Personally, I think that it's useful for Google and other search engines to show what's truly relevant when you're searching for a page. The fact is, I'm more likely to click on a search result if I can see some of the actual content, and more specifically, the actual text or images that I was looking for. If they don't show me what I want to see, I won't see the rest of it. If it only shows some text that they decide I should see, then it makes it much harder to determine what I'm actually looking at. Even as it now, when results come up that are ambiguous, I find myself less likely to click on them. I readily admit that robots.txt is getting old and isn't really enough any more, but I'm not sure if what they're proposing is the right answer. Additionally, if Google were to implement a new method of searching using ACAP, then what would happen to the sites using the old methods? Would they not be indexed? What if I want all my material to be shown and I don't feel like going through and choosing every little detail about what to allow and not to allow? It's an idea worth looking at, but it's not anywhere a finished, usable idea.
Although someone could do those things, if it were something truly private, chances are the other person isn't going to want to print it out any more than you are. As for rootkits, well, then you're screwed, but if you've got a root kit, you probably have better things to worry about than someone seeing your IM.
You still fail to address the problem of working inside one of those. A shipping container can only be so big. As Feyr said, what do you do about upgrading or replacing stuff? There's limited room to move around. You need to be able to access all the equipment, not to mention getting wiring and all set up. Also, would you want to be the captain of a ship carrying several hundred of those? If that ship sinks, then you're in deep trouble. Pun intended. Having hundreds of mobile datacenters on the sea floor isn't going to do you much good, now is it?
It seems to me that there would be too many hassles for this to ever work. The equipment in a data center is expensive, and that equipment doesn't usually like being jostled around in a truck, let alone bouncing around at sea for a while. Although in theory it's a great idea, I just don't see it ever really working out. Also, what about security? Data centers need good security. If it's so easily portable, then it wouldn't be that hard for someone to just take off with one, whereas you can't exactly stick a real data center on your getaway car. TFA suggests a warehouse to store the things in to address security and such, but doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of having them be mobile?
Just don't use credit cards. Really. Using credit gets you into debt anyway. True, there are other ways to get scammed, but if you don't have a credit card, they can't rack up the charges. If you were to use a debit card instead, then you stand to loose something, but once it runs out, it's gone and they can't keep charging more. Credit is necessary in some circumstances, but for day-to-day purchases, you might be better off without one.
True. However, someone could go across, and then someone on the other side could shoot an arrow with a string attached and the person who had crossed could go over to where the arrow landed and untie the string, then drag across a heavier rope. It would probably make more sense of course to send a group of people, since starting a bridge is likely more than one person can handle alone.
I was wondering the same thing. I would assume that if it's across water, they'd use a boat, and if it were across land, they'd take a looooong hike. Of course, once they had one bridge in across a particular obstacle, future bridges would be easier since you could just cross the existing one(s).
I've never had a problem with monitors there - they do charge a $10 fee for dealing with them though, because apparently they take extra work. The other good thing about Free Geek is that they don't just recycle the stuff, they rebuild/restore them and give them away or sell them in their thrift store. Which, I might mention, is great. You can get a wide variety of hardware, often times stuff that isn't sold or even made any more, and it's cheap. My keyboard, a nice MS ergo was something like $2.
If you don't live near Portland, there are other Free Geeks out there. You could even start one in your own town if they don't have one and you need one. Check out their website for more info.
I definitely agree; Mod parent up. We have dial-up. My neighbors have broadband with an unsecured WiFi AP. They don't say don't come in, in fact, my computer asks their router "May I come in?" and their router always says, "Sure! Here's your IP address." and then I'm connected. I highly doubt they notice or care - I don't download big files,* I don't do illegal stuff, I don't browse porn, etc. Why do I say they don't notice? Well, let's just say that in a Virtual Machine connected to the network and a member of the MSHOME workgroup can access all their shared docs, and their printers. I don't think this person knows much about the security. *Except for software updates that happen automatically
That said, it's possible that I'm misinterpreting it all. Maybe I won't even finish this post before the signa
It depends if the drive has ever been formatted before. In this case, the drive has most likely been formatted or else there wouldn't be files on the drive. However, if the drive is not pre-formatted, it can't be mounted until you format it.
Yes, a Linux live CD or a BartPE CD would probably be in order, but most people (slashdot readers do not count) wouldn't even know what those are, let alone think to use one to format their new HD, or for that matter be capable of doing so even if they wanted to. It's just too big of a hassle for ordinary folk.
That got me to think of the old urban legend that every so often a highway is supposed to be perfectly flat to act as a landing strip. This of course is bullocks for the time being, but I can see a lighter aircraft than what we have today landing on a public motorway.
Actually, there are some roads in very remote parts of Canada (maybe Alaska, too, but I've only seen 'em in Canada) where part of the "highway", which is just a gravel road, is a landing strip. The Dempster Highway in Yukon/NW Territories has several places where there will be signs that say something like "Warning: Emergency landing strip. DO NOT STOP IN THIS AREA. " or something like that. Of course, as far as highways go, it's not very populated, but still, places like that do exist.
The whole concept of "carbon neutral" and off-setting your carbon emissions for whatever reason seams kind of lame to me. Instead of continuing to do things that cause global warming while doing other things to supposedly reduce your "carbon footprint", why not just try to eliminate or reduce the problems in the first place? It's not just individuals, it's the whole mindset of society. Instead of going for carbon-neutral server farms, why not develop cleaner alternative electricity options to power those server farms? Solar power could do a lot, but we'd rather earn carbon certificates. It just doesn't make sense.
Ever tried to download something requiring WGA validation using firefox? It says you must install the WGA plugin or download the WGA validator program.
They claim it's because they don't want people to discover that windows key and use it to activate their own XP installs. So, nothing WGA works on those images, which sucks. However, they DO provide an IE 7 VHD that is identical, with the only difference being, of course, IE7 instead of IE6.
TI makes calculators that are pretty darn nice for school use. The TI-89 titanium (I WANT!!) can do so much amazing stuff (factoring, for example) that they've banned it on the SAT, ACT and other exams. The TI-83/4+ is currently what most of my high school uses. It's amazing some of the things you can do with these calculators... someone mentioned writing a program to do matrices. Well, matrices are built right in, and can be multiplied, etc. without any extra programming effort. Of course, for those who want to, (like me) you can write plenty of useful programs. The built in TI-BASIC is somewhat limited, though I have made some handy programs with it (no more quadratic formula by hand... let the calc do it and show the work, too!). The 83+ and 84+ can also be programmed with ASM, which must be done on a computer (tetris, anyone? Relieves boredom in math class!). They now even have mini-USB ports on the calcs (89 titanium and 84+) so that they can communicate with each other, such as sending programs or apps between calcs, or even (if you school has a lot of money, which mine doesn't) then have a calculator network. Cool stuff. I love my calculator.
There is a somewhat simple solution for those who have multi-core processors. Limit Firefox to only one of your cores. No matter how much (of that) CPU it uses, Windows itself can still use the other. You could even set Explorer.exe to use only the other core(s), to completely isolate the two. Yes, I realize explorer is not all of windows, but it seems that affinity can't be set on winlogon and other system tasks.:-( This doesn't solve the RAM problem, but it could help with the CPU issue. Also, it's worth noting that Firefox is only using about 100 megabytes of RAM right now for me, by far the most of anything I have open, but nowhere near the 400 megs or so some people have reported.
Most BIOS setups let you give the hard drive a password, so that someone can't open it - or format it - even if they remove it from that computer and put it in another. BIOS passwords help, too.
Slashdot Mirror
Personally, I think that it's useful for Google and other search engines to show what's truly relevant when you're searching for a page. The fact is, I'm more likely to click on a search result if I can see some of the actual content, and more specifically, the actual text or images that I was looking for. If they don't show me what I want to see, I won't see the rest of it. If it only shows some text that they decide I should see, then it makes it much harder to determine what I'm actually looking at. Even as it now, when results come up that are ambiguous, I find myself less likely to click on them. I readily admit that robots.txt is getting old and isn't really enough any more, but I'm not sure if what they're proposing is the right answer. Additionally, if Google were to implement a new method of searching using ACAP, then what would happen to the sites using the old methods? Would they not be indexed? What if I want all my material to be shown and I don't feel like going through and choosing every little detail about what to allow and not to allow? It's an idea worth looking at, but it's not anywhere a finished, usable idea.
Quite simply because they want more money. Charge them sending and receiving and you get twice as much.
And God also created this video for us. No, really. What? Of course we didn't copy it from someone else!
Although someone could do those things, if it were something truly private, chances are the other person isn't going to want to print it out any more than you are. As for rootkits, well, then you're screwed, but if you've got a root kit, you probably have better things to worry about than someone seeing your IM.
You still fail to address the problem of working inside one of those. A shipping container can only be so big. As Feyr said, what do you do about upgrading or replacing stuff? There's limited room to move around. You need to be able to access all the equipment, not to mention getting wiring and all set up. Also, would you want to be the captain of a ship carrying several hundred of those? If that ship sinks, then you're in deep trouble. Pun intended. Having hundreds of mobile datacenters on the sea floor isn't going to do you much good, now is it?
It seems to me that there would be too many hassles for this to ever work. The equipment in a data center is expensive, and that equipment doesn't usually like being jostled around in a truck, let alone bouncing around at sea for a while. Although in theory it's a great idea, I just don't see it ever really working out. Also, what about security? Data centers need good security. If it's so easily portable, then it wouldn't be that hard for someone to just take off with one, whereas you can't exactly stick a real data center on your getaway car. TFA suggests a warehouse to store the things in to address security and such, but doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of having them be mobile?
Just don't use credit cards. Really. Using credit gets you into debt anyway. True, there are other ways to get scammed, but if you don't have a credit card, they can't rack up the charges. If you were to use a debit card instead, then you stand to loose something, but once it runs out, it's gone and they can't keep charging more. Credit is necessary in some circumstances, but for day-to-day purchases, you might be better off without one.
We don't have sales tax. Which is actually a bad thing - our schools, public safety, etc. could really use some more funding. (Living in Oregon)
True. However, someone could go across, and then someone on the other side could shoot an arrow with a string attached and the person who had crossed could go over to where the arrow landed and untie the string, then drag across a heavier rope. It would probably make more sense of course to send a group of people, since starting a bridge is likely more than one person can handle alone.
I was wondering the same thing. I would assume that if it's across water, they'd use a boat, and if it were across land, they'd take a looooong hike. Of course, once they had one bridge in across a particular obstacle, future bridges would be easier since you could just cross the existing one(s).
I've never had a problem with monitors there - they do charge a $10 fee for dealing with them though, because apparently they take extra work. The other good thing about Free Geek is that they don't just recycle the stuff, they rebuild/restore them and give them away or sell them in their thrift store. Which, I might mention, is great. You can get a wide variety of hardware, often times stuff that isn't sold or even made any more, and it's cheap. My keyboard, a nice MS ergo was something like $2.
If you don't live near Portland, there are other Free Geeks out there. You could even start one in your own town if they don't have one and you need one. Check out their website for more info.
They may care - I have no way to know that. But they've certainly done nothing to show any indications of wanting to stop people. Point taken.
I definitely agree; Mod parent up. We have dial-up. My neighbors have broadband with an unsecured WiFi AP. They don't say don't come in, in fact, my computer asks their router "May I come in?" and their router always says, "Sure! Here's your IP address." and then I'm connected. I highly doubt they notice or care - I don't download big files,* I don't do illegal stuff, I don't browse porn, etc. Why do I say they don't notice? Well, let's just say that in a Virtual Machine connected to the network and a member of the MSHOME workgroup can access all their shared docs, and their printers. I don't think this person knows much about the security.
*Except for software updates that happen automatically
That said, it's possible that I'm misinterpreting it all. Maybe I won't even finish this post before the signa
Now I have to relearn everything. Just when I thought I was done with school...
It depends if the drive has ever been formatted before. In this case, the drive has most likely been formatted or else there wouldn't be files on the drive. However, if the drive is not pre-formatted, it can't be mounted until you format it.
Yes, a Linux live CD or a BartPE CD would probably be in order, but most people (slashdot readers do not count) wouldn't even know what those are, let alone think to use one to format their new HD, or for that matter be capable of doing so even if they wanted to. It's just too big of a hassle for ordinary folk.
The whole concept of "carbon neutral" and off-setting your carbon emissions for whatever reason seams kind of lame to me. Instead of continuing to do things that cause global warming while doing other things to supposedly reduce your "carbon footprint", why not just try to eliminate or reduce the problems in the first place? It's not just individuals, it's the whole mindset of society. Instead of going for carbon-neutral server farms, why not develop cleaner alternative electricity options to power those server farms? Solar power could do a lot, but we'd rather earn carbon certificates. It just doesn't make sense.
Yep. It went up, but I don't know when or why. Not related to my knowledge, since it's been up for a few weeks at least.
Ever tried to download something requiring WGA validation using firefox? It says you must install the WGA plugin or download the WGA validator program.
They claim it's because they don't want people to discover that windows key and use it to activate their own XP installs. So, nothing WGA works on those images, which sucks. However, they DO provide an IE 7 VHD that is identical, with the only difference being, of course, IE7 instead of IE6.
The part of the map for the server for the page linked to appears to be black. Yep, slashdotted.
TI makes calculators that are pretty darn nice for school use. The TI-89 titanium (I WANT!!) can do so much amazing stuff (factoring, for example) that they've banned it on the SAT, ACT and other exams. The TI-83/4+ is currently what most of my high school uses. It's amazing some of the things you can do with these calculators... someone mentioned writing a program to do matrices. Well, matrices are built right in, and can be multiplied, etc. without any extra programming effort. Of course, for those who want to, (like me) you can write plenty of useful programs. The built in TI-BASIC is somewhat limited, though I have made some handy programs with it (no more quadratic formula by hand... let the calc do it and show the work, too!). The 83+ and 84+ can also be programmed with ASM, which must be done on a computer (tetris, anyone? Relieves boredom in math class!). They now even have mini-USB ports on the calcs (89 titanium and 84+) so that they can communicate with each other, such as sending programs or apps between calcs, or even (if you school has a lot of money, which mine doesn't) then have a calculator network. Cool stuff. I love my calculator.
There is a somewhat simple solution for those who have multi-core processors. Limit Firefox to only one of your cores. No matter how much (of that) CPU it uses, Windows itself can still use the other. You could even set Explorer.exe to use only the other core(s), to completely isolate the two. Yes, I realize explorer is not all of windows, but it seems that affinity can't be set on winlogon and other system tasks. :-( This doesn't solve the RAM problem, but it could help with the CPU issue. Also, it's worth noting that Firefox is only using about 100 megabytes of RAM right now for me, by far the most of anything I have open, but nowhere near the 400 megs or so some people have reported.
I don't think so. My Gmail still says Gmail everywhere... unless you're in Germany; wasn't there some trademark on Gmail already?
Most BIOS setups let you give the hard drive a password, so that someone can't open it - or format it - even if they remove it from that computer and put it in another. BIOS passwords help, too.