Re:This will go down well...lulz
on
Introducing SlashBI
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I too started with Slashdot in the late 90's (closer to early 2000 I suppose).
Life/work got in the way, so I quit following the site. I finally came back about 6 months or so ago, mostly lurking.
Now I get the feeling most of the articles are aimed at getting page views. If it weren't for the comments section, I think I'd be just as well off looking at the stuff from Fast Company.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to clean up the vomit.
...but now when I look for netbooks, what I commonly see are $300+ devices. I'd pay $100 for one. Maybe even $150-200, but I picked up my wife's Toshiba laptop with a 17" screen for $300 about 3 years ago. Why would I pay that or more for a 10" screen, less power, and less storage?
At first I thought you'd mixed the King in Yellow with Narlyhotep. Then I remembered being on the on the Plateau of Leng.
As for Azathoth, well, he is a blind idiot god. Powerful, yes, but we really don't need more idiots. Cthulhu, well, he claims he's concerned with climate change, but look, he's probably not going to even wake up when the red phone rings in the middle of the night unless "The Stars are Right!". Though he'd maybe stick Dagon as a running mate and that's not all bad.
But what about the King in Yellow? Ya know, Hast...err...the one who shall not be named? Kinda hard to gather support like that though.
Oooh, Narly and Yog-Sothoth on a ticket! That's something I can get behind!
In theory, the Federal Government abides by the constitution and deals with things outside of, or superior to, the individual states. ie. Minting money, the military, roads, US Postal Service, war, international affairs, felony crimes, taxation, etc.
Individual states would enforce the minimum standards set by the federal powers and can be more stringent if necessary. States *used* to control the Military Reserve units. The POTUS and Feds had to request the use of reservists for operations/actions. (I believe that changed sometime after 9/11, but I don't recall when).
In theory, it's easier to change things at the local and state levels. You can move to another town or state with relative ease, if another area has politics more to your liking.
In practice, (at least, based on my opinion) the Federal Government has substantially more power than the founders ever intended, and as a country we're wrapped up in way more international affairs than we should be. The State Governments are dependent upon the feds for financial support, funding special projects, bail outs, subsidies, etc....(I'm sure there's more, but lets keep this fairly short).
Realistically, most people only care about the federal issues portrayed on the daily news. I'd love to blame this on the media but it's also due to people being lazy -- myself included. I couldn't even tell you who the current City Mayor is, nor name most of the city politicians or state representatives. It doesn't usually make headlines, so we ignore it. Yet every election cycle, we hear about the presidential candidates positions on taxes, guns, abortion, religion, "equal rights", and basically the same talking points that never have any real bearing once the candidate is in office. We eat that shit up. It's entertainment & drama.
We all know the gov is slow to adapt, but it should also be pointed out the methods by which most of the DOD operates.
1. Should we do "it"?
2. Write a directive on how to do "it".
3. Have "it" reviewed and revised ad nauseum until "it" is no longer relevant nor accurate.
4. Give "it" to the newest lowest ranking least trained to implement, as the superiors have already reviewed "it".
5a. Interrupt mission critical operations by implementation gone wrong, resulting in a stop on progress, have a meeting, go back to step 2/3.
5b. Attempt to schedule a known outage and have it postponed indeffinatly as the risk of leaving things "as they are" is less damaging (for now) than interrupting current operations for a preventative change.
Old speakers in all tests, in the same room, just switching amps. I've tested it with both AR-2ax and Pioneer HPM-1100s. The 1100s are our regular home theater front speakers, the AR's are sadly stashed away right now, but they're great for acoustical music.
Unfortunately, the Yamaha doesn't have any kind of output meter, just the volume dial. I normally get by with it being at about -30db, but sometimes as high as -5db depending on the source material. It very well could just be the equalization on the amp, though I often just use direct stereo on my systems.
Dunno, but it just seems kinda flat, like there's no real depth to it...not like with the older amps.
True, but I think the mastering, more so than the encoding, has damaged alot of popular music.
If we take a look at how most people listen (cheap earbuds) and master to make that sound "acceptable" in order to get record sales, then those who would listen on quality gear are going to hear something completely different. The low end is overly emphasized in certain ranges, to compensate for the inability of the speaker to actually replicate that sound.
In the past, when people had dedicated stereos, the desire was there for full range sound and it was mastered as such. It modern times, music is more back ground noise, so it's mastered to be catchy and stand out at the sacrifice of overall quality.
Any thoughts on the difference between, say, 1W power outputs in 1970 terms, vs. 35W outputs today?
I'm thinking of the stuff I have at home that I've used fairly often:
Yamaha HTR-5940 rated at 105W per channel max vs. my old Pioneer and Sansui gear (75W and 35W ratings).
With a 1W peak output (per the meters) on the Pioneer/Sansui pieces, I can "feel" the music. With the Yamaha, it feels like I need to crank it to 11 to get a full range sound out of it, even though its technically a more powerful amp.
Funny, I used VMware to run Windows under Linux. Ran like crap on my system at the time, but it did run.
A part of me would like to go back to Linux, but the ease of use for Windows is just too...easy, for me now, its comfortable and functional (XPpro). 'course the OS itself is about the only MS program I'm actually running, thanks to the likes of OpenOffice and Firefox, etc.
Some of the "full-hand-type" biometric readers take a multitude of inital measurments, only a portion are used for each scan. Some will measure width of the palm, length of fingers, lines in the hands and/or fingers, etc. A multitude of things.
My guess would be that it will scan whatever you give it, so long as it recognizes SOMETHING is there. Now as for allowing access, thats another matter
Things like this are exactly what I would want to convince me to go *back* to Linux.
Yes, I was a *nix user. RH, Mandrake, Debian, SuSe, and FreeBSD. used them all, some with a GUI, some w/ just a terminal - some with even more minor sucess.
For me, the best was the first Mandrake w/ GUI support, and I ran for nearly a full year w/ just Linux...then I wanted to play a game.:(
I've never been able to get a dial-up connection to work, ethernet has been hit&miss depending on which card and which distro.
The fact is, I don't have the patience to (re)learn alot of the commands. I don't like *having* to sit there pouring over my options for the Kernel config, dig through man pages and things of that nature.
I like having the option for "advanced tweaking" (from a windows percpective), but I also like having the ease-of-use. There's times when I just need it to work without me tweaking.
>The whole front of the car is moulded in one >piece which can be removed only by a Volvo >mechanic.
Great, so you can pay $40+ (USD) for an oilchange, along with god knows what a dealer charges for the rest of the routine maintence.
I mean, ok, so the cars geared for women, and we know they can't do their own maintence, but what if they have an ounce of common sense and realize theres no reason to pay dealer prices?
yay! someone that could explain that better than myself.
thats exactly the kind i was talking about though, as the commercials are typically driven and higher levels than normal broadcasts. I believe thats what made this possible. RCA did this as well.
First let me state that I will never buy nor reccomend an InFOcus projector. Unless you are an "authorized" service rep, you cannot get replacment parts (sans lamps and normal "user replacable parts). I had one that someone shattred the lamp in and damaged the diffuser panel. Cost of replacment? ~$1000. Could only get it by ordering the full optics assembly. Basically, we found that you can only order via "assemblies" not individual parts.
If you want to be able to repair your own...don't bother with Infocus.
Most other companies are quite nice about supplying parts and manuals (at a price of course) I've delt most w/ Toshiba and Sharp and they've all provided exceptional customer/technical service to someone wishing to repair their own units.
Smaller projectors (such as the SONY VPL-PX11(?)) are wonderful LCD Projectors (image quality wise), but have a fairly low lamp life for a theater or confrence room type setup.
Recently we've begun using some DLP's from Plus Vision Corp (namely the U2-1200 line) which also seem to provide exceptional image quality and a fairly adequate lamp life (given their size). 1200 Lumens and about 3000hrs (4k hrs in Eco mode). Eco drops the brightness down a bit, however its still fairly acceptable in a dark room. Price is a bit higher for these, MSRP around $5k, but can be found closer to $3200 or so if you look. These support the standard 4:3 as well as a 16:9 aspect ratios, VGA, DVI, and Composite video inputs.
I would highly reccomend these at this point, and Plus/Lightware have both provided us with very acceptable warrenty service as well over the years.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't you mean Iran? Or was it North Korea?
I too started with Slashdot in the late 90's (closer to early 2000 I suppose).
Life/work got in the way, so I quit following the site. I finally came back about 6 months or so ago, mostly lurking.
Now I get the feeling most of the articles are aimed at getting page views. If it weren't for the comments section, I think I'd be just as well off looking at the stuff from Fast Company.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to clean up the vomit.
...but now when I look for netbooks, what I commonly see are $300+ devices. I'd pay $100 for one. Maybe even $150-200, but I picked up my wife's Toshiba laptop with a 17" screen for $300 about 3 years ago. Why would I pay that or more for a 10" screen, less power, and less storage?
Twas a hit piece ran by E. Hoffman Price, I swear it!
OOooh:
In The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, its name is part of an incantation that could revive the dead:
Y'AI'NG'NGAH
YOG-SOTHOTH
H'EE-L'GEB
F'AI THRODOG
UAAAH
BRING BACK REGAN!
At first I thought you'd mixed the King in Yellow with Narlyhotep. Then I remembered being on the on the Plateau of Leng.
As for Azathoth, well, he is a blind idiot god. Powerful, yes, but we really don't need more idiots. Cthulhu, well, he claims he's concerned with climate change, but look, he's probably not going to even wake up when the red phone rings in the middle of the night unless "The Stars are Right!". Though he'd maybe stick Dagon as a running mate and that's not all bad.
But what about the King in Yellow? Ya know, Hast...err...the one who shall not be named? Kinda hard to gather support like that though.
Oooh, Narly and Yog-Sothoth on a ticket! That's something I can get behind!
In practice or in theory?
In theory, the Federal Government abides by the constitution and deals with things outside of, or superior to, the individual states. ie. Minting money, the military, roads, US Postal Service, war, international affairs, felony crimes, taxation, etc.
Individual states would enforce the minimum standards set by the federal powers and can be more stringent if necessary. States *used* to control the Military Reserve units. The POTUS and Feds had to request the use of reservists for operations/actions. (I believe that changed sometime after 9/11, but I don't recall when).
In theory, it's easier to change things at the local and state levels. You can move to another town or state with relative ease, if another area has politics more to your liking.
In practice, (at least, based on my opinion) the Federal Government has substantially more power than the founders ever intended, and as a country we're wrapped up in way more international affairs than we should be. The State Governments are dependent upon the feds for financial support, funding special projects, bail outs, subsidies, etc....(I'm sure there's more, but lets keep this fairly short).
Realistically, most people only care about the federal issues portrayed on the daily news. I'd love to blame this on the media but it's also due to people being lazy -- myself included. I couldn't even tell you who the current City Mayor is, nor name most of the city politicians or state representatives. It doesn't usually make headlines, so we ignore it. Yet every election cycle, we hear about the presidential candidates positions on taxes, guns, abortion, religion, "equal rights", and basically the same talking points that never have any real bearing once the candidate is in office. We eat that shit up. It's entertainment & drama.
We all know the gov is slow to adapt, but it should also be pointed out the methods by which most of the DOD operates.
1. Should we do "it"?
2. Write a directive on how to do "it".
3. Have "it" reviewed and revised ad nauseum until "it" is no longer relevant nor accurate.
4. Give "it" to the newest lowest ranking least trained to implement, as the superiors have already reviewed "it".
5a. Interrupt mission critical operations by implementation gone wrong, resulting in a stop on progress, have a meeting, go back to step 2/3.
5b. Attempt to schedule a known outage and have it postponed indeffinatly as the risk of leaving things "as they are" is less damaging (for now) than interrupting current operations for a preventative change.
--------
That's the basic gist of it anyway.
Old speakers in all tests, in the same room, just switching amps. I've tested it with both AR-2ax and Pioneer HPM-1100s. The 1100s are our regular home theater front speakers, the AR's are sadly stashed away right now, but they're great for acoustical music.
Unfortunately, the Yamaha doesn't have any kind of output meter, just the volume dial. I normally get by with it being at about -30db, but sometimes as high as -5db depending on the source material. It very well could just be the equalization on the amp, though I often just use direct stereo on my systems.
Dunno, but it just seems kinda flat, like there's no real depth to it...not like with the older amps.
True, but I think the mastering, more so than the encoding, has damaged alot of popular music.
If we take a look at how most people listen (cheap earbuds) and master to make that sound "acceptable" in order to get record sales, then those who would listen on quality gear are going to hear something completely different. The low end is overly emphasized in certain ranges, to compensate for the inability of the speaker to actually replicate that sound.
In the past, when people had dedicated stereos, the desire was there for full range sound and it was mastered as such. It modern times, music is more back ground noise, so it's mastered to be catchy and stand out at the sacrifice of overall quality.
Any thoughts on the difference between, say, 1W power outputs in 1970 terms, vs. 35W outputs today?
I'm thinking of the stuff I have at home that I've used fairly often:
Yamaha HTR-5940 rated at 105W per channel max vs. my old Pioneer and Sansui gear (75W and 35W ratings).
With a 1W peak output (per the meters) on the Pioneer/Sansui pieces, I can "feel" the music. With the Yamaha, it feels like I need to crank it to 11 to get a full range sound out of it, even though its technically a more powerful amp.
Funny, I used VMware to run Windows under Linux. Ran like crap on my system at the time, but it did run.
A part of me would like to go back to Linux, but the ease of use for Windows is just too...easy, for me now, its comfortable and functional (XPpro). 'course the OS itself is about the only MS program I'm actually running, thanks to the likes of OpenOffice and Firefox, etc.
Deffinatly makes sense. I (unfortunatly) don't have any real hands on experience in the world of biometrics (yet, gimme about 2months). :)
I'm not sure on just the fingerprint scanners.
Some of the "full-hand-type" biometric readers take a multitude of inital measurments, only a portion are used for each scan. Some will measure width of the palm, length of fingers, lines in the hands and/or fingers, etc. A multitude of things.
My guess would be that it will scan whatever you give it, so long as it recognizes SOMETHING is there. Now as for allowing access, thats another matter
Things like this are exactly what I would want to convince me to go *back* to Linux.
:(
Yes, I was a *nix user. RH, Mandrake, Debian, SuSe, and FreeBSD. used them all, some with a GUI, some w/ just a terminal - some with even more minor sucess.
For me, the best was the first Mandrake w/ GUI support, and I ran for nearly a full year w/ just Linux...then I wanted to play a game.
I've never been able to get a dial-up connection to work, ethernet has been hit&miss depending on which card and which distro.
The fact is, I don't have the patience to (re)learn alot of the commands. I don't like *having* to sit there pouring over my options for the Kernel config, dig through man pages and things of that nature.
I like having the option for "advanced tweaking" (from a windows percpective), but I also like having the ease-of-use. There's times when I just need it to work without me tweaking.
a way to store all my pr0n!
and maybe even fit my monthly SPAM archives onto a couple of discs!
This software does not have the proper emoticon to express my true emotions of sarcasm.
sorry to any who took that a lil' too seriously.
Um, not sure.
Doing my own, I pay around $25ish for fully synthetic and a filter (I only need 4qts though).
Jiffy Lube wanted $35 for just normal dino oil. I'm really not sure what a dealer charges
thunk thunk thunk rrreeoow would be more like it as the cat get mauled by the belts and heat.
>The whole front of the car is moulded in one >piece which can be removed only by a Volvo >mechanic.
Great, so you can pay $40+ (USD) for an oilchange, along with god knows what a dealer charges for the rest of the routine maintence.
I mean, ok, so the cars geared for women, and we know they can't do their own maintence, but what if they have an ounce of common sense and realize theres no reason to pay dealer prices?
yay! someone that could explain that better than myself.
thats exactly the kind i was talking about though, as the commercials are typically driven and higher levels than normal broadcasts. I believe thats what made this possible. RCA did this as well.
Aren't their some VCRs (or other VTRs) that had built in commercial skipping?
Did I miss lawsuits over that back in the day, or did no one care during the heyday of VTRs?
I'll post a reply once I find an example, but perhaps someone can back me up on this.
True, but even under GPL, doesn't it still kinda belong directly to the original creator, if only by name alone?
Perhaps this is RH's way of reliqusihing all ties.
I don't see how it serves much of a specific purpose though.
Depends on the projector and its image output. Most that the AF seems to buy are cheap and portable, so they're a bit more picky.
Something with a higher lumens rating and contrast ratio will work better in a lighted room than something with a lower output.
Any projector will look better in a dark room, the difference is more just how easily the image is washed out.
First let me state that I will never buy nor reccomend an InFOcus projector. Unless you are an "authorized" service rep, you cannot get replacment parts (sans lamps and normal "user replacable parts). I had one that someone shattred the lamp in and damaged the diffuser panel. Cost of replacment? ~$1000. Could only get it by ordering the full optics assembly. Basically, we found that you can only order via "assemblies" not individual parts.
If you want to be able to repair your own...don't bother with Infocus.
Most other companies are quite nice about supplying parts and manuals (at a price of course) I've delt most w/ Toshiba and Sharp and they've all provided exceptional customer/technical service to someone wishing to repair their own units.
Smaller projectors (such as the SONY VPL-PX11(?)) are wonderful LCD Projectors (image quality wise), but have a fairly low lamp life for a theater or confrence room type setup.
Recently we've begun using some DLP's from Plus Vision Corp (namely the U2-1200 line) which also seem to provide exceptional image quality and a fairly adequate lamp life (given their size). 1200 Lumens and about 3000hrs (4k hrs in Eco mode). Eco drops the brightness down a bit, however its still fairly acceptable in a dark room. Price is a bit higher for these, MSRP around $5k, but can be found closer to $3200 or so if you look. These support the standard 4:3 as well as a 16:9 aspect ratios, VGA, DVI, and Composite video inputs.
I would highly reccomend these at this point, and Plus/Lightware have both provided us with very acceptable warrenty service as well over the years.
In closing: Infocus is the devil!
I think most of us can agree that M$ has the concept "simplicity of use" pretty well grasped from a typical user standpoint.
And for linux newbies, it does give them something familiar to work with.
Just think about trying to convert your grandparents computer over to a *nix box with only VI and EMACS....