There are a certain set of basic skills that we need to function and succeed in society. The school system provides most of these (language, math, science, social interaction) but not all. There are other skills that are just as important, such as meeting unexpected challenges (both physical and mental), developing curiosity, self-reliance, exploring new experiences and having time to reflect on it all. Having time off for the summer provides opportunities for this type of learning. If a child is in a sheltered protected shell of the school system for 12 to 13 years of their lives, they aren't going to learn these skills until they are adults, if ever.
Note that I said that the summer offers opportunities for a different type of learning. This requires parental involvement and, in most cases, some sort of flexible work schedule. The way my Dad used to handle it is that he took Mondays and Fridays off during the summer for the months of July and August, which we spent at the family camp on a lake.
Parents just aren't providing an environment during the summer that is conducive to exploration. Kids, today, aren't allowed to go biking to a fishing hole with their friends because of fear. Instead they are essentially locked in their house with the TV. This isn't going to be solved by a longer school year. I'd rather see the money spent on summer camps and community activities for financially strapped families.
The primary goal of the school system and university is to teach the skills that are needed to enable an individual to be able to learn on their own. Once you have the ability to learn on your own, you are in control of what you want to spend your life doing. Don't get me wrong, learning takes a lot of work. Success requires a bit of luck and help from others. Sometimes those contacts are made at summer camp...
... if you plan on reading books for an extended period of time, you are better off getting an e-Reader. The E-Ink display technology is as close to paper that you can get and I find it much easier on my eyes than reading a laptop or tablet screen. The Kindle works well in all lighting conditions and the battery lasts a really long time (over 2 weeks without a charge). I would recommend getting the official Kindle lighted cover. It's a bit on the pricy side, but it's great having the built-in light for late night reading, over-night plane trips, camping, etc.
However, if you are looking for a device to read manuals, search for content, and with interactive capabilities, then you need a tablet.
I have both a Kindle and a tablet. I use the Kindle to read books (i.e. Game of Thrones) and the tablet for manuals (i.e. Kenwood stereo installation in my car). Each has their strengths and weaknesses.
However, the biggest problems with a hammock/beach/dock is that laptop displays still suck in the sun. E-Ink is the closest thing, so far, to a solution. But it's taking them forever to come up with a decent color screen with a good refresh rate and low cost.
XP is still around because Enterprise customers had established management tools, applications, and processes, milking as much as they could for their hardware (XP runs well on lower spec machines, compared to Windows 7) and software investment. In fact, most wouldn't be migrating to Windows 7 if it wasn't for Microsoft ending support,refusing to provide other component upgrades (IE 9, etc.), and security holes. Vista was used as an excuse to for IT budget cutbacks. Most enterprises have used the XP support extension to deploy Windows 7 as part of their equipment refresh process.
I'm thinking that you are confused between a mini-USB female port on the phone and the proprietary_connector-to-USB cables.
mini-USB female ports on phones was consistently deployed on all phones. The only difference was that some phones required AC/DC adapters that put out more power than others. You just have to remember to take the highest rated power adapter with you.
I'm curious as to what the business case is to replace your current server? You say that it is on it's "last legs" but didn't say exactly what this means. Is it end-of-life, running out of room, running slow? End-of-life definitely means replacement but the other two are solvable.
There are fundamental questions that you need to answer before deciding to select a replacement using different technology. For example, have you factored in the replacement for any add-on software (i.e. anti-virus, encryption, backup, etc.)? Are you willing to spend time and resources to learn how to operate, maintain, and manage a new system? How well is the vendor support rated and are they available on weekends, after-hours?
Microsoft Server may not be the most efficient OS for file serving, but it is the easiest to support.
I would definitely recommend buying a piece of hardware that has out-of-band management, assuming that you have remote access (i.e. VPN) to your office. This allows remote access to the hardware when the OS is not working properly. Saves having to run into the office to troubleshoot a problem.
I've opened many a tech device from various manufacturers, including Apple, and the best quality packaging I have seen has been for the HP Touchpad and accessories. The materials were good quality heavy-weight and well designed. The Touchpad was definitely designed to be a premium product. It's too bad that it was never really given a chance.
The easiest packaging that I have dealt with is the Amazon frustration free packaging. You just open a box, and there it is...
Apple packaging is what I would call average. Most manufacturers have below average packaging to save costs. This is what makes Apple packaging look better. If you compared the Apple packaging to the Touchpad packaging you would be amazed at how flimsy the Apple packaging really is, in comparison.
I have a HP Touchpad (got it during the fire sale) running CM9. I've installed an application (Sixaxis Controller) that allows my PS3 controller to connect via Bluetooth. I tested it out on a jetski racing game (Riptide GP) that I bought from the Google PLAY market. It works really well. It turns my touchpad into a portable gaming platform. I am not sure how many other games support a game controller as I've been busy playing Skyrim instead of tablet games...
iGoogle has been my home page for years as well. I check my email, news, sports, slashdot, woot, weather, traffic, movie times, network tools, etc. all in one interface. I'm going to be very sad to see it go. Those that never used it missed out on a good app that could be used to consolidate a bunch of information in one place.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what might be a good replacement?
No... The market will eventually weed it down to 2 or 3 major players, iOS, Android, and ???? What's prompting the entrance of additional contenders are the strategic miss-steps of phone stalwarts Nokia and RIM. In addition, the cell phone market still has high margins, unlike the rest of the tech market. I'm surprised that Dell and/or HP hasn't announced their own phone lineup.
Personally, I think that Nokia will make a comeback with Win8 and it will take the 3rd position and RIM will likely evolve to provide phone management tools for the enterprise.
No, they don't!! An extreme example is the Drumhill rotary near Lowell. I used to drive through there every day to work and every day there was at least one accident. Granted, it was the most poorly designed rotary possible with bad sight lines, but people had no idea what to do when trying to navigate it. It was changed to a 4 way stop during the Route 3 expansion.
Massachusetts has got to have the worst road designers EVER. Off and On ramps that are way too short, poorly built rotaries, lack of feeder roads, merge lanes with multiple lanes instead of filtering down to one, etc.
I use the Quick Launch for everything. I have it set to not show text or titles and the view set to small icons. I have about 45 icons on my Quick Launch bar on my XP system at work and about 60 on my Windows 7 home system. I basically have all of my apps one click away. I very rarely use the Start menu unless it is for a very rarely used application.
The only time I store documents on my desktop is for unfinished work (Word doc, Visio diagram, etc). Once the project is over, I clean up my desktop and move relevant documentation to the project or support folders on the corporate network.
Yes, it's overkill. However, it would allow film makers to precisely place sounds in a 3D landscape. If 3D ends up being the fad we think it is, it would be an expensive upgrade for the movie theater with no real benefit.
The poor reporting around the recent Microsoft announcements is like chum to the anti-Microsoft sharks here at Slashdot.
Microsoft announces a piece of hardware that is better than any of their hardware partners have offered EVER. Any yet, Microsoft is the "Bad Guy"?
How is it that the "hardware specialists", who have had over 3 years to come up with an iPad clone, just can't get it done? At this point, the hardware vendors deserve what they get. They've proven that they either cannot, will not, or just simply refuse to invest in competing on quality. Blaming Microsoft for being a "bad partner" stretches credibility to the breaking point.
I grew up listening to music. I remember listening to my father's old 45's from the 50's as a kid. I spent most of my childhood summers at the family camp on a lake listening to music on the radio from the late 70's and spent my teen years listening to and buying 80's music. Most of the music from the 70's and 80's, whether you liked it or not, had different styles. You could tell within the first three seconds the song title and the artist. You would be hard pressed to do that with the songs being produced today. My thought is that the lack of variety is a result of the homogenization of radio stations and the need for every song to be commercially viable.
I find that it takes an effort now to find original sounds as you can't rely on the radio stations to showcase new music. For example, I listen to the CBC Radio3 podcast. It showcases new and rising Canadian artists. One of the few radio stations in my area that I enjoy is 92.5 The River. Of course, you can always find interesting music on the streaming radio stations. However, I largely listen to music in the car.
First, I agree that you should be able to install any OS that you want on a computer without it invalidating the warranty. However, the reality is that retailers and manufacturers see product returned because people overclock their computers and fry something, accidentally drop it, etc. Because of a few people who refuse to take responsibility for their actions, retailers and manufacturers are forced to make the warranty terms relatively strict.
Secondly, If you want to install another OS and maintain your warranty then you should be smart enough to realize that you have revert it back to the shipped configuration. The best way to do this would be to buy a new drive, swap it with the factory one, then install LINUX. If something goes wrong, you just swap the original drive back in. The other option, if you have another computer, is to remove the factory shipped hard-drive, take a drive image, re-install, and then install LINUX. You can then re-image the drive if you have to ship the computer back.
The first thing that I do when I get a new laptop is take an image of the shipped drive. Then I blow it away and install Windows from scratch. If a Windows guy can figure this out, why can't you LINUX guys and gals... (grin)
Anything that requires promiscuous mode or low level access to the network drivers. The extra layer of virtualization and the generic VM network drivers prevents this type of access.
Anything that would take up all of the resources for any of the key system components (i.e. CPU, Disk I/O, Network I/O). Some examples of these would usually be Database servers, Backup master servers, etc.
I wonder if this cultural, learned, or genetic behavior?
The reason why I ask is because I find the serving sizes for just about everything in the US to be too big. I grew up in Canada and moved to Boston about 12 years ago. I find that, when I go out to eat, I usually have food left over. I sometimes get flack from my friends about wasting food, but the way I see it is that I stop eating when I've had enough. I never continue to eat just to clean off the plate. The same applies to soda and other drinks.
So, for me, serving size doesn't matter, I simply stop when I've had enough.
I understand the environmental and health risks of building tech. Just as I am aware of the same issues surrounding automobiles and just about everything else that goes into modern living. However, I do not have any sort of twinge of conscience when buying. Why? Because I am much more concerned about other social ills such as genocide, wars, starvation, and slave trade.
While I would like to focus energy on cleaning up tech, there are much bigger concerns that we really should be addressing first.
The HP DV6T seems to fit your criteria and is about $1100 and has an option for a 160GB SSD drive. Most reviews seem to rate it high. They also seem to be rated well on Amazon.
I have a HP DM4T that I haven't had any problems with...
HP laptops are NOT junk. They are actually quite good. I have an HP (DM4T), my sister and my two nephews have HPs and we have not had any problems with them. As for support, support is always hit or miss in this age of cheap call centers. Then again, we have never had to use their support.
The only company that seems to offer decent support today is Apple. At the very least you can bring your computer into a local Genius Bar. But, you pay for that privilege through higher prices and a much smaller offering of apps and games.
The "sweet spot" will always be $200 for these drives in the consumer market, which drives down the price of those 2TB drives considerably (back down to pre-flood prices).
Speak for yourself. The sweet spot for me has always been around $125. Of course, I learned long ago that finding the sweet spot, within a hard-drive category (i.e. 7200 RPM drives), is a matter of dividing the price by the amount of space and buying the drive that gives you the most bang for your buck. This works for memory as well.
Of course, my setup is not common as I run a RAID-5 array, plus spare, on my desktop system, so I can make use of cheap disks and add storage space as the "sweet spot" moves to larger capacities. I replace one disk at a time, letting the RAID-5 rebuild, eventually I have added space that I can either use to expand an existing partition or add a new partition.
Basically, it's a study of the Internet and, in my opinion, would have little application in a corporate LAN. The reason why I say this is because a Corporate LAN is more deterministic in path selection and is limited by cost.
It sounds like they are studying the effect of having intelligent nodes in a network that not just forwards a packet, but also performs error correction, has some basic path intelligence, and sends the packet out multiple interfaces. The end node then receives these hybrid packets from different directions, some coming faster, some later, developing a map with the most efficient path.
One could argue that this could be used, for example, in a mesh MPLS cloud when a path through a specific hop (i.e. office) may be more efficient, because of network conditions, than going straight to the end node. However, this would require each node to have enough bandwidth to support the added traffic, over and above the normal location traffic. Which means requiring a larger budget for bandwidth that is only used in certain degraded conditions.
Basically, it's a study of the Internet and, in my opinion, would have little application in a corporate LAN. The reason why I say this is because a Corporate LAN is more deterministic in path selection and is limited by cost.
Slashdot Mirror
There are a certain set of basic skills that we need to function and succeed in society. The school system provides most of these (language, math, science, social interaction) but not all. There are other skills that are just as important, such as meeting unexpected challenges (both physical and mental), developing curiosity, self-reliance, exploring new experiences and having time to reflect on it all. Having time off for the summer provides opportunities for this type of learning. If a child is in a sheltered protected shell of the school system for 12 to 13 years of their lives, they aren't going to learn these skills until they are adults, if ever.
Note that I said that the summer offers opportunities for a different type of learning. This requires parental involvement and, in most cases, some sort of flexible work schedule. The way my Dad used to handle it is that he took Mondays and Fridays off during the summer for the months of July and August, which we spent at the family camp on a lake.
Parents just aren't providing an environment during the summer that is conducive to exploration. Kids, today, aren't allowed to go biking to a fishing hole with their friends because of fear. Instead they are essentially locked in their house with the TV. This isn't going to be solved by a longer school year. I'd rather see the money spent on summer camps and community activities for financially strapped families.
The primary goal of the school system and university is to teach the skills that are needed to enable an individual to be able to learn on their own. Once you have the ability to learn on your own, you are in control of what you want to spend your life doing. Don't get me wrong, learning takes a lot of work. Success requires a bit of luck and help from others. Sometimes those contacts are made at summer camp...
... if you plan on reading books for an extended period of time, you are better off getting an e-Reader. The E-Ink display technology is as close to paper that you can get and I find it much easier on my eyes than reading a laptop or tablet screen. The Kindle works well in all lighting conditions and the battery lasts a really long time (over 2 weeks without a charge). I would recommend getting the official Kindle lighted cover. It's a bit on the pricy side, but it's great having the built-in light for late night reading, over-night plane trips, camping, etc.
However, if you are looking for a device to read manuals, search for content, and with interactive capabilities, then you need a tablet.
I have both a Kindle and a tablet. I use the Kindle to read books (i.e. Game of Thrones) and the tablet for manuals (i.e. Kenwood stereo installation in my car). Each has their strengths and weaknesses.
I agree... I love hammocks...
However, the biggest problems with a hammock/beach/dock is that laptop displays still suck in the sun. E-Ink is the closest thing, so far, to a solution. But it's taking them forever to come up with a decent color screen with a good refresh rate and low cost.
XP is still around because Enterprise customers had established management tools, applications, and processes, milking as much as they could for their hardware (XP runs well on lower spec machines, compared to Windows 7) and software investment. In fact, most wouldn't be migrating to Windows 7 if it wasn't for Microsoft ending support,refusing to provide other component upgrades (IE 9, etc.), and security holes. Vista was used as an excuse to for IT budget cutbacks. Most enterprises have used the XP support extension to deploy Windows 7 as part of their equipment refresh process.
I'm thinking that you are confused between a mini-USB female port on the phone and the proprietary_connector-to-USB cables.
mini-USB female ports on phones was consistently deployed on all phones. The only difference was that some phones required AC/DC adapters that put out more power than others. You just have to remember to take the highest rated power adapter with you.
I'm curious as to what the business case is to replace your current server? You say that it is on it's "last legs" but didn't say exactly what this means. Is it end-of-life, running out of room, running slow? End-of-life definitely means replacement but the other two are solvable.
There are fundamental questions that you need to answer before deciding to select a replacement using different technology. For example, have you factored in the replacement for any add-on software (i.e. anti-virus, encryption, backup, etc.)? Are you willing to spend time and resources to learn how to operate, maintain, and manage a new system? How well is the vendor support rated and are they available on weekends, after-hours?
Microsoft Server may not be the most efficient OS for file serving, but it is the easiest to support.
I would definitely recommend buying a piece of hardware that has out-of-band management, assuming that you have remote access (i.e. VPN) to your office. This allows remote access to the hardware when the OS is not working properly. Saves having to run into the office to troubleshoot a problem.
I've opened many a tech device from various manufacturers, including Apple, and the best quality packaging I have seen has been for the HP Touchpad and accessories. The materials were good quality heavy-weight and well designed. The Touchpad was definitely designed to be a premium product. It's too bad that it was never really given a chance.
The easiest packaging that I have dealt with is the Amazon frustration free packaging. You just open a box, and there it is...
Apple packaging is what I would call average. Most manufacturers have below average packaging to save costs. This is what makes Apple packaging look better. If you compared the Apple packaging to the Touchpad packaging you would be amazed at how flimsy the Apple packaging really is, in comparison.
I have a HP Touchpad (got it during the fire sale) running CM9. I've installed an application (Sixaxis Controller) that allows my PS3 controller to connect via Bluetooth. I tested it out on a jetski racing game (Riptide GP) that I bought from the Google PLAY market. It works really well. It turns my touchpad into a portable gaming platform. I am not sure how many other games support a game controller as I've been busy playing Skyrim instead of tablet games...
I use iGoogle all the time on my tablet. It would take several mobile apps to replace it.
iGoogle has been my home page for years as well. I check my email, news, sports, slashdot, woot, weather, traffic, movie times, network tools, etc. all in one interface. I'm going to be very sad to see it go. Those that never used it missed out on a good app that could be used to consolidate a bunch of information in one place.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to what might be a good replacement?
No... The market will eventually weed it down to 2 or 3 major players, iOS, Android, and ???? What's prompting the entrance of additional contenders are the strategic miss-steps of phone stalwarts Nokia and RIM. In addition, the cell phone market still has high margins, unlike the rest of the tech market. I'm surprised that Dell and/or HP hasn't announced their own phone lineup.
Personally, I think that Nokia will make a comeback with Win8 and it will take the 3rd position and RIM will likely evolve to provide phone management tools for the enterprise.
No, they don't!! An extreme example is the Drumhill rotary near Lowell. I used to drive through there every day to work and every day there was at least one accident. Granted, it was the most poorly designed rotary possible with bad sight lines, but people had no idea what to do when trying to navigate it. It was changed to a 4 way stop during the Route 3 expansion.
Massachusetts has got to have the worst road designers EVER. Off and On ramps that are way too short, poorly built rotaries, lack of feeder roads, merge lanes with multiple lanes instead of filtering down to one, etc.
I use the Quick Launch for everything. I have it set to not show text or titles and the view set to small icons. I have about 45 icons on my Quick Launch bar on my XP system at work and about 60 on my Windows 7 home system. I basically have all of my apps one click away. I very rarely use the Start menu unless it is for a very rarely used application.
You can add the Quick Launch bar back on Windows 7. Looks like you can do this with Windows 8 as well using the same method.
http://blogs.computerworld.com/19842/how_to_bring_back_the_quick_launch_toolbar_to_the_windows_8_desktop
The only time I store documents on my desktop is for unfinished work (Word doc, Visio diagram, etc). Once the project is over, I clean up my desktop and move relevant documentation to the project or support folders on the corporate network.
Yes, it's overkill. However, it would allow film makers to precisely place sounds in a 3D landscape. If 3D ends up being the fad we think it is, it would be an expensive upgrade for the movie theater with no real benefit.
The poor reporting around the recent Microsoft announcements is like chum to the anti-Microsoft sharks here at Slashdot.
Microsoft announces a piece of hardware that is better than any of their hardware partners have offered EVER. Any yet, Microsoft is the "Bad Guy"?
How is it that the "hardware specialists", who have had over 3 years to come up with an iPad clone, just can't get it done? At this point, the hardware vendors deserve what they get. They've proven that they either cannot, will not, or just simply refuse to invest in competing on quality. Blaming Microsoft for being a "bad partner" stretches credibility to the breaking point.
I grew up listening to music. I remember listening to my father's old 45's from the 50's as a kid. I spent most of my childhood summers at the family camp on a lake listening to music on the radio from the late 70's and spent my teen years listening to and buying 80's music. Most of the music from the 70's and 80's, whether you liked it or not, had different styles. You could tell within the first three seconds the song title and the artist. You would be hard pressed to do that with the songs being produced today. My thought is that the lack of variety is a result of the homogenization of radio stations and the need for every song to be commercially viable.
I find that it takes an effort now to find original sounds as you can't rely on the radio stations to showcase new music. For example, I listen to the CBC Radio3 podcast. It showcases new and rising Canadian artists. One of the few radio stations in my area that I enjoy is 92.5 The River. Of course, you can always find interesting music on the streaming radio stations. However, I largely listen to music in the car.
First, I agree that you should be able to install any OS that you want on a computer without it invalidating the warranty. However, the reality is that retailers and manufacturers see product returned because people overclock their computers and fry something, accidentally drop it, etc. Because of a few people who refuse to take responsibility for their actions, retailers and manufacturers are forced to make the warranty terms relatively strict.
Secondly, If you want to install another OS and maintain your warranty then you should be smart enough to realize that you have revert it back to the shipped configuration. The best way to do this would be to buy a new drive, swap it with the factory one, then install LINUX. If something goes wrong, you just swap the original drive back in. The other option, if you have another computer, is to remove the factory shipped hard-drive, take a drive image, re-install, and then install LINUX. You can then re-image the drive if you have to ship the computer back.
The first thing that I do when I get a new laptop is take an image of the shipped drive. Then I blow it away and install Windows from scratch. If a Windows guy can figure this out, why can't you LINUX guys and gals... (grin)
Anything that requires promiscuous mode or low level access to the network drivers. The extra layer of virtualization and the generic VM network drivers prevents this type of access.
Anything that would take up all of the resources for any of the key system components (i.e. CPU, Disk I/O, Network I/O). Some examples of these would usually be Database servers, Backup master servers, etc.
I wonder if this cultural, learned, or genetic behavior?
The reason why I ask is because I find the serving sizes for just about everything in the US to be too big. I grew up in Canada and moved to Boston about 12 years ago. I find that, when I go out to eat, I usually have food left over. I sometimes get flack from my friends about wasting food, but the way I see it is that I stop eating when I've had enough. I never continue to eat just to clean off the plate. The same applies to soda and other drinks.
So, for me, serving size doesn't matter, I simply stop when I've had enough.
I understand the environmental and health risks of building tech. Just as I am aware of the same issues surrounding automobiles and just about everything else that goes into modern living. However, I do not have any sort of twinge of conscience when buying. Why? Because I am much more concerned about other social ills such as genocide, wars, starvation, and slave trade.
While I would like to focus energy on cleaning up tech, there are much bigger concerns that we really should be addressing first.
The HP DV6T seems to fit your criteria and is about $1100 and has an option for a 160GB SSD drive. Most reviews seem to rate it high. They also seem to be rated well on Amazon.
I have a HP DM4T that I haven't had any problems with...
David
HP laptops are NOT junk. They are actually quite good. I have an HP (DM4T), my sister and my two nephews have HPs and we have not had any problems with them. As for support, support is always hit or miss in this age of cheap call centers. Then again, we have never had to use their support.
The only company that seems to offer decent support today is Apple. At the very least you can bring your computer into a local Genius Bar. But, you pay for that privilege through higher prices and a much smaller offering of apps and games.
The "sweet spot" will always be $200 for these drives in the consumer market, which drives down the price of those 2TB drives considerably (back down to pre-flood prices).
Speak for yourself. The sweet spot for me has always been around $125. Of course, I learned long ago that finding the sweet spot, within a hard-drive category (i.e. 7200 RPM drives), is a matter of dividing the price by the amount of space and buying the drive that gives you the most bang for your buck. This works for memory as well.
Of course, my setup is not common as I run a RAID-5 array, plus spare, on my desktop system, so I can make use of cheap disks and add storage space as the "sweet spot" moves to larger capacities. I replace one disk at a time, letting the RAID-5 rebuild, eventually I have added space that I can either use to expand an existing partition or add a new partition.
>
Basically, it's a study of the Internet and, in my opinion, would have little application in a corporate LAN. The reason why I say this is because a Corporate LAN is more deterministic in path selection and is limited by cost.
Meant to say WAN non LAN for the last sentence...
It sounds like they are studying the effect of having intelligent nodes in a network that not just forwards a packet, but also performs error correction, has some basic path intelligence, and sends the packet out multiple interfaces. The end node then receives these hybrid packets from different directions, some coming faster, some later, developing a map with the most efficient path.
One could argue that this could be used, for example, in a mesh MPLS cloud when a path through a specific hop (i.e. office) may be more efficient, because of network conditions, than going straight to the end node. However, this would require each node to have enough bandwidth to support the added traffic, over and above the normal location traffic. Which means requiring a larger budget for bandwidth that is only used in certain degraded conditions.
Basically, it's a study of the Internet and, in my opinion, would have little application in a corporate LAN. The reason why I say this is because a Corporate LAN is more deterministic in path selection and is limited by cost.