See, this is where I do things differently. I want them to know that I am the bastard sending them junk. However, I always black out the part where I am supposed to write my personal information. They already have all the information they need in order to issue a credit card to me, so I need to make it clear I don't want it. Usually I write a short note on the paper to make it clear. I never swear or use defamatory language, but I'm not exactly nice, either.
I am currently on my second mower in three years. If Snapper or any other brand really will last a decade or longer, I will gladly spend $400 over 10 years ($40/year) rather than $150 over one or two years ($75 to $100 per year) to cut my grass. My current mower is a mid-range model but it still sucks.
The real key is that this guy had the balls to say "no" to Wally World. They have a stranglehold on the retail market, starting at the producers, to the distribution chain, to the consumers buying the products. They are so dominant because they operate in a (mostly) capitalist economy driven by price. However, not everything is about price. Not every cost is measured in dollars. Basic economics: people buy luxury cars as well as sub-compacts. Why? People buy shitty $80 mowers and $400 mowers for a reason. Why?
Personally, I am waiting until my son is tall enough to reach the handle on the mower. Then I don't care. I'll sit back sipping whiskey while he does the yardwork. Ah, slave labor... I mean chores:-)
Sure, but in that hypothetical situation, the junk mailers' boxes would be full, too. As it is I use those postage paid envelopes to return all sorts of interesting stuff. Usually I just return the contents of the original envelope, but sometimes I pick up random junk off my desk that will fit in there. Used kleenex, shredded paper, page from a playboy, etc. I figure eventually they'll figure out that I don't ever want to hear from them again. If they don't figure it out, I get more free entertainment. Yes, I am easily amused.
If it's really important, there's this device called a telephone whereby you can actually speak with someone else in urgent situations.
The first thing that popped in my head was the scene from Terminator 3 where the evil terminator is making modem sounds over a cell phone to get at data in a remote system. Telephones may work for simple messages, but anything more complex such as files just doesn't make the transition.
If you can connect to the mail server over the network and fail to receive email you are expecting, especially if you know through another channel that you should have that email (e.g. telling a professor you emailed a project but he didn't receive it), I don't think the network cable is to blame.
It is rather easy to set up servers to run on nonstandard ports. I could see many people doing this as a way to bypass a "tax firewall" if it ever got that far.
Before I moved to IT I worked in the restaurant industry. That place is about as queer as a three dollar bill and I loved every minute of it. I never met a promiscuous gay man, and they never bitched about relationship problems at work like the straight people (myself included) did. They were a pleasure to work with. It's a shame that many people condemn people like you and assume you have AIDS. It's really their loss.
I've seen a few programs that check the OS version and will not run on anything but 95/98. I had a game that detected Windows NT and said "Sorry, you run NT and don't have DirectX" on a Windows 2000 box. Hello? Windows 2000 has DirectX. Fiddling with the settings to trick it into thinking it was Windows 98 made it work. If the game had simply checked for the required library instead of making an assumption, it would have run just fine. I think this is part of the reason why compatibility is such a headache. Sure, I could see dropping legacy 16 bit support, but the Win32 API hasn't changed since Windows 95. Microsoft added stuff on, but it's really not that different. Programs today, at the machine code level, are pretty much the same as they were 10 years ago with respect to the API.
Nothing they do will ever top their Tetris video. Imagine a guy dressed up like the "L" block, running around, finding the perfect spot next to a mailbox, and falling into place. Meanwhile, people wandering around the street wondering what the hell this guy dressed up as a block with a cameraman is doing. All set to a techno rendition of the Tetris theme. Good times, good times.
Exactly. In an age when Constitutional rights amount to splitting hairs (e.g. who exactly has what rights under the first amendment? May I yell "fire" in a crowded location as a prank?), this is a good thing. It means the government is paying attention. While I am all for minimal to no regulation, the regulations we do have need to count: even if it is just to say "there is no regulation, go ahead, use your first amendment rights."
Several times I've had a car stall on the highway (my old '86 Ford did not have a functioning gas gauge, and sometimes I guessed wrong on how much I had left). Every single time I was able to coast off to the shoulder. A car stopped in the middle of the highway, even one of the side lanes, is an emergency. That fact that the driver couldn't turn the wheel and coast to the shoulder tells me there is a serious problem. Yes, a stupid driver is a serious problem in this case because it's just begging for an accident.
I almost got involved in what could have been a VERY large accident. Some old guy was driving 25 fucking miles per hour in the right-hand lane. I barreled up at 60 MPH, got in the right lane for my exit, and slammed on the brakes. I couldn't see a damn thing since the road turned and came down a hill at this precise location. Turns out he had quite a line of cars behind him. Stopped? No. Emergency? Potentially. If he hadn't been getting off the highway I would have called 911 from my cell phone. In the middle of a city on a 5 lane highway with moderate traffic this could have turned into a 40 car pileup VERY easily.
I do this with my son and always have. I speak to him as though he is an adult. I may not use big words with him, but I don't baby-talk him, either. I hate it when other people talk like that, especially when the purposefully mispronounce words that he has trouble saying correctly. Rather than reinforcing the correct way to say things, they continue to teach bad habits. His grandmother (my in-law) refuses to say "grandma" correctly -- it is "gammaw". What does this teach my son? answer -- to speak like a moron.
TFA and Sun's site are low on details, but I imagine they run Solaris. So if you compile for that OS (which is binary compatible between recent versions) or, more likely, usa Java, you should be fine.
Sorry Slashdot, your ads just got blocked. They were screwing up the layout of the page and making it unreadable.
At least Slashdot gives you the option of not having ads -- you just have to pay out of your own pocket. That's what I do. I get value from the site, and they get value from my wallet. No ads. Both parties are happy.
This is one more reason why my email is a regular old email account and I access it via secure POP/SMTP. If I want to delete email, I can do it myself and make sure that it is gone forever. Maybe I'm paranoid. Better safe than sorry.
I think the real issue here is control. By allowing Google to control your email, you are forced to stand helpless when shit like this happens. Google may offer nice services, but do you really want to give up control over your personal data such as emails? I don't.
I haven't done anything too extensive with their macros, but this makes sense. I've done multiple things in a macro, but usually involving selecting targets and firing off a spell. Never tried two spells.
If this is true, what about the/macro interface? It allows multiple actions bound to a single macro, which can then be bound to a key including special extra buttons that fancy keyboards have. I think the real issue is whether the macro programming is done by the keyboard and its driver, or by Blizzard's interface. The end result is the same, but Blizzard obviously gives a shit.
The big industrial strength shredders I've seen for classified material reduce it to literally dust. Nothing is going to reconstruct anything from that.
Classified paper shredders have specific requirements for their output. Suffice to say that nothing short of divine intervention will reconstruct a document shredded by modern standards.
Overall, Windows has better driver support in the installed OS. This is because the hardware vendors have to write Windows drivers, not doing so is suicide. However, the drivers you use when booting off the CD and installing the OS are not the same. Everyone is complaining about that set of drivers.
This is where Linux has an advantage. While the Windows boot kernel isn't the same as the one in the final OS, in Linux, it is. You just compile a basic kernel, add a bunch of driver modules, and put it on a CD. You get the full operating system kernel and driver support. The only real difference is that you tailor your boot scripts to log in the user automatically and throw him into the install program. But it's still a full Linux file system, drivers, kernel, etc. The strength is that you don't need special drivers or anything special beyond the installer to install the damn operating system.
The chap on the team who is / was a friend of the guy I spoke to said he needed proof or some kind of evidence (large thread? web petition?) to convince the rest of his team / management that installing drivers from USB or CD is smart.
How about the fact that many computers today do not come with a floppy drive pre-installed, but have optical drives and on-board SATA? Hell, I've seen computers without PS/2 ports: you must use a USB keyboard and mouse. In some ways this is a lot better. Get rid of the legacy connections that while potentially useful, are not necessary. Same with the floppy. Why should a manufacturer spend $5 on a floppy when they can simply not put one in and charge the same price?
The real issue, as this thread demonstrates, is that the software manufacturers still rely on legacy technology.
Holy shit, a company (Google) interested in the long term! Part of the problem with our economy is the intense focus on short term profits and constant growth. That's like running a marathon, always trying to sprint because all that matters is the next few seconds. Eventually they'll run out of gas and fall out of the race. It may take a while, but it is inevitible.
I guarantee that turning over contol of nuclear facilities to the private sector will immediately trigger the hiring of low-wage bare minimum staffs to save money.
From what I understand, nuclear power plants are owned and operated by the private sector, but are highly regulated. Regulated to the point that they effectively are co-owned by private and public interests. Normally I am all for the free market, but anything involving splitting an atom should have the Energy department heavily involved. Incompetant bureaucracy, money-grubbing business... so far the two seem to cancel each other out.
Let's just kick this "clean" nuclear energy out the window. Nuclear plants produce some of the most toxic substances known to man. (Plutonium comes to mind).
Nuclear power plants keep their waste in shielded rooms deep inside the plant, which are then sealed up and stored so the waste doesn't get released. Coal plants, however, release more radioactive waste into the atmosphere. Coal contains traces of uranium, and as it burns, we get uranium dust in the air. Nuclear power doesn't have this problem. So, let's just kick this "clean" fossil fuel energy out the window. And unless you have a way to use hydro, solar, or wind power to produce as much energy as either fossil fuel or nuclear, we're left with this choice: store our radioactive waste deep underground, release clean steam; or burn massive quantities of coal, release tons of dirty smoke and radioactive particles in the air.
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See, this is where I do things differently. I want them to know that I am the bastard sending them junk. However, I always black out the part where I am supposed to write my personal information. They already have all the information they need in order to issue a credit card to me, so I need to make it clear I don't want it. Usually I write a short note on the paper to make it clear. I never swear or use defamatory language, but I'm not exactly nice, either.
I am currently on my second mower in three years. If Snapper or any other brand really will last a decade or longer, I will gladly spend $400 over 10 years ($40/year) rather than $150 over one or two years ($75 to $100 per year) to cut my grass. My current mower is a mid-range model but it still sucks.
The real key is that this guy had the balls to say "no" to Wally World. They have a stranglehold on the retail market, starting at the producers, to the distribution chain, to the consumers buying the products. They are so dominant because they operate in a (mostly) capitalist economy driven by price. However, not everything is about price. Not every cost is measured in dollars. Basic economics: people buy luxury cars as well as sub-compacts. Why? People buy shitty $80 mowers and $400 mowers for a reason. Why?
Personally, I am waiting until my son is tall enough to reach the handle on the mower. Then I don't care. I'll sit back sipping whiskey while he does the yardwork. Ah, slave labor... I mean chores :-)
Sure, but in that hypothetical situation, the junk mailers' boxes would be full, too. As it is I use those postage paid envelopes to return all sorts of interesting stuff. Usually I just return the contents of the original envelope, but sometimes I pick up random junk off my desk that will fit in there. Used kleenex, shredded paper, page from a playboy, etc. I figure eventually they'll figure out that I don't ever want to hear from them again. If they don't figure it out, I get more free entertainment. Yes, I am easily amused.
If it's really important, there's this device called a telephone whereby you can actually speak with someone else in urgent situations.
The first thing that popped in my head was the scene from Terminator 3 where the evil terminator is making modem sounds over a cell phone to get at data in a remote system. Telephones may work for simple messages, but anything more complex such as files just doesn't make the transition.
If you can connect to the mail server over the network and fail to receive email you are expecting, especially if you know through another channel that you should have that email (e.g. telling a professor you emailed a project but he didn't receive it), I don't think the network cable is to blame.
GP: ...over some random encrypted port...
P: ...traffic on port 25...
It is rather easy to set up servers to run on nonstandard ports. I could see many people doing this as a way to bypass a "tax firewall" if it ever got that far.
Before I moved to IT I worked in the restaurant industry. That place is about as queer as a three dollar bill and I loved every minute of it. I never met a promiscuous gay man, and they never bitched about relationship problems at work like the straight people (myself included) did. They were a pleasure to work with. It's a shame that many people condemn people like you and assume you have AIDS. It's really their loss.
I've seen a few programs that check the OS version and will not run on anything but 95/98. I had a game that detected Windows NT and said "Sorry, you run NT and don't have DirectX" on a Windows 2000 box. Hello? Windows 2000 has DirectX. Fiddling with the settings to trick it into thinking it was Windows 98 made it work. If the game had simply checked for the required library instead of making an assumption, it would have run just fine. I think this is part of the reason why compatibility is such a headache. Sure, I could see dropping legacy 16 bit support, but the Win32 API hasn't changed since Windows 95. Microsoft added stuff on, but it's really not that different. Programs today, at the machine code level, are pretty much the same as they were 10 years ago with respect to the API.
Nothing they do will ever top their Tetris video. Imagine a guy dressed up like the "L" block, running around, finding the perfect spot next to a mailbox, and falling into place. Meanwhile, people wandering around the street wondering what the hell this guy dressed up as a block with a cameraman is doing. All set to a techno rendition of the Tetris theme. Good times, good times.
If you ever drop your car keys in lava, forget it man, they're gone.
Exactly. In an age when Constitutional rights amount to splitting hairs (e.g. who exactly has what rights under the first amendment? May I yell "fire" in a crowded location as a prank?), this is a good thing. It means the government is paying attention. While I am all for minimal to no regulation, the regulations we do have need to count: even if it is just to say "there is no regulation, go ahead, use your first amendment rights."
Several times I've had a car stall on the highway (my old '86 Ford did not have a functioning gas gauge, and sometimes I guessed wrong on how much I had left). Every single time I was able to coast off to the shoulder. A car stopped in the middle of the highway, even one of the side lanes, is an emergency. That fact that the driver couldn't turn the wheel and coast to the shoulder tells me there is a serious problem. Yes, a stupid driver is a serious problem in this case because it's just begging for an accident.
I almost got involved in what could have been a VERY large accident. Some old guy was driving 25 fucking miles per hour in the right-hand lane. I barreled up at 60 MPH, got in the right lane for my exit, and slammed on the brakes. I couldn't see a damn thing since the road turned and came down a hill at this precise location. Turns out he had quite a line of cars behind him. Stopped? No. Emergency? Potentially. If he hadn't been getting off the highway I would have called 911 from my cell phone. In the middle of a city on a 5 lane highway with moderate traffic this could have turned into a 40 car pileup VERY easily.
I do this with my son and always have. I speak to him as though he is an adult. I may not use big words with him, but I don't baby-talk him, either. I hate it when other people talk like that, especially when the purposefully mispronounce words that he has trouble saying correctly. Rather than reinforcing the correct way to say things, they continue to teach bad habits. His grandmother (my in-law) refuses to say "grandma" correctly -- it is "gammaw". What does this teach my son? answer -- to speak like a moron.
TFA and Sun's site are low on details, but I imagine they run Solaris. So if you compile for that OS (which is binary compatible between recent versions) or, more likely, usa Java, you should be fine.
Sorry Slashdot, your ads just got blocked. They were screwing up the layout of the page and making it unreadable.
At least Slashdot gives you the option of not having ads -- you just have to pay out of your own pocket. That's what I do. I get value from the site, and they get value from my wallet. No ads. Both parties are happy.
This is one more reason why my email is a regular old email account and I access it via secure POP/SMTP. If I want to delete email, I can do it myself and make sure that it is gone forever. Maybe I'm paranoid. Better safe than sorry.
I think the real issue here is control. By allowing Google to control your email, you are forced to stand helpless when shit like this happens. Google may offer nice services, but do you really want to give up control over your personal data such as emails? I don't.
I haven't done anything too extensive with their macros, but this makes sense. I've done multiple things in a macro, but usually involving selecting targets and firing off a spell. Never tried two spells.
If this is true, what about the /macro interface? It allows multiple actions bound to a single macro, which can then be bound to a key including special extra buttons that fancy keyboards have. I think the real issue is whether the macro programming is done by the keyboard and its driver, or by Blizzard's interface. The end result is the same, but Blizzard obviously gives a shit.
The big industrial strength shredders I've seen for classified material reduce it to literally dust. Nothing is going to reconstruct anything from that.
Classified paper shredders have specific requirements for their output. Suffice to say that nothing short of divine intervention will reconstruct a document shredded by modern standards.
Overall, Windows has better driver support in the installed OS. This is because the hardware vendors have to write Windows drivers, not doing so is suicide. However, the drivers you use when booting off the CD and installing the OS are not the same. Everyone is complaining about that set of drivers.
This is where Linux has an advantage. While the Windows boot kernel isn't the same as the one in the final OS, in Linux, it is. You just compile a basic kernel, add a bunch of driver modules, and put it on a CD. You get the full operating system kernel and driver support. The only real difference is that you tailor your boot scripts to log in the user automatically and throw him into the install program. But it's still a full Linux file system, drivers, kernel, etc. The strength is that you don't need special drivers or anything special beyond the installer to install the damn operating system.
The chap on the team who is / was a friend of the guy I spoke to said he needed proof or some kind of evidence (large thread? web petition?) to convince the rest of his team / management that installing drivers from USB or CD is smart.
How about the fact that many computers today do not come with a floppy drive pre-installed, but have optical drives and on-board SATA? Hell, I've seen computers without PS/2 ports: you must use a USB keyboard and mouse. In some ways this is a lot better. Get rid of the legacy connections that while potentially useful, are not necessary. Same with the floppy. Why should a manufacturer spend $5 on a floppy when they can simply not put one in and charge the same price?
The real issue, as this thread demonstrates, is that the software manufacturers still rely on legacy technology.
Holy shit, a company (Google) interested in the long term! Part of the problem with our economy is the intense focus on short term profits and constant growth. That's like running a marathon, always trying to sprint because all that matters is the next few seconds. Eventually they'll run out of gas and fall out of the race. It may take a while, but it is inevitible.
What does Linux memory management have to do with Windows?
I guarantee that turning over contol of nuclear facilities to the private sector will immediately trigger the hiring of low-wage bare minimum staffs to save money.
From what I understand, nuclear power plants are owned and operated by the private sector, but are highly regulated. Regulated to the point that they effectively are co-owned by private and public interests. Normally I am all for the free market, but anything involving splitting an atom should have the Energy department heavily involved. Incompetant bureaucracy, money-grubbing business... so far the two seem to cancel each other out.
Let's just kick this "clean" nuclear energy out the window. Nuclear plants produce some of the most toxic substances known to man. (Plutonium comes to mind).
Nuclear power plants keep their waste in shielded rooms deep inside the plant, which are then sealed up and stored so the waste doesn't get released. Coal plants, however, release more radioactive waste into the atmosphere. Coal contains traces of uranium, and as it burns, we get uranium dust in the air. Nuclear power doesn't have this problem. So, let's just kick this "clean" fossil fuel energy out the window. And unless you have a way to use hydro, solar, or wind power to produce as much energy as either fossil fuel or nuclear, we're left with this choice: store our radioactive waste deep underground, release clean steam; or burn massive quantities of coal, release tons of dirty smoke and radioactive particles in the air.