negatively is negative campaigning, just not quite so direct as calling him a moron.)
The US welfare system is broken, IMHO. The problem is, the welfare system doesn't encourage people to find jobs (and worse, it doesn't provide assistance for doing so).
By contrast, the LDS Church has an extremely efficient welfare system; those who receive welfare through the church are required to show exactly what they've been doing to obtain work, and only then do they receive help in the form of rent money or food stamps. Various training courses are provided at no cost, and temporary minimum-wage jobs are available until a permanent job can be located. Assistance is also provided for locating jobs.
The primary difference is this - the goal of the US welfare system is to give people the bare minimum so they can eat, but the goal of the LDS Church's welfare system is to make people self-sufficient.
I believe if the US welfare system were redesigned to work like the LDS welfare system, there would eventually be far fewer people on welfare... and although it would cost more in the short run (the biggest reason this will never happen), it would cost a lot less in the long run.
Parents may not be doing their jobs correctly but it's not the government's responsibility to do it for them.
Yeah, I remember trying to get a Netgear PCMCIA wireless card working in Linux, and I remember spending hours trying to get ndiswrapper working.
In any case, the new Intel 3945 and 4945 wireless work really well (mostly because it's Intel writing the kernel drivers).
If you believe Alan Cooper (see especially his book The Inmates are Running the Asylum), the problem is that programmers are in charge of actual UI development, and artists are in charge of how it looks, but rather than have interaction designers design the UI, companies make the programmers do that too - and Microsoft is the worst offender.
So you get UIs that look shiny, and UIs that programmers find easy to use but that normal users find difficult and/or impossible to understand.
Last time I tried Ubuntu on a machine with wireless, the wireless worked with no additional configuration (other than typing in the SSID and the key)...
This story you linked to directly contradicts what the original articles say, which is odd, because The Register claims to quote from The Times Union. From timesunion.com:
The student charged has a history of computer mischief but likely was not interested in stealing personal information, DeFeciani said, citing what investigators told her.
But from theregister.co.uk:
"The kid committed an intentional criminal act," state trooper Maureen Tuffey told The Times Union. "He deceitfully used someone else's name and password so he would not get caught and was looking to profit from his criminal act."
So, was he interested in stealing the information, or not? Based on these two quotes, it looks like the investigators themselves don't even know what's going on.
Kinda sounds like he used the "other student"'s username and password. The articles imply he worked with another student, who isn't being charged.
The whole "No Child Left Behind" initiative really hurts the smarter children, since classes must cater to the least intelligent child, rather than (at the very least) the children of average intelligence, and decent "accelerated learning" programs are few and far between...