He's guilty as sin and everyone but him seems to know it.
It appears based on the jury results that there is at least one other person in the country who wasn't convinced. In spite of what you may believe to be the facts of the case, US law does say that for these charges a unanimous jury verdict is required to convict the accused.
Blagojevich sure loves to blame his problems on the media, which generally isn't in the playbook of the party he ran under - although it is very much in the playbook of the other party.
I wondered how many people would see a registration form that requires an email address and a password, and interpret that to be asking them for their email password. Considering how many people fall for really atrociously bad phishing scams it wouldn't surprise me that a lot of people would give away their email passwords on registration forms either...
But I get social networking website email invites all the time. I never read them (partially because they are a popular virus vector now) and rarely even catch the name in the subject line. I really can't imagine being offended by an invite from a dead person; it's just an automated email from an automated system.
... I first learned the importance of washing behind my ears after an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard. Granted, I was 5 and probably would have learned it anyways... But nonetheless Boss Hogg's Mom was good for something.
Since you posted this story, maybe there is a slight chance you'll comment in it, too.
My question for you is when will slashdot have a metamoderation system that again involves moderating moderations? I will be extremely kind and say that the current metamoderation system is a steaming pile of failure, and that is not letting any cat out of any bag around here when I say that. Since the current system doesn't actually involve scoring moderations that have already taken place, the hacks with moderator points have gone bananas with mod-bombing.
Previously my main complaint about metamoderation was that "overrated" and "underrated" moderations were exempt. Now with the new system, all moderations are essentially exempt because it just asks you to rate un-moderated comments.
Seriously, why do we call it "moderation" when there is seldom anything moderate about it? It would be better called "scoring" or "random review", since that is a better description of what actually comes from it.
I can tell you that whatever it was 7 or 8 years ago, it was better then. The metamoderation system employed currently is, to be far too kind, a total pile of worthless steaming failure buried in horse shit. Spitballs flung across your office would be more effective tools for metamoderation on slashdot than the current system. Really the only relevant question to ask about metamoderation is why they even bother keeping it up currently, it doesn't do a damned thing.
Although even worse is that the people who get moderator points know this and spend their points with wild abandon because they know that the metamoderation system will never, ever, ever do anything to them.
Go ahead, try the metamoderation link. Tell me how many of those 10 comments it asks you about were even moderated at all - if your number is greater than zero you should count yourself lucky.
First, when there aren't cheap, low end options, everyone complains - now, when there is an entry level option, you complain.
I encourage you to go back and re-read my comment; it isn't very long. I did not at any time complain about the product itself; how could I when I haven't seen one? Rather, I was pointing out the "KMart experience".
Second, KMart sells cheap stuff at cheap prices? OMFG!!!!! So the hell what?
Again, go back and re-read the comment.
It's really not like people go to KMart, expect to spend $20 on a bookcase, or $150 on an Android tablet and think they are getting top of the line products.
I didn't say that they would. However, as I stated, the KMart shopping experience has become a torturous act. KMart has decided to not only carry crappy products (which arguably are appropriate for the price) but they have also decided to shaft the customer on things like keeping products in stock, hiring halfway competent employees, keeping the store looking better than an average thrift store, ensuring a reasonably quick transaction, and keeping the damned lights on (to name only a few). A lot of KMart stores have become such utter crapholes that people are going to Wal-Mart - or even the dollar store - because it is a better use of their time and money.
KMart isnt trying to fool anyone, and no one is being fooled or is so deluded that they think anything different than what I outlined.
KMart is (naturally) trying to compete with Wal-Mart. Except the prices are no better (sometimes worse), the items are no better (also sometimes worse), the help is no better (often worse), the stores are no better (often worse), and the hours are pretty much always worse. So if they can't come up with a reason for customers to come to their stores they might as well just give up and close up shop.
The KMart I walked into could have been used as a set for a dystopian future reality "Escape from New York" style movie. There was neither customer nor cashier in any of the check out lanes. The woman behind the counter at the service desk had the demeanor of someone waiting for a bus.
After reading your comment I realized that I forgot to mention that the local KMart I described, on top of all the things wrong with it that I already mentioned, had half their lights off when I walked in (during normal business hours). Allegedly they had half the lights off "to save on energy consumption".
I'm pretty sure that was just the publicly stated reason, and the lights were as they were for one (or more) of:
To find out how many of their customers are too blind to notice (after which they'll turn off even more lights)
To mask the fact that their store is a total dump
To reduce the cost of replacing lights
Because they no longer have an employee who knows where the other light switch is
By this time we had attracted the attention of several individuals wearing smocks similar to hers. I walked out before they decided I was threatening one of their own.
Perhaps you should buy some zombie outbreak tape before you venture in there again (if you ever do).
it's a huge disappointment in nearly every respect
Sounds like exactly the kind of merchandise I would expect to see sold at KMart. For that matter, it is a pretty good summary of the KMart shopping experience.
The KMart closest to me is such a dump it makes the local Wal-Mart look like Macy's. Even if the local store was giving them away for free, I probably wouldn't be able to find them in the store, nor would I be able to find an employee in the store who could find it for me. The last time I went into the store not only did it look like a small tornado went through the store, the only "employee" (using the term very loosely) I could find was the rent-a-cop security guard at the front door, who was old enough to be my grandfather. The store had neither a cashier nor a customer service employee at the front went I left (after abandoning my purchase on the cash register belt).
They use tricks to try and hide burn in. Move the image, dim the other pixels, and so on. Both these just delay the effect.
Wrong. Moving the image can prevent the burn in. That is the whole point of it. If the technology was worthless why would they even bother making it? Granted, if you're playing tetris marathons every day for months on end, you'll likely burn in (or out) pretty much any display. I can show you a pile of burned in CRT sets at my work...
I would rather have a TV that doesn't have burn in issues at all
So you're saying the choice is dead pixels (LCD) or burn in issues (CRT). OK, I'll stick with the plasma, thank you for reinforcing what I already knew. I strongly suggest you pick up where you left off with your "research" before you go around trashing a technology that you are inadequately informed on.
They still have a horrid reflection/glare problem.
If you're using glass from the 1990s, sure. Which is probably where you got most of your information from.
On the order of 30-50% higher than an LCD. Not exactly an enormous difference; most people would never see the difference in their electric bill as the consumption would still be drowned out by their refrigerator.
screen burn in(which is not fixed just covered up)
Not much of an issue on any plasma made in the last 5-10 years. The manufacturers have been aware of the problem and implemented several techniques to pretty well reduce the rate of burn-in to negligible; more LCDs have dead pixels now than plamsas have burn-in.
and reflections worse than any CRT ever had
I don't know what kind of lighting you were watching a plasma on back in the 90s, but that issue has been pretty well quashed as well. Sure, they need glass fronts as opposed to the LCDs with their plastic fronts, that is a requirement for the gas pressure. But we do have more than one way to make glass now...
... oh, wait. The plasma displays are priced pretty much the same as the LCDs. I guess those of us who want better contrast and refresh (without buying LEDs) get treated the same as those who don't.
It does leave one to wonder, though which technology is actually better margin for the manufacturer. It seems unlikely that the production costs of the two technologies would really be that close.
If you go to the page for the Nature article that this Ars Technica article is based on, you can see the author list for the Nature paper:
Seth Cooper, Firas Khatib, Adrien Treuille, Janos Barbero, Jeehyung Lee, Michael Beenen, Andrew Leaver-Fay, David Baker, Zoran Popovi & Foldit players
So if you've played Foldit you have helped with the authorship of this paper. Not only that, but since it is a biological paper, you are a corresponding author (by virtue of being the last name on the list).
I would highly recommend listing that on your CV, or at least in your application to the Nobel Committee.
3 or 4 laptops a week in with either HDD failure or unrecoverable corruption
Admittedly I was thinking more of desktops than laptops; and laptops are a very different game when it comes to hardware mortality rates. On top of that, considering how laptops have approached (if not eclipsed) desktops in unit sales, it is a valid point that indeed it is possible that more people are going to see HD failures requiring OS reinstalls.
However, college students are not very representative of laptop users. College students tend to carry their laptops around quite a bit more than your typical user; and of course that increases the odds that the laptop will be handled poorly, which increases the chance of a physical force causing hardware failure.
No, because private enterprise would find a way to make it work.
There are as many examples of that not happening as there are of it happening.
If enough people want something and the government doesn't interfere, the free market comes up with an elegant solution that works
The free market solution for electricity prior to the rural electrification act was to just not sell it to people who were outside the cities, because it was not seen as profitable. After all at that point most of the country's wealth was concentrated in the cities, so why would the market be interested in bringing electricity to poor people who might not be able to afford the requisite rate for bringing power that far away?
Hence it is likely that had that act not taken effect, much of our agriculture (which tends to not be in large cities) would have needed to be done without electricity. That, or the farms would need to be sold to large corporations who could afford to pay for electricity to be purchased and brought to them - which would have put small businesses out of business.
or otherwise interfere with private enterprise. Every time the government does it, it fucks up the economy. Every. Single. Time.
By that line of reasoning the government should get out of the business of war, then, as it is fucking up the economy. Clearly the corporations should be entrusted to wage war on their own, hire their own armies, and fight an ethical fight.
Because after all, that is what corporations are known for.
Here's a fork - you know where to stick it to see if you're done.
I believe the proper location for said fork was the ADB port. Unfortunately as we know ADB is now legacy, so you'll have to buy a $70 adapter from Apple to convert USB to ADB and insert your fork.
no physical copy of the operating system they paid for if (or when) the hard disk fails
I know very few people who have recently reinstalled their OS due to hard drive failure. On the other hand, I know quite a few people who have had to reinstall their OS because their OS was a craptastic pile of failure that in one way or another became unusable due to non-hardware issues.
the movies that do so well in 3D in the theater (Avatar, Clash of the Titans especially) are then released only in 2D on Blu-ray.
It's released in 2D on Blu-ray so that people who want to see the movie at all buy it now. Then, at a later date, (probably when 3D TVs are more common) it'll be re-released in 3D to get as many people as possible to buy both versions of it, where they otherwise would have only bought the 3D version if it were available now.
That is one possible explanation. But on the other hand, why would they expect people to buy 3D TV sets when there are (almost) no 3D movies available to watch in 3D?
On top of that, every 3D set that I have seen advertised so far requires one pair of (expensive) glasses for every person who wants to watch the movie in 3D. And you can buy quite a few Blu-ray titles for less than the cost of another pair of glasses, so I don't think that having more 3D movies available will do much to eat into sales of 2D Blu-ray movies.
If they are including games in Windows Vista and Windows 7, they should include games in major Mobile OSes.
My BlackBerry came with a Brick Breaker game. Though really I could file this one under "games I love to hate", as this game is to Arkanoid what Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing is to OutRun. Indeed the game is so deplorable and of such atrocious functionality I can't help but wonder if someone from slashdot was loaned to help with its development...
Slashdot Mirror
He's guilty as sin and everyone but him seems to know it.
It appears based on the jury results that there is at least one other person in the country who wasn't convinced. In spite of what you may believe to be the facts of the case, US law does say that for these charges a unanimous jury verdict is required to convict the accused.
Blagojevich sure loves to blame his problems on the media, which generally isn't in the playbook of the party he ran under - although it is very much in the playbook of the other party.
I wondered how many people would see a registration form that requires an email address and a password, and interpret that to be asking them for their email password. Considering how many people fall for really atrociously bad phishing scams it wouldn't surprise me that a lot of people would give away their email passwords on registration forms either...
But I get social networking website email invites all the time. I never read them (partially because they are a popular virus vector now) and rarely even catch the name in the subject line. I really can't imagine being offended by an invite from a dead person; it's just an automated email from an automated system.
Rumor has it the plane was running Windows ME, so it crashed, came back up, and then crashed again.
... I first learned the importance of washing behind my ears after an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard. Granted, I was 5 and probably would have learned it anyways... But nonetheless Boss Hogg's Mom was good for something.
Since you posted this story, maybe there is a slight chance you'll comment in it, too.
My question for you is when will slashdot have a metamoderation system that again involves moderating moderations? I will be extremely kind and say that the current metamoderation system is a steaming pile of failure, and that is not letting any cat out of any bag around here when I say that. Since the current system doesn't actually involve scoring moderations that have already taken place, the hacks with moderator points have gone bananas with mod-bombing.
Previously my main complaint about metamoderation was that "overrated" and "underrated" moderations were exempt. Now with the new system, all moderations are essentially exempt because it just asks you to rate un-moderated comments.
... it will only end up moderated down.
Seriously, why do we call it "moderation" when there is seldom anything moderate about it? It would be better called "scoring" or "random review", since that is a better description of what actually comes from it.
I can tell you that whatever it was 7 or 8 years ago, it was better then. The metamoderation system employed currently is, to be far too kind, a total pile of worthless steaming failure buried in horse shit. Spitballs flung across your office would be more effective tools for metamoderation on slashdot than the current system. Really the only relevant question to ask about metamoderation is why they even bother keeping it up currently, it doesn't do a damned thing.
Although even worse is that the people who get moderator points know this and spend their points with wild abandon because they know that the metamoderation system will never, ever, ever do anything to them.
Go ahead, try the metamoderation link. Tell me how many of those 10 comments it asks you about were even moderated at all - if your number is greater than zero you should count yourself lucky.
First, when there aren't cheap, low end options, everyone complains - now, when there is an entry level option, you complain.
I encourage you to go back and re-read my comment; it isn't very long. I did not at any time complain about the product itself; how could I when I haven't seen one? Rather, I was pointing out the "KMart experience".
Second, KMart sells cheap stuff at cheap prices? OMFG!!!!! So the hell what?
Again, go back and re-read the comment.
It's really not like people go to KMart, expect to spend $20 on a bookcase, or $150 on an Android tablet and think they are getting top of the line products.
I didn't say that they would. However, as I stated, the KMart shopping experience has become a torturous act. KMart has decided to not only carry crappy products (which arguably are appropriate for the price) but they have also decided to shaft the customer on things like keeping products in stock, hiring halfway competent employees, keeping the store looking better than an average thrift store, ensuring a reasonably quick transaction, and keeping the damned lights on (to name only a few). A lot of KMart stores have become such utter crapholes that people are going to Wal-Mart - or even the dollar store - because it is a better use of their time and money.
KMart isnt trying to fool anyone, and no one is being fooled or is so deluded that they think anything different than what I outlined.
KMart is (naturally) trying to compete with Wal-Mart. Except the prices are no better (sometimes worse), the items are no better (also sometimes worse), the help is no better (often worse), the stores are no better (often worse), and the hours are pretty much always worse. So if they can't come up with a reason for customers to come to their stores they might as well just give up and close up shop.
The KMart I walked into could have been used as a set for a dystopian future reality "Escape from New York" style movie. There was neither customer nor cashier in any of the check out lanes. The woman behind the counter at the service desk had the demeanor of someone waiting for a bus.
After reading your comment I realized that I forgot to mention that the local KMart I described, on top of all the things wrong with it that I already mentioned, had half their lights off when I walked in (during normal business hours). Allegedly they had half the lights off "to save on energy consumption".
I'm pretty sure that was just the publicly stated reason, and the lights were as they were for one (or more) of:
By this time we had attracted the attention of several individuals wearing smocks similar to hers. I walked out before they decided I was threatening one of their own.
Perhaps you should buy some zombie outbreak tape before you venture in there again (if you ever do).
it's a huge disappointment in nearly every respect
Sounds like exactly the kind of merchandise I would expect to see sold at KMart. For that matter, it is a pretty good summary of the KMart shopping experience.
The KMart closest to me is such a dump it makes the local Wal-Mart look like Macy's. Even if the local store was giving them away for free, I probably wouldn't be able to find them in the store, nor would I be able to find an employee in the store who could find it for me. The last time I went into the store not only did it look like a small tornado went through the store, the only "employee" (using the term very loosely) I could find was the rent-a-cop security guard at the front door, who was old enough to be my grandfather. The store had neither a cashier nor a customer service employee at the front went I left (after abandoning my purchase on the cash register belt).
From my research, tis at LEAST 50%, sometime double. It's probably more then a refrigerator. 400W TV,
I think your research is dated. Here's a current model plasma 1080p HDTV rated at 298W.
They use tricks to try and hide burn in. Move the image, dim the other pixels, and so on. Both these just delay the effect.
Wrong. Moving the image can prevent the burn in. That is the whole point of it. If the technology was worthless why would they even bother making it? Granted, if you're playing tetris marathons every day for months on end, you'll likely burn in (or out) pretty much any display. I can show you a pile of burned in CRT sets at my work...
I would rather have a TV that doesn't have burn in issues at all
So you're saying the choice is dead pixels (LCD) or burn in issues (CRT). OK, I'll stick with the plasma, thank you for reinforcing what I already knew. I strongly suggest you pick up where you left off with your "research" before you go around trashing a technology that you are inadequately informed on.
They still have a horrid reflection/glare problem.
If you're using glass from the 1990s, sure. Which is probably where you got most of your information from.
And higher power use
On the order of 30-50% higher than an LCD. Not exactly an enormous difference; most people would never see the difference in their electric bill as the consumption would still be drowned out by their refrigerator.
screen burn in(which is not fixed just covered up)
Not much of an issue on any plasma made in the last 5-10 years. The manufacturers have been aware of the problem and implemented several techniques to pretty well reduce the rate of burn-in to negligible; more LCDs have dead pixels now than plamsas have burn-in.
and reflections worse than any CRT ever had
I don't know what kind of lighting you were watching a plasma on back in the 90s, but that issue has been pretty well quashed as well. Sure, they need glass fronts as opposed to the LCDs with their plastic fronts, that is a requirement for the gas pressure. But we do have more than one way to make glass now...
... oh, wait. The plasma displays are priced pretty much the same as the LCDs. I guess those of us who want better contrast and refresh (without buying LEDs) get treated the same as those who don't.
It does leave one to wonder, though which technology is actually better margin for the manufacturer. It seems unlikely that the production costs of the two technologies would really be that close.
Seth Cooper, Firas Khatib, Adrien Treuille, Janos Barbero, Jeehyung Lee, Michael Beenen, Andrew Leaver-Fay, David Baker, Zoran Popovi & Foldit players
So if you've played Foldit you have helped with the authorship of this paper. Not only that, but since it is a biological paper, you are a corresponding author (by virtue of being the last name on the list).
I would highly recommend listing that on your CV, or at least in your application to the Nobel Committee.
3 or 4 laptops a week in with either HDD failure or unrecoverable corruption
Admittedly I was thinking more of desktops than laptops; and laptops are a very different game when it comes to hardware mortality rates. On top of that, considering how laptops have approached (if not eclipsed) desktops in unit sales, it is a valid point that indeed it is possible that more people are going to see HD failures requiring OS reinstalls.
However, college students are not very representative of laptop users. College students tend to carry their laptops around quite a bit more than your typical user; and of course that increases the odds that the laptop will be handled poorly, which increases the chance of a physical force causing hardware failure.
No, because private enterprise would find a way to make it work.
There are as many examples of that not happening as there are of it happening.
If enough people want something and the government doesn't interfere, the free market comes up with an elegant solution that works
The free market solution for electricity prior to the rural electrification act was to just not sell it to people who were outside the cities, because it was not seen as profitable. After all at that point most of the country's wealth was concentrated in the cities, so why would the market be interested in bringing electricity to poor people who might not be able to afford the requisite rate for bringing power that far away?
Hence it is likely that had that act not taken effect, much of our agriculture (which tends to not be in large cities) would have needed to be done without electricity. That, or the farms would need to be sold to large corporations who could afford to pay for electricity to be purchased and brought to them - which would have put small businesses out of business.
Or are you just anti-small-business?
or otherwise interfere with private enterprise. Every time the government does it, it fucks up the economy. Every. Single. Time.
By that line of reasoning the government should get out of the business of war, then, as it is fucking up the economy. Clearly the corporations should be entrusted to wage war on their own, hire their own armies, and fight an ethical fight.
Because after all, that is what corporations are known for.
Here's a fork - you know where to stick it to see if you're done.
I believe the proper location for said fork was the ADB port. Unfortunately as we know ADB is now legacy, so you'll have to buy a $70 adapter from Apple to convert USB to ADB and insert your fork.
no physical copy of the operating system they paid for if (or when) the hard disk fails
I know very few people who have recently reinstalled their OS due to hard drive failure. On the other hand, I know quite a few people who have had to reinstall their OS because their OS was a craptastic pile of failure that in one way or another became unusable due to non-hardware issues.
if I'm flying from Houston to Frankfurt next week, should I be worried?
I don't know why one would ever be cautious about leaving Texas. If, on the other hand, you were flying to Texas I would suggest you take precaution.
the movies that do so well in 3D in the theater (Avatar, Clash of the Titans especially) are then released only in 2D on Blu-ray.
It's released in 2D on Blu-ray so that people who want to see the movie at all buy it now. Then, at a later date, (probably when 3D TVs are more common) it'll be re-released in 3D to get as many people as possible to buy both versions of it, where they otherwise would have only bought the 3D version if it were available now.
That is one possible explanation. But on the other hand, why would they expect people to buy 3D TV sets when there are (almost) no 3D movies available to watch in 3D?
On top of that, every 3D set that I have seen advertised so far requires one pair of (expensive) glasses for every person who wants to watch the movie in 3D. And you can buy quite a few Blu-ray titles for less than the cost of another pair of glasses, so I don't think that having more 3D movies available will do much to eat into sales of 2D Blu-ray movies.
If they are including games in Windows Vista and Windows 7, they should include games in major Mobile OSes.
My BlackBerry came with a Brick Breaker game. Though really I could file this one under "games I love to hate", as this game is to Arkanoid what Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing is to OutRun. Indeed the game is so deplorable and of such atrocious functionality I can't help but wonder if someone from slashdot was loaned to help with its development...