That's a good idea since I have not checked her computer for spyware recently. However, I'm not sure how much will be found. Her default browser is Firefox, her email client is Thunderbird, she doesn't use MSN messenger, and she doesn't install new programs on her computer without first talking to me.
Do you have a recommendation for a good spyware detector? I've used Ad-Aware before, and that seemed to work ok. Is Microsoft's beta spyware tool publicaly available?
Yes, in order to get a USB2 Carbus card to work, her bios had to be updated. I figured that SP2 might work ok after that, so I tried again, but no luck.
I have tried several times to install XP SP2 on my girlfriend's laptop, but each time the laptop has rebooted once and then refused to boot again.
Booting into safe mode has allowed me to uninstall SP2 and restore the machine to a usable condition. I don't mind SP2, I just don't want to spend the time troubleshooting a failed install.
Even if Microsoft were to offer me free telephone support, it would still waste my time. It seems unfair to force users to accept upgrades that may very well cause their computer to cease functioning.
If you do a software only modification you can still play games. I ran an xbox modified by the MechInstaller Linux installer and was quite happy. I use it as a small server, but I also have it plugged into my telivision. It runs freevo, and I use it as a multi-media jukebox. I did, however, get tired of starting the MS dashboard and I have since flashed the TSOP with the Cromwell Linux bios. I'm even happier now, but no xbox games.
No, you obviously don't, because if that's all you believed you'd release your code under the BSD licence, or simply into the public domain - both of which would do just as good a job at it.
No, it obviosly wouldn't. Releasing code under the GPL prevents people from taking your code and re-selling it in binary only form.
If I decide to contribute code to the community I would rather see it benefit the community, rather than some two-bit company that can't be bothered to write its own code or give back to the community themselves.
We have two SmartBoards at my College's MathLAN I have never once seen them used, except when my prof brought his kid to class who had great fun playing with the special eraser. It's still missing.
After all, the money does come from them. Try putting up feedback pages on your website and see what areas the students feel are lacking in your IT department.
Secondly, do research on whatever you decide to do, and then discuss it with the students in some way. My school attempted to implement a one laptop for every person policy-- until they announced it to the students. The students protested so loudly that the plan has since been put on the backburner, indefinately.
I don't feel that the conclusions reached by Tom's Hardware are quite fair. Yes, the Innovatek coolers cooled better than the Swiftech models, but not by all that much. It may very well be that the Innovatek has better quality hardware as well. However, I found one key element missing from their tests. They posted no accoustic measurments, even though they posted a picture of their "sound level meter". If the Swiftech kit can cool better than the premier aircooled device, but do so without a fan, that sounds like a good deal to me. I would also like to see the prices of the various systems.
Have you considered hacking an existing laptop to meet the specs you want? The IBM X series might be a good place to start. Here are the conflicts and solutions that I propose:
They have fast, battery draining CPUs:
ACPI 2.0 supports controlling the speed on speedstep processors. If you are willing to spend the time or fund the effort, you could get linux to support this aspect of ACPI and take the the speed down to 50Mhz.
They have bright, backlit, color LCDs:
1. Stay in framebuffer. 2. Crack the sucker open and disconnect the backlight, and then use a custom high contrast setup.
They suck batteries at 3 hours per charge:
1. Replace the hardrive with compact flash. I have seen adapters that let you do this for sale on ebay. 2. Remove the CPU fan, since you won't need it at 50 Mhz. 3. Buy multiple batteries, they cost about $150 each, weigh very little ( 1lb.), and the IBM can hibernate (suspend to disk) and allow you to swap batteries without powering down.
Granted this will mean that you are spending a lot of money and not getting what you paid for, but compared to getting custom build laptop cases, this might not be that unreasonable. Anyway, just my $.02.
Why does this article mention a 3.9 GPA at Stuyvesant? As a graduate ('98) the name jumped out at me. Is the idea that a 3.9 at Stuy is better than a 3.9 somewhere else? Well as a side note, they use a 60-100 point scale, with 60 being a failing grade. If the implication that a 3.9 is particularly impressive from Stuy, you might want to think twice. I have never met a place with a more serious case of grade inflation. In my AP Chemistry class my senior year, I did nothing, absolutely nothing. I don't think I got a grade higher than %85, yet I got a %90 in the class. Aside from that I scored a 1400 on the SATs, I did n't study. 1400 is a decent score I believe, but it was considered quite low amongst my friends and associates at Stuy. Now, while this may be construed as an argument as to why one should count a 3.9 from Stuy more than a 4.0 from East Troy, it is not. The important factor is to think about how I, and everyone else got into Stuy in the first place. We took a test, almost exaclty like the SATs. Those who scored well, got in, those with a slightly lower school got into Bronx Science, and then Brooklyn Tech. As you see, Stuyvesant students have been selected as excellent bubble fillers. I would argue that there is no finer group of American standardized test takers in the world. Because of that we were viewed as "smart" by our teachers, parents and the administration. It would not have been appropriate to asign us low grades, hence the inflation.
josh
p.s. I only took 1 english class at Stuyvesant, I managed to escape from all the rest. What does that say about my potential performance in college. Oh, and I'm doing pretty well in Grinnell College I have a 3.33 GPA, and I am a CS major.
p.p.s. Stuyvesant has had a.edu domain ever since I attended. There is a professor there who runs his own ISP and staffs it with Stuy students.
Slashdot Mirror
That's a good idea since I have not checked her computer for spyware recently. However, I'm not sure how much will be found. Her default browser is Firefox, her email client is Thunderbird, she doesn't use MSN messenger, and she doesn't install new programs on her computer without first talking to me.
Do you have a recommendation for a good spyware detector? I've used Ad-Aware before, and that seemed to work ok. Is Microsoft's beta spyware tool publicaly available?
Yes, in order to get a USB2 Carbus card to work, her bios had to be updated. I figured that SP2 might work ok after that, so I tried again, but no luck.
I have tried several times to install XP SP2 on my girlfriend's laptop, but each time the laptop has rebooted once and then refused to boot again.
Booting into safe mode has allowed me to uninstall SP2 and restore the machine to a usable condition. I don't mind SP2, I just don't want to spend the time troubleshooting a failed install.
Even if Microsoft were to offer me free telephone support, it would still waste my time. It seems unfair to force users to accept upgrades that may very well cause their computer to cease functioning.
Flashblock http://flashblock.mozdev.org/ seems to take care of this. I can visit http://www.howstuffworks.com/ without any popups.
If you do a software only modification you can still play games. I ran an xbox modified by the MechInstaller Linux installer and was quite happy. I use it as a small server, but I also have it plugged into my telivision. It runs freevo, and I use it as a multi-media jukebox. I did, however, get tired of starting the MS dashboard and I have since flashed the TSOP with the Cromwell Linux bios. I'm even happier now, but no xbox games.
Josh
Not to mention recovering energy through regenerative breaking that is normally lost as heat in a conventional braking system.
No, you obviously don't, because if that's all you believed you'd release your code under the BSD licence, or simply into the public domain - both of which would do just as good a job at it.
No, it obviosly wouldn't. Releasing code under the GPL prevents people from taking your code and re-selling it in binary only form.
If I decide to contribute code to the community I would rather see it benefit the community, rather than some two-bit company that can't be bothered to write its own code or give back to the community themselves.
windows update wouldn't work if the browser ran in a sandbox, it needs full access to the computer to patch the kernel, etc.
josh
We have two SmartBoards at my College's MathLAN I have never once seen them used, except when my prof brought his kid to class who had great fun playing with the special eraser. It's still missing.
josh
I like your choice of offenses, gender neutral sexual assault. Oh, no, wait, that implies that a man must be the offender. My bad. Sexist Pig!
here is some information about the digital projection the force.net
josh
After all, the money does come from them. Try putting up feedback pages on your website and see what areas the students feel are lacking in your IT department.
Secondly, do research on whatever you decide to do, and then discuss it with the students in some way. My school attempted to implement a one laptop for every person policy-- until they announced it to the students. The students protested so loudly that the plan has since been put on the backburner, indefinately.
I don't feel that the conclusions reached by Tom's Hardware are quite fair. Yes, the Innovatek coolers cooled better than the Swiftech models, but not by all that much. It may very well be that the Innovatek has better quality hardware as well. However, I found one key element missing from their tests. They posted no accoustic measurments, even though they posted a picture of their "sound level meter". If the Swiftech kit can cool better than the premier aircooled device, but do so without a fan, that sounds like a good deal to me. I would also like to see the prices of the various systems.
Have you considered hacking an existing laptop to meet the specs you want? The IBM X series might be a good place to start. Here are the conflicts and solutions that I propose:
They have fast, battery draining CPUs:
ACPI 2.0 supports controlling the speed on speedstep processors. If you are willing to spend the time or fund the effort, you could get linux to support this aspect of ACPI and take the the speed down to 50Mhz.
They have bright, backlit, color LCDs:
1. Stay in framebuffer. 2. Crack the sucker open and disconnect the backlight, and then use a custom high contrast setup.
They suck batteries at 3 hours per charge:
1. Replace the hardrive with compact flash. I have seen adapters that let you do this for sale on ebay. 2. Remove the CPU fan, since you won't need it at 50 Mhz. 3. Buy multiple batteries, they cost about $150 each, weigh very little ( 1lb.), and the IBM can hibernate (suspend to disk) and allow you to swap batteries without powering down.
Granted this will mean that you are spending a lot of money and not getting what you paid for, but compared to getting custom build laptop cases, this might not be that unreasonable. Anyway, just my $.02.
josh
The arguement they use against this in my school is the high turnover rate due to student graduating every 4 years. josh
Why does this article mention a 3.9 GPA at Stuyvesant? As a graduate ('98) the name jumped out at me. Is the idea that a 3.9 at Stuy is better than a 3.9 somewhere else? Well as a side note, they use a 60-100 point scale, with 60 being a failing grade. If the implication that a 3.9 is particularly impressive from Stuy, you might want to think twice. I have never met a place with a more serious case of grade inflation. In my AP Chemistry class my senior year, I did nothing, absolutely nothing. I don't think I got a grade higher than %85, yet I got a %90 in the class. Aside from that I scored a 1400 on the SATs, I did n't study. 1400 is a decent score I believe, but it was considered quite low amongst my friends and associates at Stuy. Now, while this may be construed as an argument as to why one should count a 3.9 from Stuy more than a 4.0 from East Troy, it is not. The important factor is to think about how I, and everyone else got into Stuy in the first place. We took a test, almost exaclty like the SATs. Those who scored well, got in, those with a slightly lower school got into Bronx Science, and then Brooklyn Tech. As you see, Stuyvesant students have been selected as excellent bubble fillers. I would argue that there is no finer group of American standardized test takers in the world. Because of that we were viewed as "smart" by our teachers, parents and the administration. It would not have been appropriate to asign us low grades, hence the inflation. josh p.s. I only took 1 english class at Stuyvesant, I managed to escape from all the rest. What does that say about my potential performance in college. Oh, and I'm doing pretty well in Grinnell College I have a 3.33 GPA, and I am a CS major. p.p.s. Stuyvesant has had a .edu domain ever since I attended. There is a professor there who runs his own ISP and staffs it with Stuy students.