Requires companies to EXPAND their workforce to have people to reply to the emails... and the whole point of automated emails is so they can cut staff.
1) servers (take the entire racks), documentation, backups, certificates (to prove you own what's on the servers), network gear, etc first. Make sure you have EVEYRTHING needed, core-wise, to operate.
2) THEN start loading workstations. If you have to leave some behind, and the place burns down, that's what insurance is for.
You can operate a business on leased workstations.
You cannot operate a business without all your core servers, and you wouldn't want to wait for the downtime required to rebuild them.
Hardwired or not, seen plenty of fanboy-ism... from the guy asking Felicia Day for her phone number, to the screaming girls when Tom Felton walked out on stage.
It's just normal hero worship.. or something.. or not...
Just last week, here, we had a truck driver following his GPS ignore no less than EIGHT road signs saying "no trucks allowed"...
Then he got stuck on the train tracks (which was WHY the signs said "no trucks allowed")... the predictable result followed, and about 24,000 lbs of pizza ingredients got scattered over a fairly good chunk of town.
There are some people in the world who just shouldn't abandon paper.
I've never, ever, seen any controller that makes Tempest playable (other than the original, which comes preassembled with the rest of the game attached).
Today's digital boxes actually enable/disable each channel individually anyway.
They already DO offer filtering for parents, so they can lock out unwanted channels. This is done @ the headend, rather than by password inside the box (they offer that too).
Note that Direct-TV and Dish cannot do this - they still work on a tiered system, where channels are authorized in groups.
What you need to do is NOT serve actual ripped dvd files.
Instead rip straight to image files.
Then use Daemon Tools to mount those image files dynamically.
Windows sees Daemon Tools drives as a real DVD-ROM, so it'll autoplay that DVD with your dvd player of choice.
When you're done, simply Eject and it unmounts.
The nice thing is, since you have no intention of burning those images to DVDR, you can rip the WHOLE disc, straight to an image of whatever size, and Daemon Tools will mount it as if it was a real disc.
With a little scripting (maybe even active-x controls w/VB) you can even automate the whole process.
Back then, I was the technician that was unpacking and setting up that Killer Instinct.
I distinctly remember wheeling the box into the store and within 30 minutes, the "grapevine" had gone out concerning its arrival.
The kids were sitting on the ground, encircling the work area, as I unpacked and setup that game.
They were playing it the second it initialized after first powerup (I never even got a chance to run diagnostics) as I was still standing on the top of the game, after plugging it into the ceiling outlet.
This was at 7:30 in the evening. By close at 11:00, that game had pulled in almost $500.
The biggest problem with pinball today is the price.
Not to play, but to buy.
Because, as noted above, it's damned near impossible to find a decent machine in the field that is playable. And when you DO, so does everyone ELSE. So it quickly becomes UNplayable.
The solution is easy, but not cheap : buy your own.
Decent older games from the early/mid 90s (ie: the "heyday") can be had for around $500-$1500.
More popular titles tend to cost more. New games average around $4k retail.
But a little TLC, a lot of cleaning, some investment in parts, and you can have your very own machine that plays in tip top shape.
Word of warning however : owning a pinball machine is fun, but quite addictive. They also breed like rabbits. Make sure you have room for more than one.
I had my local phone company wire my line on fiber, which my preferred ISP (note : not the local telco) cannot support.
This is despite the fact that when my line was ordered, I ordered an all-copper, date grade line. And that order was approved.
TWO MONTHS LATER, I finally convinced them to roll a technician by calling in a complaint of noise on the line.
Technician called me at work, said they couldn't find anything wrong, and what's the problem. I told them I wanted all copper for DSL service. Technician replied "Give me ten mintues". And that's all it took.
The moral? A lot of the people in the trenches know their stuff, and know what's going on. It's the beaurocrats and managers that are screwing everything up.
Most of the card reader systems used in arcades (a-la Dave/Busters, Gattitown, et al) use a RS-485 network as well.
When these units need to be repaired, they are plugged into a "dumb server". This server basically takes ANY card input, and sends back an "OK" to the reader to allow it to start up a game.
The only critical knowledge needed is the location/site ID code the reader is setup for, and (obviously) the format that particular manufacturer/provider uses for their network.
I can't imagine it would be difficult at all to do the same thing for a coke machine, or any other device, on a CampusWide Network.
Believe it or not, the average cost of development for a single pinball title is close to $1million !!
That covers all the mechanical design, artwork, licensing (if needed), prototyping (typically 20-100 sample machines for test purposes) and then production.
I work for a company that sells coin-operated arcade games. You know : the large 400lb (or bigger) monsters we all endlessly feed quarters into.
on a rather frequent basis, we accept shipments that are visibly damaged, on the same contingency you noted : received with damage, contact the shipper for instructions. On a few cases, we have had these LARGE, extremely well built, games destroyed by improper shipping.
It's quite amazing when you see something constructed from 3/4" or 1" plywood utterly smashed flat.
On the other hand, I have a couple of very nice PIII linux servers humming away here. They used to be CPUs running "Hydrothunder" boat race games.
I'm surprised more people haven't mentioned the Pern books as they are a staple of classic SF.
They were what, in effect, got me hooked reading this stuff, starting a hobby that has me pretty much attempting - single handedly - to keep the publishing industry alive today...
Here in the US this already exists... if you buy any kind of blank recording media -- cassette or video tape, blank CDs, DAT tape, etc. -- you pay a tax on that media.
This tax goes into a fund that is then distrbuted to copyright holders under the assumption that your purpose in buying blank media is to record and pirate copyrighted material.
In addition, there are now music CDR discs and "normal" CDR discs. The music discs carry an additional tax specifically for the RIAA. There is no functional difference, however between the two media (other than an identifier so consumer CDR decks can reject non-music media)...
There IS a way around this though : find in your area where the pro audio people buy their media -- there is an exception made for the audio industry where a pro audio supply house is exhempt from this tax!
If you wait a month or so, Namco's "20 year anniversary" kits will be out.
For around $1200-$1500, you'll get a *brand new* arcade PCB capable of running Ms Pac Man, Pac Man, or Galaga (each with speedup/rapidfire selectable).
This can be hooked up via JAMMA to a standard res arcade monitor and you're in business.
Assuming you can FIND one, dedicated versions are for sale right now (tabletops come out end of month) for around $2600.
Ms Pac is very very hot right now -- my employer's sales on the Ms Pac/Galaga reissue are expected to top out somewhere around 700-1200 units.
I own lots of electronics (computers, TVs, stereos, pro audio, videogames, pinball machines, etc.)... each has a unique serial number consisting of both letters and numbers.
There are endless combinations and possibilities, and if you forget the #, you just walk into the gameroom and read the # off the back of the game !
Unless someone knows exactly what equipment you have, and has the serial numbers of that equipment, it is likely to be highly secure.
If you remember back a few years, Air Canada had a 767 run out of fuel. It landed as a glider (and has since been known as the "Gimli Glider" on an abandoned military airstrip.
The reason? The fuel crews couldn't figure out whether to fill the airplane according to metric or english measurements. The 767 used metrics, the rest of Air Canada's fleet was still english.
Air Canada was lucky - airplanes can land, provided they find a runway in time.
NASA wasn't so lucky. Reports I read said the probe shot through Mars' atmosphere and likely is now orbiting the sun.
Slashdot Mirror
Requires companies to EXPAND their workforce to have people to reply to the emails ... and the whole point of automated emails is so they can cut staff.
The two efforts are polar opposites.
Last night's vote on this failed ... so hopefully this is now stymied.
Just minor nitpick, but a PDP-11 is a Digital Equipment Corp system ... not IBM. They were fierce rivals ...
Best suggestion I can think of ...
1) servers (take the entire racks), documentation, backups, certificates (to prove you own what's on the servers), network gear, etc first. Make sure you have EVEYRTHING needed, core-wise, to operate.
2) THEN start loading workstations. If you have to leave some behind, and the place burns down, that's what insurance is for.
You can operate a business on leased workstations.
You cannot operate a business without all your core servers, and you wouldn't want to wait for the downtime required to rebuild them.
I run a ballroom at Dragoncon every year.
Hardwired or not, seen plenty of fanboy-ism ... from the guy asking Felicia Day for her phone number, to the screaming girls when Tom Felton walked out on stage.
It's just normal hero worship .. or something .. or not ...
Just last week, here, we had a truck driver following his GPS ignore no less than EIGHT road signs saying "no trucks allowed" ...
Then he got stuck on the train tracks (which was WHY the signs said "no trucks allowed") ... the predictable result followed, and about 24,000 lbs of pizza ingredients got scattered over a fairly good chunk of town.
There are some people in the world who just shouldn't abandon paper.
"The initial trial will be on people who have lost control of an arm due to the nerves being pulled from the spinal cord."
... and Steve Austin ...
Did anyone else read that and just go "ouch!" ?
Visions of drawn and quartering come to mind
- litz
http://terminus.litz.org/googlex.tgz
Or just go find a Tempest of your own.
I've never, ever, seen any controller that makes Tempest playable (other than the original, which comes preassembled with the rest of the game attached).
- JD
Exactly !
Today's digital boxes actually enable/disable each channel individually anyway.
They already DO offer filtering for parents, so they can lock out unwanted channels. This is done @ the headend, rather than by password inside the box (they offer that too).
Note that Direct-TV and Dish cannot do this - they still work on a tiered system, where channels are authorized in groups.
- JD
Instead rip straight to image files.
Then use Daemon Tools to mount those image files dynamically.
Windows sees Daemon Tools drives as a real DVD-ROM, so it'll autoplay that DVD with your dvd player of choice.
When you're done, simply Eject and it unmounts.
The nice thing is, since you have no intention of burning those images to DVDR, you can rip the WHOLE disc, straight to an image of whatever size, and Daemon Tools will mount it as if it was a real disc.
With a little scripting (maybe even active-x controls w/VB) you can even automate the whole process.
- JD
Back then, I was the technician that was unpacking and setting up that Killer Instinct.
I distinctly remember wheeling the box into the store and within 30 minutes, the "grapevine" had gone out concerning its arrival.
The kids were sitting on the ground, encircling the work area, as I unpacked and setup that game.
They were playing it the second it initialized after first powerup (I never even got a chance to run diagnostics) as I was still standing on the top of the game, after plugging it into the ceiling outlet.
This was at 7:30 in the evening. By close at 11:00, that game had pulled in almost $500.
- JD
The biggest problem with pinball today is the price.
Not to play, but to buy.
Because, as noted above, it's damned near impossible to find a decent machine in the field that is playable. And when you DO, so does everyone ELSE. So it quickly becomes UNplayable.
The solution is easy, but not cheap : buy your own.
Decent older games from the early/mid 90s (ie: the "heyday") can be had for around $500-$1500.
More popular titles tend to cost more. New games average around $4k retail.
But a little TLC, a lot of cleaning, some investment in parts, and you can have your very own machine that plays in tip top shape.
Word of warning however : owning a pinball machine is fun, but quite addictive. They also breed like rabbits. Make sure you have room for more than one.
- JD
I had my local phone company wire my line on fiber, which my preferred ISP (note : not the local telco) cannot support.
This is despite the fact that when my line was ordered, I ordered an all-copper, date grade line. And that order was approved.
TWO MONTHS LATER, I finally convinced them to roll a technician by calling in a complaint of noise on the line.
Technician called me at work, said they couldn't find anything wrong, and what's the problem. I told them I wanted all copper for DSL service. Technician replied "Give me ten mintues". And that's all it took.
The moral? A lot of the people in the trenches know their stuff, and know what's going on. It's the beaurocrats and managers that are screwing everything up.
- JD
Most of the card reader systems used in arcades (a-la Dave/Busters, Gattitown, et al) use a RS-485 network as well.
When these units need to be repaired, they are plugged into a "dumb server". This server basically takes ANY card input, and sends back an "OK" to the reader to allow it to start up a game.
The only critical knowledge needed is the location/site ID code the reader is setup for, and (obviously) the format that particular manufacturer/provider uses for their network.
I can't imagine it would be difficult at all to do the same thing for a coke machine, or any other device, on a CampusWide Network.
- litz
Believe it or not, the average cost of development for a single pinball title is close to $1million !!
That covers all the mechanical design, artwork, licensing (if needed), prototyping (typically 20-100 sample machines for test purposes) and then production.
- JD
I work for a company that sells coin-operated arcade games. You know : the large 400lb (or bigger) monsters we all endlessly feed quarters into.
on a rather frequent basis, we accept shipments that are visibly damaged, on the same contingency you noted : received with damage, contact the shipper for instructions. On a few cases, we have had these LARGE, extremely well built, games destroyed by improper shipping.
It's quite amazing when you see something constructed from 3/4" or 1" plywood utterly smashed flat.
On the other hand, I have a couple of very nice PIII linux servers humming away here. They used to be CPUs running "Hydrothunder" boat race games.
:-)
- JD
I'm surprised more people haven't mentioned the Pern books as they are a staple of classic SF.
...
They were what, in effect, got me hooked reading this stuff, starting a hobby that has me pretty much attempting - single handedly - to keep the publishing industry alive today
- JD
Umm ...
...
Given his address, all you have to do is feed that
into Terraserver
- JD
Here in the US this already exists
This tax goes into a fund that is then distrbuted to copyright holders under the assumption that your purpose in buying blank media is to record and pirate copyrighted material.
In addition, there are now music CDR discs and "normal" CDR discs. The music discs carry an additional tax specifically for the RIAA. There is no functional difference, however between the two media (other than an identifier so consumer CDR decks can reject non-music media) ...
There IS a way around this though : find in your area where the pro audio people buy their media -- there is an exception made for the audio industry where a pro audio supply house is exhempt from this tax!
- Jonathan
If you wait a month or so, Namco's "20 year anniversary" kits will be out.
For around $1200-$1500, you'll get a *brand new* arcade PCB capable of running Ms Pac Man, Pac Man, or Galaga (each with speedup/rapidfire selectable).
This can be hooked up via JAMMA to a standard res arcade monitor and you're in business.
Assuming you can FIND one, dedicated versions are for sale right now (tabletops come out end of month) for around $2600.
Ms Pac is very very hot right now -- my employer's sales on the Ms Pac/Galaga reissue are expected to top out somewhere around 700-1200 units.
I use nist 2.00a to set the time on my machines and it has a y2k problem.
NIST reports the year as 00 ... nist 2.00a has code in it to set the year ahead by 10 if it's less than 90 ...
This makes it report the year as 1910. simple change is to fix nistserver.c so it adds 100 instead of 10, and y2k works fine.
I own lots of electronics (computers, TVs, stereos, pro audio, videogames, pinball machines, etc.)
There are endless combinations and possibilities, and if you forget the #, you just walk into the gameroom and read the # off the back of the game !
Unless someone knows exactly what equipment you have, and has the serial numbers of that equipment, it is likely to be highly secure.
If you remember back a few years, Air Canada had a 767 run out of fuel. It landed as a glider (and has since been known as the "Gimli Glider" on an abandoned military airstrip.
The reason? The fuel crews couldn't figure out whether to fill the airplane according to metric or english measurements. The 767 used metrics, the rest of Air Canada's fleet was still english.
Air Canada was lucky - airplanes can land, provided they find a runway in time.
NASA wasn't so lucky. Reports I read said the probe shot through Mars' atmosphere and likely is now orbiting the sun.
Measurement mixups can ruin anyone's day.