OK, it's not relevant to the core of your post, but I figured I'd post it anyway:
When elected, Washington was pretty much the most famous guy in the colonies. Everybody knew who he was -- in the 1789 election he got 69 electoral spots (next closest was John Adams with 34). In 1792 he got 132 (next was John Adams, with 77). Both he and Jefferson were regularly beset by strangers who would walk up to their houses and just stand there to watch them go about their daily business (kinda like early paparazzi).
As regards the military campaign, IMHO his greatest achievement was in simply holding things together. And let's not forget, he did win the war....
ATTENTION: some people use sticks to hit other people. Clearly we, as a civilized people, cannot permit this to continue!
Let us take this opportunity to ban all sticks, except for those in the possession of licensed stick-users.
We are also aware of the fact that some people may be using ink to write offensive and/or illegal messages on various surfaces. Rest assured that the FBI is looking into the matter, and will deal with the miscreants accordingly.
...a "what if" scenario is the cheapest rhetorical move in the universe. Here's a nickel kid, go buy yourself some better arguments...
This is the way I used to think, until I came to the realization that *I* am the reason the Universe exists. Think about it for a second -- I manifestly exist, and the odds that I would exist (in a purely random universe) are infinitesimal. Therefore, one inevitably comes to the conclusion that the Universe is non-random, and that I must exist -- it is the only acceptable state of affairs! I give the Universe purpose!
I am the culmination of billions of years. All things which have ever lived, existed so that I might live. All those who have died, died so that I might exist, and be consuming this soup for lunch today.
I am the Alpha and the Omega. All things exist through me. If you accept this truth, you will achieve a deeper sense of peace. Come to me my children; I accept all believers. Together we shall work for My Eternal Glory.
There is software for NT4 that masquerades as a sound-card, but writes a file to disk -- it came with source too, so you could see how it's done and rewrite for Linux.
It's called "wtd.zip" -- stands for "WAV-to-disk".
I don't have a link handy, but I believe that the project was stored on Geocities -- you might be able to find it with some heavy digging.
NOTE: I haven't used this software. It might not work. It might be a virus. I have no idea . . . but it sounded cool, and once upon a time I actually had the.zip (although I've since nuked that machine).
Well, FWIW, I guess.
I cancelled my LD service, and now use one of
those net-to-phone services (like Dialpad.com).
It works pretty well, if you don't need to reach anyone at specific times of the day -- sometimes all the lines will be jammed, and then you simply can't get through. Also, it tends to muck up your caller-ID signal (naturally), so people might not pick up your call.
But hell, it's free -- and these long-distance cards last FOREVER now that I don't need 'em for normal unimportant calls....
I requested Telocity service on January 25th. In May I cancelled and went with Speakeasy. Once I made that switch, I was up & running in three weeks.
That's right, I waited from January to May. One excuse after another -- but the main thread was Telocity incompetence. Oh, let's see:
they lost my order, then found it, then lost it again, then found it again
then they forgot to provision me
At this point they realized there were load coils on my line
then they remembered to provision me at the CO, but didn't actually do it
then they laid the DSL line from the CO
then they *finally* provisioned me and discovered that Rhythms was out of ports at my CO, but that ports would be added soon
I quickly ignored them, masqueraded as a Telocity rep and spoke directly to Rhythms, who told me that they weren't going to add ports and that I'd have to wait until someone dropped their service
I spoke to Telocity, who insisted that they'd be able to get ports for me.
...then I went with Speakeasy, who use Covad. Masquerading as a Speakeasy rep, I found out that Covad has lots of ports at my CO. I got connected.
Thank god I used to work for a local telco monopoly, so I knew how to social-engineer the CO guys.
Anyway, I just wanted to offer a counterpoint. I *believe* that people are getting good service from Telocity -- I just wish I'd been one of them.
Tribes2 will be out AGES before Halo. We all know it.
Comparing Halo and T2 is like comparing Q3A and Q2; it's not fair to either game. Dynamix has nothing to fear, since they're so close to release. Bungie probably has nothing to fear, since their release isn't going to happen any time soon (doubt it? check the slippage on Oni)
OK, let's be honest here -- the eventual outcome of the various DMCA applications will be the outlawing of technical know-how, except for persons with appropriate certification.
No, wait a sec, I'm serious. People will hack one system after another, trying to access TV, MP3, etc., and "The System" will just keep slapping restrictions on one set of technologies after another.
It's illegal to have DeCSS. It will eventually be illegal to own a soldering iron -- because you could use it to circumvent Copyright Control on your TV.
...people will have to become "Licensed Technology Practitioners" -- just like doctors.
Wait and see -- I'll be proven right, unless things change in a really big way.
Publishers aren't humanitarians -- they'll extract whatever they think the market will bear. In fact, we should count ourselves lucky if the ebook version doesn't cost $10.95 due to the "added value".
The ONE thing in favor of lower prices is, believe it or not, Napster. Publishers are sufficiently afraid of Napster that I've overheard (online, not real-world) them talking about lower prices in order to encourage payment.
...which doesn't mean they won't encrypt books with hideously evil technologies and charge us $25.95 per viewing, but at least there's a CHANCE they won't...
I keep hearing people talk about the "mystique" of books, but I just don't see it.
I don't care for the smell of paper, I'm not especially entranced by the feel of paper, and I don't particularly care for the crack of a new spine.
Does this mean I own an e-book reader? No -- but for "practical" reasons like resolution and technology maturity.
I'm not saying that I'm Right or anything, just that I've never understood this weird affection people seem to have for physical books. Is it a function of early childhood exposure or something? Habit? Long-term exposure? I'm serious; can someone explain it to me?
...because I personally would really like to get rid of physical books (bulk==waste). Other people seem to feel differently though and I want to understand them better...
I've had (and will doubtless continue to have) the same problems.
The part that bugs me the most is the HUGE amount of time wasted on these battles. Just when I finally win an argument (and get to ignore the Brand Identity guidelines), I get socked with another weenie insisting that all text absolutely must be half-inch Garamond.
It's not that I hate fighting these battles per se, it's that I keep having to fight them, over and over and over again, regardless of how many times I try to put my foot down.
As I understand it, Wrox puts the photos on the main page for two reasons:
It makes the books stand out. As you pointed out, people go "whoa!".
It puts the author on the line. People will recognize him/her at trade shows -- if the book sucks, people will be able to pick them out of a crowd and start shouting. I think that's supposed to be an encouragement to not write crummy books.
. . . I think the inside cover of at least one recent Wrox book explains this . . .
I've got three books to my name, and I don't personally care that they're being pirated in the Czech Republic (they are -- one nice Czech lad even wrote to tell me!).
Why don't I care? Because:
My royalty payments are laughable anyway
My books are effectively "loss-leaders" that get me into the teaching/speaking market, where I make most of my money.
You should think about following the same model. It works for me, and it works for my publisher too. Sure, I could have a few hundred extra bucks if my stuff wasn't being pirated throughout Eastern Europe, but I don't really care, because IT'S ONLY A FEW HUNDRED BUCKS. It's not enough to worry about scraping cash off the entire population of Germany, just because I lost a few pfennigs of potential profit.
Of course, I say that because I can make a living from in-person appearances and online courses. If that's not possible for you, then perhaps you ought to reconsider your career choices . . .
Ya may as well give up on the grammar nitpicks. People really do say "earl" for URL. Just like they say "fack" for FAQ. Yeah, I think it sounds stupid too, but the whole A vs. AN thing is just plain hopeless.
Heck, I've almost given up fighting the HORDE vs. HOARD battle, and that one's a zillion times easier to fight . . . .
Given that the user (ie., you) must choose to use these "windowized" distributions, what's your point?
Who cares if Helix-Gnome ends up dominating 80% of all Linux distros? So what? Nobody is *forcing* you to use it. That's what Linux is about. Choice -- not CLI elitism.
Lemme guess -- you're an ex-Windows user that cannot make the jump to a free mindset, aren't you? One of those people for whom there must always be ONE "correct" answer to any computing problem?
I recall having read (somewhere or other) that some radio astronomers were beginning to think that communication signals don't actually propagate very well across interstellar space.
Dang it, I can't find the URL -- but the general gist was that we could only detect signals from within a small radius, and that a civilization outside that range (even if broadcasting continuously) could not be heard unless the sender was using truly huge quantities of power (ie., more power than any transmitter on Earth has ever used).
I dunno, it seemed plausible to me. But then again, I'm an idiot, so . . .
My own (possibly inappropriate) response would be to counsel against a blind W2K roll-out. If your group is autonomous, there's probably a reason, and it should stay that way.
Next, allow them to deploy W2K. Watch in horror as your group implodes, losing valuable apps, churning out incorrect data, etc.
Wait a little longer, until your group is nothing more than a flaming wreck.
Then call in Congress!
I tell you, there's nothing Congress likes more than the opportunity to investigate/gang-rape government agencies. Ideally, your management will have themselves raked over coals in front of some subcommittee, with a Senator screaming at them. You'll never hear about W2K again, provided that your group can survive this long in a dysfunctional state.
Of course, this all assumes that you're willing to destroy your own agency/group. It also assumes that your group is actually doing something valuable, but not TOO valuable.
I'm going to assume, for the purposes of argument, that you're not just being sarcastic. Although that's obviously the case.
. . . nevertheless, a database is (by itself) almost entirely useless. It's like saying "hey, you asked for an airplane, so here's some bulk aircraft-grade aluminum. That's good enough, right?"
Unless, of course, you're talking about a "library" system that can't talk to any other library system, doesn't understand any standard library data format, cannot respond to queries in a standardized way, cannot do billing, or payment, or MeSH indexing, or anything else that library systems do.
The database is the raw material, not the finished system. There's a reason there aren't very many library software packages -- nobody in their right mind wants to write one. It's a nightmare.
You're absolutely right about the customization problem.
You can't just code a database -- that's almost entirely useless; there's also the matter of controlling circulation, tracking books out/returned/requested/held/sent to bindery, etc.
Plus import & export from vendors, billing, accepting bill payments, cross-referencing, all kinds of freaky subject indexing, mondo-bizarro file formats from a zillion years ago (MARC), etc. etc. etc.
There's a reason library systems tend to be proprietary -- it's because nobody else in their right mind wants to get involved with things like MARC and Z39.50.
. . . but then again I could be wrong.
IBM Personal Area Networking?
on
Techno Jacket
·
· Score: 1
If I were to wear one of these items, and I shook the hand of someone else wearing one, would we be able to exchange data by skin contact?
DNA, as they're using it in these experiments, is nothing more than an organic molecular structure. Organic in the CHEMICAL sense, not in the casual non-scientist parlance.
It's not alive. It couldn't even BE alive -- life requires WAY more support infrastructure (yes, even viruses need more than these things have).
There's a researcher in Saskatchewan (whose name I unfortunately forget) that's done some pretty nifty work in making DNA "wires". He's able to reliably use metal ions in DNA chains, as the "backbone" of the chain. The base-pairs are still the same, and he doesn't have to trap particles in the chain itself.
Apparently he's having a hard time getting funding for his research, since nobody A) believes that it works and B) he's stuck in a dinky university in the middle of nowhere.
. . . a scientist I know is on one of this guy's grant committees, which is how I heard of him . . .
Slashdot Mirror
When elected, Washington was pretty much the most famous guy in the colonies. Everybody knew who he was -- in the 1789 election he got 69 electoral spots (next closest was John Adams with 34). In 1792 he got 132 (next was John Adams, with 77). Both he and Jefferson were regularly beset by strangers who would walk up to their houses and just stand there to watch them go about their daily business (kinda like early paparazzi).
As regards the military campaign, IMHO his greatest achievement was in simply holding things together. And let's not forget, he did win the war....
Let us take this opportunity to ban all sticks, except for those in the possession of licensed stick-users.
We are also aware of the fact that some people may be using ink to write offensive and/or illegal messages on various surfaces. Rest assured that the FBI is looking into the matter, and will deal with the miscreants accordingly.
I am the culmination of billions of years. All things which have ever lived, existed so that I might live. All those who have died, died so that I might exist, and be consuming this soup for lunch today.
I am the Alpha and the Omega. All things exist through me. If you accept this truth, you will achieve a deeper sense of peace. Come to me my children; I accept all believers. Together we shall work for My Eternal Glory.
Amen.
</sarcasm>
It's called "wtd.zip" -- stands for "WAV-to-disk".
I don't have a link handy, but I believe that the project was stored on Geocities -- you might be able to find it with some heavy digging.
NOTE: I haven't used this software. It might not work. It might be a virus. I have no idea . . . but it sounded cool, and once upon a time I actually had the .zip (although I've since nuked that machine).
Well, FWIW, I guess.
It works pretty well, if you don't need to reach anyone at specific times of the day -- sometimes all the lines will be jammed, and then you simply can't get through. Also, it tends to muck up your caller-ID signal (naturally), so people might not pick up your call.
But hell, it's free -- and these long-distance cards last FOREVER now that I don't need 'em for normal unimportant calls....
I dunno, YMMV I guess.
That's right, I waited from January to May. One excuse after another -- but the main thread was Telocity incompetence. Oh, let's see:
- they lost my order, then found it, then lost it again, then found it again
- then they forgot to provision me
- At this point they realized there were load coils on my line
- then they remembered to provision me at the CO, but didn't actually do it
- then they laid the DSL line from the CO
- then they *finally* provisioned me and discovered that Rhythms was out of ports at my CO, but that ports would be added soon
- I quickly ignored them, masqueraded as a Telocity rep and spoke directly to Rhythms, who told me that they weren't going to add ports and that I'd have to wait until someone dropped their service
- I spoke to Telocity, who insisted that they'd be able to get ports for me.
- ...then I went with Speakeasy, who use Covad. Masquerading as a Speakeasy rep, I found out that Covad has lots of ports at my CO. I got connected.
Thank god I used to work for a local telco monopoly, so I knew how to social-engineer the CO guys.Anyway, I just wanted to offer a counterpoint. I *believe* that people are getting good service from Telocity -- I just wish I'd been one of them.
Comparing Halo and T2 is like comparing Q3A and Q2; it's not fair to either game. Dynamix has nothing to fear, since they're so close to release. Bungie probably has nothing to fear, since their release isn't going to happen any time soon (doubt it? check the slippage on Oni)
IMHO, anyway.
No, wait a sec, I'm serious. People will hack one system after another, trying to access TV, MP3, etc., and "The System" will just keep slapping restrictions on one set of technologies after another.
It's illegal to have DeCSS. It will eventually be illegal to own a soldering iron -- because you could use it to circumvent Copyright Control on your TV.
Wait and see -- I'll be proven right, unless things change in a really big way.
The ONE thing in favor of lower prices is, believe it or not, Napster. Publishers are sufficiently afraid of Napster that I've overheard (online, not real-world) them talking about lower prices in order to encourage payment.
It just seems to be hanging around in the background noise of technologies.
Is it a question of complication (the DTDs look hellacious) or is it a lack of evangelism?
I don't care for the smell of paper, I'm not especially entranced by the feel of paper, and I don't particularly care for the crack of a new spine.
Does this mean I own an e-book reader? No -- but for "practical" reasons like resolution and technology maturity.
I'm not saying that I'm Right or anything, just that I've never understood this weird affection people seem to have for physical books. Is it a function of early childhood exposure or something? Habit? Long-term exposure? I'm serious; can someone explain it to me?
The part that bugs me the most is the HUGE amount of time wasted on these battles. Just when I finally win an argument (and get to ignore the Brand Identity guidelines), I get socked with another weenie insisting that all text absolutely must be half-inch Garamond.
It's not that I hate fighting these battles per se, it's that I keep having to fight them, over and over and over again, regardless of how many times I try to put my foot down.
- It makes the books stand out. As you pointed out, people go "whoa!".
- It puts the author on the line. People will recognize him/her at trade shows -- if the book sucks, people will be able to pick them out of a crowd and start shouting. I think that's supposed to be an encouragement to not write crummy books.
. . . I think the inside cover of at least one recent Wrox book explains this . . .Why don't I care? Because:
Of course, I say that because I can make a living from in-person appearances and online courses. If that's not possible for you, then perhaps you ought to reconsider your career choices . . .
Heck, I've almost given up fighting the HORDE vs. HOARD battle, and that one's a zillion times easier to fight . . . .
Who cares if Helix-Gnome ends up dominating 80% of all Linux distros? So what? Nobody is *forcing* you to use it. That's what Linux is about. Choice -- not CLI elitism.
Lemme guess -- you're an ex-Windows user that cannot make the jump to a free mindset, aren't you? One of those people for whom there must always be ONE "correct" answer to any computing problem?
Don't like it? Don't use it. Simple as that.
. . . you can't decide if you should run like hell, or stick around and see what happens.
Of course, I'm a heartless monster.
Dang it, I can't find the URL -- but the general gist was that we could only detect signals from within a small radius, and that a civilization outside that range (even if broadcasting continuously) could not be heard unless the sender was using truly huge quantities of power (ie., more power than any transmitter on Earth has ever used).
I dunno, it seemed plausible to me. But then again, I'm an idiot, so . . .
My own (possibly inappropriate) response would be to counsel against a blind W2K roll-out. If your group is autonomous, there's probably a reason, and it should stay that way.
Next, allow them to deploy W2K. Watch in horror as your group implodes, losing valuable apps, churning out incorrect data, etc.
Wait a little longer, until your group is nothing more than a flaming wreck.
Then call in Congress!
I tell you, there's nothing Congress likes more than the opportunity to investigate/gang-rape government agencies. Ideally, your management will have themselves raked over coals in front of some subcommittee, with a Senator screaming at them. You'll never hear about W2K again, provided that your group can survive this long in a dysfunctional state.
Of course, this all assumes that you're willing to destroy your own agency/group. It also assumes that your group is actually doing something valuable, but not TOO valuable.
And, as always, I could be wrong.
. . . nevertheless, a database is (by itself) almost entirely useless. It's like saying "hey, you asked for an airplane, so here's some bulk aircraft-grade aluminum. That's good enough, right?"
Unless, of course, you're talking about a "library" system that can't talk to any other library system, doesn't understand any standard library data format, cannot respond to queries in a standardized way, cannot do billing, or payment, or MeSH indexing, or anything else that library systems do.
The database is the raw material, not the finished system. There's a reason there aren't very many library software packages -- nobody in their right mind wants to write one. It's a nightmare.
Go back to writing online shopping carts.
You can't just code a database -- that's almost entirely useless; there's also the matter of controlling circulation, tracking books out/returned/requested/held/sent to bindery, etc.
Plus import & export from vendors, billing, accepting bill payments, cross-referencing, all kinds of freaky subject indexing, mondo-bizarro file formats from a zillion years ago (MARC), etc. etc. etc.
There's a reason library systems tend to be proprietary -- it's because nobody else in their right mind wants to get involved with things like MARC and Z39.50.
. . . but then again I could be wrong.
If not, well, why not?
It's not alive. It couldn't even BE alive -- life requires WAY more support infrastructure (yes, even viruses need more than these things have).
Apparently he's having a hard time getting funding for his research, since nobody A) believes that it works and B) he's stuck in a dinky university in the middle of nowhere.
. . . a scientist I know is on one of this guy's grant committees, which is how I heard of him . . .
Now it's just another troll.
Wow. You found another way to be boring! Imagine that!