I looked at the patent page and noticed "Hey I used to live in the same town as this guy!". Then I looked at the guy's name and remembered that I used to live across the street from this guy when I was a kid in grade school (he was about 13 at the time, I guess). He was the definitely the weird kid on the block.
I would check out the companies that make a ruggedized equipment chassis. A lot of them sell CPUs to install in them. You might even find disk drive enclosures that can operate while you're driving (pretty scary thought, though). Someone recommended laptop drives which would be a good idea since their small size should make them somewhat less susceptible to shock problems.
The automotive environment is a very harsh environment to build for (which I'm sure you've figured out) what with the heat, vibration, moisture, and power requirements. Hey! Is NORDEN still building computers? If their's can't run in an automobile...
Hope this works out for you. I'm sort hoping that you'll come up with an optional heads-up X display for the passenger side (for safety reasons, you understand) with a glove box mouse.
``However, I was told by someone a few days ago that the EULA isn't even valid in Britain - you can't force someone to accept something before they have read it.''
Hopefully this isn't just urban folklore: There was a court case I heard about years ago where someone successfully had a ``contract'' thrown out because customers were not actually reading them. The case involved a guy whose car was damaged by a parking lot attendant. The parking garage claimed they weren't liable for damages because of some fine print they had on the back of the claim check that stated they weren't responsible for any damages that occurred while you were parked in their garage. The judge said this was not a valid agreement since nobody reads the back of the claim check and wouldn't know about this loophole the parking garage had tried to create (perhaps they were just trying to discourage customers from suing them). The guy whose car was damaged won his lawsuit.
I wonder if such a decision could be reached regarding these ridiculous EULAs. What's next? Claiming that by reading the advertisement for the computer you were agreeing to pay for Windows?
I sent in a bit to/. some time ago (though the editors chose not to include it on the/. page) pointing out that it was somewhat humorous that the Dell catalog I'd received in the mail showed several of their systems with penguins all over the monitors (they weren't Tux, though).
Think Dell was somehow signaling that a preloaded Linux was soon to be available to potential buyers?
``Visual Basic? Good? Dear god! It's evil! Dijkstra was right when he said "It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students that have had prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.''
And yet the local community college's programming sequence requires you to either take a course on BASIC or to pass a test proving that you know how to lrogram in BASIC before you're allowed to take a class in C or Java.
Unfortunately, I don't think this is that unusual.
I read a similar story several years ago. NASA collects an enormous amount of data from the various probes that are wandering about the solar system. At that time, I'm not sure that CD-ROM was proven for data yet and they were placing everything onto magtape.
Now that CD-ROM is pretty well established, I can't see why it wouldn't be suitable for copying those old tapes onto. OK, OK, DVD will hold more but even CD-ROM will hold tons more than an old 9-track tape. A simple calculation (feel free to correct me if I messed up here) shows
(2400 * 12 * 6250) / 8 = up to about 21 MB
I'm guessing that a 9-track tape takes up about the same amount of shelf space as about 6-7 CD-ROMs. Let's see that's 21 MB vs. 3600-4200 MB. Looks to me like they gain back some floor/shelf space as well as longer life for the data.
The concern about access time can't be that legitimate. Robotic tape handlers aren't any faster than CD-ROM handlers/jukeboxes.
I hope NASA acts on this before those old tapes become totally unreadable. Loss of this data, IMHO, would be a catastrophe.
``With all the emphasis on electronic banking these days, I'm glad for it. I still remember trying to get a bank to release the funds on a cheque I'd deposited electronically the day before. They said if there was someone at the bank who could vouch for me, they'd do it. I said, "For years you guys have been encouraging me to do electronic banking, so I've only been in here once before. However, if you check with the computer, *it* will vouch for me, because it will show that I have consistently deposited a pay cheque at this time of the month for 2 years, and that I've never been overdrawn." It wasn't good enough for them.''
EXACTLY! The banks have been pretty much doing everything they can to discourage actually walking up to a teller window. Now that they've succeeding in getting us (or at least you) to avoid tying up the time of those highly-paid bank tellers (:-) ), the only thing that'll satisfy them when you want to make a withdrawal (like yours) is for you to have used a part of their service that they gotten you to stop using. This is the way to foster customer loyalty.
I don't know about your bank, but I've noticed over the past few years that more and more of the banks that I've been to have these sign posted stating ``Please don't offended if we ask to see identification because we probably won't recognize you.'' So much foe the ability to get someone from the bank to vouch for you. Perhaps if you just applied for a loan the week before (i.e. gotten yourself into the position of owing the bank money!) then maybe, just maybe, they'll remember you.
``I changed banks.''
They deserve more of this. (BTW, I'm about to change banks because the services that I once had have changed so much since the bank was purchased that it seems that the service that I pay for are geared more for the convenience of the bank.
``Sir, we're here to confiscate your computer equipment. There are song lyrics in your fortune data files and Harry Fox doesn't want anyone to be able to read song lyrics without paying a fee.''
That would be the fairly recently late Isaac Asimov, not the really late Sir Isaac Newton.
Also, this whole spacecraft/colony concept reminds me a lot more of an earlier Asimov novel ``Children of the Stars''. I hope I didn;t butcher the title too badly; I read it nearly thirty years ago. It was about a spaceship, not too unlike the one described by the Bell researcher, with a colony onboard. After several dozen generations, the onboard society loses sight of the fact that they on a ship, their society breaks down, no one fixes the machines, etc. etc. until the hero discovers the truth.
Great book if you can find it. Most bookstores nowadays carry the Foundation trilogy and not much else of the Master.
5 of the movies are free (At First?)
on
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· Score: 1
Are these free forever or did they just waive the charge for the purchase price (about $5 if memory serves)? If they're not free forever, the poor sap who falls for the DiVX scam ends up paying the per view charge 48 hours after the first viewing. What a deal, eh?
Notes was always a sure-fire way to make a PC crash (at least eventually) since it was such a memory pig. As I result, most of the people I worked with that were unfortunate enough to have to use it were rebooting a ton more times than I was.
I got used to not using it so I can't say I'm looking forward to its arrival on Linux. Though, I guess it might actually be more stable when running on Linux and be able to rely on decent memory management...
I have to agree with the post that said the Notes interface was ``ugly''. I'd go one step further and say it has the ``nicest'' user interface since All-In-One (heh heh heh).
This is typical for MicroSloth... Now we can expect development to halt for Jini because MS has decided to rule this market as well.
How long will it be before Bill gates tries to convince us that this functionality needs to be part of the operating system.
I can hardly wait until I can't go out and buy a fscking desk lamp without having to pay tribute to Bill Gates. Next thing, they'll claim a patent on photons.
The first SCSI drive whose purchase I was involved in cost something like $400 for 20MB. A couple of years later I was buying 200MB for $350. Just a couple of weeks ago I was able to get 4.2GB UW disks for under $250. (Of course, I still pay nearly a grand for a 4GB StorageWorks disk; I guess that little plastic module costs quite a bit to manufacture)
How is SCSI not getting cheaper? There are advantages to SCSI that the people who buy IDE apparently don't need to take of advantage of (performance in multitasking environments, etc.). If you're going to need lots of disk space, IMHO, SCSI is the only way to go unless you want to keep replacing your four IDE disks with larger and larger sized drives (and somehow dealing with the risk of having more and more data on a single point of failure^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hspindle).
I do wish controllers would come down in price. I'd much rather use a few fewer drives on a controller and use multiple controllers to balance I/O and having multiple controllers is The Only Way To Go (tm) for drive mirroring.
...my tax dollars going toward the subsidized "incubation centers" that help small businesses get off the ground?
It seems to me that these grants would allow someone to create an OSS product which they would have to give away. If they want to really make money off of it theiy're going to have to go the same route as the RedHats of the world who sell packaging and support.
Again... I must be missing something cuz I can't see a big downside to this. (Unlss the software isn't going to be OSS.)
As a taxpayer, I'd rather see this sort of funding take place than a lot of the other, even more questionable, projects that are funded under Govt. grants.
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I looked at the patent page and noticed "Hey I used to live in the same town as this guy!". Then I looked at the guy's name and remembered that I used to live across the street from this guy when I was a kid in grade school (he was about 13 at the time, I guess). He was the definitely the weird kid on the block.
I would check out the companies that make a ruggedized equipment chassis. A lot of them sell CPUs to install in them. You might even find disk drive enclosures that can operate while you're driving (pretty scary thought, though). Someone recommended laptop drives which would be a good idea since their small size should make them somewhat less susceptible to shock problems.
The automotive environment is a very harsh environment to build for (which I'm sure you've figured out) what with the heat, vibration, moisture, and power requirements. Hey! Is NORDEN still building computers? If their's can't run in an automobile...
Hope this works out for you. I'm sort hoping that you'll come up with an optional heads-up X display for the passenger side (for safety reasons, you understand) with a glove box mouse.
Hopefully this isn't just urban folklore: There was a court case I heard about years ago where someone successfully had a ``contract'' thrown out because customers were not actually reading them. The case involved a guy whose car was damaged by a parking lot attendant. The parking garage claimed they weren't liable for damages because of some fine print they had on the back of the claim check that stated they weren't responsible for any damages that occurred while you were parked in their garage. The judge said this was not a valid agreement since nobody reads the back of the claim check and wouldn't know about this loophole the parking garage had tried to create (perhaps they were just trying to discourage customers from suing them). The guy whose car was damaged won his lawsuit.
I wonder if such a decision could be reached regarding these ridiculous EULAs. What's next? Claiming that by reading the advertisement for the computer you were agreeing to pay for Windows?
I sent in a bit to /. some time ago (though the editors chose not to include it on the /. page) pointing out that it was somewhat humorous that the Dell catalog I'd received in the mail showed several of their systems with penguins all over the monitors (they weren't Tux, though).
Think Dell was somehow signaling that a preloaded Linux was soon to be available to potential buyers?
And yet the local community college's programming sequence requires you to either take a course on BASIC or to pass a test proving that you know how to lrogram in BASIC before you're allowed to take a class in C or Java.
Unfortunately, I don't think this is that unusual.
I read a similar story several years ago. NASA collects an enormous amount of data from the various probes that are wandering about the solar system. At that time, I'm not sure that CD-ROM was proven for data yet and they were placing everything onto magtape.
Now that CD-ROM is pretty well established, I can't see why it wouldn't be suitable for copying those old tapes onto. OK, OK, DVD will hold more but even CD-ROM will hold tons more than an old 9-track tape. A simple calculation (feel free to correct me if I messed up here) shows
(2400 * 12 * 6250) / 8 = up to about 21 MB
I'm guessing that a 9-track tape takes up about the same amount of shelf space as about 6-7 CD-ROMs. Let's see that's 21 MB vs. 3600-4200 MB. Looks to me like they gain back some floor/shelf space as well as longer life for the data.
The concern about access time can't be that legitimate. Robotic tape handlers aren't any faster than CD-ROM handlers/jukeboxes.
I hope NASA acts on this before those old tapes become totally unreadable. Loss of this data, IMHO, would be a catastrophe.
EXACTLY! The banks have been pretty much doing everything they can to discourage actually walking up to a teller window. Now that they've succeeding in getting us (or at least you) to avoid tying up the time of those highly-paid bank tellers ( :-) ), the only thing that'll satisfy them when you want to make a withdrawal (like yours) is for you to have used a part of their service that they gotten you to stop using. This is the way to foster customer loyalty.
I don't know about your bank, but I've noticed over the past few years that more and more of the banks that I've been to have these sign posted stating ``Please don't offended if we ask to see identification because we probably won't recognize you.'' So much foe the ability to get someone from the bank to vouch for you. Perhaps if you just applied for a loan the week before (i.e. gotten yourself into the position of owing the bank money!) then maybe, just maybe, they'll remember you.
They deserve more of this. (BTW, I'm about to change banks because the services that I once had have changed so much since the bank was purchased that it seems that the service that I pay for are geared more for the convenience of the bank.
Wouldn't put it past Harry Fox and company.
That would be the fairly recently late Isaac Asimov, not the really late Sir Isaac Newton.
Also, this whole spacecraft/colony concept reminds me a lot more of an earlier Asimov novel ``Children of the Stars''. I hope I didn;t butcher the title too badly; I read it nearly thirty years ago. It was about a spaceship, not too unlike the one described by the Bell researcher, with a colony onboard. After several dozen generations, the onboard society loses sight of the fact that they on a ship, their society breaks down, no one fixes the machines, etc. etc. until the hero discovers the truth.
Great book if you can find it. Most bookstores nowadays carry the Foundation trilogy and not much else of the Master.
Are these free forever or did they just waive the charge for the purchase price (about $5 if memory serves)? If they're not free forever, the poor sap who falls for the DiVX scam ends up paying the per view charge 48 hours after the first viewing. What a deal, eh?
Notes was always a sure-fire way to make a PC crash (at least eventually) since it was such a memory pig. As I result, most of the people I worked with that were unfortunate enough to have to use it were rebooting a ton more times than I was.
I got used to not using it so I can't say I'm looking forward to its arrival on Linux. Though, I guess it might actually be more stable when running on Linux and be able to rely on decent memory management...
I have to agree with the post that said the Notes interface was ``ugly''. I'd go one step further and say it has the ``nicest'' user interface since All-In-One (heh heh heh).
...for me (not enough drive bays, smaller PS than I currently have, etc.) but they're more interesting to look at than most.
I think I'll stick with "putty" until I figure out how to put a nice wood veneer on my current case. What's Norm Abrams' e-mail address?
This is typical for MicroSloth... Now we can expect development to halt for Jini because MS has decided to rule this market as well.
How long will it be before Bill gates tries to convince us that this functionality needs to be part of the operating system.
I can hardly wait until I can't go out and buy a fscking desk lamp without having to pay tribute to Bill Gates. Next thing, they'll claim a patent on photons.
The first SCSI drive whose purchase I was involved in cost something like $400 for 20MB. A couple of years later I was buying 200MB for $350. Just a couple of weeks ago I was able to get 4.2GB UW disks for under $250. (Of course, I still pay nearly a grand for a 4GB StorageWorks disk; I guess that little plastic module costs quite a bit to manufacture)
How is SCSI not getting cheaper? There are advantages to SCSI that the people who buy IDE apparently don't need to take of advantage of (performance in multitasking environments, etc.). If you're going to need lots of disk space, IMHO, SCSI is the only way to go unless you want to keep replacing your four IDE disks with larger and larger sized drives (and somehow dealing with the risk of having more and more data on a single point of failure^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hspindle).
I do wish controllers would come down in price. I'd much rather use a few fewer drives on a controller and use multiple controllers to balance I/O and having multiple controllers is The Only Way To Go (tm) for drive mirroring.
...my tax dollars going toward the subsidized "incubation centers" that help small businesses get off the ground?
It seems to me that these grants would allow someone to create an OSS product which they would have to give away. If they want to really make money off of it theiy're going to have to go the same route as the RedHats of the world who sell packaging and support.
Again... I must be missing something cuz I can't see a big downside to this. (Unlss the software isn't going to be OSS.)
As a taxpayer, I'd rather see this sort of funding take place than a lot of the other, even more questionable, projects that are funded under Govt. grants.